My garden went gangbusters in late August so we reached a point where we had more green beans than we knew what to do with. I stumbled on this recipe and made it on a night where Beast had a bunch of friends over to watch a big fight. I wound up making I don't know how many batches because as soon as I set them down they were gone.
Chicken piccata is a fave of mine. Beast makes it almost every year for my birthday and he made it the first night we brought our Ladybug home. Typically it is served with a buttery sauce (not Whole 30 compliant) over or with noodles of some sort (also not Whole 30 compliant). I was having a little craving for a lemony sauce one night when we were doing Whole 30 and were planning to make grilled chicken salads. This is the dish I made instead and it wound up being a big hit.
It is very close to a typical, unbreaded chicken piccata using ghee instead of butter and serving it on a bed of spinach instead of noodles. The spinach gets lightly sautéed when you top it with the warm sauce and works really well with the salty, lemony capers. We gave the kids some steamed frozen veggies to have with the chicken in addition to a small amount of spinach so it worked for everyone. Enjoy!
Searing chicken in small batches to make sure you get a sear and not a steam.
Seared chicken set aside.
What may look dirty is actually flavor. Add the chicken stock and all those brown tasty bits will come off.
Chicken simmering in the sauce.
Final product.
Happy Cooking!
Mel
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Whole 30 Compliant Chicken Piccata
by Mel from Served With Love in Colorado September-18-2017
This is a great way to get the taste of the dish you love while being compliant with the Whole 30 program. Add as much lemon and capers to your taste, the 2 Tablespoons each here is the minimum. I typically use 3 Tablespoons of lemon juice and 4 Tablespoons or more of capers. The warm sauce lightly cooks the spinach it tops so it is much more like eating lightly sautéed spinach than raw spinach.
Ingredients
3, sliced to 1/4 inch thick chicken breasts
3 Tablespoons olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1 cup chicken broth
2+ Tablespoons lemon juice
2+ Tablespoons capers
1 Tablespoon ghee
4 cups spinach
Instructions
1. Slice the chicken in 1/4 inch long slices2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper 3. Heat olive oil in cast iron pan or dutch oven with sides4. Sear chicken on 2-3 minutes each side in small batches5. Put chicken to the side once seared6. Add chicken stock to pan and scrape brown bits with wood spoon until clean7. Add 2 Tablespoons lemon juice and at least 2 Tablespoons capers8. Bring sauce to simmer for 5 minutes until it somewhat thickens9. Add ghee and stir to mix10. Taste sauce and add any additional lemon or capers to your taste (I typically add an additional Tablespoon of lemon juice here)11. Add chicken to the sauce and leave uncovered on low heat for 5 minutes12. Split spinach between large bowls13. Add several slices of chicken to bowls as well as a ladle of sauce and capers
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 4 servings
Moving to Colorado throws you for a loop when you are used to baking by following standard recipes. Shortly after I moved here, I quickly learned to search for high altitude recipes so I didn't wind up with an deflated and not so tasty treat.
Several years ago, I got it into my head that I needed to be able to make biscuits from scratch. This might have been due to some pregnancy induced nesting urge. Who knows. I had a hard time finding a high altitude biscuit recipe that worked perfectly each time so I started playing with a recipe I found until it was just right. I played with the amount of baking soda, baking powder, and oven temperature until the recipe below was created. Which means for a few months we had biscuits ALL THE TIME.
I finally got it right and the recipe below is our go to when people are over for breakfast or when we're wanting to have a nice lazy morning making breakfast as a family. It is probably the recipe I get asked for and share the most. Now that I have kids, they really enjoy helping me make and cut the biscuits.
This mound of butter is when we were tripling the recipe for a crowd.
Apple butter or honey are perfect spreads for these biscuits. But is it also fun to make something of your own. We usually get a box or two of Colorado peaches each summer and I love to make peach jam to go on these biscuits, toast, etc. This warm peach jam recipe is a perfect way to use a couple of peaches to add something seasonal, fresh, and sweet to a breakfast staple. Start the jam first and while it simmers, make the biscuits.
Happy Cooking!
Mel
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High Altitude Buttermilk Biscuits
by Mel from Served With Love in Colorado September-18-2017
This is the recipe I have spent the most time experimenting with and getting just right. My kids love to help me make these and you'll find them sitting on the kitchen counter putting butter in the mixer many Saturday mornings.
Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon sugar
teaspoon salt
1/3 cup (cut into small cubes) cold butter
3/4 cup buttermilk
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees2. Whisk dry ingredients in stand mixer bowl3. Cut butter into small cubes4. Turn stand mixer on medium speed5. Add one cube of cold butter to the mix at a time until all butter is in the bowl6. Dribble buttermilk down the side of the stand mixer while still running7. Stop adding buttermilk when the mixture is a sticky dough ball and all dry ingredients have been absorbed8. Flour hands and flat surface9. Ball up mixture and knead two to three times on floured surface10. Spread dough ball out to 1 inch thick with hands or rolling pin11. Dip a glass or biscuit cutter into flour and use it to cut biscuits of desired size12. Put biscuits on cookie sheet and bake for 12 minutes
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 8 biscuits or so, depending on size
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Colorado Peach Jam
by Mel from Served with Love in Colorado September-18-2017
This recipe could probably be made a million different ways with whatever fruit is seasonal or whatever combination you would like to try. Start this recipe first and them start the biscuits. You'll be able to finalize this one while the biscuits cook.
Ingredients
2, pealed and diced Colorado peaches
1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
Instructions
1. Peal and dice peaches2. Put all ingredients in saucepan on medium heat, turn to low once simmering3. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes4. Stir occasionally and add 1/4 cup water as needed, if sauce becomes too thick5. Once peaches are cooked through and sauce is thick, smash peach pieces with a fork or potato masher
We have the best neighbors in the entire world. Seriously. This is for a variety of reasons but one that I hold especially dear: They share things from their garden.
The other day we were in the backyard trading gardening stories with our neighbor (we have both just moved into new houses and this was both of first years for these gardens). He then asked if we would like to try his arugula pesto. Absolutely! In two minutes I was holding a mason jar full of love from his garden. He said it was a mix of home grown arugula, lemon juice, parmesan, olive oil, and pine nuts. I don't know the recipe so that's why I'm not sharing it here.
With that in hand, I was inspired to make a pasta dish with some love from my garden too.
I marinated chicken thighs in basil, olive oil and pepper then grilled them. Roasted sliced zucchini (from my garden) and asparagus (cut into one inch pieces) mixed with olive oil, pepper, and salt at 350 for 15 minutes and then high broil for 2 minutes. Boiled up some shell pasta and mixed it all together with the pesto. Plated it up and topped it with some shredded parmesan.
I can always tell how well Beast likes something by if he runs to claim the leftovers for lunch the next day. As we were clearing the table, he was already scraping the bowl into a "to go" container.
This is easily re-creatable even if you don't have lovely neighbors giving you jars of heavenly made pesto. Grab a jar of pesto at the grocery store or make your own. Serve with roasted veggies, pasta, and grilled chicken and you've got it.
Beast and I were very much in need of a date night this week after a crazy work week and hectic weekend. So we put the kids to bed, lit the candles on our back porch, and watched a sunset with a bottle of wine and these little bites of heaven.
They couldn't be easier and were just the little sweet and salty treat we needed. I might make these as an appetizer in the future. To add some texture, I am thinking wrapping them in bacon or sprinkling over some walnuts would be a nice addition.
A colleague of mine is having a baby this summer so I wanted to throw a little baby shower for her. I always struggle coming up with themes but this one was a hit so I wanted to share the recipes and sources I was able to find that made it come together.
My inspiration for this was actually something we did for my Working Moms MOPS group. We put together a formal high tea for our last meeting this year. I was also looking for a reason to get my grandmother's tea set out and actually use it!
I made tea sandwiches, punch, lavender cookies, fruit and cheese bites, and had various types of tea available. I bought some chocolates and a colleague brought some delicious homemade scones.
Here are the recipes I used (great ideas from other people):
This was very easy to pull together and like I said, it went over very well. It was easy to quickly get some water boiling between conversations and refill the pot occasionally. The amount of food was perfect for 5-6 people and I felt like I was actually able to enjoy the get together without having to coordinate too much.
It really was a fun little get together and something I will definitely do again!
During the week, getting dinner on the table ASAP is often my goal but Sundays are different. Sundays we can take our time prepping and cooking which means my Sunday suppers are often a bit more involved.
Bear is currently on a salmon kick where the boy, I kid you not, can sit down and eat a half pound of salmon or more. At age 3 1/2. It is kind of impressive. And I absolutely love cooking him something he gets so excited about so I've been trying to make sure he gets his salmon every 1-2 weeks.
Lucky for me, our local grocery chain King Soopers does an awesome fish program called "Easy for You" where they put the seafood of your choice in an oven ready foil bag with tons of great seasonings and herbs. It even tells you on the back of the bag the appropriate temperature and time to cook it based on the weight. Our favorite right now is salmon with butter, dill, lemon, and the lemon pepper seasoning. For 2 lbs of salmon, you bake it at 380 degrees for 40 minutes and it comes out perfect every time.
When cooking fish, it is always better to err on being underdone and sticking it back in the oven for a few minutes. If you overcook it, it will often have that not so pleasant fishy taste that makes people think they don't like fish. In reality, they don't like overcooked fish.
If your grocery store doesn't offer a similar program, you could make your own foil envelope and just top the salmon with the following:
2 Tablespoons of butter
Healthy shakes of lemon pepper seasoning
Slices of lemon
Sprigs of dill
While my salmon was cooking, I got to work on the pasta.
Ingredients:
3 zucchini (small, spiralized to about twice as thick as typical spaghetti)
1 bunch of asparagus (cut into 1 inch pieces)
1/2 cup of pitted kalamata olives (cut in half lengthwise)
1 cup cherry tomatoes (cut in half)
1/2 cucumber (cut in slices and quartered)
1 small jar pesto sauce
Directions:
Spiralize and cut all veggies, keeping the zucchini noodles and asparagus separate from everything else.
Put a large pot of boiling water on to boil.
When the salmon has 5 minutes left to cook, drop the zucchini noodles and asparagus in the boiling water.
Boil for 3 minutes.
While the asparagus and noodles are boiling, stir the pesto into the other veggies with some freshly cracked pepper.
Drain the asparagus and noodles in a large colander.
Push down on the asparagus and noodles with a paper towel or clean dish towel to release some of the excess water.
Mix the asparagus and noodles into the other veggies.
Plate the pasta with the salmon and top the pasta with a little bit of crumbled feta.
My kids can't tell the difference between zucchini noodles and regular pasta, especially once it has a sauce on it, so this is a great way to sneak some extra veggies in. When serving this up, I made sure Bear got extra tomatoes and Beast had as few olives as possible since those are their preferences. I left the feta off the top of the kids' plates because my kids gag on "weird white stuff" (feta, cottage cheese, and mashed potatoes). Not a battle I wish to fight since they are great about eating virtually everything else including their veggies. The feta and cottage cheese I can understand but I think they are really missing out on the mashed potatoes.
This went over well in our house and I hope it will in yours as well!
The other night, I didn't get home with the kids until 6:00 PM. We normally try to have dinner around 6:30 so we can play with the kids for a bit before they go to bed around 7:30-8 PM. So that meant I had to get started quick to get dinner together and on the table. Nights like this, a one pan throw in the oven dinner is a quick an easy way to go. Here is what I threw together: BBQ Chicken with broccoli and potatoes.
Ingredients:
Package of chicken tenders (or chicken breasts cut into slices)
Head of broccoli
3 potatoes
BBQ sauce
Olive oil
Pepper and salt
Seasoning mix of your choice
As soon as you get home, turn the oven on to preheat to 400 degrees.
Turn Sesame Street on for the kids.
Cut the broccoli florets off the head with kitchen shears and put the florets on one side of a sheet pan.
Cut the up the potatoes in SMALL cubes (you need them to cook quickly) around 1/2 inch and put them on the other side of the pan, leaving some space in the middle.
Drizzle olive oil over the veggies and sprinkle with salt and pepper over the veggies. If you have a spice mix you like, sprinkle it over the potatoes. I used a seasoning mix from Savory that had a little bit of everything in it: garlic, onion, rosemary, etc.
Mix the veggies with your hands.
Throw the chicken in the middle with a little space in between if you can.
Put a couple glugs of your favorite BBQ sauce on top of the chicken. Paint the sauce over the chicken, flip and repeat.
Throw in the over for 30 minutes and wallah! Dinner is served!
While it was cooking, I was able to get a bit of time in with the kids, get things cleaned up, and get the table and drinks all ready for dinner. Everyone in our house was happy and after a long day, it was really nice to just have one pan to clean up!
My kids (and hubby) love their sweets. This is a dinner that to them tasted like dessert but I felt fine about it because there was plenty of fruit and veggies in every bite. Ladybug decided that forks should be optional during this meal because she was able to shovel in the goodness with her hands better.
Ingredients:
Pork chops
1 c (or one juice box) apple juice
2 Tablespoons cinnamon
1/4 c honey
2-3 sweet potatoes
2 apples
Night before (or right when you get home) put pork chops, apple juice, honey, and cinnamon in a large ziplock bag to marinate the meat. Cooking/Meal planning tip: Even if I haven't meal planned, I like to know what I am making for dinner by the night before. That way I can make sure any meat needed is thawed and ingredients are on hand.
Peel and cube sweet potatoes (~1/2 inch cubes are perfect)
Cook the sweet potatoes with some coconut oil or olive oil for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
Preheat the grill.
While sweet potatoes are cooking, cube the apples (I leave the peel on)
Once the sweet potatoes are starting to soften, add the apples and a little more oil.
Put the meat on the grill, keeping the marinade.
Reserved marinade
Pour the marinade into the sweet potatoes and apples and cover.
Flip the meat when it is no longer sticking to the grill (about 4 minutes)
Pull the meat off the grill when again, it is no longer sticking to it and let it rest while the apples and sweet potatoes finish cooking.
This is the recipe for my Go To Taco Meat that I seriously make almost every week. Beast looks at my weekly menu more on that later for it each week and will ask if it isn't there when I'm making it next. This recipe makes plenty for dinner and next day lunches too. And the kids have no idea how many veggies they are eating.
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef or ground turkey 1 onion, chopped 1 cup carrots, chopped 1 red pepper, chopped
1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 can diced green chiles
1 can black beans
1 box Spanish rice
1 box hard taco shells
1 packet taco seasoning
Beer for deglazing the pan (pretty much anything will work as long as it isn't too fruity)
Cheddar cheese for topping Other possible additions:
Chopped zucchini Chopped fresh spinach
Other possible toppings:
Sour cream
Lettuce
Diced fresh tomatoes
Directions:
Put on a Sesame Street episode for the kids.
Open a beer and take a swig. You have to make sure the bottle is good before using it in a recipe. Seriously.
Put on your favorite Pandora mix. I recommend "Ed Sheeran Radio" or "Today's Indie Radio."
Brown meat.
While meat is cooking, chop onion, red pepper, and carrots.
Once meat is browned, drain if there is a pourable amount of fat.
Add carrots and cook about 5 minutes.
Cook the Spanish rice as directed on the box. Add the diced tomatoes can once the water is boiling.
Add other vegetables and cook about 5 minutes (until onions are tender).
Add the packet of taco seasoning to the meat.
If at any time the bottom of the pans starts to get crusty technical term deglaze the pan with a glug of beer. Once the beer is in, scrape the bottom of the pan to get all the good stuff off flavor off the bottom.
Cook the meat until the carrots are tender.
Add the can of green chiles.
Drain and rinse the can of black beans. Add it to the meat. This might sound strange but I do this for a couple of reasons: 1) My kids won't eat beans if I serve them on the side but they will eat them in the meat. 2) This makes 1 pound of meat go a long way since the beans act as a cheap additional protein and filler.
Serve the tacos topped with cheese and any other toppings you like and a side of rice.
Watch your children eat veggies they have no idea about. Evil cackle quietly to yourself.
So there you have it. This is not anything fancy but it goes over really well with my family and tastes great for lunch the next day. It is also really flexible and you can make it different depending on what you have on hand. Hope it works for you too!
I don't know about you, but when I first started cooking grilling chicken was one thing I could not figure out. I'd throw a chicken breast on the grill. Flip it. Pull it off. Result: Half was already dry and gross. Half had pink in the middle.
The problem: chicken breasts don't come in a uniform thickness. You can easily have a chicken breast that is 2 inches thick on one side and 1/2 inch thick on the other. There is no way to cook that completely without overdoing one half.
My solution: Beat it. I put the chicken breasts I plan to grill in a large plastic bag with whatever marinade I am planning on (barbecue sauce, lemon and olive oil, etc). Get out my metal ladle, put the bag on the floor and go at it until the chicken is a uniform thickness. The kids can even help.
At this point, my kids know what I am up to when I start walking over to our rug with a bag of chicken and a metal spoon. They run and get their ladles and join in the fun.
This time I was using Bryant's BBQ sauce. A favorite for KC natives.
I focus on the large ends of the chicken breasts and work to get them even (or much closer to even) with the other half.
The result: Easily grilled chicken. I preheat my grill on high, place the chicken on the grill, and then turn the grill down to medium. I flip the chicken once it has released from the grill (you shouldn't have to pry it off), which is usually about 5 minutes. Around 4-5 minutes on the other side and you have tender, moist chicken that is done all the way through.
Bonus: The kids say they "helped cook" the chicken. And my kids always eat things even better when they've helped make it. This is an easy and safe way for them to help cook chicken without getting completely gross or making a total mess.
Most of what I cook is based on someone else's good idea with some little tweaks from me to personalize it for my family. I was looking for a heavy veggie meal and stumbled upon this gem.
We added some pan seared chicken for Ladybug, our little protein lover. Turned out really well but I might added a little more curry powder next time just to intensify the flavor.
This is the recipe for my Go To Pasta Sauce that I seriously make almost every week. Without fail. My family loves it. It makes plenty for dinner and next day lunches too. And the kids have no idea how many veggies they are eating. Seriously, no idea.
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef or Italian sausage 1 onion, chopped 1 cup carrots, chopped 1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce 1 box of your favorite pasta 1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning 1 Tbsp minced garlic Red peppers flakes (to taste) Red wine for deglazing the pan Parmesan cheese Other possible additions:
Chopped zucchini Chopped fresh spinach Chopped red peppers Canned pumpkin Seriously, you can't taste it at all and it adds lots of vitamins and fiber. And gets that can out of the fridge that you had to use half of for another recipe.
Directions:
Put on a Daniel Tiger episode for the kids. Choose their sermon. Today you need to hear about sharing...
Open red wine and pour taster glass. You have to make sure the bottle is good before using it in a recipe. Seriously. Really this might be step one depending on the work day...
Put on your favorite Pandora mix. I recommend "A Dinner Party Ambience Radio" or "Indie Singer-Songwriters Radio."
Put on a big pot of water to boil for the pasta.
Brown meat.
While meat is cooking, chop onion and carrots.
Once meat is browned, drain if there is a pourable amount of fat.
Add onions and carrots and cook about 5 minutes (until onions are tender)
While onions and carrots are cooking, chop anything else you will be adding and get it ready. Tonight I added zucchini so here is where I chopped that.
Add the zucchini or any other fresh veggies.
While the additions are cooking, add the Italian Seasoning, red pepper flakes, and garlic.
If at any time the bottom of the pans starts to get crusty technical term deglaze the pan with a glug of wine. Once the wine is in, scrape the bottom of the pan to get all the good stuff off flavor off the bottom.
Add in any other additions. Tonight I added canned pumpkin since I had still had one can leftover in the pantry from all the pumpkin recipes I was making in the fall.
Cook until the carrots are tender.
Add the pasta sauce and turn heat down to low to simmer.
Depending on how long it is going to take Beast to get home, I'll sometimes simmer the sauce stirring it occasionally for 15-30 minutes or just go straight to serving. You can be flexible.
Once I have "Find iPhone" stalked Beast and determined he is 10 minutes from home, I drop the pasta and cook according to the directions on the box.
Once the pasta is cooked, drain and add to the pot of sauce. I have toddlers so we use a lot of penne or other small pastas that they can more easily eat than spaghetti.
Stir to get sauce in every nook and cranny.
Top with parmesan cheese or "sprinkle cheese" as it is known in my house and serve.
Watch your children eat carrots, spinach and other goodness they have no idea about. Evil cackle quietly to yourself.
So there you have it. This is not anything fancy but it goes over really well with my family and tastes great for lunch the next day. It is also really flexible and you can make it different depending on what you have on hand. Hope it works for you too!
