Oven baked chicken

We're trying to limit our meat consumption these days, but this is a great recipe for chicken night ;) very easy as well

• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 3/4 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
2. Mix the mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese, and garlic powder. Place bread crumbs in a separate bowl. Dip chicken into the mayonnaise mixture, then into the bread crumbs to coat. Arrange coated chicken on a baking sheet.
3. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until chicken juices run clear and coating is golden brown.

Vegetarian Asian Stir Fry

The most time consuming part about making this dish is chopping all the veggies. Once you start cooking it'll take about 15 minutes for everything to be ready :)

Ingredients:

1 Onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon of minced ginger

salt & pepper (to taste)

soy sauce

oyster sauce

water

2 or 3 stems of Broccoli, chopped

4 medium carrots, sliced

1 large zucchini, sliced

1/2 a small cabbage, sliced

1/2 cup of roasted cashew nuts

-Coat your wok or saute pan with olive oil, add onion and saute until wilted. Add garlic and ginger, and saute for a few seconds then start adding your veggies.

(I like to add one veggie at a time, starting with the hardest. I usually add the broccoli at the very end because we like it crispy.)

-Start by adding the carrots, when they start to cook add the cabbage and zucchini. After a couple of minutes add the broccoli and start adding the sauces and sal& pepper (to your desired taste), add some water (about half a cup).

-You can add some precooked whole grain spaghetti at this point and stir it in for a minute or two. Or you can serve this with some brown or white rice.

Enjoy :)

Butternut Squash Soup

Nothing better to warm us up in the winter than a delicious soup!

Ingredients:

1 Butternut Squash, peeled and cubed

1 large onion, diced

1 cup red lentils, washed

1 small potato, shredded

3 carrots, shredded

3 sticks of celery, minced

olive oil

water

salt

pepper

Directions:

-Coat the bottom of your soup pot with olive oil. Heat it and then saute the onions, once onions start to brown, add the lentils, potatoes, carrots, and celery. Saute for a few minutes then add the butternut squash and saute for another 1-2 minutes.

-add water enough to cover all ingredients, bring to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

-Once veggies are cooked (after about 20 minutes or less), pour soup into your blender and blend until smooth. Return to pot and let simmer for a few minutes until the soup is heated through again. Give it a taste and see if you need to add any salt or water.

Enjoy :)

Spinach Lasagna

Ingredients:

1/2 Package of Pre-cooked Spinach lasagna

1/2 cup of flour

1/2 liter of milk

1/2 cup of oil or 1 stick of butter (melted)

a small bunch of fresh spinach, washed and coarsely chopped. (I only use the leaves)

1/4 kilo of ground beef

1 can of tomato sauce

salt & pepper

small onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

olive oil

shredded mozzarella or any cheese of your choice

-start off by preparing the tomato sauce:

in saucepan saute the onion and garlic in a few tablespoons of olive oil, when onions are start to get golden add the meat, add salt and pepper. When meat has cooked through add the tomato sauce and a quarter cup of water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 15 minutes. Add italian seasoning if you like. Your sauce is now ready.

-Next you'll have to make the béchamel sauce:

Melt the butter in a saucepan (or heat the oil), add the flour and whisk together well. Add milk gradually, stirring after each addition. The milk should thicken as it gets heated through before you add more. Keep adding until the sauce reaches a creamy consistency. Add salt to taste. Your béchamel sauce is now ready :)

-Next, in a small pyrex (half the size of the 13x9 standard)... place a layer of lasagna (my tray only takes two sheets of lasagna per layer), then put a layer of the red sauce, drizzle some white sauce on top, a bit of cheese, some chopped spinach and then top with another layer of lasagna sheets. Keep doing this until you run out of ingredients or space in your tray! :)

Bake in a 180 degree oven (celsius) for 45 minutes.

Enjoy! :)

P.S: top layer of lasagna should not be covered with additional lasagna sheets. Just pour the remaining sauces and cheese on top.

Lentils & Bulgur (a.k.a. مجدرة "mjaddarah")

A healthy vegetarian meal that is protein rich!

Ingredients:

1 cup brown lentils

olive oil

chopped onion

1 tsp cumin, ground

salt

1 cup whole wheat bulgur

-Wash lentils. Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepan, add onions, saute till golden then add the lentils, cumin and a teaspoon of salt.

-Add water, enough to cover lentils by a couple of inches. Bring to boil, place lid on pot and let boil on medium/low heat for 15 minutes. Lentils should be "almost" cooked at the end of the 15 minutes. You don't want them to be cooked all the way through because they will cook again with the bulgur. They should have a slight bite to them but not too hard either.

-Pour lentils into a strainer, save the water so you can use it again to cook the bulgur.

-Place lentils back in the saucepan, combine with bulgur. Add a teaspoon of salt. Add 2 cups of water (use same cup you used to measure both bulgur and lentils). Bring to boil, then place lid and simmer for about 20-30 minutes or until bulgur and lentils are cooked.

This dish is best enjoyed with a finely chopped salad (tomato, cucumber, lettuce, and parsley). Or with plain yogurt.

Optional: Fry some sliced onions in oil until crispy, use as topping.

(this amount will make enough for two adults and two small children)

Enjoy! :)

P.S: sometimes I like the lentils to be less in quantity than the bulgur. So I use 1 1/2 cups of bulgur instead of 1 cup. If you want to do that just make sure you double the water amount in the final cooking stage. So 1 1/2 cups of bulgur need 3 cups of water.

Musakhan wraps

The quick and light way to make home-made musakhan! :)

Ingredients:

-4 chicken cutlets, sliced into thin strips

-olive oil

-Summaq

-salt & pepper

-3 large onions, sliced

-3 large loaves of "shrak" bread-the large thin round bread popular here in Jordan.

-Heat olive oil in pan, add chicken and fry at medium heat until chicken is opaque.

-Add onions, cook until onions and chicken start to brown. Add salt, pepper, and summaq to taste (for this amount I usually add about 3 tablespoons of Summaq). Saute for another 5 minutes then turn off heat.

-Spread a third of the mixture into the bread and wrap well. Cut each wrap in half and place in a sandwich press for a crispy/hot wrap.

enjoy! :)

Oven fries

The healthy and easy way to have fries :)

Ingredients:

olive oil

4 medium potatoes, cut anyway you like (I prefer wedges but you can slice them into circles as well)

salt & pepper

-Preheat oven to 220 degrees celsius

-Brush cookie sheet with a thin layer of olive oil

-Line fries on cookie sheet on their side making sure each one touches the pan

-brush top of potatoes with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper

-Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until bottoms are golden and crispy

-Broil until top is golden/crispy

enjoy! :)