Throwback Thursday: Turkey & Spinach Stuffed Shells
Sometimes nothing can beat a home-cooked Italian meal. I don’t make pasta much after working at Noodles & Co. for a year, but oh man these were good. I would hardly put these into the pasta category; they are so rich and delicious!
For this week’s throwback recipe, I give you my turkey, spinach and cheese stuffed shells. Stuffing these bad boys was a bit of work, but it was totally worth it. Once they are done and you bite into their gooey, cheesy goodness you will understand.
Throwback Thursday: Sauteed Steak w/ Green Peppercorn Sauce
This weeks Throwback recipe includes a very important staple in cooking- a basic brown sauce. A basic brown sauce is the base for many different gravies and other sauces. Once you are able to make a basic brown sauce, you will open all sorts of new doors for sauces. For me, this was a very exciting thing (like I tell you constantly, I am obsessed with sauces).
The green peppercorn sauce is great for steaks and simple enough to whip up on a weeknight. Looking back I am laughing at this meal… I ate every single peppercorn in my sauce and ended the dinner with my mouth on fire. Even with that, this was a delicious recipe!
Chorizo, Poblano & Beef Tacos w/ Pepper Jack Cheese Sauce
Before I say anything about this recipe, I would like to announce the end of my comfort food bender. As good as all of the pizza and mac ‘n’ cheese has been, I am cleaning up my act. That’s not to say it won’t happen again sometime in the next few months, but for now I am going to be eating (and blogging) a bit healthier. I will be baking a bit though. For my final post of my bender, I give you these spicy, cheesy and tasty tacos.
First, I combined chorizo and beef for the base of these tacos, which makes the filling a bit more exciting. Then I added some spice with the seasonings and poblano chiles. To top it off, I made a pepper jack cheese sauce to pour over the tacos. Top them off with some lettuce and green onion and there you have it- a unique taco that will have you coming back for seconds (and more cheese sauce!).
Bison Chili Cheese Dogs
Watching the Food Network can be dangerous sometimes. A few of my guy friends recently learned why I am so addicted to it after they watched a couple shows one night with me. Every recipe you see makes your mouth water and makes your hungry. This week we all found ourselves drooling over a chili cheese dog from some small-town diner. Being from Britian, my friends had never eaten a chili cheese dog, so I had to show them what they were missing!
This chili cheese dog is a bit different from others because it uses as bison chili instead of beef. The bison does not taste much different than the beef, but gives it a bit of new flavor. This recipe can easily be made with ground beef instead. Before you eat these bad boys, make sure you have a napkin and aren’t wearing a white shirt!
Buffalo Chicken Mac ‘N’ Cheese Casserole
For some reason, I have been craving comfort food lately. It is probably not a good thing, considering I am going to Africa to the beach for three weeks, one month exactly from today! Oh well, what can you do. Cheese is one of my biggest weaknesses. I could probably eat an entire block of cheese as a snack, but I am getting off the topic.
Chorizo, Shrimp & Rice Stuffed Poblano Chiles
I recently entered this Ritz cracker recipe contest recently sponsored by Guy Fieri, which caused me to look through a bunch of his recipes for inspiration. I really love his recipes because they are always banger and packed with flavors. If you are not sure who Guy is, he is the punk-rock-looking, spiked hair guy from Diners, Dives, & Drive-Ins (as well as like ten other TV shows I feel like!).
This recipe is amazing because if combines the delicious flavors of chorizo and shrimp along with lots of cheese! I am a big fan of roasting peppers/chiles. It gives them an entirely different flavor. Roasted peppers and chiles also make the perfect dish for holding your delicious recipe ideas. I tweaked Guy’s original recipe a bit, but of all the stuffed pepper recipes I have made, I can safely say this one is my favorite. I highly recommend that you try it as well!
How to Spatchcock A Chicken: Pesto Chicken
Whenever I go to the grocery store I usually just buy chicken breasts or whichever part of the bird I want to cook that night, but there is something to be said for taking the time to cook a whole bird every now and then. This week whole organic chickens were on sale at my work for only six bucks, so I had to get one. The reason I usually don’t cook a whole chicken, and probably why you may not either, is dealing with cutting it off the bones afterwards. This is where spatchcocking comes in handy.
Spatchcocking a chicken is basically cutting out the spine, breast bone and ribs, so that you are left with only the meat and the bones for the limbs. It makes it extremely easy to cut and serve the meat once the chicken is cooked. For my spatchcocked chicken, I added pesto and onions to make a tasty dish. One benefit of keeping the skin on the bird it that you can stuff any sort of spices or seasonings in between the skin and meat to cook it with extra flavor.
Inside-Out Onion Ring Sliders w/ Adobo BBQ Sauce
One thing I really miss about summertime is being able to grill. Grilling is fun, social and delicious. I have really been craving some warmth and sunshine lately, maybe it was the week of -30 degree temperatures a few weeks ago that made me sick of winter. Either way, with hopes for an early spring, I decided to make burgers this week, except I sauteed them instead of grilling them since winter is unfortunately still here for now.
I had seen a photo of an inside-out burger recently and the idea seemed pretty awesome. I added one homemade onion ring to the top of each slider to create a seriously tasty combo; added a bit of adobo barbecue sauce that I had made previously and voila! The perfect miniature burger for a spring-time grill out.
Spiced Pork & Chickpea Stew
Soups and stews are great for an easy, worry-free dinner. All you need to do is combine the ingredients and let the pot work its magic. If you have other things to do, or don’t feel like slaving over your stove, I highly recommend making a soup or stew. Me being the spice lover that I am, I like to go buck wild when making mine. You would have to add a LOT of spices to mess up… When in doubt always give it an extra shake. It is also important to taste along the way with soups and stews as well though, just in case the flavor needs to be adjusted. I usually try to wait until the end before adding any salt.
This stew is healthy and delicious. If you were a fan of my Italian Sausage and Tortellini Soup, I suggest making this one as well. Many pork stew recipes use hominy, but I opted for using chickpeas because they are packing with nutrients and are much healthier than a corn based product. If you like your stew spicier, add a bit of cayenne pepper to this recipe. This is great serves with a toasted loaf of French bread.
Pizza Party!
After cooking many meals for friends, I realized that nothing excites people more than a delicious pizza. This week I threw a pizza party with friends. We only had one oven and two pizza trays, so we could only cook two pizzas at a time. In the end, I made six 14″ pizzas. We cut each pizza into ten slices, one for each person, and sampled one slice of each pizza. We would decide which pizzas were coming next while the previous two were baking. By the sixth pizza, we could barely take another bite!
We made all sorts of pizzas- from BBQ Chicken to Chicken Alfredo to Meat Lovers all the way to Hawaiian. Each time a new pizza was taken out, everybody was riled up- “This one is my favorite!” “Wait, no, THIS one is my favorite!” “Ah, no, THIS one is definitely the best!” I have never seen my friends so excited about something I cooked. This made me being to think about the wondrous pizza pie. A fresh pizza crust is like a blank canvas for a chef. You can combine any flavors you want to create your own unique masterpiece. I suggest to all of you that you make homemade pizzas at some point. My advice? Be adventurous, take risks, mix unlikely combinations- you’ll be impressed with the outcome!
