Weeknight Meals

I think I'm gonna do some picture posts of food we eat during the week because although it's usually really tasty, it's not very exciting and doesn't really need a lot of process photos.  Then on the weekends when we tend to make fancier things I'll make the bigger posts.  So here are a few of the meals we ate this week, all of them were very very delicious and very easy too!  I've added a link at the bottom of the post that will show you the recipes.

Chicken Paprikash

Recipe from Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express

Kale and White Bean Soup

Recipe from the blog F for Food

Avocado Chicken Pitas

Recipe from Taste of Home 2009 Quick Cooking

Chicken Paprikash

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 lb 
• 1 onion - chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic - crushed
• 1 tsp ginger - minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 tbsp Hungarian paprika ( if you don't have Hungarian paprika I would really recommend getting some, it makes the recipe much better)
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup sour cream

Sear the chicken in the butter, about 1 minute on each side.  Add the onion, garlic, ginger, bay leaf, and paprika.  Cook for about 3 minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and continue cooking until the chicken is done.  Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream.
This tastes really good served over bulgur wheat.


Kale and White Bean Soup:

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• butter
• 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 1/2 cups, loosely packed kale leaves, coarsely chopped
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• a small sprig of rosemary
• 3 cups (approx. 2 cans) of cannelloni beans
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 1 3/4 cups water

 First heat up some butter in a soup pot, then add a little olive oil.  Next throw in the onions, garlic, and rosemary and cook for five minutes or until onions are translucent.

Next add in your kale and let cook until it's wilted down a good amount.  Add in your beans, stir, then add in the water and stock.  Let cook for about 15 minutes or until beans are nice and soft and soup has thickend.  

Use a blender or immersion blender to blend up the soup.  Serve with a swirl of olive oil and garnish with basil. 

Avocado Chicken Pitas


Ingredients:

• 4 whole pita breads
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium avocado, peeled and pitted
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Salt
• garlic powder
• hot pepper sauce
• 3/4 lbs cooked chicken - Steve roasted a chicken so we just used stuff from that
• 1 medium tomato
• 2 cups shredded cheese - we used Monterey Jack

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Brush one side of each pita with olive oil and bake in the oven for 12 minutes.

In a small bowl mash the avocado with lemon juice, garlic powder, and the hot sauce.

Spread the avocado mixture over the pitas once they are heated up.  Add chicken and tomatoes then cover with cheese.  Bake for another five minutes or until cheese is melted.