Wow it's been a long time.

I stopped cooking for a while due to a thing called "Depression". I've had no energy, no creativity, just a hallow void of despair. However I'm feeling a little better now so back to meal planning!

Here's this week:
Monday: Bacon wrapped chicken with lemon orzo soup
Tuesday: Apricot chicken with rice
Wednesday: Salmon with sweet potato soup
Thursday: Beef onion stew over noodles
Friday: "Hardee's" brown sugar chicken with rice and beans
Saturday: Meatloaf with corn chowder
Sunday: Left overs!

I've made bacon wrapped chicken before, and frequently use it when having guests because it's easy yet impressive. I've never made the lemon orzo soup before, but I had it at a friend's and LOVED it.

Bacon wrapped chicken:
Ingredients:
Chicken
Bacon
Chopped chives or other fun filling
Cream cheese
Condensed soup: cream of chicken
Milk, 1/2 cup
Lemon juice, 1 tsp
Pepper, salt, etc

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Cut chicken breasts like you would open a book. Put a slice of cream cheese and 1 teaspoon chopped chives in the middle of each breast and roll up, loosely. Wrap each rolled breast with 1 slice (or more, if you like bacon!) of bacon and secure with toothpicks (or pray it stays rolled, whatever). Place in a baking dish.
3. In a medium bowl, combine condensed soup, milk, lemon juice, pepper and salt. Mix until smooth, then pour over chicken. (You can add mayo to this, like 1/4 cup, but I do not.)
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, or until no longer pink and juices run clear.

Lemon Orzo Soup

Ingredients:
4 cups chicken broth
1/4 cups lemon juice
Spinach, rosemary,  thyme, other fun things
Orzo pasta (my recipe calls for 1/2 cup, but you can use more)

1. Cook orzo according to directions
2. Combine all ingredients over low heat, stir until warmed through and thoroughly combined

Beef Stroganoff

Wow, married life has really thrown me for a loop. In addition to the bliss of the honeymoon year, we're also astoundingly short on money. Luckily, I have a recipe from a friend that doesn't call for much and makes pure comfort food:

Stroganoff (it actually isn't real stroganoff but i call it that)

 

Ingredients:

1 pound ground turkey (or ground beef but i like turkey better)

garlic powder

onion salt

lemon pepper (or any pepper you like really)

2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup

1/4 cup milk

1/2 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon worcestershire sauce

brown the ground meat, seasoning with garlic powder, onion salt, and pepper

drain and return to skillet

add cans of soup, milk, soy sauce, and worcestershire sauce. mix well, simmer for about 5 mins, then serve.

i serve mine over egg noodles with peas and pearl onions, but you could serve it over mashed potatoes too

 

As a side note: I make this a little differently using the crock pot!

 

Ingredients:

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 packet dry onion soup mix

1 lb stew beef

some water

 

Brown the meat in a skillet and transfer to crock pot. This step is not necessary but enhances the look of the stew, so don't hesitate to try it.

Add other ingredients, turn crock pot on Low for 8-9 hours.

Serve over noodles or rice and enjoy!

Cranberry Chicken, Lemon Honey Chicken

I found two new recipes to try. Of course, it's Thanksgiving week, so I probably won't try these until the weekend or beyond. Luckily I do not have to host or cook a full T-day meal, so I won't end up with a lot of left-overs. (Elvo does not eat left overs and I do not like turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, or most of the other traditional dishes. I make the cornbread, haha.)
First is something I would only make for Elvo, because I despise the key ingredients:
Cranberry Chicken
6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 1/2 (1 ounce) packages dry onion soup mix
1 (16 ounce) can jellied cranberry sauce
1 cup French dressing
Place the chicken breasts in a glass or non-reactive baking dish.
Stir the onion soup mix, cranberry sauce, and French dressing together in a bowl until well blended. Pour over the chicken breasts. Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 8 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Remove plastic wrap from the baking dish, and cover loosely with aluminum foil.
Bake chicken in preheated oven until top is bubbly and slightly browned, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Or place in slow cooker for 6 hours on low.

And the next is a bit of imagination:
Lemon Honey Chicken
Take some chicken (any amount will do) and put it in a bag with some lemon juice. Place in refrigerator overnight.
Upon waking, grease crockpot. Put chicken in crockpot on low, throw away extra juice. Drizzle honey over chicken. Throw in a handful of onions, some salt and pepper, a bit of parsley and oil. Cook low 8-9 hours or high 4-5 hours. Serve with rice or something else delicious like squash.

Also, a little squash recipe:
Yellow squash, sliced into coins. (I call them coins... what do you call them?) Cook in chicken broth on the stove top for 4-5 minutes on high. Honey butter in the centers really completes this delicate, healthy side.

Also, Elvo got some instant mashed potatoes. While I'm loathe to instant things, it's nice not having to break out the mixer!

Seared Mahi Mahi with Mango and Rice

Ah, the first day of spring break! Finally, a Monday where I can cook!

I have two mahi mahi filets left in the fridge. They aren't the usual mahi mahi filets I get from bilo, so I am a little concerned about how long they have been there and where exactly they came from. But as I have exactly one dollar in my wallet otherwise, they are for dinner.


Using this recipe as inspiration, I made a few small modifications:

First, I have a jar of mango salsa in the fridge from a few weeks ago when salsa was buy one get one free. I prefer my salsa tongue-melting spicy, but Elvo does not like spicy food so I got some mango to try out.

Second, I don't have any jasmine rice, or scallions, or cilantro. So I will be making my rice with white sushi rice, some other seasonings from the spice rack, and maybe walnuts tossed in.

Should be a delicious adventure!

A little story

So, in my previous post, I was making Elvo's favourite soup and I had decided to make biscuits.

But no, wait, I decided to make bread. Elvo loves bread. And since I have gluten free bread flour (I stopped making my own and just buy Pamela's now, I know I know, sell out, but it's easier) I figured I'd just concoct a delicious, coarse bread good for soup dipping.

I threw together some ingredients. To the best of my knowledge my recipe included an egg, a cup of milk, 3 cups of gf flour, some salt, a handful of brown sugar, a bit of oil, and a spoonful of butter, plus some yeast.

Apparently baking is not like cooking.

You can't just make things up, and you definitely can't say "a handful of" or "just a pinch". I've made bread before, and apparently done so only with extreme luck. Though in my defense I've made bread three times and only twice had it come out tasty.

Back to the budding failure:
I tossed all these ingredients in the machine and turned it on. I can't remember which setting I used. My beloved machine got to work.
I recommend a bread machine to everyone. I got mine second hand for just $18, and it came with two cookbooks as well. It's fun, it makes the house smell amazing, and it's healthier.

Anyway. Fast forward time. Ding! Bread it done. I pop it out on a plate and Elvo slices it up.
Hm, what's wrong with this? It's really dense, and it seems under baked in the center.
Elvo: Did you follow the recipe?
Me: Well, I just kind of made it up.
Elvo: ...What did you put in it?
Me: I'm not exactly sure... some sugar and flour and..."
Elvo: Did you measure?
Me: (sensing danger) N-nnnooo?
Elvo: Ok, try a recipe from the book and measure everything.

Round two: I chose a simple white bread recipe and measured the ingredients out mostly-carefully. Put it all in the machine and press fast forward on time. Ding! Bread's done.

And it was even worse!

Elvo: Did you substitute anything?
Me: Well, brown sugar for white, gluten free mix for regular flour, oil for margarine, soy for milk power and water...
Elvo: ....~facepalm~


Lesson to the wise.

Things that go well with soup

It's been cold and rainy lately. Elvo requested his favourite soup, which is carrot sweet potato soup. This is a thick, creamy sort of soup, good served with some dipping bread:

In the slow cooker, it requires a long cook time so do this in the morning, combine:

1-2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced to equal about 2-3 cups
1 cup baby carots
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 cups chicken broth, or two cubes and 2 cups water
a little onion if you have it (I used flakes, for lack of fresh on hand)
a little curry powder if you have it (I didn't)

Stir to combine and cook it on low for 8 hours or so. Then dump it in the blender and blend it smooth. Put it back in the slow cooker and add:
1/2 cup milk or cream (I used soy)
1 tbsp maple syrup or honey (I also love to garnish his dish with a little maple syrup swirl in the center once I've ladeled out the soup)

Cook it on high for 15 to 30 minutes more, to let it thicken.

Serve it with bread for a soothing, rainy day meal.

But as I was making the soup this morning I started thinking. What goes well with soup? Salad of course. But Elvo hates salad, hence the addition of biscuits. (I just make some drop biscuits, you could also get the kind that come in a tube but since we're gluten free that's not an option available to me. Besides free range eggs and soy milk are better ingredients.)

I'm also contemplating making some bread. I dunno. I am in a baking mood I guess.

BBQ Grilled Chicken and Jacket Sweet Potato

The weather has been warming up and I am dying to use our grill again. We'll be eating with Elvo's parents on Friday and likely having pineapple mahi mahi on Saturday if I can find some spare change to buy a can of pineapple.

(Normally when I have a short week Elvo picks up the grocery tab but since he's between jobs it's just lil' o meeeee. So I'm digging through ingredients and trying to skimp where I can.)

So! You'll need two chicken breasts, thawed, and you'll want to pepper them 30 minutes before grilling. Put a little BBQ sauce on them too.

Have a recipe: Baked Sweet Potato
It calls for yams, but you can use either yam or sweet potato. Remember US friends that yams are often labeled "sweet potatoes" but never the other way around.
Cook it according to the directions, 400 Fahrenheit 45-75 minutes or until it begins to carmelize. When it's 10-15 minutes from done heat the grill. When it's 5 minutes 'till done put your chicken on the grill with some more BBQ sauce. (It's ok, you can clean it later!)

Mix a little nutmeg with some cinnamon with a handful of brown sugar. Slice the jacket potato open and put a spoonful of butter in, followed by the brown sugar mixture.

Enjoy! Maybe add corn as a side.