I Made It

Teaching myself to cook. One recipe at a time.

[lmdoolan]

Swirly, spooky Halloween bark! White chocolate and semisweet chocolate chips (melted in the microwave) with assorted Halloween sprinkles and eyeballs. 👻

[lmdoolan]

Ziti with Caramelized Onions and Mushrooms

Ziti with Portobello Mushrooms, Caramelized Onions, and Goat Cheese on Delish

I’m excited to share this simple and flavorful pasta dish I made this week. Caramelized onions, baby portobello mushrooms, and two types of cheese pack lots of flavor into this dinner. 

I veered from the recipe in one major way: I cut it in half. With just two people in our household, we had a leftover serving even after cutting the ingredients in half. I also didn’t have any fresh parsley, so I used dried parsley. Not the same, for sure, but sometimes I skip fresh herbs to save a little money at the store. If you’re not currently penny-pinching, I’m sure the fresh parsley would be a delight. 

Follow this recipe for a fairly simple and totally filling dinner.  

[lmdoolan]

Lentil Goulash

Vegan American Goulash on Connoisseurus Veg

I have a couple things to say about this meal right away: Nick made it (not me) and our version wasn’t vegetarian since we used chicken broth and Parmesan. We did, however, enjoy the lentils swapped for ground meat, and the meal would be easy to make as written. We’re usually just trying to eat less meat and use up ingredients we have around the house. 

I prepped some of the ingredients in advance to limit the amount Nick would have to chop. The pepper and mushrooms can easily be sliced a day or so before, which is what I did. I also lined up the spices and pantry ingredients on the counter. Nick works a lot more than I do, so when he offers to take over making dinner, I try to make his life easy. 

The flavor of this dish was really rich. The soy sauce added a nice salty kick! I would recommend this dish if you’re trying to eat a little less meat. 

[lmdoolan]

Kielbasa with Potatoes and Cabbage

Braised Kielbasa, Potatoes, and Cabbage on Recipes, Food & Cooking 

I’ve been meaning to cook with cabbage for ages now but never have. I mean, one time Nick accidentally brought home a cabbage instead of a head of lettuce, but we didn’t end up using it since I was expecting a lettuce. 

This dish was an easy way to try cabbage for the first time. The recipe calls for cooking the kielbasa first and then setting it aside, but I cooked it alongside the potatoes and cabbage. I suppose you can do what you like depending on how much time you have and how many skillets you’re willing to clean. 

The potatoes and cabbage cooked pretty quickly (about thirty minutes, though the recipe recommends longer). The cabbage was a little crunchy, but the potatoes were soft, so I decided it was done. I liked it this way, and it probably helped that I’m not exactly sure what the consistency of cooked cabbage should be. 

I also had to drain the water from the potato/cabbage skillet, so you could potentially use a little less water than the recipe calls for. 

Overall, I enjoyed this dish. I would recommend it, especially if you’re looking cook up cabbage for the first time. 

[lmdoolan]

Brussels Sprout and Balsamic Red Onion Pizza

Brussels Sprouts Pizza with Balsamic Red Onions on Cookie and Kate

Last week, Nick and I made the above pizza. I was working that evening and wouldn’t be home until seven, so I prepared the ingredients in the afternoon, and Nick assembled and cooked the pizza while I was on my way home. 

To prepare the ingredients, I sliced the red onions and the Brussels sprouts. The recipe asks you to slice the Brussels sprouts a couple different ways, but I just went with the second method of slicing off the bottoms and then slicing them thin. I also cooked the red onions in a skillet with olive oil, on low, until they were tender and brown. Then, I added the balsamic and a little bacon fat to the skillet. This was going to be a vegetarian recipe, but I have so much bacon fat at my house, that I almost can’t justify not using it in everything I cook. 

We used store bought pizza dough for this particular pizza, though, of course, homemade is always delicious, though who consistently has time to make dough for every pizza they make? Especially if you eat pizza at the rate that I tend to eat pizza. (That rate is quite fast.) 

Overall, this pizza was delicious, and I highly recommend it for a new doughy combination. 

[lmdoolan]

Homemade Oreos

Homemade Oreo Cookies on Weelicious

I made these cookies for a family gathering last weekend. It’s risky to try a new recipe for an event, but, if I had to, I would have tossed them in garbage and brought over extra wine instead. In my experience, people are generally happy to see trays of cookies and bottles of wine brought into their homes.  

I followed the cookie recipe fairly closely, even sifting the dry ingredients, which I’ve been known to skip. I did use all purpose flour instead of the “white wheat flour” the recipe calls for. The dough came together easily in my food processor and was easy to work with. The resulting cookies were delicious, and Nick and I agreed that if the filling was a wash, we would still have some fantastic chocolate cookies to consume. 

The filling, while not a wash, was more difficult to create. I followed the instructions but my butter may have been too cold. The filling did not whip up in a fluffy, friendly way. I let the ingredients sit at room temperature for about an hour, and then I added more of each ingredient and mixed the components again. Eventually, the filling seemed right, and I had enough to spread between the cookies. 

Try these for a great homemade version of a classic cookie. 

[lmdoolan]

Chorizo Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Chorizo Enchilada Stuffed Sweet Potatoes on The Chunky Chef

Enchilada Sauce on Cookie and Kate

I made one disastrous meal this week: a baked black bean recipe from Mark Bittman. Mr. Bittman rarely lets me down, but these beans were a soggy mess. Perhaps I am the one to blame, but I followed the recipe pretty carefully, even when adding additional water sounded suspect. 

After that meal, which we barely ate, I was eager to redeem myself by making something wonderful. This recipe seemed like a great follow up. 

I changed a few things around as I tend to do. For starters, I cut the recipe in half because I always make too much food and am trying to cut back. Next, I skipped the black beans because I used two links of chorizo, which is more than half of what the recipe called for. I also skipped the cheese, but mashed the baked sweet potatoes with a little butter. I also added green onion instead of cilantro because green onion was the green thing that I had on hand. 

I also used the above recipe for homemade enchilada sauce, swapping vegetable broth for homemade turkey stock. 

These sweet potatoes were delicious. They contained a nice mixture of spicy, sweet, buttery, and fresh flavors. 

[lmdoolan]

Spaghetti Pie

Baked Spaghetti Pie on a Spicy Perspective

Is spaghetti pie necessary? Is it a particularly efficient way to make or consume spaghetti? No, and no. But it it delicious? Yes. Would I make it again? Absolutely. 

On the weekends, I try to make something fun or cheesy. This meal was both. I was also able to use the spring form pan that I’ve had for a very long time and never used. Though, I wrapped the pan with so much foil that I’m not sure the springing part was necessary. 

I did, as I tend to, make a few substitutions here. I swapped the beef for turkey and skipped the sausage. We try to be a meat-light household. Though, I did cook the turkey in bacon fat. I also only used two teaspoons of Italian seasoning because two tablespoons sounded like a lot. I’ve over-Italian-seasoned before. I tossed in a pinch of crushed red pepper because most dishes benefit from a pinch of crushed red pepper.  

Other than these ingredient alterations, I did follow the recipe. The pie tasted like a spaghetti delight. 

[lmdoolan]

Taco Pizza

Taco Pizza on Budget Bytes

This pizza was a group effort. I made the refried beans, pico de gallo, and salsa. Nick made the dough and was in charge of assembling and cooking.

I used homemade green salsa and homemade refried beans. I’d never made my own refried beans before, but it was easy and probably much healthier than the canned version. I made mine with black beans, using the recipe from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, which I received as a Christmas gift this year and adore.

We veered from the recipe in a couple of ways. First, instead of cheddar, we used a mix of monterey jack and pepper jack cheeses. Second, we did not add sour cream, and we only used about half of the pico de gallo recipe. The pizza was already quite full!

If we make this again, which we might, I would probably use about half the beans we used. It was on the bean-heavy side and quite spicy, probably due to the fact that I threw in extra heat at every level: the salsa, the beans, the pico, not thinking of the final product. I just really like red pepper flakes and jalepenos. 

Overall, this was a tasty, and sinus-clearing, pizza. 

[lmdoolan]

Meat-Free Shepherd’s Pie

Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie on Tori Avey

I try to make vegetarian food when I can, and this meal was 99.9% vegetarian. Since I’m not an actual vegetarian, just someone who thinks she could stand to eat less meat, I used regular Worchestershire sauce, which has anchovies in it. If you want to make this a true vegetarian meal, that’s all you’ll need to swap. While I’m not going to pretend lentils are a perfect substitute for ground meat, they did make for filling and tasty dinner. 

Do not get involved with this meal on a weeknight. I made it on a Sunday and was glad I wasn’t trying to mash potatoes and boil lentils on a Wednesday night. I followed the recipe pretty closely since this was an entirely new dish to me, except I didn’t peel my potatoes (I’m lazy and this always seems like a wasteful step), and I may have thrown some extra butter in my mash (I’m trying to eat less meat, not enjoy life less). The lentils took longer to boil than the recipe said, but I think that has more to do with the one weak burner on my stove than the recipe or the lentils. 

Try this on a weekend when you’d like to squeeze some vegetarian comfort food into your life. 

[lmdoolan]

Chicken, Pepper, and Provolone Sandwiches

Philly Cheese and Chicken Sandwiches on Skinny Ms. 

Did I make much food this week? The best answer is something like kind-of, sort-of. Like last week, I’m still adjusting to a new full time job with a no-joke commute, so I’m mostly cooking on weekends. Nick and I have devised a pretty good system for weeknights where I’ll prep all the vegetables for the week on Sunday and organize the pantry ingredients the night before, then Nick just has to do the cooking part of cooking. He also does most of the dishes. 

These sandwiches, however, were a Sunday night jam, so I took the lead, and they were my favorite meal of the week. I cooked the chicken in one skillet and the peppers and onion in another. The recipe calls for you to cook them together, which you can, but when I do that I find that often the chicken is overdone and/or the vegetables are underdone. Cooking them separately allows for more control. Both skillets received a dusting of Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. 

I served my sandwiches on potato rolls with provolone and side salad. They were simple and delicious. Though this picture could be better. 

[lmdoolan]

Roasted Broccoli Grilled Cheese

I’ve never met a grilled cheese I didn’t like, but this one was particularly beautiful. It may have helped that I was eating it at the end of a very long week of very long and overwhelming days, but I think the less-tired among you would enjoy it as well. 

This sandwich was inspired by a Budget Bytes recipe for Grilled Broccoli and Cheese, but I made some alterations. First, I roasted about a cup of broccoli for two sandwiches. Okay, I didn’t roast the broccoli, but Nick did. I’ve started prepping all my vegetables for the week in advance, so all he had to do was toss the chopped broccoli in some olive oil and salt and roast it in the toaster oven at 350 degrees. In the oven, this would probably take about thirty minutes, but it usually takes a little longer in the toaster oven. However, the toaster oven  is a better option if you’re looking to make a tiny portion. 

When I arrived home, happy to see the broccoli was ready to go, I melted some butter in a pan and swished four slices of bread around in that melted butter. I piled two of the slices with the broccoli, lots of shredded mozzarella, and freshly ground black pepper. I put the other two slices on top of these glorious mounds of food and covered the pan for maximum cheese-melt. One flip in the pan, a little more toasting, and our sandwiches were ready to eat. 

I’m not sure this picture does the sandwich any justice, but it was nearly eight pm, and I wanted nothing more than to get the food into my face, so there was no time for anything fancy. 

[lmdoolan]

Ham and Swiss Monkey Bread

 Ham and Swiss Money Bread on Lemons for Lulu

The week between Christmas and New Years tends to be chaos. I’m maybe working, a little, but I’m mostly eating sugar cookies, drinking sparkling wine, and gazing at my tiny Christmas tree from my couch. For these lazy, food-filled days, I make dinner, but I make whatever my stomach desires. There’s no spinach mixed into my pasta dish. There’s probably bacon, butter, and an unruly amount of cheese. Which is why I made this ham and Swiss monkey bread. For dinner. For two people. 

I would recommend this as easy to make, fun, and tasty. Following the recipe, I cut up two containers of biscuits. tossed in olive oil and Italian seasoning, and layered them in a pan with diced ham and shredded Swiss cheese. There’s a nice mustard dipping sauce that goes with the bread too; it has a touch of honey in it and lots of flavor. You should make the sauce. 

I struggled to get this out of the bundt pan, even though I thought I greased it with generosity. But I have trouble getting almost anything out of a bundt pan, so don’t read too much into that. Maybe I have a lousy bundt pan or terrible greasing skills. Nick had to help.  

Try this bread for a delightful, cheesy, meal or appetizer. 

[lmdoolan]

Tortilla Pepper Pizzas

Cheesy Red Pepper Tortilla Pizzas on I Wash You Dry

If you’re looking for a simple, satisfying weeknight meal, you can’t go wrong with these easy and cheesy tortilla pizzas. They take little time to prepare and give you all the joy of pizza without the effort or bulk of dough. 

I didn’t use roasted peppers, but I did use a mix of red and yellow peppers, sliced roma tomatoes, fresh basil, and mozzarella. I would recommend only using tomatoes if it’s tomato season (or if you can get better tomatoes than I did). I always forget how mealy winter tomatoes can be until I use one. Of course, these were covered in cheese, so I didn’t mind all that much. 

I spread my ingredients over four medium sized tortillas, but I’m sure any size would work. 

Try these for an ever-so-easy dinner. 

[lmdoolan]

Vegetable Tortellini Bake

Creamy Tortellini Vegetable Bake on Chelsea’s Messy Apron 

I made this on a weeknight, which I would mainly recommend only if you do some vegetable prep work in advance. Personally, my patience for chopping at 6:30 after a day of pleading with middle schoolers to behave is razor thin. Over the weekend, I chopped the carrots, mushrooms, and peppers. 

I skipped the summer squash here as it is not summer, and I swapped snap peas for classic frozen peas. I also used frozen corn. It’s winter; I used what I had. I also cut back on the cheese, skipping the mozzarella altogether and shredding a little parmesan directly into the cream sauce. 

This recipe would be easy to make vegetarian, but I used chicken tortellini and turkey stock, so this version certainly doesn’t qualify. Overall, the recipe seems highly adaptable. Use the vegetables you have and the kind of tortellini you like. 

This was a rich, vegetable-filled meal I can confidently recommend. 

[lmdoolan]

Candy Bar Bars

Candy Bar Pie on Big Oven 

I decided to make the above dessert for Nick’s birthday. Let me be clear: I did not do it right. I apparently have no idea how to work with pre-made pie dough or cookie dough. The only thing I managed properly was the candy. I picked this because it looked easy and fun to put together. I had no idea how quickly it would derail. 

The first thing I did was wrestle some cookie dough out of a tub to press into a pie crust. I don’t generally buy pre-made cookie dough, but I might have had better luck with homemade (or, at the very least, I should have let this batch rise to room temperature). When I pressed the dough into the pie tin, the pie crust shattered. It was way too much pressure for the delicate graham cracker shell. 

Undeterred, I pulled the dough out of what was left of the crust and crumbled the crust into a foil-lined and greased eight by eight pan. I worked the cookie dough into a flat-ish layer over the deconstructed pie crust. 

I dotted the now-bars-no-longer-pie dessert with three types of candy: cut up Twix, mini Reese;s cups, and M&Ms. I baked the bars for over forty minutes, though I’m still not sure they cooked through. 

They actually tasted okay, though definitely hard on the edges and soft in the middle. If I try these again, I will be making some changes. 

[lmdoolan]

Chicken, Broccoli, and Bow Ties

Bowtie Pasta with Chicken and Broccoli on Big Oven

Last night, I made this dish for me, myself, and I. This is too much food for one person. However, I don’t think I’ll mind having a pile of pasta-licious leftovers in the fridge. 

I followed this recipe pretty closely. The only swaps I made were turkey stock for chicken broth and non-oil-packed sun dried tomatoes for oil-packed sun dried tomatoes. I bought the least expensive dried tomatoes at the store since I’m not a very big fan of sun dried tomatoes. I’m not sure why as I like tomatoes every other way they can be preserved. This marked my return to sun dried tomatoes after a long, self imposed departure. 

As a whole, this recipe was really good. While I wasn’t jumping up and down as I consumed the sun-dried tomatoes (which would be both way too enthusiastic and dangerous), I didn’t mind them. And, honestly, that’s a step in the right direction. 

One more note: I tossed in a little extra crushed red pepper. I love crushed red pepper. You should do the same.