Quick & Easy Tortilla Soup

I'm a menu planner. Every other week I spend time and plan out my meals from breakfast thru evening snack every day for two weeks. Within that plan I know how to schedule myself--from pre-soaking beans and defrosting meat to prepping vegetables and photographing finished dishes to share with you. It's a time investment, and not everyone wants to be quite that regimented, but it helps me to minimize food waste and maximize my grocery budget.

But sometimes things go awry.

Yesterday, for example, turned out to be a busy day. I had lots of errands to run and got a little side-tracked. My food prep plans fell by the wayside and as I picked up Mr.W from work, I realized I didn't know what I was going to feed him.

Pantry items to the rescue!

I threw together this tortilla soup and we were both delighted with the result. It was good--really good--and came together in about 30 minutes. Most tortilla soup recipes will have a list of garnish options--avocado slices, cheese, sour cream and crispy tortilla chips. Those things I'll leave to your tastes. We just ate this soup as-is.


Tortilla Soup
serves 4
6 cups chicken broth
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 carrot, peeled and chopped fine
1 4-inch piece celery (I used frozen and left it whole--we don't care for cooked celery, but if you don't mind it you can chop this up and leave it in)
Pinch each kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
2 5-inch corn tortillas, cut up
1 cup diced cooked chicken
1/2 cup frozen corn niblets
1 cup cilantro-lime salsa (I make my own by combining canned (drained & diced) plum tomatoes with cilantro, chopped jalapeno or ground cayenne pepper for heat, salt and lime juice to taste)

Combine broth, onion, carrot and celery in a 4-quart saucepan; bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes, or until onions are soft. Remove celery if desired.

Season broth with salt and pepper to taste; add parsley, red pepper flakes and corn tortilla pieces. Continue to simmer, occasionally stirring gently to break up tortilla pieces. This takes about 2 or 3 minutes only for the tortillas to melt.

Add remaining ingredients and heat through--about 10 minutes more. Serve hot.


Note for diabetics: Cilantro naturally regulates blood sugar, so it should be part of your diet!

Meatloaf Burgers

My family loves meatloaf. Leftover meat slabs become a midnight snack: a forbidden sandwich gobbled alone in the kitchen darkness when no one is around.

The key to the perfect meatloaf sandwich is the meatloaf itself. It must be seasoned to be tasty warm or cold. It must possess the perfect meat-to-topping ratio so that there is no need for any other condiment on the sandwich: ketchup. Oh, yes, this king wears only rubies in his crown.

As it's often only Mr.W and I for dinner, when I do make meatloaf it's either one very small one, dwarfed in the loaf pan, or two individual portions. We are eaters, mind you, and often overeaters at that. Portions must be controlled with military precision.

That doesn't leave room for very many midnight sandwiches.

You might think that, as a housewife, I wouldn't need to have quick-fix meals available--but that actually isn't the case. I'm often doing this or that thing, running errands, or have some meeting or other activity to attend after dinner, thus making quick-to-prepare meals a very real necessity.

I was actually rather surprised by that--until I became a house-spouse myself I always imagined daily leisurely cooking. Silly me!

One of my favorite speedy mealtime solutions is the lowly hamburger. After purchasing family-sized vats of ground meat, I divide it according to planned meals: some pre-cooked and portioned for a fast pot of chili/goulash/pasta sauce, some made into meatballs, and others shaped into mini-loaves and hamburgers.

And this week, a lightbulb came on.

I made a batch of hamburger patties from my standard meat loaf mix and, last night, I pulled them out for supper and prepared them the same way as I do meat loaf: lightly brush with steak sauce, bake until just cooked to one degree below desired doneness (which means medium-plus here--the thinner burgers make it medium-well for Mr.W), topped with ketchup and returned to the oven while sides are prepared. (Note: I cooked these from frozen solid--the outside became a rich mohagony brown while the inside remained moist and, for mine, slightly pink.)

Making this as a burger also provided the desired topping-to-meat ratio. No other condiment was needed, though I did add a slice of white american cheese for a little added dairy.



It was positively sinful. The very sandwich I associate with a forbidden midnight kitchen rendezvous was suddenly made public.

It made me blush.

Pasta Presto Night: Easy Skillet Pasta

It's been one of those days... and I needed to throw something together for dinner, and fast! Mr.W skipped lunch and his tummy was grumbling.

My plan for just these kinds of days is to get a pot of water on the stove and start a package of frozen hamburger in a skillet... THEN figure out what's for dinner. This is how the most pleasing comfort food is created.

Thus emerged Easy Skillet Pasta, with a side of butter & sugar corn-on-the cob for Mr.W. (I try to avoid starchy veggies when I'm indulging in pasta.)

Easy Skillet Pasta

1.5 pounds ground beef
2 cups dried bowtie pasta
1 28-ounce jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
14 ounces warm water (1/2 jar after you've emptied the spaghetti sauce)
salt and pepper to taste
generous sprinkle hot pepper flakes (optional)

Brown ground beef in skillet set over medium-high heat; strain away the grease by dumping cooked meat into a wire mesh strainer set in your sink or a bowl. Discard grease. Return meat to skillet; reduce heat to medium. Add remaining ingredients; cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until pasta is al dente.

Serve in bowls and sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese, if desired.

Super simple and fresh from your own kitchen, this is a quick-fix weeknight meal that is sure to please. This makes enough for four helpings. Paired with a salad or a side veggie and some garlic bread it's plenty for a family of four. And you can adjust this to your taste, adding veggies from your fridge or freezer, onion & garlic, upping the herbs or adding more water for more of a goulash. A splash of red wine would be a nice addition, as well.

This is my entry for this week's Presto Pasta Night.

Bon appetit,
Mrs.W

British Food Fortnight: Quick Chicken Curry for Two

It is British Food Fortnight, a time when people worldwide celebrate the foods eaten and produced in Great Britain.

When I think of England, I think of the Queen, Wallis and Gromit, the tube, tea with scones and clotted cream, fish and chips, bangers and mash, and of course my many friends who are either living in the UK or have lived there in the past. I think of the day I spent in London's Heathrow airport in the luxurious Delta lounge gearing up for the long flight to Cape Town. But I digress.

So many cuisines have been introduced to England's culture that I would venture to say that their diet is as diversified as in the United States. There is one thing, however, that every Englishman that I know talks about.

A good curry.

So for British Food Fortnight, hosted by Fuss Free Flavours , I've created Quick Chicken Curry for Two. See the roundup here, even though FFF forgot my entry!

Of course Mr.W won't touch curry. So in my house it's really for one... but this recipe makes two servings.




Quick Chicken Curry for Two

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup chopped yellow onion
about 3 tablespoons finely sliced carrot (I used 4 “baby-cut” carrots)
1/8 cup frozen broccoli florets
about 8 pitted dried plums (Okay, they're really prunes, but I seem to have fallen into the marketing ploy of making them sound less prune-ish by calling them dried plums.)
½ cup chicken broth or water
4 teaspoons curry powder, or to taste
1 small tomato, chopped
1 grilled chicken cutlet, cut up (or leftover meat of choice)
2 small potatoes, peeled and boiled, cooled and diced

In a large skillet, melt butter and saute chopped onion until transparent and beginning to brown. Add carrot, broccoli, dried plums and chicken broth. Sprinkle curry powder over all. Stir well to combine. Continue to cook over medium heat. If water seems to be evaporating too quickly before your broccoli softens, add a lid.

When broccoli is softened, add tomato, chicken and potatoes. Stir gently to combine. Cover and cook until heated through. Salt and pepper to taste, and serve.


It was delish.

Spicy curry regards,
Mrs.W

A Dinner Experiment

It's been one of those days. Well, actually, it's been one of those months. It's not that I haven't cooked at all--it's just that I've been incredibly disorganized. You know how it can be.

So tonight I needed to make something for poor, hungry Mr. W--if only to keep him away from Arby's yet again. So I'm experimenting.

I took three giant boneless, skinless chicken breasts, rinsed and patted dry with paper towels, and rolled them in parmesan-italian seasoned breadcrumbs (homemade, of course, right from the freezer). I placed them in an olive-oiled 13x9x2-inch pan, and topped them with a giant freezer-bag of partially-thawed frozen spinach (this was fresh spinach that I'd cleaned & frozen for just such an occasion). I seasoned the top of the spinach with a generous pinch of kosher salt, a few scrapes of nutmeg, pepper and a few chile pepper flakes. I beat 2 eggs with a fork and drizzled all over the top, then finished with the remaining parmesan breadcrumbs, and baked at 350*F for an hour.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

So while I wouldn't call this a recipe, exactly, it is one of those meals you can throw together in a pinch. I could see adding some chopped onions that you've sauteed on the stove until just starting to carmelize--yum. That would be a perfect addition. And some chopped canned artichoke hearts. That would be lovely, indeed.

Until next time,
Mrs.W