Papaya Chicken and Rice

Papaya was on sale, and I wanted to try to include it in a main dish, so I Googled around and found this recipe for Papaya Chicken Casserole. It was close to what I wanted, but not quite, so I stole the sauce, grilled up some chicken and served it over rice. The kids loved the sweetness of the sauce (OK, I thought it was pretty good too!).

Papaya Chicken and Rice

Papaya chicken and riceFor the Sauce:

  • Juice of 1 orange, plus water to make 1 cup
  • 2 Tbs Lemon juice
  • 1/4 brown sugar
  • 1 Tbs Corn starch
  • 1 Tbs Soya sauce
  • 2 cups Diced papaya

For the Chicken:

  • 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts pounded to even out thickness, and grilled–add some salt and pepper or other spices if you want

Rice: 1 cup rice cooked as directed.

Bring all the sauce ingredients, except the papaya to a boil. Add the papaya and simmer for a few minutes while it thickens. Place a serving of rice on each plate, add a chicken breast and top with sauce.

Pear bismarck

Pear BismarckI’ve seen lots of names for these oven baked pancakes–bismarck, flapjack, popover…Some recipes cook the pancake and put the fruit on top after cooking (usually berries of various sorts), others put the fruit in the pan and cook with the batter (mostly apples). A neighbor has a pear tree that produced a super-sized crop this year and the kids picked a bunch of pears. I combined a few recipes to come up with this. I think most recipes are geared for a smaller (9in) pie pan sized dish, so this is doubled for a larger 12in pan.

Pear Bismarck

  • 2 pears, sliced
  • 2 T butter
  • 2 T brown sugar
  • 1-2 tsp cinnamon
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup milk

Pear bismarck in panPreheat the oven to 450F. Slice the pear. Beat the eggs in a medium bowl, add milk and flour and mix. Heat an oven proof 12in pan on medium high heat and melt the butter. Sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon in the pan. Spread the pear slices on the bottom of the pan. Top with the batter and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Loosen the edges and turn upside down onto a plate or cutting board. Slice and serve.

Some recipes call for sprinkling with powdered sugar and/or adding maple syrup, but neither is needed really.

 

Wild rice with chicken, oranges and cranberries

This ended up not being a salad as originally planned, since we had already eaten up the salad mix. But I can see how it would be god served over a bed of lettuce…Two Fat Als had an interesting recipe for Wild Rice Salad with Chicken, Fruit and Cashews. We aren’t big fans of dates, and cashews are out due to allergies, but it seemed like a good idea. So here’s my version

Wild Rice with Chicken, Oranges and Dried Cranberries

  • 2 chicken breast, grilled and dicedWild rice and chicken with oranges and cranberries
  • 2 cups Lundberg Wild Rice Blend
  • 2  oranges, peeled and cut into small pieces
  • 3 Tbs olive oil
  • 3 Tbs lemon juice
  • 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/4 cup torn fresh mint

Cook the chicken, or use leftovers. Cook the rice as directed. Combine the oil, lemon juice, vinegar and sugar in a small bowl. In a large bowl, mix the rice, chicken, dressing, oranges, cranberries and mint. The original called for serving this over a be of lettuce, which would be nice, but we ate it straight, which was good too.

Sweet potato pizza with onion

Sweet potato pizzaWe make pizzas at home quite a bit, though tend to stick with the standard toppings–pepperoni, olives, mushrooms, etc. I was looking for something a bit different and ran across this recipe at Real Simple for sweet potato pizza with onions. We added a few dollops of ricotta cheese since we had some left over from the quiche we made earlier in the week. For the crust we used a recipe from TFMCB: No-work mostly whole wheat pizza dough. We did make a backup pizza for the kids, but the sweet potato one was eaten up!

Blueberry chicken salad

Blueberry chicken saladThis recipe for blueberry chicken salad from Allrecipes.com was fast, easy and really good. The dressing is lemon yogurt (6oz) and mayonnaise (3 Tbs), which sounded odd, but is really good, especially with the sweetness of the blueberries. Throw in some diced cooked chicken breast (we grilled a bunch earlier in the week and used it in several recipes), red pepper, celery and the blueberries. This was one of the only times the kids eat up a salad, including the lettuce!