Extra Schlooppy for you.

So I have a confession...I've eaten Sloppy Joes like, twice in my life. I have no idea what they're supposed to taste like. And I have no idea what the appeal is. I mean, it's ground meat and onion and sauce...just make a burger. That way you can have lettuce and tomato on it and it's somewhat more balanced and tastes like grown up food. I just don't get it.

Me: So? Whaddya think? Are they good?
Hubby: Oh, yeah, they're good.
Me: Huh. (Examines my Joe carefully.)
Hubby:...what about you? Do you like them?
Me: I...I don't know...I'm very confused...

Anyway, he had two. One was plenty for me, but I was all over the Asian slaw I made for the side. So, you know, here are both recipes.

Crock Pot Sloppy Joes
1/2 a green bell pepper, chopped
half an onion, chopped
1 lb lean ground beef
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp brown sugar
a good squirt mustard (2 tsp or so)
One cup of ketchup
Good pinch each of S&P (1/4 tsp each?)

Spray a pan lightly with cooking spray and sauté onion and bell pepper for a couple of minutes. Add beef, and cook over medium high heat until brown, 5 minutes or so. Place in crock pot and stir in remaining ingredients.

Cook on high for 4 hours (or however long you've got). Serve on lightly toasted buns.

Asian Coleslaw
2 tbsp reduced fat peanut butter
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
Small piece of ginger (about the size of a garlic clove), minced
1 tbsp peanut or canola oil
About 3 cups of coleslaw mix (cabbage, red cabbage and carrot)
half a bell pepper, thinly sliced and halved
handful of cilantro, chopped

Combine peanut butter through oil and set dressing aside. Mix veggie mix, bell pepper and cilantro, then toss with dressing right before eating. It gets a little soggy for leftovers, so keep that in mind.

Real Simple, indeed.

I'm sure you don't know this about me, but I'm kind of...lazy. (I'm also sarcastic. Just a little.) If there's a hard way and an easy way, hello...I'm going easy. I mean, I'm obviously willing to make an effort—this is a cooking blog, after all, not a 'Where Did Pam Drive Through Tonight' blog—but I'm the kind of girl who is just as happy with a 90% as with a 103%. They're both A's, people. And I got a lot of them. (Plus, without slaving over unnecessary extra credit assignments, I saved myself some drinkin' time.) Just sayin'.

So there I was, checking out at the grocery store, when this caught my eye:

Um, YUM. AND it's from a CROCK-POT? Sign.me.up. Needless to say, the magazine came home with me.

Me: (As I toss it on the table triumphantly) This? This is happening.
Hubby: Uhhhh, yeah it is.

The husband is always down for country food. He would eat biscuits and gravy every weekend if I agreed to make them he could. So anything resembling pot pie is going to be well received. And it was. And I'm happy to say that I was able to simplify an already simple recipe. Winners all around.

Creamy Chicken and Mushroom "Potpie"
1 package brown mushrooms, stems trimmed, cleaned and halved
One handful of small baby carrots
1 medium brown onion, chopped
1/3 cup white flour
1 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper
About 1.5 lbs (three 8oz or four 6oz) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 package crescent rolls (regular or the circular kind)
16oz bag of mixed frozen veggies (peas, green beans, carrots)
1/3 cup cream

Set up your crock pot. Combine mushrooms, baby carrots, onion, flour, thyme, bay leaf, about 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 cup water. Sprinkle chicken with more salt and lots of fresh pepper, and place on top. Cover and cook for as long as you've got, 7-8 hours on low or 4-5 on high.

When eating time approaches, cook rolls according to package directions until golden. About 15-20 minutes before the crock pot will turn off, stir in the frozen veggies, cream, another 1/2 to 1 tsp salt, and break chicken up with a fork a bit (it should pull apart pretty easily). Cover and let finish cooking.

Serve in a bowl with a roll on top.

Man-made meatballs

Meatballs should taste like meat. Or so says Esquire magazine, anyway. And that said, their Eat Like a Man recipe this month does not disappoint. Hubby was reading the latest issue in bed the other night, and it was all he could do to not get up and start cooking right that second. (Which I would have been ok with. Spaghetti and meatballs are always welcome right now.)

The two days we ended up waiting were well worth it, however. It was absolutely fantastic—totally restaurant quality, totally time consuming, and totally appreciated. All I had to do was run to the store for him, eat and do some dishes (and not even that many! He cleaned as he went! He's learning!!). Well, and not think about how many calories are in these suckers. Bacon and olive oil are kind of in excess here...

There were some changes, of course...veal is not allowed in our house (yep, I pull that card), so that went out the window. We also wanted to use pancetta, but it was $6 per 3oz, and bacon was $6 for 16oz. So, yeah. Oh, and we did half in the toaster oven and half on the stovetop...the stovetop set ended up having a thicker sauce, but that seemed to be the only real difference.

So here you go. The man's awesome, total fat-kid, meat-heavy meatballs and sauce. It makes a ton. Make it on a night you have a handful of hungry dudes to feed.

Basic Tomato Sauce (also from Esquire)
4 28oz cans good quality whole tomatoes
6-8 garlic cloves, crushed
olive oil
a few basil leaves

Pour tomatoes and their juice in a huge bowl and squish/crush tomatoes by hand (or use a potato masher, if that's more your bag)

Heat about a half cup olive oil in large-enough sauce pan, and add garlic. Let cook until they sizzle but don't brown, a couple of minutes. Add about a third of the tomatoes at a time, letting them come to a simmer before adding more.

Lower heat, tear some basil leaves (4 or 5 big ones), and throw them in. Cook at a low simmer for about 45 minutes.

Meatballs
1 lb ground beef (85 percent lean/15 percent fat)
1 lb ground pork (as lean as you can get)
About 2/3 a package of thick-sliced smoky bacon, finely minced
2 whole eggs
1/3 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/2 cup finely diced yellow onion
8 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried rosemary

Combine above ingredients and mix well with your hands. Just do it.

1/3 cup bread crumbs (we used seasoned)
1/4 cup 1% milk
1 heaping tsp coarse sea salt
1.5 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Slowly add milk to bread crumbs, stirring until the mixture has the consistency of wet sand. Add S&P, and add to the meat mixture, mixing well. It'll be super sticky at this point-it's ok. Refrigerate the meat mixture for about 30 minutes.

canola oil for browning
your tomato sauce (above), kept warm over low heat
finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Shape meatballs into roughly 2 inch balls, shaping with your hands. In a large skillet, heat about a quarter-inch canola oil until very hot. Working in batches, brown all sides of each meatball ( a couple minutes a 'side').

As they finish, transfer browned meatballs to a deep, ovenproof dish. Cover meatballs with tomato sauce. (Totally submerged, if possible) Bake until done, an hour or more. They should feel firm to the touch.

If you're going the stove top route, place browned meatballs in large skillet or dutch oven—two if necessary, you don't want to overcrowd them—and cover with the sauce. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat, and cook, partially covered, about an hour.

Serve alone or over a bit of pasta.

Well, this was not what we expected.

Before yesterday, this was exactly how much I knew about chicken tetrazzini. Which, really, was plenty, because it's been an ongoing joke in our house for no particular reason other that it's just fun to say.



Is it southern? Is it pasta? Is it a casserole? Why is it named after an opera singer? I just don't know.

But what I do know is that this is some cheesy, delicious, keep-a-man goodness. Hubby took a bite, looked at me, and said exactly what I was thinking, "Well, I had no idea what to expect, but this was not it. Thumbs up."

Chicken Tetrazzini
2 tsp butter
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
large pinch fresh ground pepper
1 package sliced mushrooms
1/3 cup frozen peas
1/3 cup vermouth
1/4 cup flour
1 and 1/3 cup chicken broth
1 cup grated parmesan
4 tbsp reduced fat cream cheese
1/2 box vermicelli or thin spagetti noodles (8 oz)
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked (375 for 25 min. or so)

Break pasta in half. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and cook pasta about 4-5 minutes. When done, drain. Chop the cooked chicken into bite sized pieces and set aside.

Melt butter in a large pot (make sure it's big...a stock pot or dutch oven will work well). Add onion, garlic, celery, salt, and pepper. After about a minute, add mushrooms and peas, and stir fry everything for about 4 minutes, stirring often. Add vermouth and cook about a minute.

Add flour a bit at a time, stirring constantly. It's going to get crazy thick and will seem impossible, but keep whisking and stirring and try and get out all the lumps. After a couple of minutes, add broth slowly, stirring constantly. It should still be really thick, so bring to a boil then reduce to low and still stir often, making sure the lumps are gone, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Add in cream cheese and parm cheese, stirring gently until melted.

Rinse drained pasta, and add to mixture. Add in chicken, and stir everything until combined. It will take awhile...make sure all is coated and evenly mixed.

Coat a baking dish with cooking spray, and pour in the mixture. Cook at 350 for 30 minutes. Let stand 10-15 minutes before serving.

If he can't handle turning on the oven, he's basically worthless.

I'm leaving the hubby all by his lonesome next week, as I'm off to Buffalo to play with the parallel and her brand new bubba for a few days. Um, and according to the forecast, just in time.


I really don't worry about him when I'm out of town...he's a big boy—he knows his way around a kitchen. And if he's lazy, I know he'll be just fine with a bowl of frosted mini-wheats for dinner. But since he's going to have to deal with all the cat-related fun I normally take care of, I figured I'd be Nice Wife and make him something that he can just pop in the oven one night and pick at for a few days. Or take with to a 4th of July potluck. Or give to the cats...Whatever, I don't care, as long as it gets eaten.

Plus it was good practice-I'm planning on making a few dude-friendly freeze-and-bake meals for my girl and her hubby...with a 4 week old, I'm guessing they aren't doing a whole lot of cooking. I'm not going to attempt Italian in their kitchen, but the hubby will let me get away with not-quite-authentic here.


Cheese, Basil and Sausage Stuffed Shells
Dash of olive oil
1 red onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 pre-cooked Italian-seasoned chicken sausage link, diced (use 2 if you want it meatier)
1 regular sized container of low-fat ricotta
2 cups shredded mixed Italian cheese (2% or part skim if possible)
1 egg
salt & pepper
dash of nutmeg
small handful chopped parsley
large handful chopped basil (about 1/4 cup or so)
Package of large pasta shells (or manicotti shells, either will work), cooked according to package directions
1 bottle of marinara

Preheat oven to 375.

While your pasta cooks (if you haven't done that yet), saute the onion, garlic and sausage in a little bit of oil for about 5 minutes or until the onion is a little transparent. Let cool. In large bowl, combine ricotta, 1.5 cups of shredded cheese, egg, nutmeg, a good pinch each of salt and pepper, parsley and basil. Stir in onion mixture.

Coat a large baking pan with cooking spray. Spread about a half cup of marinara across the bottom. When pasta is done, drain well, and fill each shell with a big spoonful of cheese mix, and place each stuffed shell cheese side up in cooking pan. When you've used up all the mixture (or you run out of room—either way, you may have a handful of shells left over), pour over remaining pasta sauce, spreading gently with a wooden spoon. Sprinkle with the remaining shredded cheese.

Cover loosely with foil, and bake about 30 minutes. Remove foil and cook another 10 minutes or until cheese and melted and sauce is bubbly.

How is it almost Thanksgiving??

Hey! 'Member me?? I gotta say...I've been kind of a mess lately. Ever since the whole burglary incident, I haven't been...well, let's just say I've been better. Distracted, consumed, depressed, annoyed, sick...not my best days. And with it being hockey and football season, I haven't been in much of a mood to cook for just me.

But. Thanksgiving is in a week. So I need to get off my gym-starved, junk-food enlarged ass and get back in it. Cause our house somehow turned into the place to be next Thursday. Mr. and Mrs. B are coming down from Seattle for our second annual holiday together (If you're needing any ideas, check out our recipes from last year for pecan pie, meat, cranberry sauce, and cornbread stuffing). And since we were already cooking, we invited over a handful of our other friends who were family-less this year (I'm eating with my parents over the weekend). It's going to be a full house (mostly of dudes, which is good, cause they're easier to impress), so dinner will be pretty informal and probably fairly booze and football fueled.

It's also going to be pretty traditional—doing a turkey (a huge one, I'm assuming), potatoes and gravy, stuffing, veggies, and possibly a few surprises.

Anyway, I'm going to start small. Cooking chicken with goat cheese and prosciutto tonight, so I'll let you know if it turns out.

Oh, and who is going to buy me this shirt? It's my favorite Thanksgiving reference of all time. Whoever does wins. Just FYI.

Too bad I don't even like breakfast.

I hope he's hungry.

And more so I can remember next time I'm in a giving mood...since I hardly ever get breakfast right...I present Fat Kid Breakfast. Serve and be loved. No, I didn't eat any. Even if I could...I'm good, thanks. I'm not running a farm, so I'm not really needing that sort of ridiculousness. Besides, that's what leftover Posole is for. (Fabulous the next day, btw. Received a "pretty damn good" from the hubby.)

Fat Kid Breakfast
Couple slices bacon
2 Eggs over Medium
Big scoop Hash Browns
Couple scoops Country Gravy (below) over Bisquick biscuits (use recipe on box)

What to do:
Preheat oven to 450. Make biscuits, prepare them for the oven.

Make bacon. As you pan fry it, save the grease between each batch in a glass cup. Place the bacon between pieces of paper towel and cover to keep warm. When the bacon is done, pour just a bit of grease in the pans you'll use for the eggs and hash browns.

Start the hash browns. Put biscuits in oven for 8-9 minutes. Follow the directions on the bag for the potatoes, but if you use less oil than it calls for, you have to cook it quite a bit longer than it says. Cover when done to keep warm. When biscuits are done, let sit on a baking rack til you need them.

While the potatoes and biscuits cook, make gravy (Thanks to Paula Deen and my Father-in-Law for help with this one): return the rest of the grease (mine was a little less than 1/4 cup) to the pan over medium heat. Whisk in about 3 tbsp Bisquick mix(or flour). Whisk for about a minute as it gets bubbly. Slowly whisk in 1.5 cups milk. Keep mixing as it comes back to a boil, reduce heat to low, and keep whisking til the thickness you like (about 5 min or so). Add 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper or to taste. Cover to keep warm as you make eggs. He's a fried egg guy, so I went that route. Serve. Eat if desired. He says it was good...I believe him.

Maybe it's cause I don't call them Sammiches.

People tend to assume that when I gave up gluten, sandwiches would be the hardest thing to part with. For the husband, it would have been...he could eat a turkey sandwich every meal for the rest of his life quite contentedly. Not me...I miss vegetarian sandwiches on squaw, cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, and once in a while, the old school sandwiches my mom used to make...chicken salad in particular.

Other than that...I'm eh. And I like to experiment and I like to eat with my hands so I should like sandwiches...Same goes with pizza. I can't explain it, so I won't even try.

Anyway, I got a craving for chicken salad the other night, and even though I originally intended to just serve it over lettuce for me, I decided to buck up and make a loaf of gluten free bread instead. (It's also good to freeze for breadcrumbs...there's no way I could eat another sandwich before it goes bad).

So here we go. Ate it with a side of cheddar rice cakes...which are deceptively addicting. Hubby ate his with sourdough and chicken barley soup. His was probably better, especially since my bread broke in half and I ended up with two tiny and hard to eat sandwiches...though...yum. Either way.

Chicken Salad Sandwiches
About 6 oz cooked chicken tenders, cut into small cubes
half a granny smith apple, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
1/4 lg red onion, diced
salt and pepper (large pinch each)
small pinch of rosemary, crushed
About 2 tbsp light mayo
2 slices bread per person, your choice
Romaine lettuce

Combine chicken, apple, celery, onion and mayo in medium bowl. Mix well. Add more mayo if you like that sort of thing. Mix in salt and pepper and rosemary.

Smear some mayo on both slices bread, add a couple spoonfuls of chicken mix evenly across one slice, top with a piece of lettuce or two, top with other slice. In other words, make a sandwich.
Makes enough for about 4-5 sandwiches. Not including bread, About 122 cals, 3g fiber, 10g protein, 14g carbs.

Casseroles may not be fancy, but they are wintery and delicious.

I'm seriously kicking ass at time management this weekend. We had plans with the new parents for a 7pm dinner last night, so my goal yesterday was to have the house done by 3 so I could start cooking. We got a bit of a late start at noon, but after a trip to Home Depot/Target (they're next to each other), we got the house clean and vacuumed, the bedroom, bathroom, and office organized, the tree up and decorated, the patio cleaned and lights strung up...and my chicken was in the oven at 3:05. Crackheads on a mission. Awesome.

And, sidenote, I think the decorations are working. Between the tree, the red and silver everywhere and my holiday-scented febreeze plug-in, I'm feeling a little less grinchy today. Plus a little elf left us new ornaments on our front door last night, which was a fantastic surprise. (Thanks again, K!)

Anyway, deciding what to make for dinner was surprisingly hard...when people come over, I like making 'fancy food,' especially when I know they're up for anything. But I also know the new dad is a big casserole fan...so after much deliberation, I decided it would be ok to make a casserole as long as there also were homemade appetizers- I went with jalapeno poppers. After learning my lesson last time, I used gloves while seeding them...unfortunately all we had were football gloves. (I sanitized them before and after, it's ok.) Super sexy. But they worked.

So here is one of my oldest go-to recipes; it's the only other casserole I like making, and a surefire hit with the dudes. After starting with chips and homemade salsa and the poppers, I served it with homemade Spanish rice and canned whole black beans heated with a pinch of salt, chili powder and cumin. It was a massive amount of food. And went down well with cranberry margaritas(for a festive touch) and beer. It's not the healthiest thing I make, but once in a while won't hurt.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole
2 large chicken breasts (boneless/skinless)
Olive Oil
Half a red onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 can chopped green chilies (I use the larger can)
1 regular container light sour cream
salt and pepper
chicken broth
About a block of Pepper Jack cheese, shredded
10 corn tortillas, quartered (the Handmade Trader Joe's brand is by far my fave)

Bake the chicken at 375 for about 30 minutes. When done, let cool, and then shred the chicken into small pieces using two forks or your hands (or you can just cut into bite-sized pieces).

Heat a small amount of olive oil (a tsp or so) over medium. Add onion and garlic, saute about 2 minutes or until they start getting soft. Turn off heat, stir in can of chilies, sour cream, and a big pinch salt and a pinch of pepper. Add a small pour of chicken broth, stir, and add more broth until it's saucy while still fairly thick.

In a large baking dish, ladle in a spoonful or two of sauce and spread across bottom of pan. If it's hard to spread, add a bit more broth to the sauce. Just don't get it too watery, otherwise it'll fall apart when you serve it. Though it tastes just as good, so don't worry too much if you do.

Layer a third of the tortilla across the sauce, covering as much of the area as you can. Next, sprinkle a third of the chicken evenly across the tortillas, and cover with a big handful of the cheese. Spoon across about a third of the remaining sauce, spreading as evenly as you can. Repeat twice (tortilla, chicken, cheese, sauce, tortilla, chicken, cheese, sauce).

Cook at 400 for 40 minutes or until bubbly and a bit golden brown on top.
Eight servings. Per serving, 425 cals, 18g fat, 2g fiber, 28 protein, 36 carbs.

Spanish Rice
olive oil
1/2 onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
big pinch salt
pinch pepper
1 3/4 cup chicken broth
1 can minced tomatoes with green chili, undrained

Heat splash of olive oil, add onion and garlic, saute about a minute. Add rice, saute another minute or so, add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to simmer. Cook about 15 minutes. Let sit til ready to serve.
4 servings. Per serving, about 220 cals, 4g fat, 2g fiber, 7g protein, 43g carbs.