The Bread to Stuffing Race

So for the cheese t-gives dinner, I'm making bacon stuffing and BORING stuffing.  The first bread has been completed

What is this you may ask? Saurkraut Sourdough Bread!  Yet to taste it, but it'll be the main ingredient in my stuffing if it doesn't suck.  The other component will of course be pumpernickel, cause whats stuffing without pumpernickel? Shit, thats what!

So here's the recipe I found: http://www.cookingbread.com/classes/class_sauerkraut_rye.html
And here's what I actually did:

• 
  
  

  Day Before:

  
  
  
  • 1 cup bread flour
  • 1 cup more flour!
    
  • 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
  • 1 cup water
  
  
  

• 
  
  

  Day Of:

  
  
  

• 4 cups bread flour
• 2 cups more flour!
  
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 teaspoon salt
• 4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 28.8 oz Sauerkraut
• 1 3/4 cups water
• 4 tablespoons olive oil

 Followed the same basic recipe, 'cept I topped mine with sesame seeds and dill.

 Note: this recipe will try to escape if not carefully watched!  Always watch it!

Tuna Cassarole

The Meal

Today I attempt my first cassarole!  Tuna!  
 
 







So in order to accomplish this lovely feat, I will be combining old world knowledge (my madre) with my love of mayo <3



Recipe (13x9 glass pan)

• 3x5oz cans Albacore tuna in water, drained
• 1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup, condensed
• 1 can Golden Mushroom Soup, condensed (not a fan of the tomato version? use 2 cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup)
  
• 1 cup Mayo
• 2 cups Bell Peppers, diced
• 1/2 Onion, diced
• 1.5 cups of celery (about 3 ribs), diced
• 1 cup Frozen peas
• 1 12oz Box Noodles
• 2 wine coolers

Open 1 wine cooler, trust me, making a casserole requires you drink wine coolers, beer will not do.

Prepare pasta according to provided directions, UNDER-COOK BY 2 MINUTES.

Drain off the water and put the pasta back in the pot (hopefully it is big enough for everything you are about to add).  For my experiment, I used Hodgson Mill Whole Wheat Medium Shells.

Chop everything.  When you only have 2 more things to chop, heat oven to 350 F.

Combine all ingredients in pot and mix thoroughly, ensuring the tuna is broken down (unless you like chunks and poor flavor dispersion).

Apply non-stick spray to baking pan if you're into that kinda of thing (I prefer not to as the casserole should not stick to the glass pan).  Pour pot into baking pan, or scoop carefully as I did.

Bake for 40 minutes.  Turn off oven, leave until needed.  Do not worry, it will not dry out, this casserole is expected to be slightly wet at the bottom, increase cooking time by 10-20 minutes for complete dry, horribleness.

Also, you may apply french's french fried onions to the top, every casserole should have them on top.  If you don't have those, any dried onion chips (minced onion, dried) will do.

Dinner: Chocolate Coconut Rice

The Meal

So, my one roommate was making a certain dish all week and I wanted to improve upon it. Basically it consists of the following:

• 1 tbsp Cocoa Powder, Natural Unsweetened
  [20 calories]
• 1/4 cup Confectioners Sugar
  [120 calories]
• 1/4 cup Organic Coconut Milk
  [120 calories]
• 1 cup (dry) Jasmine Rice
  [720 calories]

I cleaned and cooked the rice as I normally would, then mixed the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl before combining all the ingredients.

Taste

Chocolate rice is very nice.  Smells like cocoa puffs.

Portion Size: 3 medium portions

Calories: 665

Score: 7/10

Let's try this again: Apricot Breaded Pork Chops

So it's been a while since I posted here, but let's give this a try!

Apricot Breaded Pork Chops
So I know what you're thinking, how did I get the apricots into a form where I could use them as breading?  Simple!  I used apricot jam, white wine, and regular breadcrumbs.  Basically, the binding agent for the bread crumbs was an apricot, white wine, and onion mixture.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 40-50 minutes
Yield: 5 Apricot Breaded Pork Chops


Items Needed:

• 5 Center Cut Pork Chops (just a style of pork chop, aim for at least 2.25 lbs of pork chops, ask for different ones or buy more if necessary)
  
• 4 oz Apricot Jam [got mine at reading terminal market - welsh mountain canning apricot jam]
• 60ml White wine [picked my favorite style, a Woodbridge Riesling]
• 2 tablespoons dried chopped onion
• 3 cups bread crumbs (more than enough, depending on how much you pack onto the chops)
• Sugar (depending on how sweet the apricot jam is, you will need to flavor to taste)
• Applesauce (I'm a firm believer that breaded pork chops need applesauce, however these chops were sooo sweet, they already tasted candied!)
• Non-stick baking pan or broiling tray.
  

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
   
2. In a mixing bowl, combine apricot jam, onions, and white wine.
3. Beat mixture with spoon until it is a runny mixture that no long smells strongly of alcohol.
4. Flavor mixture with sugar to taste, beat in sugar until dissolved.
   
5. Rinse pork chops, pat dry.
6. Pour 1 cup bread crumbs into plate (add more as needed).
   
7. One by one, batter and bread pork chops, placing them either on a non-stick baking pan (ungreased) or broiling tray.

Cooking:

1. Place pan on middle shelf of 350°F oven.
2. Bake for 15 minutes on each side.
3. Broil for 3-5 minutes on each side, this will give the pork chops a nice crisp and caramelized taste as the sugars in the jam and that which was added with melt into the meat more.
   
4. Bake for 10 minutes.
   

Serving Suggestions:
I plated this with broccoli raab and tortellini salad.  Plate with applesauce.

Review
Amazing.  Didn't even need the applesauce, that's how sweet and juicy these pork chops were.  So glad I broiled them how I did, seared the breadcrumbs just enough that the outside shell was bubbling and crusted at the same time.  Also very glad I didn't trim any fat from the pork chops, pig fat when cooked right is crispy and delicious.

5 pork chops will feed 3 people comfortably with two sides, one being a vegetable.

Score: 9/10

Dinner - Taco Beef & Rice Bowl!

The Meal

After awaking and being offered a delicious breakfast, I decided I would hold back for a little while and let my hunger mount, allowing my body to get used to a lower caloric intake that I enjoy (side note, this diet thing is working, I weighed 159 pounds yesterday while dehydrated, 161 in the evening; overall loss since diet began = 9 pounds in 8 weeks)

So, lately I haven' t put anything on this blog since I haven't had the motivation. All I really make is plain rice, a bean/meat thing, and throw cheese on both. This of course isn't any fun to blog about, but I'm going to anyway, since writing stuff is always nice.

Dinner consisted of:

• 1/2 cup Jasmine Rice
  [320 calories]

Which was thrown in the rice cooker (without washing) with a dash of cinnamon and crushed red pepper and 1 cup of water. I let the rice soak for 10 minutes while I tuned my guitar and set it to cook.

After 13 minutes of cooking I grabbed my ground beef cooking pot (a pot works great for cooking 113 grams of ground beef) and taco seasoning. Now, I use McCormick's newest taco spice which is high in calories and low in sodium, leading to a bland taco flavor. I compensate for this by using a tonne of it :)

• 113 grams of 7% lean ground beef
  [170 calories]
• 1/6 cup taco seasoning (works out to 4 servings)
  [80 calories]

Basically I brown the meat and break it into very tiny pieces, then deglaze with water and throw in taco seasoning, then boil off most of the water, leaving my meat in a pudding of Mexican flavoring. What do I mean by "most of the water"? For me, I prepare my dishes after cooking is complete, so I need 2 minutes to work with the food item before it is ready to be served. So to account for those 2 minutes I usually leave things a little (very little) wet.

Upon bringing the meat back, the rice was done cooking. I scooped out 2/3rds of the cooked rice and formed it to the bottom of a bowl. I then placed:

• 1/8 cup Kraft NATURAL SHREDDED CHEESE - - MEXICAN CHEDDAR JACK
  [55 calories]

on top of the rice. I covered the cheese with the beef, and covered the beef with:

• 4 table spoons of Tostitos Medium Salsa
  [30 calories]

Sounds good, right?


Taste

So I've made this countless times since I bought my 12lbs of ground beef back in april. The cinnamon with crushed red pepper makes the dish hot and sweet. The salsa adds a cool flavor and a mild kick while the cheese gives the dish some "pull". The beef obviously was discovered by experimentation until I eventually found a combination that worked. Here is what the layers looked like.



Portion Size: 2 small portions, 1 medium portion (1 delicious medium portion)

Calories: 665

Score: 8/10

Dinner - Tuna Noodle Ricecookered

The Meal

Experimentation night! I have 6 packets of velveta cheese that are 3 months passed their best buy, which makes me sad. So Tonight I am attempting to find out if they are still good. Upon opening one, smelling and tasting it, I determined it was safe to consume, if nothing else. My recipe is one I have used in the past

This meal was prepared in several parts:

• 1 tablespoon Chopped Onions (dried)
  [5 calories]
• 1 Tbsp veggie oil
  [120 calories]

Fried those little onions up real quick, had the button held down by a file.
Then I put the pasta in, 1:1 ratio with water. Tonight I was using small shell pasta, cook time estimated at 6-8 minutes.

• 1 cup shell pasta
  [266 calories]
  

After 8 minutes of cooking, I added in 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup velveta cheese sauce, 2/3 cups peas, 1/4 cup breadcrumbs, and 1 5 oz can of chicken of the sea white albacore tuna. One note, if your rice cooker has a tendency to burn stuff on the bottom like mine, stir it every 3 minutes, you'll get nice and crunchy parts from the burning breadcrumbs :)

• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
  [120 calories]
• 5 oz tuna
  [150 calories]
• 2/3 cups peas
  [80 calories]
• 1/2 cup milk
  [45 calories]
• 1/2 cup velveeta cheese
  [160 calories]
  

Taste

Review: Well then, that was mighty tastey. Sure, I added a little bit of salt and lots of garlic pepper, but I always use garlic pepper on my tuna cassarole. The cheese was good, the meal went great with a blue moon honey ale, which was nice. Each time I took a serving (3 times) I let the bottom burn considerably, then scooped it up, making it perfect.

Side note: Goes great with Honey Moon Summer Ale

Portion Size: 3 medium portions

Calories: 986

Score: 7/10

Dinner - Chunky FULLY LOADED Beef Stew w/ rice

The Meal

Tonight is a lazy night. Nothing special, just soaked a half cup of jasmine rice in a can of beef stew for 20 minutes, then added 555ml of water, filling my rice cooker to 6oz. I did not preseason it as I do no really know what to expect, other than beef stew that is full of rice.

This meal was prepared in several parts:

• 1 - 18.8 oz Campbell's Chunky FULLY LOADED Beef Stew [sic]
  [370 calories]
• 1/2 cup Jasmine rice
  [320 calories]
  

Taste

Review: Wow, I was not expecting having to add salt, I did not realize that this soup was low sodium. Anyway, after adding my typically salt, chili powder, and salt, this was amazing. The rice is great, covered with gravy, waiting for this to cool was the hardest part! The overall outcome was very large, for my rice cooker anyway, only lost .5 oz's of water cooking, the rest was either absorbed or still in there (it has to be- mass balancewise). Never had this soup by itself, but it's pretty good, though I did add a lot of onion, which I can taste, and that makes me happy.

Side note: Goes great with Honey Moon Summer Ale

Portion Size: 3-4 medium portions, 5-6 small portions (made so much I will not be finishing this tonight)

Calories: 690

Score: 8/10

Ideas for next time: Add bacon.

Dinner - Chicken Soup w/ Jasmine Rice, Peas, and more Chicken

The Meal

Today I am making what may well be a classic here, chicken soup with rice and veggies.
This meal consists of:

• 1 18.6 OZ. can of Campbell's Select Harvest - Chicken with Vegetables
  [550 mL of soup @ 80 calories per 240mL = 183 calories]
• 1/2 cup Jasmine Rice
  [320 calories]
  
• 1 Cup water
  
• 1 Tablespoon Chopped Onions
  [10 calories]
• Fresh ground black pepper
• 50g of sweat peas
  [39 calories]
• 100g baked chicken
  [138 calories]
  

The meal cooked in the rice cooker for about (started at 6:48) on cook, then I let it set for 10 minutes (it was still boiling) on keep warm. I had to manually change it from cook to warm to make sure there would still be water left.

Taste

Review: Very large output, wasn't expecting so much food. Lots of good veggies flavors however.

Portion Size: 5 medium portions, 3 large portions

Calories: ~690

Score: 5/10 (bland, needs more flavor)

Ideas for next time: Add more spices up front, 80 calorie soup has no flavor.

Dinner - Easter Leftovers (Teryaki rice & pig)

The Meal

Ah Easter, a great holiday where my mother cooks for 12 hours. Today I will be using the first of the remnants, crumpled boiled ham and jasmin rice (rice was uncooked). I also have kidney beans that were soaked overnight, rinsed and drained. The beans are where the teryaki sauce was added, 1 tablespoon, was all, but I also added chili powder to add some kick.

This meal was prepared in several parts:

• 1/4 cup of jasmine rice
  [160 calories]

Picture:


I found this bag of opened rice in my parents basement, completely full, but a year past expiration. I decided to try to cook up a 1/4 cup and see how it came out. I didn't wash the rice, but boiled it with 1/2 cup water. I let it soak for 20 minutes prior to cooking. After determining the rice was okay, I started working on the kidney beans.

Last night I figured I'd start using whats left of my kidney beans. I soaked 2 tablespoons in a container with water overnight, or for about 10 hours. The beans absorbed all of the water. An hour before using the beans, I drained off the water, and added the Teriyaki sauce and chilli powder.

• 2 tablespoons red kidney beans
  [~60 calories]
• 1 tablespoon Teriyaki sauce
  [30 calories]
• 1/4 teaspoon chilli powder

To the meat. As I said earlier, I crumpled up some ham left overs, and I have bacon I needed to cook, so I did what any logical person would do! I chopped up the uncooked bacon, put it in the rice cooker, added the crumpled ham, and let the mixture simmer and pop for 20 minutes.

• 120 grams of boiled ham
  [~70 calories]
• 2 slices 365 smoke house bacon
  [70 calories]

Picture:


After those two items were nicely cooked, I threw the kidney beans (with water and spices still in container) into the mixture, let it simmer for 10 minutes, then added in my rice.

Taste

Review: Surprisingly the beans were still very firm, though did retain most of the original flavor and spice. The main flavor of this dish was the ham and bacon, which was a great flavor. The rice acted as a nice filler so that the dish isn't too fatty (no fat was drained in the cooking of the meal). Overall, this was a tastey as hell meal, nice flavors all around, different depending on what was eaten first. Cooking the ham in bacon fat was a great idea, as it crisped the ham. Definitely would use this recipe again, increasing the amount of rice to 1/3 cup.

Pictures:


Portion Size: 1 medium portion, 1-2 small portions

Calories: 390

Score: 8/10

Ideas for next time: Chop bacon before cooking, add more rice.

Dinner - Chicken Soup w/ Risotto

The Meal

Today I am attempting to perfect what I made yesterday.
This meal consists of:

• 1 18.6 OZ. can of Campbell's Select Harvest - Chicken with Egg Noodles
  [550 mL of soup @ 120 calories per 240mL = 275 calories]
• 2/3 cup Risotto Rice
  [~464 calories]
  
• Enough water to fill the rice cooker to 3 cups
• Chopped Onions
  [10 calories]
  

The meal cooked in the rice cooker for about 30 minutes on cook, then I let it set for 10 minutes (it was still boiling) on keep warm. I had to manually change it from cook to warm to make sure there would still be water left.

Taste

Review: Better than yesterdays, if you like onion. Adding more water and letting it not cook until it popped allowed the mixture to retain a little water, which enabled the meal to flow better and not be a hard solid.

Portion Size: 3-4 medium portions

Calories: ~749

Score: 7/10 (very tastey)

Ideas for next time: Change nothing, this is a good recipe.


Also in this post I've added the calorie content to the tags for easy searching. The amount of calories listed in the tag relate to the amount of calories per serving.

Lunch - Chicken Soup w/ Risotto

The Meal

In light of having a good parking spot, I've chosen to wait until tomorrow to go purchase food.
This meal consists of:

• 1 18.6 OZ. can of Campbell's Select Harvest - Chicken with Egg Noodles
  [550 mL of soup @ 120 calories per 240mL = 275 calories]
• 2/3 cup Risotto Rice
  [~464 calories]
  
• Enough water to fill the rice cooker to 2 cups

The meal cooked in the rice cooker for about 25 minutes on cook, then I let it set for 10 minutes (it was still boiling) on keep warm.

Taste

Review: So the dish was well cooked, the rice was cooked perfectly. The mixture dried out quite a bit, forming a solid. I added dried onion and salt to make the meal have more taste, it was quite bland on its own. This meal does not cool quickly.

Picture:


Portion Size: Made enough for 3-4 good size portions.

Calories: ~739

Score: 6/10

Ideas for next time: Add onion and salt seasoning ahead of time. Salt - 1 teaspoon, onion - as desired. Try adding more water, perhaps fill to 2.25 cups.