Chipotle Chicken Pasta

This recipe started out as one L would make for him and his sister. They have an extremely high tolerance for spicy food so this is something they made so hot I can't believe anyone would actually eat it.

I've modified it a bit and made it a little more weeknight friendly. L originally made the sauce from scratch and I've replaced that with store-bought Alfredo but it is still delicious. I've also developed a way to make it so that his can be ridiculously hot and mine can be tasty hot. It's really hard to NOT eat this more than once a month. It's definitely one of our favorites. This recipe is designed for four servings- two for dinner and two for lunch the following day.

Rating: 5 Stars

Ingredients
1lb box of pasta - we usually use penne, but anything will work.
2 broccoli crowns, cut from stem, cubed
1 + 1 tablespoon oil
1/2 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 large or 2 small chicken breasts, cubed
1 jar Alfredo sauce
4 tablespoons tomato paste
2 chilies in adobo sauce, diced

Directions
Cook pasta according to directions on box.  Steam broccoli for 15 minutes or boil for 5 minutes.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a non-stick frying pan. Saute onion until translucent, or about 3 minutes. Add the additional 1 tablespoon of oil followed by the garlic and chicken. Saute until the chicken is cooked through, or about 5 minutes on each side. Add the jar of Alfredo Sauce to the pan. Stir in the tomato paste and the chilies. Depending on the brand of sauce you use, you may need to add an about 1/8 to 1/4 cup of water to the sauce for a better consistency, but that's up to you.

Serve the tasty hot sauce over a bed of pasta and top with broccoli. If someone in your party wants extra hot sauce, reserve their portions of sauce until after everyone else (and potentially the leftovers container!) has been served. Then, add more diced chilies until the desired spiciness is reached. Alternatively, or for even more heat, you can also add some cayenne pepper, to taste. Then serve up the ridiculously hot sauce over pasta, topped with broccoli.

Sweet and Tangy Chicken

There are versions of this recipe all over the internet. I'm not sure where I initially got the idea but I've changed it enough that it shouldn't matter. This is a really easy recipe for the crock pot or oven that makes for even better leftovers. The ingredients seem a little... questionable... but I promise its worth it. The original recipe calls for Russian Dressing. I don't like buying dressing as we don't eat salads and they are really pretty gross in terms of ingredients and fat (especially if they're mayo based). I tried actually making Russian dressing and adding it to the recipe but they mayo got funky so now I just add the important flavor ingredients and some beer to make up for the volume. The sauce for this recipe has already been doubled and I strongly recommended keeping it that way. I generally serve this dish over brown rice with a side of veggies.

Rating: 4 Stars

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
1 package dry French onion soup mix
1 small jar of apricot preserves
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
5+ dashes tobasco
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 (for oven only) + 1/4 cup beer

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients together, except the chicken and the 1/2 cup beer.

Either
Place chicken in crock pot. Cover with sauce. Cook on Low for 6 hour or High for 3 hours.
Or
Preheat oven to 350°. Place chicken in a baking dish. Add 1/2 cup beer to dish. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and continue to bake for 30 minutes basting with the sauce every 10 minutes.

Server with extra sauce.

Balsamic Glazed Pork Tenderloin

This is probably L's favorite thing that I make. The original recipe came from C+C Marriage Factory but I've changed the proportions just a little bit to really bring out the flavors we prefer. One of the brilliant things about this recipe is that it can either be cooked in the crock pot or in the oven depending on how long you have for cooking.

We give this recipe 5 Stars because it really is amazing.

Ingredients
1 boneless pork tenderloin
1 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup light beer
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup water
4 + 2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions
Combine the sage, salt and garlic powder. Rinse tenderloin and pat dry. This is important, the rub sicks better to dry meat. Rub the sage mixture over tenderloin. 

Either
Place in a slow cooker with 1/2 cup beer and cook on Low for 6-8 hours or High for 3-4 hours. During the last hour of cooking, baste with glaze every 15 minutes.
Or
Preheat oven to 375°. Place tenderloin in a baking dish with 1/2 cup beer. Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until internal temperature is 160°. Baste the tenderloin with the glaze at 20, 30, and 40 minutes into cooking and again when removed from oven.

Reserve some a lot of glaze for serving. If you're serving to more than 2 people, I strongly recommend doubling the glaze recipe.

Glaze
Combine brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, water and 4 tablespoons soy sauce in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Mix 2 tablespoons soy sauce with 1 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch in a small bowl. Mix WELL! While vinegar mixture is boiling, pour in cornstarch mixture. Stir until thick and remove from heat. This makes a pretty thick glaze. To make a thinner glaze, reduce the amount of cornstarch.

Mack Eats

Over the past year plus that L and I have been together, I've been doing most of the cooking. I've always loved cooking but I hated cooking for one, so when he came around I was super excited to start making much more delicious and extravagant meals. Now, it's still hard to cook for two and not have enough leftovers to feed a small country but I'm getting better and better all the time. When I plan meals, I try to keep a few things in mind:

• We try to eat 2 veggies (or fruits) at every dinner. 
• We try not to eat the same starch multiple times during the week, and I try to make at least two stach-less meals per week. This is directly related reduce the rate our waistlines are growing!
• I don't like meals without meat. I have nothing against vegetarians. More power to you. It's just not for me. I love meat. I firmly believe we are supposed to be omnivores and that our anatomy fully supports this claim. I do try to limit our meat intake to much lower than average. For example, 1 chicken breast is enough to feed both L and myself at dinner.
• We don't eat the same thing twice in one month, if possible. We, as humans, spend so much time eating that I believe its worth putting that extra effort into meal planning to make eating an adventure.
• I like sauces. I tend to at least double the quantity of any sauce in any recipe I cook.

Luckily, I have a job where I "can" research grocery deals and recipes while "working" and am able to plan my meals and shopping list ahead of time. Some of the strategies I use here are:

• I buy chicken breasts in bulk, prefrozen and prepackaged from BJs. Before we joined, I was buying 3-4 huge packages of generic, boneless, skinless chicken breast whenever it was on sale for $1.98 at the grocery store then trimming, packaging, and freezing them myself. The Tyson frozen chicken breasts at BJs are usually $2.10 - $2.20 per lb. I decided I am extremely willing to pay the extra $0.10 per pound to not have to do it myself. 
• I buy other meat on sale in larger quantities than we need and freeze the extras. 
• We live about 2 miles from the NC State Farmer's Market so I try to make it there to buy my produce but that doesn't always happen, especially with our extensive weekend traveling.

I've been struggling with a way to organize my recipes for quite a while. I tried a spreadsheet. I tried writing them in my planner. I tried printing them. But all these methods have various problems. L and I have another blog, Mack Spirits, that chronicles our adventures in home brewing. Over the past few months, I have found myself constantly referencing the blog for my recipe for Spent-Grain Bread. Then, today, it clicked! I should start a food blog with the purpose of organizing my recipes! Brilliant!

My plan at this point is to add text versions of the recipes I currently have in rotation to the site then add pictures as I recook the meals. I'm also planning on putting up the recipes in the quantities that I cook the food-- for two people. They will be easily upped, though for a family of any size. I might even start saving my meal plans on here so that I don't have to carry around a piece of a paper all week!