Cheesey Cauliflower Cakes & Baked Chicken Tenders

Yes it's time for another confession- I do not like cauliflower. Now I've tried roasting it and that was marginally better...but really I need something drenching it with cheesy goodness to make it even slightly edible.

I will say this was ALMOST as good as mashed potatoes drenched in butter,made with real cream.  And with the sour cream it was not just edible- it was good.

Cheesy Cauliflower Cakes

• head of cauliflower
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese 
• salt
• chili powder or hot sauce to taste
• 2 eggs (Don't skimp I did and used 1 and they fell apart)
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• oil (olive oil is my preferred)

Boil the cauliflower until soft- about 10-15 minutes. Drain and while still warm mash.  Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix together.

Heat oil in a large sauce pain/skillet. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup scoop out and drop into the oil.  Press flat and let cook until brown- then flip and cook the other side.  Really these are best warm- place into the oven to keep warm while you finish up cooking the rest.
We served them with a dollop of sour cream.

What would I change? I'd use a stronger cheese- shredded marble though delicious didn't add much flavor to this. Really I'd do anything I would with mashed potatoes- next time I think I'll try a parmesan/asiago with roasted garlic.

 

Baked Chicken Tenders

This was an easy recipe and really turned out well.  Baked not fried so much healthier.

• 2-3chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup bisquick 
• 1 egg
• paprika 
• salt and pepper
• garlic

Preheat oven to 450F. Slice the breasts length wise so they are even in thickness.  Whisk the egg with a couple tbsp's water and on another plate mix the rest of the ingredients.  Pretty simple dip into egg- roll in the mixture and place on your baking sheet.  You could place on a grate or one of those fancy silicone nubby matts that I'm currently lusting after.

These dipped fabulous into the Aioli I posted the other day.

Brussel Sprouts even I'll eat-Roasted BS with Garlic Aioli

I admit- I have been scarred by childhood memories of Brussel sprouts. But I've been eying them up and decided to try them again.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts & Homemade Garlic Aioli

So far roasting has made many veggies I'd written off edible and almost even enjoyable so Roasting we go.

• 20 brussel sprouts (approx 1lb) 
• 1tbsp olive oil
• salt
• pepper

 Nothing exciting about this prep- quarter the Brussel sprouts, drizzle (or toss) the olive oil dash of salt and pepper.  Place on a baking sheet and into the oven at 400F for about 15 minutes.  I take them out 1/2 way through and move them around to get more even cooking.

Garlic Aioli:
While the above is roasting prep the aioli.

• 6 tbsp Mayo
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1tsp Parsley
• 1 clove garlic

Mix (I used my immersion blender) and serve with the sprouts.  This turned out incredibly delicious! 

Parmesan & Panko Chicken

This paired up nicely with the above.

• 3-4 chicken breasts
• 3tsp mayo
• 3 tbsp parmesan
• 3 tbsp Panko bread crumbs

Pound the breasts  so they are evenly thick. Place on non stick baking sheet, spread the mayo over the top, then the parmesan and finish with the bread crumbs.  Cook at 400F for about 15 minutes or until done.

Steak sauce, Crushed Potatoes and Baked Asparagus fries

Yup tonight was a big one 3 newish ideas. I'm going to list them in the order I made them.

Crushed Potatoes

This is a Pioneer Woman inspired recipe.

• Potatoes- small red choose same number as you would if you were baking potatoes for the meal.  For us that meant 3-4 medium size potatoes. 
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• Rosemary or some other favorite herb
• Parmesan cheese (optional)

preheat oven 450F

Get your big pot out and boil the potatoes until they are firm but a fork can go through.  Place them onto a  non stick pan that you've lightly brushed with olive oil.  Don't cheat- don't use spray stuff.  Use the good stuff TRUST ME! Use your potato masher (or anything hard and flat ish) and squash that potato until it's sorta flat.

Brush with olive oil, sprinkle generously with salt (Really no go add some more trust me you'll thank me after), pepper, your rosemary. I tossed some parmesan on because well I love my cheese.
Place in the oven top rack for 20-25minutes.

Baked Asparagus 

• Asparagus- 1/2 to a whole bunch of it
• bread crumbs (I used a blend of panko and Italian)
• seasoning (As I used Italian breadcrumbs this step wasn't necessary!)
• Parmesan (Optional)
• 1 egg

This is an easy peasy way to bake asparagus. Tip them so you have just the good parts (I personally use the bend them and they snap at the right spot method).  Mix your egg and a couple tbsp water. Mix your bread crumbs on another plate. Now I don't own grated Parmesan so I sprinkled my shaved Parmesan over top of them at the end.  If you have grated mix it on in with the bread crumbs. Dip in the egg mixture, roll in the bread crumbs place on your non stick pan. (and if your some lucky gal who a rack-use a rack over your pan to get them even crispier). 

Bake at 425 for 10 -15 minutes until crispy brown.  (Note since I had my potatoes in already I lowered the temp on the oven to 425F when I put these in and it took just 10 minutes.

Restaurant 'ish' style steak with sherry sauce

• Steaks- the thicker the better
• Soya sauce 
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Spice (I use montreal steak spice personally- but for sure salt and pepper)
• Butter (Not margarine!)
• Sherry or Red cooking wine.
• flour

I've been won over to cooking steaks this style- so easy and if the oven is on gives really nice taste.  My steaks marinated  (while defrosting) in  the Soya Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce and montreal steak spice mixture.  In a cast iron pan (That can be placed in the oven) put a couple tablespoons of butter, a bit of salt and sear the steaks 2minutes on each side.  Spoon the butter back over the steaks and place into the oven at 425F. Leave in the oven for 6-7 minutes (gives me a medium well done steak when about 1" thick).

Remove from the oven and place the steaks aside to rest.  In the pan pour a 1/2 cup sherry/wine, a couple tablespoons flour and heat over low and whisk until thickened. Remove from heat. Spoon sauce over the steak.



Now I must say- I impressed myself with the fact I was able to time all this.  I got the potatoes into the oven.  The steaks had marinated while defrosting.  I prepped the asparagus and had it ready to place into the oven. I put them and the steaks into the oven at the same time.  And that lined up just about right time to remove the potatoes!


This meal turned out great. My kids all had seconds of the potatoes and fought over the last steak.  If there was more asparagus (We only had 1/2 a bunch to use) they would have had more of those too. I was hoping this would be lunch left overs for me tomorrow I thought wrong.

I have a confession.....

I have a confession to make- cooking for me is a huge deal. I spent 10 years in a marriage being told I wasn't a good cook. I was married to a self declared 'foodie' who was a very good baker and a pretty damn good cook.  By far better then me.  I got no encouragement and often was discouraged if I tried to make anything 'new'.  Toss in being a young mom, two kids and a husband who worked night shift- I did not 'cook'.  I mean don't get me wrong-my kids ate, I ate. But it was more snacky.  Often we ate at my parents house, and meals we didn't were often premade, or easy to make- heated up veggies, a chicken breast some pasta etc. At one point I even was buying meals from a 'personal' chef. M&M meat shops was my friend. On the whole I became very good at "preheat oven and insert for x minutes"

I never tried new recipes.  I was afraid to.  It never added good thing to the marriage when I tried and kids never go "well mommy how about a new recipe tomorrow for supper?"

The end of my marriage brought a lot of ups and downs.  I worked long hours between my business and teaching in the evenings.  My parents fed us-a lot. I started to think about cooking more.  Kids lunches became more adventurous. Over the last year I've gotten more brave and worked on supper and new recipes.  Today really I felt like I can look in the pantry and fridge find a few things and make a decent meal.  I don't cook daily.  I try to make a good meal at least 1-2 times a week.  The rest is left overs and back to snacky foods and yeah-my parents still feed us a lot.  I don't know how I'd make it through some weeks with out them helping out like they do. I'm a full time student and work several evenings a week. Cooking is not something we can do every day. But I've gone from a girl who was worried and scared to try to enjoying it a lot.

Baked Eggplant Parmesan

This turned out really delicious.  I've made it once before with a different recipe and wasn't won over to the idea of eggplant but this recipe did it for me.

2 eggplants
2 eggs
1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs*
2-3 tbsp Parmesan
1 cup Shredded Mozzarella
1 can tomato based pasta sauce

*if you don't have Italian breadcrumbs mix in some herbs of your choice 

Yes I'm missing an eggplant in the photo two would have made this way better!

Preheat oven to 375F.
Peel and slice the eggplant.  In a flat bowl whisk the eggs and a couple tbsp water. On a plate spread some bread crumbs and mix in the Parmesan.  Take your slices of eggplant and drench in the egg, then roll through the bread crumbs.  Place slices on a non stick cookie sheet and into the oven.  Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the eggplant and bake another 10-12 minutes until soft through.

Remove from oven spread one layer on bottom of a baking dish (9x13) pour 1/2 the tomato sauce and 1/2 the mozzarella cheese.  Repeat another layer Eggplant, sauce, mozzarella. Place back into oven and bake until sauce is bubbling and cheese is melted.

I choose a tomato sauce with spinach and cheese in it.  Sneaking more good greens into me and the kids. I paired this up with a steak for supper but word on the street is that it's delicious with roasted potatoes as well which would be oh so easy to roast along side while making this!

Kids liked it so much they took left overs to school for lunch- leaving me with none.
Calories per serving (8 servings) 185!