Baked Basil Chicken & Caprese Quinoa

This has been a great week!!  It's been busy, but totally worth it!!  One cool thing is that Dose Coffee downtown on Ross Street actually served one of my blog recipes yesterday as their  lunch specials!!  I ate it and it was delicious - couldn't have cooked it any better myself!!  If you're downtown, head in (they're on the top floor of Sunworks) for some of their delicious coffee, lunches or pastries - they are even open on Sundays, which is a complete shocker for this damn town, but hopefully their success will show the other businesses downtown that it's worth it to open their doors on Sundays - yeah! Let's rock out downtown Red Deer!!!

Sadly, Scotties is over tomorrow :(   Erin and I have met lots of fun new (ha ha  -old) friends and we've realized that we are both pretty awesome ambassodors of Red Deer!!  On Wednesday night, we enjoyed the Italian BLT's and was left with some basil spread; I saved it and used it for dinner on Thursday - check it out:

Baked Basil Chicken & Caprese Quinoa
Basil Chicken Ingredients:
4 organic chicken breasts
3-4 tbsp basil spread (leftover from the Italian BLT's)
non-stick cooking spray

Caprese Quinoa Ingredients:
3/4 cup quinoa
1 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup bocconcin, shredded or chopped
1/2 cup fresh basil, sliced thin into ribbons
2 roma tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
fresh cracked salt & pepper

Method:
In a small pot, combine the water and quinoa and bring to a boil over high heat.  Lower heat, cover and simmer for about 18 minutes, until all of the water is absorbed.  Remove from heat, get rid of the lid, fluff with a fork and leave to "cool" slightly.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400degrees.  Spray a  baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.  Arrange the chicken breasts in the dish, then baste with the basil spread.   Chuck in the oven for about 25 minutes. 

While the chicken & quinoa are cooking, chop the romas, bocconcini and basil.  Put ingredients in a medium sized bowl and set aside. 

In a small bowl, whisk together the balsamic & olive oil; pour over the ingredients and stir.  I let the quinoa cool off so it was warm, but not steaming like crazy anymore - stir it into the ingredients and you're good to go!  This salad tastes great warm or cold.

Once the chicken is out of the oven, thinly slice and serve atop a bed of the quinoa!  Yummy!

Before I sign off for today, I just wanted to quickly say how fun it's been to be part of Scotties this year; we've met so many new buds and learnt a lot about the crazy insider world of Curling!!  The pins, the beers, the mascots, the super fans and best of all - all the new pals!  Below is a picture of us with a new pal "Dave" and he's an avid volunteer (like us) and a blogger too!!!  Check out Dave's Blog which chronicles his adventures in volunteering!!

Shout out to our new friend Dave!!

Chicken Tostada Salad

I was proactive yesterday and poached 4 chicken breasts, used 2 for last night's dinner and reserved 2 for tonight's dinner - and I whipped up another quick and easy recipe from Everyday Food Light!  I made a few changes, but and it turned out awesome!

Chicken Tostada Salad
Ingredients:
2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded
4 small flour tortillas
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup shredded cheese (I had marble in the fridge)
1 shallot, finely diced
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup water
juice of one lime
1 small head romaine lettuce
2 small roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 avocado, diced
1/2 cup fresh cilantro

Method:
Preheat oven to 400degrees.  Lightly brush both sides of each of the tortillas with about 1 tsp of the olive oil and place on cookie sheets.  Bake for 10 minutes, flipping half-way through.  They will puff up and become so crunchy and light! 

In a large frying pan, heat the rest of the oil over medium heat.  Saute shallots for about 3 minutes, until softened.  Add the garlic and chili powder and heat until fragrant - not even a minute!  Add the shredded chicken and water and cook until the chicken is heated through and most of the water is evaporated.  Add 1 tsp of lime juice and then remove from heat.

Chop the rest of the vegetables and start plating:  start with a tortilla, top with romaine and tomatoes.  Add chicken, cheese and avocados, then garnish with cilantro.  Done like dinner!  It is dinner!  So yum!  And enough for lunch for tomorrow too :)

Scallops with Bacon and Sauteed Spinach

I can't believe it's Christmas Eve already!!  I actually got up this morning and was through the Superstore doors at 7am today!  Yah, I'm "one of those people" - annoying hey?  With list in hand, I leisurely combed the aisles and got all the ingredients for dinner tonight, Christmas brunch and my two sides that I'm taking over to friends tomorrow night.  SO HAPPY and GRATEFUL I am not cooking a turkey this year!!!  We did order a whole smoked turkey, but more on that in coming days!!

When I was at Big Bend Market yesterday picking up my turkey, I spied a pound of the most lovely fat looking scallops I've seen in a long time - I bought them knowing that a recipe would sort itself out by dinner time.  The recipe I made is an adaptation from Cooking Light magazine - switched a couple things up, so here is my take on the recipe:

Scallops with Bacon and Sauteed Spinach
Ingredients:
4 slices bacon
1 lb large scallops, rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel
salt & pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 large white onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 bag spinach
2 large ripe roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 lemon cut into wedges, for serving

Method:
In a large heavy bottomed skillet, cook bacon over medium high heat, till nice and crisp.  While the bacon is cooking, prepare the scallops - make sure they're nice and dry - season with salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper.  Set aside until we're ready to cook.  Chop onion and slice garlic - set aside.

How's your bacon doing?  It should be cooked by now, so remove it from the pan and let rest on paper towels till cooled.  Once it's cool, crumble the bacon for serving overtop of the scallops. 

Ditch most of the bacon fat, saving about 1 tbsp in the pan.  Jack up the heat to high.  Carefully add the scallops into the pan - don't overcrowd that pan or they're not going to cook properly!!  Cook for about 2 minutes each side.  Remove to a plate and keep warm.

Same pan, lower the heat to medium high again and add the onions and garlic.  After about 2 minutes you will notice the onions going soft, and picking up those nice scallop bits too! 

Put in the tomatoes and cook through.  Add half the spinach and cook for about a minute.  Then add the other half of the spinach and cook for another minute until wilted.

Time to plate!  Start with the spinach mixture and top with bacon bits.  Serve with lemon slices.  I think this is supposed to be a starter/appie recipe but we ate it like a main dish - so satisfying!!  I served it with Volcanic Pinot Gris... arghghgh droool!  So nice! 

Merry Christmas everyone!!