And We're Off...

The Newlywed's Kitchen Fiascos is moving!

Well, not moving exactly.

Actually, The Newlywed's Kitchen Fiascos isn't going anywhere. I am.

The purpose of this blog was for me to stay focussed on making a habit of cooking home cooked meals on a daily basis and experimenting with new recipes. Mission accomplished.

Now, I have decided to switch my blogging attention and am excitedly in the process of creating a natural lifestyle blog.

Beginning in August you can find me at leahharriss.blogspot.com

Hope to see you there!

Taco Bowls

Ready for an easy one dish wonder?!

Taco Bowls

Cooking Ingredients:

1/2 pound ground beef/venison/turkey
1/4 cup kernel corn
1/4 cup diced tomatoes with green chilies
1/2 cup black beans
1/4 cup water
1/2 packet taco seasoning

shredded lettuce
corn tortilla chips
shredded cheese for topping (optional)

Cooking Directions:

1. Brown your meat and drain if necessary.

2. Add corn, tomatoes, beans and mix together. Pour in water and sprinkle seasoning all over pan. Stir to combine evenly. Let simmer for 5 minutes over low heat.

3. Dish into individual bowls on top of a bed of lettuce and top with cheese (optional). Forget the fork for this one, use your fingers and eat with chips!

You could easily top with sour cream or guacamole, if it suits your taste buds.

These measurements are the perfect quantity for two servings. With no leftovers, if you have a hungry husband.

One Dish Chicken Dinner

Do you know those annoying posts on Pinterest that lead to nowhere? Yeah, they're very disappointing. But that's what inspired this post. A yummy looking picture which led the hubs to ask me to make it for supper. With not too much creativity I came up with a recipe that I thought would do the misleading post justice.

(The portions in this recipe are for two people.)

One Dish Chicken Dinner

Cooking Ingredients:

4 chicken tenders or 2 chicken breasts

1 small bag frozen cut green beans

2 russet potatoes cut into bite sized chunks

1 package Italian salad dressing mix

1/2 stick melted butter

Cooking Directions:

1. Place chicken down the middle of a greased glass baking dish. Pour beans on one side of the chicken and potatoes on the other side.

2. Mix Italian dressing and melted butter in a small dish, then pour over chicken, beans, and potatoes.

3. Bake in oven at 350° for one hour.

Too easy right? The chicken was perfectly juicy, the potatoes were just soft enough, and there was just enough butter in the bottom of the dish to soak our home made rolls in! Plus, only one dish to clean? That's my kind of supper.

Enjoy!

Banana Muffins

I would like to start this post by thanking Sheri Neiman for nurturing my love for homemade bread by providing plenty of it whenever I came into her home during my babysitting years with her beautiful family. I have since decided that homemade bread will be a staple in my own home. With that being said, here's a simple recipe for muffins using freshly milled flour that I stumbled upon in my new adventure with making my own bread.

Banana Muffins

from the Bread Beckers Inc Recipe Collection

Cooking Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups freshly milled flour (hard red)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 mashed bananas
1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup regular milk + 1 tbsp vinegar)
1 egg
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
1/4 - 1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Cooking Directions:

1. Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add in liquid ingredients and mix just until blended.

2. Spoon mixture into greased muffin tins. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes.

I only used two bananas which give a subtle banana flavor (the hubs doesn't like anything that isn't a banana to taste too much like a banana). These make for a great addition to a morning meal of bacon and eggs or are great as a quick breakfast on the go all by themselves.

By the way, anyone use Calphalon baking pans? I love my stove top pots and pans, but their baking pans always turn the bottom of muffins/cookies black.

So, thank you to Sheri for growing my love of homemade bread, and thank you to my sweet friend Abby (Becker) Page for hooking me up with everything I needed to get started at Bread Beckers! I look forward to plenty more fresh bread in my future (plus it makes the house smell delicious!).

UPDATE: I've made these now adding 1/8 cup of chopped almonds and they are perfect. Even better, add a handful of chocolate chips too for complete yummy goodness!

Shepherd's Pie

How have I managed to go 25 years and have never eaten shepherd's pie? I wasn't even 100% certain what shepherd's pie was. So I did a little googling and Pinterest searching in an attempt to find the easiest recipe I could.

It's a simple, all in one meal that might just become one of the staples on our supper table.

The original recipe from Kraft can be found here.

Shepherd's Pie

Cooking Ingredients:

4 small potatoes
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 lb ground beef
2 tbsp flour
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 can small peas, drained
1 can sliced carrots, drained
1/2 cup beef broth
2 tbsp ketchup
pinch of shredded cheese

Cooking Directions:

1. Peel potatoes and cut into fourths. Cover with water and boil potatoes and garlic for 20 minutes or until tender.

2. Brown ground beef. Add flour and cook over medium heat for 1 minute. Add vegetables, broth and ketchup and cook for 5 minutes. Spoon into 9 1/2 inch pie dish.

3. Mash potatoes. (I think I make my mashed potatoes differently every time I make them. This time I added in a few tablespoons of greek yogurt and butter). Spoon mashed potatoes on top of the pie dish.

4. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with shredded cheese and bake for another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden.

5. Feed this to your man and he will be one happy camper.

Organic Fudge Brownies… From a Box

The hardest part about going off processed foods? The simplicity of baking from a box.

While strolling the isles of my local Aldi picking up this week's groceries I came across a little unassuming box of brownie mix. No big deal right? I almost kept on walking until I noticed the little green leaf in the upper left hand corner that said: Organic.

My interest was peaked, naturally. How can you have "organic" brownies… from a box? So I pulled my buggy over and checked out the ingredients label. "Organic sugar, organic wheat flour, organic cocoa, cocoa powder, organic vanilla flavor, salt, baking powder (sodium acid, pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, cornstarch, monocalcium phosphate)." Wow, I thought, I can pronounce everything on the label and I actually know what it is!

So, for $2.99 I grabbed myself a box and hurried home to try out my "Organic Fudge Brownie Mix".

Ladies and gentlemen, they taste delicious! And why should that be surprising? After all real food is delicious, way more so than stuffing yourself on a ton of chemicals and preservatives.

Consider this a public service announcement: get yourself to Aldi and buy a box of organic brownie mix. Your tastebuds can thank me later.

Pan Fried Tilapia

In the mood for fried fish, but don't want the hassle and grease of deep frying? I love the crunchy texture of fried food, but hate the greasy mess. My cooking life was changed for the better when I discovered pan frying. Way less oil, same great taste!

Pan Fried Tilapia

Cooking Ingredients:

2 tilapia fillets
2 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs milk
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 tbs cut oats (to add that crunchy texture, for a less healthy option try crushed corn flakes)
1 tsp seasoned salt (I prefer Tony's)
2 tbs olive oil
*(side note: when cooking one of my own creations I don't really measure things, which makes it hard to share the recipe with others - oops - so these measurements are approximations)*

Cooking Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium high heat. Marinate fillets in soy sauce and milk while oil is heating.

2. Combine bread crumbs, oats, and seasoned salt in a plastic bag. One at a time, place fillets in the bag and shake to cover with the mixture.

3. Cook the fillets on the stove until golden brown on both sides (about 5 minutes each side, depending on how thick your fillets are).

P.S. For my asparagus recipe hop on over to The Pioneer Woman here. Super simple!

Tortilla Rollups

Here's a fun twist for mexican night: Tortilla Rollups. The original recipe is from The Weekend Gourmet and can be found here. Feel free to mix it up and add what you like, take out what you don't, and let me know how your version turns out!

Tortilla Rollups

Cooking Ingredients:

1lb ground beef or shredded chicken
1/2 can whole kernel corn
1/2 can black beans
1 cup shredded cheese (I used a mexican blend, but feel free to use your favorite)
1 cup plain greek yogurt
1/2 cup salsa
1tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
the juice from 1 lime

8-1o flour tortillas
olive oil
chili powder

Cooking Directions:

1. Spray your baking pan with cooking spray (super important step that I forgot and you will see the disastrous result below!)

2. Brown your ground beef (or cook and shred your chicken). Mix together with corn, beans, cheese, yogurt, salsa, cumin, salt, and lime juice.

3. Place 1/2 cup of the above mixture onto a tortilla and roll up. Place roll ups in a baking pan seam side down. Continue until you use up all of your mix.

4. Brush olive oil on your roll ups, then sprinkle with chili powder.

5. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 5 minutes. Flip, coat with olive oil and sprinkle with chili powder, then bake for another 5 minutes. (I added a little extra cheese to a couple when I pulled them out of the oven, because the hubs loves cheese).

These rollups are very simple and very delicious. Plus, they make great leftovers!

But, please, remember to spray your pan first! Otherwise, you will end up with pieces of rollups… like I did in one of my pans.

P.S. I've made these before with shredded chicken instead of ground beef (actually I use ground venison) and they are just as tasty. Enjoy!

Rotisserie Chicken Crockpot Style

Grab six dollars. Go to Aldi (my favorite grocery store of choice). Pick up a whole chicken and a pack of dry onion soup mix. Go home and put them both in the crock pot. Wait six hours. Devour.

You are welcome.

Crockpot Rotisserie Chicken

Cooking Ingredients:

small whole chicken
package dry onion soup mix
aluminum foil

Cooking Directions:

1. Ball up five small balls of aluminum foil and place in the bottom of the crockpot.

2. Rinse the chicken, pat dry, and place in the crockpot on top of the aluminum foil.

3. Cover the chicken with the soup mix. Cook on high for six hours.

So inexpensive. So juicy. So easy.

Again, you are welcome.