Beet greens are great. I would love to know why so many people throw them away. They are sold per bunch, not by the pound. So when you yank them off and toss them aside at the supermarket, your loss is my gain…an extra bonus when I purchase a bunch of beets and collect your discarded greens. Are you interested in zero waste cooking? Beet greens are indeed edible, just like most leafy tops such as radish greens. They’re just as nutritious as kale, spinach or collard greens.
If you aren’t used to cooking leafy greens, perhaps you think that they might be too bitter for your palate? Beet greens are not bitter like some other hardier greens, but if that’s your concern, try adding something sweet. That’s one way to eat more vegetables when you don’t like them.
Herbed chicken thighs with beet greens and apples
Pictured above, I began by sautéing some sliced onion in olive oil until golden. Then added chopped beet greens and a little beer (because I had a bottle opened that I had used for a batter previously). Just about any liquid would do. Let that simmer for a bit and once they were nearly cooked to my liking, I seasoned with salt and added some sliced apple to warm through and soften a tiny bit. The apple added a sweetness and varied texture to the vegetables. The pinkish color derived from the beet stems also lends a desirable hue to the apples.
Chicken and Rice
Chicken thighs seasoned with garlic powder and Herbs de Provence roasted at 425 for about 30 minutes. Brown rice is cooked with turmeric, garlic powder and chicken stock. Yes, I had accidentally thawed some chicken stock by taking it out of the freezer when I cleaned, reorganized and assessed my freezer/refrigerator situation before grocery shopping. So I used it in preparing the rice. Zero waste cooking! Water works too.
Keeping the rice as a relatively neutral base so that I can repurpose leftovers for another meal over the next couple of days, I decided to sprinkle a few raisins on top to further this sweet meets savory theme. You could certainly cook them along with the rice or with the greens if you desired.
Use your imagination and let me know how you prepare your beet greens. Cooking without a recipe is liberating. Ready for more leafy greens? Please read Keen On Beans and Greens next.
Here’s what to cook for dinner tonight that’s easy and delicious.
When considering what to cook for dinner tonight, it’s easy to roast a chicken and there are so many ways to serve it.
Roasted chicken, cauliflower and carrots with lemony soy sauce
Michael loves mashed potatoes and gravy, but I often prefer a lighter preparation…ESPECIALLY when my chicken comes without giblets, which I hate! If it doesn’t say so on the package, I feel ripped of when there aren’t any giblets because if I wanted to make gravy, it’s more challenging. And because I buy organic chicken, I expect to find an organic chicken liver in there. I put that in the freezer if I don’t use it immediately. That’s a little umami gem for my flavor treasure chest. Yes, I am absolutely serious. It’s one of those things where using a little bit goes a long way in adding a subtle savory component in the background of a finished dish.
Preparing the Chicken
My friend, Debra, used to marinate chicken pieces in soy sauce, garlic and lemon juice before barbecuing. I always loved that combination and it’s another idea on what to cook for dinner tonight that’s easy. I decided make a sauce with those ingredients instead.
First I stuffed the cavity with quartered onions and half a lemon. Then I put some whole peeled cloves of garlic under the skin of the breast and seasoned with salt. You could butter the skin if you wanted to serve it crispy, but I didn’t because I didn’t intend on serving it with the skin. For a 5 pound bird, 2 hours at 350 typically works in my oven. Because I stuffed the cavity in this case, I cooked it an additional 15 minutes.
About half an hour before the chicken was to be done, I tossed some carrots and cauliflower florets into the roasting pan to cook with the pan drippings.
While letting the chicken rest before carving, I began a quick sauce by sautéing minced garlic in olive oil. Whisked in some soy sauce and lemon juice just before serving because I didn’t wish to thicken it. You can cook the sauce down to reduce, but be advised that anything with soy get syrupy fast, so watch it and take it off the heat before it turns into goo. Cooking without a recipe requires paying attention.
To my surprise and delight, Michael raved about this preparation and even suggested that he would enjoy the sauce as a gravy on mashed potatoes. What??? It would absolutely never have occurred to me to serve it that way…but I’m game to try it if he thinks he would like it!
Leftovers can be repurposed in a variety of ways. The next day I decided to put them into a delicious salad along with dandelion greens, cucumber and avocado.
For an all time favorite chicken dish that never fails to please, please read Jump For Joy next.
We were in the mood for burgers, but we didn’t have any buns. Michael is a traditionalist when it comes to burgers, so I wasn’t sure if I could make this simple meal without them. Pickles are non-negotiable for sure. At our local burger joint, they know him as “Double burger, extra pickles”. Could I make him a burger without a bun? I looked in the freezer to see what kind of bread we had and then floated the idea of using pita. Imagine my surprise when he agreed to it.
Fortunately he had expanded his palate by eating burgers that way at a restaurant many years ago and decided it was good. In fact, it became his tradition to order a chili burger in pita there every time he went to a concert across the street at the famous Roxy Theater. This was in its heyday…a different era…he began to reminisce. Ah, I had hooked him on the pita.
Testing the limits, I told him that I didn’t have any big tomatoes for slicing, but suggested slicing the small grape tomatoes I had. That was fine too. I was on a roll cooking without a recipe!
Turkey burger in pita with caramelized onions, pickles, tomatoes, green onion and lettuce
Here’s an exception to my no bottled dressings rule: Thousand Island. I love it on my burger. You can also make your own for simple meals like this by mixing mayonnaise with ketchup and some sweet relish if you have it. Since I was using small tomatoes, I chopped up some green onions and tossed both with some of the dressing before putting them on the burger.
Cooking
Since I was putting these frozen fries into the oven anyway, I decided to cook the burgers in there too. You would get a better char on them using a grill or skillet, but I took the easy way. After about 20 minutes in the oven, I put them into a skillet briefly to get a little color on them. Simple meals rock.
Cooked the sliced onions low and slow in a skillet while the fries were in the oven. I wish I had gotten a better angle on the picture so you could see the caramelized onions better. You’ll have to trust me on that part. Summer just got better, even though there wasn’t a concert after dinner.
Roasted chicken with mushroom sauce and lemon is light and satisfying.
I roast a chicken pretty frequently. Especially these days, it seems like the best deal as far as chicken goes. My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets the other day when I saw how much they were asking for a couple of boneless, skinless breasts. A whole chicken gives me so much versatility.
That doesn’t mean I want to eat it the same way all the time, though. Michael could eat roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy with peas and stuffing 3 times a week, but that’s a little heavy for me to eat so often. So, what’s a girl to do? One easy idea is to cook the whole thing and slice down just the leanest part you want to eat that day. Skip the gravy and mashed potatoes in favor of something lighter like a lemon mushroom sauce.
Chicken breast with lemon mushroom sauce, roasted baby potatoes and sauteed spinach
If you’ve got a chicken in the oven, it’s a no brainer to toss potatoes or another vegetable into the roasting pan during the last half hour of cooking.
I put the raw giblets in the freezer for another time as I didn’t feel like making and eating gravy. Instead, I opted to make a quick and light sauce once it was time to serve dinner. Into the skillet went some olive oil and sliced mushrooms. Cooked on high heat until brown and then added minced garlic and about a minute later some lemon juice. So easy and delicious.
If it’s too hot to turn on the oven, do it in a skillet instead. You can cut up the raw chicken however you like. You can cut it into pieces at the joints or just slice thin pieces that you would like to cook for one meal. Why not? You can cook the remainder later in any number of ways and create a variety of dishes.
Does this sound crazy to you? Why should you do it?
Start cooking without a recipe as you make this flavorful Italian chicken breast everyone will love.
I have been told that Saltimbocca means “jumps in your mouth” in Italian. So if there was ever an exception to my aversion to boneless, skinless chicken breasts, this is the one. You will never call it tasteless. It’s my favorite of Italian chicken breast recipes.
Chicken saltimbocca with herb roasted potatoes and sauteed spinach
I don’t often buy skinless, boneless because I think they’re overpriced for what you’re getting. And if I want to make saltimbocca, I have to butterfly and pound the breast because I want thin pieces. Thighs work just as well, by the way.
The Decision
So, after opening a package of prosciutto that we didn’t finish the other day, I asked Michael, “What are we going to do with the remaining prosciutto?” In a sealed package such as we bought, it could sit around for a while in the fridge, but once opened, I would really like to use it within a couple days for zero waste cooking. Michael answered, “Chicken Saltimbocca”.
I agreed that was a good idea, so a couple days later, as he was expecting me to make chicken saltimbocca, he was baffled when he saw me putting a whole chicken into the oven. Apparently he thought I had leftovers of chicken that I was planning to use in preparing this dish?
What I had available was a whole chicken, so with my sharpest knife, I sliced away the skin from the top of the breast and carved out some thin slices of raw breast. Then I roasted the rest of the bird for use later. That’s how my simple no plan meal plan works.
Guess what! My choice of what to slice and how thin eliminated the need to butterfly and pound the large breasts I usually find in the market. Breast is tender enough. All I needed to do was season it up and cook it. Simple!
Usually this is done by placing fresh sage leaves on the breast pieces before wrapping with prosciutto. Well, I didn’t have any fresh sage leaves (which I love in so many things), so I used dried sage powder and dried French thyme instead. I guess I usually consider dried sage as being more compatible with a longer cooking meal, so I imagined the thyme would help us out. Actually, we were very happy with the results and I didn’t miss the fresh sage at all.
Ingredients:
chicken breasts
sage
prosciutto
flour
butter
garlic
white wine
Basically, here’s what I did after slicing some thin pieces of breast from my raw chicken: Seasoned both sides with a touch of salt, garlic powder, dried sage and thyme. Covered one side of each piece of chicken with a slice of prosciutto, wrapping around the edge if necessary. Sprinkled lightly with flour.
Cooking
In a skillet, melt some butter. Put the chicken breasts in: prosciutto side down first. You just want to get a little golden color on them, which only takes a minute or two. Turn them over for another couple minutes. Take out of skillet and reserve on a plate.
What you do next depends how many pieces of chicken you are serving. If you’ve browned the prosciutto side of all the chicken pieces, you can proceed to making the sauce.
The Sauce
How does the butter look? If it’s not burning, you can add a touch of white wine to deglaze the pan for a few seconds, scraping up any browned bits of meat. (The acidic liquid helps to incorporate the flavorful, golden remnants from your pan into the sauce you are making. You could use a little lemon juice and/or chicken broth if you prefer.) Then add some minced garlic. Let that cook a minute or so and then add some more wine and reduce heat.
If you’re cooking more batches of chicken, keep an eye on the heat and the color of the butter/oil. If it’s starting to burn, get a new pan or carefully find a way to wipe out the existing skillet without using your bare hands. A spatula and paper towel might do.
Once you have begun the butter/wine/garlic sauce, you can reduce the heat to low and return your chicken pieces to the skillet. Now all you have to do is pay attention to how it looks. How thick are your chicken pieces? Is the sauce thickening up a bit and becoming a pleasing golden color? My thin pieces of breast really only required a few more minutes to cook with the lid off because I wanted the sauce to reduce a bit. If they were thicker pieces of chicken, I would have cooked a bit longer with the lid on.
Watch it and see what you think. You can always test the middle if you’re not sure. You will learn to know when it’s ready as you continue to develop your intuition in the kitchen and rely less on recipes. Spoon some sauce on top of each breast piece to serve. Buon appetito!
Please read Don’t Be Chicken to find out how to roast the rest of the bird.
Green chicken enchiladas are an easy way to reinvent leftovers that the whole family will love.
I remember once saying to a neighbor that I didn’t know what to make for dinner. She shrugged nonchalantly and told me, “Make a chicken.” My kneejerk reaction at that time was, “A whole chicken? For two of us? We can’t eat a whole chicken.” She smiled and responded, “Get a small chicken.” I laughed.
I don’t know why I thought we had to eat a whole chicken in one meal. Sounds ludicrous to me now. Funny how our perceptions can change. I guess I was imagining that we didn’t want to eat a leftover chicken dinner over and over again. But leftovers are great for salads and sandwiches and enchiladas and soups and…you name it. If you really won’t finish it within a few days, put the rest in the freezer. That’s always a good plan too.
Green Chicken Enchiladas
First, pour a little green enchilada sauce in the bottom of the baking dish. Steam the corn tortillas if they need softening before filling with:
cheese
chicken pieces
onions
enchilada sauce
Place seam side down in the dish and top with sauce and cheese. Bake 30 minutes at 350 or until heated through.
Especially if I’m making this in larger quantity, I will choose the shortcut of making this as a casserole instead. It’s the way my mother used to do it and everyone loved it. It’s a simple and kid-friendly favorite.
Just like making a lasagna, put a little sauce in the bottom of a baking dish and then a layer of tortillas. Put some chicken pieces on top and some onions. I like green onions, but whatever you have will do. Pour a little sauce on that and sprinkle with cheese. Cheddar, jack, provolone, swiss…What do you have on hand? I’ve used them all. Put another layer of tortillas down and repeat this process. Finally, add one more layer of tortillas and cover with the remaining sauce, cheese and onions. Bake until heated through.
Super easy and delicious, just like roasting a whole chicken. Want to know how? Please read Don’t Be Chicken next.
Roast a chicken with vegetables for a simple, delicious dinner anytime.
Michael loves a turkey dinner with all the fixings, just like his mother makes. She is a pro at it, so understandably I had some trepidation about being able to replicate it…so much so that on our honeymoon, I muttered in my sleep, “I forgot to baste the turkey.”
In the years that followed, I have successfully made that dinner, but it’s a lot of work for an everyday meal. So Michael and I have agreed on what the most essential elements are, so that he can enjoy it more often. As it turns out, he is just as happy with a roasted chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy and peas. Cranberry sauce doesn’t hurt. He’s partial to the jellied variety from the can, so I don’t even bother making something from scratch anymore, even though I think that’s more interesting.
Roast Chicken With Vegetables
In the early days, I even shied away from roasting a whole chicken. I had eaten boneless, skinless breasts for so long that I imagined roasting a whole bird to be a complicated affair until Michael’s Aunt Beanie said to me reassuringly, “It’s just about the easiest thing ever. All you have to do is put it in the oven.”
Michael now eats both dark and white meat. Skins left on potatoes too!
Aunt Beanie was right. You can stuff the cavity and under the skin with all kinds of herbs, onion, garlic, lemons etc. But in its simplest form, it couldn’t be easier. A little seasoned salt and roasted at 425 for an hour and a half works for a 4-5 pound bird. (Rubbing the skin with a little butter first helps it turn golden brown.) Let it rest before carving. In the meal pictured above, I threw some carrots into the roasting pan during the last 30 minutes of cooking.
Peas
Peas were always my least favorite part of this meal. As a child, I would swallow them whole with my milk whenever possible. I didn’t like the texture, so I basically came to view peas as only suitable for a garnish; a pop of color in paella, for example. Then my friend, Veronica, served fresh English peas in a way that I found absolutely delicious and not mushy. She put them into a skillet with some shallots and butter. Changed my view forever. I still keep the ubiquitous frozen variety around, but instead of boiling them, I now put them into a skillet with butter for a couple minutes with some onion and garlic. Easy peasy!
For more on mashed potatoes and gravy, please read No Small Potatoes.
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