Showing posts with label cooking for two. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking for two. Show all posts
I don't know about you, but I consider Macaroni and Cheese to be the ultimate in comfort foods.
My husband would disagree, as he is not overly fond of pasta of any kind, but the carb lover in me just needs to have some pasta every now and then, and of all the pastas on the earth Macaroni and Cheese is my favourite indulgence.
Interestingly enough, it wasn't something that I really remember my mother making when I was growing up.
Occasionally we might have Kraft Dinner Mac & Cheese, but that was considered a treat. If mom cooked pasta at all it was spaghetti, which my father love, LOVED and still does.
She would brown a pound of ground beef in a skillet and add a can of Catelli spaghetti sauce and call it Italian Spaghetti.
Served with the plastic green can of grated cheese that was about as foreign as my family got when it came to dinner cuisine!
My children always loved it when I made them Macaroni and Cheese. Its a pretty economical way to feed a large family, depending on the cheese you use for it.
When I first moved over here to Chester, there was a cheese monger at the Indoor Market in town who sold bags of cheese crumbs for 50p. I used to buy two or three each time I went in, specifically for use in cooking.
You were never quite sure what kind they were, but they always went great in a cheese sauce!
I will be honest and up front here . . . I never stint on the amount of cheese I put in a cheese sauce.
I think you should be able to full on taste it . . . not just hint at it. That's me . . . full on everything.
I also love cauliflower cheese and broccoli cheese.
Yes I confess when my children were growing up, I was one of those moms who spooned heated Cheese Whiz over their broccoli to get them to eat it.
Nobody complained. It was simple and it was easy.
Adding broccoli and cauliflower to macaroni and cheese is a great way to cut back on the carbs and to increase your intake of your five a day, and its incredibly delicious to boot!
Its like three of your favourite things all rolled up together in one.
It doesn't really involve any extra work, or more work than making ordinary mac and cheese and its a bit healthier.
At least I think it is. Don't burst my bubble if you disagree.
I just throw the vegetable in with the macaroni during the last few minutes of its cook time.
I cut them into rather smallish florets, about 1 inch in size, and they don't need much more than a few minutes to become crispy tender.
They add lots of interest to the dish, plenty of flavour and additional colour and texture.
Not to mention fiber as well as being some of your five a day!
Actually there are quite a few vegetables that go well in macaroni and cheese.
Leeks (I sauté them for a few minutes first), cooked peas and carrots, shredded cabbage or brussels sprouts (again lightly sautéed or blanched), Kale (once again, blanche first), Swiss chard, spinach, tomatoes, etc.
All are very tasty and I can honestly say I have never had anyone turn their nose up at any of them.
In fact, most people ask for seconds . . .
I like to use a strong cheddar for flavour and of course some mustard also adds a bit of a punch to the sauce.
You could use hot sauce in its place if you wanted to. I am particularly fond of the Green Tabasco sauce. I could eat that up with a spoon.
And of course I always top with some bread crumbs, crushed crackers, crushed cereal or stale chips and cheese. Casseroles with crunchy toppings are one of my favourite things!! You don't need much on the side with this. I like to serve it with pickled beetroot and some buttered brown bread. Yummy!
Yield: 2
Broccoli & Cauliflower Mac & Cheese
Rich and delicious, filled with several of your five a day and perfectly sized for two. I like to serve this with pickled beets and some buttered fresh brown bread.
ingredients:
For the cheese sauce:
- 250g whole milk (1 generous cup)
- 1 whole dried clove
- 1 dried bay leaf, broken in two
- 1 1/2 TBS butter
- 1 1/2 TBS flour
- salt and white pepper to taste
- 1 TBS Dijon mustard
- 60ml double cream (1/4 cup)
- 75g grated strong cheddar cheese (2/3 cup)
- 2 TBS grated Parmesan cheese
You will also need:
- 115g dry macaroni (1 cup or 4 ounces)
- 325g cauliflower florets (1 cup)
- 325g broccoli florets (1 cup)
- 60g grated strong cheddar cheese (1/2 cup)
- a couple TBS of either cracker crumbs or potato chip crumbs
instructions:
How to cook Broccoli & Cauliflower Mac & Cheese
- First make the sauce. Add the clove and bayleaf to the milk. Bring just to the boil, then set aside to infuse for about 15 minutes. Remove the clove and bay leaf and discard.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan until it begins to foam. Whisk in the flour and allow it to cook for a vew minutes until it starts to smell a bit nutty. Pour in the milk slowly, whisking continuously until the mixure has thickened nicely. Whisk in the cheese and allow it to melt. Whisk in the cream and Dijon mustard. Season to taste with salt and white pepper. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Butter a shallow casserole dish about 7 by 11 inches in size.
- Cook the dry macaroni in a pot of lightly salted water according to the package directions, adding the broccoli and cauliflower florets for the last 2 to 3 minutes of cook time. Drain everything well, then stir into the cheese sauce. Pour the whole lot into the prepared casserole dish.
- Mix together the cheeses and crumbs/chips for the topping and sprinkle evenly over top of the macaroni and cheese.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until bubbling and golden brown. Let stand about 10 minutes before serving.
I dare say I love this even more than regular mac and cheese. Its fabulously delicious! I have simple tastes . . . A simple salad also goes very well on the side.
I am fed up to the eyeballs with rain. Its that time of year! Not really cold, except for the wind, but the rain . . . its starting to get to me.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
I found myself with a half of a white cabbage in my refrigerator that I wanted to use up but I didn't feel like making a coleslaw or anything like that. I wanted something comforting and delicious. Todd's not fond of coleslaw. He doesn't like eating anything that has hard vegetables in it.
I saw this fabulous casserole on Half Baked Harvest one day and I fell in love with the photograph and recipe. I mean . . . . croissants, jam, cream cheese, eggs, fruit . . . what's not to love about that! I thought to myself, I'm IN!
However it was far too large of a casserole for me to justifiably bake for my husbnd and myself, and it will be about a month and a half before my kids come over.
I didn't want to wait that long. I wanted to taste this gorgeousness NOW!
I also happened to have 3 large stale croissants here in the house leftover from when my husband bought some at Costco the other day. We had eaten as many of them that we could.
I couldn't bear throwing any of them away. This breakfast casserole was really calling my name.
Her recipe serves 8 people. We are only 2. What to do, what to do.
I reduced it by half and then by half again and crossed my fingers.
Just look at that. It turned out perfectly! Amazingly scrumptiously perfect!
You get flaky butter bits of croissant . . . along with souflee-like bread pudding bits . . . interspersed with pockets of wild blueberry jam and nuggets of rich cream cheese . . . oh my goodness . . .
I love wild blueberry jam . . . and fresh blueberries of course. I just love blueberries and they work wonderfully in this.
Raspberry jam and fresh raspberries would also work, and here's a thought . . . peach or apricot jam with raspberries, kind of like a peach melba . . .
She served hers with whipped cream. I just happened to have a lovely tub of extra thick Jersey cream in the refrigerator. You can't beat that. Its perfection.
And so I dolloped a bit of that on each serving, about a tablespoon full . . . scrummy yummy . . .
Real Maple syrup . . . fresh blueberries . . .
I am definitely going to make this for my children when they come over. They are going to love LOVE it!
I just had a thought that would also be very good . . . Orange Marmalade along with black berries . . .
Oh my the possibilities are truly endless. One thing is certain, I am making this again, and you deffo need to make this!
Berry & Cream Croissant French Toast for Two
Yield: 2 generous serving
A delicious breakfast casserole. You must wait at least 30 minutes to bake it, or up to overnight. Great to throw together the night before, banging it into the oven on the morning.
ingredients:
For the Casserole:
- 2 large free range eggs, beaten lightly
- 120ml whole milk (1/2 cup)
- 1/2 TBS Maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- pinch salt
- 3 large stale croissants, torn or sliced into chunks (you want about 3 cups)
- 3 ounces wild blueberry jam (1/3 cup)
- 3 ounces cream cheese, cut into small cubes
- 2 TBS cold butter, sliced
- powdere sugar to dust at the end
To Serve:
- Whipped cream
- maple syrup
- fresh berries
instructions:
How to cook Berry & Cream Croissant French Toast for Two
- Beat th ggs, milk, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon and salt together in a bowl. Add the croissant chunks and gently toss together.
- Butter a 6 by 8 inch baking dish. Layer half of the soaked croissants in the dish. Dot with the jam and the cream cheese. Top with the remaining croissants and pour over any egg/milk mixture that remains in the bowl. Let stand for at least half a hour or in the refrigerator overnight, covered.
- Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 6. Dot the top with the slices of cold butter. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the FrenchToast is golden brown and crisp. If you think it is browning too quickly, cover loosely with foil.
- Serve warm with some whipped cream, fresh berres and maple syrup for pouring.
I am enjoying reducing recipes and trying them out in smaller sizes. Its a bit of a challenge, but a most delicious one. One thing I have learned is that its well worth it. Don't ever let the size of a dish daunt you or make you think that you can't possibly remake it as a smaller recipe. What are some recipes/dishes that you would like to see me try to make smaller? I am up for the challenge!
This content (written and
photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting
or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please
know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at:
mariealicejoan at aol dot com
Thanks so much for visiting. Do come
again!
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Whenever we go to Costco I always pick up one of their rotisserie chickens. They are always delicious and a great value.
I strip them down, freezing the bones for soup at a later date and then we enjoy the meat in sandwiches or casseroles. You can't beat a rotisserie chicken from Costco in my opinion!
I love Chicken and Dumplings and this casserole dish I am sharing is a variation on that. It is loosely based on a recipe from one of those Baking mixes, but instead it is from scratch.
I have also sized it to serve two people perfectly, but I have also included measurements to serve four in the note section of the printable recipe.
Its a "just-like-magic" kind of an entree. Almost like a pudding cake. You know the ones I mean . . . the self saucing ones, except this is not a sweet pudding.
Rather, it is a savoury chicken casserole along the same vein . . .
You melt some butter in the bottom of a shallow casserole dish. Of course you could melt the butter in a bowl and pour it into the dish, but why?
Its going in the casserole dish anyways, and so I just pop the butter into the dish and then place it into the oven while it is preheating to melt the butter.
One less dish to wash. Have I ever told you about how lazy I am? Its true. If I can find a way to save money, time or on the washing up, I will do so!
Especially with the washing up. Not my favourite chore!
Once the butter has melted you tilt it to cover the bottom of the casserole dish. Easy peasy. Then just scatter some shredded cooked chicken over top.
I say 2 cups, which works out to 1/2 of the whole chicken breast meat. (I like to use the breast meat in casseroles if I can.) I just tear it into shreds.
You could of course cube it, but shreds are so much more interesting don't you think??? I like my food to be interesting. I want it to taste good, but I also want it to be texturally interesting.
We eat first with our eyes after all.
It does use half a can of condensed cream of chicken soup. I know some people eschew these, but I am not one of them.
I think they are a great store cupboard ingredient and I like to use them in casseroles. They have their place in my larder for sure.
You only need the half can of course, but the other half can be put into a small plastic container and frozen to use another day.
Todd always makes himself a bowl of soup with it. He loves soup, especially cream soups, so it never gets wasted in this house either way.
You make a thin batter using flour, milk, baking powder and salt. This gets drizzled/dolloped over the chicken in the dish.
It will not cover it, so don't think you can just pour it over the whole thing. You will need to dribble it here and there so that most of the chicken is more or less covered with at least some of it.
The half can of soup gets stirred together with some chicken stock/broth and then poured over the whole casserole dish, which is where the magic happens . . .
And when I say magic, I mean real magic . . .
Don't be tempted to stir it in. Just leave it and pop it all into the oven. Let it bake and just like magic, a gravy is formed and dumplings pop up all over the place.
This is seriously yummy folks!
Chicken & Dumpling Casserole for Two
Yield: 2
A fabulously tasty casserole that is quick and easy to make. Shredded chicken gets drizzled with a dumpling batter, with a liquid gravy poured over top. Like magic it makes a saucy chicken in gravy topped with dumplings. Serve with your favourite sides for midweek meal.
ingredients:
- 2 cups shredded cooked chicken ( use Rotisserie chicken)
- 240ml chicken broth (1 cup)
- 2 TBS butter
- 70g plain flour (1/2 cup)
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- pinch salt
- 120ml milk (1/2 cup)
- 1/2 (400g) tin of condensed cream of chicken soup (1/2 of a 10 3/4oz tin) (freeze the rest for another time.
instructions:
How to cook Chicken & Dumpling Casserole for Two
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6.
- Put the butter into a shallow 7 by 11-inch casserole dish and pop it into the oven to melt the butter. Take it out and tilt the dish to cover the bottom with the butter. Scatter the shredded chicken over top of the butter.
- Whisk together the milk, flour, baking powder and salt. Drizzle over top of the chicken. It won't completely cover it so just make sure it is spaced as evenly as you can get it over top.
- Whisk together the soup and chicken broth. Pour this mixture over top of everything. Don't stir.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 45 minutes, until the dumplings have puffed up and are golden brown. Serve hot.
NOTES:
For a full sized casserole to serve 4: 3 to 4 cups chicken, 480ml (2 cups) chicken stock, 4 TBS butter, 140g (1 cup) flour, 1 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 240ml (1 cup) milk, 1 full tin of the soup. Mix and fix as above, using a 9 by 13 inch baking dish.
I served it with some leftover stuffing I had frozen from Christmas, sweet potatoes and a mix of peas and carrots. My husband was one very happy camper! Yours will be too!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
In my quest to create more small batch recipes today I decided to make a small batch Bran Muffin Recipe. I think of all the muffins I make, Bran Muffins are my absolute favourite. I think any muffin is pretty wonderful when you think about it. Small bakes perfectly sized for one. Breakfast in the hand. Treats you can carry.
When I used to run my own Coffee Shop oh so many moons ago Bran Muffins were also a favourite muffin of my clientelle. I used to bake Bran, Carrot and Banana, sometimes Blueberry. I would buy it from my supplier in huge buckets of frozen mix. All you did was scoop and bake. They were actually very good. The Bran always sold out first.
Of course homemade from scratch is always better. We humans are funny creatures, aren't we?? When someone tells us that something is good for us or healthy, we automatically think that it can therefore not be very tasty. That is not true of these muffins. Nothing could be tastier.
There is only 1/2 TBS of fat in the whole recipe. You can use olive oil if you wish or canola oil. But 1/2 TBS of fat divided between 6 muffins is almost neglible I think!
There is also very little sugar. Only 1/4 cup of soft light brown sugar, packed. Divide that between six and you come up with not an awful lot!
There is 2 TBS of molasses, but again an unrefined sugar and divided between six muffins, not a lot per serving . . .
The whole wheat flour and use of natural wheat bran ensures that there is plenty of fibre, which is so good for us and low GI. We are told to eat more whole grains. These are definitly very highly whole grained.
Another nice thing is that you can use skim milk if you wish with no real difference in texture or flavour. A bonus!
They have a beautiful texture as you can see. I like raisins in my bran muffins and so I do add some to these, but its entirely up to you if you choose to or not.
They are lovely warm from the oven . . . .
I enjoyed one with a hot cup of apple spiced tea for my elevensies . . . which is a British fancy name for coffee break.
Of course I very naughtily added some butter to mine. Oh boy . . . They are absolutely gorgeous warm with some butter . . .
I am not sure what it is about quick breads and butter, but the two go together really well. Just think of lemon nut loaf, or date nut loaf, banana bread . . . you can keep the icing, but sliced and spread with butter . . . you can't beat em!
Oh boy but this went down a real treat. Todd really enjoyed them as well and I am really looking forward to having one for breakfast tomorrow morning!
Yield: makes 6 muffins
Small Batch Bran Muffins
Every bit as delicious and moist as a full sized batch, but perfectly sized for the smaller family. Not too sweet and filled with fibre.
ingredients:
- 1/2 TBS oil
- 50g soft light brown sugar (1/4 cup packed)
- 2 TBS molasses
- 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
- 120ml milk (1/2 cup)
- 40g wheat bran, unsifted (3/4 cup)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 70g whole wheat flour (1/2 cup)
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 75g raisins (1/2 cup) (optional)
instructions:
How to cook Small Batch Bran Muffins
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Butter a six cup muffin tin and line with paper liners. Set aside.
- Whisk togethr the oil, brown sugar, molasses, egg, milk, wheat bran and vanilla. Stir together the flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir just to combine. Stir in the raisins if using. Divide between the prepared muffin cups.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes. Tip out of the tin onto a wire rack to cool.
If you only bake one thing for you this weekend, let it be these. You won't regret it! I promise!
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