Week 9: A chicken

I really wish that I had taken a picture of this one!!! It as just too good to wait though!
What did I make??? A chicken!!!

Betty Crocker can take the credit for this one. I followed her table as to how long to cook the chicken and i took her basic stuffing recipe (it tastes just like stovetop!!!!!!!)

For the chicken, I didn't do much. I just bought it and stuffed it.
The chicken was less than three pounds, so the meaturments for the stuffing gave me a little more than i needed-- so think accordingly if you are going to make this recipe. Betty Crocker says that you need about 3/4 cup of stuffing for every pound of meat.

for the stuffing I sauteed 1/4 cup of onion and 1/3 cup of celery (leaves included) with about 1/3 cup of butter

On the side, I sliced three cups bread cubes from normal sliced bread (i used cheap wheat bread)

when the onion and celery were soft, I added 1 cup of bread crumbs and cooked for about another minute, then i took it off the heat and added the rest of the breadcrumbs with
1/2 teaspoon sage
1/3 teaspoon thyme
and a little salt and pepper
I mixed it all up them put it in my chicken

I cooked the chicken at 190 degees C for almost two hours.

The last 1/2 hour i added my red potatoes.
For that, I sliced red potatoes (about 4 pieces per small red poatoto)
then i tossed them with olive oil, parsley and garlic, but them on a baking try and placed them in the oven with the chicken.

When the chicken was done, i took the leftover fat, added a little flour and had gravy!!!

It was really good and I think it was a good think for Yvan because one of the things that he looks foward to at his parent's house is their Sunday tradition of cooking chicken for lunch.

Week 9: Stuffed Peppers

For this, I decided to mix a few 'recipes.'
I wanted to go with n normal meatloaf in a pepper instead of adding rice or making Italian sausage.
So, I made a basic meatloaf recipe:

I mixed
about 1 lb of ground beef
2 eggs
a bunch of bread crumbs (i used whole wheat because that it what i had, but i don't think i makes a difference either way)
some seasonings: Oregano, basil, parsley, onion (about 1/2 fresh or some powder) and garlic (two cloves fresh or some powder)
the difference between this recipe and meatloaf is the eggplant and green pepper I added (this is kinda copies from Michele)
So, I actually broiled a green pepper and a small/medium eggplant so that it was soft but still a little undercooked and chopped them into cubes. I added about 1/3 of this to the meat mixture and left the rest off to the side.
Then I used two red peppers which i cut in half (cut the long way so that the stem is split in half, then remove stem and seeds)

So, I stuffed the peppers with the meat mixture and cooked them at 200 degrees C for about 40 minutes.

With the rest of the mixture and the rest of the vegetables I made a pasta sauce.
I started the sauce as soon as put the peppers in the oven. I cooked the ingredients on medium in a pot until the meat was cooked, then i added a can of chopped tomatoes and a can of tomato puree. (you can just use a jar of sauce) and i cooked it for the amount of time the peppers were in the oven

ENJOY

I'm back

I'm back from my short break AND WITH AN OVEN!!!!!!!! I have two recipes that I want to share, but I am not sure that I have pictures for them... but here they are!

Sorry

Due to a large amount of school work, 2 a week must take a short break.

Week 8: Low(er) fat chicken parm

I don't have an oven so I had to do this on the stove. First start the sauce. You'll need:
A can of chopped tomatoes
A small jar of tomato puree
one onion
oregano, parsley and basil to taste
3 chopped garlic clove
2 tbsp olive oil

first cook the chopped onion in olive oil until soft. Then add the garlic until it is soft as well. Then add the rest of the ingrediants and cook on low for up to an hour.

For the chicken, dip it in egg and bread crumbs and instead of adding oil to the pan to cook, just brush a little bit on each side to cook. When it is cooked, if I had an oven a would pop it in the oven until the cheese melts but since i don't, put them on the frying pan on low with the cheese on top until it melts

Week 7: Chili

I forgot to take a picture of this one:

2 lbs. ground beef or ground chicken
1 large onion, chopped
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 16 ounce cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 16 ounce can tomato puree
1 small can diced tomatoes, undrained
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tablespoon dried basil
j2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons steak sauce
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt

This one is easy but not amazing (good, but not amazing.)
first cook the onions with the peppers and meat until cooked and drain
next add all other ingredients and cook for about 30 minutes.

Week 7: Thai Ginger Soup

I haven't posted anything in a long time, but that isn't because I haven't been cooking.
Here is my recipe for Thai Ginger Soup. SOOO good.

This serves 2 for an app or 1 for an entree

1 can cocanut soup
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tbsp thinly sliced or diced galangal (or ginger)
4 tbsp lemon grass
1/4 cup lime juice
a splash of fish sauce
4-6 hot thai peppers
3-5 Kaffir lime leaves
a small bunch of cilantro
OPTIONAL
chicken cut into small pieces
1 serving of very thin rice noodles
I made mine without chicken and with the noodles

So, first boil the galangal and the lemon grass for a few minutes. At this point add the coconut milk. Once it is hot, add the chicken and all other ingredients except for the lime and cilantro and cook on low until the chicken is cooks. If you want to add the noodles, you need to cook them for about 4 or 5 minutes so add them accordingly. Once you remove the soup from the heat, mix in the lime and the cilantro
Remeber, don't eat the kaffir lime, the lemongrass or the peppers. If you eat the kaffir lime of the lemongrass, you won't die but if you eat the pepper, you might very well cry.