Once upon a time there was... Teriyaki Chicken and Pineapple Skewers

We never grow tired of food on sticks.  You can use the skewers for swordfighting, javelin tournaments, or poking unruly cows! Or you can make this yummy dinner.  But you don't have to make this difficult choice - just buy lots of sticks.  We found this recipe on Cooks.com and made some modifications, (most notably not killing you with chicken-diseased marinade).  It is great served with rice, or its a very filling meal even without.  This serves 4.

ingredients
1/3 c dry white wine
1/3 c peanut oil
1/3 c teriyaki sauce
1/2 tsp dried thyme
3 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp dried ginger
1 lb chicken breast, cut into 1" chunks
1 whole pineapple, cut in chunks
as many sugar snap peas as you will eat
bamboo skewers

instructions


1. whisk together first 6 ingredients in a bowl.  Reserve some marinade to brush over finished chicken (about 1/4 c).

Cornelius' tip: See, this is us saving you from certain death! Never eat marinade that your raw chicken has sat in unless you cook it first!

Put chicken and marinade in a covered dish, stir to coat, and marinate 4 hours to overnight.

2. Create beautiful skewers by putting chicken, pineapple, and snap peas on sticks.

Cornelius' tip: Patterns are fun!  Try chicken-pea-pineapple, then chicken-chicken-pea-pea, then pineapple-pea-chicken-pea, etc.  

Cornelius' other tip: You can use the marinade to brush over the raw skewers now (since you still haven't cooked them).

3. Grill them!  It should take about 4 min per side.  Make sure to flip so things don't get stuck.

4. Brush them with reserved marinade - now eat them!!!

Yes, these were as delicious as they look.

As for nutritional information, we don't really know what to enter into the calculator. . .  We make a full cup of the marinade but the food doesn't absorb nearly all of it, but then how much do we eat? We have no idea.  So we are going to have to accept that this is a healthy meal of unknown calories.

pig, out.

Once upon a time there was... Mediterranean Salad with Green Beans and Feta

So since we are trying to eat healthier we went looking for new, interesting salads.  We came across this one from Martha Stewart that seemed simple and interesting.  It's a good way to sneak in some beans for an extra nutritional benefit, too.

ingredients
1 head of romaine, chopped
8 oz green beans
2 naval oranges
1 1/2 c feta cheese
1 small red onion, sliced
15 oz can of white beans
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
salt and pepper

instructions


1. prepare green beans. in a saucepan, boil water, and simmer green beans 4-6 minutes until slightly tender. rinse with cold water.

2.  prepare orange.  peel and slice fruit.

3. prepare lettuce and other veggis.

4. prepare dressing.  whisk together oil and vinegar.  add salt and pepper to taste.

5. create salad.  toss together all ingredients. serve!

Here are our thoughts on this:  The dressing needs something, but we're not sure what.  (It's just a little boring.)  We still don't like white beans even when we hide them in a salad. Green beans in a salad is do-able.  Feta makes everything better.

So, we're not ready to reject this salad, but we think it needs a little work.  We would love to hear your ideas, Castle Farm Cookbook blog readers!

Here's the nutritional info:

pig, out!

Once upon a time there was... Potato and Cilantro Soup

The pig is always skeptical of soup, but I insisted on this one, and I am glad that I did! It was creamy and flavorful. Paired with a salad, it makes a perfect dinner.

We found this recipe at iChef and followed it exactly since we are not the most experienced soup makers.

serves 6

ingredients

1 Tbsp butter (we used Promise)

1 leek, diced

1/2 onion, diced

5 c chicken stock

2 med russet potatoes, diced

1 bunch of cilantro leaves, chopped

Cal's tip: we may have used way too much cilantro since bunches can be all different sizes. If you have too much cilantro, it will still be delicious so don't worry about it! As you can see from the pictures of Cornelius, preparing cilantro can take some time!

1/4 c heavy cream

salt and pepper to taste

instructions

1. melt butter in a large stock pot. add onion and leek and let them sweat but not brown.

2. add stock and potatoes. bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender (about 20 minutes, but depends on the size of your dice).

3. add cilantro, remove from heat.

4. carefully puree the soup in a blender or processor in batches.

Cal's tip: You may need to wait for the soup to cool slightly. You should also make your batches fairly small or you will make a giant mess.

5. Add soup back to the pot and bring to a simmer. Add cream. Heat through. Season with salt and pepper.

Soup is hard to photograph but it's easy to eat! We recommend eating it instead of trying to take pictures.

Look how healthy it is! As long as you use low-sodium chicken stock the sodium won't be so high either.

Overall this soup was a success and has hopefully led to the pig being more accepting of future soups!

Moo!

Once upon a time there was... Pumpkin Penne

We made this a long time ago - last year! In fact, there are a lot of things we have made since last year and into this year that we just haven't posted. Today however, we have nothing else to do except post all of these old recipes (and make new ones!). You see, we are snowed in again!! It's Snowmageddon 2010!!!! There are 3 farm animals (roughly 21") of snow outside. So here we are, FINALLY updating our adventures.

This recipe is for Pumpkin Penne. We were intrigued by the idea of using pumpkin for a savory dish instead of a sweet one. It should be noted that we decided to make this prior to deciding to cook healthier things. (Pasta coated in pumpkin and heavy cream is not exactly healthy.) We mostly followed a Rachel Ray recipe. This is pretty quick and simple; great for a weeknight!

This serves 4

ingredients

8 oz of penne pasta

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 shallots, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 c. chicken broth

7.5 oz pumpkin puree

1/4 c heavy cream

1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

pinch of sage

salt and pepper to taste

sage and parmesan for garnish

instructions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.

2. Heat olive oil in a skillet. Add garlic and shallots and cook until softened (about 5 minutes).

3. Add chicken broth, pumpkin and cream. Stir. Add hot sauce, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Lower heat, simmer until thickened (about 5 minutes).

4. Add sage and pasta to sauce. Toss to coat.

5. Garnish with parmesan and sage. Serve!

And that's it! See how easy?

We weren't sure how we would feel about the idea of pumpkin for dinner, but in the end we really liked it! It was different, it was easy, and most importantly, it was yummy. It reheated well for leftovers as well.

Here is the nutritional information for the dish.

This total does not include any parmesan cheese. A little high on fat but not that bad actually!

We definitely recommend this one.

Moo!

Once upon a time there was... Guacamole

Guacamole happens. This time, guacamole happened because we had this fancy new avocado bowl, and because we still had a ton of leftover cilantro after the Potato and Cilantro soup. So, here's what you need to make our favorite (but ever-changing) guacamole.

makes 2 c. of guacamole
Ingredients
2 RIPE avocados (should be a good amount of give when you press on the skin, otherwise it will not blend well)
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup cilantro
1 green onion
1/4 cup red onion
11 grape tomatoes
1 jalapeno pepper
salt, pepper to taste
Tortilla chips!


Instructions
1. Prepare ingredients. We will use a small food processor below, so there isn't too much to do here. We lightly chopped the garlic, onions, and cilantro, then put them in the food processor.

We also seeded and lightly chopped the jalepeno. When cutting jalepenos and other hot peppers, be careful! They can burn your paws/hoofs/fingers, especially the seeds. Hide behind your pigs as necessary. Get rid of the seeds unless you want a serious guacamole kick.

Cornelius says: Hot peppers should be handled by brave pigs only.

2. Coarsely chop the onions, garlic, cilantro, jalepeno, and 6 grape tomatoes in a small food processor. We dropped the tomatoes whole to get a little of their juice, which keeps the guac mild.

Like magic!

3. Now, prepare the avocados. Open the avocados and scoop out the good stuff into a bowl (see the bottom of this post for our method of peeling them.) Quickly add the lemon juice so the guac stays green. Then, MASH and SMASH and BEAT the avocado, perhaps using a mortar and pestle, until it starts to break up and get a little creamy.

4. Dump in the contents of the food processor and beat to combine until creamy, or just how you like it. At this point, we chop up the remaining 5 grape tomatoes and add those pieces - this is mainly to make it look prettier. Add the salt and pepper to taste.

5. Enjoy with tortilla chips!

Avocado Technique

To open your avocados,

1. Slice all the way around the avocado (you can't cut through because of the core).

2. Twist and pull the two halves apart. If your avocado is ripe, this should not take too much effort. Have your pigs assist if necessary.

3. One side will have the avocado pit stuck in it. To easily remove it, carefully jam the knife into the pit. Then, just twist and lift! Like magic!

The nutritional information calculates the 2 c of guacamole as 6 servings. So adjust if you want to eat more or less.

Moo!

Once upon a time there was... Garlic Chicken Mozzarella

We found this recipe on a can of Contadina diced tomatoes.  If you've never checked out their site (or the sides of their tomato cans), you should because they seem to always have yummy food ideas.  Our only issue with them is that they always need more seasonings than they say - so, season away! Seriously, don't be modest with your seasonings, there is a lot of chicken and tomatoes.

This meal is great for a weeknight (easy and fast), healthy, and also reheats well for lunch.  This is not a new recipe for us, but since we are doing the whole "eat healthier thing", its a good one.  You can serve this with pasta and garlic bread (for maximum deliciousness), whole wheat pasta (a slightly healthier option), or some veggies (for maximum healthiness).

ingredients

1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes (with seasonings of your choice)

1 8 oz can tomato sauce

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

4 4-oz chicken breasts

4 slices mozzarella cheese

seasonings (garlic powder, oregano, salt, pepper) to taste

instructions

1. Cook chicken in oil, flipping once, until browned.

Cornelius' tip: drawing pictures with oil is fun!

2. pour diced tomatoes, sauce, and seasonings over the chicken.  bring to a boil.

3. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes or until chicken will no longer kill you or make you very sick or even a little sick.

4.  Place 1 cheese slice over each chicken .  Cover and cook just a minute until cheese is melty.

Delicious!

 And now introducing our newst feature, nutritional information!  We can do this courtesy of SparkRecipes.com, which has a recipe calculator we've used for years.  Keep in mind that your exact info will vary based on the brands you choose and of course how well you measure. Info does not include a side dish.

Well that was yummy! And it was also one of our fasting postings ever - we just had that for dinner tonight!

pig, out.