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Chicken Wings and Other Things

Today we ran errands all day and the last stop was the grocery store to pick up dinner.  We knew we wanted macaroni and cheese but were undecided on the meat part.  I was thinking fish for me and steak for Chris, but the fish selection wasn’t very appealing…just the usual salmon, tilapia and catfish. So we ended up getting a package of whole chicken wings.

I cut and split the wings, put some salt and pepper on them and put them under the broiler.  I like my wings overcooked, I don’t like to see any uncrisped fat or blood at the bone.  For the sauce I simply melted butter and added in Crystal Hot Sauce.  Very simple – and not too hot – you can vary the heat by using more or less better.  I find this combination better than any of the pre-made bottled buffalo wing sauces.  After the wings were done, I poured the sauce over top and flipped them around in it to coat.

The macaroni and cheese was homemade too – no blue box in this house!  I try to do a lower-fat version by using 2% milk and Cabot 50% reduced fat cheddar cheese, and then use just a little full-fat extra sharp white cheddar to give it that zing.  I don’t bake my macaroni and cheese in the oven, I find it gets too dry – I simply like to add the cheese sauce to the cooked macaroni and serve.  Delicious!

Friendly Friday

I forgot to take pics of the food tonight!  What a shame because it was awesome.  We had a friend over for dinner and I made brown mustard and rosemary crusted pork tenderloin, mashed sweet potatoes and buttered carrots.  I broiled the pork tenderloin and served it with a sauce of mayo, brown mustard, lemon juice and parmesan cheese. The sweet potatoes were a pleasant surprise – I actually bought white sweet potatoes instead of yams and thought I could candy them the same way.  But once you peel the white ones, they turn brown very quickly.  So after I steamed them they looked very unappealing.  I thought of a recipe my mom used to make at Thanksgiving with these, a mashed casserole with praline topping.  I quickly hand mashed them, added some butter, brown sugar, black pepper and milk.  It needed just a little something else, so I put in just a little vanilla extract.  It was a big hit – there were no leftovers!

Since I don’t have dinner pics, I thought I would do “What’s in your refrigerator?” to go with my last post.  We always, always, always have bottled water, milk, eggs, some kind of cheese, tortillas and beer.

Water, beer, home-brewed tea, milk, eggs (and some hard-boiled), english muffins, tortillas, plenty of cheese in the drawer, yogurt, butter, condiments, fresh spinach, apples, lemons and limes, and the requisite box of baking soda.

Here is the freezer (we have a top fridge, bottom freezer model).

A little light in the freezer area this week – ice cubes, frozen bread dough, vanilla ice cream, frozen corn and spinach, shrimp, vodka, gin and popsicles.  The only thing I have in the meat section is two tuna steaks and beef cubes.  I tend to forget what I have down there so I try not to freeze meat too often and then play the “guess the mystery frozen block” game.

What are the items you always find in your fridge and freezer?

Leftover Thursday

No dinner pics today – we had leftover pizza from last night’s feast.  So I thought I would do a “What’s in your pantry?” post.  I am always interested to see what others have in their pantries as staple items.  I find then when I organize my pantry, I tend to buy doubles (sometimes triple!) of flour, sugar and rice.  I keep the two sides organized by type – the right side has the boxed items and the left has the canned and bottles.  I’m a little OCD when it comes to that.  🙂

Here is the right side of my pantry:

Boxes of pasta, cake flour, tea, coffee, oatmeal packets, dried beans, coarse salt, all those bags of rice, extra cups, storage bags, straws, napkins and the liquor bottles.

The left side:

Canned veggies, tomatoes, sauce, applesauce, syrup, condiments, vinegars, olive, canola and sesame oil, breadcrumbs, hearts of palm, peanut butter and hiding in there somewhere is one of my guilty pleasures…marshmallow fluff.

I like to keep my pantry pretty well stocked – this is probably about below average for me.  I like to keep more of a variety of vegetables and tomato products, because they are always items you can use.  Up next – the refrigerator!  Feel free to post your pics or tell me what you always have in your pantry.

Celebration Dinner!

Two weeks ago we had to put down our 13 year old dog Trooper.

We vowed that when he “came home” we would have a celebratory dinner that he would have loved.  Well, tonight, we picked him up.

Dinner was pizza – one plain, one pepperoni – and a cheesesteak with provolone and ketchup.

And our other dog Cody enjoyed pizza crust for two.  🙂  Welcome home, Big T – we love you!

Mixed Bag of Sandwiches

Tonight I decided to make us paninis for dinner.  I have not been in a “meat mood” lately but also didn’t want to make pasta and sauce again.  So I made myself a veggie panini and saved the meat for Chris.  Here is what we started with:

A nice loaf of olive oil ciabatta bread, rare roast beef, sharp cheddar, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, baby spinach and guacamole.  My veggie sandwich was layered with cheese, tomato, spinach and the roasted peppers.  Chris simply had roast beef and cheese.  They are ready for the grill!

I put them on my pre-heated George Forman grill, pressed it down with a heavy cast iron pan on top and flipped them once to get them evenly heated.  I added guacamole to mine and lettuce, tomato and mayo to Chris’.  We ate them with a side of Pop Chips.  Delicious!  I liked it so much I want to have it again tomorrow!  But I need more bread…

Monday Mashed Potatoes

Making mashed potatoes on a weeknight isn’t one of my favorite things – I try not to do it too often, but they are one of Chris’ favorites, so I cave in.  🙂  It’s not the making of the potatoes that bothers me, it is the peeling and the chopping.  I take as many shortcuts as I can.  And technically I don’t make mashed potatoes, I made whipped potatoes with a hand mixer.  Four ingredients – potatoes, salt, butter and whole milk.  Definitely not diet potatoes.

Last night I threw thick bone-in pork chops, sauerkraut, a beer, ground pepper, brown sugar and caraway seeds into the crockpot for today.  I put the crockpot on low this morning and by the time I got home the pork chops were falling apart.  All I had to do was make the potatoes.

I always rinse my sauerkraut to get some of the salt out.  I am salt-sensitive, so any reduction for me is good.  I do feel it changes the flavor slightly, but it still tastes good.  I served the meal with some honey bbq sauce for the pork – Chris even ate some sauerkraut!  And three helpings of potatoes….

I’m Baaaack….Again.

Well, I haven’t done any form of dieting, including Nutrisystem since I last posted.  I can’t…I love food.  So instead, I am going to start blogging some meals I make.  I cook for myself and my boyfriend Chris on almost a daily basis.  He says he likes the food I cook better than when we eat out because I know how too cook for his tastes.  Sometimes it is still nice to go out though and have someone do the cooking for you!

Sunday dinner is usually a big meal in our house.  A meat, a starch and a veg.  Around here we don’t really agree on veggies – I like almost every one except peas and lima beans.  Chris only likes corn, carrots and peas…and occasionally I can throw in some yellow squash.  Last night was one of those nights.

I made a faster version of chicken satay – I did marinate the chicken for an hour, but didn’t cut it into strips and thread it onto skewers.  I simply threw the cutlets whole onto the grill pan.  Here are the ingredients for the chicken satay marinade and peanut dipping sauce, along with a shot of the cutlets marinating.  I did transfer the chicken to a plastic zipper bag and put it in a bowl in the fridge to marinate.

For sides, I made Alton Brown’s baked brown rice and a side of sauteed yellow squash.  The rice took an hour, but it was worth it.  It was the best brown rice I have ever made.  And it only has four ingredients – brown rice, water, butter and salt.  I saute my squash in just a little butter and olive oil with ground pepper.

Here is the finished product – it was all pretty good – the peanut sauce was a little too thick at first, I had to thin it more, but it was edible.  I’m not sure I will make the chicken again, but the rice is a definite keeper!

Day 99…Short Day

I was at work by myself almost all day, so when someone finally came in and then left at 3:00, so did I!  I’m tired of being the only one there all the time, so I hightailed it out of there and went to visit Carla.  So much better than work…  Typical food day, nothing exciting….

Breakfast:  Lowfat vanilla yogurt with wheat germ and strawberries; apple cinnamon oatmeal (NS); coffee.

Lunch:  Leftover BBQ chicken, potato pancakes and corn.

Dinner:  Bruschetta Gardenburgers on sandwich thin with lowfat cheese, tomato and banana peppers; whole wheat pasta with lowfat mozzarella cheese.

Day 98…Nothing Unusual

A typical Sunday with typical errands and weekend meals.  I’m going to get right to the pictures….

Breakfast:  Egg Beaters with Canadian bacon and tomatoes on lite Enligh muffin; coffee.

Lunch:  Saladworks BLT salad – romaine lettuce with tomatoes, radiatore pasta, chicken and chickpeas with lite ranch dressing; wheat roll.

Dinner:  BBQ chicken breast; potato pancakes with FF sour cream; corn.