Asparagus and Cheese Stuffed Chicken Dinner with Sour Cream Banana Bread Dessert

So today we decided to pick another homemade recipe from Pillsbury: The Best Of Classic Cookbooks, and we picked out a delicious sounding dinner: herb cheese-stuffed chicken breasts. But we didn't have all the ingredients, which called for a trip to the grocery store. While in the vegetable aisle of Albertson's, Brian spotted some asparagus, something we both love but have never made ourselves, so we decided to buy some and try to take that on. I mean, we really had no idea how to prepare it, so after a quick call to Kirk Plummer (Brian's chef brother who cooks the dankest food), we got tips and an idea on how to best cook the asparagus. After paying for our goods, we left the grocery store with our bags...and the grocery cart. Hey, we're college kids with no cars, and there's no way we're walking home holding many heavy bags without some help; so we took the cart home with us. Not saying that I wasn't against this idea to begin with (happy Brian?)

We got some stares along the way home, but I guess we fit in with SLO's homeless 

community who drag along carts with them all the time.

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DISH lightly seasoned asparagus

INGREDIENTS

fresh asparagus

olive oil

salt and pepper

chili powder

HOW TO
1) Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2) Cut off bottoms of fresh asparagus
3) Lay asparagus on baking sheet. Coat with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little bit of chili powder.
4) Cook until soft or semi-hard, however you prefer.

DANKNESS FACTOR 8/10
 

COMMENTS/TIPS

     Such an easy dish, but it comes out as such an amazingly delicious and flavorful side dish, all while using minimal ingredients. And you don't feel bad overeating these, which you will, because it's healthy and light. The texture was so good; slightly soft, slightly crunchy near the ends. Definitely will be making these again. Most props to Brian for making these and a big thanks to Kirk for telling us how to prepare this.
     The aspar-gas came out great, with a big thanks to my brother. When I made them, I used way too much olive oil and had to drain some out in the middle of the cooking process because you could hear it sizzling. Regardless, they were absolutely full of flavor and tender. Asparagus is one of my favorite vegetables and I had the urge to buy them and make them. My brother recommended that I use chili flakes, but we didn't have any so I used chili powder instead.

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DISH herb cheese-stuffed chicken breasts

INGREDIENTS

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 oz. feta cheese, crumbled (1/2 a cup)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano or 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
2 (14.5 oz.) cans Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained (we actually just used 2 medium tomatoes and diced them up and added some salt, pepper, and herbs)
1/4 cup sliced ripe olives (we used mushrooms instead)
4 teaspoons corn starch

HOW TO

1) Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2) Using a sharp knife, cut a 3-inch slit in meaty side of each chicken breast to form pocket.
3) In medium bowl, combine feta cheese, parsley, oregano, and oil; mix well.
4) Gently spoon half of filling into each pocket. Place chicken in ungreased 13x9 baking dish.
5) In another medium bowl, combine tomatoes, olives (mushrooms in our case), and cornstarch; mix well. Pour over chicken.
6) Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until chicken in fork-tender and juices run clear.

DANKNESS FACTOR 7.5/10

COMMENTS/TIPS
     The idea of stuffing chicken was what made this recipe so initially appealing, and it turned out to be much easier than I thought it'd be. My one regret about this dish was not seasoning the chicken before placing the tomato/mushroom mixture on top: what was I thinking? But the feta cheese was delicious (my first time trying feta cheese by the way) along with the fresh parsley. The highlight was definitely the stuffing. It's a fairly easy dish to make and opens up ideas for making our own stuffing next time. It's also a pretty satisfying, healthy dish.
     It was aight; I think that it got better overnight. I love chicken, I love cheese, and I love tomatoes, but for some reason it was just mediocre to me. A little season or marinade on the chicken would have changed things. On the positive side, I do like the idea of stuffing chicken and baking it; usually I just saute or grill my chicken, so it was a nice change. 

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We kind of forked the hell out of our bread everytime we went to check if it was done...whoops.

DISH banana sour cream bread

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 1/2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cups white sugar
1 egg
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 of 16 oz. container sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

HOW TO

1) Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease 7x3 inch loaf pans.
2) In a small bow, stir together 1 tablespoon white sugar and 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Dust pan lightly with cinnamon and sugar mixture.
3) In a large bowl, cream butter and 3/4 cups white sugar. Mix in egg, mashed bananas, sour cream, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Mix in salt, baking soda, and flour. Stir in nuts. (at this point, I also added a good amount of cinnamon to the mixture)
4) Pour mixture into pan, bake for an hour or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

DANKNESS FACTOR 8.5/10

COMMENTS/TIPS

     Very easy to make and it turned out to be one of the best banana breads I've had (and I've had plenty in my life). The sour cream gives it an interesting kick; definitely makes it more dense and thicker. After a while searching for the perfect banana bread recipe on allrecipes.com, I found this one, which seemed to get great ratings. Of course people recommended changing the portions of ingredients around, which I did. We ended up baking it for more than an hour. The taste was perfect; the addition of ground cinnamon into the mixture went perfectly with the portion of bananas called for. The texture was just the best; a bit mushy, dense, and thick.
     The banana bread came out so dank; I could eat that every day of my life. It had nice bits of banana and the texture was just perfect. I liked it warm out of the oven and cold out of the fridge equally. Great recipe. Can't wait to make it again.

Gooey Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

What's the best thing to do on a rainy class-less Friday? Bake cookies. This happens to be the second time I've made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies using this recipe. I got the recipe online from allrecipes.com, and after reading a bunch of reviews for it, different people recommended different portions of certain ingredients, so I took bits of every advice and also changed around the recipe. It's the best recipe I've found yet.

DISH soft oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

 

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 tablespoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups quick-cooking oats

1 cup chopped walnuts (I used chopped almonds instead)

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

(ground cinnamon is not included in the recipe, but adds a great flavor to the cookies)

HOW TO

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2) In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth.
3) Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla.
4) Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt (and ground cinnamon if desired) and stir into the creamed mixture until just blended.
5) Mix in the quick oats, walnuts (or whatever nuts you're using), and chocolate chips.
6) Place spoonfuls of dough mixture onto ungreased baking sheets
7) Bake for 12 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on sheet for 5 minutes after cooking.
Bakes about 30-36 cookies

DANKNESS FACTOR 8/10

COMMENTS/TIPS

     The best part about these cookies are that they stay chewy and soft after cooling down, even days after. These cookies are one of the more healthier ones I've found, considering it only uses 1/2 a cup of butter and minimal amount of salt, but the sugar I guess not so much. They're a lot more thick and oat-ey compared to other oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, if you're into that. Warning: they're addictive - that slight cinnamon oat chewy texture mixed with the sweet indulgent taste of melty chocolate chips and crunchy nuts.
     I didn't have the privilege  of eating it fresh from the oven, but they were still nice and chewy and I'm actually eating one right now... hehehe. You don't feel like a complete fat ass eating them either cause there are lots of oats in them. It also gives you a reason to devour a whole plate of them. Like I've always thought...cookies are the most evil of all desserts.

Cinnamon Sugar Biscuits, Part 2

So if you remember our previous biscuits we made (if not, click), we finally got around to making them again, this time adjusting some things - adding sugar and more cinnamon and replacing milk with chocolate milk. Definitely made it twice as better than the last.

DISH cinnamon sugar biscuits

HOW TO 

We used the same procedure and ingredients as the last biscuits, except this time adding about half a cup of sugar, 2/3 cup CHOCOLATE milk (sorry Dalila! I took just a little), and some cinnamon to the actual mix.

DANKNESS FACTOR 6.5/10

COMMENTS/TIPS

these can get addicting. These don't taste like typical biscuits because they're made from multigrain pancake mix, so they have this multigrain-y pancake-y taste and texture to them.

They were a lot better this time. I slept over at Keiko's house and she baked them for breakfast. Definetly a lot better this time around than before. They were easy to eat and didn't even need butter. I thought it was interesting that she used chocolate milk. 

Cinnamon Sugar Biscuits

Brian brought over his multi-grain pancake mix, and there was a recipe on the side of the box on how to make biscuits using the mix. We decided to take a plain biscuit recipe and make it a sugary cinnamon biscuit treat.

 

DISH cinnamon sugar biscuits

INGREDIENTS

2 cups Trader Joe's Multigrain Baking & Pancake Mix

2/3 cup milk

3 tablespoons oil

cinnamon

sugar

pinch of salt

HOW TO

1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2) Stir together baking mix, milk, and oil in medium bowl; the recipe doesn't include this, but add in cinnamon, sugar, and a pinch of salt to the mix for extra flavor

3) Mix ingredients with hands and have flour at hand because the dough gets extremely sticky; we had to do without flour so it stuck all over my hands, but it's still doable.

4) Add 2 inch dough balls on ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle on top some more cinnamon and sugar.

5) Bake 8-10 minutes at 425 degrees or until golden brown.

Makes about 8-10 biscuits.

DANKNESS FACTOR 5.5/10

COMMENTS/TIPS

     I didn't add any sugar to the mix, just a sprinkle on top, so it tasted a little bland, but the cinnamon was a good touch. With sugar in the mix and a pinch of salt, this would have gotten a higher rating. The texture was perfect though.

     A little bland, but I guess that's what you get when you don't open them up and put some butter in them. Our next batch was a lot better, but we still haven't perfected it.