Homemade pasta sauce

It's been a while!

Here is an easy way to make your own pasta sauce. This is a base, so try your own variations on this and post them in the comments!

Ingredients:

• 8 tomatoes, chopped (or 4 cans crushed tomatoes)
• 3 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves (or 3 table spoons dried)
• Meat (optional)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• Parmesan for garnish

Directions:

• Put onion, garlic, and basil into a food processor, run until almost liquid
• Sauté onion mix for 5 minutes in olive oil in large pan or sauce pan
• Add tomatoes, crush a bit if fresh, stir well
• Add salt, pepper, red pepper flakes
• Add 2 cups water
• Add sugar
• Add meat (optional)
• Boil until sauce reduces to your liking, slower and longer the better
• Serve, mailman, repeat!

This sauce is delicious as it is, and so any additions you make will only make it better. Be careful on the red pepper flakes, they are quite strong with the garlic. Otherwise, this is super easy and can be used for chicken, ground beef, meatballs, sausage, etc. Here's Natalie dominating some angel hair with this sauce :)

Happy cooking mailmanning!

Chicken Tikka Masala

Did everyone decide to stop cooking or something? Let's keep it rolling.

Ok so for today, I made a delicious concoction using one of those pre-made sauce packages. You can buy these in any grocery store in the ethnic food aisle (or if you're a baller, you can make your own). However, these sauces can be improved tremendously with a few little additions to make them really delicious. As such, they are highly customizable. I'll list the ingredients that I used, but using your favorite ingredients is what will really make this dish come together. Also this can be easily made vegetarian and still is delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tikka Masala sauce package
• 1-1.5 lbs chicken
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1/2 jalapeño, diced
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1 cup baby spinach leaves
• 1 can (14.5 oz) garbanzo beans/chick peas
• 1 bay leaf
• Curry powder (cumin with a little paprika is a good substitute for curry powder, or garam masala if you have it), salt, pepper, hot sauce to taste

Directions

1. In a cast iron skillet (aka best invention ever), sauté onions until tender in a liberal amount of olive oil
2. Once onions are tender, sear chicken on both sides for ~3-5 minutes per side, depending on the temperature of your skillet
3. While chicken is cooking, add diced jalapeños to the skillet
4. After both sides have been seared, add sauce, 1/2 cup water, tomatoes, chick peas, spinach, bay leaf, simmer for 20 minutes
5. While simmering, use tongs (or utensil of choice) to shred chicken
6. Add curry powder, salt, pepper to taste
7. Serve over Basmati rice
8. Enjoy, gorge, repeat as necessary

The key to this dish is having lots of different textures. The spinach, chick peas, and chicken totally make this an adventure in your mouth.

Even with a cold, the Chicken Tikka Masala was flavorful enough to taste, and cleared up my sinuses nicely. A really great meal.

Happy cooking mailmanning!

Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Chicken Breast

This is something I make when I want to pretend to be healthy (aka spinach and chicken) but really just want to eat something a little slutty (aka pasta and cheese).  Super easy to make, but from start to eating, it takes a while due to the time it takes chicken to cook.  Sometimes I mix it up with different cheese or vegetables, but this is my favorite, easy combo.  Also, this is not a pretty meal, so I apologize for the photos.

Just a note, this makes a lot of food, so feel free to cut in half.  I like leftovers so I usually make big meals on the weekends and save for leftovers during the week!

Ingredients

• 2 lb chicken breasts
• 15 oz. ricotta cheese (I use fat free from TJ's)
• 3/4 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
• 10 oz. frozen spinach, thawed and drained 
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced (adjust to your ideal garlic taste)
• 1 egg
• 1 jar of tomato sauce (I like tomato basil from TJ's)
• Pepper to taste
• Pasta of choice (I use corn pasta because I'm a freak human that can't have gluten

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Trim fat off chicken breasts and pound them so that they are about 1/4" thick

3. In a bowl, mix ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, spinach, garlic and egg

4. Spread the mixture into the middle of each flattened chicken breast

5. Fold the chicken breast in half (secure with toothpicks or twine if necessary -- I just squish mine together to make them stay)

6. Place stuffed chicken breasts into a lightly greased pan
7. Pour tomato sauce on top/around chicken

8. Cook for 40 minutes, or until chicken is cooked all the way through (my oven is weird and so it usually takes longer, or maybe my recipe is just wrong)
9. While the chicken cooks, make pasta
10. Put on plate: pasta, then chicken/cheesy deliciousness

11. Mailman and enjoy, preferably with wine

Chicken and broccoli

Hi Drunks!

Continuing on Shakour's asian theme, I wanted to post a recipe for Chinese-style Chicken and Broccoli (or you can easily substitute beef -- I've used Trader Joe's beef tips and it was great).  It's really good, fairly easy, and you can sub pretty much any meats / veggies you want.

Note -- some of these ingredients are probably not staples that you can just grab out of your cabinet, but all can be found (fairly cheaply) at TJs.  And if you don't have something you can just leave it out or substitute.

3 tips before I make you a delicious Asian surprise (does that sound dirty?): A) for easy clean-up and marination (word?) use one of those plastic vegetable bags that you get at the grocery store to mix the marinade and marinate the meat in; 2) use low-sodium soy sauce like it says, or dilute normal soy sauce with water because if you don't it will be salty!; and D) get yourself some cornstarch (seriously, it's like a dollar) if you want the sauce to work right

Chicken and Broccoli
Ingredients:
   Meat and marinade

•  2 large chicken breasts (or ~1.5 lbs beef tips), cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsbp corn starch
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1 tsp ground garlic
• 2 tbsp oil (canola, olive, or vegetable)
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce

   Veggies and sauce

• Veggies: 2 heads broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces (or one pre-cut bag), 1/2 small white or yellow onion, chopped into thin slices, 1 cup carrots, grated or chopped into matchsticks
• 1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce, + 2 tbsp water (no water if you omit cornstarch..but don't)
• 1 tsp sesame oil (can be left out)
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 4 cloves chopped garlic
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• Splash orange juice (~1 tbsp)
• 2 tsp red pepper flakes (can adjust to taste or leave out -- this will make it pretty hot!)
• Few shakes of black pepper
• 2 tbsp oil (for the stir-frying)

Instructions:
1. Mix the marinade ingredients in a bowl (or plastic bag), add meat and marinate ~hour
2. Chop your veggies! Set aside
3. Whisk together all other sauce ingredients (soy sauce through red pepper flakes) until smooth
 

Kat's ingredients -- veggies, chicken, sauce

4. Add 1 tbsp oil to a large pan or wok and heat over medium-high heat
5. Add marinated meat, marinade, and ~1/3 of the sauce to skillet, cook for ~5 minutes until cooked through, stirring often
6. Remove chicken from pan, set aside
7. Add 1 tbsp more oil (carefully! pan will still be hot), ~2 tbsp sauce, and the veggies (broccoli, onion, carrots) and cook over medium until tender, ~6 minutes
8. Add back in chicken and remaining sauce, stir until incorporated and then remove from heat
9. Mailman, Asian style.  Soo much better than mystery meat Chinese food (which is also delish when I'm tired / hungover on Sundays)

Yummmmm

PS -- If you put most of these ingredients together and cook them in some way, they will probably still be delicious :)

Selfie!  I look scary in this photo...

"Fried" chicken, Kitten's special broccoli and sweet potato fries (no, they aren't like special brownies...but they are delish)

Hi Drunks!

Chicken mailman

So this is really three recipes in one -- this takes a little prep, but just throw foil on all your pans and then clean-up is just throwing away foil.  Make sure to really spray the pans with cooking spray (or olive oil) so the stuff doesn't stick, especially true for the chicken and sweet potato fries.  I usually make all three at once in the oven, so it's actually pretty easy.  Just add some cooking time if you're doing that.

I stumbled across this chicken recipe recently, tried it, and it was incredibly good.  I really don't know why, the ingredients aren't crazy but it's so delicious.  The one thing I will say is that you do need to get the white vinegar.  I know it's annoying because you may not have it at home, but you will want to make this over and over again.  The vinegar makes the milk acidic so it breaks down the chicken a bit.  You can replace the vinegar with lemon juice if you have that around.

"Fried" Chicken Nuggets
Ingredients:

• ~1 cup milk + 1 tablespoon white vinegar (or lemon juice); any milk is fine, I use skim.  If you are a freak human that keeps buttermilk around, that would be delicious also.
• 2 large chicken breasts
• ~1/3 cup flour
• Seasonings (adjust to your taste -- I like it garlicky and spicy so this is what I use, but any combination of spices would work; be careful, this is pretty spicy!): 1 tablespoon seasoning salt, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1 teaspoon  cayenne pepper, dash of onion powder

Instructions:
1. Place vinegar / lemon juice and milk in a decent sized bowl (needs to fit the chicken).  Let sit for ~5 minutes.
2. While that is sitting, cut the chicken breasts into pieces.  I use big costco chicken breasts and usually cut each into ~6-8 pieces, but it really doesn't matter.
3. Put the chicken into the milk/vinegar mixture.  Let soak for ~20-30 minutes.  I always forget this part and then end up eating dinner 30 minutes later than planned.  So don't forget it, go have a beer!  Also make sure chicken is mostly covered in liquid, if not add more milk.
4. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees (my oven sucks so I usually do 425)
5. Put a 9x13 (or really whatever size) metal pan or cookie sheet covered in foil and coated in cooking spray and/or olive oil into the preheated over for a few minutes so it warms up
6. Throw the flour and all spices in a 2-gallon plastic bag
7. Transfer the chicken pieces to the plastic bag with the spices, making sure to shake excess milk off each piece.  Throw away the milk mixture, unless you like chicken milk.
8. Shake it up until chicken is coated!  I usually have a bit of leftover flour mixture, so no worries if that happens to you.
9. Remove chicken from bag and spread out on warmed-up pan (make sure the pan is nice and coated with spray otherwise chicken will stick).
10.  Bake 25 minutes, flip, bake 20 more (or until crispy and brown -- will vary based on oven)
11. Mailman chicken.  We usually dip in BBQ or hot sauce, and then mailman, but it's so good by itself also.
**Leftovers are AWESOME for a buffalo chicken salad the next day.  Just throw on top of some spinach with veggies (I like carrots, celery, peppers, onions) and squirt on some hot sauce.
_________________________________________________________________________________

The following two recipes are my go-to sides for chicken.  So easy, so delish.  If you don't have cornstarch for the sweet potato fries, that's okay, they just won't get as crispy (but will still taste awesome).  Ditto if you don't have time to soak them.

Best Broccoli Ever -- so easy; can easily be made with asparagus or cauliflower instead of broccoli and it will also be awesome
Ingredients:

•  Two heads broccoli, chopped and large stems removed (buy the pre-cut bag if you're busy)
• ~2 tablespoons olive oil, I don't really measure just dump a bit and toss until it's coated
• Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder to taste
• Grated Parmesan (if desired)

Instructions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 400.  If you're cooking something else in there, I'd recommend going to 425, but honestly anywhere between 350-425 degrees will work just fine, just adjust the baking time.
2. Cover a large baking sheet or 9x13 with aluminum foil.  Coat in cooking spray.
3. Put broccoli in pan.  Add olive oil and mix with your hands until broccoli is well coated.
4. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  I usually mix again and sprinkle some more on so everything is coated well.
5. Bake 20-30 minutes, depending on how crispy you want it, shaking the pan once or twice while baking.
6. Sprinkle on some Parmesan if desired.  Mailman. Repeat.

Sweet Potato Fries
Ingredients:

• 2 small sweet potatoes, skin on, cut into thin fries (I usually get ~15-20 fries out of each potato)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ~2 tablespoons cornstarch (optional)
• Spices: Salt, Pepper, Cayenne Pepper, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, anything else you would like.  Can also just use a bit of seasoning salt if you're feeling lazy :)  I would recommend the cayenne though -- nice and spicy!

Instructions:
1. Optional: Let cut sweet potatoes soak in water for ~1+ hour.  It'll be easier to get them crispy if they soak.
2. Pre-heat oven to 425 (also can be adjusted -- will just take longer if lower)
3. Coat a big baking sheet with aluminum foil, then spray with non-stick cooking spray
4. Shake sweet potatoes dry if you soaked them (don't have to be 100% dry)
5. If you don't have cornstarch, put fries on pan and skip to step 7.  If you have cornstarch, throw a scant tablespoon into a large plastic bag, throw in a big handful of fries (about 1/3 of fries), and shake to coat.  Remove fries and lay on baking sheet. Note -- I've found that using an empty vegetable bag from the grocery store (those long clear plastic ones) works best for this.  Hold it near the top so there's an air bubble and just shake a bunch until the fries are fully coated.
6. Repeat until all fries are covered in cornstarch (I usually do it 3 total times)
7. Drizzle olive oil onto fries, mixing with your hand so they are all coated
8. Shake on spices, make sure to mix a bit with your hands so they get coated with everything.
9. Arrange fries so they are not touching
10. Bake 20 minutes, flip, continue baking until crisp (usually ~15 minutes, depending on oven; if I'm cooking everything together I usually bake them an extra 25).
11. Mailman.  Mailman. Mailman.

Whole meal mailman

Chai Chicken

Here is a little recipe of my own invention. Being that almost all the meat I eat is chicken, I get bored of it frequently. However, this recipe is excellent at breaking up the monotony and allowing your taste buds to have a little vacation from the daily grind. Also it only takes ~30 minutes to cook, so its great for during the week.

Yum in the tum!

Ingredients:
Chicken breast(s)
Cinnamon
Garam Masala

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º F 
2. Coat both sides of chicken with cinnamon, then with garam masala (cinnamon is the base layer)
• Be generous with both spices (cinnamon especially), such that the entire chicken breast is covered with spice
3. Bake for ~30 minutes at 350º F, depending on thickness of chicken breast (30 min for thin, 45 min for thick)
4. Enjoy!

After a tough day at work, Natalie got a nice spicy lift out of Chai Chicken

Happy cooking mailmanning!