Easy veggie burgers with fun toppings! -with potatoes and okra

So this one is some what of a cheat. We always keep those morningstar veggie burgers on hand for busy weeks when I don't exactly have time to perfectly plan out our meals :) This would be one of those weeks! So basically you jusst grill the burger... that's easy enough. The fun part comes with the side items and the toppings! My husband and I vary greatly with our choice in burger toppings. He has a cheese allergy- so cheeseburgers do not exist in our house. As you read you'll notice that very few, if any, of my recipes have cheese. Any who, back to the fun!

For his burger (top picture), I didn't have and buns (remember we're doing the low carb thing) but I did have some wheat bread- so instant pattymelt style! I stuck the bread in the toaster over with a spray of PAM and some garlic salt. Viola- better than a bun! He then doctored it with a sriracha mayonaise mixture. He's a simplist when it comes to condiments.

For my burger (bottom picture), I had some left over spinach- artichoke dip from the football game saturday, and I had some baby bellas left from the chicken dish I cooked the other night.... I sauteed the mushrooms in burned butter sauce and then mixed in the spinach artichoke dip to make a lovely spread for the top of my burger. Easy yet impressive :) No bun for me!

The side items are roasted red potatoes and roasted homegrown okra.
Potatoes: cut into bite sized pieces and toss in olive oil to coat. Then toss in whatever seasoning you desire. Tonight it was Emeril Lagasse's Essence. Place potatoes on baking sheet and bake at 400 for 15 minutes or until soft and golden brown.
Okra: Toss lightly in olive oil, then in corn meal and seasoned salt. I use Penzey's seasoned salt. It's amazing.  I put the okra on the same baking sheet as the potatoes and cooked it all at once.
- If you're impatient, you can always turn the oven from bake to broil to speed up the process and crisp it up a bit :)

When everything is ready plate, assemble etc and enjoy!

Mushroom and Vegetable Chicken Balsamico

Sorry fellow readers for my absence over the weekend. I live in a college and when football is in town for the weekend, I really don't have much time for anything, even cooking! So here is my blog from the post last week on the mushroom, vegetable, and chicken dinner. This is a recipe I found from Campbell's Kitchen and I pretty much followed it straight on! It was amazing. We're trying to stick to the low carb trend in our house, so we just ate it how it was. However, if you're looking for a more hearty meal, it would be perfect to serve over pasta, rice, or even couscous.  So on to the recipe:

Ingredients:

olive or vegetable oil

4 chicken breast

8 oz mushrooms (I used 1/2 white mushrooms, 1/2 baby bellas)

2 squash (I used one yellow squash and one zucchini)

1 medium onion

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 cups marinara sauce

Prep:

1.) Cut and pound chicken breast if necessary (depends on what size pieces of chicken you want. larger pieces take longer to cook) salt and pepper both sides.

2.) Cut mushrooms and squash into slices, onion can be sliced or wedged, and mince the garlic cloves.

Cooking:

** If you're cooking rice or pasta to go with this meal, go ahead and start it now.***

1.) Heat oil in skillet and add chicken. Cook chicken until brown on both sides and has internal temp of at least 165 (about 10 minutes). Set aside and cover to keep warm.

Note: If you have more than one skillet you can cook the vegetables in one and the chicken in the other at the same time. You just need to prep everything at the same time. 

2.) Heat more oil (or if you're doing the two skillet method oil in the second skillet- I actually used my wok for the vegetables). Add mushrooms, vegetables, and garlic to oil and saute until soft. 

3.) To the vegetable mixture, stir in 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar and two cups marinara sauce. 

4.) Add in chicken breast and bring to a simmer. Cover and let cook for 10 minutes so the the vegetables and chicken can soak up the sauce flavor. 

*** if cooking couscous cook it while the sauce is simmering***

Once all is ready, plate and serve! Another yummy add on would be a side of toasted french bread

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Taco Salad

I've been on a little bit of a clean eating kick, and this meal has been one of my favorites so far! It's flavorful, healthy, and fresh. with out further a-do, let get right into it:

1.) Take fresh lettuce and tear/cut into bite sized pieces.
2.) I had some spicy tortilla crusted chicken tenders that I baked and cut into small cubes.
3.) While the tenders were baking I made fresh guacamole and pico de gallo (see recipes below)
4.) Also warmed up some black beans and drained them.
5.) Once everything was ready, I layered it on the lettuce:
      - Chicken cubes, black beans, pico de gallo, guacamole and I stuck a whole grain tortilla chip in the top for show :)

So now you're wanting the pico and guacamole recipes:
Pico de gallo: Adapted from All Recipes-- pico de gallo
1.) dice one large tomato and half an onion and put in medium sixed mixing bowl.
2.) chop about 1/8 cup of fresh cilantro and add to tomato and onion.
3.) If desired, add one fresh jalapeno- very finely diced
4.) add 1/2 tsp garlic powder
5.) add 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp salt
Mix all ingredients together and set in refrigerator to sit until ready.

Guacamole: (adapted from Alton Brown's recipe-- guacamole
1.) peel and mash one ripe avocado
2.) dice 1/2 medium sized tomato
3.) add garlic, salt, pepper, cumin and lime juice to taste. (start small- you can always add more!)
4.) mix/mash all ingredients together until you reach your desired consistency. I like mine a little more on the chunky side.  If you want it super smooth, pull out the food processor and give it a spin.

Beef tenderloin sliders with fresh mini potatoes and home grown green beans

So this recipe is a leftover/cheat- but still so good!!! The beef tenderloin was already cooked- which saved me some time- but any pork or beef tenderloin would work great in this recipe. 

1.) Make Au Jus sauce:

     - bring 3 cups of water to a boil, add in 4 cubes beef bullion and reduce to a simmer. when bullion has dissolved, wisk in 4 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste. Wisk until smooth. I a thicker sauce is desired, add a few tsp flour. 

2.) Transfer Au Jus to a deep skillet or wok. bring back to simmer and add aliced beef tenderloin. let simmer on low to soak up the Au Jus flavor while you prepare the rest.

3.) Bring 2 small or medium sized pots of water to boil. In one add fresh cut green beans, salt, and diced onion. In the other, drop desired amount of mini potatoes. I used a medley of yukon, red, and purple from The Fresh Market. Cook both until soft.

4.) While potatoes and green beans are cooking, I baked the yeast rolls. Again I cheated and used Sister Schubert's ready made freezer yeast rolls. (you can find these at Sam's Club) They take about 10-15 minutes in a toaster oven on 350 degrees. 

5.) When all is ready, cut open the rolls, place the beef tenderloin on top and drizzle with Au Jus sauce. You may also add spicy mustard or horseradish if you like an extra zing. Add green beans and potatoes. (not pictured- but I smashed my potatoes gently with my fork and put a tiny bit of butter atop each one). 

ENJOY!

Teriyaki Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Everyone has had those wonderful lettuce wraps at P.F. Chang's Restaurant, well here's a copy cat recipe: 

1.) Start with grilled chicken strips- how you prep them doesn't matter (Tyson actually has some pre done grilled strips you could use for a quick fill in) and chop them into very small pieces.

2.) Dice 1/2 onion and set aside. 

3.) Melt butter in saute pan or skillet. Put in chicken and onions. Cook until onions begin to soften. 

4.) Spoon about 4 tablespoons of hosin sauce and mix until covered. 

5.) Repeat, but with teriyaki sauce/glaze.- continue to cook another 2-3 minutes. 

6.) Spoon chicken and onion mixture onto lettuce (I used red leaf boston)

I served the wraps with a side of quinoa and some organic black grapes. 

for the quinoa:

1.) Combine 2 cups of chicken broth with 1 cup of  quinoa and bring to a boil.  Lower to a simmer and let cook for about 15 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed. (if you don't have chicken broth you can use water, but the chicken broth gives so much more flavor)

ENJOY!!!

Sweet n Sour Chicken with Lo Mein

      This one is a complete original that I conjured up as I went along, so bear with me :) I decided to spice up some left over chicken fingers with a chinese favorite of mine. So I'll cut to the chase and get down to the recipe.

First, I threw together a sweet and sour/spicy sauce: 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tbsp white wine or rice wine vinegar, 1/8 cup soy sauce, 2 tbsp sweet chili sauce. (you can eyeball the ingredients to the consistency and taste you like). Wisk together until smooth and set aside.

1.) I always start with what takes the longest- so start a pot of boiling water for the lo mein noodles.
2.) Then prep the vegetables you would like to toss into the lo mein. I used what I had on hand in the pantry: corn, peas, carrots, onions, and bamboo shoots. (chop the carrots and the onions into small pieces)
3.) Warm some olive oil in a large skillet or wok. add vegetables and begin to saute.
4.) While the vegetables are cooking, cut the chicken fingers into large bite size pieces. Put into a large bowl and drizle with about half the sweet and sour/spicy sauce. Toss the chicken bites until lightly coated.
5.) When noodles are done add to vegetable mixture and pour in some soy sauce. (Enough to cover the noodles but not soupy). Stir
6.) Add chicken to the noodles and vegetables and pour over the rest of the sweet and sour/spicy sauce. Mix thouroughly. Cook until chicken is warm.

Spoon into a bowl and serve :)

Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup

#leftovers

Crockpot- all in one chicken noodle soup

This is one that I completely threw together on a whim. My husband wasn't feeling well today- so what does that mean? comfort food!!!! and what better than chicken noodle soup? I had gotten a rotisserie chicken the other night and remembered that it was still in the fridge. I went home at lunch to check on the hubby and after I ate lunch I threw together this little meal:

Ingredients:
- Chicken, Onion, Carrot, cream of mushroom soup, chicken broth, pasta noodles, celery salt, salt, and pepper to taste.

1.) De-bone and chop chicken. Place in crock pot.
2.) chop carrots- I used baby carrots cut into slices- just as many as you like, put into crock pot
3.) chop onion- I like onion, so I used a whole one. Put into crockpot.
4.) I didn't have any celery, but if you want, this is where you would chop and put it in.
5.) Put one 10oz can of cream of mushroom  into crock pot and mix all ingredients together.
6.) Season with celery salt and salt and pepper.
7.) Pour one carton of chicken broth over all ingredients and stir well. Turn crock pot on low and walk away- check every once in a while. I started at noon and got home at 6:30. It looked amazing.
8.) About 30 minutes before you want to eat add about 2-3 (eyeball it) cups of chicken broth, and add in your noodles- Turn the crock pot up to high. Watch and stir, to keep the noodles from sticking. The noodles should cook and soften, soaking up the flavors of the broth. When noodles are done- you are ready to eat!!! serve with crackers or toast :)

Welcome!

So, due to the popularity of #kittyskitchen I've decided to create a blog with the recipes and any links I may have used as inspiration. I hope you all enjoy and share! I would love to see comments and suggestions or pictures of any meals that you have created. Bon Apetite!

Chicken and waffles...and bacon....and eggs....

#leftovers

Whenever I have left over chicken fingers two thoughts normally cross my mind- “oooh, I can do chicken and waffles,” or “I think I see chicken salad in my future.” This time the chicken tenders were transformed into chicken and waffles. It was Sunday morning after the first home Alabama football game and I already had this meal created in my mind. As I started pulling things out of the refrigerator, I realized I also had eggs and bacon… score!!! This meal really isn’t a difficult one, it’s all about creativity and presentation.  Here’s how I did it

1.)    Cook bacon stovetop, place on paper towel (to soak up grease) and place in microwave to stay warm. Reserve some of the bacon grease for the eggs if you like.

2.)    Next scramble the eggs ( I like to add a bit of milk to make them fluffy) on medium heat in the same pan you cooked the bacon- it gives the eggs that bacon flavor, and you don’t dirty up another pan. Put the eggs in a bowl and cover to keep warm.

3.)    Then I took out the chicken fingers and placed on a tray in the toaster over to crisp up. Don’t microwave them, you’ll have soggy breading! Let the chicken fingers crisp while you mix up the waffle batter. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn. Once they are done just turn off the toaster oven and let them hang out in there until you are ready to plate them.

4.)    Now it’s time for the waffles. I always to the waffle last because they take the longest and also tend to get soggy if they have to wait on other food to be prepared. They honestly aren’t anything fancy- just your regular ole Bisquick mix, made according to the directions on the box. (However I do add a splash of vanilla extract for sweetness, and you can use buttermilk to make them fluffier). We have a fabulous waffle maker that was a wedding present, I believe it is by black and decker. It makes perfect waffles every time.

5.)    Once waffles are done, simply arrange on plate the desired amount. (if you like butter on your waffles, spread the butter on at this point) I then arranged the chicken fingers, then added the fluffy scrambled eggs, and finally crisscrossed the top with bacon.

6.)    Lastly a light drizzle of syrup went back and forth across the whole creation.  Viola! Chicken and waffles… and bacon… and eggs…. Enjoy!!!

Boston Butt Shepherd's Pie

#leftovers

Shepherd’s pie is a dish that is extremely versatile and great when you have leftover meat, or just want a hearty all in one meal. I’ve done several variations of this classic Irish dish, but this one is probably my favorite thus far. For kickoff to football season in conjunction with Labor Day my husband got out the electric smoker and cooked chicken wings, drumsticks and a Boston butt. Well, on can only have so much Boston butt by itself, so I began to get creative with new ways to eat it! This was the last of the butt in the shepherd’s pie. Like many of my leftover creations its super easy:

Ingredients:

-          Mashed potatoes (I normally just do betty crocker boxed potatoes, but if you have extra real potatoes and want to mash them, do that first!)

-          Chopped/diced sweet onion

-          Your choice vegetable- corn, peas, or mixed vegetables (drained) always work well (if vegetables are frozen cook before you start step one)

-          Boston butt- chopped (you may also use ground beef, pork tenderloin etc)

1.)    Take chopped butt and sauté on stove with butter, garlic, and a touch of Worcestershire sauce (or you may also use A1 or BBQ, get creative!) until warm, then transfer to “greased” or “sprayed” glass baking dish. (size depends on how much you want to make)

2.)    Spread vegetables and onions on top of meat.

3.)    Evenly spread mashed potatoes over vegetables. Make sure it is a thick layer. Then I normally sprinkle some garlic salt or other herbs on the top to be fancy. You can also spray/brush/drizzle melted butter on top.

4.)    Place into 425 degree oven and bake until meat and vegetables begin to bubble and the potatoes just start to brown.

5.)    Let cool and serve with garlic toast if desired! 

Open face pulled pork sandwiches, onion rings, and okra!

This one is a super easy leftover masterpiece. As you know, the husband smoked a boston butt and we STILL had some left. So I went easy and threw together Open faced sandwiches on texas toast. The real "cooking" in this meal is the onion rings and the okra. You would think it's easy to fry up some onion rings and okra, but it can go so wrong so fast. There's a little bit of talent that goes into getting the perfectly crunchy onion ring- not too much breading, not dripping with grease- you know what I'm talking about. So here we go!

Onion Rings: 

- Go ahead and begin heating vegetable oil in skillet on stove. You will need just enough to cover the onion rings. You can test if its ready by dropping a small pinch of cornmeal in the oil. If it begins to sizzle then it's ready :) 

1.) Slice onions to desired thickness

2.) Put cornmeal in a bowl (amount depends on how many onions rings you want, you can normally eyeball it) and mix in whatever seasonings you like. I normally bounce between Tony Chaceres creole seasoning and Penzey's Seasoned Salt. 

****SIDE NOTE: A Majority of the spices/seasoning I use come from Penzey's. If you haven't discovered them yet you should! They are amazing! 

3.) Whisk/scramble 2-3 eggs (again depending on how many onion rings you want)

4.) Dip onion rings into eggs and then immediately into cornmeal mixture. Set aside until you are ready to cook them. 

5.) Once oil is hot, carefully place onion rings in skillet. Be Cautious- as oil tends to pop and splash if you just dump them all in at once! 

6.) Let onion rings cook, watching for browning along the edges. When you see this, turn the rings and let the other side cook. Rings are done when they have reached your desired golden crunchiness. 

(Don't worry if some of the breading comes off. That will happen, but doesn't take away from the taste! These are very lightly breaded onion rings- don't expect a thick heavy beer battered result)

7.) Take out of skillet and place on paper towels to cool and soak up any leftover oil. (cover with a plate and place in microwave or warmed oven until you are ready to serve.

Now it's time for the okra... Guess what??? It's the same as the Onion rings!!!! Check your oil and see if you need to add more. TIP: prepare onion rings and okra at the same time so your oil doesn't cool down and have to heat back up. ***variation: you don't have to dip the okra in egg if you don't want to- you can spray/spritz it with a little PAM cooking spray or cooking oil- that will make the cornmeal stick. Just follow the same instructions as above and your okra will be just as fabulous!

ENJOY!

For the sandwiches- I simply pulled the pork and drizzled our favorite barbecue sauce over it. Texas toast: Put a little butter in a skillet and let melt until it begins to bubble- This is called burned or browned butter. While the butter is melting, butter one side of the bread. Sprinkle some garlic salt on the butter and place the un-buttered side of the bread in the butter. Let cook until bread is lightly toasted, then flip and toast other side. Spread a little bit of sauce on the inside of the bread before arranging the pork. If you're feeling fancy throw a few pickles on top :) 

Toss it in there Taquitos!

#leftovers

 

                            Boston butt w/ chorizo                   ground beef with verde salsa

Baked Taquitos are another easy, versatile, leftover creation. You pretty much just throw everything in there and bake it! But I’m going to walk you through how I did it and some tips to help make them great! With taquitos the sky’s the limit- pick out whatever ingredients you like and get them all ready first.  Some suggestions for fillers are:

-          Shredded chicken, ground beef, chorizo, pulled pork, steak, shrimp

-          Grilled/sautéed vegetables, black beans, rice, corn, refried beans, quinoa

-          Salsa, pico de gallo, onions…. Etc etc

The taquitos pictured above were created with leftover boston butt that was sautéed with chorizo and salsa. I’ve also recently done them with ground beef that I sautéed with verde salsa and onions- both were fantastic!!! Chicken with verde salsa or honey lime is a good choice as well…

Like I mentioned, get all of your ingredients ready first.

Here is what I did for the boston butt taquitos:

1.)    If you are using rice or quinoa go ahead and start that- some styles could take up to 20 minutes. *** special secret tip: instead of water use chicken or vegetable broth. You’ll never go back to regular rice again! ***

2.)    Cook/sauté your choice of meat (with salsa or other seasonings)  and set aside.

3.)    Sauté any vegetables (bell pepper, squash, onions) until soft but not caramelized, set aside   ( I often sauté with butter and fajita or taco seasoning to give some flavor)

4.)    Open/drain black beans or warm refried beans and set aside.

5.)    Once you have all your ingredients ready take out a baking sheet and spray with cooking spray. Arrange desired number of soft tortilla shells on baking sheet (its ok if they slightly over lap) and place in 425 degree oven. WATCH CAREFULLY!!!! When you notice the shells begin to bubble or show the slightest bit of color take them out!!!!

6.)    Now, be careful, but work quickly! Take each shell and fill it with desired ingredients. I always start with a light spread of salsa on the bottom, then beans, then meat, then rice, and top with veggies or onions. (you may add cheese too! We have a cheese allergy in my house so you’ll notice my recipes don’t have cheese) Roll taquito closed with seam on the bottom.

7.)    Spray baking sheet again and carefully transfer taquitos to sheet. Spray tops of taquitos or brush with butter so you get a nice golden crispy outside.

8.)    Place back in oven (still at 425) for about 10-12 minutes watching carefully. When the tops are golden and the insides are bubbling it’s time to take them out!

9.)    Let cool appropriately and enjoy! Serve with remaining rice and beans- add in chips if you’re feeling fancy and break out the margaritas!