Again it has been a while since I last posted - if anyone has been following me I am sorry! I actually ended up losing my last job - finance is not the field to be in right now. Luckily I received a severance package and picked up some free lance work for the last few months before landing a new position (I am now officially out of finance- which I feel is a good thing) in a small firm in NYC.

Anyway, I will post a couple of recipes here that are very easy to make and are pretty good (I think that is the theme here right? It has been a while...)

Oh - I also found in my local store a pretty great thing. I usually head to Costco when I can and buy the bags of individually wrapped chicken breasts- but I do not get to Costco too often and when I run out (I freeze them) I just head to the store across the street to buy two at a time for my wife and myself. This can get expensive, and usually the breasts are so huge half of my wife's meal goes uneaten.

I found a new thing by Perdue that my store started stocking - bags of ten individually packaged chicken breasts! Now you can't use these for everything - they are thinly pounded and really are small portion sizes - but they keep you from eating too much (a good thing?), thaw quickly, and are easy to use.

Simple Chicken and Potatoes

Ingredients:
Two boneless, skinless breasts of chicken - pounded to an even thickness.
Three or Four (or more depending on size) red potatoes
Two Slices American Cheese
Chicken Seasoning (any store bought kind is fine)
Salt and Pepper

Steps:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Thinly slice potatoes (or use a Mandolin) and season with salt and pepper
Season Chicken with Rub

Preheat an oven safe skillet on burner (cast iron pans are great for this sort of thing, I like a 12" round one for nearly everything, you just have to read how to care for them...) with some oil (olive or vegetable, it doesn't really matter).

Place potato slices evenly around the pan - cook for a couple of mins

Once slices start to brown, flip them over and them place chicken on top.

Insert pan into oven and cook for 15-20 mins or until breasts are done

A few mins before done, add a slice of cheese on the top of each breast - return pan to oven.

Thats it!


Easy to cook, you only have one pan to clean, cheap, and good for you - add some steamed broccoli on the side and you have a great meal for two!

Veggie Soup

Here's the next one for now - an easy veggie soup that is extremely healthy, filling, and tastes great. It also freezes well, which is good because this recipe makes a lot!

I use a slow cooker for this (I love the one I got at Williams Sonoma that uses a oven-safe aluminum insert you can place on the stove top as well...great for one pan cooking), but you can just use a covered stock pot as well.


What you will need:
a large 6 qt+ stock pot (or slow cooker)

one head of cabbage (red or green, its your preference) - roughly chopped
Two bunches of carrots, peeled and sliced
a few stalks of celery, sliced
one medium sized onion, chopped
six pieces of garlic - chopped
four cups of green beans, cut into bite sized pieces
any other veggies you have lying around (I used a handful of grape tomatoes as well)

One can tomato paste
Three 32 oz boxes of chicken broth
Two teaspoons or so of dried basil
Two teaspoons or so of dried oregano.
Salt and pepper to taste (remember that chicken broth can be salty)


Steps:

Sweat onions, carrots, celery and garlic in pot over medium heat (until onions start to turn translucent) for ten mins or so. you can use some olive oil here if you want as well.

Pour in the rest of the ingredients - bring to a boil, and then simmer for 3 hours or until all veggies are soft.

You can use a slow cooker too and not have to worry about watching the pot - one of the benefits!


Thats it! Easy to make, feeds and army (and if not freezes well, which is good because you can get sick of veggie soup after a couple of days), and great for you! If you do eat a lot of this, make sure you have a bathroom handy however, cabbage is great for cleaning out the system!



OK -- thats all for today, hopefully I will have more more for you soon. Now I am off to the dentist (again, it seems I never leave) - fun!

Easy Pork Chops and Lima Beans (not gross!) and
Fast Way to Upgrade Canned Stew

Well is has been a while now since I thought about this blog - I really doubt I have any readers, but it lets me put some of my ideas out there at least! I was recently fired (or 'let go') from a job I started at in August - at least they gave me a severance - and I now do some independent consulting work from home while looking for a new full time gig. I don't mind working from home really, I certainly don't miss being around people all day or trying to keep up with office politics - but sitting in a chair for 12 hours a day is wearing my back down!

I should also stick with a better gym schedule - I stopped because I was commuting about 2.5 hours a day each way and my day started at 5am - I didn't get home until 10pm (not fun)- hence I got out of any sort of gym schedule. It is really hard to get back into the swing of things, but after seeing some beach photos of my self from my honey moon I now know I have to!

I am also starting a five day juice fast next week- strange I know, but I've heard some good things about detoxing your body that way, and it might save on my food bills. It will also be gross I feel, cleaning out your colon is as good of a reason as any to not be around people - and I can see why so few people except rich and retired people take the time to do such a thing - you certainly can't go to work!

Anyway, I will write a little about that after I attempt it!

So here is my first recipe in months:

Pork Chops and Lima Beans

Ingredients
Package of 4 bone-in pork chops (you can go boneless, but they will cook faster and dry out, so you will need to remove them prior to the beans being done)

2 packages of frozen lima beans

1 14 oz bottle of ketchup

salt, pepper to taste

Steps

1) Preheat oven to 350
2) Place lima beans in pan, squirt on all ketchup
3) Mix
4) Add pork chops to pan - cover with beans and ketchup, add salt and pepper to taste
5) Cook for an hour

I would leave a temperature probe in the chops until they read about 150 or so - then remove them and cover them with foil. I like the ketchup to caramelize around the beans, so I would leave them in until they start to blacken and become crunchy- but it is all up to your personal taste since the beans are done as soon as the chops are done.

Enjoy! This is ridiculously easy and fast - and pretty darn good (though I hated it when I was a kid..)

Easy way to Perk up canned stew or thick beef soup:

Sprinkle on some Worcestershire sauce to the pot as it cooks - that's it. It really adds something to the flavor and makes it taste more like homemade!

Well that 's all for today - hopefully I will remember to update this weekly or so from now on, even if I have no readers at least I enjoy it!

Really Easy Beef Sandwich

Went to Costco a few weeks back - and found something there I was made fun of for buying, but ended up being a money purchase.... canned beef in beef broth.

Similar to the large cans of chicken they have there- that I love to put on sandwiches or make a salad out of, these are just that - large cans of cooked beef.

Sounds gross- and opening the can is even worse... it looks and smells a little like dog food at first!

Putting that aside- it is easily one of the cheapest and easiest ways I have found to create some really good meals. I made a beef sandwich (similar to french dip) and a beef and noodle dish, both the receipes are on the card that come with the beef cans.

I will give an easier receipe/idea for a great sandwich (I am eating one now...)

Ingredients:

1 can costco beef

2 Rolls

2 slice american cheese

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp ground pepper

Steps:

Open can, drain most of the broth - not all

Mix in onion powder and pepper

Place half of the beef & one slice of cheese on each roll.

Microwave for 1 min, 30 seconds or until warmed through.

Thats it! Easy, cheap, and tastes really good!

Its been a while since I last posted - I know, I'm awful. Well I don't think I have too many people logging in here, so at least I haven't been a big disapointment for too many!

I do have one new revelation - I just started to like bean sprouts! Yup, those weird grass like things that I never used to like before I now find I love! Well at least on sandwiches and salads.

I saw a magazine the other day that had a gourmet looking sandwich - but basically the only thing on it that made it look special was bean sprouts (that and they cut the crust off the bread?). It looked good, and I have been making sandwiches this week with the sprouts (you kind of have to use them up once you buy them - they dont really sit long and I hate wasting food...).

Here's what I have made this week, simple to make, cheap as usual- and good!

Egg Salad Sandwich:

Ingredients:

3 hard boiled eggs

Couple of tablespoons of low fat or fat free mayo

1 tsp paprika

Salt and Pepper to taste

1/4 - 1/2 stalk celery (optional)

Dijon Mustard

(I like Rye bread for this - marbled if you want)

Bean Sprouts

To make;

Take a fork and mush up the eggs with the above ingredients. Thats all for the egg salad! Then just spread on bread, add as many bean sprouts as you like, and add the mustard... simple and good!

--------------------------------------------------------------

Deviled Ham Sandwich:

Ingredients:

1/4 - 1/2 can of deviled ham (you can make your own too, but this is easier)

Dijon Mustard

Bean Sprouts

Rye Bread

Just spread on sandwich bread, add sprouts, and you have a simple and elegent deviled ham sandwich - cut off bread crusts to form bread into rectangles or squares and you have something that looks 'fancy'.

--------------------

I also am eating a Roastbeef sandwich right now- made with the same steps as above (I added some American cheese too).

Bean sprouts add a nice crunch to the sandwich, and a different taste that I like. I wouldn't eat them with tomatos and other toppings, but I'm sure they would taste fine. They are also very healthy, and don't make a mush of the bread like tomatos will if you are bringing your sandwich to work and need to let it sit for hours.

Simple, tasty, cheap, good - what else is there?

Haven't posted in a while - mostly because I haven't made anything new! Its easy just to do the same thing again and again since its easy to make and cheap... for example I just made the baked ziti again that I have posted about before.

I am posting today mostly about something I just realized - low fat Cottage cheese is a great, healthy addition to a ton of meals! I have always loved cottage cheese - my Mom always would serve it as a side with dinner (the 4% kind - not as good for you, but tastes amazing..), and so I kind of grew up with it.

I usually eat fat-free or, more recently 1% (which tastes so much better and has less sodium than fat free), as a side to my lunches. Since there is a lot of protein there it helps fill you up, and goes well with most foods. Plus the low fat kind is extreamly good for you. I never really mixed it with my food until the other day...

I had a bowl of my homemade chili (posted about before) and my usual side of cottage cheese. I took a experimental bit of the chili with the cottage cheese - and it was amazing!!! It was so good i then took my entire cup of cottage cheese and dumped it into my chili. It was almost like adding the usual addition of Sour cream, but better in a way. Plus it is much much better for you than sour cream!

Today I had my baked ziti and a side of cottage cheese. I thought the chili was good the other day, why not do the same thing? So I dumped the entire cup of cold cottage cheese onto my reheated baked ziti. Wow. It was almost like adding extra ricotta cheese! It tasted so much like the Ricotta that it really just blended in, and instead of dry, reheated baked ziti I had a creamy baked ziti that did not taste like leftovers!

I don't know off the top of my head what else I would try this with - but things like above are worth trying out. I'm not going to think of cottage cheese as just a side dish again!

This is pretty good - not as fast as the real, traditional receipe - but a fast and cheap version you can make in about 30 mins or so. It will cost you about $10 and will feed you for at least 8 meals. I got this off of the foodnetwork site - from the southern lady that cooks with all the butter. This receipe probably isn't all that bad for you since it is mostly cabbage - and it makes so many servings!


Easy Corn Beef and Cabbage:

Ingredients:

1 head white cabbage - chopped
4 slices of bacon
4 table spoons unsalted butter
1 can of Corn Beef
1/4 cup of water

Optional (but I like these and it makes the dish taste better IMO):
about 12 baby potatoes - cut in half (you can usually find a small bag of these at the store)
1 bag of baby carrots
1 onion - chopped

Steps:

1) Boil a pot of salted water, add carrots and potatoes - cook for about 15 mins or until they are done (when it is easy to slide your fork into potatoes). Drain and set aside until the end.
2)Cook bacon in the bottom of a large cooking pot (the deeper the better - until the cabbage cooks down it will take up a lot of space).
3) Remove bacon, set aside for later
4) Add butter to bacon drippings
5) Add chopped onion - cook for about 10 mins on med-low heat
6) Add cabbage and water, cover pot with lid - cook the cabbage until limp (its better if slightly crisp), about 20 mins on med heat.
7) Add in corn beef, crushed bacon, and the cooked potatoes and carrots. add salt and pepper to taste.
8) Heat for an additional 5-10 mins.

That's it! Pretty easy to make, makes a ton - and tastes pretty good. What else could you want???

I'm back - moving this weekend so I have been pretty busy...

I made this the other night - really simple, tastes great, and is cheap to make- what could be better?

Hamburger Pie

Ingredients:

1 lb or so of either hamburger or ground turkey meat

1 onion (optional)

1 package of cresent roll dough

American Cheese

1 jar of your favorite pasta salt

Salt and pepper to taste

Steps:

1) Preheat oven to 350

2) Cook ground meat, drain

3) Saute onions

3) Roll out dough to make a flat sheet - add to the bottom of a pie tin or other baking dish. Spead evenly, making the dough come up the sides (like any pie crust)

4) Mix ground meat, onions, and sauce in a large bowl

5) Pour mixture into dish with on the dough - spead evenly

6) Top with enough American cheese to evenly cover the mixture

7) Cook for around 15 mins - until the dough rises and starts to brown, and the cheese starts to brown.

Thats it!!! Nothing else to this and it tastes great right out of the oven or even cold.

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.