Category: Recipes

Blueberry pasta salad

Chicken and Blueberry Pasta saladIt’s blueberry season here and we picked a lot. We’re always looking for new ways to use them and found this yummy blueberry pasta salad recipe. It’s a great summer dish. I grilled the chicken rather than poaching. We used the Ronzoni Garden Delight pasta for color and nutrition.

 

 

IngredientsA bowl of bluberries

  • 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
  • 1 box whole-wheat pasta
  • 3 T olive oil
  • 1  shallot, thinly sliced
  • 1/3 cup chicken broth
  • 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
  • 3 T lime juice
  • 1 cup fresh blueberries
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 T grated lime zestLime zest
  1. Grill the chicken and dice (or use leftover chick or cook some other way).
  2. Cook the pasta, drain and return to pot.
  3. Heat the oil in a small pan over medium high heat, and add the shallot, cooking until starting to brown. Add the broth, feta and lime juice, cooking until he cheese begins to melt.
  4. Add the diced chicken, blueberries, thyme, lime zest and feta sauce to the pasta and stir to mix everything together.

Blueberry donuts

It’s blueberry season here in north Florida and we picked 16 lbs of them yesterday! We also just got a donut pan to make baked donuts–unfortunately, we haven’t been able to purchase donuts that aren’t made on shared equipment, so our nut allergic son hasn’t had donuts in a few years since the last place changed their practices. I fond this excellent recipe at Eat Good 4 Life–so they’re even (comparatively) healthy! They were an excellent treat!

Ingredients:Blueberry donuts

Slightly modified from this excellent recipe.

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup plus 2 T low fat milk
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 T oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 cups flour (I used white-whole wheat, you could use whole wheat or whatever)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 cups blueberries (fresh if you have them)
  • 3 T melted butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 T cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray donut pan with cooking oil. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, oil, nutmeg and cinnamon. Add flour, baking powder and baking soda. Whisk until combined. Carefully fold in blueberries. Fill each donut hole 2/3 full.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool for about 5 minutes and remove from pan to a wire rack.

[Cool completely.]–who can wait that long…they are yummy still warm, I just continued on.
In a bowl combine sugar and cinnamon. In another bowl place melted butter.
Dip each donut in the butter followed by the cinnamon sugar.

Jamaican Chicken and Spinach Patties

Based on this recipe from Food.com, we made these tasty chicken patties. We had originally planned on using beef, but somehow forgot to get that when we went shopping (could it have been the kids fighting over who got to push the grocery cart?). The chicken and spinach worked well together and these were quite yummy. Took about an hour and a half start to finish (including the mid-course redirection to using chicken).

PASTRYJamaican Chicken and Spinach Patties

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp curry powder
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1 egg to pain on top of filled patties

FILLING

  • 1 T olive oil
  • 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1.5 lbs Chicken cut into bite sized pieces
  • 1 T curry powder
  • 1/2 tsp cumin powder
  • 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
  • 1/2 cup chicken stock
  • 1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, but not drained

Directions:

FILLING:

  1. Heat oil in skillet over medium heat.
  2. Add onions and cook for 10 minutes stirring occasionally until soft and translucent.
  3. Add garlic, cook 2 minutes.
  4. Add chicken, curry, cumin, and pepper.
  5. Cook until cooked through.
  6. Stir in stock, breadcrumbs and spinach.
  7. Simmer until liquid is absorbed. (aprox.10 minutes).

PASTRY:

  1. In a large bowl, combine flour, turmeric, curry, and salt.
  2. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
  3. Stir in water until mixture forms a ball.
  4. Shape dough into a log, and cut into 10 equal sections.
  5. Roll each section into a circle (approximately 1/8 inch thick).
  6. Spoon equal amounts of filling into each pastry circle.
  7. Fold over making a half circle and press edges together. Use a fork to press edges, and brush the top of each patty with beaten egg.
  8. Cook for 25- 30 minutes at 375˚

Swiss Chard and Corn Tart

It’s been a while since we made this, but it was good. I finally downloaded the photos from my camera, so here it is…Swiss chard and corn tart

We used the Olive oil tart crust from Chocolate and Zucchini. Which turned out a but tough…I may not have rolled it thin enough? But was still a nice base for the tart.

The rest of the Swiss chard and corn tart was basically from the original post, except we topped it with Rondelé rather than the goat cheese.

Overall a fairly easy and healthy meal that all enjoyed!

Swiss chard and corn tart

Sausage and Spinach Quiche

This recipe for Sausage and Spinach Quiche looked good. I love making pie crust from scratch though, so I modified it a bit.

For the crust:

  • 1 1/3 cups White Wheat Flour
  • 1/3 cup unsalted butter
  • 1 Flax-paks
  • About 5 Tbs ice water with a bit of lemon juice

Cut the butter and flax into the flour and add enough water to hold everything together. Roll out on a floured surface and place into pie dish.

For the filling:

  • 1 package sausage sliced or removed from casing
  • 1/2 onion chopped
  • 1 clove garlic minced
  • ~10oz bag of fresh spinach
  • ~1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 5 eggs
  • 1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375. In a skillet, cook the sausage and onion. Add the garlic and spinach and cook until the spinach releases its water.

Place the cheese in the bottom of the pie shell, add the sausage and spinach mixture on top. Lightly beat the eggs with the milk and pour over sausage and spinach.

Cook at 375 for about 45 minutes.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

I generally avoid coffee cakes since they take so long to cook. But this morning I woke up early enough that I decided to give one a try. We had some sour cream that needed using, and I found this recipe at Two Peas & Their Pod, where I’ve seen some other great recipes, so I decided to give it a try.

We ate it up too fast to take a photo…it was really good (besides, Two Peas has great photos of this)! I added a little extra cinnamon and skipped the glaze, but other than that, followed the recipe.