Healthy & Simple Chicken Marsala

Tonight I decided to make Chicken Marsala, one of my favorite dishes, especially from Othellos. Unfortunately, that particular dish is served floating in a pool of fatty, delicious butter. Thanks to my dear friend Sarah, I was introduced to this wonderful recipe (found online from Cooking Light).
It is healthy, super easy and calls for very few ingredients.

Thanks lady!!

Ingredients:

• 4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup presliced mushrooms
• 1/2 cup Marsala wine
• 1/2 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Place chicken between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound each piece to 1/2-inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Sprinkle both sides of chicken evenly with salt and pepper. Place flour in a shallow dish. Dredge chicken in flour, turning to coat; shake off excess flour.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 3 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm. Add mushrooms, wine, broth, and juice to pan; reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until mixture is reduced to 2/3 cup. Return chicken to pan, turning to coat well. Cover and cook 5 minutes or until chicken is done. Sprinkle with parsley.

(I serve mine over vermicelli or angel hair pasta. I also, sometimes, use chicken breast tenders instead of breasts.)

Just because tonight is a big night in the NBA.....

Marty and me at the LAKERS game. Good luck tonight boys!! GO LAKERS!!

And just thought I'd add a pic of my 2 little sous chefs, Sophie & Pinot. They are great cleaner-uppers!

Getting Sleepy...

Who knew it took so long to upload pictures...?

Well, that is all I have the energy for right now. More pics and delicious food to come!

Chicken Topped w/a Beurre Blanc Sauce & Mushrooms and Roasted Potatoes

My Easiest Roasted Potatoes Ever: (Serves 2)

About 1 lb. of any type of potatoes you like, quartered, or cut into 1/2 in. cubes, unpeeled
1/2 cup of yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic heads, smashed
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, quartered into little squares
2 pinches of dried thyme
1 pinch of dried rosemary
salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 425. Place the potatoes in a baking dish along with the rest of the ingredients. Mix everything together with your fingers. Roast in oven for about 35 mintues or until potatoes are cooked and browned.
Sometimes I start these potatoes way before I begin other dishes, so I lower the temperature and cover with foil in the oven.
Stir frequently while in the oven.

My first time to make a Beurre Blanc sauce. It was very tideous and my arm almost fell off (so Marty had to take over), but it turned out amazingly delicious. I sauteed mushrooms seperately in an herb garlic butter. I used the Beurre Blanc sauce from Joy of Cooking.

Ta-da!

Potato Au Gratin Minis

I love making everything in mini sizes!
This recipe is from the Bride & Groom cookbook from Williams-Sonoma (seriously one of my FAVS). I followed the exact recipe, but divided it into 8 individual ramekins.

Chicken En Croute w/a White Wine, Garlic Cream Sauce

This is stuffed with Gorgonzola cheese and mashed potatoes! YUMMMMMY!

Pizza Topped w/Just About Everything!

(Okay, so mainly just topped with sausage, mushrooms, pepperoni, cheese, garlic, onion, basil & tomatoes.)

Chicken Florentine with a Side of Gnoochi

I basically just make my florentine with canned diced tomoatoes and fresh spinach leaves, sauteed in chicken broth with Italian herbs.
One of our favorite Italian side dishes is potato gnoochi that I saute in butter, shallots, garlic, olive oil, basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, salt & pepper.

Chicken and Biscuits

Can you tell I like southern comfort food?!
I found this recipe on The Food Network website. It belongs to the Great Ina Garten :)

Mac 'N Cheese with Fried Okra (one of my all time favorites!)

The mac 'n cheese is another one of Ina's recipes (I think I like her). The fried okra belongs to me:

The Steak That Goes with the Mushroom Steak Topper

Delicious, yummy filets that have only been seasoned with salt and pepper.

My Mushroom Steak Topper

Delicious fresh Morel Mushrooms

Morels mixed with baby portabellos.

Sauteed in BUTTER with garlic and shallots and olive oil.

And finally...topped with Gruyere cheese and placed under the broiler for a delicious melted steak topper!

A Wonderful Side Dish- Potatoes w/Fresh Green Beans & Bacon

Beef Street Tacos w/my Black Bean Specialty!

Beef Street Tacos:

flank steak

2 cups of orange juice (pulp free)

3 Tbsp worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp soy sauce

2 yellow onion, chopped

fresh cilantro, chopped

corn tortillas

fresh lime juice (optional)

salt & pepper

Marinate the steak in a shallow dish with the orange juice, worcestershire, soy and 1/2 of the onion and S&P. Keep covered in the refrigerator until ready to grill. Grill steak until medium well done. We usually cook our street taco steak on the griddle on the stove.

While the steak is cooking, soak tortillas in a little bit of water in a shallow container. When the steak is done, cube steak and set aside. Place the tortillas on the griddle and saute until they get brown marks.

Serve tacos with the beef, raw chopped onion and cilantro. Squeeze lime juice if wanted.

My Black Bean Speciality: (serves 2)

1/2 yellow onion, diced

3-4 garlic cloves, minced

3 Tbsp fresh cilantro, finely minced

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 1/2 cups beef broth

4-5 Tbsp ground cumin

extra virgin olive oil

salt & pepper

Saute the onion, garlic and 1/2 of the cilantro in olive oil over medium heat until onions become transparent. Add the black beans and stir. After about a couple minutes, slightly mash the black beans until they are slightly broken open. Add salt and pepper and cumin. Stir.

Add the beef broth and bring to a boil, stir occassionally. Lower the heat and simmer. Cover and serve when ready. (If you let the beans sit in the pan for awhile, you will need to add more broth and stir more frequently.)

To serve: top with the rest of the cilantro

The street tacos are served with only the beef, raw onion and fresh cilantro.

Home-made Chicken Pot Pie...one of my FAVS!

One of my favorite things to do is all the prep work (with a glass of wine, of course!). I love chopping and dicing, but have to give most of the credit to my amazing Shun knife.

Hello All!

To make this short and sweet, my husband and I love to cook and I am oddly obsessed with taking photographs of the delicious meals we create. So basically all this blog consists of are photos of the yummy food. You will have to excuse the quality of some of the pics, hence the iPhone vs. the Nikon CoolPix vs. the Canon Rebel XTi. If you would like any of the recipes, please feel free to ask! Most of the meals come from some of my favorite cookbooks, our creative minds and a mix of the three! CHEERS!