I love adding unique flavors from other parts of the world into our dinner routine.  It's a great way to get out of a dinner rut, and also a way to bring food experiences that you may have gained while traveling to your own dinner table.  And today's featured one-pot meal does just that.  

Thai Red Chicken Curry
Total Time: 40 minutes
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 30 minutes

What you'll need
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 red chili pepper, seeded and diced
4 baby potatoes, quartered or 1 cup uncooked rice
1-2 cups green beans
2 tablespoons red curry paste
1 can chicken stock 
3/4 of a 14.5 ounce can light coconut milk
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions
1. In a medium pot or Dutch oven, heat olive oil over low-medium heat.  Stir in curry paste, garlic and red chili pepper.  Cook for 2 minutes. 
2.  Season chicken with salt and pepper.  Add seasoned chicken and red bell pepper to pot.  Brown for 2-3 minutes. 
3. Add light coconut milk, chicken stock and potatoes.  Reduce heat to low.  Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until potatoes are almost tender.

4. Add green beans to curry mixture.  Mix well.  Cover and heat on low for 8 to 10 minutes or until green beans are crisp-tender.

5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve and enjoy!

Today's featured one-pot meal combines pork, chorizo sausage rice and vegetables to create a mini fiesta in every bite.  However, the real party comes after dinner when you have little to cleanup and lots of time to enjoy your evening. 

Tex Mex Casserole
Total Time: 32 minutes
Prep: 2 minutes
Cook: 30 minutes

What you'll need
4 ounces ground pork
1 chorizo sausage 
10 ounce can diced tomatoes and green chilies
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
1 red pepper, diced
1 cup uncooked Spanish rice 
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese 
1/2 cup water 
1 tablespoon olive oil 

Directions
1. In a medium Dutch oven or pot heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add ground pork and chorizo sausage. Continue to break up meat while cooking for approximately 5 minutes. 

2. Add red bell pepper, diced tomatoes and green chilies (I like to use Rotel), rice and water.  Mix well. 

3. Bring mixture to a boil.  Cover and reduce heat to low.  Let simmer for 20 minutes. 
4. Add cheese and corn.  Mix well.  Heat for an additional 5 minutes. 

5. Serve and enjoy!

* Tip -- if you'd like to make this dish a little spicier add 1 teaspoon of chili powder when you are browning the ground pork and chorizo sausage. 

I certainly do like my cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57 and french fried potatoes, but I never thought I'd like my cheeseburger in soup.  That was until I tried today's recipe for 2.  It's a soup that truly eats like a meal -- a cheeseburger and potato kind of meal.  It even comes with classic cheeseburger toppings -- ketchup, mustard and pickles!  Now that's what I call a cheeseburger soup in paradise!

Cheeseburger Soup
Total Time: 45 minutes
Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 40 minutes

What you'll need
1/2 pound lean ground beef, lean ground turkey or ground sirloin 
1/4 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 celery stalk, sliced
3 baby potatoes, peeled and diced 
2 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
1 carrot, sliced (I used carrot this time, but I will probably eliminate it moving forward)
2 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups chicken stock 
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon butter
salt and pepper
ketchup, mustard and dill pickles

Directions
1. In a medium pot melt butter over low-medium heat.  Add ground meat, cook until meat begins to brown.
2. Mix in onion, celery, garlic, carrot and basil.  Cook for 5 minutes. 

3. Add flour.  Stir until meat is evenly coated. 
4. Stir in milk.  Bring mixture to a boil. 

5. Add chicken stock and potatoes.  Reduce heat to low.  Cover and cook for 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender. 

6. Mix in cheddar cheese just before serving.  Stir occasionally until cheese melts. 

7. Season soup with salt and pepper to taste. 
8. This last step is going to sound crazy, but I promise it works with this dish -- garnish each serving with ketchup, mustard and chopped dill pickles.  Serve and enjoy your cheeseburger soup in paradise!

It's one-pot meal week at Reservation for Two, which means I'll be showing you 5 terrific no-fuss, no-mess meals.  

What I love about one-pot meals
One-pot meals are wonderful when you want to get in and out of the kitchen quickly.  Also, knowing that you only have 1 pot waiting to be cleaned, offers a great sense of mealtime serenity.  And of course, taste never has to suffer as a result of the lack of pots and pans that you're using.  All of the recipes that I will share this week are hearty and flavorful.  

My first one-pot, 2 serving meal is Creamy Rice and Broccoli Pork Chops.   
This is my sister Kelly's recipe, and I love everything about it -- it's creamy, delicious and easy. 

Creamy Rice and Broccoli Pork Chops 
Total Time:  30 Minutes
Prep Time:  5 Minutes
Cook Time:  25 Minutes

What you'll need
2 bone-in thick cut pork chops
1 can 98% fat free cream of chicken soup
1 package of Lipton Chicken flavor rice
1 cup frozen broccoli florets
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper

Directions
1.  Warm olive oil in a medium dutch oven or pot over medium-high heat.
2.  Season both sides of the pork chops with salt and pepper.
3.  Add pork chops to the pot.  Brown on both sides, approximately 2-3 minutes per side. 

4.  While the pork chops are browning, mix together rice packet, cream of chicken soup, broccoli and milk.  Pour over the top of the pork chops.

5.  Cover and cook over low heat for 20-25 minutes depending on the thickness of the pork chops. 
6.  Once pork chops are cooked through, serve and enjoy!

Happy Friday everyone! I'm slightly letting my health guard down and kicking the weekend off with an ice cold beer and Turkey Sausage Nachos. However, I am remaining somewhat health conscious, as the weekend has only just begun.  So I'm going to eliminate the sour cream, cut back on the cheese and instead pile on some vegetables.  The end result will be a hearty dish for two that gives you a taste of something naughty without totally busting your belt buckle.   

Turkey Sausage Nachos
Total Time: 28 minutes 
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 13 minutes

What you'll need
1-2 (depending on how meaty you like your nachos) links Italian turkey sausage, cooked and diced
tortilla chips 
1/2 taco seasoning packet
1/8 cup water
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese or Mexican flavored cheese
8 ounces yellow corn, drained
1 tomato, diced
1 avocado, diced
3 scallions (green onion), diced

Additional nacho topping options:
jalapeño slices
salsa
pico de gallo 
guacamole

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cook sausage links in a covered skillet over low heat, about 10 minutes.  Remove and dice into 1/4 inch triangle pieces.

3. Add sausage back to skillet.  Add taco seasoning and 1/8 cup water.  Cook over low heat until water is absorbed, about 2 minutes. 
4. Stir in corn.  Cook for an additional minute. 

5. Line the bottom of a small baking dish or baking sheet with tortilla chips.

6. Top tortilla chips with sausage mixture, tomato, avocado and cheese. 

6. Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until cheese is melted through. 
7. Top with scallions and your favorite nacho toppings (I added jalapeño slices).  Serve and enjoy!  

Do you love the taste of pizza, but hate what it does to your waist line?  Well, now you can have it all  -- great tasting pizza, minus the extra lbs -- with today's recipe for two, Zucchini Pizza Boats. 

According to CalorieKing.com, 8 slices of homemade pizza crust will cost you the following:
• 674 calories
• 6.5 grams of fat
• 1174 milligrams of sodium (that's 49% of your daily value!!!)
• 131 grams of carbohydrates.  

Granted, you probably don't eat 8 slices of pizza in one sitting, but even if you had 4 slices you would still be consuming:
• 337 calories
• 3.25 grams of fat
• 587 milligrams of sodium
• 65.5 grams of carbohydrates.  

So just to burn off the crust in 4 slices of pizza you would have to walk for 93.5 minutes or jog for 38.5 minutes.  Yikes!

Alternatively, you could ditch the crust and replace it with zucchini! The nutritional difference is staggering.  
The breakdown for one zucchini is as follows:
• 2 calories
• .1 grams of fat
• 1 milligram of sodium
• .3 grams of carbohydrates. 

 I'm pretty sure you could burn that off just sitting in front of the TV.

If you are skeptical of how a zucchini based pizza would taste, don't worry, so was my husband.  When I told him we were having zucchini pizza boats for dinner, his response was, "Maybe you should put a real pizza in the oven for me."  In the end, he pushed his negative thoughts aside and gave the pizza boat a try.  And much to his surprise, he actually enjoyed them.  In the game of marital disagreements, I'm pretty sure that's 1 point wife -- 0 points husband : -)

Zucchini Pizza Boats
Total Time: 30 minutes
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 20 minutes

What you'll need
2 zucchinis
1 cup pizza sauce
fresh mozzarella cheese
your favorite pizza toppings 
Italian style bread crumbs 
salt and pepper 

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. 
2. Slice both zucchini's lengthwise.  Using a spoon, scoop out the flesh from the center, leaving about 1-centimeter of zucchini around the edges. 

3. Place the scooped out zucchini halves on a baking sheet covered in aluminum foil. 
4. Add about 2-3 tablespoons of pizza sauce to each zucchini half. 
5. Top with mozzarella cheese and your favorite pizza toppings (I use pepperoni since I had leftover slices from Tuesday's dinner). 
6. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the cheese and pepperoni.  Season with salt and pepper. 

7. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until cheese is melted.  Serve and enjoy!

If you are looking for a dinner that sways toward the lighter side, doesn't require a lot of preparation and offers easy cleanup, then you'll love tonight's dinner for 2.  

Tonight, I'll be making Hoisin and Sesame Shrimp Rice Packets.  Each packet contains shrimp, onion, red bell pepper, broccoli and rice.  Everything is cooked together in aluminum foil, so when dinner is over all you have to do is throw the foil away and the cleanup is done! Given that my husband does the dishes in our household -- he is a big fan of this meal.

I have to credit my friend Julie for providing the marinade for this dish.  Julie has a wonderful health and fitness blog called Peanut Butter Fingers.  I encourage you to check it out if you love to eat, work out and read about the daily adventures of a ridiculously cute couple and their dog.

Hoisin and Sesame Shrimp Rice Packets
Total Time: 45 minutes if you use the oven / 25 minutes if you use the grill
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 35 minutes in the oven / 15 minutes on the grill 

What you'll need
1/2 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined and tails removed
1/4 sweet onion, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 red bell pepped, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 cups broccoli florets
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 garlic clove, crushed with a garlic press
1 cup chicken stock 
2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Directions
1. Preheat the oven or grill to 350 degrees F. 
2. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together hoisin sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar and garlic.
3. Add shrimp, onion and bell pepper to the bowl or you can add the marinade, shrimp and vegetables to a plastic bag.  
4. Mix (or shake if you use the plastic bag) until shrimp and vegetables are evenly coated in the marinade.

5.  Fold two 18-inch-long pieces of foil in half; unfold and place 1/2 cup uncooked minute rice in the center of each foil piece. 

6. Divide broccoli and shrimp mixture evenly among packets.  Carefully add 1/2 cup of chicken stock to each packet. 

7. Fold foil to close and crimp edges to seal. 

5. Bake for 35 minutes in the oven or 15 minutes on the grill.  Once the shrimp is no longer translucent and the rice is cooked through, sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve and enjoy!

* Tip -- if you aren't a shrimp fan you can easily substitute the shrimp for chicken.  

Tonight, I'll be making lasagna -- minus the tray of leftovers --  by creating my sister Colleen's pepperoni lasagna bowls.

There are so many things that I love about this recipe, the ricotta mixture, the marinara sauce, the pop of flavor from the pepperoni and of course the fact that it is made just for two. 

Pepperoni Lasagna Bowls
Total Time: 45-55 minutes
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 30-40 minutes

What you'll need
4 lasagna noodles, cooked
2 cups marinara sauce
2 cups fresh mozzarella cheese
16 slices pepperoni 
4 ounces ricotta cheese 
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tablespoon breadcrumbs
1 egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. In a small mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese, parsley, garlic, breadcrumbs, egg yolk, salt and pepper.  Mix well. 
3. Add about 1 tablespoon of marinara sauce to the bottom of your oven safe  bowls (you can either use pre-made marinara sauce or you can use my recipe for marinara, which is listed in my marinara burger post).

4. Add 2 cooked lasagna noodles to each bowl.

5. Scoop about 1 to 2 tablespoons of the ricotta mixture into each bowl.

6. Add another layer of marinara sauce and a layer of pepperoni slices. 

7. Top pepperoni with a thin slice of fresh mozzarella cheese. 

8. Fold one lasagna noodle over the mozzarella cheese. 

9. Repeat steps 5 and 6. Then, fold the second lasagna noodle over the pepperoni layer.  Top with mozzarella cheese. 
10. Bake covered for 30-40 minutes or until cheese and sauce begin to bubble.  Serve and enjoy!

Chicken Divan doesn't have to be complicated to taste good.  I'll prove this to you today by showing you a quick and easy way to make this fantastically comforting dish for two. 

Chicken Divan
Total Time: 35-40 minutes
Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 30-35 minutes

What you'll need
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cups frozen broccoli florets
1 can 98% fat free cream of chicken soup 
1/2 cup sour cream or mayonnaise 
1/3 cup Italian style breadcrumbs
shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine cream of chicken soup and sour cream (or mayonnaise).  Mix well. 
3. Add broccoli to the bottom of an 8 x 8 baking dish.

4. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper.  Place over the broccoli.
5. Cover chicken and broccoli with soup mixture.  Top with cheese and breadcrumbs.

6. Bake uncovered for 30-35 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.  Serve and enjoy!  It's honestly that easy.

On an unrelated to food note, yesterday I ran the Chicago marathon for the very first time!  It was the most challenging thing I've ever done in my life, but also the most rewarding.  Here are a few photos from the day. 

Monday: Easy Chicken Divan • chicken smothered in a light cream sauce topped with bread crumbs and cheese, baked over broccoli florets 

Tuesday: Pepperoni Lasagna Bowls • layers of noodles, ricotta cheese, fresh mozzarella, pepperoni and marinara, baked in individual bowls.  Perfect for two!

Wednesday: Hoisin and Sesame Shrimp Rice Packets • shrimp, onion and red bell pepper marinated in a hoisin and soy sauce mixture topped with sesame seeds and baked over rice

Thursday: Zucchini Pizza Boat • zucchinis stuffed with pizza sauce and pepperoni, topped with fresh mozzarella and Italian style bread crumbs

Friday: Turkey Sausage Nachos • tortilla chips topped with Italian turkey sausage, corn, avocado tomato, salsa and melted cheese