Lost Picture

A picture of the hot dog chili sauce I mentioned ages ago!

Empanadas

Okay, so they weren't really empanadas, but I thought that title sounded better than empanada-ish things.

First, I browned one pound ground turkey in a skillet with one chopped onion. Then I added a small can of tomato paste, 4 t. chili powder, and 1 t. salt. I continued to cook it for another couple of minutes. Then I covered the meat mixture and put it in the fridge to cool.

Once it was cool, I laid out several won ton wrappers and brushed the edges with egg white. I put one tablespoon of the meat mixture in the middle of each wrapper, then folded them in half. I baked them in a 400 degree oven for 8 minutes. The recipe would have made 60 empanadas, but I got tired of the wrapping way before I made that many.

I also made dessert empanadas. I filled some with nutella, some with peanut butter and jelly, and some with mini peanut butter cups. The nutella ones were amazing! The chocolate-peanut butter ones were okay, although my lip got hit with some lava (aka molten hot peanut butter). The peanut butter and jelly ones were a wash, the jelly became a liquid and just leaked out all over the place.

Cola Chicken

This is an easy,easy recipe that is low in calories.

You need:

1 c. ketchup
1 can of diet coke (or if measuring out of a larger bottle, measure 12 oz)
1 lb chicken

Place chicken in a large skillet. Mix together the ketchup and diet coke and pour over the chicken. Cook over medium low heat, occasionally turning the chicken, until the sauce thickens to the consistency of barbecue sauce.

The finished dish is chicken with a sauce that is slightly sweeter than regular barbecue sauce. I served it with corn (courtesy of green giant as it is a little too early in the year for corn on the cob yet) and my husband had steak fries with it as well.

Teriyaki Tortillas

Easy meal tonight. This was the first meal I made on my brand new stove!

Teriyaki Tortillas

1 red pepper
1 medium onion
1 T. vegetable oil
your favorite teriyaki sauce (the thick kind)
tortillas
cheese
two boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Lipton Teriyaki Noodles

Heat vegetable oil to Med-High in medium sized skillet.
Slice up red pepper and onion. Add to hot oil.
While vegetables begin cooking, slice up chicken breasts into small strips.
Add chicken to vegetables. Generously drizzle with teriyaki sauce.
Once chicken has browned, reduce heat to Simmer and cover.
Follow the directions on the package to prepare the Teriyaki Noodles.
Assemble tortillas as follows: On 1 tortilla put a little bed of noodles, then add desired amount of chicken w/ vegetables. Drizzle with a little more teriyaki sauce, and add cheese. Roll up and eat.

First Dinner in a New Home

This weekend I moved into a new house (yay!) so I haven't made dinner in a few nights (and if fact the last dinner I made, I burned - whoops!). So tonight was the first dinner I made in my new kitchen. Step one: dig out the kitchen, which was buried in boxes of stuff. Then I made a simple but yummy meal. I made some gemelli pasta and put some frozen meatballs in a jar sauce to heat. As a housewarming gift, my in-laws had given me bread and wine. I wanted to use the bread tonight, but when I cut it I noticed it had started to get hard, so I sliced it, put slices of garlic and herb cheese on some, margarine on some, and garlic oil on some, then put them all under the broiler for about 7 minutes. This was a delicious and easy Italian meal (I'm sure true Italians wouldn't appreciate my describing it that way, but oh well).

Special Sunday Dinner

Berry Pretty Pork Roast. Something I usually only make on Christmas, however we had something else this year, so I made it as a special dinner tonight. I used a 2 1/2 lb pork loin, and the berries were a frozen bag of mixed berries by stop & shop (it had strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries). Also, I did not use both cloves of garlic, it does not need it!

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Berry-Pretty-Pork-Roast

Fried Egg Reuben Benedict

For my birthday in November my husband bought me two of the Top Chef cookbooks. So, over winter break (back in December, I'm a little behind the times right now) I tried one of the recipes that we had seen on the show that looked soooo tasty. The Fried Egg Reuben Benedict with Thousand Island Hollandaise. I was nervous to try this recipe because of the hollandaise sauce, which I'd heard was really hard to make. Its not. It is a bit of a pain because you have to whisk until you feel like your arm is going to fall off, then continue whisking for about 10 more minutes, but its not too hard. It was worth the work for me because I was so proud of myself for having made it from scratch. If you don't want to do that much work, you could just buy a hollandaise mix, make it according to the directions, then add the ketchup and sweet relish. This recipe was delicious, especially for my husband and I who prefer savory breakfasts.

Here it is:
http://www.bravotv.com/foodies/recipes/fried-egg-reuben-benedict-with-thousand-island-hollandaise-sauce