Recipe freebies

Here are a couple of recipe freebies for ya:

• Kitchen Basics Healthy Cooking with Stock
  (Source: Freebies 4 Moms)
• Easy Seafood Meals from SeaPak
• Jiffy Mix recipe book
  

Veggie Wash

Summer is upon us. In fact, today marks the official first day of summer. With summer comes tasty, delicious, healthy fresh fruits and veggies.  With produce comes the eternal question of organic vs regular vs who knows what else.  Suffice to say, organic produce comes at a premium, and sometimes it's hard to justify the cost when they can be twice as much as the non organic stuff.

You've probably heard of the "dirty dozen" by now, the produce that contains the most pesticide residue, but in case you haven't they are: 

1. Celery
2. Peaches
3. Strawberries
4. Apples
5. Domestic blueberries
6. Nectarines
7. Sweet bell peppers
8. Spinach, kale and collard greens
9. Cherries
10. Potatoes
11. Imported grapes
12. Lettuce

But don't freak out too much yet. Pesticide isn't always a bad thing.

Last month, I learned of a veggie wash recipe from a guest post on Couponing to Disney that is not only economical but should help rinse off a bit of those pesticides.  My initial worry was that it would make my produce smell or taste vinegary but much to my glee, it didn't, even after soaking some blueberries in it for about an hour. (I'd forgotten about it. Ooops!)  Here's the recipe:


Produce wash:

1 cup water
1 cup vinegar
2 TBS baking soda
2 TBS lemon juice

Mix all ingredients and put in a clean spray bottle. Spray your produce well and let sit for at least 5 minutes before rinsing with clean water. Note: Make sure to first mix ingredients in deep container since there will be some fizzing from the baking soda & vinegar.

Recipe: Grilled Bruschetta Chicken w/Homemade Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing

I know that recipes doesn't exactly jive with the theme of this blog, but this recipe was just too 'smack yo momma good' to not share with you...or at the very least, note for myself. :)

Grilled Bruschetta Chicken w/Homemade Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing

Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 lb.)
1/4 cup Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing, divided (recipe to follow)

Directions:
Heat grill to medium heat.

Marinade chicken with 2 Tbsp. of dressing. Refrigerate 10 min. or even better - overnight!

Place chicken on grill; cover with lid. Grill 6 min...depending on thickness of chicken.

Turn chicken over. Grill, covered, grill 8 min. or until chicken is done (165ºF).

Adapted from Kraft.

Serve over a bed of whole wheat pasta, topped with diced Roma tomatoes (on sale!), some of the remaining Sun-Dried Tomato Dress and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.


Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing
Yield: Makes about 3 1/2 cups

Ingredients:
1 small onion, chopped (1 cup)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 large garlic cloves, peeled
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 8-ounce jar oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
freshly ground black pepper
olive oil

Directions:
Toss ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.  Drizzle olive oil (eye ball it) until desired amount.  (I usually don't use more than 1/8 of a cup, I don't like my dressings oily and greasy.)  Blend again until smooth. 

Adapted from Epicurious.

Enjoy!


Tips:
I butterfly my boneless skinless chicken breasts.  That makes it cook faster, thus using less propane/energy to cook. Another side benefit of this is, it also tricks my brain into eating less. It's portion control.  It makes the meat go farther, and I spend less on buying meats, which is the costliest thing on my grocery list.  (And greener too!)