Chef FruGal's Kitchen, Ep. 6: Stuffed Bell Peppers

Chef FruGal's Kitchen, Ep. 7: Pastelón

So, I kept hearing about this fantastic spanish dish from a few of my friends, and finally decided to give it a go! Disclaimer: this is NOT a meal you make when you are pressed for time! It has a lot of steps, and requires a lot of patience and attention to detail. But I promise you, it is WELL worth the time and effort required! I adapted my own recipe from a recipe I found on pinterest. I will post the link at the end of this article for the original recipe. I used sofrito in place of the cilantro, onions, garlic and peppers the recipe calls for. Also, as an afterthought, I didn't particularly care for the taste the bay leaves gave the dish. Next time, I will leave them out, and you can too if you like. I hope you enjoy the video! Let me know if you decide to try out the recipe!

Ingredients used:

2 lbs ground beef

1 onion,, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 green pepper, finely chopped 

2 tbsp sofrito

2 teaspoons adobo

2 teaspoons oregano

1 pk sazón

2 bay leaves 

8 oz tomato sauce

4 ripe plantains, peeled and sliced into strips

3 eggs

2 tbsp milk

2 cups mexican shredded cheese

vegetable oil

salt

Original recipe credit: https://pin.it/hs4kvehrsmkw6l

Chef FruGal's Kitchen, Ep. 5: Hibachi at Home

So, as many of you may know, the state of North Carolina was hit by a hurricane this weekend. Thankfully, we didn't get hit as bad as some, but my family's weekend involved staying inside the house, eating hurricane food. You know, viennas, crackers, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and the like. After extinguishing the supply, and finally getting some sunshine around here, I felt it was due time for a super-delicious meal! Enter hibachi at home. I started doing this while I was living in New York. Staten Island has a couple of hibachi spots, but none of them really satisfied my taste buds, and they don't traditionally serve Japanese white sauce as a topping! I was a little hurt, but decided to take matters into my own hands. I took a trip to the grocery store, grabbed a few essentials, invited a few good friends over for dinner, and turned my kitchen into Benihana's! No, but seriously, it was a huge success. Everyone raved about their made-to-order meal, and they absolutely LOVED the white sauce. See, New York! I certainly showed you! This quickly and easily became a consistent addition to our household menus. There is no recipe I use for this meal, other than the white / yum-yum sauce (posted below). All you need is one or more meats of your choosing, and a few picks of your choice of fresh vegetables. The butter and soy sauce mixture I use while cooking is proportioned as such: 1 part butter, 3 parts soy sauce. Watch as I prepare a dish that is sure to please any crowd! Thank me later. ;)

Chef FruGal's Kitchen, Ep. 4: Taco Lasagna

Wait.. Did somebody say TACOS!? Or was that lasagna I heard? BOTH!?!? The combination is not as odd as its name might suggest. This super simple, easy-to-make, wholesome meal is a big hit in my household. And although it uses some ingredients I am not particular about buying (the cheese sauce, for example), I do sometimes make an exception with these types of products for the sake of convenience and just straight up deliciousness! Total prep time is 10 minutes, and the dish bakes in the oven for 15-20. Have dinner done in half an hour!! Watch the video and see my step-by-step instructions. Enjoy! Be sure to let me know in the comments if you try it out!

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground beef

1 packet taco seasoning

1/2 cup water

1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes with chiles, drained

1 can cheese sauce (or nacho cheese)

1/2 cup sour cream

3 cups grated mexican cheese

18 8-inch soft flour tortillas

Chef FruGal's Kitchen, Ep.3: Curry Chicken

Hey guys! This week, we are cooking up some curry chicken! Watch the video to check out the techniques I use to get to curry chicken perfection!

Ingredients used:

- chicken (can be any part of the chicken, without the skin)

- cooking oil

- curry powder

- salt

- pepper

- 1 medium onion, sliced thin

- 2 carrots, peeled and sliced

- 4-5 potatoes, cubed, skin on

- garlic powder

- chicken broth

- turmeric

In the video, I state that there are numerous health benefits of using turmeric in your cooking. Turmeric is a natural anti-inflammatory agent, and also a powerful antioxidant! Enjoy! Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe and share!

Chef FruGal's Kitchen, Ep. 2: Out-of-the-Box Jambalaya

This week, I will share with you one of my favorite quick dishes, jambalaya. I call it "Out-of-the-Box jambalaya because, instead of using a quick-cook box meal like Zataran's Jambalaya mix, I use raw ingredients to create it from scratch. There are many benefits to cooking it this way, such as being more cost-efficient, and also cutting out the many not-so-healthy preservatives that are often found in convenience meals. 

Ingredients: 

1 tablespoon oil (I used olive oil)

1 medium onion, chopped

2 sweet peppers, chopped

2 stalks of celery, chopped

1 lb smoked sausage (I used turkey kielbasa)

1 lb cooked chicken, chopped

(you can also add 1 cup of cooked shrimp,chopped - add at the end)

5 cups of chicken broth

2 tablespoons of cajun or creole seasoning (I used creole)

salt to taste

1 14.5 oz can of crushed tomatoes

2 cups long grain white rice

Watch the video for instructions on how to put it all together and make a delicious meal!

If you decide to try it, let me know how it turned out in the comments! As always, thanks for watching!

Chef Frugal's Kitchen, Ep 1: Classic Meatloaf

So I did it, guys! I made my first video! I'm still getting the hang of it, but you can certainly expect to see more very soon! Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

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Chef FruGal's WakeMeUp Omelette ((RECIPE!))

Who doesn't love a good omelette!? This one is packed with flavor (and a little bit of kick) to wake up your senses and get your day started! 

Ingredients:

½ beef kielbasa sausage link, sliced and halved

½ cup tomatoes, chopped 

1 jalepeño, de-seeded and chopped

½ small onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon cooking oil

Butter cooking spray

9 eggs

¼ cup milk

Shredded mozzarella cheese, to taste

Shredded cheddar cheese, to taste

Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Chop all vegetables, then slice and halve the kielbasa.

2. Heat cooking oil in pan, then add sausage. 

3. Cook for about 3 minutes, then add chopped vegetables.

4. Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened.

5. In a medium sized bowl, break up 9 eggs. Add salt and pepper to taste (only a pinch is needed, in my opinion). 

6. Then add ¼ cup of milk. 

Whisk together until well blended.

7. Divide your sausage and vegetables into three portions. 

8. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Spray an even coating of butter cooking spray over pan. 

9. Pour ⅓ of the egg mixture into skillet. Let cook for 2-3 minutes.

10. Add sausage and vegetables. 

10. If you are going to use cheese, sprinkle as little or as much as you would like over the sausage and vegetables. 

11. Using a spatula, slide underneath the egg and fold over the left side, then the right. 

12. Carefully flip over entire omelette, and press with spatula to seal.

13. Remove to plate and serve hot. Repeat steps 8-12 to make two more to share with loved ones. Enjoy!

Makes 3 servings.

One-Pot Chicken and Dirty Rice ((RECIPE))

After making this dish for the third time, I decided I MUST share it's recipe! It was soooooo good!

I made the following modifications to the original recipe:

1. Instead of a whole jalepeño, I used half of one, and about a quarter of a green bell pepper.

2. I substituted the andouille sausage for smoked turkey sausage.

These modifications were made to tone down the spice level and make it kid-friendly. Feel free to follow the recipe exactly, or make your own modifications.

3. I used 3 beef bouillon cubes and the water equivalent for the beef broth.

You can view the full recipe here. I hope you enjoy it as much as my family did! If you decide to make this dish, please comment and let me know how it turned out!

Tomato Basil Spaghetti Squash: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Okay, so I've been venturing into the world of squash lately, and today got my hands on two spaghetti squash. I was anxious to try it, so I looked up a recipe on Pinterest for Tomato Basil Spaghetti Squash and decided to give it a go. You can see the full original recipe here. I didn't follow the recipe exactly. I used the pictures provided as a visual guide, and freestyled it. (In hindsight, perhaps not the best idea, but I digress.)

First, I cut open my squash. I had read that this would be difficult, but it proved even more difficult than I had prepared for. You need a really sharp knife for this part. My cuts didnt look too appealing!

Once the squash was in two halves, I used a spoon to scrape out the inside. Then I rubbed it with vegetable oil, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

I then turned them upside down on a baking sheet and baked them at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Once they were done baking, I used a fork to pull out the spaghetti-like squash strings. I then layered them in a baking pan according to the pictures provided by the pinned recipe.

I layered the pan with the spaghetti squash, tomato slices, basil, parsely, and mozzarella cheese  (2x). The end result looked like this, a bit different from the recipe photo.

It looked beautiful, and I was excited to try it, but I must admit I did not like the taste. I noticed as I was gutting the squash that it smelled like pumpkin. It tasted like it's familial vegetable as well, in my opinion. Not a fan of pumpkin  (unless it's in a pumpkin spice latte or donut from DD lol)...

Though I was left disappointed in my new dish, I decided not to give up on spaghetti squash. There are many different ways to prepare it. I shall try another, and will report if there is any success.

Have you ever cooked spaghetti squash?  How did you prepare it?

Overcoming Challenges in Cooking

I've been cooking since I could do long division, and still there is an abundance of knowledge I lack concerning the world of culinary. And just like any eager chef, there are signature dishes I have tried over and over (and OVER) again to master, with no true success. Take the ever-so-popular dish, fried chicken, for example. As much as I love a piece of juicy, tender, well-seasoned bird with that perfectly crisp skin, recreating the dish to my dinner guests and my liking has, in the past, proved challenging.

My advice to my fellow cooks concerning challenges you may face in the kitchen is this: don't be dismayed! No matter how great a chef you may be, I can guarantee that you've made mistakes, and are constantly trying to improve dishes that you thought were just mediocre. Be open-minded. If you cannot seem to master that skill, try and find a way around it. I can pan fry chicken, but it never comes out pretty. The color is uneven, or it didn't cook long enough, etc. This repeated attempt at something I thought should be so simple was initially discouraging... UNTIL I was introduced to the deep fryer.

I admit that I have gotten away from cooking so many fried foods, so there isn't much else I use it for other than chicken (some quick French fries, or empanadas, but that's about it). But BAAAABBBBYYY!, the deep fried chicken! Once I have seasoned and breaded the chicken, all I have to do is drop the pieces into the fryer basket, lower it into the hot grease, and wait. My son's paternal grandmother gave me this tip I still use today. She said, "listen to the chicken cooking. When you first drop it in, the frying noise will be fast. As the chicken approaches doneness, the frying noise will slow down considerably. The chicken is done when you barely hear the frying noise, and the pieces are floating on top of the grease. It's that simple. VOILA! Beautiful, evenly colored, crispy-on-the-outside, tender and juicy on the inside, delicious chicken for your dining pleasure!

Beautiful chicken, fried with ease in the deep fryer.

So, you see, my fellow cooks, where there is a will, there is a way! I will continue to try and perfect my pan frying, but until I get it down to a science, my handy deep fryer will be there to save the day!

What's a challenge you have encountered in the kitchen? How were you able to overcome it? Please share!