Ham and Cheese Pinwheels

Need a quick appetizer for a party? Or perhaps some quick bites for lunch? These were so simple and easy that the author had it right to say there is no “recipe” you just sort of put it together. I have been following the blog Lunchbox Blues for the past year or so because the author is great about how to make lunches that aren’t your typical sandwich PB&J (not that there is anything wrong with that, but there are only so many you can eat). I even got his cookbook Beating the Lunchbox Blues  which was more of a picture book showing options you could do for lunch. I have tried several things and these pinwheels were one of them. Just have a sheet of puff pastry, put on some sandwich meat, and cheese. Roll up, bake, consume. How could anything in puff pastry be anything but delicious?

 

Chicken Enchilada

Have you ever opened your fridge and seen food there and thought “I have nothing to eat”? Yes this was one of those moments. I thought how convenient it would be to just go get a burger somewhere, or something equally bad for me. Being tired and stressed makes me so lazy in the kitchen and I also develop a set of “cravings” that I have no idea how to get rid of. Well after looking in this cookbook for ideas I realized that I had all the makings for some chicken enchiladas. I just had no desire to make a ton so I made a couple individual servings and have some extra fillings for a few more servings. So I had some cooked chicken, some red onion, cream cheese mixed together with some taco seasoning. Wrap in some tortillas and I had some leftover fantastic spicy queso (no this is not “cheese sauce”!) poured on top. Here was the awesome part~ using the toaster oven! No need to heat up my large oven when I only rolled 2 enchiladas. Baked in there for 17min at 350 and it was perfect. Add some salsa on the side~ voila dinner. Sorry, this photo doesn’t do the dish justice, but when you are hungry this will have to do. 🙂

Chicken Chili Con Queso

Another Robin Miller recipe from her cookbook. I hesitate to say it is anything like something you get at any Tex-Mex place. In fact it is better to just say it is a cheesy chicken recipe with spinach and it is tasty and good. I’m not sure yet how it will “freeze” but it did taste good when I first made it! She said you could also use this as a dip with chips and I can see it would be really tasty that way too. I think personally I’d like it a little spicier or somehow with sharper cheese, but overall it is a nice easy standby for a meal. I’m not sure I’d do this again, but I’m glad I gave it a try.

Breakfast Sandwiches

Mornings have been really busy these last few weeks. Some mornings Im just not in the mood for milk and cereal. After perusing (ok really wasting time) on pinterest I saw the link for pre-making breakfast sandwiches a la that fast-food-chain style. This girl put up how she made her sandwiches then froze them to eat in the mornings. It was so simple, and clever, that you wonder why people pay all that money to get these things. It was so easy that I kick myself for not doing this earlier back when I had super early morning classes. For the eggs I baked them in my muffin-top tin and it fit perfectly on the english muffin.  (Yes there is such a thing and it is amazing. Everybody wants just the muffin tops!). Try these for those on-the-go weekday mornings!

Mac and Cheese Dinner

I was having a friend over for dinner and didn’t have too much time to cook. We both LOVE cheese, so I decided to try out this recipe by Ellie Krieger from her cookbook The Food You Crave . The interesting thing was that it used pureed butternut squash in the sauce so you could cut down on cheese and heavy cream. I viewed it as you can eat more because you were eating squash! My favorite part was the crispy top. I loved the difference in texture. I used sharp cheddar cheese, but also dubliner cheese since I didn’t have the other one listed. I could still taste the squash (though it claimed you couldn’t), but it did have a great creamy texture. I think my friend had a great suggestion. We put some extra ground pepper, and red pepper flakes on top. It really brought out the flavors better and gave it a great kick. I’m a bit on the fence whether I would try this again. If I did I would half the recipe because it produced a HUGE amount, and I got rather sick of eating the leftovers. At least I can feel a little bit healthier….

Sausage Lentil Soup

It is colder here than I expected. I know it is nothing like where I grew up, but perhaps this city just makes me wimpy to the cold. When cold weather blows through then there is nothing better than a hot bowl of soup.

I had some red lentils that I wanted to use so I went back to Bittman’s trusty How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and made his basic lentil soup. I didn’t make it vegetarian though. I added in some spicy Italian sausage to give it some kick. Just throw it in and cook it a little before throwing in the rest of the vegetables. Since I didn’t have any vegetable stock I used chicken stock instead. I didn’t leave the onions/garlic separate but just put everything in the pot. At the end, I put a large handful of fresh spinach in my bowl, and then ladled the soup on top. I find putting in the amount you are about to eat will keep the spinach tasting good. Grate parmesan cheese over the top. It was divine and I had two bowls. Unlike other lentils soups I’ve had in the past, this was not thick. It had lots of broth, though I would keep adding more since the lentils absorb quite a bit of it. Try this soup! It’s a great way to kick of the chilly new year.

Supper Tart of Red Onions, Greens, and Grapes

I am already a HUGE fan of The Splendid Table podcast and all the helpful advice and interesting stories that are presented each week. I know some people are not as much of a fan of either her voice or whatnots, but there is no denying that Lynne Rossetto Kasper knows her food. I have two of her fantastic cookbooks: How to Eat Supper, and How to Eat Weekends and this recipe comes from How to Eat Supper.

Lately I haven’t been craving much of anything but I while looking in the fridge and seeing I had all the makings for this tart I was sold. I am good now about keeping puff pastry from the freezer section around ever since I got the Breville mini pie maker and having some pie parties . The only downside is I’m always so impatient to wait for it to defrost, but puff pastry is always forgiving and it always comes out fantastic. I am a little bit on the fence about the cream and cheese added at the end. Perhaps mine just had too much, but I wanted a bit less than stated in the recipe. Next time I might do without the cream and just add the cheese. I love cheese. I loved how the greens got all crispy from being roasted and the grapes had burst open revealing their sweet touch. Let me tell you this all came together really fast. It was super easy, and the longest part was waiting for it to all bake so I could eat it. There are two other variations on this tart which I am eager to try! (Though at the end of the day just think of it as a fancy pizza and you can make it into anything) Definitely great as a appetizer, meal, snack, late night eats, and soo easy. A definite must-try!

Chicken Enchiladas

I was inspired by 5dollardinners when I received an email about using chicken in enchiladas . Her recipe uses chicken that was marinated in hot sauce, cooked slow and then shredded. I had leftover chicken from when I used the slow cooker to make Orange Hoisin Chicken from Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker cookbook. So my chicken had a distinct asian flavor and I was contemplating if enchiladas would even work or totally taste awful. I made some homemade taco seasoning and I put in some Korean dried hot pepper in the seasoning instead of red pepper flakes. I also put in some Montreal Seasoning since I was short of onion powder and didn’t add salt/pepper since it was already in there. For the sauce I used the left over sauce from the chicken and added a big dollop of tomato paste in there that I had leftover from making some pizzas awhile back. It sounds awful, but I tasted it before I dumped in the rest of the sauce. The whole combination was surprisingly rich, tasty, tangy, with a smoky aspect to it from the cumin in the spices. I (finally!) used the tortillas I had to put in some chicken, and gorgonzola cheese crumbles rolled them up and nestled them into a 8×8 pan. I had just the right amount of chicken!  Mixing up the sauce I poured it over the top. I’m sure I could’ve used more sauce but I had no more and in the end it turned out to be just right. Sprinkling over leftover mozzarella cheese I didn’t have enough so I sprinkled some more gorgonzola on top. That cheese didn’t melt so well on top but it still tasted great. I don’t think I’ve ever met a cheese I didn’t like. All in all I was really happy with the turnout. I used things I had on hand and wanted to use up and it was a total experiment with no real written recipe (except for the seasoning!). Enchiladas~ a new “clean-out-the-fridge” recipe.

Tortellini with Butternut Squash, Mushrooms, and Fontina

Continuing on this Real Simple kick I recently cooked up a huge batch of Tortellini with Butternut Squash, Mushrooms, and Fontina cheese from the October 2011 issue. Ok this dish was SOO EASY, and tasted soo good. How can anyone go wrong with cheese? Best yet, tortellini is one of my favorite pastas to eat. I was apprehensive on the butternut squash because the first time I ever tried to peel one yielded lots of cursing and frustration. This time I found out you can nuke the squash for about 1-2 min and the outside will come off with a peeler. Easy.

Roast the squash with the mushrooms. If there was one thing I wanted it was more mushrooms!! I definitely did not add enough. I loved the smoky contrast to the sweet squash. Boil pasta. Shred cheese. Toss all together in same pasta pot. Stupid easy…..

I would say it took a bit of time, but it was well worth it. I had way more servings than just 4.

Oh!! Here’s a bonus~ So with my asseenontv gadget Ready Set Go. I tried the instant pizza dough. TASTY. EASY. Cooked in 7min. It tastes like a nice bread when I sprinkled the dough with some thyme, olive oil, salt. I cant get enough of the stuff, good thing the dough made can be divided into 12 of these things.