Beef with Peapods & Mushrooms

Sorry.  It's been a while.  I've been cooking a lot, but haven't had a lot of time to blog about it, what with birthdays and parties and spring cleaning. 

I'm back now.

I made this recipe the other night because I had some peapods and mushrooms to use up - and Matt had three helpings.  Three.  I don't remember the last time he had three helpings of something, so I'm assuming he liked it.  Ben and I sure did.  Also, enjoy the photo - Ben set it up.

Beef with Peapods and Mushrooms

Ingredients:
6 T soy sauce
4 T rice wine vinegar
2 T brown sugar
1 tsp. cornstarch
1/2 - 1 T hoisin sauce
1 - 2 T vegetable oil
2 tsp. sesame oil
1 T minced fresh ginger root
1 T minced fresh garlic
1 lb. flat iron steak, sliced (or flank steak, or skirt steak - whichever is cheapest & looks the best)
1 package fresh peapods (8 oz. or so)
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
2 C rice, prepared

Assembly:
In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, cornstarch & hoisin sauce.  Set aside.

Heat the vegetable & sesame oils in a wok over medium high heat - add in the ginger and garlic and stir fry for about 30 seconds.  Add the steak and cook until evenly browned on all sides. 

Add the snow peas and mushrooms (and any other vegetables you want) and cook until just softened (about 3 - 5 minutes).  No mushy veggies, you hear?

Add the soy sauce mixture (scrape the bowl well in case the sugar didn't dissolve all the way) and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Lower the heat and simmer until the sauce thickens.

Serve over rice, next to a car.

Spicy Mac & Cheese

We are always trying different versions of mac & cheese - it's probably one of Matt's most favorite foods ever, and we're always looking for new ways to change it up a bit (however, more often than not, we make Matt's mom's version, which is so yummy and creamy and good...I should add that on here).

Anyway, I found this recipe on Pioneer Woman & knew we had to try it - I mean, mac & cheese, some spiciness...how could we go wrong? 

Spicy Mac & Cheese

Ingredients:

4 C cooked elbow macaroni

1 T olive oil

1 small jalapeno, de-seeded and finely diced

1/2 red onion, finely diced

Equal amount red bell pepper, finely diced

4 oz. canned green chiles, chopped

1 C frozen corn

1 (heaping) C shredded pepper jack cheese

2 - 3 cloves garlic

1 C heavy cream

2 T butter

Salt and pepper, to taste

Assembly:

Cook pasta until al dente.

In a large skillet (bust out the cast iron, will ya?), add the olive oil and saute the onion, pepper, jalapeno, corn and garlic over medium heat.  After a few minutes, add in the chiles and stir.  Turn off heat.

Drain pasta and add it to the pan.  Pour in cream, add cheese and salt and pepper - stir gently.  Add in the butter and stir gently again.

Serve by itself, or as a side to steak or chicken.  Just serve it.  Trust me.

Potsticker Soup

This is one of my new favorite soups to make - it's so easy, and we always have the ingredients on hand (thanks to Costco, I've always got a lot of chicken broth in the fridge and bags of potstickers and edamame in the freezer).  I've made it a few times since discovering the recipe (and have tweaked the original quite a bit) and each time, we all have seconds.  Even Ben.

Potsticker Soup

Ingredients:

32 - 64 oz. low sodium chicken broth (depending on how brothy you want your soup - I usually use about 1 1/2 boxes, or 48 oz.)

1 2" piece ginger, peeled and minced

16 oz. frozen potstickers

8 oz. sliced mushrooms (we just use regular mushrooms, but you can use Shiitake if you really want)

1 14 oz. bag frozen edamame, prepared according to package (don't forget to remove from the pod!)

Soy sauce, to taste

Sliced scallions, for garnish

Assembly:
In a large pot (I love using my stock pot for this), bring the chicken broth and ginger to a boil.

Add the potstickers and carrots, simmering until the carrots are tender (about 10 minutes).

Add the mushrooms and edamame - cook until warmed through (just a few minutes).  Stir in soy sauce, and top with scallions before serving.

Chicken with Lemon, Tomatoes and Thyme

Right before I had Ben, I made a bunch of freezer meals that would be easy for Matt and I to heat and eat while severely sleep deprived and learning to parent a newborn.  This was one of those meals.  It's so easy, it'll probably take me longer to type this up than it does to actually make the recipe - and it's good, too!  It's a little acidic with the lemons and tomatoes, but Ben loves it anyway.

Chicken with Lemon, Tomatoes and Thyme

Ingredients:

1 lemon

1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes

8 sprigs thyme
1 tbsp. capers
1 fryer chicken, cut up
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
4 resealable freezer bags, quart sized

Assembly:
Slice lemon into rounds.

In a small bowl, combine tomatoes & their juices, lemon, capers & thyme sprigs.  Divide evenly among four freezer bags.

Season chicken with salt and pepper, and place chicken pieces into bags (I put 2-3 pieces in each bag).

Freeze up to three months. 

To cook, heat oven to 400 degrees.  Empty contents of bag into roasting pan or baking dish (I use a roasting pan).  Each bag is one serving, so for the three of us, I cook two bags at a time.  Drizzle chicken with olive oil and cook until chicken is golden brown and cooked through - about an hour or so.

Potluck Cake

Ok, so, what I'm about to post is probably one of the least healthy, most processed things you could eat.  But it's freaking good, so just work with me here, ok?

 Potluck Cake (aka Dump Cake)

Ingredients:
1 can (21 oz.) cherry pie filling
1 can (15 oz.) crushed pineapple
1 box (18 oz.) yellow cake mix
1 stick margarine
1/2 stick butter
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

Assembly:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Dump cherry pie filling and crushed pineapple into 13x9 baking dish and stir.

Sprinkle the cake mix over the top of the fruit mixture and lay sliced margarine and butter evenly over the top of the cake mix.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour - the top will get all nice and gooey and browned.  Serve with whipped cream or ice cream, because really, you've already killed your diet with this...a little extra on top won't hurt.

Chicken with Green Beans and Mushrooms

You know what I love?  Chicken.  And green beans.  And mushrooms.  So it made perfect sense to make this dish.  (Though, after making this, we've realized that Ben does not like mushrooms...the only food he won't eat!)

Chicken with Green Beans and Mushrooms

Ingredients:
One 3  1/2 to 4 lb chicken, cut into pieces (I found a cut up fryer chicken on sale, so we used that)
3/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (or less, if you're a wimp)
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped + 12 whole cloves, unpeeled (I peeled them accidentally - they still worked fine...but I wish I would've saved myself the time & not peeled them)
1 small navel orange, halved
3/4 lb green beans, trimmed
One 10 oz. pkg mushrooms, sliced (I used a mix of baby bella & regular)

Assembly:
Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Rinse & pat dry the chicken, and place in a roasting pan.

In a small bowl, combine the thyme, red pepper, 3/4 tsp of salt & 1/4 tsp of pepper.  Brush the chicken with 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil, and sprinkle with the chopped garlic and spice mixture.  You might find it easier to kind of stipple on the spice mixture with a silicone brush (I did).

Arrange the garlic cloves & orange halves around the chicken and roast until cooked through, about 30 to 45 minutes. 

Meanwhile, place the green beans and mushrooms on a baking sheet.  Drizzle with the remaining olive oil and salt/pepper.  Roast until mushrooms are cooked and the beans are lightly brown - so, about 15 minutes, stirring once.  (I removed the roasting pan cover from the chicken when I put in the mushrooms/beans to let the skin crisp up a bit.) 

When finished, squeeze the orange halves over the chicken & serve with green beans and mushrooms.  (We served it all over rice - and it was goooooood!)

 

A New Use for Leftover Fruit

When our fridge gets really full and disorganized, the stuff in the far back freezes.  Lovely.  That happened to some watermelon we'd cut up, and I didn't want to let it thaw and get mushy, so I threw it in the Magic Bullet, blended it up, poured it in ice cube trays...

...And used them in my lemonade & vodka cocktails.  Soooooooooo refreshing.

No watermelon?  Try honeydew or musk melon, peaches,  or even cucumbers.  Throw them in lemonade, water, cocktails...and enjoy =)