The final ingredient in my protein bowls was this queso. I had a partial block of Velveeta cheese to use up and added equal amounts of Trader Joe’s Cowboy Caviar to make an easy queso to eat — and adding it to the protein bowls made with leftovers made it the perfect accompaniment. I would absolutely pull those bowls together again in an upcoming week — it was just too delicious to eat at lunchtime.
I mentioned in a previous post that I had a different plan for these chicken legs than I ended up making. When it was time for an easier cooking choice, I roasted these chicken legs and after the meal, I chopped the chicken legs up, mixed them with the cilantro rice, and a little cheese to be part of protein bowls the next week.
A few weeks ago, I planned to make arroz con pollo for dinner on a Sunday, using some rice from the cupboard, chicken legs from the freezer, and generally getting things taken care of around the house. Well, when the little one was having a rough weekend, my plans quickly shifted. I needed to adjust to food where holding him while cooking was going to be more possible. So, I decided to roast the chicken legs (recipe coming soon), and make this cilantro rice from The Native Mexican Kitchen. I did add a touch of lime at the end to brighten the flavors up a bit. Afterwards, I diced the chicken and turned the leftovers into a delicious week’s worth of protein bowls.
My meals have often included some oatmeal — partially because we wound up with two big packages of rolled oats in our cupboard and I’ve been trying to reduce that amount, This recipe from One Tin Bakes Easy gave me a good use for some of the oatmeal. The bars were great, the frosting so-so, but these would absolutely be on the list when I’m hoping to make a sweet treat that doesn’t include chocolate.
Breakfast on the go has been a priority lately and these muffins from How to Bake Everything have been a delightful addition to eat or take along on the road. I was surprised they included cooked oatmeal in them, and as a result, the oatmeal taste was not overwhelming in the muffins, but a nice note in the background.
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love a seven-layer bar, as long as they like coconut. When I found this recipe in the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cookbook that mirrored a seven-layer bar with a graham cracker crust, I knew that this was a recipe I wanted to try. So, I’ve waited for the right time to make these and earlier this spring I had some possible visitors, which was enough to throw these together one evening. Consequently, before I ate the whole pan, I found myself boxing them up to send over to our nieces and nephew.
I think a chuck roast is one of my favorite cuts of beef and luckily, I kept finding them on sale this winter. So, I had a few in my freezer and when it was a touch chilly a couple months ago, despite the mild winter we had, I decided to make this beef from The Southern Slow Cooker Bible. The brown sugar in the sauce was most noticed in the gravy, not as much in the meat, but it was a nice addition. The recipe overall was not overly salty or sweet, but a nice balance. This makes a lot of gravy, so I froze some of it, which will come in handy when I’m looking for a little homemade gravy sometime soon!
I’ve mentioned before I’m not a big seafood eater, but on occasion, I will eat some shrimp. This spring I made this pineapple cashew rice, my most recent meal from The Hungerpots. I made the mistake of thinking I had long-grain rice (I only had caltrose rice) and not having frozen peas in the freezer. The first night I ate it without adding any sriracha or cilantro. I also ended up adding a small can of pineapple juice to try and enhance the pineapple flavor even more.
In my quest to use up some ingredients that are hanging out in my cupboard, I had some extra bran flakes from some baking I had done a month or so ago. I had this recipe from Margaret Rudkin Pepperidge Farm Cookbook and they looked like a delicious twist on a standard ranger cookie. I used dried blueberries instead of raisins, since that’s what I had on-hand, and so these tasted a little bit like a blueberry muffin in cookie form. The coconuts added moisture more than flavor. They were delicious.
One of my goals this lent has been to use up the food that has been living in the refrigerator, freezer, and cupboard. I found a package of oreos and various chocolate chips and thought it might be a good time to make some non-seven layer bars with an adjusted base. The oreos I had were peanut butter oreos, which I was a little nervous would overpower the bars; however, the peanut butter was not too much. In the future, I would be inclined to use regular oreos because the peanut butter oreos are more similar to double stuffed oreos and I don’t know that the extra frosting added anything to these.
I will make crafts and cook better 