Birthday Menu

I tried new recipes for Brooke's birthday and Kyle and the guest seemed to really enjoy the food. I thought I would post some recipes since everything I did turned out very nicely.

Menu:
Chicken Kebabs
Rice pilaf
Tzatziki sauce
Salad
Pita Bread

Dessert:
Chocolate cake with chocolate and buttercream frosting.

The original recipe can be found here, but I changed a few things based off what I had available and what I wanted to spend time doing.

This fed four adults and two toddlers with some leftovers.

6 chicken breast cut up in chunks marinated for at least an hour.

Souvlaki Marinade

12 tbsp fresh lemon juice

6 tbsp olive oil

4 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 rounded tbsp smoked paprika
1 rounded tbsp of sweet paprika

2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

6 cloves minced garlic

After marinading the chicken for an hour I diced up half of a red onion, one green pepper, and one red pepper.

You can skewer the chicken and grill them, but I didn't realize that I was all out of skewers and tried broiling the chicken. It turned out SO yummy. I broiled the chicken for 20 min (I think), tossing the veggies and chicken half way through. The broiler caramelizes the chicken and veggies similar to the grill, but because it is sitting in juice keeps everything really moist. I would adjust the time in the broiler based off the thickness of your chicken.

Place the chicken with the rice pilaf and tzatziki sauce on the side (can be found on the link above or buy it from your local grocery store.)

*My changes to the recipe include adding two more chicken breast, not pounding the chicken out, doubling the marinade recipe and instead of two tablespoons of smoked paprika, one smoked and the other sweet. I also broiled my chicken instead of grilling it on skewers.

My friend does this amazing thing for salad dressing that is fresh and keeps a salad from turning into another way to eat fat.

Salad:
Baby greens
Grape tomatoes
Red onion
Shredded carrots
Feta cheese
Persian cucumbers

Dressing:
Just put all the ingredients directly on top of the salad before serving

A good squeeze of lemon
Garlic salt
pepper

Then you can have fun with it by adding different herbs. For this salad I added fresh mint and dried oregano. Then experiment with vinegars as well. I used a good splash of red wine vinegar on top of the salad.

Toss thoroughly and enjoy!

As for dessert I used this recipe for both the chocolate cake and frosting. The only change I made was whole wheat flour. It actually tasted really good with whole wheat flour. The recipe for the vanilla buttercream turned out perfect and made a ton. I love being able to freeze homemade frosting for other occasions!

Chicken in a White Wine and Artichoke Sauce

Oh my this recipe is so good I had to share! I wish I took pictures of the food but if you look at the original it looked like that. I served this with rice and steamed veggies.

Original recipe

Chicken with artichokes and wine sauce Serves 4-6 depending on how much people will eat

• 5 thighs and 5 drumstick with skin on
  
• a bit of butter and olive oil- I like the combination of the two for this
  
• salt and pepper
• 14 oz of jars/cans of marinated artichoke hearts, drained
  
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• zest and juice of half a lemon
• a dollop of sour cream
  
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs

1. Preheat your oven to 375F. Pat your chicken pieces dry with a paper towel, then generously salt and pepper them. Heat a bit of butter and olive oil in a large frying pan. Put the chicken in skin side down and cook on high several minutes, until nicely browned. Flip and cook until the other side is brown, a few more minutes. Then, transfer the chicken legs to an oven pan that fits all of them. The original says to leave space, but I was feeding more and squeezed them all in.
2. Turn the heat on the frying pan down to medium and stir in the garlic. Cook one minute, then add the wine, stock, lemon zest, and juice and stir, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Let this bubble for about 2-3 minutes. Then add a dollop of sour cream. If you don't have any omit it, but it really added to the yummy factor.
   
3. In the meantime, scatter the artichoke pieces over the chicken. Then, pour the sauce from the pan all over the chicken pieces. Then combine the parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs and sprinkle all over the top of the chicken and the sauce. Put it into the oven and bake for 45 minutes.
   
4. Serve warm from the oven accompanied by a salad and some veggies, and some rice or bread if you wish.

I really think this is a must try. I had family over and that didn't like artichokes, but loved the flavor of the sauce. I ended up eating most of the artichokes.

Black Beans and Rice

I tried a couple recipes before I decided on this one to be the yummiest. The original recipe can be found here, but because I couldn't find some of these ingredients I switched it up a bit and it would be too spicy for Brookie. I think the changes ended up tasting great!

Ingredients:
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1 jar of roasted red bell pepper, chopped, not pickled
2 to 3 cloves of garlic, minced or chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 bottle of white wine
2 to 3 bay leafs
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp of smoked paprika
3 drops of hot sauce
4 cans of black beans or you can make them homemade from dry beans. Recipe to follow
Yellow Rice- I couldn't find what the original called for so this is what I used

Directions
Saute onion then add bell pepper, jar of roasted red bell pepper and garlic. Saute until tender
Add lemon juice
Add white wine
Cook at medium high heat--medium boil--for about 5 or so minutes, cooking off some of the alcohol.
Add bay leafs, salt and pepper and smoked paprika
Cook another 5 minutes
Add hot sauce
Bring to a boil for 10 minutes, stirring as needed
Cover and cook on low for approximately 1 hour, or put in crock pot on low for 2 to 3 hours (if you don't use dry beans). It is best when the beans are cooked soft. Let cool
Cook the rice at whatever point you choose...before, during or after preparing the beans.

The flavor is delicious and my family ate it up!!

Black Beans
makes about 36oz which I found to be enough for the recipe above.

1 1/2 cup of dry beans washed and examined. Make sure there isn't any bad beans or rocks in your bunch.
5 cups of water

Put in a crock pot for 5-6 hours

Do not salt until after the cooking process. I didn't salt my beans until after I cooked them with the mixture from above.

Sometimes when I am making beans I take out a cup of water and add a can of diced tomato, jalapeno, onion, garlic, etc. The best part about making your own beans is that you can add whatever flavor combination and don't have all the salt and preservatives.

Menu Planning

As a single income family, we have had to budget our money very carefully. One thing that we do and I LOVE is menu planning. When I worked I would cook, but I think it’s harder to get dinner together and ready as a non- working mother. I thought that I would share my menu this week as it based off of this incredible blog I uncovered called Budget Bytes. She tells you how much it cost to purchase the dinner and the amount per serving. She also has soooo many tips that help save money. I had most of the ingredients for these recipes at home and only spend $35 on groceries this week, with 75% being organic. Breakfast and lunch is also planned, but kind of boring, but I wanted to share how I do this each week. We also save money because we eat all our leftovers; it also gives me a break from cooking.

Sunday-

Breakfast: Oatmeal

Lunch: PB&J, orange, and string cheese

Dinner: Lemon chicken, steam broccoli, Mushroom Ragu

Monday-

Breakfast: Bagels for us yogurt and banana for Brooke

Lunch: Frozen burritos

Dinner: Chicken Chile Verde

Tuesday-

Breakfast: Bagels for us yogurt and banana for Brooke

Lunch: Grilled cheese, chips and salsa, applesauce

Dinner: Chicken Chile Verde

Wednesday-

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and cheese, orange and banana

Lunch: PB&J, orange, and string cheese

Dinner: Baked Ziti & Salad

Thursday-

Breakfast: Oatmeal

Lunch: Grilled cheese, chips and salsa, applesauce

Dinner: Baked Ziti & Salad

Friday-

Breakfast: Bagels for us yogurt and banana for Brooke

Lunch: Frozen Burritos

Dinner: Shepherds Pie & Spinach salad

Saturday-

Breakfast: Breakfast pizza

Lunch: Grilled cheese, chips and salsa, applesauce

Dinner: Shepherds Pie & Spinach salad

Along with this week I am making homemade tortillas and black beans to make frozen burritos for breakfast and lunch.
Tortillas
Black Beans
Frozen Breakfast Burritos
Lunch Burritos: Black beans, rice, cheese, and salsa

Have a great week and eat well!