Not sure why, but the last few weeks, I’ve been on a bit of a creativity kick. More specifically with food. Not entirely sure why. I’ve watched more Food Network in the last 2 weeks than I have since I split up with my ex, who used to watch it religiously.
Chicken
On Thursday night, I got creative, and made a chicken dish from scraps in the cupboard. I should have taken some pics. It turned out quite tasty. So much so that Stephanie wants it again. It’s really simple too. Here is what I did:
- 3 Large Chicken Breasts
- Can of condensed Mushroom Soup + 1/2 can of milk
- Rice
- Fresh Green Beans
- Nature’s Seasons “Seasoning Blend”
- Grilled Chicken Seasoning
- Dipper - Sicilian Blend
Not sure where the last one came from, but I found it in my cupboard. I’d imagine you can use any seasoning you want. To cook, simple trim off the “interesting” bits off of the chicken breast, such as any fat. Put seasoning on one side. Heat a pan, I used an iron skillet, with a small drizzle of Olive oil, and put in the chicken, seasoned side down. Now season the top side. Every few minutes, flip.
When the chicken nearly cooked, pour the mushroom soup/milk into the pan with the chicken. Around this time, start cooking the rice, and green beans. While the rice and beans are cooking, flip the chicken, and make sure it is coated in mushroom soup. The soup should start to thicken.
When rice and beans are cooked, server onto a plate, and put the chicken on top of the rice. Add some of the cooked soup from the pan. If you are using an iron skillet like I did, I found that some of the soup had thickened more at the bottom, and tasted a lot like turkey gravy.
Banana Bread
Today, I got creative again. We have a couple of banana’s left from a bunch. They were getting to the “throw away” stage where they were just a little too ripe to eat, so I decided to make banana bread. This was an easy one. I found this recipe which I based it off of.
- 3 Ripe Bananas
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/3 cup of melted butter
- 1 egg, beaten
Pre-heat oven to 350F. Add bananas, and butter into a bowl, and mix. Then add the egg, sugar, vanilla, salt and mix. When nicely mixed, add the flour. If you are using a mixing machine, rather than a spoon, add the flour a bit at a time so it doesn’t spray up. I ended up tweaking it a little as I thought the mix was a little runny, so I added a little more flour. When all suitably mixed, add to a pan. The recipe I found said to use a 4x8 loaf pan, however after I started making this, I realized I didn’t have one of those, so I used a 9x13. The recipe calls for an hour in the oven, however because I’m using a larger dish, the bread spread a lot thinner, so it ended up only being about 35 minutes. To test, simply take a fork, or a knife, and pierce the top. If the fork comes out clean, it’s done. Should look a little like this.
Enjoy.