I was in the mood for something sweet after a long day and looked in the pantry. Canned pears….so I googled a recipe and gave it a shot! Thanks to this person for a yummy recipe!
Pear Cobbler
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Category Archives: Food
Still cooking…
Hey, everyone, I am still cooking! The other day I made Thai Coconut Curry Shrimp, and today I made Creamy Chipotle Chicken. It was delightful!
What have you made lately?
January Challenge Review!
I meant to write this last week but it didn’t happen! We ended up spending $221 on groceries last month and greatly reduced eating out by like half of what we normally do! I really enjoyed cooking and eating yummy meals from scratch!
In fact, my wife and I liked it so much we made a whole plan for February as well! We figured out some glitches to avoid for this month, and we need to restock some meat but are also experimenting with non,meat proteins (lentils and beans) as well!
So far for February we made chili, ribs, macaroni and cheese, banana cream pie, and lots of leftovers!
What fun things have you made lately? Any experiments gone wrong or experiments gone right? Let me know below!
Pumpkin Smoothie
We have continued our pantry-emptying journey. This week we ate shrimp with wontons, falafel, soup, biscuits eith sausage gravy, and pot roast with potatoes and carrots. We have eaten out once or twice but still going strong with our cooking.
Tonight I made pumpkin muffins and pumpkin bundt cake from frozen pumpkin. It only required three cups of pumpkin and we had four so I decided to make a pumpkin smoothie. Here’s the recipe:
Pumpkin Smoothie (serves 1)
- 1/2 cup pumpkin
- 1 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup raw cane sugar
- Sprinkles of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves
Use a blender or whisk to froth up. Enjoy!
Waste not, want not! Now my kiddo had an extra full belly before bed (he only had pot roast and a giant cupcake and licking the spoon…lol growing boy!). I sort of wished there was more. Maybe I’ll find more frozen pumpkin as we eat away at our freezers!
Anyway, what recipes have you incented lately? Tell me below!
Tired but still cooking…
This week we have done pretty well, though we ate out one night and I bought tamales instead of making them (because I was hanging with a friend). We still have really only spent about $80 on groceries so far this month, which is sort of amazing. We spent about $30 eating out. Not awful.
My crab cakes didn’t turn out well and my soup last night turned out more like pasta (alphabet pasta really puffs up!)
Tonight is leftovers and tomorrow is tuna noodle casserole. Not sure what the rest of the week holds. I better look it up! We probably have some fresh veggies and a few things to buy this week. Overall, I am really enjoying cooking more.
Oh and I just saw the show Easy Bake Battle starring Antoni from Queer Eye. It is about home cooks making easy meals fast and learning hacks from them and getting new ideas. It is giving me awesome ideas! If you are out of ideas, I recommend checking it out on Netflix!
Any cooking experiments lately? If so, share below!
Only $32 spent so far
We are 10 days into January and so far we have spent $32 on food. We do need to buy milk, bread, and peanut butter today so that number is about to go up but I feel pretty darn good about this so far!
We’ve also done fairly well with fixing meals and not eating out. I’ve only bought a fancy tea at my coffee shop and have made coffee at home or the office. Today and yesterday I didn’t have milk for my coffee so I used Swiss Miss. A little trick I learned from my clients who’d been incarcerated.
We haven’t done as great with remembering the fresh veggies in the fridge but otherwise we have slowly been eating down our reserves, with things left! I have enjoyed pupusas every day since Friday and will snarf down the last 2 today.
A goal for this week is to bake bread. I also seem to have added some adventurous meals for this week. Crab cakes tomorrow and then pot roast and then turkey with stuffing. Oof. Wish me luck! It also looks like I was planning to make tamales on Saturday but ironically my friend reached out and wanted to try local tamales so might end up buying them at a local panadería.
I’ve actually enjoyed this challenge so far and, as always, having a menu for the week (and month!) is super helpful.
What helps you avoid eating out? What gives you joy these days?
Creative Cooking
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Hello, friends! With everything going on with COVID-19, we have been carefully budgeting in our household and something that we have been really appreciative of is free breakfasts/lunches from the school. The only challenge is that sometimes there are certain foods that the little ones don’t enjoy. We don’t like wasting food so I have been pretty creative with making those foods into family dinners.
My last such meal was a success, so my girlfriend said I should blog about it! I made a Chicken Shepherd’s Pot Pie from almost completely all leftover school ingredients. Here goes!
Chicken Shepherd’s Pot Pie
Servings 6; Prep time: 15 min, Cook Time: 30 min
Ingredients:
Baby carrots (steam first if you don’t want them crunchy)
Peas
Corn
Chicken patties/nuggets (cut into bite-size pieces)
Cooked potatoes wedges
2 cups shredded cheese
3 tbsp butter
2 cups milk
3 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp thyme
Salt and pepper, to taste
Preheat oven to 350 F. Put carrots, peas, corn, and cut up chicken in a pie plate or a 9×9 baking dish. Put butter in a skillet and melt on medium heat. Add flour and whisk until combined. Slowly add the milk, continuing to whisk. Add spices and bring to a boil, stirring to keep from sticking. Cook for 1-2 minutes, or until thickened. Add to chicken/veggie mixture and stir well. Add potato wedges on top so it covers the best you can (you can also use mashed potatoes). Sprinkle cheese on top. Cook for 25-30 minutes. Let sit for 15 min before serving.
Have you exercised your creativity in cooking this pandemic? If so, feel free to share recipes below! I hope you enjoy it! If you try it out, let me know what you think!
Recipe for Chilaquiles
I hope you enjoy my recipe for chilaquiles, a traditional Mexican breakfast food.
It took a while for me to get this right. There are as many ways to make chilaquiles as there are people, so feel free to share your favorite chilaquiles recipe! Enjoy!
Chilaquiles
For salsa:
1 large tomato (or 2 medium ones)
1 clove garlic
1/4 onion
1+ peppers (jalapeño, ancho, serrano, or arbol), to spice preference
Salt and pepper
For chilaquiles:
2 tbsp olive oil
10 corn tortillas (ripped into quarter-sized pieces)
1 cup Mozzarella cheese (or quesadilla cheese)
1-2 large hard-crusted Italian breads, cut into 6-inch sandwich sizes
1 can refried beans
Put ingredients for salsa (minus salt and pepper) into a dry skillet and cook on medium-high heat, turning so the ingredients do not burn. When tomato begins to soften, toss everything into a blender with enough water to blend (1/2 cup or less). Add salt and pepper to taste.
In a skillet fry up ripped up corn tortillas with 2 tbsp olive oil until they are crispy. Then add salsa in with tortillas and mix. Cook for a minute. Then throw on mozzarella cheese, turn off burner, and cover. Toast good, crusty Italian bread, spread on refried beans, and put chilaquiles in the middle.
Enjoy!!!!!!!!
Recipe: Italian Sausage Pasta with Gouda
Cook and Prep Time: 20 min
Serves 8
Ingredients:
1 lb Italian sausage
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, diced
2 cups fresh spimach, chopped
1 tbsp fresh oregano
1 tbsp fresh basil
1 tbsp fresh parsley
1 tsp fresh rosemary
Salt and pepper
3 cups whey (or 1 cup milk and 2 cups water)
1 package pasta (bow-tie, penne, elbow)
2 cups gouda cheese, chopped
- Cook sausage, onions, and garlic in olive oil in a Dutch oven or stockpot, covered, until sausage is cooked.
- Add spinach and herbs until spinach is cooked.
- Add whey and pasta, covered, let boil for 10 minutes.
- Add gouda and cook uncovered until creamy but thick.
- Enjoy!!!!
Here’s a pic of my toddler enjoying his meal!!!
Purple Pesto Pasta
I’ve made pesto twice this summer and I really enjoy experimenting with it. You can take the basic pesto ingredients (olive oil, basil, garlic, parmesan cheese) and mix in whatever extra you think might be yummy. I’ve added in almonds, spinach, and most recently beets! This is a great, super quick meal for when you run out of spaghetti sauce and want something easy.
Well, I had some beets I cooked the other day and I thought…hmmmm…I wonder if I could add this to pasta and get a good flavor. Answer: yes!
It is healthier and baby and I loved it! (Hubby was a bit thrown by the purple color). Anyway, I am posting the recipe below. Enjoy!
Also if you make any pesto experiments, comment below! I’d love to try out some new stuff!
PURPLE PESTO PASTA
1 package of pasta of your choosing
2 cooked beets
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp parmesan cheese
Handful of fresh basil
A few sprigs of fresh parsley
1 tbsp fresh oregano
Salt and pepper, to taste
While pasta is cooking, gather ingredients together and blend in a food processor until a thick paste.
Drain pasta and mix in pesto while still hot. Enjoy!
Chica Creativa 