Sundried Tomato Avocado Chicken Sanwiches with Pesto and Mozarella!

Posted on April 13, 2015 by rebeccacain23

I was seriously craving twice baked potatoes. SOOO bad! Alas, my potatoes were VERY sad looking and VERY small. It’s all I had left. I have had a lot of sauteed and roasted veggies for lunches these last couple of weeks and therefore have none for twice baked potatoes. Boo!

Instead, I made a DELICIOUS sandwich on GREAT HARVEST Sourdough. This is significant. It is not significant because I am affiliate of Great Harvest, it’s significant because it’s just simply the best. https://www.greatharvest.com/ I worked at a Great Harvest Bread bakery when I was 15 years old, and I have never tasted bread as wonderful as they make. They have locations all over… so if you’re near one… STOP AND GET BREAD!! 🙂

Ingredients

This was for 2 servings

6 chicken tenderloins (or more, depending on how many servings you need)
olive oil
2 TB butter
Kosher Salt
freshly ground Black Pepper
Mrs. Dash OR 21 Seasoning Salute
2-3 mozzarella string cheese sticks (OR fresh mozzarella if you have it!)
4 slices of SOURDOUGH bread!!
2-3 TB fresh homemade basil pesto
2 TB diced Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Arugula or any type of lettuce for sandwich
1/2 avocado sliced for in sandwich

INSTRUCTIONS

Lightly drizzle the chicken breasts with olive oil and season with salt and pepper and the Mrs. Dash or 21 Seasoning Salute.
Sautee in skillet with 1 TB of butter. Cook until white all the way thru and then set aside and let rest.
Place 1 TB of butter into the warmed skillet and let melt on med to low. Butter one side of each of the slices of bread (just like with grilled cheese) and put pesto on the opposite side (from the butter) of 2 slices of bread. This is so that each sandwich will have 1 slice of bread with pesto on 1 side of the sandwich. Place the chicken, sundried tomatoes, and cheese onto the bread and place the other piece of bread on top. “Grill” like grilled cheese until the cheese is melted. (I cut the string cheese in half lengthwise, and then width wise.) Flip over to brown the other side of the sandwich.
Remove from skillet and place onto plate. Remove the side w/out the cheese and place the avocado pieces and the arugula (or lettuce) and put back together. Cut and ENJOY!

This sandwich was FULL of flavor. The sourdough definitely was crunchy and the perfect flavor and texture for this sandwich. NO WORDS! Ok… yes, you really have to try Great Harvest! 🙂 The chicken was moist and tender… everything balanced quite well! This is a quick and easy dinner!

I served this with 2 mini sweet potatoes. Aldi has a bag of steamable sweet potatoes that you just pop into the microwave for 8 minutes! I just had the sandwich and sweet potatoes and was quite satisfied! Give this one a try!

And now, for the quote of the day:

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Check out this link: 15% off San Francisco Coffee K-cups

Tropical Coconut Crusted MahiMahi with Coconut Lemon Rice

Posted on April 10, 2015 by rebeccacain23

I am still learning how to cook fish. Each fish type is a bit different. You cook salmon differently than you would mahimahi. You make tilapia differently than you do mahimahi. All different textures and thicknesses. So, for me, it’s a bit hard to take the time and effort to master each one. I am getting closer with salmon… SO CLOSE!! 🙂

This recipe… MASTERED MahiMahi! I’m telling you, it’s AMAZING! If you follow it closely, you will be quite happy with how it turned out! IF you love coconut that is. 🙂 Seriously… tropical and fresh, flaxy and tender… this is an awesome recipe!

I was inspired by this recipe: http://www.bubblews.com/news/788347-coconut-crusted-mahi-mahi-recipe

I changed a few things, so the recipe below is mine, but the inspiration DEFINITELY came from the recipe above!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of bread crumbs (I used 2 pieces of dried whole grain bread and blended in my NutriBullet)
3/4 cup of Sweetened Flaked Coconut
1 teaspoon of finely zested lemon zest
1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons of olive oil
4 (6 oz.) mahi mahi fillets
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Ingredients for Coconut Rice:

1 cup rinsed White Jasmine Rice
1 can light coconut milk
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper

Instructions:

Rice:

Place rinsed jasmine rice into a Rice Cooker and then pour the can of Light Coconut Milk over the rice and let cook. Will just switch to warm when it is done. When the rice is done, put it into a large glass bowl and add the lemon juice and salt and pepper and toss to coat. Set aside covered to keep warm waiting to serve with the fish.

Fish:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. and then line a baking sheet with Aluminum Foil and spray it with cooking spray. You can use a Cooking Spray Mister.

If you do not have Panko Bread crumbs, or other PLAIN breadcrumbs, you can do as I did. I took 2 dried pieces of whole wheat bread, placed it into my nutribullet, and ground it into crumbs! Worked perfectly!! You can also use a Food Processor or a Blender.

Now take a small glass bowl and add in your bread crumbs, coconut, lemon zest, and lemon juice and whisk your ingredients together. Then drizzle 2 tablespoons of your olive oil over your coconut mixture and mix the olive oil into your ingredients. Set this aside for use later.

You now want to liberally seasoning both sides your mahi mahi filets with your salt and pepper.

Now place your mahi mahi on your prepared baking sheet and place them into your preheated oven and bake for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes remove your baking sheet from the oven and drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil over your mahi mahi fillets. Then divide your coconut mixture between your fillets and cover the entire top of each fillet with your mixture. This will create a wonderful crust when baked. Now return your baking sheet to your oven and bake until golden brown and your fish can flake easily with a fork. This should take an additional 10 minutes.

Then remove your coconut crusted mahi mahi from the oven and let them rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Serve over rice and with a veggie.

You will TRULY enjoy this! My husband gave it the gold seal and said that he’d order this at a restaurant and then go back for more! It’s seriously one of the best recipes for MahiMahi I’ve ever had!!!! I will definitely be making this one again.

And now, for the quote of the day:

Crockpot BBQ Pulled Pork

Posted on March 4, 2015 by rebeccacain23

On cold, rainy blah days I usually feel like using the crock pot to cook. I like those days when I’m busy, or just don’t feel like standing in the kitchen in the evening, when I can toss something in the crockpot and just literally forget about it until dinner time. This is one of those meals.

Today I just had a lot to do. Catch up on laundry, do school with the kids, teach my son that you cannot put a little bit of a roll of toilet paper into the toilet and then flush repeatedly to let the ENTIRE roll go down the toilet. I also had to teach him that he still needs naps and that he cannot repeatedly come out of his room during naptime. He also learned that if he holds his food out towards our dog, Duke, and tell him “no”… Duke will not listen. He will eat the food being held out to him. The experiences today were the normal… 3 year old testing mommy on what she’ll say no to today… because yesterday I learned the other stuff she said no to. Exhausting. Tiring. But… rewarding. I wouldn’t change the opportunity to mother these babies for anything. Not a thing. I’m blessed beyond what I ever could have imagined.

Now… to the easy dinner I made. 🙂 I really think it took me MAYBE 10 minutes. Maybe.

My recipe is adapted from this great blog: http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/03/slow-cooker-smoky-bbq-pulled-pork.html

Ingredients:
2 lb pork shoulder roast (mine did not have the bone in)
1 Tablespoons paprika
2 1/2 tsp himalayan sea salt
2 tsp fresh black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 packet instant coffee (7 oz.)
1 tsp unsweetened baking cocoa
2 Tb olive oil
1 (16-20 oz) bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce
Buns or… like me, if you don’t have any or time to make some… use sliced bread!

Ok, take a minutes to look at the picture above. Seriously. I put that in the crockpot FROZEN with the seasoning rub on it. I then covered the crockpot with tin foil to keep all of the heat in it, and had it on LOW all day. The CRUST on the outside of that pork was AMAZING! It looked and tasted like I had it in a smoker or a grill. I didn’t even sear it!!!! The inside of the pork was juicy and tender and just fell apart!!! This was probably the best shredded pork I have had out of my crock pot to date. Amazing. My husband said “restaurant quality!”. Try it. Seriously.

Directions:
Spray the inside of slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray (or use a slow cooker liner). Combine paprika, salt, pepper, garlic powder, unsweetened cocoa and instant coffee in a small bowl and set aside. Drizzle olive oil over the roast and rub in. (My roast was still frozen. I did NOT thaw or sear it at all, and it still came out AMAZING!) Take the seasoning and rub all over the roast, covering all sides. (Optional: poke your roast with a large fork a couple of times to let the flavors really soak in). Place lid on slow cooker and bake on low for 8-10 hours (or high 5-6 hours). Shred meat when finished and add bottle of BBQ sauce. Serve on buns or sliced bread and enjoy! You can serve this with a cold salad, cole slaw, potato salad.. or just some fruit and veggies! Endless options!

For the quote of the day: There has been speak a lot in the media and different blogs that I follow that talk about mom shaming, bullying, just overall judging others. We all know it’s wrong too! What is it? Most likely insecurity. We’ve gotta stop it! Let’s look at ourselves in a positive light, and build others up around us. I’ll start! 🙂

Sun-dried Tomato Parmesan Pasta

Posted on February 17, 2015 by rebeccacain23

You know… I was actually really hoping it would snow. It’s weird coming out of my mouth, because I lived in the cold upper mid-west for most of my life, and now in the south I put on a THICK winter coat when it goes below 50 degrees… cuz that’s seriously chilly. But, when it snows, my husband gets to work from home, and then I get to see him more AND he gets to actually eat dinner with us! But, sadly, the snow and ice missed us, and he actually had to drive the 45 minutes to work… boo. Oh well, I’m glad he has a GREAT job that he loves to go to! But… for the sake of my little girl, who, as all other girls her age, is OBSESSED with Frozen STILL and really wants to see snow so that she can go outside and pretend she’s Elsa. So, I’m hoping for 1 short day of snow. Then I’ll be good. 🙂

So last night I had the girls over to watch the bachelor, and my friend brought over her kit to help me put on my jamberry wraps that I couldn’t figure out how to put on with my strangely overpowered hairdryer… with her little heater thing, it worked WAY better! HA! And we had a great girls night doing our nails and watching the strangeness that is the Bachelor. It’s like a car accident… you just can’t help but watch!

So, before the girls came over I had to quick make dinner and I had been wanting to try my own version of a sun-dried tomato pasta dish for a while since I saw this one on pinterest… so, I figured… chicken and pasta is quick, I’ll do that! I did have to eat it out with the girls, but it got done in time!!! 🙂

This one a real winner… so so good.

Ingredients

1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 cup julienne sun-dried tomatoes in oil in a jar
4 large chicken tenderloins
2 TB (about 1/4 of a small onion) onion diced
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
salt and pepper
1/4 tsp paprika
1 cup half and half
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
8 oz shell pasta (or whatever pasta you have)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil (or dried, if that’s what you have)
dash cayenne pepper
dash hot sauce
1/2 cup reserved cooked pasta water (or more)
salt, to taste

Instructions

Note: if using sun-dried tomatoes in oil (in a jar), make sure to drain sun-dried tomatoes from oil, before using them. Reserve 2 tablespoons of this drained oil for sauteing as described below:
In a large pan, on med-high heat, sautee garlic and sun-dried tomatoes (drained from oil) and diced onion in 1 tablespoons of oil (reserved from the sun-dried tomatoes jar – see note above) and 1 TB fresh olive oil for 1 minute until garlic is fragrant. (Don’t burn the garlic or it changes the flavor of the whole dish!) Remove sun-dried tomatoes from the pan, leaving the oil and onions, and add chicken tenders, salted and lightly covered in paprika and italian seasoning (for color) and cook on high heat for 5 minutes on each side. Remove from heat and cut into 2 in pieces and place back into skillet.
Cook pasta according to package instructions. Reserve some cooked pasta water. Drain and rinse the pasta with cold water (to stop cooking).
Place the sun-dried tomatoes back into the skillet with chicken. Add half and half and parmesan cheese to the skillet, too, and bring to a gentle boil. (Don’t put on high heat or it will curdle the half and half.) Immediately reduce to simmer and cook, constantly stirring, until all cheese melts and creamy sauce forms. If the sauce is too thick – don’t worry – you’ll be adding some cooked pasta water soon. Add cooked pasta to the skillet with the creamy sauce, and stir to combine. Add 1 tablespoon of basil, and the hot sauce and cayenne. Stir to combine.
Add about 1/2 cup reserved cooked pasta water because the creamy sauce will be too thick (do not add all water at once – you might need less or more of it). This will water down the thickness of the cheese sauce and make it creamier. Immediately, season the pasta with salt and more basil, to taste, if needed. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes for flavors to combine.
Note: Make sure to salt the dish just enough to bring out of the flavors of basil and sun-dried tomatoes.

And… VOILA!

Dig in, and make your tummy happy!!!!

Ok, and for the quote of the day, it’s a funny play on what I’ve been working on. Especially since I LOVE the Duggars, I love how in their home, they don’t yell and scream at each other. It’s just not how they speak to each other. Since my husband and I have gotten married I’ve had to tame how I speak to him when I’m upset, and I’ve done SOO much better making sure I’m respectful with how I handle it…

With my children it’s an hourly battle. I literally at times have to step out of the room, count to ten, and then go back in. Otherwise it would at times come out as a full on scream. So… I’m gonna keep this in the back of my mind… read and enjoy. 🙂

Dill Chicken and Potato Skillet

Posted on February 11, 2015 by rebeccacain23

Doggone it…

Yeah. That’s how my Tuesday went! We have a large dog. Well, I guess technically he is in the medium to large sized dog family. He is around 80 pounds…. and he’s part bloodhound. The part about him being a bloodhound mix is quite important because he can literally smell a crumb under the kids bed from last week. He’s quite persistent too. During quiet time today, both of my kids were in 1 room playing together and having a snack, and my son decided to open the door. Four times. Guess what happened each time. Yep, Duke got in, ran straight for the snacks and tried to gobble it up as quickly as he could and tried to shove himself under my daughters bed to get all of the extra crumbs. I had to run from my room where I had a pile of laundry in my lap, each time, and pull the 80 pound dog off of the snacks and drag him out of the room. I’m going to get some serious Madonna arms!!! HA! It’s like, son, can you not see that if you open the door, your NATURAL CONSEQUENCE is: the dog will eat your food. And of course my son looks at me with a blank stare and says “Duke eat my food!”. Um. Yes, yes he did. Wow.

So, this is what happens every night when I make dinner:

After he gets in trouble around 10 to 15 times for trying to stick his nose in dinner, he will finally sit down on that rug, completely in my way, and lay there while I make dinner. 🙂 He likes to smell it I assume.

Last night I was craving beets and potatoes. Weird craving? Not sure! But it sure sounded good!

Ingredients:

4 large yukon gold potatoes
10-12 organic baby carrots cut in half
3 frozen chicken tenderloins (for 2 people… I use 1.5 per person.)
1 small bunch fresh flat leaf parsley
2 TB olive oil
1 TB unsalted butter
3/4 cup FF low sodium free range chicken broth
1/4 sweet onion diced
1 small piece of bacon chopped
Optional: Can of beets… YUM! 🙂

Dill Seasoning: (Mix together in a small bowl and set aside)
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
2 teaspoons dried dill
2½ teaspoons garlic powder
2¼ teaspoons kosher Himalayan sea salt
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions:

Partially peel the potatoes… I peel just the “eyes” out of the potatoes, and then dice. Drizzle the olive oil into a large skillet, and heat up at med. high. Place the potatoes, bacon and carrots into the skillet and place lid on. After about 5 minutes, when the potatoes might start sticking to the bottom of the pan, add the diced onions and chicken broth and stir around to “unstick” all of the ingredients, and sprinkle 1/3 of the above seasoning (that you mixed and set aside) over the potatoes and replace the lid. In a separate skillet, place 1 TB olive oil and the 3 (or more) chicken tenderloins and 1/3 of the dill seasoning sprinkled generously over both sides of the tenderloins. Cook on medium to medium high for approximately 8-10 min. per side until there is no pink left in the middle. (This is from frozen). While the chicken is cooking, sporadically stir the potatoes and carrots, adding more seasoning as desired. When the carrots are mostly soft with a bit of crunch, they are done (about 20 minutes)! Add 1 TB butter, melt in, stir around and serve with the chicken, and some slices of beets if so desired! Garnish with fresh chopped parsley and ENJOY!

Quote of the Day:

Creamy Tomato Pesto Pasta with Garlic & Chicken

Posted on July 16, 2014 by rebeccacain23

Tomato and pesto… and 1/2&1/2 …. could this go wrong???? I don’t think so!!! Not with those ingredients!!!

YUM!

Basically my favorites all rolled into one. Except, no veggies except in the pasta, but this turned out great! I paired it with a salad (with BUTTER LETTUCE!!!)

Ingredients:

Marinade:

1/2 tsp minced garlic, olive oil, juice of 1 lemon, lemon zest and 2 TB of spaghetti sauce, oregano, 6 leaves of basil chopped up, salt and pepper
Cover the chicken with the above marinade, and let sit for 30 min at LEAST in the fridge (if not overnight)
1/4 cup Pesto (homemade… I’ve put the recipe on a previous post)
5-6 chicken tenderloins
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 cup(s) chicken broth
8 ounce pasta of choice (I used Vegetable Radiatore)
8 ounce(s) Roasted Garlic Spaghetti Sauce
1/4 cup(s) half-and-half
2 tablespoon(s) parmesan (sprinkled on top after served)
2 tablespoon(s) Olive Oil

Directions:
Place chicken into bowl, cover with marinade, cover with plastic wrap (or similar) and place in fridge.

Boil water and start on noodles. Pour entire batch of chicken, (with all juices from marinade) into skillet and cook chicken fully (the marinade will evaporate/cook down) for about 7-8 minutes per side. Remove the chicken, and put onto a plate off to the side. Add chicken broth and heat and thicken sauce, add tomato sauce and garlic. Place chicken back into sauce. Simmer in chicken broth until half has cooked down. Reduce heat to LOW until barely simmering. Then add milk. Simmer for 5 minutes. Toss pasta in. Add flour if it needs to be thickened. Place chicken on top and serve. Drizzle with pesto over the top of the dish, and parmesan cheese.

Date Night!!!! (At home date night… like a staycation.. but a stay…date)

Posted on June 29, 2014 by rebeccacain23

So, my husband and I are kind of “foodies” per say. I LOVE to cook (obviously) and we LOVE to eat!! For our anniversary, we always spend it in Asheville because my parents send us to a marriage retreat up there every year. So, we save $$ to specifically go to a new and FANCY restaurant. Our dates… we love new and nice restaurants. Now, don’t get me wrong, my husband has a strange obsession with Taco Bell, so it’s not like we never eat less expensive food, but we REALLY enjoy eating out where it’s farm to table, or all natural ingredients, and there’s a lot of thought and freshness put into the meal. In Charlotte we went to a restaurant called the Dandelion Market. New and fun things… new flavors. Inspiring for me too!

One of our most favorite dish, that is usually too expensive, is lamb. Last time we ordered it was probably on an anniversary a few years ago. So… I was needing a date night, and $$ was a bit tight due to saving for a couple of upcoming trips… so I made a fancy dinner here at home!!!! And, compared to an approximate $100 tab at an upscale restaurant (including tip and wine), this meal cost around $25. Pretty good huh?! So, here’s the recipe in case you want an at home date evening!!

Rack of Lamb with Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Roasted Asparagus and Quinoa Tabbouleh

Rack of Lamb Ingredients:

1 half (or full) rack of lamb
8-10 leaves of fresh mint chopped
1 tsp of minced garlic
2 small branches fresh rosemary… remove and mince the leaves.
3-4 TB olive oil
1 tsp sea salt

The rack of lamb needs to be “frenched”. Basically exposing the bones on each rib. You can have the butcher do this. I purchased one that was already done. I then marinated the lamb. I mix the chopped mint, rosemary, garlic, salt and olive oil together with a fork, and then cover the entire half rack of lamb with it. (Most of it on the “fattier” side that is left up. I then put it in a bowl, cover with foil, and put in the fridge for 4 hours.

When done marinating, heat up the cast iron grill pan. (Or grill) Salt the grill pan with sea salt. When hot, place the entire rack fatty side down onto the grill pan to sear. After 6 minutes, flip, and put into the oven and broil for 10 minutes with fatty side up. Take out of the oven , wrap in foil and let sit for 5 minutes. After, remove from foil and cut apart each separate rib. Most people leave it here because people like it on the “rare” side of medium. Since I don’t, I like it on the well side of medium, I put the cast iron pan back onto the stove top, heated it up and seared each side of the meat of each individual lab pieces. About 1 min per side. Then… served!! DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fingerling Potatoes:

Toss the potatoes in olive oil, sea salt, and rosemary and roast in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes. DONE! 🙂

Asparagus

Roast in oven w/a light amount of olive oil, and salt. 12 min at 350.

Tabbouleh: This I threw in because I discovered a fresh cucumber in my garden!! I figured, lamb, asparagus… why not stick with the Mediterranean vibe and make this!! The recipe here is from a previous post: https://dancinandcookininthekitchen.com/2014/06/02/quinoa-tabbouleh/

Easy Peppered Pork Loin

Posted on June 2, 2014 by rebeccacain23

EASY Peppered Pork Loin (with carrots and onions) with homemade honey wheat rolls and rosemary potato wedges

Ok. So, this will be REALLY easy, especially if you have a Trader Joes nearby.

Step 1: Purchase Trader Joes peppered pork loin.

Step 2: put in crock pot.

Step 3: add peeled and cut (into about 2-3 inch pieces) carrots and add to crock pot

Step 4: add 1/2 onion chopped into large pieces.

Step 5: add 1 cup of water, and pour over top, and add salt & pepper

Step 6: cook on low in crock pot for 6-8 hours (4 hours on high)

That’s IT for the pork!

Potato wedges:

5 potatoes
Olive oil
Salt (I use pink Himalayan salt grinder from TJ)
Garlic powder
fresh rosemary

Wash and scrub potatoes, and then dry. Slice potatoes in half, and then wedges, as thick as you’d like, just try to make sure they are all relatively the same size. Line a cookie sheet or pan with tin foil ( I LOVE the new non-stick tin foil… just sayin’)

preheat oven to 425 degrees
in a glass bowl, toss the potato wedges with 2-3 turns of olive oil, salt, pepper, and FRESH rosemary (it smells AMAZING!).

Spread over the tin-foil covered pan and bake for 15 min. Then, take tongs, or a spatula and turn them over, and bake for another 15-25 minutes (depending on thickness of wedges) until tender.
DONE! Not bad huh?

Oh… now for the rolls. I followed this recipe to the T, so here it is: (IT’S SOOO EASY!
30-minute honey wheat rolls recipe: http://www.ihearteating.com/2013/07/29/30-minute-honey-wheat-rolls/

They are perfect…. and delicious. All 12 were gone in 2 days! YUM!

There’s that!

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Dancin' and Cookin' in the Kitchen!

Cooking with whole and healthy ingredients while dancing with my kids in my kitchen!

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