Learn to cook

i actually did a really good job with throwing whatever veggies were in the fridge into a deep skillet, with a little bit of water and tons of spices. it was pretty much an entire cauliflower head, a brocolli head, 3 zuchinni’s of different color, cherry tomatoes (which i popped as i stirred the whole veggie medley around). lots of garlic, salt, pepper (red and black), mesquite flavoring

it came out yum and smelled amazing. plus i have sooo many servings to last me all week and more

i also tried my shot at a strawberry milkshake and didn’t do too bad either :)

What to do with those 3 chicken breasts in your freezer? Bake them! With broccoli! And butter.

All you do is 350 degrees, coat a pan with butter, place chicken breasts in, cover each with a slice (tsp?) of butter, salt, pepper. Cook for 25 minutes. Cut up the brocolli, place them in the melted butter. Cook everything for another 15 minutes.

Juicy, wholesome, buttery chicken with broccoli.

(I defrosted mine first, but I read online that people put them in frozen and just bake longer)

i’m actually baking something.

for some reason, i’ve always done something wrong in the past and smoked up my kitchen.

it’s really easy… you don’t need any oils, there’s enough grease in the burger. you just set a pan to medium. take out a frozen burger and put it on the pan. 4.5 minutes on each side and you’re done.

no smoke, a little bit of spattering, but nothing crazy. then just take a spatula with holes in it to remove the burger and let the grease be in the pan.

simple.

why i didn’t i learn to do this earlier? great, fast, easy, cheap way to get your red meat fix.

i didn’t look up a recipe, i just got a pot of boiling water, threw stuff in, then added 3 bouilion cubes. I just microwave and salt as needed. Use matzah for the crouton/crunch effect. Yum yum. i’ll never let another vegetable go to waste in my fridge.

oh, also, fruits… i blend up whatever i have with milk. great for breakfast.

expired pear/cinnamon juice. yep, expired. i figured if i cook with it, it’s safe… looked it up and people do that all the time apparently. so now i know of a great way to use up expired juice. i just put a lid over my chicken breast dropped in juice for 5 minutes on each side. juicy, flavorful, yummy!

never really touched raw chicken meat before, so this was interesting. i started with the premarinated ones. it wasn’t too bad. i got a recipe online. i poured 3 tbsp. of light balsamic vinegar over it in a skillet with onions and mushrooms. and dijon mustard. then flipped. 5 minutes on medium each side. added some light chicken broth to deglaze the pan. very yum! storing the extra non-cooked chicken wierds me out. i put it in it’s own separate cooler in the fridge the first few times. as i cook more of it, i’m getting used to it, so i’ve advanced to storing it in plastic bags and tupperwear with plastic wrap over it like a normal person :) that’s as far as my “touching raw meat” thing is going to go though.

putting a lid on the skillet while it’s cooking will help cook it all the way through. i also like doing 8 minutes on each side now.

i also read you can pound the chicken out to make it cook more evenly. haven’t tried that yet.

i just skimmed 1/4 cup of fat off my beef stew that was chilling in the fridge. sweet! less crap that goes into my system. i didn’t realize it did that. when i was eating it hot, i was munching on bits of fat. gross. but now, i give my beef stew recipe one more star for the fix. haven’t tried it cold yet.

i said i would close this goal out when i can master slow cooking beef stew to perfection.

almost this time.

i decided to be really lazy and buy everything pre-cut.

since i hate potatoes, those didn’t go in this time.

here’s what i did.

2lbs of stew beef.
packet of mccormick beef stew.
entire pre-chopped yellow onion package.
small package of white shrooms.
one of those packs of carrots, celery, ranch, tomatoes. (just ate the tomatoes while i waited, but threw everything else in, saved the ranch).
bay leaf.
garlic in a tube. (2 tablespoons)
1/2 a green pepper.

stirred the water and packet mix. added beef. gave it a good stir/coating. added everything else. mixed it around very lightly, still kept most of the meat on the bottom.

8 hours on low.

next time i’ll use the best quality meat i can find.

while the spices are pretty much perfect, the meat is a) a tiny bit overdone b) too much fat on some pieces c) some pieces are either slightly dry or just fall apart… i can’t seem to get that perfect happy medium without browning first.

my favorite part:
the tube garlic REALLY made a difference this time.

it’s almost the perfect consistency of meat, veggies and juice. not too runny, not too meaty. maybe a tiny bit more on the runnier side.

it’s a TAD too salty or something… but i’d rather have it too salty than the bland one i had last time. it’s not overpowering or anything, but i think i could get away with less salt next time, just to make it healthier.

i think maybe ONE tiny potato, uncut, would’ve been perfect to throw in, then just take it out when done.

good thing i didn’t use the entire green pepper. green peppers are weird slow cooked.

the shrooms were a fantastic idea.

next time, i’ll tweak this recipe, since it’s the only one i’ve ever got to almost work.

followed a recipe online.
SO bland.
then at the end, i decided to add a BUNCH of salt.
WRONG! (ESPECIALLY when it’s still being slow cooked… wait till it cools off next time?)
now it’s too salty.
3 potatoes couldn’t even help fix it.
Some carrots helped a bit.
i still really need to learn the art of slow cooking.