Ingredients

• 3 links Garden Vegetable, Mushroom and Asiago Chicken Sausage (Trader Joe’s)
• 1 cup chopped portabella mushrooms
• 3/4 cup chopped balsamic glazed grilled sweet onions (Trader Joe’s find)
• 1 cup Roasted Garlic Marinara sauce
• 1 package Garlic Basil Linguine (Trader Joe’s)
• 2 cups fresh baby spinach
• 1/4 cup shaved Romano & Asiago Cheese (Trader Joe’s)
• 1 tsp salt

Directions

1. Squeeze sausages out of their casings in to a pan

2. Add onions and mushrooms and cook until sausage is cooked through

3. Add marinara sauce and salt and bring to a simmer

4. Cook pasta according to package directions

5. About 2 minutes before pasta is done, incorporate the spinach into the sauce.  It took me about 3 batches to get it all in, stirring each batch until it wilted down before adding the next batch

6. Drain pasta and toss with a little olive oil to prevent sticking

7. Spoon sauce over pasta and top with cheese

Ingredients

• boneless skinless chicken breast
• Durkee tomato garlic pesto marinade
• provolone cheese slices
• sliced onions
• creamy horseradish
• mayonnaise
• garlic powder
• barbecue sauce
• buns
• red wine vinegar
• vegetable oil
• chopped, cooked bacon
• tomato slices (optional)

Directions

1. Lay your chicken breasts out on a cutting board, cover with a layer of plastic wrap and using a meat mallet (flat side) pound until they are a uniform thickness all the way across

2. Next, tenderize the chicken (I like to use a blade tenderizer but if you don’t have one then the other side of the meat mallet works too)

3.  Next, take your packet of Durkee Tomato Garlic Pesto Marinade and take out 1/8 of a tsp of the mix and set it aside (look, it made a heart!)

4. Take the rest of the mix and put it in a large zip top bag and mix it according to packet direction then add about 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar

5. Place the chicken in the bad, squeeze out most of the air, squish it around to coat the chicken well then set it in the refridgerator for at least half hour (an hour is better)

6. Next, made the spread by combining 3 tablespoons mayonaise, 1 tsp barbecue sauce, 1 tsp creamy horserasdish, 1/8 tsp marinade powder and 1/2 tsp garlic powder (this is enough for 3 sandwiches, increase if you are making more)

7.  Now slice up some onions (how many depends on how many sandwiches you are making) and fry them in a pan with a bit of oil until very brown

8.  Go heat up the grill, its time to put the chicken on.  Grill the chicken for about 7 minutes on each side or until done

9. While the chicken is grilling, toast your buns under the oven broiler, then leave the broiler on, we are going to use it again in a minute

10. Once the chicken is done place the chicken breasts on a baking sheet and sprinkle with chopped, cooked bacon

11. Pile on the cooked onions

12. Top each with a slice of Provolone cheese

13. Place under the broiler to melt the cheese

14.  Put the spread on the buns

15.  Top with a slice of ripe tomato (optional) and enjoy

• 3 cups of spinach , washed and dried
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 2 tsp chopped garlic
• dash of kosher salt
• 1 can of Del Monte diced tomatoes with basil, oregano & garlic
• 3 oz. low fat Italian cheese blend
• 3 cups Egg Beaters
• Black pepper, to taste

1. In a large sautee pan, heat the oil.  Add the spinach and 1 tsp  garlic, stirring continuously for about 30 seconds. Add a dash of kosher salt.  The spinach will wilt down and become bright green.
2. Spray a casserole dish or pie pan with non-stick spray
3. spread the spinach on the bottom of the dish
4. Drain the tomatoes and heat them in the sautee pan, adding 1 tsp of garlic. Heat for about 2-3 minutes.
5. Add the tomatoes to the dish, spreading evenly.
6. Sprinkle with 3oz of grated, low fat Italian blend cheese
7. Pour Egg beaters over mixture
8. Grind a few grinds of black pepper on top
9. Bake at 400 degree for 40-45 minute or until set.

Very yummy!

Ingredients

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1 medium tomato
• 1/4  of a large onion
• 3 cloves of garlic chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp cilantro
• Juice of one lime
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1/2 tsp dried chili pepper
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

First of all, make sure your avocado’s are ripe.  They should be soft but not mushy when you press on the skin.

Using a large knife, cut through the avocado lengthwise all the way around, then twist and pull to revel the pit.

Next, lay the avocado with the pit facing up on a cutting board and take a large knife and swing it down into the avocado pit hard enough so that it goes into the pit about 1/8 of an inch.

Now twist and pull and the pit will pop right out (the riper your avocado the easier the pit releases)

Take a dish towel and grasp the pit and pull it off the knife.

Now take a smaller knife and score all of your avocado halves.

Using a spoon scoop out the avocado into a bowl

Repeat with all remaining avocado halves. You will be left with a pile of cute little avocado skin boats!

Now take a medium tomato and quarter it

Take each quarter and using your knife held horizontally to the cutting board, slice under the seeds and core, leaving just the meat of the tomato (tomato seeds in guacamole are just not good)

Dice up the tomato meat

I like chunky guac, but make the pieces of vegetable as large or small as you want

Dice 1/4 of a large to medium onion and add it to the bowl

Add 3 cloves or about 1 tbsp of chopped garlic to the bowl

I like to use a combination of lime and lemon juice in my guacamole.  You will need one lime and half a lemon

Cut the lime and squeeze the juice into the bowl, do the same with half of the lemon.

Next comes the spices

add the cilantro (use fresh if you have it, but dried works ok too), salt, pepper and dried ground chili pepper.

Stir well to combine.  The more you stir the smoother it will get, so use your own discretion there.

I recommend refrigerating it overnight for best results.

First, I made the chicken from this recipe.   Then I started two sauces, the lemon garlic sauce from the same recipe as the chicken and the alfredo sauce.

The alfredo sauce ingredients

• 1 pint half & half
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese

The procedure

1. Heat half and half and butter over medium-low heat and whisk to combine once the butter has melted
2. raise the heat to medium-high and whisk in the cheese

That is basically how you make alfredo sauce, now I make it into lemon garlic alfredo

1. Transfer the alfredo sauce to a tall sided container
2. Use and immersion blender to make it nice and smooth
3. Incorporate the lemon garlic sauce into the alfredo sauce in about for increments, blending well between each one

Have I mentioned that I now refer to my immersion blender as my “sauce saver”?

Return the now finished sauce to the pan.

Ladle the sauce over cooked noodles (I used linguine)

Throw the chicken on top

What I learned

1. use heavy cream instead of half and half so the heat can go higher to melt the cheese faster and make a smoother sauce

2. put the noodles in the sauce so you don’t end up with “clump o’noodles”

3.  Add a little lemon zest to the chicken breading

Ugh, I’m a messy cook!

Matthew said it tasted almost exactly like the old Houlihan’s dish, so I guess Mission Accomplished!

First, pound out some chicken breast fillets flat.

Breadcrumb Mix

• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 2 tbsp grated parmesean/romano cheese
• italian seasoning
• 2 tbsp margarine
• 1 tsp garlic powder

Spread the crumb mixture over the flattened chicken breasts

Roll up the chicken around the breadcrumbs (jelly roll style)

Slice each roll into 3 or 4 pieces (depending on the size), and thread 3 or 4 slices on a skewer.  Then sprinkle with some of the remaining crumb mixture

Put the chicken in the oven at 375 for about 25-30 minutes.

Meanwhile put water for pasta on to boil and start the sauce

Sauce

• 2 tbsp margarine
• 2 tsp garlic
• 3/4 cup lemon juice
• salt
• pepper

Mix everything together in a small sauce pan and stir while the butter melts.   I then transfered it to a bowl and used the immersion blender to make it smooth and a bit more homogoneous.

Plate the chicken and pasta, drizzle sauce over both.

Get the pdf of this recipe