Food and Cooking

7-UP Biscuits are one of my favorites to bring to get-togethers.

Ingredients

• 4 cups of Bisquick
• 1 cup of sour cream
• 1 cup 7-Up
• 1/2 cup melted butter

Directions

1. Mix Bisquick, sour cream and 7 up. Dough will be very soft - don't worry.
2. Knead and fold dough until coated with your baking mix.
3. Pat dough out and cut biscuits using a round biscuit / cookie cutter.
4. Melt butter in bottom of cookie sheet pan or 9x13 casserole dish.
5. Place biscuits on top of melted butter and bake @ 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until brown.

Kheer, an Indian rice pudding.

Add 1 part rinsed rice by volume to a pressure cooker, 6 parts milk, 0.5-1 part sugar, a little salt, and cardamom. Cook as you would for porridge. When done it should look soupy and thicken when stirred.

korean egg rice: crack an egg into a bowl of rice and mix with sesame oil and soy sauce, microwave for 2 min, sprinkle some furikake on top if you’ve got it and you’ve got a solid comfort food in like 5 mins tops

Caribbean Canned corned beef and Cabbage

1 canned corned beef (Libby's or Grace) 1 small cabbage, washed and shredded 1 medium onion diced 2 cloves garlic diced 1 tbsp oil 1 medium tomato (chopped) 2 sprigs Thyme 1 scotch bonnet pepper diced and de-seeded (optional) A dash of black pepper (optional)

• Wash the cabbage then shred it.
• Add oil to skillet or Dutch oven over medium high heat.
• Sauté the onion for 3-5 minutes.
• Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
• Add the shredded cabbage, tomatoes, black pepper, and thyme.
• Cover saucepan and cook cabbage for about 5-7 minutes until tender.
• Add the scotch bonnet pepper (optional)
• Add the corned beef. Use a big spoon to break-up the corned beef and stir with the other ingredients.
• Simmer for another 3-4 minutes
• Serve with any of these items: rice, boil banana/ plantain, fried dumplings, or bread.

Brussels sprout hash. Slice 1/2 pounds brussels sprouts into ribbons. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a non stick pan. Add the brussels sprouts and half a bag of frozen hash brown potatoes. Stir everything together. Then I usually add some thyme, paprika, salt and pepper. Cook for about 20 minutes stirring every few minutes until you get nice golden brown bits on the sprouts and potatoes. Divide it on plates and then top with either a fried or poached egg.

Chickpea Salad:

• canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• tahini (a scoop or two)
• sliced almonds
• red onion, diced
• celery, diced
• splash of apple cider vinegar
• Seasonings: salt, pepper, cumin seed, coriander

Mash the chickpeas just a bit in a bowl (pastry cutter works well). You want to keep it pretty chunky. Add all the other ingredients and mix. I don’t measure anything, but I have a pretty heavy hand with the seasonings. This is best after it sits for a few hours. I like to eat it on toast or just by itself (usually at night in front of the fridge).

Honestly just salmon and broccoli for me. Fish, seasoning, butter, garlic, broccoli (with seasoning of course). Roast the broccoli and throw in the salmon when there are 10 or so minutes left, and done. It's what we do when we're tired after work but don't feel like spending the money to order something.

Miso soup... I usually throw in a block of frozen udon to make it more of a meal

Carbonara ...

Garlic Bacon Spaghetti 2 eggs Parmasen Pepper

• Boil salted water and add spaghetti until aldente
• Cook around 6 cloves of garlic in olive oil
• add the diced bacon and cook until crispy
• whisk two eggs, parmasen and pepper in a bowl
• take bacon off heat and let pan cool down slightly
• remove garlic gloves from pan
• add spaghetti into the pan with bacon with a tablespoon of the water the spaghetti cooked in and mix
• pour in the egg mixture into the pan with the bacon and spaghetti and mix
• put spaghetti onto bowl and crack pepper and a splash of olive oil on top
• eat the goodness

Notes: make sure the pan is not too hot otherwise the egg mixture will turn into an omelette which you don't want.

Made a salad today: peach, cucumber, feta, ham, olive oil & balsamic vinegar. I also added basil & black pepper. It was fresh and delicious!

French Omelette.

Throw a bit of butter on a non stick, crack open 2-3 eggs, add some salt, whisk, stir vigorously while egg is cooking, fold before inside solidifies.

3 min and taste like heaven.

Creme Brulee is egg, cream, sugar, vanilla, effort, and time. That's 6.

Pea soup is my easy go-to meal. Onion and carrot sweated in oil/butter, dried split peas, stock, and bay leaves. Enjoy with quality bread.

Quick Zucchini Curry: 2 Medium Zucchinis, Green Onions, 1-2 tbsp of Ginger, Mushrooms sliced real thin, Coconut milk. Spices: Ground Red Pepper (I prefer Birdseye), Soy Sauce, Red Curry Paste, Brown Sugar, Lime Juice

Takes about 15 minutes and pretty minimal chopping. It's all in one pot too if you already have rice made.

Not counting spices is cheating!

Stew beef in big dice. Onion Soy sauce Sesame oil Ginger Garlic Dried orange/mandarine peel Star anise Honey Chilli

Brown meat. Add everything else and some water, simmer at least 1 hour. Serve with plain rice.

Should be melty, sticky, & tangy. Hot if desired.

Frozen broccoli, olive oil, steak seasoning, Parmesan cheese, curry powder. Mix it all up in a bowl so that the dry stuff sticks to the broccoli, air fry or roast in toaster oven until nice and crispy, a little bit burnt. Super tasty side dish or cold midnight snack.

Gnocchi Skillet with Chicken Sausage & Tomatoes from The Kitchn

• 1 pound frozen or shelf-stable gnocchi

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 9 ounces cooked chicken sausage (about 3 links) , sliced into 1/4-inch-thick coins

• 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half lengthwise

• 1 to 2 ounces fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced (1/2 to 1 cup loosely packed)

• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium-high heat.

• Add the gnocchi and cook for 2 minutes or according to package directions. Drain and toss with a drizzle of olive oil.

• Heat a 10-inch or larger cast iron skillet over medium heat with a light drizzle of olive oil.

• Add the sausages and cook until it begins to brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Push the sausages into a pile at the edge of the skillet and turn the heat up to high.

• When the skillet is quite hot, add the tomatoes, skin down, crowding them in if necessary.

• Cook until they are blistered, 1 to 2 minutes.

• Stir in the sausage and cook until both tomatoes and sausage are slightly browned, about 2 minutes more.

• Stir in gnocchi and cook just until all is combined, but the tomatoes have not broken down into sauce.

• Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the basil.

• Taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

SUN DRIED TOMATO, KALE, AND WHITE BEAN SKILLET from BudgetBytes

2 15oz. cans cannellini beans, drained 1/2 7oz. jar sun dried tomatoes in oil 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar 1/2 tsp dried basil 1/4 tsp salt freshly cracked black pepper 1 pinch crushed red pepper (or a lot more) 1 Tbsp olive oil 2 cloves garlic, minced 6 oz. fresh kale, chopped*

• Drain and rinse the white beans.
• Roughly chop the sun dried tomatoes.
• In a small bowl, combine 2 Tbsp of the oil from the jar of sun dried tomatoes with the apple cider vinegar, basil, salt, pepper, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Set the dressing aside.
• Add the olive oil and minced garlic to a large skillet. Sauté the garlic over medium heat for one minute, or just until it begins to soften and becomes fragrant.
• Add the chopped kale and 2 Tbsp water to the skillet. Stir and cook over medium heat until the kale has wilted.
• Add the drained beans and chopped sun dried tomatoes to the skillet with the kale.
• Continue to stir and cook until the beans are heated through.
• Lastly, drizzle the dressing over the skillet and stir to combine, and add salt to taste. Serve warm.

Oven veggies. Simple, flexible.

Chop veggies into bite-sized bits. Add spices (e.g. chili, curcuma, salt) and oil. Bake. Enjoy.

No bonus points - Air fryer potatoes with oil on it to make it nice and crispy

Yes bonus points - black bean burgers. It's breadcrumbs, warmed black beans that got cooled down, and an egg to make it stick together. That's healthy.

I've been experimenting with vegetarian options, and my go-to pantry-buster for stuff I generally always have on hand is this: sautee a chopped onion in a good helping of oil/butter. add a bit of flour (a tablespoon or so, but add it slowly while stirring) until you've got a nice roux-like consistency. Add a jar of curry paste, and a can of petite dice tomatos (with the juice) and a can of garbonzo beans (i drain mine). Add dried lentils and 70-80% the amount of water it suggests on the bag. Bring to a boil and simmer until the lentils are an acceptable texture. Enjoy with naan or by itself.

It’s kind of a simple one, but caprese salad. Tomatoes, basil, mozzarella cheese, high quality balsamic and olive oil. Salt/pepper.