Chicken with Artichokes and Olives in a Bread Bowl – One of My Favorite Recipes From my Mom

Tags

Artichoke Hearts, bread bowl, Chicken, marsala garlic, Olives, white wine, wine reduction

My mom wasn’t known for her cooking skills, but she had a few recipes that I just loved! Unfortunately, I lost her recipe that inspired this dish, but I faked it and it turned out wonderfully! This is basically chicken in a white wine reduction sauce that is place in a hollowed out bread bowl. The bread soaks up the sauce and is so delicious! You eat the chicken and tear apart the bread and have a piece with your dinner. Yummm!!!! This is a visually beautiful dish and fun to eat. It’s perfect for impressing your dinner guests!

This is a recipe you could play with. You may have your own saucy meat dish that would be good served in the bread bowl. Give it a try! In this picture, you might be able to see that I actually didn’t have a bread bowl, but I used sliced French bread. I had some bread on hand that had gotten a tiny bit stale and was starting to harden. It was perfect for this dish! The sauce soaking into the bread softened it right up and gave it a delicious flavor.

Chicken With Artichokes and Olives in a Bread Bowl

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts

2 tbsp olive oil

1 cup white wine (I only had Marsala wine on hand, so I used that, but you could use your favorite white wine for cooking)

2 cups chicken broth

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1/2 box of frozen artichoke hearts

1 – 4 oz can black olive slices, drained

2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed

Salt and pepper

1 large or 2 small sourdough rounds, cut off the top and hollow out or several slices of French or sourdough bread

Pour olive oil in a skillet and heat over medium high heat. Once pan is hot, place chicken in pan. Season with salt and pepper. Brown the meat on each side about 4-5 minutes each. Reduce the heat under your pan to medium and remove chicken from pan and place on an oven-safe plate, it can still be pink in the middle. Place chicken in a 275 degree oven to keep warm while you deglaze your pan. Pour wine and chicken broth in pan and stir to remove chicken bits from the bottom of the pan. Whisk in Dijon mustard, add artichoke hearts, olives and garlic and stir. Simmer sauce and allow to reduce. This should take about 30 minutes. Add chicken back to pan and continue to simmer and spoon sauce over chicken, so it can take on some of that wonderful flavor. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook chicken another 10 minutes or so. Place your bread in an oven-safe baking pan. Transfer chicken into baking pan in the bread bowl or over bread slices and then pour sauce and all contents of your skillet over the bread, trying to cover equally so all parts of the bread will soak up sauce. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. Ensure your chicken is cooked through, but don’t burn your bread.

Enjoy!

Baked Rotini in Tomato Sauce with Artichoke Hearts – An Easy, Hearty Pasta Dinner

Tags

Artichoke Hearts, Baked, casserole, Olives, pasta, Rotini, tomato sauce

I have to admit that pasta dishes are some of my favorites. They are so delicious and statisfyng, but if you work it right they can be pretty easy to make. This is one such dish! There is not too much chopping or prep work to do, but the reward is a dish with great flavor and a variety of textures. It’s so pretty too! Definitely good enough to to serve guests and it would be easy to double and make a large batch.

Tip: I love artichoke hearts!!! They are a great ingredient to add flavor without adding a lot of fat and calories. The type of artichoke hearts you use matters though! The jarred version are usually packed in oil, so these are not the best low-fat choice. The canned version are usually packed in water, so they are low-fat, but I have found the texture of these to be rather tough and woody. In my humble opinion, frozen artichoke hearts are the way to go!!! They still have that wonderful soft, rich texture that you get from fresh cooked artichokes, but they are not packed in oil, so you get the flavor and texture without the added fat or work of cooking and breaking down fresh artichokes.

Baked Rotini in Tomato Sauce with Artichoke Hearts

1 pound Italian seasoned ground turkey

1/2 white onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 box of frozen artichoke hearts, rinsed, thawed and chopped

1 can sliced black olives

1/3 cup red wine

1 –  32 oz can crushed tomatoes in puree

2 tbsp chopped fresh basil

1 tsp dried oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

16 oz rotini pasta, boiled for 8 minutes

1 cup motzarella cheese, shredded

1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put your pasta on to boil and while this is cooking put your ground turkey in a skillet to brown. When meat is almost cooked through, add your onions and bell peppers and continue to cook until meat is cooked and vegetables have softened. In a large pot or bowl, combine pasta, meat with veggies and all othe ingredients except Parmesan cheese. Stir well to mix. Spray a baking pan with non stick pray and transfer pasta/meat mixture to that pan. Top with Parmesan cheese and bake for 30 minutes.

Voila! You have a beautful and delicious dinner on your hands!

Enjoy!

Warm Greek Quinoa Salad – Going Meat-free Tonight and Loving it!

Tags

Artichoke Hearts, Bulgar, Cooking, Food, Goat Cheese, kalamata olives, quinoa, recipe, vegan, vegetarian

 

Once again, I had a major learning experience in the kitchen. In dreaming up this recipe, I thought I would buy some good goat cheese rather than the feta in a plastic bowl that I usually buy. I’m here to tell you Feta Cheese does NOT = Goat Cheese. This fabulous ingredient is just one in the symphony that made this dish sing! This was a vegetarian dish that was bursting with flavor! We ate it warm, but it would be great served chilled as well. The expected Greek flavors of kalamata olives and goat cheese, were complimented by artichoke hearts and fresh, organic spring onions. The quinoa/bulgar mix made it a hearty dish that was very satisfying.

Tip: If you’re looking to cut fat and calories, canned artichoke hearts are a great ingredient! These canned hearts are usually packed in water. Their counterparts in glass jars are usually packed in oil. Of course, if you’re cooking your own artichokes you can totally control the fat content! 

You can easily adapt this into a vegan dish by leaving off the cheese. It would still taste great, but the cheese definitely adds  great flavor!

Warm Quinoa Salad

8.8 oz of quinoa or bulgar/quinoa mix

4 oz cherry tomatoes, halved

1 can artichoke hearts, quartered

2 spring onions, sliced

5 oz kalamata olives, sliced

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 tbsp Garlic olive oil

1/2 tsp Garlic powder

Salt and pepper

2 oz goat cheese, crumbled (See tip below)

Fill a large sauce pan with water and bring to a boil. Add quinoa or bulgar mix, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes. Half way through the cook time, sauté next 5 ingredients in garlic olive oil over medium heat. When quinoa is doing cooking, drain in a sieve and then add o sautéed vegetables. Season with garlic powder, salt and pepper and stir well. Scoop up servings on plates and sprinkle with crumbled goat cheese.

Tip: I found the goat cheese to be very soft and sticky, so it was difficult to crumble. I put the cheese in the freezer for a few minutes and it hardened enough so that it crumbled much easier. Only put it in the freezer for a FEW minutes though! It hardens up very fast.

Enjoy!

Lemon/Artichoke Chicken and Rice With Asparagus – Easy One Pot Meal

Tags

Artichoke Hearts, Asparagus, Chicken, Cooking, Easy, Food, healthy, one pot meal, recipe, Rice

  
I do love to cook, but some nights I’m just not in the mood. I still want something tasty and healthy to eat though. Last night was one of those nights. I just didn’t feel up to spending a lot of time standing in front of the stove or doing much of anything. I was feeling lazy, OK?!?

Here’s where a one pot meal in my handy Dutch oven comes in! It was too late to use the slow cooker, so I decided to throw a bunch of yummy stuff in my Dutch oven and slide it in the oven.

Lemon Artichoke Chicken with Rice and Asparagus

1 ¾ cup brown rice

1 cup fat free chicken broth

¾ cup white wine

¼ cup lemon juice (fresh or bottled)

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts

2 garlic cloves, pressed or chopped

1 – 15 oz can quartered artichoke hearts

1 tbsp capers

¾ – 1 pound asparagus, cut into bite size pieces (I had white asparagus on hand, so I used that. It tasted great and my family didn’t realize the veggie was even in the dish. However, it didn’t provide much color to the dish, making it look rather one note. If you’re not trying to be sneaky about your veggies, green asparagus would add some nice color to the dish)

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put rice and all liquid in put first and give a stir making sure all rice is covered in the liquid. Next, add all of your other ingredients. Put the lid on the oven, put the pan in the oven, bake for 1 hour 15 minutes and voila! I did pull it out of the oven and stirred it a few times.

You’ve got your protein, starch and veggie all in one pot! Enjoy!