Just Not What I Grew Up with

There are certain things you should just not mess with.  I have written about my Granny's recipe for Mac and Cheese before on this blog.  To me, it is what Mac and Cheese should be.  I would describe it as dry - meaning it is not made with a bechamel sauce.  It is the easiest mac out there (the blue box does not exist in my world).  So, tonight, I went up against all my preconceived and correct notions about this dish and went for a new recipe. 

The recipe from Cooking Light for Stovetop Mac and Cheese (with chicken sausage) was not bad, it just isn't what I grew up with.  It could not be much more simple to put together, but the taste and texture is just not what I grew up with.  I did, however, enjoy the addition of the sausage (it brought a nice flavor).  By the way, this dish works well when cooking for 2.  There's enough for dinner size portions and a little bit leftover for lunch the next day.

Calzone Casserole

Yeah, I had never heard of it either.  And to be quite honest, after eating tonight's dinner I wonder why you don't just make it into a calzone.  It has all the same ingredients as a calzone, but is just formed different.  Oh the lengths food editors will go to come up with a new recipe.

Tonight's recipe is inspired by a Cooking Light recipe called Spinach-Feta Calzone Casserole (see here), but I changed it very much so here's the adapted recipe:

Ingredients
1 pkg Pampered Chef Pizza Dough mix (or any pizza dough you have) + ingredients to make the dough
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium yellow onion (thinly sliced)
2 cloves garlic (thinly sliced)
salt & pepper to taste
1 large bunch fresh spinach, washed, trimmed, and roughly chopped
1 1/4 c. ricotta cheese
1 c. Italian cheese blend
1 c. cooked chicken breast
2 Tbsp. Garlic Oil
1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning blend

The Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.  Prep the dough according to package directions.  Turn out onto a floured surface and roll into a 12" square.  Place the dough in an 8x8 baking pan.  Leave the excess over the edges. 
2. Heat oil in dutch oven and add onions and garlic.  Cook for about 5 minutes or until the onions start to brown.  Remove from pan and place in a large bowl.  Salt and pepper the onions and keep warm.
3.  Add spinach to pan in batches, stirring often, until the spinach wilts (about 4 minutes). 
4. Add spinach, ricotta cheese, Italian cheese, and chicken to the onion mixture.  Season to taste with salt and pepper, stir well.  Pour spinach mixture into the prepared pizza dough crust.  Fold edges over the top and brush with garlic oil.  Sprinkle Italian seasoning blend over the top. 
5.  Bake in oven at 425 F for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. 

This was not Drew's favorite dish, but I really enjoyed it.  The fresh spinach tasted great and the ricotta was very mild.  I would make this again for a pot-luck event. 

Chick and Champ

Tonight's dinner was one of those easy to throw together kind of meals you need for a Monday night.  In about 30 minutes, dinner was on the table.  It was flavorful and comforting.

The menu: Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Tenders (Cooking Light), with Green Onion Champ (Cooking Light) and green beans.

For the Spicy Honey- Brushed Chicken, I swapped tenders for the recipe-called-for chicken thighs because I got a great deal on tenders this week at the market.  After getting half of my tenders in the rub mixture, I went ahead and cooked some plain ones alongside the ones for the recipe so I can use it for a recipe later in the week.  The only thing I changed about this recipe is the glaze that is brushed on at the last minute.  The glaze calls for honey and apple cider vinegar.  I wanted to kick it up a notch on the spice, so I added about a teaspoon of Siracha to it.  Drew likes his food really spicy, and the results were definitely spicy.  They had a great flavor.  I would definitely do this treatment for chicken tenders again, using alternative spices because it adds lots of flavor without adding any fat!  Gotta love that.  Since they are very figure friendly, we thought we would add a little bit of ranch and buffalo sauce for dipping - a great pairing.

For the uninitiated (as I was before this afternoon), "champ" is an Irish term for buttery mashed potatoes.  This version is very comfort-food pleasing.  For some reason, potatoes are not often on our menu.  We both grew up in household that ate potatoes often, but I still haven't added it to our list of "often" foods.   This might be because that list is incredibly short!  If you get a chance to try this recipe, do.  It is really good and flavorful.  A new cooking technique for me was the addition of green onions to the milk, heating it up and then adding it to the potatoes before mashing.  It infuses the green onion flavor very nicely into the potatoes and could have many applications.

Summer Shrimp Salad

Continuing the Mexican theme for this week, I found a great recipe for a Shrimp Taco Salad out of the current issue of Cooking Light. 

Let me just begin by saying this was a fabulous salad.  I am surprised it was so light in calories.  I am not sure if it is still light in calories when you take seconds, but I don't think the food scientists at Cooking Light take that into consideration. 
The salad is pretty simple.  It starts with a dressing made with lime, cumin, chipotle, and (oddly enough) maple syrup.   I did a little modificaiton on this one because I didn't have any chipotle hot sauce (haven't seen that in the store before, will have to check on that), I used some Knorr chipotle seasoning and a little Tobasco.  Drew must have liked the combination because he commented on the spice of the dish. While getting the corn going on the George Foreman, I got the shrimp skewered and put in on the grill.  After adding the rest of the ingredients (beans, avocado, cilantro, I added red onions, and lettuce) to the deskewered, cooked shrimp and the decobbed (new word, I think) corn, and tossing; it is ready to go! 
It turned out beautifully and I will definitely add this one to my list of summer salads because it did not heat up the house at all!  As stated above, we did have seconds and didn't feel guilty or ashamed.  Thanks Cooking Light!