Nothing says simplicity like cooking inside a foil pouch. This past week I prepared 2 meals, totally different, inside an aluminum foil pouch. Easy clean-up and most generally; a great meal! You can keep these meals extremely simple or take them to an entirely new level.
With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner this is a great time to chat a bit about the perfect foil pouch for March. (I always do my cabbage inside a foil pouch.) (Cook the brisket, trim it down, and place it in with the cabbage.)
Instead of a regular recipe this week I’m going to simply outline my two meals from this past week. The first was a cabbage & potato pouch. The second was a bit more spiced up with a chicken pouch dinner served over well seasoned Basmati Rice. Perhaps the best part of cooking inside a foil pouch is how wonderful clean-up can be. Those who work full-time will enjoy the fact they can come home, quickly put the pouch together, slide it in the oven, moving on to another project in the 40-50 minutes it takes to bake, As you plan your pouches try to cover vegetables, fruits and meats in one
meal.
Here is the first foil pouch, we’ll call it #1:
Sliced Cabbage
Sliced red potatoes, skins left on
Turkey spiced kielbasa sausage
Sliced Onions
Seasoning
3-5 tablespoons butter
Vegetable Spray
Large piece of foil for the pouch
Oven set at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes
Foil Pouch #2:
2 chicken breasts
Sliced peppers and onions
Chunk pineapple
Vegetable Spray
Seasonings of choice
Chinese sauce by P.F. Chang
Large piece of foil for pouch
Oven set at 350 degrees for about 45-50 min.
With this pouch I prepared Seasoned Basmati Rice.
There will be plenty of juices to ladle over the rice.
Consider cooking rice in stock for enhanced flavor
Place chicken, seasonings, vegetables & fruit in
pouch, followed by a good covering of the chosen sauce.)
Seal and bake.
In each foil pouch you are going to prepare the amount that you need to serve for dinner &/or for leftovers.
This past weekend my good friend, Lucy, called to rub it in that she was having homemade rice pudding for dinner. I gave her a very hard time, because it made me hungry for my grandmother’s rice pudding with raisins. I don’t know what your mind is thinking, but as soon as she presented what she made I could taste my grandmother’s on my palate. You got it, I’ll be making rice pudding this week.
Here are a couple of tips for you: As we get closer to Easter, remember to get your eggs at least a couple of weeks BEFORE Easter dinner! This way they will be much easier to peel. Also; before you boil your eggs for the holiday remember to flip them over in the carton a few hours before you boil them. This will help to center the yolks so they are not sitting at the end of the egg.
Best decaffeinated coffee, Starbucks, hands down.
Tastes like it is caffeinated!!!
Time to enjoy a hot chocolate before I call it a night. Simply yours, The Covered Dish.
