recipe – Page 8 – Fervent Foodie

Sausage Stuffed Peppers

January 19, 2012 3 Comments

During my kid years, stuffed peppers were in the regular dinner rotation at my dad’s house. I hated them. My step mom would fill crisp green peppers with a beef mixture in the morning, pop them into the slow cooker with some tomato sauce, and when we got home in the evening we’d find the crunchy green peppers had been transformed into a slimy mushy mess. Back then, I had deep-rooted hatred for lots of cooked veggies—carrots, celery, and tomatoes to name a few—but cooked green peppers took the medal for most loathed cooked vegetable. To my young taste buds, cooked green peppers had this toxic unnatural taste to them—like they’d been marinating in a puddle of Windex for a few hours. It just wasn’t right. Luckily, peppers were pricy so my step mom was more than happy to make me a meatball sans pepper for dinner while the rest of the family subjected themselves to green pepper poisoning. I love a good meatball.

To this day, I’m still not a huge fan of stuffed green peppers. As I aged and grew wiser, I discovered that other types of peppers could be stuffed just as easily and infinitely more deliciously than green peppers ever could.

Case in point:

Some of my favorite peppers to stuff are banana peppers, cubanelles, and Anaheims. I usually buy whichever variety is the biggest (i.e., most stuffable) at the grocery store that day.

Recipes

Sausage, Egg, & Cheese Breakfast Braid

January 2, 2012 15 Comments

Morning, friends! I hope you all are lucky enough to have the day off of work like me. If not, well then I’ll try not to rub it in too much. I’ve spent a good portion of the new years weekend in the kitchen cooking up a fury. Ancho chicken tacos, sausage lasagna, and balsamic glazed pork loins, just to name a few. This Monday morning (did I mention I have the day off of work???) I wanted to make something special. So I threw together a delicious sausage and egg breakfast braid.

Isn’t it impressive looking?

Recipes

Healthified Chicken Enchiladas & Spanish Rice

December 22, 2011 6 Comments

I’ve been in a bit of a cooking rut lately. I’ve cooked up a storm and destroyed my kitchen on a near-daily basis, but the results have been pretty dismal. I made NC pulled pork sandwiches. Blegh. I made turkey meatballs. Blah. I made sausage and potato gratin. Meh.

But then, I made THIS:

Would you believe me if I told you this saucy plate of Mexican goodness clocks in at under 350 calories?

Shut the front door.

Recipes

Bruschetta Chicken Pasta

December 6, 2011 7 Comments

The process of planning out a dinner for the BF and I usually involves 1-3 hours of research, googling, cookbook flipping, blog reading and a substantial amount of quality time spent on allrecipes.com. This will result in a list of 3-6 options with corresponding website links and/or attached photos, which I will then email to the BF for his consideration. If I’m lucky he’ll rule out 1-2 items on the list that aren’t striking his fancy and then leave the final decision up to me. More often than not, he’ll respond that all the items on the list in question look fabulous and that “everything you cook turns out delicious” (LIES!!!!!) and then leave the final decision up to… you guessed it. Moi. This is a little game I like to call For the Love of God Will You Make a Decision, Man, or FTLOGWYMADM, as we say.

I wouldn’t say I’m indecisive. The problem is my decision making abilities are clouded by my gluttonous desire to eat the world once over. When I do finally reach a decision I stick to it with a supernatural stubbornness, but getting to that point can be a wee bit exhausting. Decision making on an empty stomach is horrid after all, and I’ve mentioned a time or five before that bad things happen when I don’t eat.

All I want is a plate full of deliciousness.

A mound of this, perhaps:

After playing our normal round of FTLOGWYMADM and going through the subsequent mental debate, I decided to go with this recipe for Bruschetta Chicken pasta I saw on Iowa Girl Eats. It’s really not much of a recipe, and that makes me love it all the more.

This pièce de résistance of this dish is the balsamic drizzle. Simply simmer a cup of balsamic vinegar over medium heat for 15 minutes. The vinegar will reduce by about half, and once removed from the heat it will continue to thicken as it cools.

While I waited for the balsamic vinegar to reduce, I got to prepping my veggies.

The asparagus was for the pasta and the sprouts were our side dish. Love me some veg.

Jarred bruschetta sauce is the secret behind the simplicity of this pasta dish. Thank you Trader Giotto 🙂

This pasta was so simple, in fact, that I decided to squeeze in a little nap.

Before I fell asleep at the pan, I cut the chicken into big chunks, seasoned with S&P, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder and tossed into a saute pan with 2 tsp olive oil. Then I dropped 6 ounces of penne pasta into boiling water.

Once the chicken was cooked through, I sautéed the veggies with garlic salt, black pepper, and 1 tsp olive oil.

When the pasta reached al dente, I combined the chicken, asparagus, jar of bruschetta, and penne in the skillet and sautéed until everything was heated through.

Last but not least, I topped the pasta with a little balsamic drizzzzzzle:

This pasta was DELICIOUS, filling, and balanced, and the tangy balsamic drizzle wowed my tastebuds. I will definitely be adding this recipe to the playbook.

Bruschetta Chicken Pasta Ingredients List (serves 4)

Recipe from Iowa Girl Eats

1 cup balsamic vinegar
6 ounces penne pasta
bunch of asparagus, trimmed
1 jar of tomato bruschetta
12 ounces chicken breast
1 tbsp olive oil, divided
Seasonings of your choice (S&P, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, garlic powder)

Step One: Simply simmer a cup of balsamic vinegar over medium heat for 15 minutes. The vinegar will reduce by about half, and once removed from the heat it will continue to thicken as it cools.

Step Two: Cook pasta to al dente as per pasta box instructions. Meanwhile, cut the chicken into chunks, season with S&P, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder and saute with 2 tsp olive oil until no longer pink. Remove from pan. In the same pan, saute asparagus until crisp tender.

Step three: Combine cooked pasta, chicken, asparagus, and bruschetta mix in the pan and saute until heated through. Serve with balsamic reduction drizzled over top!

Recipes

Sweet Chili Pork Tenderloin

November 16, 2011 9 Comments

When I think of pork, the first word that comes to mind is “BLAH.”

What are we having for dinner?

Pork.

BLAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Perhaps I was subjected to too many dried out pinky-thin chops as a child. Or perhaps I was too enveloped in my love affair with the other two other-white-meats. Given that my one true love in life is FOOD, it hurts my heart to dislike something. I actually force myself to occasionally eat the hated food(s) in question in hopes of maturing my palate and someday rising above these childish dislikes.

That’s dedication people.

Watch out kidney beans, olives, eggplant, and every species of fish known to man. I’m coming for ya.

In an effort to branch out, I decided to try and cook up some pork tenderloins. I’d never cooked pork tenderloins before, and the ONLY other time I’ve attempted a pork dish was this pork chop flop, which clearly no words can describe.

This Allrecipes.com recipe for Chipotle Crusted Pork Tenderloin was my inspiration, subject to a few mweaks. The result was, well, it definitely ain’t yo’ grandma’s pork.. or your step-mother’s pork as the case may be. Sorry to put you on blast, Sally. Angel

This pork was JUICY and super flavorful with equally balanced sweet and heat. I never thought I’d use “flavor” and “pork” in the same sentence. Just did. Take THAT pork chop flop. TAKE THAT.

These tenderloins were SUPER simple. All you do is mix the following in a large ziploc baggie or large bowl with lid:

2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp garlic powder
2-3 tbsp chili powder (depending on your heat tolerance)
2 tsp salt
3-4 tbsp brown sugar (depending on your sweet tooth)

Plop 2 pork tenderloins (approx 1.25-1.5lbs each) into the bag/bowl and shake the crap out of it to evenly coat the loins with the seasonings. Lay the tenderloins out on a cookie sheet coated with cooking spray, then drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil across the top:

Cook in a 500 degree oven for 20 minutes, turning half way through.

Let the meat rest for a few minutes, then transfer to a cutting board to slice:

Crazy blurry photo courtesy of my iPhone!

Dare I say I LOVED this pork???

The BF declared “this was the best meat he ever had.” To which I responded with a perfectly timed and completely appropriate “that’s what she said.”

Speaking of appropriate, I cannot type or say the word “loin” without giggling. Apparently, my palate isn’t the only thing I need to work on maturing.

To round out the meal, I made Rachael Ray’s Orzo with Feta and Tomatoes:

This was just OK—a bit on the bland side, so I doubt I will make it again.

Thank god for potatoes. They totally made up for the orzo. Halved baby red potatoes, coated with some EVOO, garlic salt, black pepper, and a touch of cayenne pepper roasted at 500 degrees for 20 minutes:

I can honestly say I’ve never met a potato I didn’t like.

Feel free to leave inappropriate meat jokes for the BF in the comments. I’ll be sure to pass them along 😉

Sweet Chili Pork Tenderloin (serves 6)

2 pork tenderloins (1.25 – 1.5 lbs each)
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp garlic powder
2-3 tbsp chili powder (depending on your heat tolerance)
2 tsp salt
3-4 tbsp brown sugar (depending on your sweet tooth)
Extra virgin olive oil

Step one: combine all of the ingredients other than the pork in a large Ziploc baggie or large bowl with lid. Place the 2 pork tenderloins (approx 1.25-1.5lbs each) into the bag/bowl, seal, then shake to evenly coat the loins with the seasonings.

Step two: spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray, lay the tenderloins on top, then and drizzle them with a little extra virgin olive oil. Cook in a 500 degree oven for 20 minutes, turning flipping way through.

Step three: Let the meat rest for a few minutes, then transfer to a cutting board to slice.

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