Beef Stew and Corn bread

It has been a LONG time since I've blogged. A really long time. And not because I haven't been cooking, I've cooked all sorts of new things. I'm just a slacker.

We've cooled down really quickly here in good old Indiana so, with fall rapidly approaching, I've had my slow cooker out often. This evening I made beef stew. I have this habit with vegetable soups and stews of just not following recipes. I tend to read a lot of them for ideas and then throw everything out and do what I want. Luckily, most of the time it turns out just fine.

My stew tonight was very simple. I love to cook but our schedules lately have been hindering the extent of how much time I have to cook. Case in point, I've just started eating dinner and it's 10:53pm. That being said, I like to call most of my cooking semi-homemade. I'm pretty sure there's a food network show that's based on the same concept. This is what went into my crock pot tonight: stew meat, a peeled and chopped sweet potato (honestly, because it's what I had and I've been trying to replace a lot of regular potato dishes with sweet potatoes), 2 cloves of minced garlic, about 3oz of tomato paste, salt, pepper, oregano, and parsley. I used 16 oz of pretty watery chicken broth, because I realized I had 1/2 teaspoon of chicken bouillon powder after I started cooking and I was not about to head to the store. Normally, I would use beef broth, but I didn't have any and frankly, I usually just make do with whatever's in the cupboard. I let all of this cook on high for 6 hours. You could probably leave on low for around 10 hours if you have the time.

When I got home tonight I mixed a 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour with about 3/8 cup of water. Once it was mixed well I added it to the stew mixture to make it thicken up. I also added a bag of frozen mirepoix mixed veggies (celery, carrots, and onion) and about a cup of mixed veggies (corn, carrots, peas, and green beans), hence the semi-homemade aspect. I let that cook for about 30 minutes or so, until the veggies were cooked through and the stew was hot again.

The real homemade aspect came with the corn bread. While the stew was cooking, I mixed up some homemade cornbread. I wish I could remember where I found this recipe. It's probably the best cornbread I've ever made. Sweet enough that you don't have to load it with butter, but you'll want to because delicious.

3/4 c whole wheat flour (1c if all-purpose)

1 c corn meal

1/3 c white sugar

1/3 c brown sugar

3 1/2 t baking powder

1 t salt

1 egg 

1 c milk

1/3 c vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 375. Grease a 9x9 baking pan or muffin tin. Mix all the dry ingredients together. Add all the rest and mix until incorporated. Pour into pan and cook for 20-30 minutes depending on your oven. Mine are usually done at 20 minutes exactly and my oven runs hot.

You'll thank yourself for trying these out. 

Summer treat

I was perusing Pinterest this afternoon, after coming inside from the heat, and I kept seeing all these posts about refreshing summer drinks. I decided I had enough in my kitchen to make one of my own!

Vanilla ice cream. Left over from Mother's Day when we had apple pie, which is never complete without vanilla ice cream on top. I used three scoops.

Agua de coco aka coconut water. Usually used in my green smoothies, figured it be great for my tropical smoothie. I used the whole can.

Crushed pineapple and a banana. I used about a cup of crushed pineapple and a large banana. It's canned pineapple. I've no doubt it would be divine with fresh but I went with what I had.

I threw it all in my blender with some ice (about 6 cubes from my tray) and it truly was perfect for this very warm, sunny afternoon.

Green Smoothies

About a month ago, I started a green smoothie challenge from simple green smoothies. I've tried store brand smoothies before, so I knew they could be good, but this was the first time I'd made some of my own. They will start another challenge July 1, so if you've ever thought about it sign up! It's free, they will email you a shopping list for each week and recipes. Here are some tips from my experience:
1. By big bags of your greens and freeze them. Then you will have the different kinds you need and will not have to worry about them going bad. I bough spinach, kale, and romaine lettuce the first week and the only one I've had to buy again is spinach (because I tend to use more of it).
2. Frozen fruit is expensive. Buy it fresh, chop it up (if necessary) and freeze it yourself. Make sure the bag isn't overly full, lay it flat for the first 24 hours in the freezer. This will keep you from getting one giant clump of fruit so you'll be able to use what you need rather than the whole bag. This works really well for grapes.
3. Try different liquids for your base. They used almond milk quite a bit. I found I don't really like almond milk unless it's really masked by a stronger flavor. However, coconut milk and coconut water are amazing. If you have a juicer, make your own juice and use that. Oranges also make a lot of their own juice and are great additions to the smoothie.
4. When you get a not so good flavor (and it will happen, trust me), add a banana. They are sweet and will almost always make the smoothie better.
5. Prep in advance. Sunday night I prep all my fruit in separate ziplock bags and write the additions I'll need on the bag. It makes getting the smoothie ready before week a breeze.

My favorite recipe to date is based off a recipe from simple green smoothies with some slight alterations:
2 c Kale
4 bananas
1 c coconut water
1 c pineapple juice

It's the picture posted here and it tastes like a pina colada. Delicious.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

I should probably say this is semi-homemade. I sort of cheat in one of the steps. I love spaghetti. It's one of those foods I will eat until my stomach hurts it's so full. I started making my own sauce about two years ago when I started my first garden. I can't go back to the store bought kind. It's just not the same. Here's my process.

I usually start with some veggies. Whatever I have in the fridge is pretty much fair game. Today we have diced onions, green pepper, and mushrooms.

 

I let that saute in some olive oil until tender, about 5 minutes, and then I threw in 4 cloves of garlic chopped as fine as my kitchen aid knife is capable. Let it saute another minute, at least until it starts to smell wonderful.

Here's where that semi part comes in. When I grew tomatoes I canned them and used them in this step. Well, this past year we moved during the garden season and I didn't plant anything. So, I used some store bought tomatoes. Usually, I just use one 28oz can of diced tomatoes. My husband came home with this smaller 14.5oz can of diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano so I threw that one in there as well.

I transferred my cooked veggies to a larger soup pot.

Then dumped both cans of tomatoes on top. I drained both cans prior to combining.

Add some tomato paste.

Mix it up. I let it simmer a good while. Minimum of 30 minutes.

While the sauce simmers, I start on the meat. I vary what I use, sometimes ground beef or turkey. Sometimes sausage. This time I used some hot Italian turkey sausage. I cut the casing off.

And use my spatula to separate it out.

Now, we plate. Noodles first.

Sausage.

Sauce.

Enjoy.

Easy Peasy Enchiladas

For those who don't know, Philadelphia Cream Cheese makes sauces now. I picked up the Santa Fe style and found an easy enchilada recipe on the back (find the original here!) I just made it even simpler by using my slow cooker. This picture is from Kraft's website because my enchiladas are already gone!

This morning I put four bone-in, skin removed chicken thighs in the slow cooker. Add a can of diced tomatoes w/chilies. I actually used a chipotle style that was quite good. Let it cook on low about 8 hours. When you get home the chicken meat falls right off the bone and shreds very easily. Add about 3/4 of the Santa Fe cream cheese sauce and I used an entire cup of shredded cheddar jack cheese. Mix it up until the cream sauce is completely blended. I used my 10x7 pan (spray with cooking oil) and 6" tortillas. I filled 8 tortillas generously with the creamy, tomato, chicken mix and still had some left over. Place the tortillas seam side down in you pan. I just scooped the leftover mix along the sides. Spread the remaining Santa Fe sauce on the top of the tortillas, cover the dish, and bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes. Super simple and super delicious. And, according to my recipe builder, just 507 calories for two enchiladas :)

Chicken Enchiladas

I made some homemade black bean and corn salsa this weekend to celebrate the start of the football season. I am a Bears fan for all who care. They stomped the Colts. It was pretty awesome. Anyway. I say homemade in the loosest sense of the word. I bought a can of black beans, mexicorn, and rotel and put them together. It's pretty amazing and super easy. Drain all the cans, dump them in a bowl, mix, eat. I had a large quantity left though and we're getting ready to go on a business trip so it needed to be used. I also had some mushrooms leftover. Most people wouldn't look at those two items and think enchiladas but I did.

First thing I did was cut about a pound of chicken breasts into small cubes. I would estimate they're about 1/2 inch. I seasoned it with adobo, cumin, and garlic powder. Cook the chicken in a skillet until it's white on all sides, then add the chopped mushrooms. Mix them up and cook another 5 minutes or so, until the mushrooms are tender.

Now to put the enchiladas together. The only Mexican food I grew up eating was tacos. And those were just tacos made with a seasoning packet. It's kind of sad seeing as I am Mexican. My mom did make pinto beans from scratch though. I remember helping her sort the beans :-) I'm getting easily sidetracked today!

Spray a baking dish with cooking oil. I'm not quite sure what the size of my dish is but I would guess at 10x7? It worked perfectly for my tortillas. Take a tortilla.

Add about 2 tablespoons of the chicken/mushroom mix.

Add a tablespoon of the salsa.

Add a heaping tablespoon of the cheese of your choice. I used colby jack.

Roll it up and place it seam side down in your dish.

I don't like mole sauce. And, generally, you should cover the bottom of your dish with sauce. I planned on using salsa the whole time but I didn't realize how little I had so we just covered the top of the tortillas. I then covered them with more cheese. Use as much as you desire, there's really no way to have too much.

Cover with foil and bake at 400F for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and let it bake another 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the mixture oozing out of the tortillas is bubbly.

 Delicious. 

Chinese Goodness

A couple months ago I succumbed to the cheap temptation of season packets and bought a General Tso's packet. Usually, I try to make my own seasoning. It eliminates those unknown things that are added for preservation and what not but really, it was hard to pass up 40 cents. Tonight, I put the packet to use and was quite pleased! Instead of using straight flour as the packet suggested, I coated the chicken breast chunks in an Emeril's Essence seasoned flour. They were then pan fried in a little oil and the seasoning mixture (which included sugar, soy sauce, and water) was poured over it. It was delicious and EASY.

I found a basic Chinese Fried Rice recipe and altered it just slightly. I used a frozen bag of stir fry vegetables to mix with the rice and I used sesame oil prior to adding the rice back into the pan. Again, delicious! I have now decided I need a wok because my skillet is just too small for frying rice. So good.