Dinner for dummies.

Recently, I've been chastised for my culinary wonders being too difficult.  Although, I think you'll come up with any excuse not to cook, here it is: dinner for dummies.  The catch is, it's not going to look or taste like it was a breeze.  It's going to be a flavor explosion and your diners will sing your praises.

I'm going to call these "Microwave Enchiladas."  The beauty of this is, I used loads of frozen foods that you probably would already have hiding in your freezer.

For example, I ALWAYS keep a bag of frozen chicken tenderloins in the freezer.  I prefer the tenderloins over the breast because they are small, easy to work with, quick to defrost, and better to portion for one person.  However, the breasts would be perfectly acceptable as well.

I threw 3 tenderloins in the microwave for around 1 1/2 minutes to thaw them out.  Then, I cut them into small chunks with a pair of kitchen scissors.

Next, I used frozen chopped spinach, frozen brown rice, and corn.  I just so happened to have corn on the cob, so I removed the kernels with a paring knife; however, frozen corn would have been perfect.

This is so quick and easy you don't even have to cook rice!  This is a perfect example of a healthful way to utilize convenience foods.  Frozen fruits and vegetables provide the same benefits as their fresh counterparts.  Buying precooked frozen brown rice is more expensive than buying a bag of uncooked brown rice, but, for many, time is money.  So, you decide.  Which is worth more?

I drizzled approximately 2 tbsp. olive oil in a hot saute pan and tossed in the thawed, diced chicken.  I sprinkled it with salt and pepper and stirred it around, allowing it to cook for about 2 minutes.  Next, I added in the frozen rice, spinach, and corn.  I didn't thaw them.  I poured in a bit straight out of each bag.  I added in  about 1/4 cup salsa and allowed everything to heat through.

Note:  I saute everything at home with oil.  I rarely use butter.  Oils are a heart healthy substitute when cooking.  I buy a large can of olive oil for around $14 and it lasts for months. Splurge for the bulk version and you'll save.   However, olive oil is a more expensive oil.  You can cook with less expensive vegetable oil, or canola oil and get the same results.  

In the meantime, in a separate pan, I browned two tortillas.  I love using the uncooked tortillas.  You just quickly brown them in a hot pan and they taste fresh and homemade!  You could definitely use already cooked tortillas as well.  In my grocery store, the uncooked tortillas are refrigerated by the lunch meats and sliced cheeses.  There is a section with fresh salsa, mexican cheese, chorizo, and tortillas.

I scooped the filling into the now cooked tortillas, sprinkled in some Mexican blend shredded cheese, and rolled them up.  Next, I whisked together, some non fat sour cream, and roasted green salsa; approximately 1/4 cup of each.  I poured this sauce over the top and microwaved for 1 1/2 minutes. 

This delicious and nutritious lunch/dinner took around 10 minutes to prepare and used easy to find ingredients that you may already have.  

For dessert, I made some fresh whipped cream and served it with fresh berries.  There is NO substitute for real whipped cream.  It takes very little effort to whip it up with some powdered sugar until stiff.  

Mix one of these up with about 3 tbsp. powdered sugar in a electric mixer.  If you want to work on your biceps, you can do it by hand with a whisk.  Whenever whipping cream or eggs, it helps to start with a cold bowl.  Throw a metal mixing bowl in the fridge to chill while you are getting organized.  

Fresh whipped cream is a scrumptious way to dress up any fresh fruit.

This is a super easy meal you can be proud of and feel good about eating.  It provides a rainbow of colors for consumption and represents all of the food groups!  Of course, the microwave enchiladas could be filled with anything your heart desires: canned beans, cilantro, bell peppers, asparagus, onions, and more. 

What do you think?

Flavors of fall

I wish you could enjoy the wafts of roasting chicken creeping into my office from my kitchen...

The sky is gloomy and lugubrious.  The temperature is in the 60's and fall is just starting to arrive in Las Vegas.  I've spent the better part of today sipping coffee and enjoying my open windows.  I think it's fair to say that fall is my favorite season.  I prefer the comfortable weather, comforting foods, and promise of the holidays on the horizon.  

In the spirit of embracing the new season, I've been cooking delectable things this week.  I quickly put away all of my basket produce a few days ago.  I was thinking about what I was going to do with my fabulous new ingredients.  I had planned on whipping up a roasted cauliflower soup, so I went to the store for the additional ingredients.  When I came home and got to work, I realized I had moronically mistaken a head of iceberg lettuce for a head of cauliflower.  Well, crap! Now the basis for my whole meal was nonexistent.  Never fear! I decided to not let this teenie weenie obstacle evade my soup plans.

I chopped up about 5 new potatoes, about 20 baby carrots, and 2 stalks of celery.  I tossed all the veggies with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted them at 425 until softened and slightly browned; about 1 hour.  In the meantime, I crisped up some bacon bits in a saute pan.

I thinly sliced a shallot, separated the rings, and tossed them in some flour seasoned with salt and pepper.  I sifted off all of the excess flour, and flash fried the shallots in the remaining bacon fat. 

I took all the roasted veggies out of the oven and blended them up with 1 pint of heavy cream, 1 can of chicken broth, and 3-4 cups of water.  I poured the pureed mixture into a pot and heated through on low heat.  I served the cream of potato, carrot, and celery soup with my crispy garnishes sprinkled on top and a slice of sourdough garlic bread. 

This soup was delectable!  Luckily, I was in the comfort of my own home and could like the inside of my bowl clean.    

You could use this method to make any kind of creamy vegetable soup.  Cauliflower would have been excellent (if I had any).  Other choices include parsnip, asparagus, broccoli, squash, or a combination like I chose.  The carrots really added a nice sweetness to this rendition.  

Today, I decided to roast a whole chicken.  I picked up two chickens for $10 while at the grocery store.  Buying a whole chicken is way more cost effective than buying just breasts, just thighs and so on.  In addition, if you make time on your day off to roast a whole chicken, you can use it throughout the week in a myriad of applications.  

I decided to stuff my chicken.  I diced up sourdough bread, and pears.

  

I took a major shortcut and purchased frozen, diced butternut squash.  

I mixed these three ingredients together with dried thyme, basil, rosemary, 1/2 stick melted butter, and salt and pepper.

I took the giblets out from inside the chicken and boiled them in about 1 cup of water. 

When cooked, about 10 minutes, I minced up the the giblets and added them to my stuffing.  Then, I poured the boiling liquid over the stuffing to moisten.  

I stuffed all this goodness inside the chicken, and placed it in a roasting pan.  I liberally seasoned the chicken with salt and black pepper and squeezed two lemons over the top.  I tucked the lemon halves in the pan and put it in the oven at 400.  

How long? People always ask.  Well, the answer is, "until it is done!"  This chicken took about 2 hours.  I raised the temperature to 425 for the last 30 minutes.  How do you know if it's done? You use a thermometer.  No fancy tricks here.  Stick a probe thermometer into the middle of the chicken; you are looking for 165.  

If it reaches 160, you can pull it out, and it will finish carry over cooking while you make your sauce.  Remove the chicken from the baking dish and pour the juice in the bottom into a small saute pan.  I added about 1/2 cup water, swirled it around and poured that into the pan too.  Whisk together 1 tablespoon cornstarch and a splash of water.  This is called a slurry; and it is one way to thicken a sauce.  Bring the juice to a boil and whisk in the slurry to thicken.  Allow the gravy to boil again while whisking.  

Plate up some chicken and stuffing and squeeze the baked lemon halves over the top.  Serve with gravy drizzled on top.  

"Fall" in love with boring ole' chicken all over again.  This was delightful.  The lemon really brightens up the whole meal.  You can use whatever you like inside your stuffing: apples, cranberries, potatoes, old bread, and more.  

And the best part...now you have loads of cooked, ready to eat chicken to use for the rest of the week.  You can make sandwiches, casseroles, chicken salad, anything your chicken heart desires.  

What are your favorite fall dishes?  Is there something you are looking forward to cooking this season?  

Out with the old, In with the new

Just got back from a much needed jog after a week of vacation binge eating and drinking.  We did make some fabulous things while I was galavanting the globe.  Sad to say, everyhting was consumed at record speed and there are no photographs to prove the existence. 

We were relaxing up at my Auntie Nancy's lakeside estate.

She has a spectacular garden with an abundance of herbs and vegetables.  In an effort to feed ourselves before the daunting 2 hour trip back to the big city of Chicago, we decided on BLEFGTs.  Whatever am I talking about?...you may ask.  A snappy new version of the time honored sandwich the BLT.  We added flair, of course, and had bacon, lettuce, egg, and fried green tomatoes on ours.  Boy oh boy, did our creativity pay off! 

In this scenario, it certainly helped that we were able to pluck the green tomatoes fresh just steps outside of the door.  In the meantime, I layed the bacon strips, 2 per person, on a baking sheet and placed them in the oven at 350.  I turned them over once, about half way through.  This is really the cleanest way to cook nice crispy bacon.  We sliced the green tomatoes thin.  Note: green tomatoes are much firmer than a red tomato.  You may not think they are ready to eat; but they are.  Next, we utilized the standard breading procedure.  The standard breading procedure should be used when breading anything: fish, chicken, eggplant, zucchini, and so on. 

You will need three vessels; a shallow, bowl, pie tin, or something comparable works best.  In the first dish, place flour seasoned with salt and pepper.  In the second dish, whisk up eggs with a dash of water.  In the third dish, you place your breading.  This can be the usual breadcrumbs, or panko, or something wild like corflakes or crushed crackers.  Carfeully coat your item to be breaded in each dish. Shake off excess flour, then cover with egg, then coat evenly with breading. Try your best to designate a wet hand and a dry hand so you don't ened up with stubby club fingers. 

We then browned our tomatoes in a saute pan with olive oil.  I toasted some english muffins brushed with butter in the oven, then topped them with the bacon, an overeasy egg, crisp romaine, and the hot fried green tomatoes.  Bon appetite! What a yummy brunch item.  I highly reccomend giving it a whirl and sneaking these extra veggies into your morning meal. 

The day we returned, my cousin blew into town on business so I wanted to cook a tasty lunch before his flight home.  After I racked my brain, I developed the idea to make tuna potato cakes.  Kinda like a crab cake, kinda like potato pancake; call it what you will; I call it easy and delicious!  In addition, you may just already have all of these items at home.

I shredded up three potatoes on the box grater, and squeezed out all the excess water.  I mixed them up with three cans of tuna, diced celery, diced red onion, , 2 eggs, salt and pepper, and 1/2 cup flour.  I formed them into cakes and browned them in olive oil.  In a seperate bowl, I whisked up sour cream, mayonnaise, lemon zest, lemon juice, thyme, and salt and pepper to make a creamy lemon herb drizzle.

I layed the cakes out on a platter and drizzled them with the sauce.  It looked lovely and they dissapeared quickly.  This is a perfect way to jazz up cheap ingredients.  Crab is expensive; tuna is cheap.  It can still be awesome!  Just elevate it with presentation, some fresh tasting citrus, and herbs, and voila!  Of course, you could add or remove things from these cakes.  Bell peppers, green onions, and parsley would be nice.  You could use celery root, or parsnip in place of the potato, or, no potato at all. 

These are two examples of old recipes or classics revamped to make something fabulous and new.  You probably have something in your repetoire that you could add one or two ingredients to and surprise everyone.  What are some classic recipes that you would like to see reworked?  Any ideas but don't know where to start?

Snazzy side dishes

We just got our second bountiful basket last weekend.  

http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/ 

This time around, we got potatoes, spinach, lettuce, celery, plums, grapes, mangoes, pears, nectarines, corn and bananas all for $15.

 

Are you tired of eating the same 5 to 10 meals on repeat?  I know I am....even as a chef, my repertoire becomes redundant from time to time.  Immediately, I had to get clever to figure out how we were going to use all this stuff up!  Making do with what you have is an instant catalyst for creative cooking.  For my first snazzy side, I decided to make potato pancakes.  Potato pancakes are a delicious way to serve potatoes and get away from the usual routine.  Start by shredding the potatoes on a box grater.

Sprinkle the shredded potatoes with kosher salt to draw out all the water.  In the meantime, mince up red onion, celery, and garlic.

Squeeze all the extra moisture out of the shredded potatoes and place in a mixing bowl with celery, onions, and garlic.  Mix together with 1 egg and 1/4 cup flour.  Season with pepper, and thyme.  

Heat some olive oil in a large saute pan and form mixture into patties; fry until crispy on each side.

Serve warm garnished with sour cream.

In this rendition, I used celery because that's what  I had available.  These are also really good with shredded zucchini in the mix or with the potatoes by themselves.  I sauteed up the fresh spinach with garlic, salt and pepper and grilled off some New York Steaks rubbed with lavender seasoning. A lovely summer meal!

Nearly everyone on earth loves fresh sweet summer corn.  Since the bountiful basket delivered up 5 ears, I knew I could whip up a snazzy side.  This idea came from a popular Mexican treat of having corn on the cob brushed with mayonnaise and then sprinkled with chili powder, lime juice, and cotija cheese.  Well, this method produces and extremely delicious and extremely messy corn on the cob.  I decided to bake it as a casserole to keep the mess down.

First, husk the corn, and grill it until slightly charred. 

Let it cool, and carefully remove the kernels from the cob by shaving them off with a knife.  Stir up the kernels with mayonnaise, sour cream, lime juice, chipotle powder, and cotija cheese.  Pour into a baking dish, top with panko and bake until heated through and bread crumbs have browned.  Panko is a Japanese style breadcrumb with a light flake style texture.  You could make this dish with frozen or canned corn but the charred flavor from grilling the fresh cobs really adds something.

I served this up with some grilled chicken thighs and it was zesty and scrumptious. 

You could add a million things to this roasted corn casserole: bacon, cilantro, and peppers are the first to come to my mind.  Get clever with your side dishes and don't get stuck doing the same ole' same ole.'

What are your favorite side dishes?  Is there a main course item that you're not sure what to accompany it with?

Mix up breakfast

Breakfast can be the most difficut meal of the day, in my opinion.  Often, it is hard to create a delcious and balanced meal early in the morning.  Maybe it's just a struggle for those of us who work at night...

You may or may not have seen the new plan for Americans, replacing the old "food guide pyramid," and "my pyramid," the "my plate."

http://www.choosemyplate.gov/

Basically, "My Plate" suggests that half of your plate should be occupied by fruits and vegetables.  More often than not, breakfast becomes solely a carbohydrate fest: waffles, toast, cereal, fruit, and so on. 

Blending can be a great way to incorporate some things you wouldn't usually have in the morning and it provides a quick portable solution. Last year, we received an awesome blender for a wedding gift. 

Now I should preface this by noting that this isn't your ordinary blender.  This is a commercial style blender that could essentially puree a beseball bat if you so choose.  These run somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 but they sure do the job right! 

Yesterday, I awoke to the buzzing of the Vita-mix, and was greeted with a creamy green treat from my husband.  He blended non-fat strawberry yogurt, kiwi, and celery.  That's the trick, you see.  Throw in some veggies! Celery, kale, and lettuce, are all good choices.  You don't even taste it when it's mixed up with all that other stuff. 

There are no rules when blending.  If you can dream it, you can blend it.  Just be careful with your fruit portions.  You don't want to blend up way more fruit than you would ever eat in one sitting.  Use mangoes, oranges, berries, bananas, pineapple, peaches, carrots, celery, kale, lettuce, yogurt, milk, ice, and more.  Also, the difference between blending and juicing is that with blending, you are still eating all of the fiber.  This leads directly into my next point; drinking blended fruit and vegetable smoothies will keep you regular or jumpstart you if you're not. 

Kevin also made some hard boiled eggs to go along with my green goddess smoothie. 

For absolutely perfect hard boiled eggs, place the eggs in a sauce pan with water.  Place them on the stove and turn on heat until boiling.  As soon as the water boils, turn off the heat completely and cover the pan.   Let sit for 12 minutes.  After 12 minutes, scoop out the eggs and shock in ice water.  

Some fresh herbs would have been excellent with either the smoothie or the eggs.  We have some baby sprouts just popping up and we are quite excited for the results!

What's your favorite smoothie combo? How do you like your hard boiled eggs?