Pass The Sushi!

This week was awe­some! We are almost done remod­el­ing our bath­room on a dime. The tiles been laid, the sink spray painted (yes, that’s right), the walls painted, new toi­let installed (that accord­ing to my boyfriend ‘could sink the titanic’), & towel rack hung. All that’s left is another coat of paint on the two easy walls and trim. It looks so nice! And I think I am happy with a pos­si­ble color pal­let for the rest of the house! Plus a cus­tomer of mine is a paint prod­uct tester and since Hand­some is a con­trac­tor we may get hooked up with some paint! Rock out. I am super happy that there is progress being made on his house. Sends out good vibes in the house and it needs all the good vibes it can get.

On top of it being a pro­gres­sive week, my two new din­ner choices were super easy. One was deli­cious and I will tweak and make again and again the other one fell of the train to fla­vor­town a few miles before the exit ramp.

South­ern Stuffed Rose­mary Chicken adapted from Myrecipes.com (the orig­i­nal recipe was dou­ble this but that would have gone bad long before two of us fin­ished off the leftovers)

• 1  (6-oz.) pack­ages corn­bread stuff­ing mix
• 1  large egg, lightly beaten
• 4  skinned and boned chicken breasts
• 1/4  cup  olive oil, divided
• 1  table­spoon  chopped fresh rosemary
• 1  tea­spoon  salt
• 1/2  tea­spoon  pepper
• 1/4  cup  grated Parme­san cheese
• 1  (8-oz.) pack­age sliced fresh mushrooms
• 4  green onions, sliced
• 1  (10 3/4-oz.) can reduced-fat cream of chicken soup
• 1  cup  chicken broth
• Gar­nish: fresh rose­mary sprigs

1. Pre­pare stuff­ing mix accord­ing to pack­age direc­tions, and let cool. Stir in egg.

2. But­ter­fly chicken breasts by mak­ing a length­wise cut in 1 side, cut­ting to but not through the oppo­site side; unfold. Spoon stuff­ing mix­ture evenly down cen­ter of one side of each but­ter­flied chicken breast; fold oppo­site side over stuff­ing, and place in a lightly greased bak­ing dish. Pack any left­over stuff­ing in around the chicken. Stir together 3 Tbsp. olive oil and chopped rose­mary; brush evenly over chicken. Sprin­kle chicken evenly with salt, pep­per, and Parme­san cheese.

3. Bake chicken, uncov­ered, at 400° for 20 min­utes or until done.

4. Sauté mush­rooms and onions in remain­ing 1 Tbsp. oil in a large skil­let over medium-high heat 5 min­utes or until ten­der; stir in soup and chicken broth. Reduce heat, and sim­mer, stir­ring often, 5 min­utes or until thor­oughly heated. Spoon mush­room mix­ture evenly over chicken; gar­nish, if desired.

This recipe would be great with a cran­berry sausage stuff­ing as well — which is my plan for the next time I make it. Its super dence and has a tone of carbs in the stuff­ing so I served it with a spinach salad but I think some­thing else to share the gravy and make friends with the stuff­ing would be awe­some. I’d feel carb guilty later, but awe­some.
My only real prob­lem with this recipe is it didn’t have an over­whelm­ing rose­mary fla­vor or aroma so I’m not really sure with rose­mary is in the title. Its there, and its nice, but not enough to be noteworthy.

Next up was a fail.

Mex­i­cali Ham­burger Casse­role from bhg.com

1–1/2 lb. lean ground beef

1 15-oz. can Mexican-style diced tomatoes

1–1/2 cups frozen whole ker­nel corn, thawed

1/2 cup plus 2 table­spoons finely shred­ded Mex­i­can cheese blend, divided

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup yel­low cornmeal

1 Tbsp. sugar

1–1/4 tsp. bak­ing powder

1 egg, beaten

2/3 cup milk

2 Tbsp. cook­ing oil

1 Recipe Fresh Tomato Toss, (see recipe)

1. Pre­heat oven to 350 degrees F. In 12-inch skil­let cook and brown beef; drain off fat. Stir in undrained toma­toes and 1 cup of the corn; heat through. Trans­fer to greased 2-quart bak­ing dish. Sprin­kle with 1/2 cup of cheese.

2. For corn bread top­ping, in medium bowl com­bine flour, corn­meal, sugar, bak­ing pow­der, and 1/2 tea­spoon salt. Stir in egg, milk, and oil. Evenly spread on beef mix­ture. Sprin­kle remain­ing 2 table­spoons cheese. Bake, uncov­ered, 30 min­utes or until top­ping is set. Let stand 5 minutes.

3. Fresh Tomato Toss: In bowl stir together 1 cup red grape toma­toes, halved, 1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro, remain­ing 1/2 cup corn, and if desired, 1/3 cup green olives, halved; spoon over serv­ings. Serves 6.

Even after adding taco sea­son­ing to the meat, extra cumin, pinto beans and about a cup of taco sauce I still felt this recipe lacked fla­vor and depth. It was kinda of just blah. Sure there was meat and Mex­i­can themed thingys but man, a nice crunchy taco with dis­tinc­tive fla­vor and tex­ture would have one upped this any day of the week. My boyfriend didn’t mind it, but he said it didn’t com­pare to what I nor­mally bring to the table.