Island Chicken

I have NEVER seen my kids inhale their dinner as quickly as they did the night I made this chicken! Being 2 and 5, I always get their plates ready and cooled, before fixing our plates. My children were asking for seconds before my husband and I even sat down...they had polished off their entire plates! (Not only the chicken, but their mashed potatoes and broccoli!) This recipe comes from "Annie's Eats". Her dishes always look absolutely delicious, but having a picky husband has somewhat limited the recipes on her blog that I am able to try! I bought a family pack of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and had four left to use, so this seemed like the perfect recipe to suit my whole family! While I never doubted for a second that this recipe would be "good", I couldn't get over just how good it was...it was unbelievably easy and the ingredient list was quite short and consists of ingredients that the majority of you have at home already! As soon as I dropped my son off at school, I mixed the marinade ingredients in a ziploc bag, added the chicken, stuck the bag in the refrigerator and didn't have to do anything else with the chicken, aside from sticking it in a baking dish and baking for 45 minutes! As mentioned above, we served with mashed potatoes and broccoli, per Annie's suggestion!

Island Chicken

½ cup vegetable oil
3 tbsp. lemon juice
1½ tbsp. soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed (I added about 3-4 cloves...I LOVE garlic!)
½ tsp. dried oregano
¼ tsp. salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 chicken breasts (about 2 lbs)

Directions:

Combine all ingredients except chicken in a mixing bowl or large airtight plastic bag. Whisk or shake well until the marinade is well mixed. Add the chicken breasts to the bowl or plastic bag so that they are covered by the marinade. If using a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap. If using a plastic bag, press out all the excess air and seal the bag tightly. Refrigerate and marinate up to 10 hours.

When ready to cook the chicken, preheat the oven to 350° F. Place the chicken breasts in a baking dish and pour the excess marinade over them. Bake in the oven until cooked through and the internal temperature reaches 165° F, about 45 minutes (exact baking time will depend on the size of your chicken pieces.) Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Source: Annie's Eats

Marinated Baked Pork Chops

The first week of my husband's crazy semester is just about coming to an end! This week has really flown by, so I anticipate that the next four months will go by in the blink of an eye. I've been on a mission to find "quick weeknight meals" and as usual, turned to one of my favorite sites: Allrecipes.com. I LOVE that site for so many reasons, but one of my favorite features is the ability to search for recipes by ingredients. We've been attempting to be as cautious as possible, financially-speaking, now that my husband stepped down to a part-time position, so I looked at the sale ads and noticed that pork chops were on sale this week. I searched on allrecipes.com, listing "pork chops" as my ingredient and was then able to sort the recipes, listing them in order of which received the highest ratings. This particular recipe had over 940 reviews and received 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. I was drawn to the simplicity of the preparation aspect of the recipe and that there really was very little to do during the cooking process. My husband (who is BY FAR the pickiest eater of the four of us) went back for seconds...he said he really enjoyed dinner :) I would make a few suggestions, however, to the original recipe. I tripled the sauce ingredients, allowing extra sauce to spoon over the rice that I served as one of my sides...we also had green beans. The recipe didn't really specify a particular type of pork chop, but my husband picked up a package of the assorted pork chops and I used the center cut pork loin chops. They were approximately 1/2 inch thick and I made five, since I knew my kids likely would opt to eat something else. The recipe suggests baking for an hour, but I baked mine for approximately 45 minutes and then broiled them for an additional 2 minutes and while I would make these again, I would cut back on the cooking time. I'm thinking 40 minutes would have been plenty of time, but obviously you'll want to make sure they're thoroughly cooked, so you may have to experiment a bit on your own. I'd definitely check them closer to 40 minutes, though! I'm going to list the recipe as originally written, but I would very much encourage you to take my suggestions into account--especially tripling the sauce ingredients and cutting back on the cooking time!

Marinated Baked Pork Chops

1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons ketchup
6 pork chops, trimmed

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a small bowl, thoroughly blend soy sauce, vegetable oil, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, brown sugar, and ketchup.

Place pork chops in a medium baking dish, and spread with 1/2 the sauce.

Bake pork chops 30 minutes in the preheated oven. Turn, and spread with remaining sauce. Continue baking 30 minutes, or until internal temperature of the chops has reached 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).

Source: Allrecipes.com

The Best Chicken Fajitas

Stumbling across this recipe could not have come at a more perfect time! I purchased a family-size package of chicken breasts the other day and used the majority for my chicken scaloppine. I had three large chicken breasts left and what do you know...that's EXACTLY what this recipe calls for! :) My husband and I used to enjoy going out for the "all-you-can-eat" fajitas at the local Don Pablos...that is, of course, before we had kids! Dining out is quite the ordeal and not overly enjoyable with the two kids fidgeting around the entire time, so I was excited to find a recipe that claimed to create "the best chicken fajitas", so we could enjoy them at home!

Marinade:
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 3-4 limes)
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons apple cider or red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon onion powder

Fajitas:
1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts (about 3 large chicken breasts)
1 yellow onion, cut into thin strips
1 green pepper, cut into thin strips
1 red (or orange) pepper, cut into thin strips
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, quartered
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon fresh lime juice (a quick squeeze of a cut lime)
dash of salt and pepper

Combine all marinade ingredients in a small bowl. Place chicken in a ziploc bag and pour the marinade ingredients over the top. Seal the bag and place in the refrigerator and let marinate for 2-3 hours.

After marinading, take chicken out of the bag and discard the marinade. Grill or broil the chicken 4-5 minutes per side--I used my indoor grill pan. Remove from pan and tent with foil to keep warm.

In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat and add the onion, mushrooms and peppers. Stir fry until softened but still crisp tender. Add soy sauce, water, lime juice and salt and pepper. Cook another 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently. Slice chicken thinly on the diagonal and toss with the vegetables in the skillet. Serve immediately with flour tortillas and any toppings of your choice--I used Mexican cheese and sour cream, but you could also use tomatoes, lettuce and guacamole!

Source: My Kitchen Cafe

Marinated Flank Steak

I can count the amount of times I've purchased flank steak on one hand--it's a cut of meat that I seldom buy, because it tends to be rather pricey. I happened to find a piece marked down at the grocery store last night, so I thought I'd treat my husband and I to one of my favorite recipes from growing up! My Mom used to make this flank steak for special occasions--mostly for my Dad's birthday, as it was one of his favorites. It's so very simple to do and the marinade only calls for three ingredients. The hardest part is having to patiently wait 24 hrs to let it marinate before being able to cook it!

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year!!!

Marinated Flank Steak

5 Tablespoons Italian dressing
4 Tablespoons soy sauce
3 Tablespoons Russian dressing
Flank Steak (Approximately 2 lbs)

Directions:

Mix all marinade ingredients well in a shallow dish. Place meat in dish and turn to coat meat evenly. Marinate meat at least 24 hours, turning every 4-6 hours. Grill meat until cooked as desired and serve with sliced mushrooms. (Make sure you slice against the grain!)

NOTE: You would be surprised at how far that amount of flank steak goes--it doesn't seem like a lot, but 2 lbs should easily serve a family of 4-5. Also, I used a grill pan and cooked my steak on my stovetop. I grilled the meat approximately 4-5 minutes on each side for medium rare. My husband NEVER ate steak prepared anything less than "well done", but after the first time I convinced him to try medium rare, he was sold! I owe it to my Dad for convincing me that meat tastes so much more flavorful when it's prepared this way!

Source: My Mom :)

Marinated Pork Chops

The stomach "bug" has been going around my house and I haven't had much energy to cook. I decided to go ahead and marinate these pork chops yesterday morning and then figured I'd wait and see if anyone felt up to eating dinner--worst case scenario, I figured we could always have them tonight. Dinnertime arrived and I figured I probably should try to eat something, so I had my husband go ahead and grill these chops. My stomach was still a little queasy, but they still tasted so good and smelled wonderful while they were grilling! I don't buy pork chops often, probably because I wasn't overly fond of them growing up--I love my Mom to death, but she likes her meat VERY well done and there's nothing quite like dried out pork chops! The original recipe called for 1 inch thick chops, but I used the assorted pork chops that were on sale for $.97/lb...hard to beat that! The listed grilling time is for 20-25 minutes, which was what the original recipe called for, but if you're using thinner chops, as we did, you will likely need to decrease the cooking time.

Marinated Pork Chops

3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1 garlic clove, minced
6 pork chops

Directions:

Combine the first 10 ingredients in a large resealable plastic bag or shallow glass container; add pork and turn to coat. Seal bag or cover container; refrigerate overnight. Drain and discard marinade. Grill, covered, over medium coals, turning occasionally, for 20-25 minutes or until juices run clear.

Source: Allrecipes

Meat Marinade

I'm getting ready to work 4-5 shifts in a row at the hospital, so I was looking for an easy dinner idea. What could possibly be an easier option than taking my husband up on his offer to grill when he got home from work?!? It's been threatening to rain all day, but I figured I'd take my chances and go ahead and marinate my chicken so it was ready to go as soon as he arrived home...assuming we weren't the midst of a downpour! Recently I came across a blog put together by five sisters, called "The Sister's Cafe". Being one of three sisters and adoring my own mother as much as they appear to adore theirs, I immediately became somewhat partial to their blog. The only suggestion I would make is to possibly consider marinating your meat overnight.

Meat Marinade

1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 Tablespoons mustard
1 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic (I used one small clove)

Directions:

Mix well. Pour over meat, then let marinate for 6-8 hours in the fridge. (I made it the night before out of convenience, and I didn't think the flavor was too powerful). Good on meat, fish or chicken.

Source: The Sister's Cafe