All in Good Food

Hi I just wanted to share with you a little appetizer I whipped up yesterday.


I was looking for something light and filling to eat for lunch yesterday as I was in the middle of reorganizing my sewing area. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Although I have not written a post on it yet I have spent the last year working on making my own tortillas and through trial and error I have finally found the recipe balance I like. I know what you are thinking why go through all that trouble when you can just buy them in the store? Well I like to have the flexibility to make them any size I want and to add any flavor I want to them. You don’t get that with the store bought. As of yet I have not see them in the 4” rounds or in square shapes. I also have the ability to make chips any size and shape I want. That is the key right have the flexibility to have it the way you want it.

Well I am not going to cover making the tortilla dough in this post. This post is for the appetizers I made from them. I will have another post and link to the tortilla recipe and preparation. So here we go.

This recipe is very simple and easy. You can even have things pre-made and set aside to assemble and heat up later. This is perfect for those busy days or for an after school snack for the kids. As I have been working a lot with my sewing lately I needed another quick and easy go-to recipe.

Ingredients

1 chicken breast (cut into thin slices)
10 large broccoli florets
Cheese of any variety you like (shredded or sauce)
Home made tortillas
Yellow mustard


1. Make tortilla dough, following what ever recipe you are comfortable with, and roll, press and/or cut to desired size.

2. Pan sear the chicken piece.

3. Once chicken is fully cooked. Add taco seasoning of choice to taste and a small amount (I didn’t measure the amount but I would say around 3 tablespoons) of chicken stock or water to the pan. Note adding the liquid helps to coat the chicken better with the taco seasoning.

4. In the same pan add about a tablespoon of butter and let it melt. Don’t clean the pan between cooking the chicken and broccoli so that the broccoli can get some of the flavor from the taco seasoning. Once butter is melted sauté the broccoli. Note I use frozen broccoli and let it thaw out in the pan when it is cooking to retain it’s color and flavor.

5. Once broccoli is cooked remove it from the pan to a cutting board and let cool enough to handle. Cut into slices.

6. Then assemble. Lay down your tortilla, cover with cheese, add broccoli slices, then the chicken.

Note: Sorry I don’t have step-by-step photos. A lot of the time when I try out a new recipe I forget to take photos of the steps. So the next time I make it I will remember to take the photos and update the post.

I hope you will try these out and let me know what you think and if you tried anything different ingredients. These are designed to be very flexible to taste.

So until next time, Itadaki masu!

Here are a few bentos I managed to take a picture of after my computer crashed. Just thought I’d share them with you.


Bento #18

Bento #19

Today I want to share with you one of the yummy creations I have made. Sometime early last year I was making pancakes. I had some chicken I was going to shred to make chicken salad and my mind started working. My original chicken pancakes had only chicken and shredded cheese in them. I only added a small portion of the chicken and cheese to the batter so those looked more like regular pancakes then these. Over time I began to experiment and added this and that to it to see what worked. What you see in this post today is what has evolved from a curiosity of what would I get if I put chicken and cheese in my pancake mix. That is the beauty of this recipe you can easily change it for taste or ingredients on hand.


Ingredients

1 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 tbsp oil
1 medium chicken breast shredded
1/4 cup of chopped cooked broccoli*
1/4 cup of shredded cheese*
2 tbsp of real bacon bits*

* Amounts are an estimate because I usually eyeball these ingredients.

The chicken breast was cooked in my slow cooker. It stays very tender and moist. But any baking method will do that keeps the chicken breast tender and moist.

7. Place a small amount of butter or oil in the pan or on the griddle and coat the surface. I personally prefer using butter as I don’t make these on a regular basis. I feel it gives them a better taste but use what you prefer. A butter flavored cooking spray works well too.

8. Cook pancakes on one side until golden brown then flip to the other side and cook the other side to a golden brown. I usually brush a little butter on them when they are finished but this step is optional.

And you’re done. I hope you enjoy them as much as me.

So until the next recipe, Itadaki masu!

Ok now it’s time for lunch. Again I kept it simple. I decided to try out the bamboo steamer I purchased from j-list and it worked out perfect. As you can see I made matching bentos for my daughter and I. These bentos were as purchased from j-list. They are not expensive and not as sturdy as my others but they work.

Now for the contents of the bentos. Both bentos are exactly the same. The main part contains steamed broccoli and steamed onigiri wrapped with chicken. I had rice left over from this morning so I made more onigiri but I wanted something different so I wrapped them in thin slices of chicken and steamed them, then I brushed on a little soy sauce.

The second compartment contains a wedge of laughing cow cheese, red and white grapes and homemade wheat crackers. No I have not found a recipe for making homemade wheat crackers yet but I was able to do the next best thing in a pinch. I had some whole wheat flatbread wraps in my fridge. Using my medium size square cutter I cut out squares from it. I placed them on my griddle with no oil or butter just dry and let them toast until crisp. Then I brushed on a little butter lightly salted them and there you go.

This lunch was very filling and tasted wonderful.

So until the next bento, Itadaki masu!

Hi everyone I thought I would change things up a bit and do another breakfast bento. As we all know breakfast is the most important meal of the day so I wanted to share this one with you. As you all know I like to keep thing very simple in my bentos and this one is no exception. For this one I pulled out one of my sandwich boxes as I did with my breakfast bento before. I feel you don’t need a lot for breakfast just the right foods will do. I like to have high protein foods in my breakfast to help wake up my brain. So here we go.

This bento consists of simple grilled chicken that has been lightly seasoned with pepper and seasoning salt, red grapes, trail mix and mini yaki onigiri (my way).

You may be asking what I mean by yaki onigiri my way. Well I took my rice and mixed in a little butter (the way I have eaten since I was a kid), a little soy sauce and pepper. Then I micro scramble two eggs and mixed it in. Then I shaped them with my cookie cutters (these are the only cutters I have in my bento stash), place them on the griddle. I fried them on the top flipped them and fried the bottom. Then I brushed on a little soy sauce and flipped them again then brushed on a little soy sauce on the other side. Let it grill for about 1 minute then removed them.

These yaki onigiri are bite size and I love them. They are the perfect size for my smaller bentos. I also have larger cutters that I use for my larger bentos.

This bento was a great pick me up this morning.

So until my next bento, Itadaki masu!

While I was on my short break from blogging I did continue to make bentos on a daily basis. Some worth photographing and sharing and some that were not. Here is one of those I thought was worth sharing. The bento box I used for this one is one of my favorites. It is in the shape of a fan and I was lucky to find it for next to nothing on eBay an few years ago. I’ve been dying to use it and this time I had my chance.

Here’s another very simple bento.

Today’s bento is very simple.


Chicken Salad Wrap: Consists of baked chicken breast (shredded), shredded cheese, carrot sticks, boiled egg, with a small amount of Hidden Valley Ranch Dip Mix and Kraft Mayonnaise with lime juice.

Crunches: Gardetto’s pretzel snack mix

Fruit: Michigan grown Fuji apple slices

Snack: 1 piece of dark chocolate

I made this bento for my daughter. She wanted something very simple and light.

Until the next bento.

Itadaki masu!

This is just a quick post for today’s lunch bento.

Here is bento #3. As you can see one side is filled with the fried rice cakes and grilled bacon wrapped chicken in sweet n’ sour sauce from yesterdays post.

The other side is filled with sliced carrots, a wedge of The Laughing Cow® Garlic and Herb light cheese, slices of pear and Kellogg’sTM Cherry Fruit Snacks.

I love bacon I have to say that up front. Anytime I can find a chance to use bacon in a recipe is alright with me. Well I remembered watching Paula Dean one time make some appetizers that were chicken wrapped in bacon then rolled in brown sugar and it sounded so delicious I have been dying to try it. But alas I did not have any brown sugar on hand. However I remembered I had a packet of sweet n`sour sauce in my freezer that I had not used and the light bulb came on. Here’s what I did.


Grilled Bacon Wrapped Chicken with Sweet n` Sour Sauce

I cut my chicken into small bites. You can use chicken breast, tenders or thighs but in this recipe I had tenders on hand. I then cut my strips of bacon into four parts. I wrapped the bacon around the chicken bite and placed it on my grill. I grilled it until the chicken was cooked. Although the bacon is not crispy at this point it is cooked. I found that if you try to cook these bites until the bacon is crispy your chicken will be over cooked. Once the chicken bites were cooked I put them in a bowl with the sweet n` sour sauce and thoroughly covered the bites. It was that simple. I am still searching for a recipe for sweet n` sour sauce I can make myself.

Fried Rice Cakes

Along with the chicken I made fried rice cakes. I took a bowl of rice and mixed in some soy sauce to taste. There was no measuring here. That is it.

Now for the cooking. I cooked them on my griddle with a little bit of butter until they were brown. The way I got the square shape (before I cut in half to make the triangles, was by using my largest square cutter. I put the cutter on the griddle (after spraying it with cooking spray-butter flavor of course) and I packed the rice into it to the edge. I let it cook until it was golden brown on the first side and firm enough to flip. Then I flipped it to the other side and removed the mold. Let it cook until golden brown.

Remove from griddle and let it sit and cool for about 5 minutes and with a sharp knife (It has to be a really sharp knife so that when you cut it the rice cake does not get crushed or fall apart) cut it from corner to corner. That is also the reason why you let is cool before you cut it. I took some of the extra sweet n` sour sauce and put it on the rice cakes and there you go.

See tomorrows post where I put these two in a bento.

Itadaki masu!