Becoming a Cook

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My friend Stephanie wrote that she tries to cook on the weekends as much as possible and then eat the leftovers for lunch and dinner throughout the week. Brilliant. We've been trying it, and it works GREAT. This weekend I made Melt in Your Mouth Chicken and put it over rice (Cause I tend to put everything over rice lol). It was good and easy. (My two favorite cooking terms). Check it out here.

Becoming a Cook

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I would like to introduce to you the easiest recipe ever: French Onion Chicken. It has TWO ingredients, people, AND it's good! We put ours over rice. Um, best day ever.

Becoming a Cook

On Saturday, I decided to experiment with make ahead freezer meals and made Parmesan Chicken based on this recipe. (My gluten-free adaptation is below). We haven't eaten it yet, but I've tucked it away in the freezer for a busy day. All we'll have to do is add sauce, bake it, and put it over gluten free noodles. Have you tried freezer meals? Any good recipes you've found?

3 seasoned chicken breasts
1/2 c. melted butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese
1 c. Parmesan cheese

Mix together Parmesan cheese and crumbs in a bowl. Mix eggs and butter in another bowl. Dip breast in egg mixture. Repeat with each breast. Sprinkle mozzarella over breasts and top. Cook frozen and covered with foil at 400 for 1 1/2 hours.

Becoming a Cook

I've been trying some recipes from pinterest lately and YUM.

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We made these Baby Breakfast Quiches for dinner, and they were so good! I just substituted the wheat flour for a rice flour and sorghum flour mix to make it gluten free. Try it, and let me know what you think!

Becoming a Cook

We made some fajitas using this recipe, and they're magically delicious.

Crock pots are the greatest invention...ever.

Becoming a Cook: Fettuccini Alfredo

So this recipe is delish! We put it over fettuccini (Normal for him, gluten-free for me) and bam-dinner is served.

8 oz. cream cheese, cut in bits
3/4 c. parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 c. butter or margarine
1/2 c. milk
8 oz. fettuccine, cooked and drained.

In a large saucepan, combine cream cheese, parmesan cheese, butter, and milk, stirring constantly until smooth. Toss pasta lightly with sauce, coating well.

Have a great weekend!

Becoming a Cook: Brown Sugar Chicken

Be warned. Brown Sugar Chicken is tasty, and with that name, you can imagine why. I got it from Crockpot 365, so it's delicious AND gluten-free. Happy day.

P.S. What's your favorite cooking blog?

Becoming a Cook

Have I told you how much I LOVE the crock pot? I prepare dinner the night before, put the crock pot in the fridge, and cook it all the next day. You can find this recipe here. Very tasty and very easy! What's your favorite crock pot recipe?

Becoming a Cook: Dinner Disasters

Like all great dinner disaster stories, this one begins with "When we were first married..."

When we were first married, I found a tator tot casserole recipe.  It was in the easy section of the cookbook, so I thought I was safe.  I put everything together and knew enough to brown the beef.  What I didn't know was that I had bought the fatty beef that needs to be strained.  I just added all the beef (Including the nasty fatty goop) into the tator tot casserole.  We dug in, and it was NAS to the TY.  Seriously, I don't think either of us could handle more than one bite.  I had never had tator tot casserole before, so I thought it was just the recipe!  It was months later when Landon Paul was cooking with me that I saw him strain the beef.  Suddenly I realized why it hadn't been quite so delicious.  Epic fail.  I've never tried that recipe again and have no desire to.

Becoming a Cook: Dinner Disasters

(One of) My best dinner disasters:

We were newly married.  I had no idea how to cook.  I got a can of cream of chicken soup and found a recipe on the back that looked tasty enough to try.  It was a chicken casserole.  (Sounds easy enough, right?)  I put the mixture all together.  Then it said to "Add chicken."  How was I supposed to know I should season, cook, and then shred the chicken???  So I put the mixture in an 8.5x11 pan and dropped the frozen chicken breast (Defrosted at least) on top and put it in the oven.  I couldn't figure out why it wasn't cooked after the 30 minutes it asked for.  So I left it in for way longer until it finally wasn't pink.  Then we dug in, and I couldn't understand why it tasted so awful.  I figured I had bought the wrong chicken.  (The kind everyone else always ate had breading on it.  Was there a special breading frozen chicken I was supposed to get?)  Yup, awful.  What's your best dinner disaster?

Becoming a Cook: Chicken Parmesan

Landon Paul made this delicious Chicken Parmesan in the crock pot.  I love coming home from work and having dinner ready, and the crock pot makes it happen.  He adapted the recipe from Crock Pot 365.

Ingredients:

-2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

-1/4 cup parmesan cheese

-1/2 t Italian Seasoning

-1/4 t black pepper

-1/4 t kosher salt

-1 T olive oil

-1 beaten egg

-sliced mozzarella cheese

-jarred marinara sauce

Directions:

-Spread the 1 T of olive oil into the bottom of your crockpot

-Whip the egg with a fork in a separate bowl

-Mix the seasonings and the parmesan cheese in another separate dish

-Dip the chicken into the egg, then into the mixture, coating both sides with cheese and seasonings

-Place the chicken breast pieces in the bottom of the crock pot

-Layer 2-3 slices of mozzarella cheese on top

-Cover with entire jar of marinara sauce

-Close lid and cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for 3-4. If your chicken is still frozen, it will take longer.

Serve with pasta.  

I had GF spaghetti and Landon Paul had regular spaghetti.  It was SO GOOD! 

Becoming a Cook: Dinner Disasters

Okay, these dinner disasters are HILARIOUS!  Here's one from my friend Sara! 

"Poor Tari! I messed up the very first meal I cooked for Ben and I as a married couple! The sad thing is that I screwed up spaghetti! I was trying to complete a homework assignment and I got distracted while the noodles were cooking. My water boiled so long that most of it evaporated and my noodles were so overcooked they fell apart! It was really nasty but Ben ate away with a smile on his face. I also tried to cook Cornish game hens in a crock pot! First of all mini frozen birds are gross! When they were done cooking I was taking them out of the crock pot and I found a bobby pin that fell out of my hair while putting them in! Good thing I wasn't cooking for other people! We ordered pizza that night as well!"

Who else has a good one? 

Becoming a Cook: Dinner Disasters

A while back I had quite the dinner disaster and asked you to share some of yours to make me feel better.  Tari is a domestic diva, and I'm so glad she shared, cause this is a good one! 

"I have a couple dinner disasters, but I'll go with the most recent because it seems the most traumatic at the moment. This last Wednesday, I found out that we were going to be leaving on a last minute trip to Arizona the next day for my husband's grad school interview so I spent the day making preparations and packing. But it was also my turn to cook (I live at my in-laws right now, so I take turns cooking with my mother-in-law) so I decided to grill hamburgers outside. Well, I turned the grill on to get hot while I got everything else ready inside. Then I went outside to put the burgers on the grill, and when I opened the lid to the grill, I heard a huge pop. I didn't know what it was, so I finished and went inside. A couple of minutes later I went back outside to flip the burgers and noticed that the window that was by the grill had a huge crack running down it. Suddenly I knew what I had heard earlier. The grill was too close to the house and the heat made the window break! So I flipped the patties and ran inside to confess to my in-laws. I was only gone for a couple of minutes, and when I came back outside to get the burgers, they were completely on fire and had shrunk so that when I removed them from the grill, very few looked edible. I mean, we're talking hard, thick, pucks of burned hamburger. I was so humiliated and just wanted to cry. Thankfully, there were enough "good" ones that everyone had enough to eat. Talk about a stressful day that didn't end well!"

Can anyone top that?  What's your best dinner disaster?

And happy royal wedding day!  I didn't stay up to watch it, but I'm going to watch the reruns tonight!!!

Becoming a Cook: Turkey Tetrazzini

Fair warning: This is delicious. 

Ingredients:

1 (16-oz pkg.) dry spaghetti noodles
1-2 lbs. turkey breast tenders,  broken up in pieces (I used leftover turkey from another dinner)

Chopped onion to taste
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 (8-oz.) block cream cheese (broken up)
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
2 cups chicken broth
salt to taste

Directions:
Spray slow cooker with cooking spray and cook on low for 3 hours.  Cook spaghetti separately on the stove, then mix it in.  (We did a pot of GF spaghetti for me and a pot of regular for Landon Paul).  (Based it off of A Year of Slow Cooking's recipe here).

Becoming a Cook: Chicken Cordon Bleu

Gluten-free chicken cordon bleu in a crockpot!  I kid you not!  There's a GF version and a normal version here.  I must say though, Landon Paul and I both thought the GF version was delicious, so you just might want to try it.  It took 4 hours on high, and we ate it with rice and rolls (He had normal rolls, I had GF).  For reals, probably my new favorite GF dinner!  Enjoy!

Becoming a Cook: Chicken Tortilla Soup

This tastiness came from my friend Renae.  It's quick to make and happens to be gluten-free!  Happiness!

Chicken Tortilla Soup
2 cans chicken broth (14.5 oz)
1 can kidney beans (14.5 oz) (I didn't have any kidney beans, so I skipped it.  It still tasted great!)
1 can corn (14.5 oz)
1 cup salsa
1 can chicken or 2 shredded chicken breasts
1 cup instant rice (or 2 cups already cooked rice)

Combine everything but the rice in a stock pot.  Bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes.  Add rice, take off heat, cover and let stand 5 minutes.  Serve with cheese, sour cream, and corn chips, if desired.  (I microwaved leftover rice and just added it at the end).

 What are some of your favorite recipes?  I love trying your suggestions!

Becoming a Cook: Gluten-Free Pizza

So I got a mix of gluten-free crust.  I followed the directions, and, as you can see, it was NASTY.  I know the picture looks bad, but it tasted even worse (And I'm not picky)!  

Landon Paul immediately got on the phone and ordered a gluten-free pizza for me and a normal one for him from Pier 49, and it was DELICIOUS. 

What is your BEST (worst/funniest/most memorable) dinner disaster?  I'll post the best one!  (Basically I have too many epic fails to count and want to know I'm not alone)! :)

Becoming a Cook: Taco Skillet

Guess what?  It's gluten-free, it tastes good, AND it's easy!  I know- crazy!  Here's how to:

1 lb. ground beef

8 oz tomato sauce

1 packet taco seasoning

1 can corn

1/4 water

grated cheese
 

Brown meat, drain grease, then mix in taco seasoning.  Add tomato sauce, water, and corn.  Bring to a simmer.  Add cheese to thicken.  Serve with corn chips (That's what I like) or tortillas (What Landon Paul likes), more cheese, and sour cream.  YUM! 

Becoming a Cook: Stir Fry

Brown rice
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
Vegetables
Cooked chicken
Soy sauce or olive oil

SO easy and SO yummy!  Cook your brown rice however floats your fancy.  I always use the rice cooker, and it takes an hour and a half.  When it has 15 minutes left, heat up the skillet on the stove for a minute.  Then coat the pan in a Tbsp. of vegetable oil.  Add cooked and cut chicken and stir it all around with the vegetables.  (I'm really bad at eating vegetables, but when they're steamed they actually taste good).  I add soy sauce to mine, because it makes everything better.  Landon Paul's has to be ulcer-friendly, so he puts olive oil on his.  Put it all together, and LIFE IS GOOD.

On the side, I found some edamame in the freezer section that you steam in your MICROWAVE- cool, right?   That was DELISH.  We also had a little Jell-o salad, so the whole plate didn't look green.  Are there any other Asian food lovers out there?  Mmm, it's my total fave, and this one is ulcer-friendly!  Score!

Becoming a Cook: Chicken Fried Steak & Mashed Potatoes

To my super healthy brother in med school, please do not read the following.  Last night was the first time I made Chicken Fried Steak and homemade gravy.  I got the recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cookbook that Landon Paul gave me for Christmas.  It was delicious!  If you are trying to eat healthier this year, stay far far away from this dish!  I could feel my arteries clogging with every bite, but it was good stuff!  I just noticed that this recipe is only in her cookbook and not on her blog which makes me think it's copyrighted, and I could be hunted down and beaten to a pulp if I posted it.  Yikes.  Instead, I'll show you the recipe for something similar that she posted on her blog here and tell you Landon Paul's recipe for delicious homemade mashed potatoes, which is pretty awesome. 

Landon Paul's Delicious Homemade Mashed Potatoes:
Peel and chop potatoes
Place in boiling water
Boil until soft
Using mixer, add butter and milk and whip until consistency is PERFECTION
Add salt and pepper to taste

What's your favorite cookbook?  I'm loving Pioneer Woman's, because it gives me step-by-step instructions to dishes I've never tried before.  Better Homes and Gardens explains how in the flip magoo I'm supposed to do things, and I love them for it.  Then family cookbooks give me tried and true recipes which is always appreciated.  What's your fave?  HAPPY MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY!