Thursday, October 16, 2014

Meal Planning continued...

So I'm a few weeks behind sharing what recipes I've been finding to try.  Sorry.  I'd make a lot of excuses but I feel that just whipping out the old "D hasn't been sleeping very well" excuse tends to cover most situations, so there you go ;)  I'll probably talk about that later - we've all been REALLY tired in this house lately.

So I thought I'd list all the new recipes I've tried and an excerpt of what did and didn't work for each?  Sorry, I'm not very good (like I SUCK at it) taking pictures of the dishes before hoovering them down, so I posted stock pictures from the websites I got the recipes from.  So here we go:

Dirty Rice with Sausage
Oh, man, this is so good.  When I was done it looked super boring and I actually apologized to Hubs that I didn't make a side for it, but when we tasted it - it was spot on.  SO GOOD!  I used Adell's Cajun Andouille sausage which was JUST on the line of almost too spicy for D.  I used my regular short grain white rice that I also use for sticky rice.  I've tried long grain jasmine rice and I'm just never as happy.  This recipe came together pretty easily all in all - the veggie prep was done quickly while the rice was steaming.  I actually forgot to cook the rice in stock (and actually I didn't have any so I used lame broth for the rest of the recipe) and it was still just as good.
Dirty Rice with Smoked Sausage

Malaysian Chicken Pizza
This is a great recipe for leftover chicken or that last blurb of peanut butter that isn't enough for a sandwich.  I would half the first 8 ingredients which make the sauce - it was so thick in the middle of the pizza that it made the bread a little soggy - too much.  It might be okay with two pizza crusts - I only made one since I didn't know if it would suck or not - it's definitely a little strange sounding.  I also utilize my bread maker on the dough setting for my pizza crust (I couldn't find a link to my go-to recipe so: 1 cup +2 Tbsp warm water 105-115 degrees, 1 & 1/2 Tbsp olive oil, 3 & 1/3 cup all purpose flour, 1 & 1/2 tsp salt, 1 & 1/2 tsp sugar, 1 & 1/2 tsp dry yeast.  Place all ingredients in order into the bread machine and turn on on the DOUGH setting.  When it's done, split into 2.  If waiting to use dough, put a little olive oil in a bowl and roll the dough in the olive oil then put into the fridge topped with plastic wrap [alternately, you can put each roll into its own plastic wrap then into a freezer ziploc for up to 3 months].  Roll each out on flour covered countertop then replace onto baking pan sprinkled liberally with corn meal or onto a pizza stone.  Bake usually at 425 degrees unless otherwise noted.)   So this recipe states baking at 500, which is crazy and led to the middle being undercooked.  I'd rather cook a little longer at 450 and have it evenly cooked.  Once I shook a bunch of red pepper flakes on it, I liked it a whole lot more.  But as is, I think pretty good, not amazing - I'm going to tweak it a little and I'll report back.
1991: Malaysian Chicken Pizza

Blackened Chicken & Cilantro Lime Quinoa
This one is AMAZEBALLS and I don't use that term lightly.  I take the cilantro down a notch and omit the lime completely - I feel it really overpowers the rest of the dish.  I've also found that I need to double/sometimes triple the rub - it goes really quickly and I love cajun spices.  This is a recipe that has you literally over a HOT stove for a little while, so I don't recommend it for hot summer days, but when it's cooler - it's a cinch to put together. *This is NOT a new recipe - it's an old standard that I love and HAD to throw in this mix.  It's worth it.


Asian Beef and Broccoli
This one was not so good.  And very unappetizing to look at.  My suggestions: use white rice, not brown and definitely not the brown rice/quinoa mix I used.  It needs the marmalade - I used a bit of orange juice concentrate...it needed more...something.  I don't even know.  And my apologies for the link - Parents magazine won't let you look at any recipes without being a member which really annoys the crap out of me.  Actually, my suggestion is this: don't make this.  Google Chinese Restaurants in Bellingham and order take out instead.  But here's the picture - it's VERY yummy looking here:

Asian Beef & Broccoli

Spicy Turkey Sausage with Black-eyed Peas and Spinach
Now, this one is fab-u-lous.  It's easy, it's healthy, and it's freaking delicious.  Like it's done in under 30 minutes.  A great fall back recipe for a night you've forgotten to plan ahead for.  My kids love this one - except the spinach - B is afraid of anything green I think :/  I wouldn't change a thing about it.  When it's just for me and Hubs, I use the Adell's Spicy Mango Jalapeno sausage, but otherwise I just use whatever sausage I have about.  It's ALWAYS good - which is good enough as admitting that, yes, this is another oldie but goodie.  You'll thank me for including it though.


Slow Cooked Carnitas Tacos
This is an easy slow cooker recipe.  It has relatively few ingredients, most of them are standards in my pantry.  I would cook it just a hair less and follow one reviewer's advice of flash crisping it in a cast iron pan after it's done in the slow cooker to give a nice skin to it.  Also adding the cumin, garlic, chicken stock, and more onion is good advice.  I don't like corn tortillas so I use flour - it was very good with the avacado and cilantro and red pepper.  Nothing mind-blowing, but with a few easy tweaks it becomes really tasty and VERY easy to prepare.  BTW: the picture below is NOTHING like what mine looked like, but I promised pictures, so here is what epicurious.com posted.
Slow-Cooked Carnitas Tacos recipe

Jambalaya Casserole
Mmm.  This was tasty, a fair number of ingredients, so it does require a bit of chopping, but the majority of the time it takes to prepare is baking time.  Pretty easy.  And definitely worth it - I used the Mango Jalapeno Sausage I love by Adell's which was too spicy for the kiddos but Hubs and I both loved it.  And it's very forgiving if you're out of particular ingredients, you can substitute to your heart's content.
Jambalaya Casserole Recipe


So I hope this whets your appetite and gives you some new recipes to try.  I know there's more that I tried over the last few weeks, but I can't remember them all now - FAIL!  But I'll try to be better about posting what I've made...and taking my own pictures.  And like Andrew Zimmern, I have my own new tagline: "FOOD IS GOOD, EAT IT."  :)  Yes, friends, eat all of it.  Ciao!

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