Chicken Cordon Bleu

I'm so glad I saw Biz's chicken cordon bleu earlier today! I hadn't thawed anything for our dinner and Johnny's co-worker was coming over. I was afraid I'd have to go outside in rainy, freezing weather just to grab one or two items at the grocery store. After seeing this, I grabbed chicken from the freezer and knew I had leftover ham in the fridge and cheese from my mom's trip to Italy. Perfect!

5 thin sliced chicken breasts
1/2 cup provolone cheese, cut in slices
1/2 cup ham, cut in slices
salt and pepper to taste

To start, I layed out the thin sliced chicken breasts on a big cutting board. If you buy regular chicken breasts you could pound them out to be thinner to stuff and cook.

Next I took equal amounts of the ham and cheese and covered half of the chicken (widthwise) with them. I folded the other half of the chicken over and secured the end with a toothpick. They looked like little pillows!

The cheese I used was a provolone. My mom brought it back from Italy and the outside has a hard rind, but the inside is very soft and creamy. The flavor is so much better than American provolone cheese! Christo of Chez What? shared a few tips and knowledge about cheese with me after his cheese post yesterday! It's very interesting and informative if you get a chance to read it.

After seasoning the chicken with a little salt and pepper I put a small amount of vegetable oil in a skillet. I seared one side of the chicken on medium high heat for about two minutes and then flipped it and put a lid on. I lowered the temperature to medium and cooked for about five minutes, flipped again and cooked another two minutes with the lid on.

I forgot to get a picture until I'd already started eating and cut into it! At least you can see the inside and the way the cheese melted beautifully.

Anything that fell out the sides I just scooped on top of the chicken. I could have been more diligent in securing all of the edges, but I'm lazy! Served alongside Harvest Grain Blend from Trader Joe's and fresh steamed broccoli.

Pasta a la Philly

Last week Laura of Hey What's for Dinner, Mom? posted a pasta recipe with a secret ingredient: Philadelphia cream cheese!

After reading her praises and the fact that her son had three platefuls, I decided to give it a go too! It's super quick for weeknight meals, cooking in the time it takes the pasta to boil! It also scores convenient points with just 5 easy ingredients most of us already have on hand!

The original recipe can be found here, but I made the same changes Laura did (proof that great minds think alike!). Both of us chose to forego ground beef and use homemade sausage. Laura used her homegrown/homemade turkey/duck/goose sausage and I used loose sweet Italian sausage. (My dad made us 15 more pounds while he was here for Christmas, so we're set for another few months!) We also both opted to use a shorter pasta choice instead of spaghetti.


16 oz. box of rigatoni
1 pound sausage (or ground meat of choice)
26 oz. jar of pasta sauce (or 3 cups homemade)
4 oz. (1/2 box) of Philly cream cheese, cut in cubes
Parmesan cheese to top, optional

While the pasta water is coming up to a boil brown the meat in a separate large skillet. Once the meat is cooked through, cook pasta according to directions on the package. Add the sauce and cream cheese (we used 1/3 less fat Philadelphia because their regular contains whey) to the skillet and stir to combine with the meat until the cheese is melted. Drain the pasta and add it to the skillet, tossing everything to coat. Serve with Parmesan cheese on top, if desired. Serves 4-5.

Honestly, I was surprised at how good this was! Johnny wandered into the kitchen to help me brown the sausage and ended up staying while the sauce was created. When he saw I was going to be adding the cream cheese he said a quiet "cooool." After a few bites he agreed it's crazy how big of a difference just adding cream cheese makes.

If you like vodka sauce, you'll like this. It's still very "tomatoey," just with a creamy goodness. You won't be able to put a finger on it, it doesn't taste "cream cheesy," just smooth and more "special" than your normal sauce. I would serve this dish to company it's that good!

It's still a holiday, right!?

I won Healthy Yum's carrot challenge at the end of November. There was a little "snafu" with address exchange and the site being down (it'll be back next month), but it was cleared up two weeks ago. My prize was a Musselman's gift basket and until the UPS man pounded on the door like a cop who meant business lightly tapped at 8 a.m. I forgot to expect it!

Johnny brought in a box that gave no indication of what was inside, but had this sticker affixed:

I always think of A Christmas Story when I see this sticker and have to pronounce it "frageelay," like it's Italian!

Inside the box was this beauty! I had to giggle because it's wrapped in bright Christmassy red and the card says "Happy Holidays." Inside read:

Even if I received it a little late, it's still a holiday today, right!? So, everybody please have a safe and happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, ok!?

Onto the goods! I honestly did not expect the basket to contain anywhere near this much!

Two 23 oz. jars of plain apple sauce. One is lite with no sugar added, made with 100% American grown apples. The second is all natural with no sugar added and a portion of the proceeds goes to support the fight against breast cancer.

Two 4-packs of Healthy Picks apple sauce. The flavors are blueberry pomegranate and raspberry açaí. Both are full of antioxidants because the fruit flavors and are no sugar added.

Two 4-packs of Totally Fruit apple sauce. These are peach and strawberry flavored, with no high fructose corn syrup - naturally sweetened by the fruit juice concentrate!

Two cans of Lucky Leaf pie fillings, cherry flavored and lite apple with no sugar added.

Now, I'm not affiliated with this company, I just won their products as a prize, but I have to say that is a really awesome round-up of healthy eating bonus points. No sugar added, no high fructose corn syrup, all natural, made with 100% American grown apples, and even supporting breast cancer!? I'm impressed!

If you're feeling an itch to win something yourself right about now please head on over to Hey What's for Dinner, Mom where Laura is beating her winter blues and blahs this week with giveaways galore! She's already up to giveaway number 5 this morning, so there's plenty of chances for you to enter and win!

Split Pea Soup

When my Dad made sausage, he had the meat ground at a local butcher here. He bought several pork shoulders, which they weighed and then cut the meat off the bone and ground. Because the shoulder is weighed before the meat is cut off the bone, you pay for the bones too and receive them in a small bag with your order.

I saved them in my freezer to make stock or soup with, and I pulled them out yesterday to thaw for the split pea soup. I roasted them in a 400° oven for about an hour beforehand. This gives the soup depth and flavor, but I can pull them out and the finished product is meatless. (Note: I said meatless, not vegetarian!)

Into my crockpot went:

16 oz. bag of dried split peas (no need to soak)
5 roasted pork shoulder bones (or you could use the traditional ham)
1 large onion, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
5 stalks of celery, chopped
1 32 oz. box of beef broth (*see note below)
1 cup water

2 cups broth
seasoning, to taste

Place the first seven ingredients into the crockpot in order. Cook on low for 8-10 hours, or high for 4-6 hours. I chose to cook on high for six hours. At about hour four I checked on it and it had lost a lot of liquid so I added 2 more cups of broth.

After six hours I removed the bones, tasted and seasoned to our tastes using about 1/2 tsp black pepper, and turned it to warm.


*The broth is a brand my Dad found at the Dollar Tree, believe it or not. It's all natural with no MSG and is free of any cholesterol, fat, gluten, and lactose. They sell beef and chicken in 32 oz. cartons. I usually use vegetarian bouillon cubes in everything, but since this is dairy free it's safe for Johnny and gives me the option of using ready-to-use broth sometimes.

Pumpkin Ice Cream

Wouldn't you know that Edy's (Dreyer's in some parts of the country) changed the vast majority of their flavors last year (including pumpkin) to New! "Fun Flavors!" with whey as the first ingredient? Yes, whey. Not milk, not cream - a processed additive! Mmmm, "Fun!" indeed!

Johnny had a major craving for pumpkin ice cream a few months ago. Since we can't buy a whey-free version at the store, he came up with his own by adapting The Perfect Scoop's sweet potato ice cream recipe to be a pumpkin ice cream recipe!

This was the third or fourth time Johnny made the pumpkin ice cream this year. He usually uses canned pumpkin, but when he made it for Italy Night, he used fresh pumpkin. Wow, let me tell you, it made a WORLD of difference. The canned version tasted a little tinny to me, but Johnny gobbled it up. The fresh version was velvety goodness and I gobbled it up!

15 oz. can of pumpkin (or about 2 cups fresh pumpkin, which I recommend)
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp milk (we used 1%)
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
a few drops lemon juice (we used the bottled concentrate)

Combine all of the ingredients (except the lemon juice) in a blender and mix for about 30 seconds. It will taste great at this point, but trust me and add just a few drops of lemon juice and re-blend. It should allow all of the other ingredients to just POP and become brighter, not add any citrus qualities.


Freeze in your ice cream maker according to instructions. Serve immediately in a more soft-serve texture, or freeze to serve later! Please note, however, that homemade ice creams freeze "harder" than commercially aerated versions. You'll need to take them out about 5 minutes before scooping.

Beef Fried Rice

Johnny wanted to order fried rice for dinner, but I offered to make some at home instead! I still had some leftovers I wanted to use, so this was the perfect opportunity. I was able to use some veggies from the Christmas platter and the steak and mushrooms from Gene & Georgetti's.

2 cups cooked white rice
1 tsp oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup carrots, chopped
1/2 cup brocolli, chopped
1/2 cup snap peas, string removed
3 Tbsp Hoisin sauce
3 Tbsp soy sauce
~1/2 cup leftover steak, chopped
~1/4 cup leftover mushrooms
1 egg

Cook the white rice and set aside. Let your stovetop wok heat up, then add the oil and the veggies (except the mushrooms) and garlic. Put the lid on so they can become tender.

Throw the cooked rice on top and add the sauces. Stir around until everything is incorporated. Make a small well in the center and crack and scramble the egg until it is cooked and then stir to mix.

Finally, add the steak and mushrooms to come up to temperature. These were already full cooked, so they only need to be warmed.

Quick Quiche

Still working to use up leftovers, this time I found a creative use for a soon-to-expire roll of canned crescents, the spinach from Gene & Georgetti's, and some small pieces of cheese from Italy night.

First, I cheated and used the canned crescents to make a pie crust. I let this bake for a few minutes while the oven was preheating to 375°. Just enough to firm up a bit, with a hint of brown at the edges, but not long enough to cook.

Next, I mixed together:

4 eggs
leftover spinach (about 1 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup half and half (leftover for mom's coffee, otherwise I'd use milk)
4 or 5 pieces of assorted leftover cheese, cut in small pieces
1/4 cup shredded cheddar
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper
1 large basil leaf, minced


I poured this mixture into the pre-baked crust.


Then into the oven at 375° for 30 minutes. Serve warm, or let cool and store in the refrigerator for future use.


In hindsight, the crescent crust might not have been the wisest idea because it did get semi-burnt around the edges. But I did like the buttery, flaky aspect it brought to the quiche so I wouldn't mind using it again in the future! Plus, it cut down on prep-time by being super convenient - this took literally 5 minutes to whip up!