Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Fast Easy Dinner (much healthier than the last recipe)


This is a great meal to serve to last-minute guests. It looks like you spent a long time cooking (but you didn't) and it's relatively healthy. It'd say total prep/cook time is 20 minutes. I call it....

Ravioli with Chicken and Sauce with Roasted Asparagus and Tomatoes
( creative huh?)

You'll need the following:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
salt, pepper, garlic powder

1 can tomatoes (doesn't matter if they're whole or diced)
1 stick of butter
minced garlic 1 T? more?
cracked black pepper

premade raviolis from the freezer or refridgerator section

8 small, campari tomatoes (or other mid to small sized tomatoes)
1 bunch of asparagus
a little bit of mozzerella
shredded parmesean cheese
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
bread crumbs

Preheat oven to highest setting

1- put water on to boil for raviolis
2- prepare chicken with salt, pepper and garlic powder on both sides and put in pan on medium heat
3- in a saucepan, melt butter with minced garlic, add tomatoes with juices and cracked pepper (to taste)
4- prepare veggies: use a jelly roll pan covered in foil that is sprayed lightly with cooking spray, on half of the pan put the asparagus, try not to pile it up. The flatter it lays, the more evenly cooked it will be. Slice the tops off of the tomatoes and a thin slice off the very bottom just so they will sit still on the pan. lightly drizzle olive oil over asparagus and tomatoes, cracked pepper and salt (lightly on those as well). For the tomatoes, pour a tiny amount of balsamic vinegar on the tops of each tomato followed by a bit of mozzerella and a sprinkle of breadcrumbs.
5- turn the chicken
6- pop veggies in the oven
7- add ravioli to boiling water
8- here's where I get really technical so read carefully- watch all of the stuff above til it looks done. While you're waiting, it's a great time to set the table and clean your work area.
9-for the last 2 minutes of veggie cooking, switch the oven over to broil to give everything a little brown crisp (not burnt, just a little color)
10- just before everything else is finished, remove sauce from heat and blend- I use an immersion blender. If you do not have one, use your regular blender. Just be sure to give the sauce time to cool down and blend it in small batches. If you're wondering why, refer to my previous blog post with the picture of our kitchen post soup blend.
11- remove chicken from heat and dice
12- plating- place raviolis on plate followed by dice chicken on top and tomato sauce. Place asparagus and tomatoes on plate
13- Serve it up! Ta-Da!

I made some really great cookies last night...but I don't have time to share the recipe.

...and that's all :)