Cooking with your eyes closed

We had a roast in the fridge that needed to be cooked, however it was a week night and roasts are best suited to cook during the weekend low and slow. So we decided at 11:00 pm Thursday night that we would throw everything in a pot, set our alarms and literally cook with our eyes closed! So we took our roast, salt and peppered it, and seared it on all sides. We threw in our dutch oven along with a bunch of veggies and at 6 am, we had a delicious pulled roast that we would enjoy for dinner that night. So here's the recipe so that you can try cooking with your eyes closed!
INGREDIENTS
Tri-Tip Roast
1/2 bag baby carrots
2 stalks celery chopped
1 onion chopped
3 cloves garlic-chopped
16 oz Can Crushed Tomato
32 oz beef stock
2 bay leaf
1 tsp rosemary
salt & pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
- Season pot roast and sear in a hot dutch oven on all sides
-remove roast from pan and cook veggies for 8-10 minutes
- add spices, salt and pepper and cook for 2-4 minutes stirring often. be sure not to burn garlic.
-add liquids and tomatoes to pot
-fully submerge meat in liquid, cover and cook at 350 degrees for 5-6 hours depending on roast size.
-Set your alarm clock, count the sheep and await the delicious roast the awaits you in the morning.
- when you are ready to eat, boil some water and cook some egg noodles to serve along side you're beef.
" Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon" Dalai Lama

Apple of my eye

Today Michael and I celebrated our 6 year 7 month anniversary!! YAY! On our actually anniversary we'll just eat hot dogs and watch TV, but on specially anniversary's like this one we decided to dine at our favorite restaurant! Since I didn't make a pantry meal I decided it was a good idea to make a Pantry dessert! Waste not Want not! So This is what we call "Apple Upside down cake". Considering I'm the cupcake queen I have not used a Boxed cake mix in a very long time. So since this was in our pantry why not use it? I jazzed it up a bit, threw in some apples & cinnamon and BAM! apple upside down cake.
INGREDIENTS
French Vanilla Box Cake Mix & ingredients listed on the box
2 tbs Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ground Ginger
Apple cored, peeled & Sliced 1/8" thick
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 chopped Walnuts
2 tbs Butter cubed
2 tbs caramel

DIRECTIONS
-Make cake as box directions
-Add cinnamon & ginger to cake mix
-Place sliced apples in greased pan spring form pan
-sprinkle brown sugar and walnuts on the apples
-Pour Cake into pan and bake as directed on box
-Drizzle caramel Sauce over warm cake, top with a scoop of ice cream, grab a spoon and devour!!

Taco night!!

So....Michael and I have a slight addiction to fish tacos so we figured, why not make our own. It was a good use of our pantry and freezer ingredients and it was done in a snap! There is really nothing better than crispy fish inside a delicious warm tortilla with a zesty zing! We tried our hand at a corn salsa and a spicy lime slaw! There was crunch going on everywhere with this one and boy was it delicious! (Hate to toot my own horn, but I'm gonna do it!)

INGREDIENTS
Trader Joes Cod Fish Fillets
Flour Tortillas
Shredded green Cabbage
Jalapeno Small dice
Red Onion Small dice
Canned Corn
2 Lime
1/4 cup Sour cream
1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper
Salt and Pepper to taste

DIRECTONS (Spicy Lime Slaw)

• Mix sour cream, juice of 1 lime, & Cayanne.


• Season with salt and pepper to taste


• Toss 3/4 of the lime sauce with the slaw and 1/2 diced Jalapeno

DIRECTIONS (Corn Salsa)

• Combine corn, Diced Jalapeno, Diced red onion


• Mix well with juice of 1 lime and season with salt. set aside to marinate in the lime

DIRECTIONS (Constructing the Taco)

• Place tortilla on flat work surface.


• Slice fish diagonally and place on tortilla


• Place some slaw on the fish


• Place some corn salsa on the slaw


• Drizzle some extra lime cream sauce on the taco and serve


• Devour and try not to eat a second one!

Sushi Asada

Day 2 of pantry clean up and boy was our dinner DELICIOUS!! We recently ate at Sushi Samba and after indulging in the Brazilian & Japanese fusion I was so inspired to create my own flavor master mix of food. I'm not sure if we can technically call this sushi because nothing was raw, but you get the point. So for dinner tonight we ate Miso Soup & Carne Asada Sushi. Here you go!

INGREDIENTS
Sushi Rice (Cooked)
Carne Asada (Cooked sliced thin)
Tomatillo
Avocado
Lime
Beef gravy
Siracha
Mayo
Jalapeno sliced paper thin -keep seeds for spice
Scallions-chopped
Crispy Fried Onions
Miso Paste
Jack cheese slices

Directions (Spicy mayo sauce)

• Mix 3 tbs of mayo with 2 teaspoons of siracha. Add 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Directions (Tomatillo sauce)

• Boil your tomatillos for 7-9 Minutes or until soft.


• Place tomatillos in your blender with half ripe avocado and a squeeze of half a lime. Let her rip and blend until creamy and smooth. You can add cilantro, however I didn't have any in my pantry.


• Chill your sauce before serving

Directions (Sushi roll)

• Construct your rice balls and place 1 slice of jalapeno on your rice.Squeeze a pinch of lime juice on your rice roll.


• Place one slice of meat on your rice


• Add 1 thin slice of cheese on the meat and place sushi rolls under the broiler to melt cheese


• Drizzle the sushi roll with gravy and spicy mayo.


• sprinkle with scallions


• serve with tomatillo sauce on the side for dipping.

Grab your self a drink, sip on some Miso Soup and indulge in this Meaty sushi Goodness.

Pea as in Pesto

Considering we have meats to use, the next few dinners shouldn't be too challenging. Did I mention that these dishes will be recipe free? Yes. I will attempt to cook everything without a recipe from a book, from the internet or anything else you can get recipes from. So here is my dish and the recipe I made out of pantry items. I always rate my meals based on whether or not Michael will get seconds or ask to take it to work the next day! He did both! Enjoy the recipe and let me know if it works for you!

INGREDIENTS
1 pound chicken breast cubed
1 can sweet peas
1/4 cup Pine nuts
Handful of Basil
2 Tbs Parmesan cheese
2 Tbs olive oil
1/2 bag orrechietti pasta
10 cherry tomatoes halved
Garlic -Mined
Onion Diced
Salt and Pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

• In food processor or blender add 1/2 can peas, basil, 1/8 cup pine nuts, & parmesan. Slowly add olive oil.



• When pesto is blended to a chunky paste, remove and toss in remainder of whole pine nuts.



• Coat cubed chicken in 1/2 of the pesto mixture and cook on med heat until cooked through



• Meanwhile cook pasta to box instructions



• In sauce pan cook garlic and onions until transluccent. Add remainder of canned peas and pesto to pan.



• Laddel out some pasta water and add to onion/garlic/ pea mixture to thin out the sauce.



• when pasta and chicken are done, mix together in pan and add pesto sauce with peas and onions. Toss well and season with salt and pepper to taste.



• Once ready to serve garnish with fresh sliced cherry tomatoes and parmesan cheese.

Introducing Operation "Fancy Pantry"

As Michael and I embark on the fun filled journey of saving money for a new house we've vowed to both take the initiative to pinch pennies whereever we can. Since I'm the lady of the kitchen I figured why not do my part? If I can save enough maybe we will find a cute house with a cute little pantry for storing extra fun goodies! So! This leads us to operation "Fancy Pantry"

My mission is to make fun exciting recipes out of nothing but the items in my pantry. I'm talking about turning my 10 cans of beans into a delicous Cassoulet or 3 bean Chili. Or using my canned pineapple to make a pineapple and jalapeno salsa to be paired with the frozen salmon in my freezer! As you can see in the table above the list of items that are in my pantry. It's go time kids. Let the creativity Begin.