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Ally’s Mystery Skillet Meal

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Hi! I know…that’s a weird post title and a weird name for a recipe, especially since it’s not really a mystery as such, but there is a little bit of a trademark issue with what we call it at home. I’ve never been an IP paralegal and had to work with trademarks all the time, but I’ve worked in the legal department of enough companies where trademarks are important to know that I can’t just go calling something I made a very similar name to a commercial product, especially if I’m telling people they should make mine instead of the commercial product! But as long as I’ve been making this, we’ve always called it “Allyburger [fill in second word of commercial product whose symbol is a hand that’s smiling because it’s helpful]. It got that name when we decided to try to eat a little healthier and I gave up making the (unnamed) boxed stuff, but kind of missed that pasta/ground meat combination. I came up with this, and I really want to share it with all of you because it’s really a great dinner – quick, easy, yummy, and reasonably healthy. I’ve been trying to think of another name and I really can’t, so it’s kind of the Voldemort of meals…the food that shall not be named.

Anyway, if you’re looking for an alternative to any unnamed commercial product, or you just want a quick meal that almost everyone will love, try Ally’s Unnamed Skillet Meal!

Ally’s Mystery Skillet Meal – serves 4

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
1 teaspoon salt
Ground pepper
1 lb ground turkey (you can also use ground beef)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
2 cans tomatoes (I usually use the ones with chilies, but you can use plain if you prefer)
1 cup pasta (dry) (see note below)
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Heat large skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil, swirl in pan to cover bottom of pan, and add onion,  1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onion has softened. Add ground meat and cook until brown, approximately 15 minutes. Add tomatoes and additional 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir well to combine. Add pasta and simmer  uncovered over medium heat for 15 minutes (if you use plain tomatoes, they usually come in 15 oz. cans as opposed to the 10 oz. cans, so you may need to add 5 minutes to the simmer time). Stir well, taste, and if needed, add more salt and pepper. Top with shredded cheddar cheese. Cover, reduce heat to low, and let stand 5 minutes or until cheese has melted.

Note on pasta: I’ve been using the “lower-carb” pasta from the supermarket and this comes out fine, and I’ve used regular pasta and it’s also good. I have made it with whole-wheat pasta and I thought it was ok, but not great. I haven’t tried any other types of pasta, but if you try it with something else, please let us know how it comes out!

So…do you have any unnamed meals? Or any ideas what I could call this? Please share!

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Decals on Canvas? Yes!

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Have you ever thought of applying decals to canvas but thought they wouldn’t stick on well? You may be right, but here are a few tips to make it easier. Bear in mind that I don’t have a Cricut (yet), so all this is based on decals I have ordered.

The easiest way is to use a heat-sensitive decal. These can be applied to any surface, including canvas, and you use heat (basically, a hair dryer) to keep them in place. Here are examples of two that I did for my office.

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These are big pictures (16 x 20), and I would definitely recommend using this method for anything that large. This past summer, though, I was visiting friends and wanted to make them gifts with sayings that meant something to each of them. I couldn’t find anything that said exactly what I wanted, so I decided to custom order decals and affix them to 12×12 canvases. However…when the decals came, they weren’t the heat-sensitive ones…I honestly didn’t even think of it! I did a little research and a little trial and error, and I understand they’re holding up just fine!

First, put a layer of white paint over the whole canvas. The paint will be the first step in evening out the texture of the canvas. Note that all the painting is with regular “craft paint” – you won’t need anything that you can’t find at any crafts store.
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Next, if you want a background picture, this is the time to paint it on. In this case, I painted ivory hearts on the canvas (I used a stencil to do the big single heart, but did the smaller ones freehand because I didn’t want them to be exactly symmetrical).

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When the paint dries, go over the whole thing with Mod Podge. This dries clear but creates a nice smooth surface for your decals. Here’s one of them with a nice wet coat of Mod Podge.

Next comes the fun part (#sarcasm) – time to apply the decals! If you use a long saying in a complicated font, this will be a little tricky (hmmm…how would I know that), but go slowly and be patient. Make sure your decals are really stuck well to the canvas before the next step! Because once your decals are in place and stuck to the canvas, you’re going back to our old friend Mod Podge for one more coat. Be very careful when applying the Mod Podge that your brush doesn’t catch any of the letters and pull them up – if that happens, just take a toothpick (or your fingernail) and gently re-stick the decal to the canvas.

Here are the finished products and now you can see how I know that a long saying in a complicated font is do-able – it just takes patience!
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Hope this has inspired you to try decals on canvas! If you’ve tried it and have any other tips, please share!

Unbaked Beans

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beans 2Call me weird but I like baked beans – besides hot dogs, I serve them with burgers and even chicken, and they’re not just for summer around the Den – we have them year-round. However, I always feel guilty “making” them by opening a can, dumping them in a pot, and adding ketchup, mustard, and brown sugar (because apparently they aren’t sweet enough – what’s that about?) Whether you’re a baked bean die-hard or not, if you’re looking for an easy side dish, give these not-so-baked beans a try – a lot less sugar, a lot more “real” flavors, super-easy thanks to canned beans and tomatoes, and overall, a yummy side dish!

Unbaked Beans – serves 4

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 onion, diced
1 can diced tomatoes with chilies (if you’re not a spicy food fan, use the plain diced tomatoes)
1 can small red beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1/4 cup ketchup (I used the “no sugar added” ketchup)
1/2 teaspoon mustard
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Heat medium saucepan over medium heat. Add vegetable oil and saute onion until translucent, about five minutes. Add beans, tomatoes, salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, onion powder, garlic powder, and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and reduce heat to low. Simmer uncovered for at least 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure beans do not stick (note: the beans in the picture simmered for 30 minutes).

How easy is that?!?
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Styling the Basket – Halloween!

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I have a confession – I am not a huge Halloween person. I like getting dressed up as much as anyone (possibly more than many), and I admire people who go all-out with decorating for the holiday, but it’s just not my thing. If I was going to decorate more than the bare minimum I do outside, it would be all scarecrows and pumpkins anyway. I was at the Home Depot the other day and found myself wondering who exactly wants a 6-foot werewolf that looked like a cross between a rabid dog and a rat on their lawn! No offense if you have or want one – that’s what makes the world go around!

That being said, Halloween is a holiday, it’s halfway through October, and I have styled the basket accordingly. This was fun – I had two jars that had one flat side (a company sent them to my old office), so I painted them white and drew spider webs on them. I bought some pumpkins at the dollar store and a few at Michael’s that matched the polka-dot pumpkin I bought last year. I also bought some Halloween garland at the dollar store for the fireplace. I moved the things I had for fall around and voila…Halloween decorations.

First I painted them with two coats of white craft paint.

jars 2Then I drew a spider web with a pencil.

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Next, I went over the pencil lines with a Sharpie. I erased where I didn’t write over the pencil completely. If you look at this picture, it looks a little smeary, but when you see the finished product, you really don’t see any smearing. Remember, most things don’t need to be nearly as perfect as you think (or maybe that’s just me who thinks that!) jar-with-sharpie.jpg
Next, I glittered two small battery-operated candles I had on hand. Yes…glitter. I know it’s the worst, but I generally manage to contain it by using a dollar store half pan lined with parchment paper. The half-pan gives the glitter no place to go (or at least fewer places to go), and the parchment paper allows for two things – first, you can pick it up if you need to use some of the extra glitter, and second, things with glue tend not to stick to it.
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After glittering the candles, put on a layer of Mod Podge. If you don’t use Mod Podge often, you’ll get nervous because it looks like you just put big smears of white glue all over everything, but no worries – it dries clear!
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The whole thing took about two days, counting one trip to the dollar store and one trip to Target to find the pumpkin for the middle. Here’s the finished product: Halloween Basket

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(the plant looks a little scary, but it’s not dying, I’m reviving it!)

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Imagine what I could do if I liked Halloween! 🙂 Hope your Halloween decorating is a HOWLING success!

Peach Mascarpone Stuffed French Toast

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I try to avoid talking about my age – I always say you’re as old as you feel, so I’m either 25 or 100! But we’ll get a hint of it with two things I’m going to do today – share my experience with my new glasses and quote “The Breakfast Club”. 🙂
So…I’ve always needed glasses to drive (I have one bad eye, so I can get around fine but I have no depth perception). But when I went to the eye doctor recently, they told me my eye were getting a little worse, and recommended…progressive lenses! Which I’m now supposed to wear all the time. They’re OK, but there are some things that are tough, like looking at something not close with my head down. So, what does that have to do with this recipe? Well, when you crack an egg and dump the shell in the trash right away, guess what you’re doing, looking down at the trash can from a distance! And this recipe takes 8 eggs! Holy dizziness, Batman!
Now for the quote from my all-time favorite movie, “The Breakfast Club”.  We know that here in the Den, I’m all about low-carb living. And I know any kind of diet change should be a way of life, not just something you do till you reach a goal. But sometimes we all just want something we don’t normally have. And in the immortal words of John Bender, being bad feels pretty good.
So, with all that said, here is a delicious breakfast casserole recipe for those times when  you want to go right off the rails! A note about mascarpone. You may think you’ve never had it, but you may well have – it’s in tiramisu and some cannoli fillings. Basically, it’s an Italian cream cheese, but it’s sweeter than regular cream cheese. I get it in the “fancy cheese” area of the supermarket.

Peach Mascarpone Stuffed French Toast
1 loaf unsliced bread (I used brioche bread I bought in the supermarket bakery – I think croissants would work well too, actually)
2 large peaches
8 oz. mascarpone
8 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Cut bread into chunks and leave out for at least an hour to “stale” up a little. Peel and dice peaches. Combine eggs, milk, cream, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in large bowl and whisk well to combine.
Layer about half the bread in bottom of 9×12 casserole dish. Cover with diced peaches. Remove mascarpone from tub and cut into chunks (it cuts up easier if you freeze it for 10-15 minutes, but it’s not going to cut into pretty chunks no matter what you do). Cover diced peaches with mascarpone chunks. Layer the other half the bread over mascarpone. Pour milk mixture over the top, pushing down slightly to make sure all the bread gets covered.
Cover casserole dish with cling wrap and refrigerate overnight. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.
Here it is straight out of the oven and before and during syrup application – I used regular maple syrup with a little cinnamon added, btw.

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And just because I like it and I probably won’t have another peach recipe until next summer, here’s a picture I once took out of a moving car of a large peach (I think it’s a water tower). Never a bad time for a picture of the Giant Peach!

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Braised Short Ribs with Root Veggies

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Great Fall

Talk about having a great fall! I just thought this was the cutest picture ever! Honestly, my biggest problem with the season is that it ends in winter – if we could move from fall to maybe two weeks of winter weather and then into spring, I could deal with it. But no such luck, so I may as well embrace it!

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What I can say is that this is great fall comfort food! Unlike many of my recipes, this isn’t quick, but it is easy, and most of the time is spent just hanging out while the short ribs and veggies cook up in the oven. Great choice for those Sunday afternoons watching football  – start this, watch the game, and enjoy!

Braised Short Ribs with Root Veggies – Serves 2

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 bone-in beef short ribs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (see recipe for how to divide it)
Ground pepper
1 onion, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces and then halved
3 parsnips, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups red wine
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon parsley
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 can beef stock
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 350. While the oven is heating up, peel and cut up veggies. I halved each carrot piece, but didn’t bother doing so with the parsnips because they were skinnier. If you have skinny carrots and/or fat parsnips, proceed accordingly.

Heat an oven-safe pot over medium-high heat (you can use a roasting pan on top of the stove if all your Dutch ovens have plastic handles). Add oil to hot pot. Sprinkle short ribs with 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper and brown on all sides – this should take about 10 minutes (they seem to have so many sides)! Remove short ribs to a plate or bowl, turn heat down to medium and add onion, carrots, parsnips, garlic, 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, frequently, about 5 minutes or until onions are translucent (be careful not to burn your onions and/or garlic). Add tomato paste and wine, and stir, scraping any lovely burned bits off the bottom of the pan. Add short ribs (along with any juices that dripped off them) back into pot and turn heat back up to medium-high. Once wine begins to boil, reduce heat slightly and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Add stock, water, thyme, oregano, parsley, bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir well, cover and put in oven for 2 to 2 1/2 hours – short ribs should be tender and there should still be a good amount of gravy in the pan. If there is too much gravy, bring to a boil on the stovetop and reduce until you have the desired amount.

Fish out the bay leaves, add 1/2 teaspoon salt (if necessary) and enjoy over cauliflower rice, regular rice, or noodles!

Like I said, it takes a while, but it’s well worth it – comfort food at its best!

Cauliflower Leek Soup

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We went to a bazaar at church last week, and there were some farm stands. One of them had leeks, and JP really wanted to buy some. I went along with it, mainly because my inner 12-year-old got a giggle out of saying, “sure, take a leek”, but I really wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them. I think I may have had potato leek soup (I am 99.9% sure I’ve never made it, although apparently I considered it once, as you’ll see below). But I’m not eating potatoes, didn’t have any potatoes on hand, and didn’t want to go buy potatoes that I’m not eating. I gave it some thought and decided I could sub cauliflower for the potatoes. I was a little nervous, though, because the last time I made cauliflower rice, JP asked me to please stop making cauliflower!

I found I actually had a potato leek soup recipe, but I don’t think I can credit that recipe because basically the only the thing the same from that recipe to this is the leeks. Some changes were for strategic reasons and there was one happy accident when I grabbed the wrong spice and didn’t realize it till it was in the soup! And…after two spoonfuls, JP told me, “this is great – you have to make it again”. And he knew there was cauliflower involved! So take a leek and try this soup – even people who are sick of cauliflower like it!

Cauliflower Leek Soup – serves 2-4 (see note below)

2 leeks (white and light green part only)
2 tablespoons olive oil
12 oz. cauliflower (frozen or fresh)
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
4 cups vegetable broth
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
Ground pepper
1/4 cup cream
Dash hot sauce (I used Frank’s)

Prepare leeks – cut off dark green top and root bulb. Cut remaining piece lengthwise and soak in water for 15 minutes. Rinse each piece off to remove any lingering dirt and dice. Heat oil in large soup pot over medium heat. Saute leeks, cauliflower, and garlic for five minutes or until leeks are translucent, stirring often to avoid burning garlic.

Add vegetable broth, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Turn heat up and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for one and one-half hours.

Take soup off heat and allow to cool slightly. Blend in three batches on “blend” setting of blender until creamy, putting blended soup into another pot or a bowl.

Add cream and hot sauce and stir well. Reheat on medium-low, stirring often.

Enjoy!

NOTE on serving size: As a side dish or with a sandwich, it would easily serve 4. If you eat it by itself, it will serve 2 with a little left over.

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Maple Sriracha Wings!

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Well, the song says otherwise, but to me this is the most wonderful time of the year! Baseball playoffs, NASCAR playoffs, we’re in the thick of football season, hockey just started and there’s even pre-season basketball! So much fun for this sports fan! Even if my football team can’t get out of its own way!

These sweet-hot wings will make a perfect addition to your next tailgate or viewing party. I will warn you – they are pretty hot, so if that’s not your thing, adjust the amount of sriracha down, but the maple syrup keeps them from being just hot…they have flavor. The other warning is this: you know I try to avoid sugar here in the Den, but they really don’t come out nearly as well if you use sugar-free maple syrup. Honestly, I hate to spend more than I have to (or make you spend more than you have to), but in this case, the quality of the wing sauce is kind of dependent on the quality of the maple syrup – I recommend getting a small container of the real maple syrup and hiding it in the back of the cabinet so no one uses it for pancakes, because it really does make a difference in this recipe.

Now that the disclaimers are over, move over Buffalo, because these Long Island wings have it going on!

Maple Sriracha Wings – makes 24

1 dozen chicken wings
5 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons sriracha
5 tablespoons maple syrup
3/4 teaspoons lemon juice
Salt
Ground pepper

Cut wings in half (and cut the little wing tips off if they bother you). Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake wings at 450 for 20-25 minutes – you can also grill them if you happen to have a grill at your tailgate.

While the wings are cooking, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add sriracha, maple syrup, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Whisk well to combine. NOTE: you can make the sauce in advance and just re-heat and re-whisk before serving.

Put wings in large bowl. Toss with sauce. If you have extra sauce (which you probably will), pour over – it’s a great dipping sauce for fries too. Bring lots of napkins, some ranch dressing if desired, and enjoy!

Caramel Apple Crisp

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Well, I’ve discovered something about myself. Despite being a good speller and having worked as an admin for enough years that I should know my way around a keyboard, I  seem to have a problem spelling “crisp”. I must have typed “crips” five times when saving this picture and then I did it again in the title! What the heck – I’m writing about apples, not gangs!

Anyway, having saved my apples from a life of crime, here is a caramel apple criSP. This is an easy and yummy fall dessert and it can be free of added sugar (can’t consider it actually low-carb, but at least most of the sweetness comes from the apple juice). The caramel flavor isn’t overwhelming, but I feel it definitely adds something special.

Caramel Apple Crisp

Filling
4 Golden Delicious apples
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup apple juice
3 teaspoons caramel syrup (the kind you put in coffee – I found it in the coffee aisle)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt

Topping
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup almond flour
1 teaspoon stevia (can use 1.5 teaspoons sugar)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon caramel syrup

Preheat oven to 350. Peel, core, and slice apples. Melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium -low heat. Add apples, apple juice, caramel syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Cook, stirring often, for 15 minutes or until apples are softening (without completely breaking up) and mixture is bubbly.

While apples are cooking, prepare topping. Melt 2 tablespoons butter. Combine with coconut, almond flour, stevia, cinnamon and caramel syrup. Mixture will look like a streusel, or as recipes for streusel always say, have the texture of wet sand (I always wonder how people who have never been to the beach know what their topping mixture is supposed to look like).

Turn apple mixture into ungreased 8 inch round casserole dish. Bake for 40 minutes. Serve with whipped cream (or ice cream if you’re feeling really decadent) and a drizzle of caramel syrup.

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Pizza with a Twist!

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I hesitate to call this “pizza” because it’s not anything like anyone would expect when you hear “pizza”. However, it was inspired by a dish that was on the “pizza” menu at a local restaurant, and the restaurant stopped making it when they removed their pizza oven, so maybe it is pizza? In any case, whatever you call it, it’s delicious – a thin crust holds warm ricotta cheese, salty prosciutto, and peppery arugula, with a lovely drizzle of olive oil on top!

Prosciutto, Ricotta and Arugula “Pizza” – serves 2-4

2 frozen pizza crusts (I used a frozen cauliflower crust this time and it was great, but I’ve used the refrigerated pizza crust too)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (you may need a little more or a little less, depending how energetically you brush and/or drizzle)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1 and 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
4 oz. prosciutto (my supermarket sells prosciutto in 4 oz. packages near the deli department – if yours doesn’t, you will probably be able to find it at the deli department or at any Italian deli)
2 cups arugula, roughly torn
IMPORTANT NOTE: these quantities make two small (personal size) pizzas or one large (regular) size pizza. If making two, use half of each ingredient on each pizza!

Preheat oven to 425. If using a refrigerated pizza crust, roll it out thin. Brush each crust (any kind) lightly with olive oil. Spoon ricotta onto crust and use back of spoon to spread the ricotta over the crust. Basically, you want ricotta everywhere you’d have mozzarella on a traditional pizza (leave a space around the edge to hold onto). Sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and oregano. Pull prosciutto slices apart (note: to make this easier, you may want to put the package of prosciutto in the freezer for five minutes before you need it. That said, your slices don’t need to be perfect for this – I always end up tearing it up to get it where I want it). Top with prosciutto. Your pizza will look something like this:

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As you can see, it doesn’t need to look perfect!

Bake on pizza pan or directly on oven rack at 425 for 13-15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool at least 2 minutes. Cut into slices. Top each slice with arugula. Drizzle with olive oil.

Eat and enjoy!

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