Food on Friday ~ Weeknights
after a long day at work cooking is probably the last thing on your mind
Even though I am a gentleman of leisure there are times when I’m rushed for time and don’t feel like cooking anything complicated nor time-consuming for dinner. And for most people, I know there is much more pressure on your time. So this Friday I’m concentrating on easy recipes that are perfect for weeknights.
Even tough you might be tired and under time pressure after a hard day at work, please take the time to enjoy cooking and eating your meals. Be mindful of your food.
First up, from Tieghan Gerard at Half Baked Harvest we have these weeknight style Crockpot BBQ Beer Chicken Taquitos ~ with Street Corn Salas and Lime Crema.
Crockpot BBQ Beer Chicken Taquitos
From Holly at Spend with Pennies, how about this Easy Tuna Casserole?
Easy Tuna Casserole
This is really easy from Ali at Gimmie Some Oven; Brown Butter Lemon Pasta. And, I agree with Ali here, buy the very best ingredients you can afford, especially for simple dishes such as this.
Brown Butter Lemon Pasta
For a side dish, or just something healthy on its own, from Cookie + kate we have this Easy Tomato Salad ~ how wonderful if you have tomatoes growing in your own garden.
Easy Tomato Salad
This is not the first time I’ve blogged about weeknight dinners. Back in May 2018 there was another post entitled Weeknight Dinners. Among the recipes I covered there is this Prosciutto and Balsamic Greens Flatbread. From Averie Cooks. Looks delicious.
Prosciutto and Balsamic Greens Flatbread
Our collection this Friday is from Delish magazine; 80 Easiest Weeknight Meals Ever, and I’ve chosen to feature this fabulous looking Spinach Lasagna.
Spinach Lasagna
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jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
the simplest meal ever
just add cheese
Food on Friday # 49
Brrr, its November. With Autumn well and truly down on us like a wolf at the fold, I thought it was time for some hot, nourishing, easy dishes. The featured ingredient this week is chicken thighs ~ which are not everyone’s favourite thing. To be honest, I have struggled to make a dish I like using chicken thighs.
However, all of these recipes look and sound great, and I can’t wait to try out a couple.
From Elise at Simply Recipes there’s this Sally Vargas one-pan paprika chicken with potatoes and tomatoes. Although it will take an hour to make, (15 minutes preparation, 45 minutes cooking), this is a really simple dish.
One-Pan Paprika Chicken with Potatoes and Tomatoes
Also from Elise at simply recipes we have this great lemon chicken dish. This is really finger food and would go great with a really sharp beer.
Lemon Chicken
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Here’s something I really like the sound of. From Jessica Merchant at how sweet it is we have sticky apple cider bbq chicken. This recipe uses both apple cider and apple cider vinegar ~ what’s not to like.
Sticky Apple Cider BBQ Chicken
This recipe from Tieghan Gerard at Half Baked Harvest can use either chicken breast pieces or chicken thighs. Actually I think the Hawaiian bbq skewers with sriracha honey butter will work better with chicken thighs. You know what? This is a 30 minute dish, and it looks fabulous.
Hawaiian BBQ Chicken Skewers with Sriracha Honey Butter
I really, really, like the look of this Thai coconut curry chicken from Chungah at Damn Delicious. This recipe uses whole bone-in chicken thighs, and should be ready to eat in under an hour. How good is that?
Thai Coconut Curry Chicken
This dish from Heather Christo doesn’t just use chicken thighs, (although you could make it like that), it uses a whole jointed chicken; thighs, legs, wings, breasts… But It also uses a lot of my favourite herb, rosemary. So, I’m going to try this recipe for rosemary cherry balsamic roasted chicken. Yummy…
Rosemary Cherry Balsamic Roasted Chicken
I’ve included this recipe for crispy balsamic chicken by Lyndsay Funston for two reasons. Firstly because I am going to cook this tomorrow, and secondly it’s from a site called Delish who have a handy post entitled 20 amazing chicken thigh recipes. Lots of ideas there. Enjoy.
Crispy Balsamic Chicken
Finally for this Food on Friday we have a link to the vegetarian / vegan Cookie + kate. (Cookie is the dog ~ a vegetarian dog? Really?) This is a great, great post, so it’s included even though there isn’t a chicken thigh in site. From Cookie + kate; what to cook in November.
What To Cook This November
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Thank you ever so to all the great cooks featured in this week’s Food on Friday.
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Food on Friday #48 ~ Apples
I know a girl who doesn’t really like apples. Well, she is from California.
Apples are such an English thing. But what can one do with an apple, other than peel it? You would be surprised what a brilliant addition apples can make to a hell heck of a lot of dishes.
For a start apples make cider, and one can do a hell heck of a lot with cider. First up this week we have maple apple cider from the very cute Tieghan Gerard at Half Baked Harvest.
Maple Apple Cider
Also from Tieghan at Half Baked Harvest there’s crockpot cider braised short ribs with sage butter mashed potatoes. Very nice and very nourishing on a cold autumn evening. And, following last week’s Food on Friday you should all know just exactly where your slow cooker is.
Crockpot Braised Short Ribs with Sage Butter Mashed Potatoes
There are thousands and thousands of recipes for food and drinks involving cider, but with Halloween coming up, here’s something only a real witch could drink. From KC’s Bookshelf, via hocuspocus13, we have this stupifying concoction, a perfect fall wine. This recipe includes the superfood beet juice. (On your own head be it.)
A Perfect Fall Wine
Cider will eventually turn into apple cider vinegar, (cyder). This stuff is excellent in so may ways, but you should really look for the genuine organic article. My friend in Orange County swears by Bragg organic raw apple cider vinegar. Want to turn your apple cider vinegar into a perfect basis for a salad dressing and a complete restorative body-cleanser and cure-all? Well then, make a tincture of apple cider vinegar with rose hips and rosemary. I’m lucky, I can collect great wild rose hips and rosemary right near the garret.
Apple Cider Vinegar with Rose Hips and Rosemary
I couldn’t possibly do a post about apples without including an apple pie, and this apple cranberry pie from Andrea at Cooking with a Wallflower looks delicious. Sadly, I have a complete blind spot when it comes to baking, so I may not ever try this wonderful recipe. Also from Andrea we have a great autumn breakfast; pumpkin Dutch baby pancake with caramelised brown sugar apples. Nice.
Apple Cranberry Pie
There’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that says I can’t bake. Maybe I should try. Maybe I should try this recipe from Elise Bauer at Simply Recipes ~ a wonderful apple coffee cake. Never even heard of this, but it looks delicious, and I so like the idea of using apples in a cake. Apples seem so much better than the idea of carrots in baking!
Apple Coffee Cake
It’s autumn, and for a lot of us that means soup. Heather Christo has this parsnip, apple soup with bacon fried apples, you could turn this into a vegan dish by missing out the bacon. I love parsnips, and I’m going to make this soup over the weekend.
Parsnip, Apple Soup with Bacon Fried Apples
Even though this dish from The Kale Box is called pumpkin spiced fall medley, it’s less pumpkin and more sweet potato and apples, which suits me fine. Looks a great change from our average vegetable side dishes.
Pumpkin Spiced Fall Medley
This next recipe may only use a couple of apples, but I tried this last Sunday, and you can take it from me, those apples make all the difference in the world. For a dish with a truly international flavour, English girl Amanda, who lives in rural France, offers us Tuscan roast pork, from her site Chez Le Rêve Francais. I love Tuscany, and I loved making and eating this dish. (I must admit that these days I roast everything inside a roasting bag, which means that I retain a lot of juices with the meat, which always make a fabulous sauce.)
Tuscan Roast Pork
And finally for this week, from Cookie and Kate, (Cookie is the dog), we have a vegan recipe for apple steel cut oatmeal. In England we call this porridge, and I’m not usually a fan. This looks like a great breakfast.
Apple Steel Cut Oatmeal
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A big big thank you to all the great cooks featured this week.
jack collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Food on Friday ~ Gluten Free
Gluten is bad for a guy. At least that’s what I’ve been reading. I only vaguely know that gluten is found in flour, and I’ve mostly eschewed wheat flour anyhow. As I don’t use milk I don’t eat breakfast cerials either. Here’s a clue to gluten, it’s basically glue, so a gluten-free diet or reduced gluten diet sounds like a good thing. Some people suffer from celiac disease, which means they must have a completely gluten free diet. There is evidence that reducing the amout of gluten you eat / drink helps to reduce unsigtly tummy bloating, and women especially don’t want a beer belly. There are some easier ways to reduce abdominal bloating, and cutting down on gluten is one.
My Top Tip ~ Stop Drinking Beer.
Gluten – Free Recipes
From the kitchen of Cookie + kate, (Cookie is the dog), we give you double tomato pesto spaghetti with zucchini noodles. You can make this a vegan dish if you don’t use parmesan. Without parmesan I would use plenty of olive oil and black pepper.
Double Tomato Pesto Spaghetti With Zucchini Noodles
Also fom Cookie + kate, and using mango ~ a fruit I want to eat more often, there’s this Thai mango salad with peanut dressing.
Thai Mango Salad With Peanut Dressing
Now from the ever interesting Heather Christo, I offer you this nice looking nectarine ginger sesame chicken salad. If you want a vegetarian / vegan dish, then miss out the chicken.
Nectarine Ginger Sesame Chicken Salad
Here’s a mixture I wouldn’t have thought of; mango and fennel salad. A dish with a hint of Asian form Sabrina at Organic is beautiful. Now, if we ever get a hot day in England I will try this.
Mango and Fennel Salad
A lady I haven’t featured before, Mona from Queen of my kitchen has these gluten-free spicy cheese straws. It’s pretty difficult to buy this kind of really tasty gluten-free stuff at your local store.
Gluten-Free Spicy Cheese Straws
Tieghan Gerard at Half Baked Harvest has this nice looking and nice sounding recipe for Vietnamese meatball lettuce wraps with mango salad + cilantro-basil cashew sauce. Tieghan says this is a 30 minute dish, from start to finish. It’s on mu menu for the weekend.
Vietnamese Meatball Lettuce Wraps
Finally for this week, from Chungah at Damn Delicious, Thai salmon in foil. This is a great 20 minute dish that works well with all types of sides, including fries, rice, green beans…. The dish uses sweet chili suace and lots of garlic, both of which I like a lot. It also uses srircacha, a hot sauce, (which I had to look up).
Thai Salmon in Foil
Thank you ever so much to the great cooks featured in this week’s Food on Friday.
look good and feel good, eat healthy food
Jack Collier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Food on Friday # 36 ~ Summer
There is no overall theme to this week’s Food on Friday ~ except these are all great summer recipes from great cooks.
Starting this week with nectarine and fried mozzarella caprese salad from Tieghan Gerard at Half Baked Harvest. You know what? I’d like to be able to make a salad that looked half as good as any of Tieghan’s dishes, (I didn’t realise that pansies were edible…).
Nectarine And Fried Mozzarella Caprese Salad
We are all very used to eating food out of season, hell I can buy decent salad greens here in England at any time of the year. But I think we would all agree that local produce, in season, is far better quality than anything that’s been shipped thousands of miles before it gets into your local store. And, fish is something that a gourmet should only eat when it’s fresh and in season. English Girl Petra from Food Eat Love has this smashing recipe for Torbay sole with scalloped stuffed courgette flower…. Torbay is a great little harbour town on the English Riviera. Out of the way, quiet, and well worth a visit.
Torbay Sole With Scallop Stuffed Courgette Flower
Now from Anne, a professional chef from the California wine country, we have this absolute umami corn on the cob recipe. It’s well worth checking out Anne’s Tasting Everything blog for some super recipes.
Absolute Umami Corn On The Cob
I recently featured this recipe for thai larb chicken lettuce cups, but I liked it so much I’m putting it in again as a nice summer snack / appetiser. It’s from the White on Rice Couple, Todd Porter and Dianne Cu.
Thai Larb Chicken Lettuce Cups
Here’s a very quick and easy summer snack / appetiser recipe from Elise at Simply Recipes. This 15 minute shrimp scampi would go really well with a couple of cold beers, (or in my case fizzy water).
Shrimp Scampi
So, from the vegetarian / vegan Cookie + kate, (I’m pretty certain Cookie the dog isn’t vegetarian, but what do I know?), we have this mega crunchy romaine salad with quinoa. (Am I the only person in the free world who has never eaten quinoa?).
Mega Crunchy Romaine Salad With Quinoa
And the final food recipe for this week, from Andrea at Cooking with a Wallflower, we have this spicy summer vegetable chili. This is a great dish to use up all that stuff you’ve got hanging about in your refrigerator. This is also a vegetarian / vegan recipe, (or at least, I belive it is so).
Spicy Summer Vegetable Chili
For something to drink instead of beer on those hot summer days, we have this blueberry pomegranate mint limeade, also from Cooking with a Wallflower. (Why do Americans drink out of jam jars, instead of proper glasses? Weird.)
Blueberry Pomegranate Mint Limeade
A great big thank you to all the cool cooks featured in this week’s Food on Friday.
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Food On Friday # 30 ~ Easy Fast Food
At the request of my friend in Southern California, some easy recipes. There are a couple of rules for this week’s dishes ~ they must take no longer than 30 minutes, and use no more than a half-dozen ingredients, (more or less).
This first dish from Petra at Food East Love certainly qualifies on both counts, chorizo with wild garlic and beans uses 4 ingredients and should take any cook less than 15 minutes.
Chorizo With Wild Garlic And Beans
A second dish from Petra, who says its a 20 minute cook, olive oil chicken with butter beans and pink peppercorns.
Olive Oil Chicken With Butter Beans And Pink Peppercorns
So this next recipe is from Tieghan Gerard at Half Baked Harvest uses a few more ingredients than my ideal half-dozen, but a 20 minute dish that looks this good, the simple California style omelet, has to be worth a try.
Simple California Style Omelet
From Heather Christo in Seattle we have a 15 minute hot shrimp corn and basil salad, and this only has 8 ingredients, including things like salt…. (but also check out Heather’s 30 minute citrusy grilled fish tacos with citrus slaw and orange cashew sauce ~ if you feel like a BBQ).
Hot Shrimp, Corn And Basil Salad.
Here’s a dish with only 8 ingredients which can be ready in only 20 minutes. From San Diego’s lovely Averie Sunshine we have easy honey mustard chicken, (with optional broccoli).
Easy Honey Mustard Chicken
Also from Averie there’s theis 20 minute dish, which I think is a bit of an empty-the-refrigerator possibility ~ better-than-takeout cashew chicken.
Better~Than~Takeout Cashew Chicken
And now, from Kansas City girl Kate, (Cookie + kate), we have a vegan dish ~ cilantro-pepita pesto with squash ribbons and fettuccine. This is a 30 minute recipe containing ten ingredients, if you include the salt and olve oil.
Cilantro~Pepita Pesto With Squash Ribbons And Fettuccini
Chungah from Damn Delicious has this very easy, one pan, 20 minute dish of baked lemon butter tilapia, (although I think you could use any white fish).
Baked Lemon Butter Tilapia
From a site I haven’t featured before ~ The Woks of Life ~ Sarah has made these 15 minute lazy asian noodles. (If you don’t have a small wok, you can use a deep frying pan, or do what I did, ditch the frying pan and buy a small wok, (say 8 inch)).
15 Minute Lazy Asian Noodles
Most of my meals are cooked in less than 20 minutes in my small wok. So here’s another dish from The Woks of Life, (cooked in a skillet… ha ha ha). This is a 30 minute dish, but I know my friend in Orange County will adore these salmon teriyaki bowls.
Salmon Teriyaki Bowls
Andrea at Cooking with a Wallflower has a 15 minute miso glazed shrimp recipe, which looks fantastic. But then, Andrea says this chicken and zucchini noodles in coconut-peanut sauce dish takes 35 to 40 minutes, (so sue me). If you already have a cooked chicken breast in the refrigerator, then it’s more of a 20 minute cook.
Chicken Zucchini Noodles In Coconut Peanut Sauce
Finally for this week, I don’t know if it’s possible to get any easier than this simple olive oil and parsley pasta from The Flourishing Foodie ~ very Italian Rustic.
A Simple Olive Oil And Parsley Pasta
Thank you to all the great cooks I’ve featured this week.
jack colliier
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
JackCollier7 
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