Baked Vegetarian Mushroom Spring Rolls, aka Allison Is Making Shit Up

Over the weekend, we spent the day with my husband's family to honor the life of his beautiful grandmother, Helen, who passed away last week.  There was going to be a small buffet-style potluck lunch served.  I knew there would be a veggie platter and some fruit of some kind, and my sister-in-law and brother-in-law make a really mean hummus, so what was I going to make/take?

Off I went in search of a appetizer-type thing that filled the following requirements:

1.  Non-messy finger food
2.  Vegetarian and non-dairy
3.  Easy to transport (we were driving over an hour)
4.  Not requiring reheating in an oven once we arrived
5.  Relatively cheap and easy to make

At first, I was thinking about stuffed mushrooms, but every recipe I looked at required cheese of some sort and I was needing to be dairy-free.  The baby is milk-protein intolerant and, since I breastfeed, I have to severely limit/eliminate my own dairy intake until he gets older.  Damn shame, too.  I miss milk.  And sour cream.  Le sigh.

Anyway, during my search, I stumbled across a recipe for Mushroom Wontons and I was intrigued.  Why, I thought to myself, can't I make egg roll/spring roll things?  With mushrooms?  And some other stuff in them?  That'll be good, right?  What the hell, let's give it a shot!

For our first "Allison Original" recipe, you will need:

• Mushrooms.  I used the regular white 'shrooms, but if you want to get fancy-shmancy and use Crimini or Shiitake or Portobellos, then many props to you!  I'll try it with those varieties at some point, but for our maiden voyage, I kept it easy, basic, and cheap.
• Green onions, diced.  I used about 4, I think.  And since we're talking about green onions:  Some people only use the green part of green onions.  However, I also use the white onion bulb part in addition to the green, as I prefer the stronger flavor of the bulb.  It's entirely up to you.  I also keep a jar of green onions growing in my kitchen window, so I always have them available.  I'll probably do a post on this at some point.
• Water chestnuts, diced.  I used about 1/3 of a can, but you can use more or less depending on many rolls you're making and how full you want them stuffed.
• Garlic, minced.
• Tri-Color Cole Slaw mix.  You know, the kind in the bag in the produce section.  Before you freak out on me, there's a method to my madness.  Or a madness to my method.  Something like that.  Anyway, spring rolls/egg rolls usually have cabbage and/or carrots in them, right?  But I certainly don't have the time or the inclination to shred cabbage and carrots; it's bad enough I have to slice the damn mushrooms.  And, lo and behold!  Bagged cole slaw mix is WHAT?  Yup, shredded cabbage and carrots!  Problem solved.
• Egg roll wrappers or spring rolls wrappers.  This time, I used egg roll wrappers because that's what they had at the store.  However, I think spring roll wrappers would work better and I'll talk more about that in a bit.
• Worcestershire sauce.  Stay with me here, it's going to be okay.
• Soy sauce.
• Seasoned rice vinegar.
• Ground ginger (or grated fresh ginger if you prefer).
• Salt and pepper.
• Oil.  I used olive oil, because that's what I had.  If you're an Asian food purist, then you'd probably want to use sesame oil.

And let the fun begin!  (Note:  You can do steps 1 through 6 the day before everything else if you need to.  I did and it turned out fine.)

1.  Prep your veggies.  This is a pain in the ass.  Dice your onions.  Dice your water chestnuts.  Thinly slice your mushrooms.  Curse yourself for ever thinking this was a good idea.

2.  In your wok or skillet (I don't own a wok), heat a small amount of oil and cook your onions and garlic until fragrant.  Damn, that's a stupid instruction, isn't it?  Tell you what, just cook your onions and garlic for 2-3 minutes until they're soft-ish.

3.  Add you mushrooms and water chestnuts.  Cook until the mushrooms are soft-ish.

4.  Throw in a couple of glugs of both Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce, using more soy than Worcestershire.  And because you're cool, add a couple of dashes of Seasoned Rice Vinegar (or you can skip that one if you want).  Throw in some ground ginger and black pepper, too, and maybe a little salt if you need it.  If you want to use fresh, grated ginger then I think that would be lovely.  But I've never used fresh ginger and this didn't seem like the best time to try it.  Plus, I couldn't find it at the store.

5.  Let everything simmer for a couple of minutes, but don't let everything get overly soft because you still have to stuff and cook your rolls.

6.  Put the mushroom mixture into a bowl.  You've probably noticed we haven't done anything with the cole slaw mix yet.  Don't worry, the moment is at hand.  You want the cabbage and carrots cooked, but still retain some of their crunch.  All the recipes I read said to saute them with the rest of the veggies, but it seems to me that it would just result in slimy cabbage.  So I didn't do it.  At this point, once your mushroom mixture is in the bowl, chuck in a couple of handfuls of the cole slaw mix and stir it up really well.  The mushrooms should still be hot enough to slightly cook the cabbage and carrots, and the cole slaw mix will help the mushrooms cools down.  Once everything is cool, you can either proceed to stuffing the rolls, or cover your bowl and put everything in the fridge overnight.  If you do refrigerate the mushroom/cabbage mixture, be sure to bring it room temperature before stuffing your rolls.

7.  When you're ready to stuff your rolls, be sure your stuffing mixture and wrappers are at room temperature.  You'll want a clean work surface for this part and a bowl of water nearby.  Don't be intimidated by this part.  You just want the rolls to hold the yummy stuffing in.  They don't need to be perfect.  And, frankly, if someone is going to judge you on how pretty your spring rolls are, then you probably shouldn't be feeding them.

8.  Lay a wrapper out in a diamond shape on your work surface.

9.  Place a couple of tablespoons of filling in the center of the wrapper.  I under-stuffed these rolls, so they turned out chewier that I would have liked.  However, you don't want to stuff them so full that they split open.  It's a delicate balance.

10.  Bring the bottom point of your wrapper up over the filling and tuck it under as tight as you can.

11.  Fold the sides over.  It should now look like an open envelope.

12.  You may also want to fold the top flap into more of a sharper point by folding the sides of the flap in again slightly.  Sorry, I didn't get a picture of that part, so I hope this makes sense.  The reason for this extra fold is that if you leave it in the "envelope" format, when you roll it you might end up with gaps at the edges of the roll.  Not a big deal, but could potentially let some of the stuffing out.  Also, we'll be brushing the rolls with oil and you don't want oil seeping into your filling.  Does this make sense?

13.  Moisten the edges of the top flap slightly with water and roll the roll over, pressing the point on the underside of the roll to seal it.

14.  Place on a lightly oiled baking sheet.  Roll the rest of your rolls.

15.  Lightly brush the tops of the rolls with oil, trying to cover the whole wrapper but not drenching it.  You want the roll to be brown and crunchy, not greasy.

16.  Bake at 400° for around 15 minutes or until golden brown.  This took my oven around 17 or 18 minutes.

17.  Serve warm with whatever dipping sauce you like.

This recipe made 18 rolls.  There were 20 wrappers in the pack.  Two of them did not survive the wrapping process.  I used one wrapper for a trial run the night I made the filling, just in case it sucked and I needed to figure out something else to take.  So, in the end, I was able to take 17 lovely, brown, slight under-stuffed rolls.

As I mentioned above, we were going to be driving for over an hour and needed to be able to keep these bad boys warm and/or reheat them upon arrival without use of an oven.  What to do?  What to do?

A-HA!  I've got it!  Wrap the rolls in sheets of tin foil, two to a pack.  Place the foil packs in the crock pot.  Drive.  Once there, plug crock pot in and set to low if it's going to be a while before serving, or to high if you'll be eating soon.  Brilliant!  Sometimes I amaze myself.  Really.

The rolls were a big hit at the gathering.  They were slightly under-stuffed, so need to rectify that in the future.  Also, I think spring roll wrappers would work better.  Egg roll wrappers tend to be thicker, so these rolls were more on the chewy side.  Spring roll wrappers would make them crispier, I think.

You could fry these, too, but I was trying to keep them healthy.  I have no idea how to fry them, so don't even ask.

I hope you all give this Allison Original recipe a try and let me know how they turn out!

Happy rolling!

A Poor Mom's Guide to Cheap Composting, Part 2: You've got a bin, now what the hell do you put in it?

Hopefully by now you've got your bin built and are ready to start adding things to it.  And that's where composting gets really fun, figuring out what can and cannot go in to the bin, and in what ratios you need to add everything.

In case you're wondering what you can put into your nifty compost bin, this is a good starter list.  This is by no means exhaustive, and I will update you all as I find new things to add.  To make it easier to break down, you'll want to shred or cut whatever you're composting into small pieces, especially fibrous items like banana peels.  Even after just one day of this, I would recommend having a scissors or kitchen shears set aside especially for your composting needs.  I cut up 2 banana peels today and the gummy, sticky residue left behind on my kitchen shears is going to be a bitch to get off.

What you can add:

• Coffee grounds and filters
• Fruits and vegetables
• Egg shells
• Grass clippings
• Leaves
• Nut shells (except for Black Walnut shells)
• Shredded newspapers *
• Fireplace ashes
• Tea leaves and tea bags
• Old herbs
• Animal and human hair
• Fingernail/toenail clippings
• Brown cardboard/paperboard (think of all the toilet paper/paper towel tubes you can compost!) *
• Manure:  Chicken, rabbit or horse.  Avoid dog, cat, pig, or human (Eww!).

*  Try to avoid glossy printed items and colored inks.

What you should NOT add:

• Meat or fish bones
• Meat
• Yard trimmings that have been treated with chemicals
• Pet waste, used cat litter, etc.
• Plants that are diseased
• Dairy products

Now, in order to successfully compost, you're striving for a balance of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon.  The oxygen you took care of by drilling holes in your bin, so that's good.  Now you just need to figure out the carbon:nitrogen ratio.  Everything I've read points to a C:N of 25 or 30:1; in other words, 25 or 30 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen.  Too much carbon and your compost won't break down.  Too much nitrogen and you'll just end up with a can of stinky goo.  Generally speaking, "green" (or wet) materials provide the nitrogen and "brown" (or dry) materials provide the carbon.

This part is important, so pay attention!  This does NOT mean that you have to use 30 times the AMOUNT of brown components as you do the green.  That would just be plain silly.  And impractical.  So, don't freak out on me about that part.

If you want to really get into the science and math of it all, you can find an excellent article here: http://www.homecompostingmadeeasy.com/carbonnitrogenratio.html.  There's even a nifty chart showing the C:N ratios of different composting materials.  Really cool shit (pun intended).  However, if the idea of this kind of math just for the purposes of making compost hurts your brain a bit (and today it's hurting mine, so don't feel bad), you can usually just strive for 4 parts brown material to 1 part green.  Or somewhere around there.  You'll have to monitor your compost closely and correct any imbalances that you see (too dry or too wet).

My bin has bin up and operational for 4 days now.  I've got another bowl of stuff to take out to it this afternoon and will give the bin a quick roll around the yard to mix everything up.  I'm very excited to see what happens over the next few weeks.  I'll keep you all (com)posted!  See what I did there?

Wherever you are in your day, I hope it's a good one!

A Poor Mom's Guide to Cheap Composting, Part 1: Building the Bin

I've wanted to start composting for a while now and, for various reasons, haven't gotten around to it.  However, I'm hoping to have a garden this year and the soil in our yard sucks, so fresh compost will definitely come in handy.  Plus, we're eating a lot more produce these days thanks to the kids (apple cores, banana peels and orange peels galore) and I cringe every time I put something like that in the trash or down the garbage disposal.

Part of my apprehension is that I don't want just a pile of kitchen scraps sitting in my backyard.  Eleanor plays out there and any 2-year-old worth her shit would immediately be drawn to the large pile of garbage in the corner.  Plus, and this is a totally irrational fear, I'm afraid of the compost pile catching fire.  Don't laugh, I've heard of it happening.  During decomposition, a compost pile can reach up to 150° in the center, and given how dry it gets here in North County in the summer, I really don't relish the idea of inadvertently setting the neighborhood ablaze.  So, in order to compost and not turn into a quivering ball of nerves during a dry spell, I would need to do my composting in a bin.

Which leads me to my next point.  Compost bins are expensive.  Seriously.  If you want a decent size bin (more than a couple of gallons), you're looking at more than $50.  And if you want one of the nicer ones that turn, you'll be shelling out upwards of $100.  And some of the really fancy ones will run you as much as $500 or more.  It seems rather excessive to turn garbage into dirt, doesn't it?  Plus, we're broke, which is why I classify $50 as expensive.

So, I set off to figure out how to compost for cheap.

After a quick Google search, I found numerous articles and YouTube videos on using a garbage can as a compost bin and I was intrigued.  This, I thought to myself, is something I could do.  And that's what I setting out to do and I'm taking you along for the ride, whether you want to come or not.  Plus, you get to see me use power tools.  Well, a drill anyway.  It'll be a hoot, I promise.

Everything I read recommended that you use at least a minimum of a 32-gallon garbage can.  You know, one of the standard ones that you probably use at your house.  It doesn't have to be anything fancy, but if you can get one where the lid locks on, so much the better.  The cheapest one I found was at Walmart for around $13.  Fortunately for me, we happen to have a spare garbage can for some reason.  It's missing the lid, but I'm going to steal the one from our yard waste can, since now that we'll be composting, we won't need to put yard waste out at the curb anymore.  So, yay for me for saving $13.  Every little bit helps, right?

Bright and early yesterday morning, I went traipsing out to the side of the garage where the garbage cans are, fully intending to grab the spare can and lid, rinse everything out and get started on building this thing.  Plans changed rather abruptly when I took off the lid of the yard waste can and found that not only was it still half full of grass clippings (score!), but a lovely Black Widow spider had taken up residence in it and was standing guard over a few egg sacs.

Being the severely arachnophobic person that I am, I ran like hell.  I did not stop to take pictures to show you, dear readers, since I'm fairly certain that bitch hissed at me.  Less than 20 minutes later and with a very pronounced facial twitch, I returned to the Death Trap garbage can, armed with a pot of boiling water, which was promptly dumped onto the spider and the lid put back on the can.  I did not stick around to witness the aftermath, so I was unsure if my method worked or if she just scurried under the clippings.  Taking no chances, I went back out a few hours later and repeated the boiling water treatment, making sure I got the egg sacs this time.  All I need is a billion baby Black Widows running around, right?  I saw no evidence of Madam herself, so I grabbed the lid and the empty can and got to work.

Now, in order to decompose, your compost will need air.  Most articles I saw recommended a 2-3 inch drill bit (saw bit?), other sources said 1/2 inch bit would work.  We don't have anything bigger than a 1/2 inch bit, so I used that.  After thoroughly rinsing out the can (and smashing a rouge spider that charged me), I put the holes on the sides of the garbage can as well as the lid and the bottom.  It took all of about 5 minutes.  Note:  If you do use a larger drill bit or a big saw bit, you'll want to cover the holes with window screen material and either epoxy or duct tape it in place.  You don't want your compost falling out all over the place.

Once that was done, I tossed in some of the Black Widow grass clippings and a few handfuls of gardening soil (helpful bacteria, ya know).  I would have added more grass clippings, but upon digging into the clipping can, I came across some old cigarette butts and I don't particularly relish adding nicotine to my compost.  I also added my first bowl of kitchen scraps, which consisted of a banana peel, the coffee grounds and filter from this morning, the peel off a clementine, half a lemon I found lurking in the back of the fridge, a moldy cucumber, apple core and peel, and a bunch of fresh rosemary that was in the fridge from quite a while ago and was starting to look sad.  I tossed all that crap in, added some water and called it done.  I snapped the lid back on, laid the can on its side and rolled it around a few times to make sure everything was mixed up well.  I'll be adding more stuff to the bin every day and turning and watering it a few times a week and in a few weeks, we should start to see some lovely compost.  Or, it just may be a big can of goo.  It should be fun to see what happens, right?

So, for the pictures.  Please ignore my horribly overgrown and messy backyard.  Our garage door is currently broken and we can't get the lawn mower out right now.

Holes in the lid

Here you can see the holes I made in the can.

Grass clippings and garden soil

First batch of kitchen scraps

Everything together

Composting can, out by the back fence.

I should note that I am planning on elevating the can off the ground on some cinder blocks this week.  This will help air circulate under the can.  Oxygen is our friend.

I'm going to end this post here, as it's getting long and what we're going to talk about next is going to take some time.  So, get your ass out there, build yourself a compost bin, and then come back and I'll tell you what to put in it.  There'll be, you know, science and math and other fun shit like that.

Toodles!

New Recipe Challenge, Day 6: Arroz Con Pollo

Well, folks, here were are at the last day of my New Recipe Challenge.  We've laughed together, we've cried together...  Well, maybe not, but we cooked some damn fine (and not so fine) food.

For the last night, I chose a chicken dish I found on Pinterest ages ago:  Arroz Con Pollo.  Basically, rice with chicken.  It seemed like a fairly easy and potentially tasty meal.  And cheap, too, which is always a plus.

I was much more with it today and actually remembered to get the chicken out to thaw.  The way this week has gone, I'm pretty impressed I managed that much.

Anyway, let's see how this one turns out!

You will need:

• Chicken.  The original recipe called for bone-in chicken breasts with skin.  I don't keep those on hand, so I used 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, which I (of course) cut up.
• Rice.  However much rice you would like to serve.  I used 1 cup of uncooked rice.
• Chicken broth.  This will be replacing the water you would normally cook the rice in.  So, the amount of broth you need depends on your rice.  Some brands of rice call for a 1:1 ration of rice and liquid.  The rice I buy uses 1 part rice to 2 parts liquids.  So, I used 2 cups of liquid.  For the record, 1 can of chicken broth equaled approximately 1-3/4 cups, so I used water to make up the difference.  Does that make sense?  Okay, good, let's move on.
• Chopped onion.  However much you like.
• Minced garlic.
• Flour for dredging the chicken.
• Salt & pepper.
• Paprika (Wow, I've used a lot of paprika this week.)
• 1 can diced tomatoes, drained, OR 1 cup fresh chopped tomatoes, OR 1 tablespoon tomato paste.  I used a can of diced tomatoes.

This is a pretty easy recipe.  All you do is:

1.  Mix your flour (about 1/2 cup), salt, pepper, and paprika together.  Don't be afraid of the paprika.

2.  Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour mixture and brown in oil in a heavy skillet.

3.  Remove the browned chicken, add a little bit more oil, and dump in your uncooked rice, stirring well to coat in oil.

4.  Brown the rice in the oil.  Keep stirring fairly regularly, as you don't want the rice to burn.

Browned white rice.

5. Once the rice is browned, add in your chopped onion and garlic (and more oil if you need it) and cook until the onions are tender.

6.  Add the chicken back into the pan on top of the rice.  Pour the chicken broth and tomatoes on top of everything.  Add some black pepper and some oregano on top. 

Love the colors!

7.  Bring everything to a boil, reduce to simmering, and cover.  Cook for a long as you would for regular rice, in this case 15 minutes.  Some brands of rice take longer.

8.  And that's it.  Serve and enjoy.

Look at the pretty!

Yummy!

The verdict:  This was pretty good.  A bit on the bland side and definitely needs some more spice of some kind, just not sure what.  The rice cooked a bit unevenly, so some was over cooked and some under.  The chicken was glorious, though.

Eleanor's opinion:  Nope.  Not happening, although she did tell me it smelled good.

Cost analysis:
Chicken - $1/breast, so $2
Broth - $1
Diced tomatoes - less than $1
Half an onion - $0.50 or so

Everything else I had on already.  So, let's call it $6 for everything, including the rice.  That makes it $3 per person, and there are enough leftovers for my lunch tomorrow!

We will definitely be making this one again.

And that brings us to the end of my New Recipe Challenge:  6 Days and 6 New Recipes.  Some of them, like the cube steak, I will never, ever make again.  Others, like the beef tips and the arroz con pollo will definitely be entering the meal rotation.

This blog won't solely be focused on recipes and cooking, but I'm not sure yet what my next topic shall be.  Lots of ideas but no cash to implement any of them.  If there's anything you all would like to here about, please let me know!

Namaste.

New Recipe Challenge, Day 5: Balsamic Roast Beef and Roasted Potatoes

I hope you all are having a wonderful day today!  My allergies have subsided, the baby only had me up once last night, and I feel almost human again.  So, let's get cooking!

I have been dying to try this recipe ever since I found it on Pinterest over a month ago.  It's hard to find cheap beef roasts these days, so I haven't had a chance to make it yet.  Until now.  And I'm glad I'm going to be able to share the experience with you.  I have high hopes for this recipe.  It's a beef roast, with balsamic vinegar, cooked in a crock pot.  What could go wrong?

<cue maniacal laughter>

However, sometimes even the best laid plans go horribly, horribly awry.  I got up this morning and went to the kitchen to throw everything into the crock pot, anticipating being able to smell the delicious aroma of roasting beef all day long.

Until I realized I didn't have any beef broth, which, as you will see, you need for the recipe, and Adam had the car today.  Fortunately, my wonderful friend Maggie helped me out by picking up a can of beef broth for me.  So,  I was a little late getting the roast into the crock pot (noon vs the 8am I was planning earlier), but just crank the bitch up to 'high' and everything will be fine.  Right?

Until.  Until I went into the kitchen an hour later (so now 1pm) and discovered that while I had put everything into the crock pot and turned it to 'high', I had neglected to actually PLUG IN THE DAMNED CROCK POT!!!  Son of a bitch!

Do not fear, dear readers, as I am able to (usually) think quickly on my feet, and a mere 20 minutes after PLUGGING IN THE DAMNED CROCK POT, realized that if I cut the roast into smaller pieces, they'll cook faster.  I'm usually better prepared than this, honestly.  I don't know what my issue is today.  Anyway, I hauled the roast out of the crock pot and hacked it into 5 or 6 smaller pieces and put them back in the sauce.  Since the beef is going to be shredded anyway, the smaller pieces shouldn't matter from a presentation standpoint, plus they're covered better by the marinade in the crock pot anyway.

That was the story of my morning.  Fun times.  So, let's get down to the how-to's.  I'll start with the roast and then do the potatoes.

You will need:

• A beef roast
• Balsamic vinegar, 1/2 cup
• Soy sauce, 1 tablespoon
• Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon
• Honey, 1 tablespoon
• Minced garlic
• Beef broth, 1 cup
• Crushed red pepper flakes

What to do:

1.  The original recipe said to put the roast into the "insert in your slow cooker".  I have no idea what type of insert this is and my 30+ year old crock pot certainly doesn't have one.  So, I just tossed the roast in.

2.  Mix the rest of the ingredients together and dump on top of the roast.

3.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4 hours.  Due to my flubs earlier in the day, I cooked it on high.

4.  Thirty minutes or so before serving, pull the meat out and shred it with a fork.

5.  Return to crock pot and mix back into the lovely juices, cooking on low another 30 mins. 

And that's it for the roast.

Now for the potatoes:

You will need:

• Potatoes.  I used baby Idaho Golds, I think.
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic salt
• Paprika

The basics:

1.  Cut the potatoes in half, or in quarters if they're on the large side.

2.  Place in your baking dish and toss with olive oil.

3.  Season to your liking with salt, pepper, garlic salt, and paprika.  Don't be afraid of the paprika, people.  It's wonderful.

 4.  Bake at 400° for 30-45 minutes, or until potatoes are nicely toasted, brown, and fork tender.

So, this was dinner:

The verdict:  The beef had an excellent flavor.  Excellent, excellent, excellent.  However, the meat was very dry.  I blame both the cut (it was very lean) and the fact I had to cook it on high.  Also, in retrospect, cutting it into the smaller pieces probably caused it to dry out more than it would have otherwise.  Adam and I both think that if there was some kind of sauce, cream based perhaps, served on the side that it would help quite a bit.  I plan on having the leftovers for lunch tomorrow as a sandwich. The potatoes are an old recipe of mine and were, as always, excellent.

So, that's that.  Come back tomorrow for our last night of the New Recipe Challenge:  Arroz Con Pollo.


Where ever you are in your day, I hope it's a good one!

New Recipe Challenge, Day 4: Honey Mustard Glazed Chicken

This was the meal I was supposed to make on Sunday, but bumped because the mushrooms needed for the Chicken with Mushroom and Tomatoes were starting to look a little hinky.  So, here we are on Tuesday (shit, it's only Tuesday?  What the hell?) and we're ready to dive into the Honey Mustard Glazed Chicken.  I don't remember exactly where I found this one, but it wasn't a Pinterest thing that I'm aware of (so feel free to put it out there should the mood strike you).  And, hell, anything that has mustard, honey, AND curry powder in it has got to be fabulous, right?

Also, in the interests of full disclosure, I'm in the middle of a major allergy attack and more than slightly stoned on medications.  I apologize if this comes out as complete gibberish.

Anyway, let's get started!

You'll need:

I forgot to put the damn lemon in the picture.  You need a lemon, too.  Okay?

• Chicken breasts.  The recipe called for six, I only used two since, well, there are only two of us;  I know Eleanor won't touch this and I'm not even going to try.  I left the amount of the rest of the ingredients the same, since I rarely measure anything anyway and like lots of sauce.
• Olive oil
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• Paprika, salt, and pepper
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (or approximately 1/2 a lemon's worth)
• 1/3 cup Dijon Mustard
• 1/4 cup Honey
• Curry powder.

What to do:

This seems like a good time to introduce you to one of my idiosyncrasies.  I'm trusting you here, so no laughing.  I try very hard never to cook or eat whole chicken breasts.  For some reason, whole breasts have a flavor that bothers me.  I can't explain it other than that they're "too chicken-y".  So, I will almost always slice or cut up chicken breasts prior to cooking, with the exception being grilled chicken.  That's okay for some reason.  Yeah, I know I'm weird.  Don't judge.

So, with that confession over with, you will need to:

1.  Slice or cut up your chicken breasts if you want, or you can leave them whole.  Please remember that whole breasts will cook slower than chunks or strips.

2.  Season your chicken with the salt, pepper, and paprika to your liking.  

Don't be afraid of the paprika.  Oh, and how do YOU say 'paprika'?  Is it pap-REE-ka?  Or pap-reh-ka?

3.  In a heavy skillet with some olive oil, cook the onion until translucent.  I over did the onions a bit and they browned more than I would like.  Still, caramelization is your friend, right?  The, add the chicken and cook until browned on both sides.  

Cooked onions.  Wow.

4.  Remove chicken from skillet and set aside.

5.  In a separate bowl, mix together the lemon juice, mustard, honey, and curry powder.  

See?  I remembered the lemon this time.

6.  Add the sauce to the skillet, simmering over low and scraping all the browned bits of chicken off the bottom.

7.  Return chicken to skillet and heat through.  I actually let it simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes while the rice was cooking.

8.  Serve with sauce spooned on top of chicken.  We had it with white rice.

The verdict:  I can hardly smell or taste anything right now, but according to Adam, this was actually pretty decent.  I thought I tasted a bit of a burned flavor to it, but hubby didn't mention anything about it.  I would definitely make this again, but need to play around with the flavor balance some more.  I think I overdid the curry, which is a definite risk you take when you don't measure anything.

Eleanor's take:  I didn't even try this with her tonight.  I just wasn't feeling up to the battle.  She had nuggets and tater tots.

Approximate cost breakdown:  I already had almost everything already, so all I needed to get was the chicken, the onion, and the lemon.  

Chicken - $2 (approx $1/breast)

Lemon - $0.38

Onion - $1

Total:  $3.38 for the 2 of us, not counting the rice.  Of course, this is assuming you already have honey, mustard, curry and paprika on hand.  If not... well, then what the hell's wrong with you?  (I kid, I kid.)

If you try this, please let me know what you think. 

I hope you'll join me tomorrow for the one recipe I have been dying to try out for weeks:  Balsamic Roast Beef!  Hopefully, my allergies will leave me alone tomorrow.