I've just been making quinoa in a pot and seems to work just fine, i love it. Just need to not be lazy and make it more.

My go to is rice or quinoa + chicken +tomatoes/peppers, with salsa, or sweet and sour sauce, or spicy peanut sauce. I mix it up a bit. Definitely should think about making quinoa and chicken in advance. I was also thinking about idea of marinading chicken maybe for some more variety in tastes. No idea how much that changes, I've never really done it before

Quinoa isn't cutting food. High carb/calorie like rice. Chicken and vegetables obv good

I mentioned that as something different to do.

It has about 7x the protein as rice. Eat it in small doses though. I'm thinking along the lines of dude remaining compliant.

Have really been enjoying this lately...



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Healthy cheesecake

Macro's: 834 calories; 123g Protein, 63g Carbs, 10g Fat
1/4 Cup - 1% Milk
Directions: All ingredients at room temperature.
2. Cream Cheese in mixer - mix on medium until creamy - scrape sides of bowl down.
12oz - Fat Free Philadelphia Cream Cheese
10oz - F age 0% Fat Free Greek Yogurt (1.13 cups)
2 whole eggs
3/4 Cup - Granulated Splenda (4.5 tbsp truvia)
1.25 Scoop - Trutein Vanilla Protein
1 tsp - Vanilla Extract
1/4 tsp - Kosher salt
1. Preheat Oven to 325 - Prepare 6" cake pan with non-stick spray and parchment paper in
the bottom.
3. Add splenda - mix on medium until incorporated - scrape sides of bowl down.
4. Add eggs one at a time while on medium. Again...scrape.
5. Add the rest of the ingredients - mix on medium for 3 minutes.
6. Pour in pan - extra batter in mouth - yum.
7. Bake at 325 for 30 minutes. Turn oven to 200 for 50min - 1 hour. Remove and let cool on
the counter. Wrap and refrigerate overnight.

This is the official recipe. I used truvia instead of Splenda.

I just sprayed a little no calorie cooking spray on a paper towel and rubbed it on cake pan with no parchment.

I used skim milk instead.

The only cake pans I could find at Walmart were a little shallow so i use the 9 inch one. This changes the cooking time a little I think. For the second part of cooking I went for 1h10

I used a different protein powder.

My macros (without anything extra) for a whole cake are

798 calories, 12.6 g fat, 55.9 g carb, 107 g protein

Last night I made one with chocolate and coconut. Haven't tried it yet. Just added 3 tbsp cocoa powder and then 6tablespoons coconut.

Coconut added a lot more calories than I thought it would.

1037 calories, 29.1g fat, 85.9 g carbs, 113 g protein


The first time I made it. I used strawberry fat free cream cheese. I think it would be much better to make it plain with regular cream cheese and add fruit on top (not sure how incorporating it in before baking would be)

Modified this recipe for No Clay Pot Chicken Casserole as follows:

1/4 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 boneless chicken breasts, about 1 pound, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 scallions, roughly chopped, plus extra to serve
3 garlic cloves, minced
1-inch piece fresh ginger, roughly grated
2 ounces smoked sausage, such as Chinese lapchang or good Italian salami, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
10 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, caps thinly sliced
1 tablespoon canola or peanut oil
2 cups Chinese long grain rice
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups chicken stock

Used essentially this recipe, except we used 3 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast, 3 pounds of boneless skinless thighs, and a pound of chorizo. Made a metric asston of food, and outside of being a lot of prep work chopping, it's pretty easy to make.

thought I'd bump this after some discussion in the LC thread. monte listed off about 20 deleicious looking meals. i'll try to add a few when I have time tonight

Crossposted from the LC thread:

Plus: Crispy Braised Chicken Thighs With Cabbage and Bacon (thanks DT)

and

easy-broiled-miso-marinated-black-cod (thanks Holliday)

and

gogogogo

Frijoles Charros

Hungarian Chicken and Noodles (I add a pound of bacon and use some of the bacon grease to sweat the veggies after the bacon is browned)

Since Monte listed a bunch of healthy stuff, I'll list more non-healthy stuff to celebrate the F in S&F!


Soups

• French onion soup (obvious first choice no?)
• Quick Pho soup (if someone's got a tested recipe for a slow one, I'm all ears)

Baked goods and desserts

• Real British scones. Haven't tried it with buttermilk (this recipe is more or less an exact copy of the norwegian one I use), looks like a good idea. Not a huge fan of clotted cream and prefer sour cream + jam, whatever floats your boat. Serving these fresh for an early Sunday (i.e. 11ish AM) will make whoever you serve it to love you forever.
• Molten chocolate souffle. The perfect recipe imo - though I really recommend going with half the salt at the most. Serve with home-made crème anglaise and raspberry coulis for udder rippletoe perfection.
• Basil panna cotta. I add quite a bit of ginger - think it goes perfectly with the basil in this recipe. Serve with a coulis or a jelly on top like in the pic for more oui oui.
• Lemon curd tart. Add at least twice the lemon zest for more zing.

Sauces

• Ginger lime beurre blanc sauce. Imo there's way too much acid in this sauce, drop lime amount to half. But otherwise, it's a perfect companion for about any white fish and an excellent bottle of Riesling.
• Classic sweet and sour Chinese sauce. I add some juice from a fresh pineapple as well.
• How to make pan sauces. Articles like these are even better than recipes for the budding home cook imo.
• Blueberry balsamic vinaigrette

Sides

• Quinoa pilaf. Seriously delicious. A perfect companion to the ginger lime butter sauce mentioned earlier. I prefer 2/3 water and a crapload of herbs. Cilantro and flat leaf parsley is perfect for said combo.
• Caramelized spicy pumpkin seeds. Way too little ginger, 2-3 times is preferable. Not too spicy either, if whatever dish you're making calls for that. Also 10-15 mins in the oven for a crunchier texture.
• Ultra crispy roast potatoes. Nuff said.
• Quick-pickled radishes. Goes well with lots of stuff. Adds a bit of earthy flavor and acidity (and if you add enough spicy chili, well, chili).
• Peach and carrot puree. Use roughly half the water and finely dice the fresh peaches. Perfect with duck, also goes well with roast chicken and I imagine pork.

Having a curated list of sauces and sides in your head (and on your phone) to combine with whatever protein you're making is an A+ way of cooking and learning how to balance flavors imo.

To add, I seriously look forward to working through (most of) your list Monte Soulgirl thanks you in advance!

Damn, good **** Soulman; bookmarked most of those and will mix them in as available.

And glad to hear you're going to try those recipes -- those are the ones that are in heavy rotation in the -ecore household, and there haven't been any complaints yet!

I'm doing DT's crispy chicken thighs tonight, btw; will report back, obviously. There's a similar recipe I posted (One Pot Hungarian Chicken) that uses cabbage as well (ground chicken though) that is well liked by the minis, so I expect this one will be a hit as well.

Monte,

would you say that "high quality Hungarian sweet paprika" is an essential, irreplaceable ingredient in the paprikash?

Not really, no. I just used the standard stuff from the supermarket the first few times, and then just ordered paprika in a bit larger size from Amazon once I figured out how often I was going to be making it. It's delicious either way.

Good stuff, guys! Picking something for saturday dinner right now

Very, very tasty. Made about four and a half pounds of thighs with maybe 1.5x cabbage but kept everyone else the same. The thighs were super tender braised in the sauce, the cabbage was delicious, and the skin was nice and crispy. Generally the wife and kids like me to debone thighs before serving, so I plated it on top of the cabbage, sauced it a bit, and then chopped up the skin and put it on top. Highly recommend.

Shopping done: going to be making the chicken with cabbage and bacon (glad to hear positive reviews), chicken cacciatore (mushroom version), and the pork mojo this week, along with blueberry crumb bars. Going to try the chimmichuri with some grilled lamb as well.

Let me know if you want my black bean recipe; it's better than what's linked on serious eats. I actually pulled it from the comments section of another serious eats recipe, purportedly from a Cuban grandmother. Takes a bit of time but isn't very labor intensive.

Oh, and the bars don't really set into bars until the next day; plan to eat them like pie (with ice cream or whipped cream) day 1, because they're a bit messy.

I'll take a bean recipe for sure, spruce that game up too

I generally double the recipe, since there's no real extra incremental effort and I like beans:

Cuban Black Beans

Part 1 - Pre-cook the beans.
Add:
1 lb. dry black beans (picked through and washed)
10 cups water
1 green bell pepper (cored and quartered)

to a large pot, bring to a boil, turn down the heat, and simmer until the beans are soft (about 45 minutes).

Part 2 - Make the sofrito while the beans are softening.
Finely chop (use processor or blender if available)
1 lg. onion
1 red bell pepper (cored)
4 garlic cloves
and sauté the above until golden in

2-4T olive oil

Add ½ cup softened beans, mash, add the mixture to the beans, stir well, bring to a boil, and lower heat to a simmer.

Add:
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp.oregano
1 bay leaf
1 T salt (or to taste)
2 tsp. sugar

Stir well and continue simmering for another hour. Stir occasionally to prevent the beans from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Part 3 - Finish the beans.
Add:
2 tsp vinegar
2 tsp. sherry (if using cooking sherry, reduce the salt above)

Stir well and simmer for one more hour.

Part4 - Serve the beans
Add:
2 tsp olive oil

Turn off the heat and stir well. The beans should look velvety black and thickened.

Serve with cooked white long-grain rice.

Total time: 3 hours. Best made the day before.

Made the cacciatore with mushrooms for dinner, with some home made egg fettuccine and a salad. Would make again (apologies for large bad pics)

Out of the oven:


Plated:


Close up:


Pasta before cooking:



Cooking liquid:

Home brewed Best Bitter

Made this yesterday - roughly doubled the parsley, used a pot of basil (~40g). Added a tiny bit of sugar for balance reasons. Basil definitely added something extra to chimichurri!

Served with grilled pineapple (so ****ing delicious, and a very good pairing) and home-made potato salad. Grilling tomatoes is probably the optimal way for enhancing the sweetness/tanginess imo, so good!

Couldn't get thighs, so boneless, skinless chicken breast it was. Fair enough since we're dieting anyway (ldo). For a relatively low cal cheat meal this was absolutely something to be repeated, though not without the pineapple!

GOAT bulking meal: slow-cooker French dip sandwiches. These are unreal.

http://carlsbadcravings.com/best-slo...ip-sandwiches/

GOAT cutting meal:
Greek salad:
1.5-2lbs chicken boiled and shredded
2 bags romaine lettuce
package of cherry tomatoes
small package of feta
can of garbanzo beans
olives if you want although I leave out

homemade dressing:
1/2 cup olive oil
3 table spoons lemon juice
one spoon full each of: oregano, mint, parsley
salt and pepper

makes enough for about 3-4, ton of protein, veggies, fiber

Grilled pineapple is a great answer to the "what else do I make with this" question that I've had when I make that -- glad it worked out. I agree that the grilled tomatoes are amazing.

beesch,

I want that French Dip inside of me.

That greek salad looks awfully similar to the chicken souvlaki recipe I posted earlier; I'll definitely give yours a shot.

My folks were are in town this week; made the beet salad, chicken marsala (served with rice and steamed green beans), and the blueberry bars, to great success. The blueberry bars especially are just fantastic; I can't believe I waited to long to make them again (since the last few times).