Sweet Potato and Spinach Hash

I found this recipe on the USDA recipe site and it was listed under breakfast, but I haven't once made it for an actual breakfast. I always make it for dinner. 

I made the hash and then top it with handfuls of fresh spinach and once the spinach has wilted, I plate it up. They I fry everyone up an egg and top the hash with the egg. 

I recently discovered that the recipe is made completely perfect by topping the whole thing off with some Tabasco or other vinegar based hot sauce. The vinegar mixes so perfectly with the creaminess of the egg and you'll be thanking me forever for telling you to put it on. 

Chicken Pot Pie Noodles - One Pot Recipe

This is my family's new favorite recipe. I was very hesitant to make it, because I am nervous about everything being in one pot.  It seems risky to me. 

But I used my biggest dutch oven, so I had plenty of pot space, I would recommend that you use a big pot, so you have lots of space for all your veggies and noodles to not get too crowded. 

If you really miss the pot pie crust, go ahead and top the finish dish with some bread crumbs or some crushed crackers.  If you really wanted to go all out - you could bake a prepared pie crust and crumble that on top. 

I am sure this would taste amazing with mushrooms added, as well as broccoli or spinach. 

You could even add some peppers and a little bit of cumin. 

Taco Spaghetti Skillet

I know it sounds crazy. I don't know how I have reached the ripe "old" age of 41 and never thought of making the red sauce that covers spaghetti noodles with taco seasoning. 

Now this means that we are having spaghetti twice a week - at least! 

The recipe ends up being a little bit spicy with the canned chilis and diced tomatoes. If you don't want to have it been that spicy, go ahead and use just diced tomatoes and you'll be just fine. 

This also is a great recipe to add your favorite veggie toppings to. You can add peppers and onions while you are cooking the ground beef, or add a can of rinsed beans when you add the pasta. If you want make a taco bar of toppings and have lettuce, tomatoes, olives and peppers to add on top of your spaghetti. Doesn't that sound delicious!?

I broke my noodles when I put them in my skillet, because my skillet doesn't really fit full length spaghetti noodles. 

Easy Baked Orange Chicken

Chinese food is Joseph's kryponite. If I want a guaranteed night out, all I have to do is casually suggest that Chinese food sounds good.  Sometimes, I don't use those powers for good. It's true. 

But it is oh so bad for you. I really try and not label foods as "bad" but it is pretty hard to rationalize Chinese food as fitting into a healthier lifestyle. So we've been experimenting with making our own at home. We have tried buying the freezer chicken (and weren't too happy about the price or the quality). But I really feel like this is a great recipe that gives you the texture and flavor that we were looking for without making it full of sodium, sugar and deep fried fats. 

The trick with this recipe is to use corn starch instead of bread crumbs or flour to coat the chicken and also to do it in reverse order than we are used to doing it in, - with the dry ingredients first and then the beaten eggs. This is what gives the recipe that batter-fried texture that we are used to having without the deep fried saturated fats and calories. 

Tamale Pie

Yup, It's the Homemade Enchilada sauce making another appearance! 

This recipe makes 1 casserole, but I felt that the amounts of ingredients were a bit odd, so I doubled the recipe and made one for the freezer and one for dinner.  Most likely, at my house, the ingredients that were left in the fridge would have gone bad. 

I didn't double the required amount of ground beef though, and I added green peppers as an added veggie. 

I also added a can of black beans - which made it even more perfect. Go Ahead and experiment with the recipe. Make it your own! 

Create!! 

Here is my baked cornbread crust, you can see in the back, I used a rectangle glass dish to make my second casserole. 

Added corn, green peppers, and black beans. Lots of yummy goodness. 

 

 

Curried Chickpeas with Spinach

I made this so fast for a quick and healthy lunch this week. I wasn't expecting much, but since it was healthy, low cost and really fast, I figured that was good enough reason to make it. 

I had some leftover brown rice that I was looking to top and this was a super easy option.

So I assembled it nice and quick and left it simmering on the stove while I finished up cleaning the kitchen. It smells pretty good and I was looking forward to lunch.  I tested it with a small spoon to check the seasonings. I didn't want it to have a huge Curry flavor, so I had been a little stingy with the curry spice and when I use plain tomato sauce, I sometimes feel like things need a bit more salt after they have simmered for a while. 

So I checked the seasonings with a small spoonful of sauce -  Holy Cow!  It was amazing! I couldn't believe how good it was. How could something with so few ingredients, not really anything "special" and put together so quickly taste so Fantastic!  I don't know, but it sure does. 

Greek Skillet with Turkey, Rice and Olives

I am a complete push-over for any recipe that says "Greek".  I absolutely can't get enough of the flavor combination of the bright lemon, the salty olives and the oregano. It gets me every time. 

I have been making a lot of skillet meals lately, because they are just so easy to throw everything into one pot, get the added deliciousness of the flavors blending, less dishes and I can pretty much pack in as many veggies as I can find in my fridge and freezer. 

There is a little bit of a skill to it, and that has kept me from making them very often, but once I got brave and started experimenting. they are as easy as can be. 

Food Sense has an Amazing  Create a Skillet  step by step help for when you are ready to try your own. 

World's Best Tomato Sauce with Toasted Breadcrumbs

You know that scenes in romantic movies where one character will come over to the other character's house to cook them a very special dinner... and then they make spaghetti sauce. They make a HUGE deal about tasting it off the big wooden spoon and saying how incredible it is.  This literally drives me crazy, you couldn't tell, could you? Pa-LEEeease, it is red sauce, Open a jar!

So I have seen this recipe circulating around about a 5 ingredient Tomato sauce that is supposed to be the most incredible sauce in the world and frankly change your life.  So I bought the can of whole peeled tomatoes to make it, and then I was so uninspired by it that I never ever made it. 

So last week Joseph got some left over pasta out of the fridge and starts looking around in the pantry for a jar of red sauce, and I said, "Oh Hey! I have a sauce I wanted to make for the blog, want to try it?"  And he was game, he's always up for a food adventure. 

It did take a lot longer than opening up a jar of sauce. and it took longer than our usual routine of opening a can of tomato sauce and adding seasonings...  But

(And This Is IMPORTANT)

This sauce is absolutely worth it!  As we sat eating it at the table we were making ridiculous noises about how good it was and we swore to each other than we would never be able to eat any other red sauce again.  There is something magical that happens when the tomatoes cook down and the butter is added and the ingredients speak for themselves. 

I can't promise you that you'll end up with a movie scene spaghetti sauce experience... but you just might.