Some Meals I Thought Were Worth It

Getting into the kitchen doesn’t scare me very much anymore, but it does still annoy me. I can’t be the only one out there who just doesn’t have any desire to spend every night after work in the kitchen. Sometimes I really can’t get up the energy to cook, like Sunday night when we ordered sushi. Of course I had been in the kitchen for awhile at that point. I FINALLY bottled my beer Sunday. It’s a Nut Brown Ale and it smells really good. Lately I haven’t really cooked anything that felt blog worthy. I’m waiting for the next great idea. In the meantime I did manage to cook three meals that I would like to share with everyone.

The first meal is Arroz Con Pollo (Rice with Chicken). Awhile ago we watched Throwdown with Bobby Flay featuring Arroz Con Pollo and we both really wanted it. I finally decided to make it and I figured why not use the recipe that Bobby Flay used on this show, Adobo Seasoned Chicken and Rice. It looked tasty on the show, but sadly he didn’t win. I had to cut the recipe a lot, but in the end it worked out quite well. Season the chicken and then sauté the chicken until both sides are browned. Put the chicken in another pan, cover and let it cook through over medium heat. Meanwhile you cook the onions and peppers until they are tender, and add tomato and garlic and cook for another minute. Next up the rice has to cook with chicken broth and salt and pepper for about 10 minutes, then add the peas and cook for another 10 minutes. To finish it off you can stir in green olives, cilantro (parsley for us), oregano, and lime juice.

Final Product:

It was a nice meal, very filling. I just used chicken thighs, bone in and with skin, which gives the meat more flavor. I was scared that I would over season the chicken and I ended up not seasoning it enough, so I will season the thighs a bit more next time. Both of us really enjoyed this and we will be having this again soon. I loved the salt of the olives in the rice. Yum!

The next recipe was for an Italian meatloaf. This recipe was created by Giada de Laurentiis, Turkey Meatloaf with Feta and Sun-Dried Tomatoes. I absolutely loved this! It was the moistest meatloaf I have had in a long time. Everyone should try this recipe! I’m not going to bore you with the details of how to make it since I’ve previously blogged about making meat loaf before, just get these ingredients and cook! Yes, I'm talking to you! Do it.

Final Product:
The final meal I’m going to share with you today is Stewed White Beans with Spinach and Bacon. I know it doesn’t sound very appealing. I’ve been on a bit of a health kick lately and I love to try any recipes with beans as they are so good for all of us. Cook up some bacon, I used 5 slices chopped and I think that was enough, the recipe calls for 8 that might be overkill. Keep two tablespoons of the bacon grease in the pan and add the potatoes and cook them until brown. Add the onion and cook until soft. Next the beans, chicken broth, and lemon juice is added and you let that sit until almost all the liquid is gone. Stir in the spinach and cook for about a minute. Add bacon on top and some scallions and parmesan cheese. And YUM!! It really was good. I swear to it. The bacon helped give it a little more flavor then it would have had without it, so if you are going meatless I would add some more spices or some hot sauce to this. This is also super easy and perfect for a weeknight meal.

Final Product:

Overall I’ve been having some pretty good luck with my cooking lately. Or maybe I really am learning. (I said MAYBE.) I’m looking around to try some new things that I can share with everyone. I finally have come up with one idea. I’m going to have another battle of the meatless vs. meatfull. This battle will be between a vegetable meatloaf and a regular old meatloaf. I might have to cook the meaty meatloaf with some sort of addition, because I can’t see it even coming close to this veggie meatloaf recipe that I found. So if you have any spectacular meatfull meatloaf recipes that you want to see pitted against the meatless meatloaf send them my way. (Comment below and I'll send you my email address)

Another item I need to discuss with everyone. MY MOM DID NOT USE MANWICH. I repeat my mom has never used Manwich, she was a bit offended that I even considered that possibility. So I asked her for the recipe for the Sloopy Joe’s she used to cook up when I was little and of course she no longer has it. She did tell me the secret ingredient might have been A1 sauce. A1 sauce? I was a bit dumbfounded as I’ve NEVER (apparently to my knowledge) liked A1 sauce! The quest is on to find a Sloppy Joe recipe that includes A1 sauce and is still a little sweet. Once I have found the right recipe I will be cooking up some more Sloppy Joe’s and hopefully finding a match for what my taste buds are craving.

Meatless Sloppy Joe vs. Meatfull Sloppy Joe

It’s the battle of the meatless sloppy joe vs the meatfull sloppy joe! I remember loving sloppy joe’s when I was a little kid. They tasted salty and sweet and were an absolute mess. What kid doesn’t love a mess?!

Trying to be as healthy as possible I decided to make some vegetarian sloppy joe’s last week. I got the recipe here: Bekka’s Vegan Sloppy Joes. Instead of ground beef in these sloppy joe’s you use “beef” crumbles such as Boca Crumbles. SJ’s are so easy to make I might start putting them onto a monthly rotation. Why in the world did I wait so long to make Sloppy Joe’s?! Anyway back to the recipe, first you chop some onion and green pepper. You put that into a skillet with the crumbles and cook until crumble is cooked and the vegetables are tender. Then you add ketchup, sugar, white vinegar, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Stir it all in, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. I taste tested as it was simmering and it didn’t seem sweet enough to me. I added more ketchup and I still couldn’t really get a real Sloppy Joe taste from it.

Final Product:

It was okay. I’m not sure I would make it using this recipe again, because to me it didn’t taste like a sloppy joe. Anthony agreed that it was fine to eat, but not a sloppy Joe. Plus the texture with the Boca crumbles wasn’t super appealing.

Now let’s talk about the Meaty Sloppy Joe. I’ve never mad Sloppy Joe before, but I had an idea of what I was looking for. When I saw Rachael Ray’s Super Sloppy Joe recipe I knew that was the one I was going to try. All the ingredients seemed to be what I believe if in a good Sloppy Joe.

First you cook the ground beef in a skillet with some oil. Once the meat is broken up, add a mix of brown sugar and steak seasoning. Mix it well. Once the meat is starting to brown add chopped red pepper, chopped onion, Worcestershire sauce, and red wine vinegar and cook over medium heat for about 5 more minutes. Next add the tomato sauce and tomato paste and mix them in well; simmer for another 5-10 minutes. I taste tested as I was letting this one simmer and it still didn’t seem sweet enough, so I added some ketchup.

Final Product:

Yummy! Now this one was pretty darn good! It didn’t completely taste like what I remember as a child, but it was very delicious. Anthony also thought it was good and I’m putting this recipe into a monthly rotation. Fast, easy to make, and good! Try it! I encourage everyone to make sloppy joe’s!

Anthony suggested that we do a mix of the veggie crumbles and the ground beef to keep it a bit healthier. I think I’m going to do that and use the Rachael Ray recipe, because the sauce was so much better and more like what I wanted it to taste like. Has anyone had Manwich recently? I thought it was like canned chili, but apparently it’s just sauce! Go figure. Next week I’m going to buy a can of this and see if this might be what I had when I was little. I’ll keep you updated!

Oh Tuna Noodle Casserole!

Oh tuna noodle casserole. I’ve despised the thought of you for so long. I’m actually a big casserole maker. I love that you can have food for days on end when you make a casserole. It’s the tuna part to the noodle casserole that I’m not so fond of. Canned tuna is not good, in my opinion. I’ve never liked it. Tuna is a lost cause for me since it’s always (in my experience) paired with mayonnaise, which I find even grosser then tuna. Plus canned fish hasn’t worked out so well for me (see this post). Being the type of person that loves a challenge though I felt I needed to take tuna noodle casserole on. The one plus being it was easy to make. At least I wouldn’t be wasting tons of valuable time on something that I wasn’t going to like anyway.

The day of this challenge I was super nervous. I really try to like most foods and have a rule about trying something 3 times and 3 different ways before you decide to not like it. (The possible exception to that rule might be snails. I’m not sure how else to try them other than the traditional way and it was really hard for me to swallow them. I feel like they are going to crawl right back up my throat!) Anyway I was worried because I was positive I was not going to like this casserole.

I found a recipe online at eHow. It was a little different than some of the other recipes online. You make your own sauce, instead of using a can of Cream of Mushroom soup and there wasn’t any cheese in this recipe. First you cook the pasta; I used elbow macaroni (egg noodles seemed like an odd choice to me although a lot of recipes say to use those). Then mix ¼ cup of bread crumbs and a tablespoon of melted butter for the topping. You cook celery and onion in a skillet with some butter until the vegetables are tender. Next add a cup of milk and a cup of chicken broth and stir until slightly thickened and bubbling. You then combine everything in the casserole dish the (I did not use pimientos as the recipe did, but added frozen peas instead!) tuna, noodles and sauce and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Bake it at 375 for about 20 minutes. Viola! Tuna Noodle Casserole!

Final Product:

Not pretty, but it so comforting!

Anthony’s biggest complaint was that I didn’t break up the tuna enough it was too chucky for him. How was I to know? I don’t eat the stuff! Also it was a bit unhealthy with all the butter. If I do it again I think I will use olive oil for the veggies. Overall I actually didn’t mind it at all. The tuna was pretty well hidden with all the other stuff in it. And considering how cheap this recipe is, we will be eating much more of this meal. Tuna noodle casserole isn’t as scary as you might think! Was anyone else scared of it besides me?!

I have a post that I’m excited about coming up soon. I made meatless sloppy joe’s last night and have decided to make meatfull sloppy joe’s next week and do a comparison. I’m pretty sure I know who the winner is going to be.

Chicken Tikka Masala and Minestrone Soup...Not on the Same Day!

I'm positive I've mentioned my love of Indian food numerous times now. Nothing I make at home ever tastes as good as what I get here. Of course I can't always afford to eat out every time I'm craving some Indian flavors. Chicken Tikka Masala is one of the ways that I appease my craving. It's a simple dish to make and if you are not sure about Indian food this is probably one of the more tame dishes to try.

I'm getting much better when prepping my food. I've found a comfortable way to chop onions and you will need one onion chopped for this recipe. For the rest of the prep you will need to crush 1 clove of garlic, grate 2 teaspoons of ginger, and cut 1 1/4 lbs of chicken breast into 1 inch chunks. Nothing too difficult or time consuming.

Your first cooking step is to get your basmati rice started. You have to use basmati rice when making Indian food it's so much better then the normal white rice. If you don't have a cinnamon stick to add to the water, you can add some ground cinnamon like we did this night. Heat oil in a skillet and add the onion and cook for about 6 minutes. Next add the ginger, garlic, and curry paste (I also added a little Tikka Masala Paste too; not necessary I just wanted to finish the jar), cook for 3 minutes. Add the chicken, some salt, and black pepper and cook until chicken in not pink on the outside. Then add 1 can of crushed tomatoes, cover the skillet and cook for 5-6 minutes more. Once the chicken is cooked uncover the skillet and stir in 1/2 cup of half-and-half and the cilantro if you can eat it. That's it. Simple, easy, tasty and cheaper then take out!

Tasty, tasty!! We enjoy this dish a lot. I recommend it to any of you!

On to the Minestrone Soup. I'm constantly looking for ways to exclude meat from our diet. It much healthier to eat meatless a few times a week. I'm not saying you should cut out meat from your diet every day, but a couple times a week is definitely heart healthy! Soup is also something I'm a big believer in making because it's normally quite easy to make and you usually have leftovers for lunch the next day.

This soup was great. I'm really glad I found this recipe in Food Network Magazine. So as not to bore you with all the details of how to make this recipe I'll just let you know what's in it. The main ingredients are onion, garlic, celery, carrot, green beans, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, kidney beans, elbow pasta, and parmesan cheese. There are a few other basic ingredients, but if you like all of the items I just listed you will like this soup. Now start cooking! This will be great leftover! Next time I make it I'm going to double the recipe and freeze what we don't eat. Super yummy and basically healthy. I love soup! Have I told you guys that yet! Delicious!

Final Product:

My next two posts will be the beer brewing process and the results of the tuna noodle casserole. Let's just say I didn't hate it.

Tuna Noodle Casserole...REALLY?!

I have to catch up on some blog posts, it's been super busy so I haven't had time to do anything!! This weekend I'm sitting down and telling you about my beer making, Tika Masala, and Minestrone Soup.

The big story is tonight I am making Tuna Noodle Casserole. I'm taking my own advice and trying tuna again. Tuna = horrible nasty gross to me. Thinking back to one of my first blog posts, I told all of you to give something 3 tries and if you still don't like it then don't eat it. So I'm trying tuna again tonight. I figure with the sauce and the cheese I should be able to choke it down if nothing else.

I'll keep you updated.

Christmas Lasagna and Homemade Sauce

I cooked once or twice over the holidays and nothing turned out horrible. In fact Anthony told me that the lasagna I made Christmas was my best one ever. The sauce came out wonderfully. It had the perfect amount of spice to it. Yum! I tried to replicate the sauce for New Year's Eve and it didn’t come out the same. Guess I should have paid more attention to how I made it Christmas. I’m a reformed sauce in a jar user. It was just so simple and cheap to buy a premade sauce. The only time I ever made sauce from scratch was when making lasagna; a recipe that I got from Rocco Dispirito and have been using for years now. It’s just a simple cheese lasagna. I’m not even sure if there is anything unique about it.

I decided not to boil the noodles this time around. If you’ve ever made lasagna and boiled noodles you know that it’s not fun. The noodles typically will start breaking once they are cooked and you just have a mess you didn’t really need in the first place. I soaked the noodles in a casserole dish of hot water until I was ready to use them. The rest is a cinch to make, you can either used jar or homemade sauce and you have to make up an egg and ricotta mix. You spread a good bit of sauce in the bottom of a casserole dish (so the noodles have liquid to cook in), add a layer of noodles, then spread on the ricotta-egg mixture, top with shredded mozzarella and grated parmesan (I grated my own parmesan, but I didn’t shred the mozzarella. I got to take some shortcuts somewhere!), top with sauce and repeat the process until you have a good solid lasagna. Stick it in the oven at 350 degrees and bake for an hour. You can cover it for 40 minutes with foil and take the foil off for the last 10 minutes if you want to. I didn’t cover mine, I don’t remember if it’s because I forgot or if it was a conscience decision.

I started making homemade sauce and used Rocco’s Mama’s Marinara recipe. Since I first started making this sauce I’ve added things to it to make it my own. The key for my sauce is chili powder, red pepper flakes, sometimes I add some Frank’s Red Hot or Sriracha, and a lot of fresh basil. The dried stuff just isn’t as good for sauce. I like sauce with a little heat behind it! Once you try making your own sauce and see how easy it is you will be a convert. Just make sure to make big batches on the weekend (it needs to simmer for an hour) and freeze for the coming week or whenever!

Some other stuff I cooked over the holidays was chicken wing dip, artichoke dip, and chili cheese dip. I also made cookies, but ran into some problems making them. Never substitute Splenda for real sugar, it just doesn’t work out well. Lesson learned.

My next post will be about my beer brewing experience. Yes, I am going to try to brew my very own Nut Brown Ale (with Anthony’s help) tomorrow. This should be an interesting event and who knows, maybe I will pick up a new hobby.

Also I’m very close to making a decision on writing a book. Do I think it will be a best seller? No, but it’s something I’ve started and stopped numerous times and I just feel like now might be the right time to dig in and start writing. More details to follow.

Stew and Soup to Warm You Up!

I’m back! It’s been busy around these parts, so I haven’t really had time to blog about my cooking. I HAVE been cooking and it seems to be going better. I wonder if that has anything to do with the no blogging. Maybe it’s less pressure or maybe I’ve just been cooking easy things.

It’s my favorite and yet least favorite time of the year. I love the holidays! The decorations, the music, the togetherness, and the food all make me happy. Unfortunately I live in Upstate NY, so along with all the cheer and festivities we have snow. The madness has started intensely this year. I don’t think we normally have the amount of snow we are getting right now until January or February. The cold, the wet, the driving…bah humbug!

Taking into account the snowy weather I decided to make a stew and a soup. Both are super easy to make so I wanted to share them with you in case you are also knee deep in snow and need heating up.

The stew was just a basic chicken stew. You take a pound of chicken breast and cut it into ½ inch cubes. I browned it with ½ of a chopped onion. Then you add whatever vegetables you want. I put in some celery, carrots, and peas. The recipe calls for a 16oz bag of frozen stew vegetables. I didn’t see that at Wegman’s, so I added fresh veggies except for the peas, they were frozen. You are supposed to add one jar of gravy. I forgot to buy that so Anthony made some from scratch. He used the juices from the browned chicken, flour, water, butter, and salt (I think that’s it). Last I added some rubbed sage, dried thyme, and ground black pepper. Let that simmer on the stove for 15-20 minutes.

Final Product:
It was quite tasty and it just felt really comforting to eat. Anthony’s home made gravy was much better than the jarred kind. I’m glad I forgot to buy it. I will definitely make this again and maybe add some potatoes next time.

Soup is wonderful. I just love it. I could probably eat it every day as long as I was given a variety. I saw a recipe for Refried Bean Soup on a blog recently that looked delicious and as I was browsing my cook books I found a recipe for it. I’m not sure if the blog recipe was more complicated than the one I found, but I was happy to see how simple this soup is too make. Take a big can (28 oz) of crushed tomato and 1 small chopped onion and bring that to a boil. Once it boils, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. After that you add refried beans (I used two 15 oz cans), 1 can of chicken broth, and some spices. The recipe just calls for cilantro, but we don’t use that in our house so I added chili powder and parsley. You stir that together and let it simmer for 15 minutes. That’s it people! It’s that simple. If you would like some crunch; take some corn tortillas and cut them into strips. Bake them at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes. Top with whatever other garnishes you want. We used sour cream and Monterey jack cheese.

Final Product:
This is a very hearty soup. You probably won’t want to have grilled cheese or anything with it. We just had sourdough bread with both of the recipes (Anthony loves sourdough bread!). I’m going to find the other recipe for this soup and see what the differences are, but this was satisfying and I would have it again.

I’m cooking one more time this week and maybe again on the weekend. I plan on posting my holiday cookie making too! I missed blogging! This is fun!