Tacos in England with Taco Seasoning

Life in England is far cry from the US, let along Vegas.  There are so many things that way different!  Rain, cell phone service, stores and restaurants not open past 7 or on Sundays, trees and grass... just about everything.  I had my first encounter with a plumber last week.  We had a pin hole in our en-suite bathroom tap, as they call it here.  After calling the first plumber to come look at it to confirm for our landlords, it took 2 weeks for the next one to come fix it.  It then took 3 hours for him to replace the faucet.  Not a fancy faucet, just a typical run of the mill faucet.  Crazy!  The hubs just kept asking me how it took so long and I honestly didn't have an answer.  Besides the 15 minute personal call he made half way into it, the guy seemed to be working the whole time.  Oh well, I guess we can all slow down from time to time.  Right? 

My kids have discovered the wonderment of snails since we've been here.  They think they are the coolest things ever.  We see snail slime all over the place while we walk to the bus stop and sometimes after a rain will catch a little guy on his way or hanging out.  They try to collect empty shells when they can and some are pretty neat.  But even the snails, I swear, are slower! 

Here's a little guy we saw this morning :)

With everything changing and new and different to get to used to and figure out we try to keep at least some normalcy.  We all love Mexican food and learned to love it even more in Vegas.  We typically have "Taco Tuesday" that isn't necessarily always tacos, or always on Tuesday for that matter, but at least Mexican.  We'll have quesadillas, Chicken Tacos and Red Rice, tortilla soup or just regular ground beef tacos or taco salad.  We don't discriminate with our Mexican foods.  :)  As I have said though, everything is slower here, even the avocados take weeks to ripen.  I had never seen such a green avocado until coming here, not even in Ohio!  So, guacamole isn't made quite as easily or as often, but we make due. 

This is my favorite basic Taco Seasoning recipe.  I like to make my own because then then I know what's in it, it tastes better and then I can add it to whatever I'm making too. 

Taco Seasoning

Mix Altogether:

1 cup minced dried onion

1/2 cup chili powder

1/4 cup garlic powder

1/4 cup cumin

2 T oregano

2 T salt

1 T paprika

2-3 T red pepper flake (optional)

2-3 T cornstarch (optional) I like to add this to give it a thickener when it is cooked with the beef.  It helps give it that thicker sauciness that you get from the packets at the store if you like that. 

Store in an airtight jar or container.

Directions:  Cook 1lb ground beef.  Add 1-2 T taco seasoning to taste and 1/2 cup water, stir and let simmer 5-10 minutes.  Fill your taco and eat!

Mason jars are great for storing stuff like this!

Sausage Calzones with Freezer Friendly Pizza Dough

Almost every family has a pizza night or that night that they need a quick grab and go meal or it's mom's night off or whatever your reasons are, you have it.  We don't tend to order pizza out much, we either buy the good old frozen ones or make our own.  But even my kids get tired of the same old pizza every now and then.  In steps Calzones!  I don't know what Italian momma came up with these babies, but she is one of my heroes!  (I don't know if it was an Italian mom, just figured because they are an Italian food and genius. :) )We've done the make your own pizza style ones, but my favorite are sausage and cheese filled.  Yum! 

In making our pizzas or calzones I usually make our own dough.  You can buy premade dough to roll out in the can or even fresh sometimes, but homemade is so simple and really only uses a few ingredients that save you a butt ton of money.  Plus, it tastes better!  I love this recipe because you can mix up a bunch and even freeze the dough to keep for later.  Again, genius!

Freezer Friendly Homemade Pizza Dough

from Money Saving Mom

Ingredients:

2 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)

1 Tablespoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoons oil (vegetable, Canola, or olive oil)
5 cups flour (can use all whole-wheat, half white/half whole-wheat, or all white) (plus more for rolling out if use right away)
(I reduced the amounts of a few ingredients from the original and we tend to like the taste a little bit better.)
Directions:
Pour the warm water into a bowl and sprinkle the yeast over it. Stir to dissolve.
Add the remaining ingredients and mix.
Dump onto a floured surface and knead dough for two to five minutes until smooth and no longer sticky.


To freeze: Cut lump of dough in half and place each half in an airtight freezer bag. Freeze for up to 4-6 weeks.
To bake: Place frozen dough in a greased bowl and thaw at room temperature for at least 3-4 hours. Roll out and shape onto a greased pizza pan.
Add pizza toppings of your choice. Bake at 450 degrees for around 15 minutes (until the crust looks crispy and lightly browned).
If you don’t want to mess with freezing the dough, take the kneaded dough and roll out and shape onto a greased pizza pan. Add pizza toppings and bake as directed above.

Now for the filling....

Sausage Calzone Filling

Ingredients:

1 large Ricotta cheese

2 cups Mozzarella cheese

1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

2 eggs

1 lb sausage

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves,  minced

1 T olive oil

1-2 recipes of Pizza Dough

Directions:

Heat oil in a skillet and cook onion and garlic until they are soft.  Add in sausage and cook and crumble until lightly browned.  Drain meat.  Let cool about 20-30 minutes.

While sausage is browning, mix in a large bowl: cheeses, eggs and Italian seasoning.  Stir in slightly cooled meat mixture and mix well. 

Roll out pizza dough and cut into small portions.  (I get about 12 out of 1 dough recipe, but this makes a lot of filling so I usually do a double dough recipe.)

Spoon filling into 1 half of rolled out dough potion, fold over other half and pinch to seal shut.  Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 450 for 15-20 minutes or until browned.

**You can bake, cool and freeze these too.  They are really good! 

**To make gluten free ones I make my dough like this....

Mix together:

2 eggs

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup oil

2-3 cups of gluten free flour or gluten free Bisquick.

Gluten free pizza dough is much wetter and stickier than regular dough.  I always add more flour to make it a little easier to roll out in some way.  It will crack if you add too much flour.  You have to play with it a bit to get it how you like it.  Just remember that it is not going to look or work the same as other dough.  I got 4 calzone out of this 1 recipe.  Bake them the same as the others at 450 for 15-20 minute or until browned.  If you prefer or have a better GF pizza crust recipe you like, then by all means use that!  Then tell me what it is!  I'm still searching for that one that I love. 



Pretty little calzones all in a row!

Gluten Free Calzone for me!

Now, I did 1 recipe of gluten free crust and got about 4 of those and then did a double recipe of regular dough and got about 18 calzones and still had some dough left over.  This is what happened with the leftover dough...  Cinnamon Rolls! Yes, I could have frozen it, or even just baked it like a free form bread to have, but no.  My family needed breakfast in the morning.  :)

Cinnamon Rolls

On a floured surface roll out your dough to make a thin rectangle.

Melt 4-6 T of butter and pour over dough.  Spread evenly.

Mix together 3/4 cup sugar and 2 T cinnamon (or just sprinkle it all on separate) and get dirty and spread it all together over dough to the edges.  Mix more if you need more.

Start at one end and carefully roll until you get a log. 

Slice in 1-2 inch disks and place in a baking dish to fit your rolls.

Refrigerate over night or bake on the spot.  (If you refrigerate, let sit at room temp for about 1 hour before baking.)

Bake at 425 for about 30-40 minutes or until browned and bubbly.

Pour icing on and eat!

**For the icing I just mixed 2-3 cups powdered sugar with 3-4 T milk and a little vanilla.  Use a can or make your own, whatever you like. 





Homemade Chicken Stock from a Cooked Rotisseri Chicken

Not a surprise that I love to cook and that I love soups.  So many recipes call for chicken broth or stock, and I would much rather add that than some powdered stuff or water.  The flavor of a good chicken stock can add so much to a recipe.  Heck, even just to plain rice!  You can easily find a good stock in box, but anymore they keep getting more and more expensive.  And to make your own, the price of whole fryer chickens is getting more and more expensive too.  Then I remembered reading about using a rotisserie chicken.  Boom!  You know, the ones at the grocery store that usually cost $5-6?  Again, how that makes sense that it's cheaper to buy a cooked one compared to a raw one is beyond me.  Nonetheless, it is.  Rotisserie chickens are great for just eating as is, for a quick meal, using to make chicken salad, add to casseroles or soups.  Tons of things!  The meat is good and usually always quite flavorful.  Sometimes they even come in different flavors.  Ooo, fancy! 

Ok, back on track....  I read a blog before about someone using rotisserie chicken bones (or carcass) to make homemade stock.  So you can use the meat for whatever and then make your own stock, all for $5.  Yes, please!  Here's what I did. 

 

Step 1:

Removed all the meat from the carcass of the bird.  Get down and dirty with it!  Save everything, skin and all.  You'll get roughly 4 or more cups of shredded to chicken.  Eat it, use it, freeze it. 

 



Step 2:

Take the whole carcass, and anything else you got and put it into a large pot. 

Cut up any veggies you have laying around.  Onion, carrots, celery, zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli, even a lemon or whatever else.  You'll want about 4-6 cups worth of cut up veggies.  (I used a small onion, 2 carrots, 1 zucchini, and very small amount of cauliflower including it's leaves) 

Also, add in a clove or two or three of garlic.  Smash it or cut it in half to make sure you get all the flavor out of it. 

Next, add in some herbs.  If you have fresh ones, throw in a few leaves or sprigs of whatever you have.  If you have dried, like I did, add in what you got.  Sprinkle on some Rosemary, Thyme, Parsley, pepper, salt, whatever you like.

Lastly, fill with water.  You want to fill it to just about covering all the veggies.

 

 

Step 3:

Put on the lid and let it come to boil, then lower to simmer.  Simmer for about 3-4 hours.  Your house will small amazing while it simmers!  You want to let it cook until the bones are soft and will bend.  Maybe not a leg bone, but a smaller rib bone will be able to bend in half.  

 

Step 4:

Use a large colander or strainer and drain OVER A LARGE BOWL to strain everything out.  Please don't forget the bowl and lose all the beautiful stock you just made.  If some of your spices go with the broth that's ok.  If you want it without, then use a fine mesh strainer after you strain all the bones and veggies.

 

Step 5:

Marvel at the beautiful rich stock you just made and how simple that was.  **Angels sing**

 

Step 6:

You can use it right away, store in the refrigerator for a up to a week or freeze it for later use.  With one chicken and recipe you should get about 4 cups of stock.  Remember that it is going to be richer than store bought broth, so you may even want to dilute it a touch with some recipes or leave it as is.  It is your preference, your kitchen, your stock. 

I hope you enjoy it!!  How are you using your stock??

Asian Meatballs

So, here we are in England and for whatever reason, I'm really craving Asian food.  No clue why.  Doesn't make sense, I know, but that's all I want.  I thought I'd get creative and make some of my own.  With having limited groceries and not wanting to head to the store, I made with what I had on hand.  I searched Pinterest and found I was missing a few things that most recipes called for, so this is what I came up with.  You know what?  They were delicious!  

Asian Meatballs

Makes approx. 18-20 meatballs

Mix thoroughly together:

1 lb lean ground beef

1 small onion, grated

1 clove garlic, grated or minced

1 T soy sauce

1 egg

1/4 cup breadcrumbs or almond flour

1/4 tsp black pepper

Spoon into balls and place on cookie sheet, drizzle with a little bit of olive oil.  Bake at 425 for 20-25 minutes.

Sweet Soy Sauce

While meatballs are cooking, stir together in a small pot on medium heat:

2 T oil

1/3 cup vinegar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

1-2 garlic cloves, grated

a few shakes of red pepper flake

Bring to a simmer for 5 minutes and taste to see if you need to more salty soy or more sweet sugar to your liking and add accordingly.

Once meatballs are done baking add to sauce and let simmer for 5 minutes.  Drizzle with a little bit of honey for some added flavor and sweetness, if desired.  

Serve over rice.  Enjoy!

*Meatballs can easily be doubled with the same amount of sauce.  

Yummy balls of deliciousness! 

Gluten Free Lemon Squares

I'm not usually the biggest fan of lemony stuff, especially desserts.  My husband loves lemony foods but hates sour stuff.  My kids are all somewhere in between, one like her dad, my son can straight up eat lemons without flinching and the little we are still figuring out.  Basically what I'm saying is that we don't know if we are friends with lemons or not, but we all do love lemonade!
This summer while I was home in Ohio visiting we had a couple friends over.  We all made and brought a few things to share.  One of them has Celiac's, so she is my buddy and one of my go to peeps for gluten free questions.  Well, she brought into my life Lemon Squares that changed my life.  Not even exaggerating!  I became a lemon dessert believer!  That night I think I ate 3 of them after I had professed to "not being a big lemon person" and became the hypocrite of the night.  I have since made these babies more times than I can count, for potlucks, parties, Bible study and just because.  Every time I eat a lot of them and never do I grow tired of them.  Mind blown goodness.  Make them.  I promise you will not be disappointed!

Gluten Free Lemon Squares
From Betty Crocker

Ingredients

Crust

1 1/2

cups Betty Crocker™ All-Purpose Gluten Free Rice Flour Blend (I used my favorite GF flour mixture and omitted the xanthan gum.)

1/2

cup granulated sugar

3/4

teaspoon xanthan gum

1/2

cup cold butter, cut into pieces

1

to 2 tablespoons water

Filling

1 1/2

cups granulated sugar

2

tablespoons grated lemon peel

1/2

cup fresh lemon juice

4

eggs, lightly beaten

1/4

cup Betty Crocker™ All-Purpose Gluten Free Rice Flour Blend

Powdered sugar

Directions

• 1Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom only of 9-inch square pan.
• 2For Crust, in medium bowl, stir together 1 1/2 cups flour blend, 1/2 cup granulated sugar and the xanthan gum. Cut in butter, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through mixture in opposite directions), until mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Add water, 1 teaspoon at a time, tossing with fork, until crumbly. Press dough in bottom of pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or just until set.
• 3For Filling, in medium bowl, stir together all ingredients except powdered sugar with whisk until blended. Pour over hot crust.
• 4Bake 23 to 28 minutes longer or until filling no longer jiggles when pan is moved. Cool completely on cooling rack, about 2 hours. Cut into 4 rows by 4 rows. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving. Cover and refrigerate any remaining lemon squares.
• **This is very easily doubled in a 9x13
• **For easy clean up and serving line pan with foil.

One Pot Cheeseburger Macaroni

These days I am all about dinners that are fast to put together and take the least amount of dishes and pots to make. With moving all over the place and not knowing what is going on, its nice to have meals like this one.  Plus, my whole family liked it!  I used gluten free rice pasta so I could eat it too and turned out great.  Double plus!  This totally reminded me of the boxed hamburger helper stuff, but homemade without all the preservatives and junk.  Easy peasey and good!  Woohoo!

One Pot Cheeseburger Macaroni
From No. 2 Pencil

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• ½ of a large yellow onion, diced
• 1.5 pounds good quality, lean ground beef
• 2 teaspoon of season salt, or salt and pepper to taste
• 1 28 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes
• 1 8 oz can of tomato sauce
• 2 cups of low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 cups of water
• ¼ cup of ketchup
• 2 teaspoons of dijon mustard
• 1 pound of rotini pasta
• 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
• Freshly diced tomato
• Green onions
• Pickles
• Shredded lettuce

Instructions

1. Start with a large pot.
2. Add olive oil to the pan, and sautee yellow onions until softened over medium heat.
3. Increase heat to high and add ground beef.
4. While ground beef is cooking, season with one teaspoon of season salt plus several turns of freshly ground pepper.
5. Brown ground beef, and drain any excess fat from the pot.
6. Use kitchen scissors to chop up whole tomatoes while still in the can.
7. Add canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, chicken broth, water, ketchup, mustard, pasta and additional teaspoon of season salt to the pot and bring mixture to a boil.
8. Turn heat back down, cover and let simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until pasta is tender.
9. Once pasta is cooked, remove from heat and stir in 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese.
10. Sprinkle additional cup of shredded cheese on top and re-cover pot with lid until cheese is melted.
11. Add your choice of traditional cheeseburger toppings.
12. We choose fresh, diced tomatoes and green onions. You can also try pickles or shredded lettuce.

Notes

This recipe serves a lot, probably 8-10 at least, and makes great leftovers! The ingredients are easily halved to feed a family of 4.

Creamy White Bean Stew

It is beginning to warm up in Vegas, but I know in other parts of the country it's still pretty cold and snowy.  To me, when it's cold and you are hunkered down inside, nothing warms you (and the house) better than a hearty soup or stew.  I love soups!  I always have.  I could eat them all the time, however I'm fairly certain that my hubby would get tired of them. 

It had been a while since I had a good bean soup and the hubs isn't the biggest fan of beans, unless it's baked beans.  Haha!  When he was gone for while I decided to try a new bean soup recipe I had found.  Creamy White Bean Stew...  and the second main ingredient was BACON!  How could that not be good?!  I told the kids we were having bacon soup and they bought it and ate it.  No one asked for seconds, but it was at least consumed on the night of dinner and left plenty of left-overs for me.  :)  This recipe was super easy, loaded with veggies, canned beans (which makes everything easier yet) and, of course, flavored with bacon.  YUM to the 10th power!  I made cornbread to go with this and it was a delicious combo!  Tell me what you think.  What's your favorite bean soup?

Creamy White Bean Stew

from The Cozy Apron

Ingredients:
12 ounces apple smoked bacon, chopped into small pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion, small dice
2 carrots, small dice
2 celery stalks, small dice
4 cloves garlic, pressed through garlic press
2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• Pinch or two sea salt
½ teaspoon cracked black pepper
6 (15 ounce) cans small white beans (or navy beans), drained and rinsed
4 cups chicken stock, hot
2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon lemon zest (I omitted)
2 tablespoons lemon juice (I omitted)


Preparation:
-Place a large Dutch oven, or heavy bottom pot, over medium-high heat; once the pot is hot, add in a small drizzle of olive oil, and the chopped bacon; crisp the bacon completely until nice and brown, then remove with a slotted spoon, drain it on some paper towel, and set it aside for a moment; reserve about 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat, and set that aside for a moment, as well; wipe out the pot, and return it to medium-high heat.
-Next, add back into the pot the bacon fat, along with the olive oil and the butter, and allow them to melt together; once melted and hot, add in the diced onion, carrots and celery, and allow them to soften and sauté for about 5 minutes; next, add in the garlic, and once it becomes aromatic, add in about 2/3 of the reserved, crisped bacon, as well as the Italian seasoning, the sea salt and the pepper, along with the white beans, and stir to combine; next, add in the hot chicken stock, stir, and allow the stew to gently simmer for about 40-45 minutes, partially covered with lid; about half way through the cooking process, mash the beans a little bit with the  back of your spoon, or with a potato masher, to break up the beans a little bit and release their natural starch to thicken the stew; after about 40 minutes, turn the heat off and finish the stew by adding in the chopped parsley, the lemon zest and the lemon juice; serve the stew with some nice, crusty bread to dip, and garnish with some of the remaining crisped bacon.

Deliciousness!