Arroz con Pollo

I'm not sure where I got this recipe but I've made it a few times and my family loves it. It's a easy one-dish recipe, which makes me wonder why I don't make it more often. As usual, I make the recipe according to what I want to change or add to it, to make it the way my family would like or what I have on hand. Since red bell peppers are so expensive during the winter, I usually buy them when they are cheap in the summer from a local farm stand, chop them up, and put them in small bags in the freezer. I have made this recipe with and without the 2 ounces of ham.

Arroz con Pollo

1 Tablespoon olive oil
4 chicken thighs
4 chicken drumsticks
2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 oz. smoked ham, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 3/4 cups canned tomatoes, drained and chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cups canned chicken broth or homemade stock
1 cup rice, preferably long-grain
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

In a large, deep frying pan, heat the oil over moderately high heat. Season the chicken with 1/4 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper. Cook the chicken, turning, until well browned, about 8 minutes in all. Remove. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the pan.

Reduce the heat to moderately low. Add the ham, onion, and garlic to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion starts to soften, about 2 minutes. Add the bell peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until they start to soften, about 3 minutes longer.

Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, broth, and the remaining 1 3/4 teaspoons salt and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper and bring to a simmer. Stir in the rice and add the chicken in an even layer. Simmer, partially covered, over moderately low heat until the chicken and rice are just done, 20 to 25 minutes, adding more broth if necessary if the rice isn't completely tender but has soaked up all the liquid. Sprinkle with parsley and serve. Serves 4.

Rick's Huevos Rancheros

After making a large crockpot full of Creamy Pinto Beans and finding some chorizo in the freezer, my husband suggested this dish. It is loosely based on Huevos Rancheros, which has no meat or beans in it, but the chorizo gave it a wonderful flavor and an added richness to the dish. And the beans, well, they are just so good, I couldn't leave them out. Just one of these was very filling. If you can't find chorizo in your grocery store, here is a recipe for it that you may want to try.

And if you want to serve 4 people, just fry up 2 more corn tortillas and 2 more eggs, and you're good to go.

Rick's Huevos Rancheros

2 corn tortillas

Oil for frying

Creamy Pinto Beans, mashed or 1 can refried beans

Salsa, store-bought or homemade

cilantro, chopped

2 eggs

Chorizo, 1/2 pound

Chopped onion, about 1/4 cup

Shredded cheddar cheese

Start by cooking the chorizo and chopped onion in a skillet until the chorizo is completely cooked and the onion is soft. Set aside.

In a small saucepan heat the beans and mash with a potato masher (if using a can of refried beans, just heat them).

In another skillet heat the oil, just enough for frying the corn tortillas. When the oil is hot fry the corn tortillas until crisp. Drain almost all of the oil from the skillet and fry the eggs over easy or sunny side up.

To assemble:

Put the fried corn tortilla on a plate. Spread on beans, then a little chorizo, one egg, some salsa, chopped cilantro, and cheese. Enjoy!

Serves 2.

I'm linking up with Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and Tuesdays at the Table.

Fourth Of July Weekend Food

It's always great to have a long weekend because that means I have more time to be a little more creative with our food. Like with the Black Bean Salsa that I made. It was originally a recipe for Black Bean Salad but my husband loved to eat it like a salsa and asked for me to put in more onions and tomatoes the next time I made it. So, I changed some things from the original recipe and came up with this one.

Black Bean Salsa
2 cans (or 4 cups cooked) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 large onion, chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3/4 teaspoon basil

Combine the beans, onions, tomatoes, peppers, and cilantro in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients, whisking together to combine. Pour over the vegetables and toss lightly to coat. Let sit for about an hour to allow the flavors to meld. Serve with tortilla chips.


On Friday evening I stopped at our local Farmer's Market and picked up some fruit and vegetables. And since we were cooking on the grill, I made a double recipe of the dressing ingredients from my Black Bean Salsa and marinaded some onions, yellow squash, baby portabella mushrooms, and red peppers for about half an hour. I then put them on skewers and my husband cooked them on the grill. We haven't had kebabs for a long time and these were a nice change of pace.

Although this isn't your typical Fourth of July food fare, I had some leftover mashed potatoes in the back of the refrigerator as well as a couple of leftover baked potatoes and decided to make some Potato Patties to round out one of our meals. This is my favorite way to use up cooked potatoes.

Potato Patties

1 1/2 cups cold mashed potatoes or scooped-out baked potatoes (mashed)

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon garlic

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 egg

Salt and pepper

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients with a fork, mixing well. Heat a skillet on medium heat and place 2 to 3 tablespoons of butter, oil, or bacon. Form the potatoes into patties and place in hot fat. When golden brown on one side, flip and brown the other side.

I like to top these with just butter and salt or sour cream.

I'm participating in Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and Delicious Dishes.

Pork and Poblano Skillet with Creamy Slow-Cooker Beans

I love finding recipes that let me use meat as more of a condiment rather than the main item on my plate. It almost always means less calories and it's usually less expensive, too. Remember the big pork roast I cut up? Well the pork for this dish was sitting and waiting in my freezer until I had all the ingredients to put it together.



Starting at least the day before, prepare your Creamy Slow-Cooker Beans. Soak 1 cup (I doubled this part of the recipe) of whatever kind of beans you like (I used pinto) overnight. The next morning, drain the beans and put them in the slow-cooker, along with a chopped up onion, a minced clove of garlic (optional) a tablespoon of bacon fat or butter and enough hot water to cover the beans. Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for about 6-8 hours until the beans are cooked through. Add salt to taste, reduce heat to keep warm until you are ready to serve.



When you are ready to prepare your meal, slice a poblano in half vertically; remove core, membrane, and seeds. Flatten halves skin-side up on a sprayed baking sheet or a foil-lined baking sheet. Place under the broiler until the skins blister and blacken, like above. Remove from the broiler, fold the foil over the pepper to form a tight packet; let rest 5 minutes.

Lift off and discard the skins; chop up the remaining flesh. Meanwhile, heat oil on medium high and add the pork, salt to taste, and stir often until browned, about 5 minutes.

Leaving the liquid behind, remove the meat to a plate. To the pan, add onions, cook until it begins to brown, add the garlic, water and Worcestershire sauce and cook for a minute. Stir in the tomato and poblano. Cook down a bit, about 5 minutes. Return the meat to the skillet; cook 15-20 minutes until the sauce darkens and thickens, adding cilantro in the last 5 minutes.
Serve with Creamy Slow-Cooker Beans, and/or cooked rice, and a dollop of sour cream.

Pork and Poblano Skillet With Creamy Slow-Cooker Beans

1 cup dry beans (your choice), soaked overnight

1 chopped onion

1 tablespoon bacon fat or butter

hot water

Drain soaked beans. Put beans, onion, bacon fat or butter, and hot water to cover into slow-cooker for 4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low. Add salt to taste.

Pork and Poblano Skillet

1 poblano pepper

1 tablespoon oil

1 pound pork tenderloin or boneless pork loin, cubed

Salt to taste

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2/3 cup water

2 tablespoons Worcestershire

15 ounces canned diced tomatoes

1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro

Sour cream

Slice pepper in half vertically; remove core, membrane and seeds. Flatten halves skin-side up on foil on baking sheet. Place under broiler til skins blister and blacken. Remove from broiler, fold foil over the pepper to form a tight packet; let rest 5 minutes. Lift off and remove skins; chop up pepper.

Meanwhile, heat oil on medium high til shimmery in large skillet. Add pork, salt to taste, stir often til meat is browned, about 5 minutes. Leaving liquid behind, remove meat.

Add onions, cook til beginning to brown; add garlic, water, and Worcestershire. Stir in tomato and poblano. Cook down a bit about 5 minutes. Return meat to skillet; cook 15-20 minutes until sauce darkens and thickens, adding cilantro in last 5 minutes. Serve with beans and rice and a dollop of sour cream.

I'm posting this as a part of $5 Dinner Challenge and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

Spanish Rice

My husband loves rice and asks for it a lot and when we have Mexican-style meals, he still asks for some rice. So, I started looking for some good rice recipes to go with our tacos and fajitas that tasted more flavorful than just rice with tomato sauce. Some of the recipes I tried just didn't do for us-until I looked in my Joy of Cooking cookbook and found it's recipe for Spanish Rice. It was right under my nose the whole time! The last few times I've made this, we just had beans, with the rice, topped with sour cream, lettuce, and cheese, along with a few tortilla chips. Really good and filling.

Spanish Rice

1 tablespoon oil

2 slices bacon, minced

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper

1 garlic clove, minced

1 cup white rice*

1 3/4 cup chicken broth

1 cup chopped drained canned tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon sweet or hot paprika

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a 10-inch ovenproof skillet or flameproof casserole, heat the oil, and add the bacon, onion, and bell pepper, until onions are golden, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic the last minutes or so. Add the rice, stirring to coat it with the vegetables and oil for another minute. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Stir once, cover, transfer to the oven, and bake until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender, about 25 minutes. Uncover and let stand 5 minutes before serving.

*For brown rice, add the juice from the tomatoes and leave in the oven about 45 minutes or until the rice is done. You may have to add more liquid (water or broth), so check it after about 30 minutes to see if the rice has absorbed the liquid but isn't tender yet.

Cilantro Recipes

Sandra recently asked if I would post some recipes using cilantro, and I'm glad to do it since it is one of my favorite fresh herbs to use. I can always find it at my Mexican or regular grocery store for as little as 3 bunches for one dollar. I use it in salsas all the time and I even found a recipe to use it in as a rub for chicken.

This salsa recipe is my new favorite because I almost always have the ingredients on-hand to make it. It's adapted from a recipe I found on Fishmama's cooking blog and have made it several times as a sauce for our Mexican cooking.

Salsa

28 ounce can diced tomatoes

1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, rinsed well

1/2 sweet onion, chopped

1/2 chopped canned chipoltle pepper in sauce or 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper or 1/2 chopped fresh jalapeno

1 Tablespoon lemon or lime juice

salt and pepper

In large bowl, combine all ingredients. Serve with tortilla chips or other Mexican dishes.

This is another one of my family's favorites that I got from the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. It is a vegetarian cookbook but she does such wonderful things with food that I really love trying some of her recipes. Lots of flavor! I originally posted this recipe and the next one on my other blog but since this is my new cooking blog, I thought I would copy onto this post so it would be available to me and to whoever else was interested.

A couple of notes on this recipe: If you don't think you would like lots of salsa on your chili, you can halve the ingredients. I've used it to top brats, burritos, or to mix with scrambled eggs. Okay, on to the recipe.

Black Bean Chili

4 cups dried black beans

5 to 6 cloves garlic, crushed

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 1/4 teaspoons salt

Black pepper, to taste

2 teaspoons dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Crushed red pepper or cayenne, to taste

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 medium-sized green bell peppers, chopped

1/2 cup tomato puree (You can also use crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce)

2 (4-oz.) cans diced green chilies

Red Onion Salsa

Grated cheese and sour cream

Soak the beans in plenty of water for several hours or over night. Drain off the soaking water, and cook in fresh boiling water, partly covered, until tender. Check the water level during cooking; add more as necessary. Transfer the cooked beans to a large kettle or saucepan. Include about 2 to 3 cups of their cooking water. (You can certainly do this ahead of time and freeze the beans or put them in the refrigerator for a few days until you are ready to use them.)
In a big pot or Dutch oven, saute garlic, seasonings, lime juice, and bell peppers in olive oil over medium-low heat until peppers are tender.
Add the the cooked beans, along with tomato puree and canned green chilies. Simmer, covered, over very low heat, stirring every now and then for about 45 minutes. (Make salsa at this time.)
Serve topped with Red Onion Salsa, grated cheese, and sour cream.

Red Onion Salsa

2 cups chopped red onion

1/2 cup packed minced fresh cilantro

2 cups minced fresh ripe tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup packed minced fresh parsley

Black pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients and mix well. For a finer consistency, give the mixture a brief whirl or two in a food processor or blender.

6 to 8 servings

I wish I had a picture of this next dish for you. Better yet, I wish you could taste it and see how very delicious it is. I've made this once using skinless, boneless chicken thighs because that's what I had. It was also in the middle of January, so I used my cast iron grill pan to cook them on inside. The important thing is the rub you put on the chicken. So good!

Chile-Cilantro Grilled Chicken

1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro

3 tablespoons minced garlic

1 tablespoon minced jalapeno chile

1 tablespoon grated lime peel

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

3/4 teaspoon salt

4 bone-in skin-on chicken breast halves or whatever parts you like

Heat grill. Combine all ingredients except chicken in small bowl. Generously rub over chicken and under skin. Grill, covered, over medium heat or coals 14 to 18 minutes or until no longer pink in center, turning once.4 servings

For those of you interested, this dish contains per serving: 235 calories, 11.5 g total fat (2.5 g saturated fat), 28 g protein, 4.5 g carbohydrate, 75 mg cholesterol, 525 mg sodium, 1 g fiber

This is a recipe I got from the Cooking Pleasures magazine.

There are a couple of things to remember about cilantro: It is best to use cilantro at the end of the cooking time because it will lose some of it's flavor as it heats. As with all fresh herbs, they will only last about a week in the refrigerator. When I bring cilantro home, I will trim the stems a little and place the bunch in a glass of water and set it in the refrigerator. You can also store it wrapped in a damp paper towel placed inside a large baggie.

I hope this gets you started on using cilantro in your kitchen. In fact, I have some in my fridge that I need to use up before it goes bad.

I'm participating in Grocery Cart Challenge's Recipe Swap and Foodie Friday

Menu Plan Monday

I'm taking lots of help from my freezer again this week. In fact, I won't be doing much grocery shopping for the rest of the month, except for things like milk, eggs, and fresh produce. My two still-home daughters haven't been home much lately, so I've just been feeding my husband and myself for the most part, which means that we have lots of leftovers and sometimes I don't make everything that was on the previous week's menu plan.


Here's what's planned for our menu this week:


Monday: Spanish rice and beans, homemade tortilla chips, salsa, and all the trimmings (cheese, sour cream, lettuce)


Tuesday: Johnny Marzetti Spaghetti Pie, green beans, french bread


Wednesday: Black Bean patties, cole slaw, soaked whole wheat bread from the bread machine

Thursday: Greek Chicken (I made a double recipe and froze half) and roasted potatoes

Friday: Pork and Sauerkraut

For meal planning inspiration, visit I'm an Organizing Junkie to see other meal plans.