A Last Minute Lovliness

The other night I got creative with dinner. I didn't get the chicken breasts out in time to make my taco soup, so I had to get inventive.
It was the last week before payday, when things are a little tight, so I had to rely on what I had in my fridge and pantry.
I found spinach, feta cheese and sundried tomatoes. I always keep puff pastry in my freezer...it is so handy for things. So this is what I came up with.

Mediterranean Chicken Pizza

2 Chicken breasts
1 can chicken broth
1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
1 TBLSP butter
1 TBLSP flour
1 cup milk
1 package crumbled feta cheese
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, drained of oil
sprinkling of pine nuts (optional)
1 sheet puff pastry

Defrost one sheet of puff pastry according to the package directions. (I left it in one big sheet this time, but next time I think I will cut it into individual pizza sizes) Place on pan and prick it with a fork.
Poach the chicken breast in the chicken broth until done, covered on medium heat. If one can of chicken broth doesn't cover the breasts, add water until they are just covered. When done and cooled shred chicken, add red pepper and salt and pepper to taste, as well as the spinach. Set aside.
Now for the sauce for the pizza. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat, add the flour and cook for about 3 minutes. Add the milk, cook on medium low heat until thickened. Add the nutmeg and half of the package of feta. Feta doesn't melt completely, so the sauce will be a bit lumpy.
Spread sauce on puff pastry, add chicken mixture, sundried tomatoes and the rest of the feta. Bake at 400 for about 25-30 minutes, until pastry in done. Sprinkle with the pine nuts and enjoy!
*You can also make this pizza early in the day and put it in the fridge until it is time to bake!*

A Citrus Twist

Last night roast chicken was on the menu. As I was looking around the house I noticed that we had a bunch of oranges/clementines on their last legs. So I decided to use them through out the dinner, and ended up with a very tasty concoction!

Roast Chicken

1 roasting chicken
2 onions cut into four pieces
2 cloves of garlic smashed
A total of 4 Tbsp minced ginger root
zest from 2 clementines
juice from 4 clementines
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp butter
salt/pepper

Take one onion, garlic and 2 Tbsp of ginger root and lay them in the bottom of the roasting pan.
Combine zest, juice and honey in a bowl and set aside. Slide the 2 Tbsp of butter under the skin of the chicken.
Rub zest, juice and honey mixture onto the chicken, sprinkle top with salt and pepper. Place chicken in pan and roast according to directions for your size chicken
(just a note, because of the honey the skin will look "burned" before the chicken is ready, don't worry, and just continue cooking until the chicken is done)

We still had more oranges left, so I decided to use some memories of my childhood to make a wonderful carrot dish. My mom got a recipe from my grandmother that included orange carrots, so I just kinda updated it!

Orange/Ginger Carrots

Juice and zest two oranges. Dice up about 1 Tbsp ginger root. Place in bottom of steamer. Add water to fill to proper level. Places baby carrots in pan and steam on medium heat for 45 minutes, or until tender.

To finish off the dinner I used one of my favorite Barefoot Contessa recipes for Cornbread Stuffing. I had leftover cornbread from the other night when we had chili, so it was perfect!

1 onion, diced
1 stick of butter
3 stalks of celery, chopped
3 Tbsp fresh parsley chopped
1/2 cup chicken broth
5 cups crumbled cornbread

Melt butter in large pot, add onion and cook for about 8 minutes, until onion is soft. Add celery, parsley, broth and cornbread. Mix until bread is moistened. Put in shallow baking dish and bake until heated through. ( I just put it in beside the chicken, and it works really well. It takes about 30-40 minutes to heat through)



It was a really great dinner, with alot of flavor!