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Mexican Baked Eggs

Apr 4th, 2012
by erin.
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Mexican baked eggs

Date: 3/31/2012

Recipe: http://www.closetcooking.com/2011/09/mexican-baked-eggs.html

Modifications: I only used one jalapeno and just realized that I forgot the oregano. It also seemed to take longer than 5-8 minutes for our eggs to cook, more like 15 minutes, however the yolks were far more done than they appeared visually.

Time to table: 30 minutes

Servings: 4 adults

Ben: Dislike

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: This was one of those meals that kept getting pushed off. I thought it was pretty good, would have been better if we hadn’t overcooked the eggs. The leftovers would be great in a tortilla – Annie had that for lunch the next day and seemed to enjoy it. Ben thought it tasted just like salsa with eggs and wasn’t a fan.

Mexican baked eggs

Meatloaf with broccoli and mashed potatoes

Jan 27th, 2012
by ben.
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Meatloaf, broccoli and potatoes

Date: 1/24/2012

Meatloaf recipe: http://kickassbbq.com/smoked_meat_loaf.html

Broccoli recipe: 1 head of broccoli tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. Roast at 425 for 20 minutes.

Mashed potatoes recipe: Quarter the potatoes and boil them until soft, mash with butter, sour cream, and cream.

Modifications: We used turkey thigh instead of beef, and added garlic, shredded carrot, and only used 4 strips of bacon.

UPDATE 4/30/12: Made this again last night and wanted to document what I thought was a winning combination of ingredients:

  • 2 lbs ground turkey thigh
  • 1/2 large onion, diced
  • 2 stalks of celery, diced
  • 1/2 carrot, shredded
  • 1 jalapeno, diced
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 egg
  • 2 T bbq rub
  • 1/4 cup bbq sauce
  • 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
  • 6 slices bacon, cooked and chopped

Time to table: 30 minutes meatloaf prep, 90 minutes meatloaf grilling time. I made the broccoli and potatoes while the meatloaf was grilling.

Servings: 2 adults, 1 toddler, and several lunchs of leftover meatloaf

Ben: LOVE

Erin: Love

Annie: Love

Notes: This was simply amazing. We made this meatloaf before using the smoker, not the grill, but this time was tremendously better. I was surprised at how tasty the turkey thighs were, and the grill cooked the garlic more than the smoker did, so it turned out better. Annie surprisingly loved the broccoli tonight and continued to ask for more off of Erin’s plate. Everything came together great in this meal, AND I timed everything perfectly so that it was all hot when we ate it. I’m pretty great, if you ask me.

Meatloaf

Tortilla and Black Bean Pie

Jan 18th, 2012
by erin.
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Black Bean Tortilla Pie

Date: 1/17/2012

Recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/336692/tortilla-and-black-bean-pie (I also made this before WAY back in the day right after I’d started my blog)

Modifications: Used whole wheat tortillas – and the ones we got (Mission 100% whole wheat “soft taco”) were EXACTLY the perfect size for my 9” springform pan so that was awesome. I used water instead of beer – I’m sure the alcohol cooks off, but it feels weird cooking with any alcohol for a pregnant woman and a toddler… so yeah, just water. I added some additional seasoning – Penzey’s Adobo seasoning. Also added a chopped green pepper to the onion/garlic/jalapeno mix to up the veggie content.

Time to table: 30 minutes active, 20 minutes baking

Servings: 6 adults

Ben: Love (with the addition of a fried egg for him)

Erin: Love

Annie: Love

Notes: We are on a ROLL with the triple love meals over here! I knew this one would be a hit – we have loved it all the other times we’ve made it and this was no exception. I forgot to add sour cream and salsa to mine but it was still quite good even without that. We even had this on a weeknight and Annie devoured it – proving that it’s a keeper!

Black Bean Tortilla Pie

Ben's black bean tortilla pie w/ fried egg
Ben’s serving topped with fried egg

Holding her food out for me to take a photo :)
After I took a photo of my dish, Annie held hers out for similar treatment :)

Crock pot jambalaya

Jan 12th, 2012
by ben.
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Jambalaya

Date: 1/9/2012

Recipe: From Delicious & Dependable Slow Cooker Recipes, Judith Finlayson

1 lb Italian sausage

2 onions, finely chopped

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped

2 tsp Cajun seasoning

1 tsp dried chopped oregano

1/ tsp cracked black peppercorns

1 cup pearl barely, thoroughly rinsed under cold running water

1 28 oz can coarsely chopped tomatoes, including liquid

3 cups chicken stock

8 oz medium shrimp, cooked, peeled and deveined

1 roasted red pepper, finely chopped

  1. In a nonstick skillet, cook sausage over medium-high heat, breaking up with a spoon until no longer pink. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to slow cooker stoneware. Drain all but 1 Tbsp of fat from pan. Reduce hear to medium.
  1. Add onions to pan and cook, stirring, until softened. Add garlic, chili pepper, Cajun seasoning, oregano, salt, and peppercorns, stirring for one minute. Add barely and stir well. Add tomatoes and chicken stock and bring to a boil.
  1. Pour mixture over sausage and stir. Cover and cook on LOW 6-8 hours or HIG 3-4 hours. Add shrimp and roasted red pepper. Cover and cook on HIGH for 20 minutes, until shrimp is heated through.

Time to table: 45 minutes prep, 8 hours cook time

Servings: 6 adults

Ben: Love

Erin: Love

Annie: Love

Notes: We made this recipe a couple years ago, but it seemed different and I think we both liked it way more this time for some reason. Annie very much enjoyed this, unless a piece of shrimp got anywhere near her mouth. That went right back in the bowl. She also enjoyed the pear she had for dessert.

Pears for dessert

Curried lentil and sweet potato soup

Jan 11th, 2012
by ben.
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Curried Sweet Potato Lentil Soup

Date: 1/8/2012

Recipe: http://denueva.blogspot.com/2011/11/curried-lentil-and-sweet-potato-soup.html

Modifications: I forgot to add the diced bell pepper, whoops. Nicki forgot the carrots, so between the two of us we have a full meal :) We also used the immersion blender to thicken the soup up. It’s easier for Annie to eat and Erin and I prefer blended soups. I also didn’t put nearly as much liquid as it called for (4-5 cups was what we used) – it could have used more probably, especially after eating the leftovers which thicken up considerably, but the batch would have been HUGE if we had added the full 8 cups it called for.

Time to table: 1 hour

Servings: 6 adults

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: This was a very easy recipe to make and had enough leftovers to make a second dinner out of, which is always a win in my book. We say Annie “liked” this meal, but the threshold for her to like something has gone way down as she seems to be getting pickier about the food we serve her, which is not cool. “Like” in this case means that she ate a few (5 or so) bites voluntarily and dipped her bread it in before announcing she was all done and wanted fruit.

Curried Sweet Potato Lentil Soup

Smoked meatloaf with roasted sweet potatoes

Nov 15th, 2011
by ben.
1 comment

Smoked Meatloaf

Date: 11/9/2011

Meatloaf recipe: http://www.kickassbbq.com/smoked_meat_loaf.html

Sweet potato recipe: Source: Cook’s Illustrated

3 pounds sweet potatoes (about 6 medium), ends trimmed, peeled, rinsed, and cut into 3/4-inch thick rounds (see note)
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons apple juice
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon table salt
Ground black pepper

Instructions

  1. Heat packed light brown sugar, apple juice, butter, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until butter has melted and sugar is dissolved, 2 to 4 minutes. Tosspotatoes in large bowl with oil, salt, and pepper to taste until evenly coated. Line 18- by 13-inch heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat with nonstick cooking spray. Arrange potatoes in single layer on baking sheet and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Adjust oven rack to middle position and placepotatoes in cold oven. Turn oven to 425 degrees and cook potatoes 30 minutes.
  2. Remove baking sheet from oven and carefully remove top layer of foil. Return potatoes to oven and cook until bottom edges of potatoes are golden brown, 15 to 25 minutes.
  3. Remove baking sheet from oven and brush potatoes with half of glaze, flip slices over with thin metal spatula, and brush with remaining glaze. Continue to roast until bottom edges of potatoes are golden brown, 18 to 22 minutes longer. Remove from oven; let potatoes cool 5 to 10 minutes; transfer to platter and serve.

Time to table: 1.5 hours prep time, 5-6 hours cooking time

Modifications: I added 6 cloves of garlic to the meatloaf. Instead of hamburger we used 1lb ground turkey thigh and 1lb mild pork sausage. I used the pork rub that I used in the pulled pork we’ve made several times.

A note about the sweet potato recipe is that, in our case, it didn’t take nearly as long as they said to cook the potatoes. After the first 25 minutes they were done, but we had to cook them longer to cook the glaze, so you might be able to make the initial cook time shorter to save time.

Servings: 7 adult dinners

Ben: Love Love Love

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: My dad made this meatloaf over the summer when Annie and I were down at their place for dinner one day, and I knew I had to make it. I never really liked meatloaf growing up, but I’d never had meatloaf like this before. The smoky flavor combined with the pork rub and bbq sauce is amazing. I took the leftovers to work and made meatloaf sandwiches with cheese and sriracha and it was heavenly all over again.

We’ve had the sweet potatoes a couple times at Thanksgiving, from my brother-in-law Joe, so Erin whipped those up as a side dish. We had the neighbors over for dinner and there were still 4 slices for me to bring in for lunches.

I put the meatloaf on the smoker at 12:15 and by 5pm I still had 25 degrees to go, so I moved it to the oven to finish it off. The garlic still had a bit of a kick to it :)

Glazed Sweet potatoes

Annie eating meatloaf

Homemade salsa

Sep 7th, 2011
by ben.
5 comments

Salsa

Date: 9/4/2011

Recipe: The recipe we used was modified from a recipe that Brian sent us:

Original recipe:

1 ice cream pail of tomatoes, blanched and peeled
3 medium onions, chopped
3 green bell peppers, chopped
1/2 cup lemon juice
12 oz. tomato paste
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon oregano
2 cups vinegar
1 tablespoon garlic powder
3 jalapeno peppers

Simmer all ingredients together for 1/2 hour, over low to medium heat,
stirring it frequently.  Process in pint jars (remember if the jars
and lids are super hot from being sterilized and salsa is boiling when
you fill the jars they may seal without the boiling water bath).

Modifications:  We made a couple changes to this recipe. I don’t think we had an entire ice cream bucket of tomatoes, but it was close. We added several other ingredients that we had from our box: tomatillos (sauteed and pureed), diced garlic, and cilantro.

Time to table: 2 hours total

Servings: We got a little over a half gallon of salsa.

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: Our neighbors had just given us a bag of tomatoes from their garden and then we got two more bags from our CSA this week, so we were inundated with tomatoes. Salsa was the perfect solution as it used all the tomatoes as well as several other veggies we had from the CSA box (tomatillos, garlic, cilantro, bell peppers, jalapenos). I don’t believe canning salsa to be worth the effort in general, but this was a great way to relieve the pressure of all the veggies we’ve had for the past two weeks.

Salsa

Cooking the tomatillos

Salsa

Tomatoes ready for blanching and peeling.

Salsa

Peeling garlic WHILE holding a child.

Salsa

Annie helped by throwing the garlic into the food processor.

Salsa

Peeled.

Salsa

Getting the seeds and juice out of the tomatoes makes a mess.

Salsa

Ready to start cooking.

Salsa

The finished product.

Salsa

Mango salsa turkey burgers

Jul 13th, 2011
by ben.
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Mango Black Bean Turkey Burger with avocado cilantro sauce

Date: July 7th, 2011

Recipe: http://www.carascravings.com/2011/06/spicy-mango-black-bean-turkey-burgers.html

Modifications: Instead of actually making the mango salsa, I just sauteed the mango with some jalapenos and onions ont the stove.

Time to table: 1.5 hours, with waiting for the charcoal

Servings: 5 burgers

Ben: Like

Erin: Like

Annie: Like

Notes: This meal was kind of a pain to put together because you have to make the salsa, the yogurt spread, the black bean mix, and then shape the patties. These burgers tasted good, I just don’t think they’re worth the effort involved. They also didn’t stay together very well on the grill, a common gripe of mine regarding (mostly) veggie burgers.

Annie didn’t really get into this meal but she did enjoy a bun with the avocado yogurt on it.

Annie eating turkey burgers