Easy Microwaved Broccoli with Butter Thyme

I liked the mixed vegetable side dish that was offered at Texas Roadhouse.  It was really simple and crunchy.  So, I tried to create it at home using the microwave.  You can steam yours if you like but for me microwave is easier in this easy dish.  You can omit the salt if you use salted butter and also you can replace the butter with extra virgin olive oil.  When you use olive oil, just make sure you stir and mix the broccoli well with your hands before you put it in the microwave.

This is one easy side dish to serve with your American dinner.  I served with my Chinese dinner with no problem too.  One healthy meal can be grilled chicken with this broccoli, baked sweet potato wedges and a piece of toasted whole wheat bread.

Ingredients:

Broccoli crowns, washed and cut, about 3-4 cups

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into thin slices (you can add more if you like)

Sprinkle of sea salt/ kosher salt

Touch of black pepper

Dashes of dried thyme
Dashes of garlic powder

Methods:

1.  In a microwave safe plate or dinner plate, place the broccoli on top.  Add slices of butter all over it.  Sprinkle with some salt to taste, touch of black pepper and some dried thyme and garlic powder.

2.  Microwave for 4-5 minutes or according to microwave direction or until the butter is melted and the broccoli is soften but still crunchy.

3.  When you take out of the microwave, give it a quick stir to mix well with the butter sauce.  Season to taste with salt if needed.

Note:  If you use salted butter,  you can probably omit the salt or cut down on the salt.

Salmon Noodle Soup

This noodle soup is almost identical to my Chicken Shells Soup.  The only different is salmon was used and I added red bell peppers.  This is the first time I used salmon in soup and I was impressed at how well it hold it's shape and tastes really good.  Now I have new way of cooking salmon as this gives me an idea of creating other soupy salmon dishes.

I really loved these two types of noodle soup, of course you can use other kind of dried pasta that you have at home.  You can easily cook a big pot and enjoy it for days.  Give it a try and feedback to me ya!

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is Daphne from More Than Words! Check out the delicious round up on April, 16th!

Ingredients:

Olive oil

1/2 white/yellow onion, chopped

1 bay leaf

8 grape tomatoes, cut in half
1/4 red bell pepper, thinly sliced or chopped

1 salmon fillet,cut into cubes, marinate with white wine and white pepper

1/2 cup shells 

1/2 cup frozen mixed vegetable

Dash of dried thyme
Dash of dried oregano
Dash of dried parsley

Salt to taste

Black Pepper

Chicken or vegetable stock

Method:

1.  In a medium size saucepan, add in some olive oil, about 1-2 Tbsp.  Add in onion and stir-fry until fragrant.  Add in bay leaf, stir-well.  Add in grape tomatoes and red bell pepper and stir-well.

2.  Add in frozen mixed vegetable and stir well.  Add a little salt to season the ingredients.  Add in chicken or vegetable stock, quite a lot because it is a soup and you want to cook the shell pasta too.

3.  Add in the shell pasta, stir and let it simmer until the pasta is cooked.  When cooked, add in the cubed salmon, carefully stir into the soup, cover and let the salmon cooked, just few minutes.  Uncover and season to taste with dried herbs and black pepper.

4.  Take out the bay leaf before serving.

Chicken Noodle (Shells) Soup

Evy was diagnosed with ear infection recently.  It was her first and since she didn't complain about her ear ache, I had no way to know.  It got worst when her ear infection caused her to have high fever and coughs.  Finally we took her to see her pediatrician because we thought she might have flu or H1N1 because the fever was high like 103.7'F.  Then, it was diagnosed to be ear infection resulted from stuffy nose and caused the high fever because it was already inflamed.  She was given antibiotic for 10 days.  How magical was the antibiotic, just one dose and she was feeling much better.  I gave her the ibuprofen for the fever and pain as well.  Just like the pediatrician said, she would be herself and ready to go to school again.


I thought she was suffering from flu and wanted her to drink more fluid and lighter meal.  So, I created this chicken shells soup for her.  I only had shells pasta at home thus the used of shell pasta.  I added mixed vegetable so that she could have some veggie in her diet.  This will definitely be something I would cook when someone is not feeling well at home.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is Aqua from Served with Love .  Do go and check out her delicious pasta round up tomorrow, March, 19th! 

Ingredients:

Olive oil

1/2 white/yellow onion, chopped

1 bay leaf

8 grape tomatoes, cut in half

1/2 roasted chicken breast (from store), shredded

1/2 cup shells 

1/2 cup frozen mixed vegetable

Italian seasonings

Salt to taste

Black Pepper

Chicken or vegetable stock

Method:

1.  In a medium size saucepan, add in some olive oil, about 1-2 Tbsp.  Add in onion and stir-fry until fragrant.  Add in bay leaf, stir-well.  Add in grape tomatoes and stir-well.

2.  Add in frozen mixed vegetable and shredded chicken breast, stir well.  Add a little salt to season the ingredients.  Add in chicken or vegetable stock, quite a lot because it is a soup and you want to cook the shell pasta too.

3.  Add in the shell pasta, stir and let it simmer until the pasta is cooked.  Season to taste with Italian seasonings and black pepper.

4.  Take out the bay leaf before serving.

Roast Chicken with Garlic and Thymes

I tried a new chicken recipe for my Thanksgiving dinner. This recipe can be done last minute as it doesn't need to be marinated/seasoned before hand. This chicken was fragrant and tasted divine. You can eat the garlic together with the chicken or spread it on bread to enjoy. Remember to place the garlic close and underneath the chicken when baking or else it will be burned and turned rock hard. You can substitute the dried thyme with fresh thyme. Stuff a few inside and sprinkle some cut thyme on the skin.





Ingredients:

1 whole chicken
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
25 cloves of garlic (with skin) toast with some olive oil
1 lemon
Dried Thyme
Kosher salt
Black Pepper

Methods:

1. Clean the chicken, pat it dry with paper towel. Brush the skin with melted butter, any leftover butter, pour it into the chicken cavity or inside the skin.

2. Cut the lemon in half, squeeze half lemon on each side. Stuff half squeezed lemon inside the chicken. Generously sprinkle both sides of chicken with kosher salt, black pepper and some dried thyme. Sprinkle some inside the chicken cavity as well.

3. Preheat the oven to 375'F. Place chicken breasts side up on a aluminum lined baking pan and arrange garlic cloves close to the chicken. Bake for 1 hour 30-45 minutes or until cooked. Rest for 5 minutes before cutting.

Penne Tuna Pasta

Have you tried the pouch tuna? I recently bought some to try because it was on sales and I seriously liked it. No draining required and it was so convenient. It was fairly expensive without the sales so stock up when it goes on sales. Friday noodle/pasta night again and of course I had to think of something to cook. Saw a packet of Penne pasta and pouches of tuna in my pantry and my sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil on my kitchen counter and thought it would make a good combo. I read that tomatoes, mushrooms and Parmesan cheese have naturally occurrence glutamate (amino acid) that said to produce the fifth taste called "umami" by Japanese. No wonder so many people loved to sprinkle Parmesan cheese on their pasta and pizza and love tomato based products and mushroom soup. Parmesan cheese especially has high level of glutamate, so I am wondering if you stay away from MSG (salt form of glutamate), do you stay away from Parmesan cheese too?




Ingredients:

1 (16 oz) Penne Rigate pasta
2 ( 5 oz) pouches premium light tuna in water
1/2 cup frozen corns
4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
6-8 sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, chopped
1 stalk of scallion, chopped
Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
1/4 cup white wine
Salt, to taste
Pepper medley (or black pepper), to taste

Method:

1. Cook penne rigate as package direction, drain in cold water and set aside.

2. In a sautepan, heat up some olive oil. Add garlic, fry until fragrant. Add frozen corns, pinch of red pepper flakes and sun-dried tomatoes. Fry until mix well.

3. Add tuna, stir-well, white wine and mix in the cooked penne and scallion. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well and fry until hot. Serve.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast. This week host is Ruth herself, do go and check out her delicious round up on Friday, Nov 6th! Thanks!

Pork Chop Dinner

I made some pork chops because I was too lazy to pre-slice the pork for stir-fry. So, I decided to make a western pork chops dinner with the asparagus that I had in the fridge. This was such an easy dinner to prepare because all I did is to marinate the pork chops overnight with my special sauce. The next day I just seared the pork chops in some olive oil on both side and then let it finished cooking in the oven. Sprinkled a little olive oil, some salt and peppers on my asparagus and in the preheated 450'F oven for 15 minutes. I also opened a can of Pillsbury garlic crescent rolls (not in picture) and baked it for 10 minutes and I had myself a complete dinner.

At the end of the dinner, hubby complained not full!! LOL! Actually when he first saw this, he asked, "Where is the rice?" I said, " What rice? No rice, got crescent rolls already, this is a western meal." :P

What surprised me is Evy actually loves pork chop. She asked me yesterday, can you cook this bread that eat with meat and veggie one? I was like what the heck was she talking about? At first I thought she meant roti canai with Jap. curry but she knows the words roti canai and curry so it must be other thing and then I remembered this. True enough, she said she wants to eat pork chop.

Good Old Bowl of Chili

I decided to make a pot of Chili today. It's non-traditional but very easy to make. I don't have a specific measurement simply because I hate to take out the spoon to measure everything. I used pork slices instead of ground pork/beef. Again too lazy to ground the pork with my cleaver. Why Chili? Because it's freezing cold over here and I'm dreaming of a bowl of hot Chili!



First, I browned the pork in extra virgin olive oil. Dish out and set aside. Then, I add in one chopped yellow onion and 2 cloves of chopped garlic. Brown those in the E.V. olive oil, when brown, I pour in 28oz. of whole tomatoes with juice (break it out) and 15oz. of red beans in Chili, add in the pork slices and some water. The seasonings I used were garlic powder, onion powder, cumin powder, paprika powder, cayenne powder, oregano, parsley, a little cane sugar, salt & pepper to taste. Covered and let it simmer at low heat for 2 hours. Serve with shredded cheese and rice on the side.

Note: Add 2 cans of red beans in Chili or any beans you fancy if you like lots of beans.