Cheesecake Factory Style Chicken Marsala

Pecan encrusted salmon and ham & potato soup

Chocoate covered strawberry cake truffles

Japanese chicken dish with green bean casserole

Stuffed peppers and butternut squash soup

With the chilly fall days settling in on us (we got our first flakes of snow just yesterday!), there is nothing better than a hot homecooked meal to look forward to after a weekend of studying. We were all stressing over a quiz that we had to study for, and rumor was it that this quiz was so badly written that it was impossible to do well on it. So it was definitely time for comfort food!

Having had several pasta dishes in the past few weeks, I decided that it would be a nice change of pace to do something different. Seeing bell peppers on sale the week before had reminded me of making stuffed peppers, which is a warm and satisfying favorite of mine. It was also the perfect pairing to a hot creamy bowl of butternut squash soup, and what better time than now, when butternut squash is in season?

I generally followed a stuffed pepper recipe that I have made before and substituted ground pork for ground beef, since Edwin doesn't eat beef. Some improvisation had to go into the sauce topping of the peppers because I didn't have all the ingredients, but it still turned out very tasty! The butternut squash soup recipe was even easier to follow - my friend rattled off the ingredients to me earlier in the day in the car, and I did a quick bit of research to see how the soup is generally cooked. Aside from cutting the vegetables, everything else came together with minimal effort, now that's my kind of soup :)



Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients: (serves 4)
4 green bell peppers
3 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 lb. ground pork
1.5 cups (raw measure) short grain white rice
1 can (12 oz.) diced tomatoes (garlic & herb flavor)
garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste

For the topping:
1/3 cup ketchup
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp Korean bbq sauce
1 tbsp Hoisin sauce


Directions:

1. Bring a pot of water to boil over high heat. (If you're going to cook your rice fresh, then do it now so it'll be ready to go when you need it.) Wash the peppers and cut off the tops about 1/2 inch from the stem, so that you can reach into the pepper and pull out the seeds and spines. I diced up the pepper tops minus the stem, and added it to the filling for the peppers so that it wouldn't go to waste.

2. Place the peppers in the pot to boil, filling the insides with water to prevent them from floating. Boil for about 3 minutes, until slightly softened. Drain and set aside to cool.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a skillet, heat 3 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat. Add in chopped onions and diced pepper tops, stirring often for about 3 minutes. Add the ground pork and cook an additional 3 minutes until the meat is just browned and the vegetables are soft and translucent. Season generously with garlic powder, salt and pepper and mix well. Stir in cooked rice and canned tomatoes.

4. Rub olive oil along the insides of the peppers. Place them in a baking dish and keep them upright using a ring of scrunched up foil around the base if necessary. Fill each pepper with pork and rice mixture.

5. Combine the ingredients for the topping and stir until blended. Spoon generously over the tops of the stuffed peppers - it should be somewhat runny but will mostly stay on top of the stuffing.

6. Finally, pour 1/2 cup of water into the baking dish to keep the bottoms of the peppers from drying out during the baking. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Remove peppers, allow to cool for 5 minutes, and then serve.



Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients: (serves 4-6)
1 medium butternut squash (approx 1.5 lb), cut into 1 inch cubes
1 granny smith apple, cubed
2 carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks
1/3 large onion, chopped
1 can chicken broth
1 tbsp olive oil
skim milk as needed
garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste


Directions:

1. Over medium-high heat, saute onions in olive oil until beginning to turn translucent. Add in squash, carrots, and apple, and saute an additional 3 minutes.

2. Pour in chicken stock, bring to a boil and continue to boil for 20 minutes on high heat with the pot lid ajar, checking occasionally to stir add water when the liquid begins to dry up.

3. When vegetables are soft, turn off heat and pour into a blender. Add 1 cup of milk and blend until smooth. Adjust the amount of milk to reach the desired soup consistency.

4. Return soup to pot and heat before serving. Season with garlic powder, salt, and pepper as desired.

Angel hair pasta with chicken cream of mushroom sauce

Tuna Helper and the simplest cake ever

Tuna helper is a lifesaver when all I want to do is make a one-pot dinner and not have to deal with any raw meat. It's cheap and easy, and makes a lot if you make a few adjustments. They box always says there's 5 servings if you make it according to directions, which is completely a lie. They're five 1-cup servings. Who eats just one cup of tuna helper for dinner? Jeez.

To get more mileage out of my tuna helper, I employ a few tactics:
- double the amount of tuna (2 cans instead of 1)
- double the amount of pasta (I buy a box of rotini/fusilli pasta so that the shape is similar)
- add vegetables (usually broccoli, carrots, and onions)
- increase liquids accordingly, but not the butter

When I make the tuna helper, I usually start stir frying the onions, carrots, and broccoli first in a skillet. Then I set them aside when they're nearly cooked. I proceed to boil the milk, water, seasoning packet and butter as called for in the Tuna helper directions, and throw in the pasta to cook. (Note: through experience, I've discovered that Tuna helper pasta is some sort of fast-cook pasta, so if you've bought regular pasta to add bulk, start boiling that first and then add the packaged pasta later to get the same consistency.) Finally, when the pasta is nearly al dente, I stir all the vegetables back in, and add milk/water to get a nice sauce, which I reduce slightly for thickness. Since the seasoning packet flavors have been diluted in the larger pot of stuff, I generally add some salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese for extra flavor. In this way, you can probably have enough to serve 5 people for dinner without any extra sides. Plus, you have protein, starch, vegetables, and dairy all in one pot, now that's balanced!


Now, for the simplest cake ever...

I was at the supermarket and saw that cake mixes were on sale for $1 a box. I figured it would be nice to have a little something extra to end the meal, since the main course was a one-pot thing which could get boring. Normally you'd have to deal with oil and eggs for a boxed cake mix, but I wasn't planning to buy a whole box of eggs just to make a cake. This simple trick I learned from the blogosphere long ago... just take a can of soda (any flavor, diet or non-diet) and add it to the dry cake mix powder. Stir until smooth, and bake according to directions! Voila, the simplest cake ever! And the result is moist and yummy. I would recommend pairing Sprite with lighter cakes like white, yellow, confetti, strawberry, etc. Pair Coke with darker cakes like chocolate, devil's food, german chocolate. Mix and match to get interesting flavors! Here I only had a can of Diet Coke for my confetti cake, so it came out a little more caramel-colored than normal, but the taste was fine. The big bonus about this method too is that for those of you watching calories, using a can of diet soda cuts down on nearly half the calories of baked boxed cake mix! Now that's news that's fit to eat :)

Chinese pancake wraps with corn and kielbasa chowder

Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup

It was the night before our first midterm this semester, which was biochemistry. Out of the 4 of us, only Edwin, who is an MD/PhD student, isn't in this class and therefore wasn't cramming all weekend like the rest of us. He graciously volunteered to make us dinner that night, and so we had some satisfying and simple grilled cheese sandwiches with Campbell's tomato soup. Sure, it put me in a food coma afterwards, but it was still great :P Thanks Edwin!

Bacon and spinach penne with sweet potato casserole