Dinner!

I had an inspiration for dinner tonight. A friend of my mom's makes chicken in the oven, coated with olive oil and Italian breadcrumbs. SO, I modified the recipe (of course) like so:

Fry up 3 slices of bacon until crisp, over medium-high heat. Remove from heat.
Slice up red pepper lengthwise, and cook slowly, over medium-high heat in the bacon fat, until soft. Remove from pan and keep warm.

Coat 4 chicken thighs in olive oil, and then coat in Italian breadcrumbs. Add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, and cook the chicken thighs at medium-high heat for about 1 minute each side, until firm. Place the chicken in a sub roll (long roll, whatever you call it where you are!), top with a slice of provolone cheese (I thought that fit the Italian theme best. If you like other cheese, use that!), and top with the red pepper and bacon.

I used potato rolls, which were VERY long, so each roll took two pieces of chicken. I served the sandwiches with baked potatoes, with lots of butter and sour cream. YUMMY!

Breakfast!

I have fallen in love with granola and yogurt. It's a new relationship, but a strong one. I think this will last the rest of my life.

Step 1: Make a batch of THIS granola on Sunday, while football is playing. I used slivered almonds (which I toasted while I was mixing up the oatmeal), and dried cranberries and dried cherries from Trader Joe's. I also used 4 cups of oatmeal, and still added the 1/2 cup of oil and 1/2 cup of honey. I've never added salt before, but I did the last two batches I made. It really does make all the difference.

Step 2: Put a good amount of granola in a pretty large soup bowl. (I love my Mikasa Italian Countryside china!)

Step 3: Add yogurt. I used Swiss Style Vanilla, from a large container, because it was on sale this week for $2. I had used so much already, though, that I didn't really have enough for the consistency I like. I do like Swiss Style because it's thicker. Greek would work, too. I think thinner yogurt makes it come out more like cereal with milk, which is not bad, but not my favorite.

Step 4: add more yogurt, from a container. I didn't have vanilla, so I added black raspberry flavor. Mix it all around, so it's a big mess. See why I did step-by-step pictures? It doesn't look very nice at this point. Tastes FABULOUS though!

Step 5: Eat, with gusto! Of course, I had to have black coffee with it. Because that's an unchanging part of my morning ritual.

I could eat this stuff 3 times a day. It's amazing. A nice blend of grains, nuts, fruit, dairy... it fills me up, and is healthy as all get out. YUM!

Recipes!

I was Costco shopping with a friend today, and we got to discussing food, of course. What else do you discuss at a LARGE food store? Well, we talked about all sorts of stuff, but basically food. We're both law students, in our last semester (finally!), and we both miss cooking. She was saying she wants to cook more, but doesn't have a lot of good recipes. She also got a crock pot for Christmas, and wanted something to do with that, too. So, of course, being a former full-time mom/ cook/ bottle washer, I started rattling off some favorite recipes. It kind of freaks people out when I do that - I have so many of them memorized - but then I explain that I've been cooking since I was 13, which explains the memorization. I'm almost 50. That's a lot of cooking. Anyway, I thought it would be nice to share some of the favorites I gave my friend. I've already posted the family's mac & cheese recipe - here - and my summer veggies recipe - here - and my favorite Greek Chicken - here - so I'm going to add some different ones: Spaghetti Sauce and Crockpot Beef Stew.

Crockpot Beef Stew:

2 lb. (ish) beef chuck roast, cut into approx. 1" cubes
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 can (Campbell's soup size) beef consomme' or beef stock
1 onion, sliced long ways
1 to 2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 to 3 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, cut into 2" pieces (can be cooked separately and added toward the end)

Put onions on bottom of crock pot, then add beef. Mix soup mix with consomme' and pour over the top. Add garlic. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours; low for 8 hours. If adding potatoes, put them on top of the beef.

Optional: add 1/2 cup barley and add a soup can of water. If you want veggies, hard ones work best - like carrots - add them in the last 1/2 hour of cooking.

Spaghetti Sauce:

1 - 28 oz. can Italian whole peeled tomatoes, or diced tomatoes. Try to get the ones without basil
1 - 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 can tomato paste (small one)
2-ish Tbsp. oregano
1 onion, diced
1 to 2 cloves garlic, chopped
Olive oil

Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, cook until soft; add garlic and cook about a minute more. Add tomatoes, sauce, paste, and oregano - I cover the top of a 12" frying pan with oregano. Cover and cook on low (just bubbling) about 20 minutes. Serve over pasta, use with baked fusilli, whatever.

Baked ziti: Use 1 to 1 1/2 cup sauce (eyeball it - if it's too dry, add more), 1 lb. pasta, cooked half the time on the box, add 1/2 to 1 cup shredded parmesan to the sauce, bake at 350F for 30 minutes.

Sausage and Peppers: cook whole sausages in fry pan; remove and cool; cook onion and 1 diced green pepper; add garlic, add tomato sauce makings and sausage, cut into 1" slices. Cover and cook on low for 30 minutes. Serve over chunky pasta - rotini, fusilli, something like that.

Tonight's dinner

Fried ham steak and mashed Yukon Gold potatoes. GOOD stuff! I like to fry up the ham steak in olive oil until one side is almost crispy, and I boil the potatoes with the skins on, then mash them with butter and half and half, on the plate. So good, and warm comfort food.

I'd post a picture, but I ate it all already! ;)