Egg in Carne Guisada Heaven

Egg in Carne Guisada Heaven

Here’s a surprise mid-week post from me! I made this for lunch a couple of days go from leftover Carne Guisada I made over the weekend. Carne Guisada is heaven. It is one of my go-to crockpot meals that just screams delicious Tex-Mex. I make this as often as I can. Get the recipe here —–> Carne Guisada

Carne Guisada Simmering

And as usual, I had leftovers. So what better way to make use of the leftovers than to plop an egg in the middle and cook to your liking?

Egg in Heaven ~ Almost

Oh man, this was so scrumptious! I let the egg white set on the bottom, then covered it with a lid for one minute to set the top.

Egg is Now In Heaven

Mind you this is a 5-inch cast-iron pan, a mini. So yes, I ate it right out of the pan. Slurp, slurp! Hardly any cleanup!

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Merry Christmas Eve!

Hash Brown, Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Casserole

I hope all my wonderful friends and family have a blessed Christmas and a bright 2016!

Hash Brown, Sausage, and Egg Casserole

I’ll be making my traditional egg casserole again tonight, but with a couple of changes. I’ll prep the hash browns and sausage as normal, but leave the whisked eggs covered in a bowl, and add them and the cheese in the morning just before popping in the oven. My hubby thinks it will come out a little less dry, and I agree with him! Oh, and I’ll be mixing half breakfast sausage and half chorizo sausage, both homemade! I’ll have to get those recipes up here one of these days.

Next week I’ll be starting my fifth year of blogging. A special thanks to all my readers who have hung in with me through thick and thin. You are all very special. ❤

 

Baked Fish and Shrimp Poppers

Why not a quick post to share a quick and easy meal I made after returning from camping last week? I had a chunk of leftover ling cod from the night before and some shrimp in the freezer. Panko bread crumbs, Old Bay, seasonings, a little egg and BAM! Baked Fish and Shrimp Poppers. Served with some french fries and fresh cherry ‘maters from the garden. Seriously good.

(I took these photos from my new cell phone. Certainly not as good as my DSLR, but works in a pinch.)

Baked Fish and Shrimp Poppers

1 egg
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup Panko breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
Ground black pepper and salt, to taste
2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
1/2 pound of fish cut into 1-inch chunks and/or whole thawed shrimp
Oil spray
Lemon wedges, for garnish

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil.

Whisk the egg in a small bowl, then add the flour to one plate and the Panko and seasonings to another. (I used paper plates – quick clean up!)

Panko and Old Bay and Seasonings

One at a time, press each piece of fish and/or shrimp in the flour, then dip into the egg. Next press into the Panko mixture on all sides until fully-coated. Place each piece onto the baking sheet without touching. Spray generously with oil spray on one side, then gently flip each piece over and spray the other side.

Bake for about 3 minutes, turn each piece over with tongs and bake for about another 3 minutes until the fish and/or shrimp is cooked through and no longer translucent. Serve with lemon wedges and sauce of choice.

Baked Fish and Shrimp Poppers

Download and Print this Yummy Recipe!

Chile Relleno Chicken Rollups

Chile Relleno Chicken Rollups

My husband said I actually made a “blog-worthy” meal last night while eating this! That’s a bit of a relief since I haven’t posted a new recipe in a while due to vacation and other business in our lives. When I first spied this recipe a few days ago, though, I immediately knew I wanted to make it as as soon as possible. Hubby said he’s always wary when I make something completely new (not without reason) but he gave this two thumbs up! (My daughter missed out on this meal since she was at a sleepover. Her loss!)

Chile Relleno Chicken Rollups
Adapted from Chicken Chili Relleno from Lady Behind the Curtain

2 large poblano peppers
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1/3 cup cornmeal
2 tablespoons homemade taco seasoning mix (or store-bought)
1 egg
1 to 2 ounces Neufchâtel cream cheese
2 ounces Monterey jack cheese, grated
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
Red enchilada sauce, for serving (homemade or store-bought)
Sour cream, for serving

Charred Poblano Peppers

Char the peppers on a grill over high heat, turning frequently, until blistered all over. This takes about 10 to 15 minutes. Place peppers in a paper bag and close, then let rest for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove from bag, cut the stem off, then peel the blistered skin. Cut the peppers in half length-wise, then deseed. Set aside.

Peeled and Deseeded Poblano Peppers

Preheat oven to 375 degrees now. If chicken breast(s) are large, butterfly in half. Pound the chicken to 1/4- to 1/8-inch thickness and set aside

Cornmeal and Taco Mix

On a plate, combine cornmeal and taco seasoning mix. Next crack the egg into a a bowl and beat.

Assembly time! On each piece of chicken, arrange the roasted peppers.

Assembling the Rollups

Spread a thin layer of cream cheese over the peppers, then top with grated Monterey Jack cheese.  Sprinkle the chopped cilantro over the cheese.

Chicken Rellenos Ready to Roll Up

Starting with the narrowest end of chicken, roll up and then secure with toothpicks. The larger chicken breast was a little more difficult to handle, but I finally wrangled all the filling into it!

Carefully dip the rollups into the beaten egg, then press into the cornmeal mix on all sides. Place the assembled chicken seam-side down into a casserole dish sprayed with oil. Spray the tops and the sides of the chicken with additional oil.

Chicken Chile Relleno Rollups Ready to Bake

Place in oven and cook for 30 minutes. Garnish with enchilada sauce and sour cream, and serve with pinto beans and rice.

Chile Relleno Chicken Rollups

Download and Print this Yummy Recipe!

 

Italian Pasta Shells Stuffed with Spinach and Cheese

Italian Pasta Shells Stuffed with Spinach and Cheese

If you have some yummy spaghetti sauce on hand and want to make something different than plain ol’ spaghetti, this is a winning recipe! It’s not overly difficult to make (aside from stuffing those pesky shells) and makes a really nice meal that has all your veggies in it!

I pretty much used my recipe for my Spinach Lasagna Roll-Ups, but just changed some of the cheese amounts. I feel pretty proud of this recipe, as all the online versions I found for it made anywhere from 24 to 30 shells — way more than I wanted! I went with my gut feeling, and figured 16 shells would do the trick with the amount of stuffing I use for my roll-ups. I was SPOT ON! Woo hoo! I served this with green salad and baked garlic bread. We ate half one night, then finished the other half the next, but you can freeze the leftovers if you want.

Italian Pasta Shells Stuffed with Spinach and Cheese

16 uncooked Jumbo shell pasta
3 cups Paul’s Spicy Spaghetti Sauce, or other prepared sauce
1 15-ounce container Ricotta cheese
3/4 cup shredded Mozzarella (I used a block of low-fat and shredded it with a grater)
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan
2 teaspoons minced garlic
10-ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 large egg, beaten
Ground black pepper, to taste
Salt or Mrs. Dash, to taste
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Additional shredded Mozzarella, for topping

Preheat oven to 400°F. Cook the noodles to al dente according to package directions. While the noodles are cooking, combine the Ricotta, Mozzarella, Parmesan, garlic, spinach, egg, pepper, salt or Mrs. Dash, and a pinch of nutmeg in a medium bowl.

Stuffed Pasta Ingredients Ready to Mix

When the noodles are done, drain the noodles, let cool a bit, then lay them on parchment or wax paper in a single layer.

Cooked Pasta Shells

Spread 1 cup of spaghetti sauce on the bottom of a 2-quart casserole dish. Stuff 1/4 cup or so of the cheese and spinach mixture into each pasta shell and place into the dish.

Stuffed Shells Wanting Sauce and Cheese

Pour 2 cups of spaghetti sauce over the stuffed shells. Grate additional mozzarella cheese over the top of the shells, then cover the pan with aluminum foil. Bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and turn on the broiler. Broil for about 5 to 10 minutes until cheese is bubbly.

Stuffed Shells Ready to Cook

Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before serving. Serve with a green side salad and garlic bread. You can freeze the remaining shells in Ziploc bags for a quick and easy future meal. My family loved this so much we ate the rest of it up the next day!

p.s. (Please let me indulge you with photos of my daughter’s rose she got at her dance team’s end-of-year potluck celebration! That was a long journey to get through dance season with the football and basketball schedules!)

Italian Pasta Shells Stuffed with Spinach and Cheese

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Pastitsio, Pasticcio, Pasticchio

Pastitsio, Pasticcio, Pasticchio

Pistachios, am I nuts? No, this is Pastitsio, also known as Pasticcio, and sometimes spelled Pasticchio. But my tattered Better Homes and Garden cookbook names this Greek dish it the latter. No matter how you spell it, it’s dang good! It also messes up a lot of pots and pans. But don’t let that stop you from making this guest-worthy casserole.

You can shorten the cooking time by preparing some of the steps concurrently, or, if you have a lazy weekend day with lots of time you can just methodically work your way through each step. The end result will be the same. Bites of savory tomato and ground beef pasta topped with a lusciously puffy bechamel/egg crust. Are you drooling yet???

I had not made this in probably 5 or 6 years, so I just followed the recipe again as written (mostly) in the cookbook. Traditionally, this dish is made with a tubular pasta but I think the smaller macaroni works well with this. My family agreed it could use a few tweaks, but even so we all enjoyed this immensely. I’ve added my tweaks to the recipe below, and I think you’d be satisfied with them. So here it goes:

Pasticchio
From Better Homes and Gardens All-Time Favorite Recipes

6 ounces (1 1/2 cups) dry elbow macaroni
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (the real stuff!)
1/4 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
3/4 pound ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce (I would also add a can of diced tomatoes next time)
3/4 teaspoon salt (I used Mrs. Dash, but we agreed real salt would be better)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I actually used 1/4 teaspoon, and it was the right amount)
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper (I ground in liberal amounts)
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Paprika, to make it pretty

Pasta Mixture

Cook the macaroni according to package directions. Drain, and set aside to cool for a bit. When cooled enough not to cook the egg you will be adding, stir in 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup of milk, and the beaten egg. Set aside.

Beef and Tomato Sauce Mixture

In a large skillet, brown the ground beef and chopped onion until the meat is cooked and the onion is tender. Drain off any excess fat. Stir in the tomato sauce (and can of diced tomatoes, if using), and the salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and pepper. Set aside.

Bechamel Cream Sauce

In a saucepan, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and a little bit of salt to form a paste. Pour in the 1 1/2 cups of milk all at once, whisking continuously. Cook and stir until the sauce is thickened and bubbly. Add the other beaten egg to a bowl, then pour half the sauce into the bowl with the egg and combine. Then pour that mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of it. Stir in 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese until combined.

Final Prepping of the Casserole

Layer half the macaroni mixture to a lightly oil-sprayed 2-quart casserole dish. Spread the meat mixture evenly on top of the pasta, then the remaining macaroni. Spread the cream sauce over all. (Optionally sprinkle ground paprika over it, to make it pretty.) Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy with a side salad or vegetable. Guest-worthy, indeed!

Pastitsio, Pasticcio, Pasticchio

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Egg Foo Young ~ With all the Fixin’s or Vegetarian!

Egg Foo Young

Can you say incredible? Oh my gosh, these were so good that my husband and daughter practically ripped the extra one on my photoshoot plate right off from under the camera! They were like vultures, I tell you! I let them split it with each other, as one egg pancake was plenty for me since I filled mine with all the extras.

I had wanted to make this dish the first time I set eyes on it last April over at Lemony Thyme. Libby makes these wonderfully tasty dishes and presents everything so well with her photography. I pretty much followed this recipe except I sauteed the mushrooms first, cooked up some ground pork instead of using ham, plus I added the optional shrimp. Any of the fillings are optional, so this adapts well to a vegetarian dish. Oh and I don’t own a sifter, so I made a corn starch slurry instead.

Since you can only make these one at a time (unless you want to dirty up more skillets), I made each Egg Foo Young to order. This recipe makes enough for four of them. My daughter only wanted the pork added and no mushrooms in hers. My husband didn’t want the shrimp in his (this surprised me, he loves shrimp!) but did want the pork and mushrooms. I wanted it all, so added all three to mine. The final pancake had only pork so my daughter would eat it.  Aren’t I accommodating?

I have always spelled this dish Egg Foo Young, but Libby spelled hers Egg Fu Yung. I got curious and did a little internet searching, and it turns out both spellings are perfectly acceptable. But no matter how you spell it, this is an incredibly delicious meal to serve for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

Egg Foo Young Ingredients

Egg Foo Young
Adapted from Egg Fu Yung at Lemony Thyme

Hint: Before you get started, you will want to have everything mise en place. That’s just a fancy phrase for getting everything prepped and ready in one place before you start cooking the final dish.

Brown Gravy:

1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons corn starch, mixed with a little cold water

Egg Foo Young:

1 cup ground pork
4 ounces mushrooms, sliced thin
1/2 cup green onions, chopped small
1/2 cup cooked deli shrimp, diced small
8 to 10 water chestnuts, chopped
6 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon flour, mixed with a little cold water
1 teaspoon reduced sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 cup bean sprouts
Ground black pepper, to taste
3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided, for frying
More sliced green onions, for garnish

Egg Foo Young

Start by cooking the brown gravy and just get that out of the way. You can reheat and stir it a bit on the stovetop when ready to serve. In a small saucepan over medium heat bring all brown gravy ingredients, except the corn starch slurry, to a slight boil then reduce the heat to low. Mix about half the corn starch slurry into the broth whisking constantly. Return the gravy to a simmer, and slowly add a bit more of the slurry while simmering, until desired consistency. Remove gravy from heat and set aside.

If you are going to use pork in this dish, now crumble up the ground pork in a skillet sprayed with a little oil over medium heat. Cook until pork is browned through. Drain and reserve in a bowl and set aside. Next, if using mushrooms, add those to the same skillet and saute about 5 to 7 minutes, until they release their liquid and start to brown. Remove from skillet and set aside in another bowl. Now is the time to dice up or measure all the other ingredients in preparation for the eggs.

In a medium bowl, crack in six eggs and beat in the flour slurry while whisking until well combined. Whisk in soy sauce and sesame oil, then add in bean sprouts, green onions, chestnuts, and black pepper and combine well. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat, add a tablespoon of vegetable oil then about a half cup of the egg mixture. I have this wok-like skillet that has a flat 6-inch bottom I used, but any skillet would do. I suppose a smaller skillet would help make the pancakes thicker. I digress.

Next spread on top of it a portion of any of the pork, shrimp, or mushrooms and cook until the bottom is nice and set. You can swirl the pan around to get some of the uncooked egg on top to add to the sides of the pancake. It’s all good. Flip it over, then cook until the other side is done and set. Add about a tablespoon (or less) of oil between batches. Serve with the reheated brown gravy and sliced green onions. This is seriously amazing!

Download and Print this Yummy Recipe!

Simple Tuna and Egg Salad Stack

Simple Tuna and Egg Salad Stack

Sometimes I just like simple. And comforting. And quick. That is exactly what I made myself for lunch the other day. A simple tuna and egg salad stacked atop a simple toasted English muffin. Nothing fancy going on here, but I sure enjoyed it! Oh, and so did my husband, who happened to make it home just as I was about to pack away the leftovers, so he got himself a Simple Tuna and Egg Salad Stack too! I hope you enjoy.

Simple Tuna and Egg Salad Stack

2 boiled eggs, peeled and roughly chopped
1 5-ounce can albacore tuna , drained and flaked
Ground pepper, to taste
Celery salt, to taste
Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning, to taste
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
Small squirt of Dijon mustard
1 green onion, white and light green parts, chopped
1 English muffin, halved and toasted with a light spread of butter

Mix all the ingredients except the English muffin in a small bowl. Mix it up and taste and see if it needs anymore of anything. Plop a few spoonfuls onto your toasted and buttered English muffin and well, eat! You can serve with chips and a dill pickle if you want to round it out a bit more, or eat all of it yourself. I was nice and shared.

Tuna and Egg Salad on English Muffin

Oh! And I added a new Lunch category for my recipes. I don’t know why I never did that as I have plenty of lunch recipes from the past that I just dumped into the Main Dishes category instead, but a lot of them I actually made for lunch.

Spicy Black Beans and Rice with Fried Egg and Bacon

Spicy Black Beans and Rice with Fried Egg and Bacon

Finally, I am getting around to posting a dish my husband made over three weeks ago! Sad, but true — I kept pre-empting his cooking with mine. Well, he was gone for two weeks of that time and figured he wouldn’t notice anyways. So this interesting and spicy gooey dish came about from a cookbook he gave me for Christmas called Make it Tonight: 150 Quick and Delicious Weeknight Recipes by Fine Cooking.  The book is filled with eye-catching photos and simple one page recipes that can be made in a shortish span of time for a weeknight dinner. I’ve read the book through several times, and have bookmarked many recipes to try in the future. Although a majority of the recipes look tasty and easy, the Fine Cooking part should have tipped me off that there are a LOT of ingredients in there I just don’t have or keep stocked in the fridge or pantry on a regular basis (if at all, ever). Take this dish, for example. It calls for Salsa Lizano, “found in nearly every Costa Rican home, restaurant, and roadside food stand.” Seeing as we live approximately 4,219 miles from Costa Rica, we were hard-pressed to find this sauce. So we did the next best thing. We tried to make it ourselves. If I’d actually read the recipe closer I would have noticed to substitute Worcestershire sauce for it, but I went off on a tangent had husband add the ingredients that are in Salsa Lizano individually. From the sidebar: “Salsa Lizano is a smooth, light brown, vegetable-based sauce with a touch of sweetness and a hearty punch of spice, including cumin, mustard, and turmeric.”  To me, that read: “Mix together soy sauce, a pinch of sugar, cumin, mustard, and ginger.” Hey, it turned out fabulous!

I now present to you this highly-adapted recipe from Fine Cooking. And my husband really did make this himself! I was the ingredient finder for him, as he didn’t know where to find most of the stuff in our jam-packed spice cabinet. And the bacon part is completely optional. This actually came from the Meatless Mains section of the book, but hubby loves his bacon! So do I.

Spicy Black Bean Sauce for Rice

Spicy Black Beans and Rice with Fried Egg and Bacon

6 strips of bacon
3/4 cup long-grain rice
1 tablespoon reserved bacon grease
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons minced garlic
Pinch of sugar
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground dried mustard
1/4 teaspoon ground dried ginger
1 small tomato, chopped
1/4 cup canned tomato sauce (freeze the rest)
1 cup homemade or low sodium chicken broth
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
Ground black pepper, to taste
1 or 2 eggs per person
Fresh cilantro, for garnish

Fry up the bacon to make the house smell divine. Cook an extra strip or two for munching on while you make the rest of the dish. While the bacon is cooking, prepare rice according to package directions. Once your bacon is done, reserve 1 tablespoon of the bacon grease and add to a large deep skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook for a minute more. Now add the sugar, cumin, soy sauce, mustard, ginger, and chopped tomatoes, and mix well. Next pour in the tomato sauce and chicken broth, then add the black beans and ground pepper to taste. Bring up to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes or until the liquid reduces to the level of the beans, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat or to the lowest possible setting, and cover to keep warm. In another skillet, cook the eggs to your liking sprinkled with black pepper. We like ours over-easy, with the whites cooked through but the yolk runny in the middle. Add the rice/bean mixture to a bowl or plate, and top with an egg or two. Garnish with crumbled bacon and cilantro. Wow, this was really good!

Hash Brown, Sausage, and Egg Casserole ~ Starting a New Christmas Tradition

Hash Brown, Sausage, and Egg Casserole

Merry Christmas to all my family and friends! I have decided to start a new Christmas tradition in our household this year. We’ve always done a “fend for yourself” for Christmas breakfast/brunch, but this year I decided it would be nice to wake up and bake a hassle-free breakfast casserole. This make-ahead casserole is a cinch to make, and you refrigerate it over night before popping it in the oven just before you unwrap your presents. Well, that was the plan anyways. I forgot to put it in the oven (hey it’s my first year to do this!) so we ate a bit later than planned. My daughter went back for a second serving, so I guess it’s safe to say this is a tradition I can continue.

There are hundreds of recipes online for this, most of them stating they go way back from their grandmother or handed down from a dear friend. But they are all pretty much the same, with variations here and there on the meat and/or vegetables. And they all feed about 10 to 12, so I scaled this one way back.

Another one of our traditions is to watch Polar Express on Christmas Eve, after attending a Christmas Eve party that my friend here in town hosts every year. Do you have a favorite Christmas tradition?

Hash Brown, Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Casserole

Hash Brown, Sausage, and Egg Casserole

8 ounces frozen hash browns
2 tablespoons butter or substitute, melted
Ground black pepper
Mrs. Dash Table Blend, or salt
10 ounces breakfast sausage
1 cup diced onion
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 400. In a large bowl, thaw the hash browns (I used the microwave) then stir in the melted butter. Season with lots of ground black pepper and lots of Mrs. Dash, or salt to taste if you use that. In a 2 quart casserole dish, press the hash browns into the bottom in an even layer.  Bake for about 20 minutes until starting to brown. Meanwhile, break up the sausage into little chunks and add to a medium-hot skillet, stirring and breaking up. When the sausage starts to release some of the grease, add the onions. Cook the sausage and onions until the sausage is no longer pink, about 10 to 15 minutes, then drain the grease and set aside.  The hash browns should be about ready to come out of the oven now. Take them out and let them cool a bit. Crack the six eggs into the same large bowl, then whisk together well with the milk. I added a bunch more pepper and Mrs. Dash too.  Spread the crumbled sausage and onion mixture over evenly over the top of the hash browns, then slowly pour the eggs over the entire dish. Last, top with shredded cheddar cheese. Cover tightly with foil, then refrigerate overnight. About an hour before you are ready to eat, cook the covered casserole in a 350-degree preheated oven for 45 minutes. Remove the foil, then cook another 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest about five minutes. Serve plain, or with sour cream, hot sauce, Tabasco, whatever you like with your eggs! Easy and delicious.