Toss the Blue Box!

August has been a busier month than usual.  I had not one product sponsor I was working with, but I eagerly volunteered to work with Barilla Pronto Pasta!  What's not to love about pasta?!  It is a good, healthy carb and who doesn't love the cheesy goodness that often accompanies pasta, especially when it's Macaroni and Cheese!!!

Something to savour!

I love Johnsonville Italian Sausage, it is so robust, and bursting with flavour!  This month I have the opportunity to once again partner with Johnsonville Italian Sausage, and already I have made some incredible mouth-watering main dishes!

Sunday lunch

Today as I looked in the pantry I spotted a box of orzo pasta.  As frugal as I am when it comes to grocery shopping, sometimes I'll pick up an ingredient for a one time dish.  This was the case with the orzo pasta.  I did a bit more rummaging around in the fridge, and spotted a red bell pepper that I needed to use.  Then I saw a container of pesto...you know that green mixture of basil, pignolia (aka pine nuts), Parmesan cheese, and olive oil  

I wasn't sure what else would go into my lunch, until I spotted a recipe for Shrimp Orzo Pesto on Allrecipes.com

Perfect!  I had the orzo, shrimp, bell pepper, pesto, and all the seasonings.  I left out all but 1 teaspoon of the olive oil, as the pesto has more than enough olive oil for this dish.  So go ahead and skip the rest of it (trust me your mouth & stomach won't know the difference). 
The directions say that the pesto needs to be divided, yet the second use isn't mentioned.  Let me help solve that problem.  Take the remaining pesto and sauté the shrimp in it.  Bada bing, bada boom...sizzling pesto shrimp!  Careful on the red pepper flakes.  If you want a mild amount of heat I suggest using 1/8 tsp PER serving

A bowl of soup

It's the middle of September, and across some of the country it's getting cooler. That means it's the perfect time for a bowl of soup!

Progresso meets pasta

This month as an Allrecipes brand ambassador one of the brand sponsors was Progresso.  They sent out five different flavours of their new cooking sauces.  I immediately looked at the ingredient label and 4 out of the 5 cooking sauces listed water as the main (first) ingredient.  I inwardly cringed and thought the sauces would lack flavour.  I hesitated on cooking anything as I'm not paid for my time, or any ingredients I may use.

The flavours I received were: Creamy roasted garlic, Creamy portobello, Fire roasted tomato, Creamy three cheese, and Creamy Parmesan Basil.

I was given a list of recipes from which to choose and I'll admit that as a food snob I didn't want to use the products. I grudgingly settled for the easy weeknight bacon mac 'n cheese using the Creamy three cheese cooking sauce.

I'll admit to tweaking it up a little bit.  Instead of the cheese loaf (think Velveeta) I used a blend of extra sharp cheddar and mild cheddar cheese.  The sauce looked thin.  I groaned and fussed.

I put the dish together and proceeded to bake it, placed it in the oven set the timer and waited for it to cook.  I'll admit that my next reaction shocked me.  This stuff smelled good!  Seriously good.  My stomach was growling!  Finally the dish was done...and wait...where did that soupy thin sauce go to?!  I wasn't about to let this mac 'n cheese cool down.  I wanted it, and I scooped some out.  Oh wow!  This stuff tastes amazing!   I never thought I would've liked a sauce out of a can, but this really surprised me!   If you've seen the starter sauces you should give this one a try!

*Disclosure: The information and free Progresso Recipe Starters products were provided by Progresso through the Allrecipes Brand Ambassadors Program.

February finds...

February has been a busy month for me.  In addition to the normal days, it's packed w/ Groundhogs day, Valentine's Day, Mardi Gras, an extra day this month and Fiber One! 

As a voluntary brand Ambassador for Allrecipes I often have assignments to complete for a select brand partner and provide feedback. I'm not compensated for my time, work, or ingredients and only receive the product for testing and feedback purposes.

At the mention of Fiber One, I can already imagine the wrinkling noses and the thoughts of  "Ewwww gross" crossing the minds of some of my readers, and I don't blame you b/c I did the same thing. 

When I first opened the box of cereal and saw it, many descriptions ran through my mind.  At best this cereal looks like food for the canine world, and at worst looks like droppings from the rodent world.

One of the Fiber One assignments was to make the Fiber one haystacks which are a friendly treat for those who are managing their weight.  I personally couldn't get over the look of this cereal so I did the next best thing and I pulvarised it to where it looked like flour.  I read through the reviews and in this case it's either a "you love it" or "you hate it" recipe. The "hate it" reviews mainly had issues w/ the texture and taste of the fiber one cereal, and I don't blame them. The look of the cereal is NOT appealing and the taste isn't much better. I melted my chocolate using a double boiler, and mixed in the PB. After pulvarising the cereal I mixed it into my melted chocolate, I then poured the chocolate mixture into a mini muffin lined w/ paper cups for a pretty good PB cup.

Now that the first assignment was out of the way, I then was required to create a Fiber One recipe.  I knew that anything I made, I would make w/ pulvarised Fiber One.  The first thought was to make a Fiber One Hazelnut Blueberry Muffin

I'm a great cook, but these were just NASTY.  I tried to replace a portion of the flour I would normally use w/ the fiber one...it was a fail. Did I mention that I'm NOT reimbursed, even for my ingredients?

I really wanted to get the assignment finished and so I brain stormed and came up w/ a recipe that I called Arancini balls and meat sauce

My experience using Fiber One will NOT be a repeat. I still have plenty of the cereal left - I think I'll pulvarise the rest of it and make Christmas Ornaments b/c I'm not going to eat the rest of it.  The biggest problem many of my fellow brand ambassadors had, was that the cereal contains aspartame which from studies is not healthy.  My Fiber One assignments completed, I moved forward with other cooking endeavours.

I made Alaskan Cod and Shrimp with a fresh tomato sauce and tho it was quick to prepare it was lacking on flavour.  I'm thinking next time I make it I'll try making the sauce w/ a cabernet sauvignon, and then a bit of rosemary for added depth.

One of my most recent favourite finds was Easy Tuscan Chicken



This was incredibly delicious!!! I'm heavy into using my slow cooker, and given my chicken breasts were frozen, I had to slightly modify this recipe to make it work for me.  I seasoned the chicken breasts w/ a little bit of granulated garlic and Italian seasoning and I put them in my crockpot along w/ 1/4 cup water on high for about 3 hours and then turned it to low for another 2 hours. I made the sauce as instructed w/ the exception I added in the tomatoes along w/ the other ingredients.  This is me being a food snob, but make sure you use a good quality white wine -rule of thumb, if you wouldn't drink it don't cook w/ it!  I used Barefoot Pinot Grigio. This sauce in all it's simplicity amazingly delicious, packed w/ flavour and I plan on making it again!

I often look for "faceless" recipes that need pictures and reviews. I tried a new recipe for Penne a la vodka.

I didn't see the need for farfalle (bowtie) pasta, so I used penne instead.  I wasn't too crazy about this recipe, and I believe the problem at hand w/ this recipe can be attributed to the following issue.  This recipe is relying too much on the Italian Sausage for flavouring.  This is a decent recipe but not spectacular. I won't be repeating it again.

Once again back to crockpot cooking.  I decided to make meatloaf and figured that since my day was going to be busy that I would try meatloaf in the crockpot.  It turned out very good! I'm going to work on the flavouring b/c while it was moist, and not dry it didn't have that much flavour.



New year, new recipes!

As this year kicks off I once again find myself in the incredibly amazing spot of being a voluntary Allrecipes.com brand ambassador - I'm not paid for anything I'm just sharing my love of cooking.

Tonight I made what I call Fire roasted Italian Chicken - it's quick, it's simple, I think it's gourmet. 

I don't *gasp* have an actual recipe for it.  I cook to taste.  Having said that I'm trying to give as best of a recipe as possible.  This would be for 1 person

2 Tbsp grapeseed OR extra virgin olive oil
1 - 6oz boneless skinless chicken breast
1/2 tsp granulated garlic  (please note this IS different than garlic powder or garlic salt)
1/2 tsp italian seasoning
1/2 tsp dried rosemary leaves, crushed
3 ounces Good quality Pinot Grigio Wine
1/3 cup cannelini beans - drained and rinse
1/4 cup fire roasted tomatoes - do NOT drain
1/4 cup julienned carrots
1/4 cup long grain wild rice (pre-cooked Uncle Ben's 90 second rice)


Pour oil into large skillet.  Heat skillet over a medium high heat.  Season both sides of the chicken breast w/ the granulated garlic, italian seasoning, and rosemary.  Carefully place the chicken breast in the skillet.  Cook until each side is a golden brown - about 4 minutes per side.  Slide chicken breast to the side of the pan, pour in the wine, scrape up any of the "tasty bits' on the bottom of the skillet by using a wooden spoon to assist in deglazing the pan.  Add in the cannelini beans, tomatoes, carrots, and rice.  Allow to simmer about 10 minutes, stirring occassionally.

This is a very hearty and rustic meal.  If you would like, feel free to tweak - I've added baby port mushrooms, I've also added in more tomatoes, and then topped the chicken w/ a slice of FRESH mozzarella cheese (not the brick stuff).  It's VERY wholesome and healthy as made above.  I do NOT really like using salt b/c I prefer the seasonings to bring out the flavour of the meal.  If you prefer feel free to add some salt.

~~~

The other night I made a rather interesting meal consisting of  Cilantro Lime Flounder, wild rice, and sauteed squash and zucchini.  Yes I'm quite aware it's for a cod recipe, but flounder can be substituted as well.

The taste is difficult for me to describe, if I could think of a way to describe it I would say it's Floribbean Cuisine.   It was very quick to make and I appreciated the healthy appeal of this recipe.  The changes I made were neglible in the sense I used butter...b/c butter makes everything better - oh wait that's bacon...or is it?

Because it's 1700 somewhere or as civilians say 5 o'clock somewhere (rabbit trail...anyone know why it's typed o'clock?)  and b/c I had a recipe that could be called Floribbean Cuisine  I decided to have a Blue Hawaiian

This was very potent so make sure you're sitting down when you drink this, and if you want feel free to dress up in some Islander wear for a truly authentic drink :-)

~~~

I am in love...w/ my slow cooker - yes that kitchen accessory that's likely sporting cobwebs underneath your kitchen cabinet.  It is such a fantastic accessory that can make so many amazing dishes...like BBQ Ribs!  "No way' you say!  'Way!" I say ;-)

What makes it amazing...it's just two simple ingredients!

1 package of country style pork ribs
1 bottle of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ Sauce

Okay, Okay I'm not trying to drop names or promote this specific brand, but my goodness the Hickory & Brown Sugar sauce is finger lickin delicious! 

SO...I spray the inside of my slow cooker w/ non stick spray, and then plop my ribs inside the slow cooker, and then use a basting brush, I brush the ribs liberally w/ the sauce. Simple huh?  At that point, I place the lid on my slow cooker, turn it to high and walk away.  About 5-6 hours later, my ribs are ready to be devoured!

Rounding out the meal...homemade mac and cheese - and NOPE it's not the boxed junk!

1 (8 ounce) package elbow macaroni

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 pound Cheddar cheese (mix of sharp & mild)

1 1/2 cups milk

2 Tbsp all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 tsp worchestershire sauce
1/4 tsp dry mustard powder

Preheat oven to 350° Spray a 2 quart casserole dish w/ nonstick spray
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add macaroni and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente;
Meanwhile melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add flour, whisking until combined.  Slowly pour in milk, whisking to combine, continue whisking until it thickens. Add in the cheese, and stir until well blended, add in the salt, black pepper, worchestershire sauce and dry mustard powder, stir to combine.
Once the pasta has finished boiling, drain.  Return the pasta to the pot, and pour the cheese sauce inside, stirring well to combine.  Pour mixture into casserole dish and top w/ more cheese if desired. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.

Rounding out the meal steamed green beans and beer bread.

I can see the male readers perking up at the word beer.  Their beloved drink has gone to...bread!
I've now made this same recipe about 8 times but each time using a different brand of beer.  I think I really need to start another blog dedicated to beer bread b/c I can't get enough of this stuff!  This time I used a Vanilla Porter beer.

If you've never tried your hand making beer bread give it a try...Three simple ingredients - self rising flour, sugar, and beer...simple quick -ohhhh and speaking of simple - Anyone know of that homebrand company that sells beer bread MIX (you have to buy the beer) that's like about $5 per mix?  This is SO much better and more economical to make!  Tell yourself that you'll try beer bread this week...oh and don't use a nasty beer...what you may like drinking may not taste so good in the beer bread, crazy but true.  I've used w/ success, Purple Haze Beer, Ybor Gold (a local beer to my city), Sam Adams Cherry Wheat (OMG Good!), Winter Abby Pale Ale, and a host of others....see I told you I need a beer bread blog!

And last but not least lets have another drink...this time we're going tropical and heading towards the Bahamas for a Bahama Breeze!

Now granted the recipe said it served 4 I'm thinking NOT!  This made ONE serving...and it was very tasty too!  If you can't find the Apricot liqueur, feel free to sub w/ some passionfruit rum, and it will still give you that tropical feeling!

~~~

I love meals in one - you get your meat/poultry, your veggies, and your starch...SO next up is Chicken pot pie. 

Was it to die for...ehhh not really, but it was good, it was country cooking, and I made it...using someone else's recipe that I'll tweak if I make again ;-)

~~~

I think in my food buffet that nothing would be complete w/o another new recipe  Penne a la Vodka

Mmmm pasta, vodka, umm vodka...haha no not really oh okay fine!  This was a pretty good recipe, but I would have to say my fav recipe by far is Penne w/ Spicy Vodka Tomato Cream Sauce  <-- That one OMG yum!

Oooohhh thirsty?  If so feel free to wash it down w/ a Purple Hooter

Granted I made this drink just to make it...would I make it again, ehhh probably not!  It was good for a faceless picture tho.

Last but not least...another pasta dish, a bit different, a bit unique, but VERY good!

Pumpkin Sausage Bisque w/ Ravioli  - now please note that I made some changes to this recipe.  As per my original review  I didn't have the pumpkin pie filling on hand, but DID have 100% pure pumpkin, so I knew I would need to add in some sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, ground cloves and nutmeg. I read the submitters indication that they prefer things spicy so I kept that in mind and scaled back the cayenne. I also knew I wanted it to have some more depth than just chicken broth so I did a mixture of chicken broth (1 cup) and heavy cream (4 Tbsp). It was very tasty but I thought it needed a little something extra. I rummaged around in my fridge and found some ground sausage I had previously cooked...I added in about 1/2 cup and gave it another taste...OMG yum!!!!

Hopefully after you check out my blog your stomach won't be rumbling like mine is!

Cooking with Campbell's

I'm going to do another blog buffet b/c November was such a SUPER busy month for me.  For the month of November as a voluntary Allrecipes.com brand ambassador a lot of the assignments revolved around Thanksgiving, but also cooking with Campbell's and their subsidiary companies.

I started a part-time job which made my month even busier, so I was exceptionally pleased with MANY of the recipes that I tried from Campbell's. 

I won't say too much about the recipes in detail but will simply say if I'm posting a picture that means the recipe was good!  As always these recipes can be found on Allrecipes.com.  Please keep in mind that due to the simplistic nature of many of these recipes that they are made as a base recipe meaning that you're going to want to play around w/ your seasonings adjusting it to your taste.  Sound good (no pun intended)? Great let's check out the dishes!

This is the Baked Spaghetti, quick simple and fuss free!

This was a "fancy" dish from Campbell's - it was the Lemon Herb-Roasted Chicken w/ Pan Gravy something I WILL make again!

This is the Crispy Oven Fried Fish Fillet, and they were simply amazing!

This is the Campbell's weekday pot roast and vegetables - plan ahead it uses a slow cooker!

This is baked pork chops and gravy by Campbell's - please note that I chose to add in some baby port mushrooms for a finishing touch.

This is the Quick Chicken Parmesan - it was SO fast to prepare and just what I needed on a busy work night! 

The rest of these recipes are basic Allrecipes.com recipes and they were bonus recipes to review.

Cookies -what's not to love, portable little bites of sweetness!  These are called "Basic Chocolate Drop cookies" they are based off the concept of a premade cookie mix where you have a portion of a mix that you add other ingredients to.  I made them as noted - and then w/ some chocolate chips thrown in for extra pizzaz and I'll say I enjoyed quite a few of these sweet treats :)

Drinks...

Okay this is an Oatmeal Cookie of a different variety - all I can say is YUM!  Amazing how it's layered huh?  Handy tip that I can give is simply KNOW your liquid weights - heavier liquids go in first, when you start layering the liquids, pour slowly and let it hit the sides of the glass and it will layer w/o any problems!

Catching up

If you've followed my blog for any length of time, you know I'm an Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassador (non paid) and I love it!  Each month we have various assignments.   This month my cooking has spotlighted on some recipes featuring Hidden Valley Ranch dressing - both the bottled dressings (regular and light) and the dry packets.  While some recipes I've used are directly from Hidden Valley Ranch, other recipes are not. 

One of my most recent non HVR recipe was for Slow-cooked buffalo chicken sandwiches OMG can I say that you NEED to make these sandwiches for your next at home football fest!  These were super yummy.  I added some white american cheese to my sandwiches and also topped the buffalo chicken w/ a drizzling of light ranch dressing -served on a toasted hoagie bun this sandwich packed some major grindage and a slow burn.  To the side I've got some roasted purple potatoes.  I seriously couldn't believe the entire potato was purple - come to momma b/c I LOVE purple!  Usually when I roast potatoes, I don't ever use recipes.  I just cut the potatoes into quarters, and then drizzle w/ grapeseed oil, and whatever seasonings I feel like.  This time around I used Lawry's seasoning salt, oregano, basil, granulated garlic, and thyme.  I roasted them at 375° for roughly 30 minutes.  Rounding out the meal I used an HVR recipe for Out-of-this-World Pasta Salad granted I couldn't find the romanesco broccoli, which is aka roman cauliflower.  I did the next best thing and improvised w/ regular broccoli.  Would I make it again?  I might, but think I'll play around w/ the ingredients first.

Side note:  You may have leftover buffalo chicken.  Relax, leftovers are a good thing, and there are SO many different ways to use the remainder buffalo chicken - you can make buffalo chicken pizza, buffalo chicken quesadillas, yeah I'm sort of sounding like a spin off of Bubba from Forrest Gump

Another bonus activity was to find a steak recipe. Well naturally I push the edge w/ my cooking and I made  Tequila Steak

I can just see mouths watering, or eyes squinting w/ wrinkles creasing the forehead.  YES!  I said Tequila Steak.   Granted I changed the recipe up - and having made this recipe twice (first the original way, second my way) I'm going to be a food snob and say mine was better.
You don't have to make it my way, but I'll challenge you and say Do It! The original recipe called for

1/3 cup tequila

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

2 cloves garlic

8 ounces London broil steak

Okay now that was entirely TOO much cayenne pepper, SO here's the fix.  Reduce the cayenne pepper to 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne.  NEXT add 2 1/2 teaspoons McCormick Montreal Steak seasoning.  Lets talk garlic.  I appreciate that garlic cloves can add depth to many recipes, this is not one of them.  I say that for the factor that you can't regulate the flavour w/ fresh garlic like you can w/ granulated garlic, meaning that 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic will taste the same each time.  You can't control the size of a garlic clove, thus I suggest using 1 teaspoon granulated garlic instead of the 2 cloves of garlic.  At this point, you marinate the steak overnight in a ziploc bag and let it get nice and happy.  Once it's marinated - crank up the grill and cook that bad boy!

Move over butter

Dinner from 8 Aug 2011: Grant's Special Mardi Gras Pasta

I'm not quite sure who Grant is, but I'm thinking he's related to Paula Deen.  This recipe called for...wait for it...

1 CUP of butter - eek!  That's a whole lotta butta! If that doesn't make your mouth fall open it also calls for 1 cup of heavy cream - egads!   Now I didn't use that much butter, OR cream - as I didn't really care to ingest heart attack on a plate!!! 

Immediate thoughts:  This recipe is in need of herbs/spices AND a lighter based sauce. 

Suggestions: 
-Unless you want wilted green onions, DO NOT saute them w/ the mushrooms, and andouille sausage.         -Replace the 1/2 cup of butter w/ 2 Tbsp grapeseed oil OR Extra Virgin Olive oil.  The mushrooms and andouille sausage will be fine TRUST me!
-Don't bother chopping up a tomato, just use cherry or grape tomatoes, and slice them in half
-Instead of chopping the bell pepper, just cut into strips, it makes for a prettier presentation.
-Do NOT chop up the shrimp (see next suggestion)
-Take 1 Tbsp of Creole seasoning (I used Emeril's Bayou blast) and place in a ziploc bag add the peeled, deveined shrimp, and give it a few good shakes to thoroughly coat the shrimp.  Saute the shrimp in a seperate pan w/ 1 Tbsp butter and the chopped garlic -there's a reason for this, both garlic & shrimp cook relatively fast, and the longer they cook the more bitter the garlic will become, and the more tough the shrimp will become.

Okay now we come to the major overhaul w/ the sauce (aka artery clogger) The initial sauce would've had 1/2 cup butter AND 1 cup of heavy cream...I'm going to suggest the following, and trust me you'll love it :)

Healthier Cajun Alfredo Sauce

3 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp flour

1 cup evaporated milk (it's fine to use the reduced fat versions)

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1/2 cup grated provolone cheese

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp creole seasoning (or to taste your choice)

Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat; stir in flour. Gradually add evaporated milk and broth. Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Stir in Parmesan cheese, provolone cheese, cayenne pepper and creole seasoning until cheese is melted. 
Now if you use my sauce above you will NOT need to add the lemon juice or white wine (it loses the flavour anyways)

Overall the initial recipe was a good jumping off point...if you wanna land in a morgue.  I think my changes made it tastier and healthier.