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