Eatin' on the Cheap

Happy Cinco de Mayo! I hope everyone is having tacos for dinner tonight to celebrate! I also hope that there is a margarita in your near future. I know that there is with me!
 Me and Jose are like this*.
Well, we used to be. He’s not as nice to me as he used to be.
In honor of Cinco de Mayo here is a seriously kick butt recipe for Salsa Verde. I made it myself. I was trying to recreate the salsa verde I got at a farmer’s market last week and I think I hit the nail on the head.
Salsa Verde. Good on:
chips
tortillas
tacos
sliced pork
burgers
hot dogs
eggs
toast
ice cream
car bumpers

Well, maybe not those last two things, but the rest for sure!
Try not to eat it all in one sitting!

Salsa Verde
1/2 cup cilantro
3-5 tomatillos ( 3 big ones or 5 small ones)
one small onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 serrano peppers, seeded and stemmed

1 avocado
2 t. sugar
1 t. salt

Peel and halve tomatillos.

Put them cut side down on a baking sheet

 and place under a broiler for about 5 minutes.

Place all ingredients in a food processor

and puree.

Chill in the fridge before serving.

Everyone needs a “go-to” dish. Something delicious and satisfying that takes less than 30 minutes to throw together.  Breaded chicken is the answer in my book. Really. What’s better than bread and chicken and maybe a little cheese? Not much. ( At least while the kids are still awake)
Fresh breadcrumbs are a must for baked and breaded chicken. Dry crumbs just aren’t the same. I like to keep the heels of my loaf bread in the freezer just to make breadcrumbs. If you make a big batch of crumbs put them in a zip top bag in the freezer and they’ll always be ready!
So here you go. My “go-to” dish. A meal everyone loves and, more importantly, a meal that comes together quickly and easily.

Ricotta Parmesan Chicken over Spaghetti
1/2 cup lowfat ricotta
1 T milk
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 T dried basil or oregano
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
salt and pepper
8 oz. hot cooked angel hair
1 quart hot marinara sauce

Preheat the oven to 400. Boil your water for the pasta and put your marinara on to warm up.
In a small bowl mix your ricotta and milk together well to thin out the ricotta a little.

Next, pat you chicken dry and arrange them on a baking dish. Spread each breast with a couple tablespoons of ricotta each. Sprinkle each breast with salt, pepper, and dried basil.

Have you ever started “watching what you eat” or “counting calories” and found it a pain in the butt to figure out the nutritional value of that dish you throw together when you are in a hurry? Or just how healthy is Mom’s meatloaf recipe?
This is a problem I have had in the past. I have recipes stuck everywhere in the recesses of my brain but they don’t come with that handy nutritional value label on the side. Not handy when you are trying to shed more than a few pounds but you don’t want to completely revamp the way you eat, shop and cook.
Enter, CookEatShare.
Not only is this a fantastic database of recipes from food bloggers everywhere, but whenever you enter a recipe into their database it gives you the nutritional value of your dish.
Now, I’m sure it’s not 100% accurate, but it’s close enough for me.
They also have a super handy feature that lets us food bloggers enbed a recipe so you ,the reader, can go and print this recipe off easily.
Isn’t that great?
I apologize for not having detailed pictures like usual, but Blogger is being difficult

Chicken Zucchini Pasta

• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 2 yellow squash, sliced
• 2 zucchini, sliced
• 1 T Herbes de Provence
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 T butter
• 1 t. dried basil or 1 T fresh
• 1 T capers
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• salt and pepper
• 10 oz.( half a bag) Hot cooked egg noodles
• Parmesan cheese to serve
• 
  
• Heat butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Toss sliced chicken with 2 T oil and Herbes de Provence salt and pepper. 
•  
• Saute in pan until just cooked through. Remove from pan and set aside. Add squash and zucchini to the pan and cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add in garlic and dried basil ( wait until the end to add fresh basil) and saute for 1 minute. Add in tomatoes and capers. Reduce heat and add chicken back in to the pan. Simmer for 5 minutes. Serve over egg noodles.

The last few days has been nuts.
Just plain nuts.
My husband turned 38 and we threw a little birthday party for him ( blog post coming soon). We had more barbeque than you could shake a stick at. We also had lots of friends and lots of kids and lots of fun. I don’t think the hubby ever thought 38 would be so much fun.
So, the leftovers from this party have been with us since Saturday and we have been living off barbeque, beans and guacamole for the past few days. No body is complaining, but I thought maybe it was time for a change. Variety is the spice of life.
So, this is just about all I could find in my house to cook that went together. Party’s tend to wipe out your food reserves. The dish came out so much better than I expected. The rice has a risotto quality to it. It’s creamy and savory and the peas give it just the right pop of sweetness. It’s a light a filing meal and even my kids ate it, so it has to be good!
Feel free to substitute any kind of frozen veggie for the peas.

Skillet Chicken and Rice with Peas
adapted from The Best Skillet Recipes


4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts ( if they are large, cut them in half like I have done here)
1/2 cup AP Flour
salt and Pepper
2 T vegetable oil
2 T unsalted butter
1 medium onion, minced
1 1/2 cups long grain white rice
3 garlic cloves, minced
pinch of red pepper flakes
41/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup frozen peas

Place the flour in a shallow dish and season with salt and pepper.

Pat chicken dry with a towel and cut in half if necessary

then dredge in the flour mixture. Heat oil in a large skillet.

Add chicken and brown on each side until lightly golden, about 6 minutes.

Set the chicken aside and pour off the fat and then add butter to pan. Add in the onions and a pinch of salt and then saute for about 5 minutes or until softened. ( by the way, does anything smell better than onions cooking in butter? I don’t think so)

Stir in the rice, red pepper flakes, and garlic. Cook for 30 seconds.

Stir in the broth making sure to get all the brown bits off the bottom.

Nestle the chicken back into the pan. Bring to a simmer.

Cover and cook for 10 minutes on medium low heat.

Remove chicken from the pan and cook for another 10 minutes. Add peas to the pan and stir in to heat through.

Serve with the chicken straight from the pan. Enjoy!

I have a little confession. I LOVE tuna patties. Love them. I know. It’s weird, but I can’t help it.
I also love cole slaw and I have been a bit of a cole slaw kick lately. So it seemed natural to me to put those two things together on a bun.
Oh dear, it was such a good idea.
I’m probably going to do it again soon.
The best part about this meal is that it is quick and doesn’t require anything to be defrosted. Canned tuna is always at the ready. It’s super cheap too! Everything you see here for a family of 4 comes out under $5 for the whole meal! Tasty and cheap. It’s hard to beat.

Tasty Tuna Patties
3 cans of tuna in water, drained
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/4 cup diced celery
1 minced garlic clove
1 teaspoon dried dill
1 egg
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
fresh breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
3-4 T of oil for frying
4 Hamburger buns

Mustardy Cole Slaw
1/2 a bag of  cole slaw
1/3 cup lite mayo
2 T. mustard
2 t lemon juice
salt & Pepper
1T sugar

In a bowl mix together all ingredients except breadcrumbs. Add in enough breadcrumbs so that the mixture holds together but isn’t too wet.

Lay out some breadcrumbs on a plate and season with salt and pepper.

Divide mixture into 4 parts and shape each part into a patty. Then gently dredge the patty in the breadcrumbs.

Heat a few tablespoons of oil over medium high heat. Gently place the patties in oil and fry for 3-4 minutes.

Using a spatula and a fork, gently flip the patties over and fry for another couple of minutes. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels.

For the slaw:
Mix together all ingredients and then toss with bagged slaw mix.

Place tuna patty on burger bun and top with cole slaw and ENJOY!

Ok, I’ve got a little secret to tell you. We had our gas cut off the other day. We woke up to nothing. No heat, no hot water and no gas stove. It seems that my gas payment literally got lost in the mail. Oh sure it was a little late anyway, but really I sent the check for the whole thing like 2 weeks ago and they never got it, so Georgia Natural cut us off.
The worst part was that we had invited some people over for dinner that evening and after paying the bill over the phone, we wouldn’t have gas until the next day. Luckily, my hubby had decided to smoke some chicken for dinner and I just had to come up with some sides I could make in the microwave. I also really needed a good appetizer but it couldn’t require heat.
So this dip is what I came up with. It’s a variation on a white bean dip, but I didn’t have any white beans. I did have chickpeas and a jar of roasted bell peppers that I bought in the clearance bin. There is no tahini in this dip, hence the “Pseudo” in the title, but it is delicious all the same.
I threw it all together in my food processor and served it up in a bowl with some crackers… and then forgot to set it out for everyone to enjoy.
So, I am enjoying this dip today with my lunch and I don’t have to share. Which is good, because this is an amazing dip.

Roasted Red Pepper Pseudo Hummus
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup olive oil
Salt &black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 slices of jarred roasted red pepper in oil ( approx. a 1/3 cup)

Put all ingredients into a food processor and blend until pureed. Serve in a dish with crackers, fresh veggies, or pita chips.

 

12 slices of deli ham
1 box of thawed frozen spinach
1 dozen eggs
2 cups of shredded cheese
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Spray muffin tins with cooking spray.
Press a slice of ham into each muffin cup.

Place some spinach into each cup on top of ham.

Add in some cheese to each cup on top of spinach.

Crack an egg on top of each cup and season with salt and pepper.

Bake for 25 minutes or until done!

Serve with fresh fruit and toast!

I’m a little frustrated with the Georgia state school system. Last night, after spending time with the kids putting together their Valentine’s for their class and putting together teacher gift bags, they called school before a single snowflake even fell. And now, here it is 9:20am and there hasn’t been so much as a glimmer of any white stuff. So, I had to break it to my kids this morning that they were not going to school to have an awesome party but they were going to stay home because of snow that isn’t here yet.

They were not happy either.

So, a special breakfast was in order. Like most kids, mine LOVE waffles. I mean they really love waffles. My son in particular can eat 3-4 waffles in one sitting and he’s only 3 years old.
So, I piled everyone in the kitchen and we all made waffles. My Nannie’s waffles.
She gave me the recipe 4 years ago and I have yet to try them until today. I don’t know what I was waiting for because they are fabulous! They are light and fluffy with a crisp outside and chewy inside. Not too sweet and the perfect vessel for some homemade Blueberry Syrup .

Give them a whirl on your next snow day. They will lift your spirits.

Nannie’s Waffles
2 cups AP Flour
1/3 cup Wheat Germ or Oats
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup whole milk
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 eggs, separated
1/4 t. baking soda ( for the egg whites)

Heat up your griddle.
Place egg whites in a mixing bowl along with 1/4 tsp. of baking soda. Beat on high until you get medium peaks.

In a seperate bowl, mix together flour, remaining soda, and wheat germ or oats.

Mix in egg yolks and milks until blended.

Gently fold in egg whites.

Place a ladle full on your hot griddle at a time and cook according to your waffle iron’s specifications.

Serve with butter and syrup.

 

Heat half your oil in a wok over high heat until it starts to smoke( yes, you can use a big skillet, but a wok is much better). Add beef and saute briefly until brown. Do Not Overcook! It should only take 3-4 minutes. Keep the marinade.

 

Simmer for a couple more minutes and sprinkle with cilantro. 

I would like to talk to you about something near and dear to my heart. Cast Iron. I love my cast iron.
It is an unspoken rule of the South that any woman who is about to be married should receive two very important pieces: a deviled egg plate and a cast iron skillet. I got both. Since I have been married I have added a couple pieces to my cast iron repertoire. Another skillet and a cast iron griddle. I love them all.

The advantages to cast iron are bountiful. First and most importantly, even heating. A cast iron pan can heat up quickly and evenly and hold that heat for quiet a long time. Very useful when you are making a grilled cheese sandwich and your children decide now is the time to pee all over the floor. You can turn off the skillet, flip your sandwich and attend to the mess and come back to a perfectly cooked sandwich.

Secondly, a well-seasoned cast iron skillet kicks any non-stick skillet’s butt. You can also use all the metal utensils you want on cast iron. You’re more likely to hurt your utensil before you hurt your skillet.

Lastly, it lasts more than a lifetime. No seriously, you will never have to replace cast iron cookware. Is it rusty? Fine, scrub it with steel wool and re-season. Did your house burn down? I promise that skillet is just fine. You say this was your grandmother’s skillet? Even better! Everyone knows that a cast iron skillet only gets better with age.

Other wonderful benefits of cast iron are wall-art, weaponry, and a healthy dose of iron for your daily diet ( great for preggos!).

The only thing that you should never,ever, ever, ever do to your cast iron cookware is put it in the dishwasher and/or use soap on it. And don’t leave it in a sink full off water either. I remember my very own mother threatening me within an inch of my life should I ever commit the sin of washing her cast iron the wrong way.

Now, I’m sure you thinking that this wonderful piece of cookware probably costs a fortune. Well, I’m here to tell you it doesn’t. You can find cast iron at yard sales and junk stores, but new cast iron comes from South Pittsburg, TN at the Lodge Cast Iron factory. A wonderful place and you should stop by next time on your way through. They have a room in the back full of “seconds”. Piles and piles of cast iron cookware for dirt cheap. Not a thing wrong with them. My kind of place.

So anyway, now that I have filled your head full of cast iron sweetness, let me show you how to make one of my favorite childhood dishes in a cast iron skillet. Fried Apples.

Fried Apples
3 T. butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 t. cinnamon
3 tart apples

First slice and peel your apples. They should be about 1/4″ – 1/2″ wide.

Next, melt the butter in a cast iron skillet over medium heat.

Add apples and cover. Cook for 5 minutes.

Remove lid and stir. Add in sugar and cinnamon.

Re-cover and cook for another 5 minutes.

Kill the heat, remove the lid and stir. Remove from pan and let cool for a few minutes before serving. Perfect by itself, on top of ice cream and car bumpers.

I don’t know what has gotten in to me . I have written 3 blog posts in the last 24 hours. I have also done 4 loads of laundry, cleaned out 2 closets, cleaned the kitchen…twice, cooked breakfast, lunch AND dinner, scrubbed toilets, and called my mother. I must be sick.

Domestic productivity is not one of my strong points and it’s one of the things I want to work on this year. While I don’t expect to be Little-Miss-Neat-Nick by the end of the year, I hope to be able to receive guests, without embarrassment, in our home at any time. Unfortunately, explaining this strategy to two 3 year olds is a whole other challenge.

All this, of course, has nothing to do with Tomato Bean Salad, except maybe that I made it today after being productive and remembering there was a huge pot of beans in the garage fridge I really needed to use. I would also like to say that this is my favorite kind of salad…the kind with no lettuce in it.

I am not fond of lettuce. I like it on my burgers or sandwiches, or as a garnish to a nice plate of Bar-B-Q, but in general I do not like lettuce. Oh sure, you hand me a fried chicken salad and I will tear it up, but that really defeats the whole purpose of a salad. For me the problem with a big, healthy salad is not the taste or the texture, it’s that I simply get sick of chewing long before I ever get full. Now a bean salad, there’s a good answer to the problem. Healthy, filling, tasty, and easy to chew. I am a genius.

Tomato and White Bean Salad

3T olive Oil
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 1/2 T lemon juice
10 oz. grape tomatoes
1 can white beans drained, or 2 cups cooked white beans, warmed
handful chopped basil
2 T chopped parsley
S&P

Whisk together oil, lemon juice, onion and garlic.
Halve the grape tomatoes
and add them along with parsley and basil,
Then gently stir in beans
Serve warm, cold or room temperature!

Here it is…crunch time. The day after tomorrow is Christmas and the excitement in the air is nearly palpable. The tree is trimmed, the turkey is thawed, the gifts are…

CRAP! GIFTS! I forgot to get a gift for my neighbor/cousin/UPS guy/hairdresser/random person at my door!

I need something quick, something that doesn’t require a trip to a store. Food! I am NOT baking another confection today. A MIX! PERFECT! Mason jar, pretty fabric, clever tag, VOILA!

Whew….

Merry Christmas!

Chunky Chocolate Cookie Mix
recipe from Gooseberry Patch Christmas Book 3

1 1/4 c. AP Flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2t. salt
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1/3 c. sugar
1 1/3 cup chocolate chunks
1 c. chopped pecans ( these are optional, I didn’t use them I just added more chocolate )

Blend together flour, soda, and salt. Spoon into bottom of wide mouth Mason jar, press down well. Layer on the remaining ingredients in the order given, packing tightly after each layer.

Attach these instructions:
2/3 c. butter, softened
1 egg
1 t. water
1/2 t. vanilla extract

Cream together butter, water, and vanilla. Add cookie mix and blend well. Drop by spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 7-10 minutes. Makes about 3 dozen.
P.S. You can find Gooseberry Patch Books everywhere, even the library. If you can’t find this one and would like this tag for your mix send me an email and I will send it to you friend to friend. Out of respect for Gooseberry Patch, I won’t post it here.

This week is turning out to be one of those weeks when I am very thankful for the stash of groceries in my garage and kitchen. The craft show that I had been working and preparing for for several weeks was severely affected by not only the nation’s economy, but also torrential downpours. So, money this month is a little tighter than usual so some creative cooking is in order. Lucky for us, I have a pretty wide variety of food stuffs and a pretty deep condiment shelf.
Anywhoo, I wanted to use some canned tuna but really wanted something different. I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com for Asian Tuna Patties and added a few ingredients to give it a more rounded flavor. I have to say that these are REALLY good. I recommend using the pouch tuna if you can ( it’s less fishy to me). If you only have canned tuna, give it a quick rinse first. I used both and it turned out great. I served this over rice with steamed broccoli and topped everything with a liberal drizzle of soy sauce and toasted sesame seeds. The dinner came in at around $4.50 for the whole meal. Cheap, tasty, quick and fairly healthy… Perfect.

2 cans of tuna , drained and flaked
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/2 onion minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T soy sauce
1 1/2 T teriyaki sauce
1 T ketchup
1 t. sesame oil
1 t. pepper
1 t. red pepper flakes
1 T grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup oil

steamed rice and broccoli
extra soy sauce
toasted sesame seeds.

Mix all ingredients except cornmeal and oil in a large bowl. Form into 6 patties and sprinkle both sides with cornmeal. Heat oil until shimmering. Gently place patties in oil to fry. Fry 2-3 minutes on each side. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Serve on top of rice and broccoli. Drizzle with soy sauce and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

It has been a while since I have posted anything. My life has suddenly become a whirlwind, but in a good way. All the little side businesses that I have been working on have become much busier and I welcome the work and the money. Unfortunately, my cooking has really fallen by the wayside. I haven’t actually cooked anything in weeks. My husband has been really getting into smoking meat recently so my fridge is constantly full of pulled pork, smoked chicken thighs, smoked meatballs, smoked sausages, smoked…well you get the idea. He did not smoke the Italian sausages in the fridge so I needed to use them up. These roll-ups were perfect for me and the kids. These would also be great as appetizers or as a dish to take to a party. The mustard/garlic sauce is awesome and would probably make a car bumper taste good. Ol’ Micheal Chiarello knows how to make a sausage, even if he is kind of a douche. ( did you see that episode of Top Chef:Masters? Umm…wow)

Sausage in Carrozza
a Micheal Chiarello recipe

6 spicy or sweet Italian sausages
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for brushing
10 whole garlic cloves
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 can store bought pizza dough

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a saucepan add 1/2-inch water to the pan. Immerse sausages in water and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove sausage and dry the pan. Return to the heat and add the olive oil on medium heat. When hot return the sausage to the pan with garlic cloves and saute until medium brown all over. Remove garlic to a bowl. Remove sausage to a plate to cool. Use a fork to mash the garlic with salt and pepper. Stir in mustard and set aside.

Cut each piece of dough into 2 and roll out until 1/4-inch thick. Cut 6 pieces of dough about 3 inches wide and 1/2-inch shorter then the length of sausage, just enough to wrap around sausage with the ends peeking out. Spread bottom of each dough with a tablespoon of garlic/mustard paste. Set sausage on top, moisten 1 dough edge with a wet finger so it sticks together and roll. Press the seam firmly and set them on a lightly floured sheet pan, seam side down. Brush with olive oil. Bake until brown all around.

Remove and let cool for 5 minutes. Cut into 3/4-inch long pieces and serve.