Mmmmmmm Monday

Making Monday Better

We all have Monday's. We all dislike Monday's.  It's the day after the weekend.  We typically ate and drank well all weekend, and now we're "back to normal" and meals are back to being a chore.  So welcome to Mmmmmm  Monday.  Here are 5 recipes for you that you can apply to your Monday meal making repertoire. Enjoy, or at least take the ideas for the next time you're in a meal making slump.  Tasty, tasty!

1. Kitchen Sink Nachos:  I've never met a nacho I didn't like. I've also been in a mood for nachos and didn't think I had the "fixins" to make a proper nacho.  Well, cravings and a brick of cheese are the mother of all invention.  The birth of the Kitchen Sink Nachos....

• Put your chips on a baking sheet - one single layer so each chip gets proper nacho toppings.
• Beans:  I take any can of beans I can find. Black, pinto, black eyed peas, kidney, even chickpeas. Drain em, rinse em, and then sprinkle them right on top of your chips.
• Kitchen Sink:  This is the inventive part.  I grab all my left overs and sprinkle them on top.  Left over veggies, left over meat/chicken/fish/shrimp, even left over pasta or rice... It all goes on top.  Now hear me out... Gulash, probably isn't going to work here... but chopped up left over veggies from dinner, shredded left over chicken breast, sliced steak, shrimp, - right on the money!
• Cheese: Daaahhhhhlings- grab your bricks of cheese, shred those suckers over your nachos - making a nice cheesy covering so that every chip and kitchen sink leftover has a blanket of cheese.  This is the "bringing it all together" part.
• Pop this sucker in the oven till your cheese is melty and the kitchen sink is hot.
• While the nachos are baking, grab whatever fresh veg you have in the fridge and chop em up! Lettuce, kale, arugula, celery, carrots, tomatoes, cole slaw mix, cucumber... Chop em up and have them ready to put on top of your scoop of nachos.  Even season your salad up if you have time.  This adds the fresh crunch to the nachos - and gives ya' a little veg in your life.  It adds dimension without the guilt. Come on my dears, EAT YOUR VEGGIES!
• Salsa, jalapenos, and your accoutrements: If you like salsa, plop it on top of your scoop of nachos, ditto for jalapenos or sour cream.  Whatever you've got in the fridge to add a little kick or spice.  I've also used BBQ sauce when in a pinch - and it was tasty as all get out.  

So my darlings - Kitchen Sink Nachos... Chips, cheese and a little salsa will bring together ANY left overs (within reason!) and suddenly you've cleaned out your fridge, and made a tasty little dish!

2.  His Mistress's Mashed:  This is Giada de Laurentiis' mashed potato recipe.  Da Hubs is gaga for this gal and (honestly) I am to - so she's his mistress (in his mind, of course).  She's cute as a button and cooks to boot.  These mashed potatoes are my go-to for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and whenever you are making anything with a yummy sauce/gravy that just screams for a good mashed.  

Now I won't take credit - here's the recipe direct from the website, but once you've made it once, you can pretty much make it "your own" without a recipe.

Recipe:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/baked-mashed-potatoes-with-parmesan-cheese-and-bread-crumbs-recipe.html

What I will tell you is that this recipe lends itself well to be extra cheesy (I add more cheese than she says to) and if you have a little crisped bacon or pancetta - stir it in and add some to the crust!  Like I said - this has become my own, with each batch coming out tastier than the last and customized to whatever I either had in the fridge or was craving. ENJOY!!!

3. Ragout: No my darlings, not the pasta sauce from a jar (Ragu). A RAGOUT... This is the best thing to go with His Mistress's Mash.  What is a Ragout?  The official definition is a highly seasoned dish of meat cut into small pieces and stewed with vegetables.

So for the mashed, that means creating a delicious saucy goodness. You can even dump it all into a crock pot - let it cook all day and eat it when you get home. Buckle up and here we go:

• Take your meat (italian sausage, turkey sausage, ground beef, sliced meat, really WHATEVER meat you want to make a good sauce out of) and brown that sucker up in a pan with chopped onion and garlic, salt/pepper and whatever herbs and seasons you like.
• If you don't do meat - you can use TVP or I prefer portobello mushrooms.  Meaty and hearty and just damn tasty. Note to my meat eaters: ADD PORTOBELLOS to you ragout too!  Meat and mushrooms are meant to be together!  So saute that sucker up in your pan with olive oil and all the good seasonings you have.
• If you have tomato paste/sauce/even store bought pasta sauce - grab it.  Add a squish of your tomato product to the pan (1/2 the paste can, a cup of sauce - you know, a "squish").  And then pour some quality red wine in the pan and let it all bubble and mix together in the pan.
• You can add sliced veggies (peppers, etc) or whatever other vegs you want to this - but the secret is this makes the best damn sauce to eat with the Mistress's Mash. The tomato and meat accompanies the cheesy potato situation like, well, like the best damn pairing you can find.
• I didn't include a picture as ragouts are sauces that you need to be creative about. Use your pan, start it in your crock pot before you leave, whatever you do - it's yours and it'll be delicious. Don't be scared! If it looks saucy and cooked together - you did it right... now enjoy!

4.  Salad Secrets. We all need to eat our veggies, they're good for ya, help ya poo, and we're just supposed to.  I'm not going to get into the health benefits of vegetables - we all went to school and all had a parent who told us to eat our veg.  Well, here's the thing.  Veg gets boring. Salads get boring. So here's my tips for making a quick, last minute salad and making it not so boring, and honestly - pretty dadgum good! 

Tip:  Prep it once, put all the fixin's in tupperwear containers or zip baggies in the fridge and you've got your salad stuff ready at a drop of a hat.  Below are my salad fixins that I always have on hand and can whip one up whenever I realize we gotta get some greens in there!

• Kale! It ain't just for tree huggers and vegans.  It's a damn good veg.  It's hearty, has great crunch, and they sell it already cut up in the bag at the store if you're too lazy to wash and cut it up yourself.  Grab a bag, have it in your fridge and use it for EVERYTHING!
• I use it in my salads, instead of lettuce (which is such a waste with such little nutrient value)
• I use it on my NACHOS - again, if ya got it, use it
• I put it in my smoothies too - adds nutrients, thickens em up and you can't taste em with all the other fruits and veg you got in there.
• Beans: Open a can of beans, rinse, drain, and you're done.  I love chickpeas. I put a sprinkling of them on all my salads.  Black beans area also a favorite.  Again - whatever ya got, sprinkle em on!
• Raisins or Dried Cranberries: I buy these in bulk and just sprinkle them on my salads whenever I make one - it adds a little sweet.  Good for ya too!
• Nuts: Pine nuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds, peanuts... even toasted soy nuts.  They're good for you (all that good fat stuff) and add crunch and depth to the salad.  Just like with the raisins, I buy in bulk, have a container handy and sprinkle em on top of my salad.
• FRUIT: Folks, we all have an apple, pear, or some berry in our fridge.  Slice it up and put it on that salad.  It makes such a difference and it is such a simple thing to do!
• VEG: Ok - carrot nubbins, celery chopped, cucumber sliced, bell peppers, snap peas, green beans, cole slaw mix... you name it... Whatever you like or whatever you have - add a little to it.  Crunch is good!
• Cheese: 'Nuff said.  I buy fat free Feta and crumble some on top - but when I don't have Feta - whatever else I do have goes into the salad.  Everyone needs cheese!
• Vinaigrette: Folks, this is where we kill ourselves.  Don't use bottled salad dressing.  Make a quick vinaigrette and use it all week.
• Grab a jar - you'll use it to mix and store your new vinaigrette
• A dollop of dijon mustard (or any mustard you have)
• A generous sprinkle of: Salt, pepper, herbs (italian is fine - but whatever you like)
• then add 1/3 vinegar (balsamic, red wine, apple cider - whatever!) and 2/3 olive oil
• Shake that sucker up and you're done!
• If you like lemon, squeeze a lemon in there too!
• Store it in the fridge and it'll keep for the week. Just take it out and shake the bejesus out of it before you use it!
• Left over rice, pasta, quinoa, or couscous.  If you aren't going low carb and need a little something to stretch your salad, add a scoop of leftover carb to your plate. Why not - it's tasty!

5. Knock off Orange Julius: We all remember the Orange Julius from our youth.  Well - make em at home in no time!

• One banana
• Orange juice
• Ice
• Scoop of Vanilla protien powder
• Put it all in the blender and go!

So my daaahlings, hopefully this takes you from a blah Monday to something a bit more tasty.  Make your salad fixins for the week so you can throw it together in no time... or save the chopped bits to use on top of your Kitchen Sink Nachos... or use in your Ragout when you make your Mistress's Mashed.  I'm just sayin - it's all easy if you have a kick in the creativity section of your fridge.  So here's kickin' so you get to it!