Yumminess and Rice

I probably don't even have to say it at this point, but this recipe (like basically every recipe I post) is both easy and delicious. I made it up this evening!

You will need:

rice (1/2 dry cup per eater) and water (twice as much as the amt of rice)
a basic protein such as tofu or chicken (3-4 ounces per eater)
a clove of garlic
a small jalapeno of the spiciness you desire (scarred ones are spicier than smooth-skinned)
fresh or frozen greens (one cup uncooked per eater - I used frozen collared greens)
diced tomatoes (1/4 cup or more per eater)
a bit of butter or oil (less than a tablespoon)
salt to taste


Steam the rice in a pot with a lid that fits tightly. Put the rice and water in the pot, cover it, and turn the heat to medium. When it is starting to steam (hopefully before it boils over) turn the heat about as low as possible. Do not check on it for at least 1/2 hour. The rice will be done when there is no loose water left in the pan and you can see holes in the mass of rice.

As you steam the rice, dice the garlic and jalapeno and chop the protein into bite-sized chunks. Put a tiny bit of oil in a frying pan, turn the heat to medium and let it warm up, then add the garlic and jalapeno bits. Let them cook for less than a minute before you add the protein. Stir this occasionally, but don't be afraid to let the protein brown a bit on the bottom.

In another pan, add bit of oil or butter, turn the heat to low-med, and throw in the greens. Let them defrost if frozen, or begin to cook if fresh. Then throw in the tomatoes and cook it until they are hot.

Now, throw everything in a bowl, salt to taste (or not at all), and eat it up!

Wow, did I get lazy last night

And still I managed a home cooked meal. :)

So I covered six chicken breasts (still frozed) in a garlic rub that I got from Pampered chef and threw them in the oven at 350 for 40 min. With about 10 min left on the chicken I started 5 cups of penne noodles boiling. Then I looked around the kitchen for about 10 min for the stupid can opener. Finally found it and put 2 small cans Hunts tomato paste and 2 cans water on a medium heat. I added a tablespoon of dried minced onions, some garlic powder and kosher salt. Then I pulled the chicken out and chopped up 1 and 1/2 of the breasts and added them to the sauce. Noodles were done at this point. I actually had horribly neglected them while searching for the cursed can opener, so they were stuck to the bottom of the pan. Drained them and scraped them and poured the sauce on. (Onions weren't quite done yet. Could have used a few more minutes, I think.) After dinner I chopped up the remaining chicken for use with a future dinner.

Overall, a success. Could have been better with more effort/time put into it.

Enchilada Hash Browns

Made this the other night and it worked well. Everyone liked it except Kendra, our potato and cheese hater. Definitely want to keep this in mind for future really easy meals.

Enchilada Hash Browns

1 Tbsp of vegitable oil
grated potatos (or a bag of frozen hash browns)
1 lb browned ground beef with the fat drained
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can red enchilada sauce
a cup or two grated cheddar cheese

Heat oil in a large deep skillet, and tilt the pan so the oil covers the bottom. Add the hash browns and cook until golden, then flip them. Spread the ground beef evenly on top the hash browns, same with the beans, then pour the sauce evenly over them. Top with the cheese and cover. Cook until the cheese is melted and then serve.

Flatbread Pizza!

Okay, this is the easiest recipe ever, and so intuitive that you've all probably made a variation at one point or another. It's especially good for kids and folks who like to eat different things, because everyone gets to make their own. Mostly I just wanted to post about how AWESOME this version tasted tonight. WOW. Forrest rated it a 9, and only 9 rather than 10 because he wanted more when he had finished his!

You will need:

flatbread pitas (softer and more wonderful than pocket pitas)
tomato paste (about 1 oz per pita. Try to get the unadulterated kind; the ingredients on the can should say "Tomatoes" and nothing else)
water
oregano
basil
thyme
garlic powder
onion powder
mozzarella cheese, between one and two ounces per pita.

toppings! (this evening for two pita pizzas we used about 1.5 cups of frozen kale, 1 finely diced medium spicy jalapeno, 1 tomato, and about 1.5 ounces lower-sodium salami)

Mix the tomato paste with a little bit of water, until it is easy to stir without being at all runny or soupy. Mix in oregano, basil, thyme, garlic powder and onion powder to taste.

Use a soup spoon to plop just one big spoonful onto the center of each pita. Spread it around with the back of the spoon. If you think you need more, add a little at a time. Don't go overboard or the final result will be sticky and mushy.

Top each pita with shredded mozzarella cheese and your other toppings. I always put a little bit more cheese on top at the end.

Place the pita pizzas onto a cookie sheet (or right onto the oven rack if you want extra crispy crust). Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15-20 minutes. There is no need to preheat the oven.

Eat and enjoy!!!

Cinnamon Vanilla French Toast

I love cinnamon french toast, but I hate how the cinnamon clumps in the egg batter. I've tried various solutions (btw, adding it to the milk and stirring it up just makes cinnamon-milk foam) but this is the one that actually works.

8 eggs
1/2 cup cinnamon-sugar mix (nice and blended)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk
16 slices bread

The only thing I actually measure are the eggs :P. Put the cinnamon-sugar in the dipping bowl. Add the eggs and the milk and the vanilla. Let sit for a couple minutes while the egg/milk soaks into the sugar. Mix well. Dip the bread as usual. Stir the eggs every time they sit for more than a minute or so, or the sugar accumulates on the bottom.

Delicious, Vaguely Asian or Middle Eastern Any-Nut Sauce

Most of my cooking tends along the lines of Italian or Latin American type seasoning. Yesterday we had some leftover quinoa and wanted some kind of sauce and a change of pace. I derived this recipe from some suggestions I found on intertube. It was AMAZING! I think it would go well on pasta, rice, or any other kinds of grains, or even hot or cold vegetables. It's very taste-ful, so you only need a couple of spoonfuls over your meal.

As you might have noticed, my recipes tend to be very flexible. You can use more or less of any of the ingredients, according to your preferences.

2 Tbs nut butter (I used tahini, but you could use peanut butter or another nut butter)
Juice of a lemon OR 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp powdered garlic
1/8 tsp cayenne powder (or more or less to taste)
1/2 Tbs sugar
Water, enough for dissolving sugar and thinning to the right consistency

Dissolve the sugar in a bit of warm water, then mix everything up together! Add enough water to make a nice sauce consistency -- not pasty and not soupy.

Totally easy (and totally boring) chicken noodle soup

So my kids love Cambell's Chicken Noodle, but it's too expensive to go through 4 or 5 cans every time we have it for dinner (didn't soup used to be cheap?) so I created my not quite as boring substitute.

Chicken Noodle Soup

4-6 cups water
chicken bouillon to taste (I use the powder, not the cubes, so I just estimate)
Noodles
chicken (canned, precooked and diced or shredded... whatever)

Boil the water with the chicken bouillon. Add the noodles. I used garden rotini pasta and added angel hair that I had broken into 4 pieces after the rotini was al dente. I added the chicken last. The amount of water you use is up to you. If you want more broth, just add more water.

For some reason, my kids love this. If it was just me, I would do more. Maybe add some veggies. But Erika begged for more of this for days. I think my taste and my kids' tastes are different on a very fundamental level.

Easiest Peanut Butter Cookies Ever

These cookies are a bit crumbly compared to cookies as a class, but they are also delicious and a far sight simpler to make than most cookies, so the sacrifice is more than worth it.


You'll need:

1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 375ish. Mix the ingredients up in a bowl. Spoon blobs of the stuff onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Use a fork to make criss-crosses on the tops if you like. Cook for 17 or 18 minutes or until they are starting to be crispy on the bottoms and solid on the tops. Try not to burn the bottoms. EAT THEM ALL!!!

Edit: A few Tips: Make the cookie blobs really small. I just put 28 on one cookie sheet. Make them fairly round and then smoosh them down with the back of a fork to create the crosses. Serve with milk.

Vietnamese Tofu Triangles

This CAN be gluten free, if you use GF soy sauce (sometimes hard to find) and make sure your other ingredients are GF (I mean, that's all obvious. I'm just sayin'.)

Keep an open mind here about the tofu. This is not a veggie-alternative to anything; this is the recipe for an actual (dare I say "authentic"?) Vietnamese dish. I first had it at my favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Salt Lake (Cafe Trang). I loved it so much I learned how to make it. We had it again for dinner tonight and Forrest commented that it is one of his favorite dishes that I make. Below are the complete instructions for the "real version." After the full recipe, I have included my extremely simplified, ketchup-based version. So quick and easy and it tastes Great! I suggest glancing through the full version, if only to get some perspective on how radically I tend to simplify things when I cook. I was recently told I think like an Australian: "Why do more work?" Dave, can you confirm or deny?

Vietnamese Tofu and Tomato Sauce (full version)

• Ingredients:
  • 1 pkg firm tofu
  • 3 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 200g chopped tomato, preferably fresh (but tinned is ok)
  • a Tbs water
  • 4 Tbs soy sauce
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • White pepper, to taste
  • Spring onion
  • Groundnut / peanut oil, to deep fry

1. Press the tofu so you can get as much water out as possible. Cut the tofu into triangles, slices, or cubes no more than about two inches long. I usually make right triangles with about a third of in an inch thick.
   
2. To make the sauce, which you should probably do first, simply fry up the garlic in some oil, add the tomato, water, half of the lime juice, the soy sauce, the pepper, and the sugar. Leave to simmer over a medium-low heat while you prepare the tofu.
3. Heat a wok with a a few inches of oil to a medium temperature and deep fry the tofu pieces until lightly browned. An alternative is of course to lightly fry in oil on a skillet or even to bake, but deep-fried tofu is a treat!
4. Serve the deep-fried tofu with the tomato sauce on top (because, you know, that would have been a tricky concept for you to work out had I not given that particular instruction). Drizzle the remaining lime juice and some sliced spring onion over the dish, and go pig out.

Vietnamese Tofu Triangles (Quick and EASY)

• Ingredients:
  • 1 pkg firm tofu
  • some garlic, crushed
  • some ketchup
    
  • some water
  • some soy sauce
  • some olive oil
  • some powdered ginger or some pepper, or both

1. Slice the tofu into triangles about a centimeter thick.
   
2. Heat the oil in a pan and throw the tofu triangles and garlic in there. Let the triangles get brown on the bottom, flip them, brown the second side.
   
3. When they are brown, pour some soy sauce on them. Sprinkle them liberally with ginger.
   
4. Add a little water if it's all starting to dry up at any point.
   
5. After about five minutes of cooking them in the soy sauce, quit adding water and let things almost dry.
   
6. Squirt some ketchup on them, as though they were eggs (assuming you like ketchup on your eggs.) Use enough but not tons.
7. Let them cook another minute or two, then serve them (possibly over rice).
8. Yum.
   

Pasta with Greens (Easy!)

I use this recipe ALL THE TIME. I like to use red kale, arugula, collard greens, or whatever greens I have around at the time. If you are using tough greens and want to cook and soften the greens a bit more, put them in the colander and drain the pasta over them before putting everything back into the pot.


Pasta with Greens
Original recipe by E. Samara Watkiss (the friend who introduced me to R. Forrest Ethington)
Adapted for the page by Gretchen Krebs

Here’s an easy and delicious way to use bitter greens or slightly wilted lettuce without sacrificing nutrients. In this dish, the steam from hot pasta barely softens both the texture and taste of leafy greens. This recipe works well with chard, kale, and other bitter greens, as well as lettuces that have recently lost their crisp but have not begun to spoil. All of the ancillary ingredients are optional. Creative and curious chefs might want to try out other additions (such as cucumber or bell peppers) as well.

For four people (or two hungry folks) you will need:

8 oz. dried pasta, any shape
3 to 5 cups leafy greens
2 cups grape or cherry tomatoes
or 2 to 3 whole tomatoes
1 garlic clove
or about 2 inches of a garlic scape
4 oz. mozzarella cheese

A sprinkle of black pepper
A sprinkle of thyme


Boil or steam the pasta according to your usual methods.

As the pasta cooks, rinse the leafy greens and tear them into bite-sized pieces. Halve the grape or cherry tomatoes or, if you’re using whole tomatoes, chop them into small pieces. Chop, dice, or press the garlic according to your preference. Grate the mozzarella and set it aside.

When the pasta is done, drain it and return the hot pasta to the cooking pot. Immediately stir the tomatoes, garlic, and greens into the hot pasta. Wait just a few minutes as the leafy greens soften and the tomatoes warm up. Just before serving add the black pepper and thyme. Serve topped with grated mozzarella. Enjoy!

Swedish Almond Cake

Yeah, I know. I always make this one. It's my standby favorite because its so easy to make and I usually have all the ingredients. I usually double this one. I also recommend using a glass baking dish...

Swedish Almond Cake

1 cube butter, melted
3/4 C sugar
3/4 C flour
2 eggs, beaten
1-2 tsp almond extract

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs until mixed in and then the flour. Add the extract last. Pour into a buttered pie pan (if you double this, use a 9 x 13 inch pan). Bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes, until the edges are golden and it passes the toothpick test. Sprinkle with powdered sugar while it is still hot. Enjoy!!!

No Thought Needed Shepard's Pie

Most of what I make regularly is really flexible. Feel free to mix it up and do whatever. For the beef, we buy a big thing of ground beef and cook it up all at once. Then we separate it into ziplock bags that represent about a pound and freeze them. A lot of my meals use these as a foundation.

1lb browned ground beef (I just grab a bag from the freezer and nuke it for 2 min)
14 oz can of diced tomatoes
6 oz can of tomato paste
14 oz can of green beans drained
couple of cups of frozen corn
cheese (or not. depends on how healthy I'm making it)
a few cups of mashed potatoes
salt and pepper to taste

Layer the ingredients pretty much in that order in a large pie dish or a square baking dish. I bake at 350F for about 20 min. Serve and eat.