Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients*

• 1 lb pork sausage
• 2 TB Italian seasoning
• 1-2 TB maple syrup
• Salt/pepper to taste
• 2 TB oil
• 1/2 red onion
• 6 oz mushrooms
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 3 large bell peppers

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400°.
• Slice peppers in half lengthwise; place in baking dish.
• In large skillet, sauté/caramelize onions and mushrooms. When onions are translucent, add meat and brown.
• Once cooked through, add rice and mix well.
• Add half the cheese and mix well.
• Spoon meat mixture into pepper halves and cover with foil.
• Bake at 400° for 30 minutes.
• Remove foil, top peppers with remaining cheese, and return to oven for another 5-10 minutes, until cheese is melty.

Notes

• Full disclosure: I don’t really measure things often. I taste as I go, mostly.
• *Okay, this is another recipe that is infinitely adaptable. What I’ve listed here is just what I made my very first time. We accidentally fell in love with maple-flavored pork sausage, but that’s a personal preference. If you search for “stuffed pepper” recipes, you’ll hit a thousand different ones, so here are some ideas.
• 1. Make as above, but add soy sauce to the finished meat mix and as a topping.
• 2. Taco peppers: use fajita seasoning (there’s a great one right on this page!) or taco seasoning instead of Italian and syrup. Add taco sauce or salsa to the meat mix before spooning into peppers, change to cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese (whatever you prefer).
• 3. Spaghetti peppers: Make as above, but add spaghetti sauce/marinara to the meat mixture prior to spooning into peppers.
• 4. Leave out the rice (keto friendly). My first rodeo with this, I left out the rice for half of the peppers because I wasn’t sure I’d like it (I do). Feel free to leave it out entirely.
• 5. Use brown rice or some other variety.

French Onion Soup*

Ingredients

• 4 lbs onions (yellow or white), peeled and thinly sliced
• 1/4 C butter
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 TB flour
• 1/2 C dry white wine*
• 6 C stock**
• 1-2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1-2 Bay leaves
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1-2 C heavy cream
• baguette
• grated or sliced cheese (white cheeses are best: Gruyere, Asiago, Swiss, Gouda, Mozzarella, Provolone)

Instructions

• In a large, heavy-bottom stock pot, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onions and about 1tsp salt and stir to coat.
• Sautee onions 30-90 minutes, stirring every 3-5 minutes initially, then every minute when onions nearly caramelized to prevent burning.
• Add garlic. Sautee 2 minutes.
• Stir in flour. Cook for 1 minute.
• Stir in white wine to deglaze pan, using a wooden utensil to scrape up any brown bits.
• Add stock, Worcestershire, bay leaf/leaves, and thyme; stir to combine. Cook on med-high until simmering, then reduce heat to med-low and simmer at least 10 minutes.
• Discard bay leaf/leaves and thyme. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
• While soup simmers, preheat oven to 400°F. Slice baguette into 1/4″ slices and arrange in a single layer on baking sheet. Bake 6-8 minutes, until golden brown. Remove and sed aside.
• If desired, add 1-2 cups heavy cream and heat through for a twist on this classic soup!
• Once soup is ready to serve, place oven-safe bowls on a baking sheet. Ladle soup into bowls***, then top with a toasted baguette slice and desired amount of cheese.
• Place on oven rack about 6″ from top broiler and broil for 2-4 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and melted.

Notes

• The recipe I followed called for 1/2 C, but I ended up only using 1/4 C and it was perfect.
• **My recipe called for just beef stock, but others recommend half beef/half chicken stock. You can do whatever; I prefer the flavor of a mix, myself.
• ***I broke a toasted slice of bread into the bottom of each crock before ladling soup in because at the restaurants in my city, there are always little chunks of bread floating in the crock and I love it.
• Title *: is for the creamy option. My kid loves cream soups, and literally the only difference is that you add cream at the end and let that heat thoroughly. So fucking good!

Potatoes and Sausage

Ingredients

• 2 lbs potatoes, cubed
• 1 lb kielbasa*, sliced**
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 1 packet Lipton onion and mushroom soup mix***
• 3 Tb oil
• 1 TB Montreal chicken seasoning****

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 450°.
• Put cubed potatoes to a resealable gallon bag. Add 2 Tb oil, half of the diced onion, and onion/mushroom soup mix*, close bag, and mix thoroughly. Pour into greased 9×9 baking dish.
• Bake at 450° for 45 minutes, carefully stirring every 10 minutes or so.
• When there’s about 25 minutes left on the oven, heat the last Tb oil over medium heat on the stove and toss in the other half of the diced onion. (For added flavor here, I generally add some agave syrup, honey, or some other caramelizing agent for a few minutes.) Heat about 5 mins, or until translucent.
• Add in sausage and seasoning and stir occasionally.***** (Turn them down to low if they get done too much before the potatoes, but it should be pretty close.)
• Once potatoes are cooked through, take them out of the oven, add the sausage/onion, and stir.
• Suggested toppings: none, it’s fucking awesome as it is; cheddar cheese, because why not?; mozzarella cheese, because, let’s face it, you have it on hand; parmesan cheese, do you actually need reasons, or are you just reading this because it’s here? 😉

Notes

• *Full disclosure, I most often make this with a venison/pork garlic sausage my dad gets from a guy he knows. But you can’t buy that in a store, and kielbasa is close enough. I’ve also used brats. And I’ve made this with pasta instead of potatoes, too. It’s all good, baby.
• **I actually prefer to dice the sausage, too, because my kid never fucking pays attention while he eats, too busy laughing and talking, so dicing make me feel less like he’s going to choke.
• ***You can use whatever seasoning you like. We’ve tried regular onion soup mix, ranch dressing mix, Italian dressing mix, and my own spice mix based on what I had on the shelf and felt like using that day. Again, it’s all good.
• ****Again, use whatever you like. I like to use some sort of “chicken” seasoning on my sausage; I don’t know why, I just like the combination. What I actually used the last time I made this was called Weber No-Salt Chicken seasoning, which I’ve had for years and I don’t know if you can even get anywhere. The McCormick Montreal Chicken seasoning is pretty friggin’ close, though, and that’s readily available.
• *****You could probably do the sausages right with the potatoes in the oven, but I like the sear on the meat from the pan and if you’re going to dirty a pan to caramelize the onions, anyway—which, let’s face it, you really should—then why not do the sausages in it, too.

Fajita Seasoning

Ingredients

• 1 Tb cumin
• 1/2 Tb chili powder
• 1/2 Tb garlic powder
• 1/2 Tb pepper
• 1/4 Tb salt
• 1/8 Tb ground cayenne

Instructions

• Add all ingredients to a clean, dry spice shaker in layers until jar is full. Close lid and mix well.

Notes

• I don’t actually measure this shit; I just eyeball it. I like a heavy cumin flavor, so that has the highest ratio. We like it spicy, so we up the cayenne by quite a bit or sub in ground habaneros from our garden (it’s apparently the only thing we can grow that the squirrels will leave alone). I use this to both marinate veggies and grill fajita meat, but one bottle lasts about six months to a year, depending on how often you use it. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve never tried making just tacos with this mix, although I’m sure it’d be bomb. I use the McCormick seasoning in my tacos. I’m a heathen, I know, but we like it. Tip: always add fresh chopped onions to your taco meat (I always buy red onions because I love the flavor). That’s the only thing I do special, and my boys love my tacos. And my fajitas, which I do use this for, obvs.

Cajun Chicken Alfredo

Ingredients

• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1-2 TB Cajun seasoning (to taste)
• 2 TB oil
• 3 oz butter
• 1 TB garlic, minced
• 2TB flour
• 1 1/2 C milk
• 1 1/2 C heavy cream
• 1/2 C Parmesan, grated
• 1/2 C Romano, grated
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

• Heat a large skillet over medium heat; add oil and wait for it to thin out and coat the pan, then add chicken and Cajun seasoning and salt/pepper to taste.* Turn over and season the other side as desired.
• Once chicken juices run clear, remove from heat and set aside.
• Add butter to pan and wait for it to melt. Add garlic and sautee 1 minute.
• Add flour and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.**
• Slowly add milk and cream, stir until just beginning to boil.
• Reduce heat to low, simmer for 2-3 minutes.
• Add cheese and stir until melted. Add more cajun, salt, and pepper as needed.
• Chop chicken into bite-sized chunks and add to sauce. Stir to coat and bring chicken back to temperature, 1-2 minutes (sauce will thicken the longer it cooks).
• Serve over cooked fettuccine noodles, or add noodles to sauce and toss with tongs to coat.

Notes

• *I’ve found that putting Cajun on one side and salt/pepper on the other is plenty for this recipe, and I don’t usually measure, just evenly coat as my heart directs that day.
• **DO NOT SKIP. The first time I tried this, I didn’t use flour and while the taste was great, it never thickened like I wanted.

Queso Blanco

Ingredients

• 1/3 c milk
• Approx. 6 slices white American cheese, torn into pieces
• ground hot pepper (jalapeño, cayenne, habanero, etc.)

Instructions

• Spray a small sauce pan* with cooking spray. 
• Make sure you sprayed the damn pan. Otherwise, cleanup sucks ass.
• Warm milk in pan over medium heat. DO NOT BOIL. You just want it warm
• Once milk is hot to the touch BUT NOT BOILING, start adding your cheese, stirring constantly with a small whisk. The sauce will thicken both with the more cheese you add and the longer it’s on the stove, so be careful. If it’s suddenly too thick, add some more milk (NOT water).
• Once desired thickness/amount is reached, add your hot pepper to taste.

Notes

• *You can use a double-boiler, of course. I’ve done it both ways, and, honestly, as long as you lightly spray the pan, I didn’t find it made much of a difference.

Chicken Fajitas

Ingredients

• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced or flattened to an even thickness*
• 1 green pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 red/orange/yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 2 Tb canola oil or bacon fat**
• 2 Tb fajita seasoning***
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Dash lime juice
• 1 Tb Agave syrup, honey, brown sugar, maple syrup, or some other caramelizing agent

Instructions

• Slice peppers and onions; set aside.
• Heat large frying pan to medium heat; add oil. Once oil is hot, add chicken to pan and coat the top liberally with fajita seasoning.
• After 5-7 minutes, when you can see the edges turning white about halfway up the breasts, carefully turn them over and coat with salt and pepper.
• After another 5-7 minutes, the thinnest breasts will be cooked through (you can check with a knife, don’t be silly. You’re cutting it up anyway). Move them to a cutting board and cut into strips. Set aside.
• Once all the chicken is out of the pan, add another Tb of oil, if needed, and bring to high heat. Once your oil starts to smoke, add the onion. Let sauté in the oil for a minute, then add caramelizing agent and stir. Once onions are fairly translucent, add the peppers and lime juice and stir-fry for 3-5 minutes.
• Re-add chicken strips to the pan and stir for 1 minute.
• Serve with your choice of tortilla.

Notes

• *You don’t really have to do this; it just makes the chicken be done closer to the same time, which isn’t always a benefit. I actually like to leave them at different thicknesses if I’m going to cut them up, especially if they’ll be out of the pan for a bit, like for this recipe, because I can work my way toward being ready to cook the veggies, rather than being bombarded with tons of chopping to do while the peppers and onions burn. Frankly, I spent about 20 years wasting my time cutting the chicken into chunks before cooking. It was only a few years ago I really figured it out lol
• **Tip: after you fry bacon, pour the fat into a clean ice cube tray and freeze for use as a substitute when frying. Gives everything that little bit of bacon flavor.
• ***See a previous post for my own fajita seasoning recipe. Also, I never actually measured how much I use. Measure that shit with your heart, yo. 🙂

Meatloaf

Ingredients

• 2 lbs lean ground beef
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 green pepper, finely chopped
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup oatmeal
• 3 tsp salt
• 2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire
• 3-4 dashes Liquid Smoke

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400°
• Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl
• Coat inside of a standard loaf pan with nonstick spray
• Bake at 400° for about an hour

Notes

• This is my mom’s recipe, but modified, and my boys ask for it often. She couldn’t have onions, whereas I love them. I always use red onions, but that’s just a personal preference. I don’t recommend them for refrigerator pickles, but otherwise, red onions are awesome. She also didn’t use Worcestershire or Liquid Smoke, that’s my addition. 🙂