Ribs, Ribs, Ribs

If you read my blog, you know that I’ve made ribs before and shared my recipe..but this time I tried something completely different and it is worthy of a second ribs post within 6 months.

Our local coop has a great  selection of fresh meats from Alberta, the last time we went shopping these beautiful pork side ribs were on sale and we had to pick some up.  We had decided that since we just bought a house (OMG!! Yay!!), that we really need to save some money to buy all of the stuff we need to move in and we should eat at home as much as we can from now until our possession October 1st.

I prepped the slow cooker the night before by cutting up the ribs into pieces as it is easier to set them into the slow cooker that way and because I know they will be fall apart delicious at the end and it will be impossible to take them out if I don’t!  I layer them in the slow cooker making sure to season each layer as I am doing it.  I started with garlic powder, we bought this awesome garlic mill in the US while we were visiting for the state fair, Red Robin seasoning salt, onion powder and pepper.  I then poured in 3/4 of a bottle of Bullseye Chicken & Rib BBQ sauce, a few dashes of worchestershire sauce and 3/4 of a 591 ml bottle of Pepsi and watered it down a bit as well.  We left it to sit overnight in the fridge to soak up all of the flavour.

The next morning when I got up to go to work, I set it to low and forgot about it before I went through the door.  When I came back in the door 10 hours later, the house smelled amazing!  Matt cooked some rice to go with the ribs and dinner ( and lunch for the next day) was served!

I could NOT believe how well the Pepsi flavour came thorough!  I am already looking forward to trying this again with Root Beer because I think the flavours would be absolutely amazing!  I recommend doing this the next time you get a hankering for ribs!

Enjoy!

Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo Chicken Dip

You will be very popular at your next work potluck if you whip this up to bring in!

A lady in our office has transferred to another office so we did the normal goodbye which includes a fantastic potluck! Our last two potlucks, we had ball the night before and I was unable to actually make anything myself so I decided that I had to go all out for this one.  I had seen the recipe floating around the internet for awhile, both on Facebook and on Pinterest, and I thought it could definitely be a crowd pleaser.

On the way home from work, I decided that having to cook chicken and then make the dip was just going to take way too much time, so I went to the deli at our local co-op and bought pieces of a broken down rotisserie chicken already cold (yum!), cream cheese and some nacho chips as I had the rest at home already. While I was shredding the chicken, it was so hard not to eat it all haha.  Pieces of the skin here and there, yum!  I shredded two chicken breasts by hand, then added 650g of Philadelphia cream cheese, 1 cup of Frank’s Red Hot, 1 cup of Ranch dressing and 1 cup of shredded cheese.  I basically doubled the recipe because we wanted to have the dip for dinner as well!  I mixed the ingredients by hand and transferred it all to a pie pan and baked on 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Halfway through, I took the mixture out of the oven and stirred it.  The dip came out smelling amazing!  We poured some into a container and promptly finished it all with some nacho chips!  It was a Pinterest win!! Something that rarely seems to happen. It was definitely a winner, and it was enjoyed by many as a part of lunch today.

I used the following recipe:

http://direct.franksredhot.com/recipes/franks-redhot-buffalo-chicken-dip-RE1242-1

I have the cutest little crock pot little dipper that my father in law got me in a set for Christmas a couple of years ago (Don’t worry Dad, I’ll make the dip for you too sometime 😉 ) and it worked so perfectly today for the pot luck, and it was completely empty within a few hours! Give it a try, you will not be disappointed!

Shredded Chicken Tacos

During a week of pastas and processed foods and carbs (oh my), I finally smartened up and decided we needed to have something with a fresh, summer crunch for dinner so I thought chicken tacos would be the right choice! 

I took chicken out of the freezer the night before to thaw while we were sleeping. I woke up a little early in the morning to make sure that I had time to prep my crock pot and leave for work on time. I just took the full thawed chicken breasts and put them in the slow cooker along with some fajita seasoning and water and set the timer for 8 hours. I have an awesome crockpot that my father in law bought me for Christmas and it has a timer which will automatically change to warm when done, I swear…it’s the little things in life that make us happiest haha. 

I love slow cooker meals, you just have to remember to prep ahead of time! It is so great to be able to set it and forget it and come home to a meal, or at least very little left to be done!

When we got home, I removed the chicken breasts from the slow cooker, and placed them on a cutting board. I gave it a few minutes to cool down and I began to shred. The easiest way I’ve found, is to just use two forks and pull the meat apart and it is so simple to do. I put the shredded chicken into a bowl. 

I felt that the seasoning wasn’t very effective in the slow cooker as I did not use enough, did not pierce the chicken for it to penetrate and disperse flavour throughout and/or did not cut the chicken into smaller pieces SO, I decided to make a Fajita gravy if you will. I took the leftover water from the slow cooker which already had some seasoning in it, and I mixed in the rest of the packet of seasoning. I cooked this down into a thicker sauce and poured it over the chicken. I think we would put more hot sauce in the future. We mixed the chicken in the sauce and the protein portion of our meal was complete! 

We just tore up some lettuce (do not cut unless you want the lettuce to brown quickly), shredded some cheese and added sour cream (LOVE sour cream) and taco sauce along with our chicken and we were ready to rock and roll!  

  Sometimes the best meals are the most simple!

Corned Beef Brisket

Matt and I were at the local Co-op and we noticed that there were some corned beef briskets that were 50% off.  Of course, we couldn’t pass up the deal so naturally we ended up with 2 of them.  When we got home, I was so stumped as to what to actually do with them so I of course turned to Google.  The most common thing I was finding was that I should boil it with cabbage which is a traditional Irish dish, but that’s really not what I was looking to get from it so I turned to Facebook.  I had a bunch of good suggestions, also some tips on soaking to remove excess salt which was fantastic but I still wasn’t sure that I was getting what I was looking for so I turned to co-workers and I got an answer I wanted.

My co-worker Anita told me that she slow cooks hers and then cuts up the meat for sandwiches, now THAT is something I was looking for from this slab of meat!  She had different suggestions such as putting racks into the slow cooker so that the meat is essentially just being steamed but I took the different route and I just decided to add some garlic powder, pepper and onion powder onto the top and wrapped it in aluminum foil and placed it into water in the slow cooker.  I liked the idea of it being steamed, but I also wanted it to be able to cook in it’s own delicious fatty juices.

When they say that a corned beef brisket will shrink when cooked, they REALLY meant that.  We were both really surprised by how much smaller it became but after a good 8 hours in the slow cooker on low, it was finally ready to be enjoyed!

We took the brisket out and put it onto the cutting board to let it rest a few minutes before cutting it up into chunks for sandwiches and of course for some tasting pieces.  My mother in law is generally somewhat picky about what she eats, and even she had to try a piece when it was done!  It tasted fantastic!  We just buttered bread, then put the meat on and covered it in mustard.  OMG, it was delicious.  The only complaint is that because it is such a fatty meat, my stomach didn’t handle it super well but I will definitely do it again!

I’ve never had a piece of meat stump me so much before, but now that we know what to do with it, it may become a semi regular food on our menu!  Try it out guys!

What’s For Dinner?

In true Monday morning fashion, I ran around the kitchen this morning talking to myself, “Do I have anything to take for lunch? nope” “Oh my god, I need to take something out for dinner!” “What are we having for dinner?” then I saw the hamburger in the freezer and the hamburger buns and decided we were having hamburgers for dinner!  Quick, easy and delicious.

My husband and I always get home pretty late, I get off work at 5, then drive to pick him up at 6 and we usually don’t make it home until 7ish depending on what we need to do before going home, if anything. Tonight we just needed a few bunch of things at the grocery store, so we made it home at 7:15.

Now I don’t know about you,  but when I’m always home so late, I never feel like making anything that takes too much effort.  I like to leave big meals to weekends off when I can really take my time prepping and cooking and I can make things that take long periods of time to cook. So hamburgers ended up being a great choice and I decided to make some coleslaw as well.

I started off with some bacon, because let’s face it..what is a hamburger without bacon and cheese? I’ll tell you what it is, nothing I want to eat.  When the bacon was done, I left the fat in the pan to cook the hamburgers in, mmm bacon grease.  I mixed my ground hamburger with worchestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion soup mix, bread crumbs and an egg.  I made 4 good sized patties and fried them on the stove in the grease.

While they were cooking, I put together the coleslaw.  Now the coleslaw isn’t 100% homemade, but it partially is and that is all that matters, right?  When you are cooking for 2 during the week on limited time and 3 on weekends, sometimes you need to take some shortcuts in order to not waste a lot of food!  I used pre-packaged coleslaw veggies, coleslaw dressing, dill and some cholula for good measure.  The Cholula was Matt’s idea, but when it comes to food, he rarely has a bad idea so we went with it and it ended up being delicious.

We then topped the burgers with cheddar cheese and goat cheese and used whatever condiments we both like.  I am slightly obsessed with the Cholula and goat cheese pairing so of course this is a must.

That was our dinner, it was a great way to finish off a Monday because hello, it’s Monday and we need to make it better somehow haha.

Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken

So, I bought some goat cheese so we could make some Smashburger-esque burgers of our own, and then when we had leftover goat cheese, we were basically putting it on anything and everything that we could!  We put some on the burgers of course and then on our breakfast sandwiches and then I started thinking about what else I could make with it.

I googled Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken and the first thing that came up was an Emeril Lagasse recipe, so I thought I would give it a shot!  (The recipe can be found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/goat-cheese-stuffed-chicken-breasts-recipe.html)

I followed the recipe for the most part, I just changed what I mixed in the goat cheese mixture and it was AMAZING!  I was trying to make a quick meal, so we just had rice on the side but I wish I had made something potato-ey instead!

Mmmm…garlic goat cheesey goodness!

Fantastic meal and will make again for sure!  Just wish I had made enough to have leftovers!

Meatloaf and Hashbrown Casserole

I know what you think when you hear meatloaf, but I promise, it can be delicious!

One of my favourite home cooked comfort meals are my meatloaf and hashbrown casserole.  It’s hard to describe what is a comfort food for you.  I feel the ‘hot out of the oven’ is maybe what classifies it as that for me.

I never liked the meatloaf my mom made (sorry Mom!) because she put a lot of vegetables in it.  I understand that this is some people cup of tea, and you can feel free to add as many veggies as you want to your own but please count me out.

The Essentials

I started by adding the ground beef and the spices in a bowl with about a half pack of onion soup mix and worked it all together.  I of course used Red Robin seasoning, because what don’t I use it in?  I also added a couple of dashs of Worcestershire sauce as well.  I added bread crumbs and an egg as a binder.  When it was mixed well (but not overmixed), I transferred it to the meatloaf pan. I mixed ketchup and mustard over the top as a sauce and crumbled crackers.

Ready to go into the oven!

I then got ready to mix all of the ingredients for the Hashbrown Casserole.

Mmmm…cheesy!

For this, I used a bag of frozen hashbrowns, a can of cream of chicken soup (can be substituted with mushroom soup if preferred or to make it a vegetarian side), a 500ml container of sour cream, the other half of the onion soup mix packet, red robin seasoning and about 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese (MMMMM!).  I mix this little by little as I find it can be really hard to mix it all together at once!  Once it is mixed well, I transfer this to a baking pan and it’s also ready for the oven.

I bake them in the over together on 350 for about an hour-an hour and 15-20 minutes.

This is a great meal for a bigger group, or even for 2 (with enough for 2 lunches each on top of dinner haha).

This is always a great meal that both my husband and I enjoy.  Bon appetit!

It’s BBQ Season!

Today, I was driving to pick Matt up from work and realized what a beautiful day it was, +13 and sunny skies at 5:30 pm.  We had planned originally to come home and cook fish which we already have but I just couldn’t resist the urge to BBQ in this beautiful weather.

On the way home, we decided to stop off at the local Coop and visit the meat department and get a beautiful striploin from the butcher there.  I’m not going to lie, grilling is a blue job in a lot of households but not ours.  I am a master griller and it’s hard for me to give that job up!

Mmmm…look at this chunk of meat!

We decided that we would only get 1 steak as we usually only eat half anyways and then end up taking the rest for lunch but I’m having pizza for lunch tomorrow (thanks work!), so we only need to worry about dinner today.  We chose to do loaded baked potatoes and macaroni salad for sides.  If it were a weekend, and we had more time, I would have probably either actually baked the potatoes or actually made the salad BUT since it was already 7pm, the more shortcuts we could take, the better.

I cooked the potatoes in the microwave. Hey, that’s gotta be ok, there is a setting on the microwave for it! While they were cooking, I seasoned the steak with garlic powder, onion powder and Red Robin seasoning (man, I really need an endorsement deal for this!) on both sides.  When the potatoes were done, I took them out, cut them down the center and put butter and lots of cheese inside both and seasoned with the same seasonings as the steak and wrapped them in tin foil to throw on the BBQ while the steak cooked to melt the cheese, mmmm…cheese.

I went outside to put the steak and potatoes on the BBQ while my husband cooked up some bacon to use as bacon bits on the baked potatoes.  I have become a masker crosshatch marker as of late, so I use my skills whenever possible!  We like to eat our steak around the medium/medium rare mark and I basically nailed it tonight.  I always make sure to render the fat on the steak as well by turning it on it’s side for a minute or two to make it more delicious.

I took the steak and potatoes off, went inside to dress the potatoes and scoop some macaroni salad onto my plate and dinner was served!

Delicious!

The steak was seasoned very well, I could have almost used a little more salt but it was fantastic.  We topped our cheesy potatoes with sour cream and the bacon bits made by Matt and our meal was complete!

Macaroni Cheese Bake

Tonight, we were celebrating my step daughter’s birthday and since we know she loves my pasta, I thought that my macaroni cheese bake would be a great birthday dinner!

I start by making a sauce. I brown the burger first and season it while I go.  I’m a huge garlic fan so I use a lot of garlic powder generally, some pepper, Red Robin seasoning (I swear by this and buy a few jars in Edmonton whenever I’m running low), onion powder and Mrs. Dash.  Once it’s all browned, I add in my tomato sauce.  I never use the types with chunks of tomatoes as I’m not really a fan. I love ketchup, tomato sauces and the juice from salsa, but keep the chunks of tomato away from me! I then season again with the same things, making sure it’s not too salty of course, and I add a pack of onion soup mix. I turn that down and let it marry while I cook the pasta.  I have made this with spaghetti as well, but I always find the macaroni works better. Once the pasta is done and drained, I add it into the sauce and mix it all up and then transfer to a pan and cover with cheese.

I put the pan into the oven just long enough to really melt all of the cheese and voila, delicious macaroni cheese bake!  It makes so much too that you can either feed a pretty big family, or have leftovers for lunch which is always a big hit with us for work! Who wants to wake up early to pack a lunch? Not me! My husband’s work buddy also gets to benefit from the amount it makes, and he never complains.

If you wanted a more specific recipe, you can comment below or send me a message!

Ribs

I made ribs this past week in the slow cooker.  I cannot stress how much I LOVE my slow cooker, except for the fact that it does not leave ribs in a photogenic state so there will be no picture of the after. I started by cutting up the ribs, shaking on some Cholula (our favourite hot sauce) and covering them with the dry rub I created.  For the dry rub, I used garlic powder, onion powder, Red Robin seasoning (like seasoning salt but BETTER), ground mustard and paprika.  I left that in the fridge overnight and this morning I put homemade BBQ sauce overtop and put them in the slow cooker for the day!  The homemade BBQ sauce contained mustard, ketchup, some actual BBQ sauce, more garlic and onion powder, chopped garlic, worcestershire sauce, ground mustard and some more cholula.

My husband had rice made for us when I got home, so we were able to quickly get our dishes together and eat!  The ribs were delicious, but they did seem to have a very rich taste so I found I wasn’t able to eat the entire bowl, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing haha.  Lessons learned! It isn’t always going to be an amazing dish, but it was still good!

My husband thought that if there had been a sweet component that it may have balanced the dish out a bit more, so next time I would maybe add brown sugar to the BBQ sauce. Leftovers for lunch were even better though!