Sunday Supper: Jambalya

Tonight's supper was Jambalya.

One of those dishes you can out what you want in it; once you learn the basic recipe you can alter to your liking. 

Start with sauteeing the holy trinity: onion, bell pepper, and celery. I also put carrots bc I have little carrot lovers in my house! Jalapeño is also good to add. 

Season with, salt, garlic powder, lemon pepper and red pepper.

Once your vegetables have softened add one link of andouille sausage that is thinly sliced 

Also add cut cubes of boneless skinless chicken breasts. Once your chicken has cooked through add tomatoes. I usually add 4 large tomatoes that I quarter but I only had cherry tomatoes so I used those.

Reseason. Cover and let this all cook. Tomatoes and all the vegetables will create a bit of a liquid and it should start to smell good. Smash the tomatoes while they are cooking. It will look something like this :

Then add your rice. You can put as much or little rice you want depending on how big a pot you want to make. 

Just remember double the chicken stock to how much rice.

I used 1 1/2 cups of rice, so then I added 3 cups of rice.

I covered the pot with a crack 

Cook until all the liquid has cooked out and then I turn it on low and fully cover it so it will steam and the rice won't be too mushy-about 15 mins. 

Bon apetite!

Stuffed Mischi, stuffed what ?

Stuffed Mischi (pronounced mishhee) if that makes sense. That's the Lebanese name for stuffed bell peppers, squash, eggplant. This was one of my favorite things growing up. 

You can stuff bell peppers, squash, little baby eggplants, Mexican squash...

You start by prepping your vegetables.

Tonight I did squash and peppers

To prep your squash you need to core out your squash. 

Cut the top of your squash off

Using a corer, core out the inside of your squash.

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But don't throw it away, it's good squash!

Put it in a pot to cook 

This is what your squash looks like cored out.

Prep your bell peppers by cutting stem off and pulling out all the seeds and cartilidge(is that what it's called?).

Then prep your stuffing

Mix 1lb of meat

1/2 cup rice

1 can of rotel

Season with salt, lemon pepper, garlic powder, red pepper

Mix it together thoroughly adding a little water as you mix it to make it moist.

Then you simply stuff your squash and bell peppers

A little trick when stuffing- when your are putting the stuffing in, tap your squash or bell pepper so that the stuffing packs in nice and good....that's my sittees secret!

Then place all your stuffed vegetables in a pot. Add 2 cans of tomato sauce and 1 can of tomato paste and then add water to it so that it covers all the vegetables.

Season your sauce with salt, pepper, garlic powder, red pepper, basil and oregano. 

Bring up to a boil, then let simmer for a good 2 hrs. 

Enjoy!

Happy Halloween: Chilli night

Chilli just seems to be the standard Halloween supper, right?

Tonight we are making my dads 3meat, 3bean chilli!

Start off by sauteeing onion, bell pepper, celery and jalapeño (I only used 1 so it's not too hot for the girls)

Then add 1lb of ground beef, veal and pork. 

Brown those so it's cooked through

Season with salt, garlic powder, red pepper, paprika and chilli powder.

Then add 1 can of black, pinto and kidney beans 

And 2 cans of whole tomatoes that I crushed by hand while putting into the pot

Then stir really well and reseason

Let it cook on a simmer for 3 hrs...

This is currently on my stove for tonight's Halloween!

I like to serve it with cornbread, Fritos, rice, sliced avocados and shredded cheese. Put it all out and let everybody build their own bowl!

Happy Halloween everybody!

Chicken Cacciatore

Being the one who does the grocery shopping and cooking means I also always make the decision of what we are eating. I'm always asking Jerry what he wants for dinner and he never gives me a real answer...which is frustrating but this morning he actually gave me a straight answer...chicken cacciatore! Ok awesome! Hadn't cooked that in a while...good call

So here's my version

Browned chicken breasts seasoned with salt, lemon pepper, garlic powder, red pepper, oregano and basil in a little bit of olive oil.

Then added 

Celery, bell peppers, carrots and onions

Let those cook down 

Then added cherry tomatoes 

Once the vegetables were all cooked down

I added

This box of tomatoes

Stirred and seasoned again with same seasonings then just let it simmer for 2 hrs.

Served it over cappellini pasta (we just like it better than spaghetti, it's very thin)

Bon apetite!

What, it's not chicken?

Lezzzz be honest...I cook a lot of chicken! Probably 99% of my recipes have been chicken...

So how about some Beef???

This is what I came up with tonight...

Started with a flank steak that I cut in chunks

Seasoned with a little olive oil as it started to brown, then added lemon juice, Worsteshire, salt, garlic powder, lemon pepper, and red pepper. 

I let the meat cook for about 20 mins then added

1green pepper, 1onion and 3 carrots

Seasoned again with same seasoning 

Then covered and let cook for two hours

I served this over rice (of course) but it would also be very good over mashed potatoes or mashed cauliflower!

The meat falls apart!

Yummy fall supper!

Don't know what to cook?

In a food rut? Don't know what to cook. 

I feel like this all the time!

Well Jerry and I were in cabo the past five days and today is my first day home and getting things back in order. We had ballet and other fun stuff so getting to the store isn't going to happen until later. 

And this is what my frige looks like

EMPTY!

So I'm making the most of what I have. Momma always taught me, pull something together with what you've got. And you know what...sometimes our fav meals have been discovered from these times! My caprese pasta salad (Jerry's absolute fav) came from one of these nights!

So here is my make something from nothing recipe for today. 

I pulled the last three chicken breasts out of my freezer. Seasoned with olive oil, little lemon juice, salt, red pepper, garlic powder, oregano and basil

Then one chicken was cooked through

Then added the only veggies I had

1 zucchini, 2 small squash and a couple of sweet pepper

Also the last if some cherry tomatoes

Through it all in the pot

Let it cook, smashed some of the tomatoes 

Then added quinoa penne pasta

Hopefully this gives you some inspiration to dig in your pantry and fridge and make something up using what you got!!! You might make up a new fav recipe!

Sunday Supper: Chicken Stew

Slight crispness in the air, something warm and hearty on the stove.... It's fall! 

Waking up to a chilly rainy day put me in the mood to make a pot of chicken stew for supper.

Start by browning your chicken( turkey also works well) 

I used chicken thighs 

I just cut them in chunks and browned them in a little olive oil and seasoned with salt, garlic powder and red pepper.

Once it was browned I took the chicken out and put it to the side for later

Then I added a stick of butter to the drippings in the pan and let it melt

Then I added flour until it made a thick paste to make my roux 

Cook on medium heat and continually stir your roux

Cook until a golden brown. You can cook it and brown it more if you like. Since I'm doing a stew I did a golden brown. This takes a while and you need to stir it constantly so have patience! Gumbo you continue to cook it until it is dark dark brown.

Then I added chopped onions, celery and carrots

Then I added 2 boxes of chicken stock and added the chicken back.

Stirred really well esp bottom of the pot

Seasoned with salt, red pepper, garlic powder and brought up to a boil, then turned it down to medium low and let simmer for 2 hrs.

At the end I added half a bag of frozen peas. 

I served it over rice of course!

Enjoy!