Chicken Roulade with Brie and Spinach

When I was a single heathen, this dish got me into a lot of trouble with the ladies as it is a true ‘pièce de résistance’ I used to serve this beautifully scrumptious dish with asparagus and new potatoes and for dessert I’d make a Bananas Foster flambé for the coup de grâce…ooh lah lah!

 Ingredients (4 Servings)

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 8 ounces brie cheese, sliced into ¼ inch slices
• 8-10 fresh spinach leaves per breast (eye it…enough to fill the roulade)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 8 toothpicks
• 6-8 oz. fresh mushrooms (use your favorite – I use Portobello)
• 2 tablespoons healthy spread (Smart Balance or Promise Activ for example)
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• ¼ cup white wine
• 3-4 shallots, minced
• ½ cup half-n-half (if you haven’t blown your diet recently go all the way with heavy cream)
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch (for thickening the sauce)
• salt and black pepper to taste

Directions

·         Trim off any fat and cut part way through the underside of the chicken to flatten it out slightly.

·         Put the chicken on top of a piece of cling film, and another piece of cling film on top and pound chicken till it flattens out (to about ½ inch)  

·         Take each breast and layer it with the spinach leaves first then the brie

·         Roll up each breast and secure with tooth picks.

·         Cover with cling film and chill for at least 2 hours.

·         Preheat oven to 350°F .

·         Put the oil in a skillet and heat to medium.

·         When the oil is hot add the chicken to the skillet, one at a time, and sauté to brown all sides, turning using tongs. Then place on a baking sheet. Repeat with each breast.

·         When all the chicken has been browned, place baking sheet, and roast for about 30 minutes or till the internal temperature is 170°F or juices run clear.

To Make the Sauce

·         Add spread to a saucepan and heat to medium

·         Add garlic and shallots and sauté until translucent

·         Add mushrooms to the pan and cook until mushrooms are browned and have released their juices.

·         Add wine and simmer for about 4 minutes.

·         While the wine is reducing, make a slurry by mixing warm water with the cornstarch

·         Add the slurry

·         Add cream and cook, stirring for about 10 minutes or until the sauce has thickened

Pour the sauce over the chicken and enjoy!

Steamed Mussels in White Wine-Garlic Sauce

This is my take on the classic recipe for French steamed mussels as a main course -- a big bowl of mussels bathed in white wine, butter and garlic and served with a great French baguette…yeh bebbe! Buy the best mussels you can find and use a wine that you'd drink yourself - better yet, drink the rest of the same bottle used in the sauce!  As for the butter…it’s got two tablespoons in the whole recipe so borrow some from your neighbor if you don’t want it in the house…it’ll be a good reason to say hello :) Figure on a pound of mussels per person for a main course.

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients (Serves 2)

·         2 lb live mussels

·         2 tbsp unsalted butter

·         1 cup white wine (please don’t use cooking wine)

·         2 shallot, minced

·         4 cloves garlic, minced

Directions

·         Scrub and de-beard the mussels…you don’t want whiskers in your mussels!

·         The shells should be closed. If any shells are open, let it sit for a few minutes, it should close.

·         Heat the butter over medium heat in a large, wide-bottomed pot and saute the shallot and garlic until soft but not browned.

·         Add the white wine, and bring it to a boil. Add the mussels.

·         Cover the pot and let the mussels steam for 4-7 minutes. Most of the mussels should be open after the first couple minutes. You want them all open, but some will do this faster than others.

·         As soon as most of the mussels are open, turn off the heat and cover for about 5 minutes

·         Discard of any mussels that did not open as they are bad, bad mussels! :)

Serve with crusty bread or a classic French baguette, a little candlelight and let the romance begin…enjoy!

Butternut Pilaf

Greeks like to use fresh pumpkin to make savory and sweet pies, fritters and croquettes, casseroles and a myriad of other dishes but these dishes are virtually unknown outside of Greece. This dish is traditionally made with pumpkin, but since most pumpkins in the U.S. are grown for carving jack-o'-lanterns (and not for cooking), we've modified the recipe to work with the more readily available butternut squash. Also, the original dish calls for Greek pilaf rice, a short-grained, polished rice that is hard to find outside the country, so we've substituted healthy brown rice. The grated butternut squash adds color and nutrients to this brown rice pilaf for a perfect side dish.

Total Time: 1 hour 

Ingredients (8 servings, about 3/4 cup each)

• 2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, halved and seeded
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large red onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 cup instant or parboiled brown rice
• 1 3/4 cups water, or 1 14-ounce can vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup chopped fennel fronds, (see Note below)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Pinch of cinnamon
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Preparation

1. Grate the squash through the large holes of a box grater.
2. Heat oil in a large cast-iron or nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until soft and lightly colored, 10 to 12 minutes. Combine 2 tablespoons water and tomato paste in a small bowl and stir it into the pan. Add rice and stir to coat. Add the squash, in batches if necessary, and stir until it has reduced in volume enough so that you can cover the pan.
3. Increase the heat to medium-high, pour in 1 3/4 cups water (or broth) and wine, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, covered, stirring once or twice, until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid and the squash is tender, 25 to 30 minutes.
4. Add fennel fronds, oregano, salt, cinnamon, dried cranberries and pepper; gently stir to combine. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Note:  Fennel “fronds” are the feathery tops on fennel bulbs that look similar to fresh dill and have a mild licorice flavor.  Look for fresh fennel bulbs—with their fronds still attached. You'll need to buy one large or two smaller bulbs of fennel to have enough fronds to make 1/2 cup chopped. 

Nutrition

Per serving: 152 calories; 6 g fat ( 1 g sat , 4 g mono ); 0 mg cholesterol; 21 g carbohydrates; 0 g added sugars; 2 g protein; 4 g fiber; 302 mg sodium; 333 mg potassium.

Pizza Vegetariana

Using my whole wheat dough recipe, this vegetarian pizza is full of flavor and healthy too - packed with lots of fresh vegetables. The thin whole wheat crust is super crunchy when baked at the highest setting on your oven. And while the pizza dough does contain 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of olive oil, the dough makes enough for two pizzas, and when you considering that you can feed four people with this batch of dough, the amount of salt and oil consumed is not bad.

Ingredients (4 Servings)

• 2 medium Italian (plum) tomatoes, sliced thin
• 1 Jar marinated artichoke hearts
• 12 pitted Kalamata olives, sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 8 oz low-fat mozzarella cheese, shredded
• Fresh basil leaves to garnish
• 1-2 tablespoons, Herbs de Provence, to taste
• 8 oz whole-grain pizza dough (Recipe HERE )

Preparation

·        Pre-heat oven as high as it will go (500 degrees plus). This step is VERY important so crank it up!

·        Roll the dough out as thin as you can get it…I mean go thin!

·         Add the mozzarella to cover entire pizza surface, leaving ½ inch outside border

·         Add the tomato to cover, leaving 1/2 inch outside border

·         Add the fresh garlic, olives and artichokes, spreading evenly

·         Bake pizza for 5-6 minutes, turning so that it browns evenly and cheese is bubbling! Careful not to burn it!

·         Immediately add the Herbs de Provence and Basil.

Slice it up and enjoy!