A Little Oriental Flare

$7.00 feeds 4!

Saturday night and that Chinese/Thai/Oriental craving kicks in and you are just about broke. Stinks huh?There is a quick fix, my babies! Let me show you how ;)

Most grocery stores now carry their own line of frozen veggie dinner starters similar to the name brand microwavable "side" dishes. RAID THEM!There is always an incredible dish capable of happening with some lovely frozen veg in the fridge. Now don't get me wrong, I would much rather use fresh produce for all of my dishes, but we're broke and healthy veggies are some of the most expensive items in the store. The season is also pretty well spent, so frozen veg is the best, most economical solution! My favorite grocer always has the wonderful "10 for $10" sale, and 9.5 times out of 10, their frozen foods land in that category. This week I happened upon a lovely frozen bag of stir fry veggies WITH noodles. BONUS! Most of the meal is in the bag for a buck. You just can't beat that. 

Once you have a veg base, and an idea, anything is possible! Check your drawers and cupboards for those leftover packets of honey, jellies, soy, duck, sweet and sour sauce, ketchup, and hot mustard (You know that they are lurking in there somewhere.) Now is the perfect time to prove that you indeed had a purpose behind hanging on to those guys. PUT THEM TO WORK! <Get creative here too. Any tomato, mustard, or bbq-ey sauce works great with this. Don't worry if it isn't from a Chinese restaurant, no one will ever know the difference..our little secret. WINK WINK>

Now if you are fortunate enough to find Teriyaki leftover in the fridge, by all means use it! I did :) For the record, Teriyaki is nothing more that a reduction of Soy Sauce, Ginger and Pineapple Juice, so if you are feeling really adventurous, throw those in a pot and let them reduce by half instant Teriyaki! Here's the deal, it is not what you use, it's how you use it! So feel free to experiment with any red based dressing you may have around. It's workable.

So the tally so far for veg, noodles, and sauce is around $1.50- $2.00. <Side note: If you can't find frozen veg with noodles you can always grab a $1.00 box of thin spaghetti, and cook off about a quarter of the box to al dente. If you don't have any jelly packets, a Tablespoon of whatever you have in the fridge will do, and it will also double as a title word in your dish's name "Oriental Strawberry Chicken a la Mom" for instance!

A cup of Rice is going to be our base, so that runs about $0.35- $0.50. (Are you beginning to see the benefit of opening a Chinese Restaurant yet? Just sayin'!)

Now the meat. You can go in all kinds of directions here. Being that I have small children, there are ALWAYS some type of protein nugget in the freezer. Chicken nuggets, veggie nuggets, frozen grilled slices of something, a veggie burger (black bean would rock!), or a turkey burger and there you have your meat. Nuggets are pretty cheap. Our bag was on sale for $3.00 and I used about a dozen, so that's about $0.75 for chicken. SCORE!

Let's recap real quick:

Veg and Noodles- high end $2.50

Sauce- high end $0.75 (Should really be about FREE)

Rice- high end $1.00

Meat- high end $2.75 (Just in case you had to grab something from the store)

Total: $7.00!! Now let's make it!

Oriental On A Dime

1 Bag of Frozen Oriental Veggies with/out Noodles

1 Fistful of Pasta par cooked to al dente (OPTIONAL)

1 Cup of Rice, cooked (You can even use leftover rice if you have it!)

About a dozen Chicken Nuggets or protein of choice cooked and chopped in quarter inch chunks.

Cooking Spray or 1/2 tbsp of oil (for coating sauce pan or wok)

Sauce Ingredients 

1/4 Cup of Teriyaki, BBQ Sauce, Red Based Dressing or any combo of these

2 Tbsp of Soy Sauce, or a couple of packets (USE LESS, like 1 Tbsp, if you don't have a lot of sweeter sauce- honey, kecthup, jelly, duck or sweet and sour)

2 Tbsp of "Sweeties" Honey, Ketchup, Jelly, Duck Sauce, or Sweet and Sour Sauce (You can always double up on this if you'd like to create the sauce you like..think General meets Sweet and Sesame!)

Now I didn't mention spices above because that is up to whatever is in your pantry or whatever your pallet is up for. This is how I did it, but we like it HOT!

1 TBSP Hot Sauce

1 TBSP Garlic Powder
1 TBSP Brown Sugar

1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

1 tsp Ground Ginger

1 TBSP Black Sesame Seeds OPTIONAL

Salt 

Pepper to taste...PLEASE TASTE AS YOU GO!

Sauce First:

Combine all of your sauce ingredients and spices in a sauce pan or microwavable bowl and heat through until it comes together as one complete sauce. Taste from time to time and add flavors as needed, or as in my case, as you run across them in the pantry. Once it has a nice quasi oriental flavor, remove from heat and set aside.

Lightly oil a large sauce pan or wok and quickly heat the veggies through, approximately 4 minutes on med. high heat. If you have pasta add in right at the end. Add half of your sauce to the veggies and toss until coated. Divide rice on plates, top with prepared veg. Quickly and very BRIEFLY toss chicken or meat of choice in sauce. Once coated, top veg and rice with meat (Just thought about this now..some Mushrooms would be an AWESOME alternative to meat here). Sprinkle on a few sesame seeds if you wish and...

DINNER IS SERVED!

Play with this recipe and make it your own! Super yummy and about one quarter the cost of ordering out.

I hope you have fun and enjoy!

MLL

The Meat Loaf Lady Rises

So, it's been a while, huh?

Hi ya kids! I believe that a two year hiatus is long enough. A little bit of catch up, and then I will move on! 

We lost our house, hubby's job, my family, and now we are rebuilding. I don't want to get into all of the details, but so far we are surviving. The boys are doing great! Izzy is now 6 and talking up a storm and Tiernan is 3 and STILL an evil maniacal genius in the works! 

Now that things are so different, I want to approach this blog in a different way.  

Recently I have had to visit a couple of local Food Pantries for assistance. If you are not familiar with these, make yourself familiar! When a family or individual is without food, they can search out a local Food Pantry and grab a bag of "staples" that will help them get through. You have no idea how much hope this restored for me this week when we had absolutely NOTHING! This is a wonderful charity offered by several churches and community groups, so seek them out if you are in need. Generally you can only visit them on a limited basis, but trust me, you will be able to get by, and with two kids that is truly the most wonderful feeling in the world to know that there is a way to get through the tough times. These are wonderful charitable opportunities as well. When we get back on our feet, it will be a weekly gift to myself to donate whatever I can to them just to offer the kind of relief I felt to someone else.

After my visit, it occurred to me that if I had just received a bag of flour and sugar, oh the things I could make for weeks to come. 

PANCAKES!

BEIGNETS!

BREAD, period.

One thing I would truly love to do is to offer a free class to those who would like to learn to make their own breads and pastries, and offer bags of flour, sugar, and yeast in the Food Pantries, so that there is always something filling in the cupboard.  

Also I would love to offer a free class for people who want to make the staples they receive turn into really yummy food. For instance: A can of Chili, a can of Corn, a leftover Black Bean Burger, some Hot Sauce, Spices and Rice and you can make...

an incredible dinner for four!

If you don't have tortillas, just slice some stale bread, super thin,spray with cooking spray or butter or a little oil, sprinkle with cumin, garlic, paprika and a hit of cayenne and...

it is a meal!

So, now that I have rediscovered my blog, I am going to try some new things. I'll try to budget the cost of each recipe. I will also try to offer some helpful tips on leftovers..really you would be surprised at what you can breathe new life into just by dashing in this or mixing in that! I'm just going to try some new things!

Thanks for reading, and ENJOY!

Meatloaf Lady M.I.A.

I got sick, the boys got sick, and then the hubby.


So I dove into a few bags of flour.

Ricotta and Provolone Sun Dried Tomato Pesto Pizza

on a Sourdough Crust

Coq Au Vin-In The Blonde stuffed

Cumin Infused Pot Pie

Sourdough Staple



Rose's Special on Sourdough Crust

And finally, dessert-

The Crumbly Crisp (Apple Style)

So, over the next few days, I will be catching you up on these interesting time spenders.

I gotta tell ya this, kids, we are no longer grabbing take out pizza, and my two picky eaters are supping right along with Mom and Dad!

Let's Get It Started

3 Cups All Purpose Flour

3 Cups WARM Water (Just a tad warmer to the touch)

2 Tbsp Active Dry Yeast

Pinch of Sugar or a drop or two of a yummy White Wine

That's it! In a small bowl, place 1/4 cup of warm water, stir in yeast and add pinch of sugar or wine.(You can also substitute a drop of Honey. Basically, the sweetness is just to feed the yeast and help it bloom and develop.) Agitate just slightly to ensure that all of the yeast saturated, and allow to sit for about 5-10 minutes.

Place flour in large plastic or glass bowl and make a well in the middle. (This will be your storage bowl, so be sure it is a bowl you A. won't miss, and B. will fit in your fridge for storage.)

Once yeast has become frothy, add into the well. In 1/2 increments, add the remaining warm water, mixing completely after each addition. This is going to be a sticky mess, but don't worry, it's going to come together.

Lightly cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel, and place in the oven, and turn your oven light on. Should this not be available, you can place bowl on a counter or table in a warm spot in your kitchen. 

Allow this mixture to rest and rise for 18 hours. YES 18 HOURS! Trust me, you are not going to get San Fran Sourdough out of this starter, but after this initial rise, you will get a really fabulous loaf. After about a month, you are going to have your very own line of Sourdough! (The yeast in every location is different. Hence, San Fran Sourdough!) Once this has proofed and you are ready to store in your fridge, covered, be sure to replace each cup you remove from starter with equal amounts of Flour and water. Stir to incorporate flour, cover and fridge! Use again within the week, or it will grow out of your fridge...scary stuff!

The next day, uncover your starter, and begin-

Using 2 cups of Starter and 2 cups of your favorite bread flour, combine with a pinch of salt. (Make sure you replenish your starter: 2 Cups APF and 2 Cups Water.) If you find that this combo is too dry, feel free to add a tablespoon of water to loosen it up a little. Once you have formed a ball with dough, turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10-15 minutes BY HAND!! After a few tries at this, you'll begin to feel when your dough gets a good gluten strand that you like. You can easily do the "Window Pane" test to check if you've properly kneaded. Pinch off about 2-3 Tbsps of your dough, make a little ball, flatten it out and stretch it as thin as you can and hold it up to the light. It should look opaque with a gel-like almost veiny look. Once you have achieved this, make a smooth ball, by gently rolling the ball until all of the seams are worked out. Lightly oil the bottom of a large bowl with about a Tbsp of olive oil and place dough in bowl rotating completely so that all of the dough has been coated. Cover with a warm damp dish cloth and allow dough to rise for about an hour or until doubled.

Now that your dough has become a big giant glob of goopy goodness, poke it down! Be gentle, this is your little loaf of loveliness, no need to be brutal. Turn your dough out onto a lightly floured surface, again, and cut the dough in half. At this point, you get to decide if you'd like to make two loaves of bread, or save a ball for pizza dough..your call, but I'd go with 1 loaf, 1 pizza. (For the Pizza option, tuck the cut seam to the bottom of the dough, lightly coat a piece of plastic wrap with a non-stick spray, and tightly cover your little pizza to be. Store in the freezer until day of pizza goodness, at which time you can flatten dough in plastic wrap, while chilled, and place in fridge until about 5 minutes before making your pizza.

..and breathe

Back to your loaf. Once you have cut the dough in half, tuck seams under the ball, form into desired loaf, being sure to tuck any seams, and cover with a damp kitchen towel, on a parchment lined baking sheet, and allow to rise for about 45 minutes to an hour. While your dough is proofing, place your top oven rack in the middle position, and preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Place a loaf pan on a bottom rack of your oven, and heat up a teapot full of water. After your second rise, place your loaf in the oven, and fill loaf pan with heated water. This creates a steam effect that most home ovens don't produce. Cook your lovely loaf for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the crust is golden brown enough for your liking. After removing from the oven, transfer loaf to a cooling rack for about 15 minutes, and then wrap with plastic wrap to ensure soft crust. For crispy crust, allow to cool on rack for an hour and then store as desired.

SHEW! Should have rethought that whole giving up my dough process! Until next time, go have some fun with some flour, and enjoy!

About That Redhead

Hi there, kiddies!

Many apologies for being out of comission for the week, but Mother Nature and my upper respiratory system just don't like each other!

That said, allow me to introduce to you my little individual spicy chica. She's compact, flavorful, packed full of veggies, and she freezes like a champ! Don't worry, you don't need to purchase "The Perfect Meatloaf Pan" for this girl, she's very happy to stand center stage on a canvas of parchment paper.

The Saucy Lady, Table For 1

For the Lady:

1 1/2 Cups of Ground Pork

1 1/2 Cups of Ground Chicken or Turkey

1 Cup of Breadcrumbs

5 Chopped small to medium Mushrooms of choice (I used buttons, but Crimini would rock!)

1 Medium Yellow Onion, diced

1/2 Red Onion, diced

1 Red Pepper, diced

1 Roma Tomato, diced

3 Sundried Tomatoes, chopped

3 Tbsp of chopped Basil or 1 Tbsp of dried basil, rubbed

2 Tbsp of chopped Flat Leaf Parsley or a pinch of dried parsely, rubbed

1 Tbsp of Ground Mustard

1 Tbsp of Cracked Pepper

1 tsp of dried or fresh Thyme

Pinch of Crushed Red Pepper (optional)

Pinch of Salt (optional)

1 Egg



For the Lady's Coat:

1 Cup of Ketchup

1 Tbsp Chipotle Hot Sauce, or any favorite Hot Sauce

1 Tbsp Honey or Maple Syrup

Here we go....

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, or if you only have foil, line it and just spritz it with a non-stick spray.
Dump all of the Lady's guts into a large bowl, and remove all jewelry. With the best mixers you can find in your kitchen, your hands, squish, squoosh, squeeze, and really get to know your new sophisticated lady-friend!
Once mixed, use a one cup measuring cup to divide the mixture. Tap out the measured portions onto cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart to allow each loaf to cook properly. Should you only want to cook 1 or 2, wrap the rest of the portions in parchment paper and plastic wrap, be sure to place parchment between each, and the leftover girlies will be awaiting you anytime you'd like for up to a month. Generally I can get 4-6 servings out of the mixture this way, unless of course, my hubby comes over to "top" his off!
Place the little ladies in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and cook through.
While they are tanning away, mix up your ketchup, hot sauce and honey/syrup in a small resealable container. When the girls are ready, smother them in the nummy sauce and reserve the rest for another meatloaf or a midnight french fry bender!

The Saucy Lady and her sister Plain Jane

See, she's versatile! Covered or Naked, your choice!

Enjoy!



Oh So Icky

I've had a horrible cold this week.

Here's a pic of the recipe to come: Saucy Lady, Table For One

I'll try to have the recipe up in the next couple of days. For now, please enjoy the view!

Stuffed Stuffs

Mushrooms and tomatoes to be exact. This dish was originally planned for four gorgeous Portobellos, however, after inspection of the two I had purchased the day before yesterday, my big fatties had spoiled. I'm glad I opted to purchase two extra yesterday morning!

I thought to myself, "Self, it will be okay. Just bag and tag the extra stuffing and reserve for later." Then I tasted the stuffing...no, no, no. This stuffing was not going to be given the option to go bad before I could use it again. It was a sweet, creamy, yet texturally pleasing bombshell that needed to be enjoyed immediately.

So the search began.

Frantically I scoured through the pantry, trying to locate an extra pepper, mushroom, zucchini, squash, something, anything to carriage this delectable goodness. No luck. Heartbroken, I shrugged on my kitchen counter, maybe pouted would better describe it, and as I lifted myself up to put my two lonely little mushrooms in the oven, the answer was staring me right in the face. Right there on top of my microwave were three stunning heirloom tomatoes. A lemony yellow, a granny smith green, and a zebra striped burgundy and brown, were just begging me to stuff their guts out. So I did!

Oh Just Stuff It

4-5 Veggies for stuffing- Scoop out Tomatoes or Peppers, De-gill Portobellos, or you could even Hollow  out some Squash (I would use 1/2 a hollowed out squash per serving)

2/3 Cup of Couscous or 1 5.8oz Box (Get creative! Try using a flavored Couscous

for an extra boost!)

1 14.5oz Can of Diced Tomatoes (Again, try a blend. I used Italian seasoned. Flavor, Flavor, Flavor!)

1/2 of 1 Large Red Pepper, finely diced, finely diced

1/2 of 1 Medium Yellow Onion

1/2 Cup Feta Cheese, crumbled

1/4 Cup Toasted Pine Nuts

1 Large Egg

2 Cloves of Garlic, diced- or you could use 1 Tbsp of minced garlic (Really, it's all about the flavor through convenience!)

2 Tbsp Chopped Chives

2 Tbsp Fresh Chopped Basil or 2 tsp Dried Basil

1 Tbsp Fresh Thyme or 1 tsp Dried Thyme

2 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 tsp Sesame Seed Oil

1/2 Cup of Shredded Mozzarella

1/2 Cup of Shredded Parmesan

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with either Parchment or Aluminum Foil. You don't want your lovelies sticking! Gently coat the outside of your "to be stuffed" guys with 1 Tbsp of Olive Oil and place on cookie sheet.

In a large bowl, combine all of the remaining ingredients, saving the Mozzarella and Parmesan for crusting your stuffed veggies. If you are using a flavored couscous, which I highly recommend, add the seasoning packet to the mixture, and incorporate well. By the by, I used a Parmesan and Roasted Garlic Couscous, it kinda rocked!

Once your stuffing has taken on a somewhat cohesive state, start packing it in...THE VEGGIES, not your mouth! (That was a little reminder to myself.) Using a Tbsp, start filling up and packing it down. The entire mixture should fill about 4-5 Large portions.

Sprinkle Shredded Cheese on top and bake in oven for 15-20 minutes, or until crust is golden and your stuffed veggies have desired doneness!

They look great, and you'll want to chow down immediately, but fair warning...let them cool down huh!

Until next time-

****TEASER****

Meatloaf is on the way! 

Grilled Cheese of Victory!

YUM!



I'm a Saints girl. (Well, I married into it, but I don't regret it a bit!) WHO DAT!!!

After watching the boys win today, I had to change up the original grilled cheese that was all set to go with my Football Chili. The good old Cheddar and whole grain just didn't cut it today. I had to dig a little deeper to satiate my palette's desire for more greatness. Enter Meatloaf Lady's Take on a Mozzarella en carozza!

Though this is normally an Italian yummy goodness, I changed it up a bit and created what I feel is a french toast and a grilled cheese's love child with style!

Imagine if you will, the smell of melted butter and olive oil cooking away at an egg soaked English Muffin. Every so often you catch a whiff of slowly melting Mozzarella and the faint possibility of Tomato. As you finally bite down into the golden treasure, you are met by a crispy, crunchy layer of nooks and crannies, followed by a snap of tangy sun dried tomato that seems to have a nutty and salty quality as well, and as your bottom teeth come up to me your top, CRASH, right into another crispity, crunchity layer on the bottom!

That's a winning grilled cheese.

Not Just Another Grilled Cheese

4 English Muffins- Separated top and bottom and inside out
8 Sun dried Tomatoes (sliced for easier distribution)
4 Anchovies (Trust me, you'll never know they are there)
4 Thick slices of Fresh Mozzarella
3 Eggs (Beaten with 2 Tbsp of Water)
2-3 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Butter

Heat a large skillet to Medium High, and drizzle in Olive Oil and melt in Butter. Place one slice of Fresh Mozzarella on the smooth side of each bottom half of Muffin (Nooks and Cranny area is on the outside for this concoction). Layer Sun dried Tomatoes on top of each Mozzarella slice. Place one Anchovy in the center of tomato layer. Place the top of muffin upside down on top of the leaning tower of goodness, and dredge in the egg wash, being sure to completely coat both sides of the sandwich. Gently place your future happiness in skillet and cut the heat back to medium. Slow and Low kiddies, SLOW and LOW. Allow each side to come to a gorgeous golden brown before flipping, about 2-4 minutes per side. If needed, cover with a lid for 1 minute to finish melting cheese. Remove to a wire rack to cool. Grab a handful of napkins, because as they say the messier the food, the better it tastes, be prepared!

Enjoy!