Wrap for Dinner

We were craving a quick, light dinner the other evening, but also something with a high, zesty flavor profile. Oh, and totally satisfying. I think we did pretty good by going back to a previous recipe.

Greek Chicken Wraps

Start with a quality wrap or tortilla that you like. These were sun-dried tomato and basil. Good flavor components with what we were looking to accomplish. Add some mixed greens of your choice.

Here's the one area I really wanted to play around. I used some shredded mozzarella. I did the same the last time I made these. I really want to try some feta, but I'm a little gun-shy with feta. For me, there is a fine line between enough to taste and too much that I can't eat it. Oh, and I don't really want to buy feta from my cheap-0 grocery store. I just don't trust it. Well, one of these days I'll get up the nerve and try..

Previously & Meanwhile, marinate some chicken with olive oil, lemon, oregano, garlic, salt & pepper. Saute or grill until cooked through. Dice. You can use boneless, skinless chicken breasts for ease. I used some chicken thighs for flavor. Very tasty. Saute or grill some peppers, shallots and tomatoes as well. Toss with chicken and some reserved marinade. If you have some toasted pine nuts, add those. Pile on the mixed greens and wrap up.

Enjoy!

Hot Italian Beef!

So easy it's stupid!

And so delicious.

Italian Hot Beef

The only thing you need is time. Start with a low temp oven, 275. A chuck roast, a hefty pinch of salt and 3 TB of Italian seasoning.

Add some beef broth, half a jar of hot, pickled peppers and some of the liquid from the jar. Cover and cook for 6 hours.

Remove from the oven and let cool down a bit. Break the roast apart, removing excess fat and and cartilage. Chop up some of the peppers. And optional, strain the cooking liquid of the excess Italian seasoning (there's a lot and after 6 hours of cooking, all the flavor has been extracted).

Serve on toasted hoagie rolls with the au jus on the side for dipping.

Sweet Mother! This was great. Dump everything in the pot and toss in the oven. And the flavor is awesome. Rich and beefy. Tangy and just a wee touch of spice. Sloppy and cheesy. I couldn't be happier. BTW, I'm pretty sure your slow cooker would work for this as well.

Italian Hot Beef
from The Pioneer Woman Cooks!

1 whole Beef Chuck Roast, 2.5 To 4 Pounds
1 can Beef Consomme Or Beef Broth
3 TB (heaping) Italian Seasoning
1 tsp Salt
¼ cups Water
½ jars (16 Oz) Pepperoncini Peppers, With Juice
Buttered, Toasted Deli Rolls


Combine all ingredients in a heavy pot or dutch oven. Stir lightly to combine seasoning with the liquid.

Cover and bake in a 275 degree oven* for 5 to 6 hours, or until meat is fork-tender and falling apart. **If meat is not yet tender, return to oven for 30 minute intervals till it’s tender!**

Remove from oven. With two forks, completely shred all meat, leaving no large chunks behind. Serve immediately, or keep warm over a simmer on the stove.

May make the day before, then store in the refrigerator. Remove the hardened fat from the top before reheating.

Serve on buttered, toasted rolls. Top with cheese and melt under the broiler if desired. Serve with juices from the pot.

Lunch Lady Land

Who needs a can of "Manwich" sloppy joe mix, when you can make your own deliciousness.

Ground beef, onions and green peppers. You can make do without the green pepper if you don't have one, but if you do, use it. The onion is necessary. Brown the ground beef, get rid of most of the fat, leave a little for fun if you like. Add the green pepper and onions. If you like you can use other ground meat...turkey, pork, chicken. Also, if you want a low-fat ground beef version...brown the beef, the dump the whole mess in a fine mess strainer and run under hot water to rinse the fat away. You won't have fat free, but you will have lower fat.

Mix in a variety of seasonings, tomato paste, water and a bit of cider vinegar and/or Worchestshire sauce. Simmer for awhile, or turn the pan off and let sit until you are ready to have dinner. Serve on soft buns. Add cheese if you like. Just like Lunch Lady Land...only better!


Originally posted here.

Slightly altered here...

Sloppy Joes
1 lb ground beef
Hefty pinch of salt
Few shakes of Mrs. Dash

1 medium onion, diced finely
1 bell pepper, diced finely

1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
3 TB brown sugar

1 tsp cider vinegar
1/8 tsp Worchestshire sauce

1 6 oz can of tomato paste AND 1 1/4 cup water
OR
2-3 TB tomato paste, 1/2 cup tomato sauce and 1/2 cup water

In a large pan, brown the beef, while browning season with a little salt and Mrs. Dash....I always give my ground beef a little season, even if more is seasoning is coming later...it'll just taste better. Drain of most of the fat. Add the onions and peppers and cook for about 5 until the onions and peppers soft. When they are done, add in the spices and stir for about a minute. Add the water, cider vinegar and tomato paste. Allow to simmer for 5-10 minutes until hot, sloppy and bubbly.

Fun Combo!

While we continue to live without our full sized refrigerator, I have to use up what groceries we were able to save. This was a lot of fun and a delightful mean. I look forward to trying it again. The recipes came from different sources and I thought they would be great together. They were!

Roast Pork Sliders with Asian Carrot Slaw

Thinly slice your roast pork. This hunk of meat was marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, olive oil and a blend of herbs. Roast in a shallow pan for 50-60 minutes. Rest for 30 minutes or more, thinly slice.

While you're slicing the roast, take the reserved marinade and bring to a boil for five minutes. Pour over the sliced pork until ready to serve.

To top the sandwich, I made a carrot slaw. Instead of shredding carrots, this recipe had you make carrot ribbons with a vegetable peeler. Not necessary, but a fun presentation!

The carrots are simply dressed in rice wine vinegar, oil, lime juice, shallots, salt, pepper and toasted sesame seeds.

Make a full sized sandwich or "Slider" sized. I found slider buns at the store and thought it would be fun for a quick meal. Thing in...slider buns are the size regular buns used to be! Regardless...this was a lot of fun. The pork was tender, juicy and full of some mild, yet complex flavors. The carrot slaw added a light and refreshing crisp texture to the sandwich.

Next time I make this, I might punch up the heat level (personal choice) to the pork marinade and add a small bit of chopped cilantro to the carrots for some extra zinginess!

Roast Pork
(adapted from Penzey's spice catalog)
2 1/2 pound pork loin roast
2 TB "Italian" seasoning
1/2 cup olive oil
1 TB mild vinegar (white wine or rice wine vinegar)
1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
2 TB brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
1 tsp red pepper flake (optional)

Place the pork roast in a zip top bag. In a small bowl, mix the remaining ingredients until blended. Pour over the roast, seal the bag, make sure the roast is coated. Place in a bowl (to catch spills) and refrigerate over night, or up to 2 days.

Preheat oven to 350.

Drain the roast from the marinade. Place in a low baking dish (Pyrex baking dish). Add some water to just cover the bottom of the dish. Roast for 50-60 minutes, until a meat thermometer registers 150 degrees.

Remove, cover with foil and let rest for 30 minutes. The internal temperature will continue to rise to the USDA recommended temp of 160, without over cooking and drying out the roast.

Meanwhile, bring the remaining marinade to a simmer for 5 minutes. Thinly slice the roast and place back into the roasting dish. Pour the marinade over the meat. Serve immediately OR, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve, reheat prior to serving.


Asian Carrot Slaw
(adapted from Everyday Food)
1 pound carrots, peeled and shaved with a vegetable peeler
4 scallions, thinly sliced (I substituted 2 medium shallots)
2 TB rice vinegar
1 TB vegetable oil
1 TB sesame seeds, toasted
1 tsp lime zest, plus 1 TB lime juice
1 tsp chopped cilantro (optional)
Salt/Pepper

Combine all ingredients. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Sandwich

Mmmm, Paninis! I had a long email dialogue with Terri in WI today about sandwiches. I feel, that for the most part, sandwiches are not dinner material. It takes a special sandwich to qualify for dinner. You see, I eat sandwiches so often for lunch, I don't want one for dinner.

But if I'm going to have one for dinner, it has be special...like this. Several types of Italian cold-cuts, harvarti, olive oil, Italian herbs & spices, roasted red peppers; all pressed between soft & crispy Italian bread. I splashed a little red wine vinegar over the red peppers for a light tang. I could have cooked the sandwiches a touch longer to melt the cheese, but really, it doesn't matter...the panini was very tasty! Mmmmm....toasty!

Perfect Lunch

A perfect lunch.

A grilled cheese sandwich, with a little sliced turkey and a bowl of tomato soup. OK, so sue me. The soup was from a can; we had to use it, it had expired 18 months ago! But the sandwich was pretty darn tasty!

I'm a Jerk

This sandwich was so totally satisfying. Jerk Pork Sandwich.

Yes, I know...pork two nights in a row. But worth it.

I had a thin pork chop, maybe a half an inch thick. So I sliced it in half, so it was about a quarter of an inch thick. Seasoned with some jerk pork seasoning. Cook for about one minute per side. Put on a toasted, buttered bun.

Super fast. And really satisfying with those not locally grown tater tots!

Steakums

This past weekend prior to grocery shopping I had to plan some menus for the week. One charge was beef. I wanted pot roast or something super rich and tasty, but didn't feel like spending the time with the oven on or digging out the slow cooker. I made my way through some cookbooks to see what I could find that would inspire me. Ultimately I settled on a concept in the book, The Way We Cook: Recipes from the New American Kitchen by Sheryl Julian & Julie Riven. A book I've had for some time and haven't used before. One recipe in the book is for smothered steak sandwiches. I liked the idea and wanted to play around a little.


Steak Sandwich
w/Homemade Sweet & Savory Ketchup

I started my adventure with a small chunk of flank steak that I dry rubbed with a blend of spices that included paprika, thyme, salt, pepper and cumin. I tossed that on the grill pan for about 5 minutes per side.

While that worked out I prepared the sauce to smother my steak sandwich. Onions sauted in olive oil. Some spices, I can't remember all of them now; cumin, cayenne, oregano. There was some brown sugar and some Worchestshire sauce. Salt and pepper. The final sauce was sweet and savory. It was pretty much a chunky homemade ketchup.

After you steak has cooked to the desired doneness (medium-rare in this case), allow for rest for a few minutes, then slice across the grain of the meat for the most tender texture. Pour any collected juice into the sauce.

Toast up a fresh baguette and dress the bread the way you like. I went with a few slices of fresh mozarella. One went the steak slices and a few hearty spoonfuls of the sauce. The sandwiches were served with hot oven fries and beer! Great combinations.


Oven Fries: I cut up one medium large russet potato, from end to end. I got about 16 slices, enough for two people, but we both could have had more. Toss the slices with olive oil and season with salt and pepper and any herbs and spices you like. Lay out on a lined baking sheet and place in a 400 degree oven for 35-40 minutes. Flip the slices over 1/2 way through baking. They are done when tender inside and crisp and brown on the outside.

That's Spicy!

Before I left for work this morning, I tried to find a quick recipe to make for dinner. This one jumped out and drew my attention. Really tasty and fast! Once you read through the recipe, you'll see that I 'pulled' the chicken instead of slicing it. Only reason I did that is because the Safeway didn't have regular chicken breasts, just the thin sliced breasts. Those don't slice into nice pieces so I 'pulled' them before adding them to the sauce. In the future when I make this, I'll only use one chipotle pepper. Two made these a touch spicy! I think if I were going 'southern,' these would have been piled high with some cool, crunchy slaw. But I'm not a big slaw fan, so that probably won't happen here...but I could see it working really nice with this sandwich!


Honey-Chipotle Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches
from Culinary in the Country

1/2 cup water
1 tsp ground cumin
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
16 ounces boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1 TB canola oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp cumin
1/2 cup tomato puree
2 chipotle chiles, canned in adobo sauce, finely chopped
2 TB adobo sauce
1/4 cup cider vinegar
3 TB honey
1 TB Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp salt
4 sandwich rolls
2 ounces smoked mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese

In a large saucepan, add water, 1 teaspoon cumin, 4 sliced garlic cloves and chicken. Cover and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is done - about 10 minutes. Drain and remove chicken. Slice chicken across grain into thin pieces - cover to keep warm.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add minced garlic and cook until they are just beginning to turn golden - about 3 minutes. Stir in 1 teaspoon cumin and cook until fragrant - about 1 minute. Mix in tomato puree and cook until mixture thickens to a paste-like consistency - about 4 minutes. Stir in chipotle chiles, adobo sauce, vinegar, honey, Worcestershire and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Place the sliced chicken into the sauce and cook until thoroughly heated through - about 3 minutes.

Preheat broiler.

Cut the roll in half and place cut side up on a baking sheet. Toast rolls under the broiler. Remove only the top halves of the rolls from the baking sheet. Evenly divide chicken mixture among the bottom halves of rolls and evenly scatter the top of the chicken with cheese. Place back under the broiler just until the cheese melts. Remove and place top half back on to serve.

Makes 4 servings.

Garlic and Cumin

The completed sauce...tangy, slightly sweet and spicy!

Pulled chicken. Simmering lightly while the buns toasted.

Bun bottom piled high! In the background you can see the tops. I scooped the insides out of the bun tops, so when they rested, the nestled the BBQ and melted cheese.

Melting!