The binder project

I like to eat, basically, so I'm cooking through four, 5-inch binders of recipes collected over the last 10 years. (And adding more each day.)

[amandazeee]

Saucy Chicken and Sausage over Creamy Parmesan Polenta

I think I’ve said this before, but red sauce over polenta has somehow morphed into my comfort food. My favorite of these recipes is a slow-roasted pork shoulder ragu, but that takes all day, and I don’t always have the time. 

This recipe is not a direct substitute, but it’s a fine option when time is of the essence. I used turkey sausage to make it lighter, though that was a mistake. The sauce needed the grease and flavor from a pork sausage, I think. And the polenta, as scripted, was a bit too loose for my tastes. I want it to almost be a solid, you know?

Claire, btw, asked for the leftovers in her lunch, which as we all know is its own success. 

[amandazeee]

Indian Butter Chicken

This is one of those times where, honestly, the only word I can think of to describe this recipe is “yes.” Yes, it’s delicious. Yes, you should make it. Yes, it’s easy. 

[amandazeee]

Spicy Shrimp with Cauliflower Mash and Garlic Kale

This recipe has been stalking me on Pinterest. No matter when I log in or how far I scroll through my feed, it is always there, posted by dozens of people, begging me to make it. So I gave in and it was good. 

Yet I am indifferent. Why? I have no idea. It was like I had been bullied into making it! 

It wasn’t even that hard. Lots of components, sure. It was probably 90 minutes start to finish. It dirted a lot of dishes. (The cauliflower mash, btw, required the use of my Vitamix. Hand mashing left it too chunky and watery.) 

The next day I heated up the cauliflower polenta, topped it with leftover kale and two fried eggs, and it was magic. But I still don’t want to make it again, and I’m going to take that as a sign.

[amandazeee]

Glazed Beef Skewers with Ginger Slaw

My house in California has a giant-ass backyard, and yet it was often something to be avoided rather than enjoyed. It’s hugeness was intimidating and its landscaping was impossible for us to keep up with, even when we hired a part-time gardener. It never did become someplace we wanted to spend a lot of time which, in hindsight, was sad.

My house in Minnesota has a much smaller backyard. Half of it is covered in mulch, our “dog park.” But we’ve spent a lot of time and money to make the other half as welcoming as possible. Last week we took the ultimate step and bought new patio furniture, including an outdoor couch big enough for napping.

I tell this story because this is the first meal we ate outside after this purchase. (We opted for lounging furniture instead of dining furniture, because we care more about having our coffee there in the morning than full-on al fresco dining.) These skewers were yummy and simple, and the slaw was great - we used bagged broccoli slaw. I’m sure it’s nothing super special, but it tasted great in our newly accessorized space.

[amandazeee]

Grilled Buffalo Chicken Tacos

The Midwest is famous for its cream-of-mushroom-soup-based foods, and heaven knows, I’ve made/eaten/enjoyed my fair share. Every time I plop that greyish semi-solid substance into a bowl I feel at once horrified and comforted, knowing that whatever comes out of the oven in 45 minutes will be salty and filling and probably full of ground meats.

And still. STILL. I have never felt more like a Midwestern mom than I did making this dish, no canned soup required. Can’t even explain it. We do Taco Tuesday most weeks, and I am always looking for something new. This was certainly new. But had I fallen prey to the ultimate kidification of the practice? 

It doesn’t really matter, I guess. Both Claire and Joel ate the hell out of these tacos. They were delicious. They were easy. They were bright orange.

[amandazeee]

Crunchy Veg Bowl with Warm Peanut Sauce

Just yesterday in this space I was saying how I hate to cut things into matchsticks. And yet, this dish is basically matchsticks and thinly-sliced slivers of veggies for days and days. For that alone, I’m not entirely sure I’ll make this again in the future - an hour of chopping things? No thanks.

That said, this concoction is a delicious one, and I made 7-minute eggs for the first time (no idea why it took this long). While it might seem weird to serve all these things over rice, it just works. 

A note to other salad-hating friends: There is so much chewing involved in eating this dish. You know the kind. You put a forkful in, and even though the flavors of lovely, you feel like your jaw will fall off with all the chewing. Such a strange phenomenon. 

[amandazeee]

There aren’t many culinary techniques that stump me. Sure, there are things I don’t like to do or find tedious, such as cutting anything into matchsticks. But shaving the asparagus for this dish made me feel like an idiot. 

I have a great peeler. I bought thick asparagus stalks. I did exactly as I was told, and mostly ended up with pieces that were either mushy or chunky, or sometimes both. Maybe the solution to my national shaved asparagus tragedy is a mandolin? 

And, after the frustration of sort-of shaving the asparagus, I found this frittata to be pretty bland. The kind of bland that can’t be saved with Maldon salt, which is saying something. The kind of bland that sees the remaining half of your frittata in the dogs’ bowls the next day. (Yes, I seasoned throughout, included salty bacon, and even used a saltier cheese: feta.)

[amandazeee]

Chocolate peanut butter green smoothie

We have a smoothie every morning, always with some variance on bananas/pineapple/strawberries/blueberries/spinach/mango - whatever comes frozen in a giant bag from Costco. I never add protein powder because I hate what it does to the texture, but if I don’t eat something else I’m starving two hours later.

This peanut butter smoothie isn’t all fun and games. It has chia seeds and spinach, but still takes fantastic. It’s magical, and tastes like dessert. It also kept me full until lunchtime, so yay. 

[amandazeee]

Ever since we got back from Spain, we’ve been searching for a garlicy, buttery, oily shrimp recipe. Maybe the ladies of Pinterest shy away from so many fatty ingredients, but I’ve never found one that is right.

This one isn’t, either, but it’s rich and delicious in its own way. The bulk of the flavor comes from a lot of butter and parmesan cheese - a twist I hadn’t seen before. It’s legit good, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it would probably be just as good with LESS butter and LESS cheese. I know!

[amandazeee]

Chicken and Beef Fajitas

It’s grilling season! It’s grilling season! 

I went hunting for a quick fajita marinade this week, and stumbled upon this Pioneer Woman recipe. I hate having to remember to start things before work - my past is littered with recipes I never made because I couldn’t get the timing right. 

Thankfully, this was not one of those times. Managed to get it mixed and bagged before work. It was a great, basic marinade, not too spicy for kids. I’d toss it on shrimp, too,  

[amandazeee]

Grain-free Banana Coconut Cookies

Sometimes I hate myself for trying all these paleo, gluten free, sugar free, three-ingredient treats. Or “treats.” Because most of the time whatever it is tastes a bit like cardboard, or like nothing at all.

I was actually really excited about these “cookies,” which tasted pretty good straight out of the oven. An hour later, the flavor had sort of leeched out of them. The next day, they were rubbery and totally weird and went straight in the trash. Fail. 

[amandazeee]

More than once this week I had a conversation with someone about dessert philosophy. For me, dessert is chocolate. Even a little chocolate is better than not chocolate. I will eat cheese after a meal, but that’s not dessert. I will eat fruit or citrus-based pies/cakes/tarts/crisps, but that’s always disappointing. 

I went digging through my “Dessert” board on Pinterest looking for something easy and chocolatey that I could take to a work function. I wasn’t specifically looking for a cookie, but these certainly fit the bill. 

I don’t have much to add to “browniest” - because in this case, there is truth in advertising - except to say they’re also easy and I was able to make them with pantry ingredients. 

[amandazeee]

Another winning pork recipe. Two within a span of two weeks! That’s crazy talk. 

The key to making this the most delicious is the char. The marinade is good, but can only do so much. The meat has to be just this side of blackened, so if that’s not your thing, carry on.

We served it on top of fried brown rice, but it would be great on sesame noodles or peanut noodles, I think. 

[amandazeee]

I’ve noticed that we eat more latin-inspired foods since I started cutting back on pasta. Sticking stuff in tortillas is about as easy as dumping stuff over pasta, but is it necessarily better? I dunno.

I’m newly focused on further cutting our reliance on meat, from at least one veggie day a week to two or three. Latin-ish food is so easy for that, too!

We made these veggie flautas with corn tortillas rather than flour, but otherwise followed the recipe to the letter. They turned out great. Even Claire liked them! I want to put avocado crema on everything.

They definitely lost a little something the next day, tho. The tortillas just can’t hold their crispiness in the fridge, but the flavor was still good. 

[amandazeee]

Chicken and Black Bean Enchiladas

I’ve tried at least a dozen chicken enchilada recipes over the years, and there’s really not much to distinguish them from one another. There’s no big tah-dah! with this one, either, but the filling is definitely more flavorful than others I’ve tried.

The recipe calls for you to make your own enchilada sauce, which I sort of did. I only bought one can of tomato sauce, so only had ingredients for half the sauce. I like my enchiladas SAUCY, so I added a can of pre-made enchilada sauce at the end. The recipe version was great - but not necessarily better than the stuff from a can, which is easier. 

I froze a bunch of these and had them for dinner again two weeks later, and they served beautifully, if you’re into that sort of thing. 

[amandazeee]

Pork bulgogi

Behold, the recipe that made my entire family eat (and enjoy) pork.

You can totally make this with beef, too, but it was absolutely perfect with pork tenderloin. Sweet, spicy, charred, tender, perfect on top of brown rice and probably equally as good over rice noodles. Or chopped up in fried rice. Or maybe even chopped up in ramen. The possibilities are endless. 

I used my box grater to prep the garlic, ginger and pear and it went super quick. Quick enough that I prepped everything before work and wasn’t even running behind, and it was easy enough for my hubby to cook up in the evening when I had to work late. 

Also: leftovers.

[amandazeee]

Slow Cooker Corned Beef

I always mean to make corned beef for St. Pat’s, which is when good brisket seems to come out in full force at the market. This year I actually put it on my grocery list, and lo and behold! It happened! Costco had beautiful corned beef brisket all ready to go. (Which means it’s been brined, which is totally cheating with this recipe, so your mileage may vary)

There’s too much going on at my house to tend to something in the oven all day, and here’s the thing - this corned beef was absolutely freaking delicious straight from the crockpot. DELICIOUS. It was also the perfect texture, which as everyone knows is key to making hash on day two.

We’re not crazy about boiled potatoes or carrots, so we roasted them in the oven instead. And, full honesty - I hate cabbage, so we skipped that altogether.