#just wanted to heat up some leftover beans on the stovetop

[handmemyglockenspiel-imgoingin]

Bad sounds,

In my ears,

They make me curl up and cry,

They make me throw up~

"All night long~"

[themiscyra1983]

Cassandra’s Half-Assed Cuisine in Quarantine: Low and Slow Beef Stew Over Noodles

Good evening, cats and kittens, and welcome to the last of my recipes, at least for the time being. This one will perhaps be judged less harshly by the esteemed @docholligay, your friend and mine, as it does involve some actual proper cooking. I’m not saying no judgment. I am saying less.

As with my Hot and Horrific Chili Queso, I don’t have a specific provenance for this dish. It’s based on something my parents would make for me and my sister since our childhood, well before I can remember. The Lease family has roots all over the place, if by ‘the place’ you mean Europe. Most immediately, we are Swedish (via my grandmother, an immigrant), Scottish (via my great-grandmother, through whom I am linked to Clan MacGillivray, if only unofficially, as that was her maiden name), and Irish (via my grandfather; the less said about him the better, but I like Ireland even as I loathe that no-account bastard through the mists of time). Any part of our heritage could have inspired this simple, hearty meal, though more likely my parents found it on the back of a gravy packet or something and added it to our repertoire. Truth be told, a lot of our family recipes were things my parents initially found on a package, which then mutated over the years when they lost the original recipe; such is the case with our Chili Ole, an amalgam of ground beef, tomato paste, macaroni, beans and various spices. No idea what that dish was originally. No idea how to actually make it.

And, though I do know how to make this, I similarly have no idea where this actually came from.

But this was a special meal for us. Simple but time consuming, it was a bit infrequent in our family meal rotation, making it special for us. Today I make it strictly on special occasions, when I have a whole day to myself, as it involves the slow cooker and while I know the point is to just let the thing run, I don’t like leaving it completely unattended. So this is a Christmas and birthday kind of meal for me. And it was my dad’s specialty; since he now lives a thousand miles away, it’s not like he can make it for me.

Now, my dad doesn’t cook very much, and even less these days, it seems. His girlfriend was shocked to learn I thought highly of his gravy, but I do have fond memories of him making gravy for our Thanksgiving dinners and for this dish. He gave me the best instructions he could recall, but the truth is, I’ve never been able to make the stuff thicken the way I like - the way he could. So, because I can’t actually advise you on making gravy, and in the spirit of this being half-assed, I’m going to tell you to add premade gravy. But in the course of this recipe you’re going to end up with a by-product that could certainly be the basis of a gravy or a broth, so I’ll tell you how my dad said to make the gravy at the end, even though it doesn’t work for me.

But let’s start with the half-assed version. As I said: this is a time-consuming recipe, but also a simple one. It involves a few ingredients, a bunch of waiting, and then tasting and adjusting to taste as you finish it off. The most expensive part will be the steak. You can use stew beef if you prefer, but I actually found my experience using small, tender steaks much more satisfying. It was necessity inspiring invention when I couldn’t get stew beef but now I actually prefer it. You can also use onion powder instead of diced onion (in fact this is what my dad does), but I find the latter makes things more flavorful. If you want to use onion powder, I’d say add a couple tablespoons.

Here’s what you’ll need.

The Stew:

About 24 ounces worth of tender angus steaks

One small or about half a medium onion, freshly diced

Two tablespoons of garlic powder

Salt

Pepper

About 24 ounces of premade gravy (Heinz Savory Beef Gravy works for me)

The Noodles:

One 12-ounce package of egg noodles

One stick of butter or margarine (or four ounces for those of you who don’t get the stuff in quarter-pound sticks)

Cut the steaks into bite-sized chunks and place into your slow cooker or Instant Pot. Add the diced onion and garlic powder, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover this mixture with water - about 4 cups, enough to cover everything. Stir until you feel the ingredients have been distributed evenly. Put your slow cooker on low and leave to cook for eight hours.

After eight hours of cooking, remove the mixture from the slow cooker and drain, saving the water for other uses if desired. Put the drained mixture in a large saucepan and heat over low heat on your stovetop, adding the gravy and stirring often. Taste occasionally and add more garlic powder, onion powder, pepper and/or salt to taste.

In another pot, prepare the egg noodles as directed on the package, bringing enough water to cook them to a boil, adding the noodles, and stirring occasionally until tender. Once they’re ready, drain the noodles. Cut up the margarine or butter and add it to the pan, then return the noodles and stir thoroughly. Add a little olive oil as well if desired.

When the noodles are done and the beef stew is sufficiently hot, you’re ready to serve. I like to put the noodles in a bowl first, add some grated mozzarella on top, and then ladle the beef stew on top of that, adding salt and pepper if needed and to taste. You can also mix it all thoroughly and in fact this is sometimes what I do with leftovers (leaving out the cheese, which I add after reheating). The stew also goes well over potatoes as prepared in a variety of ways - mashed, boiled, those little red potatoes perfectly cooked, you name it.

This can easily make six servings or so, or four very hearty servings. I beg you to have a salad as well - I make a point of eating my greens. This is a lot of starch and protein and you should get some more veggies in there.

So What About the Gravy?

Again, I’ve never been able to make this work. Perhaps it’s the corn starch that’s giving me problems - my dad was diagnosed with celiac several years ago and stopped using flour. We could have noodles made from wheat (made in a separate pot, and tasted by the non-celiac folks in the house), but he had to taste the gravy to make it properly, so: gluten-free gravy. If you already know how to make gravy, you should use your process.

But this is what my dad told me.

You will need:

About two cups of water

About 3-4 heaping spoonfuls (my dad was not specific, I went with tablespoons) of corn starch (my family always used Argo brand)

Some Gravy Master, mainly for coloring - maybe about a teaspoon at most

When the stew mixture is done in the slow cooker, do NOT drain it off - add everything to the saucepan. In a separate vessel, mix the water, starch, and Gravy Master into a slurry, then add this to the pan as well. Stir everything together, heating over low heat, tasting occasionally. Add additional water if you find the gravy is getting too thick (spectacularly not a problem for me). As in the above process, add additional spices while cooking to taste.

Last Notes

To be honest, the “or margarine” up there is about my personal taste - it’s what I grew up with, as my family was often poor. We had butter, but used it sparingly, sticking with margarine for a lot of our cooking, including pasta. Butter tastes too...’buttery’ to me on pasta now. I use margarine (and I’m specific about the brands I like; I used to use Promise but after I started having trouble finding it I switched to Land O’ Lakes); you may very well prefer butter. I wouldn’t call either option exactly healthy.

In my dad’s version of the recipe - which uses stew beef and onion powder and involves his own gravy, as described above - he also browns the beef before adding it to the slow cooker, no more than about five or ten minutes in a frying pan over fairly low heat. I’ve never found this step necessary in my version of the recipe but you may like the effect.

...now I’m thinking about that Chili Ole my family used to make, whatever the hell that actually was before we got our grubby little hands on it. I’ll have to see if my dad remembers how we made that. But that’s all the ‘recipes’ I have for now; a LOT of what I eat otherwise boils down to ‘follow the directions on the package’ or ‘make a goddamned sandwich’ or ‘okay it’s a burger, cook a burger and slap it on a bun and top it with stuff’. If I think of anything else, well, my keyboard’s always ready to go.

For now, stay safe, stay healthy, and try to eat better than I do.

[justlookfrightened]

Locked out, Part 12

Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Part 4   Part 5   Part 6   Part 7   Part 8   Part 9   Part 10    Part 11

Jack stepped back to let Eric insert his key in the lock, and as soon as the door was open, Eric rushed inside, where he could hear Beyonce still singing “Check On It” over the insistent beeping of the oven timer and the bubbling of the potatoes boiling on the stove.

He grabbed for the oven mitts and wrenched open the oven door, afraid of what he’d find, but the tops of the rolls were only a shade too brown. They must have made it back a minute or two after they were scheduled to come out.

Eric set the baking sheet on an empty section of the stovetop so as not to damage the counter.

“Now,” he said, looking at Jack. “You said something about the nature of our relationship. But first we should get this meal on the table. The beans and the carrots are keeping warm on the back of the stove. I have gravy to make and potatoes to mash, and the chicken to carve. Can you give me 15 minutes?”

“Can I help?” Jack asked.

“Um, do you know how to carve a chicken?” “Not really, but how hard can it be?”

“Here,” Eric said, picking up his phone and calling up a video. “Watch that first.”

Then he began whisking flour into the fat he’d siphoned off from the chicken juices, keeping it moving constantly, and sneaking glances at Jack. Jack’s focus was entirely on Eric’s phone -- Eric wished he could take a picture -- as he followed along, and Eric imagined drawing out the steps to carving a chicken on whiteboard.

When the roux was dark enough, he added stock bit by bit, before reaching for the seasonings.

Once the gravy was done, Eric moved the rolls from the baking sheet into a towel-lined bowl (making a note that Jack could use a basket for breads) and checked the potatoes. They were ready to mash, so he carried them to the sink and drained them, returning the potatoes to the hot pot.

Jack had put down Eric’s phone and was contemplating one of the chickens, chef’s knife in his hand.

“It’ll be okay,” Eric said, gathering half-and-half and butter from the refrigerator. “It’s going to taste good however you cut it. I just kind of wanted you to go into it with a plan.”

He cut a generous chunk of butter and put it in the pot with the potatoes, then slide the lid on while he poured a bit of half-and-half into a mug and heated it in the microwave.

“So you do use a microwave,” Jack said, a leg quarter in one hand and the knife in the other.

“Yes, and I use a refrigerator and freezer too,” Eric said. “I have nothing against technology, but you have to understand what it does to your food. I’d never refrigerate a tomato, and I’d never heat a pie crust in the microwave.”

“Whatever you say,” Jack said, turning his attention to separating the drumstick from the thigh.

When the half-and-half was warm, the butter was melted and Eric could start mashing, adding a bit of liquid at a time until the consistency was right. Then he added some salt and white pepper, tasting a spoonful at a time.

Jack was finishing the first chicken, the meat nicely displayed on the platter Eric set out.

“You want to do the next one?” Jack asked.

“Nah, you’re doing great,” Eric said. “I’m going to wrap up this carcass and stick it in your freezer. I can make stock with it later, so I won’t have to buy the stuff in the box.”

Eric had decided before Jack came home that this meal deserved a formal setting, so he’d cleared a handful of magazines and books that had accumulated and set out matching plates and flatware. Jack even had a set of cloth napkins.

As Jack concentrated on carving the second bird -- and God was he adorable when he focused on something -- Eric ferried the food to the table. There were the two vegetables, the potatoes, the rolls. Gravy in a straight-sided bowl since Jack apparently didn’t own a gravy boat. Salt and pepper. Serving spoons. Glasses of water.

“I don’t think we need all this meat,” Jack said, looking at the platter that was now piled high.

“I know,” Eric said. “I was planning for leftovers.”

“Oh,” Jack said. “That’s good. It would be good for you to have something besides fast food to eat during the week.”

“I thought I could make a couple of things to leave in your freezer and fridge for you to eat this week.”

“Oh,” Jack said again, but didn’t continue. Instead, he brought the platter to table.

“Now,” Eric said. “What is … the nature of our relationship?”

“We’re friends, right?” Jack said.

Eric felt his heart sink as he smiled and took a sip of water.

“Of course we are.”

“But I was hoping that maybe -- maybeyouwouldwanttogooutwithme?”

“What was that?” Eric asked. He thought Jack asked him out, but it was hard to tell with the way Jack was mumbling into his plate.

Jack looked up, that focus now all on Eric.

“Do you want to go out with me?” he asked.

Eric never thought people were serious when the said something took their breath away. But this -- Jack looking at him with those blue eyes, hope and nervousness on his face -- Eric had to take a moment to gasp in a breath. When Jack’s face started to turn down, Eric hurried to put his hand over Jack’s and said, “Of course, honey. Didn’t I tell you outside how I was afraid people could see the hearts in my eyes?”

“Are you sure?” Jack said. “I mean, I’m not really out, and I probably can’t be. At least not right away. And if people find out, well, it won’t be easy on you.”

“What do you mean am I sure?” Eric said. “Are you sure? I mean, is taking that chance worth it  to you? For someone like me?”

“You’re the only reason it’s worth it,” Jack said. “But yes, it absolutely is.”

“Then yes, I absolutely want to go out with you,” Eric said. “I also want you to eat before the food gets cold.”

******************************

Tagging  @thehockeyhaus @cow-mow @communistchexmix @falling-out-girl  @whatnowpunk

Part 13

[povlsen29bird-blog]

How To Lose Weight

Some people feel better supplementing the already active T3 (sometimes prepared from pig thyroid glands), as it can give a stronger effect than the T4 hormone, but its effect is often harder to control.

Healthy Weight LossThere are a lot of fad diets out there that promise to help you drop weight fast—but do they work, and more importantly, are they healthy? The 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans provide suggested daily calorie intakes based on gender, age, and physical activity level. When you know your calorie budget, then you can plan on how many servings of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy, and other protein sources to include every day. There's a lot here. So, to demystify what sustainable weight loss looks like, we not only dug into the research, we also reached out to experts who help people lose weight, exercise, and explore their relationships to food, to ask them what actually works. Here's what they told us about losing weight in a healthy, effective, and sustainable way. The authors wanted to compare low-fat vs. low-carb diets, but they also wanted to study genetic and physical makeups that purportedly (their word) could influence how effective each type of diet will be for people. Previous studies had suggested that a difference in a particular genetic sequence could mean that certain people will do better with a low-fat diet. Other studies had suggested that insulin sensitivity may mean that certain people will do better with a low-carb diet.

If you don't have diabetes they will show you how to lose or maintain your weight and eat more nutritiously. If you are at risk for diabetes, or have pre-diabetes, ( Stage 1 Type 2 diabetes ), the book's "Food Do's" can help you prevent full-blown (Stage 2) Type 2 diabetes. Weight management is about long-term success. People who lose weight quickly by crash dieting or other extreme measures usually gain back all (and often more) of the pounds they lost because they haven't changed their habits in a healthy way that they can stick with. To mix things up, I'll add variants to those meals. One week I might do seared tuna on my salad (a little more money), or do a spinach omelet instead of just scrambled eggs with spinach on the site. I even switch up my first meal with bacon, sausage, or no meat, just to keep things interesting and new. The 5:2 diet. Eat as much as you need to feel satisfied 5 days of the week and then eat calorie-restricted on two days (500 calories per day for women, 600 calories for men). I don't recommend this as it requires calorie counting and more planning, but some people still find they enjoy it. Dark chocolate. You can enjoy dark chocolate in moderation. It contains healthy fats called MUFAs that help your metabolism burn more calories and fat, and it can also slow down your digestion so you can feel full and indulge less. In this case, seek professional help Trying to lose weight without first combating food addiction is next to impossible. Kolors Healthcare sparked its inception on 6th of October 2004 with 11 email protected Srinagar Colony, Hyderabad. Today we stand as World's first ISO 9001:2008, certified company in Inch - loss Program. Kolors is recognized for providing best solutions into Slimming, Skin and Hair care, and has reached the highest standards in terms of client satisfaction in a span of 14 plus have extended our Healthcare services across Telangana, AP, Tamilnadu,and Karnataka. We did all analyses according to intention to treat and using Stata v11.0 and SPSS v17.0. We preferred objectively measured weight, but we used self reported weights when they were the only measures available. We assumed participants for whom weight at follow-up was not available to have their baseline weight for the primary analyses. We also did a sensitivity analysis using the last recorded weight as the follow-up weight. Shape A Unisex Slimming & Health Care Centre in Karnal reveals an avant-garde gymnasium, well-equipped and tastefully decorated. The establishment is visited by people of all age-groups with multiple requirements, all of which are addressed to with attention and care. Whether the need is losing or gaining weight, increasing flexibility, toning muscles or improving cardiovascular health, this establishment offers proper guidance and help. The fitness centre owes its overwhelming success to its provision of the finest equipments. There are on-site personal lockers for the customers ensuring safety of their belongings. The facility remains functional between 05:00-16:00 - 13:00-21:00. Customers can pay their fees via multiple payment modes like Cash, Visa Card, Cheques, Credit Card, Debit Cards, Master Card, American Express Card, depending upon their individual convenience. As a beer home brewer, I know that taking barley or wheat and letting it sit in hot water for an hour converts the starches into sugar. Beer is sugar water with alcohol. So I always imagine my body as a mash tun (the vessel used to heat up grains to convert them to wort, which is beer before it has alcohol). Located within the famous 5-star Akra Hotel, The LifeCo Akra Antalya Center offers its guests Europe's best result oriented options of healthy nutrition and detox programs. At The LifeCo Akra Antalya, you will feel renewed by a comprehensive set of therapies, a healthy nutrition plan and the ultimate soothing environment while your loved ones enjoy the city of Antalya. Ideal for business trips and family holidays, The LifeCo Akra Antalya could be your next stop for a refreshing and pleasant holiday with spectacular views of the Mediterranean Sea. Whether or not you're specifically aiming to cut carbs, most of us consume unhealthy amounts of sugar and refined carbohydrates such as white bread, pizza dough, pasta, pastries, white flour, white rice, and sweetened breakfast cereals. Replacing refined carbs with their whole-grain counterparts and eliminating candy and desserts is only part of the solution, though. Sugar is hidden in foods as diverse as canned soups and vegetables, pasta sauce, margarine, and many reduced fat foods. Since your body gets all it needs from sugar naturally occurring in food, all this added sugar amounts to nothing but a lot of empty calories and unhealthy spikes in your blood glucose.

After four weeks, the group eating the least number of calories lost four pounds of fat and little to no muscle, whereas the group that maintained the smaller calorie deficit lost only a little fat.

Even if you don't drink soda, there are dozens of simple, everyday habits you can follow to lose weight. In fact, Andy Yurechko, MS, RD, of Augusta University Medical Center in Georgia, believes the most successful dieters avoid fads and focus on long-term sustainable practices. Compare and contrast brands. Some yogurts, for example, boast that they're low in fat, but they're higher in carbs and added sugars than others, Stewart says. Foods like gravy, mayonnaise, sauces and salad dressings often contain high amounts of fat and lots of calories.

Women who regularly read food labels are, on average, nine pounds lighter than those who don't do this, research from the U.S. National Health Interview Study found.

Motivation, for instance: One person may be mentally ready to diet, while another might make only a halfhearted effort, surrendering to temptation after a short time on the assigned diet.

It's common to lose 2-6 pounds (1-3 kg) within the first week on a strict low-carb diet, and then on average about one pound (0.5 kg) per week as long as you have a lot of weight remaining to lose. This translates into about 50 pounds (23 kilos) per year. Go to the Library. To learn about living well with diabetes, make the VHL go-to-guide your go-to resource. And remember that the VHL has lots of great information to help you get healthy by eating better and exercising more. Keep a food log. Recording what you eat every day helps to keep you accountable and motivated. Guests at the Pritikin Longevity Center are encouraged to eat. Hunger is NEVER an issue. In fact, many of our guests say they're eating more than they ever have, and they're losing weight. Shape A Unisex Slimming & Health Care Centre in Karnal. Aerobic Classes with Address, Contact Number, Photos, Maps. View Shape A Unisex Slimming & Health Care Centre, Karnal on Justdial. Kim says, Whilst this does depend on the individual, for the average person who isn't following an intensive exercise programme, eating three meals per day, five hours apart is ideal. For example, you might have breakfast at 9am, lunch at 2pm and dinner at 7pm. It's also always a good idea to avoid eating late in the evening. Unsurprisingly, the results showed that nothing had happened to the weight of the women receiving calcium or the placebo. However, the group which took the multivitamin lost more weight - about 3 kg more - and improved their health markers. Among other things, their basal metabolic rate (the rate at which the body burns calories when at rest) increased. While there are probably plenty of pre-made bean and veggie soup options that just need a few minutes to heat through on the stovetop, making your own soup is really easy—and a great idea for your health. Homemade soups are much lower in sodium - about 100 milligrams or less per 2-cup serving. By contrast, 2 cups of many canned soups contain a blood-pressure-busting 1,200 milligrams or more, a worrisome amount considering that health experts recommend consuming no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium for the entire day. This is also a great way to use up all those leftover vegetables in your crisper—pretty much anything works in this soup. Slowing down your meal helps you counter this outcome by allowing you to plug into your body's satiety cues , giving it time to figure out that it's had enough food. In practice, this means setting aside 15 to 20 minutes to have your meal. Enjoy how your food smells and tastes, savor each mouthful by chewing mindfully, put your fork down between bites, breathe and give yourself room to feel nourished and filled up. Yohimbine is a natural substance that increases fat loss , and is particularly helpful with losing stubborn” fat in the belly, hip, and thigh regions. Bottom line, you can lose a large amount of weight fast, but you need to do it safely and under a doctor's care. However, the safest weight loss method is to eat less and exercise more, with a plan and goal of losing one to two pounds per week. Changing the way you go about eating can make it easier to eat less without feeling deprived. It takes 15 or more minutes for your brain to get the message that you've been fed. Eating slowly will help you feel satisfied. Eating lots of vegetables and fruits can make you feel fuller. Another trick is to use smaller plates so that moderate portions do not appear too small. Changing your eating schedule, or setting one, can be helpful, especially if you tend to skip, or delay, meals and overeat later. Fermented foods: These enhance the function of good bacteria while inhibiting the growth of bad bacteria. Sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, yogurt, tempeh, and miso all contain good amounts of probiotics, which help to increase good bacteria. Time have studied kimchi widely, and study results suggest that it has anti-obesity effects. Similarly, studies have shown that kefir may help to promote weight loss in overweight women. Statistics show that most Americans try to diet or lose weight at one point or another. However, focusing on long-term health and fitness is a superior approach. Try to make a habit of exercising and eating right - not just to lose weight, but also to feel better and live longer. It can be hard at first. In fact, it took years for me to do it in my own life. But now proper nutrition and exercise are always on my mind and part of my routine. Just keep at it, and if you fall off the wagon, pick yourself up and get back on. Slimming Pill Hailed 'Holy Grail' In Tackling Obesity 's well worth the effort.

How well medical nutrition therapy works depends on how much effort you put into it. Your dietitian can give you information and suggestions, but you must change your habits.

[tupperwareblog]

5 Useful Kitchen Tools Every Home Chef Should Pick Up or Upgrade

Every home chef is at their best when they have the most useful kitchenware at their disposal. As such, it should be a priority to pick up the most helpful kitchen essentials if you don’t have them already. However, upgrading to more competent and reliable models of useful kitchenware can be just as important as having them to begin with. Even a better set of salt and pepper shakers can make a big difference!

Food Prep Essential: Master Shredder A high-quality master shredder and grater tool is among the most versatile and useful pieces of kitchenware. It can be used for shredding and grating a huge variety of vegetables, hard cheeses and eggs, chocolate for desserts, and a whole lot more. In addition to making countless recipes easier, they also make a variety of new recipes possible. That makes a handle-operated master shredder an asset for both experienced home chefs and enthusiastic beginners. Stay Sharp: Universal Knife Sharpener Sharpening kitchen knives on whetstones takes time, skill, and experience, and mistakes can ruin blades. A professional sharpening will do the trick but involves inconvenience and expense. Thankfully, there is an invaluable solution for the home chef: an effective universal knife sharpener. Not only do some of the best at-home knife sharpeners put a professional chef-level edge on your kitchen knives, but they also make it extremely easy to do so. The Tupperware® Universal Knife Sharpener is an outstanding example—it’s safe and stable, ergonomic, and, importantly, can sharpen both straight and serrated blades. Ultimate Stovetop Solution: Covered Casserole Pan A warning—once you find a high-quality covered casserole pan, it’s going to become an indispensable part of your kitchenware collection. They are an impressively versatile piece of cookware. The best among them can braise and sauté, simmer and slow cook, marinate, and bake. A high-quality non-stick casserole pan will heat quickly and evenly and is also easy to clean—definitely a must-have. Reliable Staples: Large Salt and Pepper Shakers Salt and pepper shakers are those kitchenware staples that you never want to be without. As often as salt and pepper shakers are used for both preparing and seasoning food, upgrading to a large and effective set should be a priority. Look for an ergonomic, dishwasher-safe salt and pepper shaker set with lids that can be shut to maintain optimal freshness. Multitasking Must-Have: Versatile Mincer A mincer is a versatile tool that’s good to have around the kitchen so that you can easily mince your own fish or meat at home. You can even use it for chickpeas or beans when making delicious meals and sides for the whole family. With a cookie insert, you can create fancy-shaped cookies for holidays and everyday fun occasions. With a sausage insert, you can do everything from fill sausages and cannelloni to stuff delicious vegetables everyone will love. About Tupperware Pioneering food and kitchen storage solutions, Tupperware has been a household staple for 75 years. As the leading brand in food storage solutions, Tupperware continues to offer high-quality, long-lasting products that help you stay organized, serve with style, and keep leftovers fresh. With their dedication to sustainability and environmental consciousness, Tupperware is a brand you will feel proud to feature in your kitchen. Tupperware® products are also easy to take on the go. Pack school or work lunch in a big container with compartments. Or, take your Tupperware® containers to a friend’s house to enjoy the convenience of environmentally friendly food storage solutions. With serveware, kitchen appliances, bowl sets, and containers of all sizes, Tupperware ensures you stay on top of food preparation and organization wherever and whenever you need it. Outfit the kitchen of your dreams with Tupperware® products at https://www.tupperware.com/ Original Source: https://bit.ly/3MxXJaT

[no-more-ramen]

Cream-Of-Something Casserole is a *staple* in my house.

1 can Cream Of Something (mushroom is my favorite, but celery, onion, chicken, etc all work)

1 double-fistful of carb. Egg noodles are good, so is rice. Cook it first if you want, or add extra water to the casserole and let it cook longer. 

1 double-fistful of veg. Frozen spinach or broccoli from a bag work well. Also green beans, corn, bell peppers, etc. Leafy greens and veggies with substance work the best.

Add protein. Canned tuna if you’re out of spoons, chopped up chicken or turkey or pork if you’ve got some in leftovers. You could probably use tofu. You could definitely use pre-cooked meat bits from the frozen section, though personally I don’t tend to use ground beef. You can season this part or wait until the end. 

Throw in some cheese if you want.

Add just enough water so it mixes together smoothly. This is the part where the flavor additives go; garlic, onion powder, sage… a pre-mixed spice blend if you have to. Whatever suits you. Top it with Parmesan or breadcrumbs or both. I actually really like sprinkling uncooked stovetop stuffing on top, as it is already seasoned, and the moisture from the casserole softens it up properly and then all the main body of the dish needs is a little garlic.

Pop it in the oven at like… 325ish? Let it heat up until it starts bubbling and is hot all the way through, and the noodles are soft if you didn’t precook them. Just dumping everything in the crock pot also works, but if you do that I’d suggest dumping everything but the carb in, letting it get hot, then stir in the noodles or rice or whatever to cook about twenty minutes (ish? I eyeball it) before you eat.

Freeze the leftovers.

Tah-dah, you now have The Recipe Of Infinite Variety.

[mcalhenwrites]

I would love a small house, especially if I could have a separate room/studio for crafts (since that is my workplace). 

While I can’t live 100% minimalistically - especially because my house is also my place of work - I would benefit greatly from a simple kitchen without too many appliances. I’ve been thinking about ways to reduce costs and keep to a limited space, which includes giving up a microwave and using a small oven, stovetop, or slow cooker for meals that will last me a while. I reheat a lot of things on stovetop or in the oven, anyway, as I don’t like microwaves for this purpose.  Kettle is a must, though. Can be one that sits on the stovetop to heat, too, I’m not in need of one of the electric ones - though I’m not opposed to it, either, if that’s what I end up with. I’ve got a way to make coffee without a big appliance, either, even if it is a tiny bit tedious. Just need a kettle and to set it up over a cup!  I’d need a decent pantry size, though, for stocking pet food in containers, my containers for rice and beans (I try to buy giant bags that are like 17 lbs when it comes to rice - cheap way to have it last all year), paper towels and such, and whatever jars and boxes of food I have around. A medium-sized fridge is ideal, too. Not a mini one, but the ones that are like...short enough I could put my elbows on if I wanted? Enough for a brita filter, my vegetables and fruits from my garden or from the store, a container or two of leftovers, some frozen poultry, juices, iced herbal teas, and my cooked rice that I make in advance because it saves spoons to make a huge batch and grab half a cup or so whenever I need it throughout the next few days, rather than trying to get a batch done each time I need it. :P  Plus I am thinking about making my own wet cat food to accompany the cats’ dry food, so I’ll need a little space for that. ^^;  I would like to own a small outdoor grill someday, but I’d keep that in a shed with my gardening supplies and the mower and such. ^^ A dining set isn’t required, tho I would want a small table space set into the wall to sit at and eat. Trying to keep my dishes to a minimum, too, though I already have quite a few! (I have so many fucking mugs, but tbh I hope I’ll have guests who enjoy drinking out of them xD) I’m not interested in a large bedroom - give me a small space with a bed and a closet/storage for my things! (I want enough space to make the bed, though.) If I were on my own, I’d spend a lot less time in my bedroom if I lived elsewhere and enjoy being “bedridden” on the sofa or something, so I’d like a small space that’s easy to clean and manage.   Parts where I’m less minimalistic are my gaming items, yarn (which would go in my workspace), and books. I would love shelves set into the wall, with a comfortable reading nook that has blanket storage underneath, and maybe a comfortable pair of chairs and/or a sofa (for a guest to join me in playing games and such). I do need to sort through books and donate tons of them, though, and they’d share shelf space with figures and plushies. (I am hoping I have decent shelving space in the bedroom, too, where over the bed, I can just set up a ton of amigurumi!) It’d be nice to have a small built-in table around some of the bookshelves where I can sit and work on my writing, too, from a table and chair. Maybe something with a nice window out into the garden!  Plus I’d like a tiny enclosed patio or something for me to enjoy sitting out there with plants and my cats. Doesn’t even have to be big.  Small garden area, and then a decent patch of green grass fenced in that’s specifically for my dog. :’) (Provided I have a dog by the time I move out. I know I won’t be having more rabbits in the future, but if Augustus is with me, this whole set up will have to change quite a bit to allow space for his pen - which is huuuuge.) Will hopefully have a nook for a cat box or two, ‘cos cats are one pet I think I’m gonna always have around. Though I do want a dog, too, so adopting some elderly beast would be nice. <3 Bathroom can just have a shower, but with my health issues, I want a built-in seat for it. Don’t really need a large bathroom or anything, though I can’t deal with something super tiny, either. Will probably need some bars in the room, esp if I can slip my cane through one on my bad days! The garden would be raised, too, with seating along the edges so I can basically sit down and work with my disabilities. Would have nice little pathways. If I had enough money to enclose the whole thing and allow my cats free reign through some of it, I would - I just have to have two sections, one that’s officially outside for stuff like tomatoes and whatnot, since they’re toxic to cats. (Well, to humans, too, if we tried to eat the leaves/plants and not just the fruit :P ) That would also be a good space to put bird feeders, since the cats would be banned! :’) I want my own place so bad ;A;

[jonasmaurer]

25 kid-friendly breakfasts, lunches, and dinners

Sharing 25 meals that my kids will eat, no matter what. It’s always hard to find kid-friendly recipes and home runs, so I’m sharing the goods in this post! 

Raise your hand if you’re SO sick of cooking right now. I’ve been in a cooking funk for pretty much all of ‘Rona (and yes, I’ve complained about it here on the blog quite a bit. I’m sorry for being a big ol’ whiner.). I think with everything else on the list (distance learning, trying to keep P from injuring herself, trying to shuffle in my own work and workouts amidst the madness), cooking just doesn’t feel like this fun leisure activity I used to enjoy so much. It just feels like a means to an end, and the end consists of me cleaning everything up before starting the process all over again. Thankfully, the girls are awesome eaters and are adventurous, so even when I have one of those clean-out-the-fridge nights to see what happens, they’ll try pretty much everything.

Please keep in mind that I’m not an RD, but here are some of the tips for feeding kiddos that I’ve found helpful:

– Always serve at least one thing you know they love. This way, if they’re not a fan of the meal, there’s something else on their plate that they enjoy. I always try to serve each meal with at least one fruit and one veggie so they’re getting in enough nutrients during the day.

– Encourage a polite bite. They don’t have to eat anything they don’t want to eat or try, but we encourage them to take at least one polite bite. Sometimes that means they end up loving it and finding a new fave!

– Respect kiddos’ intuitive eating. They’re really excellent at listening to their bodies; eating when they’re hungry and stopping when they’re full. We don’t tell them they have to eat “x” amount of bites or clean their plates. If they don’t eat much and I know they’re going to be hungry later, I just pop their dinner in the fridge to heat up if they’re begging me for a bar at 9pm.

– Switch up the greens rotation. It can get so easy to fall into the broccoli, green beans, and zucchini sides for a green vegetable but the girls get sick of them. I try to switch it up by picking up different things (like artichokes, Brussels sprouts, stir fries), making chopped salads with our entree, or the Caesar salad kit from Costco. The girls go crazy for it.

For today’s post, I wanted to share some of my go-to recipes that are home runs for the whole family. I feel like these are hard to find, so when you find a good recipe your kids love, you definitely want to keep coming back to it. I’d love to hear any of your kids’ favorite meals, too, if you wouldn’t mind sharing in the comments below. We can all share some ideas and inspiration with each other during a kind of blah cooking time.

25 kid-friendly breakfasts, lunches, and dinners

Breakfast:

French toast with berries and sausage. The kids LOVE French toast. They could probably eat it for every meal and be totally happy. I crack two eggs into a bowl and add a splash of coconut milk creamer or almond milk, some vanilla, lots of cinnamon, and nutmeg. I dip each slice of Dave’s Killer Bread (or brioche if I’m feeling fancy) into the egg mixture and cook on the electric griddle. I add more cinnamon before flipping. The kids have gotten really used to having French toast or pancakes most days of the week since we’ve all been home, but for busy school mornings, I make extra servings over the weekend and freeze them to heat when we’re in a rush.

Chia pudding with banana and peanut butter. This is an awesome make-ahead breakfast. I just add a cup and a half of almond milk to a jar, along with 4 tablespoons of chia seeds, lots of cinnamon, and some maple syrup to sweeten. I stir and let it sit in the fridge overnight. In the morning, I put it into two bowls and top with sliced bananas, peanut butter, cinnamon, and honey.

Avocado toast with a scrambled egg. I make sourdough over the weekends and freeze it to enjoy during the week. In the morning, I pop the bread into the toaster and then top each slice with mashed avocado, sea salt, and lemon juice, and serve with a side of scrambled eggs.

Egg burritos. Another fave on-the-go breakfast. I just scramble 3 eggs on the stovetop and add a handful of shredded cheese to the eggs when they’re done cooking. I spread butter onto warm tortillas, top with eggs, and roll up. If we take them with us in the car, I wrap each burrito in a paper towel and then foil so it stays warm until we leave.

Pancakes (of course) with turkey bacon or scrambled eggs. This is our go-to pancake recipe! Like most things, I make a ton and freeze them.

Smoothies! The girls LOVE smoothies for a quick breakfast or afternoon snack. If I’m making them on the fly, I’ll add almond milk, frozen bananas, frozen fruit, spinach, chia, MCT oil, honey, and peanut butter. Otherwise, they really love the Daily Harvest smoothies (code FITNESSISTA gets you $25 off your first box!).

Lunch:

Bagel with cream cheese, sliced apples, and veggies with hummus.

Turkey sandwich with cheese on Dave’s Killer Bread with Primal Kitchen Ranch dressing and cheddar.

Omelette with cheddar and a side of leftover veggies from dinner the night before, and jelly toast

Pizza on an english muffin. Even better = Papa John’s pizza. Let’s be real here.

Grilled cheese with sliced apples, and veggies with ranch or hummus.

Tuna salad with Simple Mills crackers and sliced avocado. This is my go-to tuna salad recipe.

Nachos!! Chips, top with cheese, melt in the microwave. Add black beans, salsa, guacamole, and boom. Lunch is served.

Dinners:

Egg roll in a bowl

Sushi roll bowl. This is one of our family’s very favorite easy dinners! SO satisfying and quick.

Ina Garten’s lasagna. This one is a bit more labor-intensive but a huge hit. It really is the best lasagna.

Super cheesy chicken enchiladas (I serve these with beans and rice).

Chicken and broccoli casserole with a side salad. <— I mentioned above that the girls LOVE Caesar salads so I’ve been buying the salad kits at Costco. Bonus: it takes 5 minutes to put together.

Steak, roasted asparagus and baked potatoes. The Pilot makes awesome steak on the grill and we all go crazy for it. (I have red meat once every couple of months or so.)

Turkey meatloaf with sweet potato fries and a salad.

Turkey chili with cornbread. I top the chili with cheese, avocado, and lime juice.

Chicken tortilla soup with avocado, lime juice, and sour cream.

This chicken and veggie soup with a piece of sourdough.

Any type of stir fry. I recently got one from Trader Joe’s that had tons of veggies and chickpeas, and sautéed it on the stove with red onion, salt and pepper. I added shrimp to the mixture to cook, and poured some Primal Kitchen teriyaki sauce on top. Everything was served on top of rice (cooked in the Instant Pot). It was awesome!

Easy pasta dish. While Banza pasta boils, I’ll take chicken sausage and sauté it on the stove with garlic, spinach, and add sun-dried tomatoes. When it’s done, I’ll add Banza pasta, some butter, and parmesan. It’s SO easy (like 15 minutes!) and the girls go crazy for it.

Some of their favorite snacks:

Perfect Bars (or any bars really).

Jerky. They especially love these maple jerky sticks.

Any fruit. I try to switch it up each week! We always have bananas, berries, apples, and usually grapes on hand, but I try to get at least one or two different things each week, like cantaloupe, watermelon, pomegranate arils, persimmon, pears, peaches, whatever the market has that looks good.

Applesauce pouches. I get the giant box of organic pouches from Costco.

Hard-boiled eggs.

Energy balls. You can play around with flavor variations depending on what you have in the pantry.

The infamous snack plate. This is a beloved afternoon snack and is like a kids’ version of a charcuterie board. I’l just add a bunch of snacks to one large plate and they’ll share while they play outside or watch a show. It usually has chopped bars, sliced fruit, berries, cheese, jerky, pretzels, trail mix, pickles, whatever I have on hand.

So there ya go! Some of the girls’ very favorite meals. I’d love to hear your family favorites and take all the inspiration I can get! Please share your faves in the comments below.

xo

Gina

My go-to healthy breakfasts, lunches, and dinners are here.

The post 25 kid-friendly breakfasts, lunches, and dinners appeared first on The Fitnessista.

25 kid-friendly breakfasts, lunches, and dinners published first on https://olimpsportnutritionde.tumblr.com/

[easyfoodnetwork]

If You Literally Never Cook, Start Here

Photo by Maciej Toporowicz, NYC / Getty

How to get started on your cooking journey, from frying eggs and saucing pasta to roasting chickens and making soup

So you’re really, really into food. You also have no idea how to cook it. I get it, I’ve been there. There are more of us than you might think: Younger Americans grew up in a system awash in convenience foods, while our parents were working longer and harder and had less and less time to cook. Then, when we became adults, time and money were scarcer still, and restaurants became the places we gathered with our friends.

When I taught myself to cook at home, I immediately discovered most recipes aren’t written for anxious beginners. Instead, they assume the cook is already competent and looking to level up or add another dish to their repertoire. The rewards and demands of social media virality have only supercharged recipes’ emphasis on novelty and visual beauty. As someone who now knows how to cook, I love reading about a hack for cooking short ribs or a surprising use for my rice cooker. But back when I barely knew how to boil water, recipes telling me which tweak or technique yielded ideal results made turning on the oven feel high stakes. All that emphasis on aspiration and perfection made it way too hard to get started.

I’ve been cooking at home for a decade now, and to be honest, I’m still pretty basic. I sometimes feel embarrassed that I haven’t moved on from roasting chickens and simmering beans, but right now, basic-ness isn’t a crutch — it’s useful. With that spirit in mind, I’ve put together a series of recipes, and notes on recipes, that get really, really basic. Think of it as a roadmap to kitchen competence, a few pages from the grammar manual of home cooking from the dialect I speak.

The most important thing about learning how to cook is to resist perfectionism, and redefine what a home cooked meal is. That was true before we were sheltering in place and limiting our grocery outings to the bare minimum, and now it’s essential. Chicken thighs roasted with salt and olive oil, alongside some root vegetables cooked in the same pan? Highlight of the week. Rice and an egg and maybe some kimchi from the back of your fridge? Delicious. Cheesy pasta? Hell yes. Beans on tortillas or over some toasted stale bread? Dinner once a week for me.

How to Read (and Pick) a Recipe

Every guide like this starts out with the same advice: Read the recipe all the way to the end before you start cooking anything. That’s because even if it feels like kind of a cop move to read and follow the recipe, actually doing so removes much of the stress you might associate with cooking — which often happens when the pan is searing hot and you realize you need soy sauce right that second. Read the ingredients list too! It tells a story, and all-too-often hides some of the prep, like chopping onions or grating cheese or even entire sub recipes (maybe skip anything with sub recipes). If there’s a term you don’t understand, Google it. Almost every mysterious recipe term has been clearly defined online now.

Do your best as a beginner to follow the recipe, but also give yourself permission to deviate if the current situation means you don’t have an ingredient or piece of equipment on hand. Every recipe not written during World War II or in spring 2020 assumes a certain American bourgeois abundance. There’s been a run on garlic? Your tomato sauce will lack some pleasure, but it will still be tomato sauce. Only a few things will utterly wreck a non-baked-good: burning it, undercooking it, over-salting it, or, in certain cases, depriving it of moisture. Under-salting will make things taste flat and disappointing, but you can still eat them. Oil plus salt plus fire is as basic as cooking gets, and if you have those things and something you can cook, you have a meal.

The internet is chock full of free recipes and advice, but the cooking internet stuffers from misinformation as much as any other. A good rule of thumb is to use recipes from publications with test kitchens and bloggers who have proven the test of time, though you may have to pay for those recipes. A few publications have also made serious investments in teaching the fundamentals (though all of them mix in somewhat fussier recipes with the true basics): the New York Times’ How to Cook; the Washington Post’s round-up of recipes and techniques; the LA Times’ ongoing recipe series How to Boil Water; Bon Appetit’s Basically vertical; and Serious Eats’ coronavirus cooking guide. (Your local paper really could use those subscriptions right now if it has a cooking section.)

If you’ve got the money, order a cookbook or two or ten. You don’t have Salt Fat Acid Heat? Buy or borrow Salt Fat Acid Heat. No cookbook explains better the whys and hows of cooking, and the fundamentals of technique, while being refreshingly empowering. Thanks to that book, I (mostly) salt my food appropriately, and in friends’ eyes I became a 50 percent better cook.

When to Cook

Assume it will take you sixty to ninety minutes to prepare and clean up after any meal that’s not scrambled eggs. I don’t care if the recipe says thirty minutes. You’re new to this, and some of us are just slower in the kitchen. Play some music, catch up on a podcast, and, if you’re not sheltering solo, make a roommate or loved one help. If you don’t want to spend an hour cooking, choose a recipe that takes a long time but requires little from you, like baked potatoes or a pot of beans, so you can get other things done.

Equally important is knowing when not to cook. More than half my social distancing meals are not meals I’ve cooked, but repurposing of leftovers I cooked previously. I wouldn’t try to cook three meals a day from scratch right now (or… ever?). Trick yourself into thinking something is a different meal by plopping an egg on it or putting it in a tortilla instead of over rice.

Assemble Your Tools and Stock Your Pantry

Need a definitive guide to stocking your pantry and refrigerator for a week or two of cooking from home? Eater has that for you right here.

Not sure where to buy groceries right now? Restaurants are turning into markets, and lots of farms are offering CSA boxes. Fresh produce and meat and eggs from small producers taste more like themselves and make simple meals tastier, and if you can afford to support small producers right now it’s a great way to help the entire food system.

And as far as tools go, head over here for some products that make your kitchen an easier place to cook.

What to Cook

Roast Vegetables

You know what you can do with any type of vegetable you wouldn’t eat raw, and some that you would? Toss it with olive oil and salt, drop it on a sheet pan, and roast it. The only important thing is not to crowd what you’re roasting, so every piece gets nice and crispy. I like to roast at 425. Don’t want to chop? Roast a potato or sweet potato whole.

The Kitchn: Emma Christensen’s “How to Roast Any Vegetable”

New York Times: Melissa Clark’s “Roasted Vegetables”

Lucky Peach: Peter Meehan’s “Roasted Sweet Potatoes”

Stir Fry

Vegetables that don’t make sense for the oven, and even a few that do, are also great cooked super hot in a pan or wok. There’s all sorts of ways to saute, and stir-frying is one of the best for achieving flavor, both in terms of hitting the food with tons of heat and making the pan sauce part of the dish. This is also a simple way to use up ground meat and leftover rice (fried rice!).

LA Times: Genevieve Ko’s “The Easiest Way to Stir-Fry Vegetables”

Serious Eats: J. Kenji López-Alt’s “Wok Skills 101”

The Woks of Life: How to Make Stir-Fry the Right Way

Greens

You will never be disappointed to have a batch of cooked greens in the fridge. “Greens” is a broad category, ranging from chard to kale to dandelion to bok choi; they can be added to every type of meal for a shot of color and pleasant bitterness. There’s a few basic ways to cook them:

For leafy greens, Lukas Volger’s recipe for braised greens from his new book Start Simple is great and versatile.

If your pantry is a bit better stocked, try the Grandbaby Cakes recipes for collard and mustard greens.

This LA Times story on greens mania from 1986 (!) has a variety of braising options (time to bring back creamed kale?).

World’s Best Braised Cabbage from Taste is not lying.

If you don’t have time to cook the greens, try Toni-Tipton Martin’s recipe for wilting them.

Eggs

If you put an egg over roast vegetables or cooked greens, or drop it into soup, or plop it on top of rice, it becomes dinner. The two easiest ways to make the egg are to fry it up all crispy, or boil it until its yolk is still slightly soft. Cannelle et Vanille has an olive oil fried egg recipe from 2014, which likely helped kick off the trend. It’s a good one. The LA Times has two ways of looking at the ubiquitous jammy egg; Bon Appetit’s recipe calls for an ice water bath, which is super useful for quick peeling.

Rice

I rely on a rice maker; they can be pretty cheap and are usually easy to buy at grocery stores — at the moment I’m sure it’s much less predictable. If you can’t get a rice maker or don’t want one, it’s very possible to make rice on the stovetop. Also, rice in its creamy porridge form is another great platform for a meal or turning leftovers into a meal.

NY Times: Tejal Rao’s “How to Make Rice”

Tasty: “How to Cook Perfect Rice Every Time” [Video]

Serious Eats: Shao Z’s “How to Make the Silkiest, Most Comforting Congee”

Just One Cookbook: Nami Hirasawa Chen’s “Japanese Rice Porridge (Okayu)”

Beans

Cooking dried beans is maddeningly simple. The recipe can be as minimal as: Put the beans in a pot, glug a generous glug of fat on top, cover with water, add salt, and simmer for an hour or two. There’s a lot of tinkering and competing wisdom and differing culinary traditions behind this simple recipe, and it’s worth reading up. Warning: not all these recipes agree with each other. Pick one that works for you. Or keep cycling between them and cross referencing, because that’s what I do. I’m sure having a clay pot is great; I promise you don’t need one. Canned beans are always worth having around, and easy to doctor up.

Washington Post: Joe Yonan’s “Beans are good for the planet, for you and for your dinner table. Here’s how to cook them right.”

Rancho Gordo: “Cooking Basic Beans in the Rancho Gordo Manner”

NY Times: Tejal Rao’s “Cannellini-Bean Pasta with Beurre Blanc”

Isabel Eats: Isabel Orozco-Moore’s “Easy Refied Beans”

Roast Chicken

Beautifully burnished birds have become fetish objects on restaurant menus, and wrangling a whole four- or five-pound carcass might feel like more trouble than it’s worth. But don’t let the $70 ‘for two’ chickens of the past fool you; a roast whole chicken is an economical leftovers machine much greater than any sum of chicken parts. There are perfect and less perfect ways to do it, but you don’t need a cast-iron pan or string for trussing or butter under the skin. You just need a chicken, some salt, and a hot, hot oven.

NY Times: Mark Bittman’s “Simplest Roast Chicken”

Epicurious: Thomas Keller’s “My Favorite Simple Roast Chicken”

Taste Cooking: JJ Goode’s “How to Roast a Chicken? The Answers Are Horrifying.”

Salt Fat Acid Heat: Samin Nosrat’s Buttermilk-Marinated Roast Chicken

Can’t find whole chicken? Bone-in chicken thighs roast up even easier. Bonus: The chicken can be roasted in the same pan as hardier vegetables like potatoes or turnips.

Stock and Soup

Homemade stock is another dish that sounds intimidating but is dead simple and tastes so much better than canned. The only major investment is time. The recipes below call for a few more ingredients or using chicken wings (also great), if you can get them, but basic techniques here will work with whatever you have on hand, including only the picked-over husk of that chicken you roasted. Vegetarian stocks are easy to make with the root vegetables in your fridge or dried mushrooms. Pick up dried kombu, a type of seaweed, and bonito flakes at an Asian grocery store, and you can make dashi.

The Kitchn: Emma Christensen’s “How to Make Homemade Chicken Stock”

Smitten Kitchen: Deb Perelman’s “Perfect, Uncluttered Chicken Stock”

China Sichuan: “Basic Chinese Chicken Stock”

Just One Cookbook: Nami Hirasawa Chen’s “How to Make Dashi”

The Kitchn: Emma Christensen’s “How to Make Vegetable Stock”

101 Cookbooks: Heidi Swanson’s “10 Minute Instant Pot Mushroom Broth”

Now that you have stock, you have yet another way to use up that leftover chicken, beans, greens, rice, and whatever still needs cooking in your fridge. Clean-out-the-fridge soup is definitely a thing.

Pasta

There are many, many pasta recipes out there. The thing I wish someone had told me about pasta much sooner is how to sauce it. If you ever wondered why dumping some marinara sauce or butter on noodles always felt a little disappointing, it turns out there’s a very simple way to fix it! Toss the noodles hot in the sauce. Check out Serious Eats’ guide to saucing for more details.

Baking

I bought a box of brownie mix on a recent grocery store run, and I think you should too. That said, if you think baking from scratch will cheer you up, here’s a few ways to get started.

Taste Cooking: Odette Wiliams “A Cake to Snack On (and On and On)”

King Arthur Flour: “Chilling Cookie Dough”

Eater: Dayna Evans’ “Everyone’s Making Sourdough Now — Here’s How to Get Started”

Cook Safely

A word on kitchen safety: Much of it is common sense, but it’s good to brush up on. Here are the FDA guidelines, and here’s a good rundown on how to deal with all those sharp objects and open flames. That expert hand washing and disinfecting you’re doing will help you keep your kitchen and food safe, too. There is currently no evidence of foodborne transmission of the novel coronavirus; here’s how to grocery shop safely. If you are afraid of cooking meat, here’s how to conquer those fears.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/3dPHANy https://ift.tt/2R9I1IW

Photo by Maciej Toporowicz, NYC / Getty

How to get started on your cooking journey, from frying eggs and saucing pasta to roasting chickens and making soup

So you’re really, really into food. You also have no idea how to cook it. I get it, I’ve been there. There are more of us than you might think: Younger Americans grew up in a system awash in convenience foods, while our parents were working longer and harder and had less and less time to cook. Then, when we became adults, time and money were scarcer still, and restaurants became the places we gathered with our friends.

When I taught myself to cook at home, I immediately discovered most recipes aren’t written for anxious beginners. Instead, they assume the cook is already competent and looking to level up or add another dish to their repertoire. The rewards and demands of social media virality have only supercharged recipes’ emphasis on novelty and visual beauty. As someone who now knows how to cook, I love reading about a hack for cooking short ribs or a surprising use for my rice cooker. But back when I barely knew how to boil water, recipes telling me which tweak or technique yielded ideal results made turning on the oven feel high stakes. All that emphasis on aspiration and perfection made it way too hard to get started.

I’ve been cooking at home for a decade now, and to be honest, I’m still pretty basic. I sometimes feel embarrassed that I haven’t moved on from roasting chickens and simmering beans, but right now, basic-ness isn’t a crutch — it’s useful. With that spirit in mind, I’ve put together a series of recipes, and notes on recipes, that get really, really basic. Think of it as a roadmap to kitchen competence, a few pages from the grammar manual of home cooking from the dialect I speak.

The most important thing about learning how to cook is to resist perfectionism, and redefine what a home cooked meal is. That was true before we were sheltering in place and limiting our grocery outings to the bare minimum, and now it’s essential. Chicken thighs roasted with salt and olive oil, alongside some root vegetables cooked in the same pan? Highlight of the week. Rice and an egg and maybe some kimchi from the back of your fridge? Delicious. Cheesy pasta? Hell yes. Beans on tortillas or over some toasted stale bread? Dinner once a week for me.

How to Read (and Pick) a Recipe

Every guide like this starts out with the same advice: Read the recipe all the way to the end before you start cooking anything. That’s because even if it feels like kind of a cop move to read and follow the recipe, actually doing so removes much of the stress you might associate with cooking — which often happens when the pan is searing hot and you realize you need soy sauce right that second. Read the ingredients list too! It tells a story, and all-too-often hides some of the prep, like chopping onions or grating cheese or even entire sub recipes (maybe skip anything with sub recipes). If there’s a term you don’t understand, Google it. Almost every mysterious recipe term has been clearly defined online now.

Do your best as a beginner to follow the recipe, but also give yourself permission to deviate if the current situation means you don’t have an ingredient or piece of equipment on hand. Every recipe not written during World War II or in spring 2020 assumes a certain American bourgeois abundance. There’s been a run on garlic? Your tomato sauce will lack some pleasure, but it will still be tomato sauce. Only a few things will utterly wreck a non-baked-good: burning it, undercooking it, over-salting it, or, in certain cases, depriving it of moisture. Under-salting will make things taste flat and disappointing, but you can still eat them. Oil plus salt plus fire is as basic as cooking gets, and if you have those things and something you can cook, you have a meal.

The internet is chock full of free recipes and advice, but the cooking internet stuffers from misinformation as much as any other. A good rule of thumb is to use recipes from publications with test kitchens and bloggers who have proven the test of time, though you may have to pay for those recipes. A few publications have also made serious investments in teaching the fundamentals (though all of them mix in somewhat fussier recipes with the true basics): the New York Times’ How to Cook; the Washington Post’s round-up of recipes and techniques; the LA Times’ ongoing recipe series How to Boil Water; Bon Appetit’s Basically vertical; and Serious Eats’ coronavirus cooking guide. (Your local paper really could use those subscriptions right now if it has a cooking section.)

If you’ve got the money, order a cookbook or two or ten. You don’t have Salt Fat Acid Heat? Buy or borrow Salt Fat Acid Heat. No cookbook explains better the whys and hows of cooking, and the fundamentals of technique, while being refreshingly empowering. Thanks to that book, I (mostly) salt my food appropriately, and in friends’ eyes I became a 50 percent better cook.

When to Cook

Assume it will take you sixty to ninety minutes to prepare and clean up after any meal that’s not scrambled eggs. I don’t care if the recipe says thirty minutes. You’re new to this, and some of us are just slower in the kitchen. Play some music, catch up on a podcast, and, if you’re not sheltering solo, make a roommate or loved one help. If you don’t want to spend an hour cooking, choose a recipe that takes a long time but requires little from you, like baked potatoes or a pot of beans, so you can get other things done.

Equally important is knowing when not to cook. More than half my social distancing meals are not meals I’ve cooked, but repurposing of leftovers I cooked previously. I wouldn’t try to cook three meals a day from scratch right now (or… ever?). Trick yourself into thinking something is a different meal by plopping an egg on it or putting it in a tortilla instead of over rice.

Assemble Your Tools and Stock Your Pantry

Need a definitive guide to stocking your pantry and refrigerator for a week or two of cooking from home? Eater has that for you right here.

Not sure where to buy groceries right now? Restaurants are turning into markets, and lots of farms are offering CSA boxes. Fresh produce and meat and eggs from small producers taste more like themselves and make simple meals tastier, and if you can afford to support small producers right now it’s a great way to help the entire food system.

And as far as tools go, head over here for some products that make your kitchen an easier place to cook.

What to Cook

Roast Vegetables

You know what you can do with any type of vegetable you wouldn’t eat raw, and some that you would? Toss it with olive oil and salt, drop it on a sheet pan, and roast it. The only important thing is not to crowd what you’re roasting, so every piece gets nice and crispy. I like to roast at 425. Don’t want to chop? Roast a potato or sweet potato whole.

The Kitchn: Emma Christensen’s “How to Roast Any Vegetable”

New York Times: Melissa Clark’s “Roasted Vegetables”

Lucky Peach: Peter Meehan’s “Roasted Sweet Potatoes”

Stir Fry

Vegetables that don’t make sense for the oven, and even a few that do, are also great cooked super hot in a pan or wok. There’s all sorts of ways to saute, and stir-frying is one of the best for achieving flavor, both in terms of hitting the food with tons of heat and making the pan sauce part of the dish. This is also a simple way to use up ground meat and leftover rice (fried rice!).

LA Times: Genevieve Ko’s “The Easiest Way to Stir-Fry Vegetables”

Serious Eats: J. Kenji López-Alt’s “Wok Skills 101”

The Woks of Life: How to Make Stir-Fry the Right Way

Greens

You will never be disappointed to have a batch of cooked greens in the fridge. “Greens” is a broad category, ranging from chard to kale to dandelion to bok choi; they can be added to every type of meal for a shot of color and pleasant bitterness. There’s a few basic ways to cook them:

For leafy greens, Lukas Volger’s recipe for braised greens from his new book Start Simple is great and versatile.

If your pantry is a bit better stocked, try the Grandbaby Cakes recipes for collard and mustard greens.

This LA Times story on greens mania from 1986 (!) has a variety of braising options (time to bring back creamed kale?).

World’s Best Braised Cabbage from Taste is not lying.

If you don’t have time to cook the greens, try Toni-Tipton Martin’s recipe for wilting them.

Eggs

If you put an egg over roast vegetables or cooked greens, or drop it into soup, or plop it on top of rice, it becomes dinner. The two easiest ways to make the egg are to fry it up all crispy, or boil it until its yolk is still slightly soft. Cannelle et Vanille has an olive oil fried egg recipe from 2014, which likely helped kick off the trend. It’s a good one. The LA Times has two ways of looking at the ubiquitous jammy egg; Bon Appetit’s recipe calls for an ice water bath, which is super useful for quick peeling.

Rice

I rely on a rice maker; they can be pretty cheap and are usually easy to buy at grocery stores — at the moment I’m sure it’s much less predictable. If you can’t get a rice maker or don’t want one, it’s very possible to make rice on the stovetop. Also, rice in its creamy porridge form is another great platform for a meal or turning leftovers into a meal.

NY Times: Tejal Rao’s “How to Make Rice”

Tasty: “How to Cook Perfect Rice Every Time” [Video]

Serious Eats: Shao Z’s “How to Make the Silkiest, Most Comforting Congee”

Just One Cookbook: Nami Hirasawa Chen’s “Japanese Rice Porridge (Okayu)”

Beans

Cooking dried beans is maddeningly simple. The recipe can be as minimal as: Put the beans in a pot, glug a generous glug of fat on top, cover with water, add salt, and simmer for an hour or two. There’s a lot of tinkering and competing wisdom and differing culinary traditions behind this simple recipe, and it’s worth reading up. Warning: not all these recipes agree with each other. Pick one that works for you. Or keep cycling between them and cross referencing, because that’s what I do. I’m sure having a clay pot is great; I promise you don’t need one. Canned beans are always worth having around, and easy to doctor up.

Washington Post: Joe Yonan’s “Beans are good for the planet, for you and for your dinner table. Here’s how to cook them right.”

Rancho Gordo: “Cooking Basic Beans in the Rancho Gordo Manner”

NY Times: Tejal Rao’s “Cannellini-Bean Pasta with Beurre Blanc”

Isabel Eats: Isabel Orozco-Moore’s “Easy Refied Beans”

Roast Chicken

Beautifully burnished birds have become fetish objects on restaurant menus, and wrangling a whole four- or five-pound carcass might feel like more trouble than it’s worth. But don’t let the $70 ‘for two’ chickens of the past fool you; a roast whole chicken is an economical leftovers machine much greater than any sum of chicken parts. There are perfect and less perfect ways to do it, but you don’t need a cast-iron pan or string for trussing or butter under the skin. You just need a chicken, some salt, and a hot, hot oven.

NY Times: Mark Bittman’s “Simplest Roast Chicken”

Epicurious: Thomas Keller’s “My Favorite Simple Roast Chicken”

Taste Cooking: JJ Goode’s “How to Roast a Chicken? The Answers Are Horrifying.”

Salt Fat Acid Heat: Samin Nosrat’s Buttermilk-Marinated Roast Chicken

Can’t find whole chicken? Bone-in chicken thighs roast up even easier. Bonus: The chicken can be roasted in the same pan as hardier vegetables like potatoes or turnips.

Stock and Soup

Homemade stock is another dish that sounds intimidating but is dead simple and tastes so much better than canned. The only major investment is time. The recipes below call for a few more ingredients or using chicken wings (also great), if you can get them, but basic techniques here will work with whatever you have on hand, including only the picked-over husk of that chicken you roasted. Vegetarian stocks are easy to make with the root vegetables in your fridge or dried mushrooms. Pick up dried kombu, a type of seaweed, and bonito flakes at an Asian grocery store, and you can make dashi.

The Kitchn: Emma Christensen’s “How to Make Homemade Chicken Stock”

Smitten Kitchen: Deb Perelman’s “Perfect, Uncluttered Chicken Stock”

China Sichuan: “Basic Chinese Chicken Stock”

Just One Cookbook: Nami Hirasawa Chen’s “How to Make Dashi”

The Kitchn: Emma Christensen’s “How to Make Vegetable Stock”

101 Cookbooks: Heidi Swanson’s “10 Minute Instant Pot Mushroom Broth”

Now that you have stock, you have yet another way to use up that leftover chicken, beans, greens, rice, and whatever still needs cooking in your fridge. Clean-out-the-fridge soup is definitely a thing.

Pasta

There are many, many pasta recipes out there. The thing I wish someone had told me about pasta much sooner is how to sauce it. If you ever wondered why dumping some marinara sauce or butter on noodles always felt a little disappointing, it turns out there’s a very simple way to fix it! Toss the noodles hot in the sauce. Check out Serious Eats’ guide to saucing for more details.

Baking

I bought a box of brownie mix on a recent grocery store run, and I think you should too. That said, if you think baking from scratch will cheer you up, here’s a few ways to get started.

Taste Cooking: Odette Wiliams “A Cake to Snack On (and On and On)”

King Arthur Flour: “Chilling Cookie Dough”

Eater: Dayna Evans’ “Everyone’s Making Sourdough Now — Here’s How to Get Started”

Cook Safely

A word on kitchen safety: Much of it is common sense, but it’s good to brush up on. Here are the FDA guidelines, and here’s a good rundown on how to deal with all those sharp objects and open flames. That expert hand washing and disinfecting you’re doing will help you keep your kitchen and food safe, too. There is currently no evidence of foodborne transmission of the novel coronavirus; here’s how to grocery shop safely. If you are afraid of cooking meat, here’s how to conquer those fears.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/3dPHANy via Blogger https://ift.tt/2UYkgVf

[myfunweightloss]

These cheesy spicy Mexican stuffed bell peppers come together in only 20 minutes for a low-carb, gluten-free and totally delicious weeknight meal.

PIN THIS RECIPE

Welcome! If you’re new here you may want to sign up for my email list or follow me on instagram to keep up with the latest posts.

I originally shared this recipe on January 15th, 2016. I have updated some of the text today. This post contains affiliate links.

Why I Came Up with This Mexican Stuffed Pepper Recipe

Did I tell you that I am going to Mexico next month? The whole fam dam is jetting off for a week and I am trying to not get too excited too soon. I may or may not have been spending many minutes hours on Zappos mooning over breezy white cover ups and braided teal leather flip-flops. I may or may not have received these items on my doorstep yesterday afternoon and stripped down in the kitchen to try them on as soon as they came.

And I totally didn’t buy a brand new new suitcase either.

Help me. My name is Katie and I am addicted to Zappos. One day shipping! Free returns! How can you not love free returns?

When the boxes arrived, the girls were almost as excited as me. They helped me unload the new suitcase which came in a comically huge box. The girls quickly forgot all about the stuff I was un-packing (and barely noticed that I was in the kitchen in a state of undress) and proceeded to turn the box into a giggle fest filled game of hilarity. I am not sure what the premise was. I think it involved them being store owners. Didn’t they know brick and mortar is dead and Zappos is where it’s at? Sorry. Not Sorry.

Also in preparation for our trip and wearing not much more than a bikini, said breezy white cover-up and teal flip flops, I am amping up my workouts. Jase is too. (Back to back classes this morning for me and way more cardio for him) and we’ve been avoiding the evening snack fest. I’m not dieting or anything like that, since as a chronic dieter turned intuitive eater, I know that doesn’t work for me. But I am reigning it in to drop a couple holiday lbs before we go. Hopefully this strategy won’t backfire.

Basically, I’ve been steering away from excessive amounts of carby stuff at dinner (sorry rice and chicken casserole you have to wait a little longer.) I’ve been bulking up on mega veggies and lean protein and filling but homey recipes like Keto Chicken Soup. I’ve been having a slice of whole-grain toast with my egg in the morning. Eating off a small plate. All that good stuff. Nothings off limits, I’m just giving everything the “do I really want to eat this?” test before I go for it.

Do I really want to eat these Mexican Stuffed Peppers? Yes, yes I do. And they fit perfectly with this plan. They are awesome since they are low-carb, veggie forward and totally yum. And there is melted cheese so the world can continue to spin.  I certainly don’t feel deprived in any way shape or form. And they have a decidedly Mexican flair that puts me in the mood for flip flops!

While I am obsessing about our Mexican trip and all things Mexican, I’ve gotta try this yummy Homemade Taco Sauce by Veggie Balance. And I will most certainly be making this low carb Mexican Chicken Salad in lettuce cups for lunches as much as humanly possible. And for snacks it’s obvi all about the guacamole with raw veggies!

How to make Low Carb Mexican Stuffed Peppers

How to Cut the Peppers

Cut the bell peppers in half right through the stem. This will give you two even sides that lay flat. They’re perfect for filling! Next using a kitchen spoon and pairing knife, scoop out the core, seeds and ribs from the inside of the pepper. Leave the stem intact though so the filling won’t fall out the sides! 

Ready in only 20 minutes

It’s not magic, I just used the microwave! Take the peppers halves and set them in a microwave safe baking dish. Place them cut side down so they cook evenly. Add some water so they will steam.

To microwave veggies and trap the steam use plastic wrap, but make sure to put a layer of parchment (or wax paper works in a pinch) over the food so the plastic doesn’t touch the food.

Microwave the peppers until they’re tender. Note the times in this recipe are based on a 1200 watt microwave, so you’ll need to adjust depending on the model you have. This gives them a head start. That way, they will already be cooked when you fill them and top them with cheese they only need another minute or so to melt the cheese. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a stuffed pepper and wondered why the pepper was undercooked, but the reason is that they probably skipped this step of pre-cooking the pepper!

Make the Filling on the Stovetop

The filling for these low-carb Mexican stuffed peppers is made with ground beef, in a style that resembles taco meat. To cook it, just heat some oil in a large heavy skillet and add the beef. Break it up in the skillet as it browns the same way you would for chili or bolognese pasta sauce.

Next, add in onions for flavor and finely chopped mushrooms to add more bulk to the servings but very little calories or carbs.

Once the veggies are softened, add in the spices to bloom them in the hot pan. They’ll smell amazing!!

Then just add tomato puree to make them saucy!

Stuff the Peppers 

Once the peppers are soft, and the filling is cooked, you’re ready to assemble the Low Carb Mexican Peppers. 

First, carefully remove the plastic from the dish of peppers. There will be steam trapped inside, and it’s easy to get burned by it. Then tilt the water out of the pepper dish, and flip them cut side up.

Spoon the beef mixture into the peppers, dividing evenly.

Top with cheddar cheese. I like to use sharp cheddar cheese because it has the strongest cheesy flavor, so you get the most cheesy flavor per serving! 

Cook the Stuffed Peppers

Now it’s time to cook the Low Carb Mexican Stuffed Peppers. So, without covering them again (which would stick to the cheese) pop the dish back into the microwave and microwave them until they are nice and soft and the cheese is completely melted. This takes about two or three minutes! 

Note, they’ll be really hot when they come out of the microwave, so let them sit for a moment so you don’t burn your mouth. (You can browse on Zappos while you wait. I won’t judge.) 

What to serve with Mexican Stuffed Peppers

For a low carb meal, I like to serve these Mexican Stuffed Peppers with a giant spinach salad with bacon and scallions.

For meals where carbs aren’t too much of a concern, this skillet Mexican street corn is super yummy and really fast to prepare. Or I might like to make this Mexican Bean Salad with creamy avocado dressing.

Probably the easiest thing would be to make a simple classic coleslaw or cucumber salad to serve with these stuffed peppers. 

How To Reheat Stuffed Peppers

To reheat the leftover stuffed peppers place them on a microwave safe plate and reheat for about 2 minutes. They should be steaming hot and make sure they are hot all the way through by testing with a thermometer. 

To reheat them in the oven place them in an ovenproof baking dish and bake loosely covered with foil for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. They should be steaming hot.

PIN THIS RECIPE

          Thank you for reading. If you’re new here you may want to sign up for my email list or follow me on instagram to keep up with the latest posts. If you make this recipe, please come back and let me know by leaving a rating and review. 

Print

low carb mexican stuffed peppers

★★★★★ 5 from 4 reviews

Author: Katie Webster

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 6 servings

Category: entree

Method: stovetop

Cuisine: Mexican

Print

Pin

Description

These cheesy spicy Mexican stuffed bell peppers come together in only 20 minutes for a low-carb, gluten-free and totally delicious weeknight meal.

Ingredients

3 large bell peppers, cut in half lengthwise and cored

2 teaspoons coconut oil or avocado oil

1 pound grass fed beef

1 cup chopped red onion

1 cup chopped white or crimini mushrooms

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon chili powder

½ teaspoon ground chipotle chili

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

½ cup canned tomato puree

4 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese

chopped fresh cilantro leaves for garnish, optional

Instructions

Place the peppers, cut side down in a microwave safe baking dish. Add 1 cup water to the baking dish. Cover with a layer of parchment or wax paper. Cover with plastic wrap. Microwave on high until the peppers are just starting to soften, 4 to 5 minutes. Carefully remove cover, drain off water and turn the peppers cut-side up in the baking dish.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add beef and cook, crumbling with a wooden spoon until the meat is browned, about 5 minutes. Add onion and mushrooms and cook, stirring often, until the mixture is browning along the edge of the pan and the vegetables are softened, 4 to 6 minutes. Stir in cumin, chili powder, chipotle, salt and cinnamon and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Remove from heat and stir in tomato puree.

Fill the peppers with the meat mixture (about ½ cup per pepper half). Top with cheese, dividing evenly. Microwave the peppers in the baking dish, uncovered until the cheese is melted and the peppers are tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Serve warm with cilantro on top if desired.

Notes

Microwave Tip: This recipe was tested in a 1200 watt microwave. Adjust cooking times depending on your microwave oven.

Once the peppers have been steamed, carefully remove the plastic from the dish of peppers. There will be steam trapped inside, and it’s easy to get burned by it.

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1 stuffed pepper half

Calories: 247

Sodium: 402

Fat: 15

Saturated Fat: 8

Carbohydrates: 9

Fiber: 4

Protein: 22

Keywords: low carb,stuffed peppers,keto,high protein,beef recipe

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @healthyseasonal on Instagram and hashtag it #healthyseasonal

YOU MAY ALSO LOVE THESE RECIPES

20 Minute Low Carb Turkey and Peppers

Guacamole 5 Ways

Mexican Four Bean Salad

from https://www.healthyseasonalrecipes.com/low-carb-mexican-stuffed-peppers/

[runfront3-blog]

linguine and clams

It’s only the first day of summer and I’m already weeks deep into our unofficial dish of it, linguine alle vongole, preferably hastily prepared about 10 to 15 minutes before we dive in, eaten outside with a current favorite rosé, caprese salad and a massive bowl of kale caesar (from SKED). It’s infinitely summery. It’s pasta, but I don’t feel like I need a nap after I eat it. And hey, there’s even a t-shirt to go with it (hat tip).

You do not need one fancy thing to make it, save the freshest clams you can find. You can pick them up on the way home from the beach or sprinkler park or wherever you’re going to spend your summer day now that cooking will be the easiest part of it. I prefer manila clams, as they’re smaller and, I’m convinced, sweeter, but littleneck or cherrystone are fine as well. From there, a glug of oil, red pepper flakes, a lot of garlic, a cup of wine, a bag of dried pasta, a lump of butter, a squeeze of lemon, and a pile of chopped parsley, and boom, so easy let’s do it again every week.

The only thing I’m extremely bad at when I make it is measuring, which I’m sure fills you with confidence right now. If you were interviewing me as I was cooking it and said “how much garlic did you just chop?” I’d be like an impenetrable grandmother and say “some” but I mean “a lot” and possibly even “all of it” (it = a head of garlic) when I double this. We’ll call it 7 cloves. Whaaat, you say, did you invite vampires over? But it settles in so well with the other ingredients, it will still not be the first thing you taste. If you ask me how much olive oil I put in the pan to heat the garlic, I’d say, “a glug” or “just coat the pan.” Parsley? A big handful. Butter? A lump. (Note: Every cook who has ever told you they added only a “pat” of butter lies.) Pepper flakes? As much as your crew can handle. Salt? Go for it. Pasta? Eh, about a pound, but what I really mean is, if you guys are a 7 to 8 servings to a pound bag people, do that here; if you’re 3 or 4 to a pound, do that instead. Clams? Well, are clams-as-centerpiece or clams-as-accent people? Depending on where you fall, you might want a scant 1/2 to a generous 3/4 pound per person. Shown here is the latter, and it’s doubled, and this isn’t even all of them, and we still only had pasta left at the end of the meal, and this was just a normal Sunday for my husband’s family, which is why I love them. Know your audience. Written below are more middle-of-the-road amounts that will make most people happy.

A few other things I hope to head off before anyone asks: – Deb, I don’t eat clams: Try this with mussels! Or shrimp, although I’d sauté or grill them instead of steaming them. – Deb, I don’t eat fish at all: Ah! I really want to make this with either chickpeas or artichokes, but be ready to tweak flavors as needed, as clams provide their own flavorful broth in a way that these ingredients will not. In both cases, you are now allowed to finish it with parmesan. If you wish to finish the seafood version with parmesan, just warn me before you tell me so I can cover my ears. – Deb, I don’t want to eat pasta: My favorite pasta swap is actually white beans, either giant (like we do here) or smaller ones more readily available in cans. Maybe you cook dried beans like these chickpeas and pour the warm clams and their juices over them? – Deb, I really only care about the clams: On it! Try these garlic, wine, and butter steamed clams with grilled bread, Portuguese-style. – Deb, I only want to make the caprese salad: (How did you know what my lunch was!) I take two approaches to caprese salad when I’m using grocery store (and not recently-picked, peak-season tomatoes, still a couple weeks off here): 1. Find the best ones you can get and season them well. 2. Find the best ones you can get and slow-roast half of them. This combination of some tart/chewy tomatoes and fresh ones is addictive, and hides a multitude of tomato imperfections. In both cases, add mozzarella or burrata, a few leaves of fresh basil, olive oil, and coarse salt to taste. Balsamic vinegar is not traditional on authentic caprese, but you should make food the way you like it. I add a few drops when the tomatoes are mediocre.

Previously

One year ago: Stovetop Americanos, Easy Drop Berry Shortcakes and Zucchini Grilled Cheese Two years ago: Strawberry Milk, Corn and Black Bean Weeknight Nachos, and Funnel Cake Three years ago: Saltine Crack Ice Cream Sandwiches, Strawberry Cornmeal Griddle Cakes, Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream Pie Four years ago: Valerie’s French Chocolate Cake and Limonada de Coco Five years ago: Espresso Granita with Whipped Cream Six years ago: Broccoli Parmesan Fritters and Cold Rice Noodles with Peanut-Lime Chicken Seven years ago: Rich Homemade Ricotta and Linguine with Pea Pesto Eight years ago: Shaved Asparagus Pizza, Root Beer Float Cupcakes and Lamb Chops with Pistachio Tapenade Nine years ago: Lemon Mint Granita, Pickled Sugar Snap Peas, and Springy Fluffy Marshmallows Ten years ago: Dead Simple Slaw + 6 Heat Wave Reprieves, 10 Paths to Painless Pizza-Making, and Pistachio Petit Four Cake Eleven years ago: Gateau de Crepes

And for the other side of the world: Six Months Ago: Dutch Apple Pie 1.5 Years Ago: Union Square Cafe’s Bar Nuts and Homemade Irish Cream 2.5 Years Ago: Potato Kugel, Pull-Apart Rugelach, Tres Leches Cake and a Taco Party 3.5 Years Ago: Decadent Hot Chocolate Mix and Gingerbread Biscotti 4.5 Years Ago: Sweet Potato Cake with Marshmallow Frosting, Cigarettes Russes Cookies, and Sugared Pretzel Cookies

Linguine with Clams

Servings: 5 to 6

Time: 20 to 25 minutes

Print

The photos in this post show the staggering portions I used for 8 people (5 pounds clams and 2 pounds pasta; we had a lot of pasta leftover and no clams so I’ve adjusted accordingly). Please take note of what I said above, re: typical portions in your crew when estimating, and adjust as needed for most or less pasta or clams.

Kosher salt

1 pound dried linguine

2 tablespoons olive oil

About 7 cloves garlic, minced

Red pepper flakes, to taste

1 cup crisp, dry white wine, doesn’t have to be fancy

3 1/2 to 4 pounds manila (my first choice), cherrystone, or little neck clams

3 tablespoons salted or unsalted butter

1 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 lemon

If you think your clams may not be clean, wash them first: Fill a large bowl with cool tap water and place the clams in it. Let them soak for 20 minutes during which they’ll expel any sand and grit.

Cook linguine: Bring a large pot of very well-salted water to a boil and cook linguine until it is tender but still with a good bite left to it, about 1 minute less than the final doneness you’d prefer. Carefully ladle out (about) 1 cup of pasta water into a glass or bowl, set aside. Drain pasta, discarding remaining cooking water.

Cook the clams: In your empty pasta pot or a large sauté pan with a lid, drizzle oil in empty pot and add garlic, a couple pinches of pepper flakes (up to a teaspoon is great here for people who like more heat), and kosher salt, I use about a teaspoon here but use less if you’re nervous. Turn heat to medium, stirring the garlic and pepper flakes until the garlic begins to sizzle and just barely begins turning golden brown. Add wine and half of reserved pasta water and turn heat up so that it boils. Add clams (discarding the water they were soaking in) and cover pot to steam them open. Manila clams take 3 or so minutes to steam open; cherrystone and/or little neck can take up to 5 to 7 minutes. Peeking under the lid is fine.

[If you’re really obsessive like me, after a minute or two, you might open the lid and start removing, with tongs, the ones that have opened. It’s basically like playing one of those fishing games at a beach carnival, where the fish mouths open wide with a prize inside, except these you can actually catch and eat.]

Finish the dish: Scoop cooked clams into a large bowl with a slotted spoon, discarding any that don’t haven’t opened, and leaving the cooking liquid behind. Simmer the cooking liquid in the pot until it has reduced slightly; you want a little less than cup. Taste for seasoning; adjust as needed. Add butter and, once it has melted, add drained linguine and half of parsley; cook them together for 1 minute, tossing frequently, until linguine is well-coated and only a little liquid remains at the bottom. If needed, use some or all of remaining pasta water to keep pasta loose. Add clams (and any liquid that has collected in the bowl) to the pot and toss to combine, once or twice, then tip whole mixture into serving bowl.

Finish with lemon juice, to taste, and remaining parsley. Eat right this very second.

Source: https://smittenkitchen.com/2018/06/linguine-and-clams/

[ideahood58-blog]

Creme Brulee

When it was on the cusp of popularity in the U.S., I sort of introduced crème brûlée to a restaurant where I was working at the time, and, predictably, they took off. So much so, that most of my nights were spent torching crème brûlée as fast as I could. Finally, I put an end to that (popularity is overrated), and that was that.

There was also a chef in the kitchen who was irked every time I started up the torch to caramelize the custards, saying “That’s not cooking.” I’m not sure how putting fire to the top of something to cook it was different from putting a fire under something, such as a skillet or saucepan on a stovetop, but since I was known for getting into trouble for talking back to people, I didn’t say anything.

Years later, I moved to France and started eating crème brûlée again because, frankly, it’s hard to avoid. There are good versions, but I still haven’t found one that tastes as good as when you make them at home. Plus I get to use my individual vintage Le Creuset gratin dishes when I do, too.

In My Paris Kitchen, I wrote about part of my journey back to this dessert was because the French bake crème brûlée in shallow baking dishes, so the ratio of caramel to custard is a little different than the deeper ramekins often used in the States, which made me love them (again) even more.

A torch is a great thing to have in your kitchen and I got mine (below) at my local hardware store. But my new favorite kitchen appurtenance is my electric hot water kettle. I had to stop drinking coffee for a while and since tea doesn’t do it for me in the morning, I was drinking a toasted grain beverage, which has the same roasted flavor as coffee, so I didn’t feel like I was missing much. (I drink coffee for the taste, not the caffeine.) Yes, it’s not the same thing, but it was odd how people made me feel like I was committing some grave act against humanity by giving up coffee. Almost the same blowback as quitting crème brûlée.

So now I’m drinking coffee, and eating crème brûlée again. Another exciting thing happened was getting a copy of In the French Kitchen with Kids by Mardi Michels. I saw a preview of the book a few months prior and I loved how she made French cooking accessible to everyone, including the little ones. French cooking isn’t hard. True, some of it involves fancy techniques, but most French home cooking is very simple.

Crème brûlée is nothing more than making a custard, baking it, then caramelizing the top, which is the only tricky part. And the part where mom and/or dad will want to step in and take over. But considering how much power I wielded with my blowtorch in a restaurant kitchen, scaring the line cooks from swiping cookies from the pastry department, I would imagine it might have the same effect on keeping the brood in line, fyi.

I’ve not used a broiler to caramelize custards but Mardi says you can do it, but to watch out, as the caramel can burn quickly. So keep an eye on them. If you’ve overdo it when caramelizing the top (which I’ve done once or twice), let it harden, pry it off, sprinkle the custard again with granulated sugar, and caramelize it again.

Creme Brulee

Print Recipe

Adapted from In the French Kitchen with Kids by Mardi MichelsI tinkered with the original proportions (and baking times) in the recipe, upping the amount of custard. Shallow molds can vary, but the amount given here fit in the bowls of my small gratin dishes, and the standard (4 ounce/125ml) ramekins, which I tested as well. Similar-sized custard cups would work too.Baking times in custards can vary. These don't get covered with foil while baking, so it's easy to check them while baking and you can take them out just when they're ready. I used very hot water from my electric teakettle so yours may take more time than mine.

1 1/4 cups (300ml) heavy cream

1/2 cup (125ml) whole or lowfat milk

1/3 cup (70g) sugar, plus about 4 tablespoons for caramelizing the custards

1/2 vanilla bean, scraped (use just the seeds), or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or ground vanilla beans

4 large egg yolks

1. Preheat the oven to 300ºF (150ºC). Place your gratin dishes or ramekins in a deep sided baking dish. Heat water in a saucepan or electric teakettle to use for baking the custards.

2. Warm the cream, milk, 1/3 cup sugar, and vanilla bean seeds (or paste, or ground beans) in a small saucepan over medium heat. In a bowl, stir together the egg yolks. When the cream is warm, remove it from the heat and gradually pour it into the yolks, whisking constantly. Strain the custard through a fine mesh strainer into a large measuring cup with a spout or small pitcher.

3. Pour the custard into the gratin dishes or ramekins, then add hot water to the pan to the baking dish, until it reaches halfway up the outsides of them, aiming carefully so you don't get any in the custards.

4. Bake the custards until they are just set when you jiggle them. For shallow gratin dishes, mine took 15 to 20 minutes, in ramekins they took 20 to 25 minutes. (In Mardi's book, she advises 45 to 50 minutes, so they may take longer in your oven.)

5. Remove the cooked custards from the water bath, being careful as they are quite hot, and cool on a wire rack. When cool refrigerate the custards until they are completely chilled. (They can be refrigerated 3 to 4 days if you wish. Cover them in the refrigerator to prevent them from picking up other odors, if you do.)

6. To caramelize the custards, sprinkle each custard with enough sugar to cover the top. My gratin dishes took about 1 tablespoon of sugar each; ramekins may take slightly less. Use a blowtorch to caramelize each custard.The best way to do this is to wave the blowtorch over the top until the sugar starts to melt and bubble. Then, carefully, tilt the dish with one hand while you wave the flame over the custard, turning it so that the caramel covers the top in a relatively even layer and doesn't burn. You may want to wear an oven mitt for holding the custard dish if you are worried about spills. Let them caramel harden and serve.

Serving: Serve the custards shortly after caramelizing the tops. You can refrigerate them once they are caramelized, but they lose some crispness and I think if you're going to eat creme brulee, you should do it when it's at its finest.

Note: As mentioned, some people broil the sugar-topped custards under the broiler to caramelize the sugar. If you try that, take care as they can burn quickly. You can also make a regular caramel in a skillet and pour the warm caramel over the custards, and let it harden. For these custards, I'd use about 1/3 - 1/2 cup (70g to 100g) of sugar for the caramel.

Related Posts

Tips for Using Leftover Egg Whites

Goat Cheese Custards with Strawberries in Red Wine Syrup

Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream

How to Make the Perfect Caramel

Ten Tips for Making Caramel

Vanilla FAQs

  Source: https://www.davidlebovitz.com/creme-brulee-french-custard-recipe-caramel/

[fifthnerve6-blog]

linguine and clams

It’s only the first day of summer and I’m already weeks deep into our unofficial dish of it, linguine alle vongole, preferably hastily prepared about 10 to 15 minutes before we dive in, eaten outside with a current favorite rosé, caprese salad and a massive bowl of kale caesar (from SKED). It’s infinitely summery. It’s pasta, but I don’t feel like I need a nap after I eat it. And hey, there’s even a t-shirt to go with it (hat tip).

You do not need one fancy thing to make it, save the freshest clams you can find. You can pick them up on the way home from the beach or sprinkler park or wherever you’re going to spend your summer day now that cooking will be the easiest part of it. I prefer manila clams, as they’re smaller and, I’m convinced, sweeter, but littleneck or cherrystone are fine as well. From there, a glug of oil, red pepper flakes, a lot of garlic, a cup of wine, a bag of dried pasta, a lump of butter, a squeeze of lemon, and a pile of chopped parsley, and boom, so easy let’s do it again every week.

The only thing I’m extremely bad at when I make it is measuring, which I’m sure fills you with confidence right now. If you were interviewing me as I was cooking it and said “how much garlic did you just chop?” I’d be like an impenetrable grandmother and say “some” but I mean “a lot” and possibly even “all of it” (it = a head of garlic) when I double this. We’ll call it 7 cloves. Whaaat, you say, did you invite vampires over? But it settles in so well with the other ingredients, it will still not be the first thing you taste. If you ask me how much olive oil I put in the pan to heat the garlic, I’d say, “a glug” or “just coat the pan.” Parsley? A big handful. Butter? A lump. (Note: Every cook who has ever told you they added only a “pat” of butter lies.) Pepper flakes? As much as your crew can handle. Salt? Go for it. Pasta? Eh, about a pound, but what I really mean is, if you guys are a 7 to 8 servings to a pound bag people, do that here; if you’re 3 or 4 to a pound, do that instead. Clams? Well, are clams-as-centerpiece or clams-as-accent people? Depending on where you fall, you might want a scant 1/2 to a generous 3/4 pound per person. Shown here is the latter, and it’s doubled, and this isn’t even all of them, and we still only had pasta left at the end of the meal, and this was just a normal Sunday for my husband’s family, which is why I love them. Know your audience. Written below are more middle-of-the-road amounts that will make most people happy.

A few other things I hope to head off before anyone asks: – Deb, I don’t eat clams: Try this with mussels! Or shrimp, although I’d sauté or grill them instead of steaming them. – Deb, I don’t eat fish at all: Ah! I really want to make this with either chickpeas or artichokes, but be ready to tweak flavors as needed, as clams provide their own flavorful broth in a way that these ingredients will not. In both cases, you are now allowed to finish it with parmesan. If you wish to finish the seafood version with parmesan, just warn me before you tell me so I can cover my ears. – Deb, I don’t want to eat pasta: My favorite pasta swap is actually white beans, either giant (like we do here) or smaller ones more readily available in cans. Maybe you cook dried beans like these chickpeas and pour the warm clams and their juices over them? – Deb, I really only care about the clams: On it! Try these garlic, wine, and butter steamed clams with grilled bread, Portuguese-style. – Deb, I only want to make the caprese salad: (How did you know what my lunch was!) I take two approaches to caprese salad when I’m using grocery store (and not recently-picked, peak-season tomatoes, still a couple weeks off here): 1. Find the best ones you can get and season them well. 2. Find the best ones you can get and slow-roast half of them. This combination of some tart/chewy tomatoes and fresh ones is addictive, and hides a multitude of tomato imperfections. In both cases, add mozzarella or burrata, a few leaves of fresh basil, olive oil, and coarse salt to taste. Balsamic vinegar is not traditional on authentic caprese, but you should make food the way you like it. I add a few drops when the tomatoes are mediocre.

Previously

One year ago: Stovetop Americanos, Easy Drop Berry Shortcakes and Zucchini Grilled Cheese Two years ago: Strawberry Milk, Corn and Black Bean Weeknight Nachos, and Funnel Cake Three years ago: Saltine Crack Ice Cream Sandwiches, Strawberry Cornmeal Griddle Cakes, Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream Pie Four years ago: Valerie’s French Chocolate Cake and Limonada de Coco Five years ago: Espresso Granita with Whipped Cream Six years ago: Broccoli Parmesan Fritters and Cold Rice Noodles with Peanut-Lime Chicken Seven years ago: Rich Homemade Ricotta and Linguine with Pea Pesto Eight years ago: Shaved Asparagus Pizza, Root Beer Float Cupcakes and Lamb Chops with Pistachio Tapenade Nine years ago: Lemon Mint Granita, Pickled Sugar Snap Peas, and Springy Fluffy Marshmallows Ten years ago: Dead Simple Slaw + 6 Heat Wave Reprieves, 10 Paths to Painless Pizza-Making, and Pistachio Petit Four Cake Eleven years ago: Gateau de Crepes

And for the other side of the world: Six Months Ago: Dutch Apple Pie 1.5 Years Ago: Union Square Cafe’s Bar Nuts and Homemade Irish Cream 2.5 Years Ago: Potato Kugel, Pull-Apart Rugelach, Tres Leches Cake and a Taco Party 3.5 Years Ago: Decadent Hot Chocolate Mix and Gingerbread Biscotti 4.5 Years Ago: Sweet Potato Cake with Marshmallow Frosting, Cigarettes Russes Cookies, and Sugared Pretzel Cookies

Linguine with Clams

Servings: 5 to 6

Time: 20 to 25 minutes

Print

The photos in this post show the staggering portions I used for 8 people (5 pounds clams and 2 pounds pasta; we had a lot of pasta leftover and no clams so I’ve adjusted accordingly). Please take note of what I said above, re: typical portions in your crew when estimating, and adjust as needed for most or less pasta or clams.

Kosher salt

1 pound dried linguine

2 tablespoons olive oil

About 7 cloves garlic, minced

Red pepper flakes, to taste

1 cup crisp, dry white wine, doesn’t have to be fancy

3 1/2 to 4 pounds manila (my first choice), cherrystone, or little neck clams

3 tablespoons salted or unsalted butter

1 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 lemon

If you think your clams may not be clean, wash them first: Fill a large bowl with cool tap water and place the clams in it. Let them soak for 20 minutes during which they’ll expel any sand and grit.

Cook linguine: Bring a large pot of very well-salted water to a boil and cook linguine until it is tender but still with a good bite left to it, about 1 minute less than the final doneness you’d prefer. Carefully ladle out (about) 1 cup of pasta water into a glass or bowl, set aside. Drain pasta, discarding remaining cooking water.

Cook the clams: In your empty pasta pot or a large sauté pan with a lid, drizzle oil in empty pot and add garlic, a couple pinches of pepper flakes (up to a teaspoon is great here for people who like more heat), and kosher salt, I use about a teaspoon here but use less if you’re nervous. Turn heat to medium, stirring the garlic and pepper flakes until the garlic begins to sizzle and just barely begins turning golden brown. Add wine and half of reserved pasta water and turn heat up so that it boils. Add clams (discarding the water they were soaking in) and cover pot to steam them open. Manila clams take 3 or so minutes to steam open; cherrystone and/or little neck can take up to 5 to 7 minutes. Peeking under the lid is fine.

[If you’re really obsessive like me, after a minute or two, you might open the lid and start removing, with tongs, the ones that have opened. It’s basically like playing one of those fishing games at a beach carnival, where the fish mouths open wide with a prize inside, except these you can actually catch and eat.]

Finish the dish: Scoop cooked clams into a large bowl with a slotted spoon, discarding any that don’t haven’t opened, and leaving the cooking liquid behind. Simmer the cooking liquid in the pot until it has reduced slightly; you want a little less than cup. Taste for seasoning; adjust as needed. Add butter and, once it has melted, add drained linguine and half of parsley; cook them together for 1 minute, tossing frequently, until linguine is well-coated and only a little liquid remains at the bottom. If needed, use some or all of remaining pasta water to keep pasta loose. Add clams (and any liquid that has collected in the bowl) to the pot and toss to combine, once or twice, then tip whole mixture into serving bowl.

Finish with lemon juice, to taste, and remaining parsley. Eat right this very second.

Source: https://smittenkitchen.com/2018/06/linguine-and-clams/

[damagefamily7-blog]

15 Salmon Recipes to Celebrate America's Favorite Fish

[Photographs: J. Kenji López-Alt, Vicky Wasik]

Salmon is one of the most popular fish in America, and for good reason. The fish can be readily found all over the country and has a pleasantly fatty texture and a flavor that is robust but not overly fishy. Salmon is also extremely versatile. It can be pan-seared, poached, broiled, or served raw. Depending on your mood, it can be seasoned with nothing more than salt and pepper or aggressively sauced without getting lost. To show you what I mean, I've rounded up 15 of our favorite salmon recipes—basic seared fillets, poached salmon with dill-yogurt sauce, salmon burgers, and more.

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

If you only learn one salmon-cooking technique, this should be it. Pan-searing is an easy way to prepare salmon with tender flesh and crispy skin. The key is starting the fish skin-side down and cooking it almost entirely that way—the skin protects the fish from overcooking.

Crispy Pan-Seared Salmon Fillets Recipe »

Back to the full list

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

After mastering a basic pan-seared salmon fillet you can start thinking about what to serve it with. Here we pair the fish with curried leeks and a creamy yogurt sauce. This is a slight variation on the previous technique—we sear the salmon just long enough to crisp the skin and then finish it in the oven on top of the leeks.

One-Skillet Salmon With Curried Leeks and Yogurt-Herb Sauce Recipe »

Back to the full list

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Good salmon is expensive, and if you want to be sure you don't mess it up, then sous vide is the way to go. Going with sous vide also gives you the opportunity to play with textures you won't get in a pan. Sous vide salmon is particularly good chilled, but you can also finish it in a pan, crisp up the skin, and serve it hot.

Sous Vide Salmon Recipe »

Back to the full list

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Baking salmon is appealing because it is easier than using the stovetop, but without high heat, you won't sear the surface of the fish appropriately. The broiler has higher heat, though, so it's a great hands-off alternative to pan-cooking. Here we use the broiler to cook skinless salmon fillets insulated with a layer of chili-lime mayo.

Broiled Salmon With Chili-Lime Mayonnaise Recipe »

Back to the full list

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

We use the same technique here, this time flavoring the mayonnaise with dill. We serve the salmon on a bed of "dilly beans"—blistered green beans pickled with dill, garlic, and cayenne pepper.

Broiled Salmon With Dilly Beans Recipe »

Back to the full list

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

The key to perfect poached salmon is to start it in cold water—cold-start poaching is just as fast as conventional poaching, but it cooks the fish more evenly. Here we poach the salmon in court bouillon and serve it simply with a dill-yogurt sauce. This dish tastes equally delicious warm, room temperature, or chilled.

Poached Salmon With Dill-Yogurt Sauce Recipe »

Back to the full list

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Poached salmon has a light, clean flavor and delicate texture—perfect for flaking and mixing with other ingredients. This hearty salad pairs the salmon with plump cranberry beans and peppery arugula. Mix everything besides the salmon thoroughly first and then gently incorporate the fish at the end, so that it doesn't break up too much.

Salmon Bean Salad Recipe »

Back to the full list

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

As easy as it is elegant, salmon rillettes is a French spread made by folding poached and shredded salmon with mayo, cooked shallots, chives, and spices. You want to use fatty pieces of fillet, which means you're probably best with farm-raised salmon.

Salmon Rillettes With Chives and Shallots Recipe »

Back to the full list

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Salmon isn't a traditional Hawaiian fish, but we love it in poke anyway. The fatty, robust fish can stand up to hearty mix-ins, so in this recipe, we pair it with sweet onion, scallions, sesame seeds, and crunchy macadamia nuts. A more delicate poke is best on its own, but we like this one over rice.

Salmon Poke With Macadamia Nuts and Fried Shallots Recipe »

Back to the full list

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Looking for a more affordable alternative to lox? Gravlax—Scandinavian dill-flavored cured salmon—can be made at home for the price of a good salmon fillet. All you have to do is cure the fish for a couple days in a mixture of salt, sugar, ground caraway and coriander seeds, and pepper. We like to serve gravlax with a mustard-dill sauce that is less sweet than the traditional one.

Gravlax With Caraway, Coriander, and Mustard-Dill Sauce Recipe »

Back to the full list

[Photograph: Yasmin Fahr]

We keep running with the combination of fatty salmon, grassy dill, and tangy mustard for this warm couscous salad. Wilting some spinach into the salad gives the dish a little extra bulk. This tastes as good chilled as it does fresh, so make enough to take leftovers to work the next day.

Warm Couscous Salad With Salmon and Mustard-Dill Dressing Recipe »

Back to the full list

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Americans are familiar with Japanese lunch and dinner staples like ramen, teriyaki, and, of course, sushi, but breakfast is a little more obscure. One common part of a Japanese breakfast is shiozake, or salted salmon. Making real shiozake is an intricate process, but this simple curing recipe will get you close.

Japanese-Style Salted Salmon (Shiozake) Recipe »

Back to the full list

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

If you have a batch of teriyaki sauce in the fridge (you do keep homemade teriyaki on hand, right?), then you're just a few minutes away from these glazed-salmon rice bowls. We start the salmon hot to crisp up the skin, turn down the heat to cook it evenly, and serve over rice with avocado, cucumber, and scallions.

Easy Teriyaki-Glazed Salmon, Cucumber, and Avocado Rice Bowls Recipe »

Back to the full list

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

We have several kinds of salmon burger in our arsenal, but if you're just going to make one, this is it. We hand-chop the salmon and coat it in breadcrumbs—to give the burgers some crunch and protect the fish from overcooking—and serve with a creamy rémoulade sauce and a fresh fennel-radicchio slaw.

Salmon Burgers With Rémoulade and Fennel Slaw Recipe »

Back to the full list

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Beautiful fillets of salmon aren't in my budget most of the time, so I'm always looking for more affordable options. Salmon chowder is a great way to use up the scraps that can be found for a bargain at many fishmongers. If we were making salmon chowder in a restaurant, we'd start with a homemade fish stock, but at home a splash of clam juice is an acceptable alternative.

Easy, Creamy One-Pot Salmon Chowder Recipe »

Back to the full list

This post may contain links to Amazon or other partners; your purchases via these links can benefit Serious Eats. Read more about our affiliate linking policy.

Source: https://www.seriouseats.com/roundups/15-salmon-recipes-to-celebrate-americas-favorite-fish

[pullgram4-blog]

28 Day Vegetarian Meal Plan

Looking for a vegetarian weekly meal plan? Here’s a 28 day vegetarian meal plan with planning ideas and a meal planning calendar with food to cook.

Are you overwhelmed by what healthy food to cook but don’t know where to start? Alex and I were there too! But over the last 10 years, we’ve invested a huge amount of time and energy into a system of eating healthy that actually works. Since then, we’ve written the cookbook Pretty Simple Cooking, named one of the best healthy cookbooks of 2018 and best vegetarian cookbooks. We’ve cooked everywhere from our home kitchen to the TODAY Show with the message that healthy eating can be “pretty simple”. Eating healthy is all about finding a sustainable practice. The goal of this vegetarian weekly meal plan is to help you find a handful of favorite healthy vegetarian recipes that you can make again and again! If you’d like, subscribe to our newsletter for new weekly recipes.

Related: 28 Day Healthy Meal Plan | 28 Day Vegan Meal Plan

Is this vegetarian meal plan right for you?

This vegetarian meal plan is right for you if you eat vegetarian! The recipes in this vegetarian meal plan include vegetarian and vegan recipes. For a fully vegan meal plan, head to 28 Day Vegan Meal Plan. If you also eat fish, go to our 28 Day Healthy Meal Plan.

If you have a very specific diet or health condition, consult a medical professional to understand whether these recipes are right for you.

The problem with meal planning calendars

For Alex and me, one problem with meal planning calendars and weekly meal plans is that they offer no flexibility. Most meal plans we’ve found call for cooking something new every day of the week. They’re overwhelming with the amount of food prep that they call for! They also don’t account for your schedule: what if Monday nights I have a weekly meeting where I eat dinner? Or this Friday night I’m going out with friends?

Here’s what makes our vegetarian meal plan different:

Spotlight dinner ideas. For us, dinner is our main meal where we cook and get the majority of our nutrients for the day. Our approach is to go big on dinner, and then do super simple things for breakfast and lunch. That’s what works for us! At the bottom of the meal plan you’ll find lists of healthy breakfast ideas, snack ideas, and lunch ideas. You can use these, or find others that fit your tastes.

Pick 3. Each week, we offer 3 healthy dinner ideas. You can make them on any day that week! This encourages you to customize the ideas based on your schedule and particular tastes. It also encourages eating up leftovers.

Repeats. Since we only offer 3 dinner ideas, this also encourages you to make dinner ideas you liked from previous weeks.

What if this meal plan doesn’t work for me?

It’s possible this meal plan might not work for you–and that’s ok! This meal plan might provide too much flexibility for you and not motivate you to make the recipes. Or, you might not like the style of these recipes. (If you eat a fully vegan diet, you’ll want to use our 28 Day Vegan Meal Plan). We know this meal plan is not for everyone, but this is an outline of how Alex and I cook on a weekly basis.

Download: Vegetarian meal plan spreadsheet

To make our Vegetarian Meal Plan tangible, we’ve created a downloadable meal planning calendar for you! It’s our Vegetarian Meal Plan spreadsheet, where you can copy in your meal planning ideas for each week. Simply download the spreadsheet and then copy in the links to the recipes for each week below. Here’s the download!

Vegetarian Meal Plan

Before you start: here’s how to use our Vegetarian Meal Plan!

Pick at least 3 dinner ideas. Confession: Alex and I don’t cook every night! We make enough for leftovers and eat them throughout the week too, sometimes repurposing them in new ways. For this meal plan, pick 3 days that you want to cook dinners. Fill in the other days with eating leftovers, doing “clean out the fridge” meals without recipes, and allow for meals out. If you end up needing more healthy dinner ideas for that week, skip ahead to the next week and try one. (Or, pick one of our other Dinner Recipes!)

Fill in breakfast, lunch, and snacks ideas. We focus on dinner as the main daily meal, so we keep breakfast, lunches, and snacks SUPER simple. If possible, we love things that don’t use recipes (like English muffins with peanut butter, yogurt with fruit). That way, we save our cooking energy for dinner.

Copy the links into your Vegetarian Meal Plan spreadsheet. Using a spreadsheet makes things much more tangible than just using a list! Once you’ve taken stock of what your week holds and what nights you’ll have time to cook, fill in your dinner ideas accordingly. We suggest filling out the meal plan on the weekend (Sundays seem to be good for many people).

Read the meal prep planning notes. Below each week of healthy dinner ideas, we’ve included some meal prep planning notes to help with ways to make ahead or prep in advance.

Chipotle Black Bean Tortilla Soup

Healthy Dinner Ideas Week 1

*Pick at least 3 dinners to cook at home and copy them into your Vegetarian Meal Plan spreadsheet on the days for Week 1! On days you’re not cooking, use up leftovers or do “clean out the fridge” meals, and allow for meals out.

15 Minute Gnocchi with Romesco (15 minutes)

Thai Curry Naan Pizza (25 minutes)

Veggie Burrito Bowl with Cauliflower Rice (40 minutes*)

Chipotle Black Bean Tortilla Soup (35 minutes)

Leftovers from above*

*Meal Prep Plan Notes

For the Gnocchi, the Romesco sauce can be prepared in advance. You also may want to serve with a green salad; the vinaigrette is perfect to mix up in advance. Make sure to bring it to room temperature before serving.

For the Pizza, you can mix up the sauce in advance. If desired you could also slice the veggies in advance and refrigerate until serving.

The Tortilla Soup takes about 20 minutes of hands on time. If desired, you can make the tortilla strips in advance or use crushed tortilla chips (just find chips that are minimally processed, with a few ingredients like corn, oil and salt). You can make the entire soup in advance and refrigerate: the flavor gets better over time!

The Veggie Burrito bowl has a few components that are easy to make ahead: the peppers and onions can be sliced and cooked in advance. For the sweet potatoes, you could also bake in advance and reheat. If you can’t find cauliflower rice frozen, you can make it from raw cauliflower: you could also cook that in advance and reheat. The eggs are best to make the day of. While it takes a while to prepare the components, this meal is SO delicious and great for leftovers!

Chickpea Couscous Bowls with Tahini Sauce

Healthy Dinner Ideas Week 2

*Pick at least 3 dinners to cook at home and copy them into your Vegetarian Meal Plan spreadsheet on the days for Week 2! On days you’re not cooking, use up leftovers or do “clean out the fridge” meals, and allow for meals out.

Coconut Lentil Curry with Greens (30 minutes)

Chickpea Couscous Bowls with Tahini Sauce (30 minutes)

Thai Sweet Potatoes with Peanut Drizzle (35 minutes)

Make again! 1 or 2 favorite dinner ideas from Week 1

Leftovers from above*

Meal Plan Prep Notes

For the Curry, you can make the lentils in advance, then saute the greens and add the sauce the day of serving. If serving with rice, you can make the rice in advance and reheat. Tip: To reheat the rice: place the rice in a saucepan with a splash of water and use a fork to break up any clumps. Heat over low heat until warmed through and moist. You can also serve with quinoa cooked on the stovetop or cooked in an Instant Pot. You can make the quinoa in advance or the day of; it takes about 25 minutes overall and requires no special reheating instructions.

The Couscous Bowls, make the lemon tahini sauce in advance and refrigerate until serving: make sure to bring it to room temperature before serving. You could also make the couscous in advance, but since it takes only 5 minutes, it’s not a large time saver.

For the Thai Sweet Potatoes, you can make the peanut sauce in advance. You could also slice the veggies for the slaw in advance and then mix it with the lime and seasoning prior to serving. If desired you can cook the sweet potatoes in advance and reheat: you can bake them or use an Instant Pot and the cook time is around 35 minutes.

Refried Bean Tacos with Chipotle Tahini Sauce

Healthy Dinner Ideas Week 3

*Pick at least 3 dinners to cook at home and copy them into your Vegetarian Meal Plan spreadsheet on the days for Week 1! On days you’re not cooking, use up leftovers or do “clean out the fridge” meals, and allow for meals out.

Refried Bean Tacos with Chipotle Tahini Sauce (30 minutes)

Tuscan Soup with White Beans (30 minutes) + Salad with Super Simple Salad Dressing or Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

Moroccan Chickpea and Sweet Potato Stew (45 minutes)

Make again! 1 or 2 favorite dinner ideas from Week 1 or 2

Leftovers from above*

Meal Plan Prep Notes

For the Tacos, make the Chipotle Tahini Sauce in advance; refrigerate and then bring to room temperature prior to serving. If desired, you can slice the veggies in advance and refrigerate until serving (up to 1 day in advance). You can make the black beans in advance and reheat, but they’re simple enough to cook the day of. For a filling side, serve with rice (or to look fancy, turmeric rice).

For the Soup, you can slice the fennel and chard in advance and refrigerate until making the soup; in this case we’d make the soup within a day or two of cutting the vegetables. While the soup simmers, you can whisk up the dressing for the salad. We like using boxed salad greens for easy prep.

For the Stew, you can cut the veggies in advance and refrigerate until serving. You could also measure out the spices and mix them together in a container. See the rice and quinoa instructions in Week 2.

Veggie Packed Quinoa Fried Rice 

Healthy Dinner Ideas Week 4

*Pick at least 3 dinners to cook at home and copy them into your Vegetarian Meal Plan spreadsheet on the days for Week 1! On days you’re not cooking, use up leftovers or do “clean out the fridge” meals, and allow for meals out.

Greek Quesadillas (15 minutes)

Cauliflower and Tomato Coconut Curry (35 minutes, plus rice)

Veggie Packed Quinoa Fried Rice (35 minutes)

Make again! 1 or 2 favorite dinner ideas from Week 1, 2 or 3

Leftovers from above*

Meal Plan Prep Notes

The Quesadillas require no advanced prep at all!

For the Curry, you could chop the vegetables in advance and refrigerate until serving: in that case make the curry within about a day or two. Follow the rice and quinoa prep instructions from Week 3.

For the quinoa fried rice, it’s easiest to make the quinoa in advance and refrigerate until serving. We prefer to slice our veggies right before making the fried rice, but you could also slice and refrigerate until serving (1 day in advance).

Apple Gluten Free Oatmeal Muffins

Healthy Breakfast Ideas Weeks 1-4

Alex and I do really, really simple breakfasts that don’t require a recipe so we don’t have to think too hard in the morning. This frees us up to spend most of our creative energy on dinner. Pick any of these to eat throughout the week and copy them into your Vegetarian Meal Plan spreadsheet. We’ve offered quite a bit of options to account for your breakfast tastes and style. Do repeats as much as you’d like!

Healthy Snack Ideas Weeks 1-4

Pick any of these to eat throughout the week and copy them into your Vegetarian Meal Plan spreadsheet.

Vegan Italian Pasta Salad

Healthy Lunch Ideas Weeks 1-4

Lunches can be hard, especially if you’re eating at your desk! Again, Alex and my philosophy for lunches are to keep them super, super simple, without a recipe if possible. Pick any of these to eat throughout the week and copy them into your Vegetarian Meal Plan spreadsheet.

Did you like this vegetarian meal plan?

We’d love to hear your feedback on this vegetarian meal plan: let us know in the comments below (or click the heart below). And let us know if you have any questions!

If you enjoyed the recipes in this plan, you might enjoy our vegetarian cookbook Pretty Simple Cooking!

Print

Description

Looking for a vegetarian weekly meal plan? Here’s a 28 day vegetarian meal plan with planning ideas and a meal planning calendar with food to cook.

Source: https://www.acouplecooks.com/28-day-vegetarian-meal-plan/

[sparkvelvet75-blog]

5-Minute Skillet Broccoli Three Ways!

This easy skillet broccoli side dish is super tasty and takes less than 10 minutes to make proving that a good side dish should be simple and totally stress-free.

Can we talk side dishes for half a second? 

I know seeing a recipe for “skillet broccoli” pop up in front of your online face may not be the most exciting thing in the world, and trust me, I wish I was actually staring at a decadent ooey gooey chocolate chip cookie recipe, too, but side dishes aren’t all bad.

And they are kind of important if you are a menu planning nerd like me. Here’s how the side dish situation usually goes down around here. Alternate title: keep your expectations low.

Weeknight dinners are really straightforward. A main dish (very possibly leftovers at least once a week). And one (maybe two-ish) side dishes. And I use the term “side dishes” very loosely. Many nights we’re talking things like: cottage cheese, sliced cheese, cut up fresh fruit, fresh veggies with ranch, applesauce, crackers, etc. 

I am all about simple, simple, simple side dishes. Believe it or not, as much as I love to cook, there aren’t any angels singing hallelujahs at my house during the dinner hour. It’s usually kind of chaotic and rushed even with the best planning efforts in force, and I don’t have any extra energy to fuss around with elaborate side dishes (I’d much rather save that energy for dessert – ha!).

The one thing I’m kind of particular about is having a couple vegetables present at dinner – either embedded in the meal (like Shepherd’s Pie or Chicken Pot Pie or vegetables in a soup like this minestrone) but mostly as a substantial side dish. I feel like it is good for kids’ souls (and adults too) to come face-to-face with vegetables on a regular basis.

Some variation of these roasted vegetables easily happens multiple times a week, and thrown together green salads, no recipe required, are also a popular veggie side dish. 

Another quick side dish we love and turn to often are these skillet green beans. Because I’m often giving side dish suggestions to you guys (have you ever noticed the “what to serve with this” section right before the recipe for main dishes??), I wanted a placeholder for an equally yummy, but more importantly, equally tasty skillet broccoli recipe.  

This easy skillet broccoli side dish is so fast, you may not make another side dish ever again. And the flavor! Pretty amazing for something so quick and simple. It’s due in part to heating up the bit of oil in the skillet until it’s piping hot so the broccoli sizzles when it hits the pan. Those golden brown spots scream YUM! A quick splash of broth boosts the natural flavor of the broccoli…

…and then you can choose how to dress it up! I’ve given three flavor variations below – each very delicious. Parmesan. Lemon. Sesame. 

So, yeah, while this may not be the most exciting recipe in the world, I’m hard pressed to minimize the excitement when I’ve literally been guilty of snitching almost the whole pan of this delectable broccoli before it even hits the table. 

Also, BIG HINT, this cooking method works great for cauliflower and asparagus, too. 

One Year Ago: Sheet Pan Balsamic Chicken + Veggies Dinner 30-Minute Meal Two Years Ago: Rock Salt Roast BBQ Honey Chicken Three Years Ago: Pressure Cooker Dulce de Leche Stovetop vs. InstantPot Four Years Ago: Whole Wheat Make-Ahead Pancake Mix Five Years Ago: Vanilla Bean White Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake

Ingredients

1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil or other cooking oil

6 cups broccoli florets (about 15-16 ounces)

Pinch of coarse, kosher salt

1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth (see note)

Instructions

Heat the oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until the oil is rippling and hot. Add the broccoli in a mostly single layer and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Let the broccoli "roast" in the hot skillet for 30 seconds or so and then give it a good stir. You can let it keep browning for a minute for more flavor or move on to the next step.

Pour in the broth, immediately cover the skillet with a lid (or foil), and reduce the heat to medium-low. Let the broccoli simmer for 2-3 minutes until bright green and crisp-tender. Add additional time if you want the broccoli more tender.

Remove from the heat, add seasonings to taste (additional salt or variations below), and serve.

Notes

This recipe can easily be halved in the same size or smaller skillet. Just make sure you have a lid to fit (or use foil in a pinch!). You can also use water in place of the broth; there won't be quite as much flavor so taste and add salt, if needed. I haven't tried this with frozen broccoli.

VARIATIONS: 1) Parmesan (sprinkle shredded Parmesan cheese on top after the lid comes off the broccoli before serving), 2) Lemon (squeeze the juice of 1/2 lemon over the top of the cooked broccoli and grate a bit of lemon zest over as well), 3) Asian-vibe (drizzle 1 tablespoon sesame oil over the cooked broccoli and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds).

Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe

Posted on January 17, 2019 by Mel

Source: https://www.melskitchencafe.com/5-minute-skillet-broccoli/