Tag Archives: side dish

Spinach Empanadas

Posted on by Run DMT
13

PhotobucketThree weeks after my wisdom teeth extraction and I’m still on a forced soft foods diet and probably will be for another three weeks since my steenky holes are slow to heal and still pretty sensitive. *sigh*

Besides losing weight, another upside to my soft diet is that it’s forcing Iron Chef Allan and me to think beyond our family favorite menu staples.  During the process, we’ve dusted off some long forgotten cookbooks to find new dishes to try.  This Williams-Sonoma Spinach Empanada recipe was found in one of those dusty old cookbooks, The Best of Taste.  While rediscovering this cookbook, I found a few more recipes I’d like to sink my teeth gums into and if they’re tasty, you’ll find them here on Fridays for my weekly Friday Food Fight.

Although the recipe calls for pastry dough, I opted to use the empanada dough found in the freezer section of my supermarket.

Oh and see those yummy crispy edges?  Um yeah, about that…I couldn’t eat that part but the dough and filling was yummy for my gummy!

Spinach Empanadas

Ingredients

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, finely chopped

1 Tbsp garlic, finely chopped

2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced

½ lb spinach, chopped

¼ cup pine nuts

1 hard-boiled egg, peeled and chopped

½ tsp ground nutmeg

Salt

Fresh ground pepper

1 package of frozen empanada dough (10 count)

Directions

In skillet, heat olive oil over a medium heat.  Cook onion until soft, stirring often.  Add garlic and cook for about 1 minute.

Add tomatoes and cook until softened, about five minutes.

Add pine nuts and spinach.

Cook until spinach wilts, about five minutes.  Remove from heat.  Stir in chopped egg and nutmeg. Salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 350.

Spray baking sheet lightly with cooking spray.  Using a slotted spoon, add 1 Tbsp of filling to each round.

Lay on flat surface and fold dough in half.  Pinch edges with fork prongs to seal.

Carefully move filled empanada to baking sheet and brush with olive oil.  Then, repeat steps with remaining empanada rounds.

Bake for 25 minutes or until slightly golden brown on edges.

Serve plain, with side of aioli or a dash of Tabasco hot sauce. (I served mine with a cup of homemade tomato soup, but I’ll tell you all about that next week.)
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Thanks for joining our weekly Friday Food Fight! Can’t wait to see what everyone is flinging this week!


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Sesame Noodles for Chinese New Year

Posted on by Run DMT
22

PhotobucketGung Hay Fat Choy!

It’s Chinese New Year!  The year of the Dragon!

We started our Chinese New Year festivities with a potluck play date at the park with our friends.  Everyone brought a Chinese entrée to share and everything so delicious.  We had dumplings, doughnuts, a variety of noodles, fried rice, orange chicken and of course fortune cookies.

Emmalynn insisted on wearing her Mulan costume for the occasion.

The kids decorated dragon masks and made lanterns, which Allana loved almost as much as the dumplings.

For the potluck portion of the program, I brought Sesame Noodles to share.  This dish is so simple and tasty served either warm or cold as a side dish or a main entrée.

The Rachel Ray recipe I use calls for angel hair pasta but I prefer spaghetti for this dish, so I sent hubby to the store to buy the ingredients for me.  He returned with spaghetti rigata.  Um…ok! At least it wasn’t linguini!  Actually, hubby’s mistake worked perfectly because spaghetti rigata noodles are square and resemble lo mein noodles.  (This is where Iron Chef Allan would chime in to tell me that was his intention all along.)

 

Sesame Noodles

(Adapted from Classic Rachel Ray 30-Minute Meals)

Ingredients

1 pound capellini (angle hair) or spaghetti rigatta

¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce

2 Tbsp tahini

2 Tbsp toasted sesame seed oil

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 inch gingerroot, peeled and grated or ½ tsp ground ginger

3 scallions, chopped

1 large carrot, grated

Toasted sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Crushed red pepper flakes for garnish (optional)

Directions

Bring a large stock pot of salted water to a rolling boil and then add pasta.  Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine soy sauce, tahini, sesame oil, cayenne, garlic and ginger.  Whisk until smooth.

Drain pasta and immediately chill in a large bowl of ice water to blanch pasta and prevent further cooking.

Drain and dump chilled pasta into bowl with sauce and combine until noodles are evenly coated.  Add veggies and toss to combine.

Serve in soup bowls garnished with some extra sliced greens of scallions, sesame seeds and a little crushed red pepper.

Thanks for joining our weekly Friday Food Fight.  Link up and see what everyone else is flinging this week.  



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Apron’s Perfect Panko Chicken with Hummus and Zesty Honey Carrots

Posted on by Run DMT
10

PhotobucketEvery Sunday, my family and I time our trips to the supermarket just right.  We always manage to arrive at Publix during the Apron’s recipe demonstrations and we snack while we shop.

Although I always dive right in to taste each week’s dish, Iron Chef Allan usually turns his nose up at the food.  That was until I raved about Apron’s Perfect Panko Chicken with Hummus.  After some gentle prodding to try it, Allan tasted his first Apron’s recipe and he was pretty impressed with the perfect panko chicken.

Later that week, I prepared my own version of the Perfect Panko Chicken.  Rather than an egg wash, hummus binded the panko breading to the chicken breast.  However, I used a generous helping of my own homemade hummus instead of the store bought brand suggested in the Apron’s recipe.  I then followed the steps accordingly, but omitted the rice because I thought couscous would complement the chicken better.

A lightly breaded panko chicken breast served on generous pile of couscous with a drizzle of cilantro-lime hummus and some Zesty Honey Carrots on the side.

It really was perfection.

Run DMT’s  Slightly Modified Version of Apron’s Perfect Panko Chicken with Hummus

Ingredients

Juice of 2 limes
3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
4 chicken cutlets (about 1 lb)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup of hummus
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon water

Directions

Pound chicken breasts until ¼ thick.  Season chicken with salt and pepper. Generously coat both sides of chicken with hummus (about 1 tablespoon for each cutlet).  Drench the cutlets and do not remove excess hummus.  Dip chicken into panko, coating both sides.

Preheat canola oil in large sauté pan on medium heat.  Then add chicken and cook for 4 minutes each side or until 165°F.

Combine remaining 1/2 cup hummus with cilantro, lime juice, and water.  Drizzle sauce over chicken. Serve on a bed of couscous or rice.

 

Zesty Honey Carrots

Ingredients

1 (16-oz) bag dip chip cut carrots
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions

Place carrots in microwave-safe dish and cover; microwave on HIGH 4–5 minutes or until tender. Drain any water in dish.

Whisk together in medium bowl, honey, chili powder, salt, and pepper until blended. Stir carrots into sauce. Serve.

 

Now link up and see what If I Could Escape and Gone Bananas are serving for this week’s Friday Food Fight.

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Now Serving Spanish Rice

Posted on by Run DMT
8

The chicken dish I wanted to share this week didn’t come out quite the way I hoped.  The Pollo Relleno recipe needs some tweaking before I throw it into the Friday Food fight arena.  Hopefully, it will be tastier and more photogenic next week when I try my second attempt at it.

Though my chicken dish didn’t quite pass the taste test, the Spanish rice that I prepared to accompany the chicken came out perfectly.  This was my first attempt at making Spanish rice from scratch and I couldn’t believe how easy it was!  I grew up eating piles of Rice A Roni Spanish rice, but Iron Chef Allan never even heard of the rice or its brand name counterpart.  Wiith one bite, he was a Spanish rice lover.

Run DMT’s Spanish Rice (adapted from The Joy of Cooking)

Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil

½ cup chopped Spanish onion

½ cup chopped bell pepper

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup of organic Basmati rice

1 ¾ cups organic free range chicken stock

1 cup Pomi chopped tomatoes

½ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a Dutch oven skillet over a medium heat, sauté onions, garlic and bell pepper in olive oil until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add rice and stir until well coated.  Then, add broth, tomatoes and spices and bring to a boil.  Stir once, cover and transfer to oven.  Bake for about 25 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.

Uncover and let stand 5 minutes before serving.
 
Now link up and see what If I Could Escape and Gone Bananas are serving for this week’s Friday Food Fight.



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