Showing posts with label Easy Dinner. Show all posts

So Jeremy and I were talking about how Mike needs to take his French Toast recipe and turn it into a Boston Cream Pie French Toast. Jeremy linked to a recipe that looked damn good on this blog. I looked over the site and found a recipe that would work with some stuff I had in my house and made this.
http://cakebatterandbowl.com/creamy-lemon-summer-squash-pasta.html
Though I did make some modifications and I'm posting my recipe here.

1 lbs whole wheat penne pasta
2 large yellow squashes, chopped
2 large zucchinis, chopped
1 package stir fry chicken
1 red onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup chicken stock
Juice and zest of 2 limes
6 oz greek yogurt
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
salt
pepper
olive oil

Cook the penne pasta like you know what you are doing.
Saute the squash and zucchini in olive oil and put aside until later.
In the same pan, saute the onions and in the last minute, add the garlic. Put these aside with the squash.
Cook up the chicken with a little more olive oil until brown.
About this time the pasta should be done. Drain it, and in the pot it was cooked in, add the chicken stock, yogurt, lime and basil. The original recipe said to add the cheese which I did and it just ended up get all clumpy and sticking to the spoon rather then getting creamy. I recommend adding the cheese at the very end to get good coverage. Instead you'll need to get the sauce creamy another way. You could make a roux and add that, or add the squash and zucchini and get some of the starch from them to help cream up the sauce.
Either way, mix the veggies and chicken and pasta all back together. Mix it up real good, and sprinkle on the cup of parmesan while stirring. I idea is to get the parmesean to stick on each piece of food rather then sticking to itself in one, maybe delicious, clump.

I added some more parmesan to my bowl to serve but it wouldn't have been necessary if the parmesan was creamy to start with.

I really enjoyed this pasta dish. I've had dishes similar with the veggies and cheese and creamy bits. But the addition of the lemon juice, or lime juice in my case, and the yogurt is really nice. It helped to bring out the saltiness of it all.

This is one of my favorite comfort foods. It's a recipe that my mom made often that I have modified a little. I think my mom's original recipe only had the macaroni and cheese, with a side of lil smokies and applesauce. I mix in the sausages, and added the veggies. I didn't for the picture, but I usually cover the top with applesauce. I know people think that is strange, but the sweet tang of applesauce goes great with the salty tang of cheese and sausage.

1 lbs macaroni
1 package beef cocktail sausages
1 head broccoli, chopped
1 small bag frozen peas
1 lbs medium to sharp cheddar, shredded
1 1/2 cup milk
3 Tbs butter
3 Tbs flour
salt
pepper
Applesauce (not pictured)

Start a large pot of water boiling and add a good amount of salt to help cook and season the pasta.

In another pot (or microwave safe dish) start to make a roux. Melt the butter, add the flour, cook for a minute or so for the flour to 'brown'. Add the milk and keep heating and stirring often until it makes a thick sauce. Add salt and pepper and slowly add the cheese while mixing until you have a good thick cheesy sauce.

Meanwhile, heat the little sausages in the microwave on medium high power for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until plump.

When the salt water is boiling add the pasta and cook. About a minute before the macaroni is done, add the broccoli and peas and let it come to a boil. Drain the water. Return the pasta to the pot, mix in the cheese sauce, and sausages. Mix it up real good.

Serve with a few spoonfuls of applesauce on top. Eat. Get fat.

This is mostly just the random stir fry dish I learned from my mom but I did things a little different. For one I used a bunch of fresh veggies, though it ended up not making too much of a difference. And two, I used a premade stir fry package from the store. It did come out a bit better then the typical soy sauce and garlic salt that is the typical seasoning of my mom's stir fry, but the biggest difference is that the packaged seasoning had corn starch in it which turned into a bit more or a light gravy and helped the veggies and rice stick together.

1 package stir fry seasoning
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup water
1 Tbsp sugar
1 onion sliced
1 carrot sliced
1 corn
1 green bell pepper
Handful of mushrooms, sliced
1 head broccoli
1 lbs chicken, cubed
1 cup rice
2 cups water
1 Tbsp salt
oil

I always start with the rice just to give it enough time to cook up. Put the rice, water, and salt in a medium to small pot, boil, turn down to low, and put the top on for 20 -30 minutes.

Follow the directions on the stir fry packaging (for me it was mixing the seasoning, water, soy sauce, and sugar and let it sit until the meat was done.
Fry up the chicken with some hot oil until cooked. Add all the chopped veggies and add the seasoning mixture. Stir it up a bit, and but on a top to let the veggies steam to tenderness. Stir again before serving to coat all pieces with the gravy. Serve.

Alright, I think it is about time for some crazy Vittles and Mangia posting time. To start us off, I'm challenging all y'all in making either a soup or stew and posting it. It's the Soup Stew Challenge. So come on, lets see what you got. Soups are easy to make, or at least some are. Put your veggies and meats together and try to beat this stew that I just made last night.

I made this not really having a plan ahead of time. I just started chopping and ended up making really too much. The largest pot in my house was filled to within a half inch of the rim.

Here are my ingredients.

1 onion
2 potatoes
1 large zucchini
4 cloves garlic
1 green bell pepper
2 ear corn, fire roasted
1 whole chicken
3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1 inch cube fresh ginger
1 Tablespoon Pho paste
1 Tablespoon cumin
1 Tablespoon black pepper
salt
water
cilantro
1 lemon, juiced and zested
oil or butter

I had all these ingredients at home before starting except the chicken. I ran out to the store, grabbed the chicken and was ready. I wanted to give the chicken a little more flavor, so I put it on a baking sheet, greased up the skin with oil, and rubbed on a healthy dose of kosher salt. I put this in the oven at 400 degree. My aim was to get the skin all crispy and golden before tossing into the soup. While the chicken baked, I prepared all the veggies. With the corn, I have a gas burner and so I was able to slowly turn the corn over the flame and get it nice and roasted. I chopped everything up, and sauteed them in a couple tablespoons of butter with some salt to help them along. All in all this took about 30 minutes. The chicken was just about done so I pulled it out and let it cool. I added enough water to make it soupy, rather than stewy. I added the seasoning as the soup heated up. I didn't add any more salt because I knew the chicken would be pretty salty. If you need more salt, you can always add it right before it is served. Once the chicken cooled, I sliced off the breasts and chopped them into cubes. I removed the wings and drumsticks and put them in the soup, bone in. I would have added the thighs and the rest of the meat but the soup pot was too full, so I just put them back in the oven to finish cooking and then pulled it and put it in tupperware.

The soup stayed on the heat for another 30 minutes. Right before serving, I juiced a lemon and added the zest. I also chopped some cilantro and put that in my own bowl. Cilantro looses a lot of it's flavor when it cooks so it is best to put it on right before eating.

So yeah, that's my soup contribution to The Soup Stew Challenge. I don't expect people to try to replicate this exactly. And there isn't really a way to taste all the soups and judge them to see who's is best. There will be no contest. This is just a challenge. Make some soup or stew. Ring the Bell.

So my roommate, Michelle, bought some stuff for spaghetti puttanesca, but she has been working a lot recently so I asked if I could make it. It is a real simple recipe. If you ever find yourself with a tin (or two) of anchovies, capers, and olives, this is the dish you want to make.

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
4 cloves garlic
1 tin anchovies (or two if you want it to be rich and salty), drained
1 Tablespoon red pepper flakes
Small can of black olives, diced
3 Tablespoons capers
32 oz Marinara, or crushed/diced tomatoes (maybe more if you want more sauce)
Black pepper
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley (optional if you have it. I didn't.)
1 lbs Angel Hair pasta
salt

In a large saute pan, saute the garlic, anchovies and red peppers in the olive oil. Make sure the garlic is all soft, the anchovies should become a past (if not mash them around with a spoon or spatula), and use enough red pepper to make sure you can get some heat. Puttanesca is suppose to be spicy, yeah. Then just dump in the olives, capers, tomatoes, and black pepper. I let this simmer for about an hour with a top on it so it didn't reduce too far down. If you don't have a top, just add water to keep the consistency nice.

With the pasta, I put a good 1/2 cup of salt in the water before it started to boil. This makes some damn good pasta. Give it a shot.

If you have the parsley, put it in right before mixing it with the pasta. I mixed this all up and put some good Parmesan on top to serve.

In the pic above, you can also see some nice crusty bread. I was pretty pleased with this so I'm including it in the post. The bread was a small loaf of artisan bread from the store. I took a few Tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and sauteed up some garlic. I then spread that garlic oil on the bread and put it out on a pan. I topped it with a good bit of fresh ground black pepper, Parmesan, and baked it in the oven at 400 for 5 minutes. I then topped with some fresh chopped basil. Good stuff.

So this is my first meal I made after moving to Portland. It is fairly simple because we didn't have many supplies to use and pretty much all of the utensils were still packed up.

Tzatziki Sauce
Small container of Greek Plain Yogurt
4 garlic cloves, chopped
3-5 inch chunk of cucumber, chopped
Dill weed
olive oil
tsp. vinegar
salt pepper

I would have used a medium/fine grater on the cucumber but couldn't because I didn't have one. So I chopped the cuc up until it was really fine. I then squeezed as much liquid out as I could using a paper towel. Everything else I just mixed up in the yogurt until it tasted good

Salad
Lettuce
Spinach
Green Beans
Caesar dressing

We went to the Farmers Market to pick up some produce. I found a small head of unspecified lettuce, a bunch of spinach, and green beans. There was a bunch of other stuff as well but I'll save that for other Vittles And Mangia posts. I briefly boiled the Green Beans and chopped the rest.

The steak was seasoned by Tarrin using various spices we found in my roommate Michelle's spice rack.

I didn't have any spatulas or tongs and only one fork in the whole house, so that is what I used to flip the steaks and pull the green beans out of the water. While eating, Tarrin and I had to pass the fork back and forth to eat our salads and steaks. Good times.

Did these on a whim last Friday. We had pork chops, we had blueberries. Bada bing!

-pork chops
-3 tablespoons olive oil
-2 cloves minced garlic
-Salt and pepper to season
-½ cup white cooking wine
-½ tsp thyme
-¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
-1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
-1 tbsp brown sugar
-3 tablespoons lemon juice
-3 tablespoons butter

Season the pork chops with salt and pepper. Pan fry the pork chops in the olive oil and garlic until completely cooked about 4-5 minutes per side. Add the blueberries, balsamic vinegar, wine, thyme, nutmeg and brown sugar. Simmer to reduce the volume of the sauce by half. Add the lemon juice and butter and simmer for an additional minute or so until the sauce slightly thickens. Season with salt and pepper to taste and spoon the sauce over the cooked pork chops.

These turned out pretty nice, especially for being spur of the moment. We served them with garlic mashed potatoes.

Oh man, can I tell ya? There is absolutely no way these were good for me, but da-yum, were they good. Here's what I did: I got some chorizo rendering down in a big skillet. I then fried some garlic, onion, green bell pepper in that fat. I seasoned the bone-in pork chops with salt and black pepper and actually a little (very little, I was scared) chopped fresh rosemary, wrapped them in bacon, securing the pieces with toothpicks. Then I fried the chops in the rendered chorizo. Served all that with some white cheddar mac and cheese. Very, very good accident. Definitely doing this again. Ring the bell!

Here are some pretty good slow cooked chicken tacos I made last night.

3 chicken breasts
1 can diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 chopped jalapeno
1 can chopped Serrano peppers
1 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp brown sugar

corn tortillas
chopped lettuce
chopped onions
chopped cilantro
salsa

refried beans
cheese

I put the chicken into a pot that was just big enough for them each to have their own spot. I poured in the canned tomatoes and peppers and the sugar and cumin. It came most of the way up the side of the chicken breasts. I put a lid on this and heated it on low for 3 hours. I had just enough heat for it so be right on the verge of boiling the whole time. You will know they are done when they fall apart really easily. I pulled them out of the sauce they cooked in, ripped it all up, and then put them in a bowl with whatever was still chunky from the sauce. I then poured some of the sauce onto the chicken just to the point where it coated everything and added a little moisture.

I then heated the corn tortillas on a cast iron skillet for about 10 seconds on each side. After the meat, I topped it with lettuce, onions, cilantro and salsa. There was a side of beans with cheese as you can see in the picture.

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat germ, any flavor
1 T white sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt (optional)
1 1/2 cups fat-free milk
1/4 cup egg substitute or 1 egg, lightly beaten
2 T vegetable oil
1/2 cup reduced-calorie pancake syrup
2 cups fresh blueberries, raspberries or blackberries
Additional wheat germ (optional)

Heat nonstick skillet or griddle over medium heat or electric griddle to 375 degree heat. Skillet is ready when drops of water sizzle, then evaporate.

For pancakes, combine first 4 ingredients and salt, if desired, in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, combine milk, egg substitute, and oil. Mix milk mixture into dry ingredients just until moistened. Batter may have small lumps, which will disappear during cooking.

Pour about 1/4 cup batter for each pancake onto skillet. Turn and cook other side when tops of pancakes bubble and edges appear cooked. Turn only once.

Combine syrup and fruit in small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat; serve fruit mixture over pancakes. Sprinkle pancakes with more wheat germ, if desired.

4 Servings.


I actually used heavy whipping cream instead of milk. Jeremy said the pancakes were very fluffy and yummy. I had only raspberries and blueberries, for the syrup. The sides were only bacon and fried potatoes.

Whenever I go out to a Latin American restaurant I always find myself hoping to find Maduros, or fried plantains, on the menu. These slightly sweet banana/potato fruits are one of my favorite things to eat. I have seen them in the grocery store before, yet I've been afraid to cook any up because I was sure to cook them the way I've had them in restaurants would require some secret recipe that I did not posses. But I finally bit the bullet and made the suckers.

I found the basic recipe on Allrecipes.com. I like this website because it has user reviews where people who have made the dish have an opportunity to post not only what they think of the recipe but how they would have, or did change it. For Swiss Chicken, I added the spinach and used croutons instead of a boxed stuffing mix.

This is a good, quick soup.

Italian Cupboard Soup

2 boneless pork chops, cubed
2 14½oz. cans chicken broth
1 15oz. can cannellini or great Northern beans, drained
1 15oz. can chopped tomatoes, undrained
2 tablespoons dried minced onion
8 oz. fresh spinach leaves, torn

Cooking Directions:In a deep saucepan, brown the pork in a little oil; add all ingredients except spinach; bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes; stir in torn spinach and cook for 2 minutes more. Top servings with grated Parmesan cheese and croutons.
Serves 4