Dinner Dilemmas

So here is the deal, I think that I have become a little lazy in my cooking (and my blogging too), lately it has been really hard to come up with something to pull together that will please my husband, the almost 2 year old, the 6 year old, and myself. Perhaps it is the lack of wonderful farm fresh vegetables that I get from the Farmer's Markets near me, or could it just be that while spring has sprung, I am not finding a way in which to add some spring to my cooking?
Tonight's dilemma is split chicken breasts....
I have the package defrosting, but I am not sure if they will be ready to cook any time soon as at last check they were pretty frozen still....
The other issue is that I have no idea what to do with these breasts.....
So off I head to google to see what others have done with this cut of meat. Well I like that the lady over at $5 dinners makes them into boneless skinless breasts, that at least gives me some more options, but I really don't know if I want to the work.... While I am cruising different ideas I have a moment of clarity, MY BASE!!!!
My base you are thinking, what in the heck is this lady talking about, please let me tell you....

Base for Almost any Meal Recipe
1 24 ounce can of diced tomatoes, partially drained
1 onion, diced
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
5 sprigs of fresh thyme, (more if you like)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 cup of dry white wine or vermouth
1 to 2 cups of chicken broth
Optional: 1 finely grated carrot

In a large skillet heat olive oil and add onion and garlic sautéing for 5 to 10 minutes or until onion is translucent. Add in carrot if using, wine, broth, thyme, and tomatoes, simmer for 20 minutes to let flavors combine. From this point, you can add the base to pasta, through in some shrimp, beef, or chicken and simmer until meat is cooked through. I have used this base for beef shanks, shrimp, and now split chicken breasts. If the tomato base starts drying out just add some more wine or broth. Yummm....

Chicken Stew/Cassoulet

I love the flavors that go into the traditional french cassoulet, but I never have all the pork products needed to make it, so instead I play around and today is no exception. Chicken and prosciutto are the meats today, and while I have no served it up yet, the smell in the house is wonderful to all expect the almost six year old.



Chicken Cassoulet



1 3 lb package of boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 large can of diced tomatoes

1/2 lb of prosciutto, browned

2 small onions, diced

2 carrots, diced

2 tablespoons of diced celery leaves

8 sprigs of thyme

3 cloves of garlic, smashed

1 box of chicken broth

1 can of great northern beans, rinsed and drained



Take all ingredients and place in a crock pot, cook on low for about 6 hours or until chicken is falling apart. Serve in a bowl with crusty bread and a nice white wine, enjoy.

It is getting HOT in here

I buy most of my peppers at an Asian Market near my house. This is the only place I can get serranos, but they sell them by the pound. I have no clue what to do with a pound of peppers when all I need is one, so I tend to give them to neighbors or throw them away. Well this time I tried something new, serrano slices, this was an daring experiment on my part since I have never pickled anything before. Once again the wonderful people on the web helped me find a way to do this. I spent about an hour looking at the various recipes for pickling hot peppers and wound up making my own. If you are stuck buying your hot peppers in bulk or you find that store bought jalapeno slices are just too mild for you, this is the recipe for you....

Pickled Serranos

2 1/2 cups of vinegar (I used white distilled)

2 1/2 cup of water

2 Tablespoons of Kosher salt

4 cloves of garlic

1 pound of serranos, cleaned and sliced

2 tablespoons of black peppercorns

In a medium sauce pan add water, vinegar, salt, garlic, and peppercorns. Bring to a boil. While brine is coming to a boil add serranos to a sterilized canning jar. When brine has reached a boil, pour over serranos making sure to cover all with liquid. When jar cools place in fridge and DO NOT OPEN for 1 week. Serve and enjoy, slices can be kept refrigerated for up to 6 months.

Roasted Leg of Lamb

My husband loves Greek food, since he is going to be out of town for bit I asked what he would like to eat and a good bye meal and he asked for leg of lamb. I have never made this before, but boy would I again. This came out great, my only issue was that so many recipes for lamb tell you to cook it well done, why would you want to ruin a leg of lamb this way beats me, but I got mine out of the oven before it was too late. We served this up with some Mediterranean Style Humus from Trader Joe's, a Greek salad, and pitas.

Roasted Leg of Lamb

1 2-4lb butterflied leg of lamb

1/4 cup of olive oil

1 lemon

4 cloves of garlic

some fresh oregano

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Rinse lamb and pat dry. Place lamb fat side up in a roasting pan and season with salt and pepper. Using a knife make 3 slices spread out evenly in the lamb and add 1 clove of garlic into each slice. In a small dish or measuring cup pour 1/4 cup of olive oil, add the zest of 1 lemon, and the juice from half of the lemon, mince some fresh oregano and 1 clove of garlic and add to oil. Mix well and pour over lamb. Cook lamb for about 10-15 minutes per pound (for rare) basting lamb every ten minutes. Slice, serve and enjoy.

1 Steak 2 Meals

Last week was pretty crazy around here. I barley got a chance to cook what I was hoping to so instead of the promised salads, here is the first of one night of cooking equals two meals posts. This features a kid friendly steak and fries meal, plus a great summer salad that can be used in various ways.

Grilled Steak to Pita Pocket

When looking to feed just myself and my son, I like to make simple meals that appeal to a 5 year old, yet are fun for me to eat to. my son loves steak, so I fired up the grill, seasoned the steak and made a simple meal.

2 8oz. New York Strip

1 teaspoon of Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning

Heat grill on high. Cook steak for 3 minutes on each side. Let it rest, slice and serve half of one steak to each person. Reserve extra steak for meals the next day. Serve with Garlic Fries.

Garlic French Fries

1 package of frozen french fries or microwaveable fries (use enough to serve 2)

1 teaspoon of parsley leaves (fresh or dried)

1 to 3 pinches of garlic powder or 1/2 clove of diced fresh garlic

Salt and Pepper

Cook french fries according to package directions. Season with salt, pepper, garlic, and parsley. Mix well and optionally add some grated Parmesan cheese.

Left Over Steak Pita Pockets

2 Pitas, Sliced in half

1 steak, cut into thin slices

4 teaspoons of Mediterranean Humus (available at Trader Joe's)

1/4 cup of Greek Vegetable Salad (recipe follows)

Open 1 pita half and add 1/4 of humus to pita. Add steak and veggies. repeat until each pita is filled.

Greek Vegetable Salad

1 English Cucumber, peeled and sliced in to 1/4 inch thick slices

1 red onion, sliced into thin half moons

2 to 3 tomatoes, cut into large chunks

1/3 cup of Greek Salad Dressing (I like Kraft for this)

In a large bowl add all ingredients an mix well. Cover and place in fridge overnight. Serve with Crumbled Feta.

Prig Khing Green Beans

Trader Joe's sells a frozen version of these, but I
really do not like the sauce that comes with them. I figured this would be an easy flavor to recreate, so I did. I served these will my Thai Snapper last night and I think that my son liked this better than the fish, go figure, but what do you expect from a 5 year old?

Prig Khing Green Beans

1 tablespoon of sesame oil
1/2 pound of green beans, ends cut
1 tablespoon of red pepper flakes
1 handful of peanuts, mashed
1 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce
a pinch of garlic powder or minced garlic

In a large skillet heat oil, before oil starts to smoke add green beans and stir fry for 3 to 5 minutes. Add soy sauce, garlic, peanuts, and red pepper flakes and stir fry for an addition 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from skillet and serve.

Slow Cooker Asian Pork

OK, so I so forgot how nice it is too cook with a slow cooker. Fix it and forget about it until dinner is done. One of my husband's favorite recipes is an Italian Beef. Take a round roast, add a jar of spaghetti sauce, cook on low for 6-8 hours, shred meat, serve on toasted rolls with provolone cheese. I decided to make that up for him and the baby is loving it too. I check out a book at the library and was intrigued by the idea of a recipe in it and decided to play around and see what came out of the slow cooker six hours later. Just a little tip for this one, the recipe I got the idea for said that this was 6 servings, try closer to 8 or more.

Asian Pork

1/8 cup of honey

the juice of 1 lime

1/4 cup of brown sugar

5 lbs of country style pork ribs

1 cup of soy sauce

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic minced

1 tablespoon of chopped cilantro

2 tablespoons of red pepper flakes

if you must 1 tablespoon of minced ginger

1 bunch of green onions chopped

3 tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds

Put chopped onion into the bottom of the slow cooker. Place all other ingredients but pork, green onion, and sesame seeds in a bowl and mix until all are incorporated. dip pork into sauce and add to slow cooker, pour remaining sauce of meat. Put cover on the slow cooker and cook on low or at least 6 hours. Remove meat and garnish with green onion and sesame seeds.

Cassoulet Inspired Meal

I have some veal shanks that I was trying to decide what to do with. I know that cassoulet does not normally have veal shanks, but I figured I could play around some and make a great meal with them that would go with the goat cheese tart and salad that we are having tonight. So here is the recipe I hope that you like my version.



4 Veal Shanks, at least 1 inch think

1 tablespoon of butter

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt and Pepper

A few pinches of flour

1/2 large onion diced

2 carrots, peel and sliced about 1/4 inch thick

1 can of Great Northern Beans, rinsed and drained

1 can of organic tomatoes, slightly drained

5 sprigs of thyme

3 gloved of garlic, peeled and smashed



In a large skillet heat butter and olive oil until just smoking, season shanks with salt and pepper and coat lightly with flour. Brown shanks in skillet on all sides. In a slow cooker add all other ingredients. Add browned shanks and cook on high for at least 4 hours. Serve and enjoy.

Lolly Chops aka Lamb Chops

Looking at my food pics I have been a bit remiss in my postings. I did not even share my recipe for lolly chops, as John likes to call them. This is a great main course that takes no time at all to cook up. All you need is a rack of lamb cut into chops and a grill and you are ready to go. I recommend buying your rack at Costco; they have been selling it around here for only $9.99 a pound, which is quite a steal. If I did not have a Costco membership, I would be tempted to get one just for the price of lamb. Anyway on the recipe….


1 rack of lamb cut into chops
1-2 cloves of garlic minced (depends on your taste)
2 tablespoons of fresh chopped rosemary
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste


In a large ziploc bag, add chops seasoned with salt and pepper, and rest of ingredients. Marinate in fridge for at least ½ hour up to overnight. A half hour before cooking take chops out of fridge to bring to room temperature. While chops are out pre-heat a gas grill to high. When chops have been out for allotted amount of time, place on hot grill. Close lid and cook on each side for about 3 minutes. My grill tend to set fire to the chops, so watch carefully, luckily for me, I like mine charred rare, so this really is not an issue.

Serve chops with mashed potatoes and some greens. Keep seasoning on side dishes light, as you do not want to overpower the lamb, trust me on this one, last time I made this I served it with seasoned wild rice and the flavors from the rice took away from the lamb. As for wine, I recommend serving this with a Petite Sirah, Guenoc and Bolger both make great ones that do not cost a ton.