Archive for the ‘#1 Go-To Recipes’ Category
Tuna Melts
These can be prepared as open-faced or closed sandwiches, and on any type of toasted bread. And for this recipe, 5 variants are listed. Use the base recipe, and what you like, and make it your own signature sandwich. This is written for open-faced sandwiches, if you desire closed, just double the toasted bread.
Equipment
- Baking Sheet
- Parchment Paper
- Oven
Ingredients
For the Salad
- 1 can tuna in water, drained, (180 g / 6 oz)
- 1 stalk celery, finely diced
- 1 spring onion, sliced
- ⅓ cup mayo
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon lemon or lime juice
- salt and pepper, as desired, to taste
For the Sandwich
- 2 slices bread, of your choice, toasted
- fresh tomato, sliced, as desired
- Cheddar cheese, shredded or sliced, as desired
American Classic
- tuna salad, as stated above
- white bread, Wonder, toasted
- American cheese, slices, as desired
- fresh tomato, slices, as desired
New York Deli
- tuna salad, as stated above
- Pumpernickel bagel, sliced in half
- dill pickle, slice lengthwise into slabs, as desired
- New York Cheddar cheese, slices, as desired
Apple Pie
- tuna salad, as stated above, but mixed with chopped pecans and dried currents as desired
- apple, sliced, as desired
- brioche hamburger roll, sliced in half
- extra sharp Cheddar cheese
Hot & Spicy
- tuna salad, as stated above
- jalapeno slices, canned, as desired
- soft wheat taco shells
- roasted red pepper, as desired
- Pepper Jack cheese, as desired
Californian
- tuna salad, as stated above
- avocado slices, as desired
- almonds, slivered, as desired
- Asiago cheese, as desired
- whole grain bread
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200° C (400° F), line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Toast two slices of bread, place the toast on the parchment paper.
- In a mixing bowl, add the Tuna Salad ingredients.
- Mix together the salad, and at this point we have a really nice tuna salad that would make a nice cold sandwich on its own, but why stop here.
- Next item needed, fresh tomatoes, I used two Tor tomatoes with three thick slices each.
- Top the toast with equal portions of the tuna salad, then top that with 1-3 slices of tomato (depends on how big your tomato is), then top that with 1-2 slices of cheese or shredded cheese to your liking (I used a 4 blend pizza cheese).
- Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted, enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per sandwich.
Variants: 1. For bread, think white, wheat, whole grain, English muffins, leftover hamburger buns or hot dog buns, etc. 2. For cheese, Cheddar, Gouda, Swiss, Monterrey Jack. Colby, you get the picture. 3. Don't like an open face sandwich, just top with another toasted similar piece of bread and enjoy as a regular sandwich.
Great Northern Beans & Tomatoes (Pressure Cooker)
Excellent bean dish, either as a side or main dish. There is two steps to this, first we are going to cook the beans in a pressure cooker, then we will add the tomatoes when not on pressure. I use a stove top 9 liter (9½ quart) pressure cooker with 12 psi (80 kPa) pressure for these. Follow all safety precautions for your model of pressure cooker. This is a 2 for 1 recipe, beans for this dish plus bean broth for a soup or noodles another day.
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 500 grams dry Great Northern beans, (1 lb)
- water, as needed
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 250 grams bacon, chopped, (8 oz)
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, or 2 sprigs fresh
- 2 cups fresh tomatoes, diced
- ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Rinse the beans and remove any bad ones and any debris, place in a large bowl and cover with 2 inches of water. Add 2 tablespoons of salt and stir that in. Cover the bowl and let that sit for at least 6 hours. If you are going to soak these overnight, place in the fridge, this will reduce the chance of the beans fermenting.
- After 6 hours, drain and rinse the beans and add to your pressure cooker. Add 8 cups of water, bacon, and the 2 tablespoons of cooking oil, the oil keeps the beans from foaming so do not skip the oil.
- Place the lid on the pot, add the weight (jiggler), and bring the heat up to high. When the jiggler starts moving and releasing pressure, indicating full pressure, start timing this for 6 minutes, and turn the heat down to low or medium low to maintain the jiggler moving and releasing pressure.
- At 6 minutes, turn off the heat and move the pressure cooker to an unused burner and allow a natural release of pressure. When the pressure is released, open and remove the lid, you won't need the lid for the rest of the cooking. Pour the contents into a large strainer that is on top of a large pot. Now you have beans for this recipe and bean broth, 2 for 1.
- Return the beans to the pressure cooker along with 1½ cups of the bean broth. Add the tomatoes, rosemary, salt, and Worcestershire sauce. Stir to mix together and put low heat to simmer.
- Take the remainder of the bean broth and pour that into a jar and let it cool, then place in the fridge. Use as a base for a soup or noodles, use within 2-3 days. I got just under 1 quart of broth.
- Simmer for 15-20 minutes to cook down the tomatoes and the liquid reduced some.
- Serve as a side dish or main dish, enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving for sure.
Taco Spring Rolls
I came up with this on a whim, seemed like a good idea, and it was! Very well liked by the family. This does take time as the meat mixture needs to cool to room temperature, as the key to making spring rolls is to use room temp filling, a warm filling will break the wrappers when you roll them. Link to the Shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 500 grams ground pork, or beef, (1 lb)
- 1 packet taco seasoning mix, (Shortcut)
- 1 cup water
- 120 grams lettuce, chopped, (4 oz)
- 150 grams Cheddar cheese, or a cheese blend, shredded, (5 oz)
- 1 package spring roll wrappers, 5.5 x 5.5 inch wrappers, at least 20 wrappers, thawed
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1-2 tablespoons water
- cooking oil, for frying
- dipping sauce of your choice, salsa would be good, and in Thailand, sweet chili sauce
Instructions
- Heat a non stick pan on medium heat and add the ground pork. Break it up as it cooks with your spatula.
- Break the meat up finely and to cook until little to no pink is visible. Since I used pork, I drained the fat.
- Once the meat is drained, add the taco seasoning packet and 1 cup of water.
- Stir together and simmer the seasoned meat until the water is all evaporated, stirring occasionally. Once no liquid remains, remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool to room temperature. If you are pushed for time, you can add the meat mixture to a mixing bowl to cool, but why dirty up another bowl, just leave it in the pan on an unused burner or counter top. To cool takes 1-2 hours.
- Take the spring roll wrappers out of the freezer and place on the counter to thaw. Go ahead and prep the lettuce and cheese.
- When you are ready to roll the spring roll, add the lettuce and cheese to the cooled meat mixture.
- Give the filling a good stir to mix everything together, there, you just made the filling, which is much faster than traditional spring rolls. In a small bowl, mix together the corn starch and 1-2 tablespoons of water, this is your glue for the next step.
- For this step, it is best to have two people, one to pull the wrappers, one to roll. Lay a spring roll wrapper, smooth side down on the counter with one corner pointed towards you. Place about 1-1 1/2 tablespoons of filling near the corner closest to you. Fold the corner nearest you up and over the filling and roll away until you are at the widest point of the wrapper. Use your fingers and dip into the glue and rub that on the two side that are away from you, be generous. Now fold one side, left or right, towards the middle, the repeat with the other side, now it should look like an open envelope. Now continue rolling away from you to complete the roll. If the point flap does not stay glued down, just dab a bit more glue on it. Repeat until the filling is all used. I made 21 rolls, you may make 18 or 25, depending on how much filling you are using. Once you have done this a few times this actually goes pretty fast. The reason for the two people is you do not want the wrappers drying or they will tear when pulling them apart.
- And here they are all rolled. My wife and I made these at about 3 pm but did not dry them until about 10 pm, so we just covered them with foil and placed in the fridge.
- When you are ready to fry them, heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a pan, you want it hot but not smoking. When the oil is hot, fry 4 to 5 rolls at a time until golden brown then turn over until the other side is golden brown. Drain on paper towels and continue frying in batches until all are cooked.
- Serve with dipping sauces of your choice. Enjoy.
Notes
Low cost.
Shortcut: Taco Seasoning Mix.
Made this on a whim, I researched this idea for spring rolls and every recipe seemed way over engineered, this seemed like the most logical way, and it worked perfectly.
Broken Meatball Spaghetti
The author of this recipe stated she never had enough meatballs in her spaghetti, she solved that problem with this recipe, and it is good! Links to the Shortcuts are listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 500 grams dry spaghetti, or linguine, (1 lb)
- 500 grams ground beef, or pork, (1 lb)
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, (Shortcut)
- 1 egg
- 1 cup onion, chopped
- 1 cup Italian bread crumbs, (Shortcut)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 3 cups pasta sauce, (Shortcut)
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Cheddar cheese, shredded, for topping, optional, as desired
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, add the beef, onion, bread crumbs, egg, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
- Get in there with your hands and mix everything together. Now at this point, you are thinking you are going to make meatballs, well, you're not, just mix well and go wash off your hands.
- Now heat a large pot of salted water to a boil, when the water is boiling, add the spaghetti (I used linguine) and cook until just tender. Drain.
- While the water is heating/pasta cooking, Heat a large non stick pan on medium heat, when hot, add the meat mixture you made, flatten out the meat and chop it up roughly with the spatula, don't break up the meat to much, goal is large chunks but not meatball size. Now just let it cook, no more breaking it up, just let it cook until you start to see the edges cooked.
- When the edges are cooked through, turn the meat over, break it up just a bit, keeping the chunks large, not quite meat ball size, but nice large pieces.
- When there is no more red in the meat, add the pasta sauce and cayenne pepper and stir into the meat, reduce heat to low and let the sauce get hot. Now that, is a meat sauce!
- Once the pasta is drained, add to the pan and mix with the sauce.
- Add to plates, top with shredded cheese as desired, enjoy.
Notes
I will say fair cost per serving based on the beef alone.
Shortcuts: Italian Seasoning, Italian Bread Crumbs, Pasta Sauce.
Provided by Lori Harbin-Combs of Just A Pinch Recipe Club and his recipe is here.
United States.
United States.
Crab Stuffed Deviled Eggs
These are great deviled eggs, great taste. Feel free to use lump crab meat or imitation crab. This recipe assumes you have hard boiled eggs already prepared. Link to the shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 12 hard boiled eggs, peeled, Shortcut
- 1 can lump crab meat, drained, (250 g / 8 oz)
- ⅓ cup mayo, of your choice
- 2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped, plus additional for garnish
- 2 teaspoons lemon pepper
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon prepared horseradish
Instructions
- For the crab meat, after you drain can, place that in a shallow bowl, remove any shell fragments, then flake it apart with a fork. If using imitation crab (crab sticks, my preference), chop the sticks into 1/4 inch pieces and crumble them with your hands.
- Slice the eggs in half lengthwise, remove the yolks to a mixing bowl, mash the yolks with a fork and place the whites on a serving tray, flat side up. Eggs, yolks, and crab all prepped.
- Add the crab meat to the yolks, and add remaining ingredients.
- Mix together well.
- Spoon mixture into the egg whites, top each egg with additional dill for garnish, as desired. Chill for an hour, serve and enjoy.
Notes
Shortcuts: Perfect Hard Boiled Chicken Eggs, Steamed Chicken Eggs (Rice Cooker).
This recipe was awarded a Blue Ribbon on the Just A Pinch Recipe Club.
Easiest Deviled Eggs, Ever!
For a basic deviled egg, the egg yolks are mixed with mayo and mustard, well we are not going to do that. So actually, you could call this the laziest way to make deviled eggs, ever. This recipe assumes you already have hard boiled eggs available, and if someone else prepared those, and peeled them, bonus for being even more easy (or lazy). Basically if you have hard boiled eggs, this is just another way to enjoy them.
Ingredients
- 2 hard boiled eggs, peeled
- Kewpie mayo, or mayo of your choice in a squirt bottle
- mustard, of your choice, in a squirt bottle is preferred
- black pepper, as desired
Instructions
- Slice eggs in half lengthwise and place on a plate flat side up.
- Squirt some mayo all over the top of each egg, be generous. Then squirt a small amount of mustard on top of the mayo, and add a sprinkle of black pepper as desired. Enjoy.
Notes
Now how easy was that?
Shortcuts: Perfect Hard Boiled Chicken Eggs, Steamed Chicken Eggs (Rice Cooker), Perfect Hard Boiled Duck Eggs.
Seen a photo of these and just made them.
Stuffed Whitefish
This, is delicious! A really nice alternative to baked or fried fish. I made this on 3 May 2019 and cut the recipe in half, absolutely delicious. My photos show only 3 fillets used.
Ingredients
- 6 whitefish fillets, boneless, skinless, pangasius would be perfect
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/4 cup onion, diced
- 3 tablespoons green bell pepper, diced
- 1 can corn, drained
- 1 cup soft bread crumbs
- 2 tablespoons pimento, chopped
- 1/8 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
- 2 tablespoons salad oil, or neutral oil of your choice
- paprika, for garnish if desired
- fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish if desired
- lemon slices, as desired
- salt and pepper, as desired
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180 C (350 F). Grease with oil or butter a 9x13 baking dish. If cutting the recipe in half, a 7x11 baking dish is perfect.
- To make the stuffing, put a saucepan on medium heat, add the butter, when melted, add the onion, cook until onion is translucent.
- Add the bell pepper, drained corn, bread crumbs, pimento, and thyme. Cook until the bell pepper is soft, stirring often, takes just a few minutes. Remove the stuffing from heat.
- For those that are new to cooking, this is the skin side of a skinless fillet.
- And this is the opposite side, or the inside of the fish, this is the side you are going to add the filling to.
- Lay the fillets out on a sheet of foil, skin side down. Spread the stuffing loosely over the fillets.
- Roll each fillet up and place seam side down in the prepared baking dish. Brush each roll with salad oil or oil of your choice.
- For any leftover filling, just spoon it in along both ends of the rolls.
- Wipe off the foil you used and cover the baking dish with that foil. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until the fish flakes easily with a fork. Photo with foil removed, perfectly cooked fish.
- Serve with sides of your choice.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Provided by Russ Myers of Just A Pinch Recipe Club and his recipe is here.
United States.
United States.
Egg Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich (ELT)
A straightforward sandwich with many variants. This recipe assumes you have hard boiled eggs already on hand.
Ingredients
- 2 hard boiled eggs, chicken or duck, sliced
- lettuce leaves, as desired
- fresh tomato, sliced, as desired
- 4 slices bread, toasted
- mayo, or mayo of your choice, as desired
- salt and pepper, as desired
Instructions
- Prep the lettuce and tomato. slice the hard boiled egg.
- Toast the bread then spread some mayo on each slice, to two slices, add a layer of tomato slices and season with salt and pepper as desired. I used Tor tomatoes.
- Top with lettuce leaves.
- Top the lettuce with egg slices.
- Top with the other slice of bread, mayo side down, slice in half, enjoy.
Notes
Low cost.
Shortcuts: Perfect Hard Boiled Chicken Eggs, Steamed Eggs (Rice Cooker), Perfect Hard Boiled Duck Eggs.
Variants: 1. Use plain bread instead of toasted. 2. Use a fried egg instead of hard boiled. 3. Add a slice of cheese, your choice. 4. Add two layers of tomato slices. 5. Use a croissant in place of toast. 6. Use a bagel in place of bread. 7. Use a hamburger bun in place of bread. 8. Add a slice or two of thin sliced smoked ham.
Adapted from an internet recipe.
Lemon Rice (Rice Cooker)
This recipe come a good Chef friend and I have tailored it to be prepared in a rice cooker. This is tasty rice. I used my small 1 liter rice cooker for this which is a simple Cook / Warm model. I also doubled the recipe from what is listed. Links to the Shortcuts are listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Equipment
- Rice Cooker
Ingredients
- 1 cup dry Jasmine rice, rinsed and drained
- 1 tablespoon extra light olive oil
- ½ teaspoon lemon pepper, or more to taste
- ¼ teaspoon dried basil
- 1¼ cups chicken stock, homemade or from powder, Shortcut
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice, or lime juice if no lemons availalble
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature
- pinch salt
- 1 tablespoon ponzu sauce, optional, Shortcut
Instructions
- To your rice cooker, add the oil, rinsed and drained rice, lemon pepper, and basil, set the rice cooker to Cook. You are NOT using the cover yet. Stir to mix the oil into the rice, and stir often as the cooker heats and the rice turns translucent. This will take 3-5 minutes once the the cooker comes up to temperature.
- Now pour in the chicken stock, lemon juice, butter, and a pinch of salt as desired. If using the ponzu sauce, add that now as well. Give everything a stir to combine.
- Cover with the lid, leaving the setting on Cook.
- When the rice cooker switches to Warm setting, leave the cooker covered for 3-5 minutes, then turn off, fluff with a rice paddle.
- Serve as a side dish with any meal.
Notes
Shortcuts: Chicken Stock (Pressure Cooker), Ponzu Sauce.
Sirloin & Provolone Surprise aka Ham & Cheese Pizza Lasagna
This recipe is an original from a good friend, and Chef, and it is tasty! This can be tailored many ways to make it your own. The recipe as stated is for using one 5 inch ramekin. For the photos, I doubled the ingredients and used three 5 x 7 inch baking dishes (Tesco).
Ingredients
- 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
- 1/4 cup carrot, diced small
- 1 clove garlic, smashed and minced
- 250 grams ground sirloin, (1/2 lb)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 3-5 tablespoons tomato sauce
- 3 slices Provolone cheese
Instructions
- You are going to need a small baking dish, the dish used by the Chef was a ramekin measuring 5 inches across and 2 1/2 inches deep with a volume of 10 ounces.
- Prep the tomatoes and carrots. Measure out all the spices. I also added some fresh Shiitake mushrooms sliced on an angle.
- Preheat your oven to 180 C (350 F).
- Heat a non stick pan on medium heat and when hot add the sirloin, breaking up the meat as it cooks until just a little pink remains visible, about 3-5 minutes. I used minced pork, so you have to drain the fat from that once it is cooked through.
- Add the garlic, cumin, basil, oregano, parsley, black pepper, and salt and give the meat a stir and cook for about 1 minute.
- Add the tomatoes, carrot, and tomato sauce, and stir together. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes. Taste the sauce and adjust salt and pepper or spices, as needed. If using mushrooms, add them now as well.
- Coat the inside of your ramekin or other suitable oven safe dish with some olive oil. Add a slice of Provolone to the bottom of the dish. I used 5 x 7 inch baking dishes, I added two slices of smoked ham to the bottom of each dish, then topped that with cheese. Cheese I used was Gouda, which is square so went with 1 1/2 slices for each layer.
- Add half the meat sauce and spread evenly.
- Top the sauce with another slice of Provolone, then add the rest of the meat sauce and top that with the last slice of Provolone. I also added two slices of smoked ham in the middle layer followed by the cheese.
- Place the dish in the oven and bake for 12-14 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly. Increase the heat to 190 C (375 F) and let the the cheese brown a little, about 3-4 minutes. If using a counter top oven (like me) switch to the top coil for the last 3-4 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes.
- Serve with bread or sides of your choice and enjoy. The 5 x 7 inch dishes were perfect for 2 servings.
Notes
Low cost per serving as written, when using larger baking dishes, more cheese is needed taking this up to fair value per serving. Some of the variants will also increase the per serving cost as well.
Variants: 1. Replace the sirloin with regular ground beef or pork but drain the fat before adding the spices and tomatoes and such. 2. In place of Provolone, use Gouda, Emmental (Swiss), Cheddar, or cheese of your choice. 3. Add some cayenne pepper to the sauce. 4. Add a handful of al dente pasta to the sauce at the last 3 minutes of cooking. 5. Add 1-2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese to the sauce. 6. Add sauteed mushrooms to the sauce. 7. Add a layer of pepperoni on each layer of cheese. 8. Add a layer of thin sliced smoked ham to each layer.
Provided by Chef Andy Anderson of Just A Pinch Recipe Club and his recipe is here.
United States.
United States.