Favorites Friday - Cowboy Food

I have to share the story behind this one.  This is a recipe that my mom came up with when I was a little kid, but she originally called it "Bobbi's Ziti Beef Casserole".  My brother though it was icky and wouldn't eat it until my dad told him "this is what cowboys eat!", and then, of course, he loved it!  Ever since then, it has been known as "Cowboy Food", and it has been a family favorite.  I began making it for friends that came over in college, and they all loved it, too.  It's a good way to fix something fairly quick when people come over, but if you make it for just two people it makes good leftovers, too.  My husband and I make it fairly often, and by now we have added our own little modifications to improve on the original recipe.

Look at that glisten of cheesy goodness!

Cowboy Food

Makes 8 4 servings (Who am I kidding? We scarf this stuff down!)

Ingredients

•  ~1 lb ground beef
• 1 T onion flakes
• 1 can cheddar cheese soup
• 1 3/4 C ziti
• 1 C frozen peas (or a little more if you want to sneak in extra veggies)
• 1 1/2 C water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1/8 tsp cayenne
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1-2 handfulls of shredded cheddar (this is one of those modifications we made to the original)

Instructions

1. Brown ground beef in large skillet and drain grease.
2. Add seasonings, water, cheddar cheese soup, ziti, and peas.
3. Bring to a boil.
4. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes, or until ziti is cooked.
5. Remove lid, add cheddar cheese, and stir.  (You could add in the cheese near the end of the simmer time, if you prefer to have more melting time.)
6. Let sit a few minutes for cheese to melt and sauce to thicken.

The amounts above are for the original fairly mild version.  If you like it spicier (like me), you can add extra pepper and even a little chili powder to taste.  I usually make the whole thing with approximately the amounts called for, and just add extra spice to my bowl.  Another tip: use frozen peas, not canned. I used canned peas one time, and it just didn't taste right.

Enjoy!

Thirsty Thursday - Wedding Punch

I decided to come up with my own punch recipe when we got married.  It took a little experimenting (I discovered that pineapple juice and soda cancel each other out, and it's just weird), but I finally came up with a recipe that had a good balance of flavors, and just the right amount of alcohol. It was a huge hit at the wedding, and it disappeared fast!

Wedding Punch

Ingredients

• 1 qt Hawaiian Punch (Fruit Juicy Red)
• 1 can pink lemonade concentrate
• 2 cans water 
• 1/2 can Peach schnapps
• 1 can Spiced rum
• 2L bottle of Sprite (or generic lemon-lime soda)

Instructions
Mix all ingredients except Sprite.
Add Sprite just before serving.

I typically store the mix in a sealed pitcher or a Hawaiian Punch jug until it's ready to serve.  You can also make this non-alcoholic and just leave out the schnapps and the rum, and it's still a tasty mix.

Sadly, I don't have a picture of the punch.  But here's a picture of one of our wedding toast flutes!

Lemon Pepper Salmon Foil Pack

I have been really bad lately about not cooking.  I have been trying to get in more time at the gym, typically going on the way home from work, and by dinnertime I'm tired and don't feel like coming up with something for dinner, so we resort to the easy, less healthy meals.  I have decided to make more of an effort to plan my meals in advance, try to coordinate ingredients for the week, and even prep part of the meal in advance.  For example, I have several meals planned for this week that include rice, so I cooked a bigger pot of it and put the rest in the fridge for later this week.  (I recently discovered how much I like brown rice, and now I prefer it over white. Did you know brown rice (non-instant) takes 45 minutes to cook? Making it in larger batches can be a big time saver.)  Same thing can be done for other starches like pasta and potatoes as well as cooked vegetables.  Hopefully I can keep this up healthy meal planning long enough for it to become a habit! 

I haven't had fish in a while, so I thought fresh salmon would be a good start to my healthy meal planning.  I paired it with some brown rice, glazed carrots, and corn on the cob.  (Both the carrots and corn on the cob were done in new ways also, and worthy of a quick blog post, but I didn't think to take pictures of those processes!  Drat!)  This is another idea I saw on Pinterest, but I've seen it before.  Publix had cuts of salmon on sale this week, which is what I originally intended to pick up, but it turns out that buying it by the pound with the skin still on was still cheaper. Supposedly, cooking it with the skin on is healthier, too, because the healthy omega fats that you hear about are contained mostly in the skin and are released during cooking - a healthy benefit that would be lost if the skin was removed first.  The skin also helps hold the fish together while cooking, and can usually be peeled off easily after it's cooked.

Lemon Pepper Salmon Foil Pack

Makes 1 foil pack

Ingredients

• fresh salmon (only 1 piece per foil pack)
• fresh lemon
• pepper
• butter
• foil

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F.  Lay salmon (skin side down) on a large piece of foil.  Sprinkle with pepper.  Slice lemon and place on top.  Add a few pats of butter on top.  Wrap tightly, and place in a pan (to catch drips if it leaks.)  Bake for 25+ minutes, until cooked through.  (Salmon should turn from a clear pink to an opaque pink when it is cooked.)

What it looked like before wrapping it up

When I checked my salmon at 25 minutes, it was still uncooked on the outside.  So I turned the oven up to 400°F and it still took another 15 minutes to bake.  The salmon was a larger piece, though (1lb), so smaller pieces might be cooked enough at 25 minutes.  I would recommend just checking at 25 minutes, but allow yourself more time if it needs to cook longer.  You don't want to overcook fish if you can help it, because it tends to dry it out, but the nice thing about the foil pack and butter is that it traps in the moisture (essentially steaming it) and it doesn't dry out as easily.  Also, if you use salmon with the skin still on, the skin will stick to the foil and peel right off of the meat.  And foil makes the cleanup so much easier!

The Verdict

Very tasty!  It had a nice mild flavor and wasn't dried out.  It could have used a little more pepper (or maybe even a mix of different peppers instead of just black pepper), and maybe squeezed the lemons on top just a little before baking.  This dish was healthy, easy to make, and had easy cleanup. I would probably make this recipe again, but I will definitely use the foil pack technique again!