Ingredients

• 4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
• 1 cup Brown Rice
• 1/2 cup Butter
• 3 stalks of Celery
• 1/2 a package of Jimmy Dean Pork Sausage (regular or mmm maple flavored. Defrost if necessary.)
• 2 medium-large Onions
• 10 Mushrooms
• 1 cup Breadcrumbs (I used unseasoned or Panko)
• 1 clove of Garlic
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 tbsp Fresh or Dried Thyme

First off, measure out the 1 cup of rice…

and 2 cups water and put it in a small pot. One cup of rice seems small, but remember, rice bulks up significantly with the water! General rule of thumb- 1 part rice, 2 parts water.Sprinkle in pinch of salt and a pat of butter. I don’t use rice with a shorter cooking time (minute rice, I think it’s called?) so it takes about an hour. Cook to your package cooking instructions.

Next, chop up all the delicious veggies. I really love the flavor added by the celery and mushrooms.

You can cut the chicken before or after you prepare the stuffing, or better yet, have someone else cut it while you are sauteing the vegetables! Take a VERY sharp knife (and be very careful- watch those fingers) and cut the breasts in half lengthwise.

Next, add the vegetables to the skillet with some olive oil and the chopped garlic.

Saute until the celery is softened, but not mushy.

Add the sausage and break it up as it cooks.

Cook until the sausage is no longer pink.

Once the rice is finished (all the water is absorbed), add the rice to the veggies in the skillet and mix together. I like to melt 1/8 cup of butter and mix it in.

Spoon the stuffing onto the open chicken breast.

Fold the chicken half over and pin with toothpicks or skewers. Drizzle some more melted butter on top of the chicken and then sprinkle with breadcrumbs and thyme.

Bake in the oven on 350 until the chicken is no longer pink in the center and the juice runs out clear. (About 15-20 minutes depending on your oven.)

MMMM Enjoy. It’s good. I promise!

This recipe also uses some white wine. Another favorite of Mom’s. You know that saying “I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food”…Yeah that’s about my Mom.

Great dinner anytime and great as leftovers too…

Ingredients:

• 2 Fresh Broccoli Crowns
• 5-10 Fresh Mushrooms
• 1 Onion
• 1 Red (or orange) Bell Pepper
• 3 Garlic Cloves
• 1/4 cup of White Wine
• 2 Boneless Chicken Breasts
• Salt
• Pepper
• Goya Adobo Seasoning
• Olive Oil
• 1 Box of Any Pasta (this dish works well with penne, bow ties and other smaller piece pastas)
• 1-2 cups Grated Pecorino Romano Cheese

First things first- put water on to boil for the broccoli. We use a metal pot that has a strainer that fits inside. This way, we boil the broccoli in this water, and can save the water to then boil the pasta. If you don’t have a pot like this though, it’s alright- you can strain out the broccoli with a handled strainer, or just dump the water into a colander.

After the water is on to boil, turn on your electric grill (we have a good ol’ George Foreman). If you don’t have one of these, you can put the chicken breast in the broiler instead- or buy a grill below…

Trim the chicken breast and rinse it. Season it with Goya seasoning, salt and pepper and a little olive oil on each side. Grill the chicken for 7-10 minutes, or until it is no longer pink in the center.

Chop it up and put it to the side.

While the chicken is cooking and the water is heating up, chop up the bell pepper, onion and mushrooms. Keep them separate.

Cut the broccoli into equal sized spears and peel the stems so they are tender after cooking.

When the water comes to a rolling boil, put the broccoli in for only about 4 minutes. You just want the broccoli to cook slightly, but still remain somewhat crisp.

While that is cooking, heat up some olive oil in the skillet. Once hot, add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper.

***Remember to watch the broccoli. If it is ready before it is time to add it below, just strain it out and put it to the side. Remember to keep the water on the side for the pasta. Once you take out the broccoli, you can bring the water back up to a boil, and once boiling, add the pasta (with plenty of salt) and cook to package directions.

Add the wine to the mushrooms and saute for a few minutes until mushrooms are tender but still firm.

Remove the mushrooms and put them to the side. Add some more olive oil. Once hot again, add the onions and peppers and saute until tender.

Add two cloves of garlic from the garlic press. We add this near the end so it does not burn.

Add the mushrooms, the broccoli (if it’s ready) and the chopped chicken.

Saute for under a minute just to warm everything back up. Season with salt, pepper, more olive oil, and plenty of pecorino romano cheese.

***Remember the pasta! Remove from the water whenever it’s ready…simply pour on a platter and spoon the vegetables and chicken on top.

Serve immediately on a big platter and enjoy!

You are probably asking yourself, “what is goop?” Goop is my family’s word for a stewy, ragu-like concoction. Basically, the kind of dish that you need bread or biscuits with because you have to dip the juices up. I am the butt of jokes when it comes to goop dishes because I will load my plate up, and still dip in the main dish. I like to call it a self-preservation technique…basically, I just love to eat

The great thing about goop is you can make it with anything really. For example, we altered this edition by adding our leftover potato leek soup from a couple nights ago. We are a big leftover family. Make enough for a few nights, then you always have something to munch on, or add to the next nights meal somehow!

Ingredients:

• 1-2 small Roasting Chickens
• 5 medium Potatoes
• 1 large Onion
• 1 15oz can of Sylvia’s Specially-Seasoned Field Peas with Snaps
• 1 15oz can of Sweet Peas
• 1 15oz can of or 2 cups of Baby Carrots
• Salt
• Pepper
• Paprika
• Olive Oil
• 2 1/2 cups Chicken or Vegetable Stock
• 1-2 cups Leftover Potato Leek Soup (Optional)

Preheat the oven (on bake) to 350°F.

Chop the onion(s) and potatoes. In a large roasting pan, saute the chopped onions and potatoes in some olive oil with salt and pepper on medium heat. We used the roast pan on the bridge burner of our stove.

Add the carrots, peas and seasoned Sylvia’s Beans. You don’t have to drain the liquid in the cans, add it right in!

Saute this mixture until the onions begin to soften.

While the onions etc are sauteing, season the small roasting chickens with salt, pepper and paprika.

Add the chicken broth and, if you’re using it, the leftover potato leek soup.

Once the oven reaches 350° insert a meat thermometer into the chicken and bake the chicken and goop until the inside of the chicken reaches 150°.

This recipe is great with biscuits or fresh bread! Slice some chicken and dredge it through the delicious stew with biscuits and mmmmm.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 medium-large Potatoes (white)
• 3-4 large Leeks
• 1 Ham Steak
• Bulb of Roasted Garlic
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup White Wine
• 1/4 cup Flat Leaf Parsley
• 4 cups (1 quart) Chicken Stock/Broth
• 4 cups (1 quart) Water
• 3 tbsp Butter (room temperature)
• 1 tbsp Flour
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive Oil

The first step is to roast the garlic, and this takes a good hour, so make sure you either do this earlier in the day or at least before you start anything else.

Chop the potatoes, keeping the skin on, into small chunks about 1/2-1″ thick. Put to the side.

To prepare the leeks, chop off the root ends. Then chop off the greener top stalks.

I like to chop the leeks first, and then soak them to get out the sand. Mom on the other hand, she’s a little more anal. She likes to scrub the leeks before AND after they’re chopped. Whatever you have time for or prefer…

Chop the leeks in even rings.

Put them all in a bowl of water and agitate, separating the rings to get all the sand out. Strain out the water, and repeat if you like. Leeks tend to be fairly sandy. Put the leeks to the side.

Roughly chop the parsley and set aside.

Place a tbsp of olive oil in either a skillet, or roasting/soup pan and heat it up. We use an oblong deep pan so we can keep all the ingredients in one pan and not lose ANY flavor.

Once the oil is hot (medium heat), put the ham steak in and brown on each side. You don’t want to burn the ham steak, just brown each side and reserve some of the fat in the pan.

Once the ham steak is cooked, take it out and put it to the side to cool a bit. De-glaze your pan with the white wine and scrape up the ham bits to incorporate into the mixture.

Then add the leaks and coat with a little olive oil.

Chop the ham steak and return it to the pan with the leeks.

Add the potatoes, chicken stock, and water.

Turn the heat up to high and simmer the soup for 20 minutes.

While this is simmering, whip up the flour and butter into a little paste.

About 20 minutes into the soup simmer, add this paste a little at a time, making sure it dissolves. Add the roasted garlic paste.

Continue to simmer for another 15-20 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft.

Take the soup off the heat and mash together with a stick blender. If you don’t have this magical appliance, you can use a potato masher or a slotted spoon…OR you could buy a stick blender below…

Add the chopped parsley as a garnish, and enjoy! MMMM.

Delicious!!

Ingredients:

• 3-5 Boneless Pork Chops
• 1 cup Flour
• 1/4 cup Chopped Parsley
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Goya Adobo powder
• 2 gloves garlic

Add salt, pepper and Goya powder to the flour to season. Dredge your pork chops through the flour.

Then pat on some chopped parsley.

Heat up some olive oil in the skillet with chopped garlic.

Simply sautee your chops for 4-7 minutes on medium-high.

Flip once, your garlic will get crispy and the chops will be a lovely golden color.

Yum, enjoy! Goes great with a light salad.

To make any kind of roast, it’s important to remember that meat keeps cooking after you take it out of the oven. Because of that, it’s really important to use a meat thermometer – especially for beef if you want it rare and delicious. This roast beef is not any kind of intricately seasoned dish, but the timing and temperature ensures the entire roast is cooked to perfection.

Ingredients:

• 1 (Or 2 or 3 or 4) Eye Round Cut Roast Beef
• 1 tbsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Pepper
• 1 tbsp Goya Adobo seasoning
• 1-2 cups water (for the bottom of the roast pan)

Preheat the over to convection bake 350°F.

Take the rack out of your roast pan and pour the seasoning in the bottom and mix together.

Unwrap the meat and simply roll it around to cover it in spices. Once it’s covered, return the rack to the pan, stick in the meat thermometer, and put the roast in the pan.

Fill the bottom of the pan with water, just deep enough not to touch the meat. The water helps disperse the heat in the pan better and keeps the pan from torquing under the heat of the oven.

Set the thermometer to beep when the inside of the roast is 118°.

Take the roast out, slice, and enjoy

Leftover update: If you make a cup of white rice, or even take some leftover Chinese white rice, add it to your leftover soup in a pot and warm up on medium low heat- it turns into a delicious thicker stew!

The Ingredients:

• A Ham Bone and any extra Ham scraps
• 8 oz of Baby Carrots (about half a bag)
• 1 Onion
• 1 16oz bag of Goya 16 Bean Soup Mix, or your choice of equivalent uncooked beans
• 4 stalks of Celery
• 4-5 Chicken Bullion Cubes
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• 16 cups Water (8 cups to soften beans, 8 cups for soup)

Take 8 cups of water and put them on to boil in a soup pot. Once the water comes to a rolling boil, put in the uncooked beans and immediately turn off the heat. Let the beans soak for an hour. You could also put the beans to soak in cold water overnight, but this way is faster .

While the beans are soaking, chop up the onion, wash and chop the celery and wash the carrots. We like to use the leafy parts of the celery stalk too because it adds more flavor.

Once the beans are ready, drain them in a colander in the sink. Rinse them afterward and get all the dirty water off of your nice clean, cooked beans.

Rinse out the soup pot and put it back on the stove with some olive oil on medium heat. Sautee the onions, carrots and celery for about 3 minutes. You don’t want them to get soft, just cook a little.

Add the ham bone, drained beans…

8 cups of fresh water…

bullion cubes and 2 bay leaves.

Stir the mixture together and simmer on low heat for 1 1/2 hours or until the vegetables are soft.

If you’ve added a little too much oil to your soup when you sauteed the vegetables, you can try this handy trick…

Serve the soup piping hot with some toast or crackers.

Enjoy!

They are great right out of the oil or 3 days later right out of the fridge. If you have the time, make a lot at once and you have snacks/lunches/meal options for a whole week. You can freeze them too. The ingredients below are approximated. Honestly, I’ve NEVER measured to make cutlets before.

Ingredients

• 6 Boneless Chicken Breast
• 1 cup Flour
• 3-4 cups Bread Crumbs (Italian style are yummy, but if you want to make buffalo chicken, you might want to use plain, unseasoned breadcrumbs)
• 3-5 Eggs
• 1/4-1/2 cup Milk
• 1/4ish cup of grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• Salt
• Black Pepper
• Red Pepper
• Peanut Oil – Why Peanut Oil? Check this out…

Start by rinsing your chicken and trimming off the fat. Slicing the chicken is fairly important- If they are too thick, they won’t cook correctly. I cannot stress enough the importance of a very sharp knife to cut your chicken. Take the breast and, with the entire palm of your hand, put pressure on the thickest part.

Start slicing on this end, slowly, and be careful NOT to cut your hand. If your knife is sharp enough and the breast is thick enough, you can even cut it into 3 thinner pieces. Once your chicken is all sliced…

You can prepare the breading workstation. I like to use 3 loaf pans because they are the perfect size and depth.

Pour the flour in the first pan/dish and mix in salt and pepper.

Crack 3 eggs into the second pan/dish. Mix in the milk and grated cheese. If your eggs are still thick, you can add some more milk or some water.

Pour the breadcrumbs in the third pan/dish. Add some crushed red pepper (it adds a great kick!).

At this point, you can pour the oil in your pan (about 1 1/2 to 2 inches deep) or prepare your deep fryer and start heating the oil up. However, if you are making a lot of cutlets, you may want to wait so the oil is not too hot/does not burn.

Now, simply take the chicken, coat it evenly in flour on both sides…

Dip it into the egg, coating it evenly…(I like to use my fingers, but a using a fork is less messy)

Then finally coat it in breadcrumbs. If breadcrumbs don’t stick to a part, simply dunk that part back in the egg and then back into the breadcrumbs.

Coat all of your cutlets. If you have extra egg and breadcrumbs, you can go back through and double bread some.

Here’s what they look like all breaded:

Now, if you haven’t prepared the oil- go ahead and do this now. While it is heating up, you can clean up this huge mess!

Also, if you have trouble with your breadcrumbs falling off the cutlets, you can refrigerate them for 10-20 minutes. This will help the breadcrumbs from falling off in the oil.

Now, I like to make some tiny nugget-like cutlets out of the small-barely-hanging-on parts of the chicken breast. Bread them like the others, and then you can test the heat of the oil by placing them in gently, don’t splash the oil! When they start bubbling and turning golden brown, the oil is at a good temperature. If you have a thermometer, the oil should be at about 350°F.

It should be around medium to medium-high on the stove top. Place no more than 3 cutlets in at a time, remember, the more cutlets in the oil, the lower the oil temperature. Also, don’t let them overlap. I usually flip them once or twice. It takes about 3-5 minutes in the oil, or until they are a rich golden brown. Let the oil rest for a minute in between rounds of frying to let it heat back up to the right temperature.

Remember, the cook always gets to test out the first cutlet.

Make sure you use plenty of paper towels to soak up the extra oil. I like to pat each round of cutlets as they come out of the oil, then with a layer of paper towels on the bottom, stack them in a baking dish. Put them in the oven on bake at about 200°F. This just soaks up the rest of the oil, keeps them warm, and makes sure any thick parts are thoroughly cooked.

There are so many different things you can do with a good chicken cutlet:

• Chicken Parmesan
• Chicken Cutlet Sandwiches (Check out the Number 9)
• Chicken Cutlet Caesar Salad
• Buffalo Chicken Salad
• Buffalo Chicken Wraps
• Etc Etc Etc

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 4 Boneless Chicken Breasts
• 1 tbsp Honey Mustard
• 1 tsp Honey
• 1/2 tbsp Spicy Brown Mustard
• 2 tsp Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Olive Oil
• 1 tsp Ground Ginger
• 1/4 loaf stale Italian Bread
• 3 Gala Apples
• 2 White Onions
• Salt, Pepper

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Clean the fat and skin off the chicken.

To make the mixture for the chicken, blend the honey mustard, honey, brown sugar, olive oil, ground ginger, and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Take a small spatula and spread this saucy deliciousness over the tops of the chicken breast.

Take the Italian bread and cut it in half lengthwise. Toast it in the oven as it is preheating. Toast it just until its crunchy and breaks apart easily; do not burn it. Take it out of the oven, cut it into cubes, and make it into breadcrumbs in the food processor.

Take the crumbs and cover the mustard smeared side of the chicken breasts. Pat it down to make sure it sticks.

Cut up each of the apples and onions into 8 pieces. make sure you discard the apple seeds and stems.

Lay the cut apples and onions in the bottom of a shallow roasting pan.

Lay the chicken breast on top of the apples and onions.

Cook for 25-35 minutes, or until the inside of the chicken is no longer pink.

Serve each breast on its own plate on top of a generous spoonful of apples and onions.

Happy Eating!