I'm back! I've been pretty busy lately - trying to get a few websites built (I will work for myself someday!!!! well, I hope so... I wish I were a coder, this would all be so much easier) and moving next week, not to mention looking for a new job - is taking its toll.

But I've still been cooking! I haven't made much new - but I thought I would write a little about what I've done recently...

Easy Baked Chicken Parm

This is pretty easy - you can do it two ways, fry the chicken in canola or peanut oil first- making sure that you have flattened the chicken out a little first to make it cook quicker - or just cook in the oven.

To fry:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Flatten out chicken to around .5" thick

Coat with flour

Coat with egg

Coat with breadcrumbs (italian seasoned)

Heat Canola or peanut oil

Fry chicken until almost done and the breading is browned.

For oven:

Preheat oven to 400

Coat chicken with bread crumbs

Cook chicken until almost done (about 20-25 mins), coating will probably not become as brown as the frying method.

Add some tomato sauce - any kind will do, use your favorite

Add some fresh basil (optional)

Add some Fresh Mozzarella cheese to top of chicken

Add some salt and pepper

Cook until cheese is fully melted and starting to brown.

Thats it!!! Not much to it. The 2nd method is a little healthier, but both are easy to make and taste great!

Easy Thai Peanut Chicken

This is really easy to make if you buy Thai Peanut Sauce at your local store.

Noodles:

1) Get some asian rice noodles - or use angel hair pasta

2) Cook noodles until done

-You could use rice too if you want

While noodles are cooking, do the chicken:

1) Cut up some boneless, skinless chicken breasts into bite sized pieces

2) Heat peanut oil in pan until hot

3) Fry chicken in hot oil until done

In the meantime, toast some sesame seeds for a few mins in a pan over med-low heat - until brown.

Mix Chicken Pieces with Peanut Sauce - put over noodles - and sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on top!

Easy to make, tastes great - and something different! After cooking the chicken, you could also drain out most of the oil and stir fry some veggies like sliced carrots, snow peas, broccoli, etc.!

Should make a good amount of food - and this is something that you can easily make for just one person.

Wow - beena while since I posted something here. I've been out looking for new apartments around the NYC area - something I would not want to go through again... want to try to find a place without a broker? Good luck - I had no luck with Craigslist or any other non-broker service! We actually went to see a 'one bedroom with private garden' place that was $1495/month - great deal we thought . So did about 20 other people. When we walked into the place, if it was more than 100 sq feet I would be surprised! It was so small the room would have enough for a twin bed, if that! I don't even think that would fit in the 'living room'. It was hilarious! Oh well - we ended up spending more than we wanted to each month, but at least we have a great place... price you pay for living in the city I guess.

I haven't really made much that was new for a while - between New Years and things going on I've just been making basic things like chicken sausage and rice, or other meals that aren't really 'receipes'.

I did make Chicken Paprikash the other night, and it turned out pretty well despite my ghetto version of this receipe - my Mom used to make this when I was a kid (I'm hugarian and this is a Hungarian dish). I'm sure there are more 'official' receipes for this out there, but I thought that this was quick and easy and fit the bill close enough - plus it was cheap and pretty tasty... and cost maybe $10 to make at least 8 meals+!

Chicken Paprikash:

What you need:

1 Large Pot to put everything in
1 pot for cooking pasta

48 oz chicken broth
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
16 oz of sour cream (I used reduced fat)
2 jars of sliced mushrooms (optional)
4 Tbl Paprika
2 tsp cumin and 2 tsp curry powder (this is optional, i just threw it in because I like those two spices with paprika)
Salt and pepper to taste.
1 pkg egg noodles (I tend to buy the 'No Yolk' brand - less fat and cholesterol)
4 bay leaves
1/4 cup+ of flour to thicken mixture, mixed in a seperate small bowl with some water until all lumps are gone.

What you do:

1) Bring to a boil chicken broth, adding bayleaves
2) Bring to boil pasta water - cook pasta until al dente, 6 mins or so
3) Cut up chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces
4) Once broth is boiling, add chicken and spices, turn down heat to simmer
5) Cook until chicken is fully done - about 8-10 mins, remove bay leaves
6) Add sour cream, and flour mixture - stir in
7) Add mushrooms, cooked noodles - let simmer for a few more mins until heated through


Thats it! Easy, pretty tasty, cheap, and it makes at least 8 servings - not bad!

Well I hope once we move I don't have to just eat Rama noodles for every meal (only 25 cents though!!!) - on a positive note this blog will list even cheaper meals, hopefully giving some inspiration to other poor want-to be chefs out there!

Monday yet again :( Made some good stuff over the weekend though- we had a 'roommate thanksgiving dinner' (I live with my financee and 3 other friends) and it is now 1pm the next day and I am still not hungry! We ate and drank a ridiculous amount of food and wine- but it was worth it!

Lets see now...

Friday I made Tequilla Lime Chicken with Avocado & Salsa:

This is really easy- and you can make it with or without the marinade, or try adding anykind of Lemon, Lime, or citrus marinade or sauce to the chicken. Serves two.

Ingredients:

Tequilla

Fresh Lime juice

Red Pepper flakes

Fresh Salsa (the 'home made' style- the kind that needs to be refrigerated. NOT the red salsa made for chips).

One Haas Avocado

2 Chicken Breasts

Steps:

Make the marinade:

Pour enough tequilla to cover the chicken in a ziplock bag

Add plenty of lime juice (I do not measure either of these)

Add some red pepper flakes

Let sit for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 350.

Take chicken out of marinade, put in a oven safe dish- and cook until chicken is done (165 degrees), about 25-30 mins.

Slice Chicken into thin strips

Cut up avocado - easy way to do this is to slide a paring knife through the middle, splitting the avocado in half. Hit the pit w/ your knife, making the pit stick in the knife- and slide out pit. Then take the knife and slide behind the avocado meat- each half should fall out of the skin easily. Slice into thin slices.

Put chicken on plate, arrange avocado slices around the chicken, and then take a few spoonfuls of fresh salsa and place on top.

That's it! Easy, fast, and cheap to make!

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For the Thanksgiving dinner we made mashed sweet potatoes (see previous receipe), broccoli casserole, pumpkin pie, and a Turkey breast (look up on FoodNetwork.com for Rachel Ray's herbed turkey breast- that is the one we used).

The Broccoli Casserole is one of my favorites from my family Thanksgiving dinners- it is really easy to make, and tastes really good! Will serve about 8 people.

Ingredients:

2 boxes frozen chopped broccoli (cooked, or defrosted)

2 cans cambells condensed cream of mushroom soup (or golden mushroom) - do NOT get the reduced fat kind- it will make the dish bland

1 can Kraft Old english cheese spread, or 5-6 oz of Velveta Cheese

1 tsp of Garlic Powder

1 cup chopped celery

3/4 cup chopped onion.

2 Tablespoons butter

Steps:

Preheat oven to 350

Sweat Onions and Celery w/ butter over med-low heat for around 10 mins, or until onions start to get translucent.

Add Soup and Cheese spread

Stir in Garlic Powder

Wait for cheese to melt completely- and everything to mix well.

Add in cooked chopped broccoli, mix well.

Pour mix into a casserole dish, place in oven for about 1 hour.

That's it! Another easy meal to make that really tastes great!

Made a pretty easy pesto and chicken pasta dish last night using some leftovers I had.

I had some chicken I made the other night (nothing fancy, just baked chicken breasts w/ some chicken seasoning on them...) so I chopped it up into bite sized pieces. I then just boiled some pasta I had, drained it, added some extra Olive Oil, a few spoonfuls of pesto, threw in the chicken, and added some parmesean cheese. I just let it heat for min or two on the burner over low heat- at thats it!

Nothing fancy, nothing expensive- just used leftovers!

I wish I had more money- I was just looking at that heritage foods site I listed yesterday and man would I love to order some pork or beef right now...

On an aside- when I'm bored I try as hard as possible to keep myself busy. I do research online, I blog, I write to friends, I study, I read the news, I do anything I can to keep my mind off of the fact that my job sucks and there is nothing to do. My coworker, on the other hand, will literally just sit and stare....for hours!!! How in the world can you do that? He stares at his blank computer screen and hardly moves. What is wrong with him? I guess it would be nice not to feel any desire to do anything productive- my life would be much less stressful if that were the case. But still- he's been doing this for over an hour now! I just want to head over there and shake him...

Last night made a pretty cool chicken pot pie. I make this once in a while and I got the idea from the Man a Can and a Plan book I listed in the previous posts.

This time I tried this w/ Cream of Corn soup instead of the Cream of Mushroom I usually use - it was still really good! You can substitute any number of creamy soups for this receipe - I recommend the cambells concentrated soups like Cream of Mushroom, Cream of Chicken, etc. - though the Cream of Corn I used last night was not concentrated (but I did use less so it didn't turn my pie into soup!).

To save on fat and calories use the reduced fat healthy choice brand - you really won't notice the difference in taste, and you will get less sodium and fat in your meal! I also use reduced fat Pillsbury biscuits for the crust - same deal here as with the soups...

OK, here it goes:

Easy Chicken Pot Pie:
2 large cans of chicken (you can get these cans from Costco- they are big cans of chicken breast - looks like canned Tuna).

1 Can Cream Of Mushroom condensed soup (or substitute)

1 small can of sliced mushrooms (optional - I only use if I use cream of mushroom soup)

1 Package Pilsbury biscuit dough (use any kind, it doesn't matter)

Few oz of Shredded Cheddar cheese (I use Kraft 2% Reduced Fat - optional again)

1 package frozen mixed vegtables

Salt, pepper, Paprika and cumin to taste

Steps:

1) Preheat oven to 375.
2) Put chicken in a medium size baking dish.
3) add vegtables
4) add soup
5) I add a sprinkle of salt, pepper, paprika, and cumin now.
6) mix together
7) Press down into pan evenly
8) Add Cheese evenly to top
7) Add crust - I like to take half of the dough and roll it out a little to make a nice flat square, then lay it over the top of the chicken mix. You can also lay full bicuits on top evenly without rolling them out. The bottom of these will not be fully cooked, so if you don't like yours a little doughy I would bake them separately on the side, then place them on top near the end.
8) Place in oven for 20 mins or until crust is golden and done.

For a tastier meal use two chicken breasts in lieu of the canned chicken. I like to pan boil my chicken in an inch or two of either water or chicken broth (better), with some dry white wine (optional), and some pepper and a bayleaf - for about 10 mins, flipping once. Shred chicken before using.

To make a nice golden crust, take one egg and mix it up, then use a brush and brush it over the crust!

If you use full biscuits as the crust you can also stuff them with the cheese instead- making them nice to bite into!

Thats it! Cheap, easy, and will feed two people for at least 2 dinners if not 3!

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Low fat Tuna Sandwiches:

I also love Tuna sandwiches, but using real mayo in them can really turn them into a heart clogging meal - not bad once in a while, but if you eat them too often you will start to show it!

Instead I just use a fat free mayo substitute (which don't tast that bad, trust me)!

I then add relish, some pepper, and sometimes some lemon juice and hot cayanne pepper.

Add a slice of American Cheese, put on some toast- and you have a very healthy and very good Tunafish Sandwich!

This is my blog on cooking for two- hopefully I will inspire some people out there to stop going out every night and save some cash by staying in and cooking something simple, easy, and affordable!

A little about me... I used to be a cook at an italian restauraunt about 10 years ago when in highschool. I hated it. We did have some good times there, but in general it was hot, smelly, and really hard work. Some nights I had over 100 orders to make- these weren't gourmet meals, but more like you general pizza/italian place you find on most corners - but still thats a hell of a lot of mozzarella sticks, chicken parms, meatball subs, etc. to make in one night!

But as annoying as it was, I have to say it really set me straight when it came to cooking for myself.

Knowing how to time 10 plates of food so they come out in order took quite a bit of practice, and something you can't really get the hang of unless you actually work at it! I would also get bored eating the same thing night after night, so I used to make my own receipes up and make them for myself.

When I went to college, I used to make pretty elaborate meals for myself in our kitchen- and started to realize that I actually enjoyed cooking, and that other people were pretty impressed by it!

I also started to realize another reason I enjoyed cooking - it lets me relax and sort of zone out while still doing something productive. I am also not the worlds most outgoing person- not that I am a wallflower, but I don't usually like being the center of attention- so cooking not only give you something to do other than socialize, it is something that needs to be done that most people hate to do - so you end up looking like a hero, don't have to make small talk all night, and have fun knowing that what you are doing will be something that everyone will appreciate (Plus you usually get a pass from much of the cleanup aftewards- which I hate to do)!

Basically I am a pretty good cook now because I had so much practice. I think a lot of people never become 'good' at cooking because they don't feel like it, or are too worried about messing up, to actually get the practice you need to know what works and why!

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As my fiancee and I are basically poor New Yorkers, most of the receipes here will be done on a tight budget. I might sometimes splurge on something like Lobster once in a while, but in general we try to save money as much as possible. By the way, cooking for yourself is a great way to save your cash - I often can feed us for at least two meals in a row for under $20 if not less when I have most of the ingredients...try eating out in the city 4 meals for less than that! This is also going by the NYC prices, so if you don't live here you will be able to stretch your $$$ further.

My fiancee is also a 'semi-vegetarian', which means she won't eat cute things. This includes cows, pigs, lamb, etc. So not only do I have to try and cook for only two, but have to to pretty much stick to chicken or fish when I cook for both of us. A lot of time I will cook myself a steak or something and make her a baked potato, etc. It is annoying, but it is what it is... I sometimes will make myself a huge pot of beef stew and just eat that for lunch and dinner a couple of days myself and make her something that goes w/ my side dish each night.

We really enjoy throwing parties, so there will be some things written here on what we did as a group, what we cooked, etc.

All amounts of ingrediants are approximate, as I rarely measure when not following a receipe. When you cook like I do, simple quick receipes with ingredients that taste good together, you do not have to be precise!

When I get a receipe from online, or some other source - I will provide the link if I can, or at least quote the source.

Anyway, enjoy my blog- feel free to use any of the receipes printed within, though I would appreciate some credit if you post them anywhere!


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Easy Baked Whole Chicken:

This was for two people, makes about 4 servings. All ingredients are approximate!

So last night I wanted to cook a chicken and went out and bought:

1 Boiler Chicken. Don't get a chicken that is too large, as it will be hard to cook evenly without drying out the white meat.

1 Head of Fennel

1 Bunch of Carrots

1 Onion

(optional) Terriaki marinade, inserted with 'flavor injector' (basically a needle that allows you to stick the food and plunge the marinade deep into the flesh - makes the flavor get deep into the food quickly.

I also used: about 1/3 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup Kosher salt, an orange, some freshly ground pepper. A 1 gallon ziplock bag.

Steps:

1) Brine Chicken in ziplock bag w/ brown sugar, salt, half the orange, and pepper. Fill water to top, close up, and stick in fridge. Anywhere from 3 hours - overnight. Then remove chicken, rinse well and pat dry.

I like to brine a lot of my food before cooking it. Brining is basically putting the food in very salty water and letting it sit. Preferably overnight, but this time I only had about 2-3 hours and it worked fine as well. Brining allows the food to stay moist (I forget the scientific reason for it - you can look it up online). It also allows the other flavors that were in the brine (the pepper, sugar, and orange) to infuse the chicken. The chicken does NOT come out extra salty or anything! Make sure to rinse afterwards however.

2) Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

3) Cut up and peel carrots, cut off top of fennal head and cut base into wedges. Coat with some olive oil and Kosher salt on a tray.

Always use Kosher salt for things like this, the texture makes it coat nicely without oversalting.

4) Stuff Chicken with 2nd half of orange, and onion cut into wedges. Coat chicken in canola or vegtable oil, and salt with Kosher salt and ground black pepper. If you have the teriaki and the injector, inject into breast areas, and leg and thigh areas now.

5) Stick chicken and vegtables in 450 degree oven for 15 mins. This is to get a good crisp to the skin. Then reduce heat to 350 degrees and cook chicken until meat reads 160 degrees or juices run clear, about 30-45 mins(?) I don't usually time, I use a temperature probe to make sure things are done perfectly. Remove vegtables whenever they look nicely brown and crisp- the goal is to have nicely caramalized carrots and nicely browned fennel. They can take lot of cooking and still taste good, so don't worry too much about them.

Let sit for 5-10 mins, loosely covered with aluminum foil, then cut up and serve.

Tips: If the chicken skin looks like it is starting to get too brown (check every 15 mins or so) simply take some aluminum foil and place it over the top of the chicken. This will prevent it from burning, but still allow the chicken to cook.

Thats it! Looks like a lot when I read it over, but its actually a very simple receipe. Once you get the brining down, start thinking of other things that like to dry out when you cook them- pork and turkey lend themselves particularly well to brining, and an overnight brine will really make a huge difference to you Thanksgiving day turkey!

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Easy Beef Stew:

For this one you NEED a crockpot- if you dont have one, get one- simple meals are easily done in crockpost because you just dump everything in and leave it!

Ingredients:

1) Beef - you can either buy cubed beef, or get a eye round or something. About a pound.

2) Vegtables - I like carrots, potatoes, onions, celery. You can even buy one or two bags of 'frozen stew vegtables' in the frozen aisle. Works just as well.

3) Tomato juice - 24oz or so bottle.

4) Crushed Tomatoes - 32 oz can or thereabouts.

5) Salt, pepper.

Just cube the beef into 1" cubes, season w/ kosher salt. Chop up vegtables into bite size cubes (peel potatoes and carrots 1st...)

Then dump vegtables into crock pot, dump beef on top (so juices from meat soak into vegtables), pour in tomato juice and crushed tomatos, add freshly ground black pepper.

Optional- add some oregano and parsley flakes.

Turn crock pot up to high- leave for at least 8 hours, but try for 12 - turn down to low after to simmer until you eat.

Thats it!

If you like easy to prepare receipes I highly recommend these books- I thought it was stupid at first, but I actually make about half of these receipes on a regular basis now! They actually taste really good, are cheap to make, and don't cost much...

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My favorite sandwich growing up --> Peanut butter and cream cheese on white toast!

Still great, use light cream cheese though...

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I have no idea what I'm making tonight, have to work late and my fiancee has a grad school class. Oh well, I'll think of something...