Terre Pruitt's Blog

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Posts Tagged ‘chicken’

« Previous Entries

Spaghetti Bake

Posted by terrepruitt on May 29, 2023

I had an open jar of spaghetti sauce in the fridge I wanted to use, but I didn’t have any Parmesan or ricotta so I couldn’t make my regular spaghetti pie so I thought I would make a spaghetti bake. I went back and forth with just mixing the chicken and pasta, but the thought of melted cheese on top was too strong to resist.

Even though I wanted to use the spaghetti sauce I am not a big fan. I went back and forth on mixing it in or pouring it on top. Then I decided I will serve the casserole on a puddle of it. That way I can give my husband more than me. I can have a taste of it, but not have it overpower the other flavors.

As usual I was making this up as I went a long and using what we had so I forgot two things I wanted to put it in. I wanted to add shallots and nutritional yeast. Oh well. Next time.

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Spaghetti Bake

1 can of garbanzo beans
Olive oil
Season All

Tomato sauce (2 cups? or as much as you want)

salt (for boiling pasta)
1 box / 1 lb. of spaghetti

1 C crumbled feta

3 eggs
3/4 C milk
2 cans of chicken
1 cup of shredded cheese
oregano (to taste)
garlic powder (to taste)

olive oil
2 cups of mozzarella

Drain the garbanzo beans. You can use them as is or roast them. I roasted them using Season All (my Roasted Chickpeas post uses garlic powder).

If you are not roasting the chickpeas you may want to turn on your oven to 400°F to preheat it.

Spoon a thin layer of spaghetti sauce on the bottom of a 9X13 baking dish. Cook and drain the spaghetti. (I boil pasta with salted water.) Put half of the cooked pasta on the sauce in the baking dish.

Sprinkle some crumbled feta on top. Then put the beans on top and spread them out.

Scramble/mix the eggs in a bowl add the milk. Drain the chicken, add to bowl. Add the 1 cup of shredded cheese. (I used a triple cheddar blend.) Add the oregano and garlic powder. I also added some salt. Mix it all together than spread over the pasta in the dish.

Put the rest of the cooked spaghetti on top. Sprinkle with olive oil then top with cheese. Put the dish in the preheated (to 400°F) oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Then slice . . . and as I said I served it on a puddle of sauce.

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It is just another way of eating pasta. I love cheese melted in the oven until it is golden brown. This was gorgeous and delicious. There are so many ways you can do it. What would you add?

 

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Fries Or Fingers?

Posted by terrepruitt on May 1, 2023

I have a few things on here I call fries, but this is not one of them.

I spend a lot of time going through Instagram. I know they do it on purpose, just reel after reel and I have spent hours looking and absorbing nothing. I save so many things it is ridiculous. I save a lot of recipes. Well, last week I was looking for one and I came across another one that made more sense for dinner that night. I was looking for something to go with some leftovers. When I saved it I didn’t really read what it was saying it was. And I am still not sure . . . I think I may have seen a commercial. Anyway . . . I made them and they were pretty good. Mine looked NOTHING like Ketosnackz but they did the job.

I liked them so much I am going to make them often.

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Chicken Fingers

1 can (12 oz) of chicken
1 egg
1/2 cup of shredded cheese
a lot of garlic granules
salt

Mix all ingredients. Shape into “fingers”. Place on parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake at 400° F for 30 minutes.

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His recipe didn’t have any seasoning and he baked it for 20 minutes. I wanted more flavors and mine were not ready at 20 minutes. I served them with ranch dressing. Since I am thinking I will make them often I am going to serve them with different things: tomato sauce, chutney, hummus . . . who knows, the possibilities are endless! Oh, I was able to get 14 short little fingers.

What do you think – “fries” or “fingers”?

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Chicken IN Biscuits

Posted by terrepruitt on April 19, 2022

Here is another “IDEA Recipe” as I didn’t write down the measurements when I made it. It was pretty good. It was just biscuits split in half and rolled out a little bigger, then “stuffed” with chicken. More accurately the chicken was sandwiched between the two biscuit halves then sealed. Since I was just experimenting I was making it up as I went a long and didn’t make notes. And I started with just splitting the biscuits, but then realized I wouldn’t be able to put a lot of chicken in them so I split them then rolled each half to make it larger. I was able to put more chicken in the larger ones.

I used

Canned chicken
onions chopped
bell peppers chopped
corn
seasoning

a tube of biscuits

some cheese

It may surprise you as it surprised me, I didn’t put any cheese IN the mixture. I sprinkled a little on top.  I keep wondering what I was thinking.

I cooked them according to the biscuit directions (350° F for 20 minutes) maybe given them a little more time until they were browned. The chicken is cooked so that wasn’t the concern, I just didn’t want soggy biscuits.

As usual I started cooking late thinking it would be a quick throw together kind of thing and it was not so I didn’t even take any pictures when they were plated. It was yummy and was enough for a couple of meals. You know me I love when I cook and it makes more than one meal.  This was easy to make, but I had not planned on the time it took to roll out the biscuits (which wasn’t that long, but it added time to what I had planned).

This is just a twist on a few of the things I have done with those biscuits I love.

What do you do with biscuits?

 

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Chicken, Asparagus, Biscuits, and Cheese Sauce

Posted by terrepruitt on September 13, 2021

As a reminder my category “Recipe” is that because sometimes I don’t actually have amounts for the ingredients I use, I just basically have the idea for the dish. I was at a loss last night as to what to cook for dinner and for some reason I thought of biscuits and gravy. I don’t even eat biscuits and gravy. I had biscuits in the refrigerator so that is probably why I was thinking “biscuits”. Anyway, I threw together a dinner that turned out to be pretty tasty.

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Chicken, Asparagus, Biscuits, and Cheese Sauce

(Coconut) oil
Onion
Asparagus
2 cans of chicken
garlic salt
Worcestershire sauce

Cheese Sauce
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cup shredded (sharp cheddar) cheese

Biscuits (tube, container? What is it called)

 

Heat the oil in a pan large enough for all of your asparagus and chicken.  While the oil is heating, chop up the onions, then put in the pan.  While the onions are cooking, wash and chop up the asparagus. Put the chopped asparagus in with the onions, sprinkle with garlic salt and cook.

While that is cooking – in a different pot – melt the butter. Add the flour while stirring.

Bake the biscuits according to the instructions on the package.

Put the drained chicken in the pan with the onion and asparagus.  Sprinkle chicken with garlic salt and Worcestershire sauce. The chicken is cooked, it only needs to be heated, but cook the asparagus to your liking.

Back to the sauce . . . . add the milk, stirring all the while. (My recipe says all at once, but it doesn’t work if it is cold . . . so I do it a little at a time.) Once the milk is incorporated into the roux (butter and flour), add the cheese a little bit at a time.  Stirring and keeping it on the heat until it is all melted and mixed.

To assemble split the biscuits putting the bottom half on the plate, then pile on the chicken and asparagus mixture, then spooned on some cheese sauce, then top with the top half of the biscuit.

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It was good because I like all the ingredients. The biscuits are sooooo good. It is fun sometimes to cook easy things and enjoy simple flavors.

OH!  And the leftovers!  I put the bottom half of the biscuits in an oven proof dish, then pilled the chicken mixture on top, topped it with the cheese and put it in the oven (350°) for about 30 minutes,  I put the tops of the biscuits on foil and heated them for about 10 minutes.  Then put it on plates to serve.  Delicious!

There are so many things you could do with with.  What would YOU do?

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Chicken, Potato, And Bell Pepper Scramble

Posted by terrepruitt on February 10, 2020

Twice in the past few days I have had the conversation about how coming up with dinner ideas is a challenge. I understand this is one reason why people have dinner services deliver. Unless you have a box meal delivered every single day that still doesn’t completely alleviate the having-to-come-up-with-ideas-for-dinner. As you know if you have looked at any of my “recipes” I sometimes just throw stuff together. It doesn’t even always have to “make sense”.  After making Taco Pie and Enchilada Chicken, I used the leftover sauce as sauce for our tortellini . . . . yup, that works. Sometimes you might feel like something particular but you might have to cobble it together using the ingredients on hand. There are a few things that make for easy make-up meals, in my opinion, one is ground turkey – throw anything in with it and you have an entree. Pasta is another easy meal, it can be topped with anything or nothing. And eggs are another thing you can throw anything into to make a meal. Here is an easy breakfast-for-dinner-scramble in case you don’t want to think about what to make for dinner.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFit, City of San Jose Exercise Classes, Cambrian Yoga & Cardio Dance, CYCD, Yin YogaChicken, Potato, And Bell Pepper Scramble

two or three potatoes (depending on size)*
olive oil (3 tablespoons +/-)
season salt
can of chicken
1/2 of an onion
salt
garlic powder
5 or 6 eggs
milk (1/4 c +/-)
butter (2 tablespoons +/-)
one bell pepper

Preheat oven to 450°. Wash the potatoes, if you like your potatoes peeled you can do that. Cut the potatoes into small chunks. Place them on a baking sheet. Sprinkle potatoes with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and season salt (or whatever seasoning you prefer). Place in the oven to roast. After about 10 minutes take them out and toss them around. Then place back in the oven. Roast the potatoes until done to your liking . . . tossing them around occasionally for even roasting.

You can pan fry/roast the potatoes if you like. Heat the oil in a pan, then add potatoes and seasoning and cooking until done.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFit, City of San Jose Exercise Classes, Cambrian Yoga & Cardio Dance, CYCD, Yin YogaI like to use the oven because while the potatoes are roasting, I can be preparing the chicken and eggs.

Chop the onion. Chop the bell pepper. Heat up 1 tablespoon (+/-) olive oil. Add the onion and cook it.

While the onion is cooking crack the eggs into a bowl, add a little milk, salt, and garlic powder (and, of course, any seasoning you want). Scramble the eggs, mixing until frothy.

When the onion is cooked add the chicken to the pan sprinkle with garlic powder. Warm the chicken up, it doesn’t take long because it is already cooked so you don’t want to let it cook too long because it dries out.

Add butter to your pan – or use another pan, or remove the chicken for adding back later – once the butter is melted pour in your eggs, keeping them separate from the chicken. I like my scrambled eggs WELL COOKED so I let them cook a bit before I mix in the chicken. Once the eggs look almost cooked I add the potatoes. I DO NOT like my bell pepper cooked so I add it at the very last minute . . . cooking it long enough to just warm up.

Mix it all together and serve.

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*I have seen russet potatoes that seem like they are two or three, but then red potatoes are little so you might want to use three or four . . . you want to end up with about 2 cups cooked potato. You decide, if you are not a big potato fan use less, if you LOVE potatoes, use more.

I usually cook this for dinner, but some people might consider it strictly a breakfast item. I sometimes have left overs of it for lunch . . . so if you like it, eat it anytime you would like.

Oooooh, one might even add cheese . . . . .

Do you like scrambles?

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Mexican Chicken Salad

Posted by terrepruitt on September 11, 2017

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitWe recently went through an extremely hot spell. This is the San Francisco Bay Area, so we are not really accustomed to having EXTREMELY hot weather. Many homes in this area don’t have air conditioning. Most often when we do have hot days, we get cooler nights so it makes the hot days somewhat bearable because the night air has cooled everything down. But with this last heat wave there was no reprieve from the heat of the day at all. So it was hot and it stayed hot for days. Record breaking temperatures were recorded all over. So the idea of making dinner was really unappealing. And the idea of using anything that created heat was just unthinkable. I was trying to come up with something we could eat that wouldn’t require heat at all. The only thing I could think of was Chicken Salad. Now this was all I could think of without me having to go to the store. But I thought that was kind of average because when I make chicken salad I use mayonnaise, pickles, and garlic salt. Not just that, but that is the basic idea. But I wanted a different flavor. I was thinking I could give it a Mexican flavor and we could put it on a tortilla with a little cheese and salsa on top. Had we had avocado and sour cream that would have gone on top, too, for my hubby. So here is what I came up with.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitMexican Chicken Salad

1 can of chicken
1 can of corn
1/4 cup of chopped white onion
1/4 cup of chopped red onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cilantro
1 teaspoon cumin
Sprinkle of pepper
Half of a green bell pepper
– – – –
2 teaspoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons lime juice
Flour tortillas
Shredded cheese
Salsa

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFit(The dashes indicate ingredients that were good on their own. They didn’t even need the rest. But it was good all together.)

Chop the bell pepper. Mix the chicken, corn, onion, garlic, garlic salt, coriander, cilantro, cumin, pepper, bell pepper vinegar, and lime juice together. Let it chill for at least an hour, to let the flavors meld together a bit.

Then spoon the mixture onto a flour tortilla and top with shredded cheese and salsa. Roll it up to eat it like a burrito.

As I said, if you have avocado and/or sour cream you could put that on top.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitAs I mentioned, these ingredients are what I had. I did not go to the store so I used dried cilantro. When I make this in the future I am going to use fresh cilantro and I think that will make a big difference flavorwise. I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants because it was just too hot. Too hot to go to the store and too hot to create heat and cook.

I like this because it is chicken salad without mayonnaise. So this means we can have chicken salad twice as often because it won’t be the same ol’ same ol’ chicken salad.

This was even better two days later when the flavors REALLY had time to settle in. So you can make it a day or so before you want to eat it.

Do you like chicken salad? What do you put in your chicken salad?

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Boneless Pork Chops In The Crockpot

Posted by terrepruitt on October 15, 2013

If you have read any of my recipe posts you probably know I love leftovers.  It just makes a lot of sense to me to cook once and have some of the meal left over for a quick meal later on.  This is really a great help for people who are busy or who’s schedule does not allow for cooking every night.  This week I am going to be busy three nights in a row.  Two nights I am subbing Nia for Hot Hula and the third night I have Gentle Yoga.  So Monday I did some cooking.  Monday I actually prepared dinner that will be our dinner for a couple of nights, but I also prepared a lasagna.  I froze it and I will put in the oven before I go to class one night this week, so it will be done around the time I get home.  I will use time bake for that so we will see.  But last night we had Crockpot Balsamic Pork.

I modified a chicken recipe I had seen on Facebook.  First of all I used pork instead of chicken.  I love chicken and I have been “missing” it.  We haven’t had any for a while.  Then the people-getting-sick-from-chicken thing came up and I was happy we hadn’t purchased any.  Then I found some in our freezer hiding behind something and I was happy.  It was purchased way before the latest issue and we had eaten the other chicken from the batch so I was so glad to have found it.  So we had just had chicken and I didn’t feel comfortable buying any so I bought pork.  I know that I like pork and balsamic so I thought it would work.

I rarely use my crockpot.  Something about cooking meat for HOURS, just doesn’t sound good to me.  This recipe called for FOUR hours on high.  Well, I figured that pork would NOT need FOUR hours so I decided to try it for two and see how it looked.

The recipe also calls for dried basil, but for some reason I thought fresh would be better.  Not sure why and not sure that it was.

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Crock Pot Balsamic Pork

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 heaping tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 heaping tsps dried minced onion
1/2 cup of fresh chopped basil
5 garlic cloves, pressed with garlic press
2 tblsp olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
7 thick cut boneless pork chops
chopped parsley for the top

Combine the first four ingredients in a small bowl, then spread over one side of pork, saving half for the other side.  Use half the basil piling a little on each piece.  Let the pork stand a bit.  Then flip the pork over and use the rest of the dry ingredients and basil to coat the pork.

Use the garlic and the oil to coat the pot of the crockpot.  Then place the pork inside.  Pour the vinegar over.

Set to high and cook for about two hours.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaAn hour and 45 minutes later I turned my pot down to low so that I could keep preparing my salad for dinner and my lasagna for later.  I think I will cook it less next time.  I think turning it off at an hour and 45 minutes would have been better.  Although our pork was not overcooked, we just prefer it a little less cooked.

I know the thing that people think is so great about crockpots is you put it on and forget it.  Even though this is not hours and hours of “forgetting” it is still at least an hour and 45 minutes.  I would think it could be the four hours on low.

This was good.  My husband and I love garlic and that was a primary flavor . . . so I think if I want the balsamic to stand out more I will use less garlic.  If I had used dried basil – as the original recipe calls for – this would have been a super simple meal.  Adding the basil (washing and chopping) dropped it down to a simple meal.

It was good.  I can see me making this again.  And one day I will even try it with chicken.  Last night we had it with a spinach salad and my favorite Smashed Potatoes!  I did not take pictures of the finished product.  I was doing too many things at the time!

Do you use a slow cooker/crockpot?  What is your favorite thing to cook in the crockpot?  Does meat you cook in a crockpot come out well done?

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Stretch The Meat

Posted by terrepruitt on June 15, 2013

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaI know that this would not work for every family.  This is another recipe using one piece of meat with beans as the source of protein.  I know that people have their own ideas about what makes up a dinner.  Some people have to have meat.  And not just a little meat, but a full serving or more otherwise to them, it is just not dinner.  I understand that people are different.  If that is you or someone in your family then this will not work for you.  But as long as I don’t do it three nights in a row, my husband is ok with it.  What I often do is cook three pieces of meat.  The first night we each have a piece of meat.  Then the next night I stretch the remaining piece into a meal for two.  Sometimes . . . . depends on what I am cooking in turns into a meal for four.  I have mentioned this before in some of my other post so I like to share “recipe” ideas.  Even though it is really easy to throw something together, sometimes it is nice to have someone else do the thinking for you.  With everything else that has to be done, if you can just look at something and have it all figured out — YAY!

So this recipe is pretty much like the one in Dinner Desperation.  See?  It works when you are “desperate”.

Mushrooms, Kale, Beans, Chicken, and Rice

—2 tablespoon olive oil
—1/2 of an onion, chopped
—1 lb mushrooms, chopped or sliced
—2 cups cooked rice (out of the fridge, so leftover)
—2 tablespoons of butter
—one LARGE chicken breast, cooked and chopped
—1 15 1/2-ounce can garbanzo beans/chickpeas, drained and rinsed
—2 teaspoons granulated garlic
—1 bunch of kale, chopped
—salt
—Garlic Salt, to taste
—Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Heat the olive oil and the chopped onion.  Add the mushrooms.  Cook until almost done.  (Done to YOUR tastes)  Add a little salt.  (Just a little because you need to “save” your salt “layer” for the kale.)  Add the rice breaking it up and letting it get soft.  Stirring it and allowing it to cook.  Use the butter to help the rice get moist (might need to use a bit of liquid too).  When the rice is soft, add the chopped chicken.  Let it cook for a little bit.  Then add the can of garbanzo beans.  Sprinkle half of the garlic over mixture.  Then add the kale.  Sprinkle the rest of the garlic over the kale.  And salt.  Then stir and cook.  Then add more salt and garlic if you want, and pepper.

With this mixture the mushrooms need to cook.  Some people don’t like their mushrooms really cooked, I do.  So I let them cook pretty much all the way as if I were going to just eat them.  When in the other recipe I don’t cook the asparagus THAT much because I like it less cooked.  So I add the rice sooner.  But in THIS recipe I wait until the mushrooms are done.   Also remember, if you are using freshly cooked rice then it won’t take as long to cook/heat up.  Also the chicken I used had been seasoned when cooked so that is something to keep in mind when you are flavoring your dish.

Kale is really a great green, however, I think it is really bitter.  So I use the salt to tame the bitter.  That is why I “save” the salting of the dish for after the kale is added.  Typically I would salt the mushrooms, but with kale, I wait for the kale.  So the salt goes directly on the kale.

Of course, this is just how I do it.  This is an explanation of the order I like it in.  You might come up with your own.  Oh, maybe you like your kale to be REALLY cooked, so you might want to add it with or after the mushrooms?  I like mine just wilted so it goes last.

So what do you think?  Mushrooms and kale, anyone?

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Dinner Desperation

Posted by terrepruitt on March 2, 2013

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaFor those of you that cook dinner every night you might understand what I am about to say, “Cooking dinner is difficult.”  Ok, more accurately coming up with ideas of what to cook for dinner is difficult.  I actually have it very easy because my husband would be fine eating the same thing all week then switching to something else the next week.  As long as it was not a vegetarian dish three days in a row.  But I am not happy with that.  As you know if you have read any of my posts about food, I love left overs because they keep me from having to cook or at least keep me from having to start from scratch.  The other night I was really at a loss as to what to prepare for dinner.  It was a Wednesday so I really should have been thinking in terms of cooking for Wednesday so that I could have enough left over for Thursday when I have a late Nia class.  But I couldn’t think “two nights” I just wanted to get through the one night and use the portion of a piece of chicken I had from the night before.  I came up with something that I didn’t even think about being enough for leftovers but it was.  It carried us through two nights.  Asparagus, beans, rice, and chicken.

Another thing you might know about me if you have a read a few of my posts, I LOVE asparagus.  I mean, love, love, love, love.  Once I was asked what food I would want to have given to me free every day and I said asparagus.  But even though I love it, I won’t buy it when it is $8.99 a pound.  I don’t even like to buy it when it is $4.99 a pound.  I might buy it when it is $2.99 a pound, but I like the $1.99 range.  But knowing how much I love it my hubby bought me some recently.  I didn’t ask how much it was.  I just had five pounds of asparagus to eat.  🙂

I often use three servings of meat to make four servings of dinner.  Usually my husband has a serving and I have a good portion of one.  The next night I will use the third serving along with my smaller portion to make another meal.  Well on this night I was using just my left over portion because we had only cooked two servings the night before.  So to me it would be a vegetarian-ish dish.  As it would have way more veggies than meat.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaSo here is my “recipe”

Asparagus, beans, rice, and chicken

—1 tablespoon olive oil
—1/2 of an onion, chopped
—asparagus (2.25 pounds) chopped
—2 teaspoons minced garlic
—1 3/4 cup cooked rice
—2 tablespoons of butter
—3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
—1 15 1/2-ounce can garbanzo beans/chickpeas, drained and rinsed
—3/4th of a LARGE chicken breast, cooked and chopped
—Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
—Garlic Salt, to taste

Heat the olive oil and the chopped onion.  Add the asparagus.  Cook only slightly (because the rice takes a while to heat up).  Sprinkle garlic over asparagus.  Stirring it and allowing it to cook.  Add the rice breaking it up and letting it get soft.  Use the butter to help the rice get moist (might need to use a bit of liquid too).  And the cumin.  When the rice is soft, add the can of garbanzo beans.  Then add the chopped up chicken.  Add pepper and garlic salt to taste.

Since asparagus doesn’t take that long to cook and everything else is ok to eat as is, it is really the rice that needs the most amount of time.  If you are using freshly cooked rice then this would take minutes.  As a note the chicken I used had been seasoned when cooked the night before so that is something to keep in mind when flavoring your dish.

For me it is the beans and the cumin that is “new”.  I have done dishes like this before using other meat.  I think this would also be good with left over pork.

I was thinking of the Red Beans and Rice recipe when I did this, using the beans and the cumin.

We liked it.  What do you think?  Sound easy?  Sound like something you would like?

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Poboylivinrich Rainbow-Stuffed Chicken

Posted by terrepruitt on November 8, 2012

This week I have been in training all week.  Nia calls its trainings “intensives”.  I have been in one all week for Blue Belt.  It is about 40 hours of a lot of information.  So I am sharing something about a recipe I have made and love.  As you may know, I only like to eat meat that has been marinated.  I figured out that I don’t really like the taste of meat.  So I like it to have soaked in something a long time to give it a different flavor.  I’ve shared with you the fact that we now freeze our meat in the marinade.  A couple of weeks back we took a weekend trip to Costco, so we spent a couple of hours after our shopping trip making marinade bags and trimming the meat and putting it in its separate bags.  Originally we had a problem with the marinated meat in a bag because we could not tell if it is whole steaks or cut up steak.  We have taken meat out expecting one thing only to get the other, so I finally learned to label the bags.  I can tell the beef from the pork from the chicken at least.  The reason I am explaining about marinating meat is because I found one recipe which I didn’t marinate the meat and I loved it.

The recipe is from Po’ Boy Livin’ Rich, he calls it Rainbow Stuffed Chicken.  It is boneless chicken breasts stuffed with bell peppers.  You use red bell pepper, green bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, and orange bell pepper.  Red onion helps add to the rainbow.  I love bell peppers as you know if you have read some of my posts.  Also, if you have read any of my posts you know I love cheese and mushrooms and this recipe has that too!  Yum.  This recipe really hits on all of my favorites.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaSome people do not like sweet peppers because of their strong flavors and I bet it is because of their strong flavors that I can eat this meat without it having been marinated.  The peppers provide enough flavor.  And, of course, there is salt and pepper, but again, if you’ve read my blog for a bit you know I don’t like pepper!

Another thing I really like about the recipe is that you don’t cook the vegetables beforehand so the peppers don’t get too cooked.  I LOVE raw bell peppers, but I am not a big fan of the cooked variety.  So not cooking them before stuffing them into the chicken allows them to remain crunchy and not get too cooked.

I actually think I left out the mushrooms.  I just used the peppers.  That was an accident as I love mushrooms.  I think I might cook the mushrooms up a bit, because while I love my bell peppers raw, I like my mushrooms cooked.  I like this dish very much.  I actually have not made it recently and looking at the pictures makes me want to go make it for dinner now.  I don’t have all the colors of bell peppers, so I will wait until I do.  I encourage you, if you like chicken and bell peppers, to try this recipe.  You will not be sorry.  It is easy, but it takes like it is a difficult thing to make.  Ya know, one of those recipes!

You can find this tasty recipe at:  Po’ Boy Livin’ Rich Recipe: Rainbow-Stuffed Chicken

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