Corned Beef and Cabbage

I realize this one is no one's idea of diet or healthy eating, but since yesterday was my hubby's birthday, I made an exception for his favorite meal.  I tried to purchase the smallest corned beef I could find, but it was still 5 lbs. The leftovers will be used for his lunch today as hash or a sandwich.  I haven't a clu where I got the recipe, This is just how I learned to make it:

1 Corned beef
4 medium potatoes
4 carrots, peeled
1/2 head of one cabbage

Scrub the potatoes and carrots and cut the potatoes into quarters and the carrots into 2 inch slices.  Place the potatoes and carrots on the bottom of a 6 quart slow cooker.  At this time you can also take the outer leaves from the cabbage and place those in the slow cooker, or cook them separately. ( I usually cook them separately in a 2 quart, microwave safe casserole dish with about a 1/2 cup water for 10 minutes on high until the cabbage is still green but tender).
Remove the corned beef from wrapper and set aside the small baggie of spices.  Place the corned beef fat side up over the vegetables in the cooker.  Pour enough water into the cooker to cover the beef.  Sprinkle the spices over the top.  Place on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.

OK, so I confess...I LOVE THIS MEAL!  Buttery cabbage and fatty corned beef is just delicious.  I shall continue to behave, but this was an awesome little splurge.  I now must ride by bike across the island to visit my folks instead of driving.  Must work this one off!
*****

Grilled Mahi-Mahi Sandwiches with Pasta Salad

So we've had a long, exhausting week and since the weather was gorgeous, bordering on hot (84 degrees), we thought we'd have a Florida cookout night.  We went over to my folks where my hubby grilled Mahi steaks for dinner.  The recipe tonight was for 5-6, but can easily be adapted back down to two.  This recipe lies less on steps and a lot more on availability of very fresh seafood.

Mahi Sandwiches:
Fresh Mahi steak, 6oz steak for each sandwich
Fish marinade of choice (we used Grills Seafood Restaurant Tuna Marinade)
Kaiser rolls
Lettuce
Tomato
Mayo

About an hour before grilling, place steaks in a sealed container such as a tupperware container.  Put enough marinade in to cover the steaks. Seal and chill in the refrigerator for 1/2 hour. Turn container over and let rest in fridge for last 1/2 hour.

Cover rack of grill with aluminum foil and spray foil with non stick cooking spray.  Heat grill to medium.  Place steaks on grill and cook for about 7 minutes each side depending on thickness of steaks.  After turning, brush more marinade on steaks.  Remove steaks from grill and toast kaiser rolls.

Serve with aioli **, lettuce and tomato.

**For aioli : combine 1/4 C mayo with 1 Tbsp of chosen marinade.

Pasta Salad:

Ingredients
-8 oz pkg seashell or elbow macaroni
-1/2 can tuna, drained
-Miracle Whip or Mayo
-1 tsp mustard
-Salt & Pepper
-Shredded lettuce, 1/4 head
-1 tomato, diced
-1 tsp sweet relish
 
Instructions
Prepare pasta according to package directions. Drain. Add tuna, mustard, relish and salt and pepper to taste. Add Mayo to moisten.  Fold in lettuce and tomato.  
Chill and serve.

There was no way to go wrong with this one! Hubby got the Mahi-Mahi fresh caught, never frozen just this afternoon.  The dinner was very, very yummy and just perfect for sitting out on the patio with a small breeze.

*****

Chicken Liver Stroganoff

Today I was in the mood for something comforting and filling.  I don't have a whole lot of food left and I don't get anymore food until the Saturday delivery, so dinner will be made with what I have left in the freezer and pantry.  I had some chicken livers left in the freezer as well as a little bit of flank steak.  So I used this recipe from Better Homes and Gardens Cooking for Two circa 1982, page 54:

2 slices bacon
3/4 C sliced, fresh mushrooms
1/4 C chopped onion
8 oz chicken livers, cut-up
1/4 tsp instant chicken bouillon granules
1/4 C hot water
1/2 C dairy sour cream
1 Tbl flour
2 Tbl dry sherry
Hot cooked noodles
Snipped Parsley

In an 8-inch skillet cook bacon til crisp.  Remove bacon and drain on paper towels, reserving 1 Tbl drippings in skillet.  Crumble the bacon and set aside.

Cook the sliced mushrooms and chopped onion in the reserved drippings until tender but not brown.  Add the chicken livers; cook 5 to 6 minutes or just til slightly pink in the center.

In a small mixing bowl dissolve bouillon in hot water.  Stir together sour cream and flour in another bowl.  Gradually stir in some of the bouillon mixture into the sour cream mixture.  Return all to the mixing bowl.  Stir in the sherry.

Add the sour cream mixture to the liver mixture in the skillet.  Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.  Cook and stir for 1 minute more.  Serve the liver mixture over hot cooked noodles; garnish with the crumbled bacon.  Sprinkle with the snipped parsley, if desired.  Makes 2 servings.

Substitutions: We only had about 4 ounces of liver and 4 ounces of beef so we used both instead of just liver.  The bacon was turkey bacon and instead of parsley, we used green onions.  This was served with a side of buttered broccoli.  YUMMY-YUMMY-YUMMY!

For a thrown together meal on a work night, this was pretty quick and comforting. I would like to have this one again relatively soon.

Mexican-style Chicken roll-ups with Mexican Corn

I had a rather long day today and this was a nice, quick, easy meal for two.  The Chicken recipe is from Cooking Light '87 page 52 and the Mexican Corn is a family recipe given to me by Aunt Carolyn (it's sooooo good!):

Chicken recipe:

Ingredients

8 boneless chicken breast halves (2 pounds), skinned
4 canned whole green chiles, halved and seeded
3 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, cut into 8 strips
2/3 cup fine, dry breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 cup skim milk
Vegetable cooking spray
4 cups shredded lettuce
1/2 cup commercial picante sauce
1/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt


Trim excess far from chicken.
Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheers of waxed paper, flatten to 1/4 inch thickness, using a meat mallet or rolling pin.
Place a green chile half and one strip of cheese in center of each chicken breast half; roll up lengthwise, tucking edges under.
Secure with wooden picks.
Combine breadcrumbs, chili powder, cumin, salt, and garlic powder.
Dip chicken rolls in milk; dredge in breadcrumb mixture, coating well.
Place chicken in a 12- x 8- x 2-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.
Bake at 400° for 30 minutes or until chicken is done.Place each chicken roll on 1/2 cup shredded lettuce, top each with 1 tablespoon picante sauce and 1 1/2 teaspoons yogurt.
Serve immediately. Yield 8 servings

Mexican Corn recipe:

Ingredients
8 oz - package cream cheese
1/4 lb butter softened
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (4 oz) diced green chilies
3 (16 oz) cans white shoepeg corn
 
Instructions
1)Stir softened cream cheese and butter together.
2)Add remaining ingredients and mix.
3)Pour into a 2 Qt casserole and bake at 350 for 30 mins.

As far as serving size goes, I quartered the first recipe and halved the corn recipe.  Here are the substitutions...I used some canned, chopped green chiles instead of whole, seeded chiles and  salsa instead of picante. Also, I hate yogurt on my food...I like it alone, but leave it off my dinner!  I used light sour cream instead.  I knew the corn was awesome but the chicken was just terrific!  I highly recommend this one!

*****

Crab Mornay

1/4 C water
1/4 C Chablis or other dry white wine
1/2 tsp chicken-flavored bouillon granules
dash of white pepper
1/2 C sliced mushrooms
1 Tbl sliced green onion
1/4 C skim milk
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 C shredded swiss cheese
1/3 lb lump crabmeat paprika

 Combine first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan; bring to a boil.  Add mushrooms and onions. Cover; reduce heat and simmer 1minute or until mushrooms are tender.

 Combine milk and cornstarch, mixing well; add to mushroom mixture.  Cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes or until thickened.  Remove from heat; add cheese, and stir until melted.  Stir in crabmeat.  Spoon into custard cups or ramekins.  Sprinkle with paprika.  Broil 2 minutes or until hot.  Garnish with green onions. Serves 2.

153 calories a serving

YUMMY!  My only complaint is that it didn't make more...which I suppose would just kill the reason for all this portion control, lol.  I used canned crab (cuz it's cheaper) and I did use the skim milk as directed.  It was a tad loose so I would say maybe whole milk would be better.  Very good though and a lot quicker and easier than I first thought.

*****

Sunny Vegetable Pasties

I got this recipe from watching the Cooking Channel's Caribbean Food Made Easy with Levi Roots.  These just looked so ...sunshine-y!  It took me a long time to find the recipe he did on the show that didn't get Americanized by the show afterward....then I had to convert the amounts.  Took an hour, lol.  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
-1 yellow pepper, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
-1 1/2 Cup carrots, also cut in 1/2 inch pieces
-3 Cups butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1.2 in pieces
-2 inch piece of fresh ginger root, peeled, grated
-4 Tbls chopped fresh cilantro leaves
-4 green onions, finely chopped
-1 (8-ounce) can corn, drained
-1 cup Colby (or other orange) cheese, grated
-2 - 4 tsp salt
-1 Cup flour, plus extra for dusting
-1½ tsp ground turmeric
-pinch salt
-1 stick cold butter, cut into small cubes
-4-5 Tbsp cold water
-1 egg, lightly beaten

Instructions
1)Preheat the oven to 400F. For the filling, place the pieces of pepper, carrots and butternut squash into a deep-sided, lidded pan. Add enough boiling water to just cover the vegetables. Cover the pan with the lid and return to the boil. Boil for four minutes, or until the vegetables are tender, then drain well. Transfer the drained vegetables to a large bowl and add the remaining filling ingredients (thru 2-4 tsp salt). Mix together until well combined, then set aside until completely cool.

2)For the patties,mix together the flour, ground turmeric and salt in a bowl until well combined. Add the butter cubes and rub them into the flour using your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the water, a tablespoon at a time, stirring the mixture with a spoon, until it comes together as a dough. (You may not need to use all of the water.) Roll the dough into a ball, wrap in saran wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

3)When the pastry has chilled, roll it out onto a lightly floured work surface to a 1/4in thickness. Cut six to eight 3in discs from the pastry using a cookie cutter or upturned glass. Divide the filling mixture equally among the pastry discs, covering only one half of each disc and leaving a 1/2in border at the edge of each.

4)Brush the edges of the pastry discs lightly with some of the beaten egg, then fold the free half of each disc over the filled half and press down the edges to seal using a fork. Brush the tops of the patties with the remaining beaten egg. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place the patties onto it. Bake the patties in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry is golden-brown.

This was served with my hubby's specialty, grilled sliced pineapple :D!!  You can see where the pasties get their name, they look so colorful and sunshine-y.  A few changes were made; I did not have fresh ginger so I used some ground ginger. I forgot to use the cilantro and I did not use yellow pepper because I hate bell pepper.  These were really yummy and filling.  I can't say I'm a huge turmeric fan, but it didn't overwhelm the whole pastie.  As usually, whenever I make pasties, turnovers or filled cookies, I ALWAYS end up with WAY MORE filling than I could ever use to fill the pastry.  Frankly, I gave up trying to figure out what I did wrong.  I'm thinking of cooking down the leftovers and making soup. This is a great recipe, but takes an hour or so of prep work, so I would not make this on a weeknight, personally.

*****

German Beef Salad

This is actually a diet and microwave recipe.  This is from the Better Homes and Gardens Quick and Easy Diet Recipes circa 1989 page 116:

3/4 lb beef top round steak
1/2 C frozen, diced onion
2Tbl cooking oil
1 Tbl sugar
1 Tbl cornstarch
1 tsp instant beef bouillon granules
1/4 tsp celery seed
1/2 C water
1/4 C vinegar
1 16oz can sliced potatoes
6 oz fresh spinach

Trim fat from beef.  Thinly slice meat across the grain into bite-sized strips.  In a 2-quart microwave-safe casserole combine meat and frozen onion.  Microwave, covered, on 100% power for 3-5 minutes or until meat is done, stirring every 2 minutes.  Drain off liquid.  Set meat aside

For dressing, in the same dish stir together next 5 ingredients.  Then stir in water and vinegar.  Cook, uncovered, on 100% for 3-4 minutes until thickened and bubbly, stirring after every minute.

Drain potatoes.  Add potatoes and meat to dressing.  Then cook, covered, on high 1-2 minutes or until heated through.  Meanwhile, clean and tear spinachto make about 5 cups.  Place in a large salad bowl.

Add hot potato-meat mixture to spinach and toss lightly until coated.  Serve immediately, Serves 4.

I halved the recipe and instead of fresh spinach, I used the other half of the frozen spinach from last night. This was OK, but sort of bland.  I even used a little salt and pepper that wasn't in the recipe.  Like I said, this was OK but I probably won't be making it again.  I did like the fact it was prepared entirely with the microwave so I didn't have to heat up the house.

***

Spinach-Stuffed Pasta Shells

I was craving this one.  It's a bit of an indulgence for us at 561 calories a serving, but since the only other thing we've eaten today was a peanut butter sandwich, I think we're all right.  This is from Better Homes and Gardens Great Cooking for Two circa 1992 page 110:


Ingredients:
16 packaged jumbo pasta shells or 8 packaged manicotti
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
2 beaten eggs
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (4 ounces)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (4 ounces)
1/2 cup freshly shredded or grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

1 Cook pasta. Drain immediately. Rinse with cold water; drain well.
2 Meanwhile, drain thawed spinach well, pressing out excess liquid.
3 For filling, combine eggs; ricotta, mozzarella, and cheddar cheese; half of the Parmesan cheese; and the spinach. Spoon about 3 tablespoons filling into each jumbo shell or about 1/3 cup filling into each manicotti shell.
4 Place 4 jumbo shells or 2 manicotti shells into each of 4 individual casseroles. Top with sauce; sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese. Bake 2 casseroles immediately; freeze remaining casseroles as directed.
5 Makes 4 servings. To Eat Two: Bake 2 of the casseroles, covered, in a 350 degree F oven about 25 minutes or until heated through.
6 To Freeze Two: Seal, label, and freeze 2 of the casseroles for up to 3 months. To serve, bake 1 or 2 of the frozen casseroles, covered, in a 375 degree F oven about 1 hour or until heated through.

The recipe is for 4 servings because it assumes you will freeze two.  We just cut the recipe in half.  Yummy, Yummy, yummy!  I used jarred spaghetti sauce instead of making it fresh.  I had some left over from the eggplant parmesan.

*****

Porcupine Balls

OK, so this is one of my favorite recipes...usually Mom makes it.  After this, you'll see why.  This is from  Betty Crocker's New Dinner for Two cookbook circa 1964 page 96:

Ingredients:
1/2 lb ground beef
1/4 C uncooked rice
1/4 C milk or water
2 Tbl chopped onion
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp celery salt
1/8 tsp garlic salt
dash of pepper
1 Tbl shortening or drippings
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1/2 C water
1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Directions:
Mix beef, rice, milk, onion and seasonings.  Form into 4 medium balls.  Fry in melted shortening, turning frequently, until light brown (but not crusty) on all sides.  Add tomato sauce, water and worcestershire sauce. Mix well.  Cover.  Simmer 45 minutes over low heat.  Add a small amount of additional water if liquid cooks down too much.  makes 2 servings

This would be a good time to discuss following directions.  I forgot to add the milk when making the balls so they fell to pieces when I tried to turn them.  I added a bit more rice, and more water and turned my porcupine balls into porcupine roadkill.  On the plus side, still tasted awesome!

*****

Taco Night

I forgot to post this last night.  We wanted something quick and easy and since we were going to eat in front of the TV ( a no-no btw).  Taco night it is! This recipe is from Betty Crocker's Dinner for Two cookbook circa 1985:

Ingredients:
1/2 lb ground beef
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
2 Tbl instant minced onion
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp chili powder
dash pepper
4 or 5 taco shells
1/2 to 3/4 shredded lettuce
1/2 C shredded cheddar
1/2 C chopped tomato
taco sauce (optional)

Preparation:
in an 8-inch skillet, cook and stir meat until brown.  Drain off fat.  Stir in tomato sauce, onion, garlic salt, chili powder and pepper.  Siimmer uncovered 15 minutes.

While meat mixture simmers, heat taco shells as directed on package.  Fill taco shells with meat mixture.  Top each with lettuce, tomato, and cheese.  Serve with taco sauce.  Makes 4-5 tacos.

We used flour tortillas but frankly I prefer hard shells.  There were no substitutions, but you can, of course, use ground turkey instead of beef if you choose.  This was served with refried beans sprinkled with cheese and taco sauce.  Very yummy and quick!  The best part is with the recipe just for two, I don't have to worry about eating too many ( I have room for 15 tacos if I'm not paying attention).
*****