Shelter At Home Cooking: Show Us Yours!

chachp · Jul 10, 2020

Ha.

Sixteen servings?? Really? Man, not in this house. Joe and I would tear that up!! Having said that I will say we don't eat like that every day but something like that would be a treat for us. Luckily he's not a big fan of casserole type dishes as I am so that would be a once in awhile thing.

Also, I would make a healthy version with Low Fat Chicken Broth and Fat Free cream soup. Ralph ducks and runs!!

ea56 · Jul 10, 2020

Chicken Tortilla Casserole

I make a chicken tortilla casserole with less chicken than the Chicken Taco Hotdish that is similar. Here is the recipe.

Chicken Tortilla Casserole

2 1/2 cups cooked, cubed or shredded chicken breast (about 1 lb. raw)

8 oz shredded cheddar cheese

1 can Cream of Chicken soup

1 10oz. can enchilada sauce, either red or green

1 large can of black olives, sliced

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp ground cumin

9 6” tortillas, either corn or flour, cut into wedges

In 3 qt. bowl mix the Cream of Chicken soup with the pepper, garlic and onion powder and cumin. Add the chicken and the olives.

Spray a 11”x8” pyrex baking dish with cooking spray. Pour 1/3 of the enchilada sauce in the bottom of the baking dish and tilt dish to cover bottom evenly. Layer 1/2 of the tortilla wedges evenly over the bottom of the pan. Top the tortillas with 1/2 of the chicken mixture, 1/2 of the cheese and evenly drizzle 1/2 of the remaining enchilada sauce. Repeat the layers using the remainder of the tortillas, chicken mixture, cheese and enchilada sauce. Spray a sheet of foil with cooking spray and put the sprayed side down on the baking dish(this keeps the cheese from sticking to the foil) and seal. Bake at 350F for 30-35 mins, or until hot and starting to bubble in the center of the dish. I use an instant read thermometer and when its 190 degrees, its done. Let the dish rest for 10-15 mins. before cutting into 6 servings.

I serve this with 1 cup of cooked vegetables per person with a nice side salad. I believe that this is fairly low fat, with 1.5 tortillas, 1.33 oz. cheese and 2.66 oz. chicken per serving. I frequently will make this earlier in the day and refrigerate it. Add an extra 10 mins to the cooking time if its refrigerated.

I firmly believe that its important to eat plenty of vegetables and fruit and limit meat and fats. But I also believe that if you eat foods that you enjoy, you’ll be satisfied with smaller portions. We eat 3 meals a day, cereal and fruit for breakfast, a small sandwich and fruit for lunch and a dinner with a salad or raw vegetables with the main dish and a small dessert in the evening. We almost never eat between meals.

If you eat reasonable amounts of foods you like you’re better off in the end and less apt to binge eat out of a sense of deprivation. Moderation is the key.

Eddie

[this post was last edited: 7/10/2020-13:51]

ea56 · Jul 10, 2020

For the Diet Police

I don’t buy low fat anything! We use whole milk on our cereal and in cooking, David uses 1/2 & 1/2 in his one cup of coffee a day, we use butter in moderation, real Best Foods mayonnaise, not low fat, regular cheese, ect.

The real thing just tastes better and I’m satisfied with less. For years we used skim milk on our cereal and I always hated it. When we switched to whole milk about 10 years ago I found that I was more satiated after breakfast and began to lose some weight gradually.

I discussed this with our doctor and he agreed with me. Better to eat smaller portions of the real thing than feel deprived. He told me that he wished all his patients ate as balanced a diet as we do.

Eddie

luxflairguy · Jul 10, 2020

As Shirley McClain said in Steel Magnolia's "hell! I can't get enough fat in my diet!"
Full fat diet all the way and I weigh 171 Lbs!!

retro-man · Jul 11, 2020

stir fries

Have been making a lot of stir fries lately and have been using sesame seed oil. Has a good flavor when used in the vegetables. Now this is an item that is getting harder and harder to find. Have tried vegetable oil. Yuck. I have seen peanut oil avocado oil and walnut oil grape seed oil. What do you guys use when making stir fry?

Jon

chachp · Jul 11, 2020

Vegetables with Pasta?

If my mother served cooked vegetables with spaghetti, or lasagna or any kind of pasta dish my father would have definitely made some kind of comment akin to WTF. I guess where we come from in Italy you may have a salad on the side with your pasta but never any kind of cooked vegetables. I've heard this mentioned a couple of times and it seems odd to me every time I read it. Am I the only one?

Growing up we ate mostly the common Italian dishes and we almost always had a salad with our meals. Sometimes desert but we weren't big sweet eaters. When there was any kind of pasta that was always the main event. There was usually some kind of meat that went with it, maybe chicken on occasion. On Sundays I remember dinner at my Grandmother's house with all the relatives. She made everything from scratch. The Pasta, Meatballs, Sausage and the Braciole and then for desert the Ricotta Cheese Pie. Those are great memories. But........not a cooked vegetable in sight.

And while I'm on the subject, who puts elbow macaroni in their chili? That's another WTF for me. When I was in my twenties I had just moved to Wisconsin. I invited some friends for chili. When we sat down someone asked where are the elbow noodles. I was really surprised because chili is chili period. We put some cheddar cheese on top and I know some who will put diced onion on top but ours never had noodles. I suppose if you made it with the noodles it would really be chili-mac but we never had that growing up either.

I don't say any of this to offend anyone I just wonder if any of my paisanos feel the same way?

perc-o-prince · Jul 11, 2020

Honorary paisono here

No cooked veg side here... usually a salad. If a cooked veg is included it's because it's part of the dish, a la broccoli & chicken alfredo or cacciatore. No mac in the chili either.

In each area of the US you'll see regional variations in the foods. For example, Cincinnati has 5-way chili which is chili and other toppings piled on top of spaghetti.

To each his or her own!

Chuck

foraloysius · Jul 11, 2020

Italian food

There is a lot of variety of what is eaten with pasta in Italy. Not only is it different per region (or per town), but also how well to do a family was. Poor people didn't eat much meat, there was no money for meat every day. Vegetables were often home grown and therefor much cheaper. A lot of people didn't even have money to buy cheese for over their pasta, in some regions toasted bread crumbs were used for that purpose.

Meat was often not served with the pasta, in some regions the pasta was served with the sauce and the meat (often meatballs) were after that served with vegetables. For poor people that would be something special. You can eat pasta with everything or almost nothing else. The variety in pasta dishes is so big, I can't stop watching Italian food videos! lol

One of my favourite Youtube channels is Pasta Grannies.

https://www.youtube.com/user/pastagrannies/videos

foraloysius · Jul 11, 2020

Another interesting Youtube channel about traditional Italian food is the channel of Mimmo Corcione. In some videos he is cooking out of classic cookbooks from Naples.

https://www.youtube.com/user/mimmocorcione/videos

vacerator · Jul 11, 2020

Full fat diets, Pasta Rustica for Chuck; Italian cuisines

Link is posted above in case you missed it Chuck.
Louis is correct that it varies widely in Italy also. Whne my aunts and grandma visited there in the 70's, they told us that the northerners only cooked pasta under done. Items like Parmegino regiano cheese, Parma proscutto, and the Napolitain basil pizza recipies are now protected bu EU standards, and only the families who have been making those for a long time are allowd to as well. Same in France with Camembare cheese, and certain wines and liquors.
If your diet is more fat than carbs, you burn the fat first. It's called ketosys. Some have the metabolism to do it with fewer or more of either. Our bodies utilize sugars as energy first naturally. Carbs metabolize to sugar. Thats why if you eat lots of carbs, you get hungry sooner than if you consume more protiens and fats. Insulin spikes from sugars. Our bodies crash after the sugars are used up, and insulin drops. Thats why diabetics often over eat after doses. They have to compensate for the insulin decline. It can be a double edged sword. Some patients become brittle with hard to manage blood sugar. Type 1 diabetics have keto acidosys much more commonly than type 2 diabetics.

appnut · Jul 11, 2020

In some ways I'm gonna throw a monkey wrench in this. Growing up we had spaghetti with meat sauce (sometimes meat balls) and lasagna. I've been known to put spinach in the lasagna for Lasagna Florentine. Although I never got to have any, my maternal grandmother used to make spinach ravioli. With these, it was always paired with a salad and sometimes zucchini cooked in some fashion.

Somewhere along in elementary or jr. high, chili mac raised its head with cheddar cheese. I love to make it as a baked casserole. I don't like crackers all that much and prefer putting rice or elbos in my chili with cheddar cheese. My mom used to have rice available for us.

In the super hot summer days, I will have a cold pasta salad for dinner and beginning from today through Wednesday the minimum high will be 100 up to 105. And I realized this last night. Normally I'd put small cubed ham in with it. But I don't have that and tried to figure out what I'd substitute.

So this morning I boiled a pound of rotini, cooked a bunch of broccoli florettes as well as 1/2 pound of chic peas and 1/2 a small onion minutely chopped. Mixed all together and added paprika, cayenne pepper, cumin, red pepper flakes, seasoned salt, and minced garlic and tossed with olive oil. Will serve this as is or over some lettuce salad mix and a little bit of dressing. Since 2001, all my pasta has been whole wheat only.

mattl · Jul 11, 2020

It all comes down to what you are used to or grew up with. Growing up, and to this day my dinner consists of a meat, starch, fresh/cooked veg, and a large salad. Personally if I do not get a decent amount of carbs I'm hungry quickly.

Last Sunday my cousin made a great meal- lots of cut up multi colored peppers, onions, mushrooms, a pound of sliced up Polish sausage, couple of pounds of shrimp and a bag or two of muscles. She added assorted seasonings and about a stick of butter cut up. She was going to put it in foil packs and toss it on the grill but looking at the quantity we suggested large foil roasting pans sealed in foil. 15 minutes on the grill and it was great. Unfortunately she is on a diet and did not serve any pasta, potato or rice with it - even tough I ate a good amount I was hungry shortly there after and found myself rummaging through the fridge at 4AM. I tend to run on carbs, always have.

chachp · Jul 12, 2020

Copycat Longhorn Parmesan Crusted Chicken

This recipe ended up in my inbox and it sounded really good so I tried it. I was right. They are really good. It's no diet plate but falls under the category eat everything in moderation. No low fat anything in this recipe.

The only adjustment I made was I didn't have Panko in the house. I thought I did but couldn't find any. I make my own seasoned breadcrumbs so I used those and omitted the additional garlic powder. This recipe was quick and really easy.

I did fry in a little oil but I wasn't going to let that stop me. The recipe shows an option for baking them instead of searing them in the pan and I may try that if I make these again. We'll see how Joe likes them. I thought they were a little salty but that's probably because of all the cheese. Other than that, I think they are really good. 

I also took the picture in both Portrait and Landscape I wanted to see how they came out. I couldn't remember where we ended up with all that. The second picture I took Portrait on my iPhone. In the preview it was rotated but when it uploaded it was correct so it looks like we're in good shape.

https://thecozycook.com/parmesan-crusted-chicken/

whirlykenmore78 · Jul 15, 2020

Grilled Chicken Leg Quarters and my famous potatoes:

The Chix 1/4s were trimmed of excess fat/skin. Seasoned with Season Salt and fresh ground pepper. Placed on a 300-325 grill for 45-60 min and basted with a sauce of: Butter, Lemon Juice and Worcestershire. The chicken was basted and flipped every 5 minutes. Of course final temp was 165-170. THe potato recipe can be found upthread.

WK78

mattl · Jul 15, 2020

I did chicken thighs last night. De-boned but skin on, patted dry, seasoned with salt, put in a cold cast iron pan and browned skin side down undisturbed for about 18 minutes. Melt 4 Tbs of butter, mince 4-6 cloves of garlic and tossed them in the butter. Remove to chicken from the pan toss in a 12 oz package of frozen artichoke hearts, toss in the rendered fat and season with salt. Put the chicken skin side up over and drizzle the garlic butter over. pop into a 425 oven for another 15-20 minuted till cooked through. Squeeze a bit of lemon over and enjoy.

perc-o-prince · Jul 17, 2020

Nick-

Proportions on the butter, lemon and Worcestershire please? I love bbq chicken but this will be a nice change!

And I see a bottle of Tabasco in the background? Why such a small one? LOL! I guess not everyone buys the 12oz size!

Chuck

whirlykenmore78 · Jul 21, 2020

Rich:

Start with 1/2# butter, 1/3 cup Worcestershire(I only use Lea &Perrins) and 1/3 cup lemon juice. Adjust ratio to your taste.

WK78

westtexman · Jul 21, 2020

An Interesting Change . . .

My Podiatrist mentioned that he and his family have been eating a lot of Spam Fried Rice during these times, and I’ve been wanting to try it ever since. I haven’t eaten Spam in years, but I bought some for this recipe.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this dish is delicious, and I will certainly be making it again!