A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Happy Thanksgiving: Turkey and Dressing Casserole as First Run or Re-Run (Thanksgiving Leftovers Casserole)

I drew the short straw this year and ended up working Thanksgiving Eve and the rest of the weekend. But never fear, we can still have our Thanksgiving, both at work and at home.  For work, I volunteered to handle turkey and dressing.  Because I work at a hospital (Respiratory Therapist) it's not quite the same as an office where we can forward the phones to voice mail and everyone sit down to a celebratory dinner together.  We're scattered throughout the building on the general floors, in Pediatrics, the NICU, and the adult units.  So the upshot is we have to eat in shifts. That means a traditionally carved turkey with dressing on the side is not only impossible to cook or warm up at work in a microwave, we need to keep the food at a safe temperature for at least an hour if not a little more so that people can filter down from all parts of the building in between vent assesments and therapies, not to mention any type of patient crises. We all say a quick prayer going into holidays, for ourselves and for patients and their families, that there will be no codes or other crises.  And we were lucky this year. We had a few patients who struggled but we were able to get them help quickly and there were NO code blues! Yay!

The answer to the food dilemma for our work dinner turned out to be turkey and stuffing casserole, the kind we can keep at a good temp in a crockpot throughout the evening after arriving at 6pm until our 1am dinner time.  This casserole is also a great use for leftovers to freeze for a later date or just for the ease of leftovers throughout the holiday weekend.

Good & Good For You: Crockpot White Chicken Chili

Wasn't feeling very lively this weekend so I made a crockpot full of white chicken chili and a pan of cornbread for us to eat all weekend. This one is a nice change from dark bean chili, with a little lighter texture and taste, super easy to put together and forget. Sometimes, like when the cook in the family isn't up to snuff, easy is a must.

Oktoberfest All Week: Jagerschnitzel

One of the things I find most intriguing about exploring culture cooking is that we all eat the same things, we just call them different things and prepare them in slightly different ways.  I'm talking about things like finding out as an adult that the exotic-sounding  polenta is really the cornmeal mush of my youth, or that tonight's Jagerschnitzel is pounded pork chops with delicious mushroom gravy.  I admit the jokester in me sometimes enjoys giving Gene that hour or two of wondering what in the heck we're going to be eating and then seeing the relief in his eyes when the odd sounding "Oktoberfest Jagerschnitzel" meal I made was just his beloved pork chops and mushroom gravy, although really rich gravy since it's made with sour cream instead of just corn starch thickening the pan drippings.

Leftovers: Vodka-Marinated Pork Roast Enchiladas

Had some of the vodka-marinated pork roast leftover from the other day and wondered "What to do? What to do?"  We'd already eaten sandwiches and still there were yummy chunks sitting in the fridge.  I hated to waste it but we were getting a little tired of it in it's current incantation. 

I remembered a trick my beautiful friend, Sher of What Did You Eat?,told me she used as a waste not/want not trick. Any time she had leftover meat or roasted chicken that she didn't want to waste, she'd grab a few tortillas and whatever else she had in the fridge for filling, make up enchiladas and then freeze them individually without sauce and keep them in marked gallon freezer bags.  Then, on nights she didn't feel like making dinner into a big a production she'd grab a couple each for her and Bob,  sauce them with whatever salsa she had in the pantry for just that purpose, layer some nice melty monterrey jack on top, and voila, dinner is served.

I followed in her footsteps except I did go ahead and sauce mine.  The batch of two became my work "lunch" one night last week and the second batch went into a foil pan into the freezer so that all that has to be done is for it to be thawed and thrown in the oven.  I ran out of tortillas at the end so the rest of the pork ended up being spooned around the sides, just more porky goodness.

There is no specific recipe for this.  But here's how I did it:  I chopped up the remaining pork roast, added the half jar of red salsa I happened to have in the fridge, and a handful of shredded cheese.  Sher used to also add any beans she had leftover, corn, potatoes, whatever sounded good to her mixed together.  I put a couple of large spoonfuls of the mixture into the center of the tortillas, rolled them up, and placed them seam side down in a sprayed baking dish.  Then I poured over a jar of salsa verde (gre) I had in the pantry and topped it with another handful of shredded colby/monterrey jack mix.  From there or once thawed if frozen, it's just a matter of baking them at 350 degrees for 30 minutes covered and then another 10-20 minutes uncovered until cheese is slightly browned and the everything is hot and bubbly.

Originally the second pan (freezer ones) were made for Auntie Miranda but since she wasn't able to drop by the day she thought she would, I just stuck them in the freezer...we'll see who ends up feasting on them, her or us, depending on who gets out of the mood to cook first.

Good & Good For You: Curry Roasted Chicken

Gene's always been game for my experiments and new recipes but once in a while he makes a request for comfort food:  meatloaf, oven fried chicken, chicken livers, etc.  This time he actually clipped a recipe out of the paper and laid it on my desk. Since he's never done that before, I really paid attention.  Honestly, when I first saw the recipe for honey mustard chicken drumsticks I was "ho-hum" but Gene loves honey mustard so of course I was going to make it for him. Then I saw the curry in the list of ingredients. I was intrigued.  I couldn't figure out if it was going to be a good idea or a bad idea and I also wondered if Gene had paid attention to the full list of ingredients, but no matter.

It's fabulous!

We'll be eating this a couple of times a month.  The recipe is written to roast the chicken in the oven but it would be great on the grill.  It would also work well for for chicken breasts even though it's written for legs, and would make for killer wings too.  I think it would even be fantastic as a glaze for whole roasted chicken or cornish game hens.  The curry spices tame the mustard in a way that lets the mustard flavor come out without the bite.  The combination of the honey, curry, and mustard is sweet and savory at the same time but without being overpowering in the savory or cloying in the sweet. 

GREAT recipe and very good for you.  It's  a wonderful change from boring old grilled chicken breasts.

By the way, Gene, feel free to clip any recipes you want to out of the paper! I'm game.

Kitchen of Light: Vodka-Marinated Pork Roast

 Last weekend I played around with a couple of new cookbooks. This pork roast recipe came from Kitchen of Light by Andreas Viestad of the PBS cooking show of the same name. The cookbook is just as fun to read as it is to cook from so far so I'll be making more dishes from it soon.

One of the things I liked about this recipe is that the vodka based marinade seemed to more effectively carry the herb flavors into the center of the meat than other oil/acid marinade combinations I've used in the past.  There was no taste of vodka or alcohol but the fresh herbs seemed brightened by the alcohol as a base.

There was a cute story attached to the recipe where Andreas said he made it for the show Scandinavian Cooking in Svalbard, an Arctic island north of Norway.  He said that out of all their supplies to prepare the dish, the only thing that didn't freeze was the vodka.  I'm thinking he's lucky he had any left for the recipe. I think in the Arctic I'd be downing the hooch to warm up.

One Roast/Two Meals: Roast with Veggies & Shortcut Beef Stroganoff

 

As much as we all love to cook and as much as we all like to make everything from scratch, let's face it, sometimes life intervenes and we have to settle for using a shortcut or two.

Last week, when I worked several days in a row, I happily chose crockpot and some low maintenance cooking over fast food and/or ordering out.

Take this combo, for example.  One roast equalled two great meals, and great leftovers for my lunchbox.

For years, we've all raved about my cousin Ann's pot roast, so rich and flavorful.  One day she told Aunti Miranda and I her secret weapon:  Heinz Beef Gravy.  A jar. Not kidding.  It's wonderful and so quick.  It's this simple:  throw the roast in an oven safe covered roasting pan with salt and pepper and whatever veggies you want: onions, potatoes, carrots, garlic, green peppers, etc.  And top with the jar of Heinz gravy (mushroom works well too).  Bake @ 300 degrees, low and slow, for 45 minutes per lb.  (Most directions say for 25 minutes/lb but we like ours falling apart.)

That's dinner #1.

The next night I took the leftover meat and cut it into bite-sized chunks (about 3 cups) and then whizzed the leftover gravy and vegetables together in the blender.  Placing the meat and gravy/veggie mix into a pot on the stovetop,  I stirred in a 6 oz. container of plain Greek-style yogurt, and reseasoned to taste with a little salt and pepper.  This I served over cooked egg noodles.

Perfect for dinner #2 with plenty of leftovers to take with me to work.

Sometimes it's all about real life.

Good & Good For You: Gluten free Zucchini Crust Pizza

 

This nice little recipe was sent to me yesterday by  my fellow Springfield blogger, Sally, of Aunt Sally's Blog.  Being a friendly bunch of bloggers, she got it from Gluten Free Homemaker. The original recipe along with the original remarks can be found HERE:  Zucchini Crust Pizza 

The zucchini crust intrigued me and since I had all the ingredients on hand...I made it last night.

The original recipe, as I have reprinted it, is wheat free, however, I don't keep rice flour in the house and since we're not celiac or allergic to wheat, I used regular flour.

It does and it doesn't taste like pizza but Gene and I both liked it.  I halved the recipe (since it's just Gene and I) and made mine in an 8"x 8" casserole dish (instead of the jelly roll pan the directions call for) so it was thicker than pizza.  To us, in the pan I put it in, it's more of a zucchini/pizza casserole but we enjoyed it.  What we didn't eat I'm taking to work tonight so this one will probably pop up in my summer menus next year.

Doctor's Kitchen Monday: Edamame Succotash with Brown Rice

 

Look at all that great food for work one night last week...and then it was so horribly busy I never got a chance to eat a bite of it all night long. Oh well. I ate the succotash for breakfast the next day so at least I got to enjoy it!

 

I make this dish fairly often because it's great for you and super quick to put together, works perfectly for lunch, dinner, or work lunch, and is a great "getting closer to vegetarian" dish for us meat eaters.  Gene says he really likes it but he'd like it better with a bunch of chicken in it.  I tell him that defeats the purpose of eating a vegetarian dinner once a week for our health. He thinks chicken is vegetarian. :-)

Click below for the recipe.

Breakfast Starts the Day off Right. Right? Right! Cornbread Frittata

 

One of the things I've been changing about the way I eat since I've been following the Mediterranean Diet path is the way I approach breakfast.  Like a lot of people I either tend to skip breakfast or eat all the wrong things.  For example, I work the night shift so when I get off shift in the morning I'm starving and ready to eat pretty much anything and everything. Technically, for nightshifters, the a.m. is our dinner time.  We eat breakfast when we get up around 4pm, lunch at 1am, and dinner for breakfast, but I've really been trying to get back into a more traditionally routine eating pattern even when I work, especially since working 12 hour shifts, we don't work a five day work week.

What I've found through experimentation is that when I choose wholesome whole grained foods for breakfast that also contain a serving of fruit and/or veggies I have a much better day over all whether I'm up or sleeping for the day.  We all know basic nutrition.  Whole grains and fresh produce last longer in our systems because they're nutritionally dense and take longer to break down, creating a more even supply of glucose instead of the normal sugar/caffeine high and low of Krispie Kremes, Cocoa Puffs, and Caramel Mocha Coffee.  Weight Watchers call these nutritionally dense foods simply "filling" foods.  I'm experimenting with a lot of different things but I'm finding, so far, that egg dishes with fresh veggies and cereals like Irish oatmeal or Grapenuts with a side of fruit hit the spot and last all morning.