a spinach and mushroom salad with tomato, basil and mozzarella cheese salad
Keld’s Cookin’
The Ghetto Gourmet
Category Archives: quick fix
dressed shapes
Jalapeno Mozerella and Tapatio
Jalapeno Mozerella and Tapatio
spinach chicken noodle
This is a quick meal that involves using one can of condensed soup and getting two full servings out of it. Enough to fill two tummies for a couple hours or so. This is another example of why it is totally awesome to keep cooked rice available at all times. Who needs to fill up on bread and cheese? There’s no need.
- 1 can condensed chicken noodle soup
- 2 cans of water (this is more than the recommended)
- 1/2 cup cooked rice
- several pinches of canned fancy cut spinach (refrigerate the rest)
- black pepper
- tarragon
- marjoram
- paprika
The spices and the spinach are what really makes this dish stand out from a boring can of reheated soup. This type of recipe is great for people who aren’t used to stocking their pantries with fresh food. As much as I loathe microwaves, you could even prepare this meal with the microwave.
Reheat the condensed soup following the instructions on the label but use twice the recommended amount of water. Don’t be afraid to leave the heat on for too long with this one because the technique I used involved placing cold rice and cold spinach into the soup right before serving. This means that you can add a dash of paprika and a pinch each of the marjoram and tarragon while bringing the soup to a simmer. Sprinkle with black pepper to taste.
After several minutes of simmering, add the rice and spinach straight from the refrigerator. The reason I use this technique is that the heat transfers from the hot soup to the cold rice and the cold spinach warming the latter while cooling the former, allowing you to serve the soup almost immediately.
rice to eat
I usually keep a couple cups of cooked rice in the fridge to use throughout the week. Tonight I just wanted a quick tasty snack. When you keep rice around precooked, meal prep becomes hassle free. This goes along the same lines as keeping boiled eggs and baked potatoes in the fridge to fulfill those ‘fast/junk food’ cravings. There are many creative ways you can dress up rice. This is one of them.
- 1/4 cup cooked rice
- 1 splash soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons crushed pineapple
- smidgen of cock sauce
This snack took a total of two minutes prep time. This included twenty seconds in the microwave for the rice while retrieving the other ingredients from the fridge. Top the rice with your soy sauce then your pineapple and dress with thin strands of Sriracha sauce, be careful this stuff is hot. You can double this recipe twice to feed four people a quick snack.
If you want to get really fancy you can take the scrapings and debris from left over chicken and mix it in with the rice. Put that extra chicken fat and skin to use, don’t throw it away. You can accomplish this quickly with some boiling water by using just barely enough water to cover your chicken thigh or chicken leg (you’ll be amazed at how much meat comes off once you get into the practice of doing this with all your meat) and simmer for five minutes or so. Drain the broth through a mesh type cloth to save for later and use the leftover meat for your serving of rice.
hippie breakfast burrito
This is the burrito I was making while Eric Hamilton was fixing my blog that has been broken for the last few months. I was taunting him with how good it was and I would have told him what I made when I realized that I could just post it here since everything is working again.
- 3 Stone ground whole wheat flat-bread wraps (you can use any kind of tortilla)
- 3 eggs
- 6 tablespoons refried black beans
- 3 tablespoons sour cream
- Salt
- Pepper
- Chili powder
- Tapatio
- Butter
This recipe is simple. Throw a couple tabs of butter into a hot pan, break three eggs into the pan after the butter is sizzling and break the yolks with your spatula. I never whisk my scrambled eggs, I just break the yolks and give a couple stirs then season while the eggs are still liquid. To season, just dash some salt, pepper and chili powder by which time the eggs should be solid enough on the bottom to fold in half.
While the eggs are finishing, spread two tablespoons of refried black beans on each tortilla and then you can flip your eggs over. I usually do this in one pan where my eggs only take up half and I only need the half of the tortilla with the beans on it to feel the heat from the pan. I’ll cook one tortilla at a time and slice off a portion of egg topping with tapatio and sour cream then give a partial roll (this will burn your fingers) before placing the burrito on a surface to cool before rolling.
That’s it. That’s the formula. Layer of refried black beans, scrambled egg, tapatio, sour cream then tuck and roll. This will make you three burritos. If you serve this with something else you can feed three people. Two of these by themselves filled me up to where I could have not eaten a couple bites and still been full. Enjoy.
simple cucumber salad
- 2 cucumbers, sliced thin
- 1 small or 1/2 large red onion, cut in half and sliced thin
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 2 tsp dried or 1 tbsp fresh dill weed
- black pepper to taste
Toss cukes and onion with salt in a colander and place over a bowl and let drain 20-30 minutes. You will get quite a bit of water out, at least a few tablespoons. DO NOT skip this step, or you will get a soggy salad.
Drain the water and move the salad to a clean bowl. Add remaining ingredients and toss to serve.
nectarine steak
- Petite Sirloin
- Salt
- Pepper
- Cayenne
- 4 tablespoons of butter
- 1 Nectarine
- Honey
I’m sure most of you have cooked a steak before but for this steak I used Adam Roberts’, from the Amateur Gourmet, tip for cooking steaks like they do in restaurants. Before I cook any type of meat, I always season and allow the meat to rest for about half-an-hour before the actual cooking. This steak only takes no more than ten minutes to cook anyway. Hell, you could even cook it in about five.
Cover all edges of the steak liberally with salt and black pepper. I only dashed cayenne onto one side of my steak. This thing was about one pound. It was ginormous. I found it while browsing the local supermarket, they had some decent cuts of fresh meat on a special display designed to entice people into barbequeing. The cut was about half an inch thick and the length was approximately twelve inches. A decent slab of meat.
Prepping the nectarine was slightly more difficult than the steak. I bought a quite fresh nectarine so it did not want to part from the pit without a struggle. Just make some slices about 1/4 inch thick. If we make them too thin, we will lose the texture that we are aiming for.
Preheat your pan with three tablespoons of the butter. We are going to be cooking at a high heat so don’t be afraid to use the highest setting on your burner, unless you have cheap cook-wear. Once the pan is ready things will go very quickly from this point.
Place your seasoned steak into the pan and make sure you have your fan on or healthy ventillation because I neglected this step and my sister’s fire alarm went off for about five minutes before the air finally cleared enough for the alarm to feel comfortable with the air quality once again. We are going to sear each side for about thirty seconds so that both sides are nice and brown before allowing the rest of the steak to cook. I probably did this wrong compared to the method I was basing it on but it still turned out pretty good.
If you like your steaks slightly bloody in the middle do not be afraid to take the steak off too soon as it cooks very fast this way. After cooking each side for about two to three minutes arrange your nectarine slices on top then go ahead and use the rest of your butter as the pan is probably drying up by now. Cover your steak for no longer than three more minutes and turn the heat off if you need to if you want your steak medium rare. The nectarine slices will warm slightly but they don’t really need to cook all the way through. You should have enough slices of nectarine to cover the whole steak with no room in between.
Drizzle just a tiny bit of honey on top of the nectarines and then eat the whole thing. You can share your steak if you want or you can keep it all to yourself. I had two small children running around outside and they looked pretty hungry. Turns out they were, between the two year old and the three year old they ate half of my steak. Definitely a good meal to eat outside while it is nice.
I topped this meal off with some fresh corn on the cob with the husks still on. You can cook your corn at 450 – 475 for as long as you want. The husks do a great job of keeping the moisture in but I cooked mine for about foty-five minutes.
For dessert walk down the street and buy some shaved ice.
Roasted Red Pepper Salad with Almonds
Today I decided to combine my love of Roasted Red Pepper with almonds, so I invented a new salad. It tastes great, it’s inexpensive, takes about 15 minutes to make, and it’s packed with nutritional goodness. Even the dressing is good for you.
Recipe
- Two peppers (red, orange, or yellow – mix for nutritional variety), roasted and diced
- Three or four large handfuls of baby romaine lettuce
- A small bunch of grapes (about a dozen), sliced in half
- One small handful of sliced almonds
- One small handful of sunflower seeds
- A drizzle (2-4 tablespoons) of classic balsamic vinaigrette
- Freshly grated hard kasseri, to taste (parmesan or romano will substitute)
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Roast peppers. If you have a gas stove, you can roast peppers right on the burners, directly above the flames. Turn the peppers every few minutes with tongs until the skin is thoroughly charred. Otherwise, set your oven to broil and place the peppers on the top rack, directly under the heating elements. Broil for 7-10 minutes one one side, then flip and repeat. Once the skins are charred, peel them off under cold water. The charred skin should come off effortlessly. Dice peeled peppers as you normally would into small pieces.
While the peppers are roasting, rinse and slice the grapes. Mix lettuce, grapes, almonds and seeds in a large bowl.
Add diced peppers and vinaigrette, and gently toss until ingredients are evenly distributed. Don’t toss too much or all the seeds will fall to the bottom.
Plate and top with cheese and pepper to taste. Pepper liberally for best effect.
Nutritional Info
Sweet peppers are one of my favorite foods, especially red peppers. They’re also extremely healthy. Sweet peppers are hydrating, low in calories, and high in nutrition. Red bell peppers are packed with vitamins A and C (more vitamin C than an orange) and a good source of fiber. They also contain lycopene and beta-cryptoxathin, which can lower the risk of cancer.
I’m also a big fan of nuts. IMO, one of the least appreciated foods. If you don’t keep a good stock of nuts in the kitchen, it’s time to start. Almonds are among my favorites. Not only are they sweet, they’re loaded with protein, iron, calcium, vitamin E, zinc, and B2. Almonds contain good for you fats, and can actually help lower your cholesterol. Almonds contain a healthy blend of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, so if you’re trying to reduce your fat and carbohydrate intake, almonds make a great substitute for the fatty foods you’re replacing. I prefer to buy my almonds pre-sliced from the grocery store bulk bins, because sliced almonds are great for sprinkling in salads, breakfast cereals, on yogurt, and even on the top of baked casseroles. In terms of raw nutritional value for money, it’s tough to beat almonds.
This recipe also contains sunflower seeds. Like almonds, sunflower seeds contain protein, healthy fats, calcium, and iron. They are also a good source of potassium and phosphorous. I buy them shelled and salted in bulk.
On Iodine and Salt
The salt from the sunflower seeds will most likely be iodized, which can help prevent some disease, including goiters. I usually buy non-iodized sea-salt to sprinkle on my foods, so I like to have iodized salt for most of my cooking and baking to make up for the lack of iodine in my diet. If you use sea salt and eat locally grown produce in land-locked regions, you might also think about adopting a similar habit. Too little or too much iodine can cause thyroid disorders. A teaspoon of iodized salt per day is plenty. If you eat out often, or eat produce from coastal regions, you probably have nothing to worry about. Most modern diets provide plenty of iodine, and heavy milk drinkers often get more than enough iodine from their dairy intake.
The Dressing Won’t Make You Fat
In salads, the biggest health concern is usually the dressing – but fear not! Balsamic vinaigrette contains about 50-100 calories per serving, only 5g-10g of fat, zero trans fats, and zero cholesterol. In other words, it’s good for you. Really!
quick salad
I was still feeling hungry after snacking on an orange so I found the occasion to be a good excuse to try some of that new food that I bought. Not in the mood to cook, I scanned the items in my refrigerator and saw some mushrooms and some basil and tomato feta cheese. Feta cheese and mushrooms sounded perfect.
Now, I could have just stuffed the mushrooms with feta cheese but then I would no longer have any feta nor would I have any mushrooms left. I would still like to have some throughout the next month. Also, I have some lettuce in the fridge that probably only has a shelf life of a couple weeks at most. Maybe I should use some of that lettuce, I thought to myself.
Looking at the lettuce, I noticed the green onions and figured that green onions would not only add flavor, but help add some body to the salad so that I could get full. Some of the yellow onion I had left over would provide the same purpose.
I rinsed off about three or four leaves of lettuce along with four mushrooms and two stalks of green onion. Remember that all of this food comes out of the ground so it never hurts to give things a quick rinse.
- 3 leaves red leaf lettuce (these are quite large)
- 4 button mushrooms
- 2 stalks green onion
- 1 small palm full of sliced onions
- 3 tablespoons basil and tomato feta cheese
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
All I did after that was tear the lettuce into pieces with my hands, slice the mushrooms to make them go farther, cut the green onion into pieces, add a few slices of yellow onion, top with feta cheese and then splash a little bit of red wine vinegar into the bowl. Not all salads need dressing. The flavor of each piece of food in the salad should be enough to make your mouth water. Heck, my mouth is watering right now just remembering it.
Variations could include replacing the vinegar with juice from one-half of a lemon, sprinkling with fresh ground black pepper, adding 1/4 cup parsley or adding one-half of a diced roma tomato. This recipe can easily be doubled to feed two. Total cost is about one dollar per serving.
lettuce tuna
Going along with the theme that I am just eating what happens to be left over in my pantry we will make a quick snack. I’d love to spend more than a couple paragraphs on this topic but I will start writing more later about methods and strategies for eating and planning your budget for food.
I made this snack because I was not in the mood to wash dishes and because I was hungry. Using one can of tuna, we can distribute the meat evenly over three large leaves of lettuce. Each leaf of lettuce was seasoned with a thin spread of prepared Wasabi. After the tuna, all I needed to do was sprinkle with sesame seed oil and onion powder. If you want a little more flavor from your tuna wrap, just dash some sea salt and garlic powder or black pepper.
Roll, wrap, eat and enjoy.
