Patty Melt

Oh hey friends, I'm baaaack!

I was watching TV today, and two different shows highlighted a Patty Melt and I thought, "I've never had one before- that looks really really freaking good." I've recently been on a burger kick and have some ground beef and onions on hand so I thought I'd give it a shot.

I don't know if most Patty Melts are usually made with Swiss cheese but I wanted to break the rules and make it with white cheddar. I know, crazy.

So I started with the caramelized onions first, low and slow, with butter and olive oil. That's what makes it good.

Then I mixed up some 80/20 beef with Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and hot sauce for a kick. And by salt I mean salt and garlic salt. That's a given. Mix it up, but not too much, and let it sit for a few minutes to get along. Then make your patties, whatever size and shape makes you happy.

Then melt some more butter and olive oil in another pan and throw the patties in there. DON'T touch them once they're in. It'll mess up the delicious brown caramelization that happens that is so tasty. While that side is cooking, take some of the caramelized onions that you had going first and press them into the uncooked side of the patty. (Saw this on The Chew today, can't take full credit). Once the first side is cooked to your liking, flip it over and cook until you deem done.

In another pan (I used the onion pan), melt some more butter (OK I used light butter the whole time to make myself feel better about it all) and start toasting your bread, I used fresh rye bread. Put a slice of cheese on the bottom piece, then top with a patty (or two, if there's room!), then more cheese and bread. Turn it over and toast the other side and let all the cheese get melty and delicious. And eat! Ravenously as I did. I can't help it.

Enjoy :)

Chicken Rollatini with Spinach alla Parmigiana

Made it, ate it, yum. This is Skinny Taste's recipe and it came out SO delicious. I served it over pasta with a little tomato sauce and homemade bread with olive oil and parmesan cheese and a glass of wine, ya know, to round it out.

I didn't have any ricotta cheese and only made two so I changed up the recipe a little bit. Always keep frozen spinach on hand because you never know when you'll want to jazz up some chicken! Also, the original recipe didn't do this, but I used chicken breasts and flattened then out a little bit by putting them in between two press and seal sheets and whacking it with a rolling pin. It was easier to roll up with the filling by flattening it out a little.

I guess you could have had the chicken rollatinis alone or with a salad but I had cooked a bunch of angel hair pasta for the week so it was already there for me. So try it and pair it with what you like!

The Most Delicious Mushroom Pizza

I make pizza at least once a week, and usually they're pretty standard, but this pizza was THE most delicious  mushroom pizza I have ever had.

Normally I just make the dough, throw on some tomato sauce and whatever toppings I have on hand and put some cheese on top. But not this pizza. I took some sliced portabello mushrooms, onions, zucchini, and garlic cloves, tossed them in olive oil and roasted them in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Then instead of putting regular pizza sauce on the dough, I infused some olive oil with the roasted garlic and spread it on top of the dough. Let that sit and get acquainted for a few minutes, then add the roasted mushrooms, onions, and zucchini. Then cover with a thin layer of mozzerella cheese and some parsley if you have it laying around. Oh and feta cheese if you have that too :) When it comes out drizzle with a little olive oil and BAM you've got the most delicious mushroom pizza.

I should note that I make my pizza dough in my bread maker and am always playing with the recipe. This time I added more water and yeast to the mixture and the dough came out amazing- I will definitely need to make it like this from now on. Also, King Arthur whole grain white flour is awesome. Just sayin..

Falafel

This was not the easiest, fastest recipe I've ever made, but I always like to try to make things the hard way at least once. I LOVE falafel, and decided to try my hand at it. I served up my fried falafel with home-made Tzatziki Sauce, Hummus, and Tahini Sauce. I decided to go all out.

I followed My Favorite Falafel Recipe from Epicurious and had to modify it just a little bit to work in my small food processor. (I added lemon juice to allow it to blend in the food processor then added 2 more tablespoons of flour to help it form into a ball.) The frying of these falafel (falafels?) was disastrous  Which reminded me why I don't fry often. At first, the oil was too hot...then it was wasn't hot enough...so I ended up throwing them in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes just to make sure the inside was cooked through. The final product was not ideal, but it tasted pretty darn good in a pita with fixin's.

To make the Tzatziki Sauce, I loosely followed Skinny Taste's Skinny Tzatziki to get a good idea of what I should use. I ended up peeling and scooping out half a large cucumber then chopping it up into small pieces to put in the food processor. I then added about a tablespoon of chopped parsley and a clove of chopped garlic. Pulse in food processor then strain all the juice out (I put it in paper towels and squeezed the juice out). Combine cucumber mixture and a small (6 oz.) container of plain Greek yogurt. Season with salt and pepper, then cover and let sit in fridge for a couple of hours.

For the Hummus, I drained a can of chick peas and saved half of the juice then put that in a food processor. Add about a teaspoon of cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper, a tablespoon of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of tahini paste (or more, I like a lot), and enough olive oil to get the mixture blending. Keep blending until smooth or you think your neighbors can't handle the noise anymore. I usually like to make it look pretty when it's done, so I top the finished product with a little olive oil and paprika. I ate it too quickly before I took a picture of how pretty it looked...oops.

The moral of this Greek story is that while falafels are delicious, leave them to the experts. And by experts I mean those obscure, hole in the wall restaurants who fry food in questionable surroundings. Don't ask, just enjoy.

Chicken Piccata Pasta

Yummy. I breaded and baked chicken breasts similarly to the way I did for the Chicken Parmesan, and made a picatta pasta to go along with it since I had capers. I served it along with an arugula salad and bread and it was a perfect dinner.

For the pasta, I just melted a little butter in a sauce pan, added some thinly sliced red onions, capers, and lemon juice, then threw some left over cooked pasta into the pan to heat through.

Since I didn't have left overs, it would be silly to type up the ingredients and directions since it's so simple to cook for one serving. Just put however much you need and cook it till its done. Those are pretty much my universal cooking directions which drive people crazy. But it's so easy! Enjoy :)

Chicken and Rice Enchiladas

Since it's Mexican themed week apparently, and I still have tortillas, I'm making enchiladas! Just take your left over chicken and rice, roll it up in a tortilla, cover with enchilada sauce and cheese, then bake!

I had to make the enchilada sauce, which is what I was saving the tomato sauce for, and it was relatively easy. I sort of followed the recipe on allrecipes.com and it came out pretty good. I didn't have self-rising flour so I just added a tiny bit of baking powder to the all purpose whole wheat flour I had. Google is pretty amazing at telling you what you need to know.

Put some sauce on the bottom of the dish (I used a small casserole dish) then roll up the chicken and rice in enough tortillas to fill the dish and cover with more sauce, cheese, and other mexican toppings. Bake at 350 for however long it takes to look good. Which should be around 20 minutes. Tadaa! Delicious mexican food for half the calories, just estimating of course :)

Baked Chicken Parmesan Pasta

So I won't even pretend that I made this recipe up. I "borrowed" it from my favorite website, Skinny Taste, and decided to whip it up for dinner tonight since I had everything to make it. The ingredients and directions are on her page, but I thought I'd at least post a picture and let y'all know how it turned out.

Right off the bat, I messed something up. I'm terrible at following directions, or maybe it's because I read them once and assume I know everything when I don't. When defrosting the chicken in the microwave, I accidentally cooked some of the edges, ew, so I cut them off. Hence the awkwardly shaped chicken in the pictures. But it still tasted yummy!

This recipe is so easy and so delicious, and you probably have all the ingredients in your kitchen right. now. The only thing that could make it better is some crusty bread to accompany it...just a suggestion :)