Favorite Fast Find - Rice Sides by Knorr

Favorite Fast Finds are my favorite things that  save me time and stress.  I am not good with finding side dishes for meals  and Knorr  makes it really easy!

Rice Sides are the perfect fast side dish and my favorite is this chicken flavor rice.  I also love the terriyaki rice.

Super easy to make.
Very inexpensive - $1.57 at my stop and shop on sale
Super fast - 7 minutes!

So what are you favorite fast side dishes?

Easy and Tasty Burgers

Given my ineptitude in the kitchen I am always looking for fool proof recipes and when my hubby suggested making these simple burgers I thought, "Why not?" and tried them! I have now made them several times and they could not be any easier.

I am sure most of you are familiar with this recipe from Campbell's Soup. Basically you take 4 burger patties and brown them in a pan. You add one can of Campbell's Condensed French Onion Soup to the party, bring to a boil then knock down the heat to simmer for 6-7 minutes. That's IT!!!!! I melted down some swiss cheese over my burgers and ate mine with some BBQ sauce an tomato slices and my friends there you have the easiest, quickest and tastiest burger!


Recipe:

1 pound ground beef

1 can (10 1/2 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed French Onion Soup

4 slices cheese (I used Swiss but you can use whatever you like)

• Shape the beef into 4 (1/2-inch-thick) burgers. (I bought pre made patties from the butcher, they come out better and are uniform in size)
  
• Heat a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the burgers and cook until well browned on both sides. Remove the burgers from the skillet. Pour off any fat.
• Stir the soup in the skillet and heat to a boil. Return the burgers to the skillet. (I didn't even take the burgers out) Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 5 minutes or until desired doneness. Top the burgers with the cheese and cook until the cheese is melted. Serve the burgers on the buns with the soup mixture for dipping.

Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken and Sauteed Spinach

Hello everyone! Sorry I have been such a slacker. I haven't really been cooking because I have been being a bit of a baby lately and cooking stresses me out but today I went grocery shopping and cooked some dinner so I thought I'd share with you what I did.

I made goat cheese stuffed chicken with sauteed spinach on the side. Boring, I know... I should have made another side but I am lazy!


The chicken was easy. Not extraordinarily flavorful but not bad at all. All I did was take boneless, skinless chicken breasts and cut a slit in the middle for the stuffing. I stuffed each with garlic and herb goat cheese, dipped each piece in eggbeaters, flour, eggbeaters, flour and stuck them in a pan to brown. After they were brown on each side I transferred them to the oven (on 350 F) for about 10 minutes until they were cooked through.


The spinach was a piece of cake, I should make this more often because it is tasty and easy. I heated a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and about a tablespoon of minced garlic in skillet and added my washed spinach to it, some red pepper flakes and a splash of lemon juice. I put a top on it, cooked it on medium heat for 6 minutes or so and it was done.

Spinach cooks down a lot so it looks like a ton when you first put it in but you wind up with a smaller portion. One thing I found is that it gave off a lot of water so I had to drain it before serving. I don't think there's much you can do about that.




So I could have used another side, I know... but it was tasty and pretty decently healthy. Goat cheese is my favorite thing ever. It's so decadent. YUM!

Until next time.....

What's with all these damn knives??

So one of my top 4 fears in the kitchen  are knives. I have a nice set we got for our wedding but most of them just sit there unused.  We use the basic steak knives almost daily but other than that I am 100% clueless as to what knife to use to cut what food.

Half the time I use the steak knife and I know that's not the best way.

So I am determined to find out what the use for these suckers are!
In my determination to  find out what I should be using.  I found this awesome website and video!

Start Cooking.com is by Kathy Maister's and you should check it out if you want to learn more.  I have it bookmarked already!!

In this video she says I only need 3 good knives to cook.

I think i just found my new favorite site!  I think video blogs are great since they show you how to do it.

I admit I kind of got lost  watching her how to series and will showcase others on here  in the future

I also found this picture guide to knives that might be helpful. Although unless this is laminated on my kitchen counter I dont  know if I will use it.
Knives Kitchen Guide

Overcooked Meat Anyone?

Yup. So I set off BOTH smoke decetors in the house.... a few times... And since hubby works 3rd shift he was sleeping and NOT excited to hear the deafening beeping. At least I know they'll work if the condo ever IS on fire, right?

So I tried to make london broil. Issue: We don't have a grill. We LOVE grilled food... especially any steaks. Steak, IMO is only really good at a restaurant or grilled. We live in a condo and though we have no where to keep a grill and each summer we get depressed knowing we have to go elsewhere to enjoy some good BBQ. My husband loves red meat and red meat comes out disgusting when it's cooked inside, IMO but alas I tried it and here's what happened.

I broiled it. I did 5-8 minutes on each side as recommended. Well 4 mins into the first side the freekin' smoke alarm starts going off. Panicking I ripped it from the ceiling downstairs (let's hope hubby can fix that when he gets up). Since he was sleeping I didn't want it to go off so I removed the battery... well it works without it. Good in case of fire... bad when there's no fire and honestly no real smoke... there was some smoke but not fire like smoke. THEN the upstairs alarm, outside the bedroom door went off. Yup, he woke up... not too excited but he went back to sleep. It went off a few more times after that and I was near tears thinking "why didn't I just get takeout?"

So anyway I made the following.

London Broil marinated in this Jack Daniels Mesquite marinade.
Mashed red potatoes with cream cheese and dill.
Mushrooms with garlic and butter.
Asparagus with lemon, garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil. (This is how I usually make it. I usually cook it in the oven but since I was broiling I just sauteed it on the stove and it came out fine).

So ya. Nothing can ever go smoothly. My entire house smells like meat now and to top it off it was incredibly overcooked and dry. Yes, I let the meat stand before slicing, it still sucked.




I must apologize for being MIA. Honestly I am so stressed looking for employment that I didn't want to deal with cooking and for the last 2-3 weeks we have just been ordering out everyday. I should have ordered out today too.

I love asparagus!!!!!

One thing I have learned in attempting to cook is to borrow recipes from family. My mother was a great cook and always tried new things, and had variety on the table. Something I am lacking.

Creamed asparagus is an easy recipe my mother passed on to me that I can actually handle.

Ingredients Needed: Asparagus, milk, flour, salt and pepper

1. Snapped off ends of asparagus, Cut up remainder into small pieces

2. Boil chopped asparagus until tender.

3. Drain a little!  you need to leave some water in their  for flavor.

*** I learned this the hard way  the first time I tried this and it had no flavor at all. I drained it completely.**

4. Melt butter, about 3 tablespoons, and some milk  in a saucepan.

5. Add to  asparagus  and mix in about 1.5 tablespoons of  flour. (if you want it thicker add more)

6. Flavor with salt and pepper taste

I really love this as a winter or fall side dish but I guess Asparagus is a very versatile item as you can do a lot with it.

WHAT WAYS DO YOU COOK ASPARAGUS?  give us some inspiration.

Thank You!

I admit I neglected my blog....well perhaps what I'm really admitting is I haven't cooked! lol

Sorry to all those following and a HUGE THANK YOU from Gina and I for the new followers!  i jumped on today and saw 18!!! wow thank you so much and I promise new posts this week