Bacon and Swiss Chicken Sandwiches
This is relatively straight forward, but it sure does taste good!
2 chicken breasts
6 slices of bacon
4 slices of Swiss cheese
2 Kaiser rolls or any type of bun or roll that you like
Dijon mustard
S&P
Lettuce or tomato, if you prefer
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cook the bacon on the stovetop or in the microwave, whichever you prefer. Next, take a piece of wax or parchment paper and fold it in half. Place the chicken breasts in between the parchment paper and pound the breasts with a mallet or something similar until they are about 1/2 inch thick. This may take a few minutes, but it is super important to get them even all the way across. Place the chicken breasts on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil and S&P them generously. Bake them in the oven for about 30-40 minutes or until the internal temperature hits 170 degrees or is no longer pink, flipping them once halfway through. With just a few minutes remaining in the cooking time, place the pieces of Swiss on the chicken breasts and let them melt over the tops. If you like, you can place the buns on another baking sheet, and toast them in the oven for the last few minutes of cooking time as well, but you don't have to. When the chicken is done and the cheese has melted, get ready to assemble the sandwiches. Take the chicken and place it on the bottom half of the bun. Place a few strips of bacon on top of the chicken. Add lettuce and tomato, if you wish. Slather on a ton of Dijon mustard to the top half of the bun. Place it on top and you are ready to eat! We ate ours with some Lay's Kettle Cooked Cheddar chips, which are amazeballs, BTW. Just sayin'.
Italian Sausage Risotto
The next meal was by FAR the best meal I have cooked in a LOOOOONG time. Adam LOVED this because not only did it have lots of sausage, but it was SPICY too. I loved it because I could eat risotto everyday for every meal! It also has lots of onions in it. So, if you aren't into that, then avoid this. :)
1 carton of low-sodium chicken stock
2 teaspoons of olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 teaspoons sugar
8 ounces of HOT Italian sausage, about 4 sausages
1 shallot, chopped
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1/3 cup white wine
3/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese
S&P
Bring the chicken stock to a simmer in a saucepan over medium heat. Don't let it boil! Keep warm over low heat. Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Add the chopped onion, S&P and the sugar and saute for about 7 minutes until it is softened. Place the softened onion mixture in a bowl and set aside. Next, remove the casings from the sausage by taking a knife and gently make a slice down the sides and pushing the meat out of the casing. Discard the casings. Add the sausage to the pot where the onion mixture was and saute on medium heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Make sure to S&P. Add the chopped shallot and saute for about 2 minutes until softened. Add the Arborio rice and stir for about 30 seconds. Next, add the wine and cook for about 2 minutes until the rice starts to absorb the liquid. Add about 1/2 cup of stock to the mixture and while stirring constantly, let the rice absorb the stock. Add the remaining stock, 1 cup at a time, stirring constantly until the liquid is absorbed each time before adding more. This should take about 20-25 minutes. Once all the stock is used, remove the pot from the heat and add the reserved onion mixture to the pot of risotto, stirring slowly. Add more S&P, if you like. Let the risotto sit for a few minutes before serving!
Barbeque Chicken with Collards
This meal is pretty straight forward too, but dang it was good!
6 chicken tenderloins
Store bought mustard-based barbeque sauce, we used HT Trader's Carolina Mustard brand
1 can of collard greens, we used Southern Style collards from HT
S&P
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Brush the barbeque sauce all over the chicken tenderloins, and make sure to S&P them generously. Place them on the baking sheet and bake them for about 20 minutes or until the inside is at 170 degrees or no longer pink, flipping them halfway through. Cook the collards in a pot according to instructions, usually about 20 minutes until heated through. Drizzle a little more sauce on top and serve them together hot! Make sure you use new sauce and not the portion you used to brush on the raw chicken! If I had the time, I DEFINITELY would have served this with cornbread, so I suggest you do too!
So, that's it for now! Until next time..
