GHSS: Pepper Jack Quinoa

Once upon a time I decided to make black bean and quinoa burgers. While the name itself should have been my first red flag, the other should have been when the recipe told me that 1/4 cup of quinoa needed 2 cups of liquid. Yes, you read that right. I remember wondering where the hell that recipe was going and eventually decided (even though every part of my brain was fighting me) to take the plunge and do it their way. Cut to me ruining a dish towel trying to ring out the black bean and quinoa soup that I was left with.

After that I got smart and bought some cheese cloth for emergencies like that one. That was probably 2 years ago and I haven't used it since. Until today.

When I first read this recipe and found out that it called for 1 cup of quinoa and 4 cups of water, I almost closed the book and ended it all. But then I had a bottle of wine and decided to, again, trust the author of the cookbook.

For this particular recipe, you cook the quinoa in the 4 cups of water and then add broccoli toward the end of the cooking time. Ok, now that makes sense. You gotta have room for the broccoli to cook. At least there was a reason for this insanity. Here's where the cheese cloth came in. I know damn well that all of my colanders have holes that are way too big. Cooked or not, I'd lose some of that quinoa to my garbage disposal. Quick fix: loosely hang some cheesecloth over the colander and drain. It also makes it easy to squeeze the excess water out... OR just cook the quinoa with 2 cups of water and the broccoli separately.

Look at that y'all. I'm evolving. 

While the quinoa was doing it's thing, I prepped the rest of the dish. In a bowl you toss spinach, salt and pepper, garlic, and sour cream. What I didn't know is that I only had a few sad little dollops of sour cream left in the container. This was actually the best possible scenario because I discovered something amazing. In my refrigerator I had about half a jar of Prego alfredo sauce leftover from a casserole I made a few nights back. Now normally I would never entertain the idea of jarred alfredo sauce, because I make such a killer one from scratch, but sometimes you just want to live life without having to wash 2 extra dishes. Anyway the whole point is that I used the leftover sauce in place of the sour cream and it really gave this dish an extra punch. 

Look at the creaminess of that spinach mix

This dish was amazing. Technically, this is supposed to be served as a main dish (it's actually in the section titled "Meatless Mains") but I baked some chicken to go with it. 

Hello to the extra cup of cheese that I added

Recipe:

1 cup quinoa, rinsed

8 oz broccoli florets

4 cups packed baby spinach

1/2 cup light sour cream (or just dump in some jarred alfredo sauce)

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp salt (I added more)

1/2 tsp pepper (I added way more)

4 oz (1 cup) pepper jack cheese, shredded (I used 2 cups)

1) In a 5 qt saucepot, heat quinoa and 4 cups water to boiling over high heat. Cook as label directs. Add the broccoli to the pot 5 minutes before the end of cooking time. 

2) Drain quinoa mixture well; transfer to a large bowl.

3) Add spinach, sour cream, garlic, salt, and pepper. Toss to combine.

4) Preheat broiler on high. Broil for 3 minutes or until cheese is melty and toasty.

GHSS: Moroccan Olive & Orange Chicken

There are a lot of things in this world that I love. Champagne, chips and salsa, lipstick, singing, my children...just to name a few. One thing that you might not know is that I love olives. I like to nestle in with a bowl of olives and little pickles and just go to town. It's a comfort thing, I think, dating back to my childhood Thanksgivings when my sister Suzy and I would scarf down an entire tray of pickles and olives that my mother meant to be appetizers. I love traditions.

So of course, when I saw the word "olive" I stopped immediately and declared that this would be my next recipe. I also really love cooking meat with fruit, something Collin never even knew about until he met me and he asked what the hell I was doing pairing apples and pork together. And he thinks *I'm* the crazy one.

So I gathered all of the ingredients and got to chopping.

Alright now looking back I would do a few things differently. I would definitely throw the chicken in some kind of orange juice marinade the night before and I would absolutely spice the flour. Salt and pepper can only carry you so far and it fell short here. The chicken itself was, you guessed it, a little bland but the olive and onion saved it as long as you ate all 3 in the same bite. I was a little disappointed in the sauce and I was kicking myself for not placing the orange slices on top of the chicken as it simmered. CUMIN. That's what it was missing. It just came to me. And now my tongue is doing that thing that tongues do like when you're thinking about eating a lemon jolly rancher.

It just looked so pretty

This looks scrumptious as hell.

I paired this with a spinach and tomato salad. I've been really into those lately.

RECIPE:

4 chicken breast cutlets about 4 oz each (I had some that were over 4 oz and it all worked out)

1/4 tsp salt (who even measures this out)

1/4 tsp pepper (seriously, who?)

1/4 cup flour (you'll love yourself if you spice this)

3 tbs Olive Oil

1 red onion, sliced

2 navel oranges (I used the kid's oranges cause that's what I had)

1/2 cup green olives

Rice Pilaf, for serving

Parsley, for garnish (I forgot this part)

1) Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper then dredge each cutlet in flour.

2) In a 12 inch skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat until hot. Add the chicken and cool until it's done, turning once - about 6 minutes total. Transfer it to a plate.

3) Reduce the heat to medium; add onion and cook until soft, stirring occasionally. Squeeze the juice from the oranges into the skillet and add a few orange slices. Add olives to skillet and 1/4 cup water. 4) Return the chicken to the skillet and simmer until everything is nice and hot. 

5) Service with rice pilaf and garnish with parsley.

GHSS: Creole Fried Rice

Today was a lazy Sunday. And when I say lazy, I mean lazy.

To give a visual: I'm still in last night's pajamas and it's 4 pm. However, I did brush my teeth and do my skincare routine this morning because I'm not a fucking animal.

That being said it was hella tempting not to just say "fuck it" and order pizza, but then I thought of you (yes you) and how your Sunday would not be complete if you didn't get to find out what I made for dinner. I'm just such a good person.

I picked out 4 recipes from Skillet Suppers to put on my meal plan for the week and this one seemed like it was the easiest to throw together. We're talking 30 minutes from the second you start pulling ingredients to the moment your spoon enters your mouth. I really don't know how I've lived my life up to this point without this book.

This recipe calls for andouille sausage, which I've never actually been able to find in any of my neighborhood markets. It also doesn't help that my version of "not being able to find it" is walking up to the sausage section in the store, not immediately seeing it on the shelf, and then buying the cheapest jalapeno sausage instead. In this particular case, kielbasa was on sale so that's what ya girl bought.

In this recipe there is also a need for a can of kidney beans (Beans! What do you mean beans!?) which I already had in my pantry. Oh, that's another thing about this book. The majority of recipes call for things I already have. For this recipe, all I needed to buy was the sausage. Another huge win. But back to the beans. I felt like the beans kind of over powered the dish and wish I would have only added half a can vs the whole can. For bean lovers like my sisters this would not be an issue, but I like to feel like my bites contain more meat and veggies. Collin also really liked this dish and did not think the beans were an issue (he actually just got up for seconds) but I suppose that's all preference. You decide.

On to the rice - and this is important. The recipe calls for 4 cups cooked white rice. I thought about cooking some minute rice, but didn't want to dirty another pot so I grabbed two pouches of "ready rice" (Uncle Ben's is the brand name, but the off brand kinds are just as good). I had one pouch of brown rice and one pouch of the chicken kind and thought fuck it let's get wild and use them both. Note: each pouch is 2 cups of rice. I suggest going this route the first time you make this because I found one pouch (2 cups) to be the perfect amount of rice. If I had added 4 cups it would have been way too much. And in case you're wondering, I put the brown rice in first. The chicken will be for tomorrow's dinner. I know, I know...how boring.

Check out the perfect rice to meat/veggie ratio

She tells you to add hot sauce if that's your thing...and it absolutely fucking is

Creole Fried Rice 

2 tbs canola oil (olive oil, whatever)

8 oz. andouille sausage (she actually suggests Kielbasa as an alternative in the book - ha!)

1 large onion, chopped

1 large green pepper, chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 tbs. creole seasoning (let's be real - you'll need way more than that)

4 cups cooked white rice (strongly recommend going the pouch route first)

1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, rinsed and drained (if you're a beany person)

2 tbs. tomato paste

Sliced green onions and hot sauce, for serving

1) In a 12 inch skillet, add the oil over medium heat until hot. Add sausage, onion, pepper, garlic, and creole seasoning. Cook for about 10 minutes or until veggies are tender.

2) Add the rest of the ingredients and cook until hot. Sprinkle green onion on top.

3) Serve with the hot sauce.  

Motivation Station

Holy crap has it been two years?

Well, you know what they say: No better time than the present. Or is it: Presents are always a good time? Either way, motivation has begun tingling in the fingertips of yours truly and you all have an adorable redhead in the form of my sister's girlfriend to blame.

I know, I know. Out of nowhere I stopped blogging. Well, I stopped blogging and started taking mediocre photos of food and posting them on Instagram. I lost my food mojo, but it's back now and in the meantime I have acquired several new cookbooks. The most recent was a gift for my birthday. It's a simple little book called "Skillet Suppers" and, you guessed it, all you need is a skillet and about half an hour for all of the recipes. I'll call that a fuckin win.

The cover photo also looks fuckin legit

As I read through this book I got that itch that can only mean one thing: I need to cook and then blog about it so my sisters can read it.

Delicious things to come, ya'll.