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.) 

 

Red Chili sauce

I have never tried to make my own sauce. I am not Mexican and my Spanish family loves to remind me that when I cook. I have always figured if i want to food to taste amazing it needs days to cook so the sauce should be the same. Well I quickly learned that is not true. The sauce took a few hours and it was not really time consuming at all.

Ingredients:
5 cups chicken broth
1 onion chopped ( do not worry about finely cutting it)
3 garlic cloves
about 12 dried New Mexico chile peppers stemmed (it said seeded but I left it)
2 corn tortillas
Salt
extra hot sauce as needed

Supplies:
Ninja Master Prep (QB900B)
pot
knife and cutting board

Directions:
Sautee the onion and garlic until it becomes slightly soft and translucent in color.
Add broth, bring to boiling then reduce heat to medium. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Then add chile peppers and tortilla and remove from heat. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.

Place ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Strain. Put back into pot and simmer sauce for about 15 minutes until thickened.

Now you are ready to cook. 

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. 

Chive Vinegar

Spring has finally come and is almost gone now. I feel the only two seasons we are promised is winter and summer. My mom's garden is in full bloom and I decided to steal most of her chive buds to make a vinegar. The end resulted with look amazing. You only need 3 things: a glass container that is sterilized, white vinegar, and chive buds. Make sure you wash the buds really well because little bugs like to hide away in the plants. You may not want to persevere them for salads, then again it can be extra protein.

Our supplies 

Mr. Man filling the jars with Hulk watching

In it goes 

Our jar nice and full.

Filling up all 3 now.

Our nice full jar.

Marley and Justin filling the jars with Vinegar

Fill until flowers are covered.

Pretty little jar nice and full. 

Leave the jar in a cool dark place for about a month. Look for salad dressing recipes to use this with, otherwise sub in for white vinegar for an extra bang!!

Festa bake potato

I love using left overs because it saves money. But this is honestly amazing and I would be willing to cook it just to cook it. The topping would be amazing in Nachos or soup. Since the weather has not really warmed up yet, I have been all about soups and comfort food. Hence the baked potato. Also baked potatoes have a million different ways you can prepare it. Now there is a million and one.
Then again you may want to eat this by the spoonful and not care about the potato.

So for the potato, this will take the longest. I wash my potatoes and toss it with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. I cook it at 375 until I remember I am cooking potatoes it can be anywhere from 30 mins to an hour. Once I completely forgot about the potatoes and made charcoal and only remembered it because of the smoke pouring out of the oven.

About 30 minutes in I start preparing my mixture. I had left over roasted chicken and diced it all up with Soyrizo ( I buy this from Trader Joe's and it is amazing). If you want it to be real meat use chorizo. I blanched some leeks a few weeks ago so I pulled out a handful and tossed that in with onions and garlic. Season with salt and pepper to taste. When everything was warmed up I added about half a brick of cream cheese. If you want to add some cheddar or pepper jack it was just add to the amazingness of this mix.

Now we remember about the potato and start layering it. I start with the cheese because every potato needs cheese no matter what kind of filling is in it.

Then we toss on the mixture. 

Add some sour cream and a touch of seasoned salt with pepper. Now to sever some mouth watering food. 

Left over Ramen soup

I have been working towards simple whole foods that do not cost a lot. This was more of a left over meal recreated to something delicious.

Start with a broth.
I started with chicken stock and infused it with garlic, cilantro, and ginger. You can even add lemon grass stalks and star anise turn it into anything you want. Use beef broth or veg broth. Try mixing it up. This dish is very versatile and the broth is the base.

I used left over rice noodles from my Vietnamese meals. But Ramen noodles are amazing in this dish. Feel free to try udon or soba noodles.

Next are the toppings. I love baby bok choy with onions, garlic and ginger. I plan on adding more veggies next time. We added a small amount of our left over Ropa Vieja and a touch of soy sauce.( I plan on showing a step by step guide to my Ropa Vieja so keep an eye out because that meal can feed a small army and still have left overs. ) Serve with lime wedges, sprouts and Thai Basil for an extra WOW factor. This is my left over version of Pho.