Easy Recipes

Asian Shrimp Salad

2012-08-10T10:21:00.001-05:00

A healthy lunch, and quick and easy to boot!

Ingredients:

1 pound large shrimp, shelled and de-veined
1 Tbs. coconut oil
1 Tbs. Adams Reserve Asian spice rub
roasted red pepper strips (to taste)
6-8 oz. baby spinach
2-3 Tbs. Canyon Foods sweet chile lime sauce

Directions:

Heat the coconut oil in a large pan over medium heat until hot. Add the shrimp and Asian spice rub and cook, turning, for 3-4 minutes, or until just cooked.
In a salad bowl combine the spinach and roasted red pepper strips. Add the cooked shrimp and drizzle with the sweet chile lime sauce.

How to make Caramel Corn

2011-08-07T16:27:00.002-05:00

This is an easy treat and would be great to gift over the holidays. Based on the recipe from Real Simple, October 2011.

Ingredients

1/2 cup unpopped popcorn kernals
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
6 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup peanuts (optional)

Directions

Heat oven to 300° F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Pop the corn in an air popper or stirring popper
In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, and corn syrup. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture bubbles and lightens in color, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the vanilla and salt. Pour over the cooked popcorn and, with a rubber spatula, toss to coat.
Spread the popcorn mixture on the prepared baking sheet and bake, tossing once, until deep amber, 30 to 35 minutes. If you are using peanuts, add them halfway through baking when you toss. Remove from oven, toss, and let cool on the baking sheet. (The popcorn will crisp as it cools.)

Three Bean Salad - the Lazy Way

2011-08-05T11:04:00.000-05:00

The basics of this recipe are from Simply Recipes. Her recipe is prettier. Mine is faster, because I am ~~lazy~~ shrewd like that.

Ingredients

1 15-oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 15-oz can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 15-oz can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 Tbsp fresh finely chopped rosemary

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

In a large bowl, mix the beans. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, sugar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary. Add the dressing to the beans. Toss to coat.

Chill beans in the refrigerator for several hours, to allow the beans to soak up the flavor of the dressing.

Tortilla Soup - Slow Cooker style

2011-07-26T07:57:00.000-05:00

This recipe is originally from my friend Joan, but I've tweaked it a little to make it easier. Super quick to put together, but it does require some planning.

Ingredients
4-5 large chicken breasts - frozen
28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes
32 ounces chicken broth
4 cups water
1 medium onion, chopped
28 oz can enchilada sauce
8 ounce can green chili peppers
2 T chopped garlic
2 t cumin
2 t chili powder
2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1 bay leaf

Optional Ingredients:
chopped cilantro
shredded cheddar
corn tortillas

Directions
Place frozen chicken in the bottom of your 5.5 - 6 qt. crock pot. Dump in tomatoes, broth, water, onion, enchilada sauce, green chilis, garlic, cumin, bay leaf and salt and pepper.

Cook on low 8 hours, then shred up the chicken and serve, topped with fresh cilantro and cheese. Yum. We usually toast some corn tortillas until they crisp up and serve them with the soup.

Barbeque sauce

2011-07-18T11:35:00.002-05:00

My favorite sauce for chicken sliders. If your grocery has ground mustard in the bulk section it is probably much cheaper than when bought as a bottled spice.

Ingredients
1/4 c + 2 TBS apple cider vinegar
3/4 c brown sugar
1 TBS ground mustard
1 TBS ketchup
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp pepper
1 TBS vegetable oil

Directions
Whisk all ingredients together in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a low simmer, whisking occasionally and simmer 3 minutes. Whisk in oil, remove from heat and let cool. Store in the refrigerator.

Chicken Sliders

2011-07-18T11:34:00.001-05:00

Recipe # 16. So easy and even the kids love them!

Ingredients
4-5 pounds chicken thighs in fajita marinade (HEB sells these pre-marinated)
1 beer

Directions
Dump chicken in crock pot and pour beer over the top. Cook on low 8 hours, then shred. Top with homemade BBQ sauce and cole slaw on slider buns (or my favorite, Kings Hawaiian sweet rolls).

Sweet Potato Fries

2011-07-07T19:26:00.000-05:00

We eat these a couple of times a week - they are quick, easy, and healthy!

Ingredients
1 large sweet potato, cut into fries
1 1/2 Tbs olive oil
sea salt and pepper

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat sweet potato fries with olive oil and then add sea salt and pepper. Bake for 18-24 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fries, turning after 10 minutes.

Caprese Salmon

2011-06-26T12:18:00.002-05:00

Caprese salmon was one of my dinner swap meals from June. We had it for lunch today with sweet potato fries and roasted asparagus and it is definitely a keeper!

Ingredients
4 4-6 oz. wild salmon filets
4 Tbs. pesto
8 Tbs. grated Parmesan cheese
1 tomato

Directions
Preheat oven to 425. Line a baking dish and layer salmon with pesto, slice of tomato, and Parmesan. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until fish is flaky and cooked through.

Quick and Easy Baked Beans

2011-06-24T09:40:00.000-05:00

These baked beans have a nice flavor that's sweet, but not too sweet. This recipe serves 5-6, but it's easy to double. Or quadruple.

Ingredients
1 can ranch style beans with vidalia onion
1 can bush's original style baked beans
4 slices bacon

Directions
Microwave the bacon between paper towels for 3 minutes or until just done. Cut into 1/2" pieces and mix with both cans of beans in sauce pan. Heat on medium-low until warmed through. This is a great side for chipotle beef.

I was going to take a picture, but we were really hungry and ate all the beans before I got a chance. I'll add one next time!

Pollo Asado Salad

2011-06-13T18:45:00.001-05:00

In this recipe, you can use any roasted or grilled chicken you have on hand.

Ingredients
pollo asado (or any chicken you have - grilled or roasted, with seasonings)
romaine, washed and torn
small can of corn, drained
grape tomatoes
cotija cheese
corn nuts
ranch vinaigrette, or dressing of your choice (today I mixed together balsamic vinaigrette and ranch)

Directions
Spread corn on a baking sheet at bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until warmed and lightly brown.
Layer salad in individual large bowls: romaine, roasted corn, grape tomatoes, crumbled cotija cheese, corn nuts. Then add dressing.

Easy Roasted Potatoes Recipe

2011-06-11T19:40:00.001-05:00

My daughter made these tonight to go along with our baked pork chops. Easy and delicious.

Ingredients
4 small red potatoes, cut into 4-6 wedges each
2 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. paprika (smoked paprika, if you have it) OR 1 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking dish with aluminum foil and add all ingredients. Swish the potatoes around in the oil and spices until they are all covered. Bake 25 minutes, then turn potatoes. (If you are baking these with the pork chops, now is when to add the pork chops to the oven.) Bake about 30 more minutes until lightly browned and crispy.

Easy Baked Pork Chops Recipe

2011-06-11T19:36:00.003-05:00

My 9 year old enjoys cooking. Tonight she made these pork chops with roasted potatoes for dinner. If only I could convince her she would enjoy cleaning up...

Ingredients
2 large center cut pork chops, 1 inch thick
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
any sauce you like

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line glass baking dish with aluminum foil and spray lightly with cooking spray. Add pork chops in a single layer so they are not touching. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake 40 minutes or until done. My method of checking is when a thermometer inserted in the center of a pork chop reads 145. Remove from oven and let rest 3 minutes before cutting and serving. My husband and I enjoy these with a bit of raspberry chipotle sauce heated and poured on top.

Easy Sauteed Spinach Recipe

2011-06-11T19:29:00.001-05:00

This is one of my favorite side dishes, although not everyone in my family agrees. If you try it, let me know what you think!

Ingredients
16 oz. package of baby spinach, prewashed
1 1/2 - 2 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1 clove garlic, minced
2 oz. grated parmesan cheese
1 oz. cream cheese

Directions
Heat olive oil in your largest sautee pan over medium heat. Add as much spinach as will fit and stir, then cover for 2 minutes. Add garlic, stir and add more spinach, cover for 2 more minutes. Stir and add remaining spinach, more olive oil if needed, and salt. Continue cooking covered with occasional stirring until all spinach is wilted. Add parmesan and cream cheese, stir, and remove from heat. Serve with pork chops and roasted potatoes, or whatever your family is having for dinner.

Easy Hummus Recipe

2011-06-10T10:12:00.003-05:00

The basics of this hummus recipe came from my friend Joan. Great with bagel chips or warm naan as a snack, or with veggies as a quick lunch. The hardest part of this recipe is finding the tahini in the supermarket.

Ingredients
16 oz can garbanzo beans, drained (reserving 1/4 cup liquid) and rinsed
1/4 cup liquid from can
juice from 1 lemon
1 1/2 tablespoons tahini paste
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 roasted red pepper strips (optional)

Directions
Combine all ingredients in blender or food processor. Blend for 3-5 minutes on low until thoroughly mixed and smooth. Add up to 1/4 cup of water if needed.

Refrigerate.

Chipotle Beef Recipe for the Slow Cooker

2011-06-10T09:58:00.003-05:00

Recipe #7. This is the most requested meal from my dinner swap group. It feeds a crowd - pair with creamy cole slaw on flour tortillas or with cheese on buns. Serve with quick baked beans and fries. While it's delicious if you like spicy food you'll probably want to have an alternate dish for kiddos.

This recipe is slightly modified from RecipeZaar.

Ingredients
* 3 lbs chuck roast, trimmed of most visible fat
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon pepper
* 2 teaspoons chili powder
* 2 teaspoons cumin
* 1 (7 ounce) can chipotle chiles in adobo
* 1 (4 ounce) can green chilies
* 1 (7 ounce) can salsa verde
* 1-2 large sweet onions, sliced
* 3 teaspoons minced garlic
* 1 cup beef broth

Directions
1. Place chuck roast in large crock pot and sprinkle with the salt and pepper, chili powder and cumin.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and cook on low for 8 hours.
3. Shred the meat with a fork, discarding fat.

Epic fail

2011-06-09T18:00:00.000-05:00

Lunch out today at Chapala (it's $4.99 enchilada plate day), and now heading out to dinner because I forgot to defrost the chicken. Sad to update the tally for both lunch and dinner out the same day! On the upside, we had homemade cranberry spice bread for breakfast that was delicious.

Cottage Cheese Bread

2011-06-06T21:24:00.002-05:00

Today I cleaned out half my kitchen cabinets. In addition to finding some hand mixer blades (I don't even remember the last time I had a hand mixer...) I rediscovered my bread machine and some bread machine cookbooks from 20 years ago. Thankfully I'd jotted notes down on the recipes I'd tried and now the machine is happily humming away, doing all the work on homemade cottage cheese bread. My notes said: very good! esp. for sandwiches.

Recipe #6. From The Bread Machine Cookbook by Donna Rathmell German (1991, out of print)

Layer ingredients in the order listed in your bread machine:

2 1/2 Tbs. water
2/3 cup cottage cheese
1 1/4 Tbs. butter
2/3 egg (I went whole egg here, not sure what I'd do with 1/3 of an egg - just picked the smallest looking one from the carton.)
2 tsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. baking soda
2/3 tsp. salt
2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp. yeast

I selected the medium size loaf setting on my machine (1.5 lb) and medium darkness for the bread and pressed START! 3 hours later:

I also found a notated recipe for raisin bread. I think that might be next!

Stuffed Eight-ball Squash

2011-06-05T21:00:00.003-05:00

Recipe #5. We picked peaches and blackberries at an orchard on Friday and while we were there I picked up a few vegetables. The eight ball squash was new to me and the farmer told me it would be great grilled or stuffed. I decided to stuff, bacon style.

Ingredients:
2 eight ball squash
3 strips bacon
1/4 cup green bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup red onion, diced
1/2 cup Italian herb panko
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 Tbs. fresh parsley
salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the bacon in a skillet until crispy over medium heat. Remove and crumble, reserving 1 Tbs. bacon grease. Add green pepper and onion and cook until onion is translucent. While pepper and onion are cooking, trim stems of squash and cut in half. Scoop out squash pulp and add to green pepper and onion. Season with salt and pepper.

While veggies are cooking, parboil squash shells for 2-3 minutes then drain.

To the vegetables, add crumbled bacon, panko, parmesan, and chopped parsley. Stuff shells with mixture and bake 15 minutes.

We all enjoyed this and I'll definitely make it again. Next time I might add an extra squash to overfill the shells and add more veggie goodness.

Growing in my garden

2011-06-05T10:00:00.001-05:00

I found this little guy peeking through the leaves today - should go nicely with the eight-ball squash I picked up at an orchard on Friday. It's my first try at squash here, and with our shady backyard I was worried that the plant wouldn't get enough sun. So happy to see this!

Also, this is happening...

Muddy Buddies

2011-06-02T19:37:00.001-05:00

Bonus Recipe. This recipe comes to you from the back of my Rice Chex box, and can also be found here. My daughter wants to "cook" once a week, so this was her first pick. She's 9. I see a lot of snacky dessert things in our future.

Ingredients
9 cups Rice Chex®, Corn Chex® or Chocolate Chex® cereal (or combination)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions
1. Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside.
2. In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag.
3. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. (If you're awesome, like my kid, you do a conga line around the kitchen to shake the bag.) Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

Spinach Salad with Bacon, Boiled Eggs, and Blue Cheese

2011-06-02T19:30:00.002-05:00

Recipe #4. Okay, so this is not so much a recipe... you could just throw some stuff together with spinach and call it done. But this version is yummy and we all enjoy it, so I wanted to post it here so I'll remember to make it again. Next time with mushrooms! Tonight we had it as a side with baked salmon and roasted carrots, but it could easily be served as a larger portion for a main dish.

Ingredients
baby spinach
boiled egg
cooked bacon, crumbled
blue cheese (on the side for picky kids)
sliced fresh mushrooms, if you have them
spinach salad dressing (I like Marzetti's), heated in microwave for 1 minute

Directions
Yeah... mix it all up and enjoy!

Roasted Asparagus

2011-06-02T17:00:00.000-05:00

Recipe #3. Delicious and simple side dish. We ate this tonight with our Sprout's sundried tomato meatloaf and saffron risotto (from a box). And, yes, I had seconds of everything.

Ingredients
asparagus, washed and dried
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Break ends off asparagus and discard. Place asparagus on baking sheet and drizzle with a couple of Tbs olive oil. Add a couple of shakes balsamic vinegar and swish it all together, ending with the asparagus in a single layer. Add salt and pepper and bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on the thickness of your asparagus.

Variation
When we have this side with Asian dishes, I use sesame oil rather than the olive/balsamic combo. Then sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds after baking.

White Mac & Cheese with Green Peas

2011-06-02T13:54:00.005-05:00

Recipe #2. Maybe I'm cheating a little by including this since it's basically just cooking a box of mac and cheese and adding a small can of green peas. But it's delicious. And fast.

Ingredients
Box of White Mac & Cheese (my favorite is Annie's)
tiny can of green peas, rinsed and drained

Directions
Cook mac & cheese according to package directions. Stir in peas. Make yummy noises while you eat..

Pesto Pizza for dinner

2011-06-01T13:55:00.008-05:00

Recipe #1. This recipe only requires a few ingredients and it's ready in 10 minutes. Yes, 10 minutes, people! And everybody loves it.

Ingredients
1 pizza crust. No, not from scratch in the 10 minutes. I usually use Mama Mary's - inexpensive and yummy.
1/4 cup pesto (Any kind of basil pesto you like. My favorite is Alessi Pesto.)
1/2 cup ricotta cheese, lowfat.
1 cup shredded Italian cheese blend
1 roma or compari tomato
3 large fresh basil leaves
fresh ground pepper

Directions
Preheat oven to 450 (or whatever your pizza crust package says).
Spread pesto on crust, sprinkle with shredded cheese, then add dollups of ricotta.
Reduce heat to 425 and bake pizza for 7 minutes.
While pizza bakes, slice tomatoes and basil.
When your pizza is golden brown and bubbly, remove from the oven and add tomatoes, basil, and pepper.

Mine looked like this. I thought it was really pretty, especially since it only took 10 minutes!

We should eat out less.

2011-06-01T13:34:00.005-05:00

And I should cook more. Instead of going out to lunch. Or dinner. Or both - on the same day.

But that requires some preparation. And groceries.

My goal is to post 300 recipes that I will actually cook and my family will actually eat. And they should all be easy and/or fast.

So, 300 recipes... Let's assume I'll make meals AND post the recipes 3 times a week (Yes, the rest of the time we'll dig through the refrigerator and pantry and hope for the best. Or eat frozen pizzas. Or I'll forget to take pictures for the blog.) That's 100 weeks. Or 25 months. Or just over two years. Eek!

Wish me luck. And if I actually finish this thing? I'll reward myself with a dinner out!