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Friday, February 26, 2010

Stuffed Peppers with Turkey and Orzo


Hey all!!! It's meee..... I have had so many new recipes but I haven't been in the mood to post. Here's a really yummy recipe!

Again, it's my own creation. Don't have a lot of exact measurements... it's sort of like my life... everything just thrown in and hoping it'll turn out ok :)

Stuffed Peppers with Ground Turkey and Orzo

4-6 Green Peppers/Red Peppers/Yellow Peppers/Whatever color you fancy
3/4 - 1 lb Ground Turkey (depending on how many peppers you make)
1/2 C Orzo
1 14 oz Can Diced Tomato
1 8 oz Can Tomato Sauce
1 Onion Diced
2 cloves Garlic Minced
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire
1 Teaspoon Hot Sauce (Optional)
1 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes (Optional)
Salt
Pepper
Sprinkle of Cheddar Cheese
1 14 oz Chicken Stock

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Cook Orzo until al dente (look at package directions) and set aside. Meanwhile, brown ground turkey. Add onions and garlic and cook until onions are soft, about 5-8 minutes.

Cut the top of the green peppers off and scoop out the ribs and seeds from the peppers. SAVE THE TOP OF THE PEPPERS. Cut them up (around the stem of course) and use them in the filling, use all you can!! Set peppers in a baking dish, preferably one that keeps the peppers tight together and set aside.

Cook the filling until the peppers are soft, shouldn't take that long. Add tomatoes, orzo, worcestershire, hot sauce, pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes. Taste the mixture to make sure there is enough seasoning. Fill all the peppers up VERY LIBERALLY. Pour the chicken stock in the baking dish until it comes half way up the peppers. Sprinkle each pepper with some cheese, you can omit. Cover with lid or foil and bake at 400 degrees for 35-45 minutes, or until tender.

Eat... and enjoy.

(I served mine with garlic bread, *no potatoes GASP, and corn.)

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Ranch Chicken and Twice Baked Potatoes

These first recipes will all be thrown together recipes. I'm starting to realize a lot of my dinners are all random, without any recipe. SOOOO, here's another winner.

This was one of my favorite dinners I ever made.

P.S. Expect to see a lot of green beans as my side dish... I am obsessed with green beans (fresh, canned, frozen).

Ranch Chicken
3 large chicken breasts, cut length wise in half OR 6 small chicken breasts or tenders (I always cut the breasts in half to give it the illusion we have a feast)
Shake and bake Ranch flavor packet or a dry Ranch dressing packet (I used the entire package of Shake and Bake... and let me tell you something.. it was heavenly)
1 1/2 cups Breadcrumbs or panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1 1/2 cups Flour
2 eggs
Salt
Pepper

Get three shallow bowls and fill one with flour, one with eggs and in the last bowl, mix the breadcrumbs with the shake and bake or ranch packets. You can try just using the shake and bake packet alone but the reason the breadcrumbs are there is because I was originally going to use my ranch packet.. You can salt and pepper your chicken but this time I just salt and peppered my flour bowl. It worked well since either the Shake and Bake and the Ranch packets have a lot of flavor already.

I digress.

Dip the chicken breasts in first the flour, shaking off any excess completely. Then the eggs and finally the breadcrumb mixture. Get your skillet (I used two so the chicken could all cook together) and heat it up pretty high. You want a good crust. I did medium high. Cook the first side until brown, about 5 minutes. It all depends on how thick of chicken you are going to use. Flip and cook until the chicken is no longer pink (I always cut one piece to make sure... although that piece always loses all the juices). You can also see if the chicken is cooked if when you touch it, there's not very much resistance. If it's squishy, it's still raw.

And then guess what?? It's done wahooooo.

And it was yum o. That's for you Rachael.


Twice Baked Potatoes

Well gosh, look at that... another potato. But before you freak out at me, these meals are all about a month apart. We don't eat potatoes every night. I swear!!!

4 medium potatoes (Or however much you want)
6-8 slices of bacon
1 small onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, diced
1/2 - 3/4 cup of sour cream (Again, depending on how many potatoes you make)
Chicken Stock or milk (Milk is preferably but I only had stock. It makes it slightly healthier)
Cheddar Cheese (I use sharp)
Salt
Pepper

Preheat Oven to 350 Degrees. Cook bacon until brown, crumble and set aside. Meanwhile, bake or microwave your potatoes until soft. I have never been able to get my potato cooked just right by baking. Call me an idiot, but I prefer the microwave because it's faster. A lot of people like to bake them because the potato can become "gummy" in the microwave. I cooked mine for a total of 18 minutes for 4 potatoes. (Is that long??) Let them rest so you can handle them and then scoop out all the flesh, leaving enough for the potato to stand up to a lot of delicious filling. I'm not good with measurements so you decide. Just make sure there isn't just potato skin left. Meanwhile, heat up a pan and add some olive oil. Cook the onion and garlic until soft. About 5-8 minutes. Add these onion mixture to the potato flesh, sour cream, cheese, bacon (save a couple pieces to sprinkle on top), salt and pepper and slowly add in the stock or milk until you get the right consistency.

I didn't salt and pepper my potato skins, but I should have. But you can always omit any salt and pepper suggestions since the bacon does give this dish enough salty taste. Fill the potato skins very liberally... heaping spoonfuls. Sprinkle a little more cheese on top with the reserved bacon. Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese melts.

Eat. Enjoy. Exercise.

:)

Cowboy Potatoes


I LOVE Carbs!!! So you'll see a lot of them on here. Potatoes are probably my biggest carb love, so what better way to introduce my affair with them then COWBOY POTATOES!!!

Again, I have a big eater at home... PLUS I eat the crap out of these things... so I make a lot of them. They taste as delicious the next day for breakfast... yeah, I eat things like this for breakfast.

4-6 potatoes (Again, depending on how much ppl you need to feed)
1 Onion, sliced
1/2 package of bacon - full package of bacon
Cheddar Cheese

Brown the bacon in a skillet and set aside. Peel and cut the potatoes into disks. Sometimes I cut them into half moons when I'm feeling spicy. Put the potatoes in the same skillet, using that bacon fat because it'll give this side dish a really good flavor, but if you're healthy or something like that... maybe you should just skip this recipe entirely. :P Top them with the onions and some Salt and Pepa (as I like to call it). Because I HATE a crunchy potato, I cover my skillet with a lid to ensure a fully cook tator. This is where it gets really casual. I haven't timed the exact moment when the potatoes seem perfectly cooked. I usually just go back and forth... since the potatoes need to be moved around so they don't burn. But I'd say 15 minutes at most.

Once the potatoes are perfect-o, top them with the cheddar cheese... however much your heart desires... or handle :) AND then top all that with the bacon bacon BACON!!! You may want to put the lid back on to hurry along the process of the cheese melting.

Cass and I eat these while we're camping mostly (in a dutch oven, mother in law makes THE BEST!!!) and we always go all out when we are camping.... so don't think I make these bad boys everyday. They are what I call "special food". But very very tasty "special food".

Chicken Enchiladas

As you will notice, I do not take good pictures. I am not artsy in any form and I may even make my food look worse than it tastes... but dammit, I swear the recipes I post have been tried and tasted and are, at the very least, good :)

You will also notice my recipes are either exactly following the recipe I used OR I don't measure at all. This recipe is exactly one of those kinds of things!

I have tried ground beef for this recipe, but I really didn't like it... so chicken it is:

2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used 3, I've got a big boy to feed at home)
1 can of diced green chiles
4 oz of Cream Cheese (If you like it extra creamy, use the full 8 oz... but it will be really rich)
1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped (You can omit)
1 Can of Enchilada Sauce
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Olives (I LOVE green olives on this)
Sour Cream
Salsa (We use green)
Kosher Salt
Pepper
Oil (of your choosing)
Corn or Flour Tortillas (We use Flour)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the chicken into bite size pieces. Brown in a skillet with a little olive oil (I use extra virgin) on medium heat (it really depends on your stove, I put mine on medium high heat so it can brown). Add the chopped onion and garlic and cook until soft, about 8-10 minutes. Then add the chiles and cook just to heat through. Add cream cheese until it melts and also heats through. Salt and pepper to taste. I also taste it at this point to test seasonings. Now the assembly part is where you can get as creative as you want. It's important to put enchilada sauce on the bottom of your baking dish though so the tortillas don't stick. This is how we assemble ours:

I spread some more enchilada sauce on the tortilla, then add the chicken mixture and top it with green salsa/tomatilla salsa and cheese. I used to put sour cream inside until Mr. said he didn't like that... I told him to make his own dinner resulting now into just leaving the sour cream out until the end. You can add anything you want to on your enchiladas at this point. I've learned to keep it relatively simple though... the chicken mixture has a lot of flavor.

Now it's time to roll up the enchiladas. Start by lifting up the sides and then tucking in the top over the mixture and rolling, keeping everything inside the tortilla... then lay them in the pan, on top of the enchilada sauce. Top all enchiladas with even MORE enchilada sauce and top with cheese, olives, sour cream... whatever you feel like!!! I like mine a lot more saucey than my husband does, so I pour on the love heavily (on my side). Cover with tinfoil.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

I usually take the tinfoil off and bake for 10 minutes more just to let the cheese get a little crispy.
Now, set the table. Say your prayers, or in my case Buddhist prayers (sometimes :)), apologize to your partner that you'll be scarfing your face with delish food and DIG IN!!!!

P.S. The main part of this recipe is to show you how I make my chicken mixture... everything else is sort of up to you. Amazing food blog... I know. I can promise I'll TRY to have more detailed recipes in the future. Also, we serve the enchiladas with Spanish rice and it's delicioso/oiishi/yummy.

Yippy!!!

Yay... I did it!!!! I am finally pushing myself to start this recipe blog. When I was little, I would pretend to have cooking shows, making disgusting unedible things... and thinking I was awesome. Now, at 25, I make decent things.. and of course still think that I'm awesome. Sooo, I thought I'd let everyone in on the awesomeness.

I love to browse allrecipes.com in my free time because that's how I roll and I HATE when people comment on how to change the recipe. They almost always suggest changes that completely alter the entire thing!!! So, although I welcome comments... try to divert from telling me how much I suck and how I shouldn't think about taking one more step into the kitchen EVER AGAIN :)

Now that that's out to the way, let's get it on (food wise... pervs).