Sorry if you have to read this a billion times. =( But I thought I'd finally share with all the cooking communities I've joined.

My roomie bought a "skillet meal" from Wal-Mart (It was the Wal-Mart brand Sam's Choice) called something along the lines of Greek Style Chicken. It was absolutely delicious, and with a little bit of debate while we were eating, we came up with our own recipe for the same dish that tastes pretty comparable.

Ingredients:

1. Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
2. Mediterranean Style Italian Dressing
3. 1 Lemon
4. 2 ripe tomatoes
5. Olives, rinsed and cut up
6. Salt and Pepper to Taste
7. Crumbled Feta cheese
8. Bell peppers
9. Mushrooms
10. Yellow onion

Directions:

1. In a skillet, heat some oil, about three tablespoons is fine. Just eyeball it.
2. Chop up thawed chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces. Place them in a bowl and cover with dressing to marinate while the oil is heating. Squeeze the juice of the lemon into the marinade as well.
3. Chop up 1 bell pepper, mushrooms and onion (as much as you want and anything can be left out of these three ingredients).
4. When the oil is hot, toss the onion, pepper and mushroom in and saute until onion is tender and slightly transparent. Mushrooms and peppers should be hot and your kitchen should smell really yummy! :)
5. Remove the sauteed vegetables onto a plate and put aside, toss in the marinated chicken and enough "sauce" that it was marinated in to have the chicken chunks sitting in liquid, but not by more than half, or covered in it.
6. Chop the tomatoes up.
7. It should take about ten minutes for the chicken to cook through, when the biggest pieces are pierced and no longer pink inside. Most of the liquid should have cooked down by now, but if there's still a lot, drain the chicken. You want a little bit of the sauce, but not much.
8. Toss in the tomatoes, olives and sauteed vegetables, and sit around on the heat a couple of minutes to bring the vegetables back up to heat. Remove from the burner, turn your oven off.
9. Top in the pan with as much crumbled feta cheese as your heart desires, and serve.

We stuffed this into pita bread pouches to eat it and it was SO yummy! Most of the ingredients are just eyeballed, as much as we wanted in it, and it fed me, her, and her three boys, with plenty left over. We used five chicken breasts to cook it and lots and lots of veggies.

Tonight I made a version of this recipe by Karen Hudson (I didn't have lemon rinds or cardamon)

Ingredients:
¾ cup honey
½ cup organic sour cream
3 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons lemon rind
2 pounds (6 cups) tart organic cooking apples, thinly sliced
½ cup golden raisins
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cardamon

Directions:
Combine honey, sour cream, flour, salt, and cinnamon. Add apples and raisins. Toss to coat and turn into an unbaked pie shell. Roll out remaining pastry and put over top. Sprinkle with sugar and bake at 425 degrees for approximately 45-55 minutes.

A while back I made a rather delicious grilled cheese base on something I saw on the food network

Here it is

- Bread (obviously)

- Tomato

- A slice of pepper jack and a slice of cheddar

- Lastly a red onion

Chop up the onion and sautée it until it is somewhat translucent, this is the part you will have to eye to your own preference but the key is to get the sweetness of the red onion out.

Once the onions are done. Combine the cheese, the tomato and the onions betwen the slice and and grill away.

Its the tasty of tasties...

So I've been making my own iced coffee.  To borrow a phrase from Satan's spawn, "Yum-O!"  Typically, I use whatever's relatively cheap, most often Dunkin' Donuts.  But I've got a big bag of pinon coffee from New Mexico that's been in my cabinet for ages, and I was wondering if anyone had ever used that variety for iced and how it turned out.  Thanks for any thoughts (especially one's not related to Rachael Ray ;). 

Hi ladies and gents! I'm trying to cook more, even though I have a pain in the ass to cook for, haha. Since I don't have my subscription to Cooking Light anymore, I need to join some recipe sharing communities!

Here's my current favorite recipe. I've had it for years, but never made it until a couple months ago; it tasted fantastic and I was thrilled with the simplicity. Now if I get a Foreman grill, this would probably be quicker!

Chicken with Provencal Sauce (Jan/Feb 2005 Cooking Light)

4 (6 oz) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 T. olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 C. fat free, less sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 t. dried herbes de Provence*
1 t. butter
1 t. fresh lemon juice

1. Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/2" thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Sprinkle chicken evenly with salt & pepper.
2. Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add chicken; cook 6 minutes on each side or until done. Remove chicken from pan; keep warm.
3. Add garlic to pan; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add broth and herbs; bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Cook until broth mixture is reduce to 1/2 cup (about 3 minutes). Remove from heat; add butter and lemon juice, stirring until butter melts. Serve sauce over chicken. Garnish with thyme sprigs, if desired.

Yield: 4 servings (1 breast, 2 T. sauce).

*combination of dried basil, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, lavender, and sage.

I saw someone in another cooking community ask for ideas for a heaven & hell themed party.  She didn't get many responses and now I'm interested in that theme.  Can any of you come  up with some spiffy recipes for me?

I'm making my own vegetable stock for the first time -- smells delicious so far!  I'm loathe to waste the two cups of vegetables that I will be straining out when the stock is done simmering in another half hour, but what the heck do I do with a bunch of mushy carrot, celery, and onion?

cross-posted to vegrecipes