This is a hearty one-dish dinner that I dreamed up on a cool and rainy fall evening.  The blend of flavors is wonderful, without being too overpowering.  For a lighter version, try using light soup and brown rice.  You are going to love this dish!

Cheddar-Bacon-Ranch Chicken & Rice Bake

1 1/2 cups uncooked rice (white or brown)
1 10.5-ounce can of condensed cream of chicken soup
1 can of water
1 can of milk
1 1-ounce packet of ranch seasoning mix
1 medium green bell pepper, diced
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
4 medium-sized chicken breasts
2 cups cheddar cheese
6-8 slices of bacon, cut into 1″ pieces

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a 9×13 inch baking dish, combine the rice, the soup, the water, the milk, the ranch seasoning, and the diced peppers.  Stir until well combined.  Place the chicken breasts on top of the rice mixture.  Cover the dish with tin foil and wrap tightly.

Bake for 45 minutes.  In the meantime, lightly brown the bacon pieces over medium heat in a small frying pan.  When you remove the chicken and rice from the oven, check the chicken to make sure it is cooked through (I like to use a meat thermometer for this).  Then, sprinkle with the shredded cheese and the browned bacon pieces.  Return to the oven for about 5-7 minutes so that the cheese melts and bubbles.  Serve hot.  Yield 4-6 servings

Trying to stay healthy but still love the ease and convenience of a nice, hearty crock-pot dinner? Have I got the recipe for you! This is a rustic, hearty, and flavorful meal that slow cooks to perfection but does not include any of those creamy condensed soups that have a tendency to pack a lot of calories and fat. This is also an extremely versatile recipe – your chicken can be almost any cut, even a whole chicken would work. And as for the veggies? Whatever you have on hand can be thrown on in there – we used onions and potatoes this time, but carrots, celery, even green beans would be delicious.

Healthy Crock Pot Chicken

2-3 medium potatoes, quartered
2-3 small red onions, quartered
Carrots and celery would be good, too, but we didn’t have any on hand
2 cups water
1 chicken bouillon cube/packet (sodium-free)
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dried parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
2 bone-in chicken breasts (boneless will work, too, but bone-in = more flavor!)

Place the potato and onion wedges in the bottom of your crock pot. Cover with water. Stir in bouillon, poultry seasoning, Worcestershire, parsley, and salt and pepper. Place the chicken breasts on top. Season the meat with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Remove the bones before serving (the meat will be so tender that it should fall right off). Serve the chicken and veggies over cooked brown rice or whole-grain pasta, if desired. Pour some broth over the top for extra flavor.

So, you know me, dear readers. I can’t just stop at making salsa out of my tomatillos. I had to incorporate them into a fabulous new dish! I kept reading about green chilaquiles – basically glorified nachos with chicken and tomatillo salsa. I decided to go for it, even though my husband is not a huge fan of chips or nachos.

He ate three bowl-fuls of this stuff!

This dish was delicious! The toasty cheese compliments the tangy salsa perfectly, all atop deliciously moist chicken and crunchy tortilla chips. This one is a keeper!!!

Green Chilaquiles

3-4 big handfuls tortilla chips
1 cup salsa de tomatillo (see recipe above)
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 cups shredded monterrey jack cheese
Cilantro, for garnish

Preheat your oven to broil, and grease a 9×9-inch baking dish. Lay a generous bed of tortilla chips across the bottom of the prepared dish. Spread an even layer of chicken over the top of the chips. Drizzle the salsa de tomatillo evenly across the chicken and sprinkle with the cheese.

Broil for 2-3 minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Garnish with cilantro and serve immediately.

During the summer here in Georgia, there are days that are so swelteringly hot that you are loathe to turn on any heat-generating appliance in the house. Today was one of those days.

So what do you do for dinner on a day like this? Make a nice, hearty, cold salad like this one!!

Chicken and Rice Salad
my mom’s friend Sue

2 6-ounce boxes long grain wild rice (recommended: Uncle Ben’s)
3 ½ cups cooked chicken, torn into bite-sized bits
4.5 ounces ripe black olives drained and chopped
½ cup chopped green onion w/ tops
½ cup pecans chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
salt and pepper
1 ½ cup mayo (add gradually)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Cook rice according to the directions, but omitting any seasoning packet that might come with the box. Toss all ingredients together except for the mayo and parsley, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the mayo gradually, using only as much as needed to suit your tastes. Chill until ready to serve. Garnish with parsley. Serve with iceburg lettuce cups to make tasty wraps!

I have to admit to you, dear readers, that there was a time when I was intimidated by the task of baking chicken. It seems so simple – put it in the oven until it’s done, right?

But how do you know when your chicken is cooked through? Until the inside isn’t pink? Until the juices run clear?

But was the inside pink to begin with? And did the juices ever NOT run clear?

I just couldn’t figure it out. I either ended up with chicken that I was too scared to eat, or chicken that was too tough to eat!

Well, the best purchase I ever made was the $1.99 meat thermometer that I bought at the supermarket one day. Stick it in your chicken breasts when you think they are close to being done, and see if it registers 180 degrees. If so, then you’re good to go! Juicy, tender chicken that is safe to eat.

So shell out the extra two bucks for a meat thermometer and try out this amazingly tasty chicken. Crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside – you are going to love this stuff!

Crispy Baked Chicken
inspired by Pioneer Woman

4 chicken breasts, cleaned
1 cup fat free Greek style yogurt (or any plain yogurt)
1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs (crushed cornflakes do the trick, as well)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons your favorite seasoning blend (Mrs. Dash, herbes de provence, cajun, whatev)
Salt and pepper to taste
4 thin tabs of butter

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9×13 inch baking dish and set aside.

You can start by either marinating or simply coating your chicken in the plain yogurt. Either way works fine. In a shallow dish, combine the panko breadcrumbs with the garlic, seasoning blend, and salt and pepper. Completely coat each piece of chicken with the bread crumb mixture, and place in the baking dish, about 1 inch apart. Top each chicken breast with a thin tab of butter.

Cover with foil and bake for 50-60 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and your meat thermometer registers 180 degrees when inserted into the center of the meat. Serve immediately.

Here is an amazingly flavorful chicken recipe from my friend Ashley. We loved the freshness of the basil with the sweet sundried tomato and the tang of the creamy goat cheese. This is the perfect upscale weeknight dinner!

Pesto and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken
adapted from a recipe by Ashley of HauteCakes

4 chicken breasts, pounded to about 1/4-inch thin
1/2 cup sundried tomato pesto (you can buy this at the grocery store or make your own)
1 large clove of garlic, minced
7-8 large fresh basil leaves
about 2 ounces of goat cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a blender or food processor, blend the pesto, basil leaves, garlic, and goat cheese, just until combined. Spread the mixture over each chicken breast, and roll it up, securing with toothpicks. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Bake, uncovered, for about 45-60 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Remove the toothpicks and serve hot with your favorite veggies.

A healthy dinner for a spring weeknight with fresh herbs from the garden. The marinade makes this chicken extra tender. The blend of fresh herbs makes it irresistible!

Paul Newman’s dressing has been a favorite marinade in my family for a long time – it is great on chicken, pork, and especially london broil. The blend of herbs adds an earthy fragrance, and compliments the tender, juicy chicken perfectly.

Herb Roasted Chicken Breasts
2 fresh split chicken breasts (w/ bone and skin)
1 sprig rosemary, leaves removed
3 stems of thyme, leaves removed
1 handful flat italian parsley
4-5 sage leaves
1/4 cup balsamic vinaigrette (recommended: Newman’s Own)
3 tablespoons olive oil

Clean the chicken breasts and place them in a large ziplock bag.

In a blender or small food processor, measure all the rest of the ingredients. Blend on high speed for about one minute, until herbs are chopped fine and liquid is emulsified. Pour the marinade into the bag with the chicken, schmooshing it around until the chicken is completely coated. (And yes, schmooshing is the technical term.) Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to overnight.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the chicken and the marinade in a greased baking dish and cover with foil. Bake for about 1 hour, until a meat thermometer inserted into the meat registers 180 degrees. Serve immediately with your favorite veggies and sides.

This meal was the unplanned love-child of a rushed trip to the grocery store and a night of cleaning out the fridge. When I asked the hubs what we should call it, he said something like “Good Garden Pasta Surprise.” I said, “Um, no.”

Garden Pesto Tortellini
1 package of refrigerated cheese-filled tortellini
12-15 spears of asparagus, washed and cut into 1″ pieces
2 big handfuls of fresh spinach, roughly chopped
1/3 cup sundried tomatoes, sliced and reconstituted in water (soak for 10 min.)
1 cup fresh basil pesto (buy pre-made or click here for recipe to make your own)
1 1/2 to 2 cups cooked chicken, torn into bite-sized pieces (optional ~ for vegetarians)

In a large pot of boiling water, cook tortellini according to package instructions. When they have about 3 minutes left to boil, throw the asparagus, spinach, and tomatoes into the water with the tortellini. Drain and return to pot. Add the pesto and the chicken, tossing to coat.

Serve immediately with toasty garlic bread. Or chill thoroughly and serve as a fresh tortellini salad!

“Vish ish awshoum!”

These are the words that came out of my husband’s mouth tonight as he ate his slice of pizza.

Have I mentioned that my husband hates pizza?

Well, my husband – he hates pizza. He has been known to call pizza “the torture food.” As in, “Honey, why don’t we order pizza tonight?” – “Oh great, the torture food.”

(For those keeping score, America’s Next Top Model is known as “the torture show.”)

After he swallowed, he declared, more clearly, “I eat my words.” I have succeeded in rehabilitating my husband from his post-college pizza-hangover, to the point where he actually likes pizza.

(I wonder if I’ll be able to get him to say the same thing about ANTM one day?)

I made this recipe tonight in an attempt to re-create a dish that I used to enjoy when I was a college student in Washington, DC. On lovely spring afternoons, like the ones we’ve been enjoying lately here in North Georgia, my friends and I would walk over to a little Italian restaurant in our neighborhood, and this pizza is the dish I would order almost every single time. It is a combination of five of my favorite foods: pizza, goat cheese, chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, and spinach.

Paolo’s Pizza

1 lb. raw pizza dough
3/4 cup tomato pizza sauce
8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese (part skim makes it less greasy)
1/4 cup sliced sun-dried tomatoes, reconstituted in water for 10 minutes
2 ounces goat cheese (chevre), chilled
1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken (I recommend rotisserie chicken)
1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (or a mixture of dried basil and oregano)
2 large handfuls of baby spinach, roughly chopped

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Grease a large rectangular or round baking sheet or pizza pan. Roll out the pizza dough to desired thickness and place it on the prepared baking sheet. Spread the pizza sauce over the dough, leaving the edges as a crust. Arrange the shredded mozzarella evenly over the sauce.

Next, sprinkle the sun-dried tomatoes over the cheese. Then drop the goat cheese in tiny globs evenly across the pizza. Spread the chicken over the top, and sprinkle the italian seasoning evenly over the crust.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the spinach on top. Return to the oven for another 3-5 minutes. Slice and serve immediately.

Just the smell of fresh basil makes me weak in the knees. Luckily, ti’s not a treat reserved only for summertime in our house. For my birthday a couple years ago, my sweet hubby got my an AeroGarden. This thing is amazing – we grow enough basil to have pesto about every other week! I’m planning on doing a more detailed post about this nifty gadget, but for now, here is my pesto recipe.

Classic pesto is simply a blend of basil leaves, cheese, nuts, garlic, and olive oil. It goes well with creamy cheeses on toasted crostini or crackers. It also goes extremely well with fish and chicken dishes (think grilled chicken or smoked salmon).

Our favorite, though, is to toss some farfalle (bow-tie) noodles with the pesto, topped with chunks of smokey grilled chicken.

Fresh Basil Pesto
recipe from our dear family friends Judy and Joe

1 cup fresh basil leaves, packed
1/4 cup parmigiano reggiano cheese, grated
3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts or walnuts
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4-1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Measure all your ingredients except for the olive oil into your food processor. I like to use my mini-processor for making pesto:

Pulse several times to chop the leaves and nuts into the other ingredients. Then slowly stream the olive oil in while you process the pesto on medium speed. Add just enough olive oil to reach your desired consistency (tip: make your pesto thicker for a spread, thinner for a sauce). Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Yield about 1 cup of pesto. Serve as desired (with cheese and crackers, tossed with pasta, as a glaze for roasted veggies, etc.).

Refrigerate and use yourfresh pesto withon 2-3 days OR freeze individual portions in an ice cube tray to use at your leisure!