End of the month meals; Fun with leftovers!

 Plenty of meat in the freezer for cooking, just not a lot else to go with it. So simple meals on repeat with a few flairs and changes for variation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you do when you don't feel like fixing goulash or DIY hamburger helper? Use up the left over chili! Chili Mac! I should have used the small elbows but this turned out tasty and used up the leftover enchilada sauce that was sitting in the fridge from weeks ago. Cheese and sour cream and I went back for seconds  and we had leftovers of that for next day lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another pound bag of the stew beef chunks had been pulled out and I had an entire day and night to try and figure out what to do with it. Hmmm, brown gravy and onion soup mix, peas and carrots, instant mashed potatoes.... another tasty and filling meal! Just salt and pepper on the beef chunks that I cut into bite size bits used a little unsalted butter in the pan and browned them before I added in the gravy mix with a cup of water, then mixed that around, added in the onion soup mix and another half cup of water then a cup of the peas and carrots, put the lid on to let everything cook through. Whipped up the instant mashed potatoes (my last bag of potatoes rotted sadly) and spoon meat and gravy over the potatoes.... tasty. Would have preferred mushrooms mixed in but that can be for next time.

And for today's meal, innovation and invention. I have always loved cauliflower with cheese, it is one of my favorite dishes but the cheese mix I grew up on is no longer available. Sadness and dismay, it was a McCormick cheese sauce packet I believe and you just added milk and it tasted like nothing else. So what to do with a small head of cauliflower that I broke up to use yesterday and decided not to? Mac n Cheese! Oh yes and oven baked barbecue chicken with the rotisserie chicken seasoning (which I need to remember not to be so heavy handed, very salty)

The other issue right now is we are shutting up with the AC due to the heat outside which makes cooking carefully a priority. Right now the entire apartment smells like bbq sauce and pepper but also a bit of smoke from the oven. Using the oven also heats up the front half of the apartment as well. 

Adventures in cooking!

Yes it's summer but.... Chili!

 Among other things since Lasagna happened which I just ate the last of the leftovers yesterday. Chop it into small squares, remembered I had that jar of marinara and used that to give it some extra flavor, delicious down to the last bite. Nothing else remarkable as far as food is concerned in the last two weeks or so which is why I am  posting now.

 

We bought packaged pollo asado and of course made up some absolutely stellar tacos and partner had his over rice with chopped tomato, onion and cilantro, and diy refried beans. That chicken was just finished off as well in some ramen for him. I think I remember looking at the ingredients on the chicken and fixed up a reasonable copy of it but never wrote it down.

 

I bought a package of pork shoulder steaks that were a reasonable price and then realized I had no recipes for them. So used up the last of my bread crumbs and gave them the schnitzel treatment but no pounding because they still have a bone in them. Fixed up the Seasoned Rice and all that was missing was a side of veggies or broccoli. Nothing special about the process, used an egg with a little milk scrambled, flower and the breadcrumbs. Need to figure out how to keep the crumbs from flaking off.

 

So silly me, pulled out one of the packages of cubed stew meat and it was the larger sized bits. I do have a recipe for chili but didn't want to go rummaging through my recipe box for it so on to Pinterest... because initially I wanted to use the crock pot so it would cook all day. Found a recipe that used the cubed meat as well as black beans because I used the last can of pinto beans in the refried. Now here is where it gets silly:

They have you cook up the spices and veggies, do all the pre cooking then dump it all in the crock pot to cook. I thought, why dirty two dishes when I can stew this on simmer in the dutch oven?

Another mistake was misreading the ingredient measurements. 

So here's 'Award Winning Crockpot Chili'. Sans crockpot

1 T canola or other cooking oil

1 T cumin

1 T smoked paprika

2 T chili powder (I misread and thought it said tsp but corrected it)

3 T regular paprika (I thought that was a bit excessive and used 2)

2 tsp onion powder

1-1 1/2 lbs chuck roast cut into cubes

2 T brown sugar

1 tsp oregano (I used my garden oregano dried)

1 medium onion diced

(1/2 green bell pepper diced)

3 cloves garlic minced (used garlic I grew in my garden yay!)

14 oz (1 can) diced tomatoes (undrained)

4 oz can diced chilis (I didn't have any so I used one can Rotel and one can diced tomatoes)

1 c beef broth

1 T apple cider vinegar (I used 1 tsp)

2 cans black beans drained and rinsed (I only had one)

1 tsp salt

Heat oil over medium-high heat in a medium-sized skillet. When the oil shimmers, stir paprikas, cumin, chili powder and onion powder into the pan. Cook for 1 minute or until spices are very aromatic and remove from heat. (I had the oregano in there two because I didn't read effectively)

 

Add beef, sugar, oregano, onion, vinegar, garlic, tomatoes, green chilies, beef broth, beans and salt to the slow cooker. Transfer spices from the skillet into the slow-cooker and stir to combine. Cover and cook for 4 hours on high, 6 on low.

 

This is where I got confused due to not reading well (stupid eyesight). I added the onion and I thought you cooked everything in that original pan then transferred so I just added the meat and everything into the dutch oven, stirred everything well brought it up to a good simmer then put the lid on and turned it down to let it cook for a few hours. I also added in a can of corn because it just looked like it could use something. Also I was thinking that adding in lime juice instead of the vinegar would give it a different flavor next time. When it was about an hour or two in I took the lid off and stirred, it was very watery so I added in about a tablespoon of cornstarch and water to thicken it up. 

Garnish with shredded cheese, sour cream and cilantro because that just makes it even better. I was going to add in cilantro toward the end of cooking but changed my mind. It's a fantastic flavor and can see how it may have won an award or two but I've also had better.

 

I can see how heating up the spices is an old world way of doing things and it does add a depth to the flavors. Most cooking you can screw up directions like this and it still turns out just fine. Which it did this time luckily. I was briefly tempted to use a drop of smoke flavoring instead of using the smoked paprika but didn't. Vinegar and that stuff I have used wrong and it ruins the entire recipe. If I were to use it I would sear the meat first, add a drop of smoke and stir it around then add the other ingredients give it a good char first with that smoke flavor would make it completely different for sure.

 

That's all I've got for this time, mid July is going to be busy so I'll be hopefully stockpiling on easy to fix meals and leftovers. I've got a bit of time until then, tomorrow is going to be chicken breasts somehow.

 

Lasagna has happened!

Pre-cooking the meat helped immensely for time but I ran just a tad short on mozzarella and really needed provolone on top. Oh well, I added some colby-jack cheese on top, cooked it for an hour then took the foil off and cooked for another fifteen minutes.

I had to kind of  mish mash the two recipes as I went due to using oven ready noodles but a semi-homemade sauce. Neither of the recipes from the box of noodles or the recipe I found on pinterest.

Not enough cheese and sauce. I broke some of the noodles up to fill in gaps so all of them were used. If I attempt this again, it is going to get more sauce and cheese for sure. I still have the jar of marinara sauce and will likely open that up and add it to portions I will fix  for lunch and dinner in the future. Really needed some slices of provolone on top.

 

I was afraid the noodles wouldn't be cooked all the way through and I thought I had feared it was true. The bottom layer of noodles would not cut and thinking about it, thought that was odd because it was being cooked from the bottom. Turns out, the bottom layer around the edges was burned. Not a rave review from my partner but it was good. If I had added anymore sauce it would have really spilled out over the edges. As it was, there was some drippage and burning in the oven. 

My Lasagna:

I chopped up half a green bell pepper and a red, a rib of celery, half a yellow onion and used four cloves of garlic. A little olive oil in the dutch oven and cooked the onion and garlic first, then added in the other veggies. Got that all softened then tossed in the can of tomatoes, juice and all then the crushed. Oh yes, since I was doing 'scratch' I used about a tablespoon of Italian seasoning with an extra teaspoon of oregano and crushed red pepper. Mashed that all together in the pestle and tossed that in.  I heated the meat in the microwave for a minute then tossed that in and stirred. Turned down the heat to about 3 but left the lid off, when it looked like it was bubbling a bit much, turned it down to 1 (really low) and put the lid on. Cooked that probably for about an hour, maybe forty-five minutes. Took the lid off and it looked a bit watery so I added in the can of paste and another large pinch of oregano. Salt and pepper fresh ground and a pinch of sugar. Taste test said it needed to be smoothed out a bit so I added a pinch of baking soda. I have heard you can add a carrot for a few minutes but I didn't have a carrot until after it was in the oven (found a bag of four carrots on the community table when I took Rocky for a walk while it was cooking). Started the oven on 350 then double guessed myself and turned it up to 400 but only for about fifteen minutes, then turned it down again. That may have been the reason for the burning.

Oh and we had a good chopped salad (not the absolute mashed chop that other people do) just a good standard salad with tomato, cucumber, red onion, romaine (fresh from the garden!), iceberg and a little bit of green leaf lettuce and some shavings of carrot.

We will have meals for days, which is a good thing. I like having leftovers to supplement fresh meals, that's how you make meals stretch longer. 

So, fresh meals not for a few days but there are pollo asado tacos in the future for sure.

Monthly shopping and meal planning

Since new recipes are scant at the moment you'll have to put up with other topics. We are restocked with various forms of protein, a lot of beef, some pork and hamburger of course. Only got chicken thighs since I still have two packs of breasts and some shrimp left.  Lots and lots of red meat though so here's ideas for what will be done. I cooked up two lbs of hamburger last night because I couldn't separate the two halves. Cooked one pound with taco seasoning and the other with Italian seasoning for the upcoming lasagna feast!

I got a roughly 5 or 6 lb package of 'stew meat' chunks. That is a LOT of meat and it's very lean chuck meat so it's great for chili, stir fry, soup and stew. I tried to portion it into bags with one keeping the large chunks for actual 'stew', two bags I cut most of the pieces in half and quarters for maybe beef pie of some sort or beef soup. Two other bags were sliced mostly into small pieces for stir fry. 

Next up is five servings of chicken thighs, basic recipes for those so nothing new, almost bough a package of thigh meat but then remembered I  usually get breast pieces and totally forgot to get them because people were in the way.

I splurged ($11) on a package of pre seasoned pollo asado. It's been a very long time since we had that and am looking forward to having delicious tacos.

Another pack of meat was five pork shoulder steaks, bone in. I will be hunting down recipes for those and they are big enough that one steak can feed both of us with veggies and potatoes on the side. There's five meals for both of us. Last but not least the 6 lbs of hamburger in addition to the two prepped containers in the fridge and I think another double pack of hamburger still in the freezer.

We are good for protein meals for a month!

I do have to share the recipe I found for macaroni salad.  Need to figure out the proportions to cut it in half because an entire pound of elbows last us 2 weeks of mac salad.

What I have discovered with this recipe is marinating the noodles not adding it into the mayo as the dressing.

NY Deli Macaroni Salad

Brine:

1/3 c white vinegar (this is crucial, do not use apple cider vinegar)

1/3 c sugar

3 tbl water

3 tbl vegetable oil (canola works)

1/2 c white onion grated or pureed (neither of those options work well for me, I just finely diced a yellow onion)

1 1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp (white) pepper (I have yet to remember to pick up some white pepper and it's simply for aesthetics)

Remaining ingredients:

1 lb small elbow macaroni

3/4 c mayonnaise (or more for creamier texture)

1/2 small green or red bell pepper finely diced (I used both)

1 rib celery finely diced

 In a large bowl (do not think it will fit in a small or medium, use large!) combine all the brine ingredients and set aside. I only have a glass bowl and since there is vinegar in this, metal might be reactive and change the flavor, but I'm not a chemistry major or minor.

Cook macaroni according to al dente directions, drain and rinse under cold water to stop cooking and remove starch. This recipe needs to be rich and creamy not soupy or gummy.  Oh also, make sure to use good quality pasta. I used a package I found on the community table and ... was not good.

When the noodles are cooled down sufficiently whisk the brine and add the pasta, mixing well with a large spoon. Cover and put in fridge for overnight or as short as 2 hours. I did the first batch overnight and had not done the recipe correctly so there was a lot of liquid still. I did it by the book this time and only kept it in the fridge for 2 or 3 hours and it was still delicious.

Add the mayo when you are ready and mix really well. Keep mixing and if it looks a bit 'dry' add some more mayo. Cover and put in the fridge for a few hours or eat right away. 

Your choice of may can make a difference as well. Notice this is mayonnaise, not 'salad dressing' type spread. I have used the Kroger brand mayo without a problem but by all means if you have a better quality brand it will make a difference. I do not suggest using the olive oil or avocado oil version of mayo.

 

And now, the weird/funny picture of the month. 

Caution if you do not like the image of processed animal parts... don't go any further. But if you're that sensitive, what do you do with chicken pieces?

 

 

 

Chicken 'Paws'