Crockpot Spaghetti

Not even sure this qualifies as a recipe but more a collection of things thrown in a crockpot for a few hours though it is a favorite in our house.

Ingredients:

    1 lb Italian or Spicy Sausage

    1 package sliced mushrooms

    2 jars pasta sauce (I like Trader Joe's Roasted Garlic Marinera) 

    1 lb spaghetti

    2 cubes frozen crushed garlic (fresh is fine too)

    Italian seasoning

Remove the sausage from the casing and brown in a pan

Put one jar of sauce, mushrooms, garlic, seasoning and cooked sausage in the crockpot and give it a good stir

Add one jar worth of water to the pot

Break up the spaghetti and add it to the pot along with the other jar of spaghetti sauce

Stir it as much as you can but as you can see below the spaghetti will still not be covered in the sauce

Cook on low for 4 hours stirring part way through to submerge the rest of the spaghetti. It is not glamorous looking but it is delicious

This spaghetti is even better leftover the day after you make it

Enjoy!

 

The Easiest Crock Pot Appitizer

Whenever I have to bring something to a potluck at work (or really anywhere) this easy meatball recipe is my go to. When you look at the ingredient list it sounds like it will be disgusting but fear not it is actually amazingly delicious.

You literally just throw the three (yes only 3) ingredients in the crockpot, turn it on and give it a stir once in a while.  When I take it to work I plug it in in our break room and turn it on low for about 4 hours and by the time it is lunch time the meatballs are ready. Perfect! If you are in a rush if you put it on high for about 2 hours you will also have delicious meatballs.

Ingredients:

1 large bag of frozen beef meatballs (I usually use a Costco bag)
1 bottle of Heinz Chili Sauce
1 bottle grape jelly


If you buy a normal grocery store bag throw the whole bag in the crockpot with the chili sauce and the grape jelly but if you buy a Costco size bag just put in whatever comfortably fits in your crock pot while still being able to stir it.

Tip: If you have extra meatballs that don't fit in your crock pot when most of the original batch of meatballs are gone just throw the rest of the meatballs in to heat up because there is always plenty of sauce left.

Five Friday Foods

Rather than do a normal Friday Five Favorite things this week I decided to do 5 things I have eaten recently.  Don't read this if you are hungry because it will only make you more hungry.  

After seeing them all over the internet for months I finally tried the 5 ingredient bagel recipe last week. They lived up to the hype and were delicious.  We cooked some eggs and used leftover ham to make them into breakfast sandwiches.  We added a side of asparagus to make it into a whole dinner.

Last week was my sister in law's birthday so we headed to a Mexican restaurant near our house to celebrate. Can't go there and not get a swirl!

Last weekend I had a date night with my husband. I had been craving sushi for the last few weeks so sushi it was.  We ended up going to Marie Calendars afterwards and having pie for dessert instead of eating there. Such a fun date night!

After a busy December and lots of eating out I am happy to be cooking more again. Last week I got a box delivered by Plated and had fun cooking things up.  This chicken and orzo dish was delicious.

Last week I also made this Thai Peanut Chicken dish.  The serving size was so generous that instead of two servings like the recipe said I actually turned it into three.

Hungry yet?

Chili-Lime Fish Tacos

I haven't shared a recipe here in quite some time so I decided it was high time to share one of the best recipes I discovered through my meal delivery service. These tacos are a super fast weeknight meal and are great on a hot night because between the citrus and the jicama they are super refreshing. This recipe is originally from Marley Spoon.

You need:

• 2 limes
• 1 naval orange
• 2-3 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
• 2-3 scallions or green onions sliced
• 8 oz jicama peeled and chopped into matchsticks
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp guajillo chili powder
• 12 oz pollock filets or cod filets
• 6 small flour tortillas
• 2 tbsp oil
• Salt and pepper

To make the slaw:

Zest the orange and one of the limes into a large bowl. Zest the other lime and set the zest aside. Juice the orange and both limes into the bowl and add the chopped cilantro, sliced scallions and jicama. Also add 1 tbsp oil and the red pepper flakes. Using a knife cut the peel and pith off of the orange and then slice the orange into pieces. Toss and season with salt and pepper.

To make the fish and tortillas:

Combine the reserved lime zest, the guajillo chili powder and a teaspoon of salt in a small bowl. Rub this mixture on both sides of the fish.  Cook the tortillas in a dry cast iron pan on high for about 1 minute per side to get a little charing on them.  Wrap them in a towel to keep them warm while the fish cooks.  Using the same hot pan add 1 teaspoon of oil and then cook the fish for about 4 minutes on the first side and then 1 minute on the second side or until the fish is fully cooked.

Making the tacos:

Slice the fish into strips. Take a warm tortilla and add the fish followed by a good helping of the slaw.  There is usually enough slaw to have some on the side of the tacos too.

Note: You can find the guajillo powder at hispanic grocery stores or you can easily order it from Amazon. Gotta love Prime shipping!

Enjoy!

Marley Spoon Review

After trying Blue Apron, Hello Fresh and Plated I tried Marley Spoon. As I did with the previous  companies I tried it for 3 weeks so I could get a feel for what I liked and didn't like about it.  I got 3 meals a week (that each had 2 servings) so I tried 9 different meals. While I tried 9 meals you might notice there are only 8 pictures. Seems I forgot to take a picture of one meal. Oops!

The first dish I made was a Pan-Seared Cod with Greens and Garlicy Smashed Potatos.  In addition to the garlic the potatoes had vinegar in them which gave them a really unexpected taste.  I thought it was great but my husband wasn't a fan. Overall this was a solid dish.

While I cook soups and stews regularly I don't normally make stews with beef in them so this Beef and Root Vegetable Stew was a nice change.  It was delicious and pretty easy to make.

These Black Bean Burgers were delicious in taste but the execution/directions was a bit of a fail. You were meant to make the black bean mixture, refrigerate it and then shape it into a patty to cook it. The mixture was so soft and wet that even after leaving it in the fridge for double the time and adding some extra bread crumbs from my cupboard I could barely get it into a patty shape to cook it.

The second week started off with a Quinoa and Lentil Curry which was good but nothing super special.

The Pepperonchini and Broccoli dish was pretty good but it is not one of the recipes I have made again though I would consider it.

This Kale and Squash Flatbread was really good and not something I would normally think to make.  The orange salad on the side was also really good and refreshing.

These Fish Tacos with Orange and Jicama Slaw were probably the best things I have gotten from any of the boxes.  I have made these tacos again at least half a dozen times since we first got them in the box. They are super easy and very refreshing. This is a great summer dish so I plan to share the recipe for this one sometime soon.

This curry was also a hit.  I have not made it again but would definitely if I was ever in the mood for a curry.

Pro:

• It was nice to only have the ingredients I needed for a recipe and not to have to buy a whole bottle of something I will only use once.
• There were multiple recipes that I have made again or plan to make again.
• Made me cook things out of my comfort zone and use ingredients I don't normally use but I feel like the ingredients weren't quite as out of my comfort zone as with Blue Apron.
• There were 10 meals to choose from (7 that are new every week and 3 that are encore recipes so stay the same for a month at a time) and I could choose any 3 without restrictions.

Cons:

• As I said in the pros there were not as many ingredients I had never used/had never heard of. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as it will make these recipes easier to recreate but didn't push me as much to try new things.
• Not quite as many options to choose from as Plated.

The cost this one was within a dollar or two or Blue Apron and Hello Fresh so that overall was a neutral point.  Plated is the only one with a noticeable price difference. I think the balance of the cost and larger number of options makes this the one I am most likely to continue to order from of the services I have tried so far.

Plated Review

After trying Blue Apron and Hello Fresh I moved on to try Plated. As I did with the previous two companies I tried it for 3 weeks so I could get a feel for what I liked and didn't like about it.  I got 3 meals a week (that each had 2 servings) so I tried 9 different meals. While I tried 9 meals you might notice there are only 8 pictures. Seems I forgot to take a picture of one meal. Oops!

First meal we tried was a steak with caramelized onions and a butternut squash gratin. I was all really good but the onions on top were my favorite part.

Next we had chicken empanadas with a lime creama and an arugula salad. Again very good.

Roasted eggplant and noodles with a peanut sauce. This dish rounded out our first week and was also delicious. Dishes like this are one of the reason I like having just the ingredients I need delivered instead of having to buy whole bottles of things just for one tablespoon in a recipe. 

Another steak dish but his time with a panzanela salad.  The steak was good salad was the highlight of this dish.

These Mexican stuffed sweet potatoes were one of my favorite dishes I got from Plated.  I have not made them again but have plans to.

I love pretty much all pasta dishes and when you add sausage too it there is a high likelihood it will be good. This pasta dish with sausage and peas in a brown butter sauce was amazing.  I actually made it again a few weeks ago but substituted wheat pasta for the regular pasta.

It is hard to go wrong with potatoes and cheese and this dish was not a disappointment.  Poutine with an arugula and watermelon radish salad to cut the heaviness.

I didn't take a picture of it but I also made sausage stuffed portobello mushrooms that week.  My last meal was a Shepard's pie that was good but nothing to write home about.

Pro:

• It was nice to only have the ingredients I needed for a recipe and not to have to buy a whole bottle of something I will only use once.
• There were multiple recipes that I have made again or plan to make again.
• Made me cook things out of my comfort zone and use ingredients I don't normally use but I feel like the ingredients weren't quite as out of my comfort zone as with Blue Apron.
• There were 12 meals to choose from (6 that are new every week and 6 that are encore recipes so stay the same for a month at a time) and I could choose any 3 without restrictions.

Cons:

• As I said in the pros there were not as many ingredients I had never used/had never heard of. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as it will make these recipes easier to recreate but didn't push me as much to try new things.
• This was the most expensive of the 3 companies I had tried so far.  It was about $10 a week more expensive than Hello Fresh or Blue Apron

I have to say I really liked have 12 choices each week and never had trouble finding 3 meals that I wanted to try.  With so many choices it was nice that 6 of them repeated the next week because sometimes there were more than 3 meals I wanted to try. If it weren't for the price difference this would easily be my favorite meal delivery service so far but the price difference would add up over time.

Come back in a few weeks to hear my thoughts on Marly Spoon and if you missed it you can go back and see my Blue Apron and Hello Fresh reviews.

Hello Fresh Review

In my quest to try all of the available meal prep delivery services my second round of recipes came from Hello Fresh. I again tried this company for three weeks so I got a total of nine meals.

The first meal I tried was the parmesan crusted cod with carrots and potatoes on the side. This dish was absolutely delicious and something I would absolutely make again.  I don't cook much fish but this dish was super easy and seemed pretty fool proof.

These sesame chicken noodles were also delicious.  They had a peanut butter based sauce that was really good and easy to make.  If I were to make this again (which I totally would) I would swap out regular noodles for whole wheat ones and add some extra veggies but keep the sauce exactly the same.

This beef chili was decent but nothing special.  Chili is something I make fairly regularly and while there was nothing wrong with it I can't say it is a recipe I would make again.

The second week started out with the peppercorn steak with creamed kale and roasted potatoes. The sauce was delicious and the kale was just creamy enough to be good without being heavy at all.  Could easily see myself making this again.

This brie and fig jam grilled cheese with a side of arugula and mushroom salad was a nice light dinner.  I liked that the sandwich was on wheat bread.

This chicken with dukkah spices was not at all a bland chicken breast. The chicken ended up nice and moist and the sides were good.  I had never cooked with dukkah spice so this was something new for me.

The third week started out with another chicken dish. This time it was a chicken breast with a gremolata, roasted potatoes and an arugula salad.  All of it was good but the gremolata was the best part.

This penne dish was fine but nothing special.  I make better pasta dishes on my own so I wasn't really impressed with this one.

I managed to make this Italian wedding soup on a cold and rainy day which made it even better.  The meatballs in it kind of fell apart when cooking it (I may have stirred it too much) but it didn't effect the taste at all.

Pro:

• It was nice to only have the ingredients I needed for a recipe and not to have to buy a whole bottle of something I will only use once.
• Made me cook things out of my comfort zone and use ingredients I don't normally use but I feel like the ingredients weren't quite as out of my comfort zone as with Blue Apron.
• There were 6 meals to choose from and I could choose any 3 without restrictions.

Cons:

• As I said in the pros there were not as many ingredients I had never used/had never heard of. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as it will make these recipes easier to recreate but didn't push me as much to try new things.

The cost of Hello Fresh and Blue Apron are within a few cents of each other so in that regard they are equal.

Come back in a couple of weeks to see what I thought of Plated.

Blue Apron Review

As I talked about last month I have decided this is the year I am finally going to try out all those meal prep delivery services that I am always hearing about. I love to cook but sometimes I find myself cooking the same things or the same types of things over and over again. In January I tried 3 weeks of Blue Apron and since each week they send you 3 meals I got to try 9 different dishes. I will talk about each meal I was sent and then I will talk about my experience as a whole.

The first meal I got was Spicy Korean Rice Cakes with Yu Choy and Soft Boiled Eggs. These were delicious.  I had never had Korean rice cakes and had never cooked a soft boiled egg so in addition to be delicious it took me out of my comfort zone.

The second recipe I made was a Roasted Sweet Potato Quesidilla with an Arugula Salad. This meal was also delicious.  I was given a whole sweet potato for this dish and there was no way the whole thing was going to fit in the two tortillas they gave me so I had lots left to just eat by themselves. This one was also delicious.

A Spinach and Mushroom Calzone was the last meal I cooked the first week.  This one was good but actually my least favorite of the week.  It made 3 servings so I had leftovers which was kind nice but the leftover calzone got kind of soggy in the microwave.

My second week started with Za'atar-Roasted Broccoli Salad. This dish was fantastic. I don't normally like broccoli but I discovered I actually like roasted broccoli so that was a win.

This was Indonesian Spiced Salmon with a marinated radish. This was the one dish I really just didn't like very much. I don't eat cooked salmon much but I thought it was because I just don't cook fish very much. I think I just don't like it much. I also wasn't a fan of the marinated radish that also had raw red onions in it. Bad breath city!

This Beet, Goat Cheese and Poppy Seed Fehttuchini was another one of my favorite dishes from Blue Apron. I know I like beets but they are not something I cook with too often and I love pasta so it was great to be able to cook something I make all the time with something I don't make but like. I have actually taken this recipe, altered it just and bit and made it again since I received it that week. 

This was Beef Tacos with a Radish Salsa and Roasted Sweet Potatoes. This was a good dish and while I am all for cheese with pretty much everything the sweet potatoes would have been just as good with the pepper sauce and not adding the cheese. If I made this again I would leave off the cheese to save a few calories.

Orange and Mirin Glazed Cod was my second meal in my third week. The cod, the sauce and the bed of barley it was all sitting on was delicious but this confirmed that I just don't like sautéed broccoli that much. I ate some of the broccoli but ended up eating around most of it.

This was West African Peanut Stew and while it was good it was nothing too exciting. The sauce was not quite as thick as I would have like it to be and just ended up all over the plate.












Overall I like my meals I got from Blue Apron. I can't compare them to any other companies yet since they were the first ones I tried so my pros and cons may be a little short this month. Come back next month when I have tried my second delivery service (Hello Fresh) and actually have something to compare to.

Pro:

• It was nice to only have the ingredients I needed for a recipe and not to have to buy a whole bottle of something I will only use once.
• Made me cook things out of my comfort zone and use ingredients I don't normally use.

Cons:

• When you go on the Blue Apron website to choose which 3 of the 6 meals they offer each week you can't choose any 3 you want.  If you choose certain recipes it doesn't allow you to choose certain other ones.  It looks like you can choose all 3 vegetarian or all 3 non-vegetarian but if you want to choose a mix of vegetarian and non-vegetarian you are limited as to combination. This limit was part of the reason one week I ended up all vegetarian and one week I ended up all meat.

Let me know if anyone has an tips on other meal delivery services I should try and I will be back next month to review my 3 weeks of Hello Fresh.

Meal Kit Subscriptions Reviews

I have been saying for months (ok maybe like a year) that I am going to try a whole bunch of meal kit subscriptions since I love to cook but I feel like I end up cooking the same types of things over and over again (hello soups).

I live in an area that is filled with these companies target demographics so there are lots to chose from. Each of these companies has a discounted introductory offer and can be put on hold at any point so I am going to try a different company each month and see how it goes.  So far I have found 5 different companies to try so this taste test is going to take at least half the year.

I am going to try Hello Fresh, Sun Basket, Marley Spoon and Plated in the coming months but this month I am trying out Blue Apron. Even though most of the introductory offers are only for the first week I am thinking I need to try each company for at least 2 to 3 weeks to really get a feel for each company.

If anyone has more suggestions about more companies to try please let me know.  The more to try the better!

I got my second Blue Apron box today so I will be giving my official opinion of it at the end of the month so come back then.

Kale and Bacon Stuffed Mushrooms

We are trying to eat a little healthier around here so these stuffed mushrooms are great for this.  There is an entire cup of Kale in each mushroom so that is a bonus! The first time I made these my husband came in and said "Hmm what are you cooking? It smells good, like steak." Well, there is no steak in these but they are nice and hearty.

6 cups chopped kale

6 portobello mushrooms

About 10 shitake mushrooms

1/2 lb uncooked bacon

1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese plus extra to sprinkle on top

2 tsps olive oil

• Preheat the over to 400 degrees
• Cook the bacon, drain well and chop into small pieces. Put in large mixing bowl
• Sauté the kale in 1 tsp of the olive oil until it is wilted but not fully cooked. Put in large mixing bowl with the bacon
• Take the stems off of the portobello mushrooms, chop them and the shitake mushrooms into small pieces and set them aside
• Scrape out the insides of the portobello mushrooms and add it to the other mushrooms
• Sauté all of the mushrooms in the other tsp of olive oil until they are mostly cooked.
• Add the mushrooms, breadcrumbs and cheese to the bowl along with the bacon and kale.
• Mix well
• Place each mushroom cap on a foil lined baking sheet and stuff with 1/6th of the mixture
• Bake for 25 minutes

Now before you look at the final product just keep in mind it tastes better than it looks after you cook it.  The kale that is on the top gets nice and crunchy but it also turns a not so nice almost black color.  Despite the color I promise these mushrooms taste great!

Enjoy!

Lasagna Mushrooms

This is a variation on a Skinnytaste recipe because the first time I made it I didn't have the correct ingredients.  That is what you get when you don't follow your own grocery list.

4 portobello mushrooms (the flatter and wider the better)

1/2 a medium onion, chopped

1/2 cup shredded carrots

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 cups spinach, roughly chopped

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

A handful of dry basil

3/4 cup marinera sauce

3/4 cup mozzarella cheese

3/4 cup ricotta cheese

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1 egg

Preheat the over to 400 degrees

Heat a saucepan over medium heat with a drizzle of olive oil.  Saute the onion, garlic and carrots for about 5 minutes.  When the mixture is mostly cooked add the spinach and cook another minute or two.

While the veggies are cooking mix the parmesan cheese and ricotta cheese, the basil and an egg in a bowl.

When the veggies are done cooking add them to the cheese mixture and stir well.  Scoop out the gills of the mushrooms trying not to break the sides of the mushroom.  Place the mushrooms on a cookie sheet and put a little salt and pepper on them.

Stuff the mushrooms with the mixtures, dividing the filling evenly.  Add a layer of marinara sauce and then top with the mozzarella cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes and then enjoy!