Another Recipe: Vegetable (Chicken) Stir Fry

Yes, I have another  recipe. It's quick and the perfect meal for a day like today when I've been busy cleaning and doing laundry.

It's one of my one pot wonders or one skillet wonders. This is also good for cooking vegetables that you have small quantities of. 

Once you have sliced and diced the vegetables and cooked the rice (chicken (optional)), it takes less than 30 minutes to prepare.

2.5 cups rice cooked

1 carrot sliced

1 zucchini sliced

1 cup broccoli  cut into small florets 

1/3 cup onion chopped

1/3 cup green pepper chopped 

5 stalks asparagus chopped

4 tblsp soy sauce

3 tblsp olive oil

1 tsp garlic power (to your taste)

1/2 tsp black pepper ( to your taste)

1/2 tsp salt ( to your taste)

1 fully cooked chicken breast (optional-or you can add more if you like.)

Prepare rice and sit it aside.

Bake or broil chicken breat until tender. Be careful not to dry it out. You may also purchase cooked chicken from your local market.  Sit the chicken aside.

In a large skillet or sauce pan, heat olive oil on medium flame.  Add all vegetables sautéing until tender. About 5 minutes.

Add cooked rice, salt, pepper, garlic powder, soy sauce. Stir until well mixed being careful not to over stir. Lower flame.

Add chicken breast. I usually break it up into small pieces using my hands. Stir. Turn off flame and cover for a few minutes.

Ready to serve in less than 30 minutes. 

Swedish Meatballs - Time for Comfort Food

It's time for a comfort food recipe.  

If you are like me, I love my wintertime comfort foods.  Today I'd like to share a Swedish Meatball dish that I love to eat with mashed potatoes and oven roasted lemon brussel sprouts.  I hope you'll try it.  It's delicious.

Meatball Ingredients -

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1/4 cup flat leaf parsley minced
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup yellow onion, grated (finely chopped)
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 3/4 cup herb breadcrumbs (I like Pepperidge Farm herb seasoned classic stuffing)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Cream Gravy Ingredients -

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 4 cups beef broth (can substitute chicken broth)
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 cup heavy cream

Mix meat, parsley, allspice, nutmeg, grated onion, salt, pepper, garlic, breadcrumbs, and eggs until combined.

Using a tablespoon measure out the meat mixture into roughly 35 meatballs.

In a large pan, heat 2 tbsp. of olive oil over medium heat.  Add meatballs and cook until browned.  Takes about 5 minutes.

Remove grease from pan -- Lower the heat to medium and add the butter to the pan.  When butter starts to bubble, sprinkle in the flour and cook for 1 minute.  Add the beef broth to the pan a little at a time.  Whisk.

Add salt, pepper, lemon juice, allspice, and nutmeg.  The slowly add cream.  Add meatballs.

Simmer until the gravy has thicken and the meatballs are cooked all the way through 8-10 minutes.

Serve with mashed potatoes or egg noodles, and vegetable of your choice.

That's it.  Enjoy!

Cennetta

Butternut Squash Soup Recipe

I wanted to start the work week with a delightful soup recipe.  Here goes.  I hope you try it and like it.

3lb Butternut Squash (I used two squashes for this recipe)

Vegetable Broth (vegan) or Chicken Broth

1 Can Coconut Milk

3 Tbsps. Olive Oil

3 Garlic Cloves (minced)

1 small onion (chopped)

3 Tbsps. Fresh Sage (cut)

3 Tbsps. Fresh Ginger (minced)

2 tsps. Rosemary

Salt 

Pepper

Cinnamon

2 Red Skin Potatoes Optional

1 Cup Fresh Spinach Optional

First things first.  You want to cut the squash into 1 inch cubes.  Or you can roast it in the oven at 375 degrees.  Simply slice the squash in half, Scoop out the seeds and the stringy substance, place on a cookie sheet or shallow pan uncovered.  Roast in the oven for about 45 minutes or until tender.  This makes it easy to remove from the skin and gives you a head start on cooking the soup.  After squash has been roasted, let it cool.  Then scoop the squash into a bowl.  

Over a medium flame add olive oil to a large pot or Dutch oven. Then add garlic, onion, ginger, sage, rosemary.  Stir until tender.  The smell is delightful. Now you want to add the squash, broth, and coconut milk to the mixture.

With a Cuisinart Quick Prep, I blend the ingredients together until the squash is smooth. Allow the soup to come to a low boil.  Add salt, pepper, and cinnamon to your taste.  

Optional - You can choose to add potatoes or spinach.  I like to add a few potatoes.  At the point of boil, I add bite-size potatoes to the soup.  Cook until tender.  You may add spinach as well.  First chop it up and add at the boil point cook a few minutes and it's done.

Meal ideas - You can serve the soup with you favorite bread.  For this meal I served it with Bruschettini.  You can serve with bake chicken (non-vegan). 

Enjoy and stay warm!

C

Nappa Cabbage Ox Tail Stew

There is nothing like comfort food in the winter time.  This morning when I woke up it was -4 degrees.  This has truly been one of the coolest winters in a great while.  We are known for heavy snow falls.  But this year we have gotten a heavy dose of bone chilling temperatures for the month of January.  Today, February 5th, it was 14 degrees at high noon.  

Back in the day, my mom made the best soups and stews (She still does. ;-)) One of her famous stews is Ox Tail Strew.  It loaded with root vegetables, oxtails, and a hearty tomatoes broth.  I love it.  This is one of the easiest stews to make.  This time I added nappa cabbage just to change it up a bit.

Ingredients:

Approximately a 2lb Package of Oxtails (make sure there is some marbling)

One Small Nappa Cabbage 

Carrots (baby carrots or diced large ones)

Potatoes (diced)

Medium Onion (diced) 

Tomatoes (baby tomatoes or sliced large ones)

Lawry Seasoning Salt to your taste

Salt and Pepper to your taste

Bay Leaves (3 or 4)

Parsley to your taste

Small Can of Tomatoes Paste

Small Can of Tomatoes Sauce

Start by washing oxtails thoroughly and place in a large pot.  Season with salt, pepper, and Lawry's.  Add diced onion to the pot.  Fill pot with water, a few inches above meat.  Cover and place on stove, bring to boil medium high heat.  Cook until meat is tender.  Remove pot from flame to cool.

Now, prepare the other vegetables.  Wash and cut nappa cabbage into pieces, about 2" long.  Put it to the side.  Next, clean and/or peel the other vegetables as needed.

 

Optional: Next, I remove meat from bones, returning the meat to the pot.

Add potatoes, tomatoes, and carrots. Then add the parsley and bay leaves. 

Bring mixture to a boil.  Add tomato paste and sauce stir until completely mixed into the other liquid. Cover and let cook until potatoes are almost done. 

 

Add nappa cabbage last.  Cover and cook until tender.

 

Ready to eat.  We usually serve stew with cornbread or some type of garlic bread. 

Stay warm and eat good! C

Love My Cream Cheese Pound Cake

 Mmm Mmm Good Cream Cheese Pound Cake!

There are a few versions of this delicious cake online.  Originally, I got the recipe from Adrienne of Real Life:  Live & Unscripted.  Since then I tweaked it a bit.  So here is my version of Cream Cheese Pound Cake.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups butter (3 sticks)
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
3 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon almond extract
6 eggs
3 cups of Swam Down cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

• Bring eggs, butter, and cream cheese to room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 345 degree F.  Grease one 10 inch bundt cake pan, sprinkle with flour, then sprinkle ground  cinnamon into the pan.
•  Cream together the butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light.
• Stir in the vanilla and the almond extracts.

• Add the flour (baking powder) and eggs alternately, beginning and ending with the flour.

• Pour batter into the prepared pan.

• Bake at 345 degree F for about an hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  (place a pan of water beneath the cake to keep it moist and prevent burning - from my grandmother.)

• Add icing if you like or eat it plain.  Either way it's delicious.

Happy Baking!
C