Artichoke Chicken

We made this last night, and it was the best meal I've ever made with so few ingredients.

Artichoke Cream Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 small jar of marinated artichoke hearts (6 oz or so)
5 tbsp butter
Flour
1 c. milk
4 c. prepared instant white rice

Serves 4 (or 2 with leftovers for lunch, which is generally how we roll) from The Best of Mr. Food - Quick and Easy Recipes - Volume 2.

Put the chicken breasts between sheets of plastic wrap and go to town on them with a mallet (Christopher's weapon of choice) or a meat tenderizer (which we don't own). Pound them out until they're good and tender. On a plate or in a small casserole dish, put some flour. I added some salt, pepper, and ground oregano to my flour for some added flavor. Dredge the chicken on both sides, generously, with flour.

Melt 2 tbsps. butter in a large saucepan (you can use a large skillet, but ours is not big enough, so I use our pan that looks sort of like this - I find this helps with splatter as well). Put the chicken in and let it cook for about five minutes on each side on a medium-high heat. Don't move the chicken a lot or turn it over much, because you want to let the flour cook up nice and crispy and really stick to the chicken. Add more butter if you need it.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, begin melting the rest of your butter. Add three tablespoons of flour, and cook those together for a little bit. Then, slowly add the marinade from the jar of artichoke hearts and the milk. Stir together and let it cook until it gets bubbly and thickens, stirring occassionally to keep it from sticking. It should have the consistency of white gravy, pretty much. Add the artichokes and let it sit for a few minutes, and then serve over the chicken and over the white rice.

This was AWESOME. I couldn't wait to go home and eat the leftovers for lunch with Chris today. I would make this weekly - all we really had to buy special was the small jar of artichoke hearts, which I believe cost $1.50, and the meal fed us for two meals.

My go-to quick lunch

My inaugural post for the website! Until recently, we have not had a dishwasher (living on a university campus will do that for you) and we had a meal plan, so cooking wasn't big for us. Now that we live in an off-campus apartment, we've started cooking a lot more.

That said, I don't like to mess with much for my lunches. I want something that I don't have to do much with besides heat up, but I don't do processed food lunches.

Jamie's Lunch Pasta

Cook up a bunch of penne pasta. I use whole grain, and half a box lasts me for about three meals, with fairly reasonable portions. Generally, I cook it and then just put all of it in the fridge.

The night before, I put about a third of the penne into a microwave safe container, put in a big handful of leafy spinach, and a combination of these ingredients:

leftover chicken breast, cut into pieces
sundried tomatoes
pine nuts
blue cheese
feta cheese
shaved parmesan cheese
olives
etc.

The key to this is that you can put in whatever, and provide a little variety each day with little to no effort.

In the morning, I put a little olive oil and some kosher salt in with it, seal it up, and bring it to work. A minute in the microwave heats the pasta and the oil, wilts the spinach leaves, and melts the cheese, giving you a cheesy olive oil sauce to mix up with it.

Easiest lunch I've ever made.