While the turkey is the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving meal, the side dishes can be the ones that steal the show. Everyone has their own personal favorites and traditional dishes that they make, but if you are looking for some new ideas and new ways to make old classics or something different, Food Network has put together over 50 classic Thanksgiving side dishes for you to try. Check it out!
Source: 50+ Classic Thanksgiving Side Dish Recipes
For most of us, weeknight dinners can prove to be pretty tricky. Very often after a long day at work or school you may not have the energy to make a meal. Throw all of the after-school activities on top and it can make everything even more challenging. NYT Cooking has put together a bunch of recipes that you can make quickly and easily that make for great weeknight dinners for you and your family. Check it out!
Source: Easy Weeknight Recipes Recipes – NYT Cooking
Summer Family Dinner Ideas – Best Summer Dinner Recipes.
Easy dinners are great no matter what time of ywear it may be, but having some easy dinners to make are even better in the summer when it is too hot to spend hours in the kitchen or you just want something quick. Delish has 40 easy summer family dinner ideas for you to give you a little bit of everything to try and choose from to make dinnertime easy. Check it out!
If you have been following along on my blog with me, you know that I like to use a lot of recipes from Cook’s Country. It is perhaps my favorite cooking magazine and I like to use the recipes because most of them are pretty easy, use basic ingredients, and taste great. the magazine only comes out every other month, and since their website is a pay website if you want to access the recipes, I don’t mind sharing the ones that I try out so you can see just how good they are. Such is the case with this chicken tostada recipe I made this week, which was in the latest issue of Cook’s Country. I have made tostadas before, and they are pretty easy to put together, and this one incorporated some nice spicy black beans into the recipe and since I love black beans personally, I knew I wanted to give this recipe a try.
Chicken Tostadas with Spicy Mashed Black Beans
2 (6 to 8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed, halved lengthwise and sliced crosswise 1/2 inch thick
1 tablespoon ground cumin
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed
1 (10-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
8 (5-inch) corn tostadas, warmed
2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (1/2 cup)
2 radishes, trimmed, halved, and sliced thin
Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and toss it with the ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper. Heat the vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet set over medium-high heat until it is just smoking. Cook the chicken until it is browned and cooked through, about 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate and tent it loosely with foil to keep it warm.
Return the now-empty skillet to medium-high heat and add the black beans, tomatoes and 2 tablespoons of the cilantro. Cook, mashing the beans with a potato masher, until the mixture is thickened and the liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Season the mixture with salt and pepper to taste.
Arrange the tostadas on a serving platter. Spoon 1/2 cup of the bean mixture onto each tostada. Evenly distribute the chicken, feta cheese, radishes and the remaining 2 tablespoons of cilantro over the bean mixture. Serve with sour cream and lime wedges on the side.
A couple of quick notes about the recipe. The original recipe calls for a can of diced tomatoes and green chiles, which I did not have, so I just used diced tomatoes and diced up half of a jalapeno pepper and included it in the mix. It tasted nice and fresh to me this way. I did not use corn tostadas, again because I did not have any on hand, but instead used small flour tortillas I had on hand and fried them in oil for a minute to crisp them up nicely. These worked fine for me as well and everyone seemed to like them. I also did not use feta since we aren’t much for feta in this house and instead I offered up some Mexican cheese blend for Michelle and Sean since they are the cheese eaters in the house. The tostadas were delicious and the bean mixture on the tostadas was perfect, giving just a little bit of spice and a nice refried beans texture to the dish. We gobbled up every last bit of them and I did make some easy Mexican rice to go alongside the dish, which I will post the recipe for tomorrow. The lime wedges and sour cream topped it all off, and even some fresh avocado would be nice along with these also. It’s a very easy meal for any night of the week.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Just when you thought that winter might actually be over sometime soon around here, it seems to come roaring back over the last day or 2 with really high winds and really cold weather every time you step outside the house. Even though a lot of the snow that we have has melted away at this point, there is still a lot of ice out there because the temperature is not warmed up nicely. Cold and windy days call for a nice warm meal and this particular recipe is perfect if you do not have a lot of time to put a detailed soup together but want something that is going to give you that warm feeling. This recipe comes from Marcus Samuelsson and is for a very simple black bean and sweet potato soup that you can put together in about 15 minutes and then have it all cooked and done within another 30 minutes. With just a few ingredients necessary you be surprised just how much flavor you get.
Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons ground cumin
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 15 ounce can of black beans, rinsed and drained
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into a medium dice
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large saucepan or Dutch oven. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions become translucent, about 5 to 6 minutes. Add the minced garlic, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper. Continue cooking until the garlic is fragrant, about 30 seconds to 1 minute longer. Add the chicken or vegetable broth, black beans, diced sweet potatoes and bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the sweet potatoes are tender and easily pierced with a fork, about 15 minutes.
Serve the soup topped with the fresh parsley. Add a dollop of sour cream or avocado for extra texture to the soup.
You can pretty much make this soup with it just what you have around in the pantry and have it any night of the week. If you want to make it a more vegetarian meal you can use vegetable broth or water instead of chicken broth. I really liked the combination of the black beans and the sweet potatoes together and the cayenne pepper added just the right amount of heat to give the soup a little bit of a kick. I did not have any avocado on hand but I think it would go really well on top for some added flavor and texture. The soup actually thickened up nicely over the course of a day or 2 in the refrigerator and was even better when I had it for lunch in the following days. I will definitely make this one again as it is easy enough to put together any time you feel like having it and it does make a great lunch with a half of a sandwich or a little bit of a salad or just on its own.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Our Best Nachos Recipes – Bon Appétit.
The big game is not so far off and in a couple of Sundays millions of people will be getting together to watch the game, the commercials, the halftime show and to eat some great snacks. A football game staple is always a good plate of nachos and you can step up your nachos game by trying out some of these nacho recipes from Bon Appetit. let’s face it – nachos are great pretty much any time as a snack, so if you have some great recipes to fall back on you can wow the crowd, your family or yourself any day you feel like having them. Check it out!
Okay, so you have made the leg of lamb that you wanted, then you turned around and made some lamb shawarma with some of the leftovers on one night but you still seem to have a lot of lamb left and you are not sure what to do with it. You still always have shepherd’s pie as an option, but as I said yesterday, I was hoping to find something different to do with some of the land. I came across this recipe at the New You work Times Cooking website for a lamb and white bean casserole and while technically it did not use leftover lamb but uncooked lamb shanks and the meat from them, I decided to try to adapt the recipe so that I could make use of some of the leftovers. Naturally the recipe I made does not take nearly as long to cook as the one you would find from the New York Times, but I think it makes really good use of the leftover lamb and turns out a pretty simple meal in under 30 minutes. I will post the recipe that I used here, but you can always check the link for the original recipe if you want to try that one out.
Lamb and White Bean Casserole
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, diced
5 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound leftover lamb, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups beef stock
1 cup peeled chopped tomatoes
2 teaspoons dried herbs de Provence
6 cups cooked cannellini beans, rinsed and drained if using canned
3 sprigs fresh thyme
Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a heavy, ovenproof 5 to 6 quart casserole. Add the onions, carrots, celery and garlic, and sauté the vegetables over medium heat, stirring often, until the vegetables are tender, about 6 to 8 minutes. Increase the heat slightly, and when the vegetables begin to brown, remove them from the pot and take the pot off the heat. Preheat the oven to 350°.
Season the all-purpose flour with salt and pepper in a large bowl. Toss the lamb pieces in the flour to coat them well. Heat the remaining olive oil in the casserole pan. Add the lamb pieces, and sear them over medium-high heat, stirring until the meat is browned, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the meat from the pot, and add the wine. Cook, stirring, to deglaze the pot and reduce the wine, about 2 minutes. Stir in the beef stock, chopped tomatoes and herbs de Provence. Taste the sauce, and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Return all of the vegetables to the casserole pan, then add the lamb and the cannellini beans. Place the sprigs of time on top of the dish. Place the casserole in the oven and bake for approximately 20 to 25 minutes, until everything is heated through and the beans on the top begin to brown. Serve at once, or set aside in reheat before serving.
You do need to be a little bit careful when you making this because you do not want to overcook the lamb that is already cooked in the first place. I found that cooking the dish in the oven for about 20 minutes heated everything through without making the lamb too tough to eat. You got great flavor from all of the vegetables and the beans were a really nice touch to give some added protein to the dish and it really helps to fill you up. This particular casserole was really nice to have on a cold night and the broth that remains underneath the beans has excellent flavor because of the herbs that you use, and from the lamb and the vegetables themselves. Again, this is a nice use for some leftover lamb if you are looking for something different to try or it can be a great dish to serve starting from scratch, but of course you need to follow the original recipe where the lamb would have to be cooked for a longer period of time to make sure that it is cooked all the way through.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Fun, unusual and forgotten designations on our calendar.
Happily Ever After Lives Here
a little bit naughty a little bit nice
Letting Life Lead
Simple and delicious dinner inspiration
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