Just an FYI for my RSS feed readers — I’ve updated the Ropa Vieja and Sushi posts with my recipes. Enjoy!

There aren’t that many recipes that I make regularly, but this crustless breakfast quiche is definitely a favorite. I make one or two that end up being quick breakfasts throughout the week. I tend to use whatever’s left around from the week of cooking — the vegetables, meats and cheeses that MustGo.

CONFESSION: I love leftovers and save everything. While I don’t always use all of the bits of vegetables and meats, most everything can be used in another meal, from leftover chinese food rice to the last bits of vegetables from other meals. Most of these items can be used in this super easy crustless quiche. The recipe was posted here.

This week’s quiche included the sad remains of a bag of frozen french fries that weren’t quite enough for two servings, half a green pepper and the leftover zucchini, carrots and green onions from sushi last weekend. I also fried up some bacon from the discount meat bin (had to be cooked this week— no problemo, especially for $2!) and added that. So far I have yet to create a combination of ingredients that isn’t delicious in this super easy quiche.

More than a few people have asked me to post the recipe secrets for my sushi. My maki rolls have been known on many occasions to make sushi lovers out of both fearful sushi virgins and those who’ve had bad sushi experiences, but for the most part my secret is “practice” and a couple simple techniques.

QUICK TIP: Don’t skimp on the fish! Spend the money and get high-quality fish, because there’s nothing worse than fishy-tasting sushi. If you can find one, go to an Asian grocer. I won’t make sushi with fish from anywhere but Mitsuwa for my sushi fish and other Asian ingredients.

There are lots of ways to make su-meshi, sticky sushi rice. This is my method.

INGREDIENTS: TIARAMAKI (Tiara’s maki rolls)

• 2 cups Calrose Rice, Sushi Rice, or Brown Sushi Rice. I swear by Kagayaki Brown Sushi Rice.
• Rice Vinegar, 3 tbsp
• White sugar, 7 tsp
• Sanrio Hello Kitty Furikake … wait, what?

I came across this at first because it was adorable. Then it became what I consider my signature ingredient that makes my Tiaramaki special. The Hello Kitty brand includes dried bits of 7 different vegetables in all: broccoli, tomato, radish, green pea, spinach, pumpkin, seaweed and carrot. You can also use the seasoning packet that comes with most brands of roasted nori, the seaweed for rolliing.

I prepare my rice with my Black & Decker Handy Steamer, adding a little extra water. Mix the rice vinegar with the white sugar and set aside. When the rice is cooked, put into a mixing bowl. Add the vinegar and sugar with two packets of the vegetable furikake.Put in the fridge until cool, at least 30 minutes.

More on the recipe behind the cut…

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There are no shortcuts to ropa vieja, a Spanish-inspired dish from Cuba that translates literally to “old clothes”. I’ve tried modifying it for the crock pot, but this is a meal that takes 4 hours to make, plain and simple. But boy is it worth it.

Our friends Tracy and Derek were coming by for the weekend and when I asked her what I should make I didn’t expect her to say one of the few dishes I’ve made for her in the past. Tracy, by the way, is the anti-me, making everything from scratch and doing it beautifully, so I’m always kind of intimidated when faced with preparing food for her. But ropa vieja is one of my signature dishes, and with that I knew I could impress. Here’s the recipe for one of the best meals I know how to make… lucky you!

The recipe’s long, so follow the cut for more.

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CONFESSION: I’m extremely picky about tuna salad. Extreeeemely picky. So much so that I’m terrified to try it anywhere else, even though tuna melts are a big favorite of mine.

There are three secrets to my tuna salad:

• Miracle whip, never mayo
• Dill pickles or dill pickle relish
• Onions are only for cold, crisp tuna salad. Salad for tuna melts shall have no onions.

That’s really it. I grill it up with swiss cheese on my Mario Batali panini press (one of my favorite things!) and it’s a little bit of heaven. Simple, but it always feels like a huge treat.

Sunday dinner this week was a team effort, pairing my pot roast with Samm’s unbelievably creamy “Wallpaper Paste” mashed potatoes. And so here are two recipes for you!

Slow Cooker Pot Roast
INGREDIENTS:

• 1 4-lb. Pot Roast, well marbled, cut into chunks
• 3–4 large carrots (or two ENORMOUS carrots, like I used)
• 1 parsnip, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1  turnip, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 medium onion, sliced thick
• 1 package baby bella mushrooms
• 4 large cloves minced garlic
• 12 oz. (approx 1 can) beef broth (reduced sodium or a natural brand)
• 1 small can Cream of Mushroom soup
• 1 packet Lipton Onion Mushroom soup mix
• 1/4 cup flour
• Penzey’s Krakow Nights seasoning, to taste

Line bottom of your crock pot with the carrots, parsnip, turnip and garlic. You can use potato too, but since I knew this would be accompanying mashed potatoes I kept them out. Pour cream of mushroom soup and broth on top.

Mix onion soup mix with the flour; toss meat to coat, then layer meat on top of vegetable/soup mixture. Top with onions and mushrooms.

Cook on high for 5 hours, low for 8–10 if your crock pot can handle it. When about an hour is left to cook, add the Krakow  Nights seasoning. 

For a thicker gravy, spoon out the juices into a saucepan and mix with a cornstarch roux.

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Samm’s Wallpaper Paste Mashed Potatoes

• 6 russet potatoes washed and half way skinned and cut into evenly sized pieces (about 1 inch wide)
• Boil
  a big pot of water. Once the water is at a rolling boil add the
  potatoes. Cook for about 10-12 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
• Put hot potatoes into the food processor. Add about a 1/4 cup of
  milk and a 1/4 cup of butter (or more butter if you like). Add salt to
  taste.
• Pulse the food processor making sure you get the majority
  of the lumps. It’s done when the potatoes are smooth and sticky. They
  should stick to your spoon when you turn the spoon upside down. You can
  add more or less butter/milk depending on how you like it.
• A trick I like to do is during the last 3-4 minutes of the potatoes
  cooking time I add some garlic powder and fresh chopped garlic to the
  boiling water. It adds a nice garlic flavor that’s subtle and not too
  strong.

These were the perfect complement to the stew; I’ll definitely make this recipe again!

You should’ve seen the size of the eggplant I got at the Farmer’s Market. Easily a foot long, as big as my niece’s head, and all for one crisp dollar bill. I couldn’t pass it up!I spent the day at work truly looking forward to dinner. It’s a pain in the butt to make and clean up for, but eggplant parmigiana is one of my favorite things.

There are lots of methods for making this dish, but I love a nice crispy coating on my eggplant, serving the rounds on the side and saucing it with each bite rather than coating the fried pieces in sauce and letting them get soggy. I also prefer a nice thick cut of eggplant, which gives the meal more substance than thinly sliced pieces. That said, I’m not sure there are any shortcut secrets about Eggplant Parmigiana; other than using a quality sauce (like Bertolli’s Premium Pasta Sauces) that don’t require a lot of doctoring to get going, it’s kind of a hurry up and wait dish.

But while there aren’t many shortcuts available for such a meal, I do have some QUICK TIPS.

• Make of mix of about 50% flavored breadcrumbs and 50% quality grated parmesan. And don’t you dare use the cheese from a green can. Spend the extra buck and get the good stuff in a plastic tub or, better yet, stop by an Italian deli if you have one nearby.
• Use a light oil like vegetable or sunflower oil for frying the eggplant. Olive oil taints the flavor and gets a little bitter.
• The jury’s out on salting eggplant and letting it sit so the juices can drain. I’ve made it both ways and find the “drained” eggplant is simply, well, saltier.

The best part about this dish? The price.

$1 for 1 humungous eggplant
$1 for Bertolli Premium Pasta Sauce with coupon
$1 for Aldi Whole Wheat Spaghetti
>$2 for bread crumbs, oil parmesan cheese, 2 eggs for egg wash, and herbs

Under $5 to feed three with at least three servings of leftovers. Whoever says eating cheap means eating crap is out of their minds.

Today was a lazy day if there ever was one, but I went into it not knowing what I was making for dinner. After talking my husband into putting some rice into my Black & Decker Handy Steamer and thawing some chicken, I was committed. Remembering a lonely can of cream of chicken condensed soup in the pantry and some mushrooms that had seen better days in the fridge, I had my inspiration.

When I got home I pulled open my Campbell’s Quick and Easy Recipes cookbook (as low as 75¢ at Half.com!) and tried to figure out where to go next. I love this cookbook, by the way, even though I never really use the recipes 100% as they are in the book. It’s great inspiration for working with condensed soup as a base, and even if you don’t follow the recipe to the letter (I tend to find it to bland or salty), it’s a great starting point. I decided to modify a recipe for Chicken Paprikash and go from there. This is my version of the recipe, and while it’s hardly traditional and would probably horrify my Hungarian grandmother, but it’s absolutely delicious.

Shorcut Chef Chicken Paprikash

INGREDIENTS:

• Olive Oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 bag of frozen green beans
• 1 container of mushrooms, chopped (I prefer Baby Bellas)
• 4–5 chicken breast halves, chunked
• 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1.5 tablespoons of Penzey’s Hungarian Sweet Paprika (invest in a good paprika)
• Dash of tabasco sauce
• 2 cups of white rice, cooked

Sauté garlic, onion, mushrooms and green beans until onion is translucent. Add chicken breasts and season with a dash of the paprika cook on low for about 8–10 minutes. At the same time (if you can manage it) In a separate small saucepan, mix the condensed soup and sour cream with the remaining paprika and stir until combined. Allow to simmer on low until the chicken is almost cooked and there’s a bit of liquid in the other pan and the chicken is mostly cooked through.

Add the sauce to the chicken/onion/etc. mixture and stir to combine. Simmer on low/medium for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve over white rice.

Who says udon noodles belong in soup? Delicious udon noodles, salty and sticky, are also a great base for a stir fry when rice gets a little boring (or will take too long to make).

For this stir fry I started with some chicken that was sealed in a FoodSaver bag with some Mrs. Dash Spicy Teriyaki marinade. To that I added some mushrooms, a can of baby corn pieces (drained), half an onion and a sliced red bell pepper, and the leftover bits (a couple tablespoons) of some hoisin sauce in the fridge — always good for thickening a stir fry sauce.

For the edamame, I boiled a small pot of water with lots of salt. To the boiling water I added a bag of frozen edamame and boiled this according to package directions. I rinsed the pods in cold water after draining and scattered the soybeans on the stir fry for some great color and crunch.

It’s a pretty typical stir fry for me. The best part about any stir fry is the color, and adding edamame is a great way to make something look and taste even fresher.

Among the many items in my pantry that I consider staples is Classico’s Roasted Garlic Alfredo sauce. Whether I’m using it in my famous cajun chicken pasta (which I surprisingly still haven’t shared on this blog!) or tossing it with shrimp and sun-dried tomatoes, it’s restaurant quality and simply the best out there, especially for the price.

Making this dish is super simple. First I sauté about 6 cloves of crushed garlic in about 1/4 stick of butter until the garlic is translucent. To this I add some chopped sun-dried tomatoes (julienned works really well) and, of course, the shrimp. When the shrimp is cooked through, I add the alfredo sauce so the flavors can meld.

I love serving this with farfalle, or bow-tie pasta, but it’s good with fettuccine as well. This one’s always a family favorite.

CONFESSION: I kind of love Hamburger Helper. Yes I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. It’s a great starter for an interesting weeknight meal if you get creative enough.

Tonight I made the Cheesy Ranch Burger Hamburger Helper, but of course I added my own special touches to make it my own. I sautéed sliced onion and diced poblano pepper in olive oil until slightly charred. I then  added some sweet white corn and a diced roma tomato and let that sit.

I prepared the Hamburger Helper according to package directions (except the added fat) with 97% lean ground beef (worth the extra cost). When it was done, I tossed in the sautéed veggies and mixed it all together.

QUICK TIP: Cook your vegetables separate from the Hamburger Helper. This goes for any boxed meal that you’re modifying. Don’t just toss the veggies in with the water, milk and sauce mix. That will make the veggies soggy and flavorless. Sauté them in a separate pan and toss everything together right before serving.

I’ll add some other recent goodies too. It’s good to be back on track.

I never would have thought of using tunafish in tacos. But when Rick Bayless made some on his show, I knew I had to try it. I had some Sweet & Spicy tuna packets (Aldi’s generic competitor to the StarKist brand) that, to be honest, I was kind of terrified of, and they’d been living in the pantry for far too long. I had made some questionable tuna salad with it and had no idea what to try next; now I knew.

I didn’t have the canned chiles that Rick used in his recipe for Tuna in Jalapeño Escabeche, but I figured this would do in a pinch. I sautéed the tuna with some onions in olive oil until heated through. I chopped up a roma tomato, some more onion and a handful of fresh cilantro, and I shredded some chihuahua cheese. On some fresh white corn tortillas I picked up I spread some crema poblano (Mexican sour cream) and topped it with all the goodies.

I also made my favorite guacamole, which is basically just an avocado, onion, tomato, cilantro, some crema poblano, juice from half a lime and Penzey’s Salsa Seasoning.

Mexican grocers are an amazing place, and I especially love my local Farmers Best Market. Not only are things like tortillas and peppers fresher than you’ll find anywhere else (simply because they move faster there), but they’re authentic and inexpensive. The queso chihuahua found at other stores for $5-$6 for a pound can be bought in bulk for only $3 a pound. There are tons of authentic sour creams, cheeses, salsas, meats and more. We stop at Farmers Best about every other month to load up on authentic Mexican goodies because while Old El Paso is fine if it’s all you have access to, there’s just nothing to compare to the real thing.

Sorry, the photo of this just didn’t come out. I need to develop a new technique for taco photos!