3-in-1

That's what today's post is. Three recipes, one mega-post. I've got a bit of a backlog from the past two weeks, and I'm about to fill you in on all the yummy goodness!

This post's meals consisted of:
Baked chicken taquitos
Vegetable loaded sloppy joe's (/chili)
Strawberry-banana freeze pops! (or ice pops, or popsicles, or whatever you call them)

*Recipes and/or sites used will be at the end of the post.*
*Clicking on advertisements will add pennies (not yours) to my college loans fund. Thanks!* /plea for help

Talk about some good meals.

Link: This is from a t-shirt.

MEAL NUMBER ONE!

So let's start with the taquitos. We wanted something simple, and my mama loves Mexican food, so this was a great pick. We prepared it early, then while I was at Zumba (if you don't know what that is, go check it out - it may change your life) my mom put it in the oven, so it would be ready when I came home with the guacamole. Which I forgot. Oops.

The recipe called for a couple of things we did not have. We were out of cumin, for example, so in order to avoid the bland taste everyone dreads, we added a little extra chili powder and an extra dash of crushed peppers. We also had no cilantro or scallions, but that was no big deal. We had no Pepperjack cheese, so we doubled our cheddar. We had no lime, so we put in a squeeze of lemon (not enough to ruin the flavor) and a little extra salsa juice to make sure it wasn't too dry.

While I was mixing all this up, my mom was shredding the chicken. Then we put it all together and it was time to roll 'em up! In soft taco shells, that is.

All dressed up from my interview earlier. Yay job hunting.

Close up on the action!

They went in the oven like this:

Chickens in a blanket. Pigs aren't kosher. :)

And came out of the oven like this:

Perfectly browned.

These were our toppings:

My hand is holding the invisible guacamole that
I wished I had remembered.

The finished masterpiece:

Delight!

Mom also made brown rice to go with it - she remembered I like brown rice! My mom's the best. It took forever to cook, but was totally worth it.

MEAL NUMBER TWO!

Moving right along, next we have vegetable loaded sloppy joe's. See, my brother's away at camp being a boy scout, so it's just my parents and me in the house. This means we can try new things that are full of vegetables and my brother probably wouldn't eat. My sister might try things, but she's off being a counselor at a different camp.

The awesome thing about this recipe is that it is actually designed for picky eaters who don't want vegetables. My brother would probably have enjoyed this meal had he been here and not watched us put the veggies in it. THEY ARE TOTALLY UNNOTICEABLE. Seriously. We put carrots, mushrooms, onion, and garlic in our mix, and my dad had to guess wildly for several minutes before getting all four. You couldn't see them and you couldn't tell by taste that they were there (unless you're a super-duper-taster, of course). And it was so delicious.

We chopped 'em up real good.

Again, we were missing a few things from the ingredients list, but we decided to wing it and see how it came out. Still no cumin, and no coriander or cloves either. So we added some extra chili powder and crushed peppers (sound familiar?). Apparently an extra teaspoon was a little much! My mom took a taste and went "Whoa!!" So I took a taste... And waited a moment... And then said, "There it is!" Boy, it took its sweet (spicy) time to kick, but what a kick. I pretty much felt the back of my mouth and throat go WHOOSH. We decided it would be chili instead of sloppy joe's.

Meat left, more veggies right.

And we discovered halfway through that we had no tomato paste, but only one tablespoon was called for, so we just skipped it.

Also, we weren't quite sure was a "tin" measured out to be, so we guessed a little. It came out a little liquidy, but we let it boil away, and by the next day it had thickened considerably. Enough to put it on a bun and eat it as a sloppy joe!

Anyway, you can put cheese on top, or you can skip the cheese. I skipped it because I keep kosher style and don't mix my dairy and meat products.* (See note below for clarification about chicken.)

Dad's on left, mine on right.

And we whipped up a peas and corn mix for a side, as well as some cornbread.

Daddy graciously let me use his bowl because
it was more colorful than mine. :)

And that was a fantastic meal. The next day I had leftovers on a bun. Wicked good. No pictures of that though, sorry.

*I keep kosher style, which means I don't eat non-kosher foods such as shellfish or pork, and I don't mix dairy with meat products. As you might have noticed, I do eat chicken with dairy. This is because after studying different texts, I feel that fowl is parve (neither meat nor dairy) just like fish. By my kosher diet, "meat" is an animal that produces milk. Have you ever seen a nipple on a chicken?


TL-DR: In short, a chicken does not produce milk, therefore it is impossible to boil a chick in its mother's milk.

MEAL NUMBER THREE!

Okay, this isn't really a meal. This is a dessert! Even better, right? And what's more, it's really good for you. Today I made strawberry-banana freeze pops. They are in the freezer as I type.

I showed my mom two dessert recipes that needed bananas, so she went out and bought a few. I had the day off from work, and I had the house to myself, so I decided to make a Shabbas (Sabbath) treat before anyone came home.

I <3 teh froot.

Since we had only about a cup of yogurt left and it was going to go bad very soon, I decided to double the recipe. Except for the honey. I only used one tablespoon of honey total. I'm not a huge honey fan, but I do like to put it in smoothies (and freeze pops) so that I can eat it without tasting it.

Doubling the strawberries meant a LOT of extra puree, which is not really a bad thing. There was simply more of it than the yogurt. Also, mixing two tablespoons of the puree with the yogurt made swirls until it blended completely. This made me very happy.

Happy swirls.

I found six popsicle molds hiding in one of our cabinets. I was pretty excited when I saw them. Layering the yogurt, puree, and sliced fruit into them was pretty fun. And a little messy.

Made with Real Froot!

And on a whim, I stuck a slice of banana onto the popsicle stick part before putting it on top. I hope that doesn't make it impossible to get them out of the molds.

Creativity at its best.

Since there were only six molds, and I had enough for 8+, I grabbed two little glass bowls and got to work.

Ready for the freezer.

They are freezing right now, and I can't wait to try them! I will put an update after Shabbas to let you know how they turned out. :)

Phew. That's it!
Happy weekend, everyone!
Sarah

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Recipes and Sites
Thank you to FoodGawker for helping us find recipes!

Baked chicken taquitos

Site:

http://www.blissfullydelicious.com/?p=1943

Vegetable loaded sloppy joe's

Site:

http://simply-delicious.co.za/2011/07/21/vegetable-loaded-sloppy-joes/

*Notes:

We used extra chili powder and crushed peppers in place of some of our missing spices. Also, with a little extra beef stock, it turned out more like a very tasty chili than sloppy joe's. I enjoyed it as a sloppy joe the next day when it thickened.

Strawberry-banana ice pops

Site:

http://tast-e.blogspot.com/2011/07/strawberry-banana-ice-pops.html

*Notes:
I doubled this recipe except for the honey (agave) - only put a single tablespoon in the puree, and did not add any more anywhere else in the recipe. I also used a few extra strawberries. Very easy and very fun to make!

Long time, no post

Goodness, it has been too long since I last posted. I'm here to fix that. Sorry I got too busy to update for a while. Summer jobs and applying for real jobs have limited free time considerably. Also, I went to Niagara Falls on Saturday! It was my first time in Canada.

Proof that I was there.

Okay. First order of business: You may have noticed some icky ads on my blog now. Why? Because every time YOU click on one, it contributes to my Pay-Back-College-Loans Fund. :) So... yeah.

In other news, There's a Chica in My Chili! has been welcomed to the FoodBlogs.com community!

And now - on to the foodstuffs.

Tonight's meal consisted of:
Roasted garlic chicken pizza
Half-veggie, half-cheese pizza

*Recipes and/or sites that we used will be at the end of the meal's post.*

The tricky thing about cooking for my family is that I need to satisfy everyone's tastebuds. Not everyone enjoys curry, eggplant, or fish, just to name a few. And believe me, when my brother says something I made tastes good, that is an accomplishment.

So I wanted pizza with lots of veggies. He said no. So we're compromising by making a cheese pizza too, loading the veggies on my side. :) We'll have salads anyway.

The first thing I had to do was shred the chicken. I think I got a little carried away...

Shred-happy.

While I was doing that, my mom was experimenting with roasting the garlic. We had never done it before, so I Googled a site to tell us how it's done. A different site told us we could microwave for one minute on high, and since it's getting late, we did that. Our microwave is pretty weak, so we put the head in for an extra minute. That was too long, and the cloves got dried out.

The second head went in for a little less time, and they came out much better. Additionally, although the web page said to cut off 1/2 an inch, we found that as long as the cloves are exposed, it's better not to cut off that much.

See the difference?

Now it gets interesting. My mom couldn't find any frozen pizza dough at the supermarket, so she picked up two packages of "just add water" Betty Crocker pizza crust mix. I was happy that I didn't need to use a rolling pin, but I had to be careful while spreading it not to leave holes everywhere. That was probably me though, not the mix.

This cooking creme stuff the recipe calls for is kinda like pub cheese. Very spreadable. Good stuff. In this dish, it's used in place of tomato sauce.

And finally the chicken, garlic, and cheese went on top. We used both mozzarella and Colby-Jack (a Colby and Monterey Jack blend).

And here's the half-veggie pizza:

Peppas and 'shrooms!

Betty Crocker's crust wasn't bad - crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Although, I would have preferred a whole wheat dough. Next time. But whole wheat dough doesn't come in packages of 99 cents.

Roasted garlic chicken.

Half-veggie.

My brother wasn't very impressed with either of them, and said not to bother making them again. I was very happy with my veggie slice, and I would do that again for me. Love me some peppers on my pizza.

So that's it for tonight. I've bookmarked a whole bunch of new recipes though, and I hope to be trying some out soon.

Happy Thursday,
Sarah

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Recipe and Sites
Thank you to FoodGawker for helping us find recipes!

Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza

Site:
http://gimmesomeoven.com/roasted-garlic-chicken-pizza/

How to roast garlics sites:
http://gimmesomeoven.com/how-to-roast-a-head-of-garlic/
http://whatscookingamerica.net/rstgarlic.htm

Greetings from New Hampshire!

Hello everyone! Sarah here. Apologies for the lack of posting for the last two weeks. First it was finals week, and then Rebecca went home to Texas while I stayed for senior week and graduation. Now I'm home in New Hampshire, and I'm happy to say I've been cooking for my family!

I made dinner last night and tonight, and I'm excited to share them with you.
Last night's meal was a tuna noodle casserole.
Tonight's meal was sautéed garlic chicken and mushrooms.

My new partner in kitchen krime is my dear mother. I could be going it alone and probably doing fine, but I know that my mom has a lot of cooking experience, and I invited her to cook with me and share her tips and tricks. You never know what you'll learn!

I didn't grab any pictures of the tuna noodle casserole, but boy was it delicious. Didn't taste like tuna at all, and I could probably fool my sister into thinking it was chicken. (Mom doesn't think she knows what tuna tastes like anyway.)

The tip I learned from Mom making this meal was about the cream of mushroom soup. The stuff is thick, and it sticks to the can. To make it creamy before adding it to the bowl, we put it in the liquid measuring cup to stir it a bit. (We did this to the tuna earlier too.) Then when it was time to add the milk, we measured it in the same measuring cup... and then poured a little into the cream of mushroom soup can. Swirling it around and using a utensil loosened up the bits that were clinging to the can. Same thing for the measuring cup. This is how you can get as much of the soup as possible!

Now tonight's meal was taken from a recipe for an individual person's lunch. We made it for four people (my sister ate early tonight). We didn't have garlic butter, but we do have these little pre-crushed cubes of garlic in the freezer, so we added two of those to the butter as it melted. Couldn't really taste it in the finished meal though.

Also, we sautéed the mushrooms first and then put them on a plate and sautéed the chicken separately because my brother doesn't like mushrooms and I wanted him to enjoy the meal too.

A little monochromatic, but still a tummy-pleaser.

My brother's, sans mushrooms: at least the cuke gave some color to the plate!

It was really good, and Mom and I started thinking about how we could change it up next time we made it. Water chestnuts! Oh my goodness, do I love those... Some red peppers would add some crunch and color too. And baby corn would go well.

I'm really excited about how motivated I am to continue cooking! Last semester with Rebecca was a lot of fun and a great learning experience, and now I'm furthering my kitchen education with my mom! Got a few yummy desserts planned too... Can't wait to share them with you!

Until next time,
Sarah

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Recipes and Sites
Thank you to FoodGawker for helping us find recipes!

Tuna noodle casserole

Site:
http://crepesofwrath.net/2008/12/02/tuna-noodle-casserole/

*Notes:
We had no peas in the house, so we simply omitted it from the recipe. I just bought a bag though, so we shan't have that problem again!

Sautéed garlic chicken and mushrooms

Site:
http://frenchyfood.blogspot.com/2011/04/garlic-chicken-mushroom-sautee.html

*Notes:
We used regular white rice. One cup was fine, boiled in two cups water. Since we were feeding four and not just one, we used 2 pounds of boneless/skinless chicken thighs (about 6 thighs). We used two cubes of pre-crushed garlic, and as much margarine as we needed. Mushrooms were sautéed first and separately. Chicken was cut up into bite-sized pieces. We did not use the salt and pepper, but we added soy sauce to our plates. The recipe says to cook on medium heat for 15-17 minutes - I used high heat and stirred constantly, and it cooked in about 10 minutes. Smaller pieces cook more quickly.

CHICKEN!

Rebecca had work tonight, so Sarah was on her own for dinner. As such, she decided to make a chicken dinner (since Rebecca does not eat chicken, and it is not usually part of our culinary repertoire). GOOD CHOICE. She also invited her lovely friend Chaz to be treated to a home-cooked meal.

Tonight's meal consisted of:
Jamaican chicken curry
Cookie dough ice cream
Blue raspberry mixed drink

*Recipes and/or sites that we used will be at the end of the meal's post.*

Earlier today, Sarah donated a musical performance to Healing Hooves, the fund-raiser Chaz helped organized to benefit local therapeutic riding organizations. She knew Chaz had been working hard all day, and thought it would be nice to offer to cook dinner for her. So Chaz came shopping for ingredients, ended up having fun assisting with the cooking, and along with Sarah, very much enjoyed the eating part.

Okay, first of all, the onion we got had super powers. Sarah started chopping it first, but when her eyes started smarting, Chaz offered to take over. She said she usually doesn't tear up with onions. But she did. And then Sarah tried again. She ended up putting on SUNGLASSES to try to block the oniony fumes from getting to her, but it was too much. We are not sure how we managed to chop it up enough.

You probz can't see it, but she's cryin' like crazy.

Also, while Sarah prepared the rice, Chaz chopped carrots. We swear, those carrots knew they were going to be eaten, because they kept flying off the cutting board. With practice, perhaps Chaz can perfect the art of chopping carrots so that they jump right into the pot!

Anyway, we made a boo-boo. The recipe called for skinless and boneless chicken thighs. We guess Sarah was so excited to see "thighs" on the package that she failed to notice that it was a skin-on, bone-in package amongst the skinless and boneless. When we got back to school and opened it, Sarah wailed, "Oh no, it's not boneless!!!" Oh well. We were reassured by the fact that chefs everywhere (all over the interwebz) swear by the better flavor in bone-in chicken.

They look like blob monsters!

We prepared the chicken and then got the curry sauce going.

Soup of Great, in Chaz's words.

While it was all coming to a boil and then simmering, Sarah opened up the package of frozen peas...

Dear Sarah's Mom and Dad, we know you're reading this. Yes, Sarah began eating frozen peas by the bunch. Chaz had to stop her, reminding her we needed to save some for the food. Sarah pointed out it was a 12-oz bag and we only needed 10 oz... She even caught a handful as Chaz was pouring them into the pot. What a goofball.

HAHAHAHAHA ohhh Sarah...

When it was finally ready (and we were thoroughly hungry), we put a layer of rice on our plates and then spooned the curry chicken on top of it. It was soooo delicious. Okay, first, a picture of how beautiful it looked on the plate:

So yummy.

And now, please, take a look at that tender, juicy, moist inside:

Look at that!

Mmmm.... Holy guacamole! Seriously, this was wicked good.

And we accompanied dinner with a yummy mixed drink of sprite and blue raspberry vodka. Chaz's treat. Sarah was a big fan of the name of the bottle: Blue Bombsicle.

You da bombsicle!

It looked so pretty!

We have no "pics to prove it," but we polished off dinner with (too much) yummy cookie dough ice cream. Om nom nom...

And that's all for this week. Sarah is so proud of herself for cooking for a friend! Even though Chaz was very helpful. It was all very exciting.

Time to get our beauty rest - tomorrow is Goucher's Gala (like prom for college). Sarah is so happy to be going to a formal for the first time! And she's lucky to be borrowing a dress from Chaz too. We can't wait!

Tootles,
Sarah and Chaz

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Recipes and sites
Thank you to FoodGawker for helping us find recipes!

Jamaican Chicken Curry

Site:
http://onehungrymama.com/2011/04/recipe-jamaican-chicken-curry/

*Notes:
As said, we accidentally used skin-on and bone-in chicken thighs. Still turned out delicious.
Our curry powder was regular, as opposed to Jamaican. The recipe said any curry would work, and this is what Sarah had (thanks, Sarah's mom!).
We used oregano instead of thyme.
Chaz is allergic to coconut, so we substituted skim milk for the coconut milk.
Even with these changes, the meal was fantastic.