Mock Ovgo-Lemono (Greek Lemon Chicken Rice Soup)

When I moved from the city of Chicago to the far northwest suburbs there were many things I was happy to leave behind:  traffic, lack of parking, dirt, lack of nature.  One of the things I still miss, decades later are the wonderful Greek restaurants. You can occasionally find one or two Greek items on the menu out here, but I miss those little mom-and-pop places with the amazing food.  One of our family favorites is Ovgo-Lemono, a thick, creamy egg chicken lemon rice soup.

I really missed it.  The authentic way to make it involves raw chicken, cooked rice and many egg yolks.  So  I figured out how to make a knockoff that's foolproof, easy and pretty close to the taste and textures of the real deal.

Just three ingredients (four, if I ever remember to add oregano), one pot, less than 10 minutes.

Dump undiluted Cream of Chicken and Chicken with Rice soups (and a pinch of oregano) in a saucepan and whisk to combine.

Heat to a simmer and add lemon juice from a bottle.  Stir.  Serve. Yum.

Greek Lemon Rice Soup

Gluten-Free Crock Pot Vegetarian Enchiladas AND Dessert Enchiladas

Vegetarian Enchiladas

Dessert Enchiladas

I saw a wonderful sounding recipe for enchiladas you can make in your crock pot.  It needed a little tweaking to make it work for me.  Oh boy!  They were delicious!  My darling husband said "Mmm. Wow. Make them again."  Here's what I did:

Spray the inside of your crock pot with non-stick.  Pour 1 cup of chunky salsa in the crock pot.  Chop some red and green sweet bell peppers and half an onion, grate 8 oz. of Monterey Jack cheese and measure out some salt, cumin and garlic powder.  Rinse and drain a can of black beans and pour into a medium bowl.  Add the veggies and spices and stir until combined.  

Scoop 1/3 cup onto one side of a flour tortilla and add 1 tablespoon of cheese; roll up and place seam down in the crock pot.  Roll and add until you have 5 or 6 side by side in the bottom of the crock.  

Pour 1 cup of salsa over them, and spread with a spoon.  Sprinkle half of the cheese evenly over the salsa.

Fill and roll tortillas until filling is gone.  Pour the rest of the salsa over the top and spread so all the tortillas are moistened with the salsa.  Don't add the rest of the cheese yet.

Cover, turn to High and cook 2 - 3 hours or until heated through.  

 Sprinkle with the remaining cheese, cover and let sit until the cheese melts.

Crock Pot Vegetarian Enchiladas

Adapted from recipe found at thekitchn.com

Serves 4 - 6, 2 enchiladas per serving

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1 cup chopped sweet bell pepper

1 (16 oz.) can black beans, rinsed and drained

2 teaspoons chili powder

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups (8 oz.) shredded Monterey Jack cheese

32 oz. chunky salsa

10 - 12  8" flour tortillas, I use gluten-free corn tortillas

Spray inside of crock with non-stick.

Pour in 1 cup of salsa.

Combine onion, bell pepper, beans and spices.

Scoop 1/3 cup onto a flour tortilla.  Add 1 tablespoon cheese.  Roll up and place seam side down in crock.

Continue filling and rolling until you have a layer of enchiladas snugly side-by-side.

Pour half of the salsa over and spread to moisten the tortillas.  

Sprinkle with half the cheese.

Repeat filling and rolling until filling is gone.

Pour remaining salsa over the enchiladas and spread to moisten.  Don't add remaining cheese yet.

Cover and cook on High 2-3 hours or until filling is hot.

Sprinkle with remaining cheese, recover and let stand until cheese melts.

Make Salsa Rice.  Recipe link: http://www.food.com/recipe/salsa-rice-97070

Serve with Salsa Rice and corn. Corn completes the protein of the beans.

Dessert Enchiladas

When you have a pack of 12 tortillas and the dinner recipe only uses 10 of them, then make Dessert Enchiladas in your microwave.

Spread a teaspoon or so of peanut butter on one side of a flour tortilla.  Head's up: corn tortillas don't taste as good.

Add a tablespoon of chocolate chips.

And some mini marshmallows.  Roll up, microwave 45 seconds until the marshmallows are gooey.

Walt got the green plate, I got the pink plate.  Oh, yum.  Peanut butter cup meets s'more.  

Roasted Garden Vegetables with Spaghetti Squash (Gluten-Free)

Spaghetti squash, eggplant, yellow squash, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.

When one day's harvest is as bountiful as this, I have to get as many as I can in one meal, because I simply need to eat them all.   Seriously.  They call to me.  Here's what I came up with, it's simple, incredibly low calorie - only 231 for a very generous entree serving, and bursting with flavor.

Eggplant, yellow squash, plum tomatoes, red bell pepper, onion and garlic were cut up and went into a bowl.  A drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper were stirred through.

Then onto a jelly roll pan that I had coated with spray oil.  I slid it into a very hot (425F) oven and left it to roast for 20 minutes while I dealt with the spaghetti squash.

Scrubbed, halved vertically and seeded, I placed them cut side down and added 1/4 cup of water, covered tightly and microwaved on High for 10 minutes.  When they were tender, I drained them well and returned them to the microwave and set it to Keep Warm. My spaghetti squash were home grown and small, so I used two and cooked them in batches.

Meanwhile, the time was up on the veggies.  I gave them a stir and returned them to the oven for another 10 minutes.  I love those browned bits.  Brown = flavor :)  Then I dumped a jar of pasta sauce in a large pot and set it to heat to a simmer.  I used Prego Garden Chunky with Baby Portabella.  (Got it on sale, natch).  The browned, softened veggies were gently stirred into the pasta sauce.  Then the plating began.

I scraped the spaghetti squash into serving bowls with a fork. 

Added the sauce and veggies combination.

And sprinkled with grated parmesan.

This is so full of flavor from the roasted vegetables that it is completely satisfying.  Happy-Dance-in-the-Chair good.  I had planned on serving bread and butter with it and totally forgot.  Didn't matter.  Walt was so happy with the healthy-ness of it that he went out and bought some ice cream.  Because we had bananas to use up.  I didn't feel quite so guilty eating ice cream after this meal.

Cooking from my garden makes many meals very inexpensive.  For this meal I only had to buy oil, salt, pepper, garlic, onion, pasta sauce and cheese, all of which I already had in the pantry.  The spaghetti squash, eggplant, yellow squash, bell pepper, and tomatoes came from the garden = almost free.

Here is a link to the printable recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/roasted-garden-vegetables-with-spaghetti-squash-484654

And here is the recipe:

Roasted Garden Vegetables with Spaghetti Squash
1 (2 1/2 - 3 lb.) spaghetti squash, halved and seeded
1 small eggplant, peeled and cut into 1" pieces
2 yellow squash (or zucchini or one of each), cut into 1/4" slices
2 roma tomatoes, cut into 1/2" pieces
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/2" pieces
1 cup onion, cut into 1/2" pieces
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 (24 ounce) jar pasta sauce
6 teaspoons grated parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Toss all vegetables, except spaghetti squash with olive oil, salt and pepper.
3. Spray an 11x17" pan with nonstick and add vegetables in a single layer.  Use 2 pans if needed.
4. Place into hot oven and roast 20 minutes.
5. Stir and roast 10 minutes longer.
6. Place halved and seeded spaghetti squash cut side down in a microwavable dish, add 1/4 cup water, cover and cook on High 10 minutes or until tender.  If your microwave doesn't have a turntable, turn it often.  You may need to cook it in batches, but that's fine.
7. When the spaghetti squash is tender, drain well and keep warm until vegetables are done.
8. Heat pasta sauce in a large pot to a simmer.
9. When vegetables are roasted, add them to the pasta sauce and stir gently to coat.
10. Holding the spaghetti squash half in a pot holder or oven mitt, gently scrape the strands with a fork onto 6 serving dishes.
11. Top each dish with vegetables and sauce; sprinkle with parmesan.

Monday, Menu-day

Monday again.  We have a few dinners out this week.  It makes menu planning easier.


I found vacuum packed mushroom ravioli at Aldi.  It got me thinking about a dish I used to get at Millennium, a now closed, but fondly remembered restaurant.  Tonight I boiled the ravioli and created a Creamy Baby Bella Sauce.  While the dried ravioli is not nearly as luscious as the hand filled wild mushroom ravioli at Millennium; this sauce is very good:

Creamy Baby Bella Sauce
8 ounces cremini (baby portabella) mushrooms
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon butter
1 - 2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon flour
1 1/2 cups milk
pinch salt

Wash mushrooms under running water*and tumble onto a clean kitchen towel as each one is cleaned.   Snap off stems and discard.  They are edible, but too fibrous to enjoy.  Pat caps dry with towel.  Slice 1/4" thick.

Heat a pan over medium flame.  Add oil and butter.  Swirl to combine.
Add the mushrooms and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally until mushrooms are tender.

Sprinkle with flour and stir to wet the flour with the oil.  Cook and stir 2 minutes to cook the flour.

Add about half of the milk.  Stir and cook until it starts to thicken, stir in remaining milk.  Cook and stir until it bubbles and thickens.  Stir in a pinch of salt and serve.

Why 2 additions?  If we add all the milk at once it would take a long time for it to come up to a boil and it would thicken oddly.  The flour could become grainy, or worse, lumpy in all that liquid.  Adding it in batches helps create a silky smooth sauce.  There is probably some food chemistry related reason.  I just know it works.

* FOOD MYTH: Washing mushrooms causes them them to soak up water and become rubbery.  FALSE!  Don't believe me?  Ask Alton Brown.  He did an episode of Good Eats where he weighed several piles of mushrooms then cleaned them by various methods and re-weighed them afterwards.  Neither rinsing under running water or soaking in water 5 minutes caused any measurable weight gain.  So wash your mushrooms and avoid grit in your sauce.

This Weeks Menus

Monday  Mushroom Ravioli with Creamy Baby Bella Sauce and Roasted Broccoli

Tuesday  Just Like Thanksgiving Turkey Meatloaf, Mashies, Veg
Note to self: make extra mashies for Wednesday
This is a new-to-me recipe found at TasteofHome.com.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Wednesday  Shepherd's Pie
This uses up leftover mashies from Tuesday and leftover beef tips which I made last week when it was too cold to grill Walt's 'birthday' steaks.

Thursday  Dinner out
Meet the parents.  Our son is newly engaged and we get to meet her parents.  She's such a sweetheart that I'm sure we'll love them.

Friday  Walt is attending a men's event at church - so I'll be free to eat what I like...

Saturday  Dinner with friends

Sunday  Omaha Steaks on the grill, Saddleback Potatoes
Second attempt!  Last week it was too cold to grill those steaks Walt got with a birthday gift card.  We've never indulged in Omaha Steaks before, so we're excited to try them. The anticipation is killing us...

Gluten Free Cranberry Chicken and a Couple Kitchen Hints

3 Ingredient Cranberry Chicken

This recipe is so easy and so yummy.  Best of all, it uses ingredients you probably already have in your pantry.

3 Ingredient Cranberry Chicken

4 - 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 (14 oz.) can cranberry sauce

1 (1 oz.) envelope dry onion soup mix, check label for gluten

Preheat oven to 350F.  Spray the inside of a baking dish with non-stick.  Use the size that fits your quantity of chicken just right.  13x9" for 6, 8x8" for 4 breasts.  You don't want the sauce to burn, which it will if the dish is too big.

Put chicken breasts in a single layer in dish.

Combine cranberry sauce and onion soup mix; pour over chicken.

Cover and put in oven.  Bake 25 minutes, remove cover and bake an additional 10-15 minutes or until the temperature in the center is 160F (stick it in horizontally).  Let stand 10 minutes before serving. 

Good served with rice to soak up all that yummy sauce.  We had potatoes that looked like tennis balls.  My food styling could use a little help.  Next time, I'll remember to cut open the potato and add butter before taking the picture.

Click for printable recipe for 3 Ingredient Cranberry Chicken

A Couple of Kitchen Hints

Remove seeds with a gravy ladle or ice cream scoop

One scoop and almost all the seeds are out.

Contain messes by putting your cutting board in a rimmed baking sheet

The cutting board in a baking sheet hint will come in very handy come summer.  Think watermelon, tomatoes and other juicy fruits.  No more juice running across the counter and dripping onto the floor!  I use it every time I can tomatoes.

This Week's Menus

I tend to scribble my weekly menu on a sheet of paper.  This can be annoying when I go shopping and forget a key ingredient.  So I've started noting menus on my shopping list.  But then I get home from the grocery store and toss the shopping list in the trash. At the end of the week, I'm scratching my head and wondering WHY I bought cottage cheese.  Maybe this will help.

Monday - 3 Ingredient Cranberry Chicken, rice, roasted broccoli
Tuesday - Warm Leftover Steak Strips on tossed salad, homemade bread
Wednesday - Pastitsio Pie, salad, carrots
Thursday - leftover Cranberry Chicken
Friday - Roast Pork Tenderloin, sweet potatoes, green beans
Heads up: Jewel has Hormel pork tenderloin BOGO through Thursday this week.
Saturday - leftover Pastitsio
Sunday - Beef tenderloin steaks on the grill, saddleback potatoes, carrots
Bought with an Omaha Steaks gift certificate that was a very welcome birthday gift to Walt!  I see another yummy leftover steak salad possibility for later in the week.
Monday - 3 Ingredient Pulled Pork in the Crockpot, Asian Coleslaw
Yep - another leftover night!

What's cooking in Your Kitchen?

Two Bean Tamale Pie (Gluten Free, Vegetarian)

Two Bean Tamale Pie

This is a regular on the rotation here as we try to eat vegetarian at least once a week.  It's very quick to put together.  A one pot meal that feeds the two of us very generously twice - that means I only have to reheat one night :).  The flavors and textures are true comfort food.  It's moist, but not saucy.  If you like your casseroles saucy, add another can of V-8.

I found this recipe years ago but don't know where I found it.  I made a few changes until I really liked it.

Preheat your oven to 400F and spray a 2 quart casserole with non-stick. Saute 1 cup chopped sweet bell pepper, 1/2 cup onion and 2 cloves of minced garlic in 1 tablespoon oil.  Add 2 cans of rinsed, drained beans - I use black and great northern, but you can use whatever you have on hand.  Add a 6 ounce can of Spicy V-8 - feel free to swap out with regular V-8 if you're not into spicy.  No V-8?  Use a 8 oz. can of tomato sauce and a pinch of ground red pepper.  Stir in 1/2 tsp. of ground cumin and 1 tsp. Mexican style chili powder (I once bought Indian chili powder by mistake - ouch!) .

Heat it all through, then pour into the casserole you've sprayed.

Mix up a box of Jiffy corn bread* with egg and milk listed on the box; then fold in 1/2 cup shredded colby-jack cheese and 4 tsp. dried cilantro.  Have fresh?  Use 1/4 cup finely chopped.  Don't like cilantro?  Use parsley or leave out if your kids don't like little green flecks in their food.

Spread the batter over the beans and make sure it touches the side of the casserole all around.  Bake at 400F 20 - 25 minutes, until golden.  Let sit 10 minutes before serving.

Add a salad or fresh fruit and dinner is on the table.
*Jiffy has gluten.  I use a gluten-free mix made by Bob's Red Mill.  Just get one that makes an 8" pan.

Printable recipe with photo