I was muddling through Pinterest, watching an evening drain away, and I saw a fantastic sounding recipe.
www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/black-bean-and-quinoa an Enchilada Bake. It is healthy and meatfree, so I saved it. Then when I got ready to make it, some changes happened. First, I had about 1/3 pound each of ground buffalo and chorizo leftover in the fridge, I add mushrooms to just about everything, and I had some leftover rice in the fridge as well. Also - something about a Tex-Mex casserole that just screams "I need fritos!" So here's my version, a bit less healthy (buffalo though is a very healthy, very lean red meat choice)(can't really defend the chorizo except it has so much flavour)
1/2 cup pre-rinsed quinoa
1 cup no salt added chicken stock
drizzle olive oil
1/2 vidalia onion- fine diced
3 cloves minced garlic
1/3 cup ground buffalo
1/3 cup ground chorizo (remove casing if stuffed sausage)
1 cup diced baby bella mushrooms
2 fire roasted jalapenos diced
1 red pepper diced
1 yellow pepper diced
1 cup frozen corn kernels
juice and zest of one lime
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 handful chopped cilantro
salt/pepper
1 can low sodium black beans - rinsed
3/4 cup cooked rice
1 can hot red enchilada sauce
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese
1 cup roughly crushed fritos
sour cream and guacamole if desired
First, using stock prepare quinoa per package directions. Preheat oven to 350.
In large skillet, heat olive oil, add onions, garlic, buffalo, chorizo and mushrooms to start to brown, breaking up the meat. Add peppers, corn, juice, zest and spices.
While skillet cooks down a bit (not more than 5 minutes) Stir beans, rice and cooked quinoa together , breaking up clumps. Add mixture from skillet, sauce and 1/2 cheese. After stirring together, pour into pre-sprayed 8 x 13 glass pan. Cover with foil, put in oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil, top with rest of cheese, put back in oven for 10 minutes more. When fully melted and bubbly, remove from oven, top with crushed fritos, let cool until no longer the temperature of the surface of the sun, serve.
I topped mine with sour cream and guacamole with tomatillos.
Picture of my quinoa salad (that I pretty much have almost every day for lunch - I call it crack)
First make a batch of quinoa and let cool (I put some rosemary and thyme in the water to flavour the quinoa a bit0 Then in a mixing bowl I put some vinaigrette (today had sundried tomato vinaigrette) toss in some steam fresh canned corn, shredded carrots, radishes and celery (quick whirr in the food processor) diced cucumbers, fresh parsley. toss then add quinoa and toss. Keeps in a tupperware in the fridge just fine for a week. So yummy. Pretty healthy too.
ETA: I totally forgot the diced yellow and red pepper - they are sitting very undiced, very not in my salad, on the counter right now :( will add tonight and take a new picture and post tomorrow.
Got the recipe from The Chew -- Mario Batali Calzones with eggplant and zucchini. (Two separate recipes - the eggplant is stuffed with an eggplant caponata filling, the zucchini sit with some salt to pull water out and is mixed with a ricotta mixture) I needed a good eggplant recipe, because one of my plants makes prolific chocolate brown eggplant about 3-4" long and about 2" in diameter - but 7-8 ripen at a time. And lets face it everyone can use another yummy zucchini recipe! Served up with a tossed balcony garden salad and some tomato/basil sauce to dip in. Came out really good - have leftovers in the freezer.
July is apparently National Hot Dog Month. So to honor the month, and because they seemed really decadently yummy, I made Guy Fieri's Danger Dogs. Stuffed with pickled jalapenos and pepper jack cheese (don't think the cheese was in the original recipe - but you know me and following directions) I did use uncured Sabrett hot dogs and uncured Oscar Meyer bacon to avoid the sodium nitrite. I wish I took a picture of them in the bun with topping, but I ate the evidence! I think they would be just as good with beef hot dogs and bacon --- so Min can eat them too! Someone did ask if it would be good with turkey hot dogs and bacon.... um I really really really would starve before I found out... I don't do either food.
I had to work the three days before Valentine's Day, and the day itself, but I still wanted to make Curt a yummy decadent dessert. So, I cheated a little and combined some stuff from Rachael Ray and Michael Symon. Symon had made a chocolate cheesecake covered with dark chocolate ganache and topped with bourbon cherries. Curt however, doesn't like cheesecake ( I know!!! wtf??) Ray had a long time ago, made a cake where she substituted beer for water and added cinnamon and nutmeg. SO here's what I used:
Duncan Hines Perfect size chocolate cake mix (comes with it's own easy release pan)
butter (amount from box)
1 tbsp cinnamon
about 1 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
6 tbsp Yards Chocolate Love Stout
1 egg
I followed the directions on the box and cooled overnight. For the ganache I heated the cream and sugar, then added the chopped chocolate and stirred until it started to get thick, poured it over the cake and "pushed" some over the edges to get the sides.
1/2 cup heavy cream
bar of 86% and one of 72% dark chocolate rough chopped to one cup
1 tbsp coconut sugar
After dinner I put all this in a heavy sauce pot and stirred occasionally until thick and saucy:
2 cup frozen dark cherries
1 tbsp coconut sugar
1 cinnamon stick
juice of 1/2 and peel of 1 lemon (pulled the peels out once done)
1 tbsp cornstarch
1tsp real vanilla extract
2 tbsp water
1/4 cup Knob Creek bourbon
Poured sauce still warm over slice of cake.... cannot even begin to describe how good this was!
Woman at work wanted some easy recipes, so here's a quick go to for me. (so quick I don't have a picture of the finished product).
Roasted three poblanos on the stove - need a gas stove just rotate the pepper directly on the flame until blistered on all sides, then put in a glass bowl covered with plastic wrap to steam off the skins. rub the skin off with paper towel (don't rinse you wanted the charred taste) cut in half and de-seed.
Meanwhile put a thin layer of red sauce (basic tomato basil is good the poblanos add some spice without making it hot ) put a frozen stuffed shell inside each half pepper and put in crock pot. I then threw in some leftover meatballs I had in the freezer but that is optional(Jane likes 5 not 6 things...). Fine chopped some basil, oregano and garlic (you can use dried spice and dried minced garlic or leave off - I don't use a lot of salt so I always increase the herbs to make up for it) sprinkled over the shells, and then top with more sauce. Don't drown it - sauce won't evaporate in a slow cooker- should still see parts of the shells and meatballs.
Cook on low for at least 6, if you are working 8 or 9 won't hurt- just put more sauce on the bottom and less on top so things don't burn. 15 minutes before you want to eat sprinkle on some shredded mozzerella ( I used Sargento's pizza cheese mix this time - but any Italian/Pizza ish cheese will do) cover - and once the cheese is melted it's time to eat!
The ONLY drawback to this recipe is the cheese doesn't get brown on top. I used a crockpot liner for easy cleanup (seriously whoever invented these is a genius!!!) but if you want brown you can always skip the liner and then before serving hit it with a kitchen torch, or I guess you can torch it on the plate or use an oven proof plate and throw it in the broiler a minute before serving. I just deal with no brown. It's still good.
I didn't get a good picture. But basically, I saw Mario Batali make a stuffed turkey thigh on the Chew, I saw Michael Symon make a stuffed rolled something and Bobby Flay did something on one of his shows. It was the holidaze season and I didn't pay close attention to any of the recipes, but made my own version - that came out really really good.
In a skillet, with olive oil cooked down some (chopped up) spinach and (small diced) baby bella mushrooms with thyme, tarragon and sage - added some garlic near the end so it wouldn't burn. Then I let this cool. After it cooled I stirred in a lightly beaten egg and some whole wheat panko - over working this will apparently create a rock in the center (don't remember whose advice this was)
Took a boneless/skinless turkey breast and butterfly cut it open and then pounded it until relatively even. Lined the cut side of the turkey with prosciutto. then spread a layer of softened Alouette garlic and herbed goat cheese, finishing it off with the spinach mixture.
I then rolled it into a log and tied it up, sprinkled some salt and pepper. Seared it on 4 sides in a hot cast iron skillet, then added turkey stock, covered it in foil and stuck it in an oven until done. The oven was about 400degrees - my oven isn't entirely accurate - need to use a thermometer for desserts- for about an hour.
Let it rest, sliced it up - thinned the stock that was left in the pan with some fresh stock over low heat a few minutes with some more garlic, thyme and sage for an au jus kind of gravy.
This was supposed to post on jan 2.
Who knew you could eat them. But I found this in the produce aisle the other day:
So, I bought a bag. Did I know a recipe?? nope. Did I have any clue how to cook them? nope. Did I have a plan? Yes!! I've heard it said that knowing the process of cooking something is better than knowing a recipe, and Miss Measures Nothing here likes that concept!
I had leftover ham from Thanksgiving. So I basically made it sort of like escarole and beans. I heated some olive oil, garlic and hot pepper flakes. The the broccoli leaves in until they started wilting. Added the ham cut into chunks and some herbs de provence, salt and pepper, some of the pasta water. I covered the pot until the leaves became tender, then added a rinsed can of small white beans, and whole grain pasta , a bit more pasta water to bring it all together, finished cooking the pasta and some grated parm, and asiago went on top.
Totally yummy!
Baked a piece of Salmon with olive oil, tarragon, thyme, dill and lemon. Topped with Tzatziki sauce. Half an acorn squash, baked with butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and chili. Stuffed with a blend of brown rice, mixed veg, peppers and green onions.
That's what happened with my nutter butter acorns! I saw them somewhere - thought they were cool, then I needed to make a treat. I also seem to remember there being peanut butter filled kisses as some point in history - or were those my imagination? So I used dark chocolate kisses, I also think regular peanut butter is stickier than the fresh ground I eat, but still worked. I bought a cup sized container of snack size nutter butters. At first I left them whole - but that would have needed a bigger kiss( they have the big hazelnut kisses - but didn't want to mix nuts) so then I started taking them apart - picture of those follow - fortunately the guys at work were willing to get rid of the evidence. I used mini peanut butter and mini chocolate chips for the stems.
Yes, with all the non-knitting time on my hands/elbows, I have explored another time suck... Pinterest. I think I accidentally started 2 accounts. Not sure. Seems my computer thinks I have a different account than my phone does. I use my phone. Discovered that following a person is deadly, should rather follow one of their boards or you get screenfuls of weirdness. Pretty sure my boards don't make sense - and I should probably break them up to more boards to ever having a shot at finding anything.
I've learned a few things. There are several things I want to make now (yes a longer want to make list EXACTLY what I need in my life...NOT). I've been looking at houseplans - not sure why, not planning on building a house any time soon. But one day I may remember to buy a lottery ticket and then after buying my motor coach and hiring C to drive it to the sporting events I want to go to, I may have the urge to have a house. Next to a lake. With a dock. I decided that his and hers walk in closets are a must. Also a separate shower stall from tub (not sure I even want a tub) and definitely a separate toilet, with a swing door - can't deal with a doorknob before washing hands. A room with a ton of built-ins to barricade Curt in. A room with a ton of windows with built-ins below for a craft room. A walk in pantry with a freezer. And a porch deep enough to hang out on as well as a outdoor kitchen on the deck.
But I digress. I have followed some of my friend Min's boards. She recently posted a recipe for Fettucine with Lemon Ricotta and Zucchini. Who doesn't need more zucchini recipes? The only thing is I think my handful of parsley was too big. And I would use more lemon. But super yummy to go next to leftover Italian sausage meatballs.
I don't have any terribly interesting things to show you food wise. I had a couple really good burgers off the grill this week, but that's it. So I was thinking about what to post the other day as I was making my lunch, and I figured I'd talk about lunch. When I am at work my lunch consists of a really large salad (fills a 5 cup Rubbermaid container.) It's pretty basic - mixed greens ( I like the kind with pieces of herbs mixed in) 3 mini cucumbers - 4 if they are extra mini, a couple tomatoes, sometimes carrot, sometimes olive, occasionally if I have leftover fresh mozzerella I'll put that in as well. On the side I am totally addicted to quinoa salad - I call it crack. If the deli is out then I'll have a bit of hummus with 4 triscuits. A 16oz bottle of water goes with it.
When I'm off during the week and Curt is at work, then I will make myself lunch.. sometimes. I save things Curt is allergic to or doesn't like for when I eat without him. I'm not really a sandwich girl - unless we're talking eggplant parm, or a panini, but since I love the seriously crusty breads and ciabatta breads - I can't have them often because of the carbs. I do use a high fiber low carb wrap - usually for breakfast though. I took pictures of my 2 lunches this week.
Tuesday, I microwaved half of a small spaghetti squash (7 min on high, seeds removed, face down on a glass dish) I put a few pieces of frozen shrimp scampi from Schwann's (frozen food I can eat) in a small skillet with sliced baby bella mushrooms, added about a cup of frozen veg - broccoli,carrot, pea, water chestnut mix, tossed in some fresh asparagus from my mom's garden, some extra garlic and italian seasoning - and I put it on top of the "spaghetti" I garnished with the bits I picked off the ends of my various basil (pick off the buds so they grow bushier)
Today's lunch started with one of the wraps, a big handful of salad greens w herbs, sliced mini cucumbers (3) chunky tzatziki sauce and a piece of baked salmon (with some dill).
Both quick, easy, healthy and yummy!
Some people have menu plans for their entire weeks. Some even write the down, create a grocery list, go the the store, have everything on hand for every day. Some people even do a lot of the prep work days ahead!! I am not one of those people. In my defense, I go grocery shopping every other day - because I go through a lot of stuff that doesn't store for long periods of time. Mini-cucumbers, tomatoes, packs of "super greens", packs of prewashed salad green mixes, baby bella mushrooms... I do have a pretty decently stocked pantry and freezer that I work with. Since the Angie has been gone though, I end up having 'extra bits' either I end up cooking too much and we have to have leftover days, or I have to make dinner of leftover bits that need to be used or wasted. The other day was one of those nights.
I made a one skillet, one oven dish chicken and bits dinner. First I turned the oven to 350 (it seems like a good default temperature) I tossed about 3/4 of a pound of baby yukon gold potatoes in olive oil, herbs de provence , dill and a pinch of coarse sea salt.
In the skillet first I browned 2 links of chorizo broken up out of the casing with a handful of quartered baby bella mushrooms. I started on very low heat so the oil for the chorizo was enough to brown the mushrooms when I added them.
After adding them to the potaotes, I sweated out 1/2 an orange and yellow pepper, and a whole cubanelle pepper cut in large chunks.
After adding the peppers to the oven dish, I small diced a poblano pepper, 1/4 of a sweet onion, 3 garlic cloves and the stems of 1/2 a bunch of rainbow chard.
After these started to soften I added the chopped leaves of the chard to the pan and to speed up wilting added a splash of stock after a few minutes.
Finally I browned 2 small chicken breasts cut into chunks sprinkled with poultry seasoning.
Once everything was added to the baking dish (chicken and sausage were still not cooked all the way through) I covered it with foil and baked it for 30 minutes.
It came out delicious and Curt took the leftovers for lunch 2 days after.
I realized, when sitting down to write this post, that I never took a picture of my finished dish. And, it came out pretty good - because there's not much left in the fridge. This came about, because I had some leftover stuff in the fridge, I keep a pretty decent pantry of staples, and I was feeling lazy about cooking dinner. It's pretty much me not following the directions on the back of the Campbell's Creamy Poblano and Queso soup can.
In a heavy large pot - I melted about a tablespoon of butter and a swirl of olive oil, then I added in 1 1/4 cup of mushrooms until they started to caramelize, then added 1/2 cup of onions, 3/4 cup of peppers and one diced serrano(not pictured) and sweat them out. Once they were in the pot - I put 1/2 a box of pasta in a pot of water to boil. The directions on the pasta called for 14 minutes - I did 10 minutes, since they would finish cooking in the sauce.
To the veggies in the pot I added 1 1/2 cups of cut up pre-cooked chicken, 3 chopped garlic cloves, 1/2 an andouille sausage (not pictured), a can of Rotel tomatoes - not sure why I own the mild version?? I also added about 1/3 palmful of both cumin and chipotle pepper, and fresh ground pepper.
I added the can of soup, half a can of milk and brought to a boil. As soon as it stopped boiling, I added a cup of shredded cheddar cheese. Once the cheese melted, I stirred in the partially cooked pasta and poured the whole mixture into a pyrex casserole dish that I had sprayed with PAM. I put it in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, sprinkled another 1/2 cup of cheese on top and put it back in for about 10 minutes until the top cheese layer started to brown. Let it stop bubbling (about 10 minutes) after coming out of the ovenand then let the vultures have at it.
1 tbs butter
3 tbs olive oil
1 1/4 cup diced baby bella mushrooms
1/2 cup onions
3/4 cup peppers
1 diced serrano
1/2 pound pasta
1 1/2 cup pre cooked chicken
3 garlic cloves
1/2 andouille sausage
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1/3 palmful each cumin & chipotle pepper
fresh ground pepper
1 can Creamy Poblano & Queso soup
1/2 soup can of milk
1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar divided
I finally managed that elusive food - leftover corned beef! Mind you - in order to obtain it - I bought 2 corned beefs - one was about 5.25 pounds, the other just over 2 pounds. We had the smaller one on St Patrick's Day and some of that, plus the larger one was .. LEFTOVERS!!!!!
Last night we had hot corned beef with Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and russian dressing on a mice crusty Russian rye (with seeds of course!) But Sunday morning I made my chunky version of corned beef hash--- in a cast iron skillet - the best pan to make hash (You know who you are - yes, I'm pointing this out to you! and Grace - don't get paranoid it isn't you )
the really tiny red potatoes- larger ones cut in half parboiled
some quartered/sixthed (don't think this is a word - but it's for the larger ones) Baby bellas
cast iron skillet with butter and olive oil heated - I start the mushrooms first so they get a nice caramel and not weirdly waterlogged from the other ingredients.
add onion slices, lots of chopped garlic, red,yellow, green and poblano peppers
Some herbs de Provence - I like this brand - it's not overly lavender or rosemary spiced.
After this starts to brown - I barely smash the potatoes and put them in a layer on the bottom of the skillet (move stuff from half, put the potatoes down, put the stuff on top get potatoes in the other half) and press down so the potatoes get good contact to brown at the bottom of the pan. (this isn't a heavily potato hash- not a fan of the "hashes" that are basically meat flavoured potaotes) I put large diced corned beef (when I make this from deli corned beef I have them slice it about 3/8" thick) and rough chop the carrots that I cooked the corned beef with originally,
I let them brown for a while before I turn, smash, let sit, turn, smash, let sit - until I decide they are done.
Then Curt got 2 poached eggs on his--- mine got properly peppered (never had a white egg white in my life!)
I don't think America's Test Kitchen really understands why America loves a slow cooker. The beauty of a slow cooker is you can put stuff in - go to work and have a yummy dinner almost ready when you return. Now my slow cooker has the "keep warm" feature so I can set a timer for 5-6 hours and it will just keep it warm until I return - but when pork loin recipes call for 1 hour of cook time, keeping it warm for 7 more hours seems like it won't work. Close to 3/4 of the recipes in this book are between 1-5 hours!! They sound like they'd be good- but unless you work from home, can run home on lunch to start it, or only use your slow cooker on your days off it really isn't very practical is it?? I can do many of these recipes in the same time on my stove or in my oven!
Meatballs Marinara in 4 hours, enchiladas in 1 hour, Spring polenta casserole in 3 hours, chipotle chicken chili in 2 hours??
All this being said, there are 10 recipes (out of 200) that I am going to try. I'm glad I got this from the library and didn't buy it.
I kinda splashed too much extra milk here...
I joined Pinterest. Yup another time suck on my phone. I really haven't done anything constructive, pinned some stuff, not sure how to go back and look at them, forgot about it for a week... you know the usual me. Anyway, one of the things I kept seeing pop up was refrigerator oatmeal, which is a lot like my friend's Gran's summer porridge. She used cream and sugar and lots of fruit in hers. I have a lot of issues in what is edible for me. I can't have a lot of sugar, can't have things high on the glycemic index, need fiber and protein and fat to slow my carb absorption down, can't use artificial sweeteners, like to have some crunch. A lot of the various versions I've seen on Pinterest use flavored Greek yogurt, honey, agave syrup, chia and have a lot of interesting add ins. I decided that this was worth experimenting with as a take along to work.
A quarter cup measure is pretty much all you need to remember for this. The basic recipe is
1/4 cup oatmeal (I alternate between the thick and rough and steel cut oats)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce ( do you know how hard it is to find unsweetened chunky??) or a half a smashed banana. This is basically my sweetener.
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt ( I usually use non fat but the store was out)
1/4 cup of milk
1 1/2 tablespoons of chia seeds
After stirring this together I leave it in the fridge overnight. In this picture I added some apple pie spice - but I'll get to that in a bit.
Then I divide it in half. Here's the nutritional info calculated by myFitnessPal: ( I wish it calculated fiber as well)
Depending on what I'm in the mood for, I add stuff in before I put it in the fridge. The most common would be apple pie spice, pumpkin pie spice, or cinnamon. I've recently tried some unsweetened shredded coconut (I subbed unsweetened coconut milk for the regular milk when I did that). Also I've been using the PB2 peanut butter powder as well (that one is really good with the half a banana version and some unsweetened cocoa powder.
When I'm ready to eat it, I'll put some diced fresh apple or pear, or a handful of blueberries or a handful of the carb friendly nut mix and stir it in. (if I use the nut mix instead of fruit, I'll add a splash more of milk to loosen it up- not necessary with the fruit) The fruit/nuts add some sweetness, texture to it.
Between the protein and the fiber (and the good fat when I add nuts) the carbs absorb slowly, so I don't get a BG spike - which also means I don't get the sudden drop 30min to an hour later. They also keep me feeling full for a long time (sometimes this is bad as I need to remember to eat again). The sustained BG is helpful on days like Wednesday, when I didn't get to lunch when I should have at 1, then couldn't because I then unloaded 3 trucks in a row and didn't get to lunch until 3. (One of our receivers is on vacation this week, another is out hurt - had to get the first two trucks out of the way so I'd have an empty dock for Braun's at 2... if you know me - not unloading Braun's wasn't an option...)
