January 6, 2013
Hello again friends, and welcome back!
Here we are, a brand new year, and a brand new chance to do something different/new/exciting!!! I’m going to keep up with the weekly posts here, but I’m just going to share a few recipes, maybe some family gossip, whatever is new and exciting in my little world. But I’ve also set up my two other blogs, going to go over there and post to them when I’m done here. Kind of looking forward to a new challenge!
So here’s what I have for you this week:
Work was BEYOND crazy with two four day weekends in a row, trying to close out the month of December was completely nuts, very stressful (first time I’ve actually said the word stress relating to this job, I think), but I got through it, and get to start fresh on Monday. Hopefully most of my co-workers will be over their colds and flu by then, too. Getting scared being surrounded by sick people!
William was SO bored over his two week vacation, he’s actually excited about going back to school, but then he loves that school, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Almost every weekday he called me, sometimes to ask for something, sometimes just to say “hi”. It was kind of cute actually! Love my little buddy!! 🙂
James hasn’t been around much, but between work and girlfriend, I don’t expect that he will be. Would like him to keep on top of his “rent” (chores), but he’s still a kid…
Anyway, got a couple recipes for you, some are actually complete originals!
Green Bean Casserole Bites
1 cup Bisquick
2 cans french cut green beans
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup Panko bread crumbs
Mix everything together really well, drop by teaspoonfuls into hot oil, fry 1-2 minutes per side or until browned and crispy, remove to paper towel lined plate, serve warm.
Corn Fritters
1 cup flour
2 cups corn
1 egg
Grated Parmesan
Mix well, drop by rounded teaspoonfuls into hot oil, fry 2-3 minutes per side or until browned and crispy, remove to paper towel lined plate, sprinkle with grated Parmesan, serve warm!
I can honestly say I didn’t cook that much this past week, but these are the only things I wrote down, so that’s all I have for now! I’ll try to do better next week.
Now over to the new blogs! Gotta figure out where those are going…
Until next time, eat well, love well, live well!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 271 – 277 (Week 40)
Hello again friends, and welcome back! Hope you’ve all had a perfectly wonderful week, and a glorious weekend! Here we are at Monday again, I know, I’m behind, but I think you’ll forgive me…
Last week was interesting. Work was crazy, end of the month always is, but this one was crazier than the last few. Half our group is new people, less than 3 months in, and the senior coordinator was out for the week, so I became the go-to person. I know I am approachable, I try very hard to be that way, but I felt like there were whole days where I didn’t get any of my own work done because I was so busy answering everyone else’s questions! It’s nice to be needed again, but come on…
Anyway, all the family were relatively healthy for a change, knock on wood! William didn’t miss any school. Mike missed one day of work, but I think it was more of a mental health kind of day. James got called in for extra hours at his job, makes for a nice pay check. I think I need to plan a day off, just for me…
So I did a little cooking during the week, nothing Earth shattering, but some fun new dishes. Of course, I pretty much HAD to cook considering I spent almost $500 in groceries last weekend. But it all came in handy, and I got to try out the new recipes! YEAH! Looking forward to trying even more new stuff this weekend, trying to put together a plan for what I want to cook, make sure I have everything I need on hand. Working on trimming down the shopping list, trimming down the grocery budget, and maybe trimming down the family a little!
Anyway, here we go…
Monday
Mongolian Beef
1/2 lb beef tenderloin, thinly sliced against the grain
1 Tbsp corn starch
2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 tsp ground ginger
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp honey or agave nectar or sugar
1 tsp rice wine or dry sherry
2 Tbsp water
3 green onions, cut into 1″ pieces, green part only
1-2 Tbsp vegetable oil or canola oil
Stir together soy sauce, honey, water and wine. Set aside.
Heat oil in pan over medium heat. Dredge the beef in corn starch, shake off the excess. Add the beef to the hot pan and quickly saute until lightly browned.
Add in garlic and ginger, saute for a few seconds. Add the sauce you set aside earlier. The sauce should quickly come to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, stirring constantly. Continue to cook until the sauce thickens and glazes the beef.
Toss in the green onions at the last minute, mix, and serve!
Adapted from a recipe I found on cHow Divine http://www.chowdivine.com
Sorry, I didn’t get photos, but then mine didn’t look anywhere near as pretty as hers did! But it was yummy…
Orange Chicken
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of excess skin and fat (as much as you can without being too anal) and cut into bite sized pieces
1 Tbsp orange flavoring
1 Tbsp garlic, minced
1 Tsp ground ginger
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tsp corn starch
2 Tbsp vegetable oil plus 1 Tsp sesame oil for frying
Put the oils in a large skillet, heat on medium. Add in chicken, saute until no longer pink. Add in orange, garlic, ginger, honey and corn starch, mixing well to coat chicken, sauce will thicken quickly. When chicken is done through, remove from heat and serve! Really good with fresh steamed rice…
Vegetable Egg Rolls
1 head cabbage, shredded very fine
12 baby carrots, shredded very fine
2 Tbsp Hoisin sauce
1 Tbsp teriyaki sauce
1 Pkg egg roll wrappers
Oil for frying
Mix cabbage, carrots and sauces together. Spoon about 2 Tbsp of the mixture into an egg roll wrapper, fold up bottom and tuck in filling. Fold in two side corners, dampen final corner and roll closed.
Fry about 2 minutes per side in hot oil until golden brown. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.
Left over rolls (those supper yummy half whole wheat Virginia light rolls I made last weekend…)
Tuesday
SW Egg rolls with cheese
I had made about 3 dozen of those south west style egg rolls with the taco seasoned beef and black beans inside, we had 17 left after our little munch fest. Well, I put those in a big deep pan, covered them with shredded cheese and baked them at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. They crisped up a little on the exposed edges, but sort of tasted like mini burritos with the melted cheese, and made for a nice meal!
Wednesday
Pork Chops Everglades
6 boneless skinless porkchops
Everglades original seasoning (the green kind)
Heat a large skillet over medium, add in the chops. Sprinkle over Everglades seasoning instead of salt and pepper, make sure you sprinkle both sides (when you turn them). I have no idea how much we used, but it sort of looked like we had used it in place of salt and pepper, so liberally sprinkled, but not coated with seasoning. Saute until done through and browned on the outside.
Sauteed green beans with garlic
About 1/2 lb fresh green beans, ends removed, cut into 1″ pieces
1 Tbsp minced garlic
3 Tbsp butter
Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat, add in garlic, mix a little, add in green beans and saute about 10 minutes or until beans are bright green and crisp tender. Serve!
Fruit Salad
This was a fun fruit salad for me, because William helped me cut up everything!
1 medium Gala apple
1 medium Bartlett pear
1 medium Dragon fruit
About 30 large red grapes
Cut the apple and the pear into 8th wedges, remove seed cores, slice into thin bite sized pieces.
Cut dragon fruit in half. Spoon white seeded core out of pink skin, making sure to remove all the skin pieces, it’s not edible. Cut white fruit into small bite sized pieces.
Cut grapes into quarters.
Toss all this together, and serve!
Thursday
Jet’s Pizza
Yeah, we had take out… we needed a night off!
Friday
Bacon Cheeseburgers
1 lb ground beef
1/2 lb bacon (about 8 pieces)
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste
Sliced cheese of your choice
Burger buns
Mix ground beef, egg, salt and pepper together, mix VERY well, until beef is really smooth rather than crumbly. Form into 4 patties. Fry in a large pan over medium heat, flipping as needed to keep from burning. Cook until medium well, or however YOU like your burgers. We like ours ever so slightly pink at the very center and slightly crispy on the outside.
Cook the bacon crispy, break each piece in half, give each burger four half strips of bacon, cheese and toppings of your choice, serve on fresh burger buns, YUM!
Tots – yeah, frozen tots, cooked to package directions, whichever way you like to cook them. I prefer them fried, but that’s not very healthy, so I usually bake them… boring, but OK.
Saturday
Fried Chicken Nuggets
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and cut into small tenders or large nuggets, your choice
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup Everglades seasoning (the orange version this time)
1 Tbsp fresh ground black pepper
Heat 3-4 Tbsp vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
Mix the flour and seasonings together in a large shallow bowl. Add the chicken a few pieces at a time to this mix, let it sit for a minute or two on each side. Shake off any excess and add to hot pan. Cook about 4-5 minutes per side, or until done through. Remove to paper towel lined serving dish. Cook in batches until all chicken is done. Serve!
Chicken gravy – made from a mix, yes I cheated a little, but it wasn’t thickening the way I wanted, so I added some of the flour mixture from coating the chicken, made it really tasty!
steamed veggies – broccoli, peas, green beans
Microwave Brownies
4 Tbsp flour
4 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp water
Pinch salt
Mix everything together in a coffee mug or shallow bowl. You can add in a few chocolate chips or some nuts if you want, just don’t go overboard on the chocolate chips, it doesn’t cook as well. We’ve been adding about 2 Tbsp chocolate chips and about a dozen nuts. I like pecans, Mike likes almonds, they both work well!
Microwave 1 minute plus 10-15 seconds, allow to cook 5 minutes before serving.
Really good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!
Sunday
We went to Mom’s to celebrate Dad’s birthday, a couple weeks late, but at least we didn’t take all those colds and infections over there with us! Burgers, baked beans, potato salad, chips… LOVE picnic food!!
Oh, and I did my nails Saturday, between loads of laundry, tell me what you think!
Had fun with this one!
Anyway, that’s it for last week… Already working on this week, probably not a lot new, but some good stuff nonetheless…
Until then, eat well, love well, live well!!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 208
Hello again friends, and welcome back to my little world! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and are ready for all the fun that Monday brings! (yeah, I know, a little sarcasm goes a long way…)
So, laundry is done, kitchen is MOSTLY cleaned up, I’m showered, I’ve packed some snacks for work, although I just realized I forgot to get bottle water, hmmm… cars are cleaned out, kids helped! And Mike and I went to the movies this morning! So, all in all, it’s been a really good day! Great way to end the weekend.
AND, for a change, Mike helped ME figure out a problem with my meds! Usually it’s the other way around, but I didn’t recognize my symptoms as “fatigue”, I was thinking I was depressed. So I stopped my pain pills last night, and today I feel better than I have in months! Going to call my doctor today and see if I can get something with different side effects that will do the same job without messing up something else! I’ve been through so many over the years, and they’ve all messed with me in one way or another, I’m almost ready to say I’ll just deal with the pain, but then when things get really bad I just can’t deal with the pain, so I guess I need to call…
Anyway, good day for cooking, and getting things ready for later in the week since Mike won’t be home Tuesday through Friday, and I’ll have no transportation on the night James is working, so I have to be prepared!! Dinner was AWESOME, and there are left overs, so that’s one lunch taken care of already. Now I need to think about the rest of the week. Thinking I might make some bread one night, that’s easy enough to do, and I’m dying to try a fish in the crock pot recipe I found, so now that I have a little more energy, maybe I can actually do these things this week!
Here’s tonight’s entry for you, it was a HUGE hit:
Meatloaf with Sausage
1 1/2 pounds ground chuck
1 package of 5 sausages, Great Value brand, mild Italian flavor
1 cup quick oats
1 small can tomato paste
1 egg
1/4 cup dried onion flakes
salt and pepper to taste
One Perfect Meatloaf Pan!! (got it for my birthday, and am ashamed to admit, this is the first time I’m using it, but I am now HOOKED!)
Squeeze or cut the sausage meat out of the casings.
Mix all your ingredients by hand in a large bowl, squish it all around really good, make sure there aren’t any obvious chunks of sausage anywhere, it should be relatively smooth when you’re done. Form this mixture into a rough loaf shape, and put it in the Perfect Meatloaf Pan. Bake at 350 degrees for at least 1 and 1/2 hours. It should be pulled away from the sides of the pan, and crispy on top.
This was all that was left after we all dug in. Told you it was a hit!
Along with this, we had steamed broccoli, steamed peas, mashed potatoes and gravy, and fresh cut fruit.
Oh, and I forgot to share my new dip recipe last night, so here’s a little bonus for you:
Bacon Ranch Dip
4 strips bacon, cut into pieces and cooked crispy
1 container sour cream
2 Tbsp ranch dressing mix
Mix everything together in a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to sit in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.
Serve with chips or veggies or whatever you usually dip! YUM!!!
So that’s it for tonight. Until tomorrow, eat well, love well, live well!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 140 & 141
Hello again friends, and welcome back! Hope your week is going really well!!
Well, Monday night was quite the night around here! Picked up William after work, dropped him at the house where my mother was waiting for us, ran over to the girlfriend’s house to pick up James who is house sitting, ran back, got home just in time to get everybody in the cars and off to William’s big night at scouts. Got there just in time to set up candles, get everyone started on eating the pizza one of our cool scout parents bought and all the cool desserts everyone else brought, while mom and I sat down and filled out all the awards cards for the boys and set up the balloons she bought for the one’s who were crossing over to Boy Scouts last night. Lisa (den mom) and I made it through the little play we did for the boys crossing over without too many hiccups, which is quite the accomplishment for two ladies who don’t particularly care for public speaking! All the boys got all their awards, quite a slew of pins, patches and belt loops went out last night! Then I had to take James back over to house sit, mom went home, and Mike, William and I came back home. Still had to clean up the kitchen and take care of my two remaining Facebook games, watch the new Eureka, and get William off to bed. So I didn’t quite make it to my post here last night, but I really didn’t have any food related stuff to post anyway, so here I am tonight pushing two for one…
Tonight, I took advantage of all that cooking I did over the weekend. William had some of the chicken spaghetti. And I took some leftovers from a couple of different meals, plus some fresh veggies, and Mike and I had:
Fried Chicken Fried Rice
Take the meat from 3-4 pieces of fried chicken, remove the skin, chop it up into small pieces
Chop 8-10 baby carrots into small discs
1 cup broccoli florets
1 lightly beaten egg
2 cups leftover cooked rice
Soy sauce to taste
Heat a wok or large deep skillet over medium heat. Scramble the egg, push to the side of the pan. Heat the carrots about 5 minutes. Add in the broccoli and about 1/4 cup water, cover with a lid and steam about 5 minutes. Remove cover, add in chicken and rice, and a couple tablespoons soy sauce, stir constantly until everything is heated through and broccoli is bright green and crisp-tender. Serve!!
This used up some leftover rice, leftover broccoli, leftover fried chicken from the scout banquet, and made a good meal, and room in my fridge! (I actually put the broccoli in last when I made this tonight, and while I loved it, Mike didn’t, it was a little too raw for his taste, and that’s also why you don’t see it in this photo)
So until tomorrow, eat well, love well, live well!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 131
Hello again friends, and welcome back! Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend. I know I am!!
Slept in a little today, was planning to head to a free shred event at our bank, get rid of all the crap we keep putting off shredding, decided we might be better off playing catch-up on our own. We came up with a (maybe) cool idea… William can earn a penny a piece for shredding for us after school. We’ll have to wait and see how that works out…
Went grocery shopping, Mike went with me, was a nice little trip. Used a little of my birthday money, picked up my favorite beading thread and a decorate-it-yourself photo cube for my desk. Been working on it a little today, need to find my rhinestones to add some bling! Finished another custom order, well, almost finished. Have one more piece on order, should be here soon, then I can get this order on it’s way. Made something for my mom for Mother’s Day. Did some laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, got help from my guys. Good day all around!
So for dinner, felt like cooking, but nothing too fancy or complicated. So here we go:
Bacon Ranchburgers
1 Pound thick sliced bacon
1 pound ground chuck
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 Tbsp ranch dressing mix
Fry bacon until crisp, drain on paper towels, set aside.
Mix burger, egg and ranch dressing mix very well, form into however many patties you need. I did three tonight, because there were only three of us for dinner. Fry, turning once, until well done and juices run clear when patty is pressed, or about 15 minutes total.
Put each burger on roll of choice, I used potato rolls tonight, top with cheese of choice, bacon slices, and toppings of choice.
There was so much burger and bacon, there just wasn’t really need for side dishes, so we just had popcorn later while watching a movie.
Hope you enjoy this one, it’s GOOD! And until tomorrow, eat well, love well, live well!!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 93
Hello again friends, and welcome back! Seems like I say that every day… oh wait, I do! Need to come up with a new greeting…
Anyway, Tuesday was sort of normal, or as normal as things get around here anyway. Shuttling kids as usual. Mike at work as usual. Me hunting for Easter eggs on a website all day, NOT as usual, but killed a WHOLE day, which still bugs me a bit. Power went out for about an hour last night, set me off schedule a little, completely forgot to write in here until after I went to bed, so decided I could catch up in the morning instead of getting back up! So here I am, rested, ready for a new day, catching up…
Dinner was a quick and easy meal, since I had NOTHING thawed out, but sometimes that’s when we get the most creative or inspired. Not this time, though, went for a tried and trusted recipe with lots of potential for variations, QUICHE! Here’s the recipe I used this time:
Quick Quiche
2 refrigerated pie crusts
8 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup water
1 cup shredded cheese
1 cup chopped lunch meat ham
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Unroll pie crusts into glass pie plates, making sure to get them centered. Any overhang on the edges should be turned inward and used to thicken the edges of your pie shell. Pinch around the edges to make a decorative edge on your pie crust. Use a fork to poke small holes all over the bottom and sides of the pie crust. Bake for 10 minutes and remove. Cool slightly before filling.
While those are baking, beat eggs, water and cream together in a large bowl.
Once pie shells are partially baked and cooled, wrap tin foil over edges to keep from burning. Place half the ham and cheese in each pie shell, pour half of egg mixture over ham and cheese, spreading around with a spoon if needed to make sure the ham and cheese are all covered. (you can also add some veggies if you like at this point, just make sure the egg covers everything!) Place on cookie sheet and put in oven. Cook 30 minutes, then remove foil and cook another 10 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve with salad, soup, or just by itself!
My kids like this one because it’s all their favorite stuff, but I like that it’s so versatile.
Until tomorrow friends, eat well, love well, live well!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 89
Hello again friends, and welcome back! Hope you all had a great Friday, I know I did!
Good news all over the place today!!
My dad is doing really well, up and walking around, eating really well, and the hospital staff are taking great care of him… now if they would just let him sleep!
James got a new job, goes to orientation next Tuesday, not sure when he starts, but he gave notice to his current job today, which I think made him VERY happy! Sign spinning isn’t meant to be a full time job, and he’s been doing it for over six months! Now THAT’S dedication!!
William says he had a GREAT day at school, which he doesn’t say often, so I’m always happy to hear. They had some sort of celebration, all the kids got cotton candy, so I’m sure they had fun.
And as for me, I did laundry, nibbled here and there, went to go see my dad in the hospital, did the usual kid shuttling around, and did NOT actually cook today, unless you count the eggs I hard boiled to make egg salad for lunch. I SO cheated for dinner, got ready made Walmart pizzas that you just have to stick in the oven. They are really good, honest, but definitely NOT home made. Going to make those apple pie bites here in a bit, but those aren’t new, so I can’t count them!! But I’ll give you the recipe again anyway, just in case you missed it before…
Egg Salad
4 hard boiled eggs (I put mine in a pan of COLD water, put it over MEDIUM heat, and set the timer for 30 minutes, they come out perfect)
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 Tsp yellow mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
Mash peeled hard boiled eggs using a potato masher, this gets the absolute best consistency for the egg salad, or at least I think so. Nice, small pieces of egg, no large chunks, and the yolk gets really creamy when you add in the rest of the ingredients. Add in the mayo, mustard, salt and pepper and mix well. Serve over lettuce leaves, on plain bread, on toast, however you like!
Apple Pie Bites
1 pkg rolled pie crust
1/2 can apple pie filling
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tsp cinnamon
3 Tbsp melted butter
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
Mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl, set aside about 2 Tbsp.
Unroll pie crust one at a time, brush with melted butter, sprinkle with half the cinnamon sugar mixture. Cut with a pizza wheel into 8 pie shaped wedges. Place a full apple slice with a little of the sauce on the outer edge of each “pie slice”, roll inward towards points. Place on parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with second pie crust. Brush rolls with melted butter and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar. Bake 13-15 minutes or until edges of pie crusts are lightly browned. (mine actually took about 17 minutes total)
Serve warm, with or without ice cream or whipped cream. (we got BOTH for tonight!!)
Hope you enjoyed these, until tomorrow, eat well, love well, live well!!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 75
Hello again, and welcome back!! So glad you could join me on this little adventure! 🙂
So, here we are again, Friday night, burger night to appease my youngest, but it’s getting BORING! I’m getting tired of trying to come up with “new” things to do with burgers, so I switched it up just a little… TURKEY burgers! And, much as I hate to admit it, they were good. I expected dry, boring, tasteless lumps, but they actually had flavor, and it was a good flavor. I picked Jennie-O brand because I had a coupon (gotta love those coupons!), and because it’s a name I know and trust. Their deli turkey is really good, and reasonably priced compared to all the other brands out there, plus their turkey roasts are really good, actual turkey not turkey flavored jello, or whatever those other folks use.
Anyway, I did turkey burgers on the George Foreman grill, made bacon to go on top, and set out all the fixin’s like three different kinds of cheese, ketchup, mustard, mayo, relish. Had some leftover cole slaw from Thursday’s failed BBQ experiment, fresh steamed broccoli, Great Value chips. All in all, a decent meal!
And, to end the night on a very positive note, I made coffee cakes (yes, plural) for dessert. I had to hunt around for a recipe for Bisquick coffee cake, seems it’s NOT on the box any more (BOO!), but I got one, plus I improvised a little, so here we go:
Bisquick Coffee Cake
Dough
2 Cups Bisquick mix
2/3 cup milk or water
1 egg
2 Tbsp sugar
Topping
1/3 Cup Bisquick
1/3 Cup packed brown sugar
1/4 Tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp butter, melted
Heat oven to 400 degrees.
Grease 8″ or 9″ square baking pan. You can do this in a round if you want, but sometimes it comes out overdone around the edges. Square really does work better!
Mix together dough ingredients, spread into prepared pan.
Mix together topping ingredients with a fork. If you want it a little drier, add a little more brown sugar and Bisquick. I like it moist rather than crumbly. Drop small pieces of topping all over cake, press into cake, or drag a knife through topping and dough to mix in a little. Either way works well!
Bake 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Mine was EXACTLY 25 minutes.
Oh, and in my second cake, I mixed a diced nectarine into the dough. I was going to do apple, but we were out, so I used what I had! It turned out really well!! Here are some other ideas for possible mix-ins:
Diced apples
Pineapple tidbits
Diced peaches
Chopped nuts, pecans or walnuts would work well
Sorry, no pictures today, I forgot! Saturday is movie night, munchies night, so I’ll make sure to take lots of pics…
Until tomorrow, eat well, love well, live well!!
The Great 2012 Cooking Extravaganza! Day 44
Hello again my friends, and welcome back!
Happy Valentine’s Day! Hope yours was as nice as mine… but then I have three great guys in my house!
I feel like I’ve been cooking all day, but I sort of have because I made dessert earlier, then prepped all the stuff for dinner a little early so it wouldn’t be such a long wait once Mike got home. Plus I’ve been doing a little crafting every day, working on this year’s line of Christmas ornaments already, they’re coming out pretty well! Busy, but in a good way!
So, here’s our menu for Valentine’s Day!
Coconut Curry Chicken (yeah, this one has been done before, I’m not counting it as “new” for today…)
2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of any leftover skin or fat, cut into SMALL pieces (approx 1/2″)
3 heaping tablespoons curry paste (I probably should have stopped at 2, but I was feeling adventurous)
1 can coconut milk
2 Tbsp oil for frying
Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add chicken pieces and cook until done through. Drain excess liquid if necessary. Add in coconut milk and curry paste, stir really well. Simmer 25 minutes or until sauce is well thickened. Serve over rice. (just a note on the rice, I use a rice cooker, and usually I just do rice and water, but tonight I used chicken broth instead, it came out a little fluffier, and had a little more flavor, but it didn’t make a HUGE difference)
Green Beans with Bacon
4 cups frozen green beans
1/4 cup crispy bacon
This is beyond simple! Put the green beans in a sauce pan, cover with water, add the bacon, and boil until the beans are tender!
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
1 pound bacon, cut small, cooked crisp
2 pounds brussels sprouts, bottoms trimmed, loose leaves removed, quartered
1 box dried dates, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup chopped pecans
Cook bacon crisp in a large frying pan, remove bacon but not the drippings. Add in the brussels sprouts and cook just until sprouts turn a brighter green. Transfer sprouts to an oven safe casserole dish. Add bacon, dates and pecans, stir well. Make sure the dates are evenly distributed, they tend to stick together. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, stir, bake another 15 minutes or until sprouts are very tender. Serve!
Egg Custard
2 cups milk
2 large eggs
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tsp vanilla
Nutmeg
Place 5-6 custard cups or ramekins in a larger pan, just large enough to fit cups.
In sauce pan, heat milk over medium low heat just to simmering.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine eggs, yolks, sugar and vanilla. Slowly add to simmering milk, stirring well. Cook 1-2 minutes only.
Pour through strainer into custard dishes or ramekins. Pour hot (not boiling) water into larger pan just to half way up cups. Sprinkle nutmeg over the top of each custard.
Place pan in 300 degree oven, bake 35-45 minutes, or just until custard is no longer jiggly. It may not be fully set, don’t worry! Leave cups in water in pan for 2 hours, it will continue cooking then cool, and it will be well set when it’s done. Serve!
So that’s it for today, hope you enjoy one or all of these dishes yourselves!
Until tomorrow, eat well, love well, live well!
Ramblings and Recipes 