Zucchini Bread

I have already posted the recipe for this bread here, but here are some pictures to prove how DELISH this is. Give it a try. It has zucchini so ... it's pretty healthy, right?

Everything you need is here...almost.

Mix it up, wham bam ... and there ya go!

But, if you decide to add in some extra goodness (and believe me, it's a good decision) you'll get what we have here below:

TRY IT!!!!

Tuscan Chicken Breasts with Glazed sweet carrots and red potatoes

A great, hot dinner that's easy to prepare. Enjoy!

Tuscan Chicken Breasts

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup yellow and red pepper (I only had green, but I'm sure the others would be great!)
1 T olive oil
1 T minced garlic
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used 2, but there was LOTS of extra sauce, it was yummy)
1 can Italian diced tomatoes, drained (I used one large fresh tomato, chopped)
2/3 cup chicken broth
1 T balsamic vinegar
3/4 t salt
1/4 t sugar
1/8 t red pepper flakes
1/8 t pepper
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
hot cooked pasta

Directions:
Saute onion and peppers in oil 4-5 minutes until crisp tender. Stir in garlic; cook 1/2 minutes longer until vegetables are tender.
Flatten chicken, place over vegetables. Add tomatoes, broth, vinegar, salt, sugar, pepper flakes and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until chicken juices run clear and sauce is thickened. Serve with pasta. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Serves 4.

***Notes: If you REALLY don't like soft vegetables, I would take out the green peppers and onions while you let the chicken simmer. They were pretty soft when we ate them, but with all of the flavors, I didn't mind them being soft. It tasted great!

Glazed Sweet Carrots (The recipe I have for this is really for sweet potatoes, so use either!)

Ingredients:
3 large sweet potatoes (1/2 pound baby carrots, cut thin)
2 T butter
1 T maple syrup (Agave nectar syrup or honey works also)
1/4 t mustard powder
1/8 t cayenne pepper
1/8 t cinnamon
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash the sweet potatoes and place on a baking tray. Do not prick or oil the potatoes. Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until just cooked, being careful not to over cook them. Cool.

Peel the cooled potatoes and cut them into medium sized cubes.

In a large saute pan, heat the butter and remaining ingredients together to form a light caramel. Add the potato cubes (sliced carrots) to the pan and brown together. Season with salt and pepper, and serve with a drizzle of the sauce.

***Notes: I didn't have any mustard powder, so I used regular mustard...a little hesitantly and it tasted great. I couldn't taste the mustard at all, I think it just evened out the sweetness of everything else.


Red potatoes (Recipe from my sister)

Ingredients:
Red potatoes (I used 7-8) sliced thinly
Olive oil (to drizzle)
Rosemary
Italian Seasoning

Directions:
Clean and slice the potatoes. Place in a deep, glass baking dish. Drizzle tops of potatoes with olive oil lightly. Stir potatoes around to distribute oil.

Sprinkle rosemary and Italian Seasoning over potatoes lightly and stir again to distribute seasonings.

Place in 350 degree oven for approximately 45 minutes. Mine were nice and soft in about 45 minutes, but I just kept checking them and cutting into an edge piece with a fork to check to see how tender they were. These were GREAT with this chicken.

TWO NEW ONES

Hey everyone!

If you're reading this ... bless your heart. It's been WAY too long since we posted a recipe. But, here we are ... TWO in ONE day! I know, it's amazing.

Enjoy and let us know how they turn out for you.

Love,
The Cooking Sisters

Chicken Tenders with Dipping Sauce

This recipe is from a friend at church. She is an AMAZING cook and has been doing some cooking classes at night for the rest of us ladies. This was an especially great one of hers that I tried.

These chicken tenders are SO good and MUCH better for you than the fried ones you get at the fast food places. Seriously, they taste just as good. So...give this one a shot.

Recipe:

1/3 cup flour
1 large egg, slightly beaten
salt and pepper
4 cups Rice Cereal
2 T vegetable oil (or EVOO)
1 1/2 pounds chicken tenders (I just had breasts, so I cut them into strips)
1/2 cup sour cream
2 T Dijon mustard (I just used regular)
1 T honey

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450. Place flour in a shallow bowl, and egg in a second bowl: season with salt and pepper. Pulse cereal and oil in a food processor (or blender) until fine crumbs form. (Don't take off the lid even if just for a second to look at it. Yes, I did this because I was using my smoothie maker and for some reason I didn't think it would shoot little sticky crumbs ALL OVER my kitchen. Um...it did.) Season with salt and pepper; transfer to a third shallow bowl.

Coat chicken; first in flour; shaking of excess; then with egg, letting excess drip off; and finally in cereal mixture, pressing to help it adhere. Place on a baking sheet, and bake until light golden brown and cooked through, 10-15 minutes, turning over halfway through.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together sour cream, mustard and honey; season with salt and pepper. Serve tenders with creamy honey mustard dipping sauce.




We ate them with baked potatoes and salad, but I think they'd be really good with homemade potato fries also. :)

Zucchini Pasta

***This recipe was originally a BIG recipe. I made it for about 2-3 people so it's scaled down a bit. :)

I got this recipe from this website the other day. I had a friend that gave me a bunch of delicious zucchini from her garden, so I had to find SOMETHING to do with it besides make a ton of zucchini bread.

On to the pasta. It's delicious! I didn't make it exactly like The Pioneer Woman did because I didn't have everything on hand at my house and this was a quick "whip it up" lunch. So...you get what you get. :)

Recipe:

1/2 LARGE zuchinni (equal to one regular sized zuchinni) not peeled, but chopped coarsely
Grape or cherry tomatoes (I didn't have any of these and so I sliced up carrots and put them in)
Olive oil
Chicken broth
Pasta (she used farfalle, I used penne)
Cream (I had none...so I used sour cream, surprisingly ... it worked)
Parmesan Cheese
Corn Starch

Directions:

Heat 2 T Olive Oil in a skillet, and then add the zucchini until it's slightly browned. DON'T cook it for very long, mushy vegetables are gross. Plus, it cooks more later.

Remove the zucchini from the pan. Add in chopped onion (1/4 onion or so) and 1 clove garlic.
Put in the tomatoes (or carrots) and heat.

Pour in 1/3 cup chicken broth. Scrape the bottom of the pan and get it all mixed in.

In another bowl, stir together 1/3 cup chicken broth and 1 T Corn Starch.

Stir this mixture into the vegetables and add about 3 T sour cream.

Stir to combine. Add the zucchini back in and turn off the heat and just let the flavors combine.

Stir this mixture together with your cooked pasta and enjoy!

My only warning is that this has LOT of vegetables in it. So, if your little digestive system isn't used to vege. overload ... maybe eat this with some bread or something to tone it down a bit. :)