How does a girl who never cooked start cooking for herself? Google . After typing "recipes" into Google, I found a wonderful website: allrecipes.com. You can type in ingredients (cilantro everything!) and find super easy recipes. My favorite, right now, is this spicy chicken recipe. [To my beef's dismay] I have started putting the spice mix on everything. The chicken is excellent in salads (and if you know me, you know I hate salad). Fabulous.
Being unemployed is apparently excellent for my coo
king skills. I sit around and cook all day. I even had a dinner party one night. Look at me! Last night, I even invented a recipe. I was kind of excited. It reminded me of the movie Waitress and how she always invented pies (mostly 'cause I insisted on using the word "invented"). Anyway, I will share my hamburger recipe with you. It was spicy (like me?), so beware.
Spicy LG Burger:
-1 lb ground turkey (I use turkey, because the only beef in my life is Christopher)
-1/2 red bell pepper
-1/2 onion
-1/2 tbsp chili powder
-1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper
-1 tbsp paprika
-1/2 cup fresh cilantro
Directions:
1. Mix it all together.
2. Form into patties (5 medium or 4 large)
.
3. Broil for 16-18 minutes.
Easy Peasy. They taste great with ranch dressing instead of ketchup and mustard. We used a jalapeno ranch dressing (Safeway brand), and I thought they were yummy.
The best part about learning to cook is that a few ingredients will cost a lot and last forever; an initial investment, if you will. Those initial investments, of course, are your spices. It may seem ridiculous to spend $5 on such a little jar, but with $15 worth of spices you can have way more tacos than with $15 worth of Taco Bell tacos. Also, if you're trying to go low fat, ground turkey is about equal to ground beef with much le
ss fat. If you are a one or two person household who seems to have veggies go bad all the time--plan out your menu OR go to the store day of. Going to the store day of has saved me the usual $5 of veggies I let spoil a week.
This has been my first post about truly trying to become an adult. I've got a few other ideas pending to let you know what I'm up to (and hopeful
ly help someone else who is trying to do the same thing). I love you all!!!
Yay! Wtg Laura! Cooking is fun :)
ReplyDeleteCooking can be fun and you feel so good about yourself when you're done. Since you like chicken I have a really easy recipe for you.
ReplyDeleteThey are called Chicken Pillows.
Ingredients: Chicken, cream cheese, crescent rolls, cream of chicken.
Unfortunately, I don't have exact measurements because I just kind of wing it, but here's how to make it in a nut shell.
- Pre-heat the oven to the desiganted temperature on the crescent rolls.
- boil chicken with salt (so it doesn't loose it's flavor) until the chicken is cooked all the way through. Then drain and shred the chicken in a medium sized bowl. Approximately 2 chicken breasts should be enough to fill up one batch of store bought crescent rolls.
- Mix about 3/4 of a cup of cream cheese into the shredded chicken.
- Spread out the dough for the crescent rolls (don't roll them up yet) and stick a heaping spoonful of the chicken mixture on the biggest part of the dough then roll up.
- Stick in the oven and cook some minute ready rice and heat up a can of cream of chicken soup.
- Put one or two chicken pillows on rice and smother it with cream of chicken and enjoy!
This is a very fast & easy meal. Sometimes I have steamed vegetables with it. Everyone I've ever made this for loves it! Hopefully, you will too!
Yay Laura! Two Things:
ReplyDelete1.) In your free time (yah I know Transitioning Into Grown-Updom doesnt always include this) you should skim The Julie Julia project book. She sort of laments similar experiences. I say skim because I didn't love the book but I enjoyed many of the insights. For instance she calls her blog readers "bleaders." Thought it was funny.
2.) Check out nomoretakeout.com I found it through one of WithThisRing's blogs. It will email you a grocery list and help with step by step instructions to get a quick healthy meal on the table ASAP after work. Great for Grownup-dumb.