Won Ton Taco Cups

When I started doing this blog I talked to my sister about it and asked to her occasionally add her own Pinterest recipe finds (and fails). Even though we grew up in the same household we cook very differently and our families enjoy very different meals so she will definitely add some variety. 

With the Super Bowl coming we decided to do Game Day food ideas. Without further ado...
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There is nothing this Mama likes better than tacos (except perhaps lasagna, a post for another day) so when I saw these taco cups I had to try them.

Original Recipe: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ginnerobot/3431227193

This one is quick and easy, here are the instructions given:

Mini tacos: Won ton wrappers in muffin tins filled with taco seasoned ground meat, cheese & bake for 8 minutes at 350.

For mine:

1 lb ground turkey

2 tbs taco mix (I make my own, another post!) or one packet

finely chopped onion, maybe 1/4 cup

1 cup grated cheese (what can I say, we love cheese)

taco sauce

finely shredded lettuce

Preheat oven to 350. Brown the turkey then add the taco seasoning and 1/4 cup of water. Cook until the water evaporates. Place a won ton wrapper in each cup of a muffin tin and fill 3/4 with meat. Add a smidgen of onion and top with cheese. Place in oven for 15 minutes or so (they were not at all browned at 8 minutes). Once the cheese is melted and the won ton wrapper is browned remove them from the oven. Add the taco sauce and lettuce to the cups and serve.

Tacos are a huge hit in my house (barring D, who doesn’t like Mexican. I think he might be from another planet), and these cups are no exception. My toddler does not like the taco sauce or the lettuce so she eats them plain, but she eats 3 or 4 of them. The baby eats the filling and tosses the shell, but a lack of teeth will do that. I like adding more toppings to mine. The won ton shell isn’t as messy as a normal taco shell but still gives the satisfying crunch that makes tacos fun. They are easy to make ahead of time and heat up in the oven at serving time. I do this by just adding the meat and the onion. I add the cheese when I reheat them in the oven. (350, until the cheese melts). These are easy and great for a Super Bowl get together. Hope you like them! 

(Original recipe and images can be found here)

Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Bell Peppers

Lately we have been trying to go low carb in my household. It is difficult, frustrating, and sometimes I just want to stuff some meat between two pieces of bread, load on the cheese, and stuff it my face like Miss Piggy.

So this evening, I went digging for a low carb on Pinterest's handy search function and it had to be a simple recipe. It had not been a particularly fantastic day and putting a lot of effort into dinner was just not on my list of things to do. I wanted something that reminded me of the delicious, comforting carbs in which I crave. What did I find?

Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Bell Peppers

8 oz. Thinly Sliced Roast Beef

8 Slices Provolone Cheese

2 Large Green Bell Peppers

1 Medium Sweet Onion – Sliced

6 oz. Baby Bella Mushrooms – Sliced

2 Tbs. Butter

2 Tbs. Olive Oil

1 Tbs. Garlic – Minced

Salt and Pepper – to taste

(2 Tbs. Peace and Love)

DIRECTIONS

Slice peppers in half lengthwise, remove ribs and seeds.

In a large sauté pan over low-medium heat, add butter, olive oil, garlic, mushrooms onions and a little salt and pepper.  Sauté until onions and mushroom are nice and caramelized.  About 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400°

Slice roast beef into thin strips and add to the onion/mushroom mixture.  Allow to cook 5-10 minutes.

Line the inside of each pepper with a slice of provolone cheese.  Fill each pepper with meat mixture until they are nearly overflowing.  Top each pepper with another slice of provolone cheese.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the cheese on top is golden brown.

I left out the mushrooms. Why? Not because I don't like mushrooms, I love them actually, but the idea of washing and stemming them this evening was just entirely too much effort. Wasn't going to happen. I bet they would have been tasty though. 

Despite what the directions say, this whole thing, start to finish, took less than half an hour. It's a piece of cake and I didn't take the time to burn my cheese the way they directed because really, I don't want burnt cheese. Cheese is a reason for living, why am I going to crisp it past the point of recognition? No thanks, but to each their own. 

One thing I will suggest is to buy a decent roast beef. If you buy cheap and prepackaged roast beef it is going to taste like cheap and prepackaged roast beef. Just make this during a week when the local market is doing a good sale at the deli counter. Pretty simple. 

Something that my husband pointed out is that he thought it was difficult to eat, which I didn't understand. Every time he would cut into the pepper all of his filling would come falling out which didn't happen to me. But I wasn't trying to karate chop it with great force the way he tends to cut things. I do understand where he is coming from, though. Often when I make stuffed peppers of any type everything falls out and you end up eating the filling and the pepper separately. But, that is part of the brilliance of this! That piece of melted provolone on top kind of glues everything together so you don't have the tumble-apart issue. Just brilliant. 

To make things short, because I have rambled on a bit with this one, I will be making it again. Simple, cheap, quick, tasty, and low carb. What more can you ask for? 

(Photos and recipe taken from Peace, Love, and Low Carb )

Vegetarian Greek Lentil Casserole Recipe with Bell Peppers and Feta

The weather lately has been miserable. I'm lucky enough not to live anywhere that requires owning a snow shovel but that just means instead of snow, we get rain. Constant, depressing, gloomy rain. I haven't been able to get to my mailbox in a week because the area around it is under several inches of water. I'm sick to death of precipitation, but, it did send me looking for a comfort food recipe.

Now, everyone seems to have their own definition of what comfort food is, and that is fine. In this case I went with a type of casserole. Everything in one pot, stick it in the oven, wait for a while for it to be done.

Vegetarian Greek Lentil Casserole with Bell Peppers and Feta 

Ingredients:
1 cup brown lentils, picked over and rinsed if needed (lentils that come in a package often don't need to be rinsed)
1 large onion, chopped small
2 tsp. minced garlic (or more)
1 cup + 2 T vegetable stock or broth (canned vegetable broth is fine here)
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. Greek oregano
1 tsp. Greek Seasoning 
1 can (14.5 oz.) stewed tomatoes, drained and slightly mashed
1 green bell pepper, seeds removed and finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeds removed and finely chopped
3/4 cup crumbled Feta cheese

Instructions: 

Preheat oven to 375F/190C.  Use a 3 quart casserole dish with a tight-fitting lid.  Combine lentils, chopped onion, minced garlic, vegetable broth, bay leaf, black pepper, Greek oregano, and Greek seasoning in the casserole dish and bake covered for 45 minutes.

While lentils bake, drain the tomatoes and mash gently inside the can with a fork.  Cut seeds out of the bell peppers and finely chop, and crumble enough Feta to make 3/4 cup.

After 45 minutes, take lentils out of the oven, stir in the crushed tomatoes, put the lid back on and bake for 15 minutes more.  Then take out again, gently mix in the finely chopped bell pepper and 2/3 of the Feta.  Crumble the rest of the Feta over the top and bake 15-20 minutes more, or until the Feta is starting to melt and get lightly browned.  Serve hot.

Let's just say I should have known this was going to be an annoying recipe when the words "picked over and rinsed" were employed. I don't like spending a ton of time in the kitchen. I want quick, healthy (usually), and tasty. "Picked over and rinsed" just sounds pompous. I don't know, maybe it is just the weather getting to me. 

At any rate, I thought this sounded wonderful and with casseroles you almost always have leftovers for the next day's lunch which is definitely a bonus. I did follow the recipe on this one pretty closely as the only change I really made was leaving out the green bell pepper and using two red ones instead. 

This took a while to make. It didn't sound like it should but for some reason I felt like I'd been chained in the kitchen for over an hour just prepping for this. Who has time for that? And the only time I want to wait an hour or more for something to cook is if I am putting it in the crockpot but this also took forever to bake. 

In the end, it wasn't really worth it. The flavors were bland, I couldn't even taste the feta over the oppressive tomatoes, and the bell peppers had become almost completely mush which gave it a terrible mouth feel. The dish hadn't even cooled completely before finding it's way into the trash can. It was a waste of time and money and I found myself ordering delivery later in the evening simply because I had eaten so little of it that I was still hungry. 

 Vegetarian Greek Lentil Casserole with Bell Peppers and Feta may have sounded promising but I most definitely will not be trying this one again. 

(Recipe and photo taken from original website Kalyn's Kitchen)

5-Ingredient Pear Pomegranate Salsa

Every year around Christmas my entire family gets together to celebrate. And I do mean the entire family. There about 25 of us all in the same house having good food, good wine, and good (though occasionally maniacal) company. That is a lot of people to feed so everyone brings a dish or two and we leave the diets at the door and just pig out. Though we are a close knit family we all lead very different lives in very different places so we don't all enjoy similar foods. I, for instance, won't touch condiments. Ketchup, mayo, ranch, BBQ sauce...none of it and I don't particularly enjoy meats all that often.
So for this Christmas I wanted to take something fresh and festive. The recipe I decided on was 5- ingredient pear pomegranate salsa.

5-INGREDIENT PEAR POMEGRANATE SALSA

This pear pomegranate salsa rocks the savory and sweet combo, and calls for just five ingredients!

PREP: 10 MINS TOTAL: 10 MINS

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 fresh pears (any kind), cored and diced
• 1 fresh pomegranate, seeded (see my tutorial on how to open and de-seed a pomegranate http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/how-to-open-and-de-seed-a-pomegranate/)
• half a red onion, diced
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• juice of half a lime

DIRECTIONS:

Toss all ingredients together until combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve immediately, or store in a sealed container for up to 2 days.

This recipe held a lot of promise for me. The mix of the bright red pomegranate seeds and red onion with the green pears and cilantro it was bound to be brilliantly colored and they are all flavors I really enjoyed. 

Since the directions stated that the salad could be kept in a sealed container for up to two days I went ahead and made it the night ahead of time. This is also one of those few instances when I made a recipe exactly as the directions stated. That really does not happen often what so ever. 

I was really excited about this recipe. It sounded like it would taste crisp and clean and have a nice meld of flavors. But, I was disappointed. Overnight the pears got incredibly mushy and everything had turned red from the pomegranate seeds. Instead of looking bright and festive it kind of looked like a pile of reddish mush. The flavors were less than fabulous as well. They just didn't work together. You could hardly taste the pears, even if you could get past the mushy texture, and the red onion completely overpowered the pomegranate. I was just glad that I had also made black eyed pea salad to take as well. 

Overall, this recipe was simple and quick to make. The cost could very greatly, though, because of the season and cost of pomegranates. However the end product just fell so short of expectations. I will not be making this one again. 

(All images and recipe taken from http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/5-ingredient-pear-pomegranate-salsa/ )

The taste carousel of Pinterest

I don't know about you, but I love Pinterest. I find myself on it at least once a day browsing craft ideas, new work out options, and looking at recipes (my personal favorite). My problem? There are so many recipes to browse through that end up on my board and the majority of them just sitting there with their tantalizing photos and they never get made.

A lot of the reason for that is that I don't want to take the time to make a recipe that is going to take up my precious time, money, and efforts without much of an idea if it will be good or not. On web sites like Food Network's or allrecipes there are reviews from users to give you an idea of the recipes success. On Pinterest you end up with the pick and pray method. The ingredients themselves may sound good but that doesn't mean that the end product will be anything to shout about.

We have all run across recipes like that, I'm sure. One you drool over and finally decide to make only to discover that the end product is better off in the pig pin than in your family's mouths.

So, what does that mean to you, reader, looking at this blog? Well, I am going to be taking recipes that I exclusively find on Pinterest, make them, rate them, and give an overall review. While I myself have pinned things from Alton Brown and some of the other wonderful hosts that you find on cable TV, their recipes will not be finding their way to this blog. These will be honest reviews done by a home cook and fed to my family (or not, depending on my own taste tests during cooking). And, while I will try to pick recipes that I see popping up frequently on the Food & Drink feed, there may be some that you haven't seen on there before.

I hope you enjoy, and feel free to be amused by any of the Pinterest failures that I may come across. I know I will be.

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The recipe I'd like to start this off with is actually one of my favorites. Start on a high note, right? It is a black-eyed pea salad that has popped up in my feed many times and I've actually made on several occasions, as well.

Now, I would like to point out that I may not be making these recipes exactly as they appear on their respective sites. For instance, I myself am not particularly fond of chunks of tomatoes which this recipe calls for. But, that is part of the fun of a recipe. Start with a base and alter it how it works for. Whether it be exchanging one disliked ingredient for another that you do like or just exchanging, say, parsley for cilantro because that is what you happen to have in the fridge. Like I said, it is aimed at the home cook and I don't know about you but I neither have the time nor inclination to go running to the grocery store for one ingredient when another will do just fine, thank you very much.

Now, anyway, black-eyed pea salad.

Gorgeous, isn't it? I adore this recipe. I use it as a stand alone salad and it also works well as a salsa for tacos or nachos! Multi-purpose recipe, how great is that? 

Black-Eyed Pea Salad

INGREDIENTS

2 cans black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
1 large tomato, diced
1/2 large red onion, diced
1 small or 1/2 large red, yellow, or orange bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, diced
4 green onions, sliced
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar (unseasoned)
2 Tbsp. canola oil
1/2 tsp. organic cane sugar
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Toss to combine black-eyed peas, tomato, red onion, pepper, jalapeno, and green onion in a large bowl.

2. In a small bowl, dissolve sugar in vinegar. Whisk in oil. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Pour dressing over bean mixture. Toss to coat. Stir in cilantro and season to taste with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to serve (the longer it sits the better the flavor will be).

Serves 8.

The above is the recipe exactly as it appears on the website (which you can view here). 

I will say that I do make one small change to this recipe. I typically despise raw tomatoes, which the recipe calls for, so I exchange the one tomato for another red bell pepper. I also completely leave out the sugar because I don't find a lot of joy in sweet foods. 

But, that is part of my love of this recipe! You can change things out so easily to make it something you love! Don't have black-eyed peas? No problem! Use that can of navy beans you have sitting around or even the black beans. I do not, however, recommend kidney beans for this. They just don't work. 

You will see in the directions that the longer this recipe sits, the better it will be. This I absolutely agree with. The salad itself takes less than 10 minutes to chop and toss together but popping it in the fridge and letting it sit overnight is well worth the wait. The flavors meld so nicely and it really works well. Don't worry about that jalapeno, as long as you remove the seeds there is barely any heat. I've even used a pablano in this recipe without the heat being bad at all.  Just make sure to remove the seeds if you want to keep the heat under control. 

This recipe is quick, easy, and versatile. Ingredients are easily interchangeable and the total cost remains low (and let us all admit right now that cost is a majorly important factor in what we cook). I've made this multiple times over the last two years and readily recommend it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

(Photo credit to the website in which this recipe was taken)