Cathy's Scampi Stir-fry With Veggies

Introduction:

Catherine, this is her meal, works a full-time job plus hours in order to run her life the way she chooses. For this meal she has thawed one of her pre-purchased packages of meat (in this case Scampi) for the centerpiece of a quick, healthy delicious meal. As an integral member of a small team at work she needs healty substance to eat for energy and performance. Protein and veggies being a good choice. Alongside a nice drink and some "crusty" bread. Fast preparation time and quick clean-up being the essence and accents. Making healthy things to eat before work in a "snappy" fashion!!

Ingredients:

• Small package of Scampi (washed, sorted, tamped dry)
• Garlic (powdered garlic-to taste NOT garlic salt)
• Chile (powder-to taste)
• Parsley (ground-to taste)
• Two to three tbsps. pure olive oil
• One small can of corn (drained)
• One small yellow bell pepper (diced)
• One large ripe red pepper (diced)
• One small zucchini squash (diced)
• Some "crusty" bread (to taste)

As subjects inside these images are views of some of the tools necessary for the preparation of this quick meal. The cutting board, knife for dicing, spatula for stir-frying the scampi prawns. The cutlery and dishes goes without saying, hopefully. Use caution around hot oil and a hot stove and no one will get burned which also goes without saying.

Method:

1. Wash, dry, and dice veggies before the stir-fry. Bowl and set out of the way for scampi prep.
2. Inside a twelve-inch deep skillet, heat the olive oil until shimmering.
   
3. Add the garlic, chile and parsley and cook over moderately high heat for ten seconds, stirring.
4. Add the shrimp and cook over high heat, stirring once, for three to four minutes, until they are pink and curled.
5. Season with salt and transfer to plate. Serve with crusty bread.

   Voila

   

Recipe by CMM © Catherine Mary Morgan

Creamed Chipped Beef Over Potatoes

Introduction:

Creamed Chipped Beef otherwise known as S.O.S. is one of the meals I prepared recently. Am exploring simple, easy, and inexpensive meals, lately. While preparing this main course I cooked and mixed slowly at a mild temperature to keep from scalding the milk gravy. Basically, creamed soups can be so much slop or well-prepared delicious soups. An important tool used to cook proper cream soups is a gravy shaker; mixing in a shaker prevents the flour from clumping into blobs, and the milk/flour is evenly mixed from the very beginning.

One of the problems I have noticed with milk soups is the skillet or pot getting too hot and burning the milk. Using the shaker allows me to closely monitor the temperature.

Ingredients:

• Ground Beef - one pound of lean beef (depending on how many people are planning to eat this meal. )
• Milk - almost two cups
• Potatoes - four small russets (again, depending on how many will be eating)
• Flour - for this batch of cream chipped beef, I ended up using just over three tablespoons
• Spices - garlic powder (not garlic salt), black pepper, and table salt. all to taste
• Water - add to the soup to keep it at a nice wet consistency. The flour causes the milk to really thinken

Method:

1. Cook up the meat until done completely through. Remove the grease from the skillet containing the meat. After the meat is removed, drain any excess grease by using a paper towel under the meat. You should have a lightly oiled skillet with the meat "leavings" sitting on the bottom of the pan.I normally add a couple of tablespoons of milk to enable me to see what is occurring inside the skillet as it warms.
2. I normally add about two tablespoons of milk to the skillet to enable me to visually monitor the temperature of the skillet.Then preparing the gravy shaker, I add two-three tablespoons of flour to about a cup of milk. Then, shake until thoroughly mixed.
3. Add the cup (about a cup) of milk to the skillet and start scraping the meat leavings described in step #1 into the milk/flour mixture. The color of the milk will darken as the meat flavors the soup.I add the meat in small amounts to add flavor. While all of this is happening, keep stirring the soup as it thickens.

Sides and Conclusion

For this batch of soup I used a bed of boiled and mashed potatoes. The chipped beef soup also goes well on top of toasted bread. It tastes very nice with a couple of eggs cooked to suit your taste, and with a glass of juice.

Recipe by LonsLens © Lonnie D. Watkins

Cathy's "Baked" Chops and Veggies

Cathy's Chops and Veggies are presented

Yum. Look at how tender and moist this meal turns out. Easy to prepare after a long day, and one has a bit of control of the dirty dishes situation. I think this meal is delicious so asked for the prep instructions. Got the whole recipe. Yaaaay!

Ingredients:
• four pork loin or rib chops, sliced one-inch thick (about one-and-a-half pounds)
• one-quarter cup of Progresso beef flavored broth or chicken flavored broth
• four potatoes, cut into fourths
• four carrots, cut into one-inch pieces
• four medium white onions, cut into fourths
• two teaspoons of salt
• one-quarter teaspoon of pepper
• chopped fresh parsley (if desired)

Method:
1. Trim excess fat from meat.
2. Spray 12-inch nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium-high heat.
3. Brown the pork in the skillet about five minutes, turning once, until brown.
4. Add the broth, prepared potatoes, carrots and onions to the skillet.
5. Sprinkle with salt and pepper... heat the mixture to boiling. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer the meal about thirty minutes, and bake the meal until the vegetables are tender and the meat is slightly pink when cut near bone. Sprinkle with parsley.

Been A While

Have been working on "stuff" yet have neglected this Weblog. Still studying web development code and finally consider myself a beginner code monkey. Am getting proficient at HTML5, CSS3, and am beginning JavaScript. Started viewing some videos tonight about XML to see how this language can help my page development. Had a catastrophic fall. Really changed my life by teaching me respect for time and life. Has brought me even closer to God through Christ. Am still paying off the medical institutions that helped me live. Have insurance yet had to really use a lot of its available options and the copays are tearing into my budget.Today, 21dec17, is looking pretty though.

Literally. A lady and I met online. And we are formally bound to each other with a bond of our word. No other. No looking. No touching. Just she and I. Period. We are married. This is my first formal public announcement of our intentions. She is working a plan to get here to my home to be with me.And I will save everything I can to be ready to help her if and when she asks. Am on disability so even putting aside ten bucks is difficult. Yet we will be together because this is her wish as well as mine. As an added bonus she is majestic, gorgeous, well-mannered and smart. Both of us have lost our parents. I am 56, she is 35. Time tells all things.

Anyway, with this said, was cooking a simple bachelor's dinner tonight (there are many labor intensive recipes online) and got to thinking about this neglected Food blog... and Cathy has mentioned it once or twice as encouragement. So I figured, "Why not?" This light meal is just plain ole macaroni with high-quality ground beef and a canned Italian type sauce. Mac noodles are a lot more "tidy" for me to eat, the clean up is not bad, and it is guaranteed to taste wonderful.

The image above shows the draining macaroni (I really dislike watery sauce so i drain "all" of the water). After the pasta is drained, add a tablespoon of pure olive oil so that the pasta has a smooth stir. The sauce with meat above is just a can of brand name spaghetti sauce heated to a simmer with one-half pound of fried clean ground beef (when there is a language barrier at the butcher's block ground beef is clean or not) added with any grease drained off onto a clean paper towel.

A small bowl of mac and meat with Italian pasta sauce is shown above. I always add black pepper. The reason? Because authentic Italian is designed with the addition of black pepper in mind. Not many "regular" type folks know this fact which I learned entirely by accident during one of my studies. Black pepper used to be a fine delicacy, and expensive, so was a sign of material wealth to have black pepper as an optional offering on a table set for guests. And because it is so tasty Italian's food eventually just adapted to having this expensive treat added. Could look it up because i am sure someone has mentioned it on the Internet. How else would I know? A neat piece of trivia, hey? One must admit black pepper as well as peppers from the Americas are a nice accent. This meal's preparation was a well spent twenty minutes. Just what the bachelor ordered!

Genetically Engineered Animals? - A Parody

"But angels are chimeras, it can be a positive image and hopefully help with a worldwide shortage of organs, not create a monster." [Dr. Jun Wu; Salk Institute]

HERE

Doctor Jun Wu contracts at the Salk Institute. I looked up the Salk Institute and found his name listed under the "Staff Scientists" heading. Here We all know "angels" were created independently of the earth and animals. And we all know that chimeras are not angels.

I think the Reverend Doctor Jun Wu should brush up on his divination theory a bit. I like the idea of creating organs to help folks that otherwise might die. Yet wouldn't removing a pancreas from one animal to transplant kill the animal. G-d did not create to destroy. That is entirely inside the purview of Lucifer and outside the purview of G-d.

Genetically Engineered Food?

Genetically Engineered Foods

Disclaimer: This is a hypothetical parody of the plentiful, inexpensive, and wide variety of foods in the marketplace.

"The diversity of food crops available today has shrunk to a small percentage of those available just 100 years ago. And is likely to shrink even more as the “Big Six” – Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, Dow, Bayer, BASF – begin to buy up the remaining crop and garden seed companies." [goodfoodworld.com]

We cannot reverse capitalism. We can use consumer purchasing under the capitalism model to keep capitalism healthy. An aware consumer buys wisely. So am jotting some notes as I think. One of the things I heard is "Organic sustainability."

On December 12th I was just sitting here minding my own business, and started to read the fine print on some of my food containers. Lo and behold... Clover Valley and Tasty Cake contain Genetically Modified Products. Am just thankful they label their products to inform us.

Will be having this on my mind tomorrow morning when eating my cereal. Wonder why the print is so small?First thing this morning.

Breakfast:13 December 2016. Modified shredded wheat cereal. Am going to do research about this because even the milk may be modified.

My coffee. The non-dairy creamer is not natural in the first place. How can it be genetically modified? Am sitting here trying to enjoy my coffee. Arrg. Have been sitting here thinking,... used milk for a second cup of coffee. The grains that feed to milk cattle are probably gmo also. So I am guessing that altered foods have permeated our diets which is some scary business.

Sipping my delicious cup of coffee while texting this very sentence. Thinking of these GMO items and the long-term risks to my health. And I just checked. My French Fries from dinner last night, below.

Delicious Fake Fries

The image above begs me to ask, "Is the salt genetically altered?"

Just got finished reading an article about animal genetic experimentation. Posted a short comment here.

This is the night of December 27th and am watching a video on Amazon Prime named Food, Inc. OMG! An investigative reporter has gone inside the food production combine that is America. Am going to investigate further. Did a search and found a post "Illusions of diversity" which I cited at the beginning of this post. At the bottom of their blog are some additional resources: information about our food. Have been running across additional phrases such as, "Clever re-arrangements of corn," and, "Faster, fatter, bigger, cheaper." Along with the statistic, "70% of foods on the supermarket shelf contain GMO's." Apparently, it is against the law to criticize poor food quality. So I do want to make it clear that this is just parody. I like the availability of cheap and inexpensive foods as much as anyone.

I have really been monitoring how I spend my precious money at the store because of this movie. I blogged about another package of baked potatoes that illustrates the availability of good, clean, and pure food on our market shelves. Should really check out "Food, Inc". when you have the opportunity.