Lemon Garlic Chicken

This is another great recipe from the P90X nutrition guide! My kids loved it!!

Lemon Garlic Chicken

1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tbs molasses
2 tsp. worchestershire sauce
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or breast)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
lemon wedges
parsley sprigs

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a nonreactive dish (or large plastic zip bag) and add chicken. Cover and marinate in refridgerator 1 hour, turning occasionally.
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
3. Remove chicken from dish and reserve marinade. arrange chicken in a shallow baking dish or roasting pan coated with cooking spray. Pour reserved marinade over chicken; sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, basting occasionally with marinade. Bake without basting for 20 minutes more or until chicken is done. Serve with lemon wedges and garnish with parsley sprigs.

It's important to baste! It makes the chicken very juicy!!

Island Pork Tenderloin

This recipe is actually from the P90X nutrition plan. It's delicious and healthy!!!

Island Pork Tenderloin

16 oz pork tenderloin, trimmed of fat (lean)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. chile powder

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 tsp. olive oil

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 TBS garlic, finely chopped

1/2 tsp. tabasco sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Stir together salt, pepper, cumin, chile powder, and cinnamon, then coat pork with the spice rub.
3. Heat 1 tbs oil in a 12 inch skillet over moderately high heat and brown pork, turning, about 4 minutes.
4. Stir together brown sugar, garlic and tabasco and pat onto top of tenderloin. Place pork in a roasting pan and cook in the oven for 20 minutes.

I didn't use the tabasco because we have kids, but this is a really tasty recipe! We serve it with rice that has teriyaki sauce on it. Hope you like it!

Spinich Artichoke Dip part 2!

If you read my earlier post- Spinich Artichoke dip part 1 you saw that I love applebees spinich dip and that I had tried the earlier recipe and had moderate love towards it. Well I googled applebees spinich dip and came across this new recipe! I tried it and I actually liked it a little better PLUS it's a bit cheaper to make, which is awesome!! I think I'm going to have to have a side by side taste test someday but I really did like this new recipe. The only downfall I thought it had was that it calls for jarred alfredo sauce. (yuck!) I was worried, but in the end it turned out pretty good! I couldn't taste the yicky sauce. Now of course you can buy nice sauce or even make your own (which I will try someday) but for this test purpose I went with the bertolli alfredo sauce.

Almost Applebees Spinich Artichoke Dip

1 14 oz can artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped

1 10 oz box frozen chopped spinich, thawed and drained

10 oz prepared alfredo sauce

1 cup shredded parmesan-romano cheese blend

1 cup shredded motzarella cheese

4 oz (1/2 pkg) cream cheese, softened

1 tsp. minced garlic

Combine all ingredients except 1/2 cup motzarella cheese in a bowl. Mix them until well blended. spread into baking dish and sprinkle with remaining motzarella cheese and place in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

I put my artichoke hearts in a food processer to make it really small because I usually eat around the big chunks at applebees, but that made it a bit thicker. If you want it more soupy, I wouldn't do that. I really liked it though and replaced it as my go to spinich dip recipe :) I really hope that you try it and let me know what you think!!!!

Butternut Squash Lasagne

My Mother in law gave us this cookbook for Christmas and we are SO excited because it has A TON of amazing recipes! We are so excited to try them all, pretty much EVERYTHING (minus the seafood stuff) sounds so good. We decided to try the Butternut Squash Lasagna first. I'm not a huge fan of Butternut Squash, but my husband Greg is. He could eat it every day :)

Butternut Squash Lasagna

3 lbs Butternut Squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/4-1/2 inch slices

3 Tbs Olive Oil

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup butter or margarine

6 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp. salt

4 c. milk

1 Tbs. Snipped fresh rosemary

9 no boil lasagna noodles

1 1/3 cup finely shredded parmesan cheese

1 c. heavy whipping cream

1. Lightly grease a large baking pan. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place squash, oil and 1/2 tsp salt on the pan. Toss lightly to coat, and spread in an even layer. Roast uncovered 25-30 min or until squash is tender, stirring once. Reduce oven temp. to 375.

2. Meanwhile (while squash is roasting) for sauce, in a large saucepan melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic, cook and stir for 1 minute. Stir in flour and 1/2 tsp. salt. Gradually stir in milk. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in the roasted squash and rosemary.

3. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking pan or baking dish. Spread about 1 cup of sauce evenly in the prepared pan or dish. Layer three of the uncooked noodles in pan or dish. Spread with one third of the remaining sauce. Sprinkel with 1/3 of the parmesan cheese. Repeat layers 2 more times starting with noodles and ending with cheese. Sprinkle the remaining cheese, cover tightly with foil.

4. Bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 minutes more or until edges are bubbly and top is lightly browned. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Makes 8-10 servings.

Ok so that's the recipe. I wasn't in love with it, but it tasted good. Greg liked it but thinks it needed more salt. You really do need to start the sauce as soon as you put the squash in to roast. It took me a good 25 minutes until that sauce started thickening up. I must have had my heat too low or something. also, the recipe doesn't tell you what to do with the squash slices, I just layered them over the noodles that had sauce on them already. It smelled REALLY good while I was cooking it. the combo of garlic and rosemary was heavenly which caught me by suprise because I have never really been a fan of it. The kids gobbled it up too, so its a good way for them to get their veggies!! Hope you try it! If you do, leave me a comment so I know you tried it!

I can't wait to try more recipes from this cookbook. It really is amazing!!

hmmm

I googled applebees spinich dip and came up with a recipe..I will be trying it soon and letting you know how it goes....

Chicken Stuffed Dumplings

My friend Monica made these for us one night and I fell in love. They are SO easy and SO tasty. I have seen them on other blogs too so I'm sure there are about a million variations of them out there. Here is hers:

2 cans cresent roll dough
1 can chicken breast, drained
2 green onions, sliced
1 8oz package cream cheese

mix green onions, cream cheese and chicken in a bowl. Unroll cresent dough into triange. Place a large tablespoon of mixture onto top of dough, roll like you would a regular cresent pinching sides and folding sides over as you go. Bake for 15 min at 375 degrees. I serve these with rice and cream of chicken soup as the gravy. yum yum!! Monica is a great cook and I steal lots of idea's from her! You'll see more :)

spinich artichoke dip take 1

while I have found my perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe, I am still on the lookout for the perfect spinich artichoke dip recipe. If anyone out there in blog world has it, please share it with me. I am looking for one that is just like the dip you can get at applebees. If they can make it then gosh darnit so can I.

This was the dip we tried for new years eve. It was REALLY good, but a little too chunky for my taste. I like a more smooth, cheesy version (like applebees) It makes enough for a crowd. Greg, my grandpa and my 3 kids and I ate it all gone. I served it with a sliced french baguette and tortilla chips. Here is the recipe, courtesy of allrecipes.com

1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained
1/3 cup grated Romano cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. In a blender or food processor, place artichoke hearts, Romano cheese, Parmesan cheese and garlic . Pulse until chopped, but not ground. Set aside. In a medium bowl, mix together spinach, heavy cream, sour cream and mozzarella cheese. Stir in artichoke mixture. Spoon into prepared baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

NOW, walmart does not sell romano cheese so I used asiago. It tasted really good in my opinion. I also added more cream to attempt to make it thinner. I also sprinkled more motzerella and parmesan on the top and turned the broiler on hi for the last 5 min to get a nice top. I also read on the recipe reviews that people added cream cheese. I think if I ever make this again, I'll only use half the spinich. It was a good dip and I don't really think you can mess it up!!