Quick Fix Paella

This is a definite keeper! Not all of the recipes out of this cook-book were home runs but this one sure was!

Quick Fix Paella
From: Make Ahead Meals Made Healthy
Serves 8

4C reduced sodium chicken broth
pinch saffron threads
3T olive oil, divided
8oz hot italian turkey sausage, halved lengthwise, sliced crosswise
8 boneless, skinless, chicken thighs
1 onion, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, seeded, quartered and sliced
1 large yellow bell pepper, seeded, quartered and sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1T smoked sweet paprika
2C paella or arborio rice
1 can (14.5 oz) fire roasted tomatoes
2C fresh peas
1/4C fresh chopped parsley
8 oz frozen medium sized shrimp
S&P

Place chicken broth in a saucepan over medium heat. Rub saffron with your fingers, crushing it, as you sprinkle it into the broth.  Stir and bring to a low simmer, reducing heat to low to keep it warm.

Heat 2T olive oil in a paella pan or large wide skillet over medium heat.  Add turkey sausage and cook, stirring often, for 2-3 minutes.. Add chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes or until chicken is lightly browned.  Season with salt and pepper, stir a few more times, and then removed with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add remaining olive oil to the pan and cook onions and bell peppers, stirring occasionally, until softened.  Add garlic and spring with paprika.  Cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.  Add rice, stirring to coat with oil and to lightly toast.

Add chicken broth, stirring to combine, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Raise heat to medium and return chicken and sausage to the pay, stirring to combine.  Add tomatoes and bring to a simmer.  Add more brother or water if necessary and simmer for 5 minutes.

Stir in peas and parsley and simmer for 5 minutes or until rice is tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed and there is a light (not burned) crust on the bottoms of the mixture.  Remove from heat and let cool completely.  Since shrim overcooks so quickly, it's best to add to the paella a few minutes before serving.

Jeff ate the doo out of this

My Notes
Holy frijoles this was really good, there are only 2 things I changed (frozen peas and no shrimp) and almost nothing I would change about it. It would be nice if the rice was a tad less sticky but that is really splitting hairs.

Enchilada Pasta Casserole

 I stumbled on this recipe by accident on Pinterest (where else?). I wasn't looking for recipes and I hadn't been on Pinterest in quite some time.


Enchilada Pasta Casserole
By: Table for Two
Serves 6

1 pound ground beef
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
5 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup light sour cream
1 can (10 oz.) enchilada sauce (I used the red sauce)
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese, divided
1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
1 can (4 oz.) diced green chiles
12 ounces egg noodles
Salt & pepper, to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large pot, bring water to boil and cook egg noodles according to package instructions.
3. In the meantime, in a very large skillet, brown your ground beef then drain the fat. Then add the chili powder, cumin, and cayenne pepper. Stir to combine.
4. Add in the cream cheese until melted and combined.
5. In a large bowl, combine sour cream, enchilada sauce, half the cheddar cheese, half the monterey jack cheese, corn kernels, and diced green chiles. Stir to combine.
6. Pour mixture over the beef and let simmer for 2-3 minutes.
7. In the meantime, drain your pasta. After you’ve drained it, add the pasta to the beef mixture. Make sure everything is coated in the sauce.
8. In a large casserole dish, pour in the pasta mixture and top with the remaining cheese.
9. Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese has completely melted.
10. Serve hot. Keep in airtight container for up to 1 week.

My Notes:

 I didn't have diced green chiles, monterey jack cheese, or enchilada sauce. I made some enchilada sauce from scratch, substituted mozzarella for the monterey, and left out the green chiles. Instead of just corn I tossed about 2C of mixed frozen vegetables in the mix.

I doubled the recipe and used 1/2 ground turkey and 1/2 ground beef. Everyone liked this dish, pretty sure it's going to go on the regular rotation. I also have decided from now on I will be making my own enchilada sauce, it's just waaaay better.

Naturally Sweet Agave Glazed Carrots

This is part of my cooking for a month series.
Who doesn't like carrots? I mean they are pretty awesome, this recipe is no different. Tasty, easy to make, easy to freeze, easy to reheat. Tada!
You can find agave just about anywhere now, I get mine at costco mainly because it's a good deal and I never think to look when I'm at the grocery store. Agave can be substituted for honey in equal parts.

Naturally Sweet Agave Glazed Carrots

Serves 8

2lbs carrots, cut into batons

¼ C water

¼ C freshly squeezed orange juice

3T unsalted butter, melted

2T agave

3T fresh lemon thyme

S&P

In a large skillet over medium heat, combine carrots, water, and orange juice. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until carrots are just tender (remember you are freezing these so don’t over-do it).

Add butter, agave, thyme and cook uncovered, stirring often, until liquid has evaporated and carrots are glazed. Season with salt and pepper, stirring one last time. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

To Freeze – pour cooled carrots into gallon size freezer bag.

To reheat – thaw completely overnight in fridge then reheat carrots in a skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes until heated through.

My notes

I don’t know what batons are and I don’t really care. I just diced the carrots.

Good luck finding lemon thyme in your grocery store. I used regular thyme and it turned out just fine.

Make it a Meal Meatloaf

This is a part of my month of meals series. Generally speaking I am not a huge fan of meat loaf. It's just not high on my list of things I love to eat; but! Jeff is a fan of meatloaf and who doesn't want to make their guy happy? So when I saw this recipe in the cookbook I thought, why not?

About little less than half of this loaf fed us for dinner, along with glazed carrots. I'm serving again tonight with the remaining carrots and some mashed potatoes.

Make it a Meal Meatloaf

Serves 8

1lb extra-lean ground beef

1lb ground pork

2 eggs

2T Dijon mustard

1/2C dry whole wheat bread crumbs

3 scallions, minced

2 carrots, minced

1C dried cherries

1T Italian seasoning

Pinch of cayenne

S&P

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a large loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Transfer to loaf pan, firmly packing.

Bake for 75 minutes. Set on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes then invert to remove from Loaf pan. Allow to cool completely.

To Freeze – wrap meatloaf and freeze

Oven reheat – Preheat oven to 375. Bake for 30 minutes or until heated through.

My notes

Serve with glazed carrots and mashed potatoes. Yum! Jeff was skeptical about this one when I was making it because of the cherries. I have to admit, so was I. However, this turned out quite tasty and all 3 of us enjoyed it. I ground the fatty end of a center cut pork loin for this after talking to my butcher, it’s a versatile cut of meat.  They are usually cheaper than buying pork chops pre-cut and you get 2 smallish roasts after you cut it up. Can you say pulled pork? Mmmmmm

Asian Pork and 5-spice Apples

This is part of my cooking for a month series....
This was quite tasty and is definitely going on the keeper list. The great thing about pork tenderloin is it's a lean protein source. It's so versatile, there are limitless possibilities when it comes to preparing pork tenderloin. A trick I learned from AB is to remove the silver skin from the tenderloin. This clip shows how to do it.

Asian Pork and 5-spice Apples
Serves 8

2T black or balsamic vinegar
2T dry sherry
1T sesame oil
1T tamari
1T cracked black peppercorn
3T chopped fresh tarragon leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced
2lbs boneless pork loin, cut into strips
2T canola oil
3 Golden Delicious apples, cored, halved, and sliced
1t Chinese 5 spice powder
2T packed brown sugar
1/4C freshly squeezed orange juice
1T cornstarch
3T minced chives
4C cooked brown rice

In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar, sherry, sesame oil, tamari, pepper corns, tarragon, and garlic.  Reserve 1/2C of the marinade and refrigerate.  Add pork and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat, add apples, and stir-fry for 2 minutes.  Sprinkle with 5-spice powder, brown sugar, orange juice and continue to stir-fry for 2-3 minutes.
Remove pork from marinade, allowing excess to drip off.  Add pork to the work and cook, stirring often, for 2-3 minutes or until pork is cooked through.
Whisk cornstarch into reserved marinade and stir into pork mixture until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in chives. Cool completely (if freezing).

To Freeze
Place pork mixture and rice in 2 separate gallon bags and freeze.

To reheat
Defrost rice and pork mixture overnight (I do 24 hours). Preheat oven to 350. Place rice in a baking dish and cover with pork mixture.  Cover with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes or until heated through.


My notes
The math on this is off. The marinade doesn't make 1/2C of liquid so I'm not sure where they get that you can reserve a 1/2C of it. I used all the marinade, then pulled the pork out of the marinade and shook off the excess and used the left over for the sauce you make at the end. I also ended up marinating overnight due to unforseen laziness.
I did not freeze this so I cannot comment on how well it froze or reheated.

Better Than Takeout Asian Beef Strips

This is part of my cooking for a month series...
We had this recipe last night. Jeff and I found it to be somewhat bland* which is disappointing it seemed to have a lot of good flavors in it while I was making it. I would say this was not better than takeout but it was edible. The kid seemed to like it quite a bit.

*as I am typing this recipe I realized that I let out the red pepper flakes. So that might have had something to do with it.

Better Than Takeout Asian Beef Strips
1/2 C fresh squeezed orange juice
1 T minced orange zest
1 T minced fresh ginger
2 T rice wine vinegar
3 T shoyu
2 T honey
Pinch of hot red pepper flakes
2lbs flank steak, sliced diagonally into 1/4 in slices
1 T cornstarch
1 T canola oil
1 T sesame oil
4 C cooked brown basmati rice, cooled completely

In a large bowl, whisk together orange juice, orange zest, ginger, vinegar, shoyu, honey, and red pepper flakes. Place steak in bowl and toss to coat. Cover bowl and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Remove meat from the marinade and whisk cornstarch into marinade. Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Swirl to coat.

Stir-fry the meat for 2-3 minutes add the marinade and cook, stirring, until sauce is thickened. Drizzle with sesame oil. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

To freeze
Individual Servings: Divide steak and rice into 1qt freezer bags or freezer and microwave safe containers.

For a crowd
Place steak and rice in 2 separate 1 gallon freezer bags, removing as much air as possible before sealing.

To reheat
Let steak and rice thaw in fridge overnight.

Microwave method
Reheat individual servings in the microwave on high for 2-3 minutes or until heated through.

Oven method
Preheat oven to 350F. Place rice in a baking dish and top with steak.  Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes or until heated through.

My notes
I got this out of the freezer Sunday night after dinner. The rice was still rock hard when I got it out to start cooking at 5:30 yesterday. so that was a bit of a problem. I also didn't like the fact that there were no vegetables in this dish so I added some bell pepper. Jeff said mushrooms and onions would be good as well. I also used agave in place of honey as my honey had crystallized. Oh and my store doesn't have shoyu or basmati brown rice so I used soy sauce instead of shoyu and regular brown rice instead of basmati.

Chicken and Spinach Stuffed Shells

 Yet another pinterest find for me from The Girl Who Ate Everything

Chicken and Spinach Stuffed Shells

1 (12-ounce) box uncooked jumbo pasta shells (if all of yours survive the boil this is enough, to be safe you may want 1 1/2 boxes)

2 cups chopped cooked chicken

2 cups fresh chopped spinach

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 (15oz) container ricotta cheese

2 (8oz) packages cream cheese, softened (I think you could get away with one package)

1 (5oz) package shredded Parmesan cheese (about 1 2/3 cups)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 Tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1 (26oz) jar prepared spaghetti sauce (this was just enough. If you like it saucier use more)

1. Cook shells according to package directions. Be careful not to overcook them or they will tear easily when trying to fill them. Drain and set shells out individually on a cutting board or baking sheet so that they don’t stick together.

2. Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease two 9x13 baking dishes.

3. In a large bowl, combine chicken and all the rest of the ingredients except mozzarella and spaghetti sauce. Stir in 1 cup mozzarella. Spoon into shells. *Tip: For easier filling, fill a gallon ziplock baggie with the filling and snip a quarter size hole off the corner of the bag. Then you can just pipe the filling into the shells.

4. Spread half of spaghetti sauce into prepared baking dishes. Arrange shells over sauce; top with remaining sauce. Cover tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil. If you are freezing one of the 9x13 prepared pans, freeze it after this step. Include a baggy of the remaining mozzarella for when you cook it.

5. Bake, covered, for 40 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with remaining 1 cup mozzarella. Bake for 5 to 10 more minutes.

Makes 8-10 servings.
Source: posted by Sisters Cafe; original recipe by Paula Deen

They look like a hot mess but these two are the all that was left...

My Notes:

I deviated from this recipe only because my iPad kept locking itself and I tired of typing in my password so I tried to do it from memory. Oops.

I only used one package of cream cheese and my ricotta was moldy (crap) so I threw some swiss cheese in the mixture to add some more cheesy-ness. I also forgot parsley but I'm ok with that.

9 WW pts on Points Plus

Stuffed Pork Chops

Occasionally my grocery store puts center cut pork loins on sale for 1/2 off. Recently they had such a sale so we loaded up on the pork loins. I like those because you can cut your own pork chops and you get a small roast to boot. I took one of the pork loins and decided to do some really thick cut (about 1 1/2in thick maybe even 2in) chops for stuffing. Having never done that before I took to the internet for research. This was the end result:

Aren't the grill marks pretty?

I basically did an amalgamation of recipes (mostly from Food Network). I knew what I wanted for the stuffing I just needed the technique. I stuffed these bad boys with fresh grated gouda, spinach, onions, and bacon.

I sauteed the bacon and onions until the onions were nice and tender. Then I threw in the spinach to let it wilt and then let the mixture cool. I took a sharp paring knife, inserted it into the chop and then swept it about 2/3 of the way down the chop then to the side (this is hard to describe) then I did the other side basically making a nice pocket with about an inch slit for the opening. Then I stuffed until the chop was full but not overflowing. Jeff grilled them while I made a cheesy risotto.

Holy frijoles these pork chops were good. Everyone raved about them even the kid. This is a definite winner. Try it.... you won't have any leftovers.

Chicken Spaghetti Pioneer Woman Style

I found this recipe on Pioneer Woman's website. I thought it sounded pretty good so why not give it a try. However, Jeff did not really enjoy this and neither did I. The kid thought it was great. I think it needs some more flavor and possibly something with crunch.

Chicken Spaghetti

Added by Ree on September 5, 2009 in Main Courses, Pasta

Ingredients

2 cups Cooked Chicken

3 cups Dry Spaghetti, Broken Into Two Inch Pieces

2 cans Cream Of Mushroom Soup

2 cups Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese

¼ cups Finely Diced Green Pepper

¼ cups Finely Diced Onion

1 jar (4 Ounce) Diced Pimentos, Drained

2 cups Reserved Chicken Broth From Pot

1 teaspoon Lawry's Seasoned Salt

⅛ teaspoons (to 1/4 Teaspoon) Cayenne Pepper

Salt And Pepper, to taste

1 cup Additional Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Preparation Instructions

Cook 1 cut up fryer and pick out the meat to make two cups. Cook spaghetti in same chicken broth until al dente. Do not overcook. When spaghetti is cooked, combine with remaining ingredients except additional 1 cup sharp cheddar.

Place mixture in casserole pan and top with remaining sharp cheddar. Cover and freeze up to six months, cover and refrigerate up to two days, or bake immediately: 350 degrees for 45 minutes until bubbly. (If the cheese on top starts to get too cooked, cover with foil).

 My Notes

I really didn't deviate from the recipe, except for I only used 2C of cheese total and no seasoned salt. I already had cooked chicken from my stock making earlier in the week. I think it could benefit from some mushrooms, celery, carrot, etc. But that's just me. Bad news for Jeff, I made a double batch of this bad boy and there's a whole other casserole in the deep freeze....


8 pts on WW Points Plus

*Update - I slathered mine in sriracha sauce. It made it better.