I love Mexican food. Really, tex-mex, because I can't imagine what I'm getting, or making, in Nebraska, is terribly authentic. I can eat tacos for days in a row, (and have, for lunch, when we had a taco bar party and I vastly overestimated how much meat we'd need,) and I've found various tex-mex recipes to try out at home when I'm oddly not quite as ready to try them in a restaurant. This particular recipe came about due to my great love of tex-mex, and my need to use up a large pack of chicken thighs I'd found on sale. It might even be a bit more authentic than our usual fare.
Read moreNepalese Guesthouse Chicken.
Most of the time, when I’m cooking chicken, I’ll be cooking boneless, skinless breasts. It’s not that we don’t like whole chicken, we do, but so many recipes simply default to that standard. In trying to save money, I learned that buying bone-in chicken meat, especially whole birds, is actually more economical than even buying the bag of frozen breasts, if you don’t want the 13% injected ones, anyway. I’ve since learned how to roast a whole bird well, but after that I was sort of stuck. Enter the book Poulet. I’ve found recipes in this book that are a complete departure from what we’re used to, and they’re good.
Read moreMediterranean Chicken Breasts.
I'm not sure how authentically "Mediterranean" this recipe is, but I love it, so we'll go with it. This is an easy meal to pull together, quick, delicious, and guaranteed to pass my picky eater's test. Serve with couscous (the fastest cooking side ever, it seems,) and one or two vegetables, and you've got a quick and complete(ly delicious) meal.
Read moreThe Best Oatmeal.
I have around 30ish recipes for oatmeal on this site. For someone who isn't a huge fan of a lot of breakfast foods, I like oatmeal. Most of those recipes are based off of a formula of one part oatmeal to one part water to one part milk. Guys, its wrong. As much as I can dress up a bowl of oatmeal with just about anything, (Lime wedges? Sure! PB&J? Delicious! Mascarpone cheese? Mercy.), the underlying bowl of oats should taste good on its own. Unfortunately, the one to one to one ratio just ends up with goop. Thick, rib-sticking, hearty, but goop, nonetheless.
Read moreEgg Fried Rice.
My first real date with Chris was to a school dance. We went on a double date with mutual friends, and we left the pre-dance dining choice up to them. They chose a local Chinese restaurant that I enjoyed and had been to many times with my family. Unbeknownst to me, at this time, Chris hated Chinese food. He was, (and still sometimes is), a notoriously picky eater, and didn't know of a single dish he enjoyed there. He wanted to impress me though, and didn't protest the restaurant choice (especially after I made known that I enjoyed going there).
Read moreRatatouille.
This is NOT a traditional ratatouille recipe. If you think I could get eggplant in any form past my guys, you don't know us very well. :) Still, this is a delicious sauce-like creation to serve over pasta, that changes it just enough that I'm not bored, and is similar enough to other pasta dishes that my guys will still eat it. Jonathan even agreed to eat one of the tomatoes! (After which he promptly declared he still doesn't like tomatoes.)
Read morePeanutty Chicken and Pasta.
Lately on my son's and my regular date to the library, I pick up a couple cookbooks to browse though. Usually I find one, maybe two recipes I'm truly interested in making, and I usually don't get around to making those. This cookbook, though, the Southern Living Kids Cookbook, has so many post-its sticking out of it now I hardly know where to begin. Jonathan even helped me choose which recipes to make, though I suspect he was just having fun sticking on the post-its to as many pages as possible. I know for a fact he wouldn't eat the chicken salad he picked out.
Read moreCornmeal Breakfast Pudding.
Soon after I got married, my mom called me and said she'd found a couple of my grandma's cookbooks, and did I want them? I, who nostalgically cherishes almost anything that has belonged to my ancestors, and would collect cookbooks until my shelves were full of them if I could, of course said Yes! As soon as they were in my possession, I scoured them for recipes I could easily create. This recipe was one I made almost as soon as I saw it. (I believe I found the recipe and had it made within that hour.)
Read moreCowboy Steak with Coffee and Ancho Rub.
This is yet another recipe from the lovely and talented Ellie Krieger, from the book The Food You Crave. I knew when I saw this recipe that the combination of the espresso, chile powder, brown sugar and other seasonings would be a hit with my husband. The flavor was amazing, though the texture was a bit strange to me, as the coffee grounds, though finely espresso ground, are still very present. Still, this is definitely a recipe we'll make often through grilling season.
Read moreCrock Pot Pulled Chicken & Honey Whole Wheat Buns.
I LOVE this chicken recipe. It is so delicious, so simple, so quick (for a crock pot recipe), and did I mention, SO DELICIOUS!! I didn't modify the recipe at all, (well, other than halve it, as I don't need to feed 8-10 people...) so I'm going to send you to the original site for the recipe. Stay tuned for the buns recipe though!!
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