Sun Dried Tomato and Chicken Pasta

This was a product of "Oh heck- what am I going to make for dinner tonight?" Been there, haven't you? It turned out really tasty, so I decided to share. Feel free to improvise with whatever you may have in your pantry.

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
Sun dried tomatoes (packed in olive oil) about 1/2 cup
1 can of ripe olives
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup of Parmesan Cheese
Spaghetti noodles
Olive oil
Seasonings- I used the new Garlic Pepper from Tastefully Simple in this and it was very good!

Placed diced chicken into a pan coated with a bit of olive oil. Saute until cooked through. Add sun dried tomatoes (undrained). Drain ripe olives and mushrooms. Add to pan with chicken and sun dried tomatoes. Add can of (undrained) regular tomatoes and Parmesan cheese. Add seasonings (garlic, salt, pepper...etc-) to taste. Simmer on stove top for about 10 minutes and serve over pasta.

Pineapple Chipotle Tilapia

Oh my goodness...this was fantastic if I do say so myself. It's a spin on "Tilapia in Ten" posted previously with a Caribbean twist using Tastefully Simple Pineapple Chipotle Salsa. Super easy, very low cal...what more can you ask for?

Tilapia Fillets
Tastefully Simple Pineapple Chipotle Salsa
Olive Oil

Place a bit of the olive oil in a pan with a lid. Bring heat up, insert fish fillets. Cook for about 4-5 minutes on one side, turn. Add about 3/4 of a cup of Pineapple Chipotle Salsa. Place lid on and poach until fish is flaky and cooked through (about 5 more minutes.) Serve with Basmati rice and black beans.

I think a meatier fish like Mahi Mahi or Doro would also be yummy- and you could always do black beans and yellow rice with it as well- Vigo has an excellent pre-packaged product that is ready in 30 minutes- you just add it to boiling water with a bit of olive oil.

Interested in learning more about Tastefully Simple products? Visit my website: www.tastefullysimple.com/cferguson1 Currently I am doing a "mystery host" party so you may even win some free product!

Roasted Red Pepper Chicken

This was the "chicken experiment" of the night- and it turned out really nice. I'm not a big fan of peppers, actually I hate the green ones. I can tolerate the red and yellow ones and kind of like roasted red peppers. Peppers are so good for you with vitamin A, C fiber and even a bit of protein. They are very low in calories, no fat. When I was putting this dish together I envisioned it to be thicker, but the happy accident of a thinner sauce was a bonus.

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts- "de-gicked"
1/2 block (4oz) of light cream cheese
about 3 fire roasted red peppers (I used the jar kind "Del Destino" from Costco)
1/2 C parmesean cheese
Salt
Pepper
Granulated Garlic

In your Cuisinart, place the red peppers and zip them up. Add the cream cheese and parmesean cheese and blend until smooth. Add spices, and give it another whirl or two to blend.

Take your chicken breasts and pound out a bit. Spoon about 1 Tbs of red pepper mixture into the chicken, roll. Place filled chicken breasts in a 9 x 11 Pyrex dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Cover with remaining sauce and bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes or until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches >170 degrees.

Serve over spaghetti noodles with the chicken breast in the middle, covered with sauce and a bit of parsley to make it look pretty. Don't forget your green veggie- we had steamed broccoli tonight and the sauce was excellent on the broccoli as well.

St. Patrick's Day Dinner

Gotta do the Corned Beef and Cabbage on the 17th...you just gotta! This was super fun, easy and thanks to my friend Shelly a great display of teamwork in the kitchen. Here's the rundown of what you need:

1 Pre-packaged brisket of Corned Beef

Carrots

Potatoes (I prefer the baby red ones)

Green Cabbage

Horseradish

Vinegar

Seasonings (Shelly suggests caraway, fennel seed...we made do with the spice blends I had from Penzey's)

When I searched for recipes on how to cook corned beef, they all suggested boiling it. That made me raise my eyebrows, but trust me..it's the traditional way and it turned out very nice.

Take your corned beef brisket and a big dutch oven and cover it with water. Add any spice packs that may have come with the corned beef to the water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and let it go on low for the rest of the day. I cooked mine "low and slow" for about 5 hours. Remove the brisket from the water and wrap in aluminum foil to rest.

Take the residual flavorful corned beef water and get the funky gicky stuff out of it. Place in another pan that you can use your steamer basket in. Cut the cabbage into wedges and remove the core. Add preferred spices- seasoned salt, pepper, caraway seed, fennel seed, etc to the cabbage. I boiled the peeled carrots and not peeled potatoes in a separate pot with corned beef water.

The key is cutting the corned beef on a bias. You have to be patient and cut it thin. I give kudos to Shelly for an excellent slicing job. It was so tender! Serve with horseradish, spicy mustard and vinegar for the cabbage if you so desire.

Spinach and Herb Pork Tenderloin

Second Verse....Same as the First....

Ok, so I did a similar thing with a Pork Tenderloin that I did in the style of the chicken I posted last...and it was SO tasty!!! Here it is:

1 Pork Tenderloin
Tastefully Simple Spinach and Herb Dip
Parmesan Cheese
Olive Oil
Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt

Get a gallon size Ziploc, put the pork tenderloin in it add about 4 TBS of olive oil, 2 TBS of the Spinach and Herb dip, a tsp of Seasoned salt and 1/4 C of Parmesan cheese. Squish to coat. Place in a Pyrex dish (sprayed with non-stick spray) and bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees or until internal temperature reaches 150-165 degrees F.

YUM! Easy! Healthy (if you use the trim cut)... oh, and if you need any Tastefully Simple stuff, let me know!

Spinach and Herb Chicken

I had a Tastefully Simple party last week and came up with a home run recipe (according to all who tasted it) for chicken. It started with a recipe from their website, but I, of course made my own modifications and it turned out wonderful and it was super easy. If you don't have these Tastefully Simple items, you can substitute for something similar you may have or you can always call me (or check out the website: www.tastefullysimple.com/web/cferguson1 ) to order ;-)

Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
2 TBS of Tastefully Simple Spinach and Herb Dip Mix
2 TBS of Tastefully Simple Onion Onion Dip Mix
Seasoned Salt
1/2 C Olive Oil (about)
1/2 C Parmesan Cheese (about)

Place ingredients in a gallon size zip top bag. Shake to combine. Add chicken and massage in the mixture to coat. Place in a 9x13 Pyrex dish and bake at 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until internal temperature reaches >175.

SUPER Easy....SUPER Tasty!!

New Year's Day Dinner

Are you superstitious? I am. My Dad says it's the "Gypsy Blood" I inherited from the Czechoslovakian side of the family. I also married a baseball player, so we don't open umbrellas inside, avoid breaking mirrors at all costs, and have the Christmas Decorations down before New Year's Day here at the Ferguson household.

The tradition of serving a special meal for New Year's day is said to help promote prosperity and money in the coming year. The greens, peas and copper penny salad all represent money, and serving pork is said to be good luck and will help move you forward since the Pig roots forward. If you eat Chicken or Lobster, which scratch or move backward it could bring bad fortune. We had traditional New Year's dinner with herb crusted pork tenderloin, hop n john, greens, copper penny salad, and cornbread. Shelly brought the pork, so I'll have to get the recipe from her to share later. Everything else is very easy and once you get it going you just leave it cook all day.

The black-eyed peas and collard greens are pretty similar to get started. Brown a bit of salt pork in the bottom of a big pot along with some onion and garlic. Once browned, add the greens to the pot with about 2 cups of water, salt and pepper. Do the same with the peas. I used frozen this time. Then just cook the greens and peas all day, stirring occasionally and adding water as needed. I cooked mine for about 4 1/2 hours.

The copper penny salad is something my Gramma used to make- so it's a memory dish for me. Peel 2 pounds of carrots and slice. Boil the "pennies" until tender. In a blender place 1 can of tomato soup, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of Olive oil, 1/2 cup of vinegar, 1/4 of an onion, 1 Tbs of Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 tsp dry mustard, salt, pepper and granulated garlic. The true recipe also calls for diced green peppers, but I HATE green peppers so I leave them out. Blend dressing and pour over cooked carrots. Stir to coat and leave in the refrigerator overnight to marinate.

Here's wishing everyone a healthy, prosperous New Year!