Whole Wheat Pasta with Goat Cheese and Grilled chicken and veggies

This dish is summer food.  It serves well hot or cold and can be made with for one or for a crowd, making it a great potluck or picnic dish.  It is also perfect for sitting on the patio kicking back with a beverage of your choice. This one is going to become a staple at our house this summer.  I am not including an ingredients list because I think that the exact selection of ingredients and amounts can vary to your choice, access, and based on what purpose this dish will serve. I have made a version of this for just me and The Cowboy and I made the dish described here now for a house church gathering with 15 to 20 lovely people.  It is really versatile and easy and full of delicious things.  Be free to enjoy it whichever way fits your life best.

First marinate your chicken in dry spice rub and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Once you get them nice and rubbed up, set them in the fridge while you prep everything else. This step can be done at least 20 minutes ahead, but could be done several hours ahead for maximum marinating goodness.

Use vegetables of your choice. We used asparagus, red pepper, mushrooms and onion. Wash and cut veggies, keeping as whole as possible for grilling.  Example, I cut the peppers in half and left the mushrooms and asparagus whole.  I used the last third of an onion I had in the fridge and just grilled the whole thing intact. Keeping them whole makes it easier to grill.  Marinate in spices, a touch of olive oil, a generous splash of balsamic vinegar, and a tiny splash of Worcestershire sauce.  I don’t think it matters as much what kind of spice you use, so much as that you use something you like and let the veggies marinate in them a bit.  Additionally, customize your veggies to your own taste and what is available and affordable.  The grocery store had really cheap red pepper, so I included them when originally I hadn’t planned them in this dish.  They were such a good addition, but next time, if they weren’t available, I’d use something different, squash or eggplant or maybe even okra. This summer as I start gathering a harvest from my garden we will use whatever we picked that day. I am pretty pumped about that.

The next step is to peel a whole head of garlic. Yes. Trust me on this.  Make a little aluminum foil boat and put your garlic in there with olive oil, salt, and pepper, a touch of truffle oil and rosemary leaves.  You are going to roast this garlic on the grill while the chicken and veggies cook. With the other mushrooms in this dish, the truffle oil makes a nice accent, but is very optional.  If you have some available, I suggest trying it, if not, I would omit.

Heat up grill to medium high.

Boil salted water for pasta.

Put garlic boat on second shelf and grill chicken on medium-high until fully cooked. That means an internal temperature of 165 degrees food safety lovers.  You are going to leave the garlic on the cooler shelf of the grill during the duration of cooking the chicken and veggies.

Set your garlic boat on the ledge of your grill, or in a cooler spot so that it can slowly roast and not burn.

Grilled marinated mushrooms, I am salivating right now.

Your vegetables really do not require cooking, so what you are looking for is just a little charing while still being quite firm.  I found in this recipe that my asparagus was finished first, then the mushrooms, and finally the red pepper (for which I prefer a little more charring).  I like my veggies to still be pretty crisp but enjoy the smokey grilled flavor.

When you water is boiling add your whole wheat pasta and cook to al dente.  Drain out the cooking water, saving one cup to make sauce. Put the pasta into a large bowl.   Incorporate the soft goat cheese and the pasta water back into the pasta.  It will melt into a creamy light sauce.  Add the zest of a lemon and about half of the juice from that lemon. Add fresh tarragon and bit of ground pepper.

Chop your chicken, veggies, and garlic and add them to the pasta, as well as several generous handfuls of baby arugula.

Serve immediately, or take with you to house church to share with your family on a Friday night :) Whatever you do, enjoy a lovely meal.

Sweet Potato Chicken Nachos



Sweet Potato Chicken Nachos, with tons of crushed garlic adorning the top

This meal idea came to me on evening when I was looking for something that would be a good conduit for crushing raw garlic and getting some super charged vitamin nutrition. (Yes, it is really a blessing that my fiancé proposed to me before I adopted this particular health routine.)  At first I thought I had stumbled upon the next food holy grail, but after some internet research found that others had discovered it first. After I consoled my inner Christopher Columbus, I decided to just be thankful I had discovered such a delicious food at all and made myself another plate. This is definitely a recipe in progress, but it is still worth sharing.  It is easily expanded to feed more people.  I recently shared it with my house church family and it met rave reviews.  However, it is also a super easy and nutritious meal for one, you might want to cut the potato in half and save part, or make the whole dish and have tomorrows lunch already made.

Ingredients: (this recipe serves one very big hungry, or two 20-something ladies)

1 med. Sweet potato, washed
2 left over chicken thighs, or one 6-8oz chicken breast
1 tablespoon canned chipotle and adobo sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon chopped rosemary
1 teaspoon thyme
cheese of preference, cheddar or mozzarella work well
cilantro and chopped green onion to taste
crushed garlic to taste (optional, but delicious!)
salt and pepper

Method:
Pre-nacho making you will want to secure some chicken. Now I have used chicken that I had previously cooked in several instances, and when I made this for my house church I made shredded chicken in my crock pot by layering the chicken in some brisket rub and letting it simmer for 8 hours while I was at work. Rotisserie chicken from the store would also be really good and super easy in this recipe. Just use chicken you like and cut it up in strips or bite sized pieces, and make sure it is hot when you put it on the potatoes. Those are my only suggestions. You have full chicken liberties.

Start by baking or microwaving one sweet potato until it is almost done, but not mushy.  My microwave does that at about 75% of the time I’d use to fully cook a potato in the microwave.  You can also bake them.  I have done both. Baking tends to crisp up the skin, which can make it difficult to slice.  The sweet potato happy place is to cook the potato until it is cooked through but still firm. I find that depending on the size of the potato this may or may be too much for your personal appetite so adjust to what you have and will eat.  Nice part is that this meal reheats well.



While the potatoes are cooking take one chipotle and slice up at least half, but more if you want it spicier.  If you don’t like your food too spicy then just scoop out the adobo sauce. Mix this in a bowl with the olive oil and at least one clove of crushed garlic.  Add in the herbs and a pinch of salt and pepper.  It will be almost a paste.

My Sweet Cowboy preparing sweet potato nachos for house church

When the potato is almost done pre-cooking, carefully cut it into slices that are about a quarter inch thick. Use a technique similar to slicing tomatoes for burgers.  Vertically pierce the skin with the tip of your knife and then cut down horizontally to that you don’t smash the potato.  This technique took my fiancé a little bit of time to master, so don’t feel bad if your first round of nachos are more like potato smashes, they will still taste awesome.  Once you have the potatoes sliced, liberally coat both sides with the chipotle mixture, and heat up your sauté pan. I love these in a cast iron skillet.



 Get your cheese and your herbs ready.  You can do either slices or shredded, so pick your cheese preference and prepare.  For two people, I prefer a quarter cup of loosely chopped cilantro and green onion, but I am a big herb fan, so adjust to your own taste.

Sweet potato nacho slices sizzling away in chipotle garlic olive oil

Once your skillet is hot, add your potatoes. There should be enough oil on them that you do not need to add any to the pan.  You want the temperature to be high enough that they brown, but not high enough that the raw garlic burns.  Medium on a gas stove is good for me, but keep an eye on it. When the bottoms are brown and crispy, turn them over (if using sliced cheese, add now for optimum meltage, if using shredded, wait until they are done.)  When they are browned on the other side, arrange them on your plate, add cheese if you haven’t already. Top with your chicken before adding your cilantro and green onions.  Optionally, if you are trying to ward off a cold, or vampires, crush additional garlic over the top.  (The key really is to crush it, btw.)  I seriously recommend this with a side of black bean and mango salsa.

Mango Flaxseed Bread

Hooray!! It is Mango Flaxseed Bread season!

I have always been a big fan of quick breads.  They are, as stated in the name, quicker than regular bread, and they taste like cake. WIN.  Mango flaxseed bread is a great summer alternative to your autumn pumpkin bread, or whenever you can get mangoes in season where you live.  And the flaxseeds help, at least in my mind, increase the nutritional content of what is essentially a dense cake perfect for breakfast, or afternoon snack.  It even holds its own as a post dinner dessert.

You want to start with three or four ripe mangoes.  Kind of like with bananas and avocados, you may have to buy them several days before you plan to use them so that they will be ripe, or, like me, you might consider adopting a rule that if there are ripe mangoes or avocados for sale at a great price that you adjust your menu and make guacamole, or in this case, mango flaxseed bread.

So, a quick word about flax seeds. I usually keep ground flaxseeds in my fridge so that they are conveniently available to throw into a variety of things, from breads to yogurt.  If you get them whole, make sure you grind them in a spice or coffee grinder before adding to the batter so that you get the full benefit of the omega 3 oils and fiber.

While you certainly can use whatever spices you have on hand, I think that the use of fresh ginger really makes this recipe pop.  I keep it in the freezer (since fresh ginger spoils quickly even in the fridge) so that I can add it in small quantities whenever I need it.  I use a microplane to finely grate the ginger and the nutmeg into the batter.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cloves
2 teaspoons fresh ginger
½ teaspoon fresh nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups brown sugar
3 eggs
½ cup melted unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 or 4 mashed mangoes (about 2 cups, but if it is a little bit more if certainly won’t hurt it)
½ cup ground flax seeds

Preparation:

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees and setting out your eggs so that they have a chance to warm up to room temperature. Next wash your mangoes and peel the skin off with a paring knife.  Once the mangoes are peeled you can use the same knife to start removing the fruit from the pit.  Don’t worry about cutting perfect strips because once you get the fruit off the pit you are going to chop it finely to a chunky mashed texture.  When you get that finished set it aside in a bowl.

Combine all your dry ingredients, including the spices in a separate bowl.

 

Next melt your butter and add the butter and vanilla to your mangoes.  One by one add an egg and incorporate it to your fruit before adding the next.  When you have all your wet ingredients mixed in one bowl, and all the dry ingredients mixed in another, slowly add about a cup at a time of the dry ingredients to your wet ingredients.  Fully mix in each cup of dry ingredients before adding your next, until you have incorporated all ingredients. 

The batter will be very sticky and dense, almost dry, although depending on how juicey your mangoes are this could vary.

Lightly grease two bread loaf pans, and divide the batter between them using a spatula to push the batter into the corners of the pan.  Place the pans in the center of your oven and bake for about 45 to 55 minutes, or whenever you can put a knife in it and pull it out clean.  Pull the pans out and let them cool for about 10 minutes before inverting them on a plate to remove the pans and then let them cool completely, if you can stand it.  Or slice them up, spread just a touch of butter on them, and enjoy the hot mango goodness hot from the oven.

It is a good thing there are two loaves, because you may devor one hot from the oven before it even cools