2014 Blogger Challenge #6: Frittatas!

Hi all! Hope you had a nice weekend! It's time once again for the 2014 Blogger Challenge, and this week's theme is food. I've been really busy lately getting ready to release my next polish collection, so I was actually thinking about skipping the challenge this time; luckily Mr. ALIQUID provided me with an easy topic when he asked me to make something eggy for breakfast this morning.

What I ended up making is a frittata (basically an open-faced omelette), which is practically foolproof and a great way to use up leftover veggies or meat. I started by roughly chopping half an onion and half a bell pepper, which I cooked on medium-high heat with some olive oil, salt and pepper until the onions turned golden brown. Be sure to use a nonstick skillet.

The type and amount of filling is totally up to you, depending on what ratio of eggs to filling you want. The important thing is that the filling is fully cooked and that any water in the pan gets cooked off (otherwise you'll have watery eggs, ew!).

Meanwhile, I whisked four eggs in a bowl and added some salt, pepper, and torn up slices of cheddar and muenster cheese. You can get fancy and add herbs too.

Once the veggies were cooked, I turned down the heat to low and poured the eggs into the pan:

Now you just let the eggs sit until they're cooked all the way through (firm and opaque), but only just; the eggs should still be tender and moist. (You can also do this part in the oven at 350 degrees for a few minutes.) Slice it up and enjoy!

I made food: nachos!

Yep, another cooking post this week! Mr. ALIQUID has the week off from work, so we decided to mix it up a little with our dinner plans (normally we have very similar dinners from week to week). My craving for Mexican food hit me again, so I made nachos! I got the basic procedure from my dad, who's been making awesome nachos for years.

Nachos are one of those great dishes that you can make virtually any way you want as long as you keep the basics the same: chips + toppings + cheese. Here's what I did...

I heated up a mix of refried black and pinto beans (plus a little water) on the stovetop and added a packet of taco seasoning; if you want to avoid the prepackaged stuff, I imagine a blend of chili powder, cumin, garlic powder and salt would do the trick. You can of course use any combo of meat, beans and rice for your topping, just make sure the meat is fully cooked before you put it on your nachos. About 1 to 1.5 pounds of topping should be enough.

I put down a layer of corn chips on a large rimmed baking sheet; make sure to fill in all the gaps, but don't overlap them too much or you'll end up with the dreaded topping-less chip. Then I added my beans on top. Don't be too heavy-handed with this part, or the chips will get soggy and collapse under the weight.

I sprinkled chopped onions and cherry tomatoes all over, plus fresh jalapenos on my husband's half (I'm still a wuss). Finally, the cheese! I used a whole two-cup bag of shredded "Mexican blend" cheese.

Stick the nachos in the oven at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes. This will melt the cheese, soften the veggies and remove sogginess from the toppings and chips. One large tray will feed four regular people or two very hungry people!

We ate our nachos with homemade guacamole (just avocado, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper). Oh so delicious...

I made food: Cheesy white beans with kale and a fried egg

Not to brag, but I made something really good for dinner yesterday. Bask in the glory of this image, then I'll tell you all about it...

Here is the recipe for this bowl of deliciousness. The base is white beans with garlic and scallions, thickened with cream, cheddar and Parmesan into a smooth, rich and flavorful porridge; it's topped with kale sauteed until crispy with lemon juice, and a fried egg for good measure! I can't express how fantastic a comfort food this was. The beans are pure distilled wintery goodness, and the kale, raw scallions and lemon add a nice contrast in taste and texture. And the egg...well, it's just an extra bonus.

This dish seems to be intended for breakfast, but I think it fits any meal. We were both loosening our belts by the bottom of the bowl. I won't comment on the fat content, but at least it's low carb and high protein!

Mr. ALIQUID suggests this would make a good dip too (without the egg)!

I made food: enchiladas

Yay, it's Mexican food time again! It's been a while...I've missed you. Tonight I made enchiladas with homemade sauce. Like so many Mexican dishes, enchiladas are versatile because you can put just about anything you want inside them. As long as you use cheese, of course.

I started by making the sauce (recipe here). It's very easy--basically just tomato paste with seasonings. This sauce has a little heat, but it gets diluted enough once in the enchiladas that it doesn't bother sensitive people like me.

Once the sauce is done, you assemble the enchiladas in a baking dish. I used brown rice, black beans, cheese, and of course the sauce.

 

When you've filled the tortilla, fold over the sides and flip it over--it should stay closed that way. Then spread some more enchilada sauce on top and sprinkle with more cheese. Bake them at 350 for 20-30 minutes, basically until the cheese is melted and the tortillas get a little crispy on the edges. (I've seen some recipes tell you to add more sauce halfway through, and you can do that if you like your enchiladas extra saucy.)

Enchiladas are one of those foods that look kind of gross and yet delicious at the same time, aren't they?

We made food: baked penne

Today's dinner was a team effort: my husband is a sucker for baked pasta, so he suggested what to make and even helped cook it! What a good boy.

Here he is giving his seal of approval to the finished product:

And here are the beautiful cheesy insides:

Oh yeah. This was very easy to make, just needs a number of ingredients and some time.

I made the tomato sauce by first sauteeing half an onion and some garlic in olive oil. Then I added a large can of tomatoes, a can of tomato paste, some dried basil and oregano (I just eyeballed the amounts) and salt and pepper. I let that simmer while I boiled a pound of  whole wheat penne until it was almost fully cooked.

Meanwhile, Hubby was mixing 15 oz. of ricotta with a chopped head of broccoli, an egg, some grated parmesan, and salt and pepper. When everything was ready, he greased a large Pyrex dish and added the sauce, pasta and ricotta mix in layers, starting with sauce. He topped everything off with some mozzarella. It went into the oven for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

So, so good and filling, and it's gonna last us for a few days!

Edit: my husband just calculated that this cost us only $1.61 per serving!

I made food: Mediterranean chicken en papillote

Today I was faced with cooking the dreaded chicken breast, which I normally hate because they tend to be dry and tasteless. My husband suggested trying to cook them en papillote (apparently he heard about it on NPR), which just means you wrap the food in a parchment paper packet so it steams in its own juices.

I followed this recipe from Martha Stewart, except I omitted the artichokes and olives for budgetary reasons.

First you mix up a mustard vinaigrette.

Then in the middle of a piece of parchment paper, you make a little bed of asparagus and top it with a half chicken breast, some vinaigrette, feta, basil and tomatoes.

Then the chickens all go to sleep in their little beds and into the oven...

...and here's what you get when you open the package! (We ate it with penne and homemade marinara.)

Because it cooks all sealed up, the chicken stays moist and tender. It's relatively low-fat (unless you drink all that leftover dressing at the bottom...) And it's very flavorful thanks to the mustard vinaigrette. We both agreed this recipe needs to go into my chicken breast recipe rotation!


Everyone ready for the 31-Day Challenge starting tomorrow? I am!!

I made food: black bean quesadillas

Today I indulged my craving for Mexican food once again by making black bean quesadillas with homemade pico de gallo and guacamole. I decided to try using an actual Mexican cheese rather than the Kraft "Mexican blend" stuff that comes shredded in bags. I ended up buying queso panela, which I've never had before, but the description sounded promising. It turned out to be very mild, like a salty mozzarella (very similar texture too). It didn't actually melt fully, but got very soft.

There really isn't anything better than fresh guacamole, is there? Mine just has tomato, onion, lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper. (You may notice that I didn't put any jalapenos or anything in. I'm a real wuss when it comes to spicy stuff; it's really just a painful distraction from the food to me!) Alongside my quesadillas I had a salad with oil, lime juice, pepper, and some pomegranate-flavored craisins. I just love that almost everything in my dinner was fresh and easy to make! (Yeah OK, I got the beans from a can, so sue me!)

I made food: crack and cheese

Heh, two days after I talked about eating healthy I'm posting this. Yesterday I made a batch of Martha Stewart's "perfect macaroni and cheese" for my department's grad student picnic. Luckily I ended up with some leftovers, because this is seriously the greatest mac and cheese ever. I've made it around ten times and it always vanishes within two days.

You can find the recipe at this New York Times blog post. You'll notice first of all that this recipe contains over a pound and a half of cheese and a whole stick of butter, but who's counting? But this stuff is not just a cheese bomb: it also has nutmeg and cayenne pepper, which give it a bit of a bite and a more complex flavor. Not to mention that crunchy top of homemade bread crumbs!

It's pretty easy to make, just time consuming. To make the cheese sauce, you first have to make a white sauce by whisking butter, flour and milk for what seems like a million years. Not to mention shredding all that cheese (because you wouldn't buy pre-shredded cheese for this masterpiece, would you??).

I'm lucky my fiance is coming to visit so he can finish the rest of this stuff, otherwise I might overdo it!

I made food: stuffed onions

Take a look at these bad boys:

Onions stuffed with quinoa, spinach, arugula, and feta! I got this recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything; the only change I made was to add quinoa for extra protein.

The basic procedure is this: cut the onions in half, put them face down in a dish, drizzle them with butter and white wine, then put them in the oven at 375 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the quinoa and boil the greens for about 3 minutes. Squeeze the excess water out of the greens. Mix the quinoa, greens and some feta in whatever proportions you want. Take the centers of the onions out, leaving a few layers, and put the stuffing in. Put some panko on top, drizzle some olive oil, and stick them back in the oven for another 20 minutes. Add some bacon bits if you want and you're done!

These were so amazingly good, and filling too (I got pretty full on these two halves). The onions were perfectly sweet. And because of the bacon and feta I didn't need to add any extra salt.

YUM!

I made food: bulgur wheat with peppers and goat cheese

Oh yeah, that's good stuff.

What's in it:

• bulgur wheat
• scallions
• sweet peppers
• goat cheese
• lemon juice
• olive oil
• paprika
• salt and pepper
• and I threw in some chia seeds 'cause they're good for ya!

And the best part is, no cooking required (just soaking the bulgur). I wonder if it might be good with some pomegranate seeds or maybe some apple?

(This recipe is slightly adapted from The Illustrated Quick Cook.)