"Beefy One Pot Dinner" and Quichespirement!

Yes, quichespirement. Experiment meets quiche. I had eggs and thought I'd use them up trying to make a quiche. I always liked quiche as a child, mom used to make something involving bisquik in some way, if I remember right. Honestly it's been too long. Anyway, so I tried to make a quiche. I'll get to that in a bit.

I wasn't originally going to post this, I don't think, but I found the pictures on my camera and figured I'd just toss it in here for.. whatever's sake. Made it a few weeks ago. Bad name, pretty good taste for what goes into it. Super easy. Sean said it lost major points for the bad name. Well I tried to think of a better one and I couldn't! All that came out was Beefy BBQ-y Beany thing. And that's definitely not a step up.

Potatos. Carrots. Garlic. Baked Beans, BBQ sauce. And hamburger. There is your meal. Unless you decide to jazz it up, but I'm not going to be a part of your jazzing, people. You can jazz on your own time! *jazzhands*

Brown your meat, drain it, etc. You know the drill by now. I'd hope. Maybe not!

Add your veggies. Cook.

And at some point where I wasn't taking a picture, add your beans and bbq sauce and cook some more. Then put cheese on top and let it melt. Tada. (By the way, look at the recipe below for much much better instructions)

Yummy. Yeah I went a little heavy handed on the cheese. I'm sorry. I'm a cheeseaholic. :( That will have to stop soon enough.

Yummy. Like a nice bbq stew thingie. Really simple, you could definitely mess with it a bit. I think I threw in some dashes of worcestershire sauce too. I liked it. Even my friend Matt liked it and he dislikes baked beans. Quite yummy for the amount of effort/quality of food in it. I also went a little heavy handed on the veggies, I'd probably put even more potatos in next time. I LOVES ME SOME TATERS.

Beefy One Pot Dinner

• 1 lb (500g) lean ground beef
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 cup of thiny sliced carrots
• 2-4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 cup of finely chopped potatoes
• 1 cup water
• 1 can (14 oz/398ml) baked beans
• 1/2 cup BBQ sauce
• 1 cup of shredded cheese, whatever you like (Chedder is good)

1) Brown meat in large nonstick skillet on medium high heat; drain. Add vegetables and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2) Stir in water. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. (I had to do mine a little longer and add a tiny bit more water for my potatoes)

3) Add beans and barbecue sauce, stirring. Cook 5 minutes or until heated through. Sprinkle with cheese.

Tada.

Don't mock my girly lilac colored PSP. Also, at this point I have misplaced that clicky pen and I'm very sad. It was my favorite clicky pen. COME BACK TO ME, CLICKY PEN. I didn't mean what I said!

So. Quiche. Well, this doesn't really have a recipe but I'll show you how it went. There are much more reliable quiche recipes out there for you to follow and one day I'll probably make and post one. This is not that quiche. It was however, delicious. A little messed up and a little soggy, but I could fix that next time.

First I tried to blind bake my pie crust. That is when you bake the crust alone. However you are supposed to weight it down with either another pie plate or line the dough with wax paper and fill the shell with dried beans or pie weights. I however had none of the above and I tried to do it, hoping for the best, knowing deep inside my heart it would fail.

And so my beautiful pie crust went from this:

To this:

Oh sweet crap. See how it bubbled and shrunk and... Man that thing is ugly. So I dumped it aside to cool till I could throw it out.

Flaaaaaaaaaaaaat.

So anyway I knew it would probably give me a soggy crust if I made the quiche right in the unbaked crust but I had no choice. And so I did. My fillings of choice were yummy brown sugar ham, roasted red peppers, and some mild chedder. Delicious.

I didn't do any approximate amounts for this, I just kind of went with it. That's cooking, baby!

Layered it all on. Oh it smelled so good.

4 eggs, a cup of milk, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, parsley flakes and some dijon mustard.

Pour that all over the filling!

I had such high hopes for the cute little pie. I stuck it in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes. Then 10 more. Then 10 more. Then 5 more. Finally the top was not jiggly anymore and the crust was nice and brown.

Oh it's so pretty and puffy and delicious looking! Alas, I poked a knife in after it sat for a bit to cut it and it was still watery inside. What! Crap. So I put foil around the edges to keep the crust from burning and baked for another 15 minutes or so.

It got a little brown but it definitely wasn't burnt.

Everything inside was cooked but it was still a little juicy. I think it was the fact that even though I dried my peppers and ham really well, I didn't redry the peppers after I sliced them and let off more juices. Also, I might've just overfilled it with things. I don't know. Either way, once the first two pieces were cut and some of the water had been sopped up with a papertowel on the plate, it was just fine. Bottom crust was a little soggy but still tasted good.

It was really tasty. Sean liked it so much he had two big pieces. I was shocked! Not sure how the leftovers will hold up, you know how reheating eggs can be sometimes.

Tonight I'm going to make spaghetti sauce, but you probably won't hear about it for a few days. I wish I could be like those bloggers who make food then blog about it that same night. But I'm not. I am eternally imperfect, I hope you will still love me anyway.

Sesame Teriyaki Chicken Broccoli.. thingie.

Interesting name, huh. WELL THAT'S WHAT IT IS. This is one of my favorite quick meals, and it's pretty good. I always make a lot and enjoy leftovers far far too much. I also take some creative liberties with the recipe but I'll post the original one for you and let you go nuts with it like I do. Soooo easy. It has chicken and broccoli, my favorite vegetable. The main ingredient for the sauce is Kraft Asian Toasted Sesame dressing. I love that stuff. It is great. And if you have a problem with that, BEGONE, FOOD SNOBS. I don't need your kind round my kitchen! I happen to have bachelor friends who could use quick easy meals like this that are also yummy! *shakes fist*

So anyway.

You need: Broccoli! Chicken! Kraft Asian Sesame dressing (or something similar from another brand, I haven't seen any myself), soy sauce, a nice thick happy teriyaki sauce, garlic powder, crushed red pepper flakes and noodles or rice. The recipe calls for ground ginger but I couldn't find a small one at the store and I didn't really care that much.

Cut up your broccoli and your chicken! By the way, I found my knife sharpener and after using it on my poor chef's knife that was having issues just cutting through the skins on bell peppers, holy cow. Like a whole new knife again. Let me tell you, using a sharp knife, a REALLY sharp knife, to cut your raw chicken makes it so fast. I was done in like 4 minutes. Or less. Pewpewpew. That's my glass cutting board in the above picture, I use it for raw meat as it doesn't tend to soak things up like wood or plastic does. Remember to wash your stuff right away after handling raw chicken!

Then you make your sauce by putting the dressing, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, garlic powder and crushed red pepper flakes in a bowl.

Then look at that tiny amount of sauce and go "What the HELL" and get CRAZY.

Like me.

YEAH. Now that's some sauce, baby. Okay explaining. The recipe calls for 1/3 of a package of pasta, I always make a whole box so at minimum I triple the sauce recipe. And then I get even crazier and start mixing sauce components in at random till it tastes good. Oh and I do not triple the soy sauce. Just the teriyaki and dressing. Really, just have fun with it, but don't add too much at once. You can always add more, you can't take it away.

Cook your chicken pieces in a skillet over medium high heat, or whatever. Just cook them.

Your pasta should be boiling while this is going on, and for the last 3 or 4 minutes of cooking time on your pasta water, add your cut up broccoli.

Pour your sauce over your cooked chicken and let it bubble away while you finish up with your pasta and broccoli.

Drain your pasta and broccoli!

Look at that color. God, I love broccoli so much. But not raw. For some reason. I could probably eat cooked broccoli every day of the week though.

Then, uh well. You can do this several ways, whichever leaves you with the most space. If you used a biiiig skillet, dump the pasta and broccoli onto your chicken and sauce and toss it around carefully. Or add the pasta and broccoli back into your pot if you have the space and dump the chicken over it and toss it carefully. Or just pour it all into a huge serving bowl, whatever works for you.

I love this dish. It's not haute cuisine but I do love it. I have woken up in the middle of the night to go sit at the kitchen table and play ds and eat these leftovers. Cold. They are so good. Make sure you make enough sauce if you up your pasta. You could even make the broccoli without the noodles and just serve it over rice instead. I'm a noodle fanatic though (as much as I love rice), and I have always made it with long pasta.

Here's the recipe (which is a merging of two INCREDIBLY similar recipes from the kraft what's cooking magasine) with the original amounts. Feel free to have fun with it.

Sesame Teriyaki Chicken Broccoli thingie!

• 3 cups broccoli florets (I did more than 3 cups but I looove broccoli)
• 1/3 of a box of angel hair pasta (or your favorite pasta)
• 1 lb of boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup of asian sesame dressing
• 1 tablespoon teriyaki sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

 Cook pasta as directed on package, adding broccoli to boiling water for last 3-4 minutes of cooking time.

Add (or don't) a little oil to a nonstick skillet, heating over medium high heat. Add chicken; cook 6-8 minutes, or until cooked through, stirring occasionally.

While chicken is cooking, add dressing, teriyaki, soy, and your spices to a bowl and mix. (You can also just add it all straight to the chicken but I like my spices mixed in well)

Pour over chicken, stir around and let bubble over medium low heat for 2 minutes or until your pasta and broccoli are done.

Drain pasta and broccoli, and mix together with chicken in pan, pot or large serving bowl.

Not exactly a low sodium dish but still tasty. :3 Enjoy!

Enchiladas

One thing I've been enjoying since I moved down here to Houston has been really good mexican food. I can't say I ever ate anything that wasn't taco bell or just taco meat, cheese and so on at home. There are some fantastic places to eat down here. That's probably why I've put on some weight. Also food is delicious. WHICH IS A PROBLEM. But my exercise bike will be here soon and I'm going to work that food off so I can stop feeling so guilty everytime I eat anything.

Anyway! Mexican food. Have you ever had enchiladas? Wikipedia says that an enchilada is a corn or flour tortilla rolled around a filling and covered with a chili pepper sauce. Enchiladas can be filled with a variety of ingredients, including meat, cheese, beans, potatoes, vegetables, seafood or combinations.  Enchiladas are delicious. I found this recipe on PW's site. SURPRISE. Well, let's just say I'm always willing to give her recipes a shot and her photos always make it look so easy. There's a reason I like making her food.

I probably shouldn't have made this the night that I did, I was feeling under the weather, as was Sean, and neither of us were in good enough spirits to probably enjoy the fruits of my labors. However, they were even better the next day and the day after so it all worked out.

This recipe has 3 components. The sauce, the meat and all the other stuff. Let's go in order, shall we?

THA SAUCE. Very important. Cans of enchilada sauce, canola oil, all purpose flour, chicken broth, salt, pepper and fresh cilantro. Oh cilantro. There is nothing like it. Say it with me now. And don't say it all americanized and crap. Ceelahntro. And roll those r's, people. ROLL THEM.

First cook your oil and your flour until it gets happy and bubbly. Then cook it for 2 or 3 minutes. This is the base that will make your sauce thick. Mine didn't turn out quite like PW's did, it was not so thick. Sigh. I have roux issues.

Then you add your sauce, your broth, your salt and your pepper. That's right. My powdery pepper and I scoff at your fancy pants pepper mill. Scoff! (Until I get my own)

It's so happy. Remember to check the heat level of your sauce before you add the pepper, it may already be spicy enough for you. Or you can add some hot sauce if it isn't! I used a bigger can of mild and a smaller can of medium. Once it's bubbling, turn it down low and let it simmer away while you do your other stuff. Don't forget to stir it now and then!

Next is your meat! You need ground beef, two small cans of diced green chilies, onion powder and salt or seasoning salt. Yeah, that's Steak and Shake brand, baby. Gooooooooood stuff.

Brown your meat, drain it as usual. Add in your chilies, onion powder and seasoning salt. Cook for a couple more minutes if you'd like to heat your chilies through and set it aside. I think I was so busy cooking I forgot to take pictures, so here you go.

MEAT!

Next, you will need the rest. Cheese. More Cilantro. Green onions if you want to use them. And corn tortillas.

I may have wound up going a bit overboard on the cheese by the end of this. I can't tell if I used too much inside of the enchiladas or what. Not a very healthy dish in any case. But soooo good.

Oh and a few minutes before using your sauce, throw some cilantro in.

Okay once you have your meat, your sauce and your other stuff, IT IS TIME. Granted, PW had another step where you fried your tortillas a bit before wrapping them but I have FoF and that's a whole other story for another post.

Create your assembly station.

Pour about half a cup of sauce into your baking dish. Oh and be sure to heat those tortillas in some way so they're pliable, though the sauce is plenty hot too.

Now comes the messy part. Dip your tortilla in your sauce. You may want to use tongs but my tortillas felt like they might rip if I used tongs so I used my hands and had helper monkey Sean take a picture. One of these days I'll get a tripod. Don't leave them in the sauce for too long, depending on your brand, they might not stand up to the sauce very well.

Dip! Shake off excess!

And add some meat and some cheese and some green onions.

Then you roll the two sides into the middle and place them seam side down in the baking dish.

I stuffed those things so full and I STILL had a bit of extra meat. But not much.

Pour the rest of your sauce over top. Now, you can either spoon a little or a lot. My sauce was too watery so I didn't pour it all, I just spooned until it had a nice layer over everything.

And then I got so excited that I forgot to take a picture with the cheese on before it went into the oven. Sorry. It happens!

When they come out of the oven 20 minutes later, sprinkle with more green onions (I didn't) and some cilantro! Mmmmm!

And there is one with my less than good taco rice that I made from a box.

It felt like a lot of work but it really wasn't too bad. Make sauce. Make meat. Fill and put in dish. Not hard at all. I wanted to use the green onions because I know they can impart a fresh kind of flavor but in the end even though I used not very many, it still felt as though they were overpowering them. Of course, I don't really like onion flavor very much, I prefer it to be very subtle. So other people might love tons of onions. Good stuff.

You know, one of these days I'll figure out what I want to do with this blog. Some blogs only show a picture of the finished products, some just link to where they got their recipe from instead of posting it as well. That'd sure be a lot less work. But I think it's nice to not wind up following a bunch of links. Though it is a good idea to look at the original sometimes, they might have more info than mine did!

Enchiladas (adapted from Pioneer Woman's)

• FOR THE SAUCE:
• 1 Tablespoon Canola Oil
• 1 Tablespoon All-purpose Flour
• 1 can (28 Ounce) Enchilada Or Red Sauce
• 2 cups Chicken Broth
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• ½ teaspoons Ground Black Pepper
• 2 Tablespoons Chopped Cilantro

• FOR THE MEAT:
• 1-½ pound Ground Beef
• 1 teaspoon Onion Powder
• 2 cans (4 Ounce) Diced Green Chilies
• ½ teaspoons Seasoning Salt
• _____
• TO ASSEMBLE:
• 10 whole (to 14) Corn Tortillas
• 3 cups Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
• 1 cup Chopped Green Onions
• ½ cups Chopped Cilantro

Preparation Instructions

Step #1 – The Sauce
In a large saucepan over medium heat, add oil and flour and whisk together to make a paste, cooking for one minute. Pour in the red sauce, chicken broth, cilantro, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 30-45 minutes. (Wow I definitely didn't simmer mine for 45 minutes, maybe that's another reason it wasn't quite so thick)

Step #2 – The Meat
Brown the meat in a skillet. Drain off fat. Stir in 2 cans diced green chilies and seasoned salt. Set aside.

Step #4 – Assembly
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour ½ cup red sauce in bottom of baking pan. Spread to even out. Dip each tortilla into red sauce, then remove to work surface. Spoon meat, a little grated cheese and green onions in the center of tortilla. Roll up and place, seam down, in baking pan. Repeat until pan is filled. Pour extra red sauce over enchiladas. Top with remaining cheddar cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly. Sprinkle cilantro over enchiladas before serving.

 Ohhhh. Delicious. Next time I want to try a chicken enchilada recipe I have. Enjoy!

Sloppy Joes #2

Sloppy Joes AGAIN?! Whaaa? Yeah, you heard me. I needed to use up some tomato paste in the fridge and I've been wanting to try this recipe. Also, I'm a rebel. You hear me?! *shakes spatula*

Once again I have fallen victim to this most sloppy of sammiches, for I do so love it. This recipe was pretty good, actually, though I'm not sure if it beats Pioneer Woman's. And upon tasting the leftovers today after it sat overnight in the fridge, I think it tastes even better. I like them BOTH, OH GOD WHAT DO I DO?! Well this one has a lot less ingredients compared to PW's, so I don't know, try them both and see what you, the viewers at home think. One of the best parts of sloppy joes is how darn easy they are. I love "throw everything into a pan and cook" meals.

In this corner: Ground beef, red pepper, brown sugar, red wine vinegar, onion powder (oh now he decides to show up for the picture. THIS IS NOT A HOTEL, YOUNG MAN), worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce, tomato paste and unpictured is the 3 garlic cloves I added to the recipe because I am in love with it. LOVE. Don't judge us because you don't understand us!

Aaaanyway.. Brown yo meat!

Drain that fat! Or don't! Be a rebel. It's fun. (but that's a lot of grease)

That, my friends, is something pretty darn yummy. I remember when I was a little girl and my dad started using it and I swear I thought he got it only from Montreal when he would go there for work. Maybe he did. Well now I can get it, even living in Texas. And it reminds me of home. Also I swear I'm not really that pale, it's the lighting. Really!

Add a lil sugar.. and a lil spice!

I actually really liked the combo of the two on the meats.

Add your red pepper, onion powder and garlic (if you used it), and cook for a bit, then add your worcestershire and vinegar.

In goes the tomato paste and the tomato sauce. I know, this is complex stuff, guys. Be sure to follow along.

Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes or so, I just cooked till I liked the consistency.

Now, I really liked how it tasted and then I added the tomato sauce and it kind of became a little bland for me, so I added another tsp of worcestershire and sprinkled a little seasoning salt on top along with some red pepper flakes. I enjoyed the result. Play with yours if you don't find it satisfactory. Cooking is fun!

And voila, sloppy joes part deux. Don't be talking smack about my colby jack cheese. It's sooo good with the spicy tomato yumminess of the meat. Also, red pepper is awesome. Why is it so expensive?! I love it but I'm not paying 2 bucks a piece, thank you very much, super markets!

Sean is home from work with a headache and I don't feel so great myself. Feels like my head is in a cave, everything sounds funny. My original plan for this evening was to make enchiladas but if we're both not feeling well I'll probably put it off till saturday.

Oh, I also bought a king cake while I was out. They only show up at certain times of the year so I had to have it. They are just so gosh darn pretty. If you don't know what a king cake is, it's uh.. well. It's like a delicious soft yeasty dough ring with cinnamon and stuff running throughout it, covered in icing and sprinkles. I think it's used for mardi gras but I think it has a lot of important tradition behind it. I only just heard of it a few years ago when I moved here. And whatever they symbolize, they be tasty! I don't have a picture of the one I have because it's half gone but here's one to give you an idea.

That wasn't the best one but it showed the colors nicely. If you really want to see something nice, go to google and type in "king cake", then go to the image page. Sooo many pretty colors. Yeah, I like color. And sparklies. I'm easily amused! What's wrong with that?!

And now after that little ramble, here is the recipe for the sloppy joes. Enjoy!

Sloppy Joes (adapted from original seen here, although she says they are Rachel Ray's sloppy joes so credit goes to whoever!)

• 1 pound or so of ground beef
• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon Montreal steak spice
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 3 garlic cloves

 Heat a large skillet over medium high heat.

Add your meat to the pan, breaking apart as it browns. When meat is almost fully cooked, add your brown sugar and your spice to the pan, mixing them in well.

When your meat is cooked, add your pepper, garlic and onion powder. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes or so. Add your vinegar and worcestershire.

Add tomato sauce and paste, stir to combine.

Reduce heat a little and cook mixture for 5-8 minutes. Serve on buns or bread, with cheese or without. Whatever makes your skirt fly up, as PW would say. I love that saying.