Easy to Eat Recipes

Mini Chili Relleno
Ingredients:

• 2  diced green chiles, drained and patted dry
• 3/4 cup(s) frozen corn, thawed and patted dry
• 4  scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 cup(s) shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese
• 1 1/2 cup(s) nonfat milk
• 6  large egg whites
• 4  large eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon(s) salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat eight 6-ounce or four 10-ounce heatproof ramekins with cooking spray and place on a baking sheet.
2. Equally divide green chiles, corn and scallions among the ramekins. Top each with cheese. Whisk milk, egg whites, eggs and salt in a medium bowl until combined. Divide the egg mixture evenly among the ramekins.
3. Bake the mini casseroles until the tops begin to brown and the eggs are set, about 25 minutes for 6-ounce ramekins and about 35 minutes for 10-ounce ramekins. 

Pocket Eggs with Soy-sesame Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoon(s) reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon(s) toasted sesame oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoon(s) rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon(s) minced scallion greens
• 4 teaspoon(s) canola oil
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoon(s) black sesame seeds (see Tips & Techniques)
• 1 tablespoon(s) dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon(s) ground white pepper

Directions

1. Combine soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar and scallion in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. Heat canola oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat and swirl to coat. Crack 2 eggs into a small bowl; crack the remaining 2 eggs into a second small bowl.
3. Working quickly, pour 2 eggs on one side of the pan and the other 2 on the other side. The egg whites will flow together, forming one large piece.
4. Sprinkle sesame seeds, basil and pepper over the eggs. Cook until the egg whites are crispy and brown on the bottom and the yolks are firmly set, about 3 minutes. Keeping them in one piece, flip the eggs using a wide spatula and cook until the whites turn crispy and brown on the other side, 1 to 2 minutes more.
5. Pour the reserved sauce over the eggs. Simmer for 30 seconds, turning the eggs once to coat both sides with sauce. Serve in wedges, drizzled with the pan sauce.

 Other ideas:
Meatloaf
Pancakes
Shepherds Pie
Salmon
Cole-slaw
Spaghetti chopped up (canned are very soft)
fried rice

Chicken Alfredo

I've always been wary of Alfredo recipes.  They always end up too heavy, too rich, and too nausea inducing.  Plus I have no reason to keep heavy cream in my fridge.  Except the obvious. 

Right off get some water boiling for pasta (with salt!)  I tried to scale this recipe down for just two of us but I still ended up with enough for four so use caution when planning with pasta!  It multiplies when you're not looking.

Then mince up a clove of garlic

and saute it for a minute in a medium sauce pan with 3 Tbs of butter.

And if you use the same knife that you used to cut the broccoli then you can leave broccoli bits all over your butter just like me.

Say that three times fast!  Broccoli bits all over your butter.  Broccoli bits all over your butter.  Broccoli bits all over you butter. Now we just need a cauldron and we're in business!
 

Drop in 1/2 a package of cream cheese.  Roughly 6 Tbs.  Mix this around with a whisk until the cream cheese is melted.

Warning!  This will look scary!  The cream cheese gets melty but it's not smooth.  It won't mix with the butter yet and you'll wonder if I've tricked you into making a demented version of cottage cheese.  But stay the course!  It gets better.  I promise.  (hee hee)

Now's a good time to get the chicken started.  Cut up 1 chicken breast into strips and give them a good dose of salt and pepper.  Place the pieces in a skillet over med heat with 5 Tbs of water and 1 Tbs of soy sauce.  The soy sauce gives a little flavor and the water lets you steam/poach/saute the chicken without the need for extra oil!  Hooray!  Keep a small cup of water on hand to douse the chicken if it dries out before it's done cooking.

Back to the sauce.  When the cream cheese is melted and at the height of it's scariness slowly pour in 1 Cup of milk while stirring.  That's right.  Milk.

The cream cheese should immediately start to blend with the butter and make your sauce a bit thin.  Keep stirring it over medium heat until it's thick enough for your tastes.

Now you can add 1/2 Cup of Parmesan.  I used shaky cheese.  It's almost the same stuff.

Next comes the seasonings!  Hooray for seasonings!

Black pepper is a must.  And lots of it.  A dash of oregano, basil and nutmeg and you're set.  Don't bother with salt, the Parmesan (shaky cheese) is salty enough.  Keep this warm over low heat while you finish assembling the rest of your meal.

Lightly steamed broccoli let you pretend that you're health conscious and smart.  That's why I always add it to my pasta.  Oh, AND it's delicious.

This is by far the best homemade Alfredo I've ever had.  It was creamy and flavorful but still light and not heart-attack causing.  And with the different parts all cooking at the same time it only took about 15 minutes to make!  Win-win-WIN.





Alfredo Sauce:
1 clove of garlic, minced
3 Tbs butter
6 Tbs cream cheese
1 C milk
1/2 C Parmesan cheese
black pepper, oregano, basil and nutmeg to taste

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and saute the garlic for 1-2 minutes.  Mix in the cream cheese and stir with a whisk until soft and melted.  Slowly add the milk and continue stirring until the cream cheese is completely combined with the butter, then keep it over medium heat for 5-7 minutes until the sauce begins to thicken.  Add Parmesan cheese and seasonings to taste then serve over warm pasta. 

Bread Salad

This wonderful salad I learned from my wonderful sister in law.  When she first mentioned "bread salad" I thought, "ew gross.  Who wants soggy bread mushed together with other obviously nasty things?  Because only nasty things belong in bread salad."  Oh how wrong I was.

Think about when you go to a nice Italian place, and they give you some crusty bread to dip in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  This is kind of like that only a lot better.

This is a bit of a tricky dish.  Not because it's difficult, but there are several tricks that make it great.  And that's why I'm here.

Start with a crusty baguette.  Cut it up into bite sized pieces.  I'm only feeding me and Miyagi so half a salad is plenty for the two of us.  If you want to make more (and you will) the ratios are easy.  You'll need one package of each main ingredient, then some seasonings.

Trick #1: The bread needs to be really crusty.  This can be accomplished by cutting it up in the morning and leaving it out all day.  Or, in a fix, you can spread the chunks on a baking sheet and stick them in the oven at about 200° for maybe 5-7 minutes.

The crustiness is what keeps the bread from turning into that soggy mess we all fear so much.

Trick #2: Use fresh mozzarella.  You can usually find this in the fancy cheese section of your store.  Cut it into medium sized chunks.  The kind I had was just big enough to cut each ball in half.  Again, we used half a package for two of us.

[Now imagine there's a picture of me doing the same thing but with grape tomatoes.  Cut in half, put in bowl.  Easy!]

Trick #3 Use fresh basil.  Do you see a pattern here?  This is possibly the most important because dried basil just doesn't have enough flavor.



Grab a few leaves and tear or slice them up.

The smell at this moment will remind you why you need to make this salad every day.

Now put everything in a bowl together and marvel at how beautiful it is.

Take some olive oil and balsamic vinegar and lightly drizzle it throughout the salad.  Salt and pepper generously and you're done!

Trick #4: Go light on the drizzling.  The flavor you're really looking for is the subtle combination of the main ingredients.  The olive oil, and vinegar and just to enhance the flavors but they can overpower everything if you use too much.

Trick #5: Use white balsamic vinegar. This is less of a trick than a tip.  As you can see the brown vinegar kind of turns everything else brown.  Miyagi and I are ok with that.  But if you're feeding this to anyone else consider buying some white balsamic vinegar.  It's a bit more expensive but it makes the dish much prettier.

And as we all know, prettier tastes better.

Honey Mustard Chicken Salad

It was really hot here the other day.  And in our little apartment which has no air circulation it meant that it was hot all night long.  So when it came time for dinner it needed to be quick and cool.

Here's what I came up with.

I made an impromptu honey mustard dressing with 1 Tbs mustard (Dijon is great but we only had plain old yellow on hand) 1Tbs rice wine vinegar, 1Tbs honey, 1Tbs olive oil and a bunch of seasonings.  Basil, oregano, thyme and pepper.

If you have any of these available fresh it will make this a completely different experience.  But Part of the appeal of this meal was avoiding the store.

Next I chopped up some onions and some garlic, then added it to my dressing and put it in the fridge until I was ready.

I shredded up a can of chicken.  That's right.  A CAN.  I'm not ashamed.  It was hot and we were tired.

Then I thawed some peas, and chopped up about half a cucumber.  If we'd had any celery it would have been great, but the cucumber added a nice sweetness along with a crunch.

Then I dumped everything in the bowl, (technical I know)  along with some Parmesan and some pre-cooked bacon.  I wouldn't want this to be too healthy.

Pour on you dressing and mix it all up.   It's great if you can stick it in the fridge for a bit but we were happy eating it right away.

 I decided this needed a little creaminess to offset the tang of the mustard, so I spread a thin layer of cream cheese on each slice of bread before filling with the salad.

Ta da!  That's it!

This was really tasty and we paired with some berry smoothies to make the ideal cool evening meal.

Miyagi also requested that I point out my own ingenuity in unintentionally balancing the sandwich on a single pea.  Presentation is half the battle!

Raspberry Ice Cream

I made raspberry ice cream based on this recipe yesterday, and I have thought of nothing else for the last 24 hours.  It literally took all my self-restraint to not eat the entire batch right out of the ice cream maker! 

The recipe calls for blackberries but my parents had an abundance of raspberries.  So raspberry it was!

Take 4 cups of fresh (or thawed) raspberries and wash them thoroughly.  Although, we're going to squish them through a strainer later so I'm sure that will catch any small bugs crawling around . . .

In a medium sauce pan put the raspberries over low-med heat and add 1/4 c of sugar and the juice of half a lemon.  Stir them around a little and let them cook with the lid on for about 20 minutes. 

Until they look like this!  The smell is incredible.  Right from the start you'll know that you're doing the right thing by making this ice cream.  Which is good, because you may need that confidence in the steps to come.

Push all the juice and pulp through a fine mesh strainer leaving behind all the seeds and larger chunks (and any bugs, I mean, lemon seeds you might have dropped in earlier)  This step alone probably took me about 10 minutes.  I found it best to push the pulp around, then lift the strainer and scrape along the bottom with my spoon to loosen all the thick syrup that was caught.  Trust me, it's worth the effort. 

Now set that aside, and then heat 1 1/2 cups of half and half, and a cup of sugar.  This only needs to be heated through so it shouldn't take long.

While that's heating separate 5 egg yolks into a bowl and whip them up until they are light yellow, and a little fluffy.  I was less than dexterous at separating my eggs which is why you see three egg yolks, and some egg yolk pudding in the bowl here.  But since they're all getting whipped up it doesn't really matter right?  Right?

Once the half and half mixture is warm, temper in the eggs by drizzling about a cup of half and half to the eggs while whisking constantly.  As you can tell this takes both hands leaving no hands to take pictures.  You'll just have to trust me that I did this. 

Once the eggs have been warmed up a little drizzle the eggs back into the pan while whisking. 

Keep this over low-med heat and keep stirring until it starts to get thick  I nearly panicked because mine wasn't getting thick at all, but then it seemed to happen all at once.  When it's thick enough to coat a spoon and leave a mark when you run your finger through it, it's ready.  (Relax!  The hard part is mostly done!)

Suddenly realize that your strainer is still full of raspberry pulp and scramble to clean it before your custard solidifies.  (Congratulate yourself!  The hard part is now all the way done!)

After your strainer is clean, pour 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream in a bowl, place the strainer on top, and strain your custard directly into the bowl.

Give it a stir until it's all combined and get ready for the fun part. 

Ready?

You don't look ready!

Pour in the raspberry syrup and sigh a contented sigh because now you remember that you're creating something wonderful.

See the pink?  See the wonderful?  See the reflection from the flash on my camera because my kitchen gets 0% natural light?

Cover this and put it in the fridge until it's chilled (about 2 hours)

Or put this bowl inside a bigger bowl filled with ice and stir it until it's chilled (about 10 minutes) 

Smile pleasantly at your new ice cream maker for a moment and think of what you went through to get it. 

Then put it to work.  It should have it's own instructions.  You don't need mine.  Do you?  Yeah, I didn't think so.

When the ice cream maker is done, open it and squeal in delight at your creation!  (this is a necessary step.  Don't ask me why, but the ice cream tastes better when it has your approval.)

Pull out the paddle and scrape the ice cream back into the bin, smooth it out, and cover it tightly.

While you're doing this glance over your shoulder to see Miyagi approving heartily of your creation.

Just looking at this picture makes me break out in a sweat.  I think I'm addicted.

There's still some left.  For now.

And check out the cute ice cream dishes my sweet little niece bought for us!  This is just another one of those things that mysteriously makes the ice cream taste even better.

Hamburger Soup

This is one of my Mom's favorite recipes which I have now stolen and made my own.  So if anyone asks this is MY recipe.  MINE.

What makes it even more MINE is that after listening to my Mom recite the ingredients over the phone I promptly forgot all the measurements and kind of made it up as I went along.

This soup is surprisingly tasty.  It's like sneak attack tasty.  Not that anything I make isn't tasty, but after seeing all the ingredients in this soup you might think "meehhhh.  I don't know . . ."  But that's ok because you don't need to know.  You just need to believe.

Start by cooking up about 1lb of hamburger.  And please season it.  The world will be a better place if you do.  1/2 tsp salt and pepper should be plenty.  Drain this and set it aside.  Or cook it while getting everything else ready pretend you're Martha Stewart.

Also, cook up 1 C of macaroni, drain it and set it aside.  Teeny noodles are really great but if you recall we currently have an abundance of macaroni, so that's what we're using.

See that in the background?  That's celery.

Isn't it pretty?  Since I didn't have exact measurements I chopped up about 3/4 C celery.  Also, the recipe calls for carrots but we didn't have any so whatever.  After we ate dinner I thought "this would have been really good with some corn in it!"  Too bad.  It would have been good.*

*see note above re: everything I make is tasty, with or without said corn.

Now comes the fun part.  Get a big pot and add 4C of water.  Then add 1 packet of onion soup mix,

1 tsp basil, 1 tsp oregano (or to taste) 

1 Tbs soy sauce (remember the trust!), 1 8oz can of tomato sauce, and 1/2 tsp of seasoning salt.

Let this simmer for just a minute while you gather your wits and prepare for the final assembly!

This is also a good time to practice simultaneously blowing the steam out of the way while quickly snapping a picture so that you can get a decent photo of the steamy goodness.

Try not to pass out.

Then add in your hamburger and your macaroni.  If you're making this ahead of time (how proactive!) then don't add the macaroni until the last minute.  This will keep it from absorbing more water and turning to macaroni-mush.

Time for the last, tasty ingredient.  Parmesan.  About 1/2 C will do.  For once it's not worth adding more because it all kind of congeals at the bottom if you add too much.  But don't be fooled!  This really ties everything together and is essential for achieving maximum tastiness.

And if you really want to take it up a notch, add a notch of sour cream to your bowl!

That doesn't really work does it?

I was really hoping it would catch on and soon everyone would be saying "yes please, just a notch of sour cream for me." 

Is that really asking too much?