And I wanted to order take out.

What is it about the colder weather that makes me so freakin' lazy? I just want to be in a sweatshirt and cuddled up in bed with a book, the couch with my hubs, or in the comfy chair with my bebe. Cooking is so not on the agenda.

So once we got E down last night, I asked the hubs what he wanted to do for dinner, hoping he would say he'd go pick us up some salads...Alas we're broke and he's way more as lazy as I am in the evenings, so he shrugged and said, "Isn't there chicken?"

Siiiiiiiiigh. Yes. There is chicken. And I suppose we can do something with it. Panko "shake and bake," you say? Fine. And I'll make some risotto. No, it's fine, it's really not that hard. Just come help me with the chicken...

And this was the result. Holy crap. It's a little monochromatic, but the chicken was crispy and delicious, the risotto was ridiculously flavorful. And this is why pantry meals win.

Bacon & Thyme Risotto (for two)
olive oil
3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 cup arborio rice
1/4 cup vermouth (or sherry or white wine)
2 cups chicken stock (bouillon)
1-2 tsp bacon bits
Sprinkle pepper
Dash dried thyme
Sprinkle Parmesan cheese

heat a bit of olive oil over medium high heat. Add garlic and rice and saute about 2 minutes. Add vermouth and let cook out, a couple of minutes, stirring frequently. Add bacon, pepper, thyme and about a half cup broth and keep stirring frequently until most of the liquid is absorbed. Add another half cup of broth and repeat. Repeat. Repeat. It should take about 20 minutes or so. Maybe more.

Sprinkle with parmesan and serve hot.


Crunchy Herbed Chicken
2 6oz chicken thighs or breasts
About 1/4 cup flour
Salt & pepper
1 egg
About 1/4 cup panko
About 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
pepper
dried thyme
dried oregano
dried basil

Arrange three deep plates. In the first, combine flour, and a good pinch each salt and pepper. In the second, whisk an egg with a fork. In the third, combine panko, breadcrumbs, and a good pinch each of pepper, thyme, oregano and basil.

Rinse chicken and pat dry. Dredge in flour mix, then dip in egg, then dredge in panko mix.

Bake 20 min at 350. Turn up to 400 and bake 5 more.

Somebody order me a pizza.

Eternal hunger
+Home alone
+A fridge full of randomness
=Dinners like this

Random, but tasty. It was even in courses, which is multi-purposeful in my mind. I can make dinner last for an hour, and I get to eat more. Win-win.

Appetizer? Check.

Frozen veggie spring rolls with sweet chili sauce mixed with a bit of Sriracha.

Salad...yep.

Apple Blue Cheese Salad. In other words, romaine with leftover chicken salad sandwich mix (sans chicken)—diced apple, celery and onion—and light blue cheese crumbles with balsamic vinegar. Chives on top.

And then there was risotto.

Mmm. You know I love risotto. This one was easy:

Saute two chopped shallots in a bit of olive oil over medium heat for a few minutes, then add a cup of arborio rice. Saute another minute or two, stirring constantly. Add a cup of white wine, and let cook down, stirring often, until wine is absorbed. Stir in a pinch each (1/8 tsp or so) of tarragon, dill and fresh pepper.

Add 1/2 cup chicken broth and let cook down, stirring often. When liquid is absorbed, repeat with another 1/2 cup of broth. Repeat twice, using a total of two cups. Taste the rice, it should be just a bit chewy but soft. If rice is still hard, add another 1/4 cup or so and cook down. When done, serve with a sprinkle of parm.

Oh, and of course there was dessert.

Dry Cinnamon Toast Crunch totally counts as dessert. Don't judge.

I love Rice-a-Roni.

I've been totally swamped with life this week, but I realized it's been too long since my last post, so here's the quick and easy Asian feast I made myself (Hubby's off doing his football thing...yes, already) tonight. I'll post the actual cooking I did this week (Pad Kee Mow! Crab Quiche!) later.

Now, excuse me as I get back to watching my new Gossip Girl DVD from Netflix really important things. It's Friday night, and my day was ridiculous. I need a break.

I completely eyeballed the ingredients, so I'd suggest you do the same. It can't hurt. Served with Rice-a-Roni Fried Rice. Uh, huh. Classy. But soooo easy.

Quick Chicken Stir-Fry
Cooking Spray
1 chicken breast, sliced
garlic powder
half a lime
1 tbsp fish sauce
good pinch brown sugar
1/2 tp chili paste
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp oyster sauce
squirt sriracha, to taste
package frozen baby corn, carrots, and peas

Spray a saute pan with cooking spray, heat over medium high. Add chicken breast slices and sprinkle with garlic powder. While it cooks, combine lime through oyster sauce in a small bowl. When chicken is white and cooked through, reduce heat to medium and add sauce and bag of veggies. Stir, then cover and let steam about 5 minutes or until veggies are just hot. Add sriracha to taste.

We are finally out of bread.

And not a moment too soon.

I. want. meat. Or at least something completely different…I want sushi. Or tapas. Or, like, a hot dog. Seriously, I'm so bored with soup, salad and sandwiches I could go insane.

But with the exception of my caving for pho once and a $2.99 shrimp appetizer (plus wine) from Tahoe Joe's Happy Hour menu once, we spent less than $20 on food this week. Good to know it's possible, but not a fun experiment to try. Even if I did cheat...oops. Here's a run down of the "highlights."

Wednesday & Thursday
Made a little 'soup to go,' with shirataki noodles,* a mix of fish sauce, lemon grass, and sriracha, lemon and beef bouillon. Microwaved about 3 cups water with the bouillon till hot and added the rest of the stuff.

* If you haven't tried this stuff, consider it. It's kinda slippery, and it smells nasty (to get rid of that, drain and rinse them, then cover in water and microwave 1 minute and a half. Drain and rinse again and you're good to go), but those are non-issues when you consider the fact that a full package is 40 calories. That's literally like a tenth of that same amount of regular pasta. Amazing.

Cream of mushroom soup with a veggie sandwich…provolone, tomatoes, cukes, lettuce and homemade herbed cream cheese (light cream cheese with some finely chopped green onion, cilantro, garlic and grated romano—would make for a great cheese ball and is also fantastic on triscuits, btw.)

More soup…with a turkey, mustard, tomato, provolone and cuke sandwich.

Green salad a la Buffalo, AKA a bunch of greens with some light blue cheese dressing and some Frank's hot sauce…mostly hot sauce, seeing that we only had about a tbsp of dressing left. Not bad. And low cal. Seems to be a theme this week…

Ugh. Just looking at this stuff makes me bored. Yet what was the first thing I ate when I deposited my paycheck at lunch?

Vegetarian Pho. The irony kills me. Now watch me eat a salad for dinner.

And it's only Tuesday.

We're poor this week. Like, have my understanding hair stylist hold my check, eat nothing but pantry meals, buy gas with pocket change poor.*

So, here's the plan. I made a double recipe of tomato soup, stocked up on bread and deli meat (using hubby's $8 Super Bowl winnings, cha-ching), and am intent on getting creative.

Please keep in mind this is all on-a shoestring ridiculousness. I'm not proposing you eat any of this (except the soup, definitely eat the soup), but in the spirit of full disclosure, I'm simply documenting. I can tell you one thing...I'm going to be over grilled cheese by Friday.

Monday:
Start with the week with Tomato Soup and Cauliflower & Broccoli Au Gratin. Yes, because we had a bag of Steam-fresh Cauliflower & Broccoli. And about 2 tbsp of cheddar, total. It worked out. We're out of butter and/or margarine, though, so I totally went with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray. I'm not proud of this.


Tuesday:
An almost exact repeat of my All-American Meal, except that this grilled cheese was two slices provolone, a bit of turkey, mustard and dill. It was ok. Better with green onion, but I'm totally open to trying it a bit differently every night for experimentation's sake. Also used a pan rather than our grill, and it didn't melt as nicely.

* Thanks for calling me out, Jenny!! Shhhh! Cheap lunch and happy hour (once each!) totally don't count in the 'poor' budget this week. Or so I'm telling myself (wink).

My Top Ten Go-Tos.

I had an interesting request for a blog topic a couple days ago, and as I aim to please (and have no better ideas for tonight-I'm back on a liquid diet after my embarrassingly stupid jaw injury is acting up again, so I've had nothing but Fresh & Easy soup for the past few meals), here it is:

"What if you could only have 10 things in your fridge, what would they be??"

Well, Jess, excellent question. I assume you aren't looking for me to say the ten things currently in my fridge, cause right now we're looking at beer, wine, tequila, romaine, pickles, olives, and a shit-ton of condiments. We haven't been shopping this week...trying to keep the fridge empty for the massive Thanksgiving shopping trip happening this weekend. I'm also counting items I like in my pantry. (Go to the side and choose the label 'desperation' if you don't know why.)

Oh, and I'm not counting olive oil, salt or pepper, btw. They don't count. Yet are used pretty much every night. Oh, and Jess..I know you have (adorable) little ones...as you know, I don't. So hopefully these aren't too 'adult' only...I wasn't a picky kid, but I know how some kids are.

Anyway. Here we go:
1. Garlic
I always, always have garlic on hand. Fresh. Powdered, too, but that's typically reserved for times of extreme desperation/laziness.


2. Onions
Green, red, yellow, occasionally white. Yellow for Indian/mid-west Grandma food, red and/or green for pretty much any and everything else. Don't underestimate the shallot, either. Yum.


3. Fresh Herbs
I typically have basil and cilantro, and when I'm stocking up, rosemary and fresh thyme. Makes such a difference.


4. Frozen Poultry
I stock up on frozen boneless chicken breasts and lean ground turkey. Endless possibilities with either, especially the chicken.


5. Pasta
I ALWAYS have some sort of noodles around. "Regular" pasta (generally penne or linguine), rice noodles, and/or bean thread noodles. Depending on which I've got, add some of that poultry and you've got a quick base for asian food or just a pantry-pasta.


6. Canned Diced Tomatoes
I almost always have a back up can of diced tomatoes in the pantry. I think they're the most versatile of the canned tomato bunch.


7. Rice/Quinoa
Risotto is the easiest one-pot meal you can make, and rice makes a filling base for just about anything with chicken/sauce in it. I always have basmati rice (not the best for risotto, however), but I try to keep arborio or white rice around for that purpose. Same goes for quinoa.


8. Tuna
Canned tuna takes me far. I either mix it with cooked rice, cilantro, sriracha, green onion and lime for a quick bowl of awesomeness, or mix it with some mayo, lettuce, onion, cucumber, a hard boiled egg, and tomato for a great tuna salad. Or you know, throw it on some bread. Oh, and always water packed. Oil packed is just gross (not to mention full of unnecessary calories).


9. Cream of Mushroom Soup
By itself. Mixed with rice and chicken. Mixed with tuna and pasta (and cooked edamame!). Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Oh, and for soup, you have to go with the original. With 1% milk, not water. For cooking, the low sodium stuff is just fine. Reduced fat, however, not so much.


10. Veggies. Green ones.
Spinach, lettuce, broccoli, brussels, asparagus or green beans. At least one of those is always in my fridge. The husband and I like our veggies, what can I say? And if don't have fresh, we like to stock up on canned asparagus and green beans (and he likes spinach), so we almost always have a quick green side to dinner.


Runners Up:
Cheese. The stinkier the better, Gorgonzola, goat, romano...I usually have all of those
Citrus (lime and lemons)
Mushrooms
Black beans (although I also like cannellini and kidney)
Chicken bouillon powder (Yes, Mom, I know it's not good for me. But it makes everything that needs water-including rice-so much better)
Barilla Marina with Mushroom sauce (Hubby still adds onion and garlic, but it's good in a pinch without anything)

Good Question! This was fun. Anybody else??

Six ingredients(ish) or less.

I love Italian Wedding Soup. I make it every chance I get...but as we're counting calories again, I wanted to make something in between that and my fave simple chicken/cabbage soup recipe, thinking I could avoid pasta if I combined cabbage and meatballs. It worked. Easy, yummy, great for sickies like me (I have a never-ending cold).

Oh, and I don't count S&P, fish sauce or sriracha as ingredients, cause the first two are totally to taste. And the fish sauce is optional.

And so, here we go.

"Thai" Wedding Soup
Half to one head of cabbage, roughly chopped
12-14 cups chicken broth
One package lean ground turkey
One egg
About 4 large cloves garlic, minced
Dried basil, about a tsp
S&P, good pinch each
Sriracha, at least 1 tsp
Fish sauce, about a tbsp or so

Heat broth in stock pot til boiling. In the meantime, mix turkey, garlic, egg, and basil in a large bowl (use your hands).

Once broth is boiling, roll medium large meatballs (less than 2 inches across) between your hands, and drop slowly into soup. Let boil slowly about 15 minutes, then stir in sriracha, cabbage and fish sauce. Cook another 10 minutes or until cabbage is cooked.

______________

Once that short-list meal panned out (and fed me for 5 meals over 3 days), I decided to try again with chicken. I figure stuffing is always easy and quick, so I could use the opportunity to play...and baked goat cheese stuffed chicken with proscuitto sounded like a winner.



Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken
6 thin slices prosciutto
2 6oz chicken breasts
2 oz herbed goat cheese
S&P, a pinch each
honey (1 tbsp ish)
balsamic vinegar, about 3 tbsp
1/4 tsp pepper

Heat oven to 425, Arrange three pieces of prosciutto side by side. Take one piece of chicken and make a slit longways. Stuff with 1 oz of goat cheese. sprinkle with salt and pepper, then wrap the chicken with the prosciutto. Repeat with other breast. Spray both with olive oil spray, place on roast rack (or cookie sheet) and cook for about 25-30min or until cooked through.

If you want to try a balsamic glaze on it, heat the honey, vinegar and pepper over medium high until it reduces a bit (5 min+) Pour over chicken (and rice, etc.)



-posted out of laziness from my iPhone.

Anyone know what Florentine is?

Me either. But I know it's spinach...and something...I'm looking, I'm looking...

Huh. Seems that you can make just about anything, add spinach, and voila. Florentine. Good to know.

Makes for a good pantry meal, I'll tell you that. We have food...I just have been knee-deep in freelance, a good new book (The Help, by Kathryn Stockett), and season 6 of Grey's. And therefore have other things to do than cook long, drawn-out meals. Even/especially when my freezer has been costco-sized (tempting to cook something good, but enough frozen chicken that I don't have to)

And so:


Chicken Florentine Pasta
2 breasts of chicken
S&P
Cooking spray
About 1.5-2 cups cooked penne pasta
One can cream of broccoli soup
Large handful (2 cups?) baby spinach
Shredded Romano cheese to top

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Spray hot sauté pan with cooking spray, cook chicken on high about 4 minutes til brown. Turn, cook another 3 minutes, reduce heat to low, add a tbsp or so of water, cover.

Cook about 8 minutes or until done. With a fork and some tongs, pull chicken into small pieces. Add soup, another pinch each salt and pepper, and cook a couple minutes. Add spinach and pasta, mix gently. When the spinach starts wilting, grate cheese over everything (as much as you want...don't be a fat ass, 1/4 cup or so should do.)



-posted out of laziness from my iPhone.

Pantry meal supreme

Well, kinda.

So not only am I totally unmotivated to cook, I'm not too jazzed about shopping, either. I go, but I get like 3 things at a time.


This is the fridge. Apparently I only eat condiments and drink (don't judge, that's my job). At least the kits have food.

I've been the queen of ready-to-eat food this week. Pre-roasted chicken, Black Angus (and the resulting leftovers), ready to cook pasta...gah. Not terrible, but still.

But I got off my ass and cooked tonight. Even if it was the easiest thing I could think of, which really just meant whatever I had that needed the least from the store.

Ah, how i love risotto. I had onion, garlic, herbs and cheese, so my shopping consisted only of wine, chicken, and arborio rice (I could have used basmati, but it's just not the same.)

You guys know how I feel about risotto. It takes minute effort, but it take a bit of time. So what.

Stuffed some chicken with blue cheese and thyme, browned one side, then flipped, added a quarter cup or so of broth, covered, and cooked over medium for 11 minutes.

As for the risotto, i added the rest of the cheese (tbps-ish), some fresh pepper and a sprinkle of thyme to the rice at the end. Yum.


I am so over being distracted. I wanna cook. And write. And have my stuff back, damnit.

Seriously Halfass

Sorry to have been so quiet lately...between spending evenings trying to get KittyH adjusted to her new life of leisure (no more scrounging for food for this spoiled cat) and trying to get some books finished to return to the library, neither cooking nor writing have been high priority.

That's not to say I haven't been cooking. But twists on old faithfuls,


basic grill food,

and food that looks better than it tastes

aren't exactly recipe worthy. Digging through my phone (otherwise known as my lifeline), however, I'm reminded of a couple share-worthy meals. Posts to come. Stay tuned...

It's easier than you think. I promise.

Between being out of town a couple weekends in a row and spending as much time as we can at the new house painting and such, cooking has not been high priority when I am home.

Though as tired as I've been, you know I'm stubborn enough to refuse to engage in this, ala hubby:


As far as I know, he hasn't eaten these in 5 years. And he bought a multi-pack. Awesome.

Anyway, I insisted on Cooking (capital C). And realized how many quick (Ms. R. Ray or less) meals I rely on...or can at least fake. Dinner doesn't have to take forever, and shouldn't. (Well...not always, anyway. Sometimes it's completely worth spending way too much time cooking. It wins you points.)

So, for normal people with normal (read:busy) lives, here's a week's worth of meals for inspiration.

Pho
Think pho has to take forever/come from a take out package? Try the pho stock mix from Asian markets. It's like a boullion cube for pho...awesome. Boil some water, coarsely chop basil, green onion, white onion and cilantro, slice a lemon, slice some meat or tofu, and open a bag of bean sprouts. It takes like 10 minutes.


Chicken and Potatoes
Then there's my favorite way to cheat dinner-the pre-roasted chicken from Vons. Grabbed some potatoes and salad stuff, and dinner was not only 20 minutes to make, but like 10 bucks. And for broke asses like us, that makes me unreasonably happy.

Easy potato idea: slice, throw in the steamer with a couple sprigs of rosemary, then give them a squirt of spray butter, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a bit of garlic powder. A bit of nonfat plain yogurt is great, too.


Pad Thai
We'd both been wanting pad thai, so I decided to try one of those pad thai sauces fom the store-I got a simmer sauce from fresh & easy (yes, I went back... again), and all I had to do was cut up/brown some tofu, boil some water for the noodles, shred a carrot, and chop some cilantro and green onion. I already had bean sprouts left over from the pho, and left the peanuts whole instead of chopping them.

Good stuff, can't complain. The sauce had a lot of tamarind, which is totally necessary for pad thai, but it made it a bit too sweet for us, so I ended up adding fish sauce and sriracha.

Steamed some potstickers while it simmered, and dinner was done in 30 minutes. And it looks like I spent all night. Love that.


Tuna Salad
I feel like I don't really talk about tuna much, for whatever reason. But I really like it. I would eat it out of the can if that sort of thing was acceptable for anyone other than Beyonce. (ok, I just spent like 20 minutes searching for a link to explain that uber random reference, and I can't find it. Just go with it.)

And now, my point. One of my favorite home-alone-so-I-can-eat-out-of-the-mixing-bowl meals is tuna salad. Mix drained albacore (in water, not oil), with as much mayo as you like(I do about 2 tbsp of light, I'm not a huge mayo fan), and chopped red onion, celery, and cucumber. Add in romaine, chopped hard boiled eggs (two, toss one or both of the yolks), and chopped tomato, if you have it. Salt and pepper to taste.





Chicken Risotto
Risotto is always a good one to fall back on, especially when both your creativity and kitchen are exhausted.

Defrosted some chicken, seasoned with salt and pepper and some dill (cause why not) and just sautéed it with cooking spray and a splash of white wine. When it was cooked, cut it up (ok, I used my hands, so I should say ripped it up, whatever), and tossed it in at the end of my risotto. (I also put some dill in with the onion and garlic when I sautéed them).

Not quite as quick as the other days, but about a half hour. My advice is to pass the time while stirring with some tivo'd Desperate Housewives and a martini.


Filet and...more filet
And finally, our quick surf and turf. Filet mignon was somehow cheaper than a new york, so I grabbed it. And rather than be responsible and pocket the savings, I spent it on a small filet of coconut crusted tilapia (I used sweet chili sauce as a dipping sauce and it was awesome). Steamed some broccoli and made Rice a Roni wild rice, and the whole thing took 25 minutes.



Inspired yet? Now put the cup of noodles down and back away slowly. Into the kitchen, hopefully...

Rice Stuffed Portabella

Man, I'm good sometimes. Got home from a long weekend in LA (so good to see you guys...all of you!) to a house full of nothing. Well, not nothing...leftover rice, random veggies, some bbq'd sausage, a ton of basil...but nothing that was an actual meal.

So I made one up. I'm assuming a very small percentage of you would have all this madness in your fridge at once, so just use my ingredients as a muse rather than a "recipe," ok?


Quarter onion, chopped
Half a sausage, chopped
Pinch red pepper flakes
Large handful basil, chopped
Pinch oregano
About 3/4 cup cooked wild rice
S&p
Balsamic, splash
Olive oil
Large portabella, gills removed

Sauté onion, add sausage, red pepper, basil, oregano, rice, and salt and pepper until heated through. Drizzle with a bit of balsamic.

Drizzle mushroom with oil and balsamic. Sauté mushroom on both sides til soft. Top with rice mix.

I need to go grocery shopping.

So what does one do with leftover flank steak?

Talked a lot of business today, so apparently I was still in a creative mood...mixed it with chicken broth rice and frozen edamame, nuked it for 2 minutes, added some salt and pepper, and ta-dow.
Protein, carbs, fiber. Yes. And I'm now officially out of leftovers (and money), so tonight should be interesting...