Recipe Finds - Hot and Tasty

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?

Recipe Finds - BLT Pasta Wins by a Mile and Two Soups Try to Win Our Affection

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

Yucatán-Style Chicken, Lime, and Orzo Soup

This dish looked like it would be a hit and I really liked the idea of using orzo pasta in soup. 

Unfortunately, this recipe wasn't balanced properly.  The lime overpowered EVERYTHING.  It was sour to the point of being bitter.  I'm not sure if this is because we didn't use fresh lime juice or this needs a little suger to balance the acidity.  

We ate a bowl a piece, but the leftovers went down the garbage disposal.  While we didn't like it, we both agreed using orzo would be a nice twist on chicken noodle.  Duly noted.

1 out of 5 forks http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2004/03/yucatan_style_chicken_lime_and_orzo_soup

Bacon-Linguini-Tomato (BLT) Pasta

What's better than bacon?  Bacon with pasta!

If you don't like the mess of cooking bacon in a frying pan, try it in the oven.  Whip out a rimmed baking sheet, line it with foil, lay out your bacon slices, and cook for 30 minutes at 375 degrees, flipping them over half way through.

Note: fully cooked bacon keeps well in your fridge and is perfect for the freezer.  This is ideal for small households who don't need the temptation of a whole pound of bacon laying around.  I'm not pointing any fingers ...

Back to this recipe - NOM!  With your bacon in hand, this recipe is a cinch if you ignore all of the Pampered Chef promo stuff and go with my modifications instead.  

Throw your chicken broth, tomatoes (I insist on fresh), garlic, and 1/2 of bacon with the pasta and boil under tender (we use onion powder in place of onions).  Once the pasta is cooked, remove from heat, add remaining bacon, cream cheese, and parsley.  Let sit for 5 minutes and stir to coat with sauce. 

Box up leftovers right away because this recipe is hard to portion control!

I love this dish because you're not consuming that much bacon, you can halve this for two people, you won't miss full-fat cream cheese, and high fiber pastas are ideal. 

5 out of 5 forks 

http://www.grouprecipes.com/119037/bacon,-linguini-tomato-toss-pampered-chef.html

Tortilla Soup

Ever wanted a homemade soup that tastes like one from a market deli?  Look no further.

Clearly we've had some troubles with soups lately, so I was leery of making this one.  This was worth every ounce of effort I put into it.  It tastes WONDERFUL!

A few hints:

• Yes, blending soup is a pain in the arse but you won't regret it for this.  Just remember all of the fools on Chopped who blend hot liquids and make a royal mess.  Fill your blender half way, put on the lid, and cover the top with a towel.
• I split my 28-oz of tomatoes between a can of Rotels and a can of fire-roasted tomatoes.
• Chipotles in adobo sauce are expensive, but they go a long way.  They keep forever in the fridge but outsmart yourself.  Get an empty ice cube tray, chop up your chipotles, and make ice cubes out of them.  Perfectly portioned for future uses!
• Because you blend the entire soup, this recipe is ideal for onion haters like me.  No chunks to pick out!
• If you're ambitious enough to fry your own tortilla strips, have fun.  But you can use any type of tortilla chip instead.    

4.5 fork out of 5
http://www.recipe.com/tortilla-soup-4/

What are your favorite soups to make?

Biscotti Bonanza

Either I have amnesia or holiday baking this year was much harder than last.  Several test recipes were duds, a few bombed due to rookie errors, and some were just destined to fail.  That's the tricky thing about homemade gifts - there's a higher chance for complications. 

At any rate, several recipes made it into gift boxes and brought smiles to the receivers.

Biscotti is one of those stealth desserts that is totally easy to make yet looks impressive.  If you're not familiar with these Italian cookies, they're a crunchy biscuit that's great to dunk into coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.  

After combing through dozens of variations, I've found that most biscotti recipes start with this base: 2 cups flour, 1/3 cup butter, 2/3 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 eggs, dash of salt, and 2 tsp baking powder.

From there, you simply dump in your desired goodies, mainly nuts, berries, or chocolate. 

 

 What you essentially have here is cookie dough.  Since I had all the chemistry components in place, I simply eyeballed the mini-chocolate chips, though I bet it was around 1 cup. 

I chill the dough for 15-30 minutes and then form it into loaves on an greased cookie sheet.  They're about 8-10 inches long, 3 inches wide, and you flatten them slightly with your fingers. 

These bake for 30 minutes at 375* and then cool for another 30 minutes.  I neglected to document this step, but you then cut the loaves into the biscotti fingers.  The crunchiness of the cookies comes from the second bake, which involves 7 minutes on each side at 325*

The end result is tasty little morsels just waiting for you at breakfast.  One recipe will yield around 35 cookies, depending on how big you cut them.

After they cool, you can coat them with a powdered sugar glaze or drizzle them in chocolate.  After my chocolate-covered cherries bombed, I had no desire to work with chocolate again.  Instead, I simply made two varieties: chocolate chip and lemon-lavender (1 T lemon juice, lemon zest from 1/2 a lemon, and 2 tsp lavender).

Not only can biscotti be completed in less than 2 hours, but they also freeze beautifully.  I completed my batches on various weekends in December and each went into the freezer (if you use glaze/drizzle, you would do that after they've dethawed).

The chocolate chip turned out to be the most popular.  I'm not sure if I'll do these next year, but I know they'll be a go-to receipe for any forthcoming potlucks!

What successes did you have with DYI holiday gifts?

How to Destroy Chocolate-Covered Cherries

As we churned out recipes for this year's round of holiday giving, we may have run into one or two minor disasters.

It all started with the idea to repeat our chocolate-covered cherries from last year. We had received rave reviews and they were easy to make.  Plus, I'm a fan of making edibles that have an aesthetic element to them.

So we elected to do a double batch and spent a little over $6 dollars on maraschino cherries and powered sugar at Aldi's.  The first step was to drain the little guys on paper towels for an hour.  With no paper towels on hand, I simply put them out on a jelly roll to dry.  Little did I know I had just committed the first of a series of fatal errors. 

Once drained, I started on the fondant.  You mix powdered sugar, a little corn syrup, and butter together ...

And it turns into this ...

If you weren't aware, this fondant is what liquifies around the cherry and under the chocolate layer.  That's why you get that lovely layer of liquid and cream.  The cherries actually have to sit for about 2 weeks to reach this stage.

Once the fondant is ready, you measure 1/2 tsp of the mixture and flatten it out so it can be formed around the cherry.

With the two of us tackling the process, it took just over an hour to complete 120 cherries (we elected for a double batch).  Then they sat in the fridge to chill for 60 minutes.

Little did we know evidence of problems to come were already visible in this photo

Next we set up a homemade double broiler (pot of steaming water + metal bowl rested on top but not touching the water).  The original recipe called for chocolate-flavored candy coating.  While it worked like a charm last year, I was not appeased with the taste.  I wanted real chocolate.  So we melted chocolate chips instead, unwittingly committing error number two.

We soon discovered melted chocolate chips don't coat as nicely as candy coating (which should seem obvious ...). The chocolate globbed excessively to the cherries.  I tried to minimize this by using forks to roll them.  Some of the cherries started to look promising, despite mounting frustrations with the chocolate.

But then we noticed that cherry juice was leaking out of the fondant.  Even though they had been well sealed, the fondant was starting to pull away from the cherry itself and was sticking to the wax paper.

This, we learned, is why you MUST dry the cherries on paper towels.  The excess juice won't allow the fondant to adhere to the cherry.  The weight of the chocolate ends up pulling the already-compromised fondant completely off the cherry.  Resulting in these fugly creations.

As we got down to the end of the batch, I noticed my chocolate starting to seize.  Knowing full well that water is death to melted chocolate, I threw in a little butter.  Guess what?  It turns out Walmart brand butter has a high water content - seized the whole thing up the second it hit the bowl.  Good thing there was only a small bit of chocolate left, so not much was wasted, but still irritating.

Upon examining the "good" cherries, we noticed yet another problem - the melted chocolate chips only partially coated the cherries.  You need a perfect seal for this candy and here we had over 100 candies with little fissures and pock marks.


At this point, now late into the evening and tired of standing in front of the stove, I may have said f*** it and put the poor candies in a tupperware container, hoping that the seal was just good enough to work.

Nope.  Several days later, we knew we had a lost cause on our hands.

Not only were the lovely innards leaking out everywhere, but the chocolate never hardened, causing further mayhem.

Are these little guys edible?  Yes, with a spoon.  Will they be eaten regardless at a family event?  Yes.  Will we be giving them as gifts?  NO.

Lessons learned:

• Do not deviate from a candy recipe.  Either follow it to a T or substitute another recipe.
• Not all butters are created equal.  The ingredients on butter should say "cream, salt."  I assumed that the different brands I was using were the same (HyVee, Aldi, Walmart). If you see "natural flavorings" in the ingredients, run for the hills.
• If you are taking the time to create something for a gift, take the time to do it right and don't get cocky.  Just because something was easy the first time doesn't guarantee you'll get the same results the second.

Despite this snafu, we had relatively good luck with the rest of our baking endeavors (to be shared next week, once they've all been distributed to their intended receivers). 

Did you have an DYI holiday projects go belly up too?  

April Vegetarian Recipes

April was a successful month for vegetarian recipes.  March, on the other hand, was full of learning experiences.  We had several recipes completely bomb.  Lessons learned:

• Don't try a recipe with an ingredient you've never had.  You will have no way of knowing whether it tastes like it's supposed to or not.  Case in point: we tried eggplant parmesan yet neither of us had ever had eggplant.  Tasted bitter and moldy.  Will be one to try in a restaurant or at a friend's before we attempt again.

• The more ingredients, the more expensive a meal will be.  I'm not talking about a butt load of spices, but sheer number of items that must be used.  Particularly if they are not pantry items, are expensive products, have short shelf lives, or ones you simply don't use them often.

• Don't schedule new recipes on nights you know are busy or after a hard day.  Experimenting with new dishes is fun, but not when you're completely depleted of energy.  We've found it's better to do "Meatless Monday" on the weekends, when there's more time to prepare (or make a second meal if it's a bust).

Here are our recent successes (click on titles for recipes).

1. Quick Bean and Veggie Couscous or Bulgar Pilaf

We made this after a lazy morning of sleeping in and not getting lunch started until 2pm.  We have couscous often, but usually plain and with marinated meats.  This was a new venture to make it into a pilaf.  We made this as directed but replaced the onion with onion powder and skipped the carrot.

Pros

• Pantry ingredients with long shelf lives
• Good source of whole grain and protein
• Easy to customize (ie: vegans can skip cheese)
• Good two-person recipe with leftovers, or nice side
• Reheats well 

Cons

• Recommend a mild cheese, not aged as suggested.  Havarti was delicious!
• Canned tomatoes were a little too sweet, will use fresh next time. 

2. Vegetable and Black Bean Enchiladas

Every quarter, my insurance company (Wellmark) sends out a newsletter.  They always include several recipes, and they recently offered some vegetarian ones.  As a chronic meat eater, I was skeptical of this recipe.  So many veggies, plus prep time.  We'd also never used zucchini before but took the risk since the amount was small.  Surprise of all surprises, this is entirely delicious!  I loved everything about this dish.

Pros

• Don't let the amount of ingredients deter you.  The even quantities ensure a great blend of veggies without being overwhelming.
• Anything smothered in enchilada sauce is tasty.
• Leftovers taste virtually the same and will make your coworkers jealous.
• Prep was surprisingly fast.
• Roasting corn is the best thing ever!  Take the extra 10 minutes for this step.  It's well worth your time!

Cons

• You will have leftover ingredients.  You need to plan a companion dish for them to not waste food.  Thankfully, they all keep well in the fridge.
• Corn tortillas always tear on me when rolling.  Gotta find a way to make them stay pretty.

3. Chilaquiles Casserole

This casserole is the perfect medium for the leftovers mentioned above.  We made it three days later with no spoilage of ingredients.  Made as directed but skipped onion, added onion powder (yes, I'm an onion hater, Mike deals).  Overall decent.  Much more of a corn and zucchini presence in this one, something I personally just need to get used to.  

Pros

• Great way to use leftovers
• Pantry staples
• Speedy prep
• Can be made night before

Cons

• I actually preferred the leftovers better, but that's just me.  
• Could roast corn for this one too
• Massive amount of leftovers for two people
• Too much cheese, or maybe needs a mix of mozzarella and cheddar 

4. Souffled Pumpkin Pancake

Pumpkin is awesome.  I don't know why the majority of people only eat it in the fall.  Well, I do, seasonal ingredient and the holidays, but I love it year round.  Pumpkin smoothies, muffins, breads, pancakes - I'll eat it all.  This recipe combines my love of pumpkin with my joy of egg dishes.

Pros

• Mouthwatering awesome yet completely filling
• Great for two people with leftovers
• Not too much sugar and doesn't need to be drenched in syrup
• Uses all pantry items
• Leftover pumpkin freeze well, in case you didn't know

Cons

• Beware, you need a 10" oven-proof skillet for this dish.
• It's a Paula Dean recipe, which means it's more decadent than it should be.  We skipped the pecans, which eliminates the fat from the nuts and the 2 T of butter and 1 T of sugar they're caramelized in.
• Calls for buttermilk.  First of all, infrequent ingredient in our house, meaning special purchase.  Second, infamous for high fat content.  Here's the waist- and budget-friendly alternative: Mix 1T of white vinegar with 1 cup of skim milk.  Stir and let sit for 5 minutes.  Voila, a chemical reaction has produced something akin to buttermilk but will not kill you.
• Prep is ok, but getting your egg whites to peak is an extra step.  Just plan accordingly.  Also, there is a difference between soft and stiff peaks - overbeating will change the texture.  
• You don't need to buy pumpkin pie spice specially for this.  A combination of cinnamon, allspice, ginger, or cloves usually does the trick.  We used chai spice and enjoyed the mellow flavor.  Next time, I might use just cinnamon.

5. Plain Yogurt in Smoothies

A great way of getting in fruit is to have a smoothie.  Frozen fruit is cheap, there's many varieties or blends, and yogurt is inexpensive.  We've been experimenting with smoothies lately, partially with the help of the last Food Network Magazine issue, which included 50 smoothie recipes.

One thing that can kill a healthy smoothie is added sugar.  Fruit and juice already have a high sugar content, which can be of concern to some.  Then if you add a flavored yogurt, honey, or flavored milks, your intakes goes up.  I've even seen some recipes call for adding straight sugar.

We enjoy smoothies with yogurt.  The extra protein is helpful, and they also go great with any of the above veggies recipes or as a light meal.  We've been using vanilla yogurt but wanted to find an alternative.  Part of this was added sugar, the other was that it's hard around here to find a natural yogurt that won't cost you an arm and a leg.  I just don't want to be eating a bunch of dye and artificial flavor.

Plain yogurt is the answer.  It adds protein and a nice creaminess that allows the fruit to come through.  We've tried two brands so far: Stony Brook has zero sugar and is very tart, but A&E only adds a subtly tanginess.  

Question of the Day: What are your staple vegetarian dishes?  

An Epicurian Photo Blog

Our dishes, recipes, and food shenanigans as of late.

1. A Christmas Gift Claimed

At Christmas, we offered my sister and her boyfriend a homemade, 4-course dinner of their choosing.  They decided to do Italian and recently claimed their gift.

The gang in midst of chowing down.

Pizza fondue.  Heat one jar of pizza sauce and choose dippers.  I made homemade focaccia, and added cubed fresh mozzarella, pepperoni, and tortellini. 

Cheese, bacon, and chicken pasta bake.  This recipe has been modified, but check out the original here

Chocolate Lava Cake.  The recipe is super easy.

2. Mardi Gras

I love food and holidays.  You can learn so much about culture and history just by eating.  I enjoy learning how people celebrated events with food.  It's such a fun way to honor and respect the traditions of others. 

We don't celebrate Lent, but Mardi Gras has been a staple since I started taking French back in high school.  Our teacher would always make crepes the whole day while we decorated masks with glitter and feathers.  I'm pretty sure the janitors loathed this day.

I almost missed Mardi Gras this year.  Wasn't paying attention until I saw an article online for recipes.  The night before, I ambitiously tackled King Cake.

If you're not familiar with this fun tradition, check it out here.  Long story short, it's a large pastry that's made using the traditional colors of Mardi Gras (green, yellow, and purple) and has some religious connotations.

I actually enjoy making breads, so this was a fun prospect.  I used this recipe on All Recipes and added the cream cheese as suggested by a reviewer.  I also used a green gummy bear in place of a plastic baby to avoid a choking hazard as I took this into work.  Unfortunately, it must have melted as no one found it!

This is supposed to be a ring.  Guess I didn't have it stretch out enough.  Still tasted delicious!

Took the time to dye my own colored sugar (much cheaper) though I had to buy blue dye.

Yummy, sugary goodness.  I enjoyed making my coworkers swoon over my creation.

3. The Amanas

The Amanas are an Iowa favorite.  They are a historic community of 7 villages once populated by German immigrants, now home to excellent shops, restaurants, and spirits.  Only a 20-minute drive from us, we hop over once every couple of months.  

Our favorite activity is to eat at the Colony Inn, which serves its meal family-style.  Which means big portions and generous bowls of mashed potatoes, bread and butter, salads, and cottage cheese.  Oh yes, and sauerkraut. 

Mike is ready and alert for copious amounts of food

Knackwurst and bratwurst for him.

Amana ham for her.

This is from last summer, but gives you an idea of the spread a $30 meal comes with.

4. My Birthday

In April, I turned 27.  Mike had drill that weekend so my plans were a little limited, though I went out with a friend for my first mani- and pedicure.  I was just going to take myself to Dairy Queen and get a hot dog and a blizzard (which I love), but Mike decided that was the saddest thing in the world.  So we got gussied up and went to Biaggi's, an Italian restaurant we've been eying ever since we moved here.

Biaggi's is priced like Olive Garden.  But we threw out every budget-conscious dinning rule.  We got wine, appetizers, salads (not included) and dessert, which doubled a normal bill of $35 to $75.  It's ok to splurge on birthdays.  Especially when we both had lunch for the next day and we believe in tipping well.

Onion focaccia and olive oil/Parmesan for dipping

Caprese salad: tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, onions, and balsamic

Mike nearly died when they brought out a separate boat of blue cheese crumbles to go with his blue cheese dressing

Huge bowls of pasta.  For him, a roasted pepper/sausage dish.  For her, bow tie alfredo with chicken.

The birthday girl with her Zinfandel.  I'm not yet brave enough to try new wines at restaurants.

Dessert cannelloni filled with sweet cream.  

Question of the Day: Tell me about amazing food you've had recently!