Turkey Pesto Club Sandwiches

My niece Mindy found this recipe on FoodNetwork.com. It's easy to make, and fun to eat at parties.

3 large eggs
2 Tablespoons whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
10 slices bacon
2 (8-ounce) round loaves focaccia bread*
1 cup pesto (try this recipe)
8 ounces thinly sliced turkey
4 ounces thinly sliced provolone cheese

*Substitute square focaccia or ciabatta bread if you can't find round focaccia.

1. Whisk the eggs, cream, salt, and pepper until well blended.
   
2. Heat a small (6-inch) skillet over medium-low heat. Brush the skillet with some butter. Pour just under 1/4 cup of the egg mixture into the pan, swirling to coat the bottom of the pan.
   
3. Cover the pan and cook until the egg is just set, about 1-1/2 minutes. Invert the skillet over a plate and allow the egg crepe to drop onto the plate. Repeat to make four crepes total, brushing the skillet with melted butter as needed and stacking crepes on the plate.
4. Cook the bacon until crisp. Drain on paper towels.
5. Preheat a griddle or grill pan over medium-high heat. Brush the skillet with butter.
   
6. Cut the focaccia horizontally in half. Place it cut side down on the griddle and cook until it's golden brown on the bottom, about two minutes.
7. Spread the pesto over the toasted sides of each halved focaccia.
8. On the bottom halves of the focaccia, layer egg crepes, turkey, provolone, and bacon. Cover with top halves of focaccia, pesto side down. Cut into bite-sized wedges and serve.
   

Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

These pumpkin seeds are well worth the effort. They have just the right combination of sweet and spicy flavors, and they're quite addictive.

Seeds from 1 large pumpkin or 2 medium pumpkins (unwashed)
salt, to taste
5 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
pinch cayenne pepper
1-1/4 tablespoons peanut oil*

*Can substitute walnut oil, canola oil, or vegetable oil. Peanut oil adds a nutty flavor.

1. After cleaning your pumpkin, put the seeds in a bowl and remove the stringy pulp, but do not wash. (Unwashed seeds are more flavorful.)
2. Place seeds in a single layer on a cookie sheet and salt to taste.
3. Bake seeds at 250 degrees until dry and very light gold, stirring occasionally (about 15 to 30 minutes).
   
4. In a medium bowl, combine 3 tablespoons of the sugar and the salt, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, and cayenne. Set aside.
5. Heat peanut oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add the baked pumpkin seeds and the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Cook, stirring constantly, until the sugar melts and the pumpkin seeds begin to caramelize, about 45-60 seconds.
6. Transfer seeds to the bowl with prepared spices and stir well. Let cool and then serve.
   

Pomegranate Chicken Stew

This is a Fesenjan recipe from Allrecipes.com. I modified it per several of the comments, substituting half of the original 4 cups pomegranate juice with chicken broth.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 pounds chicken legs, cut up*
1 white onion, thinly sliced
1/2 pound walnuts, toasted and finely ground in a food processor
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups pomegranate juice
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon cardamom (optional)
2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
chopped fresh parsley for garnish

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Place chicken and onions in skillet and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Mix in pureed walnuts, salt, pomegranate juice, broth and cardamom. Bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1-1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
   
4. Mix in sugar, adjust seasoning, and simmer 30 minutes more.
5. Top with parsley and serve over rice.
   

*Do not substitute chicken breast; the cooking time is too long, and the chicken will become dry.

If you enjoy a very tangy flavor, omit the sugar. I used both the sugar and the cardamom, and I thought the taste was perfect. This is an unusual looking dish, sort of purple and soupy and oily (from the walnuts), but it's just delicious. I usually have a lot of sauce left, and it's too good to throw away. I use it like gravy, pouring it over rice or potatoes. --Sarah

Aunt Lizzy's Chicken Delight

My son's aunt Elizabeth gave me this recipe and it is DE-LICIOUS! This is a throw it together and forget about it recipe. Hope you enjoy it. This will feed about 2-3 people, so throw in more chicken breasts and another can of soup as you see fit if you need to feed more people...and don't forget to add more bacon! YUM!

Aunt Lizzy's Chicken Delight

2 cans Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 8oz pkg of Cream Cheese
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts wrapped in 2-3 pieces of bacon each
1 cup (or so) of milk
1-2 spoonful's of flour if needed
Mashed Potatoes (your own recipe)

In a crock pot, place soup then cream cheese (no need to mix the two, just make sure the soup covers the bottom of your crock pot) and place wrapped chicken breasts on top. Cook on low with lid on for 8-10 hours. After cooking, cream cheese will melt and bacon will become nice and crispy, allowing the bacon grease to soak into the chicken (this is not a recipe for the dieters...). When ready to serve, stir up chicken, cream cheese and soup with a fork. This will shred the chicken. Do not be alarmed if the sauce burns to the sides of the crock pot a bit. Before serving, add a cup or so of milk to make more "gravy-like". If the mixture is too watery, just add a spoonful or two of flour to thicken it up. Serve over mashed potatoes.

Cooking Chicken Breasts

I love to cook with chicken, but until recently I had shied away from chicken breast, especially boneless, skinless breast, because it always seemed to come out dry. Turns out, I was way overcooking it when I boiled it. Here are three ways to cook chicken breast without drying it out.

If You Have Two to Three Hours:
Cook it in the slow cooker for 2 to 3 hours on low or about 1-1/2 hours on high. Make sure to cover the chicken completely with water or broth. Start checking it after an hour or so; it doesn't take all day like you might expect.

If You Have 45 Minutes or So:
Poach the chicken on the stove.

1. Put it on the bottom of a saucepan large enough that you can completely cover all the chicken with your choice of cool liquid (water, broth, cooking wine).
   
2. Cook it on medium heat, uncovered, for 10 minutes or so--just until it almost comes to a full boil. Watch it closely and do NOT let it come to a rolling boil. (Do make sure that it is bubbling slowly, though.) *
   
3. Turn the burner off and cover the pot tightly.
   
4. Leave it on the warm burner for about 30 minutes. Cut into the thickest part of a breast to check that there is no pink. If it isn't done, turn the burner back on for a few minutes, but again, don't let it boil.
   

*I sometimes set a timer so I don't walk off and forget the chicken and then come back to find it boiling furiously.

If You Have 30 Minutes:
Brush the breasts with beaten egg whites and bake uncovered at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes or until done.

Try Mixing in a Few Chicken Thighs
Unless you are adamant that all the chicken must be white meat, try mixing about half and half with chicken thighs. The extra fat will make the chicken breast much more moist and juicy, and you'll save money as well! This works especially well in the slow cooker. In fact, if you are making a recipe that cooks for 8 or 10 hours, consider using only chicken thighs; they stand up to the long cooking time much better than breasts.

Refrigerator Bran Muffins

"Bran muffins" may not sound appealing, but just wait until you taste these! Our whole family loves them and there are endless variations and combinations of add-ins. Best of all, this batter keeps in the refrigerator up to two weeks, so you can always have freshly baked muffins in a flash. This recipe came from Relish magazine (a newspaper insert) and is just one of several excellent recipes I've found there.

Ingredients:

• 2 C All-Bran cereal
• 2/3 C wheat bran
• 1 1/3 C boiling water
• 2 2/3 C all-purpose flour
• 1 T baking soda
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t grated or ground nutmeg
• vegetable cooking spray
• 2 C lowfat buttermilk
• 1/2 C pasteurized egg substitute (I always substitute whole eggs here and lightly beat enough to make 1/2 cup)
• 1 C granulated sugar
• 1/2 C firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 C vegetable oil
• 1 t vanilla extract
• optional add-ins: shredded carrot, raisins, dried cranberries, pineapple, shredded zucchini, chopped dried apricots, blueberries, bananas, nuts...

1. Mix cereal and wheat bran in a large bowl (I use the large covered batter bowl from Pampered Chef so I can store batter in this container). Add boiling water; stir well and set aside for 1 hour.
2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg in a medium bowl.
3. Preheat oven to 375F. Coat muffin cups with cooking spray.
4. Add 1 C buttermilk to bran mixture; stir well with a whisk. Add remaining buttermilk, egg, granulated sugar, brown sugar, oil and vanilla, stirring until smooth.
5. Add flour mixture; stir until a thick batter forms.
6. If baking just a portion of the batter, measure out what you're using and set aside. Cover remaining batter and refrigerate.
7. Stir in optional fruits, vegetables, or nuts (I use about 1-1.5 cups per dozen muffins) and scoop into prepared pan, filling each muffin about 2/3 full.
8. Bake 20-25 minutes, until puffed and lightly browned. Entire recipe makes 24-30 muffins depending on amount of add-ins.

Favorite combinations for us include shredded carrots with some crushed pineapple (shred your own carrots for this combo--pre-shredded ones turn green for some reason and it's icky)...and shredded zucchini with golden raisins. Fun to play with!

Chicken Veggie Enchiladas

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1 Tablespoon of canola oil or butter
1 onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 fresh mushroom crates
1 pint sour cream*
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
16-ounce jar spaghetti sauce, such as Classico
1 garlic clove, minced
12-ounce jar chunky salsa
1 can sliced black olives (optional)
8 large tortillas**

*Can substitute half the sour cream with plain fat-free yogurt to reduce fat.
**Use whole wheat tortillas for a healthier meal.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large skillet, saute mushrooms, garlic, diced onion, and bell pepper in oil/butter until slightly tender.
3. Mix the sour cream and 2 cups of cheese into the vegetables. Stir until melted.
4. Add spaghetti sauce and shredded chicken. Mix well.
5. Roll even amounts of the chicken mixture into tortillas and place in a greased baking pan. The tortillas should fit tightly.
6. Cover all with salsa and remaining 2 cups of cheese. Top with black olives if desired.
7. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes.