Prep for the Winter: Oven-Drying Your Own Fresh Herbs!

Sadly, the bountiful spring and summer fruit & veggie season has come to an end, but luckily the fall brings another crop of amazingness! The crisp apples, versatile yams, onions at their peak, and who could forget pumpkins?

To prepare for the changing seasons, my hubby so helpfully snipped & brought in an abundance of fresh herbs from our herb garden. They were really growing out of control (in a good way), and seemed to be hanging on to life- a perfect time to snip and reap the benefits of these puppies for the winter!

Drying your fresh herbs to use all winter long is not only a great way to prevent wasting the herbs, but also facilitates creativity and continued fun in the kitchen! This winter I need to make sure I got my grip on fun in the kitchen:)

Here is what I've tried so far for Oven-Drying my fresh herbs...I used this method thus far for fresh Rosemary, Oregano & Sage...

Directions:
Printable Recipe

1. Pre-heat your oven to 150-200 degrees.


2. Wash your herbs with cold, running water to remove any dirt, bugs, dust or other yuckies. Spread the clean herbs out on clean kitchen towels, blot with paper towel and let the herbs air-dry for 20 minutes or so. (Herbs need to be totally dry before you place in the oven)


3. Use your fingers to strip the leaves from the stems and spread the leaves out on a baking sheet prepared with a piece of parchment paper.


4. Bake the herbs for about 15 minutes, with the oven door cracked open.


5. Test the herbs for dryness; take a few leaves and crush them with your fingers-a.) if they crumble very easily then the herbs are done! or b.) if the leaves do NOT crumble very easily, hence there is still some moisture within the leaves, bake for 2-3 more minutes, test again...until the herbs crumble easily...(see video)...

6. Continue to crush the dried herbs and store in a tightly sealed container! Enjoy!

You Could Also Try...

• I washed and dried some old dried herb containers, labeled them correctly with their new contents and filled them with MY dried herbs!
• You could also use small ziplock-type containers for storage!

Roasted Cajun Chicken Breast

CHEAP, FAST, EASY...when you have a busy week (perhaps the week your precious little nephew comes into the world), you need some no-thought, simple, yet healthy recipes to get your through. Once you learn the "method" to roasting a chicken breast, you can prep this a day or 2 before, and toss it right into the oven for a quick fix on a busy evening!

First of all, I have been a "no-bone on meat" kind of girl for as long as I can remember, until my mother-in-law prepped some amazing "bone-in" chicken breasts on the grill this summer, up at the family cottage in West Branch, Michigan. If you know me in general, I am a little weird about chicken- I need it to be super-trimmed and it totally disgusts me to chew a rubbery piece of chicken that hasn't been cooked well, and there was certainly no way you were getting me to eat something that still had the bone on it! WELL, let me tell ya- I am a new woman and I really feel like I've been missing out on a whole realm of possibilities with chicken!

Ingredients & Recipe:
Printable Recipe

• 2 bone-in, skin on, chicken breasts (Last week my local market had these on sale and I got 6 bone-in chicken breasts for $3!! That's 50cents per breast!)
• 2-3 Tbls. olive oil
• 1 large zip top bag
• 2-3 Tbls. of seasonings; I used 1 Tbls. garlic powder, 1 Tbls. Mrs. Dash, 1 Tbls. of Cajun Seasoning from The Spice House in Chicago. You really should stock up on amazing spices next time you're in Chicago.

Start a day or 2 before if possible, and dump your chicken breasts, olive oil and seasonings into the zip top bag. Seal up the bag well, trying to get most of the air out and toss the chicken around to coat thoroughly. Let your chicken hang out in the fridge for at least 6 hours with all the spicy goodness, up to 2 days.

When you're ready to cook this simple chicken, remove it from the fridge and let it hang out on the counter (in the bag) while you preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Taking the chill off of the chicken before you cook it will allow it to cook more evening throughout which is important as you don't want want to be eating uncooked chicken! When you're oven is ready, simply slap your bird breasts, skin-side UP, onto an oven safe dish, (preferably something with a lip or sides so you don't lose any juices), and roast for about 30 minutes. Depending on the size of your chicken breasts, you may need to cook longer.

(To test done-ness, stick a thermometer into the thickest part of the meat-when you get to 165 degrees, your chicken is done. No thermometer? Stick a fork into the thickest part of the meat for 30 second- if the fork tip is pretty hot when you remove it, your chicken is probably done, but if it is just a little warm or cool, let it cook longer.)

You will find with this method, that you have barely any preparation, very little clean up, and the TASTE...OMG, chicken was meant to be cooked this way. It will be moist and flavorful, NOT chewy and you get so much more for your money.

You Could Also Try...

• Enjoy chicken over a bed of lettuce for your own homemade Cajun Chicken Salad
• Dice the cooled cooked chicken and toss with mayo, diced celery, diced onions, S & P, for a delicious chicken salad mix.

Baked Dijon Tilapia

My hubby and I try to maintain a pretty strict grocery budget each week, which can be challenging for me when I come across a recipe I really want to try but need to do more shopping in order to complete it. In order to keep the marital bliss as it regards to the grocery budget, but still be creative in the kitchen, I like to have a little competition with myself to see how many meals I make during the week using ONLY the things we have stocked in our shelves or in the fridge. This was one of those weeks and let me tell you, you can still make a pretty amazing main course with your pre-stocked freezer & random condiments.

First of all, you need to find some kind of cheap, tasty, yet healthy staple that you can count on for nights like this. We've become accustomed to keeping either Kroger or Meijer brand frozen bags of Tilapia fillets in the freezer. Tilapia is a light, flaky fish, perfect for "fish-beginners" that don't really love a strong fishy taste. When they are on sale, you can get a bag of 5 individually frozen fillets for around $3, which is great! Just defrost the fillets on a plate in the fridge during the day or night before and they'll be ready to use when you get home from work. Now, what to do with the fish?

Last night I decided I wanted to bake the Tilapia to minimize the amount of fat/oil used, but wasn't sure how to flavor it. I try to keep either homemade breadcrumbs (see below) or a bag of Panko (Japanese, light fluffy consistency) breadcrumbs around for baking fish -gives me a kind of "glorified fish stick" feel and reminds me of my childhood:) When you do your own breading, most recipes want you to dredge your protein in flour, then egg wash, then breadcrumbs. I did a scan of the refrigerator door and decided to mix a 3-1 ratio of Dijon mustard & light mayo to use as the glue for my breadcrumbs and it worked out great!

Ingredients & Recipe:
Printable Recipe

• 2 thawed Tilapia fillets
• 3 Tbls. Dijon mustard
• 1 Tbls. light mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs
• olive oil for drizzling

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare cookie sheet/baking dish with a piece of foil, lightly sprayed with vegetable spray (ex: PAM spray). Use a fork to combine the mustard and mayo in a cereal-size bowl. Dump breadcrumbs into another cereal size bowl and season with S&P. Now, liberally slather the fish fillets with the mustard/mayo mix, then dredge each fillet into the breadcrumbs on all sides and place onto your baking dish. Drizzle the top of each fillet lightly with olive oil (this helps the breadcrumbs get golden brown) and bake 12-15 minutes until you get a nice golden color and the fish looks to be flaky. (No need to flip the fillet's during baking).

You Could Also Try...

• Season your breadcrumbs with whatever you have a taste for! Use paprika, sesame seeds, dried herbs, even grated Parmesan cheese, to name a few ideas. We added red pepper flakes in the finished dinner pictured at the top of the page! Mmmm!
  
• Don't love the flavor of Dijon mustard? Use the same "glue" method, but use a whisked/scrambled egg instead.
  
• Make your own breadcrumbs by using stale crusty bread. Toast chucks of bread on a cookie sheet in the oven for a few minutes, process chunks in a Mini Chop/food processor until you have a fine consistency, continue to toast in the oven to dry out a little further.

So overall, don't be afraid to look into the fridge and create something new! As long as you know what the "method" is (for this case, using something to keep the breadcrumbs on the fish and then baking), then the world is your oyster (or Tilapia....haha)...

Spread Your Nickel with Homemade Marinara!

There's nothing better than fresh, homemade and HEALTHY marinara sauce to warm up a variety of meals! Throw it in with your favorite whole wheat pasta, veggie or chicken parmesan, pizza or lasagna recipes- OR- freeze it away in portioned size zip top bags for easy access! There are some good bottled sauces on the shelves these days, but you don't really know what is IN them. I've made my own sauce before, but not as frequently as I'd like because the cans of sauce and fresh tomatoes get to be a little pricey.
I've been prepping some easy "freezer to oven" meals for my expecting Sister-in-law and her hubby, and figured marinara would be a perfect option. But how to make A LOT of it and keep it inexpensive???

I hit up my local Costco warehouse and found some large & in-charge cans of Crushed Tomatoes, perfect for a marinara base. 105 ounces (over 13 cups) for around $2.50!! The brand had some recipe suggestions on the can, but to keep costs down I decided to just use what I had already at home.

Ingredients & Recipe:
Printable Recipe

• 1 onion (finely chopped)(preferably white or Spanish, but whatever you have at home will work)
• 2-3 shredded carrots
• 3 garlic cloves (minced)
• olive oil
• 1 (105 oz.) can of crushed tomatoes
• dried herbs, such as basil and/or oregano

Heat 2-3 Tbls. olive oil in a large pot or pan over medium heat. Toss in chopped onion, carrots, garlic, season with some S&P and cook for 7-9 minutes or until tender. Now be creative by adding in whatever herbs you like. I added in 1 tsp dried oregano and 1-2 tsp dried basil. Next, pour in crushed tomatoes to your veggie/herb mix, stir around, and bring sauce to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes (stirring once in a while) so that all the flavors marry together!
Give it a taste and use your own judgement. I added a few tablespoons of sugar to taste. Use right away or cool & freeze away in individual zip top bags for a rainy day!

You could also try:

• Tossing in whatever extra veggies you have in the fridge, like adding a few ribs of chopped celery or chopped fresh tomatoes while the veggies are cooking.
• 1 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes for a kick
• Make it a meat sauce by adding in a pound of browned ground turkey or beef (say that 3 times fast!)
• Make the sauce a bit creamier by mixing in 1/2 cup of milk or heavy cream at the end before you serve!