Three Easy Meat And Veggie Meals Concocted With Whatever Happens To Be In The House

If I wait too long after creating a dish before blogging about it, it takes even longer to translate my notes about said dish. For instance, the nameless creation pictured next was hastily noted on a small piece of paper as ~

“Leafy Green lettuce, Smokey deli Turkey, Polar..., Grand Cru..., Spinach cooked.”

What it means is ~ I cleaned, dried and laid out individual leaves of Leafy Green Lettuce. Each leaf was topped with a slice of Smoked Deli Turkey, then drizzled with a stream of mild Polar Mango Sauce (easily replaced with any favorite sauce). Grand Cru is a version of Gruyere Cheese that is produced in the United States. A strip of it goes on next and the final ingredient is cooked spinach.

Really quite good and I liked picking the leaves up and eating them with my fingers.


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Another note I came across, slightly more decipherable ~

“1 T. Scallions - Squirt EVOO, 1/2 c. Canned Beets, 10 stalks Asparagus, 1/4 c. Shredded Carrots, Spaghetti Squash 2 c., 1 T. Parmigiano Reggiano”

Here are the actual steps I took ~ First cooked a small spaghetti squash in the oven. After cooled slightly, cut in half and used a large fork to pull out the innards in spaghetti-like strands. Squirted a small amount of extra virgin olive oil in a medium casserole dish. Filled bottom with a layer of spaghetti squash; topped that with cut-up (leftover) cooked asparagus. Arranged canned beet slices around edges and scattered shredded carrots and small pieces of scallions (green onions) on top. Sprinkled with Parmigiano Reggiano.

Can’t remember whether I heated this one in the oven or in the microwave. Anyway, after it had time to heat, I sprinkled it with more Parmigiano Reggiano. Can never have too much cheese!


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Lastly, and I’m lacking notes on this one, so will go with my memory and the photo ~

A bed of torn lettuce, topped with bite-sized pieces of cube steak (cooked and seasoned however you like it--I simply used Salt & Pepper), pineapple chunks, sliced cooking onion, shredded carrots (the pineapple, onion and carrots were cooked with the cube steak). To top it all off, Polar Mango Sauce.

Such fun to mix and match whatever is in my refrigerator and cupboards.

Garbanzo Chimichangas

Has it really been 17 years since I worked at Medleys learning to produce aromatic homemade breads, delicious Cucumber Dill Salad Dressing, speciality cheesecakes, Tofu Foo Yung with its amazing sauces, and -- a favorite -- GARBANZO CHIMICHANGAS? When we made Chimichangas, I had to pull out the calling list and we could be sold out before lunch.

GARBANZO (or chic pea) CHIMICHANGAS are still a favorite of mine and they are simple to make. With everything prepped ahead of time, Chimis are easily assembled and ready to quickly cook for a family supper, home parties or potlucks.



GARBANZO CHIMICHANGAS

Ingredients...
3 cups cooked garbanzo beans (chic peas), mashed

2 T. vegetable oil
1 small cooking onion, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
4 large garlic cloves, minced (I subbed 1 tsp. garlic powder)
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1 medium green bell pepper, diced
2 jalapeño peppers, seeds removed, peppers diced
6 oz. can tomato paste
1 tsp. cumin powder
1 tsp. table salt
1/2 tsp. turmeric
10-12 small (soft) tortillas
grated sharp (or extra sharp) cheddar cheese



Instructions...
1. Mash garbanzo beans in a large bowl.
2. Sauté in oil: onions, carrots, garlic and oregano
3. Add both peppers and cook two more minutes.
4. Stir hot mixture into beans.
5. Add and stir: tomato paste, cumin, salt and turmeric.
6. Assemble chimis (see photo and directions below)
7. Cook over medium heat in small amount of vegetable oil, using pan with high sides. Don’t cook too many at one time. Space them out in the pan. Add oil as needed.
8. When browned, turn. Keep turning as they cook until brown and crisp on all sides.
9. Drain on plate covered with paper towels.
10. Serve with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes and sour cream.



Assemble the chimichangas...
1. Spread 1/3 cup of the mixture across the tortilla, slightly below the center, and sprinkle it with cheese.
2. Fold the bottom up and over the mixture.
3. Fold each side in toward the center.
4. Roll the tortilla away from you.

In the spirit of good health and weight control, I purchased shredded Reduced-Fat 4-Cheese Mexican cheese instead of cheddar cheese. Never again. GARBANZO CHIMICHANGAS need -- no, they deserve! -- full-fat sharp or extra-sharp cheddar.

The same goes for the sour cream. I tried the reduced fat. No! This ingredient, too, needs to be full fat.

Oh, one more thing ~ You’ll notice a dish of oil and a pastry brush in two of the pictures. I brushed some of the chimis with oil, then baked them on a cookie sheet in the oven, trying 375-degrees for the first ten minutes, then turning them and baking at 400-degrees. They didn’t get that nice brown color or the crispness. Maybe if I’d baked them at 400 for the entire time... Back to the tried and true method of cooking them in the pan on the stovetop.




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TV TRAY

As a single person, I sometimes (often?) take my meal to the living room and eat off a TV tray while watching a movie or documentary. TV tray meals are usually cobbled-together with whatever happens to be in the kitchen, no measurements recorded.

All-Grain Sandwich Thin with veggie dogs, swiss cheese, Miracle Whip and yellow mustard; red leafy lettuce with store-bought Thousand Island Dressing, and; mangoes and kiwi sprinkled with fresh lemon juice.

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I always swore I'd not use "prove you're not a machine" for commenters. A few months ago, I changed my settings and opened up the comments to everyone including those who wanted to be anonymous. The problem is that by doing so, Step by Step in the Kitchen is open to spamming. In the beginning it was one or two comments, now it's up to ten or so per post. Therefore, I hope you will be understanding about having to type in a word or two or a number. Thank you, my dear readers.

Old-Fashioned Velveeta Macaroni and Cheese Plus Homemade Thousand Island Dressing

The ice cream picture got your attention, didn’t it! More about that later, but right now I want to share some 1950’s food history from my house, the one I lived in as a child.

When I was a kid, we ate meatloaf and casseroles weeknights. On weekends, Sundays in particular, we indulged in an inexpensive cut of beef or a whole roasting chicken baked in the oven while we were at church. Accompanying each meal was potatoes, mashed or simply cut up and boiled, plus a can of vegetables, usually peas or carrots, often peas and carrots mixed.

Mom’s cooking. Comfort foods.

Most of all there was Velveeta Macaroni and Cheese.

VELVEETA MACARONI AND CHEESE

Ingredients...

2 cups cooked elbow macaroni (1-1/2 cups or less of dry pasta)
1/4 cup butter, divided (3 T./1 T.)
1/4 cup flour, all purpose or whole wheat
1 cup milk (I used skim because it’s what I have in the refrigerator)
1/2-pound (8 oz.) Velveeta, a "Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product”
6 Ritz crackers, crushed

Directions...

1. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter over medium heat.

2. Stir in flour with a whisk or a fork. Stir 2-3 minutes.

3. Gradually stir in milk and continuing stirring until boils and thickens.

4. Add cheese cubes and stir till melted.

5. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in microwave (10-15 seconds). Mix in cracker crumbs.

6. Pour mac and cheese mixture into oiled or butter casserole dish and top with cracker mixture.

7. Bake in preheated 350-degree Fahrenheit oven 20 minutes, or until bubbly.

The Velveeta makes this a very salty dish, so there is absolutely no need to use additional salt.

As an adult, I’ve wondered why we didn’t eat salads in my childhood home. One day it came to me, that was back in the days of Iceberg Lettuce. I can see it now. Each of us had a small salad plate with a big wedge of iceberg topped with a generous helping of Homemade Thousand Island Dressing.

I will NOT eat iceberg now ~ dull taste and no nutritional value ~ so the lettuces you're seeing pictured here are Romaine and Leafy Green.


THOUSAND ISLAND DRESSING

Mix...
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup (or less) ketchup
1-2 T. pickle relish

As usual, I was missing an ingredient. In this case, it was the relish, so I substituted two (2) Kosher dill pickle slices, finely chopped.

Moving back to the present, here in 2012, I’ve discovered a wonderful recipe from Bam’s Kitchen. There are just four ingredients in Bam’s Orange-Coconut-Cardamon Ice Lollies and they truly do melt in your mouth! While you’re in Bam’s Kitchen getting this recipe, cruise around and see what else catches your fancy.

Instead of popsicle molds, I used 5 ounce Dixie cups. And, in place of popsicle sticks, I used colorful plastic kids utensils.

I used a photo of ice cream to get your attention. It worked, didn’t it! For the first time ever, I bought a container of “shell”, the chocolate (in this case, chocolate-peanut butter) that you pour on something frozen like ice cream and it freeze, too.

Vanilla ice-cream, chocolate-peanut butter shell and candy sprinkles. It even looks appealing in black and white.