Premeditated Leftovers

I deviated from my menu plan on the first day. I didn’t change it too much, but I decided the flavors of Green Beans with Garlic and Garlic and Rosemary Red Potatoes were too similar, so I decided to change up the potatoes a bit. I wanted the flavor of the potatoes to compliment the green beans rather than replicate it.

I used the same easy method as in the Garlic and Rosemary Roasted Potatoes, because I really liked that they were low in fat, but so flavorful that it wasn’t obvious. Instead of garlic and rosemary, I added onions and seasoned the potatoes with my Homemade Italian Seasoning Mix. It was a delicious combination that was popular with the whole family.

Sauteed Potatoes with Italian Seasonings

Author: Alea

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 6

Ingredients

6 medium potatoes, washed and diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red onion, diced
4 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions

Place diced potatoes in a pot of water. Cook over a medium-high flame until it comes to a boil. Lower the flame slightly so it doesn’t boil over and keep at a low rolling boil until the potatoes are fork tender, approximately 12 – 15 minutes.
Drain the potatoes.
Add oil and onion to pot. Saute over a medium flame for 2 minutes. Add potatoes and spices. Toss until thoroughly coated and cook over a medium-high flame for another 3 minutes.

What is your favorite way to make potatoes?

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Alea February 16, 2012 Featured, recipes and cooking tips potato recipes No Comments

Honey Mustard Salad Dressing

This Honey Mustard Vinaigrette is a simple dressing to make. This recipe is also easy to remember and easy to adjust since you use equal parts of the four main ingredients.

I like making my own dressings because it allows me complete control over the ingredients. I used Annie’s Naturals Organic Dijon Mustard and rice vinegar to make sure that my dressing was gluten-free.

I use a Pyrex Measuring Cup and pour in 1/4 cup of each ingredient and then blend them with a small whisk.

Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

5.0 from 1 reviews

Recipe type: Salad Dressing

Author: Alea

Prep time: 5 mins

Total time: 5 mins

Serves: 8

Ingredients

1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup mild oil
couple dashes of pepper

Directions

Combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Whisk until thoroughly combined.
Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

This post is linked to Delicious Dish Tuesday and Allergy Free Wednesday hosted by Tessa the Domestic Diva, Gluten Free Pantry, Real Food Allergy Free, The Tasty Alternative, and The Willing Cook.

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Alea February 15, 2012 Featured, recipes and cooking tips salad dressing 7 Comments

Making Chili with Leftovers and Repurposing Leftover Chili

Chili Pie is a delicious way to repurpose leftover chili!

Making Chili with Leftovers:

I have found that I can get my kids to eat just about anything if I season it with cumin, so that makes chili the perfect dinner to use up the leftover bits in the fridge. I have been know to add leftover spaghetti sauce, leftover taco meat, extra veggies, and leftover rice to chili. I think the Italian and Mexican flavors of leftovers add more depth to a traditional chili. I also add whatever beans that need to be used up from baked beans, to garbanzo beans and everything in between. Here are a few of my chili recipes:

Miracle Leftover Chili

White Chili

Black Bean and Cauliflower Chili

Lentil and Cauliflower Chili

Repurpose Leftover Chili with these Recipes:

I often make a large pot of chili and my family doesn’t want to eat chili for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until it is gone, so I use the chili as the base for a new recipe. Chili also freezes well. I like to freeze to freeze chili and then use it in one of the below recipes.

Chili Pasta Bake

Chili Stuffed Potatoes

Chili Pie

Some More Ideas for Using Up Chili:

Make Chili Dogs

Use chili as a dip with chips.

Use it as a condiment over scrambled eggs.

Do you add any unusual ingredients to your chili? How do you repurpose leftover chili?

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Alea February 14, 2012 Featured, recipes and cooking tips repurpos 1 Comment

Use a Vase or Glass as a Rolling Pin

When I was making Chocolate Chip Scones, I could not find my rolling pin any where. I knew that there was a good chance my 4 year old was behind its disappearance, but when I asked him where it was he couldn’t remember where he put it.

I grabbed a clean, tall vase, rubbed oil on it and used it to roll out the dough. Any smooth object with tall sides will work in a pinch, including a glass or stainless steel water bottle.

Several days later I found the rolling pin in a closet on top of a stuffed cat wrapped in a blanket. When I asked my son what he was doing he said, “oh yeah, I was playing The Roly Poly Pudding”.

This post is linked to Kitchen Tip Tuesday.

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Alea February 13, 2012 Featured, recipes and cooking tips cooking tip No Comments

Chai Spiced Meringues with Pecans

I love finding ways to combine chai spices with traditional recipes. And meringues were just asking for a flavorful makeover.

Meringues are primarily made of egg whites and superfine sugar. You don’t need to buy superfine sugar because you can easily make superfine sugar yourself. Meringues are easy to make and the batter comes together quickly, but they take 2 hours to bake and then they need to sit for at least 2 more hours to get that crunchy, melt-in-your-mouth texture.

A stand mixer is really helpful, since you have to slowly add sugar while continuing to beat the batter until it forms stiff peaks. My stand mixer broke last week, so I made these using a hand mixer which was a little more difficult, but doable.

Because meringues take so long to bake, they all have to be baked at the same time. I am able to get two small and one large cookie sheet in the oven at the same time. I suggest playing with the arrangement of cookie sheets before you start baking. If necessary, you can place the meringues a little closer on the cookie sheet because they don’t spread out like traditional cookies.

Chai Spiced Meringues with Pecans

Recipe type: Dessert

Author: Alea

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 2 hours

Total time: 2 hours 15 mins

Serves: 3 dozen

Ingredients

4 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla (I use gf vanilla)
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup superfine sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup pecans, chopped (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 200 degrees and line a cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Mix sugar and spices in a small bowl. Set aside.
Add egg whites, cream of tartar, salt, and vanilla to a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, approximately 2 minutes.
Slowly add sugar mixture to the egg whites while continuing to beat the eggs. Continuing mixing until the sugar is completely disolved and stiff peaks form.
Stir in pecans by hand.
Drop by rounded tablespoon onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake at 200 degrees for for 1 1/2 – 2 hours, or until dry. Turn off oven and let the cookies sit in the oven for another 1 1/2 – 2 hours until they feel light and airy and are dry all the way through.

This post is linked to Slightly Indulgent Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday.

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Alea February 12, 2012 Featured, recipes and cooking tips dairy free recipes, gluten-free cookies 4 Comments

Menu Plan – Week of 2/12

My husband is doing the grocery shopping tonight and is grilling dinner, so I get a little bit of a break from cooking. He told me he is going to make extra so that I can use the leftovers, which means I don’t have to cook dinner entirely from scratch until Thursday.

Sunday -Grilled Steaks, Green Beans with Garlic, and Garlic and Rosemary Red Potatoes.

Monday – Use the leftover potatoes in Spinach and Potato Frittata (I will skip the first step since the potatoes are already cooked. Serve with a Strawberry Spinach Salad.

Tuesday -Going out to dinner with my husband.

Wednesday -Use the leftover steak in Southwest Steak Salad with Honey Lime Dressing.

Thursday -Rapidly Roasted Herb Crusted Chicken with Vegetables

Friday – Use chicken and any leftover veggies in an Easy Stir-fry. Serve over Basmati Rice with Onion and Garlic.

Saturday – Use chicken bones to make broth. Use the broth to make Chicken and Rice Soup. Serve with a garden salad.

What are you cooking this week?

Alea February 12, 2012 Featured, recipes and cooking tips menu plan 1 Comment

I’m at Zesty South Indian Kitchen Today

My friend Swathi, from Zesty South Indian Kitchen, recently had a baby and is taking a well deserved break. Since I don’t live close enough to bring her a meal, I am sharing a virtual dessert with her. Visit her site to find the recipe for Gingered Pear Crisp.

Alea February 7, 2012 Featured, recipes and cooking tips 2 Comments

Pretzel Crusted Honey Mustard Chicken Tenders

This is a fast and easy recipe to make in bulk for either a party or to freeze and use as a base for a simple dinner on busy nights. If I use this recipe for dinners, it makes enough for 3 meals for my family of 5.

The flavor of the honey mustard marinade comes through the pretzel crust, so they can be served without a dip, but I’ve included my simple honey mustard dipping sauce below the chicken tenders recipe. Even though I cheat and use pretzels, it is still pretty healthy since these chicken tenders are baked instead of fried.

Time Saving Tips:

I buy chicken in bulk when it is on sale and freeze it. When I make chicken tenders I partially thaw the chicken and then use kitchen scissors to cut the chicken into strips. Cutting strips with scissor speeds up the process.

You can add the marinade to the chicken strips the night before and let it marinade overnight in the fridge. You can also crush the pretzels the night before, so everything is prepped on a busy nights. Then all you have to do is dredge the tenders through the crushed pretzels and bake.

If you freeze the tenders you can reheat 4 -6 tenders in the microwave for a minute. For a crisper crust, reheat the frozen tenders in the oven for 10 – 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

I place a few tenders in the pretzel crumbs and then spoon crumbs over the top to ensure they are completely coated.

For more tips visit Kitchen Tip Tuesday.

Pretzel Crusted Honey Mustard Chicken Tenders

Yield: 12 servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

2 lbs. bl/sl chicken breasts
1/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard (I use gf mustard)
2 tablespoons orange juice
8 oz. pretzels (I used gluten-free pretzels)

Directions:

Cut chicken breasts into strips.

Mix honey, mustard, and orange juice together. cover chicken tenders with marinade and marinate in the refridgerator for at least 30 minutes.

Crush pretzels in a food processor or blender. I crush 1 -2 cups at a time.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease cookie sheets.

Place crushed pretzels in a large dish with a low lip. Place several tenders in the pretzels. Coat with pretzels and place on cookie sheet.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons mustard

In a small bowl, mix honey with dijon mustard.

The Honey Mustard Sauce can be doubled or tripled if serving all of the tenders at one time.

What are your favorite homemade “fast foods”?

This post is linked to $5 Dinner Challenge, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday and Hearth and Soul Hop.

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Alea January 29, 2012 Featured, recipes and cooking tips chicken recipes 4 Comments

Peanut Butter Bark

It has been almost a month since I’ve shared a candy recipe. I really hope you appreciate my self control! However, Valentine’s Day is coming up and my sweetheart’s favorite candy is peanut butter bark. This is an easy candy to make, but don’t tell my husband because I am going to pass it off as a labor of love.

My husband and I rarely exchange big gifts on Valentine’s Day. One year I made an exception to the rule and bought him Morison’s History of the United States Naval Operations in World War II 15 Volume Set. Stupidest gift ever! I was neglected for months as he read through the books. I learned my lesson the hard way and will stick to candy this year.

Spoon the melted chocolate and peanut butter onto a cookie sheet covered in foil.

Swirl the chocolate and peanut butter together with a spatula. An offset spatula helps spread it evenly, but is not necessary.

Peanut Butter Bark

Ingredients:

1 package peanut butter chips
1 tablespoons shortening
1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup of unsalted, dry roasted peanuts

Directions:

Cover a cookie sheet with foil.

Melt the peanut butter chips and shortening according to package directions. Once melted stir in 1/2 cup of the peanuts.

Melt the chocolate chips according to package directions. Once melted stir in 1/2 cup of the peanuts.

Alternate spooning the melted chocolate chips and melted peanut butter chips on to the cookie sheet. Then use a spatula to semi blend the two and spread it evenly over the foil.

Let sit for 2 hours to firm up or put it in the freezer for 30 minutes. Break into pieces.