Cuban Chorizo Stew make a great supper on a stormy night

I love chorizo, but have never cooked with it myself.  I order it a lot, but never have cooked with it.  So when I saw the recipe for Cuban Chorizo Stew, I wanted to try it.  Again, I love Budget Bytes.  She has so many great recipes.

I made Budget Bytes' Cuban Chorizo Stew.  And it was a hit!

I followed her recipe other than adding cilantro since someone doesn't like it, and used fire-roasted tomatoes since I love them.  This was so good and very easy to make.

 Isn't it a colorful stew?  On the right is just the rice.  I like Jasmine rice.  The best part, it didn't stick to the pan like other rice.

And the finished dish...

Coming soon will be some of my favorite recipes that I haven't made in a while, but are of my own creation.

Eat out most of the weekend, but did cook a GREAT soup!

I'm sorry to say, I didn't cook much this weekend.  But I did eat out and get a few fun items to share.

Saturday for lunch I went to The Fighting Burrito. It is by the Downtown Library at 309 13th St., DesMoines, IA.  I love the Crazy Horse Burrito.
"A fi ery burrito named for a people’s hero. Local sundried tomato, wild rice, white beans, our slow-cooked beef, and monterey jack cheese, and bring the heat with spicy corn salsa, jalapeños, and our Mad Jackson’s Peach Punishment Hot Sauce."

I highly recommend it.  I get it with black beans instead of white beans.  Check out their website.  They are open 7 days a week.

Saturday night I was lazy so I ordered Domino's.  I got a thin crust pepperoni and jalapeno pizza.  YUMMMY.

Sunday I walked to work and my very nice friend and coworker went to Court Ave. Brewing.  I got the Falafel Sandwich.  It was so good.  Like a veggie burger.  My plan is to make these at home some time soon.  It was a falafel burger with lettuce and onion and a cucumber dill sauce.  It was good and filling.





Sunday's for dinner I made Spinach Tortellini Soup.  This was inspired by Budget Bytes, but I made a few changes.

The recipe called for the following:
1 small onion
4 tbs minced garlic
28 oz can tomato sauce
28 oz can crushed tomato
28 oz water
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
Cracked pepper
19 oz frozen cheese tortellini
10 oz frozen spinach


I added:
 5 chicken bouillon cubes
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tbs crushed red pepper

I didn't follow the directions well, so here is what I did.
1.  Saute onions and garlic until soft
2.  Add spices and cook for about 30 sec-a minute
3.  Add tomatoes and water along with bouillon cubes.

4. Simmer on medium high for about 10 minutes.
5.  Add tortellini and spinach.  Continue to cook and stir occasionally to brake up the spinach.  Cook for about 10-20 minutes.

6.  Serve with some grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese.










Sorry for the delay on this post.  It was a very good soup and highly recommend it.

Chicken Piccata is a natta tonight

Tonight I made Chicken Piccata.  It was okay, but not something I would make again.  I'm not sure what it was, but it just wasn't something satisfying.

Since I wasn't thrilled with the turnout of this recipe, I wont expand on it too much.

It was a basic recipe, Chicken, butter, garlic, water, chicken base, lemon juice, flour and capers.  

It also wasn't as yellow as it should have been.  I will stick with getting this in a restaurant if I want it.  Someday I may try it again.

I learned at my Thai class how to make a peanut sauce.  So I made that today for lunch with some elbow macaroni.  It was good and pretty simple.  Just mix some curry paste, about 1 tbs and 1/2 can of coconut milk with about a cup of creamy peanut butter.  Then mix with noodles with a little bit to them.

Quick and easy.  I also have some extra to make some Satay for later and have a dipping sauce.

Goulash and some Thai cooking

Last night I didn't cook dinner, but attended a Des Moines Community Education classs.  It was a cooking class on Thai soups.  I went with a friend and we had a fantastic time..  I don't think it would have been as much fun if it wasn't for going with Kristina.  We both like to cook and love Thai food.  So this was perfect. I highly recommend going to these classes with friends.  We learned how to make an appetizer and three soups. And I would make them all with some minor changes. I will of course feature them soon.

The appetizer was Thai Lettuce Wraps.  These were very good.  I'm not a fan of mushrooms, but did try them and they were pretty good.  I would just chop them, or dice the heck out of them and also had less of them.

The next soup was Tom Tum Goong.  This is a hot and spicy shrimp soup.  This was not over spicy in my opinion, but I will make it with a little more spice.

My second favorite soup was Ton Kha Gai.  This is Chicken in Coconut Soup.  This was also good.  Both these soups had oyster mushrooms.  For those that know me, I HATE mushrooms.  But I tried them.  And the oyster mushrooms were not that bad in small quantities.  So I will give them a try.

The final soup was Kiew Nam, Wonton Soup.  This was good.  The fun part of this is making the wontons.  I will have some changes to this recipe also of course.

The fun part of last night was to learn of new ingredients to use.  Last night I was introduced to fried garlic, oyster mushrooms, galangal, lemongrass, Thai chili, and Kaffir Lime leaves.

For more information on the ingredients mentioned above, click on the links.  For a quick explanation  galangal is similar to ginger, only it isn't edible.  It just flavors the soups.  Same with lemongrass.  This is also just flavor and don't eat it.  More about them, when I cook them.

Now to tonight's meal!

I made Goulash thanks to Budget Bytes.

The ingredients are:

1 lbs ground beef, I used 90%
1 onion, diced
4 tbs minced garlic
2 medium bell peppers (Red, yellow or orange make it more colorful)
1/2 cup red wine
2 tbs soy sauce
28 oz. Fire-Roasted tomatoes
15 oz tomato sauce
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp Oregano, Basil, and Red Pepper Flakes
2 cups elbow macaroni

Directions:

Cook ground beef until browned, add onion and garlic.  Cook until soft, add bell peppers.  Cook until they are soft.







Add wine and mix to loosen bits on bottom of pan.  As a side note, I find it good to test the wine you are using.  I am, you have to make sure it is a good wine.  Tonight I used Bed Head Red from Jasper Winery. I'm more of a Malbec wine drinker, but Jasper Winery has some very good wines.




Add remaining ingredients except macaroni.
Cover and simmer on med-low for 30 minutes
Add macaroni and stir every 5 minutes for 15 minutes.

This is a great dinner for a COLD night.  At only 15 F outside, this was great.  For dessert I had some Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. YUM







Next recipe will be Chicken Piccata or Chicken in peanut sauce.

Pizza Boats

Its cold outside, and I felt the need for some comfort food.  So tonight I made my pizza boats.  Not very healthy, but they are so good and so easy to make.

For the pizza boats, you will need:

1 lbs Italian Sausage
1 can pizza sauce
minced garlic (to taste)  I used about 2-3 tbs
1/2 onion, diced
32 pepperoni slices
8 slices Provolone cheese
8 slices Mozzarella cheese
4 hoagie buns

• Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
• Brown Italian sausage in olive oil.
• Add onion and garlic and saute until soft
• Add pizza sauce and heat.
• Place hoagie buns on cookie sheet.  Cut in half in needed

• Spread meat mixture over buns evenly
• Place 4 pieces of pepperoni on each hoagie
• Slice the cheeses in half and put over each hoagie  
• Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted and start turning brown.

These are one of my go to recipes and make a little to often.




To lighten this up health wise  you could use ground Italian turkey, turkey pepperoni, and part skim mozzarella  cheese and omit the provolone cheese.

Lunch at Locust Mall *Special lunch post*

It has been a while since I ate at Locust Mall.  There are some new places and the same places there.  Normally I eat at the potato place.  Amazing that most people that know the mall, calls it the potato place.  I went to the little greek place in the corner.  It's called Gazalis Pitaria.  The place is so good.  I haven't had a thing there that wasn't good.  The quality is great and the service is the best.  The lady is very friendly and takes your order very fast an efficiently.  She knows the regulars orders. 

Today I got the spicy gyro.  It was soooooooooo good.  It's a gyro with hot sauce and jalapenos on it.  Nice little kick. 

Tonight I will be making my pizza boats.  Recipe and pictures will follow.

Give me your suggestions

Do you have a recipe you want me to try?  Have an ingredient that you are to scared to test yourself?  How about a product you want me to test out?  Let me know here and I will see what I can do.  I will test almost anything.  Just no mushrooms(YUCK) or blue cheeses. 

It's a Cajun kind of week

Friday's are the day when I plan out my meals for the week.  I was supposed to go to the store yesterday, but I put it off.  I'll have to go after work this weekend or Monday. I luckily have enough food to make it for a few more days of planned recipes that I have carried over.

Friday night I made Cajun Chicken Pasta.  This was very easy and tasty.  It was a recipe from Skinny Taste website. The website features recipes that are healthy and shows the Weight Watcher points.




I have been kind of lazy on tracking my food and keeping points value. Of course, I changed up this recipe somewhat.  I had to Doug-a-fy it.  But when do I not do that in the kitchen?

Here is what I used:
8 oz of linguine - cooked according to package (I say a little al dente)
1 lbs chicken tenders
1-2 tsp Cajun seasoning (I make up my own.  recipe below)
2 bell peppers thinly sliced. Red and orange make it pretty
1/2 red onion, sliced
3 cloves minced garlic
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
Chicken base and water for 1 cup of broth
1/3 cup skim milk
1 tbs flour
3oz cream cheese
Garlic powder
Salt
Pepper
Green Tabasco

• Cook the pasta in a dutch oven.
• Season chicken tenders with Cajun season on both sides and cook chicken in little bit of olive oil.  
• When done, remove from pan.  
• Add a little more olive oil if need and cook peppers, onions and garlic about 4 minutes.  
• Add tomatoes and cook for about 4 minutes more.  Reduce to medium low.  
• In a blender, blend milk, flour and cream cheese; add to pan with chicken base mix.  
• Stir for about two minutes.  
• Add chicken and add salt and pepper.  
• If needed, add more Cajun seasoning.  
• For added spice, add Green Tabasco.  
• Cook until hot.  
• Drain pasta and return to dutch oven.  Add chicken mixture.  
• Serve up with a little scallions on the top if desired. 

 Does this not look good?  Trust me, it was filling and good.  I was full after 1 serving.  I felt it needed the spiciness of the Tabasco or other hot sauce.






For the Cajun season, here is what I make up ahead of time and keep around.  Works great to season French Fries.

Cajun Seasoning:

1/2 cup Paprika
1/4 cup Garlic Powder
1/4 cup Onion Powder
1/4 cup cayenne
1 tbsp white pepper
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp thyme
2 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp sugar

For Saturday's lunch, my wonderful coworker Darcy went to Taste of China.  I couldn't decide on what to get, so I got enough for lunch tomorrow also.  I got the boneless pork ribs, broccoli in garlic sauce and the Singapore style rice noodles.  I have enough for lunch on Sunday and Monday.  YAY!

No cooking today for me!

I actually slept in some today and when I got up, we went to IHOP for all you can eat pancakes. After eating the bacon, sausage, eggs and hash browns, I could only eat two pancakes. I'm not much of an all you can eat I guess. So my two pancakes I did eat were very good.

Also went to Smokey Row today. They have their Valentines day specials. I got a cherry mocha kiss which is just a mocha with cherry flavoring. But it was good.

For dinner we web to Noodles and Co. I got the Indonesian peanut sauté with chicken. It wasn't to bad. It needed more sauce for me, it was good. Mark got the Mac n cheese with bbq pork. Now that was good. And the have the cool new pop machines. The kind where you push a button for the kind you want. This is great since they actually have caffeine free diet coke. And I got mine with raspberry. Mmmmmm mmmmm good!

I'm sorry for no pictures today but I forgot to take them when I ate and I'm making this post from my phone, so no links. Tomorrow I will have some stuff. I will either be making Cajun chicken pasta from Skinny Taste of Chicken in Peanut Sauce from Budget Bytes.

Don't forget to send me links to products or recipes to try at douglaslgoodwin@gmail.com

Sorry about not posting last night, but What's for dinner tonight?

I was going to make some Asian meat ball recipe, but that got postponed as did the blog post:

Last night we ended up going to dinner with a friend.  We went to Fat Tuesday.  One of our favorite places to eat.  The special was a Steak and Cheese Po-Boy.  It was very good.  I got it with just onions and the special hot sauce and added a little extra Frank's Hot Sauce. I had the sweet potatoes for the side.  Tough choice since I also love the collard greens there.  I have yet to be disappointed going there.  I've tried most everything and liked it all.  Most of the time I need to add a little extra hot sauce, but I'm good with that.

For tonight, I needed to make something for dinner that could be made ahead but also sit for a while in case I was going to be eating later.  So I decided something in the crock pot would be best of course.  I didn't have a recipe ready, so I searched the internet.  I found a few recipes that sounded good.  Many would have required me to run to the store for items I didn't have.  Then I came across a recipe for Chicken Pot Pie Stew.  It sounded good, but again didn't have everything.  So I kept looking for other Chicken Pot Pie Stew recipes.After what felt like hundreds of  recipes (more like 4 or 5) I decided, I will just create my own.  Since many of the recipes had similar ingredients, I just used stuff I had on hand and decided to just wing a recipe.  Here is what I had:

Oh, I forgot the broccoli bits in the photo.  Sorry about that broccoli  since I also forgot about you in the freezer for so long.

1lbs Chicken, cut up into bite-size pieces

2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup

1 can Milk

7-8 Potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 cup Carrots chopped

1 can Green Beans, french cut

1 cup Corn

1 cup Broccoli bits

6 teaspoons Chicken base

Few cloves Garlic to taste

1/2 Tbls Onion Powder

1/2 Tbls Garlic Powder

1 teaspoon Celery Salt

dash Salt

dash Pepper

While preparing, I was watching the Food Network.  I know that isn't a shock to those that know me.  I watched Rachael Ray.  She made a comment that she dirties a ton of dishes when she cooks and it was a good thing she doesn't do the dishes.  She was making Hot 'N Sweet Shrimp Lettuce Wraps and Orange-Sesame Pork Chops with Teriyaki Whole-Wheat Noodles.  They looked great!  I going to have to try this out sometime.

Back to the recipe.  I started out pealing, washing and chopping the carrots and potatoes and throwing them in the crock pot.  And thanks to Rachael Ray, I used a garbage bowl to through all my peels and scraps into so that I didn't make a mess.

Then added the cream of chicken soup and milk.  I mixed it up a little.  Added the chicken base and spices.  Mixed it up again.  

The added the corn, broccoli and green beans. I then cut up the chicken, 

added it to the crock pot.  The broccoli had a little bit of ice crystals on it, okay a lot, but I figured it would just add some moisture to it.  And I only have a cup of it anyway.

Cooked on high for 4-5 hours or low for 6-8.  Heck, if it is bubbly  the chicken is cooked and the potatoes are done, eat up!  :)

***For a cheesy chicken pot pie, add some sharp cheddar cheese and cook on high until it is melted.  I would recommend 1-2 cups depending on how much cheese you want.  Or just though a little on top of you bowl before serving.

***Turkey would also be good instead of chicken.

*** For beef, I would use beef base for the chicken base and cream of mushroom or cream of celery for the cream of chicken.  And water instead of milk.

   

Chili Cheese Beef n Mac thanks to Budget Bytes

I love to try new recipes.  So I was looking at food blogs and found a couple I just love.  They are Skinny Taste and Budget Bytes.  Both are great sites for dinners.  I have made a few.  Tonight, I made the Chili Cheese Beef n Mac from Budget Bytes and added my own spin on it of course.  Cause I do that all the time. I added some cumin for a hit of smokey taste and some jalapenos for some spice.

This is an easy recipe and I highly recommend it.  It is like the Hamburger Helper Chili-mac  only WAY better.  I used whole wheat elbow pasta to make it a little more healthy. I also loved the warning on the beginning of the recipe.  "WARNING: Comfort food ahead! This dish contains pasta, beef, and cheese. It's hearty and delicious. Proceed at your own risk! ;)"

Trust me that the warning is soooo true.  I couldn't stop at one serving.  I had three.  But with the temperature at 27 degrees outside, this is a good comfort food. Hats off to Beth at Budget Bytes.  She has some great recipes and the budget part is spot on.  Its a great site.


So the suggested six, one-cup servers for us was 4 big servings.  We each ate two big bowls.  It was really good, but darn it, no left overs for lunch.




As a bonus if you like beets, here is what I do for them.   I buy about six small to med sized beets.  Peel and dice up into 1 inch pieces.  Then spread into a 9x13 pan.  Pour about 1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar over the beets and drizzle some honey over the top. I bake at 375 for 45-60 minutes.

They are good with romaine lettuce, feta cheese, cranberries and walnuts.  Then with either a balsamic vinaigrette or raspberry vinaigrette. It's kind of like a salad at Biaggis that I LOVE!

Have a recipe or product that you want me to try?  let me know

Welcome

This is a start of my food blog. I hope to have something new every day for everyone's enjoyment. Feel free to send me ideas for recipes or products to try. First recipe post will be later tonight.