Tomato slow cooked chicken

I am always taking pictures and I can never remember which picture actually make it up and which ones don't. I started this article and stopped so many times I totally forgot which story I was going to share with it.

My background is Hispanic. I am not a pureblood but my mom is from Panama and I grew up for the most part with her family. I spoke Spanish at home for years and my Mami Abuela made sure I knew how to cook. She also tried to teach me how to crochet and sew which is something I did not master until recently. So my version of comfort food is Spanish or Spanish type food. This is my quick toss it in the pan Spanish style chicken served with rice.

This is also considered low budget because I used 2, (3 if a want a ton) chicken breast and feeds about 6 people. 

2 cloves of garlic

2 chicken breast 

1 large onion 

rice 

can of tomato or 3 medium tomatoes 

oregano 

salt and pepper 

parsley 

1 cup of  Chicken broth

Sautee onion and garlic until translucent with seasoning and salt and pepper. Add chicken until browned. Add tomatoes and broth and simmer until liquid is reduced. Make rice and serve.  

This meal came to about $10 ( I forgot how much the chicken breast is going currently) 

which puts it at about $1.70 per person. :) Happy eatings

Steak Solvaski

Marley was upset with me that she has ben getting a ton of "not yummy dead cow". Steak is expensive and I want to work with a tight budget to save some for my dream house. I hear a lot of steak salsbury but have never had it and decided to make up my own thing. So here is my Greekish cubed Steak.
                                                               

I started buy making roasted potatoes. I washed and chopped the potatoes. Tossed it with oil and seasonings. Normally I use salt, pepper, paprika, basil, oregano, and thyme.

Now for the steak, put salt pepper and basil on both sides. Add a small amount of butter in a hot pan and cook the steak. 

Set the steak aside and start mushrooms. 

Sautee the mushrooms with onions and garlic with parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the left over sauce from the chicken solvaski. (If you refrigerate the leftover sauce the grease will harden and easy to separate.) Add the steaks and cook until until the potatoes are done. 

Two pieces of cube steak is $4, a giant bag of potato that gets me 4 meals is $5 and mushrooms are $3.50. Each meal comes to about $3 a person.

Chicken Solvaski

We moved to Maryland 4 years ago for work which was a horrible idea but some good came out of it. We found a prefect little Greek restaurant and it became out go to for eating out all the time. We would order 4 meals because if you bought 3 the 4th was free. Justin would order a gyro and the kids and I would order Solvaski with a falafel meal. Each meal came with the most amazing salad and rice. Out of everything in Maryland I really really miss our little restaurant. They even delivered now I have nothing like that local to me and my delivery man ( which is Justin) complains and his job is moving further from the only greek place we found. So now it is time to take action and learn how to make our own Greek food. I made chicken solvaski for the third time.

So for ingredients:  

• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika or paprika
• 1 tablespoon fresh dill
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano
• 3 cloves garlic, minced or grated
• 1/2 teaspoon salt + 1 teaspoon pepper

Now mix everything together to create a marinade. Leave the chicken in the marinade for a few hours. 

 I cooked the chicken in the marinade at 350 for about an hour and a half. 

Then I made white rice using chicken stock and added butter and lemon with parsley with sautéed green beans.

I have been working with limited funds so this meal cost me maybe $2.00 per person. We have been buying chicken thighs for $4 and it has about 10- 12 thighs in it. Each person gets one and the bag of green beans was $.99 rice is also nice to keep in the pantry. Save the marinade/ chicken stock for the next meal. (Please keep a close eye on the bottom of the food entries for more budget saving tips and tricks.) 

 

Flour tortillas

I feel tortillas should be a staple in any house not just us crazy Latinas. I use them for pretty much anything chips, burritos, random made up things, and my kids favorite quesadillas. So we are working on making them from scratch again. Going to the store and picking them is great but reading the labels terrified me with some of the listed things. This takes me 10 minutes ( I love my press and I move quick) and the taste can't be beat so it is worth making it. 

If you plan on this being a normal occurrence you should really look into a press they come in two different sizes a large and a small. Check out the quick link to Tortilla Press-heavy Duty Cast Aluminum Tortilla Maker 8''inch-metallic.

Ingredients:

6 cups flour (I use all purpose)

1 Tablespoon salt

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 1/4 cup shortening

1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups hot water

Mathew was pressing the shortening into the flour. 

He then realized he had flour up his arm and was unsure about that situation. 

Directions: 

Mix flour, salt, baking powder really well. Add shortening and it it into the dough until it if crumbly, it is best to use your hands.

Making sure it was completely incorporated. 

This became a big game. 

This is before we add water. 

Slowly add hot water to make a dough soft enough to roll out. Divid up and roll into balls about the size of a golf ball. I was always told the size of a lemon but they go from really tiny to baseball size and I never understood the whole lemon thing. 

This is way to dry. 

This is to wet. 

It will look like this when it is properly incorporated. 

This is what the press looks like closed. 

Open it all out and you get this. 

Put your ball here. 

Fold it all back into place and squish. 

I open it rotate it and squish it again.

Cook on an ungreased skillet or griddle. 

Toss in a hot pan and cook it. 

I use my hand and rotate it. 

This prevents sticking. Flip it over and rotate it again. 

I like to store my tortillas in a play pot with a bread linen. 

Then continue until done. 

The kids had a blast doing this!!! and we made about 36 small tortillas. 

Rice Balls with a simple brown sauce

I love Asian food and I even love doing my own take. I kept hearing about the rice balls deep fried the you dip them in sauce. Well one day I had nothing to cook and Mr. Man and Hulk were completely losing it so I could not get out and shop. I savaged my cabinets and found some staple items, baby Bok Choy, onions and garlic. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best on this one.

First the rice balls. It was not as tasty as I truly wanted and it really needed something. 

You need cooked rice, eggs, panko, and some seasoning. 

I did salt, pepper, and grated garlic with ginger but you could not taste it. 

I mixed the eggs separately to make sure the yolk and whites was mixed really well then added it to the rice. After words I heated my deep fryer and made little rice balls. Cook until golden brown and heated through. 

Now it is time to get saucy. 

I started with a stir fry oil and sautéed my onions and garlic. Then I added about 1 teaspoon rice vinegar, 1/2 cup soy sauce, a dash maybe 2 of fish sauce and a tablespoon of chicken base stock. I cooked it then chopped up the small amount of bok choy I found in the fridge. 

Place the rice balls in the bowl the pour a small amount of sauce over it. The sauce was amazing but I feel like we really needed more flavor in the rice. Maybe sometime soon we will be posting an update.  But these were still delicious and worth the share. 

Broccoli Cheese Meatloaf

                                      

Personally I can't stand meatloaf, but my daughter and husband are pure carnivore. My father in law tends to make this meatloaf that has meat and broccoli inside it and cheese melted on top. I sorta tried to keep with that theme but my own version. 

 This recipe is a broccoli cheese filled meat loaf wrapped in bacon and BBQ sauce and cheese over the top. This is a meal my daughter loves and she loves it even more when I make shaped like a cupcake.

 For the meat loaf we need: Bacon
                                             3-5 pound ground beef (depending on the amount of people)
                                             Tarragon, oregano, basil, thyme, paprika, marjoram, savory

                                             Salt and Pepper

                                             Panko and eggs
                                             Broccoli
                                             Provolone

Add all of the seasoning to the meat with eggs and panko. Mix well 

Lay plastic out and layer the bacon.

This will be on the outside and create a crust. 

Now press ground beef out on top of the bacon. 

Keep in a nice even layer. No thinner than 1/2 inch. 

Add cheese and broccoli. 

Roll and stick inside a loaf pan. 

Cook at 375 until the beef is fully cooked and temps at 160. I pour out the extra grease that collects. Then place BBQ sauce and  cheese until a nice and bubbly-ness appear.

Now for the lovely mash potatoes.

For 7 people I cooked 8 potatoes. First we peeled it and then boiled it until soft. 

After the potatoes are cooked I whip them with butter and a small amount of milk and seasoning. 

I love garlic with cheddar. 

Cook some green beans or salad as a side and call it a night. 

Ropa Veja

As promised I am writing my family recipe that is my go to for large gatherings. My mom came from Panama but it was not until I got married that I learned about our family recipes. My grandmother was never good at sharing her recipes.  I buy a pork should for no more than $15 and can feed about 10 people. Once you add rice and beans plus topping it goes even further. If you make this you should really start it a day or even two before you want to serve it. The longer it sits the better it taste.

You will need: 

2 Tablespoons olive oil

Salt & Pepper

2 broken Bay leaves 

crushed red pepper flakes, to taste

1 jalapeño, Halved

2 large onions 

2 Carrots 

parsley

4 garlic cloves

pork shoulder ( my Grandmother used Brisket) 

Diced Tomatoes (1 1/2 cup)  and tomato paste

2 tablespoon chicken base

1/2 dry white wine (we do not use this but it adds)

1 tablespoon  white wine vinegar

1 roasted red, yellow, and orange

I start by tossing everything but the meat into the crock pot. I mix it and taste and adjust the taste until I get what we are looking for. Then add the meat and leave it. You do not need to cut the meat because by the end of the day it will just fall apart.