Quick & Easy - Spice up a box of rice!

So if you are in need of quick and easy meal, box starter sets are great!  You can add in fresh ingredients and make it your own!

One of my favorites that I always get a ton of compliments on is Jambalaya.  I used the Zatarains mix, and usually get the reduced sodium version.

 Ingredients:

Everything the box calls for, which I think is just water and oil

1 lb package of Hilshire farm smoked sausage, I have used turkey and chicken before which are fewer calories and still taste really good

1 celery stalk

1 green bell pepper

half of an onion

Cooking process

Slice the sausage, celery, and pepper into bite size little pieces.  Slice the onion into thin strips.  (All of this slicing you can do to your liking..big chunks of everything works well too,)

Put a non stick deep pan on the burner and let get warm on med high heat.  Once hot enough spray with pam and add in the sausage.  Let that brown for about 5 mins then add in the veggies. Season all with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and crushed red pepper flake to your liking. Stir and cook for an addtl 5-7 mins, we want the veggies to be cooked but still firm.

Take the mixture out and place in a serving bowl to wait.

Now cook the Zatarains mix as instructed on the box. (cook in the same pot to keep the flavors and only dirty one pot lol)

Once the mixture has only about 10 more mins to cook, add back in your veggies and sausage.  I do this so my veggies are still crisp, if you like softer vegetables you can keep them in the mixture the whole cooking time.

Let sit 5 mins then serve, it's super easy! I sprinkled the top with a little cheese too :)

Then I just served mine with some bag salad which I chopped up some of the green peppers and celery to top it, and some zucchini and an easy bisquick biscuit packet

Enjoy! 

 I hope you find it to be just as easy and delicious!!

Sunday Pot Roast - Final Recipe and Comments

I would have to say the roast recipe was a hit!  There are a couple things I would have done a little differently so see the pictures and updated recipe below :)

Prep Time:  Approx 25 mins (mostly because I am slow and get distracted easily lol)

Cook Time:  4 hours and 10 mins

Total ready in time (includes prep, cook and resting):  4 hours and 50 mins

Ingredients:

3-4.5lb Chuck Roast

1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup (98% fat free)

1/2 cup dry vermouth ( I can take or leave this ingredient, I didn't notice any real difference in flavor.  Just make sure if you don't use it you supplement it with either some sort of broth or water.)

Seasons to taste; Salt, Pepper, Crushed Red Pepper Flake, Adobo with pepper (keep in mind if you use adobo it does have salt in it, so you may not want to add any additional salt)

Cooking Process:

 Take your chuck roast out of the fridge.. you don't want to put a really cold roast in the oven, just let it sit on the counter while your oven and prep work is coming to.  I am using  about a 3lb roast *wegmans usually has the club pack on sale and who doesn't want to have pot roast more than once :)

1. Preheat your oven to 325 
2. Start by dicing about a quarter of a large onion into small pieces, season the onions with pepper and red pepper flake (if your into spicy)  just enough of each to "coat" ( I took the salt out of this section, with the cream of mushroom and the adobo I think there is enough.  If you love the salt feel free to keep it on there, I am just a little sensitive to salt but D didn't think it was too salty)
3. Now in a small bowl mix together the following: cream of mushroom soup can, approx 3/4 of a can full of water, vermouth, Adobo, 2tbsp minced onion, pepper, and red pepper flake.  This mixture should be kind of loose so if it isn't add in water as necessary.
4. Time to get this baby into the roaster!!
5. Put the roast in the roaster and season it lightly with some salt. You can go a little heavier with  pepper and red pepper flake to your liking
6. Pour the cream sauce we made into the roasting pan around the roast., followed by sprinkling the diced onions on top. 
   *As a note:  While I was prepping this I poured the sauce mix over the roast too. I've decided that it is better when the sauce is just around it.  It gives you more to use for gravy and it leaves the roast top and onions a little crispier, which is very yummy :)
7. Cover with tinfoil and roast for approx 4-4.5 hours  give a check about half  way to make sure there is still liquid in the bottom of the pan, if necessary add some more water.
8. For the last 10 mins take the cover off of the pan, drizzle the top with extra virgin olive oil and 3 cloves of chopped garlic and continue to cook without the cover.
9. Then be patient, the beef should set for at least 10 - 15 mins before serving :)





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I made ours with some garlic bread, homemade mashed potatoes, corn, asparagus, and stuffed peppers.  I pretty much overstuffed myself with it and I'm pretty excited to eat it again for leftovers!

I have another roast in the freezer so at some point I will cook it again and try using the lipton onion soup mix.  I'll just add a comment with the updates/taste differences.

Hope you enjoy too!!



Sunday Pot Roast

Sunday Pot Roast - Documented attempt #1

So normally I create or follow a recipe it's delicious, and then I never remember what I did and have to recreate the wheel each time I make it.  Well that ends today!!

I am going to start documenting my recipes so I can really start to perfect what I love :) and then when friends/family ask for a recipe I can actually give one :)

So today its Chuck Roast time

Here's the base recipe I found: Allrecipes.com Oven Pot Roast by beckysmith

Prep Time:
15 Min

Cook Time:
3 Hrs

Ready In:
3 Hrs 15 Min

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• ground black pepper to taste
• 3 1/2 pounds rump roast
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1/2 cup dry vermouth

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and black pepper to taste. Dredge the rump roast in the flour and cover evenly. Shake off excess.
3. In a large pot over medium/high heat, melt the butter and brown the roast on all sides. Place in a 4 quart casserole dish with lid.
4. In a small bowl, combine the soup mix, mushroom soup, and vermouth or white wine; pour over roast.
5. Cover and bake in preheated oven for 3 hours or until desired doneness.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 375 | Total Fat: 24.3g |

Here's my actual process...

1. Take your chuck roast out of the fridge.. you don't want to put a really cold roast in the oven, just let it sit on the counter while your oven and prep work is coming to.  I am using  about a 3lb roast *wegmans usually has the club pack on sale and who doesn't want to have pot roast more than once :)
2. Preheat your oven to 325 
3. Start by dicing about a quarter of a large onion into small pieces, season the onions with salt/pepper and red pepper flake (if your into spicy)  just enough of each to "coat" 
4. Now in a small bowl mix together the following: cream of mushroom soup can, vermouth, and well I just realized I don't have a onion soup packet so I'm  going to put in some Adobo with pepper instead and another 2 tbsp of a fresh onion minced.  (I have used the soup packet before though and that works out pretty good too)  This mixture should be kind of loose so if it isn't add in water as necessary I added in a couple tbsps
5. alright they say something about all that jazz with flour but I am going to go ahead and skip that all together. 
6. Time to get this baby into the roaster!!
7. Put the roast in the roaster and season it lightly with some salt. You can go a little heavier with  pepper and red pepper flake to your liking
8. Pour over the cream sauce we made, followed by sprinkling the diced onions on top. Actually after doing this I put in another half soup can full of water in the mix.
9. Cover with tinfoil and roast for approx 4-4.5 hours  give a check about half  way to make sure there is still liquid in the bottom of the pan, if necessary add some more water.
10. For the last half hour to 45 mins take the cover off of the pan, drizzle the top with extra virgin olive oil and 3 cloves of chopped garlic and continue to cook without the cover.
11. Then be patient, the beef should set for at least 10 - 15 mins before serving :)

Time in 2:09  now its time to mix a drink, read the paper and attempt to please the husband by watching football-- later tonight or tmr will be reviews and ending notes...