Sunday Gritty Sundae

Saturday we ate out…for every. single. meal.  It was delicious all around, but we didn’t feel so hot afterwards.  Sunday we vowed to do some good eating in.  And we did!  For dinner, we had leftover tortilla soup…this stuff was even better the second time around (largely because I could now taste it) and we both had giant bowls.  Plus we froze two double-servings for later.  Because I got the giant pack of chicken thighs on sale for just over $5, this was a super economical creation as well! Hooray!

For breakfast, we had some old-ish apples and I remembered we had quick cooking grits in the cupboard. Easy easy breakfast to the rescue:

Cinnamon Apple Grits Breakfast Sundae

• 2 servings grits
• 5-6 small apples, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1/4 cup apple juice or cider
• 2 Tb sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

1. Combine apples, juice, sugar and cinnamon over medium heat in a small saucepan, stirring to coat.
2. Cook away, stirring frequently to avoid burning, until apples are nice and soft and the liquid has cooked down into a nice syrup.
3. If the apples get too dry and all the liquid evaporates, add more juice or cider as needed.
4. While apples are cooking, prepare grits according to package directions.  I added a tiny bit of butter at the end to add a bit of flavor and extra creaminess to the grits!
5. Top grits with apples and dig in!

I’d recommend serving with biscuits and jam (which we didn’t have) or toast or maybe even more fruit on the side.  This bowl was really filling at the time, but didn’t last us all the way until dinner.  So tasty though.  Yum!

And for some fun, here are giveaways!

• Envirosax Giveaway at Jackson’s World
• Maple PB giveaway at I Walk In This World
• Holey Donuts (!!!) at Danica’s Daily

Spicy Chicken Tortilla Soup

As promised, here’s my tortilla soup, made from the taco leftovers.  This turned out crazy spicy….I thought the heat from the chicken would be dispersed a bit with the liquid in the soup, but apparently not.  I added a few extra spicy ingredients to the soup, but mostly the heat from the chicken was the main spice.  The spice was a good thing though, since I could barely taste anything with my cold.  Plus, we always eat our tortilla soup with cheese and sour cream, so the heat pairs really nicely with the cream. 

Spicy Chicken Tortilla Soup

1. Sauté 1 large onion, two bell peppers (I used one yellow and one red), salt, cayenne pepper and two cloves of minced garlic in a bit of olive oil until soft.  Considering the heat of the soup, the cayenne was probably unnecessary here, but I was afraid of a bland soup!
2. Add some leftovers
• Remaining chicken thighs (remember I made an entire family pack…there was a ton left!), chopped
• Black beans, onions, garlic, chilies and corn
• 2-3 chopped fresh tomatoes (I thought I had a picture of these??)
3. …and some new stuff.
• 1 can Mexican style stewed tomatoes
• 1 can green chilies
• 1 large can chicken broth, low sodium (I used a little less than this whole can)



Before I added the chicken broth it looked like this.   

I love all the colors going on in there. Matt gave it a thumbs up!

4. Add chicken broth so it looks slightly soupier than you’ll want the end product.  It will thicken a bit.  We cooked it for several hours since we were both home all day.  You could probably get away with letting it simmer for an hour.  We had it covered for most of the cooking time…it will cook down more if you uncover.  You could also throw this in the Crockpot…although this batch made so much it wouldn’t have fit in ours.
5. While the soup is simmering away, make your tortillas!  You can buy chips and use those.  We had a big pile of corn tortillas in the freezer that I wanted to use up, so I baked them into crispy strips!  I’ve done fried strips in the past, and they are delicious, but baked is obviously healthier, and it doesn’t leave your kitchen smelling like grease.
6. Cut into strips and place in single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.  Spray the tortilla strips with cooking spray once they’re arranged on the sheet (and you could season them now if you wanted).
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  Toss with a sprinkle of of salt while warm.  We made these in four batches since we had so many tortillas.  Yum!  It was hard not to snack on these 🙂
8. Serve with toppings and tortilla strips! Yuuuummm!  This made an ENORMOUS amount of soup.  We’re having leftovers this weekend and then freezing the rest for later!

Spicy Spicy Grilled Chicken Tacos

I’m home sick today because my head is so congested it feels like it might explode.  The congestion has turned me into a completely nonsensical wreck, so here’s last night’s dinner.  Homemade tacos are one of my favorite comfort foods.  As long as I can remember, we always had the box that came with shells, seasoning and sauce and we just used ground beef to make some really satisfying tacos.  We also included green olives in our toppings, which Matt will have none of.   At home,we grabbed a taco shell and filled it with our own meat and toppings, but my grandma fills the tortillas with meat and cheese and heats them in the oven…this leads to less giantly heaping, over-filled tacos that my mom and I tend to create. Recently, I’ve been experimenting with some other taco types, and thinking about leftovers and the extra space we have in our freezer right now, I went with something I could turn into soup the next day. 

Spicy Spicy Grilled Chicken Tacos

• 1 large, family-size pack of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (you can go with breasts or really any kind of meat you want, but I find that the thighs have so much more flavor and work well in this kind of preparation)
• Spice Mix (I used equal parts cumin, cayenne pepper, paprika, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder)
• Hot Sauce (Big S Farms Tennessee Lightning hot sauce)
• 1 medium onion
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 large can black beans (Drain about half of the liquid off the beans)
• 1 can sweet corn
• 1 can diced green chilies
• flour tortillas
• Your favorite taco toppings (we used red leaf lettuce, shredded cheese, chopped onions, tomatoes, taco sauce, sour cream and Big S Farms Hot salsa)

1. Rub chicken with spice mix and coat with hot sauce.  I did all of this in a big ziploc bag to try and keep the mess to a minimum (it didn’t work).  Let that sit for 20-30 minutes in the fridge.
2. While the meat rests, heat a tiny bit of oil in a small pot and sauté onion and garlic just until soft.  Add beans, corn, and chilies and heat on low while you cook, stirring every once in a while to keep from burning or sticking.
3. Grill, roast or pan sear chicken until cooked through.  We used our stovetop grill pan and it worked pretty well. If it had gotten a tiny bit hotter, I would have had better grill marks, but the chicken still turned out great.  Be sure not to crowd the pan you’re using, since the chicken and its marinade will let off quite a bit of liquid.  You don’t want to boil the chicken.  If you’re grilling, the chicken under a brick method is pretty wonderful.  I used a big heavy skillet with the bottom covered in foil to achieve a similar effect.  (this chicken was INSANELY spicy, but once it was topped with the other yummy stuff and wrapped in a tortilla, it was perfect! Matt loved them so much he had 3 huge tacos!!)
4. While chicken cooks, prep vegetables (chop, dice, shred, etc.) and heat tortillas.     We heated the tortillas quickly on a hot pan, flipping a couple times until warm.  You can also microwave in a damp towel or heat in the oven.  Whatever you prefer.  Matt got these great thick, handmade tortillas from across the street that were wonderful for the huge amount of stuff we put on them!
5. When chicken is cooked through, let it rest on a plate for a few minutes, then chop and serve!
6. Top flour tortilla with chicken, black beans and toppings and prepare to make a huge mess!

A boxed dinner brightened up!

Trader Joe’s is amazing.  If I step foot in the store I usually leave with no less than 8 different types of snacks.  LOVE it. 

They have this box of convenient indian food that Matt and I are fans of…it’s not spectacular, but it’s $4 and it’s EASY.  Perfect for a night when we’re exhausted. 

It comes with rice and two dishes.  One with lentils and one with peas and potatoes.  The peas/potatoes are spicy and the lentils creamy.  They could both be a little thicker for my taste, but with some naan (toasted and rubbed with a clove of fresh garlic), there is plenty of soaking up of sauce to do.

The best part was the refreshing salad I threw together to serve with it!  Inspired by the salad that you find on Indian lunch buffets, I grabbed a large cucumber, a small sweet vidalia onion, and a package of cherry tomatoes.  I chopped them all and mixed with salt, pepper and the juice of a baby lemon.

SO refreshing and the perfect accompaniment.  It made the decent, quick and easy indian dinner fresh and summery.

Later this week: grilled chicken tacos turned into tortilla soup and a recap of some yummy KY food.

Recipes From Home

Things have been ridiculously busy, and I’m about to head to KY for a long weekend to celebrate a friend’s wedding…plus we have been reheating leftovers from the freezer and having boring meals lately, so there hasn’t been much to post.  Plus, Santana has been exhausting me lately….she’s fussy about her food all of the sudden, sometimes doesn’t eat her breakfast, and last night I had to sleep on the couch with her to keep her from howling all night.  Not so good.  Hop on over to her blog to read about our hike last weekend.

My mom, however, has been on a roll cooking up some of my favorites (and some new things).  She sent me massive info about all this stuff, and I’ve decided you’re lucky enough to get a peek at her cheesecake.  It’s way down at the bottom of this post and it is my absolute most favorite cheesecake ever.  Especially when she uses the mini chocolate chips.  I can’t wait to go home (hopefully in September!) so I can get some of mom’s cheesecake 🙂

These are recipes that are simple, easy and satisfying.  My dad usually eats them several times in a row for lunch, and lots of times they’ll have leftovers for dinner throughout the week.  I love my mom’s recipes because a) she’s hilarious and b) it’s a refreshing change from the fancy blog recipes you sometimes see.  Plus, the ingredients are straightforward, easy to find and not intimidating…my mom was NOT excited about trying edamame or tofu at any point.  🙂

Mom & Dad’s Chicken Dinner

POTATO SALAD

Cook cut up potatoes until done. Cool. Add the following:

• Cut up hard boiled eggs (I use lots)
• diced dill pickles
• chopped green olives (unless you are serving Matt)
• diced carrots or/and celery if you want

Season with seasoned salt and pepper. Add a few tablespoons of the pickle juice and yellow mustard. Toss with miracle whip and chill. Turns out different all the time but after a while you get a feel for the mix and consistency you like.

3 BEAN SALAD

I had a recipe to try with fresh beans but in Unadilla, there were no fresh beans at our HUGE store. So I can across this one in a cookbook I had before I got married –  New and Revised Betty Crocker 1978 !!

• 1 can (16 oz) green beans, drained
• 1 can (16 oz) wax beans, drained
• 1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained
• ¼ cup chopped onions (calls for green)
• ¼ cup snipped parsley ( I used 1/8 cup dried)
• 1 cup Italian dressing
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed (once again from my limited pantry – I used 1 teaspoon minced from refrigerator)

Mix beans, onions and parsley in large bowl. Mix dressing, sugar and garlic. Pour over salad and toss.  Cover and refrigerate, stirring occasionally, at least 3 hours.  The recipe says to serve in lettuce-lined bowls…. Of course, I didn’t..

TEXAS-STYLE FRYER CHICKEN

  From Taste of Home Chicken Cookbook

• 1 Tablespoon seasoned salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 broiler/fry chicken (3-3.5 pounds)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (or in my case 1 teaspoon minced from jar)
• ½ cup butter
• ½ cup chicken broth
• ½ cup lemon juice

Combine seasoned salt and pepper; rub inside and outside of chicken. Place chicken on rotisserie rod on grill (we subbed by putting on a rack in a disposal pan). In a small saucepan, sauté garlic in butter until tender.  Stir in broth and lemon juice. Pour into drip pan and place under chicken. Baste with sauce every 15 minutes for 1 to 1-1/2 hours or until juices run clear. Dad made this so I don’t even know how much of this he followed!!

Boiled Dinner

(I will pick the ham and potatoes out of this, but always hated the way the cooking cabbage made the house smell! -Mallory)

Add to large crock pot:

• 3.5 lbs ham (I used half of a bone in one)  Froze the rest for another meal.
• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Onion
• can of broth

Remember to leave enough room for cabbage later..Cook on high 3 hours. Add cabbage wedges. Cook 2 more hours..

That’s it.  I didn’t add salt as ham can be salty.  I drizzle vinegar over mine.

Mom’s Cheesecake

(I generally love cheesecake, but this is my FAVORITE, especially when it has the chocolate chips-Mallory)

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons margarine, melted

Combine crumbs, sugar and margarine; press onto bottom of 9 inch springform pan. I bake in the oven when preheating but only for a few minutes. Make sure it is cooled off before adding cake mixture.

• 3 8-oz pkgs of cream cheese (softened) -  I bring to room temp and then microwave at 50% for 1.5 minutes. You can use one “Lite” cream cheese but don’t use 3 – really changes the consistency
• ¾ cup of sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate pieces
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine cream cheese and sugar, mixing at medium speed on electric mixer until well blended.  (This is when the mix flies all over if the cream cheese isn’t softened enough). Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Blend in chocolate pieces and vanilla; pour over crust. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 250 (leave oven door open a crack until temp. reaches 250. Continue baking 35 minutes. Loosen cake from rim of pan. Cool before removing rim of pan.

Chill.

Next week I should have more recipes to post…but for now I’m headed to KY and dreaming of cheesecake from home in NY 🙂 Miss you mom!!!