Name: Noodle Bowls with Peanut-Sesame Sauce and Zucchini
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Yield: 4-6 servings
Ingredients: 8 ounces uncooked soba noodles; 2 medium zucchini, spiraled or cut into julienne; 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter; 1 tablespoon sesame oil; 2 tablespoons soy sauce; cucumber, for garnish (optional); chopped roasted peanuts, for garnish (optional); chopped cilantro, for garnish (optional)

Noodle Bowls with Peanut-Sesame Sauce

April 8, 2016

Noodle bowls with peanut-sesame sauce are a quick, simple, and delicious vegetarian meal that is sure to please even your picky eaters. I mean, they’re made with peanut butter. How could you go wrong?

Bowls are a really popular thing right now. A quick scan of Instagram reveals a bevy of jealousy-provoking bowls. They’re usually assembled in rustic-looking, asymmetrical bowls that appear to have been hand-thrown and they almost always include a fan of avocado. Sarah Forte from Sprouted Kitchen wrote an entire book (<–affiliate link) about them. I know it sounds like I’m being facetious, but I promise I’m not. I’m pretty jealous that I don’t eat more beautiful food like this.
Anyway, every time I look at a bowl – be it a noodle bowl, a rice bowl, a quinoa bowl (even though I hate quinoa)….whatever kind of bowl, I make a mental note that I need to make more beautiful bowls of food. Not only are they gorgeous, they’re usually very simple combinations of food and my ability to make them is really only limited by the fact that I don’t want to pack twelve different tiny Gladware containers with all of my ingredients in order to eat them for lunch. However, I eat dinner at home pretty much every night, and summer break is coming up (six weeks!!!), so maybe I can resolve here and now to try to make more meals in bowls.

I’ve actually been making soba noodle bowls with peanut-sesame sauce for years now. I first discovered them when I bought the book How to Boil Water (pasta pies, penne alla vodka, and…sesame noodles. I traded that book to McKay’s years ago and the versions of these recipes on my site are all mine, but they were definitely inspired by those early cooking experiences driven by that book, which I would to this day recommend as a great cooking basics resource for a beginner.
This recipe comes together in less than 30 minutes. In fact, the most time-consuming step is boiling the water to cook the noodles, which cook in three minutes. I included zucchini noodles, which I made with my Inspiralizer (<–that’s an affiliate link, because I❤️my Inspiralizer), but if you don’t have a spiralizer, you could use a julienne peeler ( Do you like “bowl” meals? What’s your favorite?

Find other great recipes on the Meal Plan Monday link-up on Southern Bite!

Mary

Yield: 4-6 servings

Noodle Bowls with Peanut-Sesame Sauce and Zucchini

10 minPrep Time:

10 minCook Time:

20 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

8 ounces uncooked soba noodles
2 medium zucchini, spiraled or cut into julienne
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
cucumber, for garnish (optional)
chopped roasted peanuts, for garnish (optional)
chopped cilantro, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Cook the soba noodles in salted water according to package directions. Drain the noodles, reserving one cup of the cooking water.
Transfer the drained noodles back to the pot and add the zucchini. Set over medium heat and add the peanut butter, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Cook, stirring constantly, until the peanut butter coats the noodles and the zucchini has softened, 3-4 minutes.
Thin the sauce with the noodle cooking water until it reaches desired consistency. Serve immediately, garnished as desired with cucumbers, peanuts, and cilantro.

https://chattavore.com/noodle-bowls-peanut-sesame-sauce/

Noodle bowls with peanut-sesame sauce are a quick, simple, and delicious vegetarian meal that is sure to please even your picky eaters. I mean, they're made with peanut butter. How could you go wrong? | recipe from Chattavore.com

Asparagus Quiche with Leeks & Gruyere

March 25, 2016

Asparagus quiche is an easy and tasty dish that’s perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner (or brunch!) and just screams “Spring!!!”

It’s spring, you guys! I don’t know what the weather has been like wherever you are, but here it’s been decidedly spring-like the last couple of weeks. In fact, if Tennessee summers were a little more mild (read: Tennessee summers are not mild in the least) I would say that it’s been downright summer-like. But I digress. Suffice it to say that winter is my least favorite season of the year and I am glad to say goodbye, especially since this winter was a disappointment with only two snow days (which weren’t really snow days). Us teacher types shed a few tears over that, but I won’t dwell on it. It’s time to move on.

What’s not to love about spring? The days are longer (although that does come from a little suffering when we have to spring forward), it’s warmer, flowers start to bloom (which, again, can be torturous here in the allergy belt, but still), and spring crops come. Strawberries, asparagus, leeks, lettuces…some of my favorites.

Let me tell you a story about asparagus. I have loved asparagus since I was a little girl, when my grandmother used to buy it canned and bake it studded with butter and Parmesan cheese. I loved it that way, but I loved it even more when she would steam fresh asparagus. When Philip and I got married, I would cook asparagus rather regularly. One night my mom cooked it and he didn’t put any on his plate. She asked him if he wanted any and he said, “No, I don’t really like asparagus.” That was the first I’d heard of that, so I asked why he’d never said anything. His answer? “I know you like it.” That’s love. Come to find out, it was really the whole stinky asparagus pee thing that he didn’t like. I won’t spend too much time on this, but stinky pee is a small price to pay for delicious asparagus, in my opinion. Anyway…did I really just talk about pee on my blog? Sorry.

At any rate, I try not to subject Philip to asparagus too often, but I have to have it from time to time. Like in this asparagus quiche, where it’s perfect with leeks and Gruyere cheese. I’ve posted a recipe for quiche (one with Swiss chard and Prosciutto) before, but that one was a flop…too watery. This vegetarian quiche was definitely not a flop…it turned out perfectly. Need a great breakfast recipe or brunch recipe? This quiche would be great for Easter breakfast or Easter brunch. It would also be great for a bridesmaids’ lunch or even just a weeknight dinner or weekend breakfast. Basically, what I am saying is that this asparagus quiche is perfect for pretty much anytime.

What are your feelings on asparagus? Comment below and let me know!

Find other great recipes at the Weekend Potluck link-up on Served Up With Love!

Mary

Yield: 6-8 servings

Asparagus Quiche

10 minPrep Time:

55 minCook Time:

1 hr, 5 Total Time:

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Ingredients

single pie crust (your favorite recipe, or just use a packaged crust)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 leek, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced and washed
1 pound asparagus, woody parts cut off, cut into 2-inch pieces
4 ounces Gruyere cheese
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cup half and half
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll out the pie crust and press into a 9-inch pie pan or quiche/deep dish tart pan. Place into the refrigerator.
Melt the butter in a medium pan set over medium heat. Add the leeks and cook until they begin to turn tender, then add the asparagus and cook until it begins to turn tender. The entire process of cooking the vegetables should take about 6-8 minutes.
In a large measuring cup or a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, half and half, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Place the sautéed vegetables into the prepared crust. Top with the cheese then pour the egg mixture over the top. Set on a sheet pan and bake for 45-50 minutes. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before slicing and serving.

https://chattavore.com/asparagus-quiche/

Asparagus quiche is an easy and tasty dish that's perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner (or brunch!) and just screams "Spring!!! | recipe from chattavore.com

Chicken and Dressing in a Skillet

March 21, 2016

Chicken and dressing in a skillet transforms a fussy Southern dish into an easy meal you could turn out on a weeknight – with minimal clean-up!

When it comes to food, I’m happy to eat food that isn’t “Southern”, but if I’m going to eat Southern food then I’m going to do it right (you guys know that about me, right?). That means (as I’ve mentioned before) that in my house there’s no such thing as chicken and stuffing. That bread-based stuff that you eat at Thanksgiving is called dressing. Most Southerners I know would never put it inside of the bird (we bake it in a pan) and we make it with cornbread (and, if you’re me, biscuits). Still, Northerners know that cooking the stuffing in the turkey (or chicken) adds flavor because the juice infuses the stuffing (you can call it stuff if it’s stuffed in the bird). That’s a little bit of a food safety nightmare, though, because odds are that by the time the stuffing (with said juices) is cooked through the bird is going to be pretty dang dry.

Dressing is just as good at Easter, though, and a lot of us Southerners eat chicken and dressing for our Easter family meal (though ham definitely takes the top honors, served with deviled eggs alongside, of course). The thing is, chicken and dressing can be quite a production. Too many pans! And how on earth do you get that blasted chicken cooked through???

So…I decided to turn chicken and dressing into a one-pot meal (well, a one-pan meal). Truth be told, it took me a couple of times to get the chicken cooked through. I tried spatchcocking the chicken and cooking it on top of the dressing but the parts of the chicken that were touching the dressing didn’t cook through. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this until I had already cut up the chicken. Not cool. Not at all. I had to sear the chicken in a pan to make it edible.?

What did the trick? We had the butcher cut the chicken into pieces. I seared the chicken in the pan before adding the vegetables and mixing the dressing up in the pan. I then cooked the chicken on top of the dressing. You guys, it was perfect. Chicken and dressing can be an easy meal…I made it on a Tuesday after my workout and took a shower while it was in the oven. Pretty much perfect.
What will you be serving for Easter dinner? What’s your favorite way to make chicken and dressing? Comment below and let me know!

For other great recipes, check out Meal Plan Monday on Southern Bite!

Mary

Yield: 4 servings

Skillet Chicken and Dressing

15 minPrep Time:

1 hr, 30 Cook Time:

1 hr, 45 Total Time:

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Ingredients

4 cups crumbled cornbread (half of a full-sized batch)
3 cups crumbled biscuits (about 5 biscuits)
2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
salt and pepper
1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces (I had the butcher do this for me)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 medium yellow onion - finely chopped
1 stalks celery - finally chopped
1/4 cup fresh sage - julienned
1 egg
2-3 cups low-sodium chicken broth

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Place the crumbled biscuits and cornbread on a sheet pan. Bake for about 40 minutes to dehydrate. Set aside. Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees.
Sprinkle both sides of the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. In a 10-inch ovenproof skillet (I used cast iron), preheat one tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat. Place half of the chicken in the pan and cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining oil and chicken pieces. Remove the chicken to a paper towel lined plate and set aside.
Wipe out the skillet. Add the butter and reduce the heat to medium. Cook the onions and celery until softened. Add the sage and cook for about 30 seconds. Stir in the biscuits and cornbread. Add enough chicken stock to completely moisten the crumbs. Salt and pepper to taste. Add the egg and stir until thoroughly combined. Smooth the top and place the chicken pieces skin-side-down on top of the dressing.
Bake the chicken and dressing for 20 minutes. Turn the chicken pieces over and return the pan to the oven for another 20 minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate and tent with foil. Return the dressing to the oven for 10 minutes. Serve immediately.

Notes

Prep/cook time does not include time to make the biscuits or cornbread.

https://chattavore.com/chicken-dressing-skillet/

Chicken and dressing in a skillet transforms a fussy Southern dish into an easy meal you could turn out on a weeknight - with minimal clean-up! | recipe from chattavore.com

Boxty with Corned Beef (St. Patrick’s Day Leftovers)

March 14, 2016

What’s not to love about crispy potatoes topped with corned beef and a fried egg? Boxty with corned beef is a great way to use up St. Patrick’s Day leftovers!

I have never been one to celebrate less major holidays….Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, that’s about it. St. Patrick’s Day? Definitely not. This year, I forgot to even wear green, which is an unforgivable sin when you work in an elementary school, so I drew a shamrock on my hand with a Sharpie (I’ve been burned in the past, in the form of a hard pinch from a kid that didn’t notice that I WAS WEARING GREEN).

There is one reason, though, that I get excited about St. Patrick’s Day every year: corned beef. Not that I couldn’t purchase or make it any one of the other 364 days of the year, but it goes on sale the week prior to March 17 so that seems like a pretty good reason to me. Every year I think that I’m going to corn the brisket myself (here’s Alton Brown‘s method for making corned beef) and every year I forget about it until approximately 2.6 hours before St. Patrick’s Day, so every year I end up buying one of the prepackaged ones at the grocery store (again, I suppose I could do this any other time of year but oddly St. Patrick’s Day seems to awaken this need in me). I make it in the Crock-Pot, usually with onions, potatoes, and cabbage.

I’m never very happy with the way that the potatoes and cabbage turn out. In the Crock-Pot, they pretty much disintegrate and you really can’t even taste the cabbage. This year, it occurred to me that maybe I should try something different, so instead of cooking the cabbage and potatoes in the Crock-Pot I used Elise Bauer‘s recipe for colcannon, an Irish dish of mashed potatoes and leafy greens-usually cabbage, kale, or spinach. Any other time of the year, I’d use spinach or maybe lacinato (Tuscan or dinosaur) kale, but I already had a head of cabbage in the fridge and, well, corned beef and cabbage.

Again, typically I’d make a St. Patrick’s Day leftover meal of corned beef hash-cubed and fried potatoes, onions, and leftover cabbage and corned beef-but then I had the thought of making boxty, Irish potato pancakes. I have made potato pancakes/fritters from either mashed or raw shredded potatoes in the past, but as I perused recipes for boxy, I discovered that it is traditionally made out of a combination of mashed potatoes and raw shredded potatoes. Perfect use for leftover colcannon! Topped with shredded leftover corned beef and a fried egg, this boxty was a great day after St. Patrick’s dinner….and it seems like a perfect excuse to make corned beef and colcannon more than once a year.

Mary

Yield: 10-12 pancakes

Boxty with Corned Beef (St. Patrick’s Day Leftovers)

10 minPrep Time:

20 minCook Time:

30 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

1 cup shredded potatoes-about 1 medium peeled Russet (wrapped in paper towels and squeezed to remove excess water)
1 cup leftover mashed potatoes (I used the colcannon linked in the body of the post)
2 Large eggs (lightly beaten)
1 to 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup buttermilk or milk (I used buttermilk)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt
black pepper
canola oil

Instructions

Place a baking sheet with a wire rack set on it in the oven. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Combine all ingredients except the canola oil in a large bowl (start with 1 cup of the flour and add more until you get a batter of medium consistency).
Pour about 1/4 inch of canola oil into a 10-inch skillet. Heat over medium until shimmering then ladle about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of batter into the pan for each pancake. I just scooped it out with a wooden spoon and spread it slightly; I got 3 pancakes in each batch.
Fry for 2-3 minutes (until golden brown) then carefully flip. Cook on the other side until brown. Remove from the skillet to the baking sheet in the oven. Repeat until you have used up all the batter. Lightly salt the tops of the boxties (you can also brush a little melted butter on them).
Serve while hot as a side or a base for a hash-type dish topped with shredded meat and a fried egg!

https://chattavore.com/st-patricks-day-leftovers-boxty-corned-beef/

Reuben Sandwiches from Leftover Corned Beef

March 13, 2016

Reuben sandwiches are the perfect way to use up leftover corned beef (if there is such a thing)!

Reuben sandwiches are an interesting phenomenon. They include a lot of things that a lot of people don’t like: corned beef, sauerkraut, Thousand Island or Russian dressing, and rye bread (I think most people are good with Swiss cheese), yet an awful lot of people that I know love Reubens. It seems that the combination of all of the above equals a sum greater than its parts. Honestly, though, because I (a) didn’t like rye bread; and (b) didn’t like sauerkraut, I’d never even attempt to eat a Reuben for a long, long time.

I married a man, however, who almost always orders the Reuben if it’s on a menu, especially if the restaurant makes the claim to have the “best Reuben in town” (a lot of places do). By the way, his current #1 Reuben in Chattanooga is at Vine Street Market. Anyway, I never even gave a Reuben a second glance until I watched him eat them time and time again and finally, I had to give it a go. You know what? In that first bite, I got it. Greater than the sum of its parts….absolutely.

You can buy corned beef sliced at the deli, but why bother when you have leftovers from the requisite St. Patrick’s Day corned beef and cabbage dinner? I love leftovers, you guys. I usually only cook three nights a week, yet we eat at home six nights a week. If I am really thinking ahead-like I was with this corned beef-I can get three meals out of one. If you take a little time to do a little extra cooking, you can repurpose your leftovers into something different…and maybe even better than the original meal. I find that turning one night’s leftovers into something else reduces the “that again?!?!?!” feelings that I used to always get (unless there were tacos. Taco leftovers always welcome.).

A couple of notes about these Reuben sandwiches: you are welcome to use store-bought dressing; I won’t judge. Use Thousand Island or Russian, whatever you like better; Thousand Island is a little sweeter, Russian is a little spicier, usually made horseradish (I made mine with sriracha, which I know is 100% not traditional, but we didn’t have horseradish in the house). Feel free to use deli corned beef as well. Just do me ONE FAVOR. Please be sure to warm the meat and the sauerkraut a little before you assemble your sandwich. There’s a restaurant I’ve eaten at a couple of times that has-both times-served me grilled sandwiches piled thickly with meat…that was cold in the center. If the sandwich is warm…all of the ingredients must be warm. End of discussion.

Do you like Reuben sandwiches? If not, what is it about them that you don’t like?

Leftovers: Homemade Reuben Sandwiches

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Ingredients

For the dressing

1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 teaspoons prepared horseradish or 1 1/2 teaspoons hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon pickle relish
1 clove garlic, minced

For the sandwiches

Russian dressing (ingredients above)
4 slices rye or marble rye bread
10-12 ounces corned beef - shredded or thinly sliced
4 ounces thinly sliced Swiss cheese
1 cup sauerkraut
3 tablespoons unsalted butter - melted

Instructions

Make the dressing: Stir together all of the dressing ingredients in a small jar. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Prep to make the sandwiches: Place a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat. Warm the corned beef and the sauerkraut (I used the microwave). Lay the bread out on a large cutting board.
Assemble the sandwiches: Divide the corned beef among 4 slices of the bread. Top each piece of bread with 1/4 cup of sauerkraut then divide the Swiss cheese among the slices of bread. Top with the remaining slices of bread. Brush the outside of each slice of bread with butter.
Grill the sandwiches: Carefully place two of the sandwiches into the heated pan and grill until golden brown on the bottom, 3-5 minutes. I like to use a second pan to weight the sandwiches. Carefully flip the sandwiches and grill another 3-5 minutes until brown on the other side. Remove from the pan and repeat with the remaining sandwiches.
Carefully remove the top slice of bread and drizzle dressing over each sandwich. Replace the bread. Serve the sandwiches immediately.

https://chattavore.com/leftovers-homemade-reuben-sandwiches/

Click here to print the recipe for homemade Reuben sandwiches!

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