Thighs on Parade

Let’s talk chicken thighs.  While they might not be the healthiest cut of chicken (not too bad actually:  119 calories w/out skin, 211 with skin) they are one of the cheapest.  If you cook them bone in and with the skin on, you can usually get a very flavorful piece of meat.   I’ve noticed that a lot of Asian recipes call for chicken thighs.  Why?  I have no idea.  I searched around the internet and couldn’t find a reason for it.  Since this was a budget menu week the only way chicken was making the cut was if we used the thighs.  The recipe I used was Korean Chicken Thighs from a blog I recently found called Dianasaur Dishes.  

We were already stocked with most of the ingredients, so I only needed to buy the thighs.  You can’t get much cheaper than that!  Granted this might cost more for those of you who do not regularly cook with Asian ingredients.   I’m going to have to make this recipe more often.  It was super fast and easy.  You just need to plan ahead a little.  I decided to get the most out of the marinade (soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, ginger, garlic, and black pepper) and made it the night before and left the chicken to soak in it for about 24 hours.   The recipe calls for 2 thighs, so I doubled the marinade ingredients for 4 thighs.  Cooking this was so simple and almost relaxing since there wasn't a ton that needed to be done.  Put the chicken in a skillet and sear it for a few minutes on each side, then pop it in the oven and roast it for 30 minutes or until done.  That’s it folks.  Dinner is served!

Final Product:

 My thoughts:  I already mentioned I will be making this again.  The chicken tasted really good and it was nice and moist.   Obviously you need to make at least one side dish to serve with this.  Wanting this night to be a super easy kitchen night, I elected to make a box of Wild Mushroom and Herb Near East Couscous and just added some scallions to it when it was finished cooking.  I love Near East Couscous!  Yes, I took the easy way out, but why mess around with something that is already good!  Quick, easy, and delicious, this was definitely a keeper. 

Cost:

Chicken Thighs/$3.12 (for chicken thighs, I don’t remember how many pounds this was)

Couscous/$2.39

Total/$5.51

I’ll take that price for dinner any day.  This even made enough for lunch the next day for one of us. 

Next Up:  Black Bean Tortilla Bake another budget friendly meal.   

Updates!

No post today.  I ate cheaply last night.  There is also some burn out happening after that not so great quiche.  Not to worry though cooking will continue tonight with a new post tomorrow.

I just wanted to let you all know I posted a new poll.  You can place your vote for which item you would be willing to give up for a year. 

Also just a reminder check out The Hesitant Cook's Facebook page.  I occasionally post some interesting recipes and articles on there, that I don't mention here. 

To Make Quiche or To Not Make Quiche

Spending $160 at Wegmans and another $21 at the meat market last week put me into a depression. Why is food shopping so expensive?! I don't want to cut back on anything since I'm not really buying anything that's terrible expensive or not necessary. Okay my new obsession with Ben & Jerry's isn't necessary, but have you tried Late Night Snack? It's amazing! Salty and sweet, it’s the perfect combination. I bought Clusterfluff another Ben & Jerry’s flavor this week, which is peanut butter ice cream, caramel clusters, and marshmallow swirls. It was good, but you mostly just taste the peanut butter. I was really hoping there would be a stronger marshmallow flavor to it. Sorry to have gone off on an ice cream tangent.


This week I made a conscious effort to pick out meals that were cheaper to make. Obviously we still need to get our staple weekly items (lunch meat and Chobani for Anthony and frozen waffles and granola bars for me), but I was able to lower the total this week to $86. I'm still not sure how we can spend this much money and still fit it all in their small double basket carts, but both weeks we did! Some of the meals we are eating this week will not be blog worthy, but I needed to cut costs. So we will be having pasta with my red sauce (that I made enough of to freeze awhile back) and frozen pierogies with sautéed onions. I did find four recipes to make this week that are budget friendly.

The first one that I attempted was Broccoli and Cheese Quiche. Eggs are cheap, which is why eggs have been on my menu for the last two weeks. When I walked into the kitchen Sunday night, I should have just turned around and walked out. I wasn’t in the mood to cook at all. Cooking fatigue had finally set in. Not wanting to disappoint my fans (fans…yeah right) I decided to continue on with the cooking of the quiche. My experience with quiche is nil. I’ve had it to eat at brunch a couple of times, but that is about it. My thought was it’s very similar to the frittata I made last week so what could go wrong.

The first thing that needed to happen was prebaking the pie crust for 10 minutes. I just bought the two pack of frozen crust you can get at the grocery store in the freezer section. As for the filling, you start by sautéing onion until browned, than remove onion from pan and set aside. I’m not sure what’s going on with my onion sautéing skills, but I keep burning the onion a bit. We have a gas stove and I’m having trouble judging how high is too high. Medium on our stove seems like it might be the high setting for what these recipes want. There seems to be a fine line between too high with our stove and too low. It will take me awhile to find just the right spot on the knob. Next steam the broccoli in the pan with ½ a cup of water.

(a picture of broccoli, not my best effort, but most of these pictures did not come out)

Once that is tender, take the pan off the heat and mix the onion in. Then beat together three eggs, one cup of milk, and some salt and pepper. Put the vegetables in the pie crust and then pour the egg mixture on top of the vegetables, top with cheese. Bake for about 45 minutes and there you have your quiche.

Well maybe it would have been that easy if I would have used a deep dish pie crust, although the recipe does not specify using one. I had way too much filling for the pie crust that I was using; I couldn’t even fit all of the egg mixture. Luckily I was smart enough to put the pie on a baking sheet, because there was some spillage. I also put foil along the edges of the pie crust so that it wouldn’t burn. When I took the quiche out of the oven, the edges were soggy. That might have been from filling the crust too much, but I’m really not sure why it happened.

Final Product:

My thoughts: No thanks. I’ll stick to frittata. This recipe just made me so unhappy from the start. And then the results of soggy crust and no real flavor continued my unhappiness. Anthony thought the onion was a little off putting. Maybe I just need a better quiche recipe, but I have no urge to try cooking another quiche. Unless someone can change my mind, I think this will be the first and last quiche I will ever make.

The real point of making quiche is the first place was the cost, so let’s see how I did there (this is an estimate):

Small Onion/$0.24
Broccoli Crown/$1.69
3 Eggs/$0.36
Milk-/$0.23
Cheese/$1.15
Pie Crust/$1.35

Total: $5.02 (this total is assuming you already have oil, salt, and pepper)

I also had roasted red potatoes as a side, but I didn’t have to buy them they were left over from another recipe. But this meal is easily well under $10 to make.

Next up: Korean Chicken Thighs

As always if you want any of the recipes I used please let me know and I will be happy to send them along to you!

Soup in the Summertime

I'm still in the mood to cook, so far so good. No issues have happened in the kitchen this week to make me feel like giving up yet.  So Saturday night with my spirits high it was time to get busy in the kitchen making soup.  I rarely make soup in the summer.  I think it's just something in my head that makes me think if it's hot outside than we shouldn't be eating soup.  This recipe looked too good to pass up, Spiced Coconut Lentil Soup.  No blender necessary which was a big plus. I hate having to pull the blender out of storage to make soup.

I minced the red onion in my food chopper (stored in the kitchen so it's not a hassle to use it) and put it in the dutch oven to saute with some coconut oil.  Let's stop here for a second.  I bought coconut oil during that $160 shopping trip that I made.  This stuff isn't cheap, $7.49.  I couldn't bring myself to taste it right out of the jar.  I tried, but it reminded me of candle wax or something else equally as unappealing.  So I'm not really sure if it helped with the flavor of the dish or not.  I figured it was a good investment since we make a ton of curries and Asian food and we can use it in place of other oils for that.  Apparently it's pretty good for your skin too and it's gives instructions on the jar for how to use it that way.

Then you add minced red chili (couldn't find a red chili so I used a hot pepper), ginger, and garlic and saute until the softened.  Now the recipe says for both of these steps (onion and chili, ginger, garlic) to cover while it's cooking.  I covered the onion and ended up burning it a little, so I wouldn't suggest covering it and I don't see why it's even needed. 

(sorry so blurry, I'm having some camera issues)

Next rinse your red lentils (which look more orange or pinkish in color) and add them to the pan with the spices ground coriander, cumin, and paprika, mix this well.  Add the coconut milk and water and crumble half of a vegetable bouillon cube into the pot; season with salt and pepper.  (I did not invest in pink Himalayan, not point in my opinion.) 

Cover the pan and bring it to a boil, than lower the heat so that you have a low simmer.  You will need to stir the soup a bit because the lentils could stick to the bottom of the pot.  Once the lentils have disintegrated (about 40 minutes), take the soup off the heat and stir in 1 lime's worth of lime juice.  Do not skip this step.  I tasted the soup before the lime juice and after.  It's so much better with the lime juice; it just gives it this extra depth that it needed. 

Final Product:

My thoughts:  Super good!  I loved everything about this soup.  The lime juice was perfect with the coconut milk and the lentils.  It was creamy and had a lot of flavor.  I served it with some sour dough bread, which was perfect to dip into the soup.  This recipe will be in heavy rotation.

Next up:  Budget Meals.  After overspending at Wegmans last week I can not afford to have the same thing happen again this week.  My first budget meal I will be testing out is Broccoli and Cheese Quiche.  Yes, I am on a bit of an egg kick, but eggs are soooo cheap. 

The Mark Bittman Challenge

I received "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman as a birthday gift this year.  The book has 2,000 recipes in it.  It's huge!  This book has everything in it to help make you a better cook including cutting techniques and how to make a basic sauce.  How to Cook Everything needs to be my bible.  We all know I'm not creative in the kitchen, heck I'm not even very coordinated in the kitchen.  It's a good day if I don't cut myself or almost set something on fire.  I don't want my blog to become a cheesy Julie and Julia type thing, but I do plan on getting to know this book intimately and posting about it often.  

Who's Mark Bittman?  He is a food writer for the NY Times and he is not a chef, but he wants to help people cook.  Here's a link to his column in the NY Times, The Minimalist and a link to his Blog on the Opinion Pages.  I would love to be only partially as knowledgeable as this man.  I figure I can start my journey by cooking as much from his book as I can.  Let's get this straight right away, I will not be cooking everything in this book.  Not only can I not afford to cook everything in it, I also don't like everything in it.  I'm not going to sacrifice for my hobby and eat anything that makes me shake and shiver.  My hope is that after cooking from this book, I will know the basics about how to make a variety of things and I will be able to make them without a recipe in the future.  I'm hoping for this, I didn't say it was actually going to happen.

To get myself into tackling such a big project I decided to browse some of his recipes online and I found one that sounded easy and appealing,  More Vegetable Less Egg Frittata.  I've never made a frittata, in fact I rarely eat eggs, but the vegetable part made me happy.  I'm always looking for meat-free recipes. 

Start by sauteing sliced onion (season it with salt and pepper), once its transparent and tender you can add whatever vegetables you want to the pan.  I chose a variety of mushrooms and asparagus for this frittata.  Saute them until they are tender.

Beat the eggs in a bowl with some Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper.  Pour the egg mixture on top of the vegetables in the pan.  Turn the heat to low and cook until the eggs are just starting to set.

I really have no idea when an egg is set, but I'm assuming it's when it's no longer liquidy.  Once it's barely set you can put it under the broiler for a few minutes to finish it off. 

Finished Product:

My thoughts:  Oh yeah baby!  Something I finally really like.  I loved that there was a ton of veggies in this and only a small amount of egg (I used 3).  I left the asparagus a little crispy because I knew the rest of the dish was going to lack crunch.  Of course something always has to go wrong and I made Jiffy Corn Muffins to go with this and managed to somehow put 1 cup of milk in the mix instead of a 1/3 cup.  Oh well.  They were still edible, they just didn't get big. This was a great recipe and I am very excited to try some of Bittman's other recipes. The Mark Bittman Challenge is on!

Next Up:  Spiced Coconut Lentil Soup (Not Mark Bittman's recipe, but we all know how much I LOVE coconut so I had to try it!)

The Sloppy Joe's from my Youth

I'm not so sure these ARE the sloppy joe's I remember my mom making for me when I was a child.  A while back I had asked my mom if she had or remembered the recipe for the sloppy joe's she made.  She told me she remembered that she got the recipe from a bottle of A1 sauce.  So I went to the A1 sauce website and found their recipe for Clean and Simple Sloppy Joe's.  This has to be the recipe, because I can't imagine that A1 has made up new recipes for sloppy joe's. 

This was simple and fast which made me a very happy camper.  First you brown the ground beef, then drain the excess fat.

Next add one chopped onion and one chopped green bell pepper, saute until softened. 

Once that's done you add 3/4 cups of A1 sauce, 1/4 cup tomato paste, 1/4 cup of beef stock, and chili powder cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes. 

Lots of steam in this picture!

Then it's done.  I heated up some frozen tater tots and brussels sprouts for side dishes. 

Final Product:

My thoughts:  Oh childhood how I miss you.  Lately I have been reminiscing about the food of my youth.  This whole meal took me right back to being a kid.  So simple and yet still delicious.  This sloppy joe might have been the best one that I have made.  Anthony really enjoyed it too.  I give this recipe an A and encourage you to try it on a night when you don't feel like slaving away in the kitchen.  The flavors were really good. The steak sauce made it a little sweet, but it was still savory enough that it didn't bother me.  I have my doubts as to whether or not this recipe is exactly what my mom used, but it's possible I just can't remember the flavor as well as I thought I could. 

Once in awhile it's nice to have a meal that is super fast and easy to make.  And it's great if it can take you back to a happy time in your life.  I've been eating PB&J and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch with Frito's on the side and that brought me back too.  Although it makes me realise I really didn't eat very healthy when I was little, thank goodness for a fast metabolism and lots of playing outside!

Next Up:  More Vegetable Less Egg Fritatta-my first attempt at making a Mark Bittman recipe.  I'm very excited. 

Beer, Sausages,and Potatoes...Some of My Favorite Things

Hello everyone I'm back!  My classes are done, so I can cook again.  It felt really good to get back into the kitchen.  I might almost say that I even missed it.  Almost.  The expensive grocery bill kind of spoiled my enjoyment of returning.  $181!  Granted it wasn't all food products, but I would say the majority of the bill was food related.   We finally got out to the meat market (Triano's) that is in our town and it was a really good experience.  We got a bunch of chicken, ground beef, and Italian sausages for around $13!  I was impressed and will definitely be going back there.   


For my first foray back into the kitchen I decided to try out a Martha Stewart recipe.  I'm not sure that I've ever actually tried one of her recipes before, so I figured I might as well try it out.  The recipe is Beer-Braised Sausages and Warm Potato Salad.  As I mentioned in the title of this post:  Beer, Sausages, Potatoes these are a few of my favorite things! (And so is the Sound of Music!)


This was an easy recipe to follow, the only issue I ran into was browning all sides of the sausage.  I got the first three sides browned, but the part that curves was really hard to brown.  I ended up breaking one of the sausages a little bit trying to do it, so I finally just gave up. 

Next you add the thinly sliced onion and cook that until it's softened. 

Then you add the beer (12 oz of pale ale), red potatoes (I quartered mine), water, salt, and pepper.  You bring that to a boil and then cover the pan and lower the heat to medium and cook until potatoes are done.

Once the potatoes are done (15 minutes for me) remove the sausages (keep them warm) and take the potatoes out of pan and toss them in a mixture of extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, and parsley. 

The last step is returning the cooking liquid back to a boil and reducing it down to about 1 cup of liquid. 

Once that's reduced put the sausages back in to heat them up and you are finished.  After you put the sausage and potatoes on a plate, drizzle half the sauce on top and serve the other half of the sauce on the side.


Final Product:

My thoughts:  This meal was okay, but not great.  There wasn't anything wrong with the recipe, but we used a beer that was just way too bitter.  I think you can get away with a normal ale.  I'd like to use Yuengling if I make this again.  I also highly suggest adding sourdough bread to this meal.  There was a ton of sauce and using the sourdough to soak up all of the liquid would be super.  Also because the sauce was so bitter you couldn't taste the dressing on the potatoes, which was sad because the tanginess of the vinegar would have gone nicely with the beer. 


It was easy.  It didn't take as long to cook as I thought it would.  It wasn't labor intensive.  So try it out if Beer, Sausages,and Potatoes are some of your favorite things too!


Next up:  My first Mark Bittman recipe, More Vegetable Less Egg Frittata and the Sloppy Joe is back!  This time I think I might have finally found the recipe that my mom used to use when I was little.  Can't wait to try it!