Meaty Monday: Taco Spiced Turkey

I was sick a while back and really craving hot comfort food - a soup or a crockpot meal really sounded tasty. However, of course I waited until mid afternoon to think about what to make for supper and was therefore limited in my choices. Hello, Google.

I found a recipe for the one large hunk of meat I knew I had in my freezer: a 2-pound turkey breast that I hadn't used during Thanksgiving. I had no idea how special my taste buds would feel after this meal! It was so simple to prepare and super delicious. The Ninja is stingy with his "this is delicious" compliments so when I get one, I put that recipe on a pedestal. This one will be in my rotation much more often.Read more »

Hunk of Meat Monday: Balsamic Beef Roast

When I wasn't huddled around the heater trying to stay warm out here on the arctic plains this past weekend, I was catching up on my Pinterest recipe collection and cooking. I stumbled across what may be my FAVORITE beef roast recipe. Bonus: it called for ingredients I already had on hand and was super easy.

Buzzard's Crockpot Balsamic Beef Roast

Ingredients:
2 cups beef broth
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
~ 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
~ 2 tbsp soy sauce
~ 2 tbsp honey
~ 1 tsp red pepper flakes
~ 4 cloves garlic, chopped

Assemble all of your ingredients, including a beef roast. The amount of marinade will work for a roast up to 3-4 pounds.

Gather your ingredients

Mix together all of your ingredients. Place beef roast in your Crockpot and pour mixture over the beef. Our roast was about 1.25-1.5 pounds and it was the perfect medium-rare doneness after about 2 hours on high. If you have a larger roast (3-4) pounds, you could do 4 hours on high or probably 6 hours on low.

Pour the ingredient mixture onto your roast. Look at all that garlic, yum!

When done, place beef roast in a serving dish and spoon gravy and beef bits over the meat to moisten and infuse with deliciousness.


Robust flavor and so very delicious!

Please, for the sake of all things holy, don't cook your beef to well-done! You only need to cook the roast to 145F!

If you try this one out, let me know how you liked it. We LOVED it - the flavor was robust and the roast stayed very moist. This will definitely be a repeat in our house.

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

Hunk of Meat Monday: Beef Roast Times Two!

Tikki Masala Curry - easy and delicious

P.s. my food photog skills are improving a wee bit!

I'm all about easy recipes - I do not have the time nor the willingness to spend 3+ hours over a stove making a completely homemade, handcrafted meal. I often will try to fancy up a main dish or try a new entrée recipe and then resort to frozen veggies and rice as our sides. One out of three ain't too bad, if you ask me.

Which is why I love being able to whip up something new from something old. It's like a makeover. That's what I did with a beef roast last week - the leftover turned into a brand new dish that we've never tried and it was DELICIOUS [all caps intentional]. My timid journey into foods from different cultures continued with this beef curry roast. Both the Ninja and my eyes went wide when we had our first bite of this stuff - and it takes A LOT to get that kind of reaction from him!

Without further ado...

Beef Tikki Masala Curry
1 lb shredded beef
1 jar Tikki Masala curry (we used Patak's)
Naan bread (or appropriate substitute)

That's it - three ingredients.

First, I made a beef roast last Monday night. Nothing too fancy or special - you can use this recipe if you're looking for one. I cooked it to 145 F - please for the sake of all that is good and amazing in the world, do not overcook the meat! We ate half of the beef roast and the other half I shredded using two forks and put in the fridge.

A few nights later, I heated up about 4-5 tbsp. of vegetable oil in a skillet and put the leftover roast in the pan. This is to heat it up and get some of that crisp on the end (you can't get that great crisp in the microwave, people!).


Getting its crisp on. Like my spatula? It came from South Africa!

When I could see the edges were starting to get crispy (not burnt - let me stress this NOT BURNT) I poured in about half of the jar of tikki masala curry sauce. I stirred it around and made sure all the meat was coated thoroughly then I let the whole meal heat up until it was piping hot.


Let the saucy goodness overtake the beef

Serve with naan bread, veggies and rice. Or, if you're like me and couldn't find naan bread at the Dillon's, you can use Kroger sandwich thins which are just as tasty and fit the function well.


So much delicious on the Ninja's plate

That's it - the whole meal took less than 30 minutes. Boiling the rice was the longest activity by a long shot!

I got this recipe tip from the culinary experts at NCBA. Every time I visit our headquarters they are whipping up something tasty and fun - this was no different! Can't wait to see what they develop next!

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

Hunk of Meat Monday: Marinated Pork Roast with Pan Sauce

A hot meal for a cold day

It's cold and rainy here in Kansas, which has me dreaming of spring and grilling. Alas, our grill doesn't get used as much during the colder months so I'm forced to cook whole meals instead of putting the Ninja in charge of the meat.

Which is why this Hunk of Meat Monday recipe is so fabulous - it was easy, delicious and can be replicated with beef or lamb just as easily so it doesn't get old and boring. Throw the roast in the marinade in the morning and that evening, in less than an hour, you've got a scrumptious, moist pork roast to enjoy while the wind blows and snow flies.

Marinated Pork Roast with Pan Sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 red wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
~ 3 tbsp. lemon juice
3 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1-2 tbsp. parsley
2 tsp dry mustard
black pepper, to taste
~ 4 tbsp. minced garlic

All of this was already in my pantry - win!

Combine all ingredients and save back about three tbsp. of the mixture. Place the pork roast (mine was about 2 lbs) and marinade in a plastic Ziploc bag and let marinate for at least 3-4 hours (longer is better but 3-4 gets the job done).

After marinating is complete, sear each side of the pork roast in a skillet over medium-high heat for about 3-4 minutes. Place in 350 F degree oven and cook until internal temperature reaches 145-150 degrees (this took about 45 minutes in my oven but can vary). Let rest for five minutes before cutting.

Searing the pork roast really locked in the flavor on the surface

For the pan sauce:
Marinade that you saved back
2 tsp butter
Pan scrapings from the pork roast
1/2 cup beef broth

Place skillet back on stove over medium heat and add beef broth while scraping up the browned pieces of goodiness from the pan. Add the marinade and let the whole thing boil down for a few minutes. Add butter and remove from heat, stirring until butter is melted. Pour this over your pork roast and enjoy!


So delicious!

In other news, I have finally reached the stage of my life where I look at a recipe like this and am confident that I have all the needed ingredients - red wine vinegar, minced garlic, beef broth etc. I have an overwhelming feeling of pride that my kitchen feels fully stocked. Any others out there feel this way?

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

Faux Fried Fowl

Is this recipe healthier than real fried chicken? Yes. Was it delicious? Yes. Was it better than the real thing? I will leave that up to you to judge. I do know that it was far less time consuming and didn't require me to stand over bubbling Crisco for an hour. I doubt it is as good as my real fried chicken, but I'll take this for a quick meal any night.

 

I give you faux fried fowl aka oven-fried chicken. It was delicious! I sort of improvised and used the spices I had in my kitchen but I am certain you can go on Pinterest and find a great assortment if you're not into mine. I got my inspiration from some cornflake chicken recipe and went from there. Remember, we like a lot of seasoning in our home!

 

You'll need:

 

1 beaten egg

3 tbsp. milk

1 sleeve of crushed saltines

1/2 tsp thyme

1.5 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 tbs butter

1 lb of chicken breasts

 

Mix together dry ingredients and in a gallon Ziploc bag. Combine milk and beaten egg - dip chicken breasts into mixture and then place into gallon Ziploc bag. Shake it up.

 

 

 

 

Place chicken on foil lined pan. Drizzle melted butter on top of chicken.

 

 

Bake at 375 for about 55 minutes or until the middle is 170 degrees F. Don't screw around with chicken, make sure it's completely cooked to the right temp or you could get food poisoning on your way to your honeymoon. No lie.

 

 

Serve with starch and veggies/fruits. Super juicy, super delcious and even had some crunch to it.

 

What's cookin' in your kitchen this week?

 

Until next time,

~ Buzzard ~



Fancy Feast at the Frobuzz House: Lobster Dinner with Zucchini Chips

Could I have put any more Fs in the title? Probably so.

Every once in awhile, the Ninja and I break our normal routine of pork chops, tacos, lasagna soup and repurposed beef roasts and have a real fancy meal. This time, it was lobster tails that I got 1/2 price at Dillon's on clearance ($5 for two 5 ounce lobster tails). Huzzah!

Last night's meal was definitely the most simple supper I have prepared in a long time -- broiled lobster tails, zucchini chips and better-than-the-real-deal Cheddar Bay Biscuits (my version).

I started by prepping and baking the zucchini chips. I got the recipe from this Zucchini Round Up site which hosts a plethora of zucchini recipes for those who have a ton in their freezer from a prolific summer garden. Three easy steps:

• Slice zucchini (a little bit more narrow than 1/4 inch is best) and place on parchment paper lined baking sheet

  

  Ready for the oven

• Use pastry brush to apply EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) - sprinkle with kosher salt

Maybe a bit too salty?

• Bake at 225 F for 2 hours or until crispy.

Finished product - a bit dark on the edges but still devour-able!

As usual, I deviated from the recipe and this time it wasn't super successful. First off, I didn't brush the olive oil on, I sort of drizzled it. I barely remember to brush my hair every day so of course, I wasn't about to dig for the pastry brush to groom zucchini. Well, I should have because some chips got more EVOO than others. Secondly, I put way too much kosher salt on these bad boys. The Ninja loves salt and even he thought they were too salty at the end. So, season wisely because they will shrink and then your salt amount sort of doubles. Lastly, I had to use the oven for the cheese biscuits so I cranked it up to 400 for the last 30 minutes of baking and sort of *cough burntsomeofthechips cough* so I highly suggest either baking your bread beforehand or doing the chips earlier in the evening.

Despite all my flubs, they turned out pretty well and it's definitely a recipe I will make again!

Moving on to the protein on the plate - the lobster tails were so easy to make they only really warrant a short paragraph.

• Cut shell off of tail
• Drizzle EVOO on tail
• Season with lemon pepper
• Broil for 10 minutes

Easy prep work - the hardest part was cutting off the shell!

Serve with heavenly cheddar biscuits, zucchini chips (or side of your choice) and enjoy!


A whole plate of delicious for a fraction of the cost of a Red Lobster dinner

There you have it - a unique meal that was affordable and delicious! What are your favorite simple supper recipes?

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~