Erin's Easy Eats

Provencal Style Tomato Omelette

June 10th, 2008 by Erin

I was pondering the other day what I ate in France on sweltering summer evenings, and I remembered fondly a great meal that was salad and a mushroom omelet. This is the first time I’ve tried this recipe, and it will definitely be a keeper. The next time, I might try it with some crab, and/or avocado. Serving this with the remainder of our sourdough bread and a greens salad dressed with raspberry balsamic vinaigrette.

Haha Chinese food menu in bottom right corner.

Ingredients

• 4 Tbs olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 2 Tbs torn basil leaves
• 5 ripe plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped (or if you are lazy used diced tomatoes from a can, ha)
• 4 eggs
• salt and pepper

Heat 2 Tbs olive oil and cook garlic and herbs over moderate heat for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook further for 10-15 minutes, stirring from time to time until all liquid is evaporated and the tomatoes are the consistency of jam. Set aside to cool.

Beat eggs in a bowl and add tomato jam. Mix well and season with salt and pepper. Heat remaining olive oil and when very hot, pour in egg mixture. Cook over gentle heat until the bottom is golden, shaking the pan from time to time to prevent sticking. When it is mostly set, place under a broiler for about 30 seconds to set the top, then do a tricky bit of flipping: slide the omelet into the lid of your frying pan, so that it is facing the same way it was in the pan. Then, put your frying pan over the lid (so your frying pan is facing down) and flip the omelet back into the pan so that the uncooked (but set) side is now on the bottom. Cook for another 2-3 minutes until golden brown.

Raspberry Viniagrette

• 1 tsp. country Dijon
• 3 Tbs seedless raspberry jam
• 3 Tbs balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 2 Tbs vegetable oil
• salt and pepper

Whisk ingredients together, adjust anything to taste (I sometimes find I need extra jam if it’s not quite sweet enough.) Don’t be afraid of the salt and pepper here!

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Mac ‘n Cheese with Spicy Things

May 19th, 2008 by Erin

The bulk of this recipe was stolen from my favorite foodblog, The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I will admit to making very few changes, but I wanted to share this with you because it is not at all like mac ‘n cheese, but more like… well, everything I ate in Scotland, meaning it has corn in it. And as you all should know by now, corn makes things better.

Coming down the pipe in the next week or so: another coconut shrimp recipe (I can never find one I really like,) ice cream cake (a really lazy version that you can only make if you have connections, people, connections are important) and perhaps, just maybe, some secret things. That I can’t talk about here. Even though I don’t think Rick reads this. Shhh…

Ingredients:

• 1 lb boneless chicken breasts, cut into medium sized, cookable pieces (I’ll explain in a minute)
• Chipolte chili powder (optional, I imagine, but I used it)
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 jalepeno, seeded and chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped (are you noticing a pattern?)
• 1 1/2 c. shredded pepper jack cheese
• 1 c. cream (I used light cream)
• 1 4oz. can chopped green chilies (there’s chopped again!)
• 1 c. corn (frozen and thawed, if you like, or from a can, if you’re feeling the laze)
• 4 cups cooked curly pasta (somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 of a pound)

Set your water to boil for your pasta - the rest of this will be done faster than you think. Boil as soon as the water is ready, and cook it until just al dente, because it’s gonna hang out with some cream and some sauce and get soft but you don’t want it to get squishy.

I cook my chicken in large chunks rather than to chop it all up at first because I find the texture to be better. By this, I mean cutting a breast into thirds, seasoning it, cooking it, and then slicing it after it has a chance to rest. By all means, do it the other way, cutting into bite sized pieces and then cooking, if you like.

Season chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and a sprinkle of chipolte powder. Cook about 4 minutes on each side, until cooked through. Set aside and let rest.

Over medium heat, add jalepeno, garlic, red pepper, and onion with a little olive oil, and sautee until just soft. Add corn and diced chilies. Let it hang out while you cut your chicken into bite sized pieces. Throw the chicken in there. Add the pasta, cream, and cheese. Stir until it is all melty. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Posted in chicken, dinner, fast, mexican, pasta, recipes || 1 Comment

Rice Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce

May 7th, 2008 by Erin

I made this as an accompaniment to the tofu and red peppers.  Correct me if I’m mistaken (and I know the peanut butter could potentially be an issue) but I believe this is my first vegan meal.  Vegan!  This sauce is really simple, and adds a good flavor.  I added some more after I took this photo because I found the noodles were sticking together too much.

Super zoom on broccoli!!!

For sauce:

• 1/3 c. lime juice
• 1 1/2 Tbs grated ginger (hello microplane, my love)
• 3 Tbs water
• 3 Tbs soy sauce
• 3 Tbs peanut butter (being the PB fiend that I am, I may have added more… shhh)
• 1 1/2 Tbs honey
• 2 tsp chili paste (wowza! this stuff is awesome!)
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed

Whisk all ingredients together until smooth.  I cooked a pound of rice vermicelli, added some steamed veggies, and sauteed it all together in the sauce for about 2 minutes.  Lovely!  (The whole recipe of sauce is enough for 1 lb. of noodles.)

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Shrimp Tacos with Two Kinds of Sauce

May 7th, 2008 by Erin

As planned, we whipped up some shrimp tacos and made the mayo salsa from the chicken biscuit “sandwich” from the other day. I also made up some pico de gallo, because it was requested.  They turned out very well, and other than the ton of chopping, cooked up quite quickly, too.

Shrimp:

Peel and devein about a pound of shrimp.  I sprinkled some taco seasoning mix on mine, and just sauteed them until they were just finished - I used large shrimp, so I didn’t overcook them for once.

To refresh your memory, the mayo salsa:

Salsa Mayo

• 1 c. chopped tomatoes (2 plum or 1 large regular tomato)
• 1/4 red onion, finely chopped
• 3 Tbs chopped cilantro
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder (I was done with chopping at this point, ugh)
• 1/2 c. mayo
• 1/2 Tbs. lime juice
• 3 shakes Tabasco (see mom and dad, I eat it now!)

Mix everything together in a bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pico de Gallo - Essentially everything in the salsa mayo but without the mayo

• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 2 jalepenos, deveined and seeded to your liking (the more seeds/veins you leave, the spicier it will be)
• 1 medium onion, chopped fine
• 1/2 c. chopped cilantro
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 Tbs lime juice (maybe a little more)
• salt and pepper to taste

Stir it all together.

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Shrimp and Ravioli in Lemon Cream Sauce

April 9th, 2008 by Erin

This meal is all about cheating. It is so good though, that no one cares. It’d make a great dinner if you were trying to impress guests and didn’t really have time…  It took just long enough for me to boil the water and cook the ravioli through.  Because I totally cheated and used pre-made Alfredo sauce, the shrimp and cream sauce were done in about 10 minutes total.

• 1 package refrigerated 4 cheese ravioli
• 1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 10 oz. Alfredo sauce (either make your own, or buy refrigerated or jarred… depending on how much time you want to invest here)
• 1 Tbs lemon juice
• 1 tsp. grated lemon peel
• Chopped fresh parsley
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced thinly
• 1 clove garlic, pressed through garlic press (or chop it finely but then go to the store and buy a garlic press the next day, really)

Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, heat 1 Tbs olive oil and 1 Tbs butter in a non stick pan. Add shrimp and garlic and peppers, turning until shrimp are just cooked through. Add Alfredo, lemon juice and peel, parsley, and cooked pasta. Stir to combine, serve.  (My Alfredo sauce was a little thick, so I added some cream, because I haven’t used enough cream in the last two days.)

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Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse

April 8th, 2008 by Erin

I was going to make a plain mascarpone mousse (is there such a thing?) but the majority of the recipes I stumbled across had ricotta, which I detest the texture of unless it’s hidden under layers of cheese and tomato sauce. In my searches, I found this, which sounded wonderful, and went very well with some early strawberries.  The original recipe didn’t call for the folding in of whipped cream, but I found it too dense (very early on in the taste testing) and so I added it before chilling overnight.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/3 c. sifted unsweetened cocoa (this is regular Hershey’s cocoa, btw)
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tsp. espresso powder dissolved in 2 tsp cold water (or 3 tsp REALLY strong coffee, since I’m too cheap to spring for espresso powder)
• 1 Tbs rum
• 8 oz. mascarpone
• 1/2 c. whipping cream

Combine sugar, cocoa, and salt. In another bowl, combine coffee, rum, and marscapone. Slowly beat in sugar mixture first on low, then on medium, scraping down sides, until mixture is very smooth. Set aside.  Whip cream until stiff peaks (turn it into whipped cream, but not butter!) Fold in gently but thoroughly.  Chill at least three hours.

Posted in fast, recipes, sweets || 1 Comment

Gnocchi with Chicken Sausage, Bell Pepper, and Fennel

March 30th, 2008 by Erin

I always love looking though my Cooking Light magazine until I realize that every recipe has about 9,253 ingredients to make up for the fact that it is “light cooking.” Well, most of them, at least. This one did not, and it had sausage, which I love. I was a little apprehensive at first - mostly because I’d never had gnocchi until about an hour ago, and wasn’t sure how this dish would work, texturally. It ended up being wonderful, and super simple. The combination of flavors (sweet and savory) and textures (crunchy fennel, slightly gummy gnocchi, and crisp sausage) went very well together. I think we actually improved upon the original recipe by substituting what was both on hand and available at the grocery store. (The original recipe calls for basil, pine nut and chicken sausage, as well as Asiago cheese. I’ve listed what we used below.)

Ingredients:

• 16 oz. package vacuum packed gnocchi (I looked everywhere and eventually found it with the fancy Italian food in the yellow cans and jars - not sure what brand that is)
• 6 oz. smoked chicken and apple sausage (the recipe says to remove the casings, which I found impossible) sliced thinly
• 1 c. thinly sliced fennel
• 1 c. thinly sliced onion
• 1 c. thinly sliced red bell pepper
• pepper
• 1/4 c. shaved Parmesan

Heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a non-stick pan over medium high heat. Add sliced sausage and cook until lightly browned (or not so lightly, as you can probably see in the picture,) remove from pan and set aside. In the same pan (without washing) add another teaspoon or so of olive oil, and add peppers, fennel, and onions. Reduce heat to medium and cook until veggies are tender, about 13 minutes. While the veggies are hanging out, cook gnocchi according to package directions. Reserve 1/4 c. of cooking liquid and add to pan when veggies are done. Add back sausage, add pepper and cheese, stir until cheese is melted.

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Pesto Pizza

March 7th, 2008 by Erin

Nom nom nom. That’s what this pizza is. It is strongly flavored, creamy, and potentially the most fattening and horrible thing that anyone could ever eat. But it is SO GOOD. I was racking my brain trying to figure out what I ate for two years when I didn’t eat meat, and I couldn’t think of anything. Clearly I ate stuff, as evidenced by my portly figure, but what was it? I can’t have lived on meat substitute the entire time… and for the majority of it, I was with the man, and he hates eggplant so it had to have been something else… It’s driving me crazy trying to remember.  Anyway.  I ate all of this before I remembered to take a picture.  Whoops.

Ingredients:

• 1 pizza shell
• 1/2 c. prepared pesto (get the stuff from the refrigerated section, not in a jar)
• 4 oz. goat cheese (I bought the crumbles this time because I’m lazy)
• mushrooms, sliced
• red onion, *THINLY* sliced

I love my pizza stone, and that’s what makes things crispy.  Cook according to package directions, don’t go nuts.  The goat cheese won’t ever really melt, but it will get hot.

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Stuffed Shells

February 19th, 2008 by Erin

I would love to tell you that this dish went over with great fanfare and celebration, but it did not because the husband does not like ricotta or spinach. But I do, and if this is your bag (baby) you’ll like it too. I was eating the filling out of the bowl and it was wonderful all by itself. I’m trying to think of a way to preserve that flavor - perhaps just mixing some pasta with ricotta cheese instead of adding marinara and baking. Anyway, this one certainly is one for presentation - a bunch of stuffed shells looks impressive but it took just under 5 minutes to fill the suckers.

Unrelated to this dinner, a commenter (Steve) asked what I normally eat for lunch.  To be honest, I typically go for leftovers.  I got my fill of eating sandwiches as a student, and I can’t stand to eat another PBJ for lunch (unless I’m at home and there is marmalade.)  I find lunch meat to be expensive (and salty) and bread to go moldy, and I don’t really like soup all that much.  So leftovers is it.   With just two of us eating, I normally have enough to last me until the next day.  Some things don’t make it (pizza bread, well, any type of pizza) but most pasta things or rice things will get me through.  I do have some good spreads I’ll share one day, but there’s your lunch answer!

Ingredients:

• 1 package jumbo shells, cooked according to package directions
• 1 jar spaghetti sauce (or go crazy and make your own) - you only need half a jar
• 10 oz. ricotta
• 2 c. shredded mozzarella
• 1/2 c. grated Parmesan
• 1 egg
• 10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• pinch nutmeg

Squeeze your spinach to drain it. (I typed train. “C’mere spinach! Good boy!”) Mix with ricotta, egg, pinch of nutmeg, Parmesan,, and 1 c. mozzarella. Fill shells with about 2 Tbs of mixture each. (Maybe a little more, if you can cram it in there without ripping them.) Arrange in a casserole dish, and cover with 1/2 jar sauce and remaining mozzarella. Bake at 350 for half an hour. (Covered for the first 20 minutes.) I was going to make a salad and pretend this could be healthy, but we had garlic bread instead because it is delicious.

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Bread Pizza Thingie

February 14th, 2008 by Erin

The husband and I were commenting on how great that frozen garlic bread is - you know, the one that comes in a plastic tube? I’m sure this recipe is partly fueled by “ohgoditscoldoutside” taste buds, but who doesn’t like garlic bread? (If you do not, do not eat this, and let us never speak again.)

I cannot even bring myself to list ingredients. We had a bag of frozen garlic bread, put some pizza sauce on it, and put some mozzarella on top of that. We had a small tub of sausage and peppers that we’d made for pizza awhile ago, so we put that on too. You can put on whatever you want. This isn’t even a recipe.

Posted in dinner, fast, recipes || 1 Comment