Wednesday, December 29, 2010

shrimp arrabbiata

best part about this dish?
it's good for you. seriously. came from a weight watchers cook book.

second best part about this dish?
it's easy. you know how i feel about easy.

it's great because i used leftovers to make it. i had shrimp for christmas eve dinner, and of course it only comes in a massive frozen bag. so when i am tired of shrimp cocktail, i wanted to make something different. here it is!
as always, i'm giving you my version, not the cookbook version.

shrimp

shrimp

all you do is cook the shrimp (if it's not already cooked). remove it from the pan, and in the same pan, put some garlic paste. about three teaspoons. add to that a can of crushed tomatoes and a teaspoon of tomato paste. also, spices. whatever you want, but i added red pepper flakes (a good amount), italian seasoning, garlic salt, fresh ground pepper, and basil. fresh herbs would be best for at least the basil, but i'm a working woman, and don't have time to grow my own or money to buy my own.

when it's nice and heated through, and has started to simmer, add the cooked shrimp just to warm it up. don't cook it anymore or the shrimp will get tough.

add to some whole wheat pasta for a delicious and healthy meal in a jiffy!

picnikfile_N7bz76

i also served with steam-in-bag frozen veggies (yay, easy!) and some breadsticks i picked up that afternoon. would have gone great with a glass of red wine, but we're trying to get rid of all of our milk.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

easy appetizer meatballs

i love easy meals. i love meatballs.
i love easy meatballs!!

take a bag of frozen meatballs.
add a jar of heinz 57 chili sauce. or generic, like i did.
add a jar of grape jam. seriously.
add a dash of worcestershire sauce. 

heat it all thoroughly.


serve.

this can also be made in the crock pot. put everything in, turn the pot on low, and forget about it. stir well before serving.

it's one of those meals that makes your whole house smell amazing.
and yes, i said meals. last night i had meatballs-- and nothing else-- for dinner. it's that good.

Monday, December 27, 2010

a special occasion breakfast

well, christmas came and went. and it was lovely. i hope it was perfect for you and your family. did you get everything you hoped for? did you love seeing the eyes of your loved ones light up as they opened your gifts? i know i did.

it's so nice to have such blessings in life.

well, i made a great breakfast for christmas day. something i found while browsing other blogs. delicious overnight blueberry french toast casserole. wow. it's something special! i did make a few slight changes to the recipe, so i'm telling you how i did it. feel free to check the original also!


you take a loaf of bread, like french or italian. something crusty. cut it into squares about 1 inch big. take a little more than half of the cuttings and spread into the bottom of a GREASED 13x9 pan. whoops. i forgot to grease mine. it doesn't change the cooking, it just makes it miserable to clean. layer on top of the bread some cream cheese. i used two bricks cut into pretty small chunks. i think it was a bit rich. i'd have used a little less. then layer a pint of blueberries. i have no idea how big a pint is, because my packages came labeled in liters. so, use *some* blueberries for this. top with the remainder of the bread.

then, in a bowl, whisk together 8 eggs and 2.5 cups of milk. sprinkle in some vanilla extract, nutmeg, cinnamon, and about 1/3-1/2 cup of syrup. when it's all mixed together, pour it over the bread mixture in the pan. i made sure to get the entire top of it damp, but i don't know how important that was.

i tried using a spoon to sort of press the bread down to make sure the liquid was all soaked up, but that didn't work well. so, i used my hands. it worked! it's messy, and i haven't decided if i like messy hands while i'm cooking.

do this all the night before. cover it with foil. in the morning, put the pan out to get room temperature-ish. warm your oven to 350. put the casserole in the oven with the foil on for 30 minutes, then remove the foil for another 30 minutes.

that's how i did it. the recipe i referred to above says to make a blueberry compote to go with it, and that would have definitely sealed the deal. i chose the lazy way out and we ate it without the compote. not bad at all, but missing it for sure. so, make the compote. or serve with maple syrup. or blueberry syrup, if you have that.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

christmas eve dinner

i'm sharing old family recipes with you tonight. well, sort of. it's less about the recipes and more about the love that is in all of it. for my family, christmas eve was always the most important day, not christmas day. we have family traditions that date back to old ukraine. there's so many things you have to follow, like the number of foods offered. if you want to go real traditional, there's certain ways to make those foods. i adjusted a bit, because i didn't feel like making 12 dishes for just chris and me. i'll get WAY into the traditions next year, so stick around because that's going to be fun!


 pierogies. pasta pockets filled with mashed potatoes and onions. sure, you can make them homemade. or buy the handmade ones at your local ukranian church. or pick up a box of frozen ones at the grocery store. i melted a stick(plus) of butter, and diced an onion and a half. saute the onion on about a medium heat, until the butter gets clear-yellow instead of cloudy. boil the pierogies as it says on the box, then top with the onion/butter mixture. delicious.


so i didn't mention that this dish is vegetarian. we had fish and shrimp though. i just thawed some frozen shrimp , served with lemon wedges and garnished with (a lot of) olives-- i like olives.

also had a relish tray. carrots, broccoli, celery, pickles, more olives. and a ranch veggie dip. husband put this together. it was nice to have his help with that.

mmmmm. slimy mushrooms. well, they have another name, but this is what i've been used to calling them. when i was growing up, i'm pretty sure my daddy convinced me that i didn't like them, so he could have them all. it's a lot of mushrooms sauteed with a touch of oil, then heated through with a can of cream of celery soup and a little milk. this is nice to cook ahead of time, so i made it first thing in the morning and transferred it to this corningware to just heat in the oven before dinner. very convenient.
**you can also see an empty plate here. it's left for the deceased family members, as tradition**

and one of my favorites. simple. frozen tilapia, sprinkled with lemon pepper seasoning and lemon coins. then put a small chunk of butter on top of each wedge, and some fresh ground pepper. bake at 400-450 "until done" (about 15 minutes?). it is so flavorful and flaky. delicious.

also, you see some crescent rolls. confession: those are leftovers from dinner on dec 23rd, a bertoli frozen past meal.

so, since i'm supposed to have 12 dishes, let's get creative and try to find them.

  1. pierogies
  2. onions in butter
  3. shrimp
  4. celery
  5. pickles
  6. olives
  7. broccoli
  8. carrots
  9. slimy mushrooms
  10. crescent rolls
  11. fish
  12. white wine
i did it! 12 "dishes" for my first married christmas. even if it's a stretch, it's 12 when i count :-)

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

cashew chicken

so. about the delay in posts-- so sorry about all of this! we have both been superbly busy. i was finishing my semester of school (which was exhausting. so exhausting.), and miss erica is getting ready to go out of town for the holidays. i sure hope she starts to blog again-- i don't know about you, but i miss her writing style~!

for the first time evah i cooked my chicken perfectly! i almost always overdo it and it's tough. and if it's tough it ruins the dish. if it's cooked perfectly, the dish is perfect.

take some chicken. cut it into bite size pieces. in a bag, put some cornstarch, then toss the chicken in it. over a pretty hot skillet, cook the chicken. cook it with a bit of soy sauce and some ginger (have you noticed that we're all about "a bit" and "some" instead of measurements? usually...).


once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan. put it in a bowl, then store it in the microwave just to keep it warm. in the same pan, cook just until tender crisp some red pepper that is chopped as big (or as small) as you want it. add some green onions for a touch of spice, more soy sauce, more ginger, and some cashews.


mix it all together, serve it up, top with some more cashews and green onions, and enjoy! it's definitely a keeper recipe.


i love recipes like this that are so simple, so easy to make, and don't have a ton of seasonings.
enjoy!