spices-and-herbs

[spices-and-herbs]

balsamic chicken dinner

Recipe cost:  Balsamic vinegar all tastes the same no matter the brand, so you can easily get a good bottle of it for $3-$5. With that in mind, this meal shouldn’t cost more than $10 or $13 to make (assuming you already have the desired spices in your kitchen) with the chicken, chicken stock, vinegar, couscous (a box for about $2) and veggies.

I’ll be honest, this was my second time using this recipe. It’s one of the best chicken dishes I’ve made this semester so far, and the first marinade I ever made, and my first time cooking with balsamic vinegar. It’s a very easy thing to make, and quite delicious. 

I defrosted and trimmed my chicken breast and cut it lengthwise into halves, which I often do for two reasons: the illusion of more food and faster cooking. While it defrosted, I got my ingredients together for the marinade: balsamic vinegar, a bit of sugar (I use less than the recipe calls for because I didn’t want it too sweet), oregano and parsley (it called for Italian seasoning, but this is the next best thing), chopped garlic (I used around 5 little cloves instead of 1 because i love garlic), and chicken broth. Albeit I use pouches of instant broth, which work just as well and have a long shelf life. The last time I made this recipe, I combined everything in a bowl and just marinated the breasts in there, but this time, I put my chicken in a ziploc bag with the marinade and let it sit for some time. Less cleanup this way, and I was making this meal out of impulse instead of doing other tasks. But hey, I knew I wouldn’t have all the time in the world that evening, I still had a critical engagement to write.

(No nosy cats were harmed in the making of this dish, nor was there any cat hair in the food. The chicken was Bianca-approved, prior to marinating.)

I had an idea of what I wanted my sides to be as well, involving a carb and vegetable. Even before trimming my chicken, I had cut a red bell pepper into short strips and set them aside, next to the savory sweet potato fries I had made the previous night. Yeah, I know, what college student has the time to cook this much 2 nights in a row? To be fair, I had been eating leftovers for the past two weeks and had a productive past few days. Anyway, my plan was to saute the pepper and fries with the chicken once it was almost done, then eat them together. As for my carb, I had a box of my favorite olive oil and roasted garlic-flavored instant couscous to be made.

Once the chicken was all marinated and ready (during this wait I also cleaned up the dishes I had used thus far), I put it into a medium-sized pan with olive oil. However, I had something to learn in my methods of using the higher heat settings of my stove. Typically I cook chicken on medium heat, but I went higher this time and definitely seared my chicken. Luckily it still tasted great and wasn’t dry (plus, I really do love the slight blackened taste of chicken breast surface), but took some extra time to cook on a lower setting to de-pink the center. At this point I threw in the bell pepper and let it darken a little while the chicken finished cooking, ultimately taking it out before too long so it could retain its crunch. After removing them, I threw in a handful of sweet potato fries, only enough to warm up on either side.

(couscous prep on the back burner)

(the chicken breasts were also cut in half while I tested them for doneness)

One of the pieces of chicken finished cooking before the other, so I removed it from the heat and let it rest (I read once that you should always do that with just-cooked meat anyway) (I also tasted it, and it was delicious). Then, when the chicken was done cooking, I returned the other breast and put the rest of the marinade from earlier over it. The recipe says to stir until thick, but I didn’t have that much time. I was getting hungry and would settle for thinner sauce if it tasted good.

I put half of the pepper on my plate and half into a tupperware, then put my warmed fries next to the pepper on my plate. While waiting for the stove to cook my food, I gathered my water and butter for the couscous, following the instructions on the box. This stuff is delicious and versatile, and extremely easy to make. Very cheap too. I boiled the water with its spice packet, stirred in the grains, removed it from heat, and covered it for 5 minutes. It was the last thing to be complete. I fluffed it and served myself a small helping beside the veggies with a chicken breast over it, then the cooked marinade and all its chopped garlic over everything. Delicious! I wouldn’t change a thing for this balsamic chicken recipe, aside from the modifications I made to better fit my kitchen’s supply of seasonings. I had exactly two meals worth of food in the end, but with more couscous left over than anything else. My side additions made a perfect meal and a wide variety of texture, with soft sweet potato and crunchy pepper in the same bite. Yumm. I incorporated my favorite beer as my dessert, as well.

🍴 Meh 🍴🍴 Needs more than a few additions 🍴🍴🍴 It was sufficient  🍴🍴🍴🍴 Would make it again 🍴🍴🍴🍴🍴 So good I let my roommate try a bite (but full disclosure, I let her try it last time and not this time, mostly because I was so hungry and ready to eat)

[spices-and-herbs]

SWEET sweet potato fries (pt.2 of the previous post)

Recipe cost: see other sweet potato fries post.

 This post goes in tandem with my other sweet potato fries post, or maybe more of an addendum. Since I had already cut so many fries, I decided to do something different with some of them instead of making all of the same thing. I googled a recipe for sweeter sweet potato fries and easily found this recipe that called for butter, cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar, ginger, and a little bit of salt. While my first batch of savory fries were in the oven, I gathered the ingredients for this recipe, and got ready. I didn’t have any ground ginger (I think we have some in our fridge, but it’s whole and I had already been in the kitchen for a couple of hours, so I ignored it).

I melted the butter per the method with the cinnamon and sugars (and the bit of nutmeg that I added for fun). The recipe said 1-2 minutes, but it definitely never takes that long to melt butter. I knew better and did 40 seconds, which was probably just more than enough. I poured the mix over the rest of my fries, tossed them, made more of the mix when I realized it wasn’t enough, and then they were ready.

It said to preheat the oven to 375, but it was already at 400 and I decided it would be okay (it was). I poured them onto another round foiled tray and put them in the oven along with my second batch of savory fries. This recipe said to bake them for 30-35 minutes, so I just followed the suit of my first batch and flipped them with a different spatula than the savory ones 15 minutes in and baked them until I decided they were done.

Waiting for food to cook is nice because I could get my dishes and cleanup done early. I really should use my oven more often.

When they were all done, I pulled them out. I had already put the first batch onto a paper toweled paper plate (to catch the excess oil), so my stove was roomy. I combined batches of savory fries onto the same plate and got a separate plate for the sweet ones. However, something I had ignored in the sweet recipe was to use cooking spray. It took a few minutes to get all of the butter-coated fries off of the tin foil because they had become stuck. Oops. Luckily, there were only a couple of sacrificed fries.

I also had my roommates try these and they were a little bit more of a hit with one of my roommates, because they were sweet. She said it tasted almost like sweet potato pie (just needed more nutmeg!). I also loved the flavor, and would do this again.

🍴 Meh 🍴🍴 Needs more than a few additions 🍴🍴🍴 It was sufficient  🍴🍴🍴🍴 Would make it again 🍴🍴🍴🍴🍴 So good I let my roommate try a bite

[spices-and-herbs]

sweet potato fries

Recipe cost: I spent fewer than $5 on these sweet potatoes, and I had everything else already in my kitchen. 

Recently I tagged along with my roommate in a grocery trip to Whole Foods, where I usually don’t (ever) shop because it’s so damn expensive. Lo and behold, I ended up buying a few things at the cheapest prices possible, such as 2 sweet potatoes, though unsure what to do with them. A couple of weeks later, aka this week, I decided to make fries out of them. I googled a recipe and borrowed some aspects of a carrot fries recipe that my mom sent me, and I regret nothing. Maybe I regret buying from Whole Foods instead of Meijer, but alas, they weren’t that expensive. 

First, I had to wash and peel the potatoes. My apartment doesn’t have a vegetable peeler, but we do have a nice ceramic knife, so that made it a little easy. Then, I had to figure out how to cut them into fry shapes. I’ve never hand-cut fries before (or cut them at all), so there was a bit of a learning curve. I pushed the same knife through them lengthwise, then cut those in halves/thirds (depending on the size of the sweet potato) widthwise, and then cut those lengthwise again so that I would have smaller portions to cut. The NYT recipe gave dimensions to look for, so I tried to follow that while just following my own understanding of fries I’ve eaten in the past.

That was a true wrist workout. I sat down for a few minutes because it took so long to cut 2 sweet potatoes into a big bowl’s worth of fries. Then, I got up and gathered my ingredients for seasonings. I previously preheated the oven when I started cutting the second sweet potato, and that was just about ready. The recipe called for olive oil, paprika (I have smoked paprika but the difference is nil to me), garlic powder, salt, and pepper. The carrot fries recipe called out to me because it involved parmesan, which I also had, and sounded delicious on sweet potatoes. That one called for ¼ cup of parmesan cheese and some parsley, so I got those together. And, I recently brought a grater from home, so I could finally use my real parmigiano-reggiano! I grated enough into a cup measure and set it aside.

Since the bowl of fries was large, I split them into two bowls. Then I got a sheet tray and tin foil ready. I poured the olive oil and seasonings into one of the bowls, tossed them a little, and poured them out onto the tray once everything was coated. When they were flat on the tray, I sprinkled the parmesan over them. Knowing how easily thinly grated parmigiano-reggiano melts, I also sprinkled on the last of my Kraft parmesan cheese (don’t tell Italy). Into the oven they went, and I got the next batches ready (doing the same thing on a smaller, round tray - and something different on another tray. Details in the next post.).

The sweet potato recipe said to cook them for 15 minutes or until crispy on the bottom, then flip and cook for another 10 minutes until crispy all over. My experience was a little different. I don’t know if it was the amount of oil I used, but they were more soft than crispy - so I ended up cooking them until I had a few charred ones/edges (I like the burnt taste sometimes anyway). Cooking something until a small portion of it gets really dark is probably an okay way to ensure that it’s done. My total cook time per batch was about 30-35 minutes, and I flipped them with a spatula 15 minutes in. Good thing I didn’t have much homework to do that night. Once removed from the oven and cooled, I put them on a paper toweled paper plate to catch the excess oil - and did the same with the second batch of the same kind.

The verdict: delicious. Truly. I invited my roommates into the kitchen for taste tests, and they loved them, as did I. I ended up snacking on them cold the next day and they were just as delicious. I was able to fill an old No Thai container full of all of them, which means I had a lot left over (plus another container for the sweeter variety, see the next post). As I expected, the parmigiano melted very easily, but it still had a hint of complimentary flavor. All in all, I liked this recipe! The next time I have sweet potatoes and want to make fries, I’ll probably use this recipe (or just wing it now that I know what to do).

🍴Meh 🍴🍴 Needs more than a few additions 🍴🍴🍴 It was sufficient 🍴🍴🍴🍴 Would make it again 🍴🍴🍴🍴🍴 So good I let my roommate try a bite

[spices-and-herbs]

italian sausage tortellini

Recipe cost: This meal didn’t cost more than about $10 total (minus the garlic and seasonings, which are always stocked in my apartment).

I still had leftover frozen Italian sausage with which to cook, and I recently bought a package of tortellini pasta, so finding a recipe including both of these things was easy. This recipe looked simple and good, especially for cooking with a friend tonight. And it turned out great! And, of course, I substituted/subtracted/added a lot to and from the recipe. We didn’t have any spinach, but chopped some red bell pepper and added some frozen “Italian-style” vegetables. We’re both a little lactose intolerant (carelessly), so instead of chicken stock and heavy cream, we used some canned tomato sauce and a little bit of chicken stock to give the pasta some more cooking liquid. 

While cooking, I was showing my friend how to cook the meal as well, because she is also a college student with Not Much Money. Plus, it’s a relatively easy recipe, which is good for her busy life as much as my own. The first thing I showed her was how to squeeze the sausage out of its casing, which she had never considered but was intrigued and called me smart. I showed her how to cook it on the stove in a little bit of oil, and how to know when it was done while cutting it into smaller, bite-size pieces.

Right before it was finished cooking, I threw in some chopped garlic. The recipe called for onions, but I do not like onions, so no thank you. Then we poured the sauce over the sausage, then some chicken stock, and then the tortellini. We mixed it together and threw in the veggies before realizing that we would need two pans – it was a lot of food. I took out another pan and separated some of it, then covered each pan so the tortellini would cook to completion.

So much food, so much happiness. It smelled great, and this was even before we seasoned it with: red pepper flakes (a must!), garlic salt, onion and garlic powders, black pepper, and some garlic-rosemary seasoning. After mixing those in, it was ready to eat. Of course, we topped it with fake parmesan cheese. Someday I’ll invest in a grater for my real parmesan.

The sauce was perfectly distributed over each tortellino, which gave each bite a great flavor. The veggies still had all of their flavor after having only been in the pans for a few minutes, so they also had a nice crunch. And there was so much food, my friend and I were so full afterwards that we decided to save our gelato dessert for another time. Seriously, so much food, I will probably have leftover tortellini for a few days. We felt happy and full and, most importantly, full of nutrients. My Italian roommate commented on how great it smelled, so I gave her a few bites, and got her approval.

Bonus points: this meal had so many leftovers that it lasted me exactly a week.

🍴 Meh 🍴🍴 Needs more than a few additions 🍴🍴🍴 It was sufficient  🍴🍴🍴🍴 Would make it again 🍴🍴🍴🍴🍴 So good I let my roommate try a bite

[spices-and-herbs]

chickpeas with sausage and spinach

Recipe cost: around $7 (with plenty of sausage left over in the package).

AI watch only 2 of the daily sponsored Snapchat stories: Tastemade and Food Network. Sometimes they have recipe ideas that I have the ability and budget to try making for myself, such as their “Beans and Greens” dish consisting of bacon, chickpeas, and spinach.

Last week at Meijer, I picked up a can of chickpeas, because why not? I hadn’t ever cooked with them before and wanted to try something new. They were on sale. I could probably figure something out to make with them, and after watching the Tastemade snapchat story, I had an idea. As with many things in my life, I googled other ideas in case any were more appealing. There was one very similar recipe that I found which incorporated chickpeas, sausage, kale, and an egg – but I love myself and prefer spinach to kale, so I sort of combined the two recipes and substituted the food I don’t like for things that I do like. Experimenting with recipes is always more fun than following them verbatim, if you ask me.

I recently bought some Italian sausage as well, so I defrosted 2 links of it and cut the casing off. Let me tell you, squeezing the sausage out of the casing was a fun experience. I threw it into my heated pan and let it cook for some time, while simultaneously chopping 3 cloves of garlic (my most favorite addition to any savory food) and rinsing my chickpeas. Once the sausage was almost done, I threw the garlic into the pan and let the flavors flow into one another. Then, I took the sausage and garlic out of the pan and threw in the chickpeas and seasonings: smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, and garlic salt. Once they were cooked, I put the end of my apartment’s supply of spinach on top (sorry, roommates). As it wilted, I threw in the sausage and garlic and mixed it around with some onion powder and curry powder. Then, I cracked an egg on top, covered the pan for about 9 minutes, and it was done. If I had a cast-iron pan, I would have definitely thrown it in the oven.

Throughout the recipe, since I didn’t use bacon (which usually creates a nice amount of fat), I had to add water every now and then to hydrate the food and give it something in which to simmer. This helped the chickpeas and the egg stay moist, though it did end up a little drier than I had hoped. Unfortunately, I cooked the egg a little too long for my runny preference, and the yolk only was a little runny. My mistake. The meal overall made me feel motivated and satisfied – and I had leftovers! But it wasn’t the greatest..it was still pretty dry, so it needed something to moisten it up a little. It could have used another flavor aspect as well, but I’m not sure what was missing. Maybe more veggies or something would have given it more body, or chicken stock to keep the water and hydration from evaporating. In any case, it was perfectly seasoned after my additions and I enjoyed eating it despite the dryness. All of the ingredients were pretty cheap, too. 

🍴Meh  🍴🍴Needs more than a few additions 🍴🍴🍴It was sufficient 🍴🍴🍴🍴Would make it again 🍴🍴🍴🍴🍴So good I let my roommate try a bite

What would you recommend changing to make this recipe better?