Hump Day Treat Archives - Page 4 of 4

Hump Day Treat – BANZA

September 14, 2016

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It’s Wednesday so you know what that means? Hump Day Treat! I have truly become Chef Jodi these past few months and have challenged myself to try all different kinds of recipes and vegetables that I normally wouldn’t have tried in the past at all. I have always been a big pasta girl and I love making spaghetti, lasagna and everything in between. I would use whole wheat pasta when I was in the mood, but sometimes I just didn’t feel like it or didn’t want to run to the store to get some. My new obsession and alternative to eating pasta has been chickpea pasta! You heard me correctly: chickpea pasta! It looks like pasta but it is made from chickpeas.I heard about Banza (chickpea pasta) months ago while shopping at Fairway when they were giving out free samples, but I wasn’t really interested in it at the time. This time when shopping the store, I saw that it was on sale: 3 boxes for $5! What a steal!!! Another healthy tip I have learned is instead of using extra virgin olive oil I use coconut oil. Not only is it a healthier substitute, but honestly you can hardly taste the difference. With certain things I still use extra virgin olive oil, but the majority of the time when I cook I use coconut oil. A staple dish I make now with my chickpea pasta is this one below.

Ingredients:

1 cup of Banza pasta

1 tomato (sliced into small cubes)

1 thin chicken breast

some garlic

¼ sliced Vidalia onion

¼ cup of sliced mushrooms

½ of sliced zucchini

Coconut oil

In a frying pan I put coconut oil and a spoon full of garlic that I buy in a glass jar from Fairway. I let that heat up a little in the pan and then I saute the cut onions. My favorite thing is grilled onions so I am sucker for putting it in the majority of my dishes. Then I add the mushrooms and the sliced zucchini and I saute it all together until it has little golden brown all over it. While I am cooking the vegetables in the pan, I am also boiling the water for the banza pasta which takes about 8 minutes to cook. Once all the veggies are done I add the sliced chicken which depending on your personal preference you can cut into strips or into cubes. In a separate bow,l I put the cooked banza pasta with the sliced tomatoes and then once the chicken is done pour all of the ingredients in the pan into the bowl and mix it all up!!! Sometimes I will add a little bit more of coconut oil if it needs it to cover everything or you can also add from Trader Joe’s this Honey Thyme Balsamic Vinaigrette (1 tsp.) of it and just mix it all together!
Hope you all enjoy!

(image taken from google)

Hump Day Treat: Garlic Chicken Pesto Pasta

May 25, 2016

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It’s Wednesday and you know what that means? Time for a hump day treat recipe that I am sure you are all going to love. I am constantly trying to find new recipes and new things to make that are different from my everyday things that I cook. I am currently really into eating pesto, but even though people say pesto is really easy to make I still buy the jar of fresh pesto from the store. Here is a recipe that I saw from Tasty on Facebook that is Garlic Chicken pesto with whole-wheat pasta.

Ingredients:

1 box of whole-wheat pasta (bow ties or penne)

1 box of cherry tomatoes, cut up

1 tablespoon of canola oil

2 chicken breasts sliced thinly

2 tablespoons of garlic chopped

½ tablespoon of kosher salt

½ tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup heavy cream

¼ cup of pesto

Parmesan cheese to garnish

Directions

Heat a pot full of water with a little salt in it for the pasta
Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box
Drain the pasta and leave on the side for when you are done cooking the chicken
Heat the oil in the pan
Once the oil is hot put the chicken with the salt and pepper and garlic to cook until the chicken is browned
Once the chicken is browned,mix in the heavy cream and pesto until everything is evenly combined
Cook the chicken to a boil until the sauce has reduced for about 8 minutes
In a bowl toss the pasta, cherry tomatoes and continue to stir until everything is evenly coated
Sprinkle with a little bit of parmesan cheese
ENJOY!

(picture taken from google)

Hump Day Treat: Baked Brie

May 18, 2016

Hump Day Treat!!

One of my favorite things to make that my mom makes is baked brie. I never really liked brie as a child, but as soon as I had this, I was hooked. It is a great, quick and easy, appetizer for when you are having dinner parties at your house. It is also really easy to reheat the next day if you want to eat it for seconds!

Ingredients:

Small bowl

Pastry Brush

Cookie Sheet / Cookie Pan

Parchment Paper

Pam Cooking Spray

1 Egg

1 Package of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

1 Round Brie

1 Jar of Raspberry Preserves

Directions:

Pre heat the oven to 375 Degrees
Take either a cookie sheet or a pan and line in with parchment paper
In a small bowl beat the one egg and set it to the side for later use
Open the package of crescent rolls. There is usually 8 rolls per package. Use 4 of the rolls and don’t disconnect them so it looks like a big square. Place the square on the parchment paper. Make it a little flat and also insure that is all smooth and connected.
Place the round Brie in the center of the dough.
Open the jar of raspberry preserves and covers the top of the Brie with it. You don’t want it to overflow over the edges but you want a few big spoonfuls so that way when you eat the Brie every spoonful has some jelly as well.
Take the edges of the crescent roll from the bottom and wrap it around the sides. Take the remaining crescent rolls and separate them. Use the separate crescent rolls and criss cross it from edge to edge of the brie so it looks like a braided material. You want the whole brie to be covered in the crescent roll.
Now take the egg and use a small pastry brush. If you don’t have a pastry brush you can use your hands as well, but it will be a bit messy. Cover the outside of the dough with the egg. This will give the baked brie a shine on the outside and also cook very nicely.
Place into the oven that was already pre heated to 375 for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes check the brie and if it is fully brown on the outside you can take it out. Personally I like to check it after 30 minutes then depending on if the cheese is oozing out or not I will leave it in until its oozing just a little bit.
Let the brie sit out for about 10 minutes then serve with any crackers or without if you’d like.

Enjoy!

Hump Day Treat: S’mores Dip

April 20, 2016

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Happy Wednesday!!! Today’s hump day treat is one of my favorite things from my childhood: s’mores! Now, I am always up for mixing things up even with something so classic, traditional and easy as a s’more. The new thing that everyone is doing is s’mores dips! It is an easy way to make something fun for when you have some friends over and also for some of us who aren’t fortunate enough to have access to a campfire or even a fireplace to roast our marshmallows.

Ingredients:

1 package of Nestles toll house semi sweet morsels ( you can also use Hershey kisses if you want)

1 package of marshmallows

1 box of graham crackers

1 skillet or oven safe pan

Pam baking spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. While oven is preheating get all of your ingredients together.

Spray your pan with pam baking spray (this is something that I do lightly just so that it’s an easier clean up)

Pour the chocolate chips or Hershey kisses into skilled or oven safe pan. Make sure the entire bottom of the pan is covered with chocolate

Cover the chocolate chips with the marshmallows. If anyone does the marshmallows for thanksgiving you know that marshmallows expand so no need to make sure that they are precisely touching each other just that you don’t see a lot of chocolate from above.

Place the skillet or oven safe pan into the oven for 8 – 10 minutes

Remove from the oven when the marshmallows are toasty brown

Wait about a minute as you don’t want to burn yourself but place ontop of something on the table in order to serve while hot

Open the graham crackers and dunk to your hearts content!

ENJOY!

(image from Buzzfeed)