Meatless Monday's Have Arrived!

No, no, no, no need to worry, or call out the reinforcements--we haven't lost our minds and gone vegan, or vegetarian, or whatever that nonsense is when people don't eat meat.  I'm from the midwest.  I HEART meat.  Nothing tops a big, juicy filet Mignon.  Nothing ever has, nothing ever will.  I promise.

With that said, I've been a bit obsessed with budgets as of late and focused on reducing our food budget by 50%.  One BIG expense is meat--and even though I try and buy it when it's on sale, and use coupons, it still adds up.  With that in mind, I've decided that Monday's in our house will be meatless.  It's good for our wallets, but also good for the environment--since reducing the meat you eat, reduces your carbon footprint. Double win, right?!

So, the dear hubbs is none to thrilled with this change in menu, he believes (and I quote) "it's not a meal without meat."  With that as our starting place, I had to ease into this transition with something he loves: macaroni and cheese!  (I know, he hates cheese, but this and pizza are the exceptions, crazy!)  

But, as with many of things, we are also a house divided.  Mike likes a traditional mac-and-cheese, while I would rather explore the fromage and all the goodness that comes with every stinky cheese known to man.  To satisfy both in our house, I decided to do "individual pots" and made his bland-and-boring and mine fit for a blog.  Happy campers all around our house tonight.

Macaroni and cheese is such an easy dish to play with--because you basically can't screw it up!  Veggies, meat, spices, you name it--it ALL goes together!  Tonight's delight came from a bit of all sorts of goodness I had lingering in the kitchen!

One-Pot-Queso

Ingredients:

2 cups macaroni noodles, cooked al-dente

1/4 cup white onions, chopped

1/4 red pepper, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

2 Tbs butter (unsalted) 

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp flour

1-2 Tbs white queso

1 1/2 cups Parmesan/reggiano cheese

1-2 tsp paprika

garlic salt, pepper to taste

Directions

In medium sauce pan, melt butter.  Add onions, peppers and garlic.  Saute until tender, about 2 minutes.  Whisk in flour, heavy cream and milk.  Bring to heat--sauce will thicken.  Be careful not to let it thicken too much--you want to be able to add in the cheese--and have it still a bit liquid.  If it's too thick, add a bit more milk.  Remove from heat.  Add queso and parmesan cheese. Stir until melted.  

Gently fold mixture into a bowl with cooked, drained noodles in it and stir until well coated.  Be careful not to add all the cheese sauce just yet--you might not need it all, depending on the consistency you prefer/size of noodles/etc.  You want the sauce to cover the noodles, coat it, be a "little" saucy, but not too much.  Fold mixture into individual baking dish.  Sprinkle with panko crumbs. 

Bake in oven set to 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until top is golden.  Because the mixture might bubble over, its a good idea to set the baking dish on a baking pan to protect the oven.  

Serve and enjoy!

Herb crusted, raspberry Glazed Pork

For a week now I've been battling onehellofa cold/sickness and haven't so much as even thought of cooking, let alone trying anything new.  The poor husband has been eating frozen food for over seven days and he was oh-so-happy to see me in the kitchen again this evening.  (forget that I'm feeling better, he's stoked he gets to eat again!)

Tonight I decided to go with a tried and true pork--but spice it up a bit for both of us.  First up, herb-crust, topped with a raspberry glaze/sauce.  While the hubbs hasn't embraced the love of all things sweet with pork, he did give it a "it's good" and I devoured it.  If you like the combination, give it a whirl, its not going to disappoint.

Herb Crusted/Raspberry Glazed Pork


Ingredients
1 pork tenderloin roast (approx 1lb) BRINED
3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs dried basil
1 tbs dried oregano
3 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp season salt
1 tsp paprika
1 cup raspberries
2 tsp sugar
3 tbs orange juice
splash soy sauce
1 tsp cider vinegar

Directions:


In a medium mixing bowl, whisk olive oil, oregano, basil, garlic, season salt, paprika and salt/pepper together.  Place pork roast in medium baking pan that's been sprayed with cooking spray.  Rub mixture over entire roast--until fully covered.  Place in 350 degree oven until cooked--about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in small saucepan, mash fresh raspberries.  Over LOW heat, whisk in orange juice until a liquid consistency.  Add sugar, cider vinegar and soy sauce.  Whisk together and bring to heat.  Don't boil, remove right before and let sit.

Drizzle over pork.

Chicken with Artichoke Hearts, Capers and Angel Hair Pasta

More often than not, I get to trying new things and love them, then decide to pair them in a round-two recipe with something else from that region that I don't use often.  Such was the case tonight with my capers from Monday.

The caper love from Monday evening got me thinking about the Mediterranean, and what other things I love from that region.  Artichoke!  Don't you just LOVE artichokes?  I do.  Steamed, with butter, or just the hearts, they're pretty amazing little things.  Deceiving since their appearance is so prickly.  

So tonight I paired those two things and whattda know, they make an amazing dinner with chicken and angel hair pasta!  

Chicken with Artichoke Hearts, Capers and Angel Hair Pasta

Ingredients: (note, this recipe is for 2, you can double for more!)

2 chicken cutlets, medium size

1 Tbs capers

1 cup chicken broth

1 can artichoke hearts, drained and halved

1 Tbs corn starch, mixed with water until thin and runny

2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

4 oz. angel hair pasta, cooked al-dente

1 Tbs butter

1 tsp garlic salt

Parsley-finely chopped

salt/pepper to taste

Directions:

In a medium frying pan, bring EVOO to heat.  Add chicken, cook on each side until slightly golden, about 3 minutes per side.  Remove from heat, set aside.  Drain oil.  Pour chicken broth into pan, heat until boiling, let simmer until reduced by about 1/2.  During this process, add a bit of corn starch mixture, gradually, by the tsp. until a "little thick."  (just until it seems less like a broth, but not a creamy texture)  Add Artichokes, capers and chicken.  Stir and let simmer for about 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat, add butter and stir until melted.  Add garlic salt, stir.  Serve over pasta, ladle sauce over both chicken and pasta.  Sprinkle parsley over top.  

Two-Way Tilapia

Plain Tilapia w/ Garlic

Sometimes, even if you're the BEST cook, a household is divided.  That's us.  We're divided during March Maddness (the hubbs is cheering on some school named Richmond, while I'm following an ACTUAL school from Kansas) and we're divided on fish.

I think it's fun to add stuff, seasoning, sauce to fish, while my food-purest husband prefers his fish lame-o, bland and baked.  I swear, if I fed him baked fish, plain potatoes and salad without dressing every night, he'd be happy as can be.  But, we all know that's not me to people-please---and that'd be boring.

So tonight, armed with two tilapia filets and a plan for two meals, I created Tilapia, two-ways, to appeal to a diverse family.

With that said, let me arm you with this: the "Dill Way" is the BEST WAY.  Seriously, I'm not a big fish fan, and I'd eat this every night.  I think its a good introduction for those who aren't big fish eaters or kids. (although,  I haven't tested the kid-theory.)

Dill Tilapia

Two-Way Tilapia

Ingredients:
2 Tilapia filets (we use fresh, never frozen)
1 Tbs. miracle whip (or you could use mayonnaise)
2 tsp fresh dill, chopped finely. (or 1 tsp dry as it's stronger)
1/2 lemon, cut into 4 wedges
Pinch of garlic salt
salt/pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375.  On a large, rimmed baking sheet, coat with cooking spray and lay filets down.  On one filet (plain) sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic salt.  On the other filet, spread miracle whip evenly over filet, sprinkle dill, garlic salt, salt, pepper on top.

Bake until opaque throughout--about 10 minutes, depending on size of fish.


Serve with lemon wedges!

Pork Brine

This is a great easy-brine for pork!  Remember when you're doing a brine, let the water cool completely before adding meat--you don't want to start the cooking process!

Ingredients:

2-3 cups water to boil, plus 1-2 cold after
1/4 cup salt
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 rosemary sprig
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp peppercorns

Directions:

Bring water to boil, add salt, sugar and dissolve.  Remove from heat and add garlic, rosemary and peppercorns.  Let mixture cool to room temperature, add additional water.  Pour mixture over pork, in a zip-lock bag.  Let pork brine for 12-24 hours.

Capered Pork

I'm on a lifelong quest to find easy fixes for everyday food.  Its pretty much a passion of mine during the week.  If I can take a simple protein, spice it up in a few simple steps and have a ready-to-eat meal on the table in less than 45 minutes, I feel as if I've conquered the world.

I find my inspiration from a ton of places, this week's inspiration came from a cooking class I went to with my fabulous mom and mother-in-law.  (we had a spectacular girls Sunday!)  The cooking class offered a caper-sauce that I could have drank by the gallon!  I had to re-create, and make it my own.  After a week of looking for capers in the grocery store (NOT in the spice aisle as I'd have thought!), I was prepared to make my own fun spin.  If you like a tangy, non-traditional sauce that's light, this is for you!  It paired nicely with pork, but would also go with chicken I imagine.

I also decided to try brining my pork this week.  Shocker that I've never attempted to brine pork before, given my love for all things brined--but I hadn't until now.  Rest assured, I'll never go back.  Peeps, you MUST BRINE PORK.  Seriously, it makes that much of a difference.  Rather than using my go-to-brine, I created a pork-brine, and left the pork roast in for 24 hours.  I'm certain you could skip this step--but it's so simple, why would you, right?

Capered Pork (and potatoes)

Ingredients:

1 pork roast (about 1.2lbs) brined, 24 hours
1/3 cup capers
1 1/3 cups dry white cooking wine
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp cider vinegar (or any white vinegar)
2 Tbs whole grain dijon mustard (or regular whole-grain mustard)
Salt/Pepper to taste

Directions:

Set pork to broil, under 525 degrees.  If desired, sprinkle pork with salt/pepper before cooking.  Cook until done, a SLIGHT pink tint in the middle.  (about 15 minutes)

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, bring pan to medium heat and add capers.  Let cook for about 2 minutes, add wine. Stir and let cook until reduced by about 1/2.  (about 3-4 minutes)  Add cream, vinegar and cook until the sauce starts to thicken, or about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and whisk in dijon mustard.  Season with salt/pepper to taste.

Drizzle a bit over pork and potatoes for serving.

Pollo Frito Con Ajo

I am exhausted.  I also have a serious addiction to spicy/Mexican food these days.

No, Pooky, I'm not pregnant. I swear.

No bun-in-the-oven-reasoning,  but I've been making all sorts of Spanish/spicy food as of late and thought it'd be fun to share with you just a few of these recipes.

Tonight's dinner was totally not planned--I had a ton of stuff in the house, but nothing really figured out.  It was kinda a hodge-podge dinner tonight as well, because the hubbs hasn't figured out that cheese is delicious--so I made several side dishes to go with the Pollo Frito Con Ajo.

So what IS pollo frito?  Fried Chicken with Garlic.

The recipe is easy, under 30 minutes to make (sans brine) and turned out amazing.

Pollo Frito Con Ajo 

Ingredients:

1 package chicken cutlets (approx 4 cutlets) that have been Easy Brined (See Recipe in sidebar)
3 cups vegetable oil
3-4 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbs paprika
2 tsp. garlic salt
2 tsp season salt
2 cups plain natural yogurt
1-2 tsp hot sauce (to taste)

Directions:

Remove chicken from Easy Brine and pat dry.  Set aside on plate.

In a small bowl, combine yogurt and hot sauce, whisk well.

In large plastic zip-lock bag, combine flour, paprika, season salt, garlic salt.  Shake well.

In large skillet, bring oil to heat over medium flame.

Dip chicken cutlet into yogurt, cover thoroughly and place in bag, one at a time.  Zip, shake well.  Remove from bag and place in pan w/ oil.  Let cook until golden brown on one side, approximately 3-4 minutes.  Flip and let cook until golden brown on second side.  Remove from oil, let drain on paper towel.  You'll want to cook the chicken in batches, adding each to the oil separately after shaking.  I find this takes about 12-15 minutes to cook all 4 pieces.

After drained, serve with favorite side.  My favorite is Esquites (recipe on sidebar) and a bit of black bean salsa on top (see sidebar for recipe).

Enjoy!