Road Trip!

I've been a bit MIA, I know. I was on a weeklong cross-country road trip with my sister who moved to Portland. It was a ton of fun, but now I am so anxious to get home and get cooking! Although I did do a quite a bit of cooking before I left.  I made loads of road trip snacks.  I knew our trip would mean lots of greasy foods like burgers and fries, which we did have and thoroughly enjoyed, but also knew that we would feel much better if we had a pack of healthy snacks so as to prevent a panicked gas station snack stop that inevitably would have ended up with a bag of premade cheddar chex mix followed by what I like to call 'junk food stomach'.

I'm no stranger to road trips. Being in a family of five children, we did a lot of traveling by car. I think the idea of buying 7 plane tickets put my parents over the edge, so most trips were in the family Suburban and there was always a cooler in the back with sandwich fixings and snacks and homemade cookies. I think my mom couldn't stand the idea of stopping every time one of us was hungry and my dad couldn't stand the idea of going out for every meal. Growing up in the 'great lakes state', most of our trips involved us never being far from the lake so my mom always packed us a picnic. With 5 picky eaters she just let us make our own sandwiches and would pack several kids of meats, mayo, mustard, chips, sweets and even some candy. I think as a kid I always wished we could stop for the McDonald's happy meal or whatever that now makes me wince.

So with that on my mind I packed sandwiches for our first day.  There was no notable stops/cities on our first day anyway, so I figured starting out with a homemade lunch would be better.  I've made this one a few times now, and it always hits the spot.  With the skin off and the addition of yogurt to make it creamy, this really is a pretty healthy lunch.  The aioli is DELICIOUS and also great on other things. There was a bit leftover that Johnny used to make a quick salad dressing.  Just add some white wine vinegar and olive oil and put over salad.  The aioli also has an anchovy in it but please don't let that scare you.  In fact, Johnny couldn't believe when I told him that it was in there.  Did you know that almost all caesar salad dressing have it?  It certainly doesn't taste fishy, just adds another flavor dimension.  If you are a total wimp, feel free to leave out ;)  Oh and don't throw the rest of the can out when you just use one itty-bitty half of an anchovy.  I put the rest in a small jar and throw it in the freezer until I need them again.  As my mom would say, "It is a sin to waste", and I therefore cannot STAND to waste.  I do the same trick with chipotle chiles in adobo and tomato paste.  I mean how often do you really use a whole can of tomato paste? I digress...

I probably should have taken pictures of this sandwich before I left, along with all the snacks that I made, but I'm sure you can relate to the chaos that ensues right before going on vacation.  The laundry, packing, planning and for me grocery shopping and cooking was too much for me to stop to take pictures at each stage.  So I recreated the sandwich when I got back.  I'm not going to recreate everything, at least right now, so I thought I would share links to the rest. For your next road trip!

1. My friend Patty's granola.  Delicious and about a million ways to mix and match to make it how you like it. This time I used almonds and coconut and dried cherries. In the past I've done blueberries, pecans and vanilla.
2. Granola Bars.  Oh so healthy, from the Mayo Clinic Cookbook.
3. Spiced Pepitas.  I knew that all of those sweets would make me crave something salty. This hit the spot.
4. Trail Mix. There really is no recipe for this, just mix whatever you like best. I mixed 1 cup of almonds, 1 cup of walnuts and 1 cup of dried cranberries, then just scooped it by the 1/3 cupfuls into snack bags. Use whatever nuts you like, these are great to have on hand.  Hopefully this leaves you craving not only a sandwich but also a road trip! Loads of fun!

Trish's Tips: The original recipe calls for arugula, parsley and chives, but I just used what I had which was basil, parsley and spinach.  Don't make the mistake that I made (especially if this is to go) and forget to check the seasonings after you mixed in the chicken.  My sister and I were both wishing it was more salty because I seasoned the aioli but didn't check it when I added the chicken.  The original recipe calls for a whole-wheat tortilla, which I have used before and liked, but this time I had a whole loaf of bread I was trying to get rid of so used that instead.  Use what you like.

Chicken Sandwich with Spinach and Basil Aioli
Adapted from Giada de Laurentiis
Makes 2 sandwiches

Ingredients:
Aioli:
1/3 cup lightly packed spinach leaves
1/4 cup lightly packed flat-leaf parsley
8-10 basil leaves
1/2 anchovy fillet
1 small garlic clove
1/4 cup lowfat greek style plain yogurt
1 tsp white whine vinegar
1/2 tsp lemon zest
salt and freshly ground pepper
Sandwich:
1 - Bone in, skin on chicken breast (Between .75 & 1 lb)
1 TBL Olive Oil
salt and pepper
4 slices bread (I like Ezekial)
1/2 C spinach leaves

Directions:
Preheat Oven to 350. Put chicken in pan and pour 1 TBL of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Rub to coat all sides.  Put in oven and roast for 35-40 minutes.  While chicken is roasting, make aioli.  Put garlic in mini food processor.  Pulse until it is minced.  Add anchovy and do the same.  Add the rest of ingredients and blend until mixture is smooth.  Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

When chicken is done and cool enough to handle, remove skin (if desired) and shred with 2 forks.  Add enough aioli to moisten.  Taste for seasoning, you may need more salt and pepper.  You may have some leftover aioli.  Assemble sandwiches.  Put spinach on one side of bread, then spoon chicken mixture on top and top with other slice of bread.

If you are taking this to go: Put spinach on both sides of the bread so that the aioli doesn't absorb in the bread and make it soggy.  Make sure the chicken mixture is extra wet, it will absorb and be drier by the time you eat it.  Slice sandwich and wrap first in wax paper then in tinfoil.  Make sure to pack napkins!

White Bean Dip

I had a fabulous weekend doing what I love: cooking.  My friend, Marcie, and I hosted a baby shower this Saturday along with a few other girls, and we were in charge of food.  We scoured through cookbooks for menu planning, did some strategic list making, hit three grocery stores and spent two days cooking.  We had a ton of fun doing it and it all ended up pretty good, if I do say so myself.  I kind of felt like my mom this weekend in the party planning zone, three recipes going at once.  What can I say, I learned from the best.

We made a pretty good mix of tried and true favorites, such as the tomato soup recipe I have posted here previously, and a few newbies as well.  I had several advertisers of my blog (slash followers of my blog telling others about it) at the party, so hopefully some of you have found me.  Sorry, but not all of the recipes will be posted because the added stress of taking photos of each recipe at each stage of cooking/chopping would have potentially put me over the edge.  But who knows, some of the recipes may just make an appearance here eventually.  For those of you interested, here was our menu:  Tomato soup in mini cups with grilled cheeses made with sharp white cheddar to dip in the soup.  We also served mini mac n cheese servings that we baked in a muffin tin and a spinach salad with hazelnuts and blood oranges.  For appetizers we served stuffed mushrooms filled with pecorino and turkey sausage, walnut pesto crostinis and..... White Bean Dip with crudites.

The White Bean Dip was definitely one that fell in the 'tried and true' category and is one that's been around in my family for a while.  My mom, sisters and I are all fans of Giada, whom this recipe comes from.  And I'm pretty sure we all had the cookbook that this comes from within the first few months of it being out.  In fact, I think this was one of the last things that my mom made for me because she knew it was one of my favorites.  I'm a hummus lover as you know, and this is a twist on hummus using white beans instead of chickpeas.  The original recipe calls for parsley and I made it that way for a couple of years, but one time as I went to make it, realized that I didn't have any parsley, but did have a huge bunch of basil from the farmers market.  I tried that instead and have yet to go back to making it the original way.

I often serve it with the pita chips as Giada calls for here, but don't have photos of it, as our menu for the shower was carb heavy enough so we served it with crudites.  Maybe try a mix of both, or depending on your mood or just pick one.  I love recipes like this because as long as you have a food processor it's pretty simple.  These are all ingredients that I generally have on hand, so this can be your go to recipe when you have unexpected hungry guests.  Or maybe even 18 or so expected guests and a pregnant guest of honor.  This will work for that too.  

Trish's Tips:  I have adjusted this recipe to be how I like it, but add more citrus, more oil, more salt and pepper if you like.  Or less, of course.  Make it your own.  Try it with parsley and basil and let me know which one you like better.  The hummus will keep in the fridge, but I think is best at room temperature.  I made it the night before the shower, but made sure to bring to room temperature.  The pita chips won't be the right consistency if made the day before; they tend to get a bit chewy.

White Bean Dip
Adapted from Giada de Laurentiis

Ingredients:

Pita Chips:
4 pita breads, split horizontally in half
2 TBL olive oil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

Dip:
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 (15 - ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup (loosely packed) fresh basil leaves (or parsley)
2 TBL fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove

Directions:
To make the pita chips:  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Cut each pita half into 8 wedges.  Arrange the pita wedges evenly over a baking sheet.  Brush the pita wedges with the oil, then sprinkle with the oregano and salt and pepper.  Bake for 8 minutes, then turn the pita wedges over and bake until they are crisp and golden, about 8 minutes longer.

To make the dip:  In the bowl of a food processor, put in garlic clove.  Turn processor on until garlic clove is sufficiently minced.  Add beans, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Turn on until the ingredients are well mixed.  Add basil.  Slowly add olive oil until the mixture is creamy, adding more olive oil or water to get to desired consistency.  Taste and add salt as needed.  Serve with pita chips or crudites.