Filed under: Uncategorized
Let me start by saying one thing: I am not exactly a typical girl. I de-stress by cleaning the kitchen, and I asked for a food processor for Christmas. And it was the best gift I’ve ever gotten.
I cry at the sight of onions. As you can imagine, chopping them is no easy task for me. But I LOVE onions in almost every savory dish I cook–I love Italian food, and the food from the homeland Bulgaria that I grew up on, and both cuisines incorporate onions into many of the traditional dishes. Same goes for garlic; I have tiny hands and it takes me a good half-hour to mince a few cloves of garlic to a consistency that makes it a part of the dish rather than overpower them.
Enter my Black and Decker Quick and Easy Food Processor It’s not an expensive appliance (although Food Network-quality ones are pricier), but it comes in handy for so many things! So far here are my favorite uses of this handy appliance–it can seriously cut prep time in half, prevent the big mess a lot of recipes inevitably bring, and get you to enjoy the delicious meal you just created a lot quicker!
- Pie crusts, or other thick and stick doughs– Throw the ingredients in the food processor and pulse till the dough forms tiny balls, then all that’s left is a few minutes of kneading (versus a long time mixing and kneading by hand), and you’ve got ready-to use dough!
- Chopping stinky (onions), slimy (frozen spinach) or hard ingredients that would normally take a lot of energy–nuts, thick root vegetables, and the like
- Chopping AND mixing in one–for things like Guacamole or Giada’s White Bean Dip, it’s a breeze to throw in all the ingredients and blend until the texture you like them!
- Shredding hard cheeses like Parmesan–mine comes with a special blade for this, and although I use the chopping one far more often, it saves a lot of the elbow grease a hard cheese required to grate!
- Crumbling–whether it’s bread crumbs (I save the less-tasty crusts of sliced wheat bread to make my own for breading meat), philo dough or struesel, a food processor is a much cleaner way to crumble/chop dry foods that would normally fly in tiny pieces all over the kitchen.
- Disguising vegetables– I’m not 10 anymore, so I’ve grown out of my massive aversion to anything healthy, but I do enjoy a more indulgent dish than a veggie-filled one more often than not. Use a food processor to chop up fresh or frozen veggies to a tiny, unrecognizable consistency, and they’re easy to hide in anything from pasta sauce to meatballs, as long as you adjust cooking time to account for them. My boyfriend’s mom used to use this technique to sneak vegetables into pasta sauce, and I think it’s a brilliant idea for any dish.
I’m sure there’s plenty of other genius uses to this multi-tasker, and I’m going to keep using it until I find them all!
What’s your indispensable kitchen appliance? What makes you love it? I’d love to know!
Filed under: recipes | Tags: bread sticks, chicken soup, leftovers, recipe, weeknight meal
It turns out, a bunch of leftovers and pantry items can make a warm and delicious and surprisingly filling meal (for two, and with a couple extra servings left over!)–Country Chicken Noodle Soup with Cheese Herb Breadsticks. I used about two breasts of leftover white meat chicken (Giada’s Chicken with Balsamic Vinaigrette from the Everyday Italian book, but I omitted the lemon zest and parsley) and about 4-5 cups of leftover cooked linguine–when I have leftovers, I package them separately so I can reuse them; if I had thrown it in a Tupperware with the marinara sauce (from Chicken Parmesan) I made a few days ago, I probably wouldn’t have been inspired to use it again and it would have gone to waste!
The rest of the ingredients were other things I had on hand that may or may not go in traditional chicken noodle soup, but it turned out hearty and surprisingly delicious. I used fresh red onion, minced garlic, frozen mixed vegetables with corn, carrots, and green beans chopped finely, chicken stock, a bit of olive oil, paprika, rosemary, and salt and pepper. Check out the recipe and photos below (I don’t normally photograph my meals but couldn’t resist–it’s my first real post!)
Yummy bread sticks! Good for a snack and they hold over well too!
For the bread sticks, I used my mom’s tried-and-true multipurpose baking dough, but I should probably ask her before I reveal the secret family recipe to the world. I was inspired to make bread sticks from another recipe from Everyday Italian that usually utilizes refrigerated bread dough (like Pillsbury), and although I treated the dough according to that recipe, I modified it a bit to my own liking. I just twisted two strips to make a swirl (any size works, but I expected them to expand at least double, so I made them about 6 inches long and 1/2 to 1 inch thick so they’d bake quicker), then brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with garlic salt (I would prefer fresh garlic but wanted to save time), pepper, salt, and rosemary leaves (I stole this technique from Giada’s shortcut Focaccia with Rosemary and Grapes applied to bread sticks instead of a sheet of focaccia dough. Bake according to package directions (mine took about 20-25 minutes), and halfway through, sprinkle cheese (I prefer Parmesan but I only had Mozzarella on hand, which worked in a pinch) lightly on each bread stick. I liked them so much I couldn’t stop snacking on them while I made the soup.
Delicious Weeknight Dinner for Two
Country Chicken Noodle Soup– measures are approximate; use only as guidelines and experiment to your tastes!
Hearty twist on one of my favorite comfort foods
- 2 cups chopped cooked chicken
- 4-5 cups cooked pasta, chopped into bite sized pieces (unless you’re using something small like farfalle)
- 2 cans chicken stock (reduced sodium)
- 2-3 cups mixed frozen vegetables of your choice, thawed and drained
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/3-1/2 onion (depending on your tastes)
- 2-3 tsp. paprika (depending on your tastes)
- 1-2 tsp. dried rosemary (depending on your tastes)
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1-2 cups water
Heat up the olive oil in a big pot over medium-high heat. Add chopped onion and minced garlic and saute until the onion turns clear-ish, about 8-10 minutes. Slowly add the chicken stock and vegetables. Add 1 cup water and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to keep the soup simmering and add salt, pepper, paprika, and rosemary. Add more water, up to 1 more cup, for the desired richness of the broth. Simmer at a medium-low heat about 10 minutes (to bring out the flavor from everything and make the veggies nice and tender). Add chicken and pasta, and bring back to a simmer. Let simmer until pasta is tender again, about 3-5 minutes. Make sure to check the soup regularly as the pasta can become overcooked and a soggy, mushy mess. Not what we want! Let cool till it’s bearable (I couldn’t wait very long!) and serve with a light salad and bread sticks.
Store the leftovers in the fridge up to 3-4 days.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: baking, college lifestyle, cooking, food network, recipes
Hi there,
I’m G, a senior at UCLA who would rather spend more time in the kitchen than in the library. I’ve always loved to bake (staying home from grade school, my mom had to give me something to bake to keep me out of her hair in the kitchen!) and recently I’ve started cooking a variety of (usually) healthy and creative meals that are both easy for beginners and CHEAP! Just because you’re busy with school and/or work (along with a full social schedule) or on a budget doesn’t mean you can’t make delicious, nutritious, and nourishing meals in your apartment or dorm kitchen. Food is a great way to bond with people, so drag in your roommates, boyfriend, or girlfriends as assistants in cooking (four hands ARE better than two-quicker chopping!) and share the love of creating a meal together.
So welcome to the College Girl’s Kitchen-my place to share my recent kitchen exploits and your place to pick up some easy but snazzy techniques and recipes! I watch a LOT of the food network and try to incorporate the techniques I see there to create my own spin on popular dishes. My favorite chef is Giada, host of Everyday Italian–she really shows how simple it is to make a rustic, hearty, and (usually) authentic meal and makes it fun! With her as my inspiration, I try to keep my recipes approachable but also filling! A tasty, hearty meal shouldn’t have you slaving for hours in the kitchen, and it should be fun and a chance to be adventurous. I mean, what’s the worst that can happen? I use the cheapest ingredients possible, so the worst-case scenario is you just start over, learned a good lesson, and possibly wasted 99 cents worth of beans or something. So the risks are small and the payoffs are HUGE. What are you waiting for? Let’s go cook!!!
Tonight I’m going to try making a shortcut homemade chicken soup with some leftover roast chicken from a few meals ago.
Check back to see how it turned out!
