Odds 'n Ends

March 11, 2019 12:30 PM

We just forget to take multiple pictures of the meals we make. Or I'm stuck by myself and have to take a picture with my phone.

Root Vegetable Hash Egg Skillet from Naturally Ella

I totally forgot about this in my last Odds 'n Ends post! I had a turnip and I had no idea how to use it, but I saw an egg hash recipe, and I love egg hash. We added bacon and crumbled feta cheese on top which added some extra flavor. All of the turnip recipes I looked at used it like a potato, but I must say, it tastes nothing like a potato.

Lemon Garlic Asparagus Pasta from Budget Bytes

We needed a really quick meal for a Friday night since we had plans to play a game with our cousins. I almost said that we should just get food from a local restaurant, but making pasta is cheaper and faster. I had these really dinky looking asparagus from Aldi, so I didn't even bother steaming them, and I just sauteed them for a couple of minutes. I also added mushrooms, which you really can't see in the picture either.

Yellow Rice Chicken Skillet from Budget Bytes

This might actually be the very first recipe I ever tried from Budget Bytes. It was delicious the first time I made it, and it's become one of my really simple go to meals. This is the first time I made it with bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, though. I normally buy boneless, skinless because I'm lazy, but I'm trying to save money so I'm buying whatever meat is on sale. These chicken thighs were only $0.69/lb!

Scallops and Broccoli

March 10, 2019 12:30 PM

I've had scallops sitting in my freezer for way too long (since you know, I impulse buy seafood) and I finally cooked them.

Of course I'm still too cheap to buy the whole scallops, and instead go for the bag that has the smaller pieces. I saw Baked Scallops on Skinnytaste, which was super easy to make.

And like every other meal, I need to have vegetables. I looked for a quick broccoli recipe and I saw Sheet Pan Roasted Broccoli on Damn Delicious. I was paying very close attention to my broccoli this time, so I wouldn't overcook it! I cut my broccoli into pretty small pieces, and 12 minutes was plenty of time in the oven. In fact, I might need to cook it for even less next time.

We cooked one pound of scallops and about 3/4 of a pound of broccoli, and there definitely was not enough food to have leftovers.

Kung Pao Chicken

March 9, 2019 11:30 AM

I actually have no idea what Kung Pao Chicken even is, but I saw this recipe on Jessica Gavin's site and I basically had everything I needed to make it, so I figured why not.

We first had to make candied walnuts, and I took no part in this process since my sister knows how to do this, and if I were making this on my own, I would skip the walnuts altogether. I think it probably tastes better without the walnuts, anyway.

It did make the dish look nice though. Overall, the dish was very sweet and probably could have used something like fish sauce to give it a better flavor. But hey, this was certainly way cheaper and probably healthier than takeout.

Stuff My Sister Made

March 8, 2019 5:15 PM

Hey! My sister is a way better cook than I am. Here's a post with a few things that I had no part in making, starting with some noodle soup.

We actually intended to make Pho, and while this was very good, I don't think I could call it Pho. We used bone marrow and had the broth soak for about 6 hours.

After eating the noodles, we still had that bone marrow, and we didn't want it to go to waste. So my sister baked some bread so we could have toast to spread the bone marrow on.

And so we could have avocado toast! This was actually the first time in my life that I ever had avocado toast. I used to hate avocados, but my sister told me they're just like egg yolks and I finally saw the appeal.

Meatloaf, Broccoli, and Sweet Potatoes

March 5, 2019 11:30 AM

I'm trying really hard this month to cook using the food I have and to not go to the grocery store almost every day. Yes that's right, I go to the grocery store almost every day. I found Sheet Pan BBQ Meatloaf Dinner from Budget Bytes, and I already had everything in my kitchen so I avoided a trip to the store yesterday!

The recipe said to roast the broccoli for 35 minutes, and we roasted it for 20 and that was way too long. Also I need to make sure that I cook the meatloaf and the broccoli in a separate pan next time. Broccoli with meat juices does not taste right.

I also forgot to flip the sweet potatoes halfway through, so they all just got really dark on one side.

I actually still have more broccoli and sweet potatoes, so I'll need to find more recipes that use them.