Ready for Tamale

If you've read much of my blog, you know how I feel about my Crock-Pot.  It's pretty much true love.  I mean, what's NOT to love?  It takes up very little space, it makes delicious meals with little effort from me, it's easy to clean, and I can leave it unsupervised for hours at a time without worrying about it!  About the only thing easier than a Crock-Pot meal (besides going out to dinner!) is a Crock-Pot meal that you can prepare a day in advance.  I'm not much of a morning person, so sometimes getting up early enough to fill the slow cooker before leaving for work in the morning is just too taxing to contemplate.  I know, I know, it only takes a couple minutes, but my pillow is a jealous mistress!
This recipe is great because I was able to put everything in the pot the night before, so all I had to do in the morning was turn it on.  Now, because I work till 5 every night, I don't want to wait very long for dinner to bake when I get home - I'm hungry!  This recipe calls for another hour of cooking after the cornbread mix is added in at the end, but I didn't want to wait that long for it, so I just baked the cornbread separately the day before and served the Crock-Pot mixture on top of it.  That worked great, but if time permits next time, I will follow the original directions because that will save the extra work of prepping the cornbread ahead.  Either way, it's delicious, and easy, and if you prepare it tonight you'll get to enjoy it tamale!
P.S. I don't know why this is called Tamale Pie, because it has very little in common with a tamale or a pie, but that's what the original source called it, so I'm stickin' with it! 

Crock-Pot Tamale Pie
link to original recipe
Prep time: 15 min  Cook time: 6 hrs
Serves 6

1 lb ground beef

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp pepper

1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (14-1/2 oz) diced tomatoes with mild green chilies, undrained

1 can (11 oz) whole kernel corn, drained

1 can (10 oz) enchilada sauce

2 green onions, chopped

1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro

1 package (8-1/2 oz) corn bread/muffin mix (I used Jiffy brand)

2 eggs

1 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend

In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in the cumin, salt, chili powder and pepper.

Transfer to a slow cooker; stir in the beans, tomatoes, corn, enchilada sauce, onions and cilantro. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until heated through.

In a small bowl, combine muffin mix and eggs; spoon over meat mixture. Cover and cook 1 hour longer or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Sprinkle with cheese; cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Serve with sour cream and additional cilantro if desired.

471 calories per serving.  Click here for more nutritional info and shopping list!

 

Dem's Sum Good Eatin'!

Before I got married, dinner was usually McDonald's, or a frozen pizza, or a box of Hamburger Helper if I was really in the cooking mood.  After I tied the knot, I figured I ought to make better meals for my husband, but I started teaching in a new school that was quite a ways from home, (K-8th grade in a one-room school house in rural Michigan!) and by the time I got home in the evening I was way too brain dead to come up with a great dinner idea.  Plus, I never had all the ingredients on hand, so then I'd have to go to the grocery store, which was always crowded right after work, and very well-stocked with unhealthy convenience items that looked a whole lot easier than whatever meal plan I had come up with.  So I would frequently eat a candy bar in the check out lane while buying a bucket of fried chicken from the deli section.  Clearly, I needed a better plan.  That's when I subscribed to Quick Cooking magazine and started making a monthly menu and shopping list.  Ten years later, I can't even imagine trying to improvise a dinner plan at the end of a work day, and my routines are so ingrained I get a little anxious if someone even rearranges my spice rack. (Don't even get me started on how my husband "organizes" my Tupperware cupboard!)

Nowadays, Pinterest is my recipe box, I create my menu in PDF form and store it in a Dropbox folder so I can access it anywhere, and I use the Grocery IQ app to organize all my grocery lists and sync them with my husband's phone so even he knows what we need whenever he stops at a store.  I've had several people tell me I ought to share my menu plans with the rest of the tired and hungry world, and with all these newfangled innovations, I finally can!  Technology is a beautiful thing, I gotta tell ya. 

So, if you are one of those people who's been begging me to share my menu with you, today's your lucky day.  Below is a link to my June 2013 menu.  Now keep in mind, I make this with my family in mind and this may not work for your family at all!  I like to try unique recipes, so many of the items on this menu are things I've never even tried.  I claim no responsibility for how good they taste.  I just know they looked good!  All the recipes with an asterisk * can be found on my Pinterest boards, under Main Dishes or Side Dishes.  If I've made the recipe before, I always make comments under the pin so I can remember what I thought about it.  You will notice that there are no recipes listed on Fridays because that is my 13 year old daughter's day to practice her developing chef skills.  If you have kids, I highly recommend you assign them kitchen duty a few days a month.  Sooner than you can imagine, they will be out on their own, buying frozen pizzas for their own families if you don't teach them how to cook!  Most of the items on my menu can be made in 30-45 minutes.  I usually save the longer recipes for the weekends.  If anything needs to be done ahead, there's a note about it above the item.  Sundays are for less kid-friendly items.  Feel free to rearrange this however you like, but keep in mind that I usually put recipes that call for the freshest produce closest to grocery day.  The menu is in PDF form, so you can print it out and stick it on your fridge or save it to ibooks, or pull it up on your laptop, or all three!

I've also included links to my grocery lists for the month.  I try to make two big trips a month: once to Aldi, because their prices are the best in town, and once to Wal-Mart, because their prices are second best and they have all the stuff that Aldi doesn't.  You will see the store names on the menu on the days I plan to go to each store.  Everything you need to buy to make all the meals on my menu are on those lists, except for pantry staples that I assume most everybody has.  A smart woman keeps the stuff she regularly needs on hand, but a wise woman checks to make sure before she goes to the store. = D  The grocery lists are also in PDF form, but if you want to simplify shopping time, I highly recommend you install the Grocery IQ app on your smartphone or tablet.  If you do, send me an email at spikeypj@yahoo.com and I can even sync my list to yours!  

Since this is my first time sharing my menu, I welcome any suggestions you have to make it more user-friendly.  Drop me a note to let me know if you used it and how it worked for you!

June 2013 Menu 
Aldi List June 2013 
Walmart List June 2013

Nuttin' but Lovin'

Sometimes, the simplest things are the best.  I'm all for experimenting with complicated recipes full of unique flavor combinations, when I have the time and inclination, but sometimes, all I really want is a just spoonful of peanut butter, ya know?  This is one of those "you gotta be kidding me" recipes that tastes way too good for how simple it is.  We're talking six ingredients and maybe six minutes of prep work, but it looks and tastes like a masterpiece.  You've probably even got most of the ingredients on hand already!  The only thing I had to go buy was the chocolate crust, but you could easily make due with a plain graham cracker crust in a pinch, if you keep one in your pantry like I do.  This awesome pie requires no baking and almost no waiting, so it's great when you need an emergency dessert - like when you've had a crummy day at work and all you really want to do is bury your face in a plate full of chocolate and peanut butter.  Not that I ever have those kinds of days, but if I did, this is what I'd make. = )

 Peanut Butter Pie
link to original recipe 
Prep time: 10 min  Chill time: 3+ hrs  Finishing time: 10 min
Serves 8

1 cup creamy peanut butter, plus 2 Tbs, divided
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 (12 oz) container (4 1/2 cups) frozen whipped topping, thawed and divided 
1 prepared chocolate pie crust

1 (11.75 oz) jar hot fudge topping, divided

½ cup chopped peanuts

Beat together 1 cup peanut butter, cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with an electric mixer on medium, until well combined. Gently mix in 3 cups whipped topping until thoroughly combined.

Spoon mixture into pie shell. Using a spatula, smooth mixture to edges of pie.

Reserve 2 tablespoons of hot fudge topping into the corner of a resealable food storage bag; set aside. Microwave remaining topping on high for 1 minute. Stir. Spread topping over pie, covering entire peanut butter layer. Sprinkle with peanuts. Refrigerate until set.

Spread remaining whipped topping (1 1/2 cups), over hot fudge layer, being careful not to mix the two layers. Cut  a small corner from bag containing topping. Squeeze bag to drizzle topping over pie.

Place remaining 2 tablespoons peanut butter in a resealable food storage bag; cut bag corner and squeeze to drizzle in opposite direction from topping. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

BTW, I got this recipe from the JIF website, and, no offense to JIF, but I'm a Peter Pan girl, born and raised.  A couple of years ago when PP came out with their Honey Roast variety, I fell in love with peanut butter all over again.  If you haven't tried it, go out right now and buy a jar.  You will never buy regular peanut butter again.

Strawberry Flop

Yay for strawberry season!  Everybody in my family loves those tasty red berries, so when they're at their prime I buy way too many of them because they're cheap and look so good.  But the darn things go bad so fast, I usually end up throwing a few of them away.  There's a link circulating the Pinterest world that recommends pre-soaking your berries in diluted vinegar to prolong their life, and I keep meaning to try that, but it just hasn't happened yet.  So, once again, I have a container full of almost spoiled strawberries sitting in my fridge, silently screaming, "I'm dying!  Please eat me!"  Of course, my go-to recipe for berries that are almost gone is strawberry shortcake, but when I saw this beautiful strawberry-studded Bundt cake I knew I had to try it.  Plus, it's sort of like a coffee cake, which is breakfast food, and I am all about cake for breakfast.

Now I like to think of myself as a decent cook, maybe even a pretty good cook, but for some reason I have gained a reputation amongst my friends for being some kind of super chef who can do no wrong.  While I enjoy the admiration, I don't really think I deserve all of it.  So, lest my faithful followers develop the same level of veneration, I thought I would share one of my less-successful cooking experiences with you.

This recipe calls for the cake to be baked in a Bundt pan to attain a pretty shape since it is not frosted, but I don't own a Bundt pan.  Creative cook that I am, I decided to use an angel food cake pan instead.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves as to how well that worked out.  Nevertheless, this cake is super tasty, and a great use of extra strawberries, and it might even be pretty, if you follow the directions a little better than I did!

My attempt

How it's supposed to look = )

Strawberry Yogurt Cake 
Prep time: 20 min  Bake time: 60 min
Serves 12

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

2 cups sugar
3 eggs

3 Tbs lemon juice, divided

Zest of 1 lemon

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, divided

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

8 oz plain or vanilla Greek yogurt

12 oz fresh strawberries, diced

1 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan (10-15 cup pan.) Sift together the 2 ¼ cups of flour, baking soda and salt. Mix in the lemon zest and set aside.

With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in 1 Tbs lemon juice. Alternate beating in the flour mixture and the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated.

Toss the strawberries with the remaining ¼ cup of flour. Gently mix them into the batter. Pour the batter into the Bundt pan. Place in the oven and reduce the temperature to 325 degrees F. Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Allow to cool at least 20 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Once cooled, whisk together the remaining 2 Tb. of lemon juice and the powdered sugar. Drizzle over the top of the cake.

346 calories per serving.  Click here for more nutritional info and shopping list!

If There's Confetti, It Must Be a Party

It's been weeks since I've posted a recipe, for the simple reason that I haven't had anything really delicious since then!  Kinda sad, but true.  Sure, I've had some decent meals, even some good meals, but I don't waste time on mediocre food.  If it's not great, it's off the menu.  There are way too many good looking recipes out there to bother remaking a bad one.  Now, granted, this recipe will probably not appeal to everyone, like picky children who don't like anything recognizably plant-based.  But if you like fresh, bright veggies, yummy pasta, and creamy sauce, this recipe is a party in a pot - confetti included! 

Confetti Chicken Pasta
link to original recipe
Prep time: 30 min
Serves 6

16 oz penne pasta (I like the tri-color)
2 Tbs olive oil, divided
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed
½ cup. onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bell pepper, diced
1 cup broccoli florets
1 cup asparagus, chopped in 1″ pieces
1 cups grape tomatoes
3 Tbs butter
3 Tbs flour
3 cups half and half
1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes
1 1/2 cups shredded Parmesan

Cook pasta and let it drain. Meanwhile, season the chicken breast with salt and pepper. Heat 1 Tbs oil in a skillet over medium heat and cook chicken until done and golden on all sides. Remove and let rest in a large bowl.

Add the remaining olive oil and saute the onions for 2 minutes. Add in the garlic and bell pepper and saute another 2 minutes. Then toss in broccoli and asparagus, cooking for 2 more minutes.  Save the tomatoes until the very end.  When everything is cooked, combine the veggies with the chicken in your big bowl.

In a large sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Toss in the flour and stir, cooking 1-2 minutes.   Slowly add in the half and half while stirring to prevent any clumps from forming.  Sprinkle in the red pepper flakes and allow to simmer until you see boiling action.  Stir periodically.  When your sauce begins to thicken and bubble, turn off the heat and add in your cheese. Stir until melted.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Pour sauce over pasta mixture and toss to coat.

726 calories per serving.  Click here for more nutritional info and shopping list!