Spinach and Artichoke Wonderpot

I've been seeing the wonderpot pop up on Pinterest and Facebook.  To digress a bit, is anyone else a bit annoyed by people sharing recipes on Facebook?  I don't know why it bothers me but it does.  Anyhoodle, the wonderpot seems like a genius idea.  Throw pasta and sauce fixin's in a large pot and let it do its thang.  Easy peasy, right?  I made this for dinner and it was solidly okay.  I asked Dave to rate it and he gave it a B+.  Which is to say that we both ate it but weren't terribly impressed with it.  Don't get me wrong, it's not bad.  It just didn't earn rave reviews.  I may still play with it and tweak it because it has potential though.

Ingredients:

1/2 onion, sliced
1 cup frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
5 cups chicken broth
12 oz box of fettucine
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
salt
pepper
5 oz frozen spinach (about half a bag)
cooked bacon, for garnish
parmesan

Put sliced onion, artichoke hearts, garlic, olive oil and chicken broth in a large pot.  Break the fettucine in half (I did this in batches because my puny arms couldn't break the entire boxful in one stack) and add it, your dried spices and salt and pepper to the pot and stir well.  Bring to a rolling boil and cook for 10-15 minutes, until pasta is cooked through.  Stir every couple of minutes to make sure pasta doesn't stick.  Once the liquid has mostly absorbed, dish up and top with crumbled bacon and grated parm.

Adapted from Budget Bytes

Sauteed Chicken Pasta

This was a recipe born out of things I had around the house one weekend when I needed to make a meal, and it turned out to be easy and delicious. Growing up, we never ate pasta (and only ever spaghetti) without massive amounts of Prego on it. I do still have a nostalgic love for cheap pasta sauce with hamburger in it. Trying to get away from that, I like finding new stuff to put on pasta. Also, it feels kind of hamburger-helper-y, and I am, you know, fancier than that, ya'll.

Basics are:
Butter
Olive oil
Chopped garlic
Chopped tomato
Sliced mushrooms
Cubed/sliced chicken breast
Lemon juice
Salt/Pepper/Basil
Pasta

First, saute the garlic in butter and then add the chopped tomatoes. A few minutes later, add the mushrooms. Dredge the chicken in flour and add it to the pan after a little olive oil.

Start water boiling for your pasta, and get it cooking at the same time. I like angel hair, but in this instance, pretty much anything you like will work.

Cook the chicken through, then add some more olive oil, lemon juice, and the salt, pepper and basil to taste. I try to make sure there is enough liquid to make it a tad saucy, and then throw in your cooked pasta and toss together!

I love garlic and lemon together on pasta. I usually think pasta is pretty boring, but lemon and garlic make everything bright and tasty. It's not really anything revolutionary, but it is basic, has ingredients that are usually in the house, and tastes really good.

Also, this makes great leftovers. It seems like a lot of stuff I make isn't good on the second day. It gets mushy, or discolored or otherwise weird and unappetizing, but this is almost just as awesome reheated!

Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joe Sliders

I love cheesesteaks.  I've even been to Philadelphia before but not tried a cheesesteak.  I think it's to preserve the cheesesteaks I actually eat as somewhat authentic.  So anyway, I saw this recipe on Pinterest and got super excited.  I think this is an okay recipe but not nearly as amazing as I'd built it up in my mind.  Also, I want my sloppy joe's to be nice and sloppy.  This was more of a loose meat sandwich (which is a terrible name for a sandwich because nothing sounds appetizing about loose meat) so they were messy.

The original recipe comes from Blogchef.net and I opted not to make the cheese sauce, instead I just put 1/4 of a slice of provolone on my sliders.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup steak sauce
1 cup beef broth
salt and pepper
slider buns
provolone slices

Heat olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.  Add ground beef and cook until mostly browned, breaking up pieces.  Add the chopped onion and bell pepper and cook until the onions become soft.  Add salt and pepper.  Stir in steak sauce and beef broth and simmer until slightly thickened, probably 7 minutes.  Taste and add more salt or pepper if needed.  Scoop onto slider buns and top with 1/4 slice of provolone cheese.

Recipe from blogchef.net

Pork and Carrots, Take 2, only much better

So my leftover pork and carrots needed to be used, and this time I am much, much happier with the results. This time I decided on stuffed pork chops with apple and raisin filling. The carrots come in later, for a little spicy Moroccan dip.

First, assembling the filling:
1 peeled and chopped apple
1 small diced onion
ground sage
1 cup white bread cubes
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp butter
salt & pepper
1/2 cup chicken broth
Several small pork chops (I pounded out mine)

Sautee the apple, onion and sage in olive oil until onion is translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the bread, egg, butter, salt & pepper, then as much chicken broth as the mixture will soak up.

Lay out your pork chops on a lined baking sheet, and fill them to your hearts content!

Roll the pork chop over a bit to get it to stay pretty well closed. I didn't put in the energy of tying them up or skewering them and it was fine. Also, I put the extra filling between the chops on the sheet to cook it up, because I didn't want to leave any deliciousness behind. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes, it probably depends on the thickness of your chops, you may need more time. Pork should be cooked to at least 160 degrees.

Plate up and enjoy the amazingness! This was so so good that I can't recommend it highly enough... go... make them now! (Despite the kind of obscene color and texture of the pork, ignore that, I promise, no regrets)

Also, the small bowl of orange on the plate is this Morrocan-Style Spicy Carrot Dip, and it was also very very good. WAY better than yesterday's mash. Definitely choose this over that.

Successes and Failures, know your cauliflower limits

I tried to take on Whole30, and failed, but I still got some good things out of it. Meal planning is a super smart thing to do. It makes shopping and cooking much easier. I, however, very much require dairy and sugar. And "paleo" baked goods are disgusting, but cauliflower makes a good replacement for some things like rice and grains. I am going to continue to strive for a close-to-Whole30 30 days, but I have pretty much broken every rule in the 2 weeks up to now. According to the creators I am not doing it right, but it is still eating better so screw the rules!

So that leads to last night's meal. I decided to make all new things: breaded pork tenders with mint cashew pesto and carrot cauliflower mash. Spoiler alert... the pork tenders were the only really good part.

It all looks good right? Well, the pesto was way too salty and the mash had very little flavor. The pork tenders however were quite good. I just chopped some slices off a pork loin, dredged them in flour with salt and pepper, dipped that in beaten egg, and dipped that in a mixture of panko and parmesan (not at all Whole30). Popped it in a pan until brown and they came out moist and tender. Perfect!

I think part of my pesto problem was that I didn't have enough of the ingredients to adjust my flavors. I think it could be good. It is just spinach, mint, cashews, salt, pepper and olive oil blended together. I couldn't get it well blended because there was so little, and once it was too salty, I was out of spinach and mint to try and fix it. Not sure if I will try again or not.

The carrot cauliflower mash I had high expectations for because the ingredients were so good!

Even just in the pans it looks so good! For some reason my carrots never steamed. How does that happen? I boiled water under the steamer...? I am still confused by it. The onions were delicious on their own, I should have just eaten them: chopped onion, garlic, rosemary, thyme and olive oil. I steamed some grated cauliflower from another recipe in the microwave and then added it all to the blender.

I think I might try this again without the cauliflower. I had used cauliflower in so many recipes lately that I think I wore myself out on it. With salt and pepper it was edible, but I didn't eat much of it. Mostly I just ate the peppers out from underneath with the little bits of mash I didn't flick off. Also, maybe I just don't like mashed things... I am not sure about that, but it could be part of it. I am going to try another version of carrot mash, to be used as a dip, so maybe that will provide some more insight!

Creamy Taco Mac

In the span of about 10 minutes I went from "I don't want to cook dinner" to "oooh, taco mac!".  Cuz that's how I roll.  I've seen about a dozen variations of taco mac come through my Google Reader (which reminds me, I should probably find myself a replacement for that) and it turns out I had most of the fixin's to try out the recipe.  I made a few substitutions because that's what I do but it got a glowing review from Dave so this is clearly a keeper.  I still want to try it as written though.

The photo was taken right before we dug in, fresh out of the pan.  The pasta definitely absorbed the sauce in the fridge so leftovers weren't quite as soupy.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 lb ground turkey
8 ounces medium pasta shells
1 medium onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbsp taco seasoning, divided
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 triangles Laughing Cow cheese
1/2 cup half and half
salt
pepper
shredded cheddar
hot sauce

Cook pasta according to directions, reserving 1/4 cup pasta water and mixing it with 1 tsp bouillon concentrate.

Brown your turkey, breaking it up really well.  Add about 2 tbsp taco seasoning to the meat.  Once the meat is mostly browned, throw in the onions. Stir them around until the onions start to soften and add the bell pepper and garlic.  After they cook about a minute, add tomatoes and stir.  As soon as the juices start to lightly bubble, add the cheese triangles and melt.  Stir in the cooked pasta.  Add half and half, pasta water, salt and pepper and a handful of shredded cheddar. Simmer for about 5 minutes to reduce the sauce and let the flavors meld.

Serve with additional shredded cheddar and hot sauce on top.

Adapted from Annie's Eats

Magical meatloaf

I love looking at my cookbooks because most of them have been gifts.  I not only get to make fabulous food, I also take a moment for a fond memory of unwrapping the book.  My in-laws have gotten me a Barefoot Contessa cookbook for my birthday the last few years and I decided after a 4 day work trip that I was sick of eating out and wanted to cook something so I went straight to Ina.  She didn't disappoint.

I started with her 1770 House Meatloaf recipe but as is my MO, I made some substitutions but was very happy with how it turned out.  The original recipe called for veal and though I've never tried veal, I have kind of a mental block against it.  It's not rational but it's there so I'm admitting to it.  I also didn't think I had any Panko so I used cracker crumbs instead.  And as soon as I mixed them in with the meat, I found my panko.  Such is life, I guess.

The cookbook has a sauce recipe but I chose to serve with beef gravy instead and put it with mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans.


Ingredients:

1 pound ground lamb
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground beef
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tablespoon chopped, fresh Italian parsley
3 large room temperature eggs
1 1/3 cups cracker crumbs
2/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
2 stalks of celery, finely diced
1 large Spanish onion, finely diced

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Put the meats, thyme, parsley, eggs, crumbs, milk and salt and pepper in a huge bowl.  Seriously, it's 3 lbs of meat.

Saute the celery and onion in a frying pan until soft.  Remove pan from the heat and put cooled celery and onions in the bowl of meat and goodies.

Put a piece of parchment paper on a sheet pan.  You want your pan to have a small lip so it can catch the juices from the meatloaf.

Using your hands, mix your meatloaf.  Once everything is mixed well and evenly distributed, attempt to shape it into a loaf.  Mine looked more like a mound o' meat but it was uniformly thick, which is what you're going for.

Bake meatloaf for 45ish minutes.  Depending on how thick you shaped it, your cooking time will vary.  Mine was wide and flat and done in about 45 minutes.  I check for doneness by looking at the juices (should be clear) and kind of poking it with the flat side of a wooden spoon.  It should be springy without being squishy.  Let it sit for 10 minutes.


Adapted from the Barefoot Contessa Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust