November 26, 2014
Ingredients
1-1/4 pound ground turkey
1 medium onion, chopped
1 zucchini squash, chopped fine
2 large garlic cloves, chopped fine
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper, to taste
1 egg
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
In a large bowl, mix all ingredients thoroughly, create 1 or 2 loaves. Prepare a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. Bake for 40 minutes.
An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).
Thoughts
This was a halfhearted attempt to use up the ground turkey I’d defrosted for another recipe and sneak in some vegetables as well – surprisingly, it was really good!
Bonus points for being incredibly easy to toss together and cook. It just takes a while to actually cook.
October 31, 2014
Chicken pot pie: Filling
Ingredients
Cooking spray
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
4 teaspoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups lowfat milk
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup peas, thawed if frozen
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
Directions
Add 2 more teaspoons of oil to the same pan and heat it over a medium-high heat. Add the onions, carrots and celery and cook until the vegetables begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the green beans, garlic and remaining salt and pepper and cook for 2 minute more. Add the milk. Stir the flour into the broth until it is completely dissolved and add to the pan. Cook, stirring, until the mixture comes to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 2 minutes more. Return the chicken with its juices back to the pan. Add the peas and thyme and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Spoon the mixture into the baking dish or individual dishes.
Drop the batter in 6 mounds on top of the chicken mixture (1 mound on each individual dish, if using) spreading the batter out slightly.
Bake until filling is bubbling and the biscuit topping is golden brown, about 20 minutes.
Adapted from Food Network’s Ellie Krieger
Drop Biscuits
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup fat-free milk
Cooking spray
Directions
Preheat oven to 450º.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a bowl; cut in butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add milk; stir just until moist.
Spoon the batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Bake at 450° for 12 minutes or until golden. Remove biscuits from pan immediately, and place on a wire rack.
Thoughts
I’ve finally found some decent uses for the Dutch oven and one of them is heaven on the stovetop.
June 7, 2014
If I had to toot my own horn, I’d say that my cooking skills are progressing nicely. Luckily, I have PiC here ready and willing to proclaim my experiments successful. I know, this is meant to be a money-life blog so why do I keep sharing recipes? Because good food IS life!
I have to thank Kristen for helping me make a few basic decisions, since I didn’t know what I was doing when it came to dealing with mushrooms AT ALL.
Small Bites: Stuffed Mushrooms
This was adapted from the Pioneer Woman’s classic recipe.
Ingredients
24 ounces, weight White Button Mushrooms
1/3 pound Hot Pork Sausage***
1/2 whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
4 cloves Garlic, Finely Minced
1/3 cup Dry White Wine**
8 ounces, weight Cream Cheese
1 whole Egg Yolk
3/4 cups Parmesan Cheese, Grated
Salt And Pepper, to taste
* Added a strip of fried bacon. It’s the right thing to do.
**Left this out.
*** I use any sausage, really.
Directions
1. Wipe off or wash mushrooms in cold water. Pop out stems, reserving both parts.
2. Chop mushroom stems finely and set aside.
3. Brown and crumble sausage and bacon. Set aside on a plate to cool.
4. Add onions and garlic to the same skillet; cook for 2 minutes over medium low heat.
5. Pour in wine to deglaze pan, allow liquid to evaporate. (Deglazed with water since I didn’t have white wine handy)
6. Add in chopped mushroom stems, stir to cook for 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set mixture aside on a plate to cool.
7. In a bowl, combine cream cheese and egg yolk. Stir together with Parmesan cheese.
8. Add cooled sausage, bacon and cooled mushroom stems. Stir mixture together and refrigerate for a short time to firm up.
9. Smear mixture into the cavity of each mushroom, creating a sizable mound over the top.
10. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
Allow to cool at least ten minutes before serving; the stuffed mushrooms taste better when not piping hot.
Thoughts
Allow to cool before serving – hahaha. I tried to try one almost immediately. Of course. And nearly burnt myself. Of course. Who doesn’t do that?
I’ve never loved mushrooms, but I’ve been trying to learn to like a new thing every few years, so this was my entree to not-in-soup mushrooms and I’m pretty happy with it.
Comfort Food: Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients
1 pound chicken breasts – cubed*
1 cup sliced carrots (1 1/2 carrots)
1 cup diced potato (1 small potato)
1/2 cup sliced celery (1 celery rib)
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup chopped onion (1/4 small onion)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
2/3 cup milk
2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts
1/4 teaspoon celery seed**
* I roast my own chicken so I used two cups of shredded roasted chicken instead.
**Left this out.
Makes 1 9-inch pie. 8 servings.
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
2. In a saucepan, combine carrots, potatoes, and celery. Add water to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.
3. In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper (and celery seed).
Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk.
Simmer over medium-low heat until thick.
Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Mix chicken (and 3-4 strips of cooked bacon if you’re so inclined) into the vegetables.
5. Place the chicken mixture in bottom pie crust.
6. Pour hot liquid mixture over.
7. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly.
9. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Thoughts
I could have made my own pie crust but between roasting a whole chicken (about 1 hour, 40 minutes) and prepping the whole pie recipe, it seemed wiser to just use a prepared pie crust. As it was, I totally wiped myself out roasting the chicken, breaking it down and cooking up the pie in a three hour whirlwind. At least I didn’t defrost the pie crust too late and half melt it again. (See, ugliest pie ever.)
This recipe actually worked out a lot better than the previous one that I couldn’t find. The liquid was actually gravylike and held together the dry ingredients really nicely.
I’d estimate the cost of this pie to be around $5 without breaking down the actual use cost of each ingredient I already had (butter, flour, salt, pepper, milk) or will be able to use in more than one recipe (potato, celery, onion, broth, chicken).
It’s not all about the cost savings though, I just like the taste of homemade better, where I’m able to control the use of butter, salt, etc., to precisely what’s needed and not overdo it.
March 5, 2014
The last time I made a chili, it was turkey chili and an unmitigated disaster. Five years later, I’m ready to get back on that horse and modified a Michael Symon pork recipe. Five bowls later? SUCCESS.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon chili pepper
1 tablespoon sweet smoked paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2.5 pounds pork, small cubes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound slab bacon, cut into ½-inch dice
1 onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 jalapeno chilies, seeded and very finely chopped
2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded and finely diced
1 12 ounce bottle amber ale or porter
2 cups Chicken Stock
28-ounces canned diced tomatoes with juice
1 can tomato paste
Garnishes:
Shredded cheddar cheese,
Sliced scallions, white and green parts,
Diced red onions
Directions
In a large bowl, combine the red chili, paprika and cumin and toss with the pork; season with salt and pepper.
In a large enameled cast-iron Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over medium-high heat. Add half of the pork and cook, turning as needed, until browned on all sides, about 8 minutes. Transfer the pork to a plate. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil and brown the remaining pork. Transfer to the plate. Add the bacon to the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until browned and slightly crisp, about 7 minutes. Add the onion, garlic, jalapenos and bell peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes.
In the crockpot, combine the pork, any accumulated juices, vegetables, ale, chicken stock, tomato paste, and tomatoes and set to low heat for 2.5 hours.
If the chili is more watery than you prefer, mix a tablespoon of flour with some of the chili juices in a separate bowl until it’s smooth, and add to the chili.
Notes
The original recipe was all stovetop but I needed the greater capacity of the crockpot. Our Dutch oven is too small!
And next time, I’ll try adding some ground pork, either substituting 1/3 of the regular pork cubes or just adding it to the pork cubes. I bet that would reduce the need for thickening.
Cost: Reasonable
10 servings for approximately $10.
I used the 2-lb chunk of pork shoulder I’d frozen from the last sale at $1.49/lb. Whenever we go to the Asian market, I try and pick up some bulk meat at a reasonable price for experiments like this. If they didn’t turn out, I didn’t waste too much money which would tick me off.
Other staples:
Canned tomatoes, Target price is $1/can or less. Bacon, the regular stuff is cheapest from Costco. I crave the amazing Zingermann’s applewood smoked bacon but it’s basically like drugs: we can’t afford a Zingerman’s lifestyle. But it’s soooo good.
Vegetables, from the produce market any combination of 5-lbs of produce tends to average $0.75/lb. It’s awesome.
Chicken stock, homemade. Delicious.
Spices, we have these on hand but good grief, they’re expensive on refill.
June 24, 2013
Pardon the really dark photos of the sushi, they don’t do the food justice.
The burger craving is an intense and life-enhancing phenomenon. So is the sushi craving, but I hammer that one down more often than not, sushi’s too expensive in the Bay Area to enjoy frequently.
Usually, the need for burgers means we have to trek out to one diner or another and pay about $25 for a couple of burgers and fries. It’s mostly good but not so amazing that I don’t get a little squinty-eyed over the cost vs my satisfaction.
Then miracle of miracles: a mega sale on ground turkey AND I found the most amazing, simple turkey burger recipe. With a few Just Because alterations and voila! Magic!
Makes 8 fat round patties
2 lbs ground turkey ($5)
1/2 onion, diced finely ($0.25)
1/2 garlic bulb, diced finely ($0.30)*
1 egg white ($0.40)
2/3 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp breadcrumbs ($0.20)
Burger buns ($2.49)
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and form into 8 patties. Cook over medium heat until they reach an internal temp of 180 degrees.
I made the patties, and the potato salad, then let PiC do the cooking and prep of the condiments and sides. His execution was flawless: he made surprise bacon! I danced with glee.
Sides: sprouts, cheddar cheese slices, grilled onions, sliced tomatoes, thinly sliced red onions, sliced avocado, grilled mushrooms, bacon, ketchup, mayo.
These burgers were, I kid you not, the best burgers ever. Perfectly cooked, delicious, way more flavorful than turkey burgers I’ve gotten at any diner. Three bites in and I was already worrying about my next portion because clearly, I can’t have just one.
Total: $8.64 for eight burgers
*Strictly speaking, the recipe only called for a couple cloves of garlic. But you know me, I’m constitutionally incapable of using less than 4 times the recommended amount.
Potato Salad
1 lb sliced fingerling potatoes
Vinaigrette
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp water used to boil potatoes
1 Tbsp diced capers
(2 sweet onions) – used 1 shallot and 1/2 green onion
Boil potatoes until tender, 6-8 minutes. Reserve 1 Tbsp of the boiling water for the vinaigrette. Pour potatoes into a medium mixing bowl. Prep the vinaigrette ingredients: mustard, vinegar, water, in a separate bowl and whisk until mixed thoroughly. Pour over the potatoes, add capers, shallots and green onion (or sweet onion), mix evenly. Add salt and pepper to taste. I didn’t use any.
*The original recipe called for 5 cornichons sliced thinly and 1/3 cup of olive oil for the vinaigrette but I don’t know what cornichons are and I just plain forgot the olive oil. It was good anyway!
That’s the burger craving taken care of … about that sushi!
Now Serving: Sushi
We found Sushi Tomi in Mountain View with four star ratings from 1000+ reviews; that was promising. We ordered a soba, a hamachi don, and a sunomono with octopus.
The nine hamachi slices topping the sushi rice were thick slabs of fresh, delicious fish. I haven’t seen sashimi that size ever. The sunomono was full of great big pieces of octopus, not fried, but a little on the chewy and unseasoned side. Possibly how it’s meant to be but I was rather expecting to see the salad be dressed in some way. It was good enough not to induce regrets but I won’t order that again.
PiC’s soba was good, but since he always uses a bit of wasabi, slightly off-putting to me. The perils of sharing food! 🙂 It was tasty and flavorful even if I thought the portion was on the small side.
The bill would have been more reasonable except I misunderstood PiC saying he had added tip but not tax. That’s backwards to how I do it, adding tax to the main bill we split and then adding tip afterward, so our miscommunication led to a $50 bill. Not the end of the world, but pretty irritating that it went right over my head. Be more careful next time!
And speaking of next time, we wouldn’t make the drive just for the sushi but if we were in the area, we’d definitely go back and try other things.
Final assessment: I’m not the kitcheny genius that @mochimac is, so we’re not going to master the art of Japanese cooking anytime soon but perhaps that should be a project on our list.
Egads but I love good food. I’ll eat not great food too, but I really really appreciate amazing food. And more so when we learn how to make it at home. Mom was always a whiz at that. She could taste a meal once or twice and with some experimentation, reproduce it exactly or better.
:: Am I the only one for whom food is a wondrous thing?
April 12, 2013
Bacon pasta. Does it get better? (Not really, no.)
Back by special request this week for PiC’s carbing up pre-MAJOR NEW RACE, I get to make an enormous batch of this amazing new recipe. As race support staff, I (so modestly) rock.
One of my favorite things to do is experiment with new recipes if I 1) don’t screw it up and 2) have an appreciative audience. Number two is a given with PiC. Our diet tends to get staid and boring which, for such a health-oriented eater, is a surprising thing about him, but he does appreciate and enjoy anything I cook even when I think it didn’t turn out. So all that’s left to do is Not Screw It Up. No pressure.
After reading Eat and Run this week, I’m also inspired to experiment with the recipes shared in the book to see how that helps PiC’s running. And maybe it’ll have a positive effect on my health too. Guinea pig-dom!
Also happily, a now-local childhood friend is close enough to visit with us once in a while and we’ve found that we love cooking and eating together. We try to share new or new-to-each-other recipes each time.
This was the first time I’d ever cooked with crushed red pepper and boy howdy! Did I ever screw up. I normally always follow new recipes as exactly as possible (ahem, except every other recipe where I substitute one or three ingredients because our cupboard’s too lean. Including this one, as you’ll see.) and as it turns out, even our fire-mouth SE-Asia-travel hardened friend thought the first batch was eyewateringly spicy. Whoops.
We had this with an amazing kale salad and leftovers were just as incredible. The next time I made a batch, we two greedy-faces ate up the whole skillet in one meal. Good grief. Not totally recommended.
Bucatini All’amatriciana
serves 2 greedy-faces or 4 normal people.
Ingredients
1/2 pound thinly sliced pancetta, coarsely chopped*
1 red onion, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper*
12 ounces prepared tomato sauce*
Kosher salt
1 pound bucatini*
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves*
Grated Pecorino Romano cheese, for serving
*I use regular bacon instead of pancetta since it’s faster and easier to find.
HALVE the red pepper for the love of your taste buds.
Just used jarred sauce to spare my hands.
Bucatini is remarkably hard to find! So I use linguine instead.
I pretty much never have parsley.
Directions
1. (I trim at least half the fat off the bacon first.) Then, in a large, deep skillet, cook the pancetta over moderate heat, until lightly browned. Cook about 6 minutes.
2. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the pancetta to a plate.
3. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat in the skillet.
4. Add the onion, garlic and crushed red pepper and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is lightly browned. Takes about 6 minutes.
5. Return the pancetta to the skillet. Add the tomato sauce, season with salt and simmer until very thick. Cook about 10 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, in a pot of salted boiling water, cook the pasta until al dente. Drain the pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water.
7. Add the pasta to the sauce along with the parsley and the reserved cooking water and stir over moderately high heat until the pasta is evenly coated, 2 minutes.
8. Serve the pasta in bowls. Parmesan if desired.
:: Have you ever seen bucatini in a store?
:: If you’re a runner, how do you like to dietarily prepare for races?
:: Or are you more like me and just like to make yummy food?
April 1, 2013
March was WAY better than February. Hoo-rah!
I’m not back in the gym yet, but have extended Doggle walks on every nice day so that we both get our Vitamin D and stretch our legs a little more.
One night, I had this nightmare that PiC signed me up for a marathon, because he decided to run even more than that, and for some reason an ex-classmate I really didn’t/don’t like was going to run with me so of course I couldn’t admit that I couldn’t do it. Yeah, toughing out a marathon when you can’t run a full mile yet – that’s an awesome idea.
It’s probably an indication of how much desperately I want to be my “normal” self. The one who could run a mile without being utterly wiped out, or work out for a few hours and actually enjoy the process. Of course, that’s getting ahead of myself in a big way. It’s as frustrating to be this thoroughly out of shape as it was to be in debt; it feels like someone’s chained my wrist to my opposite ankle. Awkward AND limiting!
It would be amazing to have a workout buddy who can hang with me in the little leagues and work our way up together. Exercise is much more fun as a cooperative endeavor.
All true and so relevant. I’ve never talked about it but I really hate doors, and heavy doors that remind me that I’m weaker than I used to be, or just plain make me look weak. This is why I “shoulder” or “hip” doors instead of pushing them when I can. There’s an amazing number of things that are much more difficult to manage b/c of pain: pocket doors, can openers, pots before food’s in, pots after food’s in, fancy cookware, lifting wet laundry in and out of washer and dryer. Round door handles suck, scissors suck, skinny pens suck. Yoga mega sucks because it’s so appealing, and not possible to do without hands/arms. Life is a strange thing viewed through the lens of what you can do or handle with only a very light touch.
It’s easier to dismiss said things I can’t do anymore or do well as jerks. All jerks. And then move right along.
Food
Using different grains and making more from-scratch recipes has been on my mind a lot lately; it seems like it’d be easier to eat more healthy foods this way. I finally had the energy (and the ridiculous need to procrastinate) to experiment with a couple recipes: Pasta and Barley Soup and Bucatini All’amatriciana.
The Pasta and Barley Soup was incredibly easy:
1 cup of ditalina pasta
3 liters of vegetable broth
1 diced onion
lots of diced garlic
1 diced potato
1/2 c diced celery*
2 diced carrots*
3/4 c barley
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil for drizzling**
Parmigiana Reggiano**
Parsley**
* I only used 1 diced carrot and substituted in one extra potato for the other carrot and for the celery I didn’t have on hand. So, extra carbalicious!
** For topping the soup and serving.
1. Saute onions and garlic.
2. Add broth and barley to simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Add the vegetables and pasta to cook for 6-8 minutes. Original recipe called for 6 minutes but I had to go to 8 minutes to fully cook through. Add salt and pepper to season.
Serve!
I played with the ingredients a bit, cutting back on some ingredients (broth, pasta) to make a smaller batch. It was perfect for the first seating but needed extra broth for the next day reheating.
Your turn: what did you do in March to be a little healthier and happier?