German Dinner!

For dinner tonight I made chicken, spaetzle, and vegetables. I was inspired to make this meal when I happened upon the package of spaetzle while grocery shopping. The brand was called "Maggi," so I couldn't resist.

I recently had spaetzle at Brauhaus Schmitz in Philadelphia, so I had some idea of how it should turn out. The spaetzle was very easy to make: you just boil water, plop it in, let it cook for 25 minutes, and drain it. Just like pasta! I did not try anything adventurous since it was my first time making it, so it came out very bland. However, it was fine with just the simple addition of salt. I really like the texture and would love to try another recipe with it sometime. The package even comes with some simple recipes printed right on it, so I'll probably try those soon.

To follow the German theme, I looked up a combination of spices I could use that would be "German" to season the chicken and vegetables. I went with this, though I omitted some ingredients that we didn't have (rosemary and marjoram, and I had to use celery seed instead of celery powder/salt), and I added salt. Though it contains chili powder, it is not spicy at all. It makes a lot more than you need for the recipe. In fact, it makes enough for a container to keep in the cabinet.

Spice Recipe (as I made it)

• 1 Tbsp flour
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp paprika
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 Tbsp celery seed
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder

Vegetable Mixture (for 6)

• 2 red potatoes, washed & chopped
• 1 white onion, peeled & chopped
• 4 large white mushrooms, washed & chopped

I poured more olive oil over the vegetables and a couple of spoonfuls of the spices. I tossed the veggies, then divided them into two glass baking dishes (for space reasons). Then I added the chicken breasts. I actually got some pre-grilled chicken breasts (Those aren't my pretty grill lines. Not very chef-y of me, I know! But very convenient. And I didn't have to worry about making sure they were cooked all the way through.) I added the chicken breasts right into the dishes with the vegetables and baked them in the oven at 350 degrees. Meanwhile, I had the spaetzle cooking on the stove.

I won't bother telling you how long I cooked it for, because I didn't really keep track and I also undercooked the potatoes. Oops! So that needs some tweaking. However, the spices tasted great! And smelled amazing while they were cooking. Definitely a meal I'd like to try again and improve!

Scrambled Eggs - Chef Nick Style

This is a (sort of) guest post from Chef Nick! He did the cooking this morning, but he used a recipe we've perfected together over time.

Perfeggtion!

Ingredients

• Eggs (2 per person)
• Onions
• Minced garlic
• Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle
• Sriracha
• Shredded Mexican cheese
• A dash of milk
• Olive oil

Instructions

• Chop up the onions first and sauté with the garlic in olive oil.
• Add all of the other ingredients. Scramble up the eggs and cook over medium heat until the eggs are cooked through.

There are no strict guidelines for how much of any of the ingredients to use. Play around with it and see what you like! For example, we usually use mushrooms, but we were out of them this morning. This meal is designed to be quick, easy, and delicious. It's also quite healthy!

I paired my eggs with buttered whole wheat toast, my favorite breakfast side dish.

Ramen with Dumplings

For lunch today I had a simple meal of packaged ramen and frozen dumplings. I steamed the dumplings (I find this gives the best result, much better than microwaving) and I made the ramen in the usual way.

Master chef at work

I put the dumplings in the soup, but I dipped them in soy sauce on the side. When the dumplings were gone I added the extra soy sauce and Sriracha to the soup. I drank the rest of the broth, but didn't eat much of the noodles. I do that a lot with noodle soup - fill up on the broth and then don't eat the noodles.

Yum!

Nothing too fancy, but it was a filling lunch that didn't require much prep. The dumplings had pork and vegetables so at least I got some vegetables! I've been having chicken nuggets for lunch a lot lately and this probably beats that, nutritionally speaking.

Simple Burrito

This morning I woke up super early and for whatever reason I was craving burritos! I'm totally in the camp that you DON'T have to eat specific food for every meal. Sometimes I even eat leftover Chinese for breakfast! I learned how to make these basic burritos form my boyfriend, Nick. He eats them for multiple meals a day sometimes.

What You Need:

• Fajita size flour tortilla
• Salsa
• Black beans
• Ranch dressing
• Shredded cheese

What You Do:

1. Put a paper towel on the plate to absorb moisture
2. Fill the tortilla with salsa, beans, ranch, and cheese as desired
3. Microwave for about a minute
4. Roll up & enjoy! (Be careful not to burn your mouth!!)

Like I said, so quick and easy! Great for when you're in the mood for burritos but TOO hungry to take a long time preparing.

I used Taco Bell spicy ranch. It's my FAVORITE right now. I use it on all sorts of things. Probably not the healthiest topping...

Soft Boiled Egg on Toast

This is a super simple, super delicious breakfast! It takes only about ten minutes.

1. Bring water to a boil in a pot. You don't have to have an exact amount, just make sure there's enough to completely cover the egg when you add it.
2. Warm up the egg. If you can let it sit out to room temperature, that would probably be best. If you're like me and didn't take the time to do that, you can also spend a few minutes running the egg under warm kitchen water (do this while waiting for the water to boil). 
3. When the water is at a rolling boil, use a spoon or tongs to gently place the egg in the pot. Start a timer for five minutes. 
4. Start the toast! 
5. After the cooking time is up, carefully remove the egg with a spoon or tongs. Put the egg in a small strainer and run cold water over it. This is to stop the cooking process, and also to make it cool enough to you can peel the egg.
6. Gently crack the shell and peel the egg.
7. Place on top of toast and slice in half. Sprinkle with salt & pepper to taste.

Voilà! You now have a perfectly soft boiled egg to enjoy with your tea or coffee.

Warming up the egg beforehand is to prevent the egg from cracking - if you add the cold egg straight from the fridge to the boiling water, the shell will crack and the egg will leak into the water. This happened to me multiple times. If it happens to you, don't panic, the egg isn't ruined. I found that the egg still wound up soft boiled, with just a little bit of a weird spot near where the shell cracked. Still delicious!

Five minutes will achieve the results you see in the picture above - a pretty runny yolk, but solid enough that it didn't run too much when I cut the egg in half. You can adjust the cooking time to suit your tastes. I've done it up to 7 minutes, and that resulted in a yolk that was soft but almost completely cooked through.

I used whole wheat bread for my toast. It tastes great with butter, but I skipped it this time.

Personally I've found that tongs work best, rather than trying to balance the egg on a spoon, so use em if you've got em!

Intro Post

Hey there! I'm Maggie. I'm 24 and I live in the US. I like to cook, and I like to eat even more! I made this blog to chronicle some of my cooking success (and most likely, inevitably, failures). I'll try pretty much anything. I'm not picky at all! I tend to like rice dishes, and my favorite meat to work with is fish. Most of all, though, I love BAKING! I tend to try to keep things healthy, but I'm only human.

Thanks for checking out my cooking blog!