Health for life

Todays question comes from the very bottom of my heart and *sniff* stomach:

Q: What are you making for Valentines Day dinner? How about dessert? Will there be wine involved? How are you staying healthy and within budget?

A: In order: Rachael Ray’s Pasta Puttanesca (one of Husband-Elects favorite meals), not sure yet, most definitely, and through the power of spaghetti.

Readers, how about you? If you have any good recipes (especially for Valentines desserts), pass ‘em on! This is a great time to leave links to your own recipes in the comment section.

Want to ask the interweb a question? Post one in the comment section, or write to Cheaphealthygood@gmail.com. Then, tune in next Tuesday for an answer/several answers from the good people of the World Wide Net.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I camped. A lot. I was a Girl Scout, see. And when I wasn’t pushing Thin Mints on the unsuspecting elderly, I was deep in the woods, playing Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board and doing everything I could to avoid roaming packs of Daddy Longlegs.

I was also eating, as freakishly tall 13-year-olds are wont to do. Back then, my troop’s campsite meals were limited to sandwiches and granola bars, along with the occasional S’more-a-thon.

However, as we got older, we also got smarter, and began booking a large cabin with a fully functioning kitchen. (Note: I grew up on Long Island. This still counted as roughing it.) Spaghetti dinners became much more common than burgers and dogs. As approximately 400% of Long Islanders are at least part Italian, this was greatly appreciated.

Honestly (and I’m positive my leader will know for sure), I don’t remember ever cooking anything in a tin foil pouch, over a campfire or otherwise. I wish we had, though, because this Southwestern Chicken from About.com would have been great. With only four major ingredients, it’s stupefying in its simplicity, but rewarding in its … uh … tasteicity.

Baked in the oven at a high temperature, the salsa steams the chicken, keeping it pleasingly moist without overcooking. It flavors the dish, too, meaning the higher the salsa quality, the better the meal. While you could definitely serve Southwestern Chicken with rice or a salad, the corn and beans make it a fairly complete dinner. I give it a foil-packed thumbs up.

Readers, do you have any favorite foily meals? I have Reynolds wrap, and I’m not afraid to use it. There’s a nation of eager Girl Scouts out there waiting for your suggestions. (And for you to shoo the spiders away. *shudder*)

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If you like this recipe, you might also like:

• Black Bean Salad with Fresh Corn
• Stuffed Peppers With Black Beans and Corn
• Vegetarian Bean Chili

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Southwestern Chicken
Serves 2
Adapted from About.com.


2 12x18-inch rectangles aluminum foil
2 5-ounce pieces boneless skinless chicken breast (or, 1 10-ounce breast cut in half)
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
1/2 cup chunky salsa, medium heat

1) Preheat oven to 450°F.

2) Generously salt and pepper both sides of each chicken breast. Place each smack in the middle of its own sheet of tin foil. Top each with 1/4 cup beans, 1/4 cup corn, and 1/4 cup salsa.

3) Seal the packets. Bring the long ends together and double fold them. Then double fold sides. Don’t make them too snug – make sure you leave some space in there for steaming.

4) Bake 35 minutes. Remove from oven and give the foil a minute or two to cool. Release your chicken and serve over rice.

NOTE: Thinner cuts of meat will cook for less time. Mine was about 1-inch at its thickest part.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, and Price Per Serving
269 calories, 2.4 g fat, 6 g fiber, $0.98

Calculations
2 5-ounce pieces boneless skinless chicken breasts: 312 calories, 3.4 g fat, 0 g fiber, $1.06
Kosher salt: negligible calories, fat, and fiber per serving, $0.01
Freshly ground black pepper: negligible calories, fat, and fiber per serving, $0.01
1/2 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed: 114 calories, 0.4 g fat, 7.5 g fiber, $0.19
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed: 76 calories, 0.6 g fat, 2.3 g fiber, $0.20
1/2 cup chunky salsa, medium heat: 35 calories, 0.3 g fat, 2.1 g fiber, $0.50
TOTALS: 537 calories, 4.7 g fat, 11.9 g fiber, $1.97
PER SERVING (TOTALS/2): 269 calories, 2.4 g fat, 6 g fiber, $0.98

Black Poppyseeds Cloverleaf dinner rolls have a soft,buttery and super fluffy texture than a usual dinner rolls, this dinner rolls are really easy to split and enjoy with your favourite spreads.The addition of the black poppy seeds do give a wonderful nuttiness to this spongy dinner rolls. Also these dinner rolls goes awesome with a meats, hot warm soups or creamy gravies when served during a dinner. They stay simply pect for more than a two days if they are conserved in an air tight container.Obviously these cute rolls are very addictive and half of my dinner rolls get vanished quickly once they came out of the oven.

Shaping a cloverleaf rolls are very much easier than you may think, just make a bread dough and pinch the dough into small balls. Drop three of those balls in a muffin tin and let them rise , once they get baked you can get these cute looking,buttery cloverleaf dinner rolls. I brushed my rolls with melted butter,you can also brush them with egg yolks to make them more appealing with a shiny crust.As i told in my previous post, this wonderful bake is for this months long blogging marathon with B as alphabet under baked dishes as theme.



3cups All purpose flour
1tbsp Active dry yeast
1/4cup Sugar+1tbsp Sugar (for yeast)
1/4cup Softened butter
2tbsp Black poppyseeds
1no Eggs
1/2tsp Salt
1/2cup Warm Milk
Melted butter (for brushing)

In a bowl, dissolve the yeast with warm milk,sugar and let it stand for 5minutes until the yeast turns foamy.

Now take the butter,sugar,egg in a bowl and beat it, add in the flour,black poppyseeds and foamy yeast and knead as a stiff dough.

Dust the dough and knead for 8-10minutes until the dough turns soft and elastic.Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover it.

Let it rise in a warm place until the dough gets doubled about 2 hours.

Grease a 12cup muffin pan generously.

Punch down the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into 36 equal pieces.

On a clean surface, roll each piece into a smooth ball and place 3 balls,side by side  in each muffin cup.

Cover the muffin tin loosely with plastic wrap and keep asie until doubled in size for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 F.

Remove the plastic wrap from the rolls.Brush the rolls with melted butter.

Bake the rolls until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

 Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

Serve warm.


Logo courtesy : Preeti
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 32 );