Homemade Breakfast Bowl

I made my first ever breakfast bowl yesterday morning. I've never had one anywhere, but I know you can buy them in the grocery stores in the frozen food section (usually Jimmy Dean brand). I wasn't actually planning on having a "breakfast bowl" for breakfast, but that's how it turned out. And, I enjoyed it!

First, I took a handful of fresh ground beef that I had bought at our small grocer in town (with a real butcher!) and browned that while adding salt and pepper. There was very little grease, so when I took the meat out, I added some olive oil to the pan and put in some diced potato hash browns to cook up. When they were done, I added the meat back to the pan intending to make sure it was still hot. Meanwhile, I had scrambled a couple eggs in preparation of cooking them separately.

While the meat and potatoes were reheating in the pan, I decided that I would just pour the eggs over them and cook everything together. That's what I did. I then put everything into a bowl I had waiting and sprinkled the top with a handful of shredded cheddar while, at the same time, heated up a couple of tortillas over the open flame on the stove. I set the tortillas on top of the bowl and got the salsa out. When I took off the tortillas, the cheese had melted from the heat of the tortillas and the potato/meat/egg mixture. I then put some salsa on top of all of it and enjoyed my breakfast!


Photo credit - Some rights reserved by theimpulsivebuy (www.flickr.com/photos/theimpulsivebuy/) An amazingly raunchy and negative review of the Jimmy Dean Breakfast Bowl linked on this photo. But, I didn't think to write about my bowl until after I'd eaten it. So, this particular photo does closely resemble my breakfast except I had ground beef instead of bacon and my potatoes were more finely diced.

Breakfast/Dinner - French Toast/Tomato-Broccoli Impossible Pie

French Toast (wheat) with Pumpkin Pie Spice

As I begin writing here, I haven't started making the tomato-broccoli impossible pie. I was going to wash dishes first, but found that the dish washer isn't draining properly, so I'm working on that to see if I can fix it. I really don't want to have to call the landlord if I can avoid it.

Anyway, I made myself some French Toast this morning and it was wonderful. I probably should keep it in the pan just a little longer so that the toast solidifies a bit more in the middle, but I surely did enjoy it. I sprinkled some Pumpkin Pie spice into the egg-milk mixture and it was a much nicer flavoring than when I try using cinnamon. Not sure why - maybe it just mixes better.

Anyway, the photo isn't the prettiest one, but I love how brown it got (not burned) rather than looking overly "anemic" as I've had in the past. I didn't drown it in syrup, so it wasn't too too sweet, either. It was just the right amount of sweet combined with salty. Neither one dominated.

Now I hope to be able to make the tomato-broccoli pie. I've seen recipes for zucchini-tomato impossible pie and I've seen recipes for broccoli impossible pie, so I think I'll just swap out the zucchini for the broccoli. I know the photos I've seen of the various tomato pies look fantastic, so I am looking forward to trying this recipe out - hopefully tonight. I'll be using instructions for self-rising flour rather than Bisquick because that's what I have on hand. I'll finish this post when everything is done.

Well, tomato-broccoli pie didn't happen. I made the mistake of telling my daughter my plans and she expressed her disgust at the entire concept, so I guess I'm going to have to let the end results speak for themselves. I'll have to get it done while she's working tomorrow. I'll be sure to post whatever it is I do. I shredded the cheese already for it, so you'll hear about it when it happens.

Oh, and I seem to have fixed the dishwasher problem by using a vinegar soak and wash to clean it before I tried anything else. Thanks God!!

Pasta Stuffed Peppers!

OK, here I am again, not all that long after my last post. Can you believe it? Well, I actually did something worthy of posting right away and I'm here to tell about it.

I had made the macaroni with the pasta sauce that I used the roasted tomatoes for. There was quite a bit of it and Deb wouldn't eat any of it. I didn't want to eat it all myself, so I thought maybe I could use it for stuffing the peppers she'd brought home that needed to be used. I went online and found that plenty of other people had used pasta to stuff peppers, so I found one that used elbow macaroni like I did in order to know what temperature to set the oven and how long to bake them.

Not my peppers. These are from  Tummy Temptations.

Before I stuffed the peppers, though, I diced up a couple snack sized summer sausages to add meaty flavor to the mix and opened a can of corn, drained it and added that as well. I cut the tops off of five peppers and removed the seeds and veins, got out my square baking dish and placed the peppers in it. Then I stuffed them with the macaroni mixture (that now had diced summer sausage and corn). We had a small block of cheese that I grated a portion of and topped each pepper with a blend of ketchup, dried mustard and chili powder followed by some grated Cheddar Jack cheese. I followed the baking instructions for the one recipe I'd found and in an hour, I had five lovely stuffed peppers waiting to be eaten.

My friend Tom really liked them - he had two. My daughter had one, which surprised me since she had just eaten a hoagie. I haven't had one yet because she had brought me some broccoli soup when she came home, so I was no longer hungry. But, there are still two peppers left and they're now in the freezer waiting to be reheated and eaten. I'm very happy with the results, although next time I'll plan ahead and put pasta sauce around all the peppers so they are more "saucy". I like peppers that way.

Although I'm not providing any specific instructions for this meal, it wouldn't be hard for you to do. Just make up your pasta and then prepare your peppers, stuff them and bake for 30 minutes covered with foil and 25-30 more minutes without foil, all at 350 degrees. I did put a little water in the dish around the peppers to keep them from drying out, but I'd like to put pasta sauce in the next time. If your family doesn't care much for rice like my daughter doesn't, this might just be the recipe for you.

I had one pepper I wasn't able to use for stuffing, so I cut it up along with the "lids" from the five I did use and froze it for future use. This seems to be a good way to use up leftover pasta if you also happen to have peppers.

Plastic Cheese and Eggs

I asked someone to pick me up some cheese at Dollar Tree a while back because I only had a few dollars and I wanted to stretch it. I know that sometimes they have little blocks of cheese and that was all I needed because I was planning to shred it for a recipe.

Well, when they brought the items back, I didn't get two blocks of cheese; I got two packs of cheese food slices, the kind wrapped in cellophane. Not always top quality, but generally edible. Still, they weren't what I wanted because they don't melt all that well, these Dollar Tree slices. But, I thanked my friend and put them in the fridge.

Well, we're pretty much out of cheese except I had a very few slices of white American and these two packs of "cheese" food. I split the white American to make two grilled cheese sandwiches with the white cheese surrounding the yellow "cheese" between the two pieces of bread. They turned out decent, but I had a piece of cheese that broke off left over, so I tossed it into the pan by itself to melt it into a crispy something to go with the sandwiches.

Except.......

That damned piece of "cheese" refused to melt. Literally REFUSED to melt! It bounced and skipped and sizzled, looked like it was blistering, but when I put the spatula under it, it didn't stick at all to the pan. When I flipped it over, it was hardly even discolored. A few attempts to scorch in some spots, but no melting, no change in shape whatsoever. It looked and felt like plastic. Both sides were nice and hot, but no discernible change in structure like real cheese should have had (or other cheese "foods" I've had, for that matter). It stayed entirely intact as it had gone into the pan. And, the pan was hot because it had just cooked two sandwiches and the fire was still on.

So.....THAT was the "cheese" I had in my scrambled eggs, broken up into little pieces to simulate melted cheese within the eggs, and topped with salsa. I've had worse.

Hamburger Helper Cheesy Enchilada

I was supposed to go out to dinner the other night, but the person who was going to take me, after making a big production of where we were going to go, suddenly decided we were going to go somewhere else. Because he's done this numerous times in the past to the point of extreme annoyance, I decided not to go out at all and make something at home. I'm glad I did.

From Google images - this is how I ate mine!

I went to our trusty pantry and pulled out the box of Hamburger Helper Cheesy Enchilada. I didn't really look at it, other than the name and that it would be Mexican inspired. I assumed it would be pasta as all of them usually are. (Obviously, I failed to look closely at even the photo on the front of the box - and, yes - I am the kind of person who tries to assemble things without reading the instructions.) 

I had already decided that I would incorporate some vegetables because we had a half can of corn my daughter had opened and left in the fridge plus two small portions of limas and green beans in the freezer. That way we have more of a one pot meal than anything. When I realized this particular HH was a rice dish, I wasn't sure the veggies would work out well. I did it anyway.

The instructions said to put the rice in with the hot water and milk, so that's also when I added the three small portions of vegetables. I lowered the flame and put the lid on and let it simmer the 20 minutes required. 

Of course, being the lazy butt that I tend to be, I didn't stir during that time, so I had quite a mess on the stove and counter from the hot liquid escaping past the lid. But, the end result was wonderful!!! 

The flavoring was mild and only hinted at being Mexican-esque. The vegetables incorporated themselves quite well without altering the overall flavor. Even my daughter ate it and she's not a fan of either lima beans or rice. 

I have one more box of this flavor in the pantry. I will not hesitate to make it when I'm craving a rice dish.

Plain Chicken's No-Boil Mac & Cheese - Worth a Second Post!

It's been quite a while since I posted and I am sorry. I really haven't done much cooking during this horrible heat we've been having. The desire to work in the kitchen just hasn't been there. But, I threw this together last night and am so happy with the results after a few tweaks that I had to tell you about it.

Steph's Casserole

Plain Chicken: No-Boil Mac & Cheese: "This was the best traditional baked mac & cheese we've ever made. It was SO simple and SOOO delicious! The best part about this mac & che..."

That's how Steph's blog begins for this wonderfully easy mac n cheese recipe. Now, I don't know that it's the best I've ever had, but it's sure up there with the best!

I already blogged about this before, but now that I made it again with some adjustments, I can safely say it will be my primary mac n cheese recipe from now on!

The first time I made it, I used her directions other than the cream cheese - I didn't have any, so I used sour cream instead. Although it tasted wonderful, the macaronis just weren't fully cooked and it was a bit on the hard side. I attributed that in part to the fact that I had used two casserole dishes to make it. But this time, I used slightly more than 2 cups of chicken stock and more than a cup of milk as well as the sour cream instead of the cream cheese. Plus, I baked it in one of my dutch ovens instead of splitting it between two casserole dishes. I also downgraded the oven temp to 350 from 375 and cooked it for 40 minutes. It turned out fantastic.

Now, this comes out pretty solid, so if you want yours a bit looser, you might add even more liquid. I haven't tried that yet to guarantee it, but this recipe is good enough that it deserves several efforts to see how it turns out.

The other thing that's different about what I did than the recipe is that the chicken stock I used is simply salted water that chicken was poached in. I didn't want to see all that flavor tossed down the drain, so I packed it in containers and froze it. I am sure glad I did!!

No-Boil Mac & Cheese by Plain Chicken

Plain Chicken: No-Boil Mac & Cheese: "This was the best traditional baked mac & cheese we've ever made. It was SO simple and SOOO delicious! The best part about this mac & che..."

These are the first words you'll find in Plain Chicken's blog entry for this absolutely wonderful recipe. I haven't cooked much in a while, as you have noticed, I'm sure. But, when I saw this recipe and knew I had pretty much all the ingredients (and knowing that I LOVE macaroni and cheese), I just HAD to make it. Of course, it was after 9:00 when I began, but I've never been much of a clock watcher when it comes to eating, so when the mood strikes, I follow it.

I am so glad I did. First, let me tell you of some adjustments I had to make out of necessity. The first was the cream cheese. I had none. And, I didn't have money to buy any. But, I had ricotta on hand, so guess what? I used ricotta cheese. Secondly, I didn't have four cups of cheddar cheese. I had about three cups of Mexican blend cheddar and Jack plus shredded Mozzarella. Guess what again? I used it! Thirdly, I didn't have onion salt. Instead, I used dried minced onion. It turned out just fine. Lastly, I added more liquid because it just seemed like it needed it. I was right. But, that could be just me, so follow the recipe the first time and make that decision for yourself.

The thing I loved most of all about this was that it was all thrown together into one dish (or, in my case, two dishes since I didn't have a single dish big enough) and put into the oven. No pots of boiling water heating up the already warm kitchen from this summer heat, no pots coated with sticky cheese sauce that would then be poured over the already cooked macaroni, and no major mess in the kitchen. I did use a large bowl to mix everything because of the already mentioned lack of a large casserole dish, but since nothing is baked into it, it's easy to clean.

I will say this, though. Be sure to add the flour BEFORE you add the cheese and macaroni. It will be easier to blend into the liquid that way. Despite that, it turned out wonderful!

Now, I'm a big fan of easy, so I am absolutely thrilled with this recipe and that it turned out so well. It's obviously flexible or it wouldn't have turned out so well with the adjustments I made. And, it's so much easier to put unboiled macaroni in than it is to know when it's reached the al dente stage. In fact, it wasn't until I made no-boil lasagna that I finally had a wonderful firm pan of lasagna that didn't slip-slide away while it was being cut, so I'm a huge no-boil fan. And, trust me - you don't need no-boil pasta to make a no-boil recipe. That's just an added expense that's unnecessary. I just make sure there's enough liquid for the pasta to absorb while it's cooking - which is what this needed for me. I think it's because I used two smaller casserole dishes instead of one large one. I probably should have reduced the cooking time, but no matter. I'm just so happy with how it turned out.

Don't be afraid to try this one. It'll be worth it!