Freaking allergies or sinuses or whatever the hell it is that I am suffering from freaking sucks and should die a horrible death. I can barely hear out of my right ear cause it's all kinds of stopped up with random pressure and I can't pop it. I keep coughing, but at least it's not the "super omg hacking up a lung pain pain" cough that usually accompanies this, so that's at least a plus. And since I broke down and took a Claritin (or however it's spelled), I can actually breathe, my throat is no longer on fire (hurts, sorta, but no fire anymore) and I even got sleep last night, whoo! So yeah, Death to Allergies/Sinuses/Whatever!
Anyway, as for previous post, as I stated, antipathy + self-esteem issues = Jenn posts whiney things that should not be taken all that seriously. It was more a vent release type thing that I really needed at that point so I could, among other things, go back and look and say, "See? Nutso. Now quit being crazy." And I have. Mostly. Until the next time, anyway.
Food! So I finally broke down and did all my finances stuffs again and realized I was bad about the take-out stuff again. So I'm trying to go back to the cook more, eat out less thing. And I've been good so far! Helps that I found some packet cooking recipes that are minimal fuss, prep, and cleanup and take like 15 + oven preheat minutes to make. Lauren might like these. And since it does involve mostly the oven which is kinda like baking, Ally should be able to do these as well! I shall now present you with recipes! Well, a recipe. Haven't tried the others yet. I'll post them once I've tried them. (I'm totally doing the salmon and asparagus and mushroom one tonight since I has to go to grocery store anyway.)
FYI, these measurements are in no way exact. I rarely measure stuff unless it comes pre-measured (like butter in stick form with the little measurement things on the wrapper). Also, I adapted this from a salmon packet recipe, so you could do that instead of chicken, just drop it to 375 degrees for 10 minutes.
Chicken w/ Mushrooms and Onions Packet
- Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
- Get one piece of foil per chicken, shiny side up, big enough to completely wrap up a chicken breast with some veggies, then a bit extra just in case. Too much foil is better than not enough.
- Butter the foil. The Pam butter spray works, too. (Again, shiny side up, dull side down. This makes a difference.)
- Place one chicken breast per piece of foil. Try to get it more or less in the middle of the foil.
- Roughly chop mushrooms and onions. I typically do 3 whole mushrooms and a single slice of a medium red onion per chicken breast.
- In a pan, melt some butter and sauté the mushrooms and onions until the mushrooms are golden brownish. This will take about 4-5 minutes, possibly more if you have a lot of stuff.
- Add about 1/2 tbsp of minced garlic per chicken breast.
- Add about 1 tbsp of dry white wine per chicken breast. I use cooking wine cause I have some left over from other recipes, but once I'm done with it, I'm going to get real white wine. It'll probably make it even better.
- Add about 1 tbsp of lemon juice per chicken breast.
- Let this reduce down for 2-3 minutes (possibly more if you have a lot of liquid).
- Once most of the liquid is gone, distribute the mushroom, etc mix among the chickens. Just mound the mix on top of the chicken.
- Now wrap each chicken breast. Make triple sure the shiny side is up and the dull side is down. Bring the two long sides together, then fold them over and over until you reach the chicken/veggie mound. Now take the other two sides and fold them under. The chicken should be encased in the foil very securely and moisture/steam should have major difficulty getting out. Once more, dull side should be facing you. If the shiny side is facing you, unwrap the chickens and rewrap them, dull side out. Trust me, this will make a difference.
- By now, your oven should be ready to go. Place the chickens in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. You could probably squeak by with less, but it's chicken, so I like to make sure it's done. If you want to really make sure, you could do up to 18 or so, but after that, it tends to get overdone and tough. I like 15 minutes. Gets the chicken cooked through, but still tender and juicy from the veggies.
- Unwrap the chickens, put on a plate, and eat!
hmm. i read thru your recipe. it requires ingredients that i dont happen to already own (wine, lemon juice, garlic) which is step 1 of why i hate to cook: having to go to the store for special crap. but since we need to go to the store today anyhow, i might go ahead and buy those things since at least i know where to locate them all. next: i dont like mushrooms *at all*. they are slimy and disgusting. i think i shall replace that ingredient with red and green peppers. which takes me to - i would have to chop up 3 different veggies in order to make this. then i have to sautee them. this is the step that i will most likely fail on. cooking something in a pan usually requires attention...something i rarely have, altho im better now that my computer isn't in the next room. this is the step that i will most likely mess up. that's why i like baking - you put it in the oven, don't have to do anything for awhile, and a nice little timer reminds you to pay attention. a bonus about this recipe is that it does not bring me to step 3 of why i hate cooking: the cleanup. all i will dirty is a knife, cutting board (both can go in the dishwasher) and a frying pan so that's only one dish to clean when done. the ending to this whole long story is that i might give this a try tonight.
ReplyDeleteSo you're saying the shiny side should be out, right? This recipe looks really yummy, i'll definitely be trying it. I wonder if we could do it on the grill in the packet?
ReplyDeleteWhyfor is my comment not showing up? :(
ReplyDelete