She does a few “Dump Chicken” recipes – which are oh-so-perfect for busy Make Ahead Mondays

So this one is all her – I can’t wait to go home and cook it up tonight!

What you Need:

3/4 cup ketchup

3/4 cup blackberry jam (other jams work too, but I really like the blackberry)

1/8 cup white vinegar

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons chili powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 lbs chicken pieces or 1 1/2 lbs chicken breasts

What You Do:

- For immediate cooking: Preheat oven to 350º.

- Place all ingredients into a prepared baking dish, turn chicken to coat. Bake until chicken juices run clear – about 45-60 minutes for chicken pieces, or 20-30 minutes for chicken breasts.

- For freezing: Place all ingredients into a 1 Gallon freezer bag. Lay flat in freezer.

- To cook from the freezer: Thaw in the refrigerator.

- Preheat the oven to 350º.

- Empty the contents of the bag into a large baking dish and bake as directed above.

Here is mine all ready to go, and since you KNOW Keri just has to “Keri it up” with every recipe she tries (can’t leave good enough alone, can we lady?) the one thing I did do differently was cut the chicken breasts into small chunks – I like to maximize the amount of meat exposed to the flavory goodness of any sauce or marinade!

I look forward to whipping it out of the fridge tonight and baking it up to go with some of this cauliflower (which is really good, BTW)

Seriously – ask a stupid question….

This is another one that will kind of make you whack the table and whisper “Smmmoooooth” in an attempt to cover your watering eyes.  It’s no girly beverage, but it does give you a nice warm feeling in your belly on a chilly night.

And it is a classic, for sure.  (BTW, it looks like some folks make this with other Whiskey types, so use what you like if Bourbon isn’t your thing, chicken wing.)

What you need:

3/4 oz sweet vermouth

2 1/2 oz bourbon whiskey

1 dash Angostura bitter

s 1 maraschino  cherry

glass or pitcher for mixing

ice

What you do:

This is not a drink you want to shake – evidently it is easy to “bruise” the spirits and cloud the drink up. (No, really.)

So, in the mixing vessel of your choice, add the ice, bourbon, bitters, sweet vermouth, and stir gently but thoroughly.

This also means that I get to bust out our bar tools - the VERY FIRST THING we registered for after we got engaged, BTW.

Oooooo – strainer!

I doubled the recipe to mix two, because Cocktail hour without The Hub is no kind of party I want to attend. 

Drop a cherry (or two, if you roll phat like we do at The Tree House,) in the bottom of a martini glass and strain in your drinky:

Careful – that first sip’s a doozy.  Cheers.

I really wish this pic was better – I was using a different camera and it is no bueno. (Because my usual pics are such art – snort gafaw chuckle.)

But people this was GOOOOOOOD.

I tossed a piece of flank steak into a marinade of lime juice, cumin, garlic powder, and cayenne on Sunday, so it was all ready to use and full of flavor.

The Hub is illin’ and on an all-Grilled-Cheese-and-Soup diet for the moment, so I decided to go with tomatoes only instead of the bell peppers I had planned, and I put the rest of the marinated steak into the freezer to use when he is feeling better.

I preheated this assmbly in the oven and cooked the whole deal on one tray:

The polenta was just the pre-ccoked tube – near the rice and noodle stuff or the Italian foods in the grocery – I just sliced some rounds:

I sprinkled it with just a bit of parmasan cheese and popped the whole kit-n-kiboodle under the broiler for 15 minutes on high – turning the steak and polenta cakes half way through. (since my piece of flank steak was small and I like my meat pink, I pulled it out early and let it rest while everything else finished.)

I cut the steak up in pieces instead of strips because I am now feeding a 9 month old who LOVES HIM SOME FOOD and doesn’t like to wait while mommy cuts bites for herself…. and tries to grab the knife anyway, so…

Other fun facts – did you know that if you leave out the olives, you can make a big ol’ dirty martini for just under 300 calories?  Niiiiiiice.  (Note the ice cube – I was totally nursing my ‘tini while cooking , and it got less-than-chilled.  007 would NOT be impressed.)

Just what did I do, you ask?

I pre-cooked a bunch of chicken breasts and divided into 1 meal portions for the freezer, including grilling up some seasoned chicken for house-favorite Sweet and Spicy Chicken:

So now all they need is a quick trip into the oven to get drizzled with honey and heat through.

I also whipped up a marinade of Lime Juice, Garlic Powder, Cumin, Cayenne, and a bit of Veggie oil for flank steak, so now it is all ready to put on the grill or under the broiler for Spicy Flank Steak and Crispy Polenta Cakes! (mmm)

And then I chopped up some pickled jalapenoes:

And mashed them together with some white beans and a little garlic powder:

So they are just waiting in all their spicy bean spread-y goodness for tonight’s Spicy bean and turkey tostadas!

I also chopped veggies to quickly stir fry and serve with some hoisin chicken (again, with chicken I cooked already,) and I am ready to rock this week of dinners!

Happy 2012!  There’s a new addition to the ED&BK line-up this year – Make Ahead Mondays!

Remember that song “Manic Monday” by The Bangles?  (If you don’t, it’s cool, you are probably way younger than me…  or you are my mom, and I don’t expect you to know that song, Maude.  But I digress.)  Anyway, that song SO could have been written about me.  Mondays are just hectic, from start to finish. Monday mornings always seem crazed, no matter how much I prepare on Sunday, work is always super busy with all of the emails and ideas from the boss that have been piling up all weekend, and by the time I get home I always find myself praying there are chicken nuggets in the freezer or a takeout menu in the immediate future.

WELL NO MORE!!!

As many of you know, I am a huge fan of prep cooking to make things easier during the busy work week.  I like to grill up large batches of chicken breast and freeze them so they are ready to heat and serve.  Same goes for ground beef or turkey,  many veggies, oven fries, and even mashed potatoes.  I also try to double recipes when assembling casseroles, and put one in the freezer for another day (see the Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole post for a good example of how I do this.)

So to beat my Monday dinner blues, I figured that during prep time on Saturday or Sunday, I am just going to make sure that I assemble at least one complete dinner that can then be EASILY cooked (my test for “easily” is if I could instruct The Hub how to do it over the phone and actually have it turn out right,) leaving just an itty-bitty bit less Manic in my Mondays.

Up first is an easy and healthy Taco Noodle Bake.

Recipe and Full Post

My Sunday Dinner Big Salad had grilled chicken, romaine lettuce, mixed field greens, carrots, gala apples, red cabbage, grape tomatoes, green peppers, and Newman’s own Light Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Mmmmmm.

A time to make yourself promises you won’t keep while nursing your hangover with Mimosas. A fresh start, a time for resolutions and goal setting and reassessing.

This morning while enjoying the fact that I am decidedly NOT hung over for the 2nd year in a row, thanks to Junior, I was watching the Today show when this piece came on.

I thought to myself, “man, she is badass – can I be her when I grow up?”  (Watch the segment – Jenna and Lester both are in STUPID good shape – it is crazy impressive.)

And then I thought – “Hey wait – I am a grown up, I can be anything I want.”  (Ok, maybe not an NFL superstar, but in this case, it was totally within my power.)

It was kind of perfect timing for the revelation – I am 35, I am a mom, I am a wife, I have a mortgage and a job and a full-blown adult life.

But I often find myself thinking “someday” about things  I want for myself.  From the petty to the profound, it seems I am always thinking that things are somewhere off down the road in the magical future.

“Someday I would like to earn what my degree and experience make me worth.”

“Someday I will be the type of woman who doesn’t have jacked up cuticles.”

“Someday I’ll write that children’s’ book I have in my mind.”

“Someday I am going to work out and be a total tough girl.”

And some that I put way down the road in my mind because I am not completely on board with enacting them in my life.  Things like:

“Someday I will accept that Liquid Cheese is a sometimes food.”

and

“Someday I will purge the crap from my closets and my life.”

Um yeah….  Hey Ker,  what are ya waitin’ for?

So I am declaring 2012 officially Someday.

Which means not selling myself short.  But it also means not using it as an excuse to live down to that expectation.

That can mean working hard, and it can also mean failures.  And that is scary.

But let’s face it – doing a few laps around the block, rubbing in some cuticle cream, and using Liquid Cheese as an occasional condiment instead of  a daily beverage probably never killed anyone.

So why not.

When going into a new situation, I like to gather as much information about it as possible, and then when things still don’t go as planned, at least I know to what degree I should be freaking out. (This is totally reasonable in my mind, so please don’t burst my crazy bubble, m’kay?)

A textbook example of this technique is currently unfolding at the Tree House, as I begin to  panic about prepare for our first plane trip with Junior.  I confess there have been actual nightmares about it, and not just one or two.  (The one where the flight attendant announces that it is time to turn off all electronic devices and place pacifiers in all babies’ mouths for take off, and I can’t find even one of the bajillion pacis I had packed in a diaper bag that seems to grow larger through out the dream has plagued me lately.)

So I am making lists, coordinating with The Hub’s relatives down in Texas to lay in a supply of baby paraphernalia that I then won’t have to pack,  and using the TSA and airline websites to plot our journey from the unloading zone where my mom and daddy will drop us and all of our stuff, all the way through gate checking the stroller, various things for Junior to suck on and play with and sleep under in flight, and through until we plop him into the car seat installed in The Hub’s folks’ car and motor off towards our holiday home.  With stops at security, extra supplies for possible blow outs, flight delays, behavior meltdowns, and all other horrors I hope won’t come to pass.

(Breathe Keri…  breathe.  Heeeee Heeeee Whooooooooo, Heeeeee Heeeee Whooooooooooo.  I knew that “Prepared Labor” class would come in handy for something.)

Traveling with Junior in tow also means that I can’t handle my first flight in well over a year with my usual Valley-of-the-Dolls-Ativan-and-Chardonnay technique, which means I get to spend some extra time on my favorite freaked-out-by-planes website, fearofflyinghelp.com (PSA, if you or someone you know is freaked out by flying, this website actually kind of changed my life – in reality it eased my fears easily as much as any amount of Mimosas at the airport bar ever could – give it a try,) but I digress.

This is just how I operate.  I panic and flutter and scurry and prepare all the way up until it is go-time, and then go is exactly what I do.  I have read about it, watched the videos of it, I have packed for it, rehearsed it, checked it all off in my mind, and then I execute.  Usually with an impressive amount of “been-there-done-that-no-biggie” attitude thrown in for good measure.  I know that is what will happen with this too.  Maybe I do it just so I can give The Hub the “what do you mean you don’t know how this all works!?” eye roll like I am a savvy veteran of all things.  Whatever the reason, it does tend to work, so I guess I will just keep on keepin’ on with the freakin’ out.

Ding, you are now free to move about the crazy, er cabin.

Well, make that Turkey Cordon Bleu Casserole in this case, because this was all about the frozen Thanksgiving leftovers!

We do love us some Chicken Cordon Bleu, and stuffing chicken breasts with just about anything I can find is a favorite way to “create’ a meal in my kitchen, but I can’t take the credit for the brilliant idea to turn the yumminess into a quick and easy casserole, that belongs to my fabulous friend Stacey, who offered it up in answer to my “dinner is getting boring, what do I do?” laments.

Considering I had turkey and ham in the freezer from Thanksgiving at my folks’ house, her answer was just what the doctor ordered – so break out your casserole dishes and let’s Casserole, shall we?

Full Post and Recipe