Make-Fast Mondays: Pesto Chicken Polenta Bowls with Artichoke Hearts and Spinach

Nothing beats the taste of fresh, homemade pesto, but that doesn’t mean you can’t keep a store-bought jar or two stashed in the cabinet for those times when you want pesto in a pinch. Crack open a jar of your favorite store-bought variety and give this recipe a try. Wondering what to do with the rest of the jar? Find just a few ideas for what you can do with the leftover green goodness here.

Pesto Chicken Polenta Bowls with Artichoke Hearts and Spinach 
1 quart chicken broth
1 cup polenta
2 bay leaves
¼ cup grated Parmesan, plus extra for garnish
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into chunks
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
14 ounce can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
3-4 tablespoons pesto
1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
8 ounces chopped spinach

Bring broth to a boil in a large saucepan. Gradually add polenta and bay leaves, stirring for a minute, before reducing heat to low and covering the saucepan. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring the polenta for a minute every 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat, remove bay leaves, and stir in the grated Parmesan. 

Once polenta is simmering, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until chicken is completely cooked. Transfer chicken to a plate and set aside.

Heat remaining olive oil and add mushrooms to the pan, cooking until mushrooms are slightly softened. Add the chicken, artichoke hearts, pesto and red pepper flakes to the pan, stirring once or twice, until everything’s nice and warm. Add spinach and continue to cook for just a minute longer, until spinach wilts but is still a vibrant green, and everything’s got an even coating of pesto sauce. Divide polenta evenly among 6 bowls, followed by the pesto chicken mixture. Garnish with Parmesan and enjoy!

Make-Fast Mondays: Bratwurst with Beans and Greens

I’ve been firing up the oven a lot lately, the direct result of a long string of gloomy, rainy days (but please keep it coming, El Niño). Chase the gray away by making this delicious, cozy, quick meal!

Bratwurst with Beans and Greens 
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
12 ounces bratwurst or smoked sausage, sliced (I used Saag’s Natural Chicken Bratwurst)
3 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
3 cups diced tomatoes (from two cans; you’ll have a little bit extra)
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 cups chopped greens (I used a mix of kale and spinach)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a skillet or other oven-proof pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for a minute. Add sausage and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add beans, tomatoes, smoked paprika, thyme and pepper flakes. Cook for another 3-3 minutes so everything’s nice and warm. Remove skillet from heat and stir in the greens. Season with salt and pepper, then put skillet in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

The Great Green Smoothie Experiment

I’ve become quite the lean, mean, green smoothie-making machine. Smoothies are no stranger to our breakfast routine, but in the past they’ve been heavy on the fruit. Well, times are a-changing and we’re trying to work more vegetables into the mix. A few days I brought home a cornucopia of produce and started what we’ll call The Great Green Smoothie Experiment -- tossing a different mix of vegetables and fruit into the blender each morning aiming to create something that doesn’t taste like a sippable salad. We’re three weeks in and no epic fails yet!

A few notes about this ongoing quest for green-smoothie greatness:

1. Don’t overthink it or worry about exact measurements when adding your ingredients to the blender. 
2. A little prep work goes a long way. If you’re making smoothies every morning, spend a few minutes cleaning, peeling and chopping your ingredients in advance so all you need to do in the morning is throw some goodies in the blender. 
3. Water is your friend. No need for juice when you’re working with flavorful fresh fruits and vegetables! 
4. Each of the following recipes yields about 32 ounces (enough for two substantial smoothies). 
5. The ingredients for these smoothies vary but the directions remain the same: combine all ingredients in a blender, and blend until smooth. 

Green Smoothie No. 1 
1 ½ cups cold water
1 green apple, cored and sliced
1 cucumber, peeled
1 tablespoon peeled ginger
1 tablespoon flax seeds
2 handfuls green kale
2 handfuls spinach

Green Smoothie No. 2 
1 ½ cups cold water
1 navel orange, peeled
1 banana, peeled
1-2 tablespoons peeled ginger
1 cucumber, peeled
4 handfuls spinach
4 romaine leaves

Green Smoothie No. 3 
2 cups cold water
1 red apple, cored and sliced
1 Asian pear, cored and sliced
½ cucumber, peeled
1 carrot, peeled
4 handfuls spinach

Green Smoothie No. 4 
1 cup cold water
1 red apple, cored and sliced
1 tablespoon peeled ginger
Juice of 1 lemon
2 stalks celery
4 handfuls spinach
2 romaine leaves

Green Smoothie No. 5 
1 cup cold water
1 red apple, cored and sliced
1 stalk celery
1 banana, peeled
4 handfuls green kale
1 tablespoon flax seeds
Splash of lemon juice

What goes into your favorite green smoothie?

Shrimp Enchiladas with Spinach and Goat Cheese

There are days when I crave an enchilada oozing with melted cheddar and covered with red sauce. But then there are days (and enchiladas) like this, and they’re just as delicious.

Shrimp Enchiladas with Spinach and Goat Cheese 
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 7-ounce can diced green chiles
1 pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails removed, chopped
6 ounces baby spinach, chopped
1 28-ounce can green chile enchilada sauce
3 ounces chevre (soft goat cheese)
12 corn tortillas
2 cups grated Monterey jack cheese
Fresh chopped cilantro, for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, onions, cumin and oregano and sauté until tender, about 3 or 4 minutes. Add shrimp and chiles and cook until shrimp are pink. Remove from heat and stir in spinach. Use a butter knife or spoon to crumble the chevre over the shrimp mixture.

Warm enchilada sauce in a saucepan over medium heat. Ladle enough enchilada sauce to lightly coat the bottom of a 9-by-13 glass baking dish. To assemble each enchilada, dip a tortilla in sauce until lightly coated, add a scoop of the shrimp mixture to the center of the tortilla, roll the tortilla and place, seam side down, in prepared baking dish. Top with remaining enchilada sauce and grated Monterey jack, cover with foil, and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cheese has melted. Remove from oven, garnish with cilantro, and serve.

Vegetarian? Swap out the shrimp for a pound of sliced cremini mushrooms!

A different-yet-delicious take on lasagna

While grocery shopping the other night I passed by some rotisserie chickens that smelled particularly good. Before I knew it, I had tossed one in my shopping cart and started formulating a plan to make the following dish using meat from the ready-to-eat bird. Pesto makes everything taste better, including the jars of alfredo sauce that also ended up in my cart. The pesto and alfredo tasted so good together that I found myself sampling the sauce a few times (quality control, right?) while assembling what turned out to be quite a winner of a midweek meal.

Creamy Pesto Chicken Lasagna
2 15-ounce jars alfredo sauce
 ½ cup prepared pesto
 12 oz. bag frozen artichokes, thawed
3 cups cooked chicken meat, diced
9 lasagna noodles
1 bunch spinach, rinsed and chopped
8 oz. cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 cup grated mozzarella (optional)

 Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bring large pot of water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8-10 minutes, drain and rinse with cold water. Whisk alfredo and pesto together in a bowl. Pour ¼ cup sauce into 9-inch-by-13-inch baking dish. begin layering remaining ingredients, starting with three lasagna noodles and continuing with chicken, spinach, artichoke hearts, mushrooms and sauce. Ingredients should be enough for two layers, topped with three final noodles and sauce. I noted that cheese is optional with this recipe because I think the lasagna has plenty going for it already without the cheese. If you want cheese, sprinkle it on top of the lasagna before covering the dish loosely with aluminum foil. Cheese or no cheese, you’re going to want to bake the lasagna for 30-40 minutes. Remove the lasagna from the oven and allow it to sit for a few minutes before serving.

Quick, easy and veg-friendly weeknight winners

Some of the tastiest meals I came up with during our (now long-forgotten) vegetarian month were quite quick and simple.

For example, I made a speedy tomato sauce that worked well with back-to-back weeknight dinners. All it took was one 28-ounce can of plum tomatoes, one red bell pepper, diced, and a handful of garlic cloves, minced. I crushed the tomatoes by hand and simmered them (and the juice in which they were canned) with the pepper and garlic for a few minutes before puréeing everything.

This sauce tasted great simmered with some sliced Tofurkey Italian Sausage and a can of cannellini beans (rinsed and drained), served atop a huge plateful of spinach which I wilted with a couple dashes of soy sauce and some red pepper flakes.

The sauce tasted equally delicious the next night with Trader Joe’s Meatless Meatballs and whole wheat spaghetti.

Some other successful veg-friendly meals that I’d make again even if I wasn’t trying to avoid meat:

• Trader Joe’s Masala Simmer Sauce heated up with a can of chickpeas and a few handfuls of fresh spinach and poured over brown rice. A piece of masala tandoori naan (also from TJ’s) on the side was great for soaking up the sauce.
• Sandwiches with Trader Joe’s Masala Veggie Patties (toasted in a frying pan), tandoori naan, micro greens and spicy hummus
• Quinoa with Black Beans and Cilantro, wrapped in wheat tortillas 
• And assembling this trusty lasagna took just a couple minutes without cooking up any Italian sausage.

May 29 Salad

The delicious champagne vinegar I mentioned the other day tastes great on its own but even better with a little bit of olive oil, Dijon and lemon juice. This sweet vinaigrette popped atop a heap of spinach, goat cheese crumbles, shaved almonds and dried cranberries.

Orange vinaigrette
¼ cup orange muscat champagne vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon Dijon
¼ cup olive oil
Whisk first three ingredients in a bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in oil.

May 9 Salad

I fondly recall picking strawberries in my Nana Dollie’s backyard. We’d bring the berries into the house and after we washed them and she’d let us dip our harvest in powdered sugar. It was absolute heaven.

I’ve always been a fan of strawberries, and they’re showing up quite a bit in the produce department these days. So why not put them in a salad? This salad of baby spinach, sliced strawberries, goat cheese crumbles and grilled chicken with a touch of balsamic vinaigrette hit the spot. The most time-consuming element of this particular salad was allowing time for the chicken to marinade in a quick mix of olive oil and balsamic vinegar before going on the grill.

Learning to simmer down thanks to slow cooker

Slow cooking is an exercise in patience for yours truly.

I have, on numerous occasions, ended up with a runny sauce, crunchy pasta and casseroles with lukewarm centers because I am an impatient cook. I am so eager to reap the rewards of time spent in the kitchen that I don’t always spend enough time in front of the stove.

I’m learning to be patient thanks to my Crock-Pot. It’s nothing fancy, a gently used model my mom had stashed away in the garage, but it gets the job done. I’m getting better at plugging it in, filling the pot and leaving its contents to simmer for six to eight hours. I even trust the pot enough to leave it on overnight.

My slow cooker has a 3.5-quart capacity, which yields plenty of food for the two of us, which includes leftovers. There have been a couple times when I’ve scaled recipes back because they’re meant for bigger pots, but no disasters yet.

The following recipe comes from one of two slow-cooking books I picked up at the library the other day. The author’s original recipe called for a 4-quart pot, and I did scale things back slightly by using a smaller package of spinach. The original recipe called for ground beef, which we don’t really eat at home, and white converted rice, but I wanted to give brown converted rice a try instead. I also opted to omit the scallions and add minced onions and Italian seasoning. Next time I’ll probably also add a teaspoon of red pepper flakes for a little kick.

This is one of the speedier slow-cooker recipes I’ve come across. This dish would be just as easy to cook on the stove top in a quarter of the time, but where’s the working-on-my-patience fun in that?

Turkey with Spinach and Rice
Adapted from Slow & Easy by Natalie Haughton
1 pound ground turkey
1 package (10-ounce) frozen chopped spinach, thawed but not drained
2 14-ounce cans diced tomatoes with basil
2 garlic cloves, minced
¾ cup converted brown rice
1 teaspoon dried minced onions
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper, to taste
Grated Parmesan, for garnish

Cook the ground turkey in a frying pan over medium-high heat until brown. Remove from heat and drain off any excess fat.

Place ground turkey, spinach, tomatoes, garlic, rice, onions and Italian seasoning in electric slow cooker. Give a quick stir to mix ingredients.

Cover and cook on the high-heat setting for two hours, until the rice is tender. Sprinkle cheese on top and serve.

Kitchen shortcuts result in wonderful lasagna

I've recently discovered no-boil lasagna noodles.

True, there's nothing finer than a well-constructed, made-from-scratch meal. But shortcuts are OK by me.

And being a fan of cutting corners in the kitchen, especially on work nights, I am very happy with how my Quick & Dirty Lasagna turned out. I used some items already housed in the kitchen (noodles, a jar of marinara sauce, shredded mozzarella, Parmesan and mushrooms) and a couple I picked up at the store (Italian sausage and frozen spinach).

From prep to plate this lasagna took less than an hour, only resulted in a handful of dirty dishes, and tasted just as good as lunch the next day. Using an 8-by-8 glass baking dish, this recipe resulted in four hefty servings.

Quick & Dirty Lasagna
1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
six no-boil lasagna noodles
24 ounces marinara sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 10-ounce package frozen spinach, defrosted
6 ounces white or brown mushrooms, washed and sliced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Brown sausage in frying pan over medium heat, using large spoon or spatula to break into crumbles. Remove from heat and drain fat from pan.
Place defrosted spinach in colander, squeezing spinach to remove excess liquid.
Pour 1/4 cup sauce into baking dish. Begin layering remaining ingredients, starting with two lasagna noodles and continuing with spinach, Parmesan, mushrooms, sausage, mozzarella and marinara. Ingredients should be enough for two layers, topped with two final noodles, sauce and mozzarella.
Cover dish loosely with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil from dish and bake for additional 15-20 minutes, allowing cheese to brown.
Remove lasagna from oven and allow to sit for a few minutes before serving.