Oh, here’s one more. Suppose you have, for some reason, boiled chick peas. I often have chick peas left if I’ve cooked some Indian dish. What to do with them?
Add plain yoghurt, mayonaise, a bit of salt and powdered cumin. Yum yum yum.
Get an 8 oz package of cream cheese and let soften on the counter for about 30 minutes. Place in a bowl and whip with a mixer. Add one 7 oz jar of marshmallow creme and continue mixing until it’s combined. Get some fresh fruit - any kind you like - and start dipping. I just call it Fruit Dip and I love it with strawberries, bananas, apples, and orange segments.
My favorite ridiculously easy pork dish is Carnitas. Get a boston butt roast and chunk it up in 3 to 4 inch cubes. Place in crockpot. Add 2 teaspoons salt, 2 teaspoons pepper, 2 teaspoons oregano, and 2 teaspoons cumin and toss it all together with your hands until the meat is coated well. Lid up your crockpot and set to low. (NO do not add any liquid! I know you will be tempted, but resist!) Let cook for 6 hours for a 2 lb roast, 7 hours for 4 lb roast. It will make it’s own juice while cooking. Remove to a large bowl or platter and use two forks to shred the meat. It will pretty much fall apart if you look at it funny. If it doesn’t, you need to cook it some more. Serve with warm tortillas and some grated queso fresco. Guacamole if you want to jazz it up. The leftovers can be mixed with barbeque sauce and you have a whole different meal without having to cook again.
There’s a recipe for chicken with garlic and shallots in Alton Brown’s I’m Just Here for the Food book. Basically you just brown some chicken pieces in a dutch oven, pour some more olive oil in and throw in some whole garlic cloves and shallots, along with several sprigs of sage and rosemary (I think) and put it in the oven for a while. The process maybe takes 10 minutes of actual work; the rest is letting the chicken finish in the oven.
The results are amazing for how much work goes into the dish. The chicken falls off the bone and is as juicy as possible. The garlic and shallot cloves are soft and can (and should) be incorporated into mashed potatoes or on bread. The leftover olive oil has great garlic-herb flavor and makes the mashed potatoes pretty good as well. The hardest part is waiting for the chicken to cook while having these amazing aromas emit from the oven.
I must stop now as I’m starving and typing this is only making me hungrier.
Chocolate Rocks
Melt a bunch of chocolate chips in the microwave. Quickly stir in peanuts and coconut - enough so the chocolate will just hold it together. Drop spoonfuls onto wax paper and let chill. Yummy and addictive.
French toast is super-easy and satisfying. I made some over the weekend using challah, and added a drop of almond extract to the egg/milk mixture. Real maple syrup on one slice and cinnamon sugar on the other–perfect.
We make that every now and then. It’s also nice to mix in extracts - vanilla, almond, lemon, etc. Give it a little extra zing.
I throw a handful of instant rice into commercial chili to reduce the ratio of fat and salt and make it less watery.
Do you ever brown the meat in a pan first?
I wonder if doing that would mean adding a small amount of liquid to the crockpot after all. (See? I can’t resist the temptation already!)
Grilled Asparagus
Clean a bunch of asparagus, cutting off the tough end.
Get a piece of aluminum foil, about twice as long as the longest asparagus spear
Split the asparagus into 2 groups. Place them on the foil, so that all of the tops of the spear
are pointing towards the center, overlapping by about 50%. (keeps the tips from being done way before the bottoms)
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Add a cup or so of bottled italian dressing. We like using a zesty dressing.
Fold the foil up and make a packet around the asparagus.
Place on a hot grill for maybe 15 minutes, until the asparagus is tender.
Grill
Cut whatever fresh vegetables you have on hand into 1/2 inch cubes – esp. zucchini, yellow squash, potatoes, onions, eggplant, bell peppers, mushrooms, celery, carrots, whatever…
Jumble them into a large broiling pan.
Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, herbs (I like rosemary). Maybe some balsamic vinegar.
Put in 400 degree oven. Stir every 10 - 15 minutes. Bake until done. Eat.
I can’t wait to try this.
Anyone for sweet and salty snacky stuff?
In a large bowl dump a can of mixed nuts, a box of Cheerios, and a bag of pretzels. In a pan on the stove melt together 1/2 stick butter, 1 cup corn syrup and 1 cup brown sugar. Pour over other stuff, mix together, and dump on a large flat sheet pan covered with foil. Bake for 15 minutes at 325 degrees. Cool. You can add in whatever other goodies you like now: I just made a humongus batch for work and added candy corn. M&Ms are good, as are Reese’s Pieces.
Boil small red potatoes until tender. Put one or two on your plate, and crush them slightly with the bottom of a glass. Lay across each one a couple of filets of anchovy. Drizzle with olive oil and eat.
I do this with a bunch of spuds, then top with parmesan and garlic and bake them for awhile. The addition of the anchovy…Good Lord! I can’t wait to do this!
This one is from my Grammie Rand. I have her original, hand-written recipe, circa 1960. It’s not your usual rice krispie treat!
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
1/4 cup peanut butter
4 cups rice krispies cereal
Melt both chips and peanut butter together, add cereal and stir until well-coated. Drop by tablespoon onto waxed paper. Cool until firm.
May also be packed into a 9 x 9 pan and cut into squares.
Store them in the fridge and they are cold and crunchy; store them on the counter and they are softer and chewier. Either way, they don’t last long!
Fall back dinner: open face mexi
Canned refrieds smeared on a good quality flour tortilla or two.
Add chopped tomato, scallion, shredded cheddar
Broil until brown and bubblin’, dose with salsa and avocado.
Simple as it gets, but waaaay tasty, especially with really fine tortillas.
Thanks to the OP, I had a really delicious dinner of fried pasta.
My version:
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Saute chopped onion, garlic, and bacon.
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Drain off most of the grease and add pine nuts and brussels sprouts (halved) to the pan. Saute some more.
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Add whole wheat gobbetti pasta to the pan. Stir in parsley, salt, and pepper. Squeeze a little lemon juice over it.
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Pour into a bowl, add shaved parmesan cheese.
Yum.
My favorite simple but great recipe is Deconstructed Pizza.
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Throw a small Boboli pizza crust in the oven.
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In a bowl, combine:
whole milk mozzarella (torn into blobs)
grape tomatoes (halved or quartered)
fresh basil leaves (shredded)
roasted garlic olive oil (this is key)
oregano flakes
salt (I use fleur de sel)
black pepper
- When the crust comes out of the oven, cut it into quarters and plate it. Then pour the topping over it and let it sit for a couple of minutes before eating.
Gad! Almost everything here is heart attack food!
Mind you, I love heart attack food and will doubtless have a go at a bunch of recipes listed here but I will do you all a favor and provide you with a wonderful, easy, healthy and incredibly tasty recipe I found about a year ago.
Did he say healthy AND tasty? Yes he did. I know, I know…I wouldn’t believe me either. Trust me, I am no health food fanatic. Unfortunately my girlfriend is so a lot of dishes when I cook for her are out the window (no butter and so on). Was very difficult and a few false starts but I cannot begin to express just how really yummy this dish is. You can have it as a main course or a side to something else.
Most of the time making it is prep (chopping peapods up) but not bad and pretty easy.
FYI I have always used the Tahini in this recipe (never knew it even existed till I made this dish). If anyone tries it with the cashew butter I’d be interested how it turned out.
One last note: Brine the chicken. Not crucial but makes for a very juicy chicken breast.
WARM SNOW PEA & CHICKEN SALAD
Snow peas aren’t just for stir-fries. Thinly sliced, their crunchy texture and sweet taste combine with a creamy Asian dressing to make this salad special.
Makes 4 servings, 11/4 cups each
ACTIVE TIME: 40 minutes
TOTAL TIME: 40 minutes
EASE OF PREPARATION: Easy
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, trimmed
1 14-ounce can reduced-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
3 teaspoons toasted sesame oil, divided
2 tablespoons tahini or cashew butter
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound snow peas, trimmed and thinly slivered lengthwise
2 tablespoons chopped cashews
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Place chicken in a medium skillet or saucepan and add broth; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer gently until cooked through and no longer pink in the middle, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board to cool. Shred into bite-size pieces. (Cool and refrigerate the broth, reserving it for another use.)
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Meanwhile, whisk vinegar, soy sauce, 2 teaspoons sesame oil and tahini (or cashew butter) in a large bowl until smooth.
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Heat the remaining 1 teaspoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add ginger and garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in slivered peas and cook, stirring, until bright green, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to the bowl with the dressing.
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Add the chicken to the bowl with the peas; toss to combine. Serve sprinkled with cashews.
NUTRITION INFORMATION: Per serving: 284 calories; 13 g fat (2 g sat, 5 g mono); 64 mg cholesterol; 13 g carbohydrate; 30 g protein; 3 g fiber; 509 mg sodium; 499 mg potassium.
Nutrition bonus: Vitamin C (90% daily value), Selenium (30% dv), Iron (20% dv), Magnesium (18% dv).
ETA: Always seems I need more chicken broth than mentioned in the recipe for proper cooking of the chicken. If you need more just add away…does not mess anything up.
Rickets is caused by a lack of vitamin C. I think you’ll be ok if you add a dash of lemon or Flinstone chewables.
Seriously, you’ll get rickets only if you eat every single meal with unsauced spaghetti for a long period of time. You don’t want to do this 3 meals a day.
Nope. Just trust me on this one. You need the fat to render out during the cooking process in the crock.
The Carnitas are so good and so easy I’m making them for a party in a couple of weeks.