Chili Mac - yeah, it's for dinner.

Been craving chili mac for a while now. I have no idea why since it's not something I've ever made and I don't remember ever eating it before. But, I love chili and I love macaroni/pasta, and somehow the combination just struck me as the perfect meal.

I finally thawed out some ground beef yesterday, but went to dinner with a friend, so I made this today. I basically made it like I do my regular chili and added the pasta. It's not like "Hamburger Helper" where it can be put on a plate with other sides. This still needs a bowl and a spoon. But, I am very happy with how it turned out.

I had a pound of ground beef that I browned. I added a can of Progresso Fire-roasted Tomato Meal Starter sauce, two cans of beans (your choice, but I used red beans and pintos), a can of tomatoes with mild green chilis and a can of stewed tomatoes. I also added about a cup of diced green peppers, another cup of diced onions and maybe 3/4 cup of diced celery. Once it was all hot and boiling and the 8 oz. of pasta was nearly cooked, I added between 2 and 3 teaspoons of chili powder (I don't like too much because it can be very bitter and you can't undo that) and then I added several shakes of Tabasco sauce. The one thing I forgot to add was salt. But, that's ok since all of the canned products I used have salt. And, I can add it in my dish if I want to.

Now I've eaten chili over rice before, a trick I used when we'd have a surprise guest for dinner on chili night. But, this is the first time I've had pasta with my chili. I like it. And, it makes the regular amount of chili go twice as far because it adds bulk.

Have you ever made chili mac and what did you do different to yours?

Photo is mine while the chili mac was still boiling on low on the stove.

Impossible Tomato Broccoli Pie - finally!

Well, I finally got the Impossible Pie made! It looks great, doesn't it? See the tomato slices peeking out of the top in the first picture? The only thing I would change is to chop up the tomato slices and drain them better because the overall pie was a bit wetter than it should have been. I'm assuming because of the water in the tomatoes. I also might be able to compensate for that liquid with a little more self-rising flour.

I tried leeching the tomato slices by salting them in a colander, but they didn't really drain. I also added diced onions and some broccoli florets. I put some onion powder in the batter along with some parsley flakes. I still wanted some salt on my own serving because it was a little flat, but I'd rather under spice than over spice. 

I also might lean towards Italian seasoning next time maybe with some pepperoni added on top. The cheese was just enough for this recipe. I'd also rather use a sweeter onion next time than the strongly flavored and fragrant one Deb bought that I had diced and frozen. Even cooked, it's not my favorite flavor.

I didn't pre-cook the broccoli and it turned out good. Because the pieces were small, they cooked all the way through. But, I would definitely want to dice up the tomatoes next time. These tomatoes were pretty fibrous, so they were on the tough side as far as being able to cut through them with my fork. They were plenty cooked, but near the center, they held fast and didn't want to break down completely. Not sure what kind of tomatoes these were, but that might have played a role in it. Maybe next time I'll use the Tommies Snack Tomatoes instead.

So, here's what I did to make this. 

3 medium tomatoes, sliced after coring

3/4-1 cup broccoli florets

1 cup shredded cheese (I used Colby/Jack)

diced onion to taste (I had about 1/4 cup)

3/4 cup self-rising flour

3 eggs

1 3/4 cups milk (I used reconstituted powdered milk)

Any other seasonings you are inclined to add - I used onion powder, parsley flakes, fresh ground pepper and a bit of salt.

Spray a 9" casserole dish with PAM (or equivalent). Prepare the veggies if they aren't already. Layer the tomatoes and broccoli (you can use zucchini or other veggies, too). You can also add a bit of Parmesan cheese here as well. Spread the shredded cheese over the vegetables. Mix up your batter with the flour, eggs and milk. Add seasonings if you want. Pour the batter over the cheese and veggies without stirring, other than to make sure they're covered. Place in a 400° F oven and cook for between 35 & 40 minutes. I took mine out after 35 minutes and allowed it to sit. It was nicely browned, but I wonder what five more minutes might have done for the excess liquid.

So, I hope you try this and maybe even experiment a little. This method of casserole making has just so much flexibility!

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!!

Pork Chops and Green Beans

Imagine a dish like this combined with pork chops!

Years back, when I was still married, I used to buy pork steaks instead of pork chops because they were cheaper and meatier than pork chops. My husband was a lover of pork chops and didn't seem to mind (or notice) the difference. They look very much the same.

One of the ways I would cook the chops would be to score them, pan fry them and then pour stewed tomatoes over them in the pan to finish cooking. I wasn't the best cook, but he seemed to like them and ate them without complaint.

Another dish we would eat (and I still do) was cooking hamburger and adding green beans and tomato sauce. We would serve that with fried potatoes and everyone enjoyed this meal.

Since moving back to New Jersey, I've enjoyed green beans served with marinara sauce in restaurants. I don't like them with garlic, but if they have marinara, I'll order them.

So, this leads me to today's meal choice. I was actually looking for hamburger patties I was sure I had in the freezer when I saw a pack of bone-in pork chops I had frozen in November. Nice ones, very meaty. I took them out and thought the pint of green beans I'd frozen would be a perfect accompaniment. Except, I decided to take it just a bit further. I added a can of diced tomatoes and a sprinkling of diced onions I also had frozen recently.

First, I placed the green beans in the bottom of the baking dish. Then I laid the pork chops on top, sprinkled the onions over them and poured in the diced tomatoes. I topped it off with steak seasoning and a little salt, turned the oven on to 350, put the dish in the oven and set the timer for an hour. When the timer went off, I took the dish out and let it rest for about 10 minutes before taking the first chop out. 

Other than being a bit peppery because I'd used a tad too much steak seasoning, it was really really good. The chops were perfectly cooked, tender and moist, the beans were overcooked the way we like them (if you start with fresh, you probably won't overcook them) and the tomatoes added the perfect additional seasoning to the entire combination. This was all in addition to the fact that the chops were still frozen when I placed the dish in the oven.

Now, the image I used here comes from a blog about Southern cooking and green beans with stewed tomatoes is apparently a favorite. Although my dish didn't include sugar like theirs did, the concept is the same as is the look, other than mine also had pork chops in it. I have linked back to that blog so you can enjoy what they have to offer. I think her beans look divine, personally!

So, here you have another meal I've put together that combines what we have on hand with the fresh vegetables my daughter has brought home from work. Actually, quite a low carb meal, if you happen to be looking for that kind of meal. I wasn't thinking about it at the time, but it's good for me because it keeps my blood sugar from spiking.

I'd love to hear some of your ideas for pork chops, tomatoes and green beans, if you've done anything different from what I did. I'm always looking for new ideas to try that are simple and easy.

Finally - some new food!

It has been so long and no matter how many times I tell myself (and anyone reading) that I'm going to try harder to keep up, it just doesn't seem to happen. Yet, I don't want to give up. So, here I am again with something to post.

My daughter has been working for a fresh produce distributor out of Holland who also develops vegetable varieties of their own. One of their own creations is Tommies Snack Tomatoes. These are specially developed miniature plum tomatoes that are marketed for kids to snack on. They come in little reusable buckets that hold up to four cups of tomatoes. 

She brought home four of these little buckets this week as well as a large bag of fresh string beans and three packs of orange and yellow peppers. We don't cook every day, so I need to find a way to use these things where we're not losing them. We use a lot of tomatoes, peppers and green beans, so if I can prep them right, we will get use out of them.

Well, I went online looking for recipes that use Tommies as an ingredient. They just weren't out there. But, I saw someone describe the Tommies as "grape tomatoes", so I used that as a search term and that's when I came upon this recipe for Roasted Tomato Pizza Sauce. 

Roasted Tomato Pizza Sauce

 I didn't blend this for sauce after I roasted them, but boy did they smell good and look wonderful!! I ended up adding some ready-made pasta sauce to the roasted tomatoes and then cooked some elbow macaronis to put them all together. I do think I should have added a little sugar to them because they were very acidic, but all in all, it turned out well. I used a potato masher to mash the roasted tomatoes after I added the other pasta sauce. Seriously, it wasn't at all bad - just tangy. I might add a bit of sugar to it before I reheat it tomorrow to cut the acidity.

So, tomorrow I need to cut and blanch the string beans and cut and freeze the peppers. They'll all get used, I can guarantee it. We eat a lot of all of these things.

Tomato Seedlings are Popping Their Little Heads Up

Despite Baby Cat's previous disruptive efforts (knocking the entire tray of planted seeds to the floor and playing in the dirt), as of this moment (late Friday night) I have six (of 12) seeds beginning to sprout. Not sure why there are no peppers beginning to appear since they were all planted at the same time, but they haven't gone beyond their germination times, so there's still a chance.

Bell Pepper plants -Wikimedia Commons, Forest & Kim Starr, Creative Commons

I planted them in the cardboard bases of egg cartons. Twelve nice and neat potting pots filled with potting soil, just enough to get the roots started. The great thing is that I can plant the entire egg cup, soil & seedling, without having to disrupt the growing process. The paper-based cup/carton is biodegradable and will dissolve into the soil as the roots push their way through. I love it!! (I will have to cut the cup sections apart so that I plant individual holders rather than an entire dozen of tomatoes and peppers, of course.)

Tomato Seedlings -Wikimedia Commons, user cdw victoria

We use lots of tomatoes, green peppers and onions in our recipes. (The meatloaf I made tonight has peppers, onions and salsa in it.) I'd also like to have one zucchini plant and one eggplant plant (is that redundant?) and I know Deb wants watermelons; but if she wants them, she's going to do the digging. I'm going to put mine in containers because that's easier for me to take care of.


The only thing I need to go dig a hole for, much to my dismay, is my rose bush. I'll probably go out this weekend and dig right about sundown to plant it. I know I'll regret it. I  just know it. Every other time I've tried to have a rose bush, something has happened. But, I love rose bushes. They're low maintenance (as far as I'm concerned) and high pleasure (I love seeing them in full bloom). I haven't figured out yet where to get a lilac bush, but I would love to have one of them as well. I'll be happy with the rose bush.


Caturday's Images

A Bowlful of Baby Cat

Stop with the flash already!!

Cowgirl Tiki