Beef Stew with French Herbs!

My celebration after NaNoWriMo was to cook a nice meal.  I haven’t done it in a long time so I dug out my cookbook, Looneyspoons one, that has given me a ton of awesome recipes.  Since I wasn’t feeling well on Saturday night, I decided to do something more soup or stew style to warm my body up.

Final decision: Beef Stew with French Herbs (in the book its called STEWpendous Beef).

Beef Stew with French Herbs

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

2 lbs stewing beef (cut into 1 to 1.5 inch cubes)
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
2tbsp olive oil
1.5 cups coarsely chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery
*2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp Herbes de Provence
2.5 cups reduced-sodium beef broth
2 tbsp tomato paste
*2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
*2 bay leaves
1 tsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp each salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large thin-skinned potato, unpeeled, cut into 3/4 inch pieces
1 large carrot, chopped
*1 small sweet potato, peeled, cut into 3/4 pieces
2 tbsp cornstarch
3/4 cup frozen green peas
*2 tbsp minced fresh parsley

1. Pat beef dry with paper towels.  Sprinkle beef lightly over with seasoned salt.  Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large pot (preferably non-stick) over medium-high heat.  Add half the beef cubes and cook, turning occasionally, until all sides are lightly browned.  Remove from pot and keep warm.  Repeat with remaining 1 tbsp olive oil and beef cubes  Set browned beef aside.

2. Add onions, celery and garlic to same pot (add olive oil or 1/4 cup beef broth to prevent sticking). Reduce heat to medium.  Cook and stir until vegetables begin to soften, about 5 mins. Return beef cubes to pot and stir in Herbes de Provence.  Add beef broth, tomato paste, vinegar, bay leaves, sugar, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 1 hour and 15 minutes. (Make sure its low simmer)

3. Stir in white potatoes and carrots.  Cover and simmer for 25 more minutes.  Stir in sweet potatoes and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, until vegetables are tender. Mix cornstarch for 2 tbsp water until smooth.  Add to stew.  Mix well and continue to cook until stew is bubbly and has thickened.  Stir in peas and parsley and cook just until peas are heated through, about 2 minutes.

Simmering 🙂

Its been so long I haven’t written a recipe post that I almost forgot how to do it.

First things first are modifications. Anything in the ingredients list with an “*” was stuff I didn’t have so was not used.  Also, somehow I couldn’t get it to do a low simmer. Old stoves are a little cranky. So I did occasionally stir it to reduce the simmer and cut the initial simmer time to 1 hour instead of 1h 15 mins. Oh, and I just noticed that it was supposed to unpeeled potatoes but I didn’t see that the first time.  Oops~my bad!

Its my first time making any sort of stew so I wasn’t sure what the consistency should have been, like how thick it should be but I thought it was well enough. Its very tasty as it is.  I think with more veggies like sweet potatoes and all, it would’ve enhanced the taste more.  I will definitely make this one again with ALL the ingredients.

Still, its a nice hearty stew and did the job well to make me feel all warm. 🙂

Do you like beef stew? What veggies or spices do you like in yours?

Roasted Garlic Rosemary Brussels Sprouts and Oven-Baked Ribs

This Saturday was totally efficient for me.  Other than getting lots of chores done, I managed to make a very awesome dinner with one of my most favorite foods ever, Ribs! Plus, I experimented with trying out how to make Brussels Sprouts.  I’ve never made it before and only ate it once before the week before when my best friend made it for the potluck.

Ribs and Brussels Sprouts with Rice 🙂

I have my own ribs marinade.  I don’t really know the portion as I do it by the feeling that I get.

However, this time I did change it up a bit.  The ingredients I used included: Low Sodium Soy Sauce, Hoisin Sauce, Honey, Ground Pepper, Herbes de Provence and a bit of sugar if you find it not sweet enough or just use a little bit more honey.  After you spread it on the ribs, you can add a bit of water in it so that it won’t be too dry in the baking process.  Set the oven to 400F and covered it with aluminum foil and then cooked it for about an hour and 15 minutes.

Ribs!

When there was about 30 minutes left to bake the ribs, I switched on my rice cooker to steam some rice and started prepping the brussels sprouts.  For the brussels sprouts, I got the recipe from Tone it Up when I signed up for the Bikini Series.  Its a pretty simple recipe, although the only part that bothered me was that they didn’t tell us how long to bake it for…so I slightly improvised on that.

They named this recipe: Beauty & The Brussel.  I think its for the nutritious factor of it, I don’t know. Its called Roasted Garlic Rosemary Brussels Sprouts.

Ingredients:

2 cups of Brussels Sprouts

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp pine nuts

2 garlic cloves, diced

1 1/2 tbsp fresh rosemary (or dried)

Pinch of seasalt

How to make this: 

1) Set oven at 400F. Prepare the baking tray by covering it with tinfoil. Spray a little cooking spray on your tin foil.

2) Cut off the ends of the brussels sprouts and then cut it in halves lengthwise.

3) Mix together olive oil, pine nuts, and diced garlic in a bowl.  Toss the brussels sprouts in the bowl.

4) Lay the brussels sprouts in one layer on the tin foil including flakes.  Sprinkle rosemary and salt

Roasted Garlice Rosemary (or Thyme) Brussels Sprouts!

I ended up baking it for about 30 minutes.  However, the key is to keep flipping them every 8-10 minutes.  I’ve read some recipes that say 5-7 minutes.  It worked out pretty good for me.  I did make one modification to the recipe aside from using more for each ingredient to be in proportion with the amount of brussels sprouts I had.  I ended up substituting rosemary with dried thyme.  I did some research and it says that its a good replacement and thyme itself is a milder spice, I believe.

My first time eating brussels sprouts like this and it was pretty good.  I’ll search up some more recipes for it especially since its supposed to be really nutritious as its filled with vitamins and helps boost immune system and metabolism. That sounds pretty good to me!

I have to say, I was impressed with myself with this meal.  Plus, I didn’t flip out at any part of it.  I may have gotten frustrated just a little, but I was alright.  In between of the first 30 minutes of the ribs baked time, I actually whipped up something else, but I’ll save that for another post 😉

I’m a beginner at making brussels sprouts! Anyone have suggestions of other good ways to make it?

Healthier Pasta Bolognese

Sunday’s are my fixed cooking days! Plus, my boyfriend has an 12 hour extended shift at work so he came home extremely tired.  I had to take care of it all alone.  Its been a while that I didn’t have help in the kitchen and had to multitask between various tasks to get dinner together in an hour time frame or so.  He requested pasta so I went in my inventory of recipes (I’m starting to do that now) and searched up this recipe from The Scrumptious Pumpkin. She has some pretty awesome recipes.  So far, I’ve only tried one other pasta recipe that she had a few months ago and it was super successful, so I went ahead to gather up the ingredients for this and get cooking!

My Healthier Pasta Bolognese looked like this:

Healthier Pasta Bolognese

The Scrumptious Pumpkin’s recipe for this is HERE!

I did make a few changes.  For one, I took her suggestion to replace Tagliatelle with Fettuccine.  I used the Smart ones which is white with whole wheat fibre. I’ve never used those before but they were on special so I thought it might be interesting to try it and get into healthier eating habits 🙂 Baby steps to changing eating habits, right? I also removed the mushrooms as I don’t digest them well and my boyfriend doesn’t like them.  I omitted dried oregano as I didn’t have it readily available. Thats about it! Everything else I kept the same and followed through with the original recipe!

This was a very good recipe! For one, it was quick.  I may have seemed like I was juggling between pot, skillet and chopping board but it was really easy to make.  It took about 30 minutes as she says.  Second of all and most important, my boyfriend loved it.  The sauce was tasty and flavorful.  Everything felt healthy and delicious (which usually don’t go together);)

I’m definitely going back to this one next time I want pasta.  Its delicious, healthy and quick..what more can you ask for in a dinner solution?

If you are looking for healthy solutions, I suggest you to drop by The Scrumptious Pumpkin.  She has a lot of great recipes to offer over there 🙂

Just curious, is there a specific type of pasta that you like? Spaghettini/Fettuccine/Linguine/Farfalle, etc?

Linguini with Chicken, Broccoli and Peppers in Light Sesame-Ginger Vinaigrette

The main course of Sunday`s meal is finally here.  Its long to type these recipes up or else I`d load you all with it in one post. This turned out to last me to the next night for leftovers and some for lunch as well.

Whats great about this recipe is that its loaded with veggies.  The sauce is quite delicious and pretty healthy as well.  Plus, I love chicken and this had it also.

The recipe is called Orient Express in the Looneyspoons collection by Janet and Greta Podelski and here it is:

Makes 4 Servings

12oz uncooked whole wheat linguini*

2 tsp olive oil*

1 cup chopped onions

2 tsp minced garlic

1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth

1/4 cup each reduced sodium soy sauce and ketchup*

3 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar*

1 tbsp each freshly squeezed lemon juice, sesame oil and grated gingerroot

2 tsp liquid honey

1 tsp hot pepper sauce *

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp cornstarch

2 cups chopped or sliced cooked chicken breast

1 1/2 cup broccoli florets

1 cup thinly sliced red bell pepper*

1 cup carrots, cut into thin strips*

Instructions:

1) Prepare linguini according to package directions. Dran and keep warm.

2) While pasta is cooking, prepare sauce.  Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.  Add onions and garlic.  Cook and stir until vegetables begin to soften, about 4 minutes.  Add broth, soy sauce, ketchup, vinegar, lemon juice, sesame oil, gingerroot, honey, hot pepper sauce and black pepper.  Mix well and bring to a boil.  Blend cornstarch with an equal amount of water until smooth.  Add to sauce.  Cook and stir until sauce is bubbly and has thickened, about 1 minute.

3) Add cooked chicken pieces, broccoli, red pepper and carrots to sauce.  Mix well.  Cook 3 to 4 minutes, until vegetables are tender-crisp.  Pour chicken-vegetable mixture over warm linguini and toss to coat evenly.  Serve hot.

As usual, I had some modifications and I’ve indicated them with *asterisks.  First of all, I used normal linguini and not whole wheat. I’m still working on the bundles of pasta sitting in my cupboard that my mom bought.  I ran out of olive oil so I used grapeseed oil.  Apparently, its really good for you also.  I lowered the quantity of the ketchup by half.  As for the rice vinegar, I only have the normal type, I’m not sure what seasoned rice vinegar is or what its seasoned with.  I’ll have to look into that and see if it would have made a difference in taste.  I omitted the hot pepper sauce completely as I don’t own it and I wouldn’t be able to eat it if it were added.  As you can see, I decided to dice the carrots and peppers instead of slice in thin strips.  Either would’ve been fine.

Also, I have cooked chicken highlighted because I didn’t read the recipe beforehand and when it came to the part that I needed cooked chicken, I flustered about in the kitchen trying to not spoil the sauce but cook chicken and multitask at my max potential to get it all together. My boyfriend was tremendous help and came to make sure that nothing was burnt and mixed the vegetables and chicken and sauce together when the time came.

This dish tasted A-MAZ-ING! I’m starting to think this cookbook can do no wrong. I think I had one slightly over sweet recipe and changes here and there but most of the time, its absolutely delicious.  I’ll definitely be trying out more of their pasta recipe although, next week, I’ll be aiming to try out the Pad Thai recipe for one.

Some people like the texture of Spaghetti, or they like lasagna, and some like rigatoni, I’m a huge fan of farfalle.  Do you have a special type of pasta that you like?

Lemon and Herb Roasted Chicken!

I’m back with recipes!  Its been way too long. I have never felt this great to be back into the cooking and baking.

First up was from two weekends ago, I made Lemon and Herb Roasted Chicken otherwise called “The Roastess with the Mostest” from Looneyspoons Collection.

When in doubt, I always make some chicken and when you have a whole chicken, you just mix up some marinade and pour it over the chicken and stick it in the oven.  When you do recipes like that, its really the marinade and seasoning that makes all the difference. This one was quite different actually. It was fun to explore into the fresh herbs as seasoning.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken (about 4lbs/1.8kg)

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp minced fresh rosemary

1 tbsp minced fresh thyme

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 tsp each salt and ground black pepper

1 tbsp  lemon juice

1. Move oven rack to bottom third of oven. Preheat oven to 425F.  Place a small rack inside a roasting pan.  Pour 1 cup water in pan.  Rinse chicken inside and out, and pat dry with paper towels

2. In a small bowl, mix together mustard, brown sugar, rosemary, thyme, garlic, oil, salt and pepper to make a paste.  Set aside.

3. Squeeze juice from lemon inside cavity of chicken. Rub reserved paste over surface of  chicken, and using your fingers, carefully rub paste between skin and meat on breast and thighs.

4. Place chicken on rack breast-side down.  Roast, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Remove chicken from oven and flip over.  Add a bit more water if it has evaporated.  Return to oven and roast for 35 to 40 more minutes, depending on size of bird.  If chicken browns too quickly, cover it loosely with foil.  When cooked, legs should move easily in sockets and thigh juices should be clear (not pink) when pierced with a small knife.

5. Remove chicken from oven and let rest for 10 minutes before carving.

This is already modified to how I did it.  The original recipe has the marinade with 1 tsp grated lemon zest mixed in before you set it aside.  Also, if you have a lemon, you could use freshly squeezed lemon juice into the cavity and then use the rest of the lemon and sit it into the cavity and then tie the legs up before you place it in the oven.  I would assume this would give it more of a zesty taste.

This chicken is very tender.  I’ve never baked chicken where there was additional water at the bottom of the pan to evaporate.  I think its what makes it less dry. The way I did it was more herb roasted tasting than lemon.  I actually don’t mind that as I’m not particularly into the zesty taste, either is my boyfriend so I think it worked well.

Saturday Dinner: Pork Chops with Sweet Potato Fries!

We don’t usually eat a lot of pork at my place.  Its not as healthy and its more fattening than the normal.  Another thing is that I’ve never actually made any pork chops but my boyfriend has mastered them pretty well.  So there I was on Friday night and trying to figure out what to make for Saturday and my grocery list.  Pork chops are on special so coincidentally there is also the “#1 Readers Fave” being Marla’s Maple Pork in my Looneyspoons cookbook. So voila, the menu for Saturday night was set.  Its nice to eat in on Saturday night and watch a movie (you know its horror because I haven’t gotten around to posting up the Horror Marathon).  For once, there was no parties, no ordering in, no take out, just cooking, eating and relaxing.

Here are Marla’s  Maple Chops:

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

1/2 lbs (680g) pork tenderloin

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1 tbsp each reduced sodium soy sauce and ketchup

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp grated orange zest

1 1/2 tsp each curry powder and ground coriander

2 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

1. Trim pork of all visible fat.  Place pork in a large, heavy duty bag, resealable plastic bag.  Whisk together all remaining ingredients in a medium bowl.  Pour marinade over pork and seal bag. Turn bag several times to coat pork evenly.  Marinate in refrigerator for 1 hour.

2. Transfer pork and marinade to a small roasting pan or baking dish.  Roast, uncovered, at 350F for 40 minutes.  Pork should be slightly pink in middle.

3. Let pork stand for 5 minutes before slicing.  Slice thinly.  Drizzle extra sauce over pork and serve immediately.

I changed it a bit.  I bought loin chops instead of a gigantic slab of meat so no slicing afterwards required.  I had all the ingredients pretty much.  I used normal mustard though because Dijon mustard is on the spicy side and my stomach is too sensitive for it.  Also, I marinaded it in the fridge for 1/2 hour.  I never read that before I do it so I don’t budget enough time. One more thing, 45 minutes in the oven for me because we don’t get pink meat, only well done.  Still, it turned out smelling delicious and tasting so good.

So with the pork chops, I made some sweet potato fries.  They were agreed upon last weekend that I’d do something with sweet potatoes.

This was incredibly easy to make.  First, wash the sweet potatoes (you’ll need about 3 medium ones).  Pat them dry before cutting them into wedges about 1/2 inch thick.  Don’t count on my cutting.  its not too sophisticated, but do follow the general idea of it.  Don’t cut into wedges that are too big.  After that, toss about  1 tbsp of olive oil and some seasoning (I use vegetable seasoning) and if your seasoning doesn’t include salt and pepper already then put that in also.  Make sure it evenly coats all the wedges.

Arrange them into a single layer on a baking sheet or tray. I didn’t oil it up because I used aluminum foil under it.  Bake at 450F for 20-25 minutes, turning them over halfway through cooking time.

These turned out pretty good also.  Saturday night meal was a great turnout.  It was really delicious.

Do you like pork chops? How about sweet potatoes? Are you going to give these a shot? Have you ever done another recipe similar to it?

Pan-Fried Asparagus!

Do you like asparagus? I LOVE them.  I only started trying these out last year when my mom first made them but man, are they ever yummy?

I decided last night for the weekly cooking that I’d go ahead and give it a shot.  I found a really nice recipe for it, but instead of baking it since the oven was lining up with too many dishes to heat up and cook (we made oven-baked ribs on Sunday also).  I would’ve posted up the ribs also but I really winged it.  I didn’t have any more rib sauce so I just used all sorts of spices.  It actually turned out pretty amazing. Maybe next time!

Back to the asparagus, here it is (you’ll find the recipe below):

The recipe was mostly inspired from Looneyspoons Collections by Janet and Greta Podelski, original recipe is called “Britney’s Spears” (Haha!)  The one I post up below will be what I did since I did make several changes.  I’ll tell you after the recipe.

PAN-FRIED ASPARAGUS

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs (680g) asparagus

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground  black pepper

1/4 cup water

Directions:

1) Prepare the asparagus by trimming off the tough ends.

2) Heat olive oil in pan on medium setting.  Arrange asparagus in a single layer (as much as you can) and move it around so it doesn’t burn.

3) Mix in garlic with asparagus.  When the garlic starts turning yellow, pour in water and put the cover on.  Let it simmer for about 2 mins or until the water has mostly evaporated.  Remove the cover and mix in salt and pepper.

4) Cover the pan for another minute till the water evaporates and it starts sizzling.  Remove the cover and make sure that it is cooked thoroughly but  still firm (not too mushy).

5) Arrange cooked asparagus on a plate and serve!

This was relatively easy to make.  I had one worry was that I wasn’t sure how to determine whether the asparagus was cooked too much or too little.  My asparagus was cooked perfectly by the way.  The taste was pretty good also.  I’d probably decrease the amount of oil.  You shouldn’t have that problem though.  I had more oil than mentioned because I had prepared it to go in the oven then changed my mind last minute.  Nonetheless, it tasted pretty good.  I was happy with my first attempt with asparagus and I think it’ll hit the dinner table more frequently.

The original recipe was to be roasted in the oven with garlic and oil then sprinkle on salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar.  Then top it with crumbled feta cheese or grated Parmesan cheese.  I think that would taste pretty good too.  I didn’t have any balsamic vinegar so I didn’t even season with that.  As for cheese, I can’t eat that so I’m pretty sure my house has limited supplies of that as well.

This is my first (or second?) attempt at writing directions for recipes, still so hard.  If there are any problems or anything is not clear, feel free to ask me in the comments.

I’m still a beginner at making asparagus.  Is there any other ways to prepare it that you’d suggest? Any other seasonings that would taste good?

Sunday Cooking Part 1: Minestrone Soup

Sunday is my day to cook dinner.  Most other days, my boyfriend does the honors because of work schedule of course.  With dragonboat season being on break right now and work calming down a bit, I’ve had time to research and make a decent meal from scratch.  After talking about it for a while, I finally cracked down and made Minestrone Soup.

I’ve never made soup before.  The closest thing to soup I’ve ever made was simmering chinese vegetables and then it would turn into a nice little soup once you put in ginger.  So this was fun but had so much preparation.  I think I spent 30 minutes just chopping all the ingredients and vegetables, etc.  Other than that, it was pretty easy to do.

I found this recipe in a newsletter from my gym (that I used to go to).  I don’t understand why they still have me on the list, but at least its healthy.  It was originally a Turkey Minestrone Soup but my boyfriend and I both prefer Vegetable Minestrone Soup. So as usual, I’ll post the actual recipe and then show the modifications I had done.  I have to translate from a French recipe so if you see any measurement errors, please inform me.

Turkey Minestrone Soup

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 big onion, diced

2 medium carrots, diced

8 branches of celery, cut in pieces

8 cups (2L) of no-fat chicken broth

3 1/2 cups (871 mL) canned conserved tomatoes, diced

2 cups (500mL) cooked turkey, in cubes

2 2/1 cups (500mL) canned white beans, drained and rinsed

2 cups cooked macaroni (preferably whole wheat)

1 teaspoon dried basil

Salt

Pepper

2 cups spinach, chopped coarsely

Directions:

1) In a big pan, fry garlic and onions in oil for 3 minutes on high heat.  Add the vegetables (carrots and celery), broth, tomatoes, and basil and bring it to a boil.

2) Reduce the temperature and let simmer for 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

3) Add in the turkey, the beans, macaroni and the spinach and let it cook for around 5 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Here’s what I did: I made Vegetable Minestrone.  I didn’t use turkey instead I made another dish which I will post up tomorrow.  I didn’t add macaroni, spinach or basil.  No macaroni because my boyfriend didn’t want it and well, I just forgot to buy spinach altogether (and the basil too).  Also, I replaced the white beans with green ones and I bought them fresh instead of canned.  That didn’t affect the taste in the end.  Believe me on that.  It had plenty of taste as is.  Also, in my terms, I always believed that beans are considered vegetables so I just added it along with the carrots and celery.  I don’t think it made too much difference.

In the end, it turned out really good.  The taste was perfect, there was lots of veggies, everything was balanced, not too sour either.  I think we’ll be exploring more soups.  Meanwhile, Part 2 is coming up tomorrow!