Not All Sandwiches Are The Same...

OK...so it is not so easy to take the family to Navy Pier and come up with a solid lunch...especially when in training. So after about an hour and a half of the Children's Museum my daughter was getting quite tired...and all of my kids were getting hungry. So we set off to the food court. My wife put me in charge of finding some healthy adult food with "lots of veggies." Like that is easy to find in a food court!

I analyzed the offerings: Starbucks? Out. Gyros? Tasty...but no veggies. Out. All American Hot Dog? My mouth watered at the selection, but I would be served just as well by eating a stick of deep fried butter. Out. Then there was Carnelli's Deli. The selection looked good, with several offerings of chicken breast and fresh garden greens. I ordered three different choices:


1. Grand Ave. - chicken breast with provolone and pesto
2. The Patch - chicken breast with provolone and turkey bacon
3. Oakley St. - chicken breast with mozzarella and basil

I handed out the sandwiches and decided to keep The Patch for myself. The thought of turkey bacon was compelling. Here is what it looked like:

Trust me, it looks better than it tasted. Though the turkey bacon had a smokey flavor that helped out the overall sandwich, the chicken breast must have been from one of the skinniest birds that ever lived! There were two "chicken breast" slices of about 1 millimeter each. Though there was a bit of bagged grocery store lettuce on the sandwich, there were no tomatoes and the whole sandwich seemed anemic at best. And the price was over $6! There is no doubt that I am cheap...but I think most people would be disappointed with this value for price ratio!!

Sometimes it is better to just bring your own food from home.

Crepes With Chicken and Mushrooms

OK...so I don't always make crepes.  It is not a guy thing.  Nor is it a testerone versus estrogen issue (well...not completely).  It is simply that there are not enough carbs in a crepe.   However, they are quite good...and they can be stuffed with just about anything.  In this case, we stuffed them with chicken, mushrooms, milk and sour cream.  You can stuff them with other meat, cheese, sweet items (there is a famous Hungarian chocolate filled crepe - called "Crepe Gundell Style."). 

The recipe is very simple and we followed the one from the most recent Taste of Home magazine...

For the crepes mix:

4 eggs

1.5 cups of milk

1 cup flower

1.5 tsp. sugar

pinch or so of salt

Mix the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients separately then add them together and beat until smooth.  Finally set it in the refrigerator for about an hour or so. 

When ready, take about 3 tablespoons of the batter and drop it in the middle of a medium hot greased pan (I used cooking spray), swish it around to make a circular crepe and let it cook for about 20 seconds or so.  Flip it and let it cook for another 15 or so seconds.  Then slide that baby out and do it again for the next crepe.

For the filling:

The filling is very easy...

1.5 lbs of chicken breast
1 lbs or so of mushrooms

1 large yellow onion

2 cups of milk

1/2 cup of sour cream

salt and pepper

Brown the onion and add the mushrooms...cook until the mushrooms are soft.  Add the milk and let it cook for another 10 minutes or so.  Stir in the sour cream and let it simmer until it thinkens up to the consistency that you desire.  Remove about a cup of the sauce and put aside to use for a topping.  Add the chicken and voila!



The rest is pretty darn easy.  Just lay out a crepe on a plate and spoon in an appropriate amount of the chicken and mushroom filling.  Then roll that bad boy up and drizzle with some of the sauce that you held off to the side. 

It is quite a tasty (and filling) meal.  Though the picture only shows a single crepe...I actually ate three!