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What did you Bake/Cook Today?!?!?! :)

Frosty

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Baked this a while for my birthday.
 

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Lexicon

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...I was gonna cook chicken for dinner. But I defrosted it & it smelled freaking fowl. Pun intended, but seriously, it was terrible. It was like... fishy.

I’d put it in the freezer the same day I bought it. What gives??

*kicks rocks*
 

ceecee

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Clotted Cream. A small container of it in my area of the US is about $14. The only difficulty is finding heavy cream that isn't ultra-pasteurized, it's great if you have a dairy farm to buy from. The process is so simple I don't know why I didn't do it much earlier.
 

Lexicon

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Dinner tonight/future dinners:

I imagine people will probably find this gross, but I’ve found it’s a decently reheatable meal I can prep all at 1 time, & freeze to eat once a week each month.

It’s just a variation of cream of mushroom chicken...

4 small boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1 can 98% fat free Campbell’s cream of mushroom condensed soup
1 can [no salt added] mushrooms
1 tsp McCormick Cajun seasoning

- I rub the seasoning onto the chicken & place it into a deep Corning Ware covered baking dish & top it with the can of condensed soup & mushrooms. Bake at 350F for 45min

While that’s cooking, I prepare 1 cup brown rice & 1 cup quinoa. I mix the two together.

-I also steam a big bag of frozen kale. Then I dump that in with the quinoa/brown rice blend & mix that all up.

When the chicken is done, I separate it all equally into 4 individual freezer-safe containers, topping each one with any remaining ‘sauce’ (the soup roux) & mushrooms, before storing.

Relatively healthy (unless you’re watching your salt intake), & always reheats perfectly.
 

ceecee

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Dinner tonight/future dinners:

I imagine people will probably find this gross, but I’ve found it’s a decently reheatable meal I can prep all at 1 time, & freeze to eat once a week each month.

It’s just a variation of cream of mushroom chicken...

4 small boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1 can 98% fat free Campbell’s cream of mushroom condensed soup
1 can [no salt added] mushrooms
1 tsp McCormick Cajun seasoning

- I rub the seasoning onto the chicken & place it into a deep Corning Ware covered baking dish & top it with the can of condensed soup & mushrooms. Bake at 350F for 45min

While that’s cooking, I prepare 1 cup brown rice & 1 cup quinoa. I mix the two together.

-I also steam a big bag of frozen kale. Then I dump that in with the quinoa/brown rice blend & mix that all up.

When the chicken is done, I separate it all equally into 4 individual freezer-safe containers, topping each one with any remaining ‘sauce’ (the soup roux) & mushrooms, before storing.

Relatively healthy (unless you’re watching your salt intake), & always reheats perfectly.
One way I found to make that cream of soup thing more healthy is to use a better brand. I buy Pacific boxed stock (the only one that sells 8 oz sizes) but I recently tried their cream soup - pretty clean ingredients and a good taste.


51kqImmCDWL._AC_.jpg
 

Lexicon

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One way I found to make that cream of soup thing more healthy is to use a better brand. I buy Pacific boxed stock (the only one that sells 8 oz sizes) but I recently tried their cream soup - pretty clean ingredients and a good taste.


51kqImmCDWL._AC_.jpg
Oh yeah! We have this over in New England, too! I think I bought their squash soup before. It was fantastic. I’ll have to try this kind for the chicken. Thanks for the tip.
 

Coriolis

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Dinner tonight/future dinners:

I imagine people will probably find this gross, but I’ve found it’s a decently reheatable meal I can prep all at 1 time, & freeze to eat once a week each month.

It’s just a variation of cream of mushroom chicken...

4 small boneless/skinless chicken breasts
1 can 98% fat free Campbell’s cream of mushroom condensed soup
1 can [no salt added] mushrooms
1 tsp McCormick Cajun seasoning

- I rub the seasoning onto the chicken & place it into a deep Corning Ware covered baking dish & top it with the can of condensed soup & mushrooms. Bake at 350F for 45min

While that’s cooking, I prepare 1 cup brown rice & 1 cup quinoa. I mix the two together.

-I also steam a big bag of frozen kale. Then I dump that in with the quinoa/brown rice blend & mix that all up.

When the chicken is done, I separate it all equally into 4 individual freezer-safe containers, topping each one with any remaining ‘sauce’ (the soup roux) & mushrooms, before storing.

Relatively healthy (unless you’re watching your salt intake), & always reheats perfectly.
I've given up ever using cream soups for this sort of thing. I make my own white sauce.
 

Lexicon

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I've given up ever using cream soups for this sort of thing. I make my own white sauce.
That’s ideal, honestly. I’d like to make my own more consistently, but the canned stuff is my substitute when I’m low on time/energy. I’ve made roux from scratch once or twice, but it came out chalky. I’ll have to remember to bug you for some pointers once I try to take a whack at it again.
 

Coriolis

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That’s ideal, honestly. I’d like to make my own more consistently, but the canned stuff is my substitute when I’m low on time/energy. I’ve made roux from scratch once or twice, but it came out chalky. I’ll have to remember to bug you for some pointers once I try to take a whack at it again.
I would be happy to tell you how I make it. It is really quite simple.
 

Lexicon

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I would be happy to tell you how I make it. It is really quite simple.
That’d be great! I bet a lot of people here would like to see a basic roux recipe, as welk... it works for so many different dishes.
 

Julius_Van_Der_Beak

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I've pulled off roux before. No chalkiness. I just followed the instructions in Joy of Cooking verbatim.
 

ceecee

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That’d be great! I bet a lot of people here would like to see a basic roux recipe, as welk... it works for so many different dishes.
I agree. Once mastered, there is an entire world of sauces and reductions that make food amazing.
 

Lexicon

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On another note... I tried to bake some cute Halloween pumpkin spice cookies yesterday on a whim. Tasted great, but looked... eh.

1665624350189.jpeg



..icing was supposed to be spiderwebs, but I didn’t quite get there.

Recipe:
 

Saturnal Snowqueen

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Not much actual cooking involved, but I dumped a bunch of Tajin in my pickles and a few red pepper flakes. 10/10 for the pickle juice.
 

Saturnal Snowqueen

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I had to google tajin... that actually sounds freaking delicious on a pickle.
It's really nice, it's mostly really tangy tasting with a hint of salt. I like it sprinkled on pasta, and it's really good with different fruits. I'm in this Facebook group that's devoted to just pickles, and I'm watching them just pour a whole thing of seasoning into their pickle jars and that's what inspired me. I wanna try ranch pickles next, also wanna try dehydrated pickles.
 

Lexicon

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Last night, I made some kinda delicious southwest shrimp & rice thing.

I had some leftover hot pico de gallo from nachos the other night.

I sautéed some shrimp in avocado oil & some lower-sodium ‘taco seasoning’ I had kicking around.
-added a little frozen corn
-added brown rice
-added spicy pico de gallo
-added chopped jalapeños
-added a little kale for extra greens

I let all of that heat up together in my giant skillet.

It was surprisingly good. I topped it with a little dollop of plain Greek yogurt, to temper the heat a bit, though I love spicy things.
Made this again last night, but I used chicken instead of shrimp. Made my own taco seasoning this time— just kind of eyeballed a blend of chili powder, paprika, cumin, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, (extra) cayenne pepper, oregano, & black pepper. Came out really well.




This morning, I made a pumpkin-cream cheese spread with the little bit of pumpkin puree I had left from my sad spiderweb cookies.

I just tossed some cream cheese into a bowl with some cinnamon, ginger, & a micropinch of nutmeg & cloves. I also added a pinch of stevia for a hint of sweetness. Cream cheese/pumpkin ratios were probably like, 60/40. I beat the pumpkin purée in with a hand mixer until it was smooth/fluffy/lump-free, & little peaks formed when I stopped mixing. I tossed it back in the fridge to chill a bit after all the handling.


I spread that on a toasted whole wheat bagel & paired with a cup of coffee. Just Chock Full O’ Nuts original coffee, with a little cinnamon mixed into the grounds before brewing, & a splash of unsweetened vanilla almond milk. It was perfect. I have to finish this cream cheese quickly, though, since the pumpkin purée only lasts so long out of the can. I’m probably pushing it today, even. I think there’s just enough for tomorrow, anyway.
 

Lexicon

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I posted this in my blog, but thought I’d share the recipe here, too.

Went apple-picking Saturday & got ...a lot... of apples.

Apple crisp time.

This is from an old cookbook I’ve had since I was a kid (hence the stained pages- I was a mess[ier] cook back then). It’s my go-to recipe.

1666209561226.jpeg

*use DARK brown sugar
*never skip cinnamon in the crumble.
*actually, dust an additional 1/8 tsp cinnamon onto your apple slices before you even put them in the pan! Or ginger, for a little kick.
*white whole wheat flour makes a better crumble than plain white.. maybe because it’s a bit coarser?
*keep your butter COLD. Use a pastry cutter to mix the crumble.
* use convection setting on oven if you have the option. Cut baking time to 35min.
*don’t forget a scoop of vanilla ice cream!


Leftovers: Reheat in oven for 10-15 min at 325F.
 
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