PASTA WITH MIXED VEGGIES QUICK AND EASY

Periodically during these difficult times, we have been posting some meals we've had.  Usually there will be no recipe, what we want to post is just a reminder that simple is good, simple is comfort and during these times, we can all use a little (or a lot) of that.

In this case we had tried some new frozen vegetables they had at Kroger.  This was a line called "Mexican inspired" and was Elote Street Corn.  It's fire roasted sweet corn, cotija and Monterey jack cheeses with chili seasoning.  We decided to put it in with some pasta and a bit of butter and parsley.  

We cooked the pasta, drained and added some butter.  While that was boiling we heated the veggies in the microwave and then added them to the buttered pasta. 

That was it!

Super simple and super easy.  No meat and comes together quickly.  You can use any vegetable combo of course but this really worked out well tother.  

Serve and enjoy!

FARRO STEW AND VEGETABLES

Here is a food post as just a reminder that simple is good, simple is comfort and during these difficult times, we can all use a little (or a lot) of that.

One of the things we bought during prepping was several bags of Italian Farro.  It's a grain and at the time, was kind of new for us.  But wow do we love it.  We use the farro, a pound of beef stew meat we had in the freezer and some mixed vegetables.  

2nd Man sautéed the meat with some garlic and a little beef broth.  You just cook it the way you like it.  Meanwhile boil some water and add the farro (just like if you were cooking pasta) and reduce to simmer for about 30 minutes (we followed the bag instructions).  In the last few minutes, we added the frozen mixed vegetables just so they would thaw and heat up in the simmering water.  Drain all and add the meat and any pan juices/drippings.

You can add whatever seasonings you like and of course whatever vegetables you like.  

We just keep these ingredients on hand now and make it often.  We always have some bags of frozen vegetables and we keep several 1 lb bags of beef stew meat.  Then all you need is rice, pasta or grains.  In this case the farro was new for us but so good.  It's kind of hearty, almost like an oatmeal type grain.  Very filling and a great flavor.

BBQ BEEF AND BAKED POTATOES QUICK AND EASY

This couldn't be easier.  Now sometimes we have some bbq beef in the freezer that we've saved and put up ourselves.  We haven't done that in a while so we buy this at our local grocery store, we like it because it's all natural, they don't add stuff to it, it's just smoked shredded beef mixed with bbq sauce. (I forgot to put it in the picture so I added the stock image to this photo, ha).  But really if you've got shredded bbq beef ready or leftovers or buy something like this, all you need to add are some potatoes and you have a very filling meal.

Bake your potatoes in the oven (or in the microwave to save time).  Heat the shredded bbq beef.  Slice open the cooked potatoes, put some butter inside, cheese if you'd like, top with some of the beef mixture, a dollop of sour cream and chives...

...and you are good to go with a hearty, filling, very satisfying meal that rivals that at any bbq joint (especially if it's your own homemade bbq beef).  This much beef makes four potatoes for us so we get two meals out of it for just a few dollars each.

QUARANTINE BAKING BRIOCHE BREAD

Monday, we posted about the the tomatoes we finally got from the garden.  Well 2nd Man decided to use some of our flour reserve (and eggs and whatever else goes into this) and made some brioche bread.  He had never done it before and followed a recipe he found online and these were the end result:

Two beautiful loaves.  Soft and golden and delicious.  We have just been snacking on it like candy because it's so good.  Then we saw the tomatoes and decided to have sandwiches for lunch.

Of course BLT's would immediately come to mind (and we do still have tomatoes left and some bacon in the refrigerator that is calling our names) but for now we just had a regular sandwich...

...bologna and cheese.  Toasted homemade bread and fresh from the garden tomatoes, oh my it was so good.  A few kettle potato chips on the side and it all made for a great lunch.  It's just so amazing how delicious garden fresh tomatoes totally transform even the most mundane things.

SAUSAGE AND CHEESE BISCUITS QUARANTINE FOOD FRIDAY

Since so many of us are stuck inside, we are going to post some food/meals we are eating.  Usually there will be no recipe, what we want to post is just a reminder that simple is good, simple is comfort and during these times, we can all use a little (or a lot) of that.

This was lunch one day (or I guess brunch).  Now 2nd Man makes a mean biscuit (recipe is on the blog) but for the pandemic and to save our flour I also stocked us up with canned biscuits. I know, sacrilege, but hey, it's all about saving time and resources while providing comfort.  We baked up a can of flaky "Grands".  All we needed was a package of sausage patties and some cheese.  We have those on hand as well.

Pop the biscuits in the oven and the sausage in a skillet.    By the time the biscuits are done the sausage is ready.  We put some squares of cheese on the sausage so it starts melting and then just load up the biscuits!

It's warm, flaky, cheesy, sausage goodness!  We like keeping sausage in the freezer and the canned biscuits usually have a long enough "fridge life" so that we can stock up on them too for fewer trips to the store.

Speaking of shopping, here is some quarantine dark humor sent to us by a friend of the blog:

Stay safe and eat well!

PILLSBURY THIN CRUST PIZZA QUARANTINE EATING

During the lockdown/quarantine, we are going to post some food/meals we are eating.  Usually there will be no recipe, what we want to post is just a reminder that simple is good, simple is comfort and during these times, we can all use a little (or a lot) of that.

We like to make pizza.  Simple topping ingredients usually.  2nd Man has a dough recipe he uses but when I was stocking up for the pandemic I saw this Pillsbury's pizza dough that is ready to roll out and had no weird ingredients, no preservatives, just what you'd use at home.  I bought a couple to just have a quick and easy meal and not use up all our flours and such.  Simple toppings of some fresh mozzarella, a package of pepperoni and this pizza sauce that we love.

We rolled it out and it even comes with it's own parchment so it just sort of unrolls onto a baking sheet.  It's thin (they have both options, regular and thin, we like thin).  Our only complaint is that it was small.  Should have filled up this regular size sheet pan.  You can't stretch it either because it's preformed and so thin you don't have anything to stretch.  

We just spread on the sauce, lay out the pepperoni and tear up some mozzarella.

I can't remember what the package said but I think it was 425 for about 12-15 minutes.  It's pizza, we just do it until it gets to how we like it.  Crispy and bubbling cheese with the crispy bits on the pepperoni edges.

Here it is, sprinkled with some Italian seasoning.  It was really good.  Is it homemade?  Sort of.  The creation is but the crust was a shortcut.  It was definitely worth it to save the time and ingredients.  We'll do it again, especially if this stay at home order drags on.  It's nice to just throw it together as a last minute idea.

Normally when 2nd Man makes pizza dough we keep a ball in the fridge but that only lasts a few days.  This is good for when you just need a quick meal.

And can you go wrong with pizza in any form?

SAUSAGE IN CRESCENT ROLLS QUARANTINE COOKING

During the lockdown/quarantine, we are going to post some food/meals we are eating.  Usually there will be no recipe, what we want to post is just a reminder that simple is good, simple is comfort and during these times, we can all use a little (or a lot) of that.

OK so this is pure comfort food (with a bit of processed food thrown in for good measure, ha).  2nd Man and I make a great homemade mac and cheese.  It's very good but takes some work.  When the pandemic started and I was filling up the pantry, I grabbed 5 or 6 boxes of Kraft macaroni and cheese.  It's childhood in a box and certainly easier without going back to the store for more cheese and other ingredients.  Anyway, we made a batch of that, super easy.

I had also stocked us up on sausage, a great quick ingredient when you need a meat.  In this case it's a wonderful beef brisket sausage from HEB grocery store.   The only other thing we needed was a package of Pillsbury crescent roll "Grands".

We cut the sausage into smaller pieces (by the way this is fully cooked sausage, just really needs to heat up and get hot and release the juices).  Then we rolled out the crescent rolls.  My job was to roll them around each piece of sausage. 

I kinda made a mess of that, don't judge, LOL.

I got better with practice though.

See? The ones on the other end of the sheet pan look much better, ha. We baked them according to the package directions and then added a couple of minutes to get the a bit more golden. Your time may vary.

When they were done we just dished it up.  Yeah, no veggies but sometimes you just want something filling and warm and that reminds you of childhood.

SUN DRIED TOMATO PASTA SAUCE QUARANTINE EATING

Every week or so, we are going to post some food/meals we are eating.  Usually there will be no recipe, what we want to post is just a reminder that simple is easy and easy is comfort...during these times, we can all use a little (or a lot) of that.

A few posts back, we mentioned a meal that we used a package of roasted red peppers in a package.  It was a last minute before lockdown purchase.  I bought a couple of those and a couple of these.  Sun dried tomatoes.  On a separate trip I had already bought a jar of Classico sun dried tomato pasta sauce.

We used a package of farfalle pasta and decided to go for a "Meatless Monday", ha.

2nd Man decided to mince the sun-dried tomatoes with a little olive oil so they would melt into the sauce.  While the pasta was boiling, he mixed the minced sun-dried tomatoes and olive oil into the jarred sauce in a saucepan and heated until simmering.  He drained the pasta, added it to the sauce and stirred in some fresh minced parsley.

Dish it up and serve.  Such great flavors.  By adding the sun-dried tomatoes with olive oil to the sauce, it really kicked the flavors and texture up a few notches, making it richer and more satisfying.  It's a great comfortable meal and pasta is always easy in a quarantine.

During these strange times, that's all that really matters.

BARLEY PEAS LENTILS QUARANTINE MEAL

Every once in awhile, we are going to post some food/meals we are eating.  Usually there will be no recipe, what we want to post is just a reminder that simple is good, simple is comfort and during these times, we can all use a little (or a lot) of that.

This is simple...a bag of barley/peas/lentils blend, a pound of ground beef, an onion (diced), two sweet potatoes (also chopped), a can of diced tomatoes (had to add that to the picture as a cut and paste, ha) and a bag of frozen mixed vegetables.  

We browned the ground beef and added the onion.  Once they had cooked down a bit, we added the sweet potatoes, tomatoes, frozen vegetable and the water (according to package directions).  Nice and quick and doesn't use too many ingredients...

...it also makes a BIG batch since we used the whole bag (but it looks small, ha) and we added meat and veggies.  How easy is this?  Very, and oh so satisfying.  No real recipe, just putting some things together.  Cooking without recipes is fun, ha!

The funny thing is this bag of mixed grains (I picked up three) was pretty much all they had left when I made a last minute stop at Whole Foods right as the pandemic started and we were quarantined.

We discovered something new we love.

ALFREDO BEEF STROGANOFF QUARANTINE MEAL

 Every few days, we are going to post some food/meals we are eating.  Usually there will be no recipe, what we want to post is just a reminder that simple is good, simple is comfort and during these times, we can all use a little (or a lot) of that.

Alfredo beef stroganoff

Here's one we just stood and looked in the pantry and said "hey, here's an idea!", ha.  It's a beef stroganoff made with Alfredo sauce.  Sure you can make beef stroganoff from scratch and we have done that many times but these days it's easier to do it this way.  Less fuss and 2nd Man gets a break, ha.

During pre-pandemic shopping, we mentioned in a post that I had bought a dozen or so jars of prepared sauces.  This time it's an Alfredo sauce from Kroger and we like it.  Their Simple Truth line is all organic and all regular ingredients with no additives and such.  Along with all the pasta that I stocked us up with, I also bought several bags of egg noodles and here we used some extra broad egg noodles.

A pound of ground beef is the only other major ingredient.  Brown in a skillet, drain and if you wanted to add any seasonings, you can do that now. 2nd Man added a bit of onion powder.

Pour the sauce into the cooked meat and heat it all to a low simmer.

Boil the egg noodles according to package directions.

Drain the noodles, reserving 1 cup of pasta water.  Add the noodles to the simmering beef Alfredo mixture and then thin it with reserved pasta water to your desired consistency.  That's it.  

Dish it up, add a dollop of sour cream on top for that stroganoff touch, sprinkle with some dried parsley and enjoy.  It is super easy, very filling, and most importantly, satisfying.

STEFANO ROSEE SAUCE AND PASTA SIMPLE QUARANTINE MEAL

Every few days, we are going to post some food/meals we are eating.  Usually there will be no recipe, what we want to post is just a reminder that simple is good, simple is comfort and during these times, we can all use a little (or a lot) of that.

Now we don't get anything for this post (though if THEY ARE listening, we love your products, ha!) but it's one of our favorites and when the pandemic was coming and I needed to stock us up on some jarred sauces, these guys were on the top of our list.

Stefano sauces come from Canada but we are lucky enough that they are in HEB grocery stores here in Texas.  This is one of our favorites.  It's a Rosé sauce which is an Italian sauce with cream.  So yummy.

Of course you can use any sauce you like.

Their sauces are made without preservatives and no articficial flavors or colors, they don't even use tomato paste, it's just pure ingredients and as close to "2nd Man homemade" as we can get, ha!

Anyway, for quarantine/pandemic eating it doesn't get easier than this.  Heat up your favorite sauce and pour over pasta.

Rosee pasta

Serve with cheese and no meat required.  Sometimes simple is satisfying.  That's why we stocked up on pasta and about ten jarred sauces when this all started.  It gives 2nd Man a break, ha. 

Stay safe...and eat well!

STEAK AND BAKED POTATO QUARANTINE EATING

Every few days, we are going to post some food/meals we are eating.  Usually there will be no recipe, what we want to post is just a reminder that simple is good, simple is comfort and during these times, we can all use a little (or a lot) of that.

This is of course a dinner you can have anytime of the year but it makes for a nice meal during the middle of the quarantine.

Two steaks and two potatoes.

Wrap the potatoes in foil, put in the oven at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes.  

Cook the steak the way you like it.  2nd Man uses his favorite method, a steel pan, and my gosh they are so good. I like mine medium rare, he likes his rare.  The steel pan gives steaks a nice brown surface like if you were grilling.

Then just some butter, a little shredded cheese, some sour cream and chives on the potatoes and serve alongside the steaks.  A glass of wine and it was a great pandemic meal that didn't use up too many resources.  We had the steaks in the freezer and the potatoes in a basket in the pantry.  We had already stocked up the fridge with  cheese, butter, sour cream, some veggies, etc, and we have a wine fridge that holds 24 bottles and it was stocked up.

Stay safe and eat well!

DOUBLETREE COOKIE RECIPE

Recently, the Doubletree Hotel chain finally released THEIR COOKIE RECIPE. It's been a secret for over 30 years but with everyone stuck inside for quarantine, they decided to release it.  It seems that everyone with so much time on their hands has decided to bake them.

Of course 2nd Man had to try them as well.

The link above goes right to their website so you can click there and read about it.  We also copied it for you below.  Even though supplies are running low, it was worth it to try a new chocolate chip recipe.

DoubleTree Signature Cookie Recipe

Makes 26 cookies

½ pound butter, softened (2 sticks)

¾ cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

¾ cup packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 ¼ teaspoons vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 ¼ cups flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Pinch cinnamon

2 2/3 cups Nestle Tollhouse semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 3/4 cups chopped walnuts 

Cream butter, sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes. 

Add eggs, vanilla and lemon juice, blending with mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, then medium speed for about 2 minutes, or until light and fluffy, scraping down bowl. 

With mixer on low speed, add flour, oats, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, blending for about 45 seconds. Don’t overmix. 

Remove bowl from mixer and stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Portion dough with a scoop (about 3 tablespoons) onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper about 2 inches apart. 

Preheat oven to 300°F. Bake for 20 to 23 minutes, or until edges are golden brown and center is still soft. 

Remove from oven and cool on baking sheet for about 1 hour.

Cook’s note: You can freeze the unbaked cookies, and there’s no need to thaw. Preheat oven to 300°F and place frozen cookies on parchment paper-lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake until edges are golden brown and center is still soft.

Now we haven't been to a Doubletree in years so I don't remember the cookies that well but I do remember they were good.  Then again, warm chocolate chip cookies are always good, ha.  These have a couple of "different" ingredients for CCC's.  Lemon juice and cinnamon.  They say the lemon juice adds a chewiness and the cinnamon just adds a slightly subtle twist to the flavor.  They are really good.  We froze some dough for later use.

Because we believe chocolate chip cookies during a quarantine is a rule...

SUNDAY MORNING QUARANTINE EATING

2nd Man baked a loaf of 7-grain bread yesterday afternoon while I was at the farm.

It will last us a few days.

This morning we had a simple but filling breakfast using very few pantry/fridge staples.  Toasted bread with butter and scrambled eggs with dried herbs.

Simple and filling is what we want during these times in quarantine.

Today is a stormy day.  We're under a tornado watch for most of the day, there have already been severe thunderstorm warnings we've had some hail too.

A good day to nap.