Category: Dinner

Use It or Lose It Turkey Chili

If we’ve ever met in person or on Instagram, you know that I REALLY hate food waste. I work really hard to plan our grocery hauls and weekly menus in a way that reuses as much produce and protein as possible.

That having been said, our fridge is an absolute disaster right now.

We threw a couple of pretty large get togethers back to back and we have quite the leftover menagerie. As I was rummaging through this week, I found some softening bell peppers and some frozen leftover black beans and turkey burgers and decided to make what has been dubbed Use It or Lose It Chili– because it was use the veggies or lose them to the compost pile and say bye bye money!

So if you want to turn your left overs into this

or this

You will need:

~1 lb of protein– ground beef, turkey, or chicken will work. Also shredded chicken or pork

2 12 oz cans of diced tomatoes

1-2 onions of any color

1-2 peppers of any color or persuasion

Chili powder, garlic, cumin, smoked paprika, ground mustard, salt, and pepper. Use what you’ve got, guys. Seriously.

Beans– canned, pre made, your choice.

THIS IS PRETTY FREE FORM GUYS, JUST QUIT THROWING FOOD AWAY.

I won’t bore you with the details of how I made the chili, but I will tell you the process should look like so:

We decided to reward our frugality with loaded French fries that night and they were the stuff of legends.

I suggest lots of hot sauce and some fresh red onion.

The best part was that I had some leftover grilled sweet potato halves and we got to have chili loaded sweet potatoes for lunch the next day.

I froze the rest of it for a lazy night sometime in the near future.

Now it’s your turn! What are your go-to recipes for reducing your food waste?

Can’t wait to hear your You It or Lose It tips!

XO,

K

 

Roasted Tomato Shakshouka

Shakshouka (aka Eggs in Purgatory) has been on my cooking bucket list for so long. It has literally all of my favorite things: runny eggs, spicy sauce, lots of veggies, and a great excuse to eat several slices of bread.

I was just so dang INTIMIDATED by the idea of it.

I never would have made myself take the leap and do the research to develop my own recipe if not for this little blog of mine, so I guess it’s a good thing I did. Because this stuff is seconds please, slap yo mama, one more bite GOOD.

Before I get too deep here, let me say that this is NOT “authentic” Shakshouka. This is weeknight dinner with pantry staples and a level of heat my wife (love you, honey) could withstand Shakshouka.

But let’s talk about how and why I decided it was time to try this in the first place: early tomatoes. If you think summer tomatoes are fickle time bombs, just waiting for you to out them on your counter so they can get soft, try spring ones. In my haste for summer foods, I was lured in by shiny red spring tomatoes in the grocery store. Naturally, I brought them home, let them sit on my counter for 3 days, and clutched my pearls in horror when I realized they were getting spotty. We were headed out of town for the weekend, so I knew I needed to do something with them, but we also had a ton of leftovers to eat. So I roasted them. Really good move on my part because those dark brown, caramelized tomatoes gave this Shakshouka a deep smoky flavor that I don’t think I could have gotten any other way. So if you have the time, I highly recommend roasting your fresh tomatoes until they’re *almost* too dark for some charred goodness.

Now, as promised:

You will need:

6-8 Fresh tomatoes, quartered and oven roasted

1 large or 2 small sweet onions, finely diced.

1 large red bell pepper, finely diced

1 tbsp red chili flake (this is a lot, please go easy on your taste buds if you’re not into heat.)

Goat cheese for garnish

Olive oil for sautéing

s & p to taste

Now! The fun part.

In a very wide pan, sauté the diced onion and bell pepper in olive oil until they’re soft and translucent. About halfway through the cooking process, add your red chili flake to it can “bloom” in the hot oil.

Once you’re satisfied with the texture of your veggies, add in the roasted tomatoes, juices and all. I also added about 1.5 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes because I knew I wanted a pretty smooth texture for my sauce. I let this simmer for quite a while, until I was pleased with the flavor. (An optional step here would be to take a pass through the sauce with an immersion blender, like I did. You can also let it cool a bit and then pulse it in a blender, but make sure you still have some “chunks” or you’ll miss out on some great texture.)

When the sauce is thick enough to leave a trail in (see photo), use the back of a ladle to make 6 small divots in the sauce and crack eggs directly into a simmering sauce. Cover and cook for ~6 minutes for soft eggs, or until they’re as done as you like them. Just keep a close eye, as they go over quickly!

Serve with a heaping spoon of tomato sauce and soft, chewy hunk of bread and a little crumble of goat cheese. Feel free to pat yourself on the back as much as you wish because this is going to be a HIT in your home.

As always, hashtag your own Shakshouka adventures #sixdollarspoon and invite me over!

xo,

K

Orange Ginger Chicken Thighs

You know those cool little parts of your life that you wind up loving so much and you never see them coming? That’s my natural gas grill.

When we bought our house last June, I thought to myself “oh, cool! a grill.” and that was about it. Until the first time I got to stand only own deck with a cold beer and cook meat over a fire. There is absolutely a reason why TV dads like doing that so much.

I have seriously come to love spending that time outdoors making something ultra tasty. And these chicken thighs are ULTRA tasty. See for yourself!

You will need:

4-6 Mandarin oranges– not from a can, though. The sweet little ones from the produce section that you can eat three at a time… so I’ve heard.

2 cups soy sauce

A healthy dash of cinnamon

3 cloves of garlic; sliced or grated

2 tbsp ginger paste or fresh ginger, or 1 tbsp ground ginger

(Optional: 2 tbsp fruit preserves. I used fig. I have also tried using a fruity pepper jelly here and LOVED the results.)

6-8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

Combine the soy sauce, spices, and jam in a big bowl and squeeze sliced mandarin oranges in until the marinade is sweetened to your liking. Add in the chicken thighs and let them soak for at least an hour, but over night is best. Then put them on a hot grill, crack open a cold drink, and cook them until they’re done through! This is a sugary marinade, so it may cause your chicken to stick a little. I recommend using a non stick grilling spray if you’re worried.

Then they’ll look this good and taste even better!

Keep reading to find out what to use those smoky, caramelized orange halves for.

Bonus Points:

I like to serve these on a really earthy salad of shaved Brussels, red cabbage, and carrots. The fatty, juicy chicken thighs are a perfect foil to those hearty, earthy vegetables and it all works together so well with the bright, sweet carrots.

To dress the salad, I use a vinaigrette made from equal parts olive oil and the juice of charred mandarin oranges and with ginger, and salt and pepper added to taste.

Now get outside and get grilling already!

xo,

K