Zucchini & Yellow Squash Spaghetti

Credit: Jen Cochran
Recipe:
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
2 Tbsp of Kosher salt (to taste)
Ground black pepper to taste
2 Tbsp of olive oil
1 29oz can of tomato sauce (Target brand only has 2g of sugar)
1 cup of water
4 Tbsp of onion chives (or to taste)
7-8 garlic cloves (or to taste)
1 tsp of Rosemary
1 handful of fresh parsley
1 Tbsp of Tarragon
1 package of Jenny-O Turkey Italian Sausage (20oz)
1 package of Jenny-O lean ground Turkey (20oz)

Zucchini & Yellow Squash Noodles
- Use a potato peeler to make long noodle like slices of the zucchini & yellow squash. Stop when you reach the seeds and discard unless you have a use for them. I put them in my compost.
- Put zucchini and yellow squash noodles in a strainer in the sink. Give a good coat of salt (1/2 to 1 Tbsp of Kosher salt) to release water & gently mix (I used my hands). Let sit. Mine sat about 10-15 mins, I guess.
- While noodles are sitting, bring a pot (pasta pot) of water to boil. And chop bell peppers.
- When water starts to boil, rinse the noodles in cold water to remove some of the salt and put noodles in boiling water for one minute.
- After one minute, remove, strain, and immediately rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.
- In the pot, heat a Tbsp of olive oil and 2-3 sliced garlic cloves. Heat just long enough to soften the garlic, you don't want to brown the oil or garlic.
- Add noodles to olive oil and garlic pan. Toss right away. Add bell peppers to noodles and stir occasionally on medium heat for 5 mins.
- You can serve as is. For this meal I also completed the following steps to make spaghetti.

Ground Turkey & Italian Sausage
- Heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil (to help the turkey from getting too dry as it cooks) in a large pan or pot.
- Remove the sausage from the skin tubing so it can be ground and mixed with the lean ground turkey.
- Once pan is hot, add sausage and ground turkey.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Continue to mix and cook until meat is thoroughly brown.

Sauce
Note: I typically chop my own tomatoes and make my sauce from scratch, but I was running low on time and decided to doctor a low sugar canned tomato sauce. Premade spaghetti sauces I found were loaded with sugar and unnecessary ingredients.
- Pour 29oz can of tomato sauce into a large food processor or blender.
- I added a cup of water by filling the tomato can 1/4 of the way twice so I could get all of the tomato sauce out of the can. Pour water into food processor.
- Chop about 4 Tbsp of onion chives (it was fresh in my garden; feel free to use what you like). Add to food processor.
- Add a handful of parsley to the food processor (again, it was fresh in my garden).
- Add 4-5 garlic cloves to the food processor.
- Toss one tsp of Rosemary in the food processor.
- Include 1 Tbsp of Tarragon in the food processor.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Mix ingredients in food processor until you have your desired consistency.
- Pour ingredients from food processor to sauce pot on the stove and lightly heat and stir occasionally.

Now just build it... Noodles, then turkey, then pour sauce on top. Using the amounts above, I was able to make 8 servings, which included 5oz of turkey with each serving. Feel free to add, remove, change any of the herbs used to suit your liking. I just used what was on hand, and my family really enjoyed it! I hope you do, too!

Don't be intimidated by the meal. It came together quickly (something I did while home alone with my 2 year old) and was very easy. Enjoy!

BLT with Avocado Salad

Credit: Jen Cochran
Recipe:
- 1 Red Bell Pepper
- 1 Yellow Bell Pepper
- 1 Salad Tomato
- 1 Avocado
- 1 head of Red Leaf Lettuce
- 1 Romaine Heart Lettuce
- 1/2 lb of thick sliced bacon, chopped

Dressing
- 2 Tbsp Dijon
- 3 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/3 cup of olive oil

Croutons
- 4 slices of whole wheat bread
- fresh grated Romano cheese to coat
- Olive oil to coat
- salt and pepper to taste
- Garlic, minced, to taste (I used 1 clove)

Put 1/2 pound of bacon (about 6-8 slices) in freezer for 15 mins... it's easier to cut when slightly chilled. Slice bacon. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil into a pan and cook bacon until crispy. While bacon is cooking, follow instructions below. When fully cooked, remove bacon and set to side on to cool and drain grease.

Slice bread in cubes. Put in a bowl or zip lock bag. Add olive oil to make moist, but not completely dampen. You just want enough to help seasoning stick and make bread brown. Add cheese, salt, pepper, and garlic. Mix thoroughly. Lay on a greased cookie sheet or an oven mat in a single layer. Cook until desired crispiness in the oven at 350 degrees. I cooked ours about 20 mins.

Dice bell peppers, tomato, avocado, and clean and pull apart lettuce. In your serving bowl, whisk together dressing ingredients: Dijon, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and olive oil.

Add lettuce to dressing and mix well. Next top with bell peppers, avocado, and bacon. Serve croutons on the side. And enjoy! This meal came together so fast and was a much healthier alternative to the traditional BLT, as it has mayo and we would've had much more bread.

Extras
- Keep dressing, bell peppers, tomato, and avocado to the side if you think you will have extra for leftovers so your lettuce doesn't get soggy.
- I'm not a huge fan of having salad as the main course. This salad was hearty enough that I found it satisfying as a meal.
- More pics:

Pulled BBQ Chicken

**These are our dear friends Steve and Sandra with our son. Their visit from Holland was the reason for the open house. I'm working on a food pic. Until then, enjoy these faces I love oh so much!!**
Credit: This is a Jen Cochran original. I made this up for an open house party and everyone loved it.
Recipe:

- 1 box of chicken broth (I believe it is 4 cups)
- water (see instructions below)
- 10 whole peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 lbs frozen raw boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
- Durkee Grill Creations St. Louis Style Chicken & Rib Rub to taste
- Weber Beer Can Chicken Seasoning to taste
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
3 Tbsp of olive oil

Place the chicken in the slow cooker. Sprinkle with peppercorns, salt, and bay leaves. Pour chicken broth over top of everything. Add water so liquid comes to the top of the chicken. I use a 7 quart slow cooker. Cook on high 5 hours or low for 8 hours. Making the chicken is definitely a step you can do in advance.

Once the chicken is cooked, carefully remove the chicken from the slow cooker and let it rest a few minutes (I'm guessing here, 15 mins or so. It's not really a deal breaker if it is longer). While the chicken is cooking, I strain the liquid from the slow cooker into a container.

The chicken is so tender you can now use two forks to pull the chicken apart and shred it. Place the chicken back into the slow cooker. I seasoned the chicken with Durkee Grill Creations St. Louis Style Chicken & Rib Rub and Weber Beer Can Chicken Seasoning.

I did this on a whim preparing for 70ish people. So, I apologize I don't have exact measurements. I'd say just give it a good coating. Stir the chicken and add more so it is noticeable there is seasoning throughout. I added more salt and pepper to taste, as well. I love garlic, so I also added 3 minced cloves of garlic. I then added about 3 Tbsp of olive oil, and mixed it all together. Olive oil wakes up dry seasonings to release full flavor.

I knew my chicken was going to be sitting for a few hours in the slow cooker since it was for an open house (eat all day environment). In efforts to make the meat moist, I added a cup of the broth I drained from the slow cooker earlier. **Side Note: I put the rest in a plastic container and used in quinoa, etc in place of store bought chicken broth.** I then added a bottle (18 oz) of Sweet Baby Rays Original BBQ Sauce. **Side Note: pic captured is a different flavor than original, but wanted you to have a visual. The bottle I used is long gone.**

This made it a bit soupy, but it was perfect at dinner time a few hours later. If you're eating right away, I recommend adding the BBQ sauce first and then adding the chicken both as needed to get the texture you want.

That's it. Slap it on a bun and call it a day. We really enjoy it on a whole wheat bun topped with a vinaigrette cole slaw. Yum! Yum! Yum!

Extras:
- If you don't like biting into garlic chunks, smash open 3 garlic cloves and put them in w/ the raw chicken. Then you can strain the cloves out.
- Use the BBQ sauce you love. The sauce listed above is what the boys brought home. So, I used it. I use different ones often.
- I normally look at the ingredients in prepackaged seasonings and then just make my own. These were a gift at some point. So, I just used them. Feel free to play with the seasonings to your liking.
- I think everyone likes this so much due to the tenderness of slow cooking the chicken and the layering of the flavors. Adding flavor at each step really takes it up a notch.
- This makes a lot of chicken. You can make this recipe as is and freeze what you don't eat for later, or cutting it in half would probably make for a nice family of 4 dinner.

Deer Chops in a Slow Cooker

<pic coming soon. Blog system having issues when I posted this>

Credit: allreceipes.com
Receipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/deer-chop-hurry/Detail.aspx

Cochran Comment: Dad brought us some venison chops from hunting season. Growing up a never liked venison chop dinner night. With an open mind and all due respect to our family hunters we'll give this a go, but have the pizza delivery number at the ready. LOL! Stay tuned.

Slow Cooker Beer Chicken w/ Beer & Bacon Quinoa

This one is a combination of a recipe found on Pinterest and a creative moment on my part.

Slow Cooker Beer Chicken

 



Credit: LaaLoosh
Recipe: http://www.laaloosh.com/2012/07/09/crock-pot-beer-chicken-recipe/

Cochran Review: Easy to make and decent flavor. The flavor is good and can be eaten as is, but isn't so overwhelming that you can't make the leftovers into a new meal. I shredded the chicken and made quesadillas the next day.

The chicken made a very yummy au jus. I strained the au jus and served it to the side to be poured over our chicken and quinoa. I think next time I might by hoagies to have chicken french dip sandwiches with leftovers!

Pic of our au jus:

Beer & Bacon Quinoa

 

 

Credit: Jen Cochran, me!  :)

Recipe: Make quinoa as directed on side of box. Instead of water or broth, I used a bottle of beer, plus a little water to make up the 2 cups. Cook bacon on side to a crispy consistency... I used 4 thick cut pieces. Let bacon rest and cool. When quinoa is done, crumble bacon and mix with quinoa.

 

Comments: I wanted something to go along with the chicken recipe above. Beer chicken sounds very manly to me and so I thought, hmmm... what else do men love? Bacon! I think the quinoa was the star of this meal! We had chicken leftovers, but gobbled all of the quinoa up. Enjoy!

 



Honey Heinz 57 Chicken

Credit: Heinz 57 & Jen C
Recipe: I saw an idea on the back of a Heinz 57 bottle to mix a bottle with 1/4 cup of honey to create a chicken grilling sauce. So, I spiced it up a bit, and we really enjoyed it!

5 thinly sliced chicken breasts
1 bottle of Heinz 57
1/4 cup of honey
1 Tbsp of vinegar
6-8 drops (to taste) of Chipotle Tabasco Sauce

In a small bowl, mix honey and Heinz 57. I had trouble getting all of the sauce from the bottle. So, this is how vinegar joined the party. Pour about a tablespoon of vinegar into the Heinz 57 bottle, put the lid back on, and shake to loosen the rest of the sauce. Pour into small bowl. I didn't want our meal to just taste like chicken with Heinz 57 on it, so I spiced it up with a few drops/dashes of Chipotle Tabasco Sauce. Mix all together. Split sauce in half to use half during grilling and the other half for dipping, if desired.

Grill chicken over medium heat 4-6 minutes. Brush with sauce mixture, turn over and grill an additional 4-6 minutes. Or until chicken is done.

Cochran Review: This turned out really great. We don't typically use a lot of sauce with our meals, and this made A LOT of sauce. So, we have over half left over. Next time, I would either make more chicken or less sauce. I guess it is nice to have at the ready in the fridge, tho.  :)  The chicken turned out tender and juicy. The sauce has a sweet & spicy flavor to it without too much spice. You could make it more or less by adjusting the Chipotle Tabasco, of course. Enjoy!

Pic from our meal is above.