Sunday, February 7, 2010

WW Creamed Spinach

I'm trying to lose a significant amount of weight, and so am trying to cook more healthy food. (Not sure exactly how Crunken Chicken fits into that, but it is delicious, and I use organic ketchup with no HFCS, so hey, it's healthy, right???) I like creamed spinach, but the last time I made it there was quite a bit of cheese in it.

So I decided to try this WW recipe. As a whole, it wasn't bad. I think it could be improved, but we'll discuss that later.

Ingredients:

2 bags washed spinach, steamed, squeezed dry, and chopped
1/4 cup low fat cottage cheese
1/4 cup nonfat milk
1 tbsp parmesan cheese
1 small garlic clove, minced

Combine cottege cheese, milk, parmesan cheese, garlic, and 1/4 the cooked spinach in a food processor and process until creamy (or in a bowl and use an immersion blender, or you could do this in a regular blender). Place remaining spinach in a skillet over medium heat, add blended mixture, and stir. Cook until heated through.

That's it--pretty easy and not bad tasting.

I would change:

1. (not really a change, but) Make sure you press as much water out of the spinach as possible so that this is not watery.

2. Maybe up the cottage cheese a bit or just cut back on the amount of milk. I really think you could just leave the milk out altogether.

3. I probably used 1 1/2 tbsp of parmesan cheese (I just grabbed some I didn't get out a measuring spoon).

That's about it. Most of my changes focus on making this more creamy and less watery. The flavor was really good, though. Be aware that b/c you process some of the spinach with the cheese, this will be brighter green than normal creamed spinach.

Word of Mouth's Crunken Chicken

A college friend shared a link to Word of Mouth's blog, which included this recipe for Crunken Chicken. Mine is currently in the oven, but I can tell you the sauce is out of this world. I can't wait for dinner tonight! I particularly like that it is so versitile--it can be an appetizer, you can bake it, or you can grill it. I made mine on a broiler pan in the oven (10 minutes each side, brushing with sauce on both sides when flipping the chicken). I also think this sauce would be pretty kick-ass on appetizer meatballs (the kind you make in a crock pot) or on pretty much anything. Pour it over a pork tenderloin, use it with flank steak--you really can't go wrong.

Ingredients:

Marinade:

1/4 cup bourbon

1 12oz. bottle dark brown ale

1 tbl. cayenne powder (if making for little geeks, omit this or cut it down a bit)

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 tsp. salt

Sauce:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1 cup minced onion

1 cup ketchup

1/4 cup molasses

2 tablespoons (packed) brown sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons dry mustard

3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, divided

1/4 teaspoon chili powder (included in original recipe but I left it out accidentally and didn't miss it)

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt

1/4 cup bourbon

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (whole or cut into 1” nuggets)* (I made 6 breasts b/c that's what was in the package)

Marinade: Combine beer, bourbon, ¼ c. molasses, cayenne and salt in a large bowl. Add chicken, cover and marinate for ½ hour or up to 4 hours.

Sauce: Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion; sauté until soft, about 6 minutes. Add ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, ¼ c. molasses, dry mustard, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and chili powder (unless you forget like me). Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until sauce thickens, about 15 minutes. Stir in ¼ c. bourbon; cook until heated through, about 3 minutes. Season with salt. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

Cook:

In oven--Preheat oven to 425. Drain marinade from chicken. Add chicken to a 9 x 13 baking dish coated with cooking spray or broiler pan. Brush generously on all sides with bbq sauce, reserving some sauce for the table. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, turning and basting after 10 minutes.

To Grill: Grill the boneless breasts or add the nuggets to a skewer. Grill over medium heat, turning to cook all sides, about 20 minutes. Brush with BBQ sauce and cook until glaze is formed – about 3 more minutes. Serve all with reserved sauce.

My kitchen smells amazing. I could eat this sauce with a spoon! Check out Word of Mouth and be prepared to spend some time looking at recipes. YUM!

I think that we may be eating Crunken Chicken Pizza tomorrow night here at Chez Silicon. I bet it's awesome!