New Cooks in the Kitchen

Welcome to my kitchen!

 Recently I was invited to a home to cook with two young women who are relatively new to cooking.  This is one of my favorite groups to work with—young women who are starting families and want to learn how to feed them good, healthy meals.  This group has generally not been formally taught anything about cooking and may only know how to make “pre-packaged” meals:  tacos, macaroni and cheese, and Hamburger Helper for example, which are full of less than desirable ingredients

Sisters-in-law Ready to Cook for the Clan!

We talked over her goals:  she wanted to add to her basic repertoire of meals while making food that her husband and daughter would enjoy.  We came up with three different meals that would limit the number of ingredients to keep costs reasonable.  I assured her that each one would taste different from the next. 

I think chicken is so versatile that everyone should know how to make that into several different meals.  In this case, we started with boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  These don’t have a lot of flavor unless they are marinated, brined, stuffed or served with a pan sauce.  

 

Meal Number One:  Sauteed Chicken Breasts with a pan sauce, green salad and a whole grain pilaf. 

Sauteed Chicken Breasts. 

Meal Number two:  Stuffed Chicken Breasts, fresh vegetable and a whole grain side dish

Dishing up Stuffed Chicken Breasts.

We also experimented with some homemade vinaigrettes that can be used on green leafy salads, or with whole grain salads.  We used two different methods to make these, and put them on the same basic leafy greens and vegetables to discover how different flavors can be created without a lot of ingredients.   

Three different vinaigrettes used on three different salads.

We also cooked up extra chicken breasts for “leftovers Judy Style”.  This is my way to have something prepped for another meal so you cut down on your work load.  You will save on both washing up and cooking time. 

Two Formerly Hungry Men having enjoyed our Menu!  The food was consumed before we had a chance to take any photos!

Molly with the girls.

 

The “leftovers” can now be turned into a Main Course Salad:  slice up the chicken, add to salad greens, chop some celery, scallions and cherry tomatoes, grate some cheese, and make your vinaigrette.  Or make this leftover chicken into tacos; chop the chicken, shred lettuce, grate cheese, put it on a tortilla with salsa or guacamole, and eat!  Another option is to turn the chicken into a salad spread for sandwiches.  I can create so many possibilities from just having a little extra cooked chicken breast for another meal.

A final seal of Approval.

This was such a fun event for me--helping Andrea and Anna make a couple of delicious meals for their hungry group!