Oven Baked Chicken Breast with Feta Cream Sauce

I found this Feta Cream Sauce recipe on Pinterest and I had to try it. I love feta and like most people I’m always looking for a great way to dress up a chicken breast.

Ingredients

o 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
o Salt
o Pepper
o 1 tablespoon butter
o 4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
o 1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
o 2-3 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped
o 1 cup feta cheese

Instructions

1. Bake chicken breasts from a frozen state on a foil-lined baking sheet at 375° for 27-32 minutes.
2. When the chicken is close to done melt butter in a thick bottom saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and whisk constantly for one minute. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly.
3. Stir in chives and salt and pepper to taste and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer 5-7 minutes or until thick, stirring occasionally.
4. Add feta and stir until cheese is melted.

This makes a lot of sauce so if you are making less than 4 chicken breasts I would cut the recipe in half. To serve spoon the sauce over the chicken and you’re done. I finished off my meal with sautéed Asparagus Spears and Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Senator Amy Klobuchar’s Tater Tot Hot Dish

Tater Tot Hot Dish is a staple in Minnesota especially in the winter time (yes it’s still cold here). Local favorite Haute Dish restaurant even serves a sophisticated “Tater Tot Hautedish” year-round that includes short ribs and handmade “tots”. It’s devine! If you haven’t made it over there to try this far-from-traditional dish, it’s a must. If you are looking for a more traditional (Grandma’s recipe) tater tot hot dish here is Senator Amy Klobuchar’s recipe from the 2011 Minnesota Delegation Hot Dish Competition. Insert Minnesota jokes here…

Recipe from Sen. Amy Klobuchar

Tater Tot Hotdish (credit: 2011 Minnesota Delegation Hot Dish Competition)

– Ground beef (1-1.5 lbs)
– Cream of mushroom (1 can)
– Cream of chicken (1 can)
– Onions (1 small)
– Garlic (couple cloves)
– Salt
– Pepper
– Pepper jack cheese, shredded (8-12 ounces)
– Tater tots (1 package)

Brown ground beef, drain off fat. Sautee onions and garlic.
In a large bowl, mix together beef, onions, garlic, both cans of soup, salt and pepper. Spread evenly into the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish. Cover with about ½ of the shredded cheese. Then, place tater tops in one layer over the entire pan.
Bake at 450 for 30 minutes, or until tater tots are crisp. Cover with remaining cheese and bake until cheese melts.

Pair this with mixed vegetables and a glass of milk and I know you’ve reverted back to being a little kid sitting at Grandma’s kitchen table.

Reference: http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/01/26/taconite-tater-tot-hot-dish/

Friday Fish Fry

It’s the first Friday of lent and that means in the Midwest its Fish Fry time! You can get fish fry all year round in Wisconsin and Minnesota at all the local restaurants but during lent the Catholic churches hold the best fish fry’s in town. If you’re not fortunate enough to live in the Midwest you can still participate in our fish fry tradition. Schwan’s Beer Battered Alaskan Cod is every bit as delicious as what you can get at the church and you don’t even have to fire up the deep fryer. Just bake them in the oven at 475 for about 15 minutes, pair them with some Quick Bake French Fries, coleslaw and slice of buttered rye bread and you have an authentic Midwestern fish fry wherever you may live.

Looking for a little healthier option? Try the Potato Encrusted Cod! At just 230 calories you can partake in the tradition without the guilt. Paired with Rice Pilaf and Roasted Sweet Potatoes you have one delicious meal your whole family will love.

Hassle free Valentine’s Day Dinner

Did you forget to make dinner reservations for Valentine’s Day this Thursday and now the only place that’s still available is White Castle? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! You don’t even have to be a master chef to make this amazing meal for your sweetheart. (believe me I’m not) You’ll even score extra brownie points for the effort.

This meal includes
USDA Choice Filet Mignon– Just season and grill
Shrimp Scampi– heat in a skillet or the microwave
Roasted Baby Bakers– Bake in the oven or microwave
Super Sweet Cut Corn– heat on the stovetop or microwave
Asparagus Spears– heat on the stovetop or microwave

Pair with your favorite wine and you have a no hassle Valentine’s Day dinner without having to worry about valet parking.

Happy Pie Day!

Happy Pie Day! Every good diet needs some level of dessert and National Pie Day is a great excuse if you ask me. It’s still only about 15 degrees here and subsequently I have sunny Florida on my mind to help me get through the frigid Minnesota cold. Combine pie day and Florida and naturally all I can think about is Florida’s official state pie, Key Lime.

Schwan’s Thaw and Serve Key Lime Pie

Ever wonder about where Key Lime Pie originated from? Straight from Wikipedia, here is a very interesting history:

The origin of key lime pie has been traced back to the late 19th century in the Key West, Florida area. Its exact origins are unknown, but the first formal mention of Key lime pie as a recipe may have been made by William Curry, a ship salvager and Key West’s first millionaire; his cook, “Aunt Sally”, made the pie for him. If such is the case, however, it is also possible and maybe even probable that Sally adapted the recipe already created by local sponge fishermen. Sponge fishermen spent many contiguous days on their boats, and stored their food on board, including nutritional basics such as canned milk (which would not spoil without refrigeration), limes and eggs. Sponge fishermen at sea would presumably not have access to an oven, and, similarly, the original recipe for Key lime pie did not call for cooking the mixture of lime, milk, and eggs.[3]
Key lime pie is made with canned sweetened condensed milk, since fresh milk was not a common commodity in the Florida Keys before modern refrigerated distribution methods.[4] The creator of the “frozen” Key lime pie is Fern Butters (1892-1975).

You can easily get your hands on a slice of this delectable dessert at Schwans.com (no baking required!)

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_lime_pie

Warm Spinach Salad with Seared Scallops

Spinach is a staple “diet” food but it’s really hard for me to digest the idea of eating salad in the winter. My weather app is telling me its currently -2 degrees but feels like -13 and all of my instincts tell me to make a big pot of chili and hibernate for the rest of the winter! Although this seems like a great idea it may not exactly be feasible so I think I will compromise somewhere in the middle. I found this great recipe on schwans.com for a Warm Spinach Salad with Seared Scallops (say that five times fast) and it’s exactly the cold weather compromise I’m looking for.

Warm Spinach Salad with Seared Scallops

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Number of Servings: 5

A warm blend of greens topped with tender scallops and crunchy smoky flavored bits of bacon.

Ingredients
6 slices Thick Sliced Bacon (440), thawed and chopped
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2 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp shallots, minced
Pepper to taste
1 bag fresh baby spinach
1 bag Scallop Sautés (532), frozen
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Steps
1. Fry bacon in skillet until crisp. Reserve 2 Tbsp of drippings.

2. Mix together vinegar, shallots and pepper in a large bowl. Add spinach, bacon and bacon drippings. Toss together.

3. Prepare scallops according to package direction and serve over spinach salad.

It doesn’t get much easier than that!

LiveSmart Potato Encrusted Cod for 230 Calories

Potato Encrusted Cod Dinner for 410 calories

When you’re trying to eat healthy it’s inevitable you will eat all kinds of foods that you don’t really like. They taste terrible but you eat them anyway because they’re “good for you”. For me that one thing I really don’t like but I try to eat is fish. I don’t know what it is about fish but I was about 10 when I decided I didn’t like it and it took me until just a couple of years ago to actually even try it again. Over the last couple of years I have decided I do tolerate many types of whitefish but I’m quite particular about it still. If you are not a fish lover much like me you know that nearly every nutritionist in the country will tell you fish is good for you and it’s a must in every healthy diet. In the spirit of being healthy I continued to try different types of fish in hopes that one day I would find something I could actually love eating. Today I can tell you the quest is over. What is this magical delicious fish you ask? Schwan’s Potato Encrusted Cod. These gorgeous fillets of wild caught white cod are lightly breaded in potato, cheddar and chives and crisp perfectly in the oven. The flavoring is perfect. The best part? It’s a LiveSmart product and comes in at just 230 calories.

Kim put together this amazing meal of Potato Encrusted Cod, Creamy Mashed Potatoes, Asparagus Spears, and a slice of Multigrain Loaf in 30 minutes for just 410 calories! There’s no reason in the world to break your diet when you can eat like that. If you’re looking for more healthy dinner options keep checking back because we will keep posting our best LiveSmart options all week.

LiveSmart Can Help With New Year’s Resolutions

It’s that magical time of year where everyone is trying to do things a little bit better in his/her life. It’s human nature, we can’t help it. When New Years rolls around we all want to get back into shape, drop those extra holiday pounds and get prepared for swim suit season. This year Schwan’s can help you. Schwan’s LiveSmart brand offers options that can help us all stick to our goals without depriving ourselves of real food.

LiveSmart™ offers several advantages including:
• Delicious, real, better-for-you food
• Minimal additives or preservatives
• Moderate calories, sodium and fat
• Zero grams trans fat

Last night I was finding myself pressed for time so I decided to try out the new Southwest Style Fiesta Skillet meal. It was so easy to do. It comes in a bag with separate bags with sauce and rice. You put the self steaming bag of rice in the microwave for three minutes. In the meantime the sauce and skillet ingredients go into a skillet with four tablespoons of water, cover and let simmer for 10 minutes. It’s really that easy. I served it with corn tortillas, cheese and sour cream. Dinner was done in literally 10 minutes. It was delicious! The sauce is not too spicy at all and has a great roasted tomato flavor. I was thoroughly impressed. If you haven’t experienced the LiveSmart options yet you have to check them out. There’s even dessert!
Here are a couple coupons to get you started…
J3 will save $2.00 off the Mini Beef Pot Roasts
Unbreaded Chicken Breast Filets are $2.00 off if you order online
Wild Berry Frozen Yogurt, and Enticings Ice Cream Sandwiches are all $.50 off when you order online
As always, new customers save $5 off their first order of $25 or more with coupon code L2 or K2
Let us know what you think!