Dinner - Mussels and Kraft Fresh Take Chicken and Fish

I made supper with a new product - Kraft Fresh Take.  There were different flavors to choose from - I chose Italian, knowing this choice has the flavors the kids tend to like.  I bought chicken breasts, for the kids, and tilapia for my husband and myself.  This is a neat product...it has two pouches - one has bread crumbs and spices and one side has the cheese.  You pull apart the middle divider and mix the two sides together.  Then you open the top of the whole pouch and put in each breast (or piece of fish) one at a time.  I lined a pyrex pan with non-stick foil (a product I love) and put each coated piece of meat on it.  Per the instructions, I baked the meats at 375 degrees.  The chicken needed longer than the fish, but everyone loved everything.  In fact, I have even had requests to make it again next week.

I also made mussels, per my husband's request.  Mussels, I think to many, are very intimidating to make.  I think they are actually one of the easiest things to make.  They tell you if they are good to eat and they tell you when they are done cooking.  For a light side to our dinner I bought 1.25 pounds for just my husband and myself to have.  If I was making it just for our supper, I would have made 1 pound for each of us.  ALWAYS make sure, wherever you buy them from, have every mussel checked over all the mussels you are getting.  As I said earlier, mussels tell you when they are good to eat, meaning that they are closed = alive.  By having the fish monger check every mussel, you aren't paying for mussels you can't eat.  I put all the mussels into a small pot, cut one large shallot into little pieces, and added a small bottle of white wine.  I like to keep those small size bottles of white and red wine in the house for just this reason.  Put the lid on the pot, turn the heat up and let them steam away.  Within the first 10 minutes, check and see how the mussels are doing.  As long as most of the mussels are open = done and ready to eat.  You want to get them off the heat as close to the opening point as possible.  This ensures that your mussels aren't overcooked - which may lead to chewy mussels - yuck!  Whatever mussels don't open, throw those out.  They aren't good, don't even try them.  It's really just that easy and quick to make mussels.  Such a treat and show stopper when you have people over or want a healthy quick dinner!!

Mussels, shallots and wine in the pot and ready to be covered.

See all that yummy juice down there.  Great to mop up with crusty bread!!