Mom on a mission

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Chicken and veggies packet

One of the easiest and healthiest meals I like to make is the chicken and veggie packet. There is very little clean-up, numerous ways to mix it up so you don't get tired of it, and always a hit at my house. There isn't really a recipe for this, since it really just depends on what you want, but I'll write down the basics.

Ingredients:

Boneless skinless chicken breast, as many as you want, one per packet

Choice of veggies - this time I used zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, celery, red and orange bell pepper, and asparagus, but you can do whatever you want.

1-2 tbsp of olive oil per packet

1-2 tbsp of lemon juice per packet

Your choice of spices. I like to use Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute, or oregano, rosemary and thyme and pepper.

OR instead of oil, juice and spices, 1/3 or so cup of Italian dressing

Step 1:

Preheat your oven to 375. Chop up all your veggies.

Step 2:

Roll out a nice size piece of foil and lay your chicken on it. Drizzle your olive oil and lemon juice on the chicken and then use your spices! I like to put a nice amount on as you can see in the pic, over a tbsp I would think, but it's really up to you. OR if you're using dressing, pour on as much as you want.

Step 3:

Pile on your veggies! At this point you can drizzle a little more oil and/or juice and sprinkle on some more spices or herbs, I usually do.

Step 4:

Roll up your packet. Start by folding it up until the edges touch, then fold over and down until you can't anymore. Then roll up the ends until you have a nice packet. Repeat steps for as many packets as you are going to make

Step 5:

Put in oven and cook for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take out and check to see if the chicken is done. If not, fold back up and cook for another 10 minutes. Check again and so on until cooked. It really depends on the thickness of your chicken breasts and your oven.

Once done, you can just open up and eat right out of the packet, or as I did in this instance, put over rice.

Enjoy! The best part about this is at the end, you ball up your foil and just throw it away! No pan to soak or wash.

Step 1: Chop up veggies

Step 2: Get chicken on foil and spice it up!

Step 3: Pile on veggies!

Step 4 and 5: roll it up and cook it.

Check to make sure it's cooked through.

My husband cutting in to it to check if it's done.

Serve it up and enjoy!

Monday, October 19, 2015

Nightmare Before Christmas Sally Dress

I have loved the Nightmare Before Christmas since I first saw it back in 1993 when I was 7, and I have watched it every Halloween and Christmas since. I have always wanted to go as Sally for Halloween, but the dresses for purchase are so bad looking, bright and lurid colors, all one piece with fake looking stitches, I just never liked any enough to buy. This year, my 2 year old son is going as Jack, and I am going as Sally, (I was going to make my husband an Oogie Boogie mask, but he declined). My son is really excited to be Jack, since so far this October we have watched the movie 57 times, and it's only the 19th. As soon as Nick gets up, he goes to the living room points to the TV, and says Jack TV!! I decided since I couldn't purchase any costume that was to my preferred look, I decided to make both my son's costume, and my dress. I looked and looked for a good tutorial on how to make the dress but I couldn't find one, so I decided to make one myself. I based the dress off of this picture:

From https://straightlinedesigns.wordpress.com/tag/tim-burton/

I bought a plain white dress off of Amazon. com for like $10 and borrowed my mom's antique dress form.

I went to walmart and bought the fabric, as close to color match as they had. I bought plain fabric, and a pack of black fabric markers so I could make the designs as close to her dress as possible.

Drawing in the design.

I started cutting and pinning the fabric in as similar a pattern as I could, from that one picture. I had no picture of the back of her dress, and during the movie, you can't really see it due to her hair, so I just winged it.

Once I had it all pinned, I completely securely sewed it into the white under dress, making sure everything was sewn on. After the dress was finished that way, I went back over and sewed in the decorative, and very recognizable to the dress, black stitches. I used a very thick crochet thread, and an upholstery needle to accomplish this.

I just sewed all the patches to make it look as close to Sally's real dress as I could.

I will post pictures after Halloween of my son and I in our costumes. I am dying my hair red and straightening it, and going the whole 9 yards with blue cream make-up and black stitches. Stay tuned!

I will also post a separate tutorial for Jack's costume.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Parmesan Penne Pasta with homemade breadsticks

Parmesan Penne Pasta with breadsticks.

This is definitely a family favorite; one of our go to meals. A great comfort food, bad day food, I'm just really hungry meal. I do also make this with chicken, however in this instance I did not, but I will add instructions if you so wish to add protein.

Ingredients:

Breadsticks
1 packet (or 2 1/4tsp) active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups very warm water
2 tbsp sugar
3 1/2 cup AP flour, more or less as needed
2 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp salt

For the garlic butter spread you need about 1/4 cup butter and 1 tsp garlic powder and a pinch of salt, more or less depending on taste preference.

Penne Pasta
Your choice of Penne Pasta, depending on how much you want to make, 1/2 - 1 box.
2 garlic cloves, chopped as fine as you can get
2 tbsp olive oil
4 fresh tomatoes, chopped, or 1 can diced tomatoes
2 cups shredded mozzarella
2 cups shredded Parmesan
Fresh basil to taste, I like using a lot
Dried oregano, I don't measure, probably 2 tsp
1/4 cup heavy cream or milk
salt and pepper to taste

Start with the breadsticks, since they need an hour to rise.
1. In a large bowl, add yeast and sugar, then pour water over to mix and allow to sit for about 10 minutes to bloom the yeast.
2. Add about half the flour, salt and melted butter and start it mixing, continuing to add remaining flour until it is fully combined, and a nice, stretchy dough. It will be a bit sticky.
3. Spray a cookie sheet with spray, use parchment paper or a Silpat. Start pulling off pieces and shaping in to the bread sticks. I find it easiest to have a bit of flour on my hands for each one. I can usually get about 14 bread sticks from this, so I use 2 cookie sheets, and put 7 on each.
4. Cover the sticks with a light. clean dish towel and set to rise, about 45 min-1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Once preheated, place cookie sheets in oven and bake for 6-7 minutes.
6. Microwave your garlic butter ingredients until melted. After the 6-7 minutes, brush each bread stick with the garlic butter mixture, then cook and additional 6-7 minutes, until brown on top.
7. Remove from oven, and brush with remaining butter.

Pasta:
Start the water boiling for the pasta, according to package instructions.
1. Chop up you garlic, and add to a large saute pan with heated up olive oil. Allow to sizzle and cook for a few minutes, then add tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Allow to cook a few minutes more, stirring.
2. Cook pasta according to instructions, then drain and put back in pot.
3. Add cream or milk to the tomato mixture and take off the heat.
4. Add to drained pasta, then add 3/4 of both cheeses.
(If you want to add chicken, cook about a pound of chicken, chopped in to bite sized pieces, then add to pot)
5. Mix all ingredients until everything is well coated, then put in an oven safe dish. Cover with remaining cheese.
6. Preheat oven to about 375 degrees F and cook for about 30 minutes, until it is evenly heated through and the cheese on top is melted. If you want the cheese browned, pop it under the broiler for a minute or two.
Serve and enjoy!