Showing posts with label Brunch; Quick Fix Meals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brunch; Quick Fix Meals. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Back at it.....

Since I missed yesterday because we had to leave early to go get K2 from the airport, today is a 2 nights in one post.

First up, yesterday I cooked with Robin Miller's "Quick Fix Meals" and made "Apricot-Jalapeno Chicken with Sesame Noodles"

I omitted the Sesame Noodles.

You will need:
12 oz soba or somen noodles or whole wheat spaghetti (I did not make these)
Cooking Spray
1/2 cup sliced pickled jalapenos, drained
1/2 cup apricot preserves
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (I used about 2 tsp of dried-I don't like the fresh stuff)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (I used 1 breast and 1 leg quarter)
1 tsp sesame oil (did not use)
1/4 cup chopped scallions (didn't use these either)
2 tbsp minced pickled ginger (this didn't get used either)



-Cook the soba noodles according to the package directions, then drain.

-Coat a shallow baking dish with cooking spray. In a blender or food processor, combine the jalapenos, apricot preserves, cilantro, salt and pepper and process until smooth.

-Place the chicken in the prepared baking dish and top with the jalapeno mixture.




-Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cook the chicken through (approximately 25-30 minutes)

I completely forgot to take a picture of just the chicken; so here is what it ended up looking like plated.



So today, I decided on breakfast for dinner. I made home-made waffles with a recipe from Gale Gand's Brunch. Homemade waffles are something we never make. We always just pick up some sort of mix. After doing them this way, I won't go back to a mix. These are very simple and probably a lot cheaper.
Anyhow, you will need:
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tbs baking powder
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted (I melted the butter in the microwave and then promptly forgot about it, so of course it was omitted)
Maple syrup, for serving
.
.
Heat a waffle iron. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and melted butter. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients all at once with a wooden spoon, until just combined. Don't over mix the batter; it should look lumpy.
For each waffle, pour 1/2 to 1 cup of the batter onto the waffle iron; bake as directed by the manufacturer. Serve hot off the griddle, with maple syrup.

We have an old timer waffle iron; I bought it for J probably a good 15 years ago, but it still works pretty good.

After cooking (I didn't want to overfill the waffle maker, so it was little off):


We should find out tomorrow when we can get a port call to leave Okinawa. We may have to make a pit stop in Hawaii in order to get Buddy on the plane with us. Going through Hawaii means it would be a commercial flight and the chance of them not having space is pretty non-existent. He would need to be kenneled for the time we were there, but I guess a few days of him suffering some separation anxiety is better than a few months of him not being with his family. I may need to see if they have doggy Prozac to help calm him down if Hawaii is the way we need to go. We'll see....



More harvests from this summer.

The bottom two pictures are recent.  We are trying succession planting this year with beans, cucumbers and squash.   The squash is a failur...