Confession - cooking for one is a science I have yet to master. My meal options lately have been largely limited to scrambled eggs, individually frozen pizzas, sandwiches, soup, and the lone pan-fried chicken breast smothered in bbq sauce. A month into this deployment and I haven't even had to do proper grocery shopping. My inner cook is wailing in despair.
This weekend will put an end to that as I miss good homecooked dinners and budget-friendly and portable leftovers for my lunches. As I finally get my kitchen clean, here are a few recipes that have been spotted lately and successfully halved to accomodate my single status.
Spaghetti Bake
Jar of pasta sauce? Check.
Angel hair or spaghetti noodles? Yeppers.
Shredded cheese? Absolutely.
Skip any notion of making a homemade sauce for this - who has the time? Instead, this 3-ingredient dinner is perfect for nights you can't think straight after work.
This dish is seriously impossible to screw up. Boil noodles. Alternatively layer with sauce and cheese. Bake. Pair with a salad. Eat.
The nice thing is that you can boost the nutrition on this by upgrading to whole-wheat noodles or varying the flavors by trying different pasta sauce. I would recommend, however, skipping the cheddar cheese, which is a little out of place with an Italian-esque dish.
5 out 5 forks
http://www.wellmark.com/blue/Fall2010/Recipes_SpaghettiBake.htm
Mini Ham & Cheese Quinoa Cups
Let's face it, quinoa is a goofy grain. It has a texture like brown rice but with a more earthy flavor. This super food is packed full of good nutrition so I've been striving to make a place for it in my kitchen.
After a mediocre attempt at Mac and Cheese and a botched attempt at breakfast cereal, these Ham and Cheese Cups finally stuck.
Since I'm still convincing myself I like the flavor of quinoa, I left out the shredded zucchini and doubled the diced ham. Apart from cutting everything else in half, I followed the recipe to a T.
These are definitely reminisient of mini quiche bites but crunchier. They make for a filling meal, reheat well for leftovers, and double as a unique breakfast. A half recipe produced 18 mini cups or 3 servings.
You could also easily customize this by doing all veggies or trying different cheese types.
4.5 out of 5 forks
http://iowagirleats.com/2012/02/16/mini-ham-cheese-quinoa-cups/
Chicken Fried Rice
Fried rice is one of my new favorites for singles cooking. You already have everything on hand and rice keeps in the fridge well.
I confess that the cook in me totally deviated from the recipe in the link, but I did use it as a start place to get the cooking method right. Besides, some recipes aren't a science but a playful experiment.
I cooked up my chicken with sesame oil and sriracha sauce, skipped onions but seasoned the chicken with onion powder, replaced the butter with spray when cooking up the egg, divided the soy sauce between the egg and the chicken/rice, and used a touch of garlic olive oil when frying everything up.
Tonight I'm returning to this dish to reduce the soy sauce (even reduced sodium is a salt bomb!), use brown basmati rice, and see if this vegetable hater can stomach adding a serving of peas to make this a complete meal.
5 out of 5 folks
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chinese-chicken-fried-rice-ii/
What have you been cooking lately?
What's better than a surprise party with all of your friends before you deploy? A chocolate-themed suprise party!
You should have seen our apartment this weekend. The chocolate overraneth for sure: brownies, truffles, drinks, no-bake cookies, baklava, dipped potato chips. A few waistlines may have expanded from our indulgences!
To honor Valentine's Day, here's a sampling of chocolate-laced dishes.
Chile con Carne
This all started because I got a chocolate cookbook for Christmas. Amid the pages of breads, pies, bars, and sauces was this intriguing recipe for chili. I've had chili-infused dark chocolate before so I knew this was workable.
This is first and foremost a serious chili. You skip any notion of using chili powder and rehydrate dried ancho and New Mexico chilis, which can be found in the produce section or the Hispanic aisle. You then blend them into a velvety sauce before adding cumin, allspice, beef, onions, tomatoes, and 70% dark chocolate.
I made a double batch for our party, pureed the onion with the chilis, and added a can of black beans instead of an additional pound of beef. It was gobbled up within the first hour!
It's not a chili you would have often, but it's got a wonderfully deep flavor with the chocolate. It only needs a touch of cheese and the flavors intensify the longer it sits. Give this a try if you want something different!
I actually think it would be better without the beef and just using black beans. It was a tad sharp so the next time I might add the 60% chili-infused chocolate instead of 70% dark.
4.5 out of 5 forks
http://www.greenandblacks.com/us/recipes/online-recipes/chile-con-carne.html
Chocolate-Chip Pumpkin Bread
Chocolate and pumpkin?! Oh yes, it's completely awesome together. You eat bananas, strawberries, and raspberries with chocolate, why not pumpkin?
This is a fantastically easy quick bread recipe. It's probably perfectly fine as is, except I just can't leave recipes alone :)
For a slightly healthy makeover, consider the following:
- Sub half of the flour for wheat flour. It won't overpower and you'll be adding in a touch more fiber. You may need to increase the baking time by a few minutes so be mindful toward the end.
- Instead of 1.5 cups of oil, use 1 cup unsweetened applesauce + 1/2 cup oil. You could use all applesauce, but the texture will turn a little gummy. Leaving in some oil will help perserve the fluffliness.
- Due to a shortage at the time, I originally used only 3/4 mini chocolate chips. It was really nice and I fear going to the full 1.5 cup would drown out the pumpkin flavor. Reducing the chocolate also reduces calories and fat.
5 out of 5 forks
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Chocolate-Chip-Pumpkin-Bread-2
Bacon Chocolate-Chip Cookies
The chocolate-bacon craze has been gathering steam the last few years. I recently tried a bacon chocolate bar and it was decent. It's not so much the bacon flavor that's being imparted, but smoky, salty goodness.
A friend of mine brought these delightful morsels over for our party and they were a hit. She used regular bacon instead of maple but followed the recipe otherwise. This is a very flat cookie that's soft in the middle but crispy on the edges - my favorite texture.
The taste is mostly chocolate with little spikes of bacon throughout. Don't be weirded out by putting meat in a cookie! If you've ever drizzle pancake syrup on bacon, it's the same idea.
4.5 out of 5 forks, only because I'd have to resist making these often!
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chocolate-chocolate-chip-bacon-cookies/detail.aspx
Malted Fudge Brownies
Malt powder, brownies, and whoppers. I can never make this recipe again. I'm serious, it's that addicting!
I don't think I could go back to plain brownies after this dish either. Omitting the walnuts and underbaking these bars turned it into a glorious concoction of malted goodness. Soft, fudgy brownie topped with crunchy, salty whoppers. OMG!!!
Move over Cookie Monster! Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom!
5 out of 5 forks
http://dessert.betterrecipes.com/malted-fudge-brownies.html
What foods are your favorite for Valentine's Day?
Chocolate-Cherry Smoothie
We're big smoothie fans so it's always great to find new recipes. I ran across this one from Prevention Magazine and didn't think twice about the nutrition content, assuming it was healthy. I used Chobani vanilla yogurt and unsweetened vanilla almond milk to be on the safe side.
This smoothie is GOOD! The greek yogurt makes it more like a shake and the combination of dark cherries and chocolate chips is yummy. With the protein from the yogurt and the fiber from the fruit, this will also stick to your ribs. Plus, you're getting in 2 servings of fruit with this.
But to my dismay, this liquid delight is also a diet buster. Using a nutrition calculator to double check, I clocked in this smoothie at:
| 510 calories | 76 carbs (25%) | 18 fat (28%) | 18 protein (36%) | 4 fiber (16%) | 165 sodium |
If you left out the chocolate chips, you would save yourself almost all of the fat and 280 calories. Eeecks!
This leaves me quite conflicted. On the one hand, I had this for breakfast and was full enough to skip my mid-morning snack and drank tea instead. But since I'm calorie counting, this definitely marks this in the "treat" or "only once in a while" category.
I'm guessing that you could easily cut the chocolate chips in half (2T instead of 4).
3 out of 5 forks (2 for nutrition but 5 for taste)
http://recipes.prevention.com/Recipe/chocolate-cherry-smoothie.aspx
Coconut Jasmine Rice
If you've never had jasmine rice, first of all run out and get some. It's wonderfully fragnant and has a lovely, delicate flavor. It truly needs no flavoring.
However, if you're looking to jazz up your jasmine rice, this is worth trying. This extremely simple and budget-friendly recipe involves cooking the rice in a bath of coconut milk and a touch of garlic.
Coconut milk is easy to find in the Asian section of your supermarket, but make sure to get LITE. Even 1/3 cup of light coconut milk will cost you 20% of your daily satured fat.
This recipe is decent. It has a mild flavor that's tasty, but it won't blow you away. We paired it with lime chicken (below).
3.5 forks out of 5 - worth keeping around and finding a better dish to pair it with.
http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/2011/12/coconut-rice-take-2-291-recipe-049.html
Lime-Honey Chicken
I love chicken. It's got a good nutrition profile, it's moderate on the wallet, and it can be made a million ways.
I also love recipes from Eating Well. They're awesome about making tasty food that's still good for you. This recipe certainly delivers with the zippy, lip-smaking flavors of honey, soy sauce, and lime.
I've modified this recipe for indoor use and 2 people - I've never tried it on the grill as intended. I use about 12 oz of chicken breast and cut the marinade in half. This is what I've learned:
- This definitely needs the marinade time. Did it once without and it just wasn't the same. Have always done the full 2 hours, but definitely don't go over because the soy will make your chicken rubbery.
- DON'T do this recipe on a George Forman grill. All the beautiful marinade runs off and doesn't turn into a glaze :(
- Your best bet is to simply throw this is a skillet and cook it up. No additional oil is needed. Don't go too high with the heat, otherwise you'll burn the honey. The sugars do start to carmelize, so expect your chicken to take on a golden hue, but this is the good stuff.
5 forks out of 5 (for my modifications)
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/lime_honey_glazed_chicken.html
Root Beer Cake
Disclaimer - I did not make a bundt cake. Luckily, the recipe size fits neatly in a 13 x 9" pan.
This is a fun cake to make because of the flavor profile. It's a chocolate cake base that you add root beer and allspice to. Oddly enough, chocolate and root beer pair really well!
The cake is ridiculously moist and super tasty. You could have a lot of fun seeing how different brands of root beer affect the flavor (I just used A&W). Modifications in mind:
- I was not satisfied with the glaze, which hardened - I'd rather warm up root beer and powdered sugar to make a warm sauce.
- Add mini chocolate chips. Oooh, or crush up those root beer hard candies and sprinkle on top!
- Find a brand of root beer without high fructose corn syrup. It doesn't make sense to make a cake from scratch and then add in a highly processed ingredient and artificial flavoring.
5 forks out of 5
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/root-beer-bundt-cake-recipe/index.html
Beef and Bean Chili Verde
Ok, so that's totatlly a picture of chicken chile verde. Use beef and I promise it will look about the same, just with cow bits and red kidney beans instead.
Our soup exploration continues with this "dump" soup. Turn off brain and dump in green salsa, kidney beans, garlic, browned hamburger, and chili + cumin. Turn stove on low, put on burner, walk away for 15 minutes. Dinner is served, just add cornbread.
Admittedly, I was a little creeped out by the color of this chile and I'd never had green salsa (which uses tomatillos instead of tomatoes), but it has a snappy taste and improves the next day. I skipped the red pepper in favor of a can of diced green chilis I had.
All in all a keeper, with a few pointers:
- There is a LOT of beef in this dish. It's almost like slightly watery taco mixture. Because we're cutting down on our meat consumption, I would much rather use 1/2 lb instead of a full pound. In fact, I would make this a strictly vegetarian dish and just use 2 cans of beans, maybe even mixing kinds (kidney + black beans).
- This is a salty chili. I can't imagine how much higher it would be if we'd used green taco sauce. Thin this out by adding 1 cup of water.
- 15 minutes is nice for a quick meal, but if you're like me and enjoy very soft beans, let this simmer for 30+.
3.5 forks out of 5 - wouldn't have it every month, but good to keep in mind
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/beef_bean_chile_verde.html
Roasted Parmesan Potatoes
Got a hankering for fries but watching your calories? Give these potatoes a whirl.
As long as your broiler is functioning and you don't leave these babies in for too long, this is a hard recipe to mess up Just scrub, nuke, cut, sprinkle, broil, and voila! Crispy, cheesy potatoes without the guilt.
This recipe is inexpensive, decadent tasting but healthy, and quick to boot. To really portion control, I used 1/2 T butter (cut into little cubes), 1/4 tsp Lawry's seasoning, and 1.5 tsp grated parmesan per potato.
I made this recipe this week because I was craving fried chicken after a stressful day. Instead of caving in, I used these spuds to satisfy my need for crunchy and salty. Objective achieved!
5 forks out of 5
http://iowagirleats.com/recipes/?recipe_id=6005718
What are your favorite ways to dress up rice or potatoes?
Welcome to Recipe Finds, where I'll share and review recipes that we've tried. Can't always do step-by-step instructions so I thought this would be the next best thing!
Quinoa Mac N' Cheese
In lieu of my oat problem and a growing number of workers with gluten issues, I've been investigating other sources of whole grain. Quinoa is one of those super foods that's just too nutritious to pass up. It's best described as a combination of brown rice (nutty) and couscous (soft).
This recipe for mac n'cheese is a nice introduction. I had a few personal mishaps with the recipe (halved it but forgot to do that with the water, didn't have any garlic on hand) but it was overall easy. It is a little on the bland side, even though I added some sour cream and cream cheese I had laying around, so I would recommend boosting this with a flavored cheese like pepper jack or smoked cheddar. Bacon, of course, makes everything taste better.
3 forks out of 5 - worth trying again.
http://monicanelsonfitness.com/blog/meals/quinoa-mac-n-cheese/
Southwestern Pinto Bean Soup
Even though January hasn't been very cold, I've been experimenting with soups. They're easy to make, cheap, and you can pack a lot of nutrients in them. Plus they freeze and reheat well so you can make a big batch.
I've never worked with dried beans before, so I simply used one can of pintos. Technically you should use 2 to equal the dry portion in the recipe, but it was what I had on hand.
This soup was really good! Mike and I are leery of cumin but it blends well with the other flavors. Instead of a gob of shredded cheddar, use 1 tsp of grated parmesan for your cheese kick.
4 forks out of 5
http://www.recipe.com/southwestern-pinto-bean-soup/
Berry-Banana Smoothie
I heart this smoothie!!! I always have these ingredients on hand, there's tons of fiber, and I never get bored of the flavor. Don't be scared of the cinnamon - it adds a beautiful pop of flavor!
As for the fruit, I've found that it's not necessary to have raspberries in specific. I often use a berry fruit blend along with the 1/2 cup of blueberries. You can also swap the apple juice for berry juice.
5 forks out of 5
http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/berry-banana-smoothie-recipe-4298
Sweet Potato and Apple Casserole
Beware this recipe - 6 servings is a lie!
Mike and I demolished this casserole in one sitting, making me fear I had misread the ingredients or something. But no, it's just. that. tasty.
The portions on this recipe are fine, but the cooking may need a little adjustment. 2 hours is a big time commitment. First, definitely roast your sweet potatoes - you cannot duplicate this flavor otherwise.
The apples don't need to be cut in rings (I don't have a corer anyways) and will hold together just fine if you cut them up into toddler-sized chunks. This way, they probably don't need as long as 45 minutes to soften. Luckily I had another dish in the oven so no harm done and the potatoes soften to the point where they started to mash themselves, which I personally liked but you may not.
I imagine that this should take 30 minutes or less (after the 1 hr needed for potato roasting), depending on if you want any semblance of firmness. Curious if you could do it in a crock pot as well.
5 out of 5 folks
http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/quick-recipes/dinner/guilt-free-holiday-recipes/?page=8
Chorizo & Sweet Potato Enchiladas
Confession - I have never liked sausage. Chorizo is making me sing a different tune.
This is a FANTASTIC dish, particularly if you love enchiladas. It offers up a familiar taste with a refreshing spin. I cannot get over the combination of sweet potatoes and chorizo! Spicy and sweet = Jennie's comfort food.
Prep isn't difficult but will take up a bit of time between chopping and sauteing. The bonus, though, is that this makes a huge batch. Using corn tortillas, we got 15 enchiladas out of this. 9 went into one baking pan, which at 3 enchiladas per serving created dinner for Mike and I and leftovers for just me. The other 6 were frozen for a one-night meal.
5 forks out of 5
http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com/2011/02/chorizo-sweet-potato-enchiladas-908.html
