Garlic Ranch Chicken with Potatoes, Peas, and Pearl Onions

I've been really busy with school starting so, I haven't been able to keep up with this as much as I'd like. Also, I haven't been cooking as much as usual because we've been going out a lot lately. My birthday was a little over a week ago, and we have finally finished celebrating. Margaritas at Gringo's!!! So, now it's back to the kitchen. Right now I'm praying that Ike stays away. I sure would hate to lose all of the food in my freezer. I've been working on my food stockpile for 3 months!!


Okay, so as for tonight's dinner... it was worth trying again, but not amazing. I need to work on it a little to make it great. Both of the dishes were new, so it was just a test run.

Garlic Ranch Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

1/4 cup milk

1/2 tsp. minced garlic

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp. ranch salad dressing mix

1/8 tsp. pepper

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. butter

Flatten chicken slightly; set aside. In a shallow bowl, combine milk and garlic. In another shallow bowl, combine the flour, salad dressing mix, and pepper. Dip chicken in milk mixture, then coat with flour mixture. In a large skillet, cook chicken in oil and butter over medium heat for 6-8 minutes on each side or unitl juices run clear.

Potatoes, Peas, and Pearl Onions

1 package 20oz of regfrigerated red potato wedges (or about 1 1/2 lbs of red potatoes cut into wedges yourself)

1/3 cup water

1 1/3 cups frozen pearl onions, thawed

3 tbsp. butter

2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1/3 cup chicken broth

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 can peas, drained

3 tbsp. chopped green onions

Place potato wedges and water in a 2qt microwave safe bowl. Cover and microwave on high 8-10 minutes or until potatoes are tender; drain and set aside. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute pearl onions in butter for 2 minutes. Add the cream, broth, salt, nutmeg, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5-7 minutes or until onions are tender. Stir in the peas, green onions and reserved potatoes; heat through.

Notes: I really liked this dish, but I wanted the sauce to be thicker. I think that I'll let the cream mixture boil for a few minutes next time until its thicker, before I reduce the heat and simmer.

Veggie Lasagna

Don't knock it till you've tried it. This was a really easy lasagna recipe without any meat. Although, you could very easily add meat to it if you like. I conveniently left out the word "Veggie" from my meal plan posted on the fridge, and my husband never even realized the meat was missing. This recipe is a little different, considering it calls for green beans in the lasagna. But, in my family, we always ate green beans as a side dish with spaghetti, so it wasn't as much of a stretch for me.

Veggie Lasagna

9 uncooked lasagna noodles

1 egg

1 egg white

1 15oz. caton reduced fat ricotta cheese

2 tsp. dried parsley flakes

1 tsp. dried basil

1 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 tsp. pepper

4 cups garden style spaghetti sauce

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 or 2 cans cut green beans, drained (add as little as one can or as much as two)

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Cook noodles according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the eggs, egg whites, ricotta cheese, parsley, basil, oregano, and pepper; set aside. In a 13x9x2 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray, spread 1 cup spaghetti sauce. Drain noodles; place three noodles over spaghetti sauce. Layer with half of the ricotta mixture, 1 cup spaghetti sauce, 1 cup mozzarella cheese, three lasagna noodles, and the green beans. Top with the remaining ricotta mixture, 1 cup spaghetti sauce, remaining lasagna noodles, spaghetti sauce, and mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over each. Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until bubbly and edges are lightly browned. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Notes: This really was a good dish, but I had to make some changes to it. I went to buy the garden style Ragu spaghetti sauce, but after reading the ingredients, I realized it had mushrooms in it. I swear my husband can smell mushrooms from a mile away, and he hates them. So, I settled for the Ragu Chunky Tomato, Onion, and Garlic sauce. It had great flavor, but it wasn't very chunky, and there was a distinct lacking of veggies in my veggie lasagna, except for the green beans. I think I will definately try this again, but I'm going to saute some green peppers and onions, and add them to the spaghetti sauce.