Category: Meat
Pork Involtini w/ Apples & White Bean Spread
This week I finally had a chance to go home and visit my family, and see my brother’s new American Bulldog/Boxer puppy! For me, visit home now consists of doing many loads of laundry (four huge loads this time), cooking with my mom, and playing pool with my dad. This week was especially exciting for me; my mom gave me a lighting kit! Hopefully now my little, yellow-tinted apartment will be easier to photograph my food in. =)
Involtini is great because it gives the cook room to be creative. You can fill involtini with pretty much whatever you desire. We chose a garlic white bean dip that my mom had made for a previous appetizer and added a classic match for pork, apples. This dish was great serves with swiss chard and wild rice.
Honey Barbecue Glazed Chicken
It is interesting to me how quickly my brain can shift my food preferences throughout the day. Each day, sometimes even each hour, I feel like I am changing my mind about what would be good to eat. For those days when you want something sweet for dinner, a honey barbecue glaze is perfect. I think I have come up with a tasty honey barbecue glaze recipe that can easily be tweaked to suit any personal preference; I am looking forward to experimenting with it too! This recipe is great for weeknights, when you do not have much time for dinner. It goes great with Oven Roasted Potatoes as well!
Italian Sausage & Tortellini Soup
As I have mentioned numerous times before, I try not to eat pasta when I am not at work. So, to serve with the Double Tomato Bruschetta, I chose this recipe for an Italian sausage soup. Yes, I know that tortellini still counts as pasta, but it is a bit fancier and this recipe doesn’t use very much of it. This soup captures the essence of true Italian flavors- basil, tomato, garlic, oregano, and red wine- and is a great alternative to the typical Italian pasta dinner.
Pizza Casserole
Recently, I have been thinking about how great it would be to do catering. I have also been cooking for friends quite a bit, which I love. Both things involve cooking for a crowd, which can be hard to do. The more I do it, the more fun it gets. It is hard to think up original recipes for large groups sometimes, so I am really excited to share this one. This week I needed a meal to feed 14 friends. I didn’t want to do chili again, so I began to brainstorm and search the web. Casserole recipes are great for large groups and pizza is great for parties, which makes this pizza casserole the ultimate party dish. The original recipe that I found, form Country Kitchen Cooking, used pasta instead of breadsticks. Since I work at Noodles & Company, I decided against using the pasta. I think the breadsticks give it much more flavor. I made my green bean casserole to go with the meal and help my ski bum friends get some nutrients into their dinner. This spin off pizza is easier to make and won’t keep you in the kitchen for the entire party!
Chicken, White Bean, & Chorizo Enchiladas w/ Green Chile
I have an addiction to Mexican food, or any food similar to it, so I am always looking for new recipes so I am not eating the same thing again and again. I have made enchiladas before, but only with chicken. I also have attempted to make green chile before, but put an entire bag of extremely spicy chile peppers in the food and ruined the dish (I had to add an entire jar of tomato sauce, and entire bag of cheese, and milk to make it even semi-bearable!).
I can now say that I have found one of the best enchilada recipes and green chile recipes. Thanks to Drick’s Rambling Cafe for the enchilada recipe, which I tweaked a bit. I will definitely be keeping this recipe for future meals. I chose to slow cook the chicken so that I could easily shred it, plus it gives it much more flavor. You can cook the green chile with pork if you would like, but I felt that it wasn’t necessary with all of the meat in the enchiladas.
Indian Meatballs w/ Curried Vegetables
I came across a recipe for Indian Meatballs while I was in New Zealand last summer, but never got around to making them. This week I decided to add to the recipe I found to make this dish. This dish is not very spicy because the coconut milk tones down the curry, but can be made spicier with Siracha if you desire. This took me a bit longer than I expected… I never realized that making meatballs was such a hassle!
Trailer Trash Pot Roast
My friends and I decided to have an early holiday dinner to celebrate Christmas this week. A little while back, I came across this recipe on the Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy blog, but hadn’t gotten a chance to make it. A pot roast is a great thing to make during the holidays, because you can begin cooking it early, then cook everything else while it finishes cooking. This recipe combines Coca Cola and Chili Sauce for a perfect combination of sweet and spicy.
Chicken Breasts w/ Roasted Red Peppers
It is that time of the year again… no not the holidays, the time when everybody you know is broke, waiting for their paycheck or other form of money to come in. A few friends and I wanted to make dinner together, but could not afford an extravagant meal this time. There are so many ways to dress up an ordinary chicken breast. This recipe (originally found on MyRecipes) is perfect for those days right before your paycheck comes in, costing less than $2 per serving!
Chicken Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken)
I found out about Chicken Makhani a couple of weeks ago and have been dying to make it. I am in love with sauces, so this dish definitely caught my eye. The combination of a flavorful sauce and a little bit of spice made it a favorite in my book. I used a clove of garlic and some ground ginger instead of ginger garlic paste. I also used skim milk instead of half-and-half, like the original recipe (found on Big Oven) called for. My version of the recipe is the healthier option for those of you trying to eat healthy! =)
