Best Breakfast Ever.

Best breakfast ever.  I beat 3 eggs up and poured them in a buttered pan.

When they were starting to set, I chopped up some leftover BBQed steak and shredded cheese, and threw it on top.

 I folded it over, let it finish cooking, and enjoyed it with my favorite treat… Strawberries in heavy cream!

More Hyssop Fun!

After the success of the last hyssop recipe, I decided to try and experiment a little.  We received radishes and asparagus in our CSA, and I saw a recipe for a cool salad using both. 

First, I chopped and steamed a bunch of asparagus.

While that was cooking, I mixed up the dressing.  It was rice wine vinegar, olive oil, nama shoyu (which is like soy sauce), salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and a splash of sesame oil.  Sesame oil is strong!  

Once the asparagus was done and chilled, I mixed it into the dressing along with lots of scallions, leftover chicken, and chopped up radishes.  Then I thought about the hyssop.  It is kinda like anise, which is the flavor of the Lebanese liquor Arak.  Arak is often enjoyed with radishes, so I thought the hyssop might work well in the salad. 

It did!  It was so light and perfect for a hot day.

This post was shared with Real Food Wednesday and Fight Back Friday!

Black Bean, Chicken, and Cilantro Soup

While summer has officially started, the weather here has been weird.  We had a few scorchers (when the frozen yogurt pops came in handy!) followed by crazy thunderstorms.  Some of them were warm, but there were some unseasonably cool days, too.  I had cilantro from our produce delivery and wasn’t quite sure what to make with it.  When I stumbled upon this recipe, it seemed perfect.  Of course, i was missing some of the ingredients, so I improvised.

I used dry beans to make this soup, so I started the prep well in advance.  I make a whole bag when I cook beans and freeze the rest for later.   Once the beans were cooked, I started on the soup itself.  After browning  onions in oil and butter, I seasoned them with cumin, garlic powder, celery salt, and red pepper flakes.  Then, I added in a pint of leftover crushed tomatoes, a pint of concentrated chicken stock and some water.

It cooked down for quite a while.  Once it was pretty thick, I added in 3 cups of black beans and 2 cups of leftover crockpot roasted chicken.

I let that cook for a little while, and then added lots of cilantro on top.

Once it was cooked up, I served it with a copious amount of shredded cheese on top.  That was my favorite part!

This post was shared with Make Your Own Monday and The Hearth and Soul Hop!

Accidentally Delicious

Once a week John is in charge of making dinner.  Usually we make it on the day that I work the latest, so he has time after he gets home to cook and relax.  The other day, he had to butcher up a huuuuge chunk of beef after work for us to freeze (more on that another time) and didn’t have time to make dinner.  When I got home, I threw something together, and it was more delicious than anything I could have planned.  It was so EASY too, which was the best.  

First, I sliced up a bunch of onions and started them cooking down in butter while I got out of my work clothes and into relaxing home-mode.

A little while later, I was ready to cook and they were deliciously brown.

I added on a layer of leftover roasted chicken and a layer of raw milk cheddar.

I popped it into the oven to melt down for a few minutes.

When it was done, we ate it with some pickles and marveled at how easy and yummy it was.  I’m so glad we keep roasted chicken pieces in the fridge!

This post was shared at Pennywise Platter Thursday!

Lemon-Creamy Chicken and Macaroni… with a salad!

Monday Macaroni this week featured some leftover chicken… How delish!

The first thing I did was saute some onions and leek in olive oil.  I bet you thought I was going to say onion and garlic in butter.  Hah!  I tricked you!  Really, I used olive oil because we were out of butter.  

When it was smelling good, I added in 1/2 cup of chicken broth. 

I let it come to a boil and then added in 3/4 cup of the cream from the top of the milk, some thyme, salt, and a few splashes of lemon juice. 

When it was all nice and warm, I added in leftover roasted chicken. 

I turned the heat up a bit, and let the chicken warm up.

It was perfect served over macaroni!

Although it had some onions in it, this dish really needed a salad with it.  What kind… hmm….  Dandelion Greens!

I whipped up a quick dressing by chopping up some garlic and leeks…

… and mixed it with a 1:1 ratio of olive oil and rice wine vinegar and a bit of salt.

Topped with dried cranberries, it was a good mix of bitter and sweet.

This post was shared with the Hearth and Soul Bloghop and Fat Tuesday!

Egg Drop-ish Soup

I’ve been fighting a cold (apparently I can’t grow a baby AND fight germs at the same time) so I decided to make soup.  I wanted to fill up on some yummy and healing chicken broth and John loves soup… WIN-WIN!

I had a weird feeling that John wanted eggs for dinner (turns out I was right, he did) so I decided to try a variation on egg-drop soup.  Before I could do anything, though, I had to defrost some chicken broth.  6 cups worth, to be exact.

While they got to work, I sauteed carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and green onions in butter.  

When they were soft-ish and delish, I added in leftover turkey that I had frozen from Thanksgiving.

By the time that was done, the broth was nice and hot.  I added the pan of veggies-n-poultry to the broth.

I added in some soy sauce, ginger, and sesame oil and brought it to a boil.

As I waited for it to boil, I scrambled up 5 eggs.

Now here was the tough part… I had to sloooooooowly pour the eggs into the boiling soup.

It boiled for a little longer…

… and then was ready to enjoy!

This post was shared with Fight Back Friday on the Food Renegade!

Leftover Casserole Supreme

If you know my kitchen habits at all, you know that I love to cook with leftovers.  Combining our limited finances with my love of experimentation, leftover cooking is the very picture of why I love to cook.  This week, I invented a casserole that John wanted to marry.  No, really.  He said that it was so good he wanted to marry it so he could have it all the time.  I replied that he married ME, and I made it, so he COULD have it all the time.  His reply?  “Not ALLLL the time.” 

The leftover elements in this?  Macaroni from the liver meal and seasoned ground beef from the quesadillas.  Oh yeah, and bacon grease.  The other easy ingredient was Cream of Nothing Soup.

I started out by defrosting some Cream of Nothing Soup. 

I shredded in 1/4 lb of raw pecan jack cheese and sprinkled in some salt.

The night before I sauteed 3 shredded up onions in bacon grease leftover from breakfast. 

I added in a ton of home made breadcrumbs to the onions and let them brown up. 

Once the “cooking” was done, I mixed together the leftover macaroni and the leftover ground beef.

I poured the now-cheesy cream of nothing soup mix on top and stirred.

Then, the onion/breadcrumb mix was smoothed on top.

John baked it at 350* for about 20 minutes.

Then, the finishing touch!  Extra cheese grated and sliced on top, then broiled.

With a little salad on the side?  MmmMMm!!!

Goat Cheese and Apple Quesadillas

I made tortillas a few days ago in preparation for our quesadilla extravaganza.  I knew I wanted mine with goat cheese.  Well, I knew I was going to have it with goat cheese because it was the only cheese in the house.  I took that idea and ran with it.  

Goat Cheese.

Thinly sliced apples. 

Onions.  I would have preferred to have them cooked, maybe even caramelized, but I didn’t think of that in advance and was NOT waiting to do it now.  I was HUUUUUNGRY!

Quesadilla Maker.

Perfection. 

Served with red beans and rice and cortido?  Yeah, man!

This post was featured on Meatless Mondays with Midnight Maniac, Tasty Tuesday at 33 Shades of Green, Full Plate Thursday at Miz Helen’s COuntry Cottage, and Monday Mania with the Healthy Home Economist!

Spinach and Chicken Macaroni- Leftover Rewind

We had some spinach in the fridge that was starting to look a little sad, so I knew it had to be used up.  Our go-to technique for sad looking greens it to saute it with butter, garlic, and onion.  Easy-peasy.  

Looking to clean out the fridge, I pulled out the chicken breasts from the more recent crock-pot-stock escapade.  

I chopped it into little pieces and warmed it up with the spinach.  

Served over macaroni with lots of Parmesan Cheese?  Yeahhhhh…. That’s what I’m talkin’ about!

The Lunch Battle

Perhaps you’ve noticed by now that John and I cook most of our food at home.  That’s not to say we NEVER eat out, but for the most part, it’s good ol’ home cookin’ for us.  That being said, we both work.  Often.  For long hours.  It’s not unheard of for John to work from 7:00 am until 2:00 am the next day, lather, rinse, and repeat.  As for me, when we are preparing for a show, the only time I go home is to sleep.  Somehow, though, we still eat without resorting to takeout (too often).  How?  

1) We pack lunch (and sometimes breakfast and dinner, too!)

2) We don’t carry much cash so we can’t be tempted to get takeout

3) We keep snacks at work

That’s it.  Now, I know, the 1st one is the most daunting.  Here’s how we do it, and it really isn’t much more work (if you are already making dinner at home). 

First, when I make dinner, I make enough for 1-2 lunches later in the week.  As I spoon out the meal onto our plates, I spoon the extras into work-friendly containers.  The next morning when I am so tired that I can’t fathom putting peanut butter on bread, I grab the tupperware, some fruits/veggies, fill up a water bottle, and I am good to go.  

Extra work:  None!  I had to put the leftovers somewhere, anyway.  

Bonus!! Putting away the extras when I am serving the food helps us control our portions!  We can’t just get up and gorge ourselves.  We have to wait until the first serving digests, and then, IF we are still hungry, there are snacks. 

The second trick is a LITTLE more work.  By a LITTLE, I mean it involves mixing.  Whenever I am cooking up grains (rice, quinoa, couscous, barley, macaroni, whatever), I always make too much.  I do it on purpose, though, not just because I can’t measure… although that MAY be how this started.  I take the extra and stick it in the fridge.  Why?  Because later in the week I am probably cooking something… aromatic.  Something super-duper garlicky.  Something that we don’t really like to eat at work.  When that happens, I store the leftovers in the fridge for us to eat at home, and then pull out one of the leftover grain containers.  The grain gets a mix of leftover cooked protein or veggies popped on top with extra butter to keep it moist (and delicious), or gets dazzled up with some produce, spices, and dressing to be served cold.  Either way, the next day’s lunch is covered with minimal extra work.  

Extra Work: Minimal (Mixing)

Bonus!! Extra protein is used up before it goes bad, and no one smells at work (at least from the food…)

Ta-da!  That’s it!  Of course, we slip up, sometimes.  There are days that John gets sent to work with a jar of peanut butter and a spoon.  Sometimes I just really want the Sweet Potato Sushi that the best co-worker EVER orders in.  At the end of the day, though, that’s okay.  

This post was featured on the Pennywise Platter at the Nourishing Gourmet and Babysteps to a Rockin’ Life at A Moderate Life!