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Food, Savory

Easy Baked Onion Rings

Go healthy. That’s what I’ve been telling myself lately. At least until Halloween anyway. After Halloween I can start packing on sweaters and long pants, right?

These were fabulous. And so much healthier than dumping them in a vat of oil

Gather:
4C Italian bread crumbs
Egg whites
Onion, I use Vidalia cause they’re sweet
Garlic powder
Cayenne pepper
Flour

Preheat that oven to 400. On one plate, put some flour, in a bowl set aside the egg whites, and on another plate put the bread crumbs. I put garlic powder and cayenne pepper in the crumbs to give it more kick. You can put it to your liking, but I like to be able to see the cayenne, give it heat.

Flour the sliced onion rings, dip into egg whites, then bread in the crumbs. Place on a cookie sheet, I put some parchment paper down so I wouldn’t have to scrub the cookie sheet.

Pre-oven cooking.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until crispy. These were so good! and super easy.

September 27, 2012 by Roni

Food, Savory

Yummy Black Bean Tacos

I totally forgot how amazing the Bernie Mac Show was. Let me back up. A friend came to visit me last weekend and we got to talking about all the shows we used to watch as kids. Shows like Dinosaurs (Go Jim Henson), anything SNICK, Rocko’s Modern Life, and somehow I started singing the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song. Seems there are a lot of shows that I miss watching. SO, in all the nostalgia, we realized we could search Netflix . . . and guess what we found… Bernie Mac! Okay, believe me, it’s funny. Good wholesome family entertainment. The other night I started watching where we left off and I can’t stop watching. I will be seriously sad when I finish the series, I can already tell. Luckily, I’ve learned that Dinosaurs is on Netflix as well.

Anyway, this post was not supposed to be about TV, it was about my taco dinner I made.

Black Bean Tacos

Gather:
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
2 Roma tomatos, diced
1/2 a green pepper, diced
1/4 onion, diced
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp chili powder
Shredded cheddar cheese
Flour tortillas
Olive oil

Heat up a skillet with some olive oil. Add onions and pepper, cook through. Add the black beans and spices. Cook on medium heat for 8 minutes. Add 1/4 cup of water to hot pan, stir to combine and cook for another 5 minutes or until water has been absorbed by beans.

Heated the tortillas in the microwave for 20 seconds, added a bit of cheese, diced tomatoes, and some of the beans. The result? A delicious, healthy meal that I loved!! And to think I almost always have chicken or beef tacos. Meat free can be good. Who would have thought?

September 20, 2012 by Roni

Food, Savory

Fresh Mexican Pizza

There is an excess of food in my fridge. Anyone want me to cook for them? I went grocery shopping and got pulled in with sales and a good deal on chicken. Thought at the time, that I might, just might, find enough meal ideas to use it all. Let’s just say, I’m still working on it.

However, I did find a way to use some of that chicken.. and the dough I bought… and all the veggies…

Fresh Mexican Pizza

What you need:
Roma tomatoes
Green Pepper
Onion
Chicken
Pizza dough
Olive Oil
Taco/Mexican Seasoning Blend
Mexican blend cheese
Garlic powder, ground pepper, cayenne for salsa

Preheat oven to 350. Once heated, roll out pizza dough on baking sheet. I put down flour so it doesn’t stick to the pan. Before putting it in the oven, spread some olive oil and garlic powder on top. Just enough olive oil to coat the dough. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes so the dough is partially cooked through. The longer you cook it, the crunchier your crust will be.

While that’s going, cook up the chicken breast with the taco seasoning. I like to have it sliced into thin strips.

Make up some fresh salsa, see my recipe here. I think I’ve found about a thousand ways to use fresh salsa in my recipes. When the dough is ready, top it with fresh salsa, chicken strips and chicken. Cook for another 15 minutes or until the cheese is all cooked through.

There’s something about fresh pizza that I love! Out of the box is good for late nights, delivery is better, but if you have the time, nothing really beats a fresh pizza (trading the sauce for tomatoes that is.)

September 17, 2012 by Roni

Food, Savory

Mini Lasagnas

Sometimes, I just don’t know what to do for dinner, especially when I’m cooking for one. The thought of making a huge pasta dish, meatloaf, anything in a crockpot, or something in the oven is usually a slightly depressing thought. That is also followed by the thought I might need pants with elastic for attempting to eat everything that is made when one creates a gourmet masterpiece for a party of eight. So I made myself a deal when I looked into the fridge and found myself with a pound of ground beef that needed to be used. I decided I needed to make a single serving meal and I was craving lasagna.

Mini Lasagnas

Ingredients:
Half a green pepper, diced
1/4 of an onion, diced
Pound of ground beef
Lasagna Noodles
1 jar of pasta sauce
1/4 c grated Parmesan
Any leftover shredded mozzarella you might have in the fridge (I happened to have a bit from when I made pizza the other day)
Olive Oil
Ground pepper, salt, garlic powder

I cooked the onion, green pepper, and spices in a bit of olive oil, all while trying to remind myself that I was only going to put about half the effort into this hair brained idea as I would a real lasagna. (There are way more steps and ingredients when I go all out and make it full-scale.) Once the veggies were cooked through (read the pepper and onion were soft). Then I added the ground beef and cooked that through.

Then I added the pasta sauce and cooked that down until it lost most of its watery-ness. There is nothing worse than making a lasagna and when you go to eat it, it just falls apart because the sauce is too saucy. Yes, sauce can be too saucy. Toss in the Parmesan cheese and cook down.

Did I mention you should probably be cooking up those lasagna noodles by now? Ok, well, get on that. Then when you pull them out, I cut them into quarters. Pulled out my cupcake pan. Yup, you heard me right, we’re taking baking equipment into the cooking kitchen.

Layers as follows:
noodle
meat/sauce mixture
noodle
meat/sauce mixture and a bit of mozzarella
noodle
little bit of meat/sauce mixture

Popped that into the oven at 350 for 20 minutes and ta-dah! dinner! Single serving size here we come!

Let them sit and it should look like this: