Month: November 2020

Italian Chicken and Veggies

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Chicken is a very versatile ingredient that can be used in a wide variety of dishes. This dish can easily be prepared in a saute pan on the stovetop, but I decided to make it even easier by putting it in my slow cooker. What’s easier than 15 minutes of prep the day before and putting it in your slow cooker for a few hours the next day?

As usual, first, start by gathering and preparing your ingredients. You can use your favorite Italian dressing, I happened to have one on hand that I made using a zesty Italian seasoning packet. Otherwise, I always have Olive Garden Italian dressing in my refrigerator.

Cut and prep all your vegetables. If you don’t have zucchini or yellow squash on hand (or don’t like it) you can certainly replace it with some broccoli or another favorite vegetable. Next time I make this I’m going to add a can of drained, quartered artichoke hearts to this mix.

Then it’s as simple as putting it all in your slow cooker crock. I put the chicken on the bottom, add the vegetables, seasonings and dressing.

You can use whatever chicken pieces you want. If using breasts, cut them in half. You can use thighs, bone-in or boneless, or a combination of the 2. You just need 6 pieces of chicken all about the same size.

You can put it in your slow cooker now and turn it on or cover it and put it in the refrigerator overnight.

It will only take about 3 hours to cook depending on your slow cooker. Just make sure your chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

I like eating this with a dinner roll and Quinoa Pilaf.

Print Recipe

Italian Chicken & Veggies (Slow Cooker)

A very simple, yet full of flavor chicken and vegetable dish that can be prepped the day before and put in the slow cooker the next day for a quick, no fuss dinner.
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time3 hours
Course: Dinner, Main Course
Cuisine: American, Italian American
Keyword: Chicken, Italian Chicken, Slow Cooker
Servings: 6 people
Calories: 63kcal
Author: Eating With Deb

Equipment

  • 4 to 6 quart slow cooker

Ingredients

  • 3 each chicken breasts cut in half
  • 1 each zucchini small, cut in half moons
  • 1 each yellow squash small, cut in half moons
  • 2 cups mushrooms sliced
  • 1 each bell pepper julienned
  • 1 each leek sliced into ½ moons
  • ½ cup Italian dressing
  • 2 tbsp garlic minced
  • 2 tbsp capers
  • 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
  • ½ tsp fennel seeds crushed
  • ½ tsp red pepper flakes crushed
  • ½ tsp black pepper

Instructions

  • Gather and prep all veggies and mince garlic.
  • Add fennel seeds and red pepper flakes to a mortar and crush with the pestle.
  • Cut chicken breasts in half. If they are thick, butterfly the thick pieces.
  • Put chicken in the bottom of a slow cooker crock. Top with the veggies, herbs and seasonings, and then the Italian dressing.
  • Put crock in slow cooker and cook on low for about 3 hours until the chicken reaches 165 degrees.
  • Dish up, top with Parmesan cheese.
  • Enjoy!

Notes

You can easily use chicken thighs or a combination of breasts and thighs. It doesn’t matter if the thighs are boneless or not. I usually use a combination so I can make everyone happy.
If preparing the night before, prepare up to putting all ingredients in the crock, cover and refrigerate overnight.
This dish freezes well.

Nutrition

Calories: 63kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 280mg | Potassium: 139mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 64IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 23mg | Iron: 1mg

Deconstructed Lasagne

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One of the great things about winter is comfort food. There are many wonderful comfort foods, one is lasagne – noodles layered with meat or roasted veggies, covered in saucy, cheesy goodness.

However, sometimes it’s too much work to make, so figuring out a way to get all the flavors and saucy, cheesy goodness into a dish that is much easier to make was high on my list.

First, let’s talk a little bit about the spelling, is it lasagna or lasagne? I always thought that when spelled with an “e” that was the Italian (and everyone else in Europe) way of spelling it and when ending in an “a”, it was the American way of spelling it. A quick google search gave me the answer and I was partially correct, but there is more to it.

Lasagne is plural and lasagna is singular and the name of the noodles. Americans use the word lasagna to refer to the dish in total. Basically, Americans are using the wrong word when referencing is dish – we don’t just get one noodle when we eat a serving of lasagna. However you spell it, it’s a wonderful winter comfort food.

 

So, let’s make lasagne much simpler. You can use whatever filling you desire. If you only want meat or vegetables, use just that. I like both, but sometimes I only want vegetables. This version gives me a little of both.

Start by gathering and preparing all of your ingredients. You can replace the ground beef with ground turkey, a ground meat substitute, or Italian sausage. If you use sausage, you will want to omit the fennel and probably crushed red pepper flakes.

Yes, my ground beef in this picture is frozen, but that was ok, just put it in your pan, on low heat to start defrosting it, scraping off the meat around the outside as it thaws.

Once your meat is brown, add the vegetables and seasonings and saute for a couple minutes to get them mostly cooked.

While browning the meat and cooking the vegetables, boil your pasta to al dente according to the package instructions. When done, drain and set aside until needed. Do not toss pasta with oil to prevent it from sticking, all this does is prevent the sauce from sticking to and flavoring your noodles.

When cooking pasta – bring your water to a boil before adding salt to the water. Salt can pock mark pans, so if you add the salt before the water is boiling, it will sit on the bottom of the pan creating marks in your pan. Also, don’t add oil to your boiling water – again, all this does is cover your noodles and create a barrier so the sauce cannot flavor the noodles. To keep them from sticking while cooking, keep your water at a rolling boil and stir frequently.

So now we are ready to put this all together. My saute pan was not big enough to mix in, so I grabbed a bowl and mixed it in that. Add your meat mixture, pasta, tomatoes and sauce, and cheese and stir to combine. If your noodles stuck while waiting to get put into the dish, don’t worry, the sauce will “unstick” them.

 

Once combined, put in a casserole dish that you sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Top with the bread crumbs and more Parmesan cheese. Cover and put it in your preheated oven and bake for about 30 minutes until all bubbly hot.

Time to sit and enjoy all the saucy, cheesy, flavorful goodnes of lasagne with a nice slice of garlicky cheese toast!

Print Recipe

Deconstructed Lasagne

This dish has all the wonderful flavors of lasagna without all the work.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time45 minutes
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Lasagna, Pasta
Servings: 12 cups
Calories: 261kcal
Author: Eating With Deb

Equipment

  • Medium Stock Pot
  • Large saute pan
  • 4-quart Casserole Dish

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground beef extra lean
  • 4 cups mushrooms sliced
  • ½ cup yellow onions diced
  • 1 each bell peppers diced
  • 15 oz can tomato sauce
  • 15 oz can diced tomatoes
  • 2 cups rotini pasta dry
  • 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
  • 2 tsp garlic fresh, minced
  • ½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
  • ½ tsp fennel seeds
  • 2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
  • ½ c Parmesan cheese grated
  • Topping
  • 1/3 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
  • ½ cup parmesan grated

Instructions

  • Gather and prep all ingredients. Crush pepper flakes and fennel seeds using a mortar and pestle.
  • Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
  • In a large sauté pan, start browning the ground beef. When almost done add the onions, mushrooms, bell pepper, and seasonings. Sauté for about 5 minutes.
  • While sautéing meat and veggies, cook pasta to al dente according to package directions. Drain and set aside until needed.
  • In the saute pan or a bowl, combine the meat mixture, tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, pasta, and cheese.
  • Spray a 4 (to 6)-quart casserole dish with cooking spray and add pasta mixture. Top with bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. Cover and bake for 30 minutes until bubbly.
  • Enjoy!

Nutrition

Serving: 1cup | Calories: 261kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 17g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 47mg | Sodium: 561mg | Potassium: 455mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 424IU | Vitamin C: 7mg | Calcium: 234mg | Iron: 2mg

Roasted Veggie Stew

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The garden is harvested and put in storage for the winter waiting for me to start using what I was able to grow this past summer. The weather is definitely changing and that brings on my desire for warm, comfort foods.

I freeze a lot of my garden vegetables to use in soups, stews, and other dishes throughout the winter. I make large batches and freeze them in individual or larger, family size portions. One of my first go-to soups is a roasted veggie soup since I have most of the ingredients chopped up in my freezer.

First I gather and prep all my veggies, onions, and garlic that I’m going to use. I happen to like beets a lot, but I realize I am in the minority, so switch them out with something else, say cauliflower, or squash, or another veggie you really like.  That holds true for any of the other veggies, you just need about 7 cups of chopped veggies, plus your onions. You can use purple or yellow onions, I happened to have purple ones this time around.

If your veggies were frozen, don’t worry, you can roast them in the oven that way, it just might take a little longer.

Next split your veggies onto 2 baking trays lined with parchment paper. One tray for the harder veggies that take longer to cook and the other for the rest of the veggies. Divide your garlic in half between the 2 pans, this ensures a garlicky flavor throughout and sprinkle some sea salt and black pepper on the veggies.

Bake your harder veggies in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes then add the other tray and bake an additional 15 minutes.

While your veggies are roasting, gather and prep your herbs. You can certainly use dried herbs, but I recommend fresh ones, the flavor is a lot better. If you need to use dry the ratio is 1 tsp dried to 1 tbsp fresh. So use a heaping 1/2 tsp each of dried herbs.

During you last 15 minutes of veggie roasting time, you can start on your rue and stock (sorry, no fancy pictures here). Melt the butter in a large stock pot and whisk in the flour, cook for a few minutes to brown the flour a little bit, this will take the pasty taste out of the flour. Slowly whisk in whatever stock you decided to use, if you are meat eaters and think you will miss having meat in your stew, use beef broth, but vegetable broth/stock works great too.

Once your vegetables are done, add them to your stock plus the fresh herbs. I generally throw in a few handfuls of fresh spinach or kale or beet greens at this point too. Mix this all together and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Now it’s time to enjoy!

Print Recipe

Roasted Veggie Stew

A great hearty stew for both meat lovers and vegetarians.
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time1 hour
Course: Main Course, Soups
Cuisine: American
Keyword: soup, stew
Servings: 10 cups
Calories: 155kcal
Author: Eating With Deb

Equipment

  • Large Stock Pot
  • 2 Sheet Pans

Ingredients

  • 1 cup beets cubed
  • 1 cup potatoes cubed
  • 1 cup carrots diced
  • 1 cup broccoli florets and stems
  • 1 cup bell pepper diced
  • 1 cup mushrooms sliced
  • 1 cup beans cut into bite sizes
  • ½ cup onions diced
  • 2 tbsp garlic fresh minced
  • 2 tsp Thyme chopped
  • 2 tsp oregano chopped
  • 2 tsp parsley chopped
  • 8 tbsp butter
  • 8 tbsp flour
  • 4 cups veggie or beef broth

Instructions

  • Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper. On 1 spread out the potatoes, beets, carrots and 1 T of garlic. On the other spread out the rest of the veggies and remaining tablespoon of garlic. Drizzle the veggies with olive (or canola) oil and sprinkle on a little sea salt and black pepper.
  • In a 400° oven, roast the pan with the potatoes for about 30 minutes (until tender and browning). Roast the remaining veggies for 15 minutes (until tender). The outcome reduces the veggies down to about 4 cups.
  • In a 4 quart (or larger) sauce pan, melt 8 T of butter then whisk in the 8 T of flour. I like a thick, hearty stew, but if you want it more soup-like, use only 6 T each of butter and flour. Whisk this mixture for a few minutes to start browning the flour and take the pasty taste out of it. While whisking, slowly add the 4 quarts of veggie or beef broth. Don’t add the broth too fast or it will result in clumps.
  • Then add the fresh herbs and your veggies. Simmer for 5 minutes.
  • Enjoy!

Notes

If desired, you can add in some of the beets greens (sliced) at the end. Or a cooked grain of some sort works well in this stew, like barley or wild rice. I would definitely make the thinner version if adding barley or rice as either one will soak up some of the liquid.
This stew freezes well and will last several months in the freezer.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cup | Calories: 155kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 24mg | Sodium: 483mg | Potassium: 312mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 3241IU | Vitamin C: 36mg | Calcium: 31mg | Iron: 1mg