Chicken & Vegetables in Foil Packets

shiny vegetables and garlicky raw chicken! yay!

This is one of my favorite recipes to make, mainly because it's easy and healthy, but also because anyone I have ever made it for has absolutely loved it. The chicken is incredibly tender and moist, the vegetables are tasty and well-steamed, and the whole thing takes less than an hour. It's a perfect weeknight dinner.

I made it just a few days ago when I was still in Baltimore, so the recipe below is designed to serve four people (one packet per person). The great thing about cooking chicken and vegetables in foil packets, however, is that it is easily customizable to the number of people you want to feed.  I've made this with all sorts of different vegetable combinations (you don't have to limit yourself to the vegetables I've used) and it would also be delicious made on the grill in the summer. I served this with quinoa on the side, but you could easily use rice or couscous, too. The food tends to be really juicy when it comes out of the packet, so having something on the side to catch all the flavor enhances the dinner as a whole, I think.

I really approximated the amounts I used in this recipe, so if you're the kind of person who wants exact measurements, this may not be the one for you. I find that this recipe lends itself to a bit of experimentation, so try different amounts of seasoning, oil, or flavor and see what works.  When I've made chicken in foil packets in the past, I've marinated the chicken in about 3/4 of a cup of Italian salad dressing, which also works well.

Chicken & Vegetables in Foil Packets
total time: 1 hourish but can be more, depending on how long you want to marinate the chicken
total hands on time: 10ish minutes

4 chicken breasts
4 large (about 2 feet long) pieces of aluminum foil
1 container of grape or cherry tomatoes
3 shallots or 1 onion, sliced
2-3 small red potatoes, diced
2 cups of snap peas
1 leek, sliced
1 lemon, quartered
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
seasoning mix
salt and pepper to taste

For marinade:
olive oil
seasoning mix
lemon juice
garlic

1. Marinate chicken for at least one hour in your chosen marinade. For this recipe, I rubbed the four chicken breasts in salt, pepper and garlic, then marinated them in olive oil mixed with rosemary seasoning and a splash of lemon juice. The marinade shouldn't completely cover the chicken, but you can flip the pieces from time to time so everything gets flavored.

2. Preheat oven to 450.

3. Prepare vegetables by slicing, dicing, and chopping. Combine in one bowl, add a few glugs of olive oil, and a few tsps of balsamic vinegar. Mix to coat. Add in salt, pepper, and the seasoning mix of your choice; mix and make sure all of the vegetables are well-coated and well-seasoned.

4. Place one chicken breast in each length of foil. Cover chicken with 1/4 of vegetable mixture, letting the vegetable mixture spill out onto the foil. Squeeze one quarter of lemon on top of chicken and vegetables, then place on top to bake inside the packet.

5. Fold the packet over itself (as seen). You should have a large square with the food in the middle, but with plenty of room on all sides. Fold the edges of each packet carefully to create a tight seal on each edge.

6. Place packets in oven and bake for 30-35 minutes. Be careful when taking out of the oven. To open to packet, simply cut a slit with a knife or take apart one of the sealed edges.

7. Pour contents of packet onto a plate (take out the lemon, of course) and eat!

Crockpot Chicken Enchilada Soup

This is an incredibly easy and surprisingly tasty recipe. I made it on a Friday night (when I was staying in, lame), but I will probably make this pretty frequently now that it's getting cold outside---just put the stuff in the crockpot in the morning and have a hot, spicy soup ready to eat when I return from class.

sorry for the lack of pictures. The blue stuff is blue corn tortilla chips

Crockpot Chicken Enchilada Soup
Hands on time: 5-10 minutes Total time: 3-6 hrs


1 can chicken or vegetable broth
1 can chopped green chilies (the teeny can)
1 can or jar of enchilada sauce (I used 505 brand)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can or package of frozen corn
2 cups water
3-4 cups shredded chicken (more, if you want it)
couple tbsps of garlic
cumin and chili powder to taste (at least a tsp each, I'd say)
optional: 1 onion, finely chopped and quickly sauteed in olive oil before putting it in the crockpot
optional: cilantro for garnish

1. Put the chilies, sauce, tomatoes, corn and chicken into the bottom of the crockpot.
2. Add the broth, water, and spices.
3. Cook on high heat for 3 hours or low heat for 6 hours.

If you wanted, you could add some pre-cooked rice or quinoa in there, as well, about a half hour before you're ready to eat it. I like putting tortilla chips in the bottom of the bowl before I put the soup in, then topping it off with some shredded Mexican cheese.

Quinoa Fiend Stuffed Peppers

So, I'm a quinoa fiend.  I generally try as hard as I can to eat as healthfully as I can, and I find that quinoa allows me to do that while also allowing me to make meals that actually taste good. It truly is a magical grain---a complete protein (I am also a protein fiend!), tasty, and versatile. It's also totally gluten-free, which is an added bonus for some people.

I like all the varieties I've tried including red, white, and black, and I also really like quinoa pasta. Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is a bit expensive (and can be hard to find if you're not in a bigger city), but it fills you up without making you have that awful stuffed-to-the-gills feeling you can get with pasta, rice, or other grains. I don't mind spending the extra money to buy quinoa, even on a graduate student salary, because its nutritional value and versatility are really valuable to me. I know that sounds so, like, organic and snobby, but it's true for me. At least with quinoa; there are a ton of foodstuffs I'm happy to take the cheap route on, like cheese or cereal. But anyway!

I seriously eat quinoa all the time: with eggs and salsa for breakfast, in salads, as a companion to chicken and shrimp, with stir-frys, mixed up with crunchy tortilla chips, salsa and melty cheese for lunch.

This recipe is designed to use up whatever random half-used-up vegetables and/or cheese you've got laying around. I used onions, black beans, tomatoes, and feta cheese, but you could easily add in or substitute zucchini, squash, leeks, spinach, whatever.  It's easy to manipulate the flavor here: this recipe can be tweaked to have more a Mexican, Italian, or Greek flavor, depending on the type of cheese and seasonings used.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
serves 2
hands-on time: 15 minutes
total time: 45 min


1 cup of quinoa (I used black here)
1/2 a can of black beans
1/2 an onion
1 small tomato
small handful of feta cheese
2 red or green peppers
couple tbsps of olive oil
salt, pepper, and seasoning to taste


1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Cook your quinoa. If you're using boxed, follow the directions on the box. If not, generally follow the rule of 2 parts water to one part quinoa. Rinse the quinoa then bring to a boil in a pot with two cups of chicken or vegetable broth. When the mixture is boiling, turn the heat down to a simmer and cover until all liquid is absorbed (usually 10-15 minutes).

3. You'll also need to steam the peppers a little bit before you cook them in the oven. My lazy shortcut way is to slice the tops off, pull out the seeds, and microwave for about 4 minutes, until soft.

4. While the quinoa is cooking, dice your onions and tomatoes. You'll want to dice them smaller than what I did here (see picture). The vegetable pieces were kind of a little bit too big to put inside the peppers, but I am a lazy dicer. I hope you aren't.

5. Throw your onions in a pan with some olive oil and saute until translucent; then add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and seasoning (I used a Mexican one). Once this mixture is a little bit bubbly, add in the black beans. Cook for 3-5 minutes.

6. Once the vegetable mixture is done, add it to the cooked quinoa. Stir, and add in your handful of feta.

7. Carefully scoop the quinoa mixture into the peppers, sprinkle a little bit more cheese on top, and bake at 350 for approximately 30 minutes.

8. You'll want to let these cool before serving them, as they retain quite a bit of heat.

You'll probably have a good amount of the quinoa mixture leftover, which can be used in another meal....maybe as a side dish to beef or chicken, or rolled up in a burrito. The pepper I had leftover was equally as good the next day with eggs for breakfast, as you can see below.

For some awesome quinoa recipes, check out Rebecca Woolf's blog.

Lazy Weeknight Chicken Chilaquiles Casserole-ish Dinner

I created this recipe when I got home from class the other night. I knew I had some aging tortillas I wanted to use up, and I had just bought a rotisserie chicken, so I kinda threw this together and it turned out awesome! Less than 20 minutes from start to finish, full of protein, and delicious. Not the healthiest dinner ever, but it would be nicely complimented by a simple salad for a good lazy weeknight dinner.

I called it chicken chilaquiles because chilaquiles are traditionally eaten over/made with tortillas. This dinner really isn't that close to chilaquiles, though; I probably should have called it tortilla casserole or something like that. Chicken Chilaquiles Casserole-ish Dinner is alliterative though, so I had to keep it. Regardless, this dish is actually really good if you eat it over tortilla chips, so I guess the chilaquile name can stay.

I lost my camera, and this is the only pitiful picture I took on my phone. Sorry dudes.

Chicken Chilaquiles Casserole-ish Dinner
serves 2-3
total hands-on time: 7 minutes
total time: less than 20 minutes 


3 (ish) cups of shredded chicken
1 can black beans
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1 tbsp garlic
8 or 9 corn tortillas, torn
most of a jar of salsa (I actually used green chile sauce, but salsa will work just as well)
sprinkle of Mexican seasoning

1. Put the garlic and the broth into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. I also put in a few sprinkles of a Mexican seasoning I have, but you can add salt, cumin, and chili powder if you don't have a pre-mixed seasoning.
2. Toss in the chicken and let simmer for a minute, then black beans, let cook for 5 minutes or so.
3. While the chicken and bean mixture is cooking, tear the tortillas into halves and cover the bottom of an 11 by 7 (greased!) pan.
4. When the mixture is finished cooking, spoon about half of it onto the torn tortillas. Spread salsa on top.
5. Add another layer of corn tortillas, then another layer of chicken & beans, then another layer of salsa. Sprinkle Mexican cheese on top.
6. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly.

One-Pot: Rotisserie Chicken, Asparagus and Couscous

I like rotisserie chickens for several reasons, not the least of which is because they smell amazing at all points of contact: in the store, in the car on the way home, and in the kitchen. I've been known to impulse buy them at the supermarket, just because I walked past and accidentally got a whiff of honey-barbecue. They're also quite useful for those of us who are too lazy to regularly roast chickens on our own, and it's easy to make the meat of one chicken last for several days' worth of meals. The particular chicken used in this recipe also provided us with taco meat, and I'm planning on using it for chicken chilaquiles tonight, as well.

Anyway, I made this recipe for dinner the other night, adapted from here. My main adaptations were eliminating parsley, adding spinach and using couscous-from-a-box. I will definitely make this again, as it's fast, easy and surprisingly tasty (for how simple it is). It's especially good for summer, I think; filling, but light enough to eat at the end of a long hot day. Also, light enough to eat at the beginning of a long hot night when your swamp cooler is partially broken....

One Pot: Rotisserie Chicken, Asparagus and Couscous

Ingredients:
total time: approx 20 min
total hands on time: 20 min

1 box of couscous mix (I used Near East Parmesan mix)
3-5 green onions
1/2 a bunch of asparagus, chopped into 1 in pieces
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsps butter (I always use SmartBalance)
1 1/4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
few handfuls of fresh baby spinach
few handfuls of shredded rotisserie chicken

1. Make the couscous according the directions on the box.
2. While the couscous is cooking, chop the green onions and the asparagus.


3. Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium-low and add the white and light green parts of the onions. Cook until wilted.
4. Add the broth and a little bit of salt and pepper. Turn the heat up and bring to a boil.
5. Add asparagus and a few handfuls of baby spinach. Bring to a boil.
6. Add the couscous and chicken, then turn the heat off and let sit, covered, for 3-4 minutes.
7. Stir in the lemon juice, green parts of the onions, and serve!




Please forgive the picture quality, as these were taken on my phone. This may be the first in a series of posts on "one pot" meals: would you guys like to see more recipes like this? Let us know!

Swiss Chard Quiche

My trip to Central America has been significantly delayed due to the eruption of the volcano Pacaya in Guatemala, as well as tropical storm Agatha, so I've been hanging out in Baltimore for a bit longer than I originally planned. Check out the sinkhole caused by the storm in Guatemala City:



!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Luckily, I anticipate spending most of my time in Guatemala in the city of Antigua, which is (so far) sinkhole-free. Since I've had a longer stay in Baltimore, I've had more time to cook, and I have successfully converted my family to liking swiss chard. Last night, I made an onion-chard quiche for dinner; I'm a big fan of quiches because they're easy and easily customizable. Quiche also seems appropriate at any time of day; it's not at all like eating a hamburger at 9 am, which always feels weird to me. If you eat a quiche at 9 am, it feels like breakfast. If you eat it at 7 pm, it feels like dinner.



Swiss Chard Quiche

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 (to 1.5) cups of grated cheese (I used a mix of cheddar and some weird artisanal sundried tomato cheese I found in the fridge)
1 cup milk
3/4 bunch of swiss chard, chopped
3/4 onion, chopped
1 pie crust
couple tablespoons of olive oil
splash of lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

1. Finely chop the onion and cut the stems off of the chard. Saute in the oil until soft, 5-7 minutes or so.
2. Roughly chop the chard into bite size pieces, add to the pan.
3. Add a splash of lemon juice, cook until chard is fully wilted; it will become much smaller and a much darker green. I added salt, pepper, and garlic powder here, as well.
4. As the chard wilts, blend the milk, eggs and cheese together in a bowl.
5. When the chard is done, stir it into the eggs mixture.
6. Pour mixture into pie crust.
7. Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes.



8. Let the quiche sit a few minutes before cutting.

We ate the quiche with a tomato, avocado and parmesan salad. This recipe could easily be modified by using spinach in place of chard, leeks in place of onions, adding green onions on top, adding fresh basil, adding tomato, adding green peppers, adding cooked bacon, adding broccoli, you get the picture. Basically, you can modify this recipe to suit your particular tastebuds, using any vegetables you want; just saute them a little before you add them to the egg mixture. I should add I've made basically the exact same quiche without a crust, so if you don't have a pie crust or just want a lighter version of the recipe, it's just as good without. This quiche tastes even better the next day, especially for breakfast.