One pan salmon

God I'm really into this one-pan meal thing! It makes life SO EASY! I was freaking out because I was running low on food when I discovered that I still had two salmon fillets in my freezer. It was like a blessing! Now, these are the baking time and temp for a specific frozen salmon brand, I can't speak for other brands (it's a blue package with a zip-top, and 10 individually wrapped fillets inside the bag)

1 cup of baby carrots
1 medium potato (yellow, red, or white)
1 frozen salmon fillet
A generous sprinkle of salt
Also a generous sprinkle of pepper
A little less than a tbsp of canola or light olive oil
2 sprigs of thyme (fresh is best)
About a tsp of honey

1. Preheat oven to 450f, cut potatoes into 3/4 inch cubes and slice baby carrots in half lengthwise
2. Put them together in a bowl and add about half a tbsp of the oil to the bowl, as well as a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Toss or mix to coat evenly.
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (and aluminum foil on the very bottom if you're anti-cleaning like me)
4. Add carrots and potatoes to the tray in a single layer, leaving a gap in the middle for your salmon
5. Place frozen salmon in the middle, skin side down. Rub the rest of the oil on the salmon. Sprinkle salt and pepper on top, rub it in if you feel so inclined. Sprinkle thyme leaves on it, and in smalllll trickle-like ribbons top the salmon with honey. You won't be rubbing this in because it'll start to freeze on contact and you'll mess up your seasonings, so try to coat it evenly with thin back-and-forth ribbons.
6. Bake for 20 minutes. Let rest for 2.

One pan pork chops!

So I've recently jumped on the one-pan meal bandwagon. This makes my life so easy, especially now that I'm single which means 1 night of cooking means about 3 meals. Yeah they're all the same 3 days in a row but I'm not too stressed when it comes to variation day-to-day if I'm saving money at the same time. This is a reaalllyy freakin' basic recipe, feel free to add any other spices you want.

- A solid handful or two of green beans, tipped and tailed
- 3-4 cups of mini red potatoes, halved or third-ed depending on size
- 4-6 Boneless pork chops
- 1.5 tbsp olive or canola or vegetable oil
- Salt, pepper, garlic powder

1. Set oven to 400f
2. Tip and tail your beans, cut your potatoes. Add to a medium bowl with 1/5 the oil. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Toss, add to an aluminum or parchment paper lined cookie sheet
3. Add pork chops to a bowl (ideally, have them brined beforehand and patted dry), add the other half of your oil. Toss to coat the chops.
4. Spread a space in the beans and potatoes for your first pork chop, repeat for your other 3-5 pork chops. Sprinkle the pork chops with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
5. Bake for 22-30 minutes. Less time if they're the thin-sliced chops.
6. Serve!

Ricotta stuffed chicken breasts

So I bought everything I needed to make one recipe, finally caving and getting both the rolls royce of the chicken, the breasts, and fancy schmancy cheese, ricotta. Only problem was, a key ingredient in this recipe was fresh basil and the grocery store only had one package.. and it was brown. I went day after day after day looking for fresh basil and they'd always be out. Eventually I gave up after 5 trips and started looking for other recipe ideas to use the chicken and ricotta before they went bad. I decided on picking a couple parts from different recipes and skipped (okay, shuffled, I was tired but really excited) to the grocery store straight after placement. Of course, as my life usually goes, today the grocery store had fresh basil so I bought it anyway. I got home, put things in the fridge because it was a little too early to make dinner, went to my bed, put on netflix, wrapped my arms around my sleeping kitty, and promptly passed out for three hours. Anyway, long story short, this recipe is a bunch of little pieces of other recipes and I love it and I'm proud of it and I knew it would be worth starting to cook at 8:30 pm. It was so flavorful and moist, I want it again tomorrow! Wait... I have leftovers, I will have it tomorrow!

Ingredients:
- 3 chicken breasts
- 1/4-1/2 cup of ricotta
- A couple leaves of fresh basil if you can get your hands on it, dry rubbed basil will work too I guess
- 3 tbsp flour
- Fresh or dry thyme, I had fresh, about 3/4 tsp for dry, and a little over 1 tsp for fresh
- 1/2 tsp oregano, dry
- 1 tsp rosemary, dry, crumbled with your fingers (after measuring)
- Salt + pepper
- Butter (about 1/2 tbsp)
- about 1/2 to 3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries. If you're using frozen, it'll take a little bit longer but they'll be sweeter on the inside
- 1/2 cup white wine

1. Cut the tenders or "loose" parts off your chicken breasts. Using a small but sharp knife, cut a pocket in the chicken breasts. If you don't know how, here's a video.

2. Chop up the basil leaves, throw them in a bowl with the ricotta and a couple pinches of salt and pepper. Mix it all up. Be careful with this part because it's hard, since the ricotta is very squishy. Open up the chicken-pocket using a few fingers on one hand, and take little scoops of the ricotta mix and stuff it in as far as you can until it's loaded up. Repeat with the other breasts, making more of the ricotta mix if necessary. Seal the openings with a toothpick or, if you're like me and can't remember to pick up toothpicks to save your life, pieces of spaghetti noodles.

3. While your butter melts in the pan over medium heat combine thyme, oregano, crumbled rosemary, a couple pinches of salt and pepper, and flour in a shallow + wide bowl. Coat each breast in the mix and put them in the hot pan. Cover the pan and cook for about 10 minutes, until golden. Flip and cook covered for 5 minutes, uncovered for another 5. Check to make sure the chicken is cooked all the way through, and transfer to a plate/dish and cover to keep warm.

4. Add a little tiny bit more butter to the pan, just a little sliver, and then (once butter is melted) slowly add the wine. Scrape + mix in anything that got stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add blueberries and cook until thickened and some of the blueberries have burst.

5. Plate the chicken and cover with blueberry sauce.

I served it with roasted garlic red-skinned mashed potatoes. and parmesan roasted brussel sprouts.

Mushroom pork

Just on a quick note, this is a recipe I've made quite a few times very casually, so I don't have all perfect measurements but I will do my best <3

1 can of condensed cream of mushroom soup
3 tbsp (maybe more if you're feelin it) sour cream
1 splash of milk
2 large pork chops (usually these ones have the bone in them) or 4 small/medium
salt and pepper
a little bit of margarine or butter or oil

(Note - I prefer to brine my pork, I find it helps it stay nice and tender. I usually do a couple peeled and crushed cloves of garlic, a tbsp of salt, a tbsp of brown sugar, and maybe a little squirt of lemon juice with enough water in a bowl or container to cover the pork chops and leave them for at least one hour)

1. Heat the butter in a pan over medium heat. Pre-heat oven to 350f.
2. Pat down with paper towel and add pork chops to the pan once butter is melted and sizzling or your oil is doing that shimmery thing. Sprinkle with salt and pepper on one side only. Cook on each side for about 3 minutes for boneless, 5 minutes for bone in.
3. Combine the milk, soup, and sour cream in a bowl - try to smooth out any lumps but don't get too stressed over it.
4.  Spread a layer of the soup mix in a glass baking dish, whatever size you think will fit your chops even if they rest on top of each other a bit. Put the pork chops on top of that layer and spread the rest over top of them - if they overlap a little, put some between them too so you don't miss an inch of exposed pork.

5. Cook for 50 minutes to an hour, covered by tin foil. If you feel like it, remove the tin foil for the last 10 minutes
6. Serve over/with rice or mashed potatoes! I've done both and I love it. Favourite veggie to serve with this is green beans.

So... much... rice. I'm terrible at measuring normal rice
after months of just being lazy and using minute rice.

Cracker chicken

Huge shout-out to a friend for showing this recipe to me. Insanely delicious and easy, and really simple to multiply for more than one serving.

6-10 ritz crackers (3-5 per chicken thigh, we used low-sodium because it's what I had)
Garlic powder
1 tbps mayonnaise
salt and pepper
possibly chili powder if you're feelin' it.
2 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs

1. Heat oven to 350f
2. Crush the ritz in a bowl, add your salt and pepper (to taste) and your spices
3. Pat down chicken with paper towel, rub the mayo all over the thighs
4. Roll them in the crumb mix and place on foil-lined baking sheet
5. Bake for 35 minutes

It's actually a funny story, she was planning to make one dinner and I was planning another. I went to her house and it was like 5000 degrees and my phone was dying so we grabbed her chicken, went to my house, and decided to make both and it was like... the best meal I've had in a while.

Roasted chicken dinner

I can't even pretend I wasn't proud of my chicken dinner. It's not hard to roast a chicken, I guess, but I was still proud of myself nonetheless.

Sorry it's such an ugly picture, I was starving
then thought to take a picture at the
very last minute to brag to my mom about
how well I'm doing on my own

For the chicken:
1 Whole chicken, about 5 lbs
3-4 tbsp margarine or butter
1 tbsp olive or canola oil
1 tbsp lemon juice, fresh or not, both are good
2 cloves of garlic, minced, or half a tbsp of pre-minced garlic in a jar
1 tsp Dried rosemary, crumbled as best you can with your fingers OR 2-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, quickly chopped
1 tsp Dry thyme OR 2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 tsp Dry sage
1-2 tsp Salt
3/4 tsp Pepper
1-2 tbsp white wine, if you can spare it, mixed with 1/4 cup water

For the potatoes and carrots:
2-3 Yellow potatoes, peeled, cut into 1.5 inch pieces
3 whole carrots, peeled, cut into 1 cm slices
1 tbsp canola oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
a sprinkle of rosemary


1. Heat oven to 425
2. Mix up everything for the chicken in a bowl except the white wine/water and the actual chicken. Make sure all of it is combined.
3. Place chicken in a roasting pan or a deep baking tray (I use a 16X11 tray). Cover the chicken in the butter mix, even a little bit on the bottom but of course most of it on the tops and sides, using your hands or a brush.
4. Put all of the potato and carrot ingredients in a bag, shake it up until everything is coated evenly.
5. Carefully pour all of the veggies around the chicken, try not to let any of them land on top or rub off too much of the butter on the sides. Pour the water and wine mix into a corner of the pan and gently tilt it to spread it evenly
6. Cook, uncovered, in the oven for 45 minutes
7. Pull it out of the oven, flip some of the veggies so they don't dry out too much. Baste the chicken or, do what I had to do, tilt the pan and spoon the juices over the chicken.
8. Cook in the oven for another 20-25 minutes

Let it rest for 10 - 15 minutes after pulling it out of the oven, It's gunna be hella hot and you WILL burn your fingers if you don't let it rest.

Addicting honey soy chicken thighs

I've eaten this chicken twice in the past week, sorry not sorry. My roommate walked in with her girlfriend while this was cooking and they started whining that I wasn't making it for them. It's delicious and beyond simple. I personally find it best with 24 hrs+ of marinating, but you don't have to marinate it for it to be good. Definitely make sure you make two for everyone you're feeding that isn't a child, they'll definitely want it, and even if they can't finish both they'll keep it for lunch the next day (or snack 5 hours later if you're my boyfriend).

Usually I eat two thighs and some other stuff for dinner, but a single
thigh and some veggies make a lovely lunch.

All of these are rough measurements. Remember, cooking is art and baking is science. Feel free to let your artistic flag fly! Adjust measurements accordingly if you add/take away thighs.

- 4 large skin on, bone-in chicken thighs
- 2.5 tbsp honey
- 2.5 tbsp soy sauce
- 2-3 minced cloves of garlic, or what you think would be an equal amount out of those pre-minced garlic jars.
- dash of black pepper
- 1 tbsp oil of your choice

1. Mix everything (except chicken) in a bowl. Put chicken thighs in a ziplock (freezer bag, you need it to be thick) and pour mixture over it. Seal the bag and "sloosh" it around a bit, trying to get every bit of the chicken thighs covered. Lay it flat in the fridge until you're ready cook it, flipping the bag every few hours to try to give it the most even possible flavour.
2. Set your oven to 425. For the record, this does work in toaster ovens too.
3. Once the oven is ready, place chicken thighs in a ceramic or glass casserole type of dish. Obviously, make sure it's oven safe. Nobody likes exploding dishes. Add as much of the marinade as you want, I wouldn't suggest going past halfway up the thighs though.
4. Bake thighs skin-side up for 25 minutes, Flip, bake for another 10, flip, bake for another 10.
5. Serve with whatever veggies you want, and maybe a bit of rice. Rice soaks up the marinade nicely if you like that kind of thing. Careful, it's hot.

Italian dressing pasta

It doesn't really have a name, unfortunately, "italian dressing pasta" is more of a description. My friend made it after I showed her that, for her picky threenager, she could freeze small portions of pasta dinners then re-heat as needed. I have to admit, when she first made it, we ate so much she had to make more to freeze! There are no real measurements, so you can decide how much of each you want.

-Macaroni noodles (cooked)
-Ground chicken, turkey, or pork
-Spinach
-Feta cheese
-Tomato (diced)
-Garlic (minced)
-Onion (diced)
-Italian salad dressing
-Veg or canola oil

1. Heat up oil in a pan, cook your onions until translucent and add the garlic. Once the garlic has cooked a little, add the ground meat and a splash of the dressing.
2. When the meat is cooked, add the spinach. When the spinach is limp, add the tomato and feta.
3. Add noodles and another splash or two of the dressing. If you want, add a bit of salt and pepper.
4. Serve! ...or divvy up into small servings and freeze for later.

**Edit: I've just been informed that this is great with greek dressing too!

Drumstick dinner in 20 minutes... or 7 hours.

So, first thing first, I love this recipe for the timing involved. The prep is super fast, but the cooking takes a while and that is so perfect, because some times I have long shifts and I don't want to cook when I come home. The issue with that, usually, is that many slow cooker recipes are anywhere fom 2-5 hours... what about my 7.5 hour shifts?! That's why I love this recipe. It works for any time between 6.5-8 hours, and I don't even have to make a side salad or quickly zap frozen peas. Also, it totally looks and tastes like you spent hours in the kitchen making it and putting loads of effort in. Yay for tricking that cutie down the hall that you invited over for dinner!

You'll need:
-Chicken drum sticks, anywhere between 4 and 10
-Onion
-Potatoes (I prefer the tiny "new potatoes")
-Veggie (I usually use carrots, but just about anything will do)
-Spices (I use nutmeg, paprika, salt, pepper, basil, garlic powder, and a little itty bitty bit of curry powder)
-Tin foil

1. Cut up your veggies (bottoms off brussel sprouts, floret you broccoli, tip and tail beans, etc..)
2. Cut your potatoes to about inch-wide pieces
3. Cut onions into thick slices
4. Peel skins off (optional) and rub spices on drum sticks.
5. Loosely crumple a loonngggg piece of tin foil and cover the bottom of your slow cooker. I coil mine, because I have a small cooker. It's ok to use multiple pieces. If you're using more leavy veggies (brussel sprouts, broccoli, bok choi, etc...) pour a half inch of water at the bottom, under the tinfoil.
6. Lay down the veggies, potatoes and onion on the tin foil
7. Layer chicken on top
8. Put the lid on, set it to low, and leave it for 6.5 to 8 hours!


Another idea - Fresh rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper, and lemon slices!