Entrees

I now see why people don't cook... Not only is cooking expensive, it is also time consuming! I'm learning to appreciate good food more though, as I'm cooking it. Besides the hefty price tag (the more ingredients you use, the more expensive it becomes), I actually enjoy cooking. You know exactly what's in your food, and you can adjust the taste of the food to your liking. 

I laugh now looking at my mom's struggle cooking for 5 kids with 5 completely different tastes. I hate green beans, Derek (my oldest brother) hates eggs, Kerrie doesn't like chocolate anything, AJ basically only eats PBJ, pop tarts, and chicken nuggets (keep in mind he's almost 20 years old), and Ryan won't eat anything that AJ won't eat. Yikes! How she ever made dinner that we all ate blows my mind. 

ANYWAYS...

I cooked different entrees and sides for this part of my project. I tried to use multiple different types of meats, but realized that I had no idea what to buy in the grocery store. I used this website for helping picking the best cuts. Before this project, I literally only had cooked chicken and eggs. Now, I can say I've cooked with shrimp, pork, and multiple different types of beef (steaks, roast, ground beef). I've made pizzas, homemade mashed potatoes, used a slow cooker, and have cut up my own veggies. 

Shrimp Tacos 5/5

This was another project done at my friend Sydney's house. She was definitely a big help in this project. She walked me through a lot of the cutting that we did. 

Ingredients

-1 pound bag of shrimp, peeled and no tail

-Soft shell tortillas

-Hot sauce (whatever kind you like)

-Corn and Black bean salsa (recipe can be found on my appetizers page)

-4-cheese blend

-Lettuce

We thawed the shrimp the night before we cooked it. If you don't thaw it ahead of time, you can rinse the shrimp under cold water to thaw it. We cooked the shrimp on the stove, making sure the shrimp were fully cooked. We then heated the tortillas in the microwave for about 20 seconds per tortilla. Add in whatever ingredients you like and you have a delicious shrimp taco!

Pot Roast: 5/5

I think this was my favorite dish to make. The slow cooker allowed for easy clean-up, because I used a slow cooker liner. 

Ingredients:

-2 chuck roast pieces (a little over a pound each)

-Bag of baby carrots

-5 potatoes

-Pot roast Mix Packet

-1 and 1/3 cup of water

The first thing I had to do was brown the pot roast. I did this on medium heat, and did each side for 4 minutes. 

While I was doing this, I washed and cut the potatoes into slices. 

After everything was washed and cut, and the meat was completely "browned" on each side, I put it all in the slow cooker. I mixed the packet and the water together before adding it to the slow cooker. I then added it in with all the ingredients and set the slow cooker to 8 hours. 

This was my final product. The beef was really tender, and it was my favorite meal to eat and to cook. 

Pork, Rice, and Mac N' Cheese 4/5

Okay, I'll admit it. This one wasn't really from scratch. I used the boxed mac n' cheese, and boxed rice. It definitely made my life easier and is a more realistic option. For these, I pretty much just followed the directions on the box. 

The pork was a learning process. I first cooked it on the stove. I seasoned it with a steak and chop seasoning, which I really like. I added olive oil and then cooked the pork chops on each side for 3 minutes. I then put them in the oven on 350 degrees. The timing on this is a little foggy for me. Our oven at my house is a little old, so I had to keep checking the chops to make sure there was no pink. In order to do this, I took them out and cut one of the pork chops in the middle. 

Here is my final product! My mom was a big resource for this one. I kept asking her simple questions like: How do I know this is done? How many people does one box of mac n' cheese feed? How much rice should I make? 

Steak, homemade mashed potatoes, and broccoli 3.5/5

This was a hard one for me to make. I wasn't sure about broccoli timing, I had no idea how to make homemade mashed potatoes, and I've never made steak before. Cooking the steak was difficult, because I had no idea how long to cook it for. 

The first step was buying the steak at the grocery store. I went with a Spencer steak, which turns out to be another name for a ribeye. The cut was great. There was a good amount of marbling (fat) which gave it a really awesome flavor. I first seasoned the steak with steak n' chop seasoning. 

I then browned the steak on each side for 3 minutes per side. I put the pan in the oven on 350 degrees. This was the tricky part. My boyfriend prefers his medium well. So I had to continue to check both steaks to see what their internal temperature was. 

I cooked the broccoli in the oven at 350 degrees. I left it in around 8 minutes to give it a little crispness, making sure to not overcook it. 

I cut up potatoes and put them in a pan with plenty of water. I cooked them over medium heat, making sure that the water didn't boil over. I let these cook for about an hour. These ended up taking a lot longer than the steak, so if I did this again, I will definitely cook the potatoes ahead of time. 

This was my final product. Not too shabby for a first attempt! I overcooked the medium well steak a little, so I need to keep a better eye on the steaks as they are cooking.