Roasted Red Pepper Pasta with
Chicken, Goat Cheese, and
Mushrooms
I have to say, this is one of those dinners that will leave
everyone at the table asking for seconds! Both of my older
boys devoured their first plate and asked for more before I
finished my own plate! The key to a great chicken and pasta
dish is seasoning your chicken correctly, and making sure to
pound it thin. If you have ever tried to recreated a chicken
dish from a restaurant and can’t figure out what makes theirs
so much better it is probably that they pound their chicken,
and use more salt! You see, boneless skinless chicken is
virtually tasteless. When you have that hunk of middle meat,
you have a portion of the chicken that isn’t sauced. I hate
chewing through a fat piece of chicken and getting to the
middle. It is like eating a piece of sautéed chicken with
nothing on it…. yuck! Therefore, even if I use tenderloins
like I did for this recipe, I STILL thin them out. That way I
have a nice thin piece of chicken that will have lots of
sauce, and no bland middle. It also cooks up more evenly, and
you don’t have to cook as long on each side. All the way
around, if there is one thing I can stress about the perfect
chicken in a pasta dish it is pound your chicken! *If you have
no clue what I’m talking about you take this piece of kitchen
equipment and gently hammer your meat until it is thinner.
The other essential, seasoning your chicken correctly is easy.
After you have pounded and cut your chicken pieces, start
heating your sauté pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil on low
and throw your chicken into a bowl. In a separate bowl throw
in a little flour, salt (I suggest course kosher or Himalayan
pink sea salt), pepper, and garlic powder. Dredge each piece
of chicken in the flour before you put it in your pan. This
simple step will make a world of difference because it will
help you get that nice, golden coating on each side. It also
helps to keep your chicken from sticking to your pan (I never
use non-stick because of the chemicals), and I always throw in
an extra tablespoon or two of flour so that my sauce ends up
thick and I don’t have to worry about thickening it up later.
Even if there is extra flour just sitting in your pan, you
will be happy later when you have a thick sauce! I would
suggest looking for the roasted red peppers in the pasta isle
of your grocery store. They will come in a glass jar either
whole or in strips. Before purchasing check the ingredients.
There should not be any soybean oil or additives in the
peppers. I found mine in the Italian specialty section of my
local store where they have all of the whole parmesan wedges,
mozzarella balls, olives, and spreads.
Complete Meal Monday: Garlic,
Shallot,
and
White
Wine
Flounder
with
Spinach,
Watercress, and Strawberry
Salad
At times it is easier to find inspiration when you have the
whole meal in front of you! I decided to start doing complete
meal inspiration to help viewers visualize what unprocessed
and real dinners look like. I get a lot of questions about
what we eat, and while some of the recipes give a little
insight, this lays out exactly what we eat in a meal. I’m not
able to attach two recipes to one post, so for the red
wine vinaigrette for the salad click here.
The Fish
We love fish, especially Flounder (sorry I know I need to mix
up my fish recipes!). I think part of eating unprocessed foods
is using different ingredients and keeping it fresh. My
husband and I were both thinking about shallots for some
reason so he picked up a few at the grocery store, and BAM! I
have a brand new recipe to share. He tends to get random
things at the grocery store which is awesome because so many
new recipes of mine come from him picking up unexpected items
each week. If you are just getting into eating unprocessed
foods one of the best things to do is try new things, and fill
your refrigerator with fresh produce and herbs. I made a nice
white wine sauce to bake over this flounder, which included
butter, shallots, garlic, lemon, white wine, and fresh
parsley. Not only is it beautiful, it tastes amazing!
The Salad
I can’t stress this enough.. making your own dressings is an
essential part of eating unprocessed foods because store
bought dressings are some of the worst products on grocery
store shelves. It gets even worse because almost all of the
companies making bottled dressings use unethical labeling to
trick consumers into thinking they are getting a quality
product. In reality 95% of bottled dressings are made of
soybean oil, MSG, preservatives, and unlabeled ingredients
under the “natural flavors” loophole. I’ve talked about Hidden
Valley Ranch, so I won’t go over that again. However,
sometimes vinaigrettes slip through the cracks because people
assume they are just oil and vinegar. Here are the ingredients
in WishBone’s Balsamic Breeze Salad Spritzer (I couldn’t find
the Red Wine one online, hopefully they don’t make it
anymore):
Ingredients: Water, Balsamic Vinegar, High Fructose Corn
Syrup, Soybean Oil, Salt, Distilled Vinegar, Extra Virgin
Olive Oil, Onion Juice, Garlic Juice, Xanthan Gum, Natural
Flavors (Soy), (Sorbic Acid, Calcium Disodium EDTA) Used To
Protect Quality, Wine, Sulfur Dioxide (Used To Protect
Quality).
These ingredients just make me sad. I would honestly look at
this product and think it was a healthier alternative to
regular bottled dressing because you just spray it on. The
only ingredients this product should have are olive oil,
balsamic vinegar, and spices. I have NO idea where the high
fructose corn syrup, EDTA, or emulsifiers came from. Shame on
WishBone for tricking consumers like this!
With that being said, this salad is one of my favorites! I’m a
feta lover, and the saltiness of feta cheese pairs perfectly
with strawberries. I also threw in some walnuts, spinach, and
watercress and had a delicious salad loaded with tons
nutrition. I mentioned previously, I can’t attach two recipes
to one post, so if you want the dressing recipe click here. To
make this salad just desired amount of ingredients with a
small amount of dressing and enjoy! A little bit of this
dressing goes a long way!
Whole Grain Banana Bread
We had some bananas get brown really quick, so it was banana
bread time! I adapted an old banana bread recipe to make it
with whole, natural ingredients and it turned out fantastic!
Quick breads are just that… quick! It takes only a few minutes
to put together and it is delicious. This bread it great for
lunchboxes or after school snacks.
This recipe features whole spelt flour, whole wheat pastry
flour, mascobado sugar, maple syrup, and salted butter. I love
using salted butter in recipes like this for a little touch of
saltiness to go with the sweet bananas.