Stuffed Bell Peppers

This past weekend Sarah and I had a friend come to visit, so I looked in the fridge to figure out what I wanted to make for dinner. We had three bell peppers that had been in there for a little over a week, so it seemed the appropriate thing to do to cook those up. I decided to stuff them, which tends to be hit or miss for me (I think I may actually have a previous post on here about stuffed peppers from when I lived with Lilly) but I'm happy to report these were one of the better variants of them that I've made thus far in life.

I threw a tomato and some onion into my little food processor followed by a couple of garlic cloves.

Then I put in two sausages (I went with a chicken sausage that had apple bits in it) and an egg. I proceeded to blend it up for a few moments until it looked pretty unappetizing. 

Then I stirred in some melted butter, some stuffing mix (which I failed to capture a picture of, but I used the pepperidge farm stuff that comes in a bag, that lives in my pantry for occasions like this and to top baked mac and cheese...of course), and a little bit of water to just get everything moist, but not so much that it wasn't immediately absorbed.

Then came the peppers of course. Halving them, discarding the seeds, and filling them up with the sausage and stuffing mixture.

I topped them with shredded mozzarella and threw them in the oven at 400*F until the cheese was starting to turn golden brownd. 

We ate them with a small side salad and some prosecco, and I was glad they didn't come out terrible. One did magically become unstuffed in the oven though... I'm still not sure how that happened, but I just scooped the filling back into the pepper. Sarah liked how they tasted but wasn't a fan of the texture of the filling, it was too smooth and possibly too moist. But other than that success! See you next Tuesday!

Curry Chicken Salad

For this post I'm going to attempt a video post again. The actual filming fared far more successful then the last time (let's not talk about that...). Anywho the curried chicken salad came out great as always. Sarah and I had most of it for dinner as open faced sandwiches on a slice of home made bread as seen above. I ate the rest of it just out of a container, plain for lunch the next day. It's just so good. This time I made it from the left over chicken from a beer can chicken we had made the previous weekend when we had friends over. Last summer I just grilled up some chicken breasts to make it. You can also make curried potato salad the exact same way, just sub potatoes for the chicken (and personally I wouldn't use any sweet ingredients at the end, but to each their own), and that's also a delicious treat! So here goes nothing, see you next Tuesday!

Huevos Rancheros

It's safe to say that huevos rancheros is a favorite breakfast dish of both Sarah and I when we go out to eat. Lately though it's become a favorite week night dinner in our house. Perhaps a little less than a traditional version of it, it's super easy (and delicious) to make. 

So for a while we had been making it on corn tortillas, which is how it's typically made, but we find that while we don't always have corn tortillas around we almost always have flour tortillas in the house, and it works out equally as yummy either way. I spread refried beans on one half of the tortilla and fold it in half (if using corn tortillas, since they're typically smaller, I use two tortillas and spread the beans in between them).

Heat one side on the stove over a medium (I put our knob to 6) heat. 

Once it's flipped over put some salsa on top and next to it. (I usually put one spoonful on it and two next to it and spread them out). Then you want to quickly crack two eggs into the salsa being careful not to break the yolk. I tried for a long time to get the eggs to sit on top of the tortilla and not slide off, but found that the whites didn't cook quite enough (really for Sarah's liking, I'm a little less picky about having some stray runny whites) so usually just crack it on the tortilla now near the edge and let it slide off so that there a some amount of whites over most of the pan.

As soon as the eggs are in cover it with a glass lid. It'll get steamy and hard to see pretty quick, but you'll want to leave it on there until it almost looks like the yolks have turned pinkish when looking through the lid, but really it's just that the whites over the yolk have cooked. 

Carefully remove them as soon as they're done cooking from the pan and put them on a plate so that you still have ooey gooey runny yolks, yummmmmm. Toss some shredded cheese on.

And serve with some avocado and sour cream. Seriously, the best. See you next Tuesday!

Portabella Caps

I don't know if I've discussed my love of my Bj's membership much here, but for better or worse Bj's is my jam....though I don't get jam at Bj's, lots of peanut butter though, lots and lots of peanut butter (my mom and mother in law were a bit horrified by the peanut butter stash when they helped us move). Anywho, amongst the many things Sarah and I procure at the club (...yes I did just do that, even I'm embarrassed for myself) are portabella mushroom caps, cause for just shy of five buck for half a dozen, yes please! And this is a dinner Sarah loves, so lets get on with it...

Line your pan. You don't have to, but the one time I didn't cleaning it was ...less than fun. Spread out the caps and drizzle each with a bit of balsamic vinegar and a bit of olive oil. 

Add cheese! We had been using mozzarella, but we were running low on it this time around and used feta instead. Both. Delicious. Season those suckas...Italian seasoning? Sure! Basil? Yeah! Oregano? Why not! (I mean don't go crazy, one of those options will do, you really don't need more than one). Throw them in the oven at 400*F until the cheese looks melty and delicious....

Nom, nom, nom. See you next Tuesday!

Beet Sliders

Since shallots, beets and garlic were in no short supply with our winter CSA share, beet sliders became a weekly staple in our apartment for a while.

I'm sure there are better ways to cook a beet, but I peeled it, sliced it and threw it on a grill pan with some water. Then I would very un-scientifically cover it with a pot lid to try and trap some of that moisture. I'd have to add some more water here and there as I flipped the beets periodically.

While the beets were cooking I'd take a small shallot and clove of garlic and cook those up in a pan. The shallot I would slice before putting it on the stove and the garlic I would grate on our handy dandy garlic grater (which I really do love and recommend to anyone, it's also great for ginger!)

Once the shallot and garlic are cooked they go in a small container with some mayo and get mixed up.

For the sliders we went White Castle style and put them on typical dinner rolls. First I toasted the rolls, then the top got some of the garlic shallot mayo. 

The beets got topped with a healthy slice of mozzarella, and viola! Beet Sliders for all! (Or at least Sarah and I). 

My favorite side to have these with were some homemade sweet potato fries (bonus: use the same pan as the garlic and shallot were cooked in to cook the fries, more flavor, less dishes). 

See you next Tuesday (hopefully, maybe?)!

Lazy 'Chicken' Parm

Sometimes I just want a good hearty meal, but I don't want to spend a lot of time or exert a lot of energy to make it. If you're the same, then this is the meal for you, if you have left over pasta then it'll take 5 minutes to make, if you don't have left over pasta, then it'll take the length of time it takes to make the pasta. 

First step is to get out a frozen fake chicken patty (now, I know what you're thinking, fake chicken? no thank you. But seriously, as a meat eater I will tell you that I'd prefer a fake chicken patty over a real one any day. I mean, chicken patties are hardly real meat anyways, right?) and microwave it for slightly less than the full cooking time. I put mine in for 90 seconds. Then pull it out of the microwave and put some pasta under it.

Put some tomato sauce on top of it. Top it all off with some cheese, I used mozzarella and parmesan here, usually I use shredded cheese, but I happened to have a hunk of mozzarella, so extra yum. 

Back into the microwave it goes, for about 1 - 2 minutes. That's it. Done. Enjoy! See you next Tuesday!