French Onion Chicken Sandwich

I wanted an easy, laid-back, delicious meal and this looked delicious so I gave it a shot. Also seasoned the chicken before I cooked it up. It was pretty good! Yes, simple, but super easy! Might want to try flavoring the onions a little differently or adding some kind of extra sauce, or not burning the buns...haha. But pretty yummy and the onions smelled spectacular!

French Onion Chicken Sandwich

Recipe from Foxes Love Lemons

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 large white onion, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved crosswise and pounded to 1-inch thickness, if necessary

Nonstick cooking spray

4 slices Swiss cheese

4 hamburger buns

2 cups baby spinach

In large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and sugar; cook 25 minutes or until onions are deeply caramelized, stirring frequently. This step can be done up to 3 days in advance. Re-warm onions in microwave or in a small pan on grill before proceeding.

Preheat grill for direct grilling over medium-high heat. Spray chicken with nonstick spray. Transfer chicken to hot grill rack; cover and cook 10 minutes or until chicken loses its pink color throughout and internal temperature reaches 160º, turning once.

Place cheese slices on chicken pieces. Cover and cook 1 to 2 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden brown. Build sandwiches using hamburger buns, spinach, chicken and caramelized onions.

Czech Pork Chops with Bread Dumplings and Cabbage

Wowowow can I make this again right now? Can I eat this every night for the rest of my life? PLEASE?

It takes a little longer than I'd usually like to spend on a meal but TOTALLY 100% WORTH IT. When I went to Prague a few years ago, my favorite meal was pork butt with bread dumplings and sauerkraut. This came pretty darn close and was absolutely 100% what I was looking for. Make this, please. Please please please. And invite me over to try. Ohh wow yum.

Czech Pork Chops with Bread Dumplings and Cabbage

Recipe from K&L Food Blog

For pork:

4 pork chops

salt, pepper

1 cup vegetable broth

1 tbsp flour

1 tbsp vegetable oil

For dumplings:

2 cups plain flour

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

pinch salt

pinch sugar

10g fresh yeast

1 bread roll (I used 4 small dinner rolls)

For the cabbage:

About 2 pounds white/green cabbage

2 tbsp butter

3 tbsp onion

2 tbsp flour

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp vinegar

1 cup vegetable broth

cumin, sugar

vinegar

salt, pepper

For the dumplings: Mix bit of flour (about a fourth of a cup) with yeast, sugar and some lukewarm milk, leave for few minutes until yeast start to rise. Cut roll into cubes and place in the bowl along with rest of the milk and egg, mix all ingredients. Now add flour, yeast with milk, salt and stir everything together. Knead the resulting dough just as you would when making bread. Let the dough rest in a warm place to rise for an hour. Now divide the dough into 2, 3 parts and form rolls, leave again to raise for 30 minutes. Boil one at a time in a large pot with boiling, salted water for around 7-8 minutes on each side, then take out and cut with very sharp knife or length of thread.

For pork: Clean and wash meat, then season with salt and pepper. Place on a pan and fry on oil on both sides, then pour the broth and cook for few minutes until soft and tender. At the end thicken the sauce with flour and some water, season again.

For the cabbage: Wash cabbage, shred it finely. Place in a saucepan, and cover with broth, simmer. In another saucepan, melt butter, fry chopped onions until golden. Add cabbage, salt, pepper, cumin, sugar and vinegar, sprinkle with flour and cook until soft. 

Tilapia with Strawberry Salsa

Week 2 of Happy and I cooking together (this time girls only!), we decided to make tilapia. WOW. SO EASY. WOW. SO GOOD. I will be making this again asap because it was soooo yummy. I love fish, and I love fruit, so fish + fruit = omnomnom. And it looked beautiful to boot! While I whipped up the fish and salsa, Happy handled the rice and salad--the rice was soo good, she stuck in a whole 2 cups of fresh mushrooms to make it magical.

The recipe calls for grilling the fish and the original calls for baking--I pan fried mine easily.

Tilapia with Strawberry Salsa

Recipe from Pasta Princess and More

2 tilapia fillets

1 tbsp butter

1 tsps lemon juice

5 large strawberries, de-topped and finely chopped

1 tbsp finely chopped white onion

2 tsps lime juice

1 tsp red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp grated ginger

1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped or 1 tablespoon Thai Red Chili Sauce

Mix the strawberries, onion, jalapeno, ginger, lime juice and red wine vinegar together. Stir well and let sit in the fridge for at least 15 mins so the flavors can mingle.

Generously season each fillet, pour lemon juice over both and place 1/2 tbsp of butter on each. Grill until fish turns opaque and flakes easily.

Serve with a spoonful of salsa.

Gordon Ramsay's Pork Chops with Sweet 'n Sour Peppers

My roommate, Happy, and I have decided to do this awesome weekly girls-night event where we cook together and (ideally, though I've been on a little break) drink wine and watch horrible reality television or gossip or just whatever, have girl time plus cats. Sounds like a great idea! The first night we did this we actually also had my boyfriend, Adam, joining us, which was fine because we made way too much food. This recipe was absolutely FAAABULOUSS probably because of all the butter buuut you can make it healthier. Pretty easy too!

Gordon Ramsay's Pork Chops with Sweet 'n Sour Peppers

Recipe from My Kitchen of Love

For the pork chop:

2 pork chops

Olive oil, for frying

2 garlic cloves, crushed with skin on

Small bunch of thyme

Few knobs of butter

For the sweet & sour peppers:

Olive oil, for frying

1 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced

2 red peppers, thinly sliced

Sea salt

Ground pepper

1 tbs caster sugar

3 tbs red wine vinegar

1 tbs extra virgin olive oil

Small bunch of basil leaves, shredded

Heat some olive oil over a large frying pan on high heat, then add onion and peppers. Season with salt, pepper, sugar and saute for 4-5 minutes until soft and colored.

Add the vinegar and let it bubble for a few minutes until it has reduced. Turn down the heat, add the extra virgin olive oil and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Stir in the shredded basil and continue to cook for 30 seconds, then turn on the heat. Transfer to a bowl and leave to infuse.

To prepare the pork chop, use the sharp knife to make cuts into the fat, making sure that it’s not into the meat. Season with salt & pepper on both sides, rub and push well into the skin.

Heat the frying pan over high heat until hot & add a dash of oil, then tip in the pork chops, garlic and thyme and fry for 2-3 minutes until colored. Turn and fry for another 2-3 minutes, pushing the thyme under the chops and breaking up the garlic a little. Towards the end of cooking time, add in a generous amount of butter (you’ll love it later), lightly tilt the pan and baste the chops with melted butter as they are cooking.

Transfer the chops over a plate, with herb and garlic on top, leave it to rest for 5-10 minutes, continue basting with butter now and then. Serve the chop on top of the peppers and onions.