Food & Laughter

I’ve been making an effort to create meals out of what we already have on hand. It isn’t so much trying to use leftovers, because my husband is very good at taking those to work. It’s more about using up the supplies in my rather large and well-stocked larder.

Today’s idea actually came from my daughter, Mirella. We had made sweet crepes for her friend the day before, and we had quite a few empty crepe shells left to use.

Tablespoon butter or olive oil

4 chicken tenderloins

Salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup caramelized onions

1/2 cup artichoke hearts

6 Crepes (we had premade ones leftover)

1/4 cup crumbled Feta cheese

1 cup hollandaise sauce (we used a packet/mix)

We chopped the chicken into tiny pieces, then fried them in the butter, salt, and pepper over medium-high heat. Add in the artichoke hearts and caramelized onion and turn the stove down to medium-low. In a large pan rewarm the crepes, then place each on a large flat plate. Scoop a thin line of the chicken mixture onto one side of a crepe, sprinkle with crumbled Feta, then roll up. Once you have three on a plate, drizzle with hollandaise.

We got two sets of three crepes each out of these measurements.

Last night when I was gathering supplies to make macaroni and cheese, I seriously considered using egg nog in place of the milk. I managed to convince myself that was a horrible idea, but the combination of almond milk, acorn squash puree and white cheddar came out tasting a little like egg nog anyway. In a good way. I decided to go with it and add nutmeg. That seems to be a common spice in mac and cheese but usually I use mustard instead.
My daughter claimed she didn’t like this after hearing there was squash in it. She ate it anyway, so it obviously wasn’t too bad. She requested kale to go with it, which I sauteed with olive oil, salt and pepper. She ate that all up and each bite she exclaiming, “Mmmm!”

Acorn Squash Macaroni and Cheese

1 package of penne pasta
2 cups grated white cheddar
1 cup almond milk
2 T butter
1 1/2 cups acorn squash puree
1 t nutmeg
salt and pepper too taste

Preheat oven to 350.
Cook the pasta to slightly less then al dente. Drain pasta and put in in an oiled 9×13 casserole dish.
Melt butter in saucepan on medium low. Add squash and milk and stir until they are combined. Add cheese in small batches and stir until melted. Stir spices in. The sauce should be thick and creamy. Pour on top of pasta.
At this point, if you prefer creamy non baked mac and cheese, you can serve it. I like it baked, so I pop it in the oven for 20-30 minutes, depending how patient I am. I usually sprinkle grated cheese on top before I bake it, but I didn’t feel like grating more cheese last night.

This doesn’t look terribly appetizing, especially when I photograph it in a green bowl, but I promise it is as delicious as it is ugly. I made very few changes to the original recipe, mostly it called to slice the chicken, but I just cook it long enough that it can be shredded. I’m not a huge fan of chicken, but I love it shredded. I also added the sauteed peppers and onions, because I tend to throw extra veggies in everything. Usually we just eat this over rice with cheese. Sometimes we eat it with tortilla chips, because I also love tortilla chips.

Adapted from A Year of Slow Cooking

Green Pepper Chicken

3 chicken breast halves
4 large green bell peppers or 2 green and 2 other colored peppers
1 (7-ounce) can whole or diced green chiles or 2-3 fresh or dried chilies, chopped.
1/2 teaspoon basil
2 large yellow onions
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup water

The Directions.
Put the 2 bell peppers, 1 onion chopped in large pieces and the all the chiles in the crockpot. Put chicken on top. Add basil, salt, and pepper. Pour in the 1/4 cup of water. Cover and cook on low for about 6 hours, or on high for 3-4.
Remove the chicken, and put in the fridge to cool. Blend the peppers and sauce left at the bottom of the slow cooker. I have an immersion blender now, so I use that, but I used to do it in batches in my blender. I also cleaned the crockpot out before I put the sauce back in there, since chunky bits would get left behind this way.
Pull chicken apart, and return to the cooker. Slice and saute the remaining peppers and onion and throw them in for extra veggie content. Stir and cook on low for another 30 minutes or so until warmed. Or, for over an hour on the “keep warm” setting.

Chili is one of my favorite meals when I’m tired or stressed out. I eat it with cheese and chips so it’s as unhealthy as possible. Of course, I had to go and ruin that by using better and better ingredients. This time, instead of using commercial sauce and water, I used some of my home canned tomato sauce, and I am officially a convert. It no longer matters me how long it took, or how hard it was. I would even push it through the sieve by hand if I had to. Note to Sika and Pearl, next year you want in on the canning action with me. Don’t argue.

Chili

1 lb ground beef
1 small onion, diced
2 ribs celery, chopped (not this time)
5 small sliced carrots
2 cans tomato sauce
3/4 c water
3 t Worcestershire sauce
1/8 c chili powder
3 t cumin
1 T salt
2 T garlic
1 t red pepper sauce (like tabasco)
1 can beans (black or kidney)
2 diced dried chilis (or 1 can diced chilis)

Brown ground beef. Put all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 5-6 hours. Or you could put them all in a big heavy bottomed pot, put the lid on and cook on low for 1-2 hours. Stir two or three times either way. Maybe a few more times if you are cooking it on the stove.
Near the end of the cooking time I taste and readjust the spices. Every time I make it, I make new notes on this recipe, but I haven’t figured out exactly what I’m using yet.

Enjoy!