Time to Catch Up

I've been a little lax with cooking lately which ultimately is the reason for my lack of blog posts. But, now it's time to catch up. After a short hiatus, I'm back in the kitchen and this is the first of a few new recipes I've tried recently! Now, as I've mentioned before, my husband isn't a real big fan of veggies. His idea of getting his veggies is a side of fries with his burger. Surprisingly, I have found that he will eat spinach though. After discovering this I have tried to think of 100 ways to incorporate spinach into our meals so that at least he gets one green leafy vegetable during the week. So I had some baby spinach in the fridge and my favorite cheese, feta, so I figured I would combine these to make a stuffing for some boneless, skinless chicken breasts. It turned out to be very good and we both really enjoyed it.

Spinach and Feta Stuffed Chicken

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 1/2 cups baby spinach, washed and dried
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 large clove garlic
1 egg
pinch of salt and pepper

Begin by preheating the oven to 375. Then, make a pocket in the side of each chicken breast using a small paring knife. Don't cut all the way through though. In a food processor, combine baby spinach, feta, garlic, egg, salt and pepper. Carefully spoon the spinach mixture into the pocket you cut into each chicken breast. Salt and pepper the tops of the chicken breasts. From here, you can sear the chicken breasts in a skillet and then transfer to the oven to finish baking for about 20-25 min or just pop the chicken right into the oven to bake.

Shrimp Pasta

If you can't tell from these last two posts, seafood was on sale at the store this week. While I'm not always the biggest fan of seafood, I do love shrimp. Fried, steamed, grilled, all kinds. It's a good thing I love it because I've got a ton of it in my freezer right now. I thought a simple pasta dish would be good for dinner tonight and what better way to use up some of my shrimp. I thought I would throw some spinach in there for good measure, too. So that's how I came up with this easy and delicious dish. Dinner was ready in about 20 minutes. This is a perfect example of a quick and easy dinner with basic ingredients, and just goes to show that dinner doesn't have to be hard!

Shrimp Pasta with a lemon butter sauce
(for 2)

10-12 small shrimp, defrosted if frozen
4 oz vermicelli pasta
1/2 a lemon
1 cup baby spinach, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup)
1 tsp dried parsley

Begin by chopping the spinach and placing it in a serving bowl. Boil water and cook pasta until al dente (about 5 min for vermicelli). Drain the pasta and place in the bowl on top of the spinach. The warm pasta will help the spinach to wilt down a little. In a non-stick skillet, melt the butter. Add garlic and juice of half a lemon. Cook the garlic 1-2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the butter over the pasta and spinach and toss to combine. Toss the shrimp in the same skillet and cook about 3 min or until pink. Place the shrimp on top of the pasta and sprinkle with parsley. Squeeze additional lemon juice over the shrimp if desired. Serve warm.

An Update at Last!

I know, I know. I have been MIA since Thanksgiving. To be honest, I haven't felt much like cooking and when I have cooked it's been very basic things or things I've made before. So here's my first new post in a while. I wish it were more exciting but this is what I've got. Quiche. It's actually the first time I've made quiche. I planned on making it weeks ago but never got around to it. I've been trying really hard to not go to the grocery store until the end of the week so I decided to use what I had to make dinner tonight. That resulted in me finally making this dish. I thought it turned out really well. My husband didn't like it, but I think it's more of a texture thing for him. He's just not a quiche kind of guy. But for me, it was really tasty. Hopefully I'll be back to blogging in full swing pretty soon and have lots more exciting recipes to post.

Spinach Quiche

1 9" frozen pie shell, defrosted 15 min
2 cups chopped baby spinach, washed
1/4 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 whole eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1-1 1/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Place pie pan on a baking sheet. Begin by sauteing the garlic and onion together in a skillet with olive oil for about 3-4 min. Set aside. In a bowl, whisk together eggs and milk. Stir in cheese, onion and garlic, salt and pepper. Place chopped spinach in the bottom of the pie shell. Pour egg mixture over the spinach. Next, place aluminum foil around the edge of the pie shell to keep it from burning. Then, place the quiche in the oven and bake 35-45 min or until set. Remove foil from the edge of the pie pan the last 10-12 min to brown the edge of the crust. Let sit 5 min before slicing.

Herb Roasted Pork with Garlic and Spinach Orzo

Looking in my fridge and pantry this week, I saw lots of half boxes and bags of things. I hate when I have a lot of random leftover items because I always find it difficult to make a complete dinner out of them. Well there was no way I was fighting the last minute Thanksgiving shoppers at the grocery store so I decided I needed to use up what I had. So out of a pork roast, half a box of orzo, half a bag of baby spinach, 1/4 head of garlic, and 1 cup chicken stock came the idea for our dinner tonight. It turned out really well and was simple and delicious.

Herb Roasted Pork

1.5 lb pork roast
1 tsp dried thyme
1 large clove garlic, chopped
3 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Heat a skillet over med/high heat and add 3 Tbsp olive oil. Rub the roast with salt, pepper, garlic and thyme. Place the roast in the skillet and sear on all sides. Place roast in a preheated 375 degree oven and cook for about an hour. Check to make sure the internal temp is 160 or that juices are clear. Remove from the oven and let rest 5 min before slicing. Pour pan juices over sliced pork.

Garlic and Spinach Orzo

1 cup orzo
2 cups baby spinach, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1 1/2 Tbsp butter
salt and pepper

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add 1 Tbsp salt. Add orzo and boil for 9 min, until al dente. Drain the orzo. Heat a skillet over medium heat and melt the butter. Add the garlic and cook for 1-2 min. Add the orzo and chicken stock and stir. Remove from heat and stir in chopped spinach, salt, and pepper to taste. Serve warm.