Before I get into what I made (3 recipes tonight and my plan is 3 or 4 more tomorrow), there are a few things you should know.
1. I cannot follow directions. Yes, I am getting a Ph.D. Yes, I was a middle school teacher. Yes, I am an adult capable of living on my own. Every single recipe I tried, I changed something. Sometimes because I felt like it and sometimes because I wasn't paying attention or forgot something. Domesticity is not my strong suit. It should also be known that my grad school mentors frequently get frustrated with me because I just do what I want and don't always listen to them. I also get pulled over for speeding quite a bit. Maybe one of my 2014 New Years' Resolutions will involve learning how to follow directions. Probably not, but maybe...
2. I'm a bit of a hazard. I've always been in an on-going battle with gravity (i.e. I trip a lot), I run into door frames on a daily basis, and I break stuff. Just this past Thursday, I was at a training where lunch was served. I got a salad and while eating the salad, I broke my plastic fork. What's worse, this happens to me a lot. I don't understand how people eat with plastic utensils; they're so fragile. Anyway, these behaviors also occur in the kitchen. My poor arms and hands are covered in burn scars...with a new one from today's adventure. Whomp, whomp.
Since I live alone and am usually cooking for one, I wanted to use plastic Ziploc baggies and small loaf pans when I could. The idea was to have individually portioned meals that I can grab and bake/heat. Typically when I have company, I cook. I also wanted stuff that was super easy. I work during the day and have classes or teach at night. Most of my days are 10 or more hours and my brain is friend when I get home - I need dinners that don't take brain power to fix.
Recipe Number 1 - Sour Cream Noodle Bake
This recipe is taken from the Pioneer Woman - I love her stuff. Her food is full of flavors I love, easy, and hearty. I saw this one on the episode I referenced earlier and could not wait to try it! Since I was planning to freeze this and read that freezing sour cream is not a good idea, I omitted that part. On the day of this meal, however, I plan to add sour cream after baking.
Here's how I did it:
1. Brown ground chuck in a skillet, seasoning with salt and pepper.
2. Drain the meat, and add one can of diced tomatoes. (The original used tomato sauce, but I love chunks of tomato in just about anything. If I don't have canned diced tomatoes in my pantry, I get a bit unnerved.) Add a little bit more pepper. Let this sit on low while preparing the other part of the ingredients.
3. Cook noodles of your choice. I chose tri-color penne.
4. In a bowl, mix 1 and 1/4 cup of cottage cheese, black pepper, and green onions.
5. Drain the noodles and add them to the cottage cheese mix.
6. Take your baking container. Pour a layer of the cottage cheese/noodle mix, then layer on some of the meat/tomato mix, and top with grated cheese. Repeat as many times as you like, depending on how many layers you want. You can also mix everything together and not layer.
7. Let it cool, cover with foil, and label. On the serving day, bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
For me, this recipe made 3 small loaf pans of the meal. Each loaf pan is about 2 servings.
Recipe Number Two - Bacon Ranch Chicken and Potatoes (Crockpot)
This morning, I realized I would want to eat dinner and was planning on going grocery shopping. I make grocery lists, but if I don't have something cooking at home for dinner, my grocery trips turn into a kid on a candy-craze. I want everything! I didn't have much in my pantry, so I grabbed some random items, threw them in my crockpot, and hoped for the best! As luck would have it, it turned out great! This is also a Tracey-created recipe, but I'm sure it exists in a more sophisticated presentation.
Here's how I did it:
Add to a crockpot...
- 2 pieces of chicken breast
- 3 sliced red potatoes
- 4 slices of chopped uncooked bacon
- 1 packet of ranch dressing mix (the powdery, seasoning stuff)
- season salt (I love this stuff, so a lot)
- salt
- pepper
- chicken broth (just enough so that things don't burn or get dried out)
Cook on low heat for 6-8 hours.
This was so delicious! Ranchy, bacony, yum! I ate some of this for dinner, then packaged the rest in 3 Ziploc baggies and added to the freezer. When I want to eat it again, I just have to thaw, heat, and eat.
Recipe Number Three - Shrimp Scampi-Fredo
If there ever existed a meal that I would want to marry, it's this one. This meal represents everything I love about food and symbolizes how my misfortunes can still make a great dinner. I LOVE pasta and shrimp. Shrimp is probably my all time favorite food, though I love all shellfish pretty equally. If I end up living in a coastal city, I will be in Heaven. Now, the beauty of this meal is that I royally screwed it up, but it still works! In the title, I've linked to the original recipe, but I'll show you what I did below.
Here's how I did it:
1. Heat 4 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet.
2. Once the butter is melted and the mix starts simmering a little, add in some chopped onion and garlic.
3. Let the onions and garlic cook a little.
4. Add in the shrimp (I used half a pound, but you can put in however much you like).
5. Oh yea, heat some water for the pasta. (and yes, this is really the moment I remembered to do that)
6. Squeeze in the juice of 2 lemons. Toss in some chopped fresh basil. Add pepper.
7. Pour in about a cup of whipping cream. (Here's where I messed up. The original recipe called for white wine. I didn't want to use wine because I would have to open a new bottle and consequently, would have to drink said bottle. Normally, this would be fine, but tonight I just wasn't feeling it. Understandable, I know. However, what this created was more of an alfredo sauce with a really tangy scampi taste. DELICIOUS! Hence, the name "scampi-fredo".)
8. Reduce heat to low and let simmer.
9. Add Angel hair pasta to the boiling water. Cook for 8 minutes, while scampi-fredo sauce is simmering.
10. Drain pasta, keeping a little bit of the pasta juice to ad to the final mixture if it isn't to your liking.
11. Add pasta to the scampi-fredo sauce. Mix around.
12. Pour into small loaf pans, cool, cover, and freeze.
Thank goodness I ate dinner before cooking this meal. I sampled it and thought I would fall over, it was THAT good. This will now be a staple in my house. I CANNOT wait to pull it out of the freezer, thaw, heat, and eat!
This concludes the minor cooking adventures of the Small Town Girl. I learned a few things, have a new scar, and have a total of 9 meals waiting in the freezer for one of those busy days this coming semester. Tomorrow I'm tackling two soup recipes and salisbury steak. Wish me luck!
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