Chicken & Pasta Chowder

       Chicken & Pasta Chowder

Recipe(make 6 servings)：

Ingredients
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breast halves -- cut in 1 inches pieces
- 1 medium onion -- chopped
- 2 clove garlic -- minced
- 2 can (14 1/2 oz) chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 tsp dried basil leaves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup uncooked rotini
- 1 packages (1 lb.) frozen broccoli, carrots, -- cauliflower
- 4 cup skim milk
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 medium red bell pepper -- chopped
- 1/4 cup shredded fresh Parmesan cheese

Method:
1.Spray nonstick Dutch oven or large saucepan with nonstick cooking spray. Heat over medium heat until hot. Add chicken, onion and garlic; cook 4-6 minutes or until onion is tender, stirring occasionally.
2.Stir in broth, basil and salt. Bring to a boil. Add rotini; cook over medium-high heat for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3.Meanwhile, place frozen vegetables in colander or strainer; until thawed. Drain well. In small bowl, combine 1 cup of the milk and flour; blend well.
4.stir vegetables, milk mixture, remaining 3 cups mile and bell pepper into rotini mixture. Bring just to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to medium; cook 3-5 minutes or until soup thickens and vegetables and pasta are tender, stirring occasionally.
5.To serve, ladle chowder into 6 individual soup bowls. Sprinkle each with cheese.

This chowder tasted so good! The flour made the soup thick and creamy, the vegetables were soft, but not mushy. The thick soup was sticky and  clung well to the chicken, vegetables and the pasta. That totally made the soup have a strong milky taste into the vegetable and the chicken. The soup was perfectly seasoned, not too salty.  The cooked garlic, chicken, and onion together made the smell so good. The onion did not taste very strong, it tasted a little sweet. I could taste the chicken broth that it helped the soup taste fresh. The chicken was very juicy too.  

The recipe is also very good, it was easy to follow. Everything was very clear, except it did not tell me what kind of broth I need, the regular one or a low sodium one. That is because usually the stores sells the regular one. If I add the salt again, the soup will be too salty.  The recipe also did not tell me when to put the red bell peppers in, so I wasn't sure when to add them to the soup.  So, I just put them in with the other vegetables at the same time.  I would use this recipe again because everybody at my house liked the soup and it is very healthy because it is low fat and has many vitamins from the vegetables.  

To Die For Banana Muffins

To Die For Banana Muffins

The Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

1 cup fresh blueberries

Method:

1 Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

2 Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. 

3 Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. 

4 Fill muffin cups right to the top. 

5 Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

This recipe is adapted from:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/To-Die-For-Blueberry-Muffins/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=muffin&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page

I change Blueberry to banana, because I have too many bananas at home, so I need to finish them. And blueberry is not in season. 

Why this recipe?

The reason of I chose this recipe is my father likes to eat muffin, but they only had blueberry muffins at Costco, if I can make it at home I can choose more flavours.

Recipe Format

This recipe is in Standard Format. It is organized and the Ingredients is list at top, before the instructions.

Metric or Imperial?
This recipe is using imperial measurements.

Recipe Terms

Preheat: wait until the oven's temperature became the temperature of what you want

Grease: dab oil on to inside of muffin cup to prevent sticking
Combine：put something together
Mix: mix two or more things to become one 
Fold in:  more gentle mixing technique than "stirring" and "mixing". 
Bake: to cook something using dry heat, in an oven

Yield Change
I halved all the ingredients to fit my equipment.

3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoon vegetable oil ( I want to use less oil to make it healthier)

1/2 egg

3 tablespoons milk (I want to make it more moist)

1/2 cup mashed banana

I don't want to have the crumb topping because it is too sweet.
I also change the recipe to for 6 medium muffins, because I only have the muffin pan for 6 medium muffins.

so the recipe change to this:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

2. Combine 3/4 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. 

3. In a separate bowl, add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil; add 1/2 egg and 3 tablespoon of milk. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in mashed banana. 

4. Fill muffin cups right to the top.

5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Equipment and Tools

I will use those tools to make the muffins
-muffin pan
-muffin cup lin
-2 mixing bowls
-spoon
-spatula
-measuring cup
-measuring spoon
-fork

Start!
I get  all the tools ready

The oven need to preheat, so I need start by oven first. I set 400 F degrees F and 20 minutes.

 

I use 3 times 1/4 cup flour to get 3/4 cup flour.

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt.

1 teaspoon baking powder. 

Get another bowl

Add 2 tablespoon of vegetable oil, I just add 1 and half tablespoon of vegetable oil, because I daub  the half tablespoon of vegetable oil on the muffin pan. That help the muffin do not Stick on my muffin pan, because I do not have muffin cup.

Cracked an egg in the bowl

mix it

pour half in the bowl

add 3 tablespoon of milk 

 mix together

fold in mashed banana

put it in to the oven

after 20 minutes

                                          Finish!

Recipe Evaluation：

I do not why my muffins' outside is hard, but it still soft inside, it is delicious and the recipe is clear and easy to understand. I get only mistake is when I fix two bowl together. Before I finish fix it , i fold in mashed banana, that make the flour become many small ball, I spend more time to fix those small ball.