When a plan comes together...

Trying to pull together a meal I landed on rye bread and chicken, maybe a chicken sandwich.  With Jacques in my head, I decided to try an open-faced burger, he had done one with salmon the night before. A bit of crusty bread, a dash of milk, cilantro, onion, and a chicken breast, all tossed in the food processor. After forming the party I pit it in the fridge to set. Thinking of another Jacques recipe I tossed some grape tomatoes into a pan with some hot oil and crushed garlic, as they began to break I tossed in some water and let them mixture thicken up. A dash of salt and some fresh basil finished off the sauce. A sear and steam for the burger and I was ready for assembly.
Pan toasted marbled rye, soft chicken burger, smother in tomato basil sauce, finish with feta.
I love it when a plan come together!

Freezing Foods, My latest obsession!

I think I may have talked about freezing food when I posted about budgeting and coupons before.  I have done a lot more freezing since then that I wanted to share.

CHICKEN - I eat a lot of chicken, I like that you can flavor it easily and it is used in lots of ethnic cooking. It is honestly much cheaper than beef, and that is the biggest reason I use it a lot.  I recently bought roughly 9 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast.  The following are the three ways I prepared and froze my chicken.
Breasts - I usually wrap my breasts individually then bag them for freezing.  I have been thinking of how much waste this creates.  So this time I cut the chicken into my portioned sizes, and placed them on my Silpat to freeze for a bit, then I just placed them in two bags.  The pre-bagging freezing prevents major sticking to each other in the freezer.  I defrost these by dropping in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes, the 4 oz portions thaw quickly.
Chopped - Some of the chicken I chopped into bite size chunks. These I sauteed and portioned into freezer bags.  These I will use when I am throwing together something healthy, but don;t have a lot of time, salad, pasta, curry.
Restaurant Shredded -I just started freezing the cooked shredded chicken and it is AWESOME!  For this batch I threw some chicken in the crock pot on low with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a few bay leaves, then covered with water.  The next morning I woke up to a delicious smell.  The first time I did this I took the chicken out and attacked it with two forks, this time I used a post from Pinterest.  I took the piping hot chicken and put all 5 large breasts in the bowl of the Kitchen Aid, added the paddle attachment, and turned it on medium-low for 10 seconds.  This is not an exaggeration, in 10 seconds my chicken was shredded, a little over-shredded to be truthful, should have gone slower.  But this is what it looked like.

I have frozen some of this in my muffin tray, with a touch of water.  It is great for quick easy portions for lunch.  I have thawed and mixed up a lunch serving of chicken salad, BBQ chicken, and buffalo chicken.  This is also easy to add to a fast soup.  LOVE IT!!!

PRODUCE/OTHER
Herbs - Cilantro sometimes goes bad in my fridge.  It shouldn't because I love it in lots of dishes, but sometimes I buy too much or forget I have it.  I have made cilantro cubes!  Cilantro chopped or pureed with a bit of water or olive oil, then frozen.  I have dropped this in beans as they cook up for refried beans, thaw and drop in the blender in salsas, or add to a curry for a bright finish.  This would be great for fresh basil in your winter pasta sauces, or for freezing pesto.
Lemons - Freeze your lemons after squeezing for zest later, just toss in the microwave for a few seconds and zest away! Also can add to sauces, especially a braise, so good subtle citrus!

Tomatillos - Do you use tomatillos?!  I love these little guys!  But I don't always use them fast enough, or need that much salsa.  So I have started peeling and washing these gems when I get home, toss them in a bag in the freezer.  I pull them out as I need them, defrost in the microwave, and toss in the blender with a couple cilantro cubes, add a half can of diced tomatoes and chiles, and you have a fast easy homemade salsa!
Coconut Milk - I love to make Indian inspired dishes, but cooking for one, I do not need a whole can of coconut milk.  I normally can get three uses out of a can, one in the pan, and two in bags in the freezer.
Canned Beans - Same as above, but I usually do half a can in a bag.  A warning is that beans lose some texture in the freezer, so I tend to use the frozen ones in soups or to make re fried beans.
Tomatoes - Toss diced tomatoes in a freezer bag for soups or pasta.  I also love this method for tomato paste, when frozen flat in bags, I just pull out and toss in warm pasta sauce and it thickens it right up.
Broth/Stock -  A tip for homemade broth and stock, after cooking chicken in a crock pot you can add a mirepoix mix to the broth and cook it a few more hours.  Strain out everything for stock, or puree the veggies to make a gravy.  I then pour this in muffin trays and freeze (you could use ice cube trays).  Less waste and easy to add to homemade soups.

Lastly, I am trying to do some premade smoothie mixes, I will update how it goes.


I hope some of this was helpful!

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

Laurie has been very busy this semester, and struggling to eat decent food when she is just too tired to cook when she gets home.  We go the idea to make Mini Chicken Pot Pies.  So one Saturday morning we mixed up a quick batch of Easy Flaky Pie Crust (This really was easy.  Flour, oil, milk, salt. Not sure I would use it for an actual pie, but it was fast and easy for our purpose.)  On the stove we made up a gravy packet using broth, added frozen peas and carrots, then some shredded chicken.
Cutting circles out with a bowl, we pressed them into the muffin pan, filled the cup, and just folded over the top to make a lazy top crust. 

Obviously we didn't make enough to fill the whole pan.

 Then into the oven at 425' until golden brown.
Pull them out, let them cool.

 Once they were completely cooled, we placed them into freezer bags. and tossed them into the freezer.  Laurie defrosted two at a time, and had quick, homemade, healthy, portion controlled dinner.  I am so glad we tried this!

Gone with the Wind Viewing Party - Southern Comfort Food!!!

I have two dear friends that had never seen Gone With the Wind.  So I got the brilliant idea to invite them over for a viewing party, which naturally would involve food.  In order to get some ideas, I went to the queen of Southern comfort cooking for recipes, the estimable Ms. Paula Deen.

So I built a menu:
"Fried" Chicken
Crab Hush Puppies
Steamed Green Beans
Rosemary Buttermilk Mashed Taters
Buttermilk Biscuits
Milk Gravy
Berry Dumplings

I will go through them one by one.


Fried Chicken:
I wanted to do a Baked "Fried" Chicken, since we were deep frying the hush puppies.

If you use the foil and a wire rack you will get a better crisp on the bottom, but turning them over in the last five minutes would make it even crispier.

Pound the breasts thin so they will cook quickly, about 1/2" thickness.  Dip in milk then dredge in a mix of panko, Parmesan, and seasoning. Bake at 400' for about 30 minutes.

Crab Hush Puppies:

Last two times I attempted deep frying I had explosions, and one friend still bears the scars.  So here we are three or more years later, and I have invested in a fry thermometer.  I figured this would help me at least try to follow directions, which I figure is important for 350' oil staying in the pot and not on my skin.

When I found Paula's recipe I fell in love.  I used surimi instead of real crab (I don't have that kind of money), added some Old Bay seasoning, and went for it.  I used her suggestion of dipping the spoon in water before scooping the dumplings, so easy and no build up on the spoon.

Paula's dumplings are perfectly round balls of batter.  To do this you just roll the spoonful in your hands.  I preferred the odd blobs, more crispy surfaces.

DON'T THESE LOOK SO YUMMY?!?!

THEY WERE!!!

 Steamed Dill Green Bean and Rosemary Buttermilk Mashed Taters:
 You can see the steamed beans in the DeMarle in the foreground of this picture.  I steamed them with a bit of dill and butter.  I used red potatoes, boiled with a bouquet garni of rosemary and a bit of thyme.  I left the skins on and small chop, after boiling I did a rough mash and added some butter milk for creaminess.  The taters are in the middle of the picture, in another DeMarle Round.

Buttermilk Biscuits:
 Laurie was in charge of making these since I rarely bake.  All those precise measurements bug me.  ;)  These biscuits were so yummy with some of Laurie's mom's homemade raspberry jam!

Milk Gravy:
Drippin's... the key to any good milk gravy is drippin's.  I cooked the bacon for the hush puppies in this pot and left the drippin's here.  Making a milk gravy is a simple process, I have made it with sausage and chipped beef before... so yummy!

Berry Dumplings:
I love a dumpling!  The soft biscuit that soaks up the flavors of whatever you steam it in, *licks lips*.  I did not follow Paula's recipe, just took guidelines from it.  I tossed some frozen mixed berries in a pan with some honey and water.  I allowed them to make a decent syrup. 

Using Paula's measurements halved, dropped the biscuit batter and put a lid on the pot.  The dumplings puffed up and steamed beautifully!  I made some fresh whipped cream for on top.

This is Laurie and I with our Southern meal!!!

(We look dumb with our hands in the air, but we are doing the sign for "South")

P.S. Laurie and Ginny liked the meal and the movie!

MINI Deep Dish Pizzas

I am sure you think I eat this deep dish stuff too much!  If you haven't made this recipe for pizza crust (which you can use for almost anything), I highly encourage you to do it!
We made pizza the other day, the recipe yields enough for two pizzas.  So I ended up with the dough screaming for me in the fridge.  I wondered if I could use my Demarle muffin pan to make mini pizzas.  Turns out you can!  The half yield of dough made 8 mini deep dishes.  Because I was experimenting I used various fillings.  Leftover pasta sauce, pepperoni, chicken, Caesar dressing, onions, Parmesan cheese.  Everyone was delicious!  My favorite was actually one with sliced onions and a dab of butter.  They would be great vegetarian appetizers.

I look forward to trying different fillings and other kinds of crusts and such!

Easy Chinese? POT STICKERS!

I love Chinese food, but high sodium and deep fried aren't waist or wallet friendly options.  I bought a wok a while back and actually followed a recipe for stir fry, which turned out great; and when plugged into a calorie counter, didn't break my daily count.  So, I have been cruising for other Chinese recipes.  I figured something steamed would be great, but I needed something packed with flavor. 
I used my Epicurious app to find Asian main dishes.  Pot stickers jumped out at me.  So I read a bunch of the recipes, seemed fairly uncomplicated, and pretty healthy.  (Tip: When making a new recipe read more than one version and the recipes reviews.  Sometimes a direction that is unclear in one recipe is cleared in another, or someone can review it and tell you what they used in a pinch to substitute a missing pantry supply.)  I used mainly the recipe from this recipe, and the prep directions from this recipe. 

 

 

Chicken Pot Sticker Filling

Here are the accommodations I made for the recipe.  I halved the recipe.  I didn't have ground meat on hand (I rarely do), so I finely diced some chicken (maybe it was minced?).  This is easiest if your chicken breast is slightly frozen, I used a 5 oz piece of chicken breast.  I also didn't have cabbage, so I used kale.  Also, didn't have carrots, I just left that out.  Since the recipe called for a half egg, I made the liquid whole recipe and just poured in half.  No sesame oil, just used toasted sesame seeds and olive oil.  Half an egg?  Just used the egg white.  I used wonton wrappers, the small square size.

Don't overfill these, they will shrink

1 1/2 tsp of filling, top and half of each side to seal

Keeping them covered with a damp towel keeps them from drying out

This is how many half of this recipe makes.

All DONE!!! Steamed and ready!

Beautiful Crispy Bottom

 

 

 

This makes enough for two people.

And that is about 300 calories per person!

The second time I made these I served them with the frozen steamable rice, so easy and fast.

When you are cooking these just stick to the times in the recipe, even if it feels too long.
























I will for sure be making them many more times!!!
They smell and taste like good Chinese, not fast food Chinese.
YUMMMMMMMM...

Have fun making them!!!

THE BEST MEAL I EVER COOKED (so far)

If I was someone else, and had made this for me, I would have fallen in love with me.  I am NOT kidding.  This was yummy, amazing, multi-faceted, in your face, subtle, sweet, spicy, warm, comforting, delicious food.  I made Indian spiced chicken with apple-mango chutney.  I was browsing my Betty Crocker IPod app (I love the recipes in this!), and found this recipe for Indian Spiced Chicken and Chutney.  I cut the recipe in half and threw together the marinade on Sunday night.  Of course, being Sunday and last minute, I made alterations to compensate for what I was missing.  First, I used plain Greek yogurt, next, no coriander (oh yeah, I forgot I was going to put it on my shopping list) I used turmeric, and I just omitted the cloves.  I was planning on making this Monday night, but I ended up changing plans and didn't make this til Tuesday.  I wonder if it was even more amazing because of the extra marinating time.  That yogurt sure makes the marinade.  I grilled this in my cast iron grill pan (which thanks to asking my Dad, instead of the internet, does not smoke and is now well seasoned).  The turmeric made the chicken a beautiful yellow (don't get it on your counters, it WILL stain).

You may note in the recipe it says to buy canned mango chutney.  I checked it out in the store, at least $5 for a smaller jar.  For about that much I can make my own and have the experience of making it!  Can I tell you how many recipes there are for mango chutney online?  I wasn't sure how to proceed?  So many recipes, so many spices I didn't have and was completely unfamiliar with!  I finally settled on a pretty basic one from Epicurious (on their app too).  I roughly halved this recipe.  I used two small apples, one large mango, half of everything else, some extra curry powder, dash of red pepper flakes and more cinnamon for the nutmeg.  Oh and regular raisins too.  The recipe directions are for canning the chutney.  I just simmered it covered for about 30 minutes, til it looked like a preserve.  It almost smells like Christmas while it is simmering away.  I thought it was a weird combo, wasn't even sure I would like it. 

Indian Spiced Chicken and Apple-Mango Chutney on Whole Wheat Noodles

I know I should have put it on rice, but I loved it on noodles.  The chicken was SO moist and flavorful.  The chutney was spicy and sweet at the same time.  The spicy didn't get hotter as you ate, it just... was.  Five minutes after eating it there was no spicy aftertaste.  I had the leftovers for lunch the next day, still awesome!
I have to say I was mightily impressed with myself.  I have some chutney in the fridge, it is sounding really good for lunch tomorrow. 
भारतीय भोजन स्वादिष्ट है

In a Hurry, Chicken Curry

Okay, lame name, I know!

I haven't cooked anything lately.  Leftovers, sandwiches, and basic easy meals have been the fare.  So tonight I wanted something different, but not a long cooking process.  I went to my YGS favorites recipe list and found a chicken curry recipe that I altered for myself.   I used one large chicken breast, a small onion, half the garlic, and fresh tomatoes.  I normally use the canned ones, like the recipe calls for, but I had a couple tomatoes getting old.  I just used one large tomato, diced.  This called for dredging and frying the chicken beforehand.  But I like to forgo frying, especially when the meat will be cooking in a savory liquid.  I followed the directions for sweating the garlic and onions, added the curry, and then the diced tomatoes (and a little water). I let the tomatoes cook for about 5 minutes, covered, then added the chicken in bite size pieces.  Cover on and simmer for 15 minutes, then uncovered for 5 more.  Pour into bowl and enjoy!!! 
If I could let everything simmer in the oven for an hour, I would add some potatoes and carrots to the mixture.  If you don't love a strong curry flavor the best way to dial it down is to add some Greek yogurt, to add a cooling creaminess.  I want to try making naan soon, but I just ate it with a Flatout Wrap.  Great thick flavorful wrap.  (I know Walmart sells fresh made naan, if I knew I was doing curry tonight I would have grabbed some on my way home.) 
स्वादिष्ट  or  Svādiṣṭa