Homemade Tortillas

I despise wasting food, not just because it wastes money, but because there are so many people who cannot afford the luxury that is stocking their fridge once a week. I express my love through food, so buying things that I don't eat, like flour tortillas and frozen pizzas for my boyfriend, is common. The long and short of this is that I buy flour tortillas that sit in our fridge for two weeks until I throw out half of the package because they're crusty. I cringe every time I throw food away, and am always on the prowl for homemade alternatives to store-bought items.

I finally found an easy recipe for flour tortillas, using ingredients that I always have on hand. I might be in love with the idea that when we need flour tortillas, I can whip them up with confidence in about 30 minutes.

Here's the recipe:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 to 6 tablespoons lard or vegetable shortening
1 1/4 cups warm water (approximate)

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Using a fork or pastry cutter, add shortening until the dough is mixed and resembles crumbs. Add water and knead until smooth (smooth-ish, I didn't have the patience to knead my dough for more than a few minutes). Cover bowl and let dough rest for about 10 minutes. After resting, pinch pieces of dough off in 1-inch increments, fold and knead to make a tight ball. Let these balls rest about 10 minutes. 

Now's the fun part! Sprinkle a cutting board with flour, and get out your rolling pin. Roll each tortilla ball into a fairly thin disk, turning and flipping dough as you roll to prevent sticking and to keep a roundish shape.

I have one of those AMAZING green pans that nothing sticks to, which is perfect for tortillas, because you don't need any extra grease to prevent the dough from sticking. I seriously use this pan every day!

Cook each tortilla on medium heat until you notice tiny bubbles appear, then flip. It may take a couple "testers" to determine exactly how much cooking time you'll need, this will depend on your cookware. My tortillas took about a minute on each side. I cooked all of my tortillas at once, and used them to make two batches of chicken enchiladas with my homemade enchilada sauce. YUM!

Do you have any money-saving tips to share?

~Morgana

The Smoothie Files

I love reading articles, and will notoriously research any topic that I want to learn more about. Ah, the joy of the internet! I can quickly learn about nearly anything, and fully accept that I am a product of our technology-driven world. My brain is full of tidbits, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Learning something new every day, even if it's generally unimportant, keeps me energized!

My most recent Google Escapade was inspired by seeing an article about Wellness and eating more fruits and vegetables. The suggested daily intake of fruits and veggies has always seemed to be impossible to meet, and I find it hard to believe that ANYONE can take in 5-13 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. I knew without a doubt that I come nowhere near the recommended intake, so some creative solutions were necessary. I learned that with a 2,000 calories per day intake, I should have 2 cups of fruit and 2 1/2 cups of vegetables. Every day. Yuck.

After trolling recipe websites for delicious vegetable recipes, I decided upon a "Green Smoothie". I like the idea of a smoothie, because I can make it ahead and take it to the office. I never realized that working in an office full of ladies would cause complete diet failure due to all the delish treats they are constantly bringing in, so bringing in something healthy has become a necessity to ward off hunger and unnecessary donuts or cookies or chocolate on a daily basis. Those evil temptresses! (I of course meant the treats, not the ladies, heehee.)

The green smoothie recipes I found sounded just terrible, but I decided to give it the old college try...After several failed attempts at green, chunky, unappealing drinks, I finally found the combination of fruits and hearty greens that is both delicious and super healthy. I still can't get my boyfriend to drink one, but I think they are just amazing. I like to divvy up all my fruits and veggies at once, making about 8 or 10 shake packs at once to freeze.

While researching smoothie recipes, I found information about about Chia seeds, which are supposed to be a raw, organic superfood that also staves off hunger. My mom, who is a health officianado, corroborated this finding, she uses Chia seeds on everything. If it's something that she would buy and use on the reg, I know it must be good for me. I found a 1-pound bag of these seeds online for $10, which was a third of the cost that I found at the health food store. Boom!

Okay, enough about articles I've read, here's my recipe. Combine all ingredients evenly between your smoothie bags, place in freezer for grab and go ease. I'll start with about 8 ounces of purified water and the Chia seeds, then add a smoothie pack and blend until smooth. Each bag makes 16-20 ounces. Enjoy!

 

8 sandwich size ziploc baggies
4 bananas, peeled and cut in half
4 medium red apples, cored and cut in half
4 Bartlett pears, cored and cut in half
2 avocados, cut in quarters
3-4 cups red or green grapes (1 large bunch)
1 large bunch kale
1 8-oz. package frozen spinach (or 1 large bunch fresh spinach)
4 oranges, peeled and cut in half
1/4 tsp chia seeds per smoothie pack (I typically add these right before blending, I don't know if the nutritious properties fade when these are frozen)

The Last Pork Roast

 

I could eat chicken every night! I love how easy it is to manipulate, how wonderfully moist it is, how it can soak up other flavors easily, or serve as a simple protein when there's another special flavor to feature in a dish.

 

Not everyone shares my enthusiasm for this low-fat choice (boo), so I have been searching for an easy dinnertime meal that will stand up to chicken. Pork is another low-fat meat that should be a terrific substitute for my go-to chicken. Supposedly, it is simple to make a delicious meal out of this ingredient, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out what I'm doing wrong! Every time I attempt to use this ingredient, my end product is too dry and chewy.

 

I told my boyfriend we were officially finished with pork, but when our local grocer had pork loin on a BOGO special, I decided to give this seeming nemesis of mine one last chance: one last meal to either turn me and my boyfriend into lifelong fans or to be dismissed from my kitchen forever.

 

I looked up countless pork loin recipes, and finally decided to combine snippets from Giada's show I had been watching while on the treadmill (running while watching cooking shows is my number-one favorite activity!) and this recipe from epicurious.com. Fingers crossed, I followed the website's instructions for ingredients, but after rubbing my pork loin down with the garlic and spices, I let it sit in a marinade made of EVOO, red wine (Cabernet), Worcestershire, and a bit of chicken broth for about 3 hours, turning to coat every hour.

 

As I don't have a roasting rack, I used rolled-up aluminum foil to set the roast above a lined pan,and roasted for 30 minutes at 400 degrees before turning it over and roasting another 30 minutes or so, until the suggested internal temp of 155F.

 

This was by far the best pork loin I have made! It had a very flavorful, herby taste, and the crust was beautiful and savory. Yet, even though I took the extra time to marinate the pork and cook it slowly, it still tasted slightly dry, and it was enough to turn us both off of pork forever. I feel like maybe I'm missing some trick of the trade, and that pork is not my nemesis; it is simply a misunderstood ingredient that could produce wonderful meals if properly coaxed.

It was a splendid last stand for this dish, but for our household, it was just not enough to continue to try to improve...for now...

Mushroom&Turkey Meatballs

If there's anything I love, it's mushrooms, and I try to find a way to incorporate these little fungi nuggets into as many recipes as I can. I also love red meat, and mushrooms have this magical quality to transform the taste and texture of a poultry dish into something decidedly more "red-meaty". So, I decided to try Turkey Meatballs and add mushrooms! I loosely followed this recipe, and I've noted the changes I made below...

There are many meatballs hidden under that red sauce!

Cooking spray

1 cup chopped mushrooms

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

2 large cloves garlic

1/4 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for serving

1 pound ground turkey meat

1/2 cup dried bread crumbs

1 tablespoons dried parsley

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 egg, lightly beaten

Dash salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1/2 box farfalle pasta (my boyfriend's favorite)

 

 

Cook pasta to al dente and set aside.
(I was lucky enough to have some homemade pasta sauce on hand, otherwise this recipe includes a homemade sauce recipe, too.)
Preheat the broiler, and spray a foil-lined baking sheet with cooking spray. Place mushrooms, onions, parmesan cheese, and garlic into food processor and pulse until everything's tiny. In a large bowl, combine the turkey, dried spices, egg, bread crumbs, and salt and pepper. Add the now-minced ingredients from the food processor to the turkey mixture and combine.

Form into 2 1/2 -inch balls and place on a baking sheet. (I ended up making about 12 meatballs, and forming the rest of the mix into 3 turkey burgers that we froze for later use!) Broil for 10 minutes, or until browned and almost entirely cooked through.
Heat your pasta sauce in a medium saucepan and add the meatballs, so they may absorb some of the sauce. Combine with your cooked pasta and heat through.
Sprinkle some parsley and parmesan cheese atop each serving, and enjoy!

This was such a welcome alternative to red meat, and the bonus turkey burgers that were left over were just as amazing (especially topped with cheddar, lettuce, and tomato). What kind of healthy switch-ups do you like to use instead of red meat?



First-Try Roast Chicken

While I was on a spur-of-the-moment shopping trip the other day, I found BOGO whole chickens and decided that I would try oven-roasting a chicken. I am pretty good at roasting a turkey, so I figured I would try a near-identical recipe and it would probably turn out...

My best turkey by far was this past Thanksgiving, when my best girlfriends and I slathered the bird with butter, and stuffed the cavity with oranges, red onion, and bay leaves. It turned out super moist and flavorful, and will be hard to beat this coming year, when I'm sure I'll want to experiment with a new recipe.

I was inspired to cook the moment I woke up this morning, and so I washed, dried, and de-gibletized my chicken, and got together all my ingredients.

I sprinkled my bird with black pepper, dried thyme, and ample amounts of salt on both sides. I added a small pad of butter into either end of the cavity, and then stuffed my garlic, lemon and orange wedges, and red onion into both ends (it turns out I could only fit about half of what I had chopped up inside, whoops). Since it was so early in the day, I set the prepped chicken on a tray and put it in my fridge until about 3pm.

Without a roasting tray, I raised my chicken by rolling three pieces of aluminum foil and sitting the bird on top.

After consulting a few different recipes online, I decided to set my oven to 375 degrees for a nice, slow roast since I wasn't going to be in a rush. I took the chicken out of the fridge and let it sit and come to room temperature while the oven was preheating, and I added white wine to the bottom of my pan. The chicken cooked for about 90 minutes, until the temperature showed 170 degrees at both the thigh and breast. (The "done" temperature recommendations seems to range between 160 and 190 degrees, so I tried to hit kinda in the middle.)

I've heard that a roast chicken can last all day out, and putting it back in the fridge would just dry it out and destroy all my hard work. I had a couple hours yet before dinner, so I made a crusty french bread loaf to accompany our meal (See my post "Finally! Perfect French Bread"). I also tossed some peeled potatoes in EVOO and Italian spices, and set them aside for roasting later.

When we were ready to eat, I placed my roasting potatoes and my chicken in the oven and cooked at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes, just to crisp up the skin of my chicken. The result? Incredibly moist, flavorful chicken that will definitely be going into our "repeat" queue.

Finally! Perfect French Bread

I. Love. Bread.

As many times as I've heard about the evil of carbs and tried to stay away, I simply can't. My love of bread and pasta will never die, and since finding this perfect, easy french bread recipe, I will probably end up gaining a few pounds (bring it on).

I have been trying over the past couple months to find a foolproof bread recipe, because how defeating is it when you spend all that time kneading and rolling and rising dough, to have it turn out flat, overly dense, or dry?

I scoured the internet to find not only an easy recipe, but one that was fast, and found it on Gourmet Mom On-The-Go, a site that I'm sure will become one of my faves. I cut the recipe in half, and turned out with a beautiful loaf that is going to be my new go-to recipe. I made this as a side for a roast chicken, and my boyfriend and I started tearing into it before I could even get a picture snapped of this gorgeous loaf! It was firm but squishy, dense but moist, and it rose better than any other french bread I've tried to make in the past. The only change I made to the recipe was I added dried rosemary, dried thyme, and dried sage to the loaf while it was rolled out in a square. This gave it a slight Italian flavor without overpowering it.

Simply wonderful, and I can't wait to make it again! If you have a favorite bread or muffin recipe, please send it my way so I can keep this bake-a-palooza going strong!

Brisket!!

I know I've mentioned both our Crockpot Sunday new tradition, and the amazing beef brisket that results...but I gotta show it in pictures! Last time we made this delicious dish (my mouth is watering just thinking about it!), we bought about 2.5 pounds of brisket from the market, and followed this recipe. The purchase weight of the brisket included all the fat that I trimmed off before we put it in the crockpot, so I bet it was more like 1.75 pounds of meat. We scarfed down nearly all of it in one sitting, and I used the remainder for delicious sandwiches the next day.

This Sunday, we have a 2-pound piece of brisket (with the fat already removed by the butcher--how easy!), and we plan on following the exact same recipe.

 

I started a bit later than I had hoped (got caught up cooking some other deliciousness for breakfast!), so when I put everything in the crockpot, it was already 11am. Recalling how last time we made brisket, we could barely wait the full cook time before tearing into this succulent meat, I set the timer to 5 hours on high, so it would be ready for an early dinner.

 

 

The meat turned out incredible, but way less saucy than the first time, presumably because of cooking at a high temperature as opposed to low like last time. Luckily, I had some spare bbq sauce, and while I was shredding the meat, my boyfriend couldn't help but steal some from the plate!

 

Next time we make brisket (this meal will be repeated over and over and over!), I will be sure to cook it for eight to ten hours on the low temperature, as this produces a more flavorful and moist brisket, with more of that deliciously sweet sauce. Do you have a fave crockpot bbq recipe? We wouldn't want to run out of ideas!