Mi Vida Ocupada

Ingredients Needed:

• 8 Roma Tomatoes
• 1 large onion
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 2 waxy yellow peppers
• 3 jalapenos
• 2 serranos
• bunch of fresh cilantro
• 1 lime
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can white corn
• 2 tsp salt

Chop up fresh ingredients, stir them all together in large bowl, then squeeze in juice from a lime and sprinkle with salt then stir again.  Next, throw in a can of drained black beans and a can of white corn.  Stir then cover and put in fridge for at least 4 hours before serving.

Homemade Salsa

I love fish tacos and said for the longest time that I needed to make them and finally got around to it a few weeks ago……. they were delicious!

Ingredients Needed:

• 1 tilapia filet per person
• cumin
• coriander
• cayenne pepper
• seasoning salt
• 2 limes
• chopped red cabbage
• shredded cheddar
• fresh cilantro
• fresh chile (see recipe further into this post)
• small corn or flour tortillas

First I suggest you marinate your tilapia with lime juice, cumin, garlic powder, cayenne pepper and coriander

Many fish tacos are fried or baked, but I made mine in a grill pan. Doesn’t matter which way you cook this fish, just make sure it is fully cooked ;)

Chop some red cabbage, shred cheese and pick some fresh cilantro (so colorful and pretty!)

I did not make this cream sauce for the tacos but I might next time, sounds delicious!

Ingredients for cream sauce:

• 1/4  cup  thinly sliced green onions
• 1/4  cup  chopped fresh cilantro
• 3  tablespoons  fat-free mayonnaise
• 3  tablespoons  reduced-fat sour cream
• 1  teaspoon  grated lime rind
• 1 1/2  teaspoons  fresh lime juice
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 1  garlic clove, minced

Ingredients needed for chile:

• 2 jalapeno pepper
• 1 serrano pepper
• any other hot peppers will do!
• can of peeled tomatoes or fresh tomatoes
• garlic gloves
• 1 onion
• 1 Tbs cumin
• salt

Now to make the chile, roast some hot peppers on a camal

Throw all your ingredients in a food processor

Add fresh cilantro, cumin and salt

Blend the chile good

Serve chile in a bowl, refrigerate any extra in a glass jar

Aren’t they pretty? I used corn tortillas for these fish tacos but I think that flour holds up a little better.  We served these with arroz con gandules (recipe for that to follow!)

Mmmmm, I am going to have to make these again very soon!

ETA:  This is a post from (Jan 13 ’10) and I finally got around to adding photos so I am re-posting it almost exactly a year later ;)

*****************************************************************

I don’t typically make New Years Resolutions but this year I did
resolve that I was going to step out of my boring making-dinner-routine
and start cooking at least one new recipe a week.  Since I work so late
many nights a week, Tuesday seems to be one of the days that work best
for me to cook and we often collaborate these meals with our
neighbors.  Last night I decided to bake a Blue Cheese Meatloaf for a
group of 9 (at the neighbors house) and it was a huge hit.  I was even
told by at least one that “it was the best meatloaf I ever had”.  It
had great texture and packed with flavor.  The bleu cheese melts into
the meatloaf so you don’t get an overpowering taste yet it still
dresses up the meat in the most wonderful way.

This recipe makes twelve servings

• 1 Lg Onion Diced
• 4 lbs lean ground beef lean
• 1 ts ground pepper
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp dry mustard
• 2 c bread crumbs
• 3 tbs mustard
• 1/2 c light sour cream
• 4-6 oz Amish bleu cheese crumbles (Danish is much stronger than Amish.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small frying pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add diced onion. Fry until the onion is translucent (15 minutes).

Fried Onions

In a large bowl, mix together fried onions, beef, pepper, salt, dry mustard, bread crumbs, mustard, and light sour cream.

Ingredients for meatloaf

After you have mixed the ingredients very well (use your hands if you have to). Add the

blue cheese and mix in gently.

Mix Bleu cheese into meatloaf mixture

Pat the mixture down into a 9 x 13inch baking pan

Form meatloaf into glass baking pan

Bake the meatloaf in the oven until it is no longer pink in the center

(1 hour and 5 minutes).

Baked Bleu Cheese Meatloaf

I made mashed potatoes and green beans with almonds as my side dishes.  Yummy!!

Calzones are one of my favorite meals and are pretty easy to make:

Ingredients Needed:

• Frozen Pizza Dough or Italian Bread Dough (1 loaf for every 2 people.  If serving little people, 1 loaf could make 3)
• Favorite Pizza Sauce (1 qt for every 6 calzones)
• Favorite Pizza Toppings
• Mozzarella Cheese
• Parmesan Cheese
• Italian Seasonings
• Wooden Rolling Pin

First thing that needs to be done is to thaw the frozen bread dough for a couple of hours.  Lightly coat the outside of the bread loaves with olive oil then lightly drape cling wrap over top, then place on baking sheet.  Set loaves aside to raise.  I let mine raise in the oven (away from my curious cats!).  If you are crunched for time, a secret to letting the dough thaw quickly is to put them in the oven at 200′ for about 45 minutes.

While the dough is thawing/raising, start to prepare your calzone ingredients.
Here we have some baby portabellas sauteing with fresh garlic in olive oil.

I also sauteed some onions.

Once dough has thawed, cut each loaf in half. On a clean countertop, roll out the dough using rolling pin into a circular or rectangular shape. Spread a very thin amount of sauce over half, leaving about 1/2″ of dough around the edges.

Top sauce with favorite pizza toppings. This one is a Canadian Bacon/Pineapple. I also love pepperoni with sausage, garlic, onion, mushroom, peppers.

Cover the ingredients with a generous amount of mozzarella and fresh parmesan.

Fold Dough over the Ingredients, roll and pinch ends together to seal tightly.  Season dough with Italian seasonings and parmesan cheese to make it extra delicious.

Bake Calzones at 400′ for 20 Minutes or until Golden Brown

Serve with a side of pizza sauce for dipping and Enjoy!

I love making soups and this recipe that I found on Linday Teague Moreno‘s blog looked really yummy so I gave it a go the other night.

I modified the recipe somewhat and took a few photos of the process to share.  This was very time-consuming, probably 4+ hours, so make sure you give yourself enough time!

The recipe as read below is for 8 servings.  I doubled the recipe as this soup freezes great, plus if I’m going to go through the work of making it, might as well enjoy it twice as long!

Ingredients for poached chicken and chicken broth:
1 large (approximately 6 pounds) chicken
1 onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
3 cloves garlic
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 Tbs. Kosher salt

Ingredients for Chowder:
1/2 pound thick bacon, diced
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
5 stalks celery, diced
3 carrots, diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
3 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 bag frozen corn
1 to 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
3 cups half and half
Freshly ground black pepper

To poach the chicken:
Add water to cover, at least 3 quarts. 

Finely chop the carrots, onion and celery and add to large stock pot along with garlic, thyme, pepper and 2 tablespoon of salt.  Bring the water to a simmer over medium heat, skimming occasionally. Skim, add more water if necessary to keep the chicken covered, and continue to gently simmer until the chicken is fully cooked (the juices from the thigh will run clear), about 60 minutes.  My two chickens took longer, about 1 hour 40 minutes

Broth will be a delightful golden color when ready, chicken will be very light in color.

Drain the chicken and chopped veggies, reserving the broth. Allow the chicken to cool then remove the meat from the bones.
If making stock ahead of time: Discard the bones and refrigerate the meat until ready to make the chowder.

To make the chowder: Heat the bacon and olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook until the bacon fat is rendered and the meat firming but not yet crisp, about 10 minutes. Add the celery and onions once bacon is starting to get crispy.  I did not cook the bacon as long as I should have before adding the veggies.  It still turned out good but next time I will let the bacon cook until it is crispier.

Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally until the vegetables begin to soften, about 6 minutes. Add the potatoes, corn, and thyme. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are fully soft, about 8 additional minutes.

Add the chicken broth, corn and chicken to the pot. Bring the broth to a simmer over medium-high heat. Turn down the heat to medium and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes.

Set aside 2 cups of hot broth and combine with a 1/2 cup of flour.  Whisk to create a nice smooth batter

Add the cream and flour mixture to the large pot. Return the chowder to a simmer, season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle into warm bowls and serve.

I served the chowder with garlic toast and it was delicious!

Mmmmm. Stuffed ‘shrooms.  I was assigned the task of bringing an appetizer to my mom’s birthday dinner last week and knowing that we were having lasagna for the main course, I knew these Italian sausage stuffed mushrooms would be perfect.

Ingredients Needed:

• 1 lb Italian Sausage
• 3 Packages of Fresh Mushrooms (big caps would be best)
• 12 oz Shredded Mozzarella, Cheddar and Romano
• 3 Gloves Chopped Garlic
• 4 Green Onions
• Italian Seasoning

First, clean mushrooms and remove stems from cap.  Place caps bottom-side-up in baking pan.

Brown 1 lb of sausage in frying pan.

Finely chop one cup of the mushroom stems.

Add chopped mushroom stems and chopped garlic to browned sausage, along with Italian Seasonings.

Once sausage is cooked, drain if necessary then add cheese, garlic and green onions.  I made my mushrooms low-carb by not putting in breadcrumbs but if you want to add them, do it now.

Form the sausage and cheese mixture into a ball and stuff a heaping amount into each mushroom cap.  I would get bigger mushrooms next time, I think it would hold the stuffing better.  There is likely to be extra sausage and cheese mixture, just throw it into a ramekin and bake alongside the mushrooms.

Bake at 350′ for about 20 minutes or until browned.

Enjoy!

Hopefully you’ve had breakfast before you read this or it might make you hungry!

Ingredients Needed:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 TBS White vinegar
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 3 Ripe bananas
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3 eggs
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
• 2 ½ cups flour

Start with three very ripe bananas.  Did you know you can freeze these? I pulled mine out of the freezer about 20 minutes before I started this recipe.

Mash the bananas with a fork. Let stand.

Next, add 1 TBS of white vinegar to the milk. Set aside and let stand to thicken.

This is what the mashed bananas will look like after they’ve sat 10 minutes or so

Now combine mashed bananas, eggs, oil, white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and salt with electric mixer or whisk.

After you have combined those ingredients and have mixed well, add the thickened milk

This is what the batter will look like with thickened milk added.

Now add 2 1/2 cups flour AND Baking Soda to the mixture. Blend until just mixed.

Pour batter evenly into two well-greased loaf pans.

Bake bread at 350′ for 60-70 minutes. I do the toothpick test to see if it is done at 60 minutes and watch it from there. You want to make sure it is fully cooked!

As soon as bread is done baking, immediately remove it from loaf pans and set on cooling rack. If you leave it in the pans the heat will cause the sides to get moist and yucky.

Enjoy!

Banana Bread

Its been a long time since I have posted a recipe, mostly because I haven’t cooked much in the past several months.  This recipe for Stuffed Chicken Breast is one I have been making for a few years and thought you would enjoy it too :)

Ingredients Needed:

• Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
• Panko (Japanese Bread Crumbs)
• Seasoning (onion, garlic, seasoned salt, cajun, etc)
• Shredded Cheese (I used Italian cheese blend but any cheese will do)
• Mushrooms (or other veggie)
• Fresh crushed garlic
• Butter
• Toothpicks
• Optional:  Bacon or ground sausage

Preheat oven to 350′

Next you want to pound your chicken breasts with the flat end of your food mallet.  I always cover mine with a towel first so that raw chicken juice isn’t spraying all over my kitchen

Next you saute the mushrooms with a little butter and fresh crushed garlic. These mushrooms look like they’re bathing in a lot of butter but they are just moist because I wash my mushrooms {GASP! I know you aren’t supposed to wash mushrooms but I always do anyway}

When the mushrooms (or other veggies) are sauteed,  drain excess moisture and then put them in a bowl and mix with shredded cheese (and bacon if you have it!)

Flip your chicken breasts over to the rough side and place some of the mixture on the chicken, laving space around the edges

Roll the chicken so that it is tightly holding the mushroom cheese mixture, then seal together with toothpicks. This is important if you don’t want the mixture to come out of the chicken while it is baking!

You now have two options. You can either make an egg mixture or you can melt butter into a bowl. This time I opted for melted butter. Dunk the rolled chicken breast into your mixture so that the outside is completely coated.

Next you will roll the buttered chicken into the seasoned panko crumbs until it is completely breaded then place in baking dish.  If you are using unseasoned panko, make sure you season the panko before you roll your chicken into it.  I use garlic and onion powder, seasoned salt and cajun seasoning.

Bake in oven at 350′ for about 35-40 minutes. If you like the top browned, put on the broiler for the last few minutes to get the golden brown color.

I made mashed potatoes from Yukon Gold potatoes (so creamy and yummy!) and steamed green beans as my sides.

You can stuff the chicken breasts with millions of things…… get creative!!

Hey! Hope I didn’t offend anyone with the title “Hot Dago” but that is what these are called.  Hopefully you aren’t sick of me posting photo after photo of food, because that is all I seem to take photos of lately.

Ingredients:

• Lean Ground Beef
• Ground Italian Sausage (mild or hot, depending on what you like)
• Egg
• Italian Bread Crumbs
• Spaghetti or marinara sauce
• Green Peppers
• Onions
• Mozzarella or other Italian cheese
• Garlic toast

To Prepare:

Slice green peppers and onions into .5″ strips.  Set aside but heat up frying pan. (These are optional ingredients but make it so much better!)

Place spaghetti sauce in sauce pan and start heating up.  Heat oven for garlic toast.

Make meat mixture.  Combine ground beef and Italian sausage in large bowl with bread crumbs and an egg.  Use your hands, get in there and mix all up really good!  Once meat is mixed, throw veggies into hot pan with a little olive oil.

Form patties like you would with a hamburger.  Place these in a hot skillet or frying pan. Fry on both sides until browned and cooked all the way through.

Make sure to stir and saute veggies! Put the bread in oven if you haven’t already done so.

Layer cheese, sauce, peppers and onions atop the Meat Patty and serve with garlic toast (see first photo).  Good stuff, Maynard!