Zaycon Foods

Recently my aunt told us about an exciting opportunity to buy fresher, cheaper meat in bulk.  We looked into the company and just got our first 40 pound box of chicken a few weeks ago.  Let me just say...before tasting this chicken you would have heard me say..."chicken is chicken"  Not anymore.  This chicken is AMAZING!!!!!  All of us who ordered four different households agree...best chicken they have ever tasted. If you are interested in looking into this company I recommend them highly.  They even have volunteer opportunities which Seth and his dad did to earn money towards future purchases.  I can't wait for another sale...I want a fish sale soooooooo bad.
Look them up...read about them...ask me questions.  Remember you can always spilt boxes of food with your neighbors, family,etc.

www.zayconfoods.com

asparagus pasta

Asparagus is one of my all time favorite vegetables.  I wish it wasn't so expensive in the store and such a seasonal vegetable.  I just love it.  I usually roast it with lemon pepper seasoning but lucky enough it was on sale and bought a bunch and thought maybe the mister was getting tired of lemon pepper asparagus every night.  So again, just like the last dish I made this up.  I am finding that it is fun to experiment and I know my family well enough that I tweak recipes I find to make sure everyone eats and enjoys their meal.  Once again the kids ate this...happy family all around.

I used some left over turkey breast meat that I was trying to use up in this dish.  First cook your noodles and while they are cooking saute your vegetables in olive oil and garlic.  Pretty sure the only vegetables I used in here was asparagus and onion.

add noodles once vegetables are crisp...add more olive oil this will be the base for your sauce.

season this dish with basil, oregano, parsley, etc.  and of course the staple at our house parm cheese

Kale Chicken and Pasta

About a week ago I put a plea out on fb for help with ideas for a chicken dinner.  I was running out of time and turned to pinterest once again for some inspiration.  Not finding anything that worked with my time frame...I decided to invent my own based on what I had seen.  AND WOW, I don't want to brag but it was delicious and my kids at KALE!  yes, you read that correctly.  I thought was going to be a bum night turned out to be very good.  Thanks for the inspiration pinterest.

Step one: Cook about a half a box of spiral noodles (or any kind of pasta you have or want) according to box directions.
Step two: Bread your chicken with bread crumbs or shake and bake and bake until crisp and done.  I used parms. crusted shake and bake.
Step Three: Chop your vegetables ( I used grated carrot, celery, kale and multi colored peppers) and saute in skillet large enough to hold chicken and noodles when cooked.  I used olive oil and garlic to saute vegetables in.
Step four: Add noodles, a can of cream of chicken soup, milk and parm. cheese until creamy
Step five: Pull chicken out of oven and add to pan.

Simple and delicious!

Mixing in noodles 

creamy pasta with chicken ready to eat.

Grilled brown mustard brussel sprouts

The inspiration for these cam from a site on pinterest.  Of course I did not have the ingredients to make these as the recipe called, but I had similar ingredients so this is what I came up with.  And....yes they were delicious!
blanch brussel sprouts in boiling water for just a couple of minutes.  Either put in a ice bath or run under cold water for a few minutes.  This really helps them keep their bright green color and it stops them from cooking more as they cool.
Then drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper and brown spicy mustard.  I used about a tablespoon and a half to a pound of brussel sprouts.  Marinate for about an hour.  Put onto skewers and then grill.
Rotate to cook on all sides.  Enjoy!

marinated and ready for the grill

on the grill with tuna steaks.  Ummmmm!

done and ready to eat

chicken bacon ranch pockets

Left over chicken/turkey always makes for GREAT meals like this.  I was hoping that both kids would like this and it could be an alternative to pizza at our house, but no such luck.  Addy of course liked it but Isaac preferred the crust sticks I made him instead.  Oh well, the rest of us enjoyed.

step one roll out pizza dough.  I used store bought.

chop up your left over chicken or turkey.  About a cup to cup and a half

crisp about 7 strips of bacon

Add mozz. cheese, parsley and basil to chicken and place on dough with bacon on top

cut into squares and fold

sprinkle top with ranch seasoning and parm. cheese mixture

bake at 375 until golden brown

Tilapia with mixed vegetables

We are HUGE fans of tilapia in this house.  Even the kids LOVE it, in fact they always eat more than I expect.  Each kid can easily eat their own whole piece.  Love it that they love fish, so healthy and a great source of protein.  The kids and I love it breaded and pan fried in olive oil.  Sometimes, I feel that the Mr. gets a little bored with this so the other night I chose to mix things up a bit for him.  This was my creation.

This is the kind the kids and I like.  Breaded with parsley, bread crumbs, pepper, and parmesan cheese.


This is the new kind that I invented for Seth

4 pieces of fish, with chopped yellow pepper, onion and bok choy on the sides.  I cooked this slightly in olive oil, white wine and lemon juice

seasoned the fish with parsley, cumin and paprika and then added the leaf portion of the bok choy

continued to cook on low heat and then added diced tomato.  I did not cook the fish all the way.  I let it marinate in the fridge for a couple of hours at this point.

At dinner time I finished the pan searing, and this was the final result.  He LOVED it!!

philly cheese steak in green peppers

Let me start by saying...I don't eat steak and it is very hard for a person who doesn't eat steak for cook steak.  I feel as though I can never do it right.  Well...if you can relate to me at all this recipe is for you.  You can cheat a little (well...a lot and get steak meat from the deli at your local grocery store so the worry about cooking the meat right is at least over).

This is a slightly healthier alternative to the steak and cheese sandwich, eliminating the carb(bread) component.  However, with all the cheese and steak meat I still wouldn't consider this a very healthy meal, but I was told it was DELICIOUS!

I am going to walk you through the process with pictures:

blanch your peppers in boiling water for a few minutes until slightly tender

Take peppers out of the water and add a slice of provolone cheese to the bottom of each pepper

saute sliced mushrooms, onion and steak 

Add the steak mixture to every pepper and top with another slice of cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted and then broil for a few minutes to get cheese slightly browned.

That's it...it is that easy and good!

Let me change your mind about cabbage

At the beginning of this food blog journey I hoped to change your mind about brussel sprouts.  Now, I want to change your mind about cabbage.  Many people like cabbage in cole slaw and in ramen noodle salad, or every just around St Patrick's day.  Well...recently I started roasting cabbage as a new vegetable in our rotation.  A head of cabbage lasts a LONG time in your fridge by the way.  This is so simple and easy to do.

Roasted Cabbage:
spray a cookie sheet with some non-stick spray of your choice.  Slice the cabbage and place the whole slice in tact on the cookie sheet.  Drizzle all slices with olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika.
Roast in your oven at 400 degrees for about 15 - 20 minutes depending on the thickness of your slices.  You want the outer edges of your slices to be a bit brown and crunchy.

Sooooooo good.  The first night I just made a couple of slices and we wanted more right away.  Now I fill up the cookie sheet.

Before roasting

after roasting