Creamy Potato Spinach Chicken Skillet

Another example of lazy cooking. I'm using amounts in this recipe just so you know how much I used. That being said, the amounts are entirely unimportant. Just combine things however you want. The only thing to think about is seasoning amount, but, as usual, just start with a little and add more to taste. Potatoes and chicken are optional, but recommended because they taste good.

I'm proving two sets of directions. Both are delicious and pretty easy, although the second takes a bit longer. If you go by the second set of directions, the onions will be sweeter and more tender and the potatoes will be crispier. Just go with your preference.

Ingredients:

• Enough olive oil to film the bottom of the skillet
• 1 diced or thin sliced onion
• Dash of red chili flakes
• About a 1/2 cup chopped frozen spinach, mostly thawed. (You could also use fresh chopped spinach, but you'll need something like 1.5 cups or more)
• 1 pre-boiled or baked potato, cut into small cubes
• 1 clove of garlic, grated. (Or 1/4 tsp jarred minced garlic. Or just a bit of garlic powder)
• 1/4 teaspoon dried coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Around 3 TBSP of white wine, broth, milk, or water
• Some cooked shredded chicken (1/3 cup?)
• 1 heaped tablespoon of cream cheese.
• Optional squeeze of lemon

Directions I (Simple):

• Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onions and sautee until tender and translucent. Add little tiny dash of chilli flakes.
• Add potatoes and sautee for a few minutes to let them heat up a bit.
• Add spinach, chicken, garlic, cumin, coriander, salt, and pepper.
• Add a bit of wine/broth/milk/water to keep things from drying out. Continue sauteeing until ingredients are heated and liquid is reduced to almost nothing.
• Just before serving, dot cream cheese over the top and stir in to make it all melty and creamy. (Optional, use a bit of cream if you don't have cream cheese).
• (Optional, add a tiny squeeze of lemon right before serving.)
• Eat.

Directions II (Also Easy, but Takes Longer):

• Heat oil in a skillet over medium-low to medium heat. Add onions and slowly sautee until tender and brown. (Carmelized. Yum).
• Set onions aside. Add a bit more oil to the skillet and raise the heat to med-high. Add potatoes, salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, and chilli. Toss a bit to distribute seasoning, then press down into the pan a bit with your spatula. Let potatoes hang out for a good two minutes or so to let them get really brown. Flip or toss. Let hang out longer to brown on other sides.
• Reduce heat to med-low or medium and add spinach, chicken, a bit more salt and pepper, and grated garlic. (You could also add a bit more cumin and coriander if you like)
• Add liquid and continue sauteeing until ingredients are heated and liquid is reduced to almost nothing.
• Dot cream cheese over the top and mix in until creamy and melty. (Note, use a bit of cream if you don't have cream cheese).
• Optional squeeze of lemon.
• Eat.

Wait... this can go over PASTA???

Yes. In fact it can. Leave out the potatoes and do the following:

• Boil pasta while you're making spinach stuff. Some stumpy kind of pasta would probably work well...whatever you don't have to twirl.
• At the end, add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the starchy pasta cooking water to your skillet. Simmer and reduce a bit.
• Add cooked pasta to the skillet and continue cooking over med for just a few minutes, so that the pasta absorbs some of the sauce.
• Eat.

Mexican Bean-tato skillet

Better that it sounds. Seriously. I was inspired by laziness, abundance of potatoes, a desire for melted cheese, and a vague memory that Mexican people sometimes make potato tacos to stretch the meat.

How much seasoning you use depends on how much food you use... it's super flexible. Just mix to your liking. Start with a bit of seasoning (about what I recommended), taste along the way, and add more as needed.

Ingredients:

• 1 chopped onion (optional)
• 2 cloves of grated or diced garlic (optional)
• A couple of boiled potatoes, diced.
• A goodly amount of cooked black beans.
• Enough olive oil to "film" the bottom of the skillet
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 -1 tsp cumin
• 1/2-1 tsp coriander
• Pepper flakes to taste (or just use a diced jalapeno...)
• A delicious hunk of cheese which melts deliciously. Colby or dubiously titled "Mexican Cheese" would work well. Anything you'd put on a taco.

Directions:

• Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium- med-high heat. Add onions (and/or diced bell pepper) and sautee until tender and translucent. Add jalapeno if using and continue to sautee.
• Add potatoes. Season them up and let them hang out in the pan a bit so that they start to brown. Or just so that they heat up, if you're hungry and don't want to wait for them to brown. Tastes good either way).
• Add beans and optional garlic somewhere in this warming process. Mix around and add more seasoning if you so desire.
• When everything is done to your satisfaction, grate cheese over the top/put shredded cheese on top. Let it melt.
• You can either eat this plain (like I did), or you can put it in tortillas with salsa or guacamole. I assume that would be tasty, though I haven't tried it myself.
• Watch marathon of The Sopranos while munching and enjoying starchy goodness.

The Art of Making Things Ahead: Potatoes, Chicken, and Veggies

I ended up eating out for almost a week due to pure hatred of all of the food I usually make and lack of desire to eat anything I usually make. This was not good. I figured the solution was to make a bunch of no-effort food in one day and then have massive quantities in the fridge for the rest of the week. This was successful, which is good since I got this damn cold. This is a mix and match menu of roasted and/or boiled things. If you want to make your life easy, just pick a saturday to do some big old batch of make ahead. Eat off of it for the next couple of days.

Boiled Potatoes

Ingredients:

• Potatoes
• Water

(hahahaha)

Directions:

Wash the potatoes and put them in a pot of water. (No need to peel. You could have guessed that by now...) Bring to a boil. Boil for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size and number of potatoes. Poke the biggest potato with a fork. If it is basically tender, but just slightly resistant, then you're good.

Ideas:

Stick in fridge and cut up for hash browns. Throw in chicken broth along with spinach/leftover bits of chicken/whatever for a quick soup. Cut up, throw into a pot over medium heat, and mash with butter and milk (and cheese! because you can!). Cut into pieces and fry in a skillet with bacon, peppers, onions or what have you. Scramble in a few eggs (and cheese!) at the end. Put in an omelete. There's really no limit to what you can do with pre-boiled potatoes. Plus preparing them takes little to no effort.

Roasted Chicken

I know, this may seem a bit more involved, but really, it's nearly as brainless as the boiled potatoes.

Ingredients:

• A 3-4 pound chicken, not frozen at the beginning of cooking.
• Olive oil
• Salt and Pepper
• An onion (optional)
• Rosemary (optional)
• A lemon (optional)
• chunked potatoes and carrots (optional)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 450.
• If using, put chopped root veggies into a medium to deep roasting pan. Drizzle in some olive oil and add salt and pepper. Toss with your hands to distribute oil and whatnot.
• Rinse chicken and pat dry. Optional: cut an onion in half and put it in the cavity of the chicken. Optional: fork holes in a lemon and stick it in the chicken. Put chicken in the roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil, and add salt, pepper, (and rosemary, if using). Rub oil and seasoning into the chicken with your hands.
• NOTE- if you're not roasting any veggies with the chicken, you may want to add a smidgen of water/wine/broth/juice to the bottom of the pan to prevent things like burning and sticking.
• Put pan in the oven and immediately turn heat back to 400.
• Roast for about 80 minutes. Check on the chicken at the half way point to make sure nothing is burning or drying out. If the veggies are drying out, add a bit of liquid. If the chicken is getting too brown, tent some foil over the chicken.
• To check for doneness, cut in between the thigh and the body. (If you have a hard time finding this point, pull on the drumstick. That will make the leg joints more apparent) If the juices run pink, it's not done yet. Put it back in the oven for five more minutes or so and check again. When the juices run clear, you're good to go.
• Take chicken out of oven. Tent foil over chicken and let it rest for 10-15 minutes.
• Cut up chicken like so: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msscPphcLyo The guy who makes the video is French. This makes it legit.

Ideas: Shoot... you can use cooked chicken in practically ANYTHING, or just eat it alone. The sky's the limit on this one. I'll post more specific recipes later.

The George Foreman Chicken Breast is always convenient, but whole chickens are cheap and they taste good, so you might as well have a good recipe for them. You can alter the seasoning anyway you want, too. Roasting a chicken can be somewhat intimidating the first time you do it, but after you've done it twice, you're home free. Just roast it up some Friday or Saturday and you've got meat for the week.

Miscellaneous Roasted Vegetables

Ingredients:

• Any vegetable[s] you want
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Directions:

• Cut chosen vegetable into something like big bite size chunks. Toss in olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in a 400 degree oven until tender and delicious. Stir them around every 10 minutes or so.

Time tips--carrots will take 45 min. to an hour, depending on how big you cut them. Same for hard squashes. Beets will take at least an hour. (If using beets, peel them beforehand. Or roast them whole and slough the skins off afterward. Either way is fine, but beetskins are kind of bitter, so you'll want to get rid of them). Potatoes 30-40 minutes, things like asparagus and zucchini 15-20 minutes. Roasting time really depends on density and water content. You can certainly roast mixed vegetables, but DON'T try to roast potatoes and zucchini together, for instance. Pick veggies with similar constitution and roasting time. Or just use separate roasting pans and take the little wussy vegetables out of the oven sooner. Your call.

Ideas:

Snack. Omeletes. Skillet thingies. Again, very flexible stuff here. Roasted vegetables reheat in a medium skillet or a 350 oven quite well. Microwaving works too, you just won't get the crispy roasty effect. Most roasted veggies are good cold too.

BEAN BONUS!!!!

So dried beans are cheaper than canned, and they don't have the creepy bean juice, but they're also more annoying to prepare. What to do?

Ingredients:

• Almost unreasonaby large quantity of dried beans.
• Water.
• Smidge of vinegar or lemon (optional).

Directions:

• Soak beans in water for 12 hours or overnight. Adding a little bit of acid at this stage improves the beans' digestibility.
• Drain and rinse beans. Put in giant pot with water. Simmer for about an hour (or more, depending on how stubborn the darn things are.)
• Drain.
• Portion into ziploc baggies and freeze or refrigerate.
• Use exactly as you would use canned beans.

Potato Soup

Beth and Nina love this soup. When Beth compliments someone else's potato preparation it's a big deal, so this recipe is definitely a keeper. It's also cheap and super easy.

It's also quite forgiving, so don't stress too much about exact amounts. Once you've made it a few times you'll have a feel for you just thick and/or potatoey you like it.

Also, I think it's worth saying that I guess rather conservatively on seasoning amounts. Always taste as you're going along and add more spices if necessary.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 small to medium red potatoes, diced. No need to peel unless you're using a thick skinned potato like a russet or you just really want to.
• 1 small onion, somewhat finely chopped
• 1-2 TBSP butter or olive oil
• 2-3 TBSP all purpose flour
• 2-3 cups of chicken broth
• 1-2 cups of milk (not skim)
• salt and pepper
• 1-2 tsp dried rosemary. You can add more if you're a rosemary freak like me.

Directions:

Heat butter or oil in soup pot over medium to medium-high heat. Sautee onion until tender and translucent. Add flour (and more oil/butter if needed). Stir with a wooden spoon for a minute or two to make something like a golden, oniony paste. (It's a roux!)
Add potatoes, broth, milk, and seasonings. The pot should be
Simmer until potatoes are quite tender. Mash up some of the potatoes with a potato masher. You're not aiming for a puree, just a nice thick soup.
Eat.

Chili!

Still on the spicy food kick. Here is the chili I made this week. It turned out rather well, if I do say so myself. Don't be weirded out by the chocolate. It doesn't make the chili sweet- it just lends an air of mystery...(because ground meat isn't mysterious enough).

Don't let the long ingredient list fool you. This is very simple to make. You pretty much just throw things into a pot and let them hang out there.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb (give or take) of ground beef or a mixture of ground beef and pork. (It's usually a mixture in Germany. The pork seems to keep the beef from drying out).
• 130 grams (sorry!) of tomato paste. This is probably 3-4 oz. The exact amount isn't that important.
• A 26 oz. can of diced or whole tomatoes in juice
• A 14 oz. can of beans of choice, rinsed thorougly (or about 2 cups of beans cooked from dry)
• 3-4 cups of chicken or beef broth (I used chicken)
• 1-2 small onions, chopped
• 3 cloves of minced or grated garlic OR 1 TBSP minced garlic OR garlic powder to taste
• 1-2 TBSP cumin
• 1-2 TBSP coriander or cilantro
• 1 canned chipotle in adobo, chopped. If you don't have chipotle (I didn't. *tear*), just add pepper flakes to desired level of spiciness. Chipotle has a spicy, smoky flavor.
• About 2 tsp salt
• fresh ground pepper to taste
• Bare pinch of sugar
• A few dashes of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 oz-1 oz of VERY dark chocolate (think 80% cocoa or more).

Directions:

• Warm a little bit of olive oil in a big soup pot over med-high heat. Add onions and sautee until they are tender and translucent. Add garlic and chipotle (if using) and sautee a bit more. Do not breathe in spicy garlic fumes.
• Add meat and seasonings (not sugar yet). Brown meat.
• Add tomato paste. Mix with the meat. You could also add the chocolate now and mix it with the meat.
• Add tomatoes in juice, broth, and beans, and a pinch of sugar (brings out the tomato).
• Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 10-15 minutes. It can simmer covered or uncovered. If it simmers uncovered for a long time, it will thicken more. Feel free to thin the chili with a bit of water if necessary. Taste. Adjust seasonings.
• Simmer some more. Taste. Adjust seasonings.
• Simmer some more.
• Really, I would simmer the chili for anywhere between 20 minutes and an hour. Everything is pretty much cooked by the time you get to the simmer stage, you just have to let the flavors develop.

Eat! Makes 6-8 servings I guess. All I know is that I've been eating this for many days. It also freezes well.

Guacamole!

I'm started to get wicked cravings for spicy and/or Mexican food here in the land of kraut and wurst. Hence, guacamole. Delicious and nutritious. The tortilla chips here are creepy, so I pretty much eat guacamole with a spoon. (It is fruit!!)

Ingredients:

1 avacado, softish to the touch
1/2 tsp of cumin
A smidgen of minced garlic or garlic powder
1/2 tsp of coriander OR a bit of fresh chopped cilantro. Dried cilantro is fine too
salt
Dash of red pepper flakes or one finely diced jalapeno without the seeds
squeeze of lime
smidgen of olive oil if desired

Combine ingredients. Smoosh with fork, spoon, or spork until they reach desired level of smooshiness.

Oh no! There is no food in the house!

This recipe won't work if by "no food in the house" you mean "only ketchup and baking soda in the house," but the ingredients are still pretty basic. Odds are you'll have enough of them on hand to make it work. Pretty much all of the ingredients except for the potatoes and oil are optional, though the extra ingredients are pretty tasty. The lesson to be gleaned from this recipe is that many different things can be successfully fried with potatoes, so don't be afraid to experiment.

Pantry Potato Thing

You will need:

• 1-2 potatoes sliced thinly. (Number depends on size of potatoes and level of hunger)
  
• 1 small onion, halved and sliced thinly (if you like onions)
• 1 grated clove of garlic
  
• 1 egg
• Chopped spinach or kale. If using frozen, thaw and squeeze out the extra water first.
• Olive oil (about 1-2 tablespoons. Enough to sautee.)
• Rosemary or other herb of choice*, fresh or dried (about a teaspoon).
• Salt and Pepper
• Chopped spinach or kale if you want. If using frozen, thaw and squeeze out the extra water first.

*Parsley and/or basil would add a nice Italian touch. Cumin, cilantro/coriander, and chili flakes would make very successful Mexi-tatoes. Your call.

Directions:

Heat oil in a medium to large skillet over medium high heat. You want the oil to be hot, but you don't want it to smoke or catch on fire. (Beth did this once. Haha.)
Add the onions, garlic, and a bit of salt and fry until the onions get tender and translucent. (You could also add chili flakes to the oil at this stage if you're using them).
Add the potatoes. Put them in a relatively even layer--doesn't have to be perfect. You could also add chopped greens now, if you're using them.
Add salt, pepper, and herbs and fry the potatoes until tender. Stir/flip them around every few minutes so that they cook evenly. This should take something like 10 minutes, depending on how small you cut the potatoes. When in doubt, just taste one. If it's crunchy, cook it longer.
Once the potatoes are cooked, crack the egg into the skillet and scramble away.

Eat.

Super Simple Pear Dessert

Pears are in season here and I love them. I love them so much that I decided to sautee them in butter and love them even more.

This recipe doesn't call for any sweetener, because the pears are sweet enough on their own. They'll carmelize nicely as you sautee them too.

You will need:

• Pears. However many you want, thinly sliced and cored. You could peel them, but I'm just about always too lazy to do that, and it hasn't killed me yet.
• Butter. A tablespoon or two.
• A dash of cinnamon.
• An optional dash of vanilla extract or bean. A dash is slightly larger than a smidgen.

Directions:

Melt butter in a large-ish skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Add thinly sliced pears, cinnamon, and vanilla if using. Sautee for 10-15 minutes, shaking or flipping the pears periodically. Continue until the pears are slightly browned and slightly soft. Or really brown and really soft if that's your style.

Eat. Add whipped cream or vanilla ice cream if you like.

Lentil Curry

Or, what I made for dinner last night and will be eating for a week. Always a good model for students and/or lazy people.

Curry powder can be a bit expensive, but it's worth having on hand. One container of it will last your for a long time anyway. Meijer has a "Simply Organic" brand of spices that is typically cheaper than all of the rest and just as good.


You'll need:

• 1-2 Tbsp of butter for sauteeing
• 1 cup dried lentils or chickpeas that have been soaked in water and a smidgen of vinegar of lemon juice for 8-12 hours (AKA overnight). You could also use a can (about 14 oz.) of chickpeas.
• 1 can (about 14 oz.) of coconut cream or coconut milk, shaken. Check the Asian food aisle for this.
• Enough water, chicken stock or a combination thereof to cover and cook the lentils. I'm guess this is 2-4 cups. Start with 2 cups of your chosen liquid and just add more if you need to.
• 1-2 TBSP curry powder (to taste)
• 1/4-1/2 tsp red chili flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste. More salt than pepper. Salt to balance the sweet coconut.
• 2 tsp or so of turmeric (optional, but tasty)
• Cooked riceto serve

Optional but tasty ingredients:

• Fresh or frozen chopped spinach. A whole packet of frozen, fresh to taste.
• 1 onion, quartered. Quarters sliced thinly.
• 2 carrots sliced thinly

Directions:

In a large-ish pot, melt butter over med-high heat. Add onion, carrots, and a bit of salt and pepper. Continue sauteeing until onions soften a bit and turn translucent. The carrots should soften a little bit too, depending on how thinly they were sliced. Omit this step if you don't want any onions or carrots.

[Meanwhile, cook rice according to package directions, if you haven't already.]

Add liquids, legumes, curry powder, turmeric, chili flakes, salt and pepper to the onion-carrot-butter pot. You could add spinach now or closer to the end of the cooking time. Either way is fine. Bring everything to a boil and then lower it to a high simmer (think medium heat. More than little baby bubbles, but less than violent boiling) Continue to simmer for 20-30 minutes, until lentils or canned chickpeas are tender.

If you're using dried chickpeas, it could take up to an hour. I haven't tried it this way, but be aware that most dried legumes come with a longer cooking time.


EAT. This would be good with mildly fruity yogurt smoothies, especially if you make it really spicy. It would also be good with toasted pita bread (as are most things).