Whole Wheat Buttermilk Waffles

The kids like waffles, and I had some buttermilk that I wanted to use up, so I made this recipe tonight. The waffles were really good. I got about 10 rectangle waffles from the recipe. Enough for our family and Mike along with scrambled eggs, hash browns, and cantaloupe. It's from food.com. http://www.food.com/recipe/whole-wheat-buttermilk-waffles-353102

Ingredients:

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

3/4 cup butter, melted (1 1/2 sticks)

1/4 cup milk, if desired

1 Put the flours into a mixing bowl and add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Stir with a fork to blend.

2 In another mixing bowl, beat the eggs until well blended. Stir in the buttermilk and the melted butter (cooled off a little). Stir the mixture until well mixed if the batter seems rather thick, add the 1/4 cup milk to thin it. The batter should flow from the spoon, not plop.

3 Bake in a hot waffle iron until crisp and golden. Serve hot.

Tortellini Bake

A couple of weeks ago we ate Our Best Bites Tortellini Spinach Bake in Creamy Lemon Sauce for dinner. I made it without the bacon or the bacon grease (I used butter instead) and it was pretty good. A few days ago I made Chicken Piccata from Second Sister Suaviloquy. We had leftover chicken, so I made Laura's Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza. Tonight we are finishing off the chicken and the bacon with a variation of the Tortellini Spinach Bake.

I used butter for the white sauce, and added the chicken, but it is otherwise mostly the same.

Here's my variation:

12 oz bag Barilla Cheese & Spinach Tortelini (find them in the dry pasta aisle)

4 oz bacon, cooked and broken into small pieces (about 4 strips bacon)

1 cup chicken breast, cooked and diced or shredded

3 cloves garlic, pressed in garlic press or finely minced

3 Tbs flour
3 C milk
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp dry basil
¼ tsp red pepper flakes (1/2 tsp or more if you like spicy)
1 medium lemon
2 C broccoli, roughly chopped
¾ C grated mozzarella cheese, divided
¾ C grated Parmesan cheese, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill a large stock pot with water and bring to a boil. Add tortellini and cook according to package instructions. About half way through cooking time, add the broccoli.

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic to pan and cook until fragrant and tender, about 1 minute. Add flour to pan and stir with a whisk for about 1 minute. Slowly add milk and continue to stir with whisk until smooth. Add salt, pepper, basil, and red pepper flakes and bring sauce to a simmer.

While sauce is heating, use a microplane grater or a fine-holed cheese grater to zest lemon. Then cut lemon in half and remove juice. Add 2 teaspoons zest and 1 tablespoon lemon juice to sauce (I just added all the juice this time and really liked it that way). Continue to stir until thickened, 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat.

Drain tortellini and place back in stock pot. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the cooked bacon and add the rest to the pasta mixture. Add spinach, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. Add sauce and gently stir to combine. Place pasta mixture in an 8 x 11 baking dish and top with remaining 1/4 cup mozarella and 1/4 cup parmesan and also crumbled bacon.

Cover pan with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, until cheese on top is melted and pasta is bubbly throughout. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Chicken Piccata

20 or so Chicken Tenders (I bought the Foster Farms tenderloins and used 3 of the prepacked bags - located in the fresh meat section)

I used a 9 X 13 pan, and a pie pan and it fit 3 packages of chicken just fine.

2-3 eggs (beaten)

Bread Crumbs:
1 cup Italian Bread crumbs
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Parsley flakes (finely chopped)
Garlic Salt (sprinkle a little)
Flour (I didn't use this, so try just a little)
salt and pepper (sprinkle a little)

Sauce:
1 cup half and half
1 stick of butter
Juice of 2 REAL lemons (not the juice from the store)

Optional: capers, mix a half of jar into the sauce after you have blended the 3 above ingredients

Dip tenders in egg, then in the crumbs. Brown in hot pan with melted butter. Do not cook through. Just enough for each side to be a little crispy. Place in baking dish and put in oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Pour sauce over chicken and cook for another 5-10 minutes. Be careful to not overcook.
My suggestions: I made this recipe last night and the family loved it! It was very tender and moist! Try mixing the sauce in a blender to get a better consistency (I didn't do this, and I think it will make the sauce smoother). Also, I did 1 cup of butter for the sauce (the first time) and it was a little too much, because when it came out of the oven, you could see a layer of butter in the pan. So, using 1 stick of butter worked better instead of two sticks. Another thought: really coat the chicken with the bread crumbs. The ones that were coated were the better ones. :)

From Second Sister Suaviloquy