on the stove

Nick’s Mom’s Meat!

spodalicious on the stove
Nick's Mom's Meat Beef with onions, carrots, and vinegar
Nick’s Mom’s Meat
Beef with onions, carrots, and vinegar

When Pam and Mary and I went with Nick to his parents’ house for Sauce Day last year (we had an awesome day turning many, many, many pounds of tomatoes into many, many, many jars of tomato sauce), one of the things Nick was excited about was a delicious lunch featuring a dish his mom makes with beef cutlets and vinegar.

He had really talked this up — especially the part about it being even better the second day. And then, of course, he forgot to tell her ahead of time that he’d promised us this special meal. Luckily for him, his mom had everything she needed to make it and was a good sport about doing so when put on the spot.

And it was pretty damn delicious the first day!

The version we had for lunch that day had breaded beef cutlets fried and topped with a sauce made from oil, vinegar, garlic, carrots, and onions.

We decided to try to adapt it for Cooking Club because while breading and frying makes things delicious, it didn’t seem totally necessary to get the essence of this meal — which was really in the vinegar (and garlic).

We tried a few different versions and were very pleased with how it came out!

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Deconstructed Egg Roll

spodalicious on the stove, one pot

Deconstructed Egg Roll
When you are ready to put in a delivery order for Chinese food, this Deconstructed Egg Roll will help satisfy your craving!

I honestly can’t remember how I came across this recipe (probably just browsing around Pinterest), but I was instantly intrigued. I love egg rolls! But they never seem like a very “good” or healthy choice. Much like the Asian Turkey Meatballs from Skinnytaste.com help satisfy a craving for dumplings, I was hoping this recipe might satisfy a craving for egg rolls.  Spoiler: it did!

Come to find out from reading the recipe that this dish, also known as “crack slaw” is a *thing* for low carb, keto and paleo diets and there are a multitude of versions of it out there. Of course, I wanted to up the amount of protein in it and add a little more variety by way of some broccoli slaw, so I guess now there’s one more to add to the list. 🙂 Continue reading →

French Onion Penne

spodalicious in the oven, on the stove, pasta

French Onion Penne
So cheesy and decadent. It was seriously hard to stop eating this dish!

I’m super excited to report that we did our first Vegetarian Cooking Club this week and it was a GRAND success! I’d been resistant to doing it because it never felt like there was quite enough interest, but we had a really great group of people who were either vegetarian or just curious about making more vegetarian food and we had an awesome time and cooked some AMAZING food!

This recipe (adapted from this one) was definitely one of the faves of the day, so I wanted to get it posted and shared for anyone who is interested in it.  I’m also super psyched that it will be incredibly easy to add chicken and use it for “regular” Cooking Club as well. Continue reading →

Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

spodalicious Instant Pot, on the stove

Spaghetti Squash Lasagna
Spaghetti Squash: Cheesy and delicious

This recipe is really hard to post because I seem to make it differently every time. It’s also practially impossible to know how big a spaghetti squash you’re going to get (I order online) so I’m always playing it by ear a little. The truth is you can modify this and play with it and chances are it will still turn out deliciously. I’m mostly posting it to have something to Pin to my Cooking Club Pinterest so people know what we’re actually making when we plan instead of pinning someone else’s recipe as a placeholder.

In other words… either be prepared to play with this and take your chances a little or skip it and try something else. 😉 Continue reading →

Picadillo

spodalicious on the stove, one pot, slow cooker ,

picadillo
Salty goodness with ground turkey, diced peppers, chopped olives and tomato sauce.

If you like olives and crave salty foods in general, you’ll love this recipe!  It was inspired by this one on Skinnytaste.com. And by “inspired by” I mean I loved her recipe, but, I’m lazy… so I wanted to make it as easy as possible while keeping all the salty goodness.

I’m including directions on how to make this on the stovetop alone or by transferring it to a slow cooker.

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One Pot Chili Mac and Cheese

spodalicious on the stove, one pot ,

Chili Mac and Cheese
Easy, delicious, healthy comfort food!

A couple of nights ago I was walking home from the subway and thinking about what I might make for dinner.  I was feeling lazy, so, I thought I’d put together one of my favorite dinner hacks… a frozen dinner bulked up with extra protein and veggies (my go-to is a Lean Cuisine Fettuccine Alfredo with added chicken, broccoli and peas). I knew I had a Smart Ones Macaroni and Cheese, but, didn’t think chicken sounded like exactly what I wanted… and then I got an overwhelming craving for Chili Mac and Cheese.

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Fettucine with Chicken and Creamy Spinach and Asparagus Sauce

spodalicious on the stove, pasta ,

Fettucine with Creamy Spinach Sauce
Chicken and mung bean fettucine added to this already delicious recipe up the protein and make a great main dish!

I don’t even remember how I stumbled on this recipe from sheknows.com, but, with a few modifications it became one I know we’ll make over and over again for Cooking Club.  The sauce is reminiscent of some of the pestos we’ve made in the past and all the beautiful green ingredients just scream SUMMER!  But I also feel that since it relies on spinach rather than basil we’ll make this year-round. Continue reading →

Lime Cilantro Shrimp over Mung Bean Fettucini

spodalicious on the stove

Lime Cilantro Shrimp over Mung Bean PastaThis is one of my favorite new recipes (I kind of feel like I say that about every recipe since I only post ones I really like ;))… especially for the summer because it’s SO fast and doesn’t require a lot of time in a hot kitchen.  It was based on this recipe from Skinnytaste.com.  As usual, we wanted to boost the protein so I increased the shrimp in each portion and added Mung Bean Fettucini for an extra pop of protein (and fiber).

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