Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Spaghetti Squash yumminess!

1 Spaghetti Squash
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can fired roasted diced tomatoes, don’t drain
½ red onion, diced
1 red pepper (or whatever you prefer), diced
2 cloves, or so, of chopped garlic
Cumin
Paprika
Cilantro
Sea salt
Fresh, cracked black pepper

OK… turn the oven on to 350 and let it get warm and toasty. Slice your squash in half, from root to tip, and place it cut side down on a baking sheet and cook it for about an hour (could be a little shorter if it’s a smaller squash). About 20 minutes before the squash is ready, drizzle a teenie, tiny, wee bit of EVOO in a skillet and let it get all warm and sizzly, add the diced onions and peppers. Cook them for about 10 min. until they look all wonderful and scrumptious, and then add in the garlic. Whew!

Toss in some seasoning now; above I listed the ones I used, but you can use whatever your heart desires. Stir it in with the veggies. Now you can add the beans and tomatoes and mix them up all good like. And now comes the fun part…

Your squash should be tender and if you poke it with a fork, the flesh should pull away from the rind. So now you get to “deflesh” (I just made that word up!) the squash and get all the stringy, squashy, spaghetti like stuff worked out and toss it into the pan with the other veggies. Do this to both halves of the squash and in the end you will have a dish that is just yummilicisiousness!

This would be really good with cornbread!

Note: You can also add ground beef to this recipe. When I originally posted it, I was following a vegan diet, so I left the beef out. =]

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Cajun type Chicken Pasta Goodness...

OK - So I was experimenting - and this is what I came up with...

You'll need:
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into strips
1- 1 ½ c. or so heavy cream
2 T. butter
1 yellow pepper, julienned
1 red pepper, julienned
1/2 onion, chopped
½ box whole wheat penne
Cajun seasoning
Basil
Salt and Pepper
Lemon pepper
Garlic powder
Parm cheese

OK – so now that you have all your goodies… What I did… Melt the butter in a large skillet over med-high heat. I sliced my chicken into strips, laid them flat on a paper plate and generously covered them with Cajun seasoning, then flipped them into the skillet and hit the other side with more Cajun seasoning… let that cook for about 7-8 minutes, until the chicken is done. In the meantime, you can start your pasta. Once the chicken is about done, add your veggies to the skillet, let those all cook for about 4-5 minutes, we don’t want them to get mushy, but we do want them cooked up a little bit. Next you add the heavy cream into the skillet with the chicken and veggies (if you find it’s too thin, you can add a little cornstarch) and add your basil, lemon pepper, salt & pepper, and garlic powder. Let this heat all the way through for about 5 minutes. Finally, add your drained pasta to the skillet with everything else and mix together. Top with Parm cheese and enjoy!

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Slow cookered potatoes!

8 potatoes, sliced
8 oz package of cream cheese, divided into 3 sections
1/4 of a LARGE onion, diced (of course, if you don't have a LARGE onion, use about 1/2 cup or whatever you fancy)
garlic, minced
Salt and Peper

Spray your slow cooker with some non-sticky goodness! Mix the onions and garlic in a small bowl. Throw a layer of potatoes into the slow cooker, then add a handful of the onion/garlic combo, then salt and pepper, and take one section of the cream cheese and separate it into pats over the layers of potatoes. Repeat this process two more times. You should finish with a top layer of the cream cheese. It's OK to be all chunky looking. Set your slow cooker on high for about 3 hours. After the three hours, stir it all together and let it cook for another hour or so until the taters are tender (but not mushy!). Once they are ready, take a hand masher and gently mash them, you don't want mashed potatoes, just smooshed! =] Enjoy!

Oh what to do with the green beans??

So I had some fresh green beans that just HAD to be used before they went all icky and stuff. I was on a quest to find a good way to use them besides the "norm". This is what I did/had:

1 lb fresh green beans
2 zucchinis
1 yellow straightneck squash
1 can tomato sauce
Oregano
Basil
minced garlic
drizzle of EVOO


I drizzled the oil in a skillet, and added the garlic to let that cook up just a bit. I sliced the zucca and squash, added them to the pan. I snapped the ends off the beans and added those to the pan, followed by the tomato sauce. Stirred them til they were all friendly-like. Then added the herbs and a little salt and pepper. Brought it to a quick boil, then simmered for about 20 minutes -- covered it and let it cook another 20 minutes or so. It was yumma!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Oh yeah... Sloppy Joe Sunday!

So, our youth group is hosting and serving sloppy joes after church tomorrow for lunch! It's a great fundraiser for the kids and inexpensive on all involved! Manwich has nothing on my sloppy joe! =]~

2.5 (or 3) lbs lean, lean, lean ground beef
1/2 - 1 orange pepper, chopped
1/2 - 1 sweet yellow onion, chopped
some garlic
1 1/2 c. Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce
1 can tomato sauce
1 small can tomato paste
some W sauce
some hot sauce
salt & pepper

Drizzle a wee bit of EVOO in a large skillet, add chopped onion, pepper, and however much garlic you feel like adding, I probably used about a tablespoon of minced garlic. Saute for about 5 minutes, then add ground beef and cook until brown all the way through. (Depending on your meat, you may or may not have to drain this. I use the leanest meat possible and only have to do a little tip over the sink to drain a tiny bit off.)

Then, add the tomato sauce and paste, BBQ sauce, splash some W sauce over all the meat, do the same with the hot sauce (but I wouldn't use as much of this as the W sauce! lol)Add salt and pepper... simmer for about 10 minutes until it thickens. Slap it on a roll, or a plate, or whatever your heart desires and enjoy!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Kale? Oh yes, kale!

OK – so kale is that decoration veggie that you see on the side of buffets, right? Oh, sure… we’ve heard that it’s good for you, but who wants to eat garnish?! Well, I did a little investigating, after I bought my first bunch of kale today, to find out the best way to eat it – I mean, should I eat it raw or cooked? I had no idea… So, after seeing numerous “ideas” – I thought I would try steaming it… yeah, yeah – that’s what I’ll do…

So, I washed half the bunch of kale, cut it away from the stem (because apparently that’s really yukkie!), and threw it in a steam basket over some boiling water. I covered it and let it steam for 5 minutes… it was so bright and pretty when it was done. So, I tasted a little piece – not too bad. Hmmm… what else can I do with this… this is what I did, which is all backwards by the way because the idea was forming as I was cooking – I would certainly switch the order about next time.

I heated a skillet with some olive oil, added about ½ chopped onion and some minced garlic, sea salt, and cayenne pepper. Oh yeah, this is good… wait! – I decided I wanted some pasta with it, soooo… I cooked up some whole wheat penne. While that was cooking, I added a can of diced tomatoes into the onions and garlic, and then I tossed in the steamed kale and sautéed it to all levels of delish! Once the pasta was done, I mixed it in with all the veggies – topped it off with some shredded parm cheese and tada!! There was dinner!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Comfort food ground beef style!

With my kidlet getting older and wanting to "hang out" with his friends all the time now, I feel like I am always cooking for one! This makes a lot, but I had dinner tonight... enough for dinner (me and the kidlet) tomorrow and I froze two servings (or so) for my lunches over the next couple of weeks.

1 lb ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
some minced garlic
cayenne pepper
cumin
salt & pepper
1 can cream of chicken (or whatever you like) soup
1 can peas, drained
1 can carrots, drained
1 can corn, drained
1/2 bag frozen, shredded hash browns
about 1 - 1 1/2 c. shredded cheddar

Preheat your oven to 350. Add ground beef, onions, and garlic in a skillet and brown it up. Drain off any excess fat and add it back to the pan. Add in your seasoning, you can use what I used or whatever you prefer... I don't measure, I just throw it on in there... Mix it all up. Add your canned veggies (you can use any you like, or even use frozen - I used what I had on hand) and your can of soup; mix well over medium heat.

Prepare a 13x9 pan with cooking spray. Add about half of the meat mixture in the bottom of the pan, then add a layer of hash browns, and some cheese. Add the rest of the meat mixture on top, then a good handful of cheese (I have big hands!) over the top of the entire dish. Cook for about 45 minutes. Enjoy!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Yummie Chicken!

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
some seasoned bread crumbs
some parmesan cheese
some butter (ruining that perfectly healthy chicken breasts!)
some cooking sherry
oregano
salt & pepper (salt for the breading and both for the noodles)
dehydrated onions (or green onions)

Ok… so here’s what I did and once again, I have no name for this. Put the bread crumbs, a little salt, and parm cheese in a bowl big enough for dipping the chicken, and mix. Melt about ¾ stick of butter in a bowl large enough for dipping also… dip the chicken in the butter, then in the crumbs, and place in an ungreased 9 inch cake pan (square or round, doesn’t really matter). Reserve the unused butter! Bake for about 45 minutes. Now, with the unused butter… mix the sherry (I poured enough to make it “about” ½ cup along with the melted butter), onions and some oregano and when your timer “dings” pour butter mixture over the chicken, which should be fork tender and yummie by now… I didn’t use all of the butter, so don’t feel you need to, discard the rest. Place the chicken back in the oven for about 5 minutes. This will help form a nice crust and warm up that sauce. I served it (to myself) with extra fine egg noodles (I just plopped the chicken on top and got a little bit of the sauce in the pan and spooned it on the noodles) and green beans! Viola!