My Hiatus...

So if the last week I posted was really chaotic, this month has been a whirlwind and then some.  I've made changes to my calendar, things have worked and things haven't.  I've also learned that it's okay.

I now know that my calendar is to ambitious for a track coach's life.  Dinner needs to be all ready to go when we get home at 6:30 pm.  That makes our choices harder during season.  I know the frozen meals are helpful for those nights.  We have used some, but not as many as I would like to have.  I don't have as many frozen because cooking is not as regimented as I'd need it to be so I have 6 spare dinners every week.  The two night on, and 4 spare dinners seem to work much better.  This allows for a social life that I was missing as well.  I also miss eating out from time to time.  After all, pizza is important.

That said, I had tried reinventing my Curried Beef in Pastry by using a different type of crust and try shortcut with frozen yucky crust.  It was a failed experiment. This time, I went back to the original pastry recipe. I also splurged and used Kerrygold butter.  Needless to say, it. was. heaven.!!
We had our friends over and there was not one crumb of crust left.  I made the meal into a pot pie of sorts, and it worked!!!  This crust was just as flaky as when I made it for the team, but tasted even better...the Irish certainly make great butter!

I will put up the newest version of the calendar for Monday and start kind of from scratch with my approach.  I'm looking to cook on Tuesdays and Thursdays since we have meets on the weekends and sometimes during the week.  I can dinner swap easier when I only have to commit to cooking twice a week.  I can still cook other days, but I won't be locked into a set schedule...we'll see how it goes...

Wish me luck!

Last week was chaotic

So last week was really chaotic.  Some dinner happened and some did not.  This has me thinking that if the season is fully underway during outdoor track with more meets, this cooking plan is going to be way ambitious for me.  I'll give it a couple of weeks and see how realistic it is to cook 3 nights a week.  I am leaning toward changing the days I cook or going to twice a week.  I have saved some money doing this so I am encouraged in that respect.  I have also managed to lose some weight by just being religious about taking my vitamins which do include probiotics, again if I take them religiously.  I have noticed my fingernails are stronger, my hair has grown more (it is now just below my waist if I have it down) and again I've dropped about 12 pounds.  I think it is the combo of all the elements of my life.  Track is in full swing, I'm making food that is generally minimally processed, I'm drinking more water and taking my vitamins like a good girl. (My mom would be so proud of me!)

OK, that said, this week I'm making Meatballs with Creamy Rice (a new recipe), Oven Fried Chicken and Kofta Kari.  We are not dining with our friends this week, sadly, but the two recipes we are having later this week were recipes I have made for them before.  They are yummy so they bear repeating in our repertoire.

Meatballs with Creamy Rice Skillet Supper comes from A Betty Crocker monthly magazine from who knows when.  When it was part of a book, it came from page 41.  It wants me to use frozen meatballs, but I'll make my own using my Swedish Meatball recipe.  Needless to say, I'll do that first and then finish the cooking of the meatballs within the directions of the recipe.  I won't need them to thaw, but I'll still cook them for the allotted recipe time to coincide with the time the meatballs would normally need to cook.  I've adapted the recipe accordingly.

Meatballs and Creamy Rice Skillet Supper

1½ lb. ground beef
½ c. grated onion
2 slices bread, crust removed broken into crumbs
1/3 c. milk
2 eggs
1 t. salt
½ t. pepper
⅛ t. nutmeg
Pinch allspice
1 T. sunflower oil
1 c. uncooked regular rice
1 can cream of celery soup
2½ c. water
1½ c. carrots, diced
   
   Combine the ground beef, onion, bread crumbs, milk, eggs, salt, pepper, nutmeg and allspice in a bowl.  Form 1 1/2" meatballs from the beef mixture.  Brown in a 12" skillet in the oil.  When the meatballs are browned on all sides, remove from the pan and set aside.
   In the same skillet, mix the rice, soup and water.  Heat to boiling; reduce the heat to medium-low.  Cover and cook 5 minutes.
   Stir in the carrots and meatballs into the rice mixture.  Cover; cook 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until the rice and carrots are tender and the meatballs are done. Serves 4-6.

Dinner Swap

So our dinner swap was awesome.  We had the Curried Shepherd's Pie tonight and man, it was easy to put together.  It was so fast I put a a milder Shepherd's Pie together for Miss M since her tummy has been bothering her and she needs to eat a bit blander.  Also the only thing I added to our potatoes was a bit more butter.  I'll use petite diced tomatoes next time also. But soooo yummy!

I boxed up leftovers for later.  Can't wait for that night!

Dinner out tomorrow but will post my recipe for Friday.

My recipe list starting Monday.

So these are the recipes starting on Wednesday or tomorrow. It is a new month.  Some are familiar, some are new.  Let's see how it goes.

2/1  #37 Curried Shepherd's Pie

2/3  #38 Coal Miner's Pies

2/6  #2 Salisbury Steak

2/8  #3 Baked Curried Chicken

2/10 #4 Keema

2/13 #38 Meatballs & Creamy Rice

2/15 # 7 Kofta Kari

2/17 #8 Turkish Pilaf

2/20 #9 Oven Fried Chicken

2/22 #39 Indian Lentil Stew

2/24 #40 Keftedes ~ Greek Meatballs

2/27 #12 Swedish Meatballs

I will also plan March since it's so easy to replicate the calendar.

3/1  #14 Curried Chicken with Rice

3/3  #41  Bulgur Mini Meatloaves
3/6  #16 Rogan Josh
3/8  #17 Curried Meatballs with Rice
3/10 #18 Dopiazah
3/13 #21 Meatloaf
3/15 #24 Pastichio
3/17 #26 Curried Beef in Pastry
3/20 #29 Beef Barley Soup
3/22 #30 Chicken Korma
3/24 #32 Curried Meatloaf
3/27 #41 Danish Sailor's Stew
3/29 #42 Seasoned Baked Chicken Legs
3/31 #43  Pork Lo Mein 

Now to load these to the calendar...

The recipe for Curried Shepherd's Pie...

This is the recipe for Wednesday, but I'm making it tonight.  It is actually from Woman's Day Magazine, Dec 1, 2009.  I have made the following changes to it:  I use 2 pouches of Idahoan Baby Reds.  I will used Tikka Masala sauce from Aldi of all places.  I would use my own curry sauce recipe instead if I have time to make it.  We do not as a general rule eat sweet potatoes in our house.

Curried Shepherd's Pie

1 bag (24 oz) Ore-Ida frozen Steam n' Mash cut sweet potatoes
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
16 oz bag mixed vegetables
15 oz jar jalfrezi or other curry cooking sauce
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1/2 c. water
2 T. each butter and sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. ground ginger
Heat broiler.  Microwave the sweet potatoes as directed.  Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat.  Add ground beef and onion; cook, breaking up the meat, 5 minutes or until browned.  Stir in the vegetables, curry sauce and tomatoes with the juice.  Simmer, covered, 5 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.  Mash the sweet potatoes with the remaining ingredients until smooth.  Drop spoonfuls of mashed potatoes on top of the meat mixture., spreading to cover most of the top. Broil 3-5 minutes until top is lightly browned.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving.  Serves 6.

I need to work on my calendar...

So I need to work on my calendar.  I'm in the process of figuring out how to make things work better.  I'm going to repeat our favorites that worked, but I'm adding some new recipes as well. This week will have the Curried Shepherd's pie we missed last week and I made the Biryani tonight.  It was yummy.

See, we eat green beans, too.  Miss M did not join us as her tummy was not feeling well.  I made a fridge dinner for her for later.  

I will post Fridays' recipe tomorrow.  I'm actually going to do two dinner swaps this week.  Wednesday we are going out with friends and Friday we have a track meet.  I'll cook tomorrow and Thursday.  I'm also evaluating if I want to cook 3 nights a week during track season.  I'm frequently not home til 6:15, so time is tight, especially if we need to run errands.  That's where the freezer dinners are helpful.  We'll see if I can be my own Sous Chef the night before so I can just throw dinner together.  It could happen.

Until tomorrow...

What a strange week...

What a strange week.  The same week I mention Mary Tyler Moore, she is back in our hearts as she's passed away.  We did have Poor Man's Beef Stroganoff on Monday.  It was great!  Just as I remembered.  Miss K stopped by and tasted it and decided that she'd probably use sour cream because the Greek Yogurt was too tangy for her taste, but otherwise it passed muster.

Man, it really does look like all we eat are peas.  Really we do eat other things.  It's just Miss M's favorite. 😄

The next thing was we had a dinner swap on Wednesday to Thursday since we were going out with friends on Wednesday. Chicken Pot Pie was supposed to happen, but life happened.  Well, realizing how fragile life is happened.  You see, a very dear friend of DH and I passed away.  It happened Tuesday, but we found out Thursday.  Needless to say our weekend was going to shift and we needed to accomplish errands and things so we could be at the visitation and funeral.  That did in yesterday's planned dinner as well.  So I'm having Miss K and Mr. J over for our usual Sunday dinner with DH and Miss M.  We will then have the Pot Pie.  Monday is when I'll have the Curried Shepherd's Pie and I'll post that recipe tomorrow.

The next thing is to figure out how to proceed with the rest of my weeks.  Do I just repeat my calendar? Do I dump the things that didn't work?  Do I work with the all of those recipes or become a "Test Kitchen" to perfect the minor flaws of those that just needed a bit of help?  So many questions, but I'm tired and need to just be for a bit.  I'll tackle that tomorrow.  Right now, I just need to sit and maybe cross stitch for the rest of my evening.  A bit of self care as it were.

Until tomorrow...

Recipes this week.. Two kinds of pie... Mom's Chicken Pot Pie and Curry Shepherd's Pie

My recipes this week end with two kinds of pie...Mom's Chicken Pot Pie and Curry Shepherd's Pie.  We are starting the week with Poor Man's Beef Stroganoff.  I'm going to date myself here, but I do remember when I first acquired this recipe, I remember the opening credits of the Mary Tyler Moore Show where she is in the grocery store and is agonizing over the ground beef as if to say "Should I or shouldn't I?"  Agonizing a bit more and tosses it in  anyway as if to say, "What the heck!".   Not sure why I have that image, but I do.  Anyway this is super simple and I use Greek yogurt for sour cream at this point in my life.  It's great with either one.

Poor Man's Beef Stroganoff

2 T. butter
1 small can mushrooms (again this would never fly in our house)
1 medium onion, minced
1 lb. ground beef
garlic salt
1 c. sour cream

Melt the butter in a large frying pan.  Add the mushrooms and saute 3 minutes.  Add the onion and saute until yellow.  Add the hamburger, and season with the garlic salt.  Fry until well done and no pink remains.  Add some of the meat mixture to the sour cream.  Incorporate the sour cream mixture into the meat mixture and cover.  Simmer 5 minutes further.  Serve over hot cooked noodles.  Serves 4.
This recipe is gluten free...I really never thought about it.  You could serve it over arepas or rice to maintain it's gluten free-ness.

Wednesday we are having dinner with friends, so a dinner swap will happen and I'll cook on Thursday.  This is a favorite of Miss K and Miss M. DH doesn't like the topping, but I'll make him a couple of Banquet pot pies and he's happy as a clam. (What does that really mean?  I often wonder how happy clams really are...)

Mom's Chicken Pot Pie

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can milk

1 c. frozen veggies

1 c. cooked chicken, chopped

2 c. biscuit mix

1 1/3 c. milk

1 c. shredded cheddar cheese

Dash garlic salt

Mix the soup, milk, frozen veggies, and chicken together in a 9” x 13” baking dish.  Mix the biscuit mix, milk, cheddar cheese and garlic salt in a bowl.  Spoon the batter over the soup mixture.  Bake at 400° for 35-40 minutes.

** The shape of your dish will determine how thick the topping will be.

Serves 4
I've used cream of celery soup or cream of onion as well.  Both work well especially if the cooked chicken you are working with is well seasoned.

I'll post the Curried Shepherd's Pie tomorrow or Tuesday.

Italian Chicken Dinner Swap last week

Wednesday's Italian Chicken legs were dinner swapped since we went to our friends for dinner.

It turned out well, but it still needs something.  I basically drizzled the 8 drumsticks with olive oil and sprinkled them with Italian seasoning, garlic salt, and a bit of extra thyme.  I popped them in a 375 oven for 50 minutes.  I'm thinking I'll up the seasoning and add additional rosemary as well as more olive oil. It didn't crisp up as I had hoped.  Oh well, the next round from the freezer should be better.  It will have another chance to brown up. 

Be back later with recipes for the week.  The are Poor Man's Beef Stroganoff, Chicken Pot Pie and Curry Shepherd's Pie. That rounds out my 37 recipes so far.  Technically there should be one more for Monday next week to end the month, but we are really doing this by the week.  And I did start the cooking adventure on Halloween and took Thanksgiving off.

I'm trying to decide which recipes bear repeating and will look for more to replace the ones that didn't work well.  I'll also adjust things to see if some of them will work better.  I already know that I'm adjusting One Pan Chicken Curry to freeze differently.  Pork Chops and Pilaf have to be overhauled...I don't want to eat leather again.  Just sayin'!

Friday's derailment of dinner

I remembered again, too late, that I had to make the Curry Sauce before I made the Biryani for Friday's  dinner.  That derailed our dinner on Friday.  In any case, here it is.  It comes from The Encyclopedia of Asian Cooking, Octopus Books Limited, London, 1982, as does my Biryani recipe.

Curry Sauce

4 oz. ghee (clarified butter)
1 large onion peeled an sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 t. coriander powder
1 t. turmeric powder
1 t. chili powder
1/2 t. salt
1 t. ground pepper
1 1/4 c. water
1 t. Garam Masala 

Melt the ghee in a pan, add the onion and garlic and fry gently until soft but not brown.  Stir in the coriander, turmeric, chili powder, salt and pepper, then add the ingredients to be curried ~ meat, fish, poultry or vegies, etc.  Fry for 5 minutes, then add the water and bring to the boil.

Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, then add the Garam Masala and simmer for a further 5 minutes.  Serve hot with veggies, or simply spooned over rice.  Makes 2 1/4 c.

So I'm kind of on a tape delay with this recipe.  I'm making dinner tonight (Turkey Breast and a mini Thanksgiving), but I want these frozen Biryani dinners as well.  Maybe Miss M and I will have some for lunch.  If I had the curry sauce made ahead of time, this recipe flies together in no time and you only need one serving platter.  How easy is that?

Biryani

1 1/2 c. rice
3 c. water
2 t. salt
2 c. curry sauce
3/4 lb cooked meat (beef, chicken or lamb) cut into 1" cubes
1 1/2 t. turmeric powder
1/2 t. coriander powder
Garnish with: 
1 green or red pepper cut into rings
1-2 hard cooked eggs, sliced
2-3 firm tomatoes, sliced
coriander leaves (optional)
varak, finely beaten (optional)

Wash the rice thoroughly.  Bring the water to the boil in a large pan, add the rice and salt and bring back to the boil.  Simmer exactly 10 minutes, then drain off the excess water and set the rice aside.

Put the curry sauce in a pan with the cooked meat and heat until bubbling.  Add the turmeric and coriander and cook over high heat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Add the rice and stir thoroughly and gently until  the rice has absorbed the color of the turmeric evenly.  Cover the pan, lower the heat and cook gently until the rice is completely cooked.

Transfer the biryani to a warmed serving platter.  Garnish with the pepper rings, egg and tomato slices.  Top with coriander leaves and varak if desired.  Serve immediately.  Serves 4.

Moments to spare...Halloween and "dinner interruptus"

***Originally published October 31, 2016***

So I made dinner tonight with moments to spare before the Trick or Treaters started to arrive.  Ok, we basically had "dinner interruptus" but it turned out great.  I portioned off 3 dinners for the freezer and then served the rest.  Guess what? Very little left over and 3 dinners waiting for the 15th!  Can't wait to see how hubby does with dinner that night.

One Pan Chicken Curry

Miss M left onions around her plate because I sliced them instead of chopping them, but I added peas which she loves.  I have never been offended by "things" left behind on the plate.  She leaves less around the plate and appreciates that the "things" make the dinner as a whole taste delicious, I knows it's the texture of the onion slices.

When the kids were growing up, I chopped things up more rustically than the recipe called for.  This was done all in the name of being able to find the offenders in their meals so they could enjoy the parts they liked.

Onions left behind

My individual bonus dinners

Ok, I'm still new at this picture thing, but those are the first freezer dinners.  I even made labels to put on the containers so they don't get lost or used too early.

The dishwasher is running, the cats are fed, coffee is set up for the morning, we only had one group of late trick or treaters, life is good.

We are going out with friends tomorrow for dinner, so my next adventure will be Wednesday.

Monday, Monday...Some recipes for this week

I remembered I had to make the Cream of Celery Condensed Soup before I made the Curried Beef Loaf for tonight's dinner, so here it is.  This is the recipe from The Joy of Cooking, Bobbs-Merrill 

Company, Inc., Indianapolis/NY, (1931) 1981, 23rd printing

Cream of Celery Soup

1 T. butter

1 c. or more chopped celery with leaves

⅓ c. sliced onion

2 c. chicken or vegetable stock

1½ c. milk

1½ T. cornstarch

½ c. cold water

Melt the butter.  Add the celery and onion and sauté about 2 minutes.   Pour in the chicken stock and simmer 10 minutes.  Strain the soup.  Add the milk and bring to the boiling point.  Dissolve the cornstarch in the water.  Add to the hot soup gradually.  Bring to the boiling point.  Stir and simmer about 1 more minute.  Makes 4 cups.

Lorri’s Hack for making Condensed Cream of Celery Soup

Follow the recipe but use 1 c. of chicken or vegetable stock.  When you strain the soup, strain through a food mill and process the solids and add to the soup to use as a thickening agent.  Also only add ½ c. of milk to the stock.   Continue as directed afterward.  This gives you a bit more than a can of condensed soup to work with.  For a standard recipe you will use 10 ½ oz. or 1 ⅓ cups.

So I make the soup before I make the Meatloaf recipe so it is ready to go.

Here is Dinner Monday...Curry Beef Loaf

Curry Beef Loaf

2 lb. hamburger

1 t. salt

¼ t. pepper

¼ c. rice

10 ½ oz. can cream of celery soup

1 egg

¼ c. water

1 t. curry powder

¼ c. onion

1 T. parsley, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Combine the beef, salt, pepper, rice, ½ of the soup, egg, curry powder, onion, and parsley.  Mix thoroughly.  Pack into a greased 9 x 5” pan or cast iron skillet.  Spread the remainder of the soup over the top of the loaf.  Bake for 1 ½ hours.  Serves 6

The chicken was great!

The Chicken was great!  It needs some adjustments, though.  The last time I made this, chicken breasts had to be much smaller.  I seem to remember that if I bought 2 pounds of chicken breasts I probably got 5 breast halves.  Not anymore, 3.5 lbs yielded 5 pieces.  I kind of planned that way, but I still have to work on the size of my pieces.  I cut the chicken breast halves in half again.  I think I should have sliced so the pieces were thinner.  I needed to add 10 minutes to the baking time for the thicker pieces.

This is the cut up chicken...it's huge!

 This is the lovely curry-lime butter that will be stuffed into the chicken

Here is the finished product!  MMM!

I'm still learning how to work with the camera on my phone, but I think I'm getting more comfortable with it.    

I cracked open my two eggs to prepare my egg wash for the chicken coating and look what happened!

Yup, you guessed it, a double yolk!  I haven't seen one of these since I was about 10!  It happened a lot with brown eggs when I was a kid growing up.  In New England the saying was "Brown eggs are local eggs, local eggs are fresh eggs."  I still prefer brown eggs and when the price is no more than 30 cents difference, I'll buy them.

And speaking of pictures, while I was preparing my massive amount of chicken, I ran out of bread crumbs and egg wash for the coating on said chicken.  I went to the fridge and this is what I found. 

So again, reaching back to my frugal upbringing, I knew most of these eggs were fine.  I had to find out which of any of them needed to be discarded.  I filled up my 8 cup measuring cup with water and put the whole dozen eggs in the water, one at a time. Not until I got to the last three, did any of them float.  

I took out the eggs on the bottom, and yes those 3 eggs were the only ones that floated.  If they float, they flunk and they get tossed out!

The rescued eggs were put back in the carton and I labeled them 1/14/17 so I would know when they were tested.

I knew I could use one of these eggs for the rest of my chicken coating.  I measured more bread crumbs and proceeded with the second tray of chicken breasts.  I put them in the oven after dinner and wrapped them in heavy duty foil like I did with the 3 remaining pieces from dinner.  They will be served on the 28th for dinner.  The great thing is I have 9 of them and that means they will work for lunch as well on other days. :)

I'll be back later with the recipe for tomorrow, Curry Beef Loaf, including my recipe for cream of celery soup.  There was a time when you couldn't get this condensed soup at the stores I frequented in Chicago.  Because of that, I adapted the recipe from my copy of The Joy of Cooking I received as a wedding present in 1982.  I'll have that recipe too.  

Wednesday's dinner was so awesome!

The Chicken Korma was awesome!  The chicken was perfectly done and the sauce was so yummy.  It was not overly spicy and I think Miss K would like this now that her palate has changed and matured a bit.  The adjustments I would make are this:  Cut the liquid in half and increase the chickpea flour if necessary. By this I mean the decrease the heavy cream by 1 cup.  There was so much gravy that I had enough for 8-10 servings.  This could have been served in bowls as a soup like meal with plenty of rice underneath.  If you were going to serve it that way, then keep the proportions as they are.

This is my second picture from my new smartphone.  It's still a bit awkward for me, but I'm getting the hang of it.  My kids are happy I've crossed over.  My old phone protected me from so much...

Anyway, I did a meal swap for tonight.  We had a 2 day conference to go to for coaching, so cooking was not in the game plan for yesterday.  I'll make the Baked Chicken Breasts with Curry-Lime Butter tonight.  I'll be back later with the outcome.

The ITCCCA conference was good, we gleaned a couple of things we'll put in our warm ups and core workouts as well as ideas on other ways to use equipment we already have.  Glad we went.

Chicken Korma!

Wednesday is Chicken Korma.  The recipe we use comes from Indian:  A Collection of Over 100 Essential Recipes, Parragon Publishing, Bath, UK, 2008.  It is a yummy dish that we love at our house.  This is not overly hot but very flavorful.  I serve this over rice, and usually with, you guessed it, peas.

Chicken Korma
1 chicken, weighing 3 lb.
1 c. butter
3 onions, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 inch piece fresh ginger, grated
1 t. mild chili powder
1 t. ground turmeric
1 t. ground coriander
½ t. ground cardamom
½ t. ground cinnamon
½ t. salt
1 T. chickpea flour
½ c. milk
2 c. heavy cream
fresh cilantro leaves to garnish
freshly cooked rice, to serve

Put the chicken into a large pan, cover with water and simmer for 30 minutes.  Remove from the heat, lift the chicken, and set aside to cool.  Reserve ½ c. of the cooking liquid.  Remove and discard the skin and bones.  Cut the flesh into bite-size pieces.

Heat the butter in a large pan over medium heat.  Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes, or until softened. Add the ginger, chili powder, turmeric, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon and salt and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Add the chicken and the reserved broth.  Cook for 2 minutes.

Blend the chickpea flour with a little of the milk and add to the pan, then stir in the remaining milk.  Bring to a boil, stirring, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 25 minutes.  Stir in the cream, cover and simmer for an additional 15 minutes.  Garnish with the cilantro leaves and serve with the rice.

Friday is Baked Chicken Breasts with Curry-Lime Butter.  Again this is a yummy main dish.  It has been a while since I've made this, but it makes a lot.  

Baked Chicken Breasts with Curry-Lime Butter

8 T. butter, softened
2 t. minced ginger root
2 t. freshly grated lime peel
1½ t. lime juice
1 T. curry powder
½ t. salt
12 boneless chicken breast halves
2 eggs
1½ c. fine dry bread crumbs

Mix 6 T. butter, the ginger, lime peel, lime juice, curry powder and ¼ t. salt; chill until firm.  Cut a 3" slit in the underside of each chicken breast to form a pocket.  Fill each breast with 1½ t. of the butter mixture; smooth the flesh over the butter.  Whisk the eggs and ¼ t. salt in a shallow dish.  Dip each breast half in the egg, then in the crumbs to coat well.  Arrange 1" apart on 2 greased jelly roll pans.  Dot with the remaining 2 T. butter; cover with foil.  Bake in a preheated 425° oven for 10 minutes. Uncover; turn each piece and bake 10 minutes longer or until the crumbs are golden brown and the chicken is tender when pierced. TO FREEZE:  COOL COMPLETELY, WRAP INDIVIDUALLY IN FOIL.  TO REHEAT:  PLACE FROZEN WRAPPED PORTIONS ON A BAKING SHEET IN A PREHEATED 400° OVEN 15 MINUTES, OPEN FOIL AND BAKE 10 MINUTES LONGER OR UNTIL HOT. Serves 12.

I can't believe break is over!

It seems like break was just yesterday...oh, wait, it was.

I tried very hard to make our last dinner of break as headache free as possible.  A 5 lb pork roast went in to give me 3 hours of freedom to leisurely set up and cook dinner.  I even set up things I needed for the week of prepping hubby's lunch so that wasn't a scramble in the morning.  It worked for the most part. The only problem I had happened this morning.  A dish fell out of the cabinet at me while putting dishes away from the dishwasher and broke (Mind you, we never break anything here.  It is really rare.) on the counter on it's way to the floor.  The upside is it was a new thrift store purchase at Thanksgiving, so the cost was negligible and the investment in our lives was short.  The downside was I needed to quickly sweep up the floor so my little furfaces (cats) would not have bloody paws when I came home from work.  All this before 7:15 AM. 

Chicken broth happened last night and became chicken soup tonight for our dinner.  I paired the soup with Tuna Sandwiches and since the broth was made last night, I just had to prep the veggies and chicken and toss it with the simmering broth.  It was ready in 20 minutes.  Again this was essentially free, save for the 1/2 of a chicken breast half I sliced up to put in the soup.  I took 12 carrot sticks that I had prepped last night and diced them, diced a small onion and a celery stalk, and then stir fried for a couple of minutes with the chicken until it was no longer pink.  I added this to the simmering broth with some garlic salt and orzo (melon seed shape) pasta and simmered until the noodles were done.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Chicken Orzo Soup
1 lb chicken bones (I froze my bones from 2 dinners of drum sticks)
8 cups water
vegetable scraps ( Carrot peelings, onion peelings, celery cuttings)
1 small carrot, diced
1 small onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1/2 chicken breast, about 4-6 oz., cut in 1/2 inch cubes
1 t. garlic salt
1/2 c. orzo pasta
Place the chicken bones, water and vegetable scraps in a 3 qt saucepan.  Simmer on low for about 2 hours.  Drain the broth through cheesecloth in a strainer.  In a 10" frying pan, add the veggies and chicken breast and saute until the chicken is no longer pink.  Add this to the reserved broth with the garlic salt and the orzo pasta.  Simmer 15-20 minutes or until the pasta is done.

Today was a long day.  First day back after Winter Break and I have finally become part of the digital age...I got my first smart phone today. It's been an adventure to say the least!  

Wednesday is Chicken Korma and Friday is Curried Lime Chicken Breast.  I'll post those recipes tomorrow.

Beef Barley Soup and Beyond

Beef Barley Soup...and beyond

So I made Beef Barley Soup for dinner last night.  I almost forgot to take a picture of it. (I was so silly, I ate my whole bowl of soup before I remembered!  Fortunately, I could still pour another bowl...I was hungry enough for seconds.)  We had the soup with our favorite potato rolls from Aldi...so yummy.

I usually make the recipe on the back of the Goya brand barley that we use.  It is perfect.  This time, though I made broth from the bones from our standing rib roast from Sunday and the meat for the soup came from the bones I used.  Essentially making this a free meal when it comes down to it.  I had saved my vegetable trimmings from Thanksgiving and New Years and frozen them.  I used half for the beef stock and I'll use the other half for the Chicken stock I'll make on Monday.  When I make my soup stock I just quarter an extra onion and peel the carrot I'll use for the soup itself and throw the peelings in too. (My Mormor would be so proud of me 💖)

I looked on the Goya website and couldn't locate the recipe that has been there forever.  So here is a variation of the Goya Recipe:

Beef & Vegetable Barley Soup
1 T. olive oil
1 lb boneless chuck, cubed
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 t. dried oregano
4 t. beef bouillon granules
4 c. water
1 bay leaf
15 oz can veggies, undrained or 1/2 bag frozen mixed veggies + 1 c. tomato        juice or tomato sauce
1/2 c. barley
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and brown the beef.  Stir in the onion and garlic.  Cook until the onions are tender.  Stir in the seasonings and water.  Bring to a boil; reduce the heat and simmer one hour.  Add the veggies and barley.  Cook over medium heat 30 minutes.  Serves 4.

Dinner Monday is Chicken Soup...I'll post the recipe tonight!

Pytt i Panna and this weeks meals...so far

The kids loved the Curried Beef in Pastry.  It made 18 pieces using all the crust recipe but I did have some filling leftover.  I put some on crackers and it was really good.  

Needless to say there were no leftovers for me to freeze...That means on Tuesday the 17th, the day the Indoor Track Season opens, I'm free to go out or make something else for dinner!  I think I'll make something else...I'll keep you posted.

That night we had Dusted Pork Chops for dinner.  That was delicious!  I sprinkled some garlic salt on the chops before broiling them.  As I said before I just combine the dry herbs and spices from South American Chicken and Quinoa in a spice shaker and then shake the dust on the chops (or chicken) until they are well coated.  I then broil them for 6 minutes on a side. Yum.

Which brings me to today.  I made Pytt i Panna for our meal today.  I had a recipe that I've misplaced, but this one I found is very close to why my recipe was like.  It comes from Swedishfood.com.  I made a vegetarian version for my kids who need to keep kosher or halal or who are indeed vegetarian.  I also made a version loaded with smoked sausage.  That was devoured. I am left with a generous serving I can freeze for the 19th. When I serve that I will make some eggs and sourdough English muffins for me to go with.  DH will do well with some biscuits and maybe some gravy as well.

Here is the recipe:

Pytt i Panna
2 lbs. cooked potatoes, peeled
5 oz. bacon
5 oz. leftover meat or ham
5 oz. smoked sausage
2 onions, minced
1 T. oil
1 T. butter
1 t. fresh thyme, chopped (1/2 t. dried)
1 T fresh herbs, such as parsley, to garnish

Roughly dice the peeled potatoes bacon, meat, and sausage into 1/2" cubes.  Finely chop the onion.  Heat a large nonstick frying pan or wok on medium heat.  Add the oil and butter and when foaming, add the potatoes and onions and fry until golden brown, stirring occasionally.  Meanwhile, heat a separate pan and when hot, add the diced bacon.  When the fat starts to render, add the meat, smoked sausage and thyme.  Fry  until everything is golden brown, giving it an occasional stir and adjusting the heat if it looks like it may burn.  When the meat is cooked, add to the potatoes and mix thoroughly.  Taste and add seasoning.  It will probably need a good pinch of pepper, but may not require any salt as the bacon is fairly salty.  Keep warm while you fry the eggs.  To serve, garnish with fresh herbs and top with fried eggs.  Serves 4.

Going to Museum of Science tomorrow...long, fun day!