Monday, April 20, 2009

Make a Meal Monday x's 2!

I have a couple recipe's that I've tried in the last week that I wanted to share. I got both out of a Women's Day magazine.

The first is Chicken Sorrento...



The recipe calls for a bag of frozen stir fry vegetable blend but I didn't have that on hand so I used frozen broccoli and some fresh carrots and celery instead. I thought it turned out really good!

INGREDIENTS
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 5 oz each)
1⁄4 tsp salt
1⁄8 tsp pepper
2 tsp olive oil
1 bottle (8 oz) creamy Italian dressing
1 bag (16 oz) frozen stir-fry vegetable blend

PREPARATION
1. Sprinkle chicken with the salt and pepper.

2. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 2 minutes on each side, or until golden.

3. Pour dressing on chicken; turn to coat. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.

4. Add frozen vegetables, cover and cook 5 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are crisp-tender.

I used 6 breasts so I just cooked a little longer. The chicken was so moist and delicious! I fixed corn on the side for those in my family who won't eat the other veggies.

The next one was Sausage and Pepper baked Ziti...



INGREDIENTS
8 oz uncooked ziti rigati pasta
2 tsp oil
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
2 cubanelle peppers, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
12 oz spicy or sweet Italian sausage (4 links)
1 cup part-skim ricotta
11⁄2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella
1⁄4 cup grated Parmesan
1⁄4 cup chopped parsley
2 cups marinara sauce (from a 24- or 26-oz jar)

PREPARATION
1. Heat oven to 400ºF. Cook pasta in a large pot of lightly salted water as package directs for al dente or firm texture.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add peppers, onion and sausage; cook 6 minutes or until sausage is browned. Remove from heat; cut sausage into 1⁄4-in. slices.

3. Mix ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella, 3 Tbsp Parmesan and the parsley in large bowl. Drain pasta; toss with cheese mixture, sausage mixture and 1 cup marinara sauce.

4. Pour pasta mixture into a 2-qt shallow baking dish. Spoon remaining sauce on top; sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan. Bake, uncovered, 20 minutes or until bubbly.

Again, I thought it was really good but I don't think anyone else in my family liked the red peppers. (I don't know what cubanelle peppers are and I couldn't seem to locate any at the store I shopped at, so I just did without.) But they were easy enough to pick out. I think next time I would probably use ground sausage instead because the sausage didn't seem to cook all the way through, which made me nervous to eat, but reheated it cooked the rest of the way and was really good.

So there you go! Hope everyone has a super Monday!

3 comments:

scrappiemom said...

Who's daughter are you, anyway? Those sound so good. Too bad your mother didn't know how to cook.

Jenna said...

Yummy! My kids eat a red bell pepper every day in lunch. They are sweet and crunchy, but I'm not sure if they would like them cooked. Woman's Day has great recipes. Good job!

Hannah said...

oh yum! That looks delish!

I love peppers. I learned to love them a few years ago while on the Atkins diet. I seemed to have peppers in everything I ate. Cubanelles are an Italian bell type pepper. They are a light green and sweet. I'm pretty sure they have them at Fry's.