Brunch!!

Brunch is such a good way to use your leftovers. That’s exactly what I did this morning. We had so much meatloaf left!

Omelette:

• 2 eggs per omelette (I used 6 total)
• Mushrooms
• Tomatoes
• Shallots
• Scallions
• Small cubes of the meatloaf
• Soy sauce
• Red pepper flakes
• Salt & pepper
• Milk

Before folding the omelette, I sprinkled parmesan cheese flakes.

I served this with leftover green beans, leftover slices of meatloaf, leftover mashed sweet potatoes and freshly baked blueberry muffis (from the box). Tim brewed some coffee and I had a glass of orange juice with heavy pulp (I don’t drink coffee). SUCH A GOOD BRUNCH, omg. We should’ve had bloody mary’s! Oh well!

Sorry for the quality–took it on my BB.

$ breakdown:

• $2 for a dozen eggs

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Meatloaf (revisited)

I used the same recipe I wrote a couple posts ago. The difference is that this time, Andi whipped up an amazing tomato sauce to pour over the meatloaf!

• Roma tomatoes
• Mushrooms
• Shallots
• Garlic
• Red wine
• Olive oil
• Oregano
• Salt & pepper
• Cayenne pepper

We had it with mashed sweet potatoes & green beans. MMMM. Such an amazing dinner!

Mashed sweet potatoes:

• Sweet potatoes
• Butter
• Chili powder
• Salt & pepper

Green beans:

• Blanched green beans
• Oregano
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

OMG the meatloaf was sooooo moist and the sauce really complemented all the spices. The potatoes were good; I really liked the chili powder.. that was a good touch. And the green beans were nice and crunchy! MMM!!!

$ breakdown:

• ~$3 sweet potatoes
• $2 green beans
• $3 ground chicken

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Lasagna

Ah, good ol’ fashioned lasagna!

• Seasoned ground chicken (oregano, soy sauce, some onions & shallots, garlic, red pepper flakes, chili powder, cayenne pepper, salt & pepper)
• Lasagna noodles (cooked al dente)
• Ricotta cheese
• Parmesan flakes (I would’ve preferred mozzarella but I forgot to pick it up) — the FRESH stuff
• Shallots
• Onions
• Tomato sauce (I used 1 jar of Classico garden variety)
• Mushrooms

I cooked the meat w/ the onions, shallots & mushrooms before I poured any tomato sauce over it; then I seasoned the sauce and let it simmer for a bit. I added some red wine to this as well. Any red wine will do

This is how I set up my layers:

• Tomato sauce on the bottom (just straight from the jar)
• Lasagna noodles
• Ricotta cheese
• Parmesan cheese
• Meat and sauce mixture
• And sprinkle the top layer with parmesan cheese

Bake with foil for 25-30 minutes @ 350 degrees and then remove the foil & pop it under the broiler until the cheese is nice and bubbly. I didn’t leave mine under the broiler for too long because we were starving! Oh well. Still turned out delicious.

It was pretttttttttty tasty!!!! I’d recommend freezing leftovers. Too bad we didn’t have any. MMMM so good.

$ breakdown:

• $2-5 lasagna noodles
• ~$3 tomato sauce (cheaper if you make your own!)
• $3 ground chicken
• $3 mushrooms
• $3 ricotta cheese
• $4 parmesan flakes

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Pollo Asado Lettuce Wraps

Oooo, a Mexican-Asian fusion dish!

I’ve had some frozen chicken thighs marinating in an asada sauce for a while now so I decided to finally do something with it.

I’m fresh out of olive oil so I had to use a little butter to sautee the onions, garlic & mushrooms. I cooked those for about 2 minutes and then placed the chicken thighs (all cut up btw) in the same pan. I seasoned everything with red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, chili powder & cumin. Poured in about 1/8 c of chicken broth and let it reduce, then added another 1/8 c along with 1/8 c of the asada marinade. Let this simmer for a bit on low heat.

I cooked rice and some black beans & shallots in the asada marinade.

Serve with fresh iceberg lettuce.

Sorry for the photo quality; I took it with my blackberry.

$ breakdown:

So cheap.

• $2 for a head of lettuce
• $3-6 for a pack of chicken thighs
• $12-15 for the huge jug of carne asada marinade from costco (comes in a 2 pack) (http://www.qbfoods.com/ojaicookmarinade.html)

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Chicken Enchiladas

Ok, so I dunno how “brilliant” or “mouth watering” this will be, but I tried!  I made enchiladas for the first time ever, and I didn’t follow a recipe, I just made it up.
Ingredients:
•    Corn tortillas, approx 12
•    About 4 cups of cheese
•    Large can of enchilada sauce.  I used/ recommend Las Palmas in the yellow can
•    1-2 large chicken breasts
•    sliced black olives, 2 cans
•    1 small can of diced green chiles

Boil the chicken breasts until cooked throughout and then shred them.  It’s easiest to start shredding with a fork and then shred the big pieces with your fingers.  Also, another tip, while the chicken is boiling you can get everything else prepped and ready to go, yay time management!

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees.

Once the chicken is ready, get a large pyrex pan, or anything you can bake in, and start assembly.  Basically I did a few pieces of chicken, 4-6 pieces, then cheese, about 7 or 8 olives slices and maybe half a tablespoon of chiles.  Then you roll that sucker up and place in the dish.  Repeat and squeeze as many as you can in the dish.  Once the dish is full, pour the sauce on.  I also sprinkled the leftover 1.5 cups of cheese and about a can of olives (what was leftover from the inside basically).

Cover with foil, pop in the oven for about 30 minutes.  Take the foil off and leave in oven for an additional 10 minutes.  Let cool at least 15 minutes.  Enjoy!

For the future I would use flour tortillas, because the corn ones are smaller, and break extremely easily.  This was frustrating, but it tastes the same.  Also, you can add tons of different ingredients, or do green enchilada sauce.  Next time I want to try both green and red.

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Chicken in a hot sauce with black beans

This is my take on a favorite dish from a local Mexican place.

Chicken breast dry rub:

• Garlic
• Lemon juice
• Chili powder
• Salt
• Pepper
• Oregano
• Cumin

Let this sit for an hour but overnight would be best.

Sear the chicken breasts on a hot pan for 2 minutes and then pour a small can of tomato sauce into the pan. This broth consists of the following:

• Tomato sauce
• 1/3 c of water or chicken broth
• Salt
• Pepper
• Onion slivers
• Shallots
• Cumin
• Chili powder
• Oregano
• Hot sauce
• Lemon juice (vinegar would be a good substitute also)
• Peppers would be good but I didn’t add any

Cook the chicken in this broth and cover the pan until the chicken is cooked.

I served this with black beans (recipe follows) and white rice.

• 1 can of rinsed black beans
• Salt
• Pepper
• Cumin
• Oregano
• Chili powder
• One ladle-full of the tomato broth
• 1/4 c of water

This is a really quick and simple meal to make. I used a lot of the same spices but varied the amount for each. It turned out really well, though. My friend was pretty impressed!

$ breakdown:

• Chicken breasts vary. I think I got a pack for about $8 or $9
• $1 can of black beans
• $2 can of tomato sauce

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Fresh pasta made from scratch!

For Christmas my wonderful parents, OOPS, excuse me, I mean Santa Claus gave me the pasta roller attachment for my KitchenAid Mixer! I will warn you now that I did not do the best job of documenting my pasta making. It was my first time and it is kind of a two hand job! Next time I will show you the rolling, kneading & cutting process!

Ingredients:

3.5 cups flour
4 eggs
.5 tsp salt
1 Tbsp water

This is the cheating way. You COULD make the dough entirely by hand, but it is just so much more fun just throwing all of the ingredients into the mixer!

You know the dough is ready (it only take a few minutes of mixing) when you pinch a bit of it and it sticks together (and not to your hand!). The dough is surprisingly un-sticky. Here is my big ball of dough:

Here comes the movie magic:

annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd

Voila!

Fresh made spaghetti! I promise I actually rolled it out and cut it )

Here is my giant bowl of cooked spaghetti. This recipe yields a TON of pasta!

I’ve eaten this pasta two ways (and documented neither of the finished products):

(1) I drizzled a little bit of olive oil and added a sprinkle parmesan cheese. This was really simple and highlighted the pasta! Plus the lemony, nutty flavors of the cheese and oil were just delicious.

(2) I cooked up chicken and zucchini in some olive oil, garlic & italian seasoning mix and then simmered that mixture in a basil marinara sauce. It turned out quite well if I do say so myself!

I promise that I will take better pictures next time )

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Spicy marinated chicken with mushrooms in a white wine sauce on spinach

PHEW, what a long title!

I cook a LOT of chicken (obviously) so I think I’m somewhat well-versed in marinades.

Marinade recipe:

• Soy sauce
• Sesame oil
• Red pepper flakes
• Garlic salt
• Pepper
• Cayenne pepper
• Minced garlic

I had a chicken breast marinated and frozen for a while. I let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight and it was good as new.

I pan seared it for 3 minutes on each side and then popped it into the oven for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.

All the while, I used the same pan that I seared the chicken with to cook the mushrooms.

• Mushrooms
• Onions
• Green onions
• Grape tomatoes
• Garlic
• Salt and pepper
• White wine
• Chicken broth
• Butter

Reduce until the chicken is finished.

I served it on top of a bed of fresh spinach. It was SO moist and delicious and SPICY.

$ breakdown:

• $2-3 for spinach (I like to buy the prewashed bagged spinach)
• $2 grape tomatoes
• $2 mushrooms
• $7-10 for a pack of chicken breasts

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Oven roasted curry chicken & mushrooms over rice

I remember watching something on Rachael Ray (gross) about some chicken marinade that was some Indian-Greek fusion. She made it a point to mention she was using yogurt in her marinade and I thought I’d give it a shot. I mean, come on, if RR can do it, then by God, I can do it better.

Recipe marinade:

• 2 tablespoons of yellow curry powder
• 1 to 1.5 cups of plain yogurt
• Salt
• Pepper
• Lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon of minced garlic
• Red pepper flakes
• Cayenne pepper
• Green onions

Chicken drumsticks were on sale so I used that with this marinade.

I marinated everything over night, placed it all in a covered pot (and about 1/2 cup of chicken broth) for 20 minutes, then popped it in the oven uncovered on a cookie sheet for 45 minutes.

I served it with rice over veggies and mushrooms. It was pretty good, really moist. And for the record, that’s not ketchup, that’s sriracha sauce.

$ breakdown:

• $3 for a pint of plain yogurt
• $6 for a pack of chicken drumsticks
• $3 for mushrooms

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3 entrees with 3-bean salad

I just got back from vacationing in Spain and hence, on an EXTREME budget. When I went grocery shopping today, I picked up some cans of red kidney beans, chick peas and black beans and decided to make a 3-bean salad. I thought of various entrees one can create that includes 3-bean salad.

Our 3-bean salad will serve as the base for all entrees. Recipe is as follows:

(Note: you can use any beans you’d like and as many different types but I settled on the following)

• 1 can of black beans
• 1 can of red kidney beans
• 1 can of chick peas
• 1/2 to 1 cup of halved grape tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon of garlic
• 1 tablespoon of fresh chopped scallions
• Olive oil to taste
• Balsamic vinegar to taste
• Freshly ground salt and pepper
• Optional: lemon juice to taste

First entree: 3-bean salad

It’s good by itself or on a slice of bread. This would make an EXCELLENT hors doeuvre, especially if paired with a crisp chardonnay. It might be nice to grate some parmesan on this, too. Or, ooo, avocado slices.

$ breakdown:

• Approximately $3 for all the beans
• $3 for grape tomatoes
• ~$1 for scallions
• Approximately $3-6 for a really goad loaf of bread
• The rest of the ingredients should already be staples in your kitchen!

Second entree: 3-bean salad with tuna

• Use the 3-bean salad recipe
• 1 can of chunk white albacore in water
• Salt and pepper to flavor the tuna

This would also be excellent to serve with bread or crackers.

$ breakdown:

• $2-5 depending on the quality of tuna

Third entree: 3-bean pasta salad

• 3-bean salad
• 1 can of tuna
• Any pasta cooked al-dente
• 1/2 cup of frozen sweet corn kernels

This dish tends to dry out a little so I keep maybe 1/4 to 1/5  cup of the starchy pasta water. Mix everything together, drizzle with olive oil and salt & pepper to taste. You can also add some lemon juice to this. The frozen corn kernels will cook when mixed with the hot pasta

$ breakdown (so cheap):

• $1-3 depending on the type of pasta
• $1-3 for the corn. It’d probably be cheaper if you use fresh corn!

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