Insane Day! And Twice Baked Potato Casserole

Today was a crazy, insane day.  It was the kind of day that leftovers were made for!  Unfortunately, none of my leftovers were meat.  Fortunately, this is why I always keep individual steaks in the freezer.  So, I pulled out steaks for everyone, and told them that their side dish was up to them!

When I made the beef stroganoff Sunday, I cooked extra noodles.  For my side dish, I heated about 2 T of olive oil in a sauté pan.  I tossed some of the leftover noodles in the olive oil to heat them and coat them with oil.  Sprinkled salt and pepper, and about 1 T of Parmesan cheese over the pasta, and slid it onto the plate.  Instant meal.

Everyone else had leftover twice baked potato casserole, which was a new addition to the menu last week, and has been requested as a regular item.  Recipe is below!

BTW, simple, quick, and delicious idea for lunch.....because I get so incredibly bored with lunch ideas.  Lunch today was an awesome BLT!  I cook my bacon on a rack in the oven so that it's not greasy...and my little secret for a BLT is that I add thinly sliced cucumbers as well....just cuz I love them!

Twice Baked Potato Casserole ***recipe courtesy of http://www.sippitysup.com***

5 lb russet potatoes
10 sli bacon
8 oz cream cheese
0.5 c unsalted butter, melted
1 c sour cream
0.25 c chives, minced
2.5 c cheddar cheese, grated
2 t kosher salt
0.5 t pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel potatoes, and cut into 1-inch chunks. Place in a large saucepan, and add enough cold water to cover by about 2 inches. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and reduce to a simmer. Cook until tender and easily pierced with a paring knife, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a colander to drain; return to pan, cover, and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add bacon, and cook until crisp and browned, turning once. Transfer to paper towels to drain; let cool, and crumble into pieces.
 3. Using a fork, mash the potatoes in pan until light and fluffy.(I left my potatoes fairly chunky, rather than mashing them smoothly.  Added some texture)   Add the cream cheese, butter, and sour cream, and stir until combined and smooth. Add the chives, 2 cups cheddar cheese, half the bacon, salt, and pepper. Stir until well combined.
4. Transfer to a buttered 3-quart baking dish. Top with remaining 1/2 cup cheddar cheese. Bake until top is slightly golden and potatoes are heated through, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven; garnish with remaining bacon. Serve immediately.

Super Easy chicken and potatoes!

I knew today was a day that I'd be out working for most of the afternoon.  So I needed an easy meal.  Chicken and potatoes!  So this morning, I pulled out three chicken breasts and put them in a marinade.  I buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  When you buy them in the store, they're really thick,and I prefer them to be thin.  A lot of people pound the breasts out to make them thinner, but I prefer to take a fillet knife and slice them in half the thick way.  I do this prior to putting them in the marinade.  You can use any marinade you like.  My favorite is World Harbors brand Island Mango.  I put the chicken and marinade in a sealed gallon size bag.  Throw it in the fridge and let it sit as long as you want.

Now, for the potatoes.  Super easy roasted potatoes, because I like easy!  I don't parboil them, just right into the oven.

4-6 potatoes
olive oil
Paula Deen Seasoning
Parmesan cheese

Tonight I used red potatoes, because that's what I had.  Take however many potatoes you need....I used 4 for 5 people.  Wash them and pat them dry with a paper towel.  I don't peel them.  Cut them into bite sized pieces.  Spread them on a cookie sheet.  I line the cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Sprinkle olive oil over the potatoes.  I don't measure, just ensure that all potatoes have olive oil on them.  Sprinkle Paula seasoning over the potatoes and then sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top.  Cook for about 1 hour at 375.

 And Voila!  The finished product!  The outsides are slightly crispy, the inside is soft and flavorful.  THe seasonings are so good.

And now for the chicken.....again, super easy.  I cook the chicken on a flat topped, counter top griddle.  I dump the entire contents of the bag onto the griddle, marinade and all.  I have found that cooking the chicken in the marinade helps keep it moist, as well as adding more flavor to the chicken.  Because the chicken is thin, it only takes about 10 minutes to cook through.

And for a vegetable tonight, simple steamed broccoli.  The only time required is the time it takes to trim the stems and toss them in the steamer basket to cook.  And really, not much is better than delicious steamed broccoli!!

Total prep time tonight was about 15 minutes, and while the cook time was about an hour, the cook time that I needed to pay attention was only about 10 minutes.  I had no leftovers, and Josh ate three pieces of chicken, which means dinner was a success!

Chicken Enchilada Soup

This is such a good soup, and so filling!  Also super easy.

1 lb chicken breasts (3-4 fillets)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 C diced onion
1 garlic clove
4 C chicken broth
1 C masa harina (flour)
3 C water
1 can enchilada sauce
16 oz. Velveeta Cheese
1 tsp salt, to taste
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin

Add chicken breasts and one can of cream of chicken soup to a crock pot and bake for about 4-5 hours on high.
When the chicken is done baking...
Add onions and garlic to a pot and saute over medium heat for about 2 minutes, or until the onions begin to become translucent.
Add chicken broth to the pot.
Combine masa harina with 2 cups of water in a medium bowl and whisk until blended.
Add the masa mixture to the pot with the onions, garlic and broth.
Add remaining water, enchilada sauce, cheese and spices and bring mixture to a boil.
Shred the chicken into small, bite-size pieces and add it to the pot.
Reduce heat and simmer soup for 30-40 minutes or until thick.
 Serve in cups or bowls and garnish with shredded cheese, diced tomatoes, sour cream, and crumpled tortilla chips.

(I made my own tortilla chips for this soup. Slice up several flour tortillas into thin strips and saute with a 1 tsp of olive oil and a pinch of salt until the tortillas strips are crispy).

Beef Stroganoff

This is the year of easy Sunday dinners.  We go to church at 11:00am now, and by the time we get home just after 2 pm, we are H-U-N-G-R-Y!  So we've decided we'll be using the crock pot a lot this year, and making meals that don't take a lot of time.  Today's menu was beef strogranoff, which I love, but we seldom ever have.  Total time, including prep and cooking was about 40 minutes.  Right up my alley!

I forgot to take a picture of the finished meal, but will do it when it's leftovers tomorrow....

Beef Stroganoff

1.5 pounds of sirloin steak
1 medium yellow onion
5 mushrooms
1 T butter
1/4 cup white wine
1 T Paula Deen seasoning
1 T flour

Pasta of choice

Sauce

2 cups sour cream(I use reduced fat to eliminate the guilt of a sour cream filled meal!)
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 t Paula Deen seasoning

Cut the sirloin steak into bite size cubes.   If you cut beef on the diagonal, across the grain, it will be more tender.  You can also used pre-diced stew beef, but it won't be as tender.  Dice the entire onion.  I'm not a huge onion fan, but do recognize that it adds flavor to meals.  Because of this, I dice my onions into very small pieces!  Slice the mushrooms.  I like the visual texture that leaving the slices whole gives to the plate.

In a large skillet on medium heat, combine the meat, butter, and white wine.  Sprinkle the Paula seasoning and the flour over the meat and stir both in.  Stir occasionally while cooking.  While your meat is cooking, fill a large pot with water to cook your pasta.  I say pasta of choice, because you can use whatever pasta you want.  I typically use linguine.  In my opnion, it makes the meal less heavy.

Cook the meat until it is almost all the way cooked.  Add the mushrooms, sour cream, heavy cream, and additional Paula seasoning.  Cook for aproximately 5 minutes, until mushrooms are barely cooked and sauce is well blended and heated all the way through.  Drain your pasta.  Serve the stroganoff over the pasta, with a vegetable of your choice.

Not only is this super simple to make, but the cleanup is a breeze, because you've only used two pans.  Definite plus in my book.  And judging by the two heaping helpings Josh had, it's a winner in his too!

A few of my basic must haves

I have a few basics that are always, always in my cupboard.  I'm not sure I'd know how to cook without them!!

1.  Paula Deen's House seasoning
     1 cup salt
     1/4 cup black pepper
     1/4 cup garlic powder
     Mix them together and store in an air tight container.  I  store it in a pint sized canning jar.

2.  Butter.  Now I'm not going all Paula Deen on my cooking, but butter really does, in limited quantities, make whatever I'm cooking better.  And I mean butter.  Real butter.  Not margarine.

3.  Olive Oil.  It's key in cooking, in my opinion.  It'll be in a lot of the things I cook.

4.  White wine.  Now don't freak out on me.  I actually use wine in a lot of the things I cook.  It adds a very unique flavor.  And since I only use it in items that I am cooking, all of the alcohol cooks out of it, and you are left only with the flavor, so you don't need to worry that you are feeling your children alcohol.  The great chefs say not to use any wine that you wouldn't drink, so instead of using cooking wine, I always purchase a cheaper drinking wine.

5.  Italian Seasoning.  It's super cheap, and because it's a blend of herbs, it's actually one of my go to seasonings.  I use it a lot when I taste something and think, Gosh, this needs something, but I don't know what......voila!  Italian Seasoning.

I am a lazy cook!

Ok, maybe lazy isn't the most accurate word....it sure isn't the most flattering!  So instead, let's go with busy.  I am a busy cook.  I like to eat.  I love food.  I even like to cook.  But I also have a job that keeps me really busy, so don't have a ton of time to spend preparing meals.  But I also don't like eating a lot of packaged or pre-prepared foods, because they are just so bad for you.

I don't have little kids to try to feed, but I do have an 18 year old nephew living with me.  So the trick is to try to balance meals for me and for him.  On my side, you've got an adult female who is trying to eat in a healthy way and lose weight.  On Josh's side, you've got an 6', athletic teenage boy who could happily eat 4,000 calories a day and stay slim and athletic.  Sometimes, he makes me crazy!  And let me add that I love to try new things and be adventurous in my cooking, and Josh would be happy always eating the same 5-6 meals, every 5-6 days.

So the happy medium is that I cook healthy meals, making them in ways that make Josh's teenage boy appetite happy, provide lots of veggies, and always have a batch of cookies in the cookie jar.

So anyway, to wrap this up.  I know I have a lot of friends who find themselves to be in the same meal preparation situation as me.  I've found and collected some really great, simple recipe's.  And, since I like to play with things when I'm cooking, I've created some dishes of my own that are pretty darn tasty!  Soooo....I figured I'd start a blog to share those recipe's with my friends.  I'll only post recipe's that I've made and have passed approval from my family.  If they're my own creation, I'll claim credit.  If I lifted it from somewhere, I'll give credit to the culinary genius I stole from!