Steak Tetrazzini

I was looking up stuffing recipes online...and saw a recipe for turkey tetrazzini.  And suddenly realized that I can't remember the last time I had some of the deliciousness that is tetrazzini.  So, I said goodbye to my original dinner plans (which were only half-formed anyway), and decided to make tetrazzini.  I don't have any turkey.  But I bought some steak today, and decided that it would be perfect.  And I was right.

Ingredients
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp bacon grease
1/8 c white flour
1/8 c wheat flour
3/4 c milk
1/4 c heavy cream
squirt of ranch
garlic powder
mustard powder
1 c shredded cheese
thin steak
angel hair pasta (approx. 8 oz)

Directions
1) boil water and cook pasta, preheat oven to 350
2) while the water is boiling, chop up the steak and cook it in a skillet

3) once the pasta and steak are cooking, throw all the other ingredients in a saucepan, in the order I listed them.  Stir frequently, remove from heat when it starts to boil

(a busy stove makes me smile...meatballs cooking for this week's lunch, pasta, sauce, and steak for the tetrazzini)

4) put the pasta and steak in a casserole dish, then pour the sauce on top and mix it well
5) dust the top with breadcrumbs and a little bit of shredded cheese

6) bake at 375 for 30 minutes
7) serve for dinner with some veggies (I steamed some fresh green beans)

another culinary success story

Fish and Potatos

Special trip to Kroger today to buy food so I could eat dinner.  Tried not to get waylaid by the self-checkout attendant...but she saw me standing in the quick check out line and I let her talk me into using self-checkout.  Would have been fine...but I forgot to scan my Kroger card.  Shoulda stuck to letting a cashier do it for me...I coulda used those gas points!

My new quest in food is to learn to like white fish.  So I went to the fish counter to see what they had that wouldn't set me back too much.  Manager's Special was Perch Fillets...so that's what I brought home. 

The Menu

Baked Perch w/Onion Slivers, Roasted Herbed Potatos, Steamed Carrots and Baby Broccoli

The Fish

Put a thin layer of olive oil in the bottom of a casserole dish.  Rinse fillets and lay them in the bottom of the casserole dish.  Sprinkle with oregano and garlic powder.  Pour some sun-dried tomato vinaigrette on top and smooth it evenly over the fish.  Chop some onion into large slices and spread the pieces on top of the fish.  Bake for 20-25 minutes at 450.

The Potatos

Peel/clean/chop into bite-sized pieces.  Put the pieces in a bowl with olive oil, mustard powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and basil.  Stir until well coated.  Spread out on a baking pan and bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 450.  (I put them in the oven at the same time as the fish...so glad they required the same temperature and approx. the same amount of time...worked perfectly!)

The Vegetables

Clean and chop 2 carrots and a bunch of baby broccoli.  Put in a microwaveable dish with about an inch of water, cover, and microwave for 2 minutes.   Stir, microwave for 2 more minutes.  Repeat. Drain the water, squeeze a little bit of mustard over the vegetables and stir well. 

Meatball Quesadilla

Slim pickin's from my fridge for lunch today.  Went grocery shopping this morning so that I would have something to eat for dinner tonight, but other than that I have to make do with what is in my fridge so that nothing goes to waste while I spend a few days in PA for turkey day. 

The ONLY meat I had in my fridge was 1 meatball.  Not much.  But vastly better than no meat.  I chopped it up and made a meatball quesadilla.  It was the only thing I could think of that make one meatball look more like a meal.  I also had a little bit of fresh spinach, so that went in the quesadilla as well. 

look at that oozy cheezy goodness...

Then I made a salad.  I have a lot of lettuce left...I have a feeling that I won't manage to eat it all before I leave tomorrow and it will go bad while I'm gone...oh well.  All I had to put on the salad was carrots, tomatos, and an avocado.  I still have 3 avocados left.  Maybe I'll eat 2 for lunch tomorrow and bring one with me...or maybe I'll just hope they can stay good til the weekend.  It is possible. 

mmmm avocado...

Tastes Like Chicken...

because it is chicken.

Oven baked chicken thighs again...but this time I slathered them with sun-dried tomato vinaigrette instead of honey mustard before I breaded them.  Turned out pretty tasty.

Dinner
 1 Chicken Thigh
Whole Wheat Pasta w/carrots and spinach tossed in a miz of pesto/mustard/olive oil (super yummy)
Green Beans

Guinness Float

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Dark Chocolate Sauce

Guinness

Deliciousness

Broccoli Mac n Cheese, Salmon

dinner is served

burnt cheese perfection

mustard/ranch glazed salmon

Chicken, Mashed Potatos, and Green Beans

Chicken Thighs
  Rub with honey mustard, roll in breadcrumb/flour/crushed corn chex/pine nuts.  Bake at 425 for 50 minutes.

Mashed Potatos
 Yukon Gold are my favorite.  Unfortunately, they're kinda small so it's annoying to have to peel a whole bunch of them.
 1 down...7 to go...

Boil and mash with butter, veggie stock, heavy cream, garlic powder, oregano, and salt.

Green Beans
  Snap, clean, cook in a little bit of water with some bacon grease for seasoning.  Add sliced mushrooms when almost done.  Saute some chopped onion separately, then add.

2 meals

Friday night: Roasted Sweet Potatos, Shrimp, Baby Broccoli
      I had 3 sweet potatos lying around that needed to be cooked before I completely forgot about them and they rotted...cause yes, that has happened before.  Twice.
    I peeled them and cut them into bite-sized chunks, then threw the chunks into a large ziploc bag with garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, rosemary, and olive oil.  I sealed the bag, shook it up until all the potato pieces were coated, and then took them out and spread them on a baking sheet.  Into the oven for 20 min at 450.  Check them about half way through and move them around the pan to make sure they aren't sticking. 
   
   

Saturday night: Tuna-Pear Pizza, Baby Broccoli
     Tuna-Pear was definitely not the original plan.  It just turned out to be all I had...other than cheese.  I thought I had some beef chunks in a container of tomato sauce.  I was going to make beef-broccoli pizza.  But it turned out that the only things in that container were tomato sauce and mold.  Guess I finished the beef already... So, tuna was the closest thing to meat that I had.  And there was a pear in my fruit drawer that has been there for...awhile...and I was never going to eat it.  So I chopped it up and put it on the pizza, with the tuna, and a very thin layer of ranch and mustard (instead of sauce).  Topped it with cheese, into the 450 degree oven for 15 minutes.  It was edible.  I doubt I'll ever do it again.  Next time I won't procrastinate the grocery shopping so long. 

  
As far as pizza experiments go, this one was much better.

Egg White Adventures

I got egg whites to peak!!!!!! It "only" took 15 minutes of vigorous whisking...I think my arm might be sore tomorrow. 

And I did all that hard work because...I decided I wanted beer-batter chicken for dinner.  Actually, I really wanted honey mustard. 

And I thought it would go reeeaaaalllly well with beer-batter chicken.

Best beer-batter chicken ever.

Ah, so perfect looking, thanks to my egg white success...

Dinner is served.

Honey Mustard, Beer-Batter Chicken, Steamed Baby Broccoli

Yum.

Big Bowl o' Food

It's one of those nights...where I just want a big bowl of food.  Whatever I can find to throw in it that doesn't require anything too time consuming or difficult.  But of course it still has to be edible.  And tasty.  Tonight's was either really yummy, or I was just really hungry.  Becuase once I started eating, I forgot about my glass of wine until the bowl was empty.  Ew warm white wine. Oops.

Tomatos, Baby Broccoli, Green Beans, Mushrooms, Beef, Pasta (it's hiding under there...somewhere...)

I found the pasta!

mmmmm fresh ripe tomatos.