I Felt Creative

I haven't written in here for freakin' ever and I still don't really plan to keep up with it, but I actually felt creative last night [which I haven't for a long time] so I figured I would put it up.

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1/2 Green Bell Pepper [chopped]
• 1/2 Onion [chopped]
• 3 Celery Stalks [diced]
• 1 lb ground beef
• 2 Packaged Oriental Flavored Ramen
• 2/3 Cup Soy Sauce
• 2 Cups Water
• 1 Can Bean Sprouts
• 2 Tablespoons Corn Starch
• Salt & ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add green pepper, onion, and celery and cook until soft. Add the ground beef and cook until browned. Season with salt and pepper. 
2. Add the ramen flavor packets, water, and soy sauce. Bring to a boil. 
3. Add ramen noodles. Cover and cook 3 minutes.
4. Add corn starch and stir until sauce thickens. 
5. Remove from heat and stir in bean sprouts.
6. Serve immediately.

I didn't really pay attention, but I think it serves 6ish. 

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Chili

I haven't been keeping up with this very well. I've been a bit busy and not feeling too well. Anyway, last week I made chili, which was the first recipe I ever created. There's actually a bit of a story to it. A couple of years ago my husband was deployed overseas for a year, he left when our oldest daughter was a week old. So... I didn't have much to do here alone with an infant, so I tried new recipes. After all, I was the only one that was gonna eat 'em, if they were terrible, oh well! Anyway, I love chili so I made it for myself about once a week that winter. I added new things and tried different combinations each time until I found what I thought was the perfect chili recipe. I love it, and my family loves it. I'm actually thinking about entering a chili cook-off here in my home town this fall.

Chili

1 Tbsp chili powder
½ Tbsp cumin
1 tsp adobo
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper

Plus enough of all of the above to season meat with

1-2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 ¼ lb ground beef
2 jalapeno peppers, chopped
½ - 1 onion
2 (16 oz) cans kidney beans (drained)
1 (16 oz) can chili beans
2 (16 oz) cans diced tomatoes (fire roasted are my personal favorite)
1 bottle beer (my favorites that I have tried in this recipe are amber lagers and stouts)

• Heat olive oil in pan. Add jalapenos and onion and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add beef and brown, lightly season with spices while cooking.
• Combine the meat mixture, beans, and tomatoes in a large pot or crock pot. Add beer (you may not need the whole bottle). Add spices and mix well.
• Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer 1-2 hours (or longer, in crock pot).

Serves 5-6

New Year's Eve!

Happy 2010 everybody!

Last night was New Year's Eve, so of course I made snacks! I had a great night with my husband, daughters, and parents. We played games, watched the New Year's Eve party on TV, and, of course, ate! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of what I made, it was all gone before I thought to!

The first thing I made was a new recipe I hadn't tried before- Spinach and Artichoke Dip! It turned out wonderfully!! You can find the recipe I used here. The recipe tells you to place all the ingredients in a food processor, however I didn't. I only put the artichoke hearts in to chop them up, everything else I just mixed by hand and it turned out great! Everyone was impressed. I thought it was especially good on "hint of lime" tortilla chips!

Next were Tortilla Pinwheels. I personally love these, and they are pretty simple to make. Here's my recipe:

4 tortillas (the small ones, not the huge burrito sized ones)
8 oz (1 package) cream cheese
About 10 spinach leaves
1/2 cup grated carrots (I put mine in my small food processor)

Let the cream cheese come to room temperature (to make it easier to spread). Spread 1/4 of the cream cheese on each tortilla, be sure to reach the edges. Top the cream cheese with spinach and carrots. Roll the tortilla up, secure with a toothpick if needed. Cut the roll into bite-sized slices to make the pinwheels.

There ya have it! Very easy, yet delicious snack!

And last are Mini Cheesecakes! Very yummy! Here's that recipe:

12 vanilla wafers
16 oz (2 packages) cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
Cherry (or whatever flavor you like) pie filling

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place paper cupcake liners in a muffin tin. Place a vanilla wafer at the bottom of each liner.
2. Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and vanilla and continue beating until mixed well. Add the eggs and beat until smooth.
3. Pour about 2 Tablespoons of the cheesecake mixture into each cupcake liner. Bake for 20 minutes, or until centers are almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 2 hours or overnight.
4. Top the cheesecakes with pie filling.

These are very good. If you don't like cherry you can substitute with whatever kind of pie filling you like, or even chocolate or strawberry ice cream topping.

Again, sorry for no pictures, but the food was so good I didn't have a chance!! :)

I hope everyone had a fun and safe New Year's Eve, and I wish everyone a fantastic 2010!!

Scrambled Eggs 12/30/09

This morning I made scrambled eggs for my family (which I do often...lol), whenever I make them I like to spice them up a little bit so they're not just the same old plain boring eggs. This morning I seasoned the eggs with salt and pepper, then lightly seasoned them with smoked sweet paprika (which goes wonderfully with eggs), and finished them off with a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of cayenne pepper. They were great! It's always exciting when new adventures turn out well :)

Rachael Ray's Rosemary Grilled Chicken and Wild Mushroom Sauce

Tonight I made "Rosemary Grilled Chicken and Wild Mushroom Sauce" from Rachael Ray's Top 30 30-Minute Meals - Comfort Food. It was excellent! The red wine, garlic, and bacon in the sauce went perfectly with the rosemary on the chicken. Overall it was fantastic, my husband and I loved it. It was also very simple to prepare. Grill the chicken, saute the garlic, shallot, and mushrooms, and add the liquids to the sauce. Very straight forward.


I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead of thighs, because I prefer white meat. I also used bacon because I live in the middle of Hick-ville and pancetta isn't readily available :(

Pictured above served with mashed potatoes.

Spaghetti

I'll start with a recipe that I made last week for my mom's birthday.

My mom called me about a week before her birthday and told me instead of going out for dinner, she wanted me to cook. OK, no problem... except she wanted me to cook spaghetti. The problem? My spaghetti recipe was a work in progress. I had three spaghetti recipes that I liked, but none that I loved, and no time to make a practice meal for my husband and daughter due to a busy week of Christmas shopping and being sick. So, the morning of my mom's birthday arrives and I still have no idea how I'm going to make the spaghetti. I decided to take the best parts of each of the three recipes and combine them and... hope that it tasted good. I was serving 7 people and had no idea if the food I was cooking them was even going to taste good! No pressure. I got lucky though and the spaghetti was a hit! My family happily stuffed themselves with my experimental recipe :)

Spaghetti with Meat & Mushroom Sauce

Salt
1 lb dried spaghetti
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 - 3/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (to taste)
3/4 lb ground beef
1/3 cup red wine
1 (28 0z) can crushed tomatoes
1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 handful of basil leaves (can be fresh or dried, I made mine with dried)
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp butter
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring, until softened. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for 1 min. Add the ground beef and cook until browned.
2. Add the wine and tomatoes and stir until combined. Season the sauce with salt, to taste. Stir in the basil and sugar and reduce heat to low, allow to simmer for at least 30 minutes. I put mine in my slow cooker and let it cook over low heat for about 3 hours.
3. While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water and add pasta. Cook according to package directions. (If making in crock pot, don't make the pasta until you are almost ready to eat)
   
4. When the pasta is cooked, turn off the heat, drain the pasta, and return it to the pot. Add the butter to the spaghetti and toss to coat.
   
5. Serve the sauce over the pasta. Top plates with grated cheese, if desired.

I'm huge on changing things in recipes to fit your needs. For example, I have a daughter who is lactose intolerant, so I take a small portion of the pasta out for her before I add the butter and cheese. I also have some family members watching their sodium, so if I am cooking for them I use a sodium-free salt substitute instead of salt. Do the same thing for yourself, if a recipe looks good to you but you don't like something about it, either omit the ingredient or substitute something else in it's place, make it your own! That's what makes cooking so much fun for me!