Quick and Easy Pizzas

There's nothing quite as delicious as homemade pizza. But making pizza dough from scratch is messy and time-consuming. Premade crusts are usually expensive or bland tasting and end up soggy after cooking from the pizza sauce and toppings. I've found an alternative crust substitute that's affordable, tasty, easy to use, and ends up being crisp and crunchy: frozen garlic naan from Trader Joe's.

Naan is a staple bread in central and south Asia and is a common menu option at Indian and Middle Eastern restaurants. It's a round flatbread made from white flour. Garlic naan, as you may have guessed, it naan baked with garlic.

The naan for sale at my neighborhood Trader Joe's runs $1.99 for four pieces, and each piece is the perfect size for a single-serving of pizza. In addition to the naan, I also buy all the other pizza ingredients at Trader Joe's, so I often refer to this pizza as TJ-Style Pizza.

To make one of these pizzas, you'll need about 5 minutes of prep time, 15-20 minutes of cooking time, and the following ingredients:

• One frozen garlic naan slice per pizza
• Pizza sauce of some kind. You may make your own, or use any commercial spaghetti sauce. I typically use Trader Joe's basil marinara base sauce, but I've used Prego in the past as well.
• Cheese. Trader Joe's sells a four-cheese blend that includes Parmesan and asiago, among others. Occasionally, I add regular mozzarella cheese to this mix.
• Toppings. Add whatever toppings suit your fancy. I like mushrooms, onions, and oregano. Every now I then I buy Trader Joe's frozen turkey meatballs, and cook and cut up one of those and put it on top.

To make the pizza, start by pre-heating the oven to 400 degrees. Next, get a baking sheet out, line it with aluminum foil, and give it a spritz of Pam cooking spray. Put the frozen garlic naan slice on the tray and then add the sauce. Next, put a thin layer of cheese and then sprinkle on the toppings. Finish the pizza off by adding another thin layer of cheese.

Once the oven's ready, pop the pizza in and let it bake for 15-20 minutes. After baking, let it cool for about 5 minutes, then enjoy! It doesn't get any tastier or easier than this!

Toasted Open Roast Beef Sandwiches

Everyone's had a roast beef sandwich at one time or another, but a more interesting and delicious twist is available with just a little bit of extra work. This recipe works best with higher end ingredients, but still beats a cold roast beef sandwich any day of the week.

The ingredient list I enjoy most follows:

• Thinly sliced fresh rosemary sourdough bread
• Thickly sliced roast beef from the butcher or deli
• Sliced mushrooms
• Sliced onions
• Goat cheese
• Coarsely ground pepper
  

Brown the onions and mushroom sliced mushrooms in a pan using as little as oil as possible. While the veggies are browning, layout the bread with the roast beef layered on top on a baking sheet and turn the oven's broiler on. Once the onions and mushrooms have browned place them atop the beef followed by the goat cheese and coarsely ground pepper. Place the baking sheet in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes or until the cheese has browned and the sandwich is warm throughout.

Remove from the oven and enjoy while warm! You can eat this tasty sandwich with your hands or with a knife and fork. If the sandwich is too dry for you, consider mixing some mayonnaise with a dab or horseradish sauce. Add this mixture conservatively to the sandwich.

Enjoy!

Fried Chicken

Until about a year ago, the only friend chicken I had enjoyed was the kind from KFC or Chic-Fil-A. I didn't realize how easy (although a tad messy) it was to fix at home. Homemade fried chicken has a moistness and texture that's hard to find in the fast food joints.

Start by selecting the chicken parts you want to fry. Breasts, legs, wings, and thighs all make great choices. You can leave the skin on, or remove it for a healthier meal.

Frying chicken involves three steps:

1. Soaking the chicken breasts/thighs/legs/wings in buttermilk
2. Dredging the chicken pieces through "the batter"
3. Frying the chicken pieces

Start by placing the chicken pieces in a container and cover with buttermilk. Some recipes insist that the chicken sit refrigerated in the buttermilk overnight, but I usually just let it sit for a couple of hours.

When you're ready to start cooking, get a large, heavy frying pan and pour in enough oil so that it comes up 1/8"-1/4". Heat the oil on high for a few minutes as you create the batter and dredge the chicken.

To create the batter, combine flour with a bit of pepper and salt. You can also add additional powdery spices: garlic powder, cayenne pepper, onion powder, paprika, and so on. Next, crack an egg or two in a bowl and mix the yolks and whites. Then, remove the chicken pieces from the buttermilk and dredge the chicken through the flour.

One of the main challenges of frying chicken is getting it so that the outside is crispy and the inside thoroughly cooked, yet moist. It is easy to burn the outside and leave the inside uncooked, so it may take a little practice to get cooking just right.

Put the chicken pieces in the hot oil and turn the heat down to medium. Let the chicken cook for about 6 minutes on one side then turn over the chicken. After turning the chicken, cover the frying pan and turn the heat down to low. The cover traps the steam and helps moisten the chicken and ensures a cooked-through bird. After 10-15 minutes, the chicken will be cooked inside, but the batter may not be crisp enough. Remove the lid, return the heat to medium-high, and cook on each side for a minute or two until the chicken is crispy.

Turn off the heat and drain the chicken on a rack (not on paper towels, which can stick to the skin/batter!). Let the chicken cool and then serve!

Potato Medley

I used to be a Russet potato kind of guy, choosing the standard, starchy baked potato as my potato of choice. Although, for a while, red potatoes caught my fancy. Now? I'm now hooked on sweet potatoes! One of my favorite recipes involves mixing the Russet and sweet potato in a dish I call potato medley. It's very delicious, good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and can be created, from start to finish, in 30 minutes or so.

Start by selecting equally-sized Russet and sweet potatoes, dicing them into 1/2" square cubes. Next, put the cubes into a bowl and mix in a splash of olive oil and any dry toppings you'd like to use. I'm partial to pepper, chili powder, and garlic powder, although onion powder and breadcrumbs are good ones, too. All that's left is cooking time!

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Put the coated cubes in a greased pan and bake for 20-40 minutes, depending on how well done you like your potatoes. I usually pull them out every 10 minutes or so and shake up the pan. After 20 minutes in, I test every 5 minutes or so.

After baking, let cool for 5 minutes and enjoy! Goes great as-is and also with hot sauce and/or katchup. Store any leftovers in the fridge and simply microwave them when ready to eat the next day. (Although they are, undoubtably, best right out of the oven.) The sweet potatoes give a fair amount of sweetness to the medley, but if you're wanting a sweeter concoction, replace the Russet potato with a yam.

M&M Cookies

It's been a while since I've posted any recipes - the holidays have had me busy. I hope to get back to a more regular schedule in the near future...

Speaking of the holidays, my family loves cookies this time of year. My absolute favorite cookie recipe comes from my grandmother: M&M Cookies! This recipe is easy to make, but disgustingly unheathly, I'm afraid. But these cookies are oh-so-tasty and keep for months in the freezer.

To bake these cookies start by mixing the following ingredients:

• 2.25 cups of flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup of butter, softened
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 3/4 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 12 oz. bag of regular M&Ms (although I suppose peanut/almond/peanut butter M&Ms would work just as well)

After mixing, place on a baking sheet and bake 9-11 minutes at 375 degrees.

Growing up my cousins and I would spend about a month of the summer at my grandmother's house. She would make batches upon batches of these M&M cookies prior to our arrival, and put them in the freezer. These cookies can be served frozen, thawed, or warmed in the microwave for 5-15 seconds. Regardless of what temperature you consume them, they are delicious and go great with a heaping bowl of French vanilla ice cream, just like we used to have at Grandma's house.

Single Serve Cookies

While there are innumerous recipes for assorted kinds of cookies available online, virtually every recipe explains how to make a batch of cookies (8 to 12, typically). Sometimes, you want one cookie; and you want it now; and you want it warm and gooey and fresh out of the oven. What's a cookie lover to do?

My solution - which, admittedly, doesn't make the best tasting cookies, but is quick, easy, and satisfies that cookie craving without gluttony - is to make a single cookie. Yes, that's right, I bake one cookie. I do this using a toaster oven and my "single serve" cookie recipe. Now, I don't have the amounts for each ingredient down pat, which is what makes cooking these single serve cookies so much fun - each time it a new experience!

Ok, here are the ingredients, mixed in a small bowl:

• A spoonful of brown sugar
• A spoonful of normal, white sugar
• Two to three spoonfuls of flour
• A few drops of vanilla
• A pinch of salt
• A pinch of baking soda
• About a quarter-inch from a stick of butter, melted
• A couple Tablespoons of egg beaters (virtually all cookie recipes call for 1 or 2 eggs; since I'm making a single cookie, I need like 1/4 of an egg. Rather than waste an entire egg to only use 1/4 of it, I buy the egg beaters, which comes in a carton and is egg whites, basically)
• A bit of your favorite cookie add-ons - chocolate chips, walnuts, peanut butter, oatmeal, raisins... whatever you fancy and have lying around

Before mixing, I turn on the toaster oven to 350 degrees or so. After mixing all of these with a spoon, I get out a sheet of aluminum foil and spray some Pam on it. I then spread out the cookie dough mix onto the sheet of aluminum foil and let it bake for 10-15 minutes, depending if I'm in the mood for a chewy or crispy cookie.

Once it's done baking, let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes and then enjoy your dessert!

Turkey Enchiladas

With Thanksgiving and Christmas fast approaching, we're reaching that time of year where turkey dinners will become the norm around the country. While Turkey is a rather dry meat, it is very affordable and reheats well, making it a great leftover meat. The traditional turkey dinner involves turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberries, stuffing, and the like, and while I enjoy the traditional turkey dinner as much as the next guy, one or two "traditional" turkey dinners per year is more than enough for me. The problem, though, is that typically after one of these traditional turkey dinners there's enough turkey for several more days.

Rather than simply reheating that turkey and reserving with potatoes, gravy, and stuffing, why not turn that leftover turkey into something new? There are a variety of leftover turkey dishes I enjoy, but none as much as turkey enchiladas. They are quite tasty and easy to make, requiring about an hour in total for prep, cooking, and cooling. (If you are not a turkey fan or don't have turkey available but want to try out this recipe nevertheless, you can substitute chicken in for the turkey.)

To start, gather up the following ingredients:

• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped fine
• 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, mashed and chopped
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 16oz can of diced tomatoes (I prefer picking up the "Mexican Style" canned diced tomatoes, which come with little bits of chopped up green chili)
• 1.5 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano (any kind of Italian seasoning works well here)
• Chili powder to taste (I usually use 2-3 teaspoons)
  
• Black olives
• Cooked turkey (or chicken)
• Corn tortillas
• Cheddar cheese

The first step is to make the enchilada sauce. To accomplish this start by heating the oil in a pan. Next, add the garlic, oregano, tomato paste, and most of the onion. Mix well and simmer for about five minutes. After five minutes add the vinegar, water, diced tomatoes, and chili powder. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 15 minutes. Then set to thicken.

Once the sauce has thickened, grab a casserole dish and pour and 1/4 of the sauce into the bottom. Next, cut several of the corn tortillas into halves and quarters. The put quarters into the corners of the dish and the halves along the edges. Finally, cover the open area at the bottom with whole tortillas.

Pour more sauce into the dish, enough to cover the tortillas. Then heap generous portions of turkey, black olives, and cheese into the dish. The last step is to cover the dish with another layer of tortillas. For this step, dip the tortillas in the sauce to moisten the underside, and then cover the dish. Finally, pour the remaining sauce on the dish, add some more cheese, and a dash of oregano (or other Italian seasoning, like parsley).

Bake the enchiladas for 20 to 25 minutes uncovered at 350 degrees. Let cool and serve with sour cream and/or guacamole. Makes about 8 servings...

These turkey enchiladas are but one of many ways to better enjoy your leftover Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. Enjoy!

Cornbread

Whenever I leave on a business trip my wife bakes up a mean batch of cornbread to keep me sated and thinking of home while away. The cornbread, individually wrapped in saran wrap, makes a great on-the-go snack or meal replacement while waiting at airports or when arriving at a hotel after the restaurant has closed. Her recipe is one of the more healthy cornbread recipes, with a lighter, fluffier result, and is so easy to make that I whipped up batches on my own from time to time.

The ingredients for this delicious cornbread are as follows:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup plain nonfat yogurt
• 2 large eggs
• a pinch of baking soda

(For a less healthy, heavier batch of cornbread, use regular yogurt instead of the nonfat kind.)

Once you've got all of your ingredients, simply mix them together and then pour into a glass pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes and then set out to cool. If you're making the cornbread to comfort your significant other while they're away, after the cornbread cools cut it into 2"x2" squares, wrap in saran wrap, place in a brown paper bag, and put it in your spouse's suitcase. :-)

Enjoy!

Chicken Fiesta

Interested in cooking a quick, easy chicken dish that's both filling and tasty? If so, you have to give Chicken Fiesta a try, it's remarkably easy to make and comes out tasting great! The ingredients list is simple enough:

• 1 box stuffing
• Chicken (I typically use 4 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts)
• 1 can of lite fruit cocktail
• Mayonnaise

This dish is, essentially, just chicken and stuffing, but the twist here lies in how the stuffing is prepared. To start, you'll need to prepare the stuffing per the directions on the box. However, rather than using the margarine and water, substitute in mayo and the syrup from the fruit cocktail.

Once the stuffing has been made, place it at the bottom of a glass pan and then put the chicken on top. Bake at 325 degrees for one hour. After the hour, place the fruit from the fruit cocktail on top of the chicken and bake for another 15 minutes.

And that's it! In about 5 to 10 minutes of real work - making the stuffing, loading it in the pan, and clean-up - you'll have a delicious, warm, and filling chicken dinner. Enjoy!

Greek Potato Salad

If you're heading off to any picnics or BBQs this Labor Day weekend, chances are you, or someone attending, is expected to bring some sort of creamy salad, like potato salad or macaroni salad. These sinfully delicious (and sinfully unhealthy!) salads are a staple at any picnic. Rather than bringing the same old boring potato salad, why not mix things up and make this tasty Greek potato salad? It's easy to make and has a distinctive and alluring taste that will keep the picnic-goers coming back to your dish.

Unlike a traditional potato salad that uses Russet potatoes, the Greek potato salad uses red potatoes. Personally, I prefer these smaller, less starchy potatoes to the Russet. (For more recipe ideas with red potatoes be sure to check out an earlier recipe, Baked Red Potatoes.) Also, instead of using mayonnaise as the main "goup" ingredient in the salad, the Greek potato salad replaces the mayo with olive oil and feta cheese.

The ingredients for Greek potato salad, unfortunately, are a bit more expensive than for a traditional potato salad, but it's worth every penny:

• 2 lbs medium red potatoes
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon rosemary
• 1/2 lb. feta cheese, crumbled
• 1 sweet red bell pepper, seeded
• 1/2 cup green onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup black olives, drained & chopped

Start by washing and cutting the potatoes into bit-sized pieces, leaving the skins on. Next, cook the potatoes in boiling water until tender. Part of the art of cooking this recipe is ensuring that the potatoes achieve the right level of tenderness. If the potatoes are not tender enough, the dish will suffer as the potato pieces will taste somewhat raw and be crunchy. If the potatoes are too tender, then when mixing the ingredients you'll find that you end up with a sort of oatmeal-like mush.

While the potatoes are being cooked, mix the oil, vinegar, oregano, and rosemary. After the potatoes are tender, drain them and move the potatoes to a mixing bowl. Then pour on the oil/vinegar/spices mix and gently toss in the remaining ingredients. After all of the ingredients have been thoroughly (yet gently!) mixed, let the salad stand for at least thirty minutes before serving. This dish will keep well in the fridge for up to a week.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Rice Casserole

If you like chicken, rice, and creamy soups, and you think that they taste even better if they're all mixed together, then this recipe is for you! It's amazingly fun and easy to make and, while a little on the salty side, is quite a tasty recipe that we enjoy usually once a month, or so. The ingredients are relatively inexpensive, especially if you opt to buy frozen chicken.

For this dish you'll need:

• 8 to 10 chicken thighs, skin removed (you can also use boneless, skinless chicken breasts if you are looking for a healthier, meatier dish)
• 1 cup of uncooked rice (rinsed)
• 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can of cream of celery soup
• 1 can of French onion soup
• A pinch of paprika

The goal here is to mix together the soups and uncooked rice and then bake it with the chicken. Start by mixing together the three cans of soup. Save about 1/3 of this soup mixture in a separate bowl. With the remaining 2/3, mix in the cup of uncooked rice.

Pour half of this soup/rice mixture into a 13"x9" pan and then place the chicken thighs on top. Pour the rest of the soup/rice mixture in the pan, filling the gaps. Finally, cover the chicken with the soup-only mixture that was set aside earlier. Lastly, sprinkle with paprika (optional).

Let this baby bake for 75 minutes in an oven pre-heated to 350 degrees. After cooking, let it cool for 15 minutes or so, then enjoy!

Baked Red Potatoes

I really like potatoes, especially french fried... with lots of katchup. Pity that they're so unhealthy, drenched in oil and loaded with high calorie carbs. While baked potatoes or mashed potatos are a more healthy choice than french fried potatoes, even a baked potato can quickly lose any nutritional value once its smothered in cheese, bacon bits, sour cream, and butter, or mashed potatoes in milk, butter, and gravy.



There are healthy potato servings that taste great without slathering on high calorie, high fat items. Today's recipe is such a dish: Baked Red Potatoes. This dish is cheap, easy to cook, and tasty. I wouldn't go so far to call it health food - after all, the two main ingredients, potatoes and breadcrumbs, are both high calorie items - but as far as potato options go, this dish is one that will require less "make-up" time at the gym than most others.



The ingredients are affordable and easy to find at any major grocery store:

• 3 regular red potatoes
• 2 Tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 teaspoons oregano (or more, if you like)
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon lemon pepper (or 1/2 teaspoon regular, table pepper)
• 1 teaspoon rosemary
• 1 Tablespoon breadcrumbs

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
• Wash and chop potatoes into 3/4" cubes
• Mix potatoes with olive oil, coating well
• Mix in remaining dry ingredients
• Place potatoes on an aluminum foil-covered baking sheet and bake for 40-45 minutes, turning potatoes over about half way through

This will make 2 to 3 servings. These tasty baked potatoes work well with any dish where you might normally serve a baked potato. Really, though, this recipe works as a side dish for most any meat-based meal, especially red meats (although it still works well with chicken and pork, in my opinion).



Enjoy!

A Hawaiian Breakfast

I supposedly was born in Hawaii and lived my first three years of life there, but I'll be damned if I can remember a thing from those days. The only thing I do remember about my nation's fiftieth state is from the trip my family took there for two weeks between the summer of fifth and sixth grade. In particular, I remember the most tasty breakfast I think I've ever had (although how much can you trust your memory from when you were 10?), which I dub the 'Hawaiian breakfast.'

This breakfast is indicative of Hawaiian meals in general - high carbs and protein and not a fruit or vegetable to offend the eye. It's also easy to fix and very filling. The ingredients are:

• Portuguese sausage
• Eggs
• White rice
• Guava juice

Portuguese sausage is a wonderfully tasty and spicy sausage that, unfortunately, can be a bit hard to come by. I've only found on store in my city that sells this particular sausage mix, but it's worth the trip. If you can't find a store in your area that sells it you can either make it yourself or simply substitute in another fatty meat product, such as another spicy sausage or even SPAM.

Making this breakfast is a cinch. Just cut up the sausage into half- or quarter-thick inch slices. Get out a big skillet and grease it up. Then throw on the sausage and eggs, browning the sausage and frying the eggs. (For a great bit of info on frying eggs, check out the Eggs Cookings Methods page at the Georgia Egg Commission website. Personally I like the yolk a bit runny, so I do the eggs over easy, but over hard eggs are also just as tasty.)

Once the sausage and eggs are ready, serve with rice and a tall glace of guava juice. Yum! A tasty way to start the day.

Jambalaya

Jambalaya is a traditional Creole dish, typically containing a mix of meat (usually sausage, shrimp, ham, and/or chicken) along with an assortment of yummy vegetables, including tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and celery. These ingredients are then sautéed together with a rice base that often includes some spices to give the dish an overall kick in the pants (think Tabasco sauce, black pepper, crushed red pepper, and so on). Jambalaya is a great dish to take care of leftover veggies, meat, and rice; it's quick and easy to make. Personally, I don't find it to be one of the best tasting dishes out there - it is the Creole version of meatloaf, in a way, a medley of what you have sitting in the fridge - but it is an enjoyable meal every now and then, especially if you're in the mood for something with a little bit of a kick.

You can really use whatever vegetables and meat you have at your disposal, but the more traditional recipes call for the meats to be polish sausage and shrimp and the vegetables to be celery, onions, and red bell peppers. Likewise, you can use any type of rice, although the ever-common instant white rice is the norm. A typical ingredient list might look as follows:

• 1/2 pound of (polish) sausage (or ham)
• 2+ Tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 pound of shrimp (or chicken)
• 2 cups (white) rice
• 4 cups diced tomatoes (you can used canned tomatoes if you like)
• 1 cup onion, chopped
• 1 cup (red) bell peppers chopped
• 1 cup celery, chopped
• 1 to 2 teaspoons garlic
• 1 to 2 Tablespoons hot sauce
• Salt, pepper, & red crushed peppers to taste

Again, the recipe list is very flexible. Use your imagination and whatever ingredient you happen to have available. In addition to having a fluid ingredients list, the manner with which you cook Jambalaya is also equally flexible and simplistic. The main goal is to brown the meat(s), sauté the vegetables, and then stir in/warm the rice. I usually brown the meat(s) for three to five on medium to medium-high heat, followed by sautéing the onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, and celery until the onions start to brown (three to five minutes, again), followed by stirring in the rice, reducing the heat, and ensuring everything is mixed together and warmed equally. Finally, I season to taste with the salt, ground black pepper, hot sauce, and crushed red peppers.

Jambalaya makes a tasty, hearty, warming meal in a relatively short amount of time. It's a great way to thin out the meats and veggies you have lying around in your fridge and keeps well for several days.

Enjoy!