Noche Del Tacos en la casa Barrick

OOOORRRRR.   Taco night in the Barrick House!  I have been craving Mexican food for about a week now, and this did the job to satiate my craving AND at 1/4 of the cost!

It is a super easy go-to meal.

I started out preparing homemade queso early in the evening, while the hubby was slaving away at the Museum.  I thought about just buying the Tostitos Brand Queso at the store, but as I had all of the ingredients for homemade in the house, I thought...hmm... why not?!

I put about 1 cup of cream (you could also use milk), about 6-8 oz shredded cheese  (I used colby jack), 2Tbsp diced tomato (you can add more or less, {I just picked a number of Tbsps at random}), and 1 Tbsp of diced chiles (the same goes for this) into my mini dip crock pot (BEST $10 ever spent!) and let the cheese start to melt.

Then, I sauteed 1 clove of garlic and 1/4 onion in some olive oil until the onion is translucent (I like to sprinkle a little salt on any veggie I'm sauteing, as it will not only flavor the onion, but it will infuse the oil/pasta/etc with the onion flavor,  and it will cook quicker. {and I'm all about that})

Once the onion and garlic were cooked, I added them into the crock pot and mixed it up.  Then I settled down to read Harry Potter, only being ambitious enough to stir the dip occasionally.

When we were ready to eat, I fixed the rest of the taco goodness.  I cooked a pound of ground beef in a skillet, once it was cooked, I drained the oil and added a packet of taco seasoning. (You could add your own spices, but you really need some random ones, so instead of buying a huge container of a spice you rarely use, I'll just buy the packet)

Assemble your own taco and Bon-Apetite...or whatever the equivalent of that is in espanol!

Alfredo Pasta

Matt and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Pasta. Spaghetti, rice, penne, fettucini, rotini, macaroni, orzo, you name it we love it. 

A quick and easy meal to make on a night where neither of us feel like cooking much, is alfredo pasta (home-made, not from the jar <<yech>>)

I start out with about 1 cup of cream and 1-2 Tbsp butter in a skillet.

Add seasoning. 

I prefer Mrs. Dash (YAY for no added salt!!)  Garlic & Herb; Tomato Basil Garlic; and Lemon Pepper are always big hits at the Barrick Household.

Bring it to a light boil, then drop the heat down and simmer it until the cream starts to be reduced. (You can stop here, and let the cream reduce even more, and then use that.  But, when we're eating Italian, we aren't exactly going for healthy, so I will add in shredded italian blend cheese, and this will help thicken the sauce up) 

After that, just add the alfredo sauce to cooked pasta of any kind, and serve.

It's not very specific, but you can add what ever seasoning or cheese you like.

I hope you all enjoy!

Also, If you have requests, let me know!  We are always up for a little adventure!

Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Penne and Cheese

Once again, I hit a homerun with Pintrest!

I was in the middle of making this recipe last night, when the Hubby took a break from Battlefield 3 (new video game) to come down to see what I was making.  He was only half-way down the stairs before he announced:  That smells AMAZING!!!

And by the fact that it dragged him away from his new game, I know it was!

We love pasta in our household, and even more than that, we love creamy, bad for you figure, give you a coronary, send you to an early grave pasta. 

That is what this is. And it is probably worth the cardiac arrest.  You could probably serve this with a side of Lipitor

Ingredients

8oz Penne Pasta (1/2 box), 8 Sun-Dried Tomatoes (Chopped), 1 can (12 oz) Low-Fat Evaporated Milk (2%), 2 cups shredded Italian Style Cheese, 1 tsp dried basil, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp ground black pepper

I chopped up the tomatoes in the food processor, it made them really small, which was nice.

Cook the pasta according to the box.  I will usually add a splash of oil and a little bit of salt, to keep the noodles from sticking together, and to flavor them a little.

Combine the evaporated milk, cheese, basil, garlic and black pepper in a medium sauce pan, and heat until the cheese is melted. 

When the pasta is just about cooked, add the tomatoes for 2 minutes.

Drain the pasta and add the cream sauce, mix until it is covered. 

The sauce can be a little liquid-y to start out with, but if you let it sit for about 5 minutes, it starts to become thicker as it cools down.

I marinated some chicken breasts all day in italian dressing, then grilled them on the George Foreman Grill

For a printable Recipe, Click here

Original Recipe From:  http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/143190/Penne-Pasta-with-Sun-dried-Tomato-Cream-Sauce/detail.aspx

Tuna Salad...ish

So I'm not a huge fan of Tuna, but I saw this recipe years ago, I can't remember when, I've modified it and switched it up, and it is one of my go-to quick recipes.

Ingredients you will need

I take the prepackaged StarKist Tuna.

I used two packages and that made about 3 servings

Then chop up onion & green pepper

However much you want.  I used 1/2 gr. pepper and 1/4 large onion.

You can also and pretty much anything (celery would probably be good {If you like celery})

Combine them all in a bowl

Add enough Mayo to make it creamy and to help it stick together

Usually I use fat-free plain yogurt instead of mayo,

it gives it a tang-ier taste, and is healthy, but I didn't have any on hand

And, Voila!  Tuna Salad-ish

Spinach Pesto Grilled Cheese.

I spent all morning on Sunday looking up ideas for the Perfect Pesto, only to realize about 3 hours into it, that I didn't even know if the Hubby liked pesto (But I mean, who doesn't like pesto?) Luckily my time wasn't wasted, as he likes it!

So I found a bunch of recipes, and kind of combined them based on the ingredients that I had in the house.

Pesto is usually made with basil, but I can't find enough basil for the life of me. So I decided to use spinach as a base.

Then I found a recipe (on pintrest of course!) to make pesto grilled cheese!

I put about 3 handfuls of baby spinach, 1 handful of basil leaves, 3 cloves of garlic, and about 2 tsp of parsley (All recipes call for fresh parsley, so I just added less dried {the conversion is 1tsp of dried=1Tbsp of fresh} but I didn't add all that the recipe called for ) into our Ninja food processor and blended it up.

Then I seasoned it with salt and pepper.

And, added a slash of lemon juice, and about 2 Tbsp of Olive Oil (Enough to make it into a paste)

 It turned out something like this

 Then I sprayed a slice of bread with Pam and put it on the preheated George Foreman Grill.

Added a generous amount of italian blend cheese, then topped that off with the pesto

Then put the top slice of bread on and sprayed it with Pam also

 Once the cheese melted, it looked a little something like this.

And my-oh-my was it tasty!!

The Hubby even liked it! I thought it might be too 'hippie' for him, but he wolfed it down.

I asked if he would like it if I made it again, but he said it was about the same as a regular grilled cheese. lol.

You can find a printable recipe here.

Hard Boiled Eggs

This is a short and sweet post.

I have heard from the girls from work, that they have a difficult time making hard boiled eggs.  And it can be tricky.

I learned this tried and true method, from my mother.

Put the eggs into a pot, and fill it with water until the eggs are almost completely covered.
Then bring the water up to a rolling boil on Med-High to High heat, then drop the temp to a little below medium for 15 minutes.  Let the eggs cool down in the water, and Ta-Da!

My problem with hard boiled eggs is peeling them. I've heard that if you add some vinegar to the water that they are boiled in, it makes it easier,  I have yet to try that, Maybe next time

Sorry there are no pictures, but they would have been lame: Eggs and water in a pot.

Breadcrumb Stuffed Chicken

Hi,  I'm Kate...and I'm a Pintrest Addict

at which point, you're supposed to respond: Hi Kate. :-)  

My friend Katie got me hooked on Pintrest, the turd.

But, what better way to find new and exciting recipes than by spending hours online in a potentially time wasting way? 

If you haven't tried it out, and are super crafty, love DIY stuff, want new ideas for decoration, or just want new ideas for dinner, then you definately need to give it a gander. 

I have been on pintrest for about 2 weeks now, and found this recipe right at the beginning, but we have had few nights at home where I want to cook, with the move, and family visiting, it just hasn't been conducive.  So I have been anxiously (And I do mean anxiously) awaiting the appropriate time to use this recipe (and I mean REALLY anxious!  I even went to the store after working 12 hours!)

So yesterday Matt asked me what we wanted to do for dinner, so I emailed him the link to the recipe that I was going to try, and he got super excited!

I am very lucky to have a wonderful husband on which to try out all of my new recipes, and I'm also lucky that I chose this recipe to start out with!

Preheat the oven to 400

Take note of where your oven racks are before you preheat,

if they are too high, you risk a nasty burn (True Story)

Combine a small handful of baby spinach, a handful of grape tomatoes, and 1 Tablespoon of basil

(This is what the recipe calls for, and what I used the first time, but next time,

I would add more basil [I love basil} and maybe some onion)

1 Cup of Lowfat Ricotta Cheese

(This was the first time I've worked with ricotta,

but it definately won't be the last!)

One Clove of garlic, minced

(I use the preminced garlic in a jar, it lasts longer and I hate chopping garlic,

I have a hard time getting it chopped finely enough)

(Just remember to refridgerate after opening. :-))

A dash of oregano

(I definately could have used more, I was a little chincy with it)

2 Tablespoon of cheese

(I meant to grab Italian Blend, but grabbed Pizza instead in my post-work exhaustion)

I put all of the whole ingredients in our Ninja food processor, but if you don't have a food processor no worries!

Just chop the spinach and basil, and dice the tomato, and add all of the above ingredients to the ricotta and mix well

Season with salt/pepper to taste

It should look something like this. :-D

It smells pretty tasty already!

Rinse two chicken breasts, and trim off any fat

Cut a slit length-wise in the chicken breast, almost all the way through

Stuff the ricotta mixture into the slit, and season chicken with salt/pepper 

(this will all fit, but it will be snug)

(It can be messy)

Then Close the slit with toothpicks

(Do this!!! It makes a huge difference)

(Which I learned, as I didn't read all of the directions)

Heat some olive oil up in a skillet

(Preferably an oven safe one, you'll see why later)

Pour some bread crumbs in a plate

(I used italian blend, but next time i would add some

 rosemary, thyme and pepper, and maybe some onion or garlic)

Coat the chiken completely with breadcrumbs and place in skillet.  Brown on all sides (about 3-4 minutes)

(This is where I hit some trouble [mainly because I didn't read the directions all the way, and didn't close it with toothpicks]) 

(I told Matt:  It smells amazing, but I don't think it will end up looking very pretty)

If you used an oven safe skillet, just put the skillet into the pre-heated oven and bake until chicken is cooked (about 30 minutes)

(This time will, of course depend on how much chicken, but 165 is where you want it to be)

(I am a temperature nazi when it comes to chicken)

It will look something like this!

(It turned out prettier than I expected. :-) )

All in All I think it was a resounding success! Matt chowed down on his,  And I ate enough salad before that I was able to save some for leftovers for lunch at work today!!  WHOO!!!

All of my co-workers are jealous.

You can find a printable copy of the recipe here

Original recipe found on fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com