Ma What's For Dinner? » comfort food

Clean out the fridge chicken pot pie

Alex aka Ma, What's For Dinner — Thu, 13 May 2010 20:47:33 +0000

What do you do when you have a bunch of stuff clogging up your fridge and freezer drawers? Toss them in a pot, stir ‘em up and cover them with some straight from the freezer pastry dough! My Ma used to make stew, I make a creamy version then cover it and bake it till it bubbly good and the hubs and kids are in hog heaven. Give this one a try.

1 thawed sheet of pastry dough

3 large chicken breasts

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 T butter

4 cups chicken stock

2 yellow onions, chopped

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 cup medium-diced carrots

1 10 oz package frozen peas

1 10 oz package frozen corn

1 zucchini, diced

2 celery stalks, diced

S&P

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the chicken breasts on a baking sheet and rub them with 1 T olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes, or until cooked through. Cut the chicken into large dice. Turn up the oven to 375 degrees.

In a large pot or Dutch oven, melt the butter and remaining oil and saute the onions over medium low heat until soft, about 10 minutes. Toss in carrots, zucchini, and celery and cook for two more minutes. Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the chicken stock to the sauce. Simmer over low heat for 1 more minute, stirring, until thick. Add S&P and heavy cream. Add the cubed chicken, peas and corn. Mix well. Pour into a 13×9 baking dish. Cover with pastry dough. Cut a few slits into the dough to allow steam to escape. I like to sprinkle the top with a bit of fleur de sel (or any other course salt) but you can use whatever you like. Bake at 375 for 1 hour. Serve with a side salad. I dare you not to lick the plate!

Potato Pizza Pizzaz

Alex aka Ma, What's For Dinner — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:00:35 +0000

In college I used to LOVE Pizzeria Uno’s mashed potato pizza. This is an ode to the days of old….

Serves: Up to 8 Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 25 minutes

1 store bought pizza crust

1 bag frozen Ore-Ida potatoes

1/2 cup milk

2 T butter

2 T parmesan cheese

S&P

1 pound bacon, chopped

1 onion, diced

8 oz mushrooms, sliced

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

chopped parsley, for garnish

chopped scallions, for garnish

sour cream

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Unroll your pizza dough and stretch it out over a large baking pan, or you can roll it out into a ball and make a round pizza if you like. Poke a couple of holes into the dough with a fork and bake the uncovered dough for 10 minutes. While your dough cooks place your potatoes in the microwave and cook on high for 10 minutes. Pour potatoes into a bowl and add milk, butter, parmesan cheese, and season with S&P. Mash well and set aside.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and brown your bacon until just crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. In the bacon drippings saute onion, mushrooms and garlic until soft, about 7 minutes.

Remove crust from oven and spread out your potato mixture to cover leaving a one inch border for your crust. Top potatoes with mushrooms onion and garlic mixture. Then sprinkle on cheese to cover well. Top with bacon.

Return pizza to oven and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Slice it up and top with sour cream and parsley or chopped scallions. Serve as an appetizer or with a salad for a main meal.

Pot Roast Carbonnade

Alex aka Ma, What's For Dinner — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:00:18 +0000

Melissa D’Arabian’s Pot Roast Carbonnade

Serves: 6 Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 2 hours 40 minutes

Ingredients

1/2 pound slab bacon, cut into large lardons
2 medium onions, sliced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds beef chuck, cut into large cubes
5 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
Generous tablespoon all-purpose flour
12 ounces beer (dark or light, depending on your preference)
6 prunes
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 cup beef stock

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

In a large Dutch oven over medium-low heat, add the bacon and cook until it renders its fat and almost becomes crispy. Remove it with a slotted spoon to a plate. Add the onions, season with salt and pepper, to taste, and cook over low heat until they are deep in color and caramelized, about 30 minutes.

Remove the onions to a plate, leaving as much fat in the pot as possible. Add the vegetable oil and mix it with the bacon fat. Raise the heat to high. Season the beef liberally with salt and pepper and sear, in batches, until nicely browned on both sides.

Once the meat is browned, add the first batch of meat back to the pan along with the onions, carrots and bacon. Sprinkle in the flour and stir. Cook for 1 minute before deglazing the pan with the beer. Add the remaining ingredients and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cover the pot and put it in the oven to braise until the beef is tender, about 2 hours. Remove the pot from the oven and transfer the pot roast to a serving dish.

Hawaiian Pizza – One Arm Wonder

Alex aka Ma, What's For Dinner — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:00:20 +0000

Hawaiian Pizza

Serves 6 Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 10 minutes

1 store bough pizza crust
1/2 cup pizza sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup diced ham
1 can cubed pineapple

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Remove pizza crust from wrapper and place on a baking sheet. Cover with pizza sauce leaving a one inch border around the sides. Sprinkle with cheese then top with diced ham and pineapple. Cook at 425 for 8-10 minutes. Slice with pizza cutter and enjoy with salad!

Buffalo Chicken Pasta

Alex aka Ma, What's For Dinner — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:00:38 +0000

Big shout out to my girl, Shell over at Things I Can\’t Say ! She blogged about how much her kids liked this dish and it sounded so amazing I had to make it immediately. Let’s just say we were ALL licking the plates clean.

Buffalo Chicken Pasta

Serves: 4 Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook time: 20 minutes

1 pound penne

2 t salt

1 ½ t pepper

1 T garlic powder

1 T Cajun seasoning

1 pound chicken, diced

2 T oil

3 T hot sauce, Frank’s or Tobasco, divided

1 cup mayo

1/2 cup ranch dressing

¾ cup milk

1 cup chopped celery

½ cup chopped scallions

shredded mozzerella

chopped blue cheese

Put on a pot of water to boil and when it does toss in some salt to season it and add in your pasta and cook until al dente.

Season chicken with the spices. You can pour it all into a ziploc bag to shake it all up. Heat oil over med-high heat and cook chicken until it’s cooked, about 5 minutes or so. Next add 2 T hot sauce and cook for an additional minute or so. This part always makes me cough, but I use A LOT of hot sauce, I like mine extra spicy!

Combine mayo, ranch, and milk and mix. It will be lumpy, then stir in additional T of hot sauce. It depends on how hot you want it. Add this to the skillet with the chicken. Cook a few minutes, until heated.

Pour over pasta and stir to combine. Top with fresh celery, scallions, mozzarella and crumbled blue cheese. Sooo good! Thanks, Shell! This one is going into permanent rotation!!!

Beef Strogonoff

Alex aka Ma, What's For Dinner — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:00:27 +0000

Serves: 4 Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook time: 30 minutes

Easy Beef Strogonoff

2 ribeye steak, cut into thin strips (or NY Strip or whatever is leftover in the fridge)

3 T flour, divided

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

1 medium onion, sliced

8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced

1 can beef broth

1 can cream of mushroom soup

S&P

1 cup sour cream

Cooked noodles

Season the steak with S&P and dust strips with 2 T flour. In a large skillet, brown the steak in the olive oil and butter. Remove from the pan and set aside. Toss in your onions and mushrooms to the drippings. Saute for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon flour and allow to cook for a minute or so. Toss the steak back into the pan and add the soup and broth. Season with S&P. Cook over low heat for about 30 minutes, covered. Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream. Serve over cooked noodles.

Spaghetti & Meatballs

Alex aka Ma, What's For Dinner — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:00:52 +0000

Serves: 4 Prep time: 20 minutes Cook time: 30 minutes

FOR THE MEATBALLS

1 lb ground beef

¼ c milk

1 clove chopped garlic

¼ c chopped onions

¼ c chopped red pepper

¼ c chopped carrots

¾ c bread crumbs

1 whole egg

¼ c parmesan cheese

S&P

FOR THE HEALTHY VEGGIE MARINARA SAUCE

2 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 cloves garlic

¼ c chopped onion

¼ c chopped red pepper

¼ c chopped carrots

¼ c chopped mushrooms

1 28 oz can san marzano chopped tomato

1 ½ T dried Italian seasoning

S&P

1 box linguine, spaghetti, whatever floats your boat

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Get out a large cookie sheet and spray it with cooking oil, set aside. Put on some water to boil for your pasta.

In a large pot or dutch oven heat the oil over medium high heat. When the oil is hot add onion, carrots, and mushrooms. Sautee until veggies are soft and onions are translucent, about 7-9 minutes.

Meanwhile in a large bowl combine all the ingredients for the meatballs. Mix them all together using your hands and form into little golf balls. Put them on your greased cookie sheet and slide into your oven. Bake for 25 minutes.

When your veggies are soft add the garlic to your pot. Cook for 1-2 minutes stirring often. Sprinkle in S&P and your Italian seasoning. Stir. Pour in tomatoes and stir to combine. Bring your sauce up to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Your water should be boiling now so add some salt and throw in your pasta, cook according to package.

When your meatballs are done slide them into your sauce and let them cook an additional 5 minutes in the sauce. Drain your pasta and spoon out onto plate. Scoop meatballs and sauce on top of the pasta and serve with a side salad and crusty bread to scoop up extra sauce! I threw some leftover broccoli in as well.

Noteworthy Nugget: You can triple or quadruple this recipe for sauce and freeze it in plastic baggies or Tupperware containers to always keep on hand! You can also make extra meatballs and freeze them for Grab n Go meatball subs in a snap.

Mac n’ Cheese please

Alex aka Ma, What's For Dinner — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:00:58 +0000

Recipe Of The Day

Mac n’ Cheese Please

Serves: 4 Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 45 minutes

1 lb. elbow macaroni
3 T butter, divided
2 T all purpose flour
½ t dry mustard
3 cups whole milk
1 t fresh grated nutmeg
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded swiss cheese
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
½ cup panko bread crumbs
S&P

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Set a large pot of water over high heat to boil. In a large saucepan melt 2 T butter over medium high heat. Whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute. Slowly whisk in milk, and bring to a gentle boil, stirring constantly. Once the milk has thickened add in mustard and nutmeg, and season with S&P. Reduce to medium low heat and melt in cheddar and swiss cheeses. Allow to cook on low for a few minutes.

When water is boiling season water with salt and add pasta. Note package cooking time and reduce by 2 minutes, the macaroni will continue cooking in the oven later. Once pasta is cooked, drain and return to pot.

In a separate sauce pan melt remaining T butter over medium heat. Combine with parmesan cheese and bread crumbs, turn off heat and set aside.

Pour cheese sauce over pasta in pot. Mix well. Transfer to a greased 13×9 baking dish and top with bread crumb mixture. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Serve with side salad and your kids will forget all about that blue box filled with fluorescent orange pasta!

Tasty Tidbit: You can make this an all in one meal with the addition of some cooked cubed ham and some frozen peas or some leftover roasted chicken mixed in with some broccoli.

Hawaiian Pizza

Alex aka Ma, What's For Dinner — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:00:03 +0000

Serves: 6 Prep Time: 6 minutes Cook time: 18 minutes

1 store bought refrigerated pizza dough

1/2 cup pizza sauce

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 can pineapple chunks

1 package diced ham

1 jalapeno seeded and sliced (optional)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees (or whatever you dough tells you to).

On a large baking sheet stretch out your dough to fit. Pour on your sauce and spread it around with a spoon leaving a 1 inch rim on each side without sauce, that is your crust. You can use more sauce if you like, my family likes light on the sauce.

Sprinkle the sauce with plenty of cheese, reserving just a bit to the side to put on top of the toppings. Next arrange your ham and pineapple as you like. Let the kids do this! They have a blast. I put sliced jalapeno on my half of the pizza because the rest of my family are a bunch of wusses when it come to the super spicy stuff. Top with a bit more cheese and bake for 17 minutes or until golden brown.

Pull it out of the oven and serve it up with a big salad. Game on! Enjoy!

Spicy Garlic Fries

Alex aka Ma, What's For Dinner — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:21:31 +0000

Serves: 8 Prep time: 5 minutes Cook time: 20 minutes

1 bag extra crispy oven bake french fries

3 garlic cloves minced

1 T grill seasoning

1/2 T chili powder

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

parsley chopped for garnish

ketchup and ranch for dunking

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. On a large baking sheet pour the contents of the bag of fries into an even layer.

In a bowl combine garlic, grill seasoning, chili powder and olive oil. Stir to combine. Pour over the top of the french fries and toss well to coat.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes until nice and crispy. Sprinkle with parsley and transfer to serving plate. Serve alongside ketchup and ranch for dipping. SCORE!!!