Chicken Pesto Pasta

New Cooking Blog

Things have finally slowed down enough for me to get back on here and do a little updating/rearranging.  I've decided to break my blog into two separate blogs.  This one will be redesigned a little bit later and it will be primarily scrapbooking and other crafty sort of things.  The other one I got started a few days ago, but I've been playing with it to try getting it set up the way I wanted.  It's call the Man-Approved Diet, and as you can guess, it's my cooking blog.  You can find it at http://manapproveddiet.blogspot.com/.  I think splitting the two blogs will help me be a little better organized, and make it easier for you to follow what content you would like.  Well, happy scrapping and cooking!

Travel Pages

Here's a mini book that I've been working on the past few months covering some of our travels in the past few years.  Most of them are from Europe and I still have a few more pages to add to it, but I thought I'd try making up for the lack of posts lately.



Taking a break

I know I haven't been on here in a while.  It's been insanity around here, I'm wrapping up my bachelor's, getting going with Pampered Chef plus getting ready to move from Germany to Texas.  We've also been traveling quite a bit, so I might get a few scrapbooking pages up here and there.  After we get settled in our new house I have a couple little projects in mind for my blog, so stay tuned for some fun changes in the next month or two.

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Chili

I know I posted this a couple months ago, but it's so good that I thought I'd share it again :-)  This was my husband's bowl, there's a little cheese, some tortilla chips strips (they're supposed to be for salads, but they worked well with this) and a bit of sour cream.

Ingredients

 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

2 cans no salt added stewed tomatoes

1 can chili beans, undrained

1 can green chili peppers, undrained

6 ounces frozen corn

1 packet taco seasoning

1 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon chili powder

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts with visible fat removed

Directions

Combine all of the ingredients except the chicken in a crock pot. Lay the chicken breasts on top and cook for six to eight hours on high. If it looks a little dry add a small can of tomato sauce. About 30 minutes before serving, take out the chicken and cut or shred into small pieces.

Nutritional Info


Servings Per Recipe: 6

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 300.0

Total Fat: 2.6 g

Cholesterol: 53.3 mg

Sodium: 1,520.1 mg

Total Carbs: 47.9 g

Dietary Fiber: 10.9 g

Protein: 29.4 g

Broccoli Bacon Quiche

For dinner tonight I decided we were going to have breakfast.  I had some eggs and bacon I wanted to use, so I started playing to see what I could come up with.  The picture above is really a double batch of it, but only because I didn't realize there were two dozen eggs in the fridge.  I didn't mention it in the recipe below, but I also added about two teaspoons (for the double batch) chili powder and two teaspoons of smokey applewood bbq rub to spice it up a little bit and make it a little more dinner-ish instead of breakfast-ish.  Since I did double it, I just baked it in the skillet I used to cook the bacon and added a couple minutes to the cooking time.

Ingredients:

4 strips of bacon, diced
5 ounces frozen broccoli
3-5 cloves of garlic, minced
8 cherry tomatoes, chopped
4 large eggs
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat the oven to 400.
Cook the bacon in a frying pan, add the broccoli and garlic and cook until tender.
In a bowl, combine all of the ingredients. Pour into two ramekins or a small baking dish. Bake for 25 minutes or until a knife put in the middle comes out clean.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 2
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 234.1

• Total Fat: 11.6 g
• Cholesterol: 378.8 mg
• Sodium: 467.3 mg
• Total Carbs: 10.5 g
• Dietary Fiber: 3.1 g
• Protein: 19.2 g

Another Baby Page

I love this adorable little boy, I can't wait until I have one of my own.  Until then, I'm going to keep doing pages of Chris.  This is another page I'm entering in the My Memories weekly challenge.

Check Point Charlie Page

Here's a page I did of pictures from Check Point Charlie in Berlin.

Steak and Potato Pizza



The best thing about summer is being able to use the grill so the kitchen doesn't get too warm.  And I love that I can make pizza on the grill now.  This is a pizza recipe inspired by one that I had many years ago.  I hope you like it!

Ingredients

12" premade pizza crust
6 ounces chopped bison steak
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 medium potato thinly sliced
1/2 cup BBQ sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Saute the steak and onion together in a pan. Add potatoes and cook until they are tender (time will depend on how thick they are).
Spread the BBQ sauce evenly over the crust, cover with the potatoes and steak and top with the cheese.
Etiher cook in a 425 oven for about 15 minutes or cook on the grill until cheese is golden.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 4
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 250.0

• Total Fat: 6.9 g
• Cholesterol: 41.4 mg
• Sodium: 727.4 mg
• Total Carbs: 26.3 g
• Dietary Fiber: 1.1 g
• Protein: 18.8 g

Berlin Sealife

I'm finally getting around to scrapbooking the pages from our trip to Berlin.  I'm so glad that we had the opportunity to go up there with such great friends, especially since they have the most adorable little boy. 



A German New Year's Eve

My husband and I bought the traditional German outfits for Oktoberfest in Munich.  Sometimes we'll just randomly put them on when we have parties going on.  Of course, we wound up putting them on for New Year's Eve this year.  For this page I used the Bollywood kit from LouCee Creations on My Memories. 

Green Smoothies

So the girls at the gym got me started on these green smoothies for breakfast.  I know the idea of a green smoothie for something other than St. Patrick's Day is a little weird, but hear me out.  They are actually really good (the hubby even asked for one) and you knock out a couple servings of fruits and veggies, some dairy and get in a good amount of protein.  Plus it's great for being on the go! 
There's a ton of recipes on the internet, but here's the one that came up with.  You don't have to use the frozen fruit or protein powder, but I think it gives it a nice frothy texure.  Just make sure you check your teeth before any big meetings, sometimes the spinch can get caught in your teeth.

Ingredients

1 container greek yogurt with honey

1/2 scoop of vanilla protein powder

1/2 cup frozen mango chunks

2 clementines, peeled and seeds removed

1 cup fresh spinach

Directions

Put everything in a blender and blend until smooth.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 1
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 313.9

• Total Fat: 0.6 g
• Cholesterol: 25.0 mg
• Sodium: 145.7 mg
• Total Carbs: 59.1 g
• Dietary Fiber: 5.2 g
• Protein: 21.9 g
  

Simple Steak Stir Fry

I know I still haven't gotten the pages up from our trip to Berlin, I've been having some technical difficulties.  Unfortunately our internet here is really slow, so it took quite a while to get the kit I really wanted to use to download.  Finally get it downloaded and now I'm having some problems getting the pictures from my husband's computer to mine.  I might be able to get a couple up later tonight, if not I should definitely have something tomorrow night.

In the meantime, I have finally gotten back into the cooking thing.  Tonight's dinner is a crazy simple stir fry that could easily be modified to whatever your family happens to like.  The picture didn't come out as pretty as it could have, but that's because I had to keep it on the stove for quite awhile waiting for the hubby to get home from work (don't I sound like June Cleaver or something!)

Steak and Veggie Stir Fry

Ingredients

3/4 pound of steak, cut into bite sized pieces (you can buy precut stir fry meat to make it quicker and easier)
1 medium onion, chopped
1-3 cloves of garlic, minced (depending on taste)
1 or 2 bell peppers, chopped (color is up to you)
1 10 ounce package of frozen broccoli
1/2 cup soy sauce, preferrably lite
1/4 cup red wine
1 tablespoon corn starch

In a large saute pan cook the steak, onion and garlic together until the meat is throughly cooked. Add the peppers and broccoli (or whatever other vegetables you like) and cook for three minutes or until the peppers start getting tender.
Whisk the corn starch into the soy sauce and and in the wine. Pour into the saute pan and allow it to start bubbling. Turn down the heat, cover and let it cook for five to ten minutes or until the sauce has thickened.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 4
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 203.9

• Total Fat: 3.7 g
• Cholesterol: 48.5 mg
• Sodium: 1,209.8 mg
• Total Carbs: 15.5 g
• Dietary Fiber: 3.5 g
• Protein: 24.7 g

Ich im Berliner

Our neighbors had planned a trip to Berlin for our four day weekend.  They were kind enough to let us tag along with them.  We really only have one day up here, and a few hours after the drive up as well as a few more before the drive home.  We've been able to see some really amazing things.  Stay tuned for the scrapbooked pages!

Pampered Chef Party Pages

My husband took a ton of pictures at my Pampered Chef Party the other day.  We really had a great time and I'm glad he captured it.  Especially the pictures he got of Chris, I liked them enough to go ahead and make a whole group of pages just of them. Some of them will be used in the weekly My Memories challenge, I'm supposed to use a template (feels like cheating) and I get bonus points for using templates or kits from Albums to Remember.

Couple More Random Pages

Just a couple more pages that I did today to keep me busy.

Couple of New Pages and a Recipe

I stumbled upon the folder of pictures from our courthouse ceremony and mini honeymoon, so I thought I should probably do something with them. 

This one I just was having fun with.  I wanted to make another page for the My Memories challenge (create a page using A Saxon Creation kits).  I had the My Colorful Flourishes kit and thought it would be great for the playful nature of our pictures from the Children's Museum in Indianapolis.  Plus it gave me a chance to try making a rainbow colored wordart, it was a little tricky, but I managed it.

For dinner tonight we have some uncooked turkey ranch cheddar burgers left over from the party on Saturday.  Since it was kind of cold and rainy outside today, we didn't feel like grilling.  Instead I cooked them into a pasta dish.

Ingredients

8 ounces uncooked macaroni pasta

1 pound ground turkey

1 cup cheddar cheese

1 packet ranch dressing mix

2 cups frozen peas

8 slices of bacon, cut into one inch pieces

1 can non fat evaporated milk

1 1/2 tablespoons corn starch

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon chili powder

Directions

Make the pasta according to the directions.
Combine the ground turkey, cheese, ranch mix, bacon and peas in a large skillet. Cook until the meat is no longer pink.
While that is cooking, whisk the corn starch, garlic, onion and chili powders into the evaporated milk.
Stir the seasoned milk into the meat mixture and let boil for a few minutes, or until thickened. After the noodles are cooked and drained, mix into the meat mixture.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 6
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 434.3

• Total Fat: 12.9 g
• Cholesterol: 79.2 mg
• Sodium: 541.1 mg
• Total Carbs: 46.2 g
• Dietary Fiber: 4.0 g
• Protein: 35.2 g

Sinless Raspberry Triffle

I had a great time with my friends today at my Pampered Chef party.  Not many people showed up, but it did give me a chance to try out a bunch of new recipes.  And like nearly every party I have, there was a triffle.  I tried to make this one as low calorie as possible because some of the people who were supposed to come are on diets. 

The bottom is a layer of angel food cake, just baked in a 9"x13" cake pan and cut into bite size pieces.  The best thing to do is make the cake up a day or two beforehand.  I discovered with the last one I made that using warm cake pieces doesn't work too well.  It still tasted good, but it wound up sinking in as the cake cooled.

The next layer is cool whip with a big box of sugar free raspberry jello mix stirred in. I used extra creamy because that's what I had in the house, but the sugar free version would cut out a few more calories.  Word of advice, don't mix it up the night before, it gets kind of putty-like.  I was concerned that it wasn't going to be sweet enough, but it turned out tasting like cotton candy. 

The layer after that is sugar free cheesecake flavored jello made with 2% milk.  I don't like skim milk and it doesn't always work so well for cooking, so I don't normally have it in the house.  Usually I have 1%, but the commissary was out of it (oh, the joys of living overseas sometimes :-P ). 

That gets topped off with some raspberries.  You could use fresh ones, but this time of year they are usually crazy expensive.  So instead I thawed out two bags of frozen ones and let them sit in a strainer while I got all the rest of the ingredients together.  Next time I might use three bags, but it wasn't bad with two.

Then just repeat the layers one more time and top with a couple of pieces of the angel food cake.  I usually wind up with a good amount of cake left over, so this is a good use for them.  The leftover pieces are also great if you have any kids over.

After you add each layer (except for the cake), you might want to clean up the edges with a paper towel to keep the layers looking pretty.  It's just for looks, but it is a nice touch.

I really like making triffles for parties because you can use just about any combination of ingredients to make them fit a theme or season.  Plus if you tweak just a few things you can make them fit into any diet.  And because they turn out looking very pretty, everyone thinks you spent a ton of time on them when in reality it only takes about ten minutes to assemble them.

Tasty little bites

I'm getting ready for my party tomorrow and tried out a couple new recipes for it.  Both come from Pampered Chef's Season's Best for spring/summer 2012.  I changed up one of them to make it *slightly* better for you. 

First up is the Bourbon Pecan Tarlets:

Ingredients:

1 cup pecan halves, divided

1/4 cup bourbon (one of the airplane bottles)

1 package (15 ounce) refrigerated pie crusts (two crusts)

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 light corn syrup

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 egg

Preheat the oven to 375. Set aside 24 pecans, finely chop the rest of them.  Mix them with the bourbon and let it sit. 

Roll out the pie crust and cut 12 three inch circles from each crust.  Press them into a greased mini muffin pan and try to make the edges pretty (I failed on this part).  

Mix the brown sugar, corn syrup, butter and vanilla in a glass bowl.  Microwave for about a minute, stirring every 15 seconds, or until everything is melted together.  Add the chocolate and stir until melted, then add the egg and pecan/bourbon mixture until it's well combined. 

Fill each of the pie cups with about a tablespoon of the mixture and bake for 11-13 minutes.

Press a half pecan into each one.  Let them cool on a cooling rack.

Next up is a Bacon, Jalapeno, Pepper Pizza Bite (in the book they are called Jalapeno Popper Pizzas, but I like my name better).  I changed up the ingredients a little bit (adding more bacon and leaving off the extra cheese).  I also changed up the directions a little bit.

Ingredients:

1 package refrigerated pizza crust (11 ounce)

8 slices of bacon

1 small red pepper, finely diced

2 jalapeno peppers, finely diced (with or without seeds, depending on how hot you like it)

4 ounces softened cream cheese

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 425. 

Leave the pizza crust rolled up and slice into circle (ish) shapes.  Baked for about 10 minutes.

Put the bacon on a towel lined plate and microwave for about three minutes.  Let it cool a couple minutes, then chop into small pieces.  Put in a pan with the diced peppers and jalapenos, saute for three or four minutes. 

Place the cheddar cheese, cream cheese and bacon/pepper mixture in a bowl, mix until well combined.

Using a tablespoon, press a slight depression into the pizza crust rounds and fill them with a tablespoon of the mixture. 

Bake for another three or four minutes.  Move onto them onto a cooling rack.  Let them cool a little bit before eating them