Simple Chicken Noodle Soup

It's that time of year when the weather starts cooling down, fans and air conditioners are being put away, and sweaters and blankets are being pulled out. Probably one of my favourite things about fall is the return to soups, stews, roasts and all the other warming meals. One of the easiest, and most helpful meals, at this time of year, Chicken Noodle Soup has the triple benefit of being super easy to make, really delicious, and a great way to make anyone feel better when the inevitable fall cold hits.

Coconut Lime Chicken

This easy grilled chicken is a great recipe for weekday meals. I had some leftover coconut milk beverage and didn't want to waste it before it went bad. This is not the same as canned coconut milk, and the result is a little lighter. You want to make sure to marinate the chicken for at least 30 minutes, although longer is better. Keep in mind that the lime juice and coconut milk will cause what looks like a curdling effect, but it's okay, and still super tasty.

Sunday Night Dinner - Lemon Rosemary Grilled Chicken

One of our neighbours has this incredible rosemary plant - it is almost a tree to be truthful. Gracious neighbour that they are, they have given us free reign to trim from it when we'd like. This comes in real handy when putting together any type of chicken dish.  Last Sunday I had a friend over, and wanted to prepare something that wouldn't take a lot of time, but had a lot of flavour. Grilling chicken can be tricky, because it is easy for it to dry out. This is why a good marinade is your best friend when it comes to grilling. For this recipe I cut the chicken into cutlet sized pieces, and pounded the thicker ones so it would cook more evenly.

Sunday Night Dinner - Chicken, Mushroom and Artichoke Heart Pasta

Brent came home from a grocery run with a large jar of marinated artichoke hearts, and I really only needed a small jar for appies I'm prepping for our annual Christmas party. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do with the extras, and then realized I had chicken and mushrooms in the fridge. Thrown together with a hard, yet creamy, cheese a friend had brought over last weekend - I really wish I remembered what it was called - and a box of pasta, and we had a fantastic Sunday night dinner.

Sunday Night Dinner - Baked Chicken Legs

Earlier this summer we purchased a freezer pack of meat from Two Rivers Specialty Meats in North Vancouver. It was part of a fundraiser in support of Potluck Cafe Society, a Social Enterprise whose mission is to 'transform lives by creating jobs and providing healthy food for people living in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside'. It's a great organization and we were happy to support it, and even happier when we started using all of the great local meat we had purchased. Among the sausage, pork chops, bacon and ground beef there were chicken legs. I had never really cooked chicken legs and the first time we decided to just throw them on the BBQ. It would be an understatement to say that neither of us were too happy with them, and I thought, well, what am I going to do with the remaining 2 packs?

Luckily for us, I recently purchased Michael Smith's Family Meals cookbook. I kept thinking, maybe I'll put this on my Christmas wish list, but I just couldn't resist when it was 50% online, so I snapped it up. When it arrived I knew it was a good purchase. The book is full of tips for making cooking and eating more of a family affair, as well as great hints on quick snacks and meals for the whole family. I decided that in order to ensure this was indeed a good purchase, I would try and cook a new item each week from the book. This week I chose the 'Slow-Baked Chicken Legs with Barbecue Flavours'. Wow, it was such an easy dish, and I think we will definitely be making it again. This is a weekend dish, as it does take 3 hours to slow-bake, but it was so worth it. Plus it gave me a new appreciation for chicken legs.

Easy Weeknight Dinners - Chicken Curry in a Hurry

I never really ate curry until I moved away to University. It may have been growing up in a very Italian Northern Ontario city. We didn't really have a lot of diversity when it came to restaurants growing up, except for Chinese buffets which were pretty North American I'm sure. It's great to go back to my hometown now and see so many different restaurants, and even 2 sushi restaurants! That being said, I do love a good curry, and this dish has a lot of the flavours I enjoy. I used a red curry paste but I'm sure any one would work great. The next time I make it I would chop all of the veggies in advance, as that part did take a bit of time.  Overall though it was a pretty quick meal to prepare.

Back To Work - Freezer Meals

I headed back to work this week after a blissful (and busy) year off on maternity leave. In anticipation, I spent some time filling the freezer with ready made meals. It was quite funny, because a year earlier I had been doing the same thing in preparation for baby's arrival. How quickly the time does pass!

Life is busy, and when things start spinning out of control, making healthy choices can seem difficult. For me, taking the time to eat well and try and get at least a bit of exercise every day is a great way to manage stress. With that in mind, we froze some mini lasagna's, pasta sauce, chicken burritos, perogies and I picked up a few containers of soup from The Soup Meister in the Lonsdale Quay. Even though I've only been back for 3 days and there's still one day of the week left, so far so good. I seem to have enough time to get home, pick up the little bean from daycare, play for a bit and get dinner ready so that we can all sit down and eat together. Brent had a great idea for us to set aside one night a week to make something for the freezer, so we can keep this up. We'll be starting that next week and I hope that this will help get us through the next couple of months of learning how to juggle work, school, baby and all the other parts of our life.

Chicken with Prosciutto

When I was home for the holidays I noticed my parents had a lovely selection of homemade meats from their Italian friends. The Soo (my hometown) is well known for it's Italian food, and my folks get together with friends every year and make sausage, and one of their friends makes a bunch dried sausage, salami's and prosciutto. Before I left my dad told me to grab what I wanted, as they would be getting together again soon. So I grabbed some of each, and decided to use the prosciutto for dinner tonight. The prosciutto was so tasty, I had to stop myself from eating too much of it while cooking. This recipe is super simple. I've done a similar dish with salmon, but I think I prefer the chicken. To go along with this I just sauteed some red onion, garlic, cauliflower, asparagus and spinach together.

Creamy Chicken and Green Bean Toss

This is a nice mid week dinner, but I would recommend if you want to cook it quickly (about 20 minutes) do a bit of the prep in advance. I cut the chicken and sliced the onion, as well as prepped the green beans before hand. It made the actual preparation pretty quick and smooth. While I'm not usually a huge fan of Israeli or pearl couscous, I did like it with this meal. Another note, I searched high and low, and eventually found sumac, however I did notice the recipe did mention if you can't find it you could replace it with smoked paprika. I'm not sure how it would change the flavour, because as it was, this dish was super tasty. 

Quick Kung Pao Chicken

Kung Pao Chicken is one of my favourite take out dishes. An order of Kung Pao and Ginger Beef and I'm happy. While I still haven't perfected a ginger beef recipe, I decided to try this quick and easy kung pao. I also decided to up the spice in this recipe a little. If you don't want it as spicy, just reduce the amount of the garlic chili sauce that you add.

Crunchy Garlic Chicken

Ever since we finished our 30 Days of Dinner challenge, we have been terrible at cooking and eating at home. October has been terribly busy, which hasn't helped. So today I decided I needed to make something for dinner that wasn't macaroni and cheese or stir-fry (my two go-to meals). This recipe is super easy, and you just need to do some veggies or a salad on the side and you've got a great meal. I will admit, I might have been steaming too many veggies for baby purees today, the cauliflower was a tad over done. Good thing I had made a quick cheese sauce to cover that up!

Chicken and Blue Cheese Pasta

We had a couple of friends over for a games night, and I put together a charcuterie platter from some of my favourite shops on Granville Island. I had not been in probably a year, and it was great to get back to Oyama Sausage - which finally has a ticket system for taking your orders! I also visited Benton Brothers Cheese and asked the nice young man at the counter to suggest a couple of cheeses for a platter - a hard, a blue and a brie/camembert. The service was great, and he had me try each cheese before making a decision. I decided to go with a milder blue, as not everyone is a huge fan, and wanted something soft and creamy. His suggestion, a Saint Agur Blue, was perfect, so I bought a larger piece in order to have some leftover to cook with. This recipe came together nicely with ingredients I had on hand, and according to Brent was something he would be happy to have ordered in a restaurant.

Chicken in Dijon Cheddar Sauce

I realize this dish does not go along with my eating/cooking vegetarian for the month of February, but to be fair, I made this in January. I'm just only getting around to posting it now. This is another great week night meal that does not take too long to prepare. Another bonus, you will very likely have most of the ingredients on hand.

Chicken in Dijon Cheddar Sauce (adapted from Canadian Living)

- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts

- 1 tbsp vegetable oil

- 1 onion, finely chopped

- 2 cloves garlic, minced

- 1/4 tsp each salt, pepper, thyme

- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour

- 1 1/2 cups milk

- 2 tbsp Dijon mustard

- dash hot pepper sauce

- 1 cup shredded extra-old Cheddar cheese

- 1/4 cup finely diced red pepper

- 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

Cut chicken into bite-size pieces. In large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat; brown chicken, in batches. Transfer to plate. Drain fat from pan.

Add onion, garlic, salt, pepper and thyme to pan; fry over medium heat, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with flour; cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Whisk in milk; cook, whisking until thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in mustard and hot pepper sauce.

Return chicken and any juices to pan; cover and simmer until juices run clear when chicken is pierced, about 10 minutes.

Add cheese and half each of the red pepper and parsley. Stir until cheese is melted. Sprinkle each serving with remaining red pepper and parsley. Serve over mashed potatoes or noodles.

Chicken Fingers

These Chicken Fingers are great, and the best part is you can make them in advance and cook them from frozen. If you have these and some french fries on hand, you've got an easy, healthy, 'fast food' dinner. I also like having these in the freezer to use in wraps for lunches.

Chicken Fingers

- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

- 2 eggs

- 1 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (or Parmesan) cheese

- 1 cup panko or fresh bread crumbs

- 2 tsp dried oregano

- 1 tsp salt

- 1/2 tsp each pepper and paprika

- 1/4 cup butter, melted.

Between sheets of waxed paper, pound chicken with meat pounder or rolling pin until 1/2 inch thick. Cut on diagonal into strips (you can also use this recipe to make popcorn chicken, by cutting into small bite sized pieces). In bowl, whisk eggs. In shallow bowl, combine cheese, bread crumbs and spices.

One at a time, dip chicken strips into eggs, letting any excess drip back into bowl. Coat generously with cheese mixture, pressing to adhere.

Store, layered between waxed paper, in airtight container and freeze for up to 2 weeks. Bake from frozen.

Arrange on greased baking sheets; drizzle with butter. Bake in 425F oven until golden, crispy and no longer pink inside, about 20 - 25 minutes.

If you'd like to cook them right away, decrease baking time by about 5 minutes.

Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Asparagus

This is one of those great show-off dishes. It really doesn't take long to prepare and is great served with a quick side of sauteed vegetables or even just a simple spinach salad. This recipe comes from The Best of Bridge, and is a staple for Cavanagh entertaining. I have served with hollandaise sauce on the side, but on it's own the dish is just as tasty.

Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Asparagus

- 4 whole chicken breasts, halved, boned & pounded

- 24 medium asparagus spears, lightly blanched

- 1/4 cup butter, melted

- 1/4 cup dijon mustard

- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

- 1/4 cup white wine

- 1 1/2 cups bread crumbs

- 1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

- 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley

Prepare chicken and asparagus. Combine butter, mustard, garlic and wine. Dip chicken breasts in this mixture to coat them.

Place 3 or 4 asparagus spears on each breast and roll, securing with 1 or 2 toothpicks. Mix bread crumbs, parmesan and parsley together and roll the breasts in this mixture.

Bake 30 minutes at 350F oven.

Sweet Chili Chicken

This is a great recipe for a weeknight dinner. Instead of ordering take out, put some rice on when you get home, get prepping and you have a great Thai-style dinner ready in under 30 minutes. This recipe is courtesy of Canadian Living's October issue.

Sweet Chili Chicken

- 1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts, cut in bite-size pieces

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 1 tbsp vegetable oil

- 1 clove garlic, minced

- 2 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger

- 1 onion, chopped

- 2 peppers (red, green, yellow or orange) cut in bite-size pieces

- 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped

- 1/2 cup Thai-style sweet chili sauce

- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

- 2 green onions, thinly sliced

Sprinkle chicken with salt. In large skillet, heat oil over high heat; stir-fry chicken until starting to brown and juices run clear when chicken is pierced, about 6 - 10 minutes.

Add garlic and ginger; stir-fry until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add onion and peppers and stir-fry for 3 minutes, adding a few tablespoons of water to prevent sticking to pan if necessary.

Mix chili sauce with vinegar; add to pan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, until reduced and vegetables are tender-crisp. Sprinkle with onions and serve over rice.

Sunday Night Dinner - Skillet Chicken Cobbler

We're now a couple of days into Fall, and the start of the rainier season in Vancouver. Now I'm not sure what my feeling will be in March and April, but in the Fall I sometimes absolutely love when it rains, when it really pours. This morning waking up and hearing what sounded like a monsoon outside (to my sleepy head anyways), was so relaxing.

With the rain also comes the wet socks, chilly weather and comfort food. Oh the comfort food. Tonight I decided to try a new recipe from the October issue of Canadian Living. Awesome selection of recipes in the Sizzling Skillets article, and this is the first one we've tried.

Skillet Chicken Cobbler

- 1 tbsp each vegetable oil and unsalted butter

- 1 onion, chopped

- 8 oz button mushrooms, quartered

- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut in bite-size pieces

- 1 clove garlic, minced

- salt and pepper

- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour

- 1 cup vegetable or chicken broth

- 2 ribs celery, chopped

- 2 carrots, thinly sliced

- 1 bay leaf

- 1/2 tsp thyme

- 1 cup frozen peas

Topping:

- 1 cup + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 3 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cubed

- 1/2 cup buttermilk

In 10-inch ovenproof skillet, heat oil and butter over medium-high heat; cook onion and mushrooms, stirring often, until mushrooms are lightly browned, 5 to 6 minutes.

Add chicken, garlic, salt and pepper; cook, stirring, until chicken is browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in floor, cook 1 minute. Add broth and bring to boil, stirring. Stir in celery, carrots, bay leaf and thyme; reduce heat, cover and simmer until thickened and vegetables are tender-crisp, 3 to 5 minute. Stir in peas, discard bay leaf, remove from heat and set aside.

TOPPING: In bowl, whisk together flour, baking power and salt. Using pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter until crumbly. Drizzle in buttermilk, stirring just until soft sticky dough forms. Turn out onto floured surface; knead 6 times or just until smooth.

Roll out into 6-inch square; brush with 2 tsp buttermilk. Cut into 6 biscuits and arrange over chicken mixture. Bake in 375 F oven until top is golden and filling is bubbly, about 35 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Chicken in Phyllo Pastry

The first time I made this recipe was in University, when I was having some new friends over for dinner. I can't remember for the life of me why I decided on this particular dish, but when at dinner the girls were asking where I bought the chicken bundles from, I knew I had found a new favourite. Since that day back in 2001 I have made this numerous times for many different people. I've privately dubbed it my best 'dish to impress'. That is, if I'm cooking for people for the first time, I know this dish will is a crowd pleaser. So when I was visiting my sister in Toronto and she told me we were having some of her friends for dinner, who were looking forward to having me cook for them (I think she may have talked me up a bit) I thought, why not pull out ole faithful. It was a hit!

Chicken in Phyllo

- 8 Phyllo Pastry Sheets, thawed overnight in refrigerator

- 1/4 cup (or more) butter, melted

- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved

- 1 bunch of fresh spinach leaves, stems removed

- 1 bunch fresh basil leaves, chopped

- 1 large red pepper, cut in strips

- 3/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

One of the biggest things with making this dish, is the prep. After years of prepping this, my best advice is to have everything ready in an assembly line type operation. Phyllo is not difficult to work with, as long as you take care of it. What I mean by that is to cover the phyllo you are not using with a damp cloth. This helps it to not dry out and crack, making your life much easier. Once you have each of the items prepped and set out, it's time to get started.

Lay one sheet of phyllo on counter and fold in half. Brush melted butter along edges. Place chicken breast half in the middle, near the bottom of phyllo. Layer spinach, a sprinkling of basil, red pepper strips and some feta cheese. Roll chicken and phyllo over once. Fold edges toward the middle and continue rolling until you've formed a nice little bundle.

Place on cookie sheet, brush with butter. Now the next key is to cover this with another damp cloth, covering each bundle as you work. Once this is completed, you can either cook right away, or wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Bake in middle rack of 375 F oven for 25-30 minutes.

This dish is from The Best of Bridge, one of the best cookbooks you should have. It is great served with the Chickpea Couscous.

Chicken and Brie Panini

The panini press is a fantastic thing. Luckily for us our panini press is part of our indoor grill. If you're in the market to purchase an indoor grill, I would highly recommend you get one that comes with a panini press. The options are endless when you can whip up a quick grilled sandwich, such as the one we had for dinner last week.

Grilled Chicken and Brie Panini

- loaf of crusty bread (if you're unsure, ask at the bakery what would work well in a press)

- boneless, skinless chicken breast

- 1 pear, sliced

- Brie cheese, sliced

- Sweet jam (I used a maple and walnut spread)

Cook chicken however you please. I simply rubbed some olive oil, salt and pepper on mine and baked in 350 oven for about 20 minutes.

Slice bread in good sized sandwich portions, and then cut in half. Spread bottom half with sweet jam. Layer pears, chicken and brie, top with other piece of bread. Place in panini press and cook until cheese is nice and melted.

A trick we've picked up from watching panini's made at cafe's is to use parchment paper on both sides of the grill, so you don't end up with a sticky gooey cheesy mess to clean up.

Sunday Night Dinner - Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

We spent the weekend in Whistler for my staff post-Games celebration. It was a lot of fun, lots to celebrate, and skiing was phenomenal. Arriving back, I was exhausted and just wanted some comfort food for dinner, and something that would be very easy to make so I could have a nap. Remembering a casserole we used to have as kids, I thought I would try my hand at it. I had asked my mom for the recipe a few years ago, and luckily had saved the email! My sister's and I loved this dish, until one of my sister's went downstairs while my mom was preparing it and saw that it included cream of mushroom soup. So funny how kids will love something until they know what's in it. This recipe originally comes from my godmother, and has been adapted because I didn't read the entire recipe before I started (again, I was really tired and do not recommend that).

Mom's Chicken and Broccoli Recipe

- 4 - 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

- 4 - 6 cups chopped broccoli florets

- 3 cups (approx) shredded cheddar cheese

- 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup

- 1/2 cup of vegetable broth

- 2 tbsp melted butter

- 1/2 cup fine bread crumbs

In greased casserole dish, place broccoli florets. Cut chicken into a bit larger than bite size pieces. In cast iron pan, cook chicken on medium until no longer pink inside, about 6-10 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken pieces. Place on top of broccoli.

Cover with shredded cheese. In bowl, mix mushroom soup with vegetable broth, pour over entire dish. Top with mixture of melted butter and bread crumbs. Bake in 350 oven for 35 minutes.

I served this over rice, and it was really good, and I have a feeling it will taste even better for lunch tomorrow.