Mary-Helen’s Kitchen

Saturday morning breakfast. Mmmm… We had these with Ellis’ delicious apples & eggs, some crispy bacon and of course, Community coffee.

• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter (1/2 a stick), cold and cut into small pieces
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 3/4 cup of lowfat milk (I use 1%)

Powdered sugar glaze:

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1-2 tbsp milk

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In large bowl, combine flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon with a wire whisk. 
3. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut butter into the flour mixture until the butter resembles the size of a pea. Be sure to leave some pea size chunks of butter or your biscuits will not be fluffy.
4. Add raisins to the flour mixture.
5. Add milk and mix with a fork or spoon until just blended. You can also use your hands for this stage and it works better.
6. Place the dough on a lightly floured countertop and pat down until about 1 inch thick.
7. Using a floured biscuit cutter or the floured open end of a drinking glass, cut the biscuits out and place on a cookie sheet coated with cooking spray.
8. Bake for about 13-14 minutes until tops are golden brown.

While the biscuits are baking, prepare the glaze. Mix powdered sugar and milk in a small bowl until it reaches the desired consistency. Once biscuits are out of the oven, drizzle the sugar glaze on top of the biscuits and serve them warm.

• 1 bag fresh spinach
• 1 large, ripe tomato, diced
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt & pepper

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large nonstick frying pan. Add garlic and saute for about one minute. Be careful not to cook the garlic too long or it will be bitter. Add the spinach and saute until almost wilted. Add the tomato and continue to cook until spinach is wilted.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

• 4 medium potatoes (tonight I used red, but any kind will work), chopped into 1″ pieces with skin on
• 1 to 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• Optional: fresh chopped herbs (I often put about a tablespoon of fresh, chopped rosemary in as well.)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Toss the ingredients together in a bowl and transfer to a cookie sheet that has been coated with cooking spray.
3. Bake for about 30 minutes.

Tonight I baked the potatoes right along side the chicken on the same cookie sheet. If you are in a hurry, you can also turn the temperature up to 450 degrees and cook for about 20 minutes instead. The goal is to make the outside of the potatoes brown and crispy where they are touching the metal cookie sheet and have them be soft on the inside.

Tonight I had a 1.5 lb package of chicken breasts and a request for fried chicken, so I thought I would try doing it in the oven. It turned out so juicy and moist! I highly recommend it. I served the chicken with some small roasted red potatoes and sauteed spinach.

• 1.5 lbs of chicken breasts (I used the hormone free, natural kind. There were 3 large breasts in the package)
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 2 egg whites, lightly beaten
• 3 slices of whole wheat bread, toasted
• 1/4 tsp dried basil
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning
• Cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray.
2. Grind up toast in the food processor or blender into crumbs. Add basil, oregano and Tony Chachere’s seasoning to bread crumbs and mix together. Place in a shallow dish.
3. Place egg whites in a separate shallow bowl. Dip the chicken in the egg whites until all sides are coated and then dip the chicken breasts in the bread crumb mixture until all sides are coated with crumbs.
4. Heat the oil in a large nonstick frying pan over medium high heat.
5. Cook chicken for a few minutes (2-3 minutes per side) on each side until browned. Transfer to a cookie sheet that has been coated with cooking spray. Bake in the oven for about 30-35 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. (Time will depend on the thickness of your chicken breasts.)

I threw this together last night based on ingredients we had around the house. It was adapted from a recipe for Chilaquiles Casserole from Eatingwell.com. It was a huge hit at our house! Alden asked me to make it again on another night soon. It took about 10 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes in the oven.

12 small, fresh corn tortillas

1 tbsp canola oil

1 onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, diced

1 poblano pepper, seeded and diced

1 can black beans, rinsed

1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, drained about halfway (I used fire roasted, but you could use regular ones)

2 cups frozen corn kernels

1 zucchini, diced into small pieces (optional)

1 10 oz can red enchilada sauce

1 ½ cups cheese (I used sharp cheddar but you could use Mexican cheese, too)

1 ½ tsp cumin

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

Fresh cilantro (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray 9 x 13” casserole pan with cooking spray.

In a large frying pan over medium heat, sauté onions and peppers in oil until onions are clear. Add beans, tomatoes, corn, zucchini, cumin, salt and pepper and cook for another 5 minutes until the liquid is starting to boil. Add some chopped cilantro if you have it.

Line the casserole dish with ½ of the tortillas and top with half of the veggie mixture. Sprinkle a little cheese and a few spoons of enchilada sauce on top. Add another layer of tortillas and then top with the rest of the veggie mixture, sauce and cheese.

Bake for about 30 minutes.

This link is to the original recipe: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/chilaquiles_casserole.html

Well, this is it!  I have been saying for over a year now that I was going to start a cooking blog to track my recipes and I have finally done it.  I will be using this site to post new recipes and kitchen experiments so that anyone interested can try them, too.

Here’s to healthy, delicious food!