The 'Daunting' Lasagna (Day 9)

I love Italian food for two reasons: it's hearty and easy to make. One Italian recipe that always made me look the other way was lasagna. All of the layers! But yesterday I was feeling pretty gutsy and I decided to give it a go. Let me tell you, it was not that scary!

Even though the recipe takes up a whole page, don't let it scare you. By the way, I left the cheddar cheese out and stuck with mozzarella and Parmesan.

The beef, tomato sauce, tomato paste and herbs right before simmering for half and hour. I buy beef with a decent amount of fat, and I think that adds to the overall flavor.

I am not a fan of cottage cheese, but you can't make lasagna without it. I'll admit though, the sight of it mixed with egg was putting me off for awhile.

In the middle of layering the lasagna. It's actually kind of fun to do, at least for me because it was unlike anything I've ever done with food.

The outcome. Sorry, no picture of the serving. We were starving and we dove right in.

A-maz-ing! Really. We each went back for seconds, and we devoured the leftovers for lunch today, and we're having them for dinner. There's just enough left. I wanted to serve it with an Italian salad, but then I realized that neither of us care too much for salad and honestly, this lasagna holds its own very well.

Taste: 10. Loved it! I want to make this again for when we have company because there was so much of it! And it only took an hour to an hour and a half. . .a lot less than I expected. And I only needed a skillet, mixing bowl and baking dish. Love that.
Simplicity: 8. It's still a lasagna so it wasn't instant, but honestly, it was not that hard to make. It's just a little on the time consuming side.
Overall, I loved it and I'm really looking forward to making it again for company or when we need a dinner and a good lunch the next day!

Comforting Chicken Casserole (Day 8)

When I asked Rory what new things he wanted me to learn, he said casseroles. Honestly, I never knew of anyone who actually made casseroles until I moved to Idaho when I was eighteen. Before then, I thought it was just some rumor that housewives baked casseroles. But I found a chicken broccoli casserole that seemed easy enough for a first try.

I think I'm just going to stop trying to get these flipped because nothing seems to work.

Everything going at once. I personally like to boil fresh broccoli because it's the fastest way, and you're guaranteed good broccoli every time.

Before adding the chicken and sauce.

This recipe yielded a lot of the sauce because more people are meant to eat this than two. There was some leftover, and looking back, I should have used it all. It had a pretty good taste!

 So was the casserole awesome? Eh. It wasn't my favorite. A casserole is a casserole. It's hard for it to measure up to enchiladas or apricot chicken, that's for sure. However, it was filling and it had a certain warm comfort to it. It's that dish you give to a member in your church when they're going through a hard time. That's a good thing though. Now I know how to whip something up that saves well and cooks quickly.
Taste: 7. It was just so-so. Nothing extraordinary while not being bland. I feel like it needed something more though, I just can't put my finger on what it is. Maybe more broccoli or maybe a side dish was needed. I served it on its own because it seemed filling enough (and it was), it was late and we wanted to watch a movie while eating.
Simplicity: 8. It was pretty fast and easy. My only gripe was that I had to use a lot of dishes for it, and the outcome wasn't really worth all of the cleanup.
Overall, it obviously wasn't my favorite. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad. It just didn't quite do it for me. But like I said, a quick, comforting meal on a cold night.

Enchiladas for Four or More (Day 7)

Enchiladas were one of the first thing I learned after getting married, and they are probably the best thing I can make. I would cook them more often if it weren't for this one thing: they are a PAIN to make.
So when I saw a recipe for enchiladas in my cookbook, I skipped over it, thinking it would be the same recipe I already know. Um, no. What makes enchiladas hard (for me) is I have to rub corn tortillas in vegetable oil, and bake them. You bake them so they don't fall apart during the stuffing and rolling process. If they get baked too long, bring out the salsa because you get chips. So it's tricky. Then you have to soak them in enchilada sauce, fill them and roll them. By then, your hands (and everything else in your kitchen) are a mess.
But upon looking at the recipe in my cookbook, I noticed the tortilla baking part was left out. I was still nervous to cook them because one time I skipped the tortilla baking, and my tortillas fell apart while stuffing them. The only reason I did this recipe is because we invited a couple over for dinner. Enchiladas are filling, tasty, and I know how to cook them. So away I went.
Rory cooked the chicken for me, which was a huge help :) He browned them in a large skillet. By the way, I have to say that I love that skillet. I use it for every meal because I can cook basically anything in it: meat, vegetables, rice. . .it's great! I used it three times for this meal: the chicken, the enchilada sauce and rice. You should get one!

I didn't follow this recipe completely. I added green peppers, swapped the hamburger for chicken and bought pre-made enchilada sauce. This recipe includes enchilada sauce. Next time I may make it from scratch.

The chicken. We added cayenne pepper, butter, and salt. Rory also added some Dr. Pepper to tick me off :) It didn't mess with the flavor though.

This recipe called for flour and vegetable oil. (?) It confused me, but I went with it. Looking back, that was completely unnecessary. I have no idea what the point was. I stuffed the tortillas with chicken, cheese and cooked pepper and onion.

The recipe yields 15 enchiladas. I made these 4 without the onions and peppers in case our guests preferred their enchiladas without them.

But they preferred these enchiladas with everything. They were devoured! I added cilantro and sour cream and served the enchiladas with Mexican rice. 

 So did I need to pre-bake the tortillas? Not really, no. The tortillas definitely weren't as sturdy while being soaked in the enchilada sauce, but I was trying to be careful and not rip them. They turned out just fine. That's a step I think I'll be skipping from now on.
Taste: 10. This is my favorite dish so far. They were spicy, flavorful and the texture came out great.
Simplicity: 7. I wish they could be easier, but they aren't. After getting the chicken perfect, dipping every tortilla in the red sauce is very messy and not very easy. It only took a little over and hour overall, but it's a very tedious job.
Overall: I love enchiladas. They used to be one of my least favorite Mexican dishes, but now I'm a huge fan of any enchilada. These are great when you have company because the recipe makes a lot of enchiladas and they are a people-pleaser. I wish I had more red sauce because I personally prefer my enchiladas to be soaked.
I'd just like to say that maybe cooking would be a lot easier if I had a bigger kitchen. Here's a picture of my kitchen:

Yeah....not a lot of counter space! 

I look forward to the day when I will prepare dinner with more than a square foot's worth of counter space!

Everybody's Favorite Hamburger Pie (Day 6)

And yes it was! Okay, so I only cooked it for me and Rory, but I'm sure it's a dish that anyone could enjoy. This dish was another first for me: mashed potatoes. I know! Mashed potatoes are so basic, that you'd figure any 21-year-old would have made them at least once. Well, that was my first time and it was nothing. I wanted to make hamburger pie (or as it is more commonly known as shepherd's pie) because it felt like a comfort food and a holiday food. After we finished eating, we decorated our tree. I know it sounds weird, but this dish complimented tree decorating for some reason.

I left the A1 sauce out because we didn't have any.

I had the veggies boiling a little before I started to brown the beef.

The pie right before going into the oven.

I served it with dressing to give it more of a holiday twist.

 It was very filling and very great! Next time I would add way more cheese to the top of the potatoes and maybe chives. We ate the leftovers for dinner the next night and it may have been better. We mixed it with some sour cream. Yum!
Taste: 8. More cheese and sour cream may have bumped up the score, but it was very good. I feel like there should have been another vegetable in there besides green beans, but I can't figure it out. I should have chopped the green beans. As I said, this was my first experience with mashed potatoes and I added milk, buttermilk ranch and seasoning. I didn't want to overwhelm the potatoes so I took it easy, but they could have used more ranch and seasoning.
Simplicity: 9. Pretty dang easy considering the outcome! The only thing you have to do is mash the potatoes and brown the beef. The rest takes care of itself which I love. It came together really nicely.
Overall: A great meal to serve during the week, and great leftovers for lunch/dinner the next day. I'm keeping this recipe in mind for when school starts for sure.
Since I'm getting backed up on my posts, I'm going to double-post and write about my enchiladas from two nights ago, and then I'm going to get started on my chicken broccoli casserole!

Stuffed Peppers & Thanksgiving! (Day 5)

Wow! The Thanksgiving rush put me a little behind, but I'm still cooking. My sister cooked dinner for us before Thanksgiving (chicken Parmesan, yum!), and Thanksgiving was the next day so my cooking schedule was thrown off a bit. But, as promised, I'm writing about my stuffed peppers while dinner #7's green beans and potatoes boil.
So, stuffed peppers. Very different. I've never had stuffed peppers before, but it turns out that they are pretty easy. 

The recipe. I left out the Worcestershire sauce because it didn't seem important, and I don't have any.

Boil the peppers. The recipe called for 4, but 2 was enough for us.

The meat, cooked rice, onion and mashed tomatoes. This didn't take long.

Fresh out of the oven.

I served with black beans and red peppers.

My husband and I enjoyed this one, but I'll be honest, it wasn't my favorite. Rory was a huge fan, but I wasn't completely sold. There wasn't enough flavor for me. I had to add quite a bit of cayenne pepper before I was happy with it. However, they were filling. The picture above was all I ate, and I had Rory eat the last few bites. They saved amazingly, though! I think they were better the next day for lunch to be honest.

Taste: 5. Honestly, not what I expected. I thought it would be a flavor fiesta, and maybe I built that up to much in my head, because the finished product left me a little cold. But adding a bit of seasoning helped it out.
Simplicity: 8. They were pretty easy and clean-up was a dream. I only used three pans. The only thing you have to cut up is the onion and peppers, otherwise you're just steaming rice and browning beef. Easy!
Overall: 8. Their simplicity carried the almost-boring flavor. I would make them again during the school week because they were so easy. Don't get me wrong, they didn't taste bad. Rory thought they were great. . .I just wanted more kick.
Anyways, we had a great Thanksgiving. My in-laws served tri-tip beef instead of traditional turkey and that was okay with me. The beef was amazing and it's fun to eat different meats instead of turkey on thanksgiving. They also served mashed potatoes and gravy, brussel sprouts and jello (hey, we're LDS.)  The apple sweet potatoes and spinach & artichoke dip went over great too! *Sigh of relief*

Cooking for a Guest! (Day 4)

It's been a few days, but I assure you that I have been cooking. I only have time to post one of them tonight.
Two nights ago, we invited our neighbor from upstairs for dinner since his wife is out of town for Thanksgiving. I usually like to cook recipes I'm already familiar with for company, but our guest came over during my challenge which means...new recipe! Luckily it was a hit!
This is the first recipe I have taken from the Internet (cdkitchen.com) so far -- Cheese and Mushroom Stuffed Pork!

3 tablespoons butter or margarine, divided
1 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh mushrooms
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 cups shredded Italian cheese blend
1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
4 large boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, flattened to 1/4-inch thickness
1/3 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs

Melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium-high heat in large skillet. Add mushrooms, onion and garlic; cook 7 minutes or until vegetables are tender and liquid is evaporated, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; cool slightly.
Stir half the cheese and the lemon pepper seasoning into cooled mushroom mixture; spread 1/3 cup mixture onto each chicken breast. Fold chicken lengthwise in half; secure each with 2 wooden picks.
Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter; dip chicken into butter and roll in crumbs. Place in lightly greased shallow baking dish or pie plate; drizzle with remaining melted butter.
Bake in preheated 450 degrees F oven 20 minutes or until golden brown and chicken is cooked through. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake 3 minutes more or until cheese is melted. Remove wooden picks before serving.

This was my first time cooking with mushrooms, and I believe my third time cooking pork. It went much better than expected! I was in a huge hurry though! I lost track of time and before I knew it, our neighbor was due to arrive in an hour! Yikes! So the pictures aren't very good.

I was presently surprised with the mushrooms. I thought they'd be...icky to prepare but they're not! Very easy and delicious actually.

Enjoy this picture because in my haste to snap it, I dropped my iPhone in the pan. All is well though!

Right before closing the oven. You have to make sure the meat is flattened enough. I don't have a dough roller, so I used a potato masher.

I do not like how this picture came out, but again, I was in a rush. 

 I had leftover sweet potatoes, so I used that as the side. I also served homemade spinach dip. I'll post that recipe with my next post.
This was actually pretty good! It had a very Olive Garden taste to it, so if you're like me and you love Olive Garden, you will love this dish! I wish I made more, but unfortunately only one per person. They were easy and fast enough to make more than three though.
Taste: 9. I would add a little olive oil next time. Otherwise, it had a very enjoyable taste. They went over really well with Rory and our neighbor. 
Simplicity: 9. They were pretty easy to whip up, and that's saying a lot since I was in a hurry. The veggies are easy to chop and sautee, and stuffing the pork was very easy. They cooked in less than thirty minutes.
Overall: I found that this is a great meal to cook in a hurry! It's definitely one to remember on a school night when I want to cook something yummy and fast. They tasted fancy, and there wasn't much to them! Clean-up was easy too, and I love that.
Last night I made stuffed bell peppers, but dinner is almost ready so I can't write another post. My sister is making us dinner tonight. Chicken Parmesan! And tomorrow is Thanksgiving so no dinner then! We're having dinner at my in-laws. I'm bringing my Apple Sweet Potatoes and Spinach Artichoke dip. Last night I cooked Stuffed Bell Peppers, and I'm looking forward to posting about it. 
Happy Thanksgiving!

Getting Ready for the Holidays (Day 3)

Last night's menu was Apricot Chicken with Apple Yams, or in my case, Apple Sweet Potatoes.
I had two left-over chicken breasts from our last meal and this recipe called for just that. The Apple Yams recipe was right below the Lava Rock Potato recipe in my book, and when I saw it, I said, "Um, yes!" I love sweet potatoes (which I confuse with yams, which is why I bought canned sweet potatoes instead). Sweet potatoes are one of the few things I can make into a side dish without a recipe to follow, but I've never made them with apples. It sounded wonderful and very appropriate for the upcoming holidays. Even Rory exclaimed, "It smells like Christmas in here!" when he got home.
Everything was amazing! I swear these recipes just get better and better.
I've never prepared chicken the way this recipe called for -- marinating. I had to marinate the two chickens in rosemary, garlic, salt & pepper and oil. The recipe said for at least an hour, but my chickens ended marinating for almost two. My only problem was that I was supposed to grill the chickens, but we don't have a grill. I opted for cooking them in a frypan which meant no smokey flavor, but it still got the job done.

I wrapped my chickens in foil and set them on a baking sheet in the refrigerator.

This is the apricot glaze. Much, much better than I expected as I mixed dijon mustard with apricot jam.

I used McIntosh apples for the Apple Sweet Potatoes. They are sweet, crisp and great for baking!

I think too much rosemary got in the frying pan and I worried it would overwhelm all of the other flavors. Luckily it didn't mess with anything.

Here are the Apple Sweet Potatoes right before getting sprinkled with mini-marshmallows and baked for another 5 minutes.

Here is the finished product. Simply fabulous!

I loved this meal. I loved the Christmasy flavors and that apricot glaze. I will probably add apples to sweet potatoes during the holidays and serve them without every other time. It's amazing how one ingredient can influence the feel of the dish so much. I have a lot of leftover sweet potatoes so I am looking forward to lunch!
Rating:
Taste: 10. I wouldn't change a thing on either of these recipes. I only wish I had served the chicken in slices rather than one hunk of meat.
Simplicity: 8. I give it an 8 because it required a lot of dishes to make! Otherwise, it was a smooth evening in the kitchen. While the chickens marinated, I worked on the potatoes, and when the potatoes had 30 minutes left in the oven, I started cooking the chicken. They were both finished at the same time! But like I mentioned, clean-up wasn't as simple.
Overall: I am very impressed with this dish. It came out a lot better than I expected. The sweetness of the apple sweet potatoes complimented the tart of the apricot chicken. It would be an easy meal for the school week because of how easy they are to cook together. You can literally tend to one while the other takes care of itself. You'll never cook two things at once. Five stars for this meal!

P.S. I got the job I mentioned in my Day 1 post! Whoo hoo!