Tag Archives: dinner

Curried Beef Pies

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 8 January, 2014 None comments

I first had these at my sisters one night and loved them. They are pretty easy and very tasty. She allowed me to have the recipe and share it with you all. I’ve made them a few times and have used both refrigerated and homemade pie crusts. I served this with Roasted Cauliflower and a delicious side salad.

Ingredients:

Pie crust (can use refrigerated pie crust, but I prefer homemade)
1 cup diced potatoes (optional)
½ cup chopped onion
8oz ground turkey
2 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp minced garlic
Salt and pepper
1 cup peas and carrots
½ cup chicken broth
1 large egg slightly beaten

Heat oven to 400 degress and coat baking sheet with cooking spray. Let pie crust sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. Meanwhile sauté potatoes, onions, garlic, salt and pepper and ground turkey. Once cooked stir in curry powder, peas and carrots and broth. Cook two minutes and remove from heat.

Roll crust on cutting board and cut into 4 equal wedges. Place 1/3 cup filling in middle of wedge (moisten the edges with water if needed to keep from tearing). Fold in half to make a triangle. Press edges to seal.

Transfer to a baking sheet and brush lightly with egg. Bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Pictured with roasted cauliflower

Buffalo Chicken Log

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 18 December, 2013 None comments

Tonight I made this bread loaf and stuffed yummy goodness items such as chicken, blue cheese, mozzarella cheese, and buffalo sauce. Mmmm how could you possibly go wrong with these items? You can’t.

I’ve made this previously but always add whatever is on hand which helps switch it up a bit. :) I think I get bored of recipes and get to “lazy” to drive a half mile down the road and pack my son with me while we traipse through the store for a couple random ingredients. In fact I know I become to lazy for this. Taking Cooper in and out of the car seat and driving 200 feet from door to door while needing bananas is beyond frustrating. Not my thing. The contemplation process of wishing I could lock him in the car for a super quick minute has passed my mind. With my luck something would happen, so I would never attempt this. With that said, I will avoid the store as much as possible. Every two weeks I do my bulk shopping with only a couple random trips for produce items or “run-outs;” items I hadn’t known I was low on.

tonight’s meal turned out fabulously and allowed for me to play with Cooper outside for a bit and even take a walk. This recipe allows for flexibility to prepare this meal when you want.

Ingredients:

Filling:

1 cup chicken, diced (any kind any style* see notes below)
½ cup Franks Buffalo Wing Sauce
½ cup Ken’s blue cheese dressing (any dressing works)
1 cup mozzarella cheese
Chopped brussel sprouts (sub any vegetable)
Chopped onion
4 slices bacon, cooked and chopped

For the bread: (can use store bought croissants**)

½ cup warm water
2 tsp instant active dry yeast
3 tsp sugar
½ cup melted butter
1 cup milk
2 tsp salt
½ cup sugar
3 eggs
4 ½ cups flour

Directions:

If you aren’t using croissants, begin bread recipe first. In a mixer add water and yeast and let sit for 3-4 minutes. Then proceed to add remainder of ingredients mixing slowly, except the flour. Once well mixed add flour 1/2 cup at a time until thoroughly mixed.

Cover with tea towel and let rest for an hour. Cook chicken now and set aside. If adding bacon, now is a good time to cook bacon and let cool.

After an hour, the dough will still be sticky and this is good. On a well floured surface begin to knead the dough for a couple turns to get rid of the sticky texture. Roll dough into a large rectangle.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Meanwhile chop chicken, Brussels sprouts, onion, and bacon.

Atop the dough spread buffalo sauce…

dressing…

and cheese….

Top with veggies and chicken
Fold the short edges in…

Roll the log up and place on a large cookie sheet and bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.

Serve with salad and a vegetable side, we had corn.

*Note: For the chicken you can use rotisserie chicken, cooked chicken breasts, or already cooked chicken strips. I use all three depending on what’s on hand and how much time I have.

**Note: You can use croissants from the store or make the bread recipe I gave. Personally I love the bread recipe better but in a pinch the croissants work well too. If using croissants, when you unroll from the package they come precut in triangles. Just leave them in one piece once you unroll and push together on the dotted lines to help make one big rectangle.

Spaghetti Sauce

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 14 December, 2013 None comments

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

There is nothing quite like homemade sauce!

I grew up with homemade spaghetti sauce. I’m not sure there was ever a time we had store bought. My mom cooked a lot and this was part of it. I remember a typical spaghetti night would include homemade bread and salad. My sister and I would always make a “spaghetti sandwich” where you take bread and top it with a large pile of spaghetti and somehow grip it with all ten fingers and manage to take a big ‘ol bite out of it. We were convinced it makes the spaghetti taste even better, though that seemed impossible, we believed in the possible. :)

My girlfriend told me she has never made her own sauce and to my dismay I was really shocked. She is pretty good at holding to no additives and preservatives that this comment really shocked me. Especially because it is super easy to make and can simmer all day long to deepen the flavors and smell the house with a delightful aroma for hours.

So since she informed me that she has never made her own sauce I thought I really needed to share the easiness to this delightful meal.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef or turkey
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-16oz can olives, chopped
2-6oz can tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cups water
1 tbsp parsley
2 tsp oregano
Dash of garlic salt
Salt and pepper to taste
¾ tsp sugar (to taste, but add a little at a time as you can’t undo the sweetness)

In a pot cook onion, garlic and ground beef until no longer pink. Add olives, tomato paste, water and diced tomatoes.

Add seasoning at this point; if you are using fresh herbs add now. If you are using dried seasoning the trick is to place the dried seasoning into the palm of your hands and rub together. This reactivates the flavor in dried seasoning leaving the meal with more vibrant flavors. Stir well and let simmer on low for 2-4 hours.

When you are ready to eat, serve in a bowl or plate over pasta and with garlic bread and salad! Enjoy!

Tasty Dogs

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 7 December, 2013 None comments

Scrumptious, absolutely heavenly. This was a new creation that morphed into something beautiful. I must say I had no hot dog buns, and wanted to experiment a little. How could a hot dog go wrong? Well the simple answer is, it can’t.

Today I took a couple tortillas and broiled them with Swiss cheese slices. In a saucepan I cooked up some mushrooms, Brussels sprouts and onions; simple and delicious. I topped my 100% kosher dog from Costco with my saucepan mixture, blue cheese dressing and VIOLA, a scrumptious hot dog with a twist.

Ingredients:

4 100% Kosher Hot Dogs
4 Tortillas
1 pound sliced mushrooms
1 pound sliced Brussels sprouts
½ yellow onion diced
1 tsp Garlic salt
Salt and Pepper to taste
4 slices of Swiss cheese (or cheese of choice)
Blue Cheese dressing for topping

Broil tortillas with cheese in the oven until bubbly. Broil hot dogs as well to get the bbq taste.

In a saucepan sautee mushrooms, onions and Brussels sprouts with seasoning.

Assemble the dogs and top with blue cheese dressing. Fold up and stick with a toothpick to hold together. :)

These are probably my favorite ‘go to’ meal right now!!!

Rigatoni and Portobellos

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 30 November, 2013 None comments

So as I’ve mentioned before, my husband finds a recipe and wont let it rest until he’s filled his belly on it. This happened last week. A co-worker was telling him about this Ahh-mazing, mouth watering pasta dish and of course he gives me the ingredients to rush off to the store and supply the kitchen with these grocery items. After I’ve done so, all week long I hear “when can I make it, when can I make it?” I appointed him to head chef during the weekend as it’s not easy during the work week. He usually arrives home late and by then Cooper needs to get ready for bed. When he cooks on the weekend it gives me a break from kitchen duty and more play time with my little man while daddy is head chef for the evening.

This recipe calls for goat cheese and of all the cheese out there this is probably my least favorite as I think it is an acquired taste. To be painfully honest, I despise goat cheese. I actually LOVE cheese and almost every cheese but for some reason the concept of GOAT cheese kind of freaks me out. What I do know is it has a very strong flavor and because of that, I wasn’t quite sure if I would enjoy this recipe. If I was the one making this dish, I can tell you I am 99% confident that I would have swapped the cheese for a different kind that I like better. BUT to my husbands credit it was delicious and I actually liked it even better the second day. Let’s be honest, if he made it again, YES I would partake because the flavors together were surprisingly spectacular. It must go on record that I will never purchase goat cheese for another recipe apart from this particular one.

If you don’t particularly enjoy the taste or concept of goat cheese, please, please try this recipe as I think you may become a believer as I did…

Ingredients:

2 yellow onions, chopped
1 cup chorizo, chopped
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp EVOO
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

2 lbs Portobello mushrooms
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp EVOO
½ tsp salt
6 tbsp fresh parsley (dried works as well)

8oz crumbled soft goat cheese
3 tbsp parmesan cheese
1 tbsp EVOO

1 ½ lb rigatoni pasta
1 ½ cups pasta water

In a large skillet add chopped onions, chorizo, 1 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp EVOO. Begin sautéing them and add salt and 1 tsp sugar. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until the onions are well browned and beginning to caramelize, 20-30 minutes. Transfer onion mixture to a bowl and set aside.

Meanwhile, stem the mushrooms and chop the stems as well as mushroom caps and use the entire mushroom. In the same skillet, melt 1 tbsp butter and 1tbsp EVOO. Add mushrooms and ½ tsp salt and cook over medium heat stirring occasionally, until tender & browned, about 10 minutes.

Add reserved onions along with parsley. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook pasta; reserve 1 ½ cup pasta water and drain pasta.

In a large bowl, toss rigatoni with reserved pasta water, mushroom mixture, 8 oz goat cheese, 3 tbsp parmesan, and 1 tbsp olive oil. (If the pasta seems dry, add more pasta water)

Serve immediately, topping with a little parsley and parmesan cheese. Goes really well with artisan bread toasted.

Cranberry Chutney

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 25 November, 2013 None comments

Oh my goodness, if you like cranberries this is an amazing dish. You can use this as a side dish, appetizer, or for the main course. It is amazing!!! Needless to say, I made this with Pork for dinner and AFTER dinner, my husband informs me that he isn’t a big fan of cranberries. Now to my dismay I thought this would convert him to become a cranberry lover. He did admit that it was delicious but he doesn’t prefer cranberries. I was thankful that he ate dinner and didn’t say anything until afterwards, although I was so proud of this meal that my feelings were hurt just a smidgen.

Ingredients:

3 cups fresh cranberries
¾ cup water
1 ¾ cups sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp allspice
1 pear, chopped
¾ cup golden raisins
½ cup coarsely chopped toasted hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 275 degrees to roast hazelnuts. (see note below for roasting instructions)

Put water and cranberries into a 6-quart saucepan. Turn on medium high.

Combine sugar, cinnamon and allspice.

Add sugar mixture to the cranberries and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Continue to cook on medium for about 10-12 minutes until cranberries pop and mixture thickens up. Stir often.

Add pears, and raisins. Turn heat down to a simmer. Continue to simmer for about 10-12 minutes until pears are softened. Stir frequently.

Take off heat. Add roasted hazelnuts.

Discard the cloves if you can find them.

Serve chutney hot, or let cool and store for later. Refrigerate in tightly sealed jars for up to 3 weeks. I froze mine as my husband isn’t a fan. Thought I would use it for Thanksgiving for others who may appreciate it. Goes great with pork, chicken and beef, and as a spread with a variety of cheeses. I used goat cheese, crackers and this chutney as an appetizer. Yummy!!!

***Note:To roast hazelnuts:

Place the nuts on a rimmed baking sheet in a preheated oven (at 275 degrees) and cook until lightly browned. About 8-10 minutes. If the hazelnuts have skins, you can remove the skins when they are cool enough to handle, lay them on a clean kitchen towel, or between several sheets of paper towels and rub to remove most of the skins (they never completely come off).

This meal is beautiful and looks amazing on the plate. I served this with sautéed Brussels sprouts, apples and cranberries.