Roasted Garlicky Chicken Thighs with Zucchini and Couscous!

When is roasted garlic EVER a bad thing.... and when you start a "one dish wonder" with roasted garlic and chicken, you KNOW your in for a treat! This classic comfort food chicken dish starts with roasted garlic, and this is how easy it is! Chop off the little pointy tip off of the whole garlic clove, drizzle with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and pop it into a foil "pocket! Close up that pocket of garlicky goodness, and pop it in a 375 degree oven. Now, time for some chicken and couscous! I seasoned my bone-in chicken thighs with salt, pepper, garlic powder and thyme, and browned on both sides. This took about 5 minutes on each side, and by no means will fully cook the chicken, but seals in all that super chickeny flavor and moist juicy goodness! After browning the chicken, pull it out and drain the fat. I used a good old fashioned paper towel to soak up the fat and that was it! Leave all the brown bits in the pan, that's all FLAVOR! Using that same pan (as in "one dish wonder") add your chopped zucchini and get them browned up and started, about 3 minutes is all it takes. Meanwhile, partially cook your couscous for about 4 minutes, and drain. After you get some color on that zucchini, deglaze the pan with about a cup of white wine. Any white wine will due, the only rule is... if you wouldn't drink it, then don't cook with it. I just added my "house" pino grigio, and it was fine! Now, scrape all those brown bits off the bottom of the pan. The wine will loosen it all up and add flavor. Then, pop your partially cooked couscous in the pan with the zucchini and cook for about a minute or two, to combine... you know... get the party STARTED!! Add another 2 cups of chicken stock to the pan before adding the chicken thighs back in. This will give us moist, tender, tasty, garlicky chicken, and we will LOVE IT!! Last, pop your browned up chicken thighs in the pan! Nestle them right in, snuggling them into the couscous and sauce, and zucchini! Now, put on the lid (or top with foil) and pop it all into your 375 degree oven with your roasted garlic! Let it cook covered for 20 minutes. I put a cookie sheet under the pan in case I have any spill-over. Now, don't forget about that roasting garlic... it's about to join this chicken party soon, and we will be so happy we invited her!!! After 20-25 minutes, pull both your chicken and your roasting garlic out of the oven. The garlic will be beautifully roasted and smell buttery, and garlicky, and delicious. When cool enough to handle, simply squeeze ALL (yup all of 'em) those cloves of garlic into the chicken and couscous. I used a fork to help, but if the garlic is cool, they will pop right out when you squeeze them. Mix that garlicky goodness with all that couscous and chicken and juices! Now, pop back into the oven, uncovered, for another 10 minutes! Now what this needs, is absolutely nothing, just a fork and a plate... but if you want to send it over the top, add a little toasted pine nuts! Just a sprinkle, and you have some serious Sunday chicken dinner comfort food, fit for a kid!! Dinner Stevie's way... Sunday chicken dinner with all the comforty goodness of roasted garlic and creamy couscous and zucchini! Soooo good!

Super Salad and Roasted Chicken!

So after our big wrestling banquet last night (Great boys and MUCH to be proud of...), we decided to cook something healthy and lean! Not sure, if it was because of the beautiful scale for future "weigh ins" that was gifted to the team, or the fact that every wrestler "weighed in"... but, tonight, Stevie wanted no carbs, and tons of protein. So, tonight it was one of our quick, favorite "go-to" dinners... delicious succulent, oven roasted chicken... done right! Some people think chicken is boring, but if you cook it right, and season it well, you'd eat it every night! And your body would thank you because it's packed with lean protein!! Tonight we took our "buy one get 2 free" chicken breasts and seasoned with some olive oil, and sprinkled generously with salt, fresh ground pepper, garlic powder, and thyme. Simple!! Pop all that chicken into a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes to an hour... depending on how massive your breasts are. These were pretty big...breasts.... so I left them in for about an hour. (So, I just wrote about big... breasts.... while you might think I'm a 13 year old boy in Jr. High... I am NOT... I am a very serious food blogger writing about chicken, now get your mind out of the gutter and pay attention!). When the chicken is cooked let it rest for at least 10 minutes so it stays moist and juicy! I just park it on the counter covered in foil while I put together another quick favorite "go-to" side... salad! Tonight's salad couldn't be easier! Tonight I had some greens and carrots and sliced up a cucumber to go with it. But, to jazz up that salad into a side dish with some street cred, we added some tortellini and edemamae! These are my two favorite things to have on hand, because they take 5 minutes to cook, and make other things special and yummy! Frozen tortellini and edemamae! AND... packed with protein, thank you edemame!! And here are my two MOST FAVORITE THINGS TO HAVE ON HAND!! These two boys... who's effort and discipline this wrestling season left me breathless! WOW! So tonight's super quick, easy, healthy, hearty and delicious dinner is simple chicken and salad...make this chicken for your adorable wrestler, or someone you LOVE!! AND... Your welcome... for getting a peek at these amazing athletes!

Pizza! Super Fast, Super Simple!!

So, I say to the boy.... how does chicken sound? He says... How about pizza? I say, I don't have pizza dough or pizza "stuff"... but I have yeast (and feeling ambitious, I say).... So let's GO FOR IT! So, tonight's pizza dinner started with some fresh from scratch....pizza dough! First, I added 2 teaspoons of yeast to 1 cup of warm water and drizzled in 1 scan teaspoon of honey. We're trying to let the yeast "wake up" and bloom! Let this sit for at least 10 minutes before ready. While the yeast wakes up, combine 3 cups of flour with 2 teaspoons of kosher salt and 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning. Blend the dry together.... I used my food processor fit with a dough blade. When the yeast looks like this (after 10 minutes... all bubbly ready for the pizza party) add it to the processor and let it rip for about 2-3 minutes. This way, the blade and the processor is kneading the dough... soooo efficient! Thank you food processor!! After about 2-3 minutes, place the dough on your work space and knead for another minute. Use some flour so the dough doesn't stick! Next, pop the dough in a greased bowl (with olive oil or spray) and let it rise for about an hour. This is what it looked like going in... cover an let it sit in a warm place (I put my dough in the microwave for an hour). And this is what it looked like an hour later! PIZZA TIME!! Half of this dough will make 1 delicious pizza! Roll out or use your hands to flatten the dough. Tonight I added a few tablespoons of crushed tomatoes for the sauce, sprinkled with some garlic powder, salt, pepper.... And then added some mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese! Cook in a HOT oven (450 degrees for 10-12 minutes) and you have PIZZA!! Super simple pizza.... dough, tomato sauce, cheese... pretty easy! And pretty fast. The dough rises for about an hour, but it cooks in about 10 minutes! Homemade pizza... one of our favorite quick tasty dinners!! GO MAKE SOME PIZZA!!!

Garlicky Shrimp and Broccoli Pepper Pasta!

Friday night... and I just found out my boy's popping in for dinner!! Woohoo! But, Friday's 5 long days from my last shopping trip, so... what do I have? Hey! A bag of frozen shrimp... and fresh red peppers and broccoli... SCORE! Tonight we're having a quick stir fry with chopped fresh red peppers, broccoli, garlic, and shrimp with pasta!! So quick, super tasty and Joe's favorites... happy mom!! Here we go! First, and the step that took the longest was thawing the frozen shrimp in cold water... about 40 minutes. Changing the water a couple of times can help speed along the thawing. Then, I shelled the shrimp, patted them dry, and marinated them in fresh garlic. I could tell you I only used a couple of cloves... but I know you wouldn't believe me. Truth, I used 6, and it was perfect! I added that chopped garlic, some olive oil (about 2-3 tablespoons), salt, fresh ground pepper, and a teaspoon of Italian seasoning (hey, it's March, and I can't even see a patch of grass in my backyard, just a blanket of white... so, sadly, I'm months away from picking some fresh herbs "on the fly"). Dried will do. We also added a few pinches of crushed red pepper flakes for heat! Mix all that seasoning with the shrimp and park it on the counter for at least 15 minutes, up to 30 is fine, right there, on the counter... don't worry! Next, I washed and chopped my fresh red pepper (2) and broccoli, about 1 head, florets only (the tree-top part). While the shrimp was marinating, I cooked some plain ol' pasta, thin spaghetti, according to the package directions. Rice would be fine too, or orzo, cous cous, or even grits! We had pasta tonight... and we loved it! While the pasta cooked, I added about 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil and the chopped veggies into a medium high heat pan, a big one. Cook the veggies for about 2 minutes, stirring while they "bloom"! Then, when veggies had just begun to cook, I spread them out to the perimeter of the pan and freed up the hot part, inside the middle of the pan, to cook my shrimp. Cook shrimp about 2 minutes on each side, no more. Do NOT overcook the shrimp or they will be chewy and rubbery. We like super moist, tender juicy shrimp... and that's what we got! Last, when the shrimp is just barely cooked, I strained and added my pasta and tossed together. Now, remember this trick, the reserved pasta water trick? It's perfect for this dish and here's why... All the flavor in this pasta comes from the garlic and seasoning in the shrimp marinade, and it was awesome!! But the water will help smoothen out all the flavors and prevent the pasta from sticking, clumping, or drying up. I used about half of this cup. It's the perfect "glue" to bring this quick and easy dish together! You could also add cream, which would be delicious, but we wanted to keep this on the lighter side. So... In walks my Joe: "Smells really good, how long?" Cue: Happy Gremlin Mom!! Quick and easy tasty shrimp and pasta... and a boy, my favorite Friday night combo!!

Muffin LOVE!!!

Nothing says: I love you!! Like a fresh baked muffin! Tonight's love comes courtesy of the banana! Who will you love... with the delicious home made muffin? To most of you, this looks like a bad, toss-it, gross, kinda banana. But these bananas are PERFECT for baking!! Brown skin means sugar and flavor!!! So here's how we made tomorrow's delicious breakfast love! First combine dry ingredients: 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon salt and whisk together! Now, for the wet ingredients: I mixed my 3 brown bananas with 1/2 cup canola oil and 1/2 cup of sugar until combined (hand mixer)! Then I added 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 2 eggs, and 1/4 cup of milk, and mixed some more. Then, add the dry to the wet ingredients until just combined! Spoon into muffin tins. I lined mine with muffin cups, but you can just spray the muffin pan with non stick spray if you want (I actually like this better). Cook these muffins in a 375 degree oven for 25-30 minutes. These muffins took exactly 25 minutes, and they were perfect! Nothing could be quicker, yummier, or deliver more love than a home made muffin!! You can jazz up these muffins by adding chocolate chips, blueberries, walnuts, or any flavorful extras that you like! We loved these... just the way they are!! Super simple and full of banana love!

Boys Home For Dinner!! Strip Steak and Squash!

How I miss having a house full of boys to feed!! With two out of my 3 boys, grown and gone (sad face)... I only have one boy left to cook for... but tonight... Joe's in the house! So we busted out some beautiful bone-in strip steaks... Fred Flintstone style... along with our favorite steak side, butternut squash! While not fancy, this is one of my favorite flavor combos. If you haven't had grilled steak (rib eye or strip steak with butternut squash... you should!) Super simple, and prepared just the way mother nature, and flavor purists would love. Now, my grill... a casualty of this years freakin' stormy, relentlessly cold, snowy winter... is out of commission (ugh!). So I had to prepare these beautiful strip steaks inside, on top of my crappy stove, in a pan. UGH! If I can make these steaks taste good in this pan... on this stove, yours will be amazing on a grill, or in a grill pan! I coated each side with olive oil, and used my favorite flavor short cut, Montreal Steak Rub. Then, I got my pan screamin', smokin' hot (medium high-high heat) and dropped those enormous steaks in. I let them sit for 5 minutes on the first side, then, I turned and let them cook on the second side for 4 more minutes. My steaks were freakin' huge (maybe an inch), and 5 minutes on each side will get you to rare. add 1 more minute per side more medium rare, and two more minutes per side for well done. While the steak was smokin' up the house.... the squash was quietly boiling away... peeled and chopped, and took about 20 minutes until fork tender. After boiling the squash, I drained the water, added 1 tablespoon of butter, and some salt(1 teaspoon, kosher) and fresh ground pepper. I mashed with a potato masher, and added a tiny bit of milk to smoothen it up and make it creamy... yummy... and ready for my belly!!! Now, after the steak rests for 10 minutes (the hard part)... here's dinner Joe's way... One huge steak with simple butternut squash on the side. So delicious and super satisfying! Dinner Stevie's way... slightly less steak... with warm creamy squash! Delicious, and totally satisfied our Friday night meat craving for this month! Boys in the house!!! Happy Gremlin Mom!!