Gumbo

 

Gumbo is one of those things that I’ve wanted to make for a long time now but was just unsure about which recipe to use. There are only 139,000,000 on the internet and a few more in my cookbooks so it’s hard to know which one is the best. Well I think I found the best, with a few little tweaks. I finally decided to read some reviews on All Recipes and that’s how I made my decision on which recipe to try. I made it for my parents for dinner last night with some long grain white rice and crusty bread. And oh it was so good! My parents couldn’t stop talking about how good it was and I agree. It had just the right amount of heat and all the flavors combined really well. This will most definitely be my go-to recipe for gumbo from now on!

Gumbo Style Chicken Creole

• 1/4 cup oil for frying
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cups cooked, chopped chicken breast meat
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers, with liquid
• 1 (4.5 ounce) can sliced mushrooms, drained (omitted)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3 dashes hot sauce (I used 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper-use less if desired)

*I added 3 cups low sodium chicken broth, 2 links of smoked sausage, sliced, and 1 1/2 cups of raw chopped shrimp.

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Stir in flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes or until mixture is the color of a copper penny. Reduce heat to low and stir in bell pepper and onion. Cook 10 to 15 minutes, or until tender, stirring occasionally.
2. Add chicken,  sausage, tomatoes with green chile peppers, mushrooms (omitted), parsley, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, salt, pepper and hot sauce (or cayenne), and chicken broth. Stir together, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

*Add shrimp the last 5 minutes and cook until pink. I also cooked mine for least 1/2 an hour. I served this over white rice.

Source: All Recipes

Seriously, go out right now and buy the ingredients for this. And if it’s too hot out, just crank up your AC and make it anyway. You will not be sorry.

 

 

Sausage and Roasted Pepper Pasta

I am always in search of new pasta recipes. My husband, the carb king, just loves pasta and would probably eat it every other day if I cooked it that often. Since he loves it so much, I do try to make some sort of pasta a few times a month and I love it when I find a recipe that’s somewhat healthy. When I saw this one in the March issue of Cooking Light I thought it would fit the bill. It was really quick to make and super delicious! I will definitely be saving this one to make again.

Sausage and Roasted Pepper Pasta

• 4  medium bell peppers (about 1 1/2 pounds) I used red and green peppers.
• 8  ounces  uncooked penne pasta
• 12  ounces  hot turkey Italian sausage
• 2  tablespoons  tomato paste
• 1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  cup  (1 ounce) grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

*I added 1/2 an onion, finely chopped and cooked it with the sausage.

1. Preheat broiler.

2. Cut bell peppers in half lengthwise; discard seeds and membranes. Place pepper halves, skin sides up, on a foil-lined baking sheet; flatten with hand. Broil 10 minutes or until thoroughly blackened. Place bell peppers in a zip-top plastic bag; seal. Let stand 15 minutes. Peel; discard skins. Chop and set aside.

3. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain in a colander over a bowl, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid; keep warm.

4. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Remove casings from sausage. Add sausage to pan, and cook 8 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Add bell peppers to pan. Move sausage mixture to outside edges of pan, leaving an open space in center. Add tomato paste to open space in pan; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir tomato paste into sausage mixture. Stir in pasta and reserved cooking liquid; cook 3 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Stir in black pepper and salt. Sprinkle with cheese.

Calories:

430

Fat:

11.5g (sat 3.7g,mono 4.4g,poly 1.3g)

Protein:

28.9g

Carbohydrate:

52.4g

Fiber:

4.4g

Cholesterol:

79mg

Iron:

4.4mg

Sodium:

894mg

Calcium:

79mg

Marinated Chicken Kabobs

Here’s another delicious dinner to add to my “it’s too freakin’ hot to cook inside” list. My sister was visiting for my birthday so I decided we would grill out last night. I had all the ingredients to make chicken kabobs so I decided to use this marinade recipe that I’ve used before and added about 1 tsp each salt and pepper. I used chicken, cut into 1″ chunks, bell pepper, red onion, and grape tomatoes. I tossed them all in a bowl with the marinade and let them marinate for an hour. Then I put the chicken and veggies on soaked skewers (to prevent burning on the grill). I also made some red potatoes in a foil packet on the grill so I wouldn’t have to do any cooking inside. I seasoned them simply with salt pepper and lemon juice and left them on the grill about 30 minutes.  It was a wonderful birthday dinner, even if I did make it myself. : P

On another note, I got new kitchen toys for my birthday! My wonderful husband got me the KitchenAid ice cream attachment and an extra bowl for my mixer. I’m so excited to make some frozen treats for summer!

Spicy Stuffed Bell Peppers

I had never made stuffed bell peppers before tonight and now that I think about it, neither did my mom when I was growing up. But it’s always been a dish I really like. I had some ground beef in the freezer and thought this might be a good use for it tonight. So I started pulling spices and things out of the cabinet and sort of made it up as I went. And what I came up with was a very delicious concoction. Oh and I almost forgot to mention, we also had corn bread muffins with dinner tonight that my husband “made”. Actually they were Jiffy cornbread muffins from a box, that I mixed together and he spooned into the muffin tin. But he wanted me to be sure to mention that he “makes a mean cornbread.” Yes, that was an exact quote.

Spicy Stuffed Bell Peppers

4 bell peppers (I used green but you could use any color)
1/2 lb ground beef or turkey
1/2 white onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bag of quick cooking white rice
1/2-3/4 cup corn kernels
1/2 cup beef broth
3/4 cup shredded mexican cheese (I used the pre-shredded bagged kind)
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste

(You can adjust the spices according to your taste to make it more or less spicy)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Begin by prepping all your ingredients (chopping the onions, garlic, cut the tops off of the peppers and remove the seeds). Boil the water for the rice. Once you have the rice cooking, heat a skillet over medium/hi heat and add a little olive oil (about 2 Tbsp). Add the onion to the pan and let cook for about 5 min. Add garlic and ground beef. Cook until the ground beef is done and drain. Put the ground beef mixture back into the skillet and add chili powder, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Next add the beef broth. Drain the rice once it’s done and add that to the skillet with all other ingredients. Add corn and stir to combine. At this point add the salt and pepper to taste. Stir in mexican cheese until melted. Place your bell peppers on a baking sheet and fill with the beef and rice mixture. Top with a additional cheese if desired. Bake for about 25 min.