Cheesy Potato Casserole - India Proofed!

For Thanksgiving, we made all the traditional Thanksgiving side dishes, and one of the ones I was responsible for was the cheesy potato casserole (aka funeral potatoes). I had a few people ask me how I made them in India, so thought I'd just post the recipe here! I apologize that I don't have a picture...but just imagine cheesy, gooey potato goodness.

Please take note that you'll need to mix up the sour cream the day before you make the casserole. Also, I mixed up the casserole the day before Thanksgiving and refrigerated it overnight so I'd have less to do that morning. Just take it out of the fridge and add the cornflake topping before baking. 

Cheesy Potato Casserole

1 kg (2 lbs) potatoes
1 onion, chopped
2 cups shredded cheese
1/2 stick of butter, melted
2 cups of sour cream (recipe below)
1 recipe of cream of chicken soup substitute (recipe below)
2 tsps salt

Topping:
1/2 box of plain cornflakes, crushed
1/2 stick of butter, melted

To make the sour cream (make this the day before you mix the casserole, it needs to sit overnight):
1 small box of the "fresh cream"
2-3 heaping spoonfuls of dahi
Open the box of cream, and pour off as much of the liquid as possible. Squeeze the solid part into a bowl. Add 2 heaping spoonfuls of dahi and stir. Taste, and if it tastes too creamy and not very sour, add one more spoonful of dahi. Refrigerate overnight. You'll need to double this recipe for the casserole, but you'll probably have some sour cream left over. (Stir in some powdered Ranch dressing mix to make a great veggie dip!)

To cook the potatoes:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Wash the potatoes well. Place the whole potatoes in the boiling water. If the potatoes are very large, boil for about 15 minutes, but if they are smaller, boil for just 10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl of cold water. Remove the skins (they should come off fairly easily). Grate the potatoes on the large holes of a cheese grater.

To make the cream of chicken soup:
2 TBS butter
3 TBS flour
1/2 cup chicken broth (made with water and a chicken cube)
1/2 cup milk
salt & pepper to taste
Melt the butter, then whisk in the flour. Whisk in the chicken broth and milk. Stir over medium heat until thickened. Add salt and pepper.

Now, to assemble the casserole. In a large bowl, mix together the shredded potatoes, onion, 1/2 stick of melted butter, 2 cups of sour cream, 2 cups of shredded cheese, cream of chicken soup, and salt. Stir well. Transfer to a 9x13 baking dish and press down the top.
In a bowl or ziplock bag, mix the crushed cornflakes and 1/2 stick melted butter. Sprinkle over casserole.
Bake at 170 degrees Celsius for 45-60 minutes. 

How to Freeze Broccoli

This may be totally obvious and easy to everyone, but I know this was a useful skill for me to learn, and something I had never done in America. Freezing broccoli!

Reasons I love to freeze broccoli:

1. You can't buy frozen broccoli in India. Boo.

2. Broccoli is also not available year around here. Learned that the sad, hard way when broccoli was out of season and no where to be found for several months.

3. I always have broccoli on hand, so if I ever have an oops-I-forgot-to-plan-dinner day, I can easily whip up my Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry.

4. It makes me feel better that more of the bugs have been killed and removed throughout the process.

5. It's partially cooked through, so when it comes time to use it in a dish it takes less time to cook that fresh.

Here's a step by step how to freeze some broccoli for yourself!

1. Trim your broccoli from the stem. I personally love broccoli but hate the stems, so I trim mine very very close to the leafy part. You can make fun of me if you want, I'm totally secure in my 5 year old eating preferences.

2. Clean your broccoli. This is the part where I kind of freak out in India. Growing up in America, I remember my mom always soaking fresh broccoli in salt water to encourage any little buggies to come out. Multiply that by 1,000 in India where I have very low expectations of their cleaning abilities (aka watching tiny cock roaches crawl all over the fresh produce at the grocery store. Yep.). Or maybe it's because I've seen the little bugs floating in the water after I boiled it to freeze. So I'm a little over zealous about cleaning the broccoli here (which is one reason I love going through all the steps of freezing it!)  Combine a few tablespoons of white distilled vinegar and a teaspoon or so of salt with several cups of filtered water (tap water is fine in America). Let your broccoli soak in the vinegar water for about 10 minutes, swishing it around a couple of times during the process. Drain the broccoli and rinse with more filtered water.

3. Bring a pot of water to a boil, and then we're going to blanch the broccoli. Basically that means cooking it for just a few minutes and then quickly cooling it down to stop the cooking process so it doesn't cook all the way through. Add the broccoli to the boiling water and boil for 3 minutes.

4. Prepare a bowl of filtered ice water. After the 3 minutes of boiling, drain the broccoli and immediately add it to the bowl of ice water. Let it soak in the ice water for 3 minutes, swishing it around a couple of times.

5. Drain the broccoli, and spread it out on a kitchen towel to dry. The drier you let your broccoli get at this point, the fewer ice crystals will form on it in the freezer.

See how close to the leaves those are cut? Perfect! :)

6. After the broccoli is dry, put it in a Ziploc bag - I happened to bring some Ziploc freezer bags from America, so that's what I used, but you could use the Indian brand. Or you could also use an air tight plastic container if you don't have plastic bags. In an ideal world you could even portion these out into smaller bags so you're not exposing the broccoli to the air every time you open the bag to take some out, but I don't have any smaller bags from America, and the ones in India are just too expensive to justify that. I haven't had any major problems in this area though.

Suck out as much of the air as possible (I even used a straw and literally sucked extra air out). Pop the bag in the freezer. 

Done! 

BBQ Chicken Sandwiches - Crock Pot

Ohhhhhhhh my.

So this is my newest favorite meal to make.

It was SO.EASY. 

And delicious. 

My husband is from the Kansas City area, the land of the BEST barbecue. (I will not be entertaining any arguments from any Memphis style BBQ fans. Bleh). We also had catered BBQ at our wedding. So I appreciate some good BBQ. And this BBQ chicken was great! I chose to cook it in the crock pot, which made it oh so simple, but cooking it on the stove top would also be easy. (I'll include directions for that below).

In my recipe, I've doubled the amount of sauce you make vs the original recipe in my cookbook, because I personally like my BBQ to be drowning in sauce.

So if you're in India and you have a crock pot, you've probably figured out by now that they tend to cook things on like, supercharged power, so it takes less time than in America. I would only recommend cooking this in the crock pot for about 4-5 hours on low here, but you'd probably need to up that time in America some and either do high for 4-5 hours or low for 6-7.

Hope you enjoy these as much as we did! I adapted the recipe from a cookbook I got here, so all the ingredients are available :)  (well, assuming you have some brown sugar).

BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

2 chicken breasts, thawed not frozen

3/4 cup onions, finely chopped

5-6 garlic cloves, minced

2 TBS oil (I used olive, but you could use vegetable)

1- 1 1/2 cups ketchup

1 1/2 TBS vinegar (the recipe says apple cider is best, but I only had white)

7 TBS brown sugar

2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cumin

A few shakes of red pepper flakes

I sprayed my crock pot with cooking spray, and then added a splash of water (seriously a splash, hardly any) in the bottom just to keep the sauce from drying out or burning. Place the chicken in the crock pot.

In a bowl, combine all the other ingredients and stir together. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Cook on low for 4-5 hours (if you're in India, longer in America).

About 20-30 minutes before eating, take the chicken out and shred it, then return it to the crock pot and stir to mix. If the sauce is too runny, you can stir in a little extra ketchup and brown sugar, then let it cook the extra 30 minutes with the lid off to thicken up.
 Serve with burger buns (I just bought some from the grocery store...which I've never completely understood why they have those when they don't eat hamburgers...) They're extra tasty if you spread some butter on the buns and then toast them on a  griddle or in the oven first!

** Stovetop directions:  Sautee the onions and garlic in the oil for 5 minutes. Add all the other ingredients, except the chicken, and simmer for about 5 minutes. Stir in the 2 precooked chicken breasts, either shredded or diced. Simmer for a couple more minutes for the chicken to absorb some flavor. 

Crock Pot Chicken Noodle Soup

I love chicken noodle soup. I mean, who doesn't? Well, I know that some people don't actually like it...but I'm not one of them! Thankfully, this is a very easy dish to make in India!

This is one of those great recipes where you literally throw everything in the crock pot and let it cook all day, making your house smell heavenly. I think if you had a cold the smell alone would heal you. The only extra step involved is shredding the chicken and adding the noodles in for the last 30 minutes. 

Most recipes you find for chicken noodle soup call for egg noodles, but since those aren't available in India, I just use regular corkscrew rotini noodles. And this might seem shocking...but I maybe like them even better. The jury's out...I'll have to wait till I have some chicken noodle soup at Panera when we're back in America, and then I can truly decide which noodle I like better. :)

Also here's a side tip: At least in Kolkata you can't consistently find celery year round. So when I do see celery, I buy extra, clean, chop and freeze it for the times I want to make soups and it's not available. 

Crock Pot Chicken Noodle Soup

Original Recipe

2-3 chicken breasts, frozen or thawed

1 cup of chopped carrots

1 cup of chopped celery

1 large or 2 small onions, chopped

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

1 tsp basil

1 TBS parsley

1/2 tsp thyme

salt and pepper to taste

6-7 cups of water

5 chicken cubes (sub the water and chicken cubes with chicken broth if you have it)

1/2 pkg of rotini noodles

Throw everything in the crock pot except for the noodles. Give it a stir, and cook on low for 6-7 hours or high for 4-6 hours. (I would cook it at least 5 hours if the chicken is frozen).

In the final 30 minutes of cooking, take out the chicken and shred it. Add the chicken back in along with the pasta noodles, and stir.

After 30 minutes, check the seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. If the noodles have soaked up too much of the liquid, add a little more water or chicken broth. 

For stovetop instructions if you don't have a crock pot, click the original recipe link. 

Bean and Cheese Burritos

Why break up the filled tortillas trend in posts when I can introduce these babies:

 Ummm, yes, I did in fact take two bites before I remembered to take a picture. Couldn't help myself. So I apologize for the misshapen blob my two bites caused. Still worth it.

This all started when my friend Nicole Instagrammed a picture of her son eating a bean and cheese burrito. She said she freezes them and then pulls them out for quick lunches. The light bulb came on and I asked myself why I haven't thought of that in the 14 months I've lived here! It was only a matter of a few days before I just had to try them out for myself. 

I looked up a few recipes for homemade refried beans on Pinterest. Of course they all call for pinto beans, which of course don't exist here, but Nicole said she just uses the plain "red rajma" beans...I don't know what those are called in America. If you're in America, get pinto beans. In fact, get canned ones and save yourself the trouble of cooking them from dry beans. My recipe, however, includes the dry beans :)

After my first batch, I was slightly obsessively hooked. I've already made them 2 more times since then, and even already promised my mom to make her homemade refried beans when I'm home because they're so much tastier than canned! Hope you find these as delicious as I did...you may never need Taco Bell again.

Bean and Cheese Burritos

(this recipe makes enough beans for 6-7 burritos, depending on size of tortillas)

1 cup dry red rajma beans

1 medium onion, finely chopped

4-6 cloves of garlic, minced

3 tsps cumin powder

1-2 tsps chili powder

1 tsp paprika

Dash of salt and pepper

1 TBS butter

Splash of milk

Soak the beans overnight, and then cook them in the pressure cooker, if you have one. I find these beans take a long time to get soft, so I let them go in the pressure cooker for 20-30 minutes. If you don't have a pressure cooker, you'll either want to simmer the beans on the stove or in a slow cooker for several hours.

After the beans are cooked, melt the butter in a sauce pan, and add the onions. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the garlic and cook another 1-2 minutes. Add the beans, along with a little bit of the liquid they've been cooking in. Add all the spices and stir together. Allow this mixture to cook for 10 minutes or so, stirring frequently and adding splashes of milk if it starts getting too dry.

Now it's time to mash the beans. You can use a fork or potato masher, or if you're like me and like really smooth refried beans, use an immersion hand blender or an actual blender/food processor. I like mine best in the blender because it makes them more like a puree. You'll probably need to add a couple more splashes of milk if they're seeming too dry. Just play around with it till it's the consistency you like in refried beans.

Now spoon a blob of beans onto a tortilla and sprinkle with cheese!

Fold the two sides in first, and then roll up carefully to keep all the insides on the inside. 

You can eat immediately, or if you're going to freeze, allow the burrito to sit open for a couple of minutes to cool a little bit. Then roll carefully, wrap well with plastic wrap, and store in a freezer Ziplock bag. 

To thaw, cover the burrito with a wet paper towel, and microwave for a minute on one side. Turn the burrito over and microwave for another 30-60 seconds.

The beans also taste great with some cheese mixed in eaten with tortilla chips!

Breakfast Burritos - to Eat or Freeze

So since dealing with pregnancy "morning" sickness (aka anytime of day nausea), eating in the mornings is a process for me. I have to eat something immediately when I wake up, or it's a quick downward spiral to feeling terrible. But I usually can't eat very much, because I'm already feeling a little borderline nauseous. So I eat a little, and then an hour or so later, eat a little more. Slowly my stomach wakes up, and by about 10:00 in the morning my stomach is ready to actually eat something substantial. The kids are always super active by this point though, so pausing to make eggs or pancakes or whatever isn't always feasible. 

So I decided to give frozen breakfast burritos a try in order to have something readily available in just a few minutes. I have yet to actually try thawing these out yet, so here's hoping it goes well (a website I read suggested wrapping it in a wet paper towel and microwaving for 2-3 minutes on 50% power).

This recipe is totally a copycat of a Pioneer Woman episode I watched, minus the sausage/bacon/ham whatever meat it was she put in them, since that's difficult to get good quality here. My burritos included eggs, cheese, and a great breakfast potato mix. Here's the lineup:

Breakfast Burritos

6 eggs

Splash of milk

4-5 small potatoes

1/3 of a red pepper, finely chopped

1 small onion, finely chopped

Tortillas

Shredded cheese

1-2 TBS olive oil

Salt & pepper

1. Bake the potatoes. Prick with a fork, and bake for 45-60 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius (400 F).

2. Meanwhile, chop the onion and red pepper.

3. Remove the potatoes from the oven and coarsely chop.

4. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium/high heat, and sautee the onions and red peppers for 2-3 minutes or until they start to soften. Even if they start getting a little browned/crispy, don't freak out, they'll taste great. 

5. Add the potatoes to the skillet and give them a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper, Give them a stir around to mix with the onions/peppers, and then use a spatula to press them down and flatten them in the pan. Leave them alone and let them do their browning thing for 4-5 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, milk, and some salt and pepper together. Spray a separate skillet with cooking spray, and add the eggs.

7. Return to your potatoes, and flip all of them over. The side that was facing down should be nice and brown and crispy by now. If not, turn your heat up just a little bit. Press the potatoes down again so the second side can get all crispy.

8. Back to the eggs. Scramble them to your desired doneness. In the last minute sprinkle in some cheese so they get all cheesy melty.

9. Time to assemble. Turn off your burners so you don't burn anything. Put a tortilla on a plate, then add a scoop of eggs, and a scoop of potatoes. Sprinkle with a little extra cheese for good measure.

After taking this picture, I realized there was too much filling to wrap this tortilla up, so I had to take a bite. Oh darn.

10. Fold both sides in, and then roll the burrito over, trying to keep all the filling inside.

After I got done filling 6 tortillas, I was out of eggs, but still had a big spoonful of potatoes leftover. So I had to eat those. Oh darn again.

Instructions to freeze:

Line all your rolled burritos on a baking sheet, seam side down.

Put the tray in the freezer for about an hour (which was not easy in my tiny, already packed freezer, let me tell ya).

Then take the burritos out, and wrap each one individually with plastic wrap. Place in a Ziplock bag and back into the freezer they go!

Crispy Black Bean Quesadillas

For some reason I'm on this big tortilla/burrito/quesadilla quick the past few days. Yesterday I made bean and cheese burritos, today I made some breakfast burritos to freeze, and then made these black bean quesadillas for dinner.

These are really simple to make, and they are even Landon approved, which is saying a lot, people.

When I used to make these in America I made them using pepperjack cheese, and they were so.so.good. If you're in America, please go buy some pepperjack cheese for these. Alas, here in India, we had to settle for the processed cheddar cheese (sigh) and although they were still good, there's no lying saying they were AS good. 

But still. They're great. You should eat them.

I'm including directions below to make the black beans from dry beans, but if you have canned black beans you can just drain and rinse those.

I definitely recommend you include the step of putting a little olive oil on the skillet to crisp up the quesadillas. That crispiness just adds a whole new level of goodness to these.

Crispy Black Bean Quesadillas

1 Cup dry black beans (called jammu rajma in India)

1 small onion, finely chopped

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

1-2 tsps cumin

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp salt

pepper

1 TBS butter

6ish tortillas

Shredded cheddar cheese

Olive oil

1. Cook the black beans if you're using dry. Soak your black beans in water for several hours. If you don't have a pressure cooker, soak them overnight, and then simmer them or cook them in a crock pot for several hours. If you have a pressure cooker (ABSOLUTELY the way to go cooking beans!!!), drain and rinse the beans from the water they soaked in, and then put in the pressure cooker with enough water to cover them by about an inch. Cook in the pressure cooker for 5-7 whistles.

2. Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Add the minced onions and sautee for 2-3 minutes, then add the garlic and continue cooking for another 1-2 minutes. 

3. Add the black beans into the pan, and also add all the spices. Let cook for 5-10 minutes just to get all the flavors together.

4. Heat a skillet/griddle pan over medium/high heat. Brush with a little bit of olive oil or drizzle just a few drops. Put a tortilla on the skillet and press down with a spatula/flipper to crisp up the first side, then flip the tortilla over. Sprinkle a layer of cheese, then spoon a spoonful of the black beans, then finish with another layer of cheese. Carefully fold the tortilla over in half and press down with the spatula to get it to stick. 

5. Cook the quesadilla for 1-2 minutes on the first side till it starts getting crispy on the outside and melty on the inside, then carefully flip it over to crisp up the second side.

6. Repeat with remaining tortillas, adding a little olive oil to the griddle with each new tortilla.

These would probably be even more delicious served with salsa, but hey, Kyle's out of town, so I"m doing good to make dinner for the kids and myself and not just order pizza, right?

Chicken Parmesan

I've made spaghetti sauces in the past just using the ground chicken instead of ground beef, but it finally dawned on me that it would be an even tastier idea to make chicken parmesan in lieu of beef spaghetti. Why has it taken me this long to make this?!

I was so excited to make this, I even splurged and paid over $5 for a jar of Ragu sauce from the import section. And it was so worth it (just not too frequently, ha). Like I mentioned, I've made spaghetti sauce a few times here but I've never been very happy with it...if any of you out there have a recipe for homemade spaghetti sauce that tastes good, that does not involve peeling, cooking, and pushing fresh tomatoes through a strainer, please do send it my way. 

In my broccoli cheddar stuffed chicken recipe, I talked about my obsession with Panko bread crumbs, and that's what I used again for the chicken parmesan. If you don't have Panko though, you can just use regular bread crumbs and skip the step of frying the chicken in olive oil and put it directly into the oven.

Chicken Parmesan

3 chicken breasts

1 cup Panko (or regular) breadcrumbs

1-2 tsps Italian seasoning

1-2 TBS grated Parmesan cheese

Pinch of salt and pepper

1 egg, beaten

2 TBS olive oil

1. I like to "butterfly" my chicken, or cut them in half across the length, in order to create two thin chicken cutlets. I think this makes them get crispier with more breading (yum), and cutting them in half is way easier and less messy than pounding them out. Who really likes to pound chicken? So step one, cut the chicken breasts in half (or not if you don't want to). 

2. Beat the egg in one shallow dish.

3. In a second shallow dish, mix the bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, Parmesan cheese, salt & pepper together.

4. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat.

5. Dip each piece of chicken in the egg first, then coat well with the bread crumb mixture.

6. Fry the pieces of chicken just until the bread crumbs have browned, about 2ish minutes per side (you're not cooking the chicken all the way here).

7. Transfer the chicken to a plate with a paper towel to soak up grease. Then line a baking pan with foil, spray with cooking spray, and transfer all the chicken to the pan.

8. Bake at 170 degrees C (350 F) for 15-20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. If you left the chicken breasts whole, it will probably take more like 25-30 minutes.

9. Remove from oven and serve with spaghetti (or any pasta) and pasta sauce!

Chicken and Noodles over Mashed Potatoes

Talk about comfort food.

This is just seriously yummy. My family has made homemade chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes, probably for all of my life, and my life has certainly been the better for it. Every time I've been pregnant, I crave this meal during the early feeling sick and nothing sounds good weeks, so of course a few weeks ago I was craving this. (P.S. We're pregnant! Hence the lack of posts for the past month, because I've been feeling too nauseous to cook much. We've eaten a lot of pancakes for dinner lately.)

My mom mercifully reminded me of this recipe while she was visiting back in March, and I realized that it was totally possible to make here in India. And it's so delicious, you definitely should!

The key is in the mashed potatoes. I know it seems like a lot of carbs, but I beg of you to abandon all carb consciousness and don't eat the chicken and noodles alone (although they're good enough for that). The mashed potatoes are what really make this dish so delectable. Actually, in an ideal world you'd add one extra carb and serve this with a side of homemade rolls. Yes.

I seriously had to pause in the middle of writing this to go reheat a plate of leftovers to eat. They're that yummy.

This recipe is also so, so simple. The most complicated part is making the egg noodles (if you're in America, you can cheat the system and use Reames frozen egg noodles. If I were in America, I would definitely cheat the system). But really, the egg noodles were not hard to make. I had never made homemade noodles before and was nervous, but I found this recipe that was so easy, and actually didn't even take very much time. I'll include the directions for the egg noodles below the main recipe. 

I won't tell you a recipe for mashed potatoes, because everyone has their own mashed potato style, and hopefully you already know how to make them. I will say though, that boiling the potatoes in the pressure cooker has changed my mashed potato life. Talk about a time saver! Oh, and don't make garlic mashed potatoes for this. Yuck. In fact, I wouldn't even add sour cream or cream cheese if you're that kind of person, because the potatoes will absorb a lot of the liquid and become extra creamy already. Just keep it simple with butter, milk, salt/pepper. Ok, that was practically a recipe.

One final note: the great thing about this recipe is that it's not time sensitive. The longer the chicken and noodles simmer in the broth, the more flavor the noodles absorb. My mom said she's let them simmer as long as an hour before. So it's very forgiving on time; just let them simmer away (or not and eat immediately!)

Chicken and Noodles over Mashed Potatoes

2 large or 3 small chicken breasts

7-8 cups of water

5 chicken cubes (the size that you normally dissolve in 1 cup of water)

(if making this in the U.S. use chicken broth or stock instead of the water and chicken cubes)

3 bay leaves

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 recipe of egg noodles

Mashed potatoes

Mix up your egg noodle recipe 15-20 minutes before starting the chicken and noodles. See below.

Bring the water to a boil and add the chicken cubes. Stir to dissolve. 

Cut the chicken breasts into chunks (I cut small ones in half or big ones in thirds). Add to the pot. Bring the pot back to a boil, but then lower the temperature so it's more of a poaching simmer vs. a full on rolling boil. You'll still want to see some movement of bubbles but not a full boil. This will keep the chicken from getting as tough as when you actually boil it. Cook the chicken for about 15 minutes or until cooked through. While the chicken was cooking, I rolled out and cut my egg noodles.

Remove the chicken from the pot, bring to a boil, and add the noodles. If it seems like there's not enough liquid, you can add more water and adjust the seasoning. I prefer waiting to add any salt or pepper until this stage, so I can see what the broth tastes like after the chicken has cooked in it.

While the noodles are boiling, shred the chicken with two forks. When the noodles seem somewhat cooked, stir the chicken back in. If you're using frozen Reames noodles, they'll take longer to cook than fresh egg noodles. Add salt and pepper if needed.

Simmer for as long as you wish!  When ready, spoon over mashed potatoes and dive in headfirst.

Egg Noodles Recipe

1 Cup of flour, plus more for rolling

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

In a bowl, add 1 cup of flour and salt. Whisk together using a fork. Then push the flour to the edges of the bowl to create a "well" or dent in the middle of the flour in the bowl. Crack the eggs into the well. Using the fork, beat the eggs together. Then continue whisking with the fork and slowly incorporate the flour into the eggs until a dough forms (it will be VERY sticky). You might need to use your hands to get the last bit of flour combined.

Generously sprinkle flour on a flat surface and put the ball of dough on it. Knead the dough by hand and incorporate more and more flour until the dough is no longer sticky and is a cohesive ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Take the dough out of the fridge and divide into two sections. On a well floured surface, roll out one half of the dough thin, but not paper thin. Keep in mind that once the noodles absorb the water they will expand in both length and width, so roll extra thin if you like thin noodles. Once rolled out, use a knife or a pizza cutter to cut into noodles. Again, make these as thin or as thick as you like, but keep in mind they'll expand (in my picture above, the original noodles were probably half of the width as they turned out after cooking). Place cut noodles on a cooling rack to keep them from sticking together.

Repeat with the other half of the dough.

Also, if it's too stressful for you to time making the noodles at the same time as making the chicken, you can make the noodles ahead of time and cut them, and just leave them sitting out on the cooling rack until you're ready to use them. In fact, the first time I made this, I made the noodles the day before and let them dry overnight, then used them the next day. If you let them dry, it just takes them longer to cook.

Biscuits and Gravy

This is big news, everyone. My genius friend, Alex, just changed the world for me, and several of my American friends living throughout India.

She figured out how to make homemade sausage gravy.

In the land of no pork sausage, and only frozen chicken links/patties that are varying degrees of gag worthy, I had resigned myself to the fact that biscuits and gravy was a luxury to be enjoyed when we were back home in America only.

Until today!

This was such a simple, easy way to make homemade "sausage", and really, it tasted almost exactly like traditional pork sausage from the U.S. 

Take note you need to mix up the sausage the night before in order for the spices to have time to flavor the meat (or in the morning, I suppose, if you're doing biscuits and gravy for dinner. That's a good idea, right there). 

When I looked in my grocery store here, I didn't see any sage. I happened to have a friend in America for the week for a wedding and coming back, so I had her bring me some. However, online I saw that you can substitute poultry seasoning, rosemary, marjoram, or savory if you can't find sage.

Click here for my super easy biscuits recipe.

Sausage Gravy

From Queen Alex :)

1 pkg of chicken keema (ground chicken - the packages I buy are in 450 grams)

Sage

Oregano

Ground Fennel (called Saunf in India)

Salt & Pepper

A few TBS of vegetable oil

1/4-1/3 cup flour

A few cups of milk

The night before you're cooking, put the chicken keema into a big mixing bowl. Add in the sage, oregano, and ground fennel, starting with about a heaping tablespoon of each one. Add a few pinchfuls of salt and pepper. Mix well. If it doesn't look or smell "sausagey" enough, add a little bit more of the spices. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

When you're ready to make your gravy, pour a few tablespoons of vegetable oil into a pan over medium heat. Don't try to be health conscious and skip the oil here - you need it as the substitute for the grease that normal pork sausage usually releases as it cooks, which forms the base for the gravy part. 

Add the chicken keema, and cook until chicken is cooked through and browned. Stir in 1/4 cup of flour; add more if necessary. You want the flour to soak up the additional grease and kind of cover all of the ground chicken. The flour is what's going to add thickness to the gravy, so don't skimp. After the flour is well mixed into the chicken, start pouring in milk. Sorry, I have no measurements for this; I just dump in. Pour in a few cups of milk and stir till it starts thickening. Continue adding more milk till it's the amount and consistency that you like in gravy. 

Season the gravy with additional salt and pepper if needed. Or for an extra punch of flavor add some seasoning salt or Cajun seasoning (I added a little Cajun seasoning...yum). 

Serve hot over biscuits.

Welcome to the good life! We all owe Alex our firstborn child or something now. 

Broccoli Cheddar Stuffed Chicken

Is your mouth watering yet?

Mine is just remembering how delicious this was! 

This is a recipe I actually used to make back in America, thanks to Kraft Foods inspiration. I don't know why it never dawned on me to make it here, because it was one of our favorite chicken dishes back home. I finally got around to it last week though!

The great thing about this recipe is that it's also very adaptable. This version is stuffed with broccoli, cheddar cheese, and bacon. But you could easily switch that up for spinach and cheese, or even tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. Lots of possibilities! 

I have a culinary love affair with Panko bread crumbs. They make things so crispy and beautifully golden. I haven't seen them in India before, but when we were in Bangladesh, they magically had them so I picked up a few bags. However, you can just use regular breadcrumbs, and skip the step of browning the chicken in the oil and put it directly into the oven. 

Broccoli Cheddar Stuffed Chicken

4 chicken breasts

1 cup broccoli florets, finely chopped

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 cup bacon bits (I used premade bacon bits from America, but you could actually fry and chop bacon)

1 cup of Panko bread crumbs (or regular bread crumbs)

1 egg, beaten

3 TBS olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (375 F)

Cut a pouch into each chicken breast, by cutting a slit in the side of each piece of chicken, but don't cut all the way through or to the ends. Alternatively, you can pound out the chicken and then roll the stuffed chicken, but you should increase the cooking time then. 

Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper.

Stuff each chicken breast with a fourth of the broccoli, cheese, and bacon. Secure with several toothpicks to keep the stuffing inside.

Dip the chicken breasts into the beaten egg, and then into the Panko breadcrumbs. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook the chicken in the oil until the breadcrumbs are browned, about 3 minutes per side. The goal here is just to brown and crisp the Panko breadcrumb coating, not to actually cook the chicken through. (Again, if you are using regular bread crumbs, skip this step)

Line an oven safe dish with foil, and spray with cooking spray. Place each chicken breast in the pan, and then bake for 25-30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Remove toothpicks before serving.

I served this with some sauteed veggies, and oven roasted potatoes. A+ meal!

Oven Baked Fajitas

You need to make this recipe. Like, today. 

This is the easiest, easiest thing you could make for dinner. Other than a bowl of cereal.

Especially since our house helper chops all the veggies and makes our tortillas for us, this is literally the easiest dinner I make. (In fact, I use the phrase "I make" very loosely, since I, in fact, do hardly anything).

The beauty of these fajitas is that you just cook the whole thing in oven together. No slaving away over the stove sauteeing veggies and chicken. Does it lose a little of the wonderful grilled chicken flavor by cooking it in the oven? Of course. But I only know one person in India who has a grill (Hi Steph!), so that's kind of a moot point here anyway. 

I sprinkle my chicken with some fajita seasoning I brought from America, but if you don't have any here in India with you, here's a recipe to make your own. 

Serve these along with your favorite toppings. We just stuck with salsa and shredded cheese. Soooooo delicious. 

If you're a gluten free person, you could even make this and just serve it over rice. Yum! I'm not gluten free and I still might do that someday.

Oven Baked Fajitas

3 chicken breasts, cut into strips

2 green bell peppers

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

2-3 onions

2-3 TBS fajita seasoning mix

2-3 TBS olive oil

Tortillas (here's a recipe for homemade tortillas)

Heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius (400 F)

Cut the peppers and onions into strips. Sprinkle the chicken breast strips with 1-2 TBS of the fajita seasoning mix. 

Drizzle some olive oil in the bottom of a large oven safe pan. Put the chicken in the pan, followed by all the chopped veggies. Drizzle with more olive oil, and more fajita seasoning, then stir to mix well. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through.

Serve with your favorite fajita toppings! Enjoy your easiest dinner ever. 

Serves 5-6 people. 

Chicken Supreme Pasta Bake

I really enjoyed this meal.

On the original recipe website, the author called it a pasta dish and chicken supreme pizza combined, and I could definitely feel that flavor combo! It was creamy, cheesy, but had that distinct veggie pizza taste to it. Yum!

I made a couple small alterations from the original recipe - left out the mushrooms bc I think they're gross, and chopped fresh tomatoes since canned diced tomatoes are pricey here. Because I used fresh tomatoes instead of canned, I added those in with the peppers and onions to cook a little in the butter. I also stirred all of the cheese into the sauce instead of sprinkling some on top before baking, since the cheese here doesn't melt very well in the oven. It was very tasty, and I'll definitely make it again.

The dish has several veggies in it, but since I'm on a force-us-all-to-eat-more-veggies kick, I served it with some sauteed broccoli and green beans, and it was great!

Chicken Supreme Pasta Bake

Original Recipe

3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded or cubed (I sprinkled the shredded chicken with a little salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning)

1 pkg of pasta, cooked according to package directions

2 Roma tomatoes, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

3 TBS butter

3 TBS flour

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup Dahi (Greek yogurt)

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese 

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (the block "pizza cheese" in India)

Salt & Pepper to taste

In a large pan, melt the butter over medium heat, and sautee the onions, peppers, and garlic for 3-4 minutes until softened. Add the tomatoes and sautee for another 2-3 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the chicken broth (works best to use a whisk at this point) and continue to cook until slightly thickened, about 3-4 more minutes. Then slowly stir in your Dahi and cheeses. Stir and cook until the cheese is melted. Add salt and pepper to taste, and original Italian Seasoning, if you desire.

Add the shredded chicken and cooked pasta and stir until evenly combined. Pour everything into a 9x13 baking dish, and bake for 20 minutes. This will help to thicken the sauce a bit and bake all the flavors together. If you're in a hurry though (or starving), you can skip the baking step and just eat the pasta as soon as everything is stirred together!

Cinnamon Crumb Cake

Have you ever indulged in the cinnamon coffee cake from Starbucks before? Delicious, isn't it?

This is better.

I mean, this is unbelievably good. Every Sunday morning we have all of our colleagues over for breakfast, and this is definitely one of their favorite recipes I make (every week they claim whatever I make is their favorite, but really I think this gets the most votes). There are certainly never any leftovers. 

It is fluffy, perfectly moist, melt-in-your-mouth cinnamony amazingness. {leave me alone, red squiggly line spell check}

And the best part is, it's not even that hard to make! Props (as always) to Pinterest for introducing me to this beautifully scrape-every-crumb-from-the-pan recipe. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do. 

Cinnamon Crumb Cake

Original Recipe

2 cups flour (maida)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup Dahi (Greek yogurt)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:

1/3 cup brown sugar (sometimes I just use 1/4 cup if I'm feeling stingy with my brown sugar)

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius (350 degrees F)

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl. Set aside.

In another bowl, cream together the butter, vanilla and sugar. Beat until well combined and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat well (the better you mix these together in this step, the fluffier your cake will turn out!)

Slowly mix in the dry ingredients to the batter until just combined. Fold in the Dahi until combined.

Mix the topping in a separate bowl.

Pour half of the batter into a greased 9x9 pan (or equivalent size), or a bundt pan. Sprinkle half of the topping mixture over the batter. Carefully spread the remaining batter over the topping mixture, and then top with the remaining sugar mixture. 

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Best served warm out of the oven! (or reheated in the microwave, if you miraculously have any left). 

Garlic Butter Sauce

Back in the Cooking in America days, one of my go to chicken meals was to cover chicken breasts in Emeril's original BAM seasoning, 

sautee some sliced zucchini and squash with olive oil and garlic, and serve one of these great pasta side dishes:

Yes, I realize those instant pasta side dishes are probably full of preservatives and sodium and other really bad for you things, but I'm not gonna lie. I loved them. And I miss them.

So whipping up this little sauce for some pasta gave me a little hint of that former easy pasta side dish glory.

I brought along some of my Emeril's seasoning, so that's what I coated my chicken with, but you could use any kind of chicken seasoning you like - lemon pepper, Italian seasoning, or even just plain ol' salt and pepper. Slice the chicken into strips for quicker cooking, and cook in a drizzle of olive oil for about 4 minutes per side. I also ammended my previous zucchini/squash side, and sauteed zucchini, broccoli, and green beans in olive oil and garlic. This was the perfect little meal, and a great nod to my old America days.

Here's the garlic butter sauce recipe:

Garlic Butter Sauce

Original Recipe

1/3 cup olive oil

5-6 cloves of garlic, minced

3 TBS butter

1 TBS dried parsley (you can use fresh if it's available to you)

2 TBS Parmesan cheese

salt & pepper to taste

In a sauce pan or sautee pan, heat the olive oil and melt the butter over medium heat. Add garlic and cook for 3ish minutes, until translucent and fragrant, but not burnt. Add the parsley, salt & pepper. Pour over cooked pasta (enough for sides for 4 people, about 1/3 of a package of pasta). Stir in Parmesan cheese. 

Creamy Chicken and Rice Stew

This stew was a nice, easy meal to throw together in the crockpot, and also works great when you're cooking for a crowd (which is why I made it this week!)

Because I was cooking this for a big group, I actually added a little more rice than normal, which shows in the pic above. 

If you're wanting to create the feeling of a cold winter's night in America, then cook up some of this stew and pour yourself  big bowl, and pretend it's actually cold outside ;)

The original recipe came from Pinterest, but the Pin doesn't actually lead to a page, it was just a screenshot of the whole recipe. It also called to just throw the rice in to cook all day in the broth, but the time I tried doing that it just turned into rice mush instead of soup (still with great flavor!) So I prefer cooking the rice separately and just adding it in at the end. 

Creamy Chicken and Rice Stew

2 chicken breasts

6 cups of chicken broth (I just add 6 cups of water and 6 chicken cubes right into the crock pot)

2 stalks of celery, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

1 tsp lemon pepper seasoning

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1 cup dry basmati or other long grain rice

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup milk

1 generous cup of frozen corn

Add all ingredients except the rice, flour, milk and corn to the crock pot. Cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 4-6. About 45 minutes before serving, cook your rice according to package directions. 30 minutes before serving, take out the chicken and shred it. In a container with a tight lid, shake the flour and milk together. Stir the chicken, milk/flour mixture, frozen corn, and cooked rice into the crock pot and cook for about 30 minutes more to let the stew thicken. Serves 4-6 people. 

Fruit Smoothie

The past couple of months, I've been on a huge smoothie kick.

For awhile I was making a peanut butter smoothie practically everyday.

But now the past few weeks I've been on a purely fruit smoothie run, mostly because it's a way to make me actually eat fruit.

I know it sounds weird in a country full of markets just brimming with fresh produce, but I've really struggled to eat enough fruit here. It mostly comes down to the fact that I'm just picky.

I don't love a lot of the fruits that are super easy/common here - oranges, papaya, mango, litchi, etc. And I'm really particular about texture when it comes to fruit. My apples & grapes have to be perfectly crisp, melons have to be not mushy, all while still retaining good flavor, which can be hard to find and expensive when you do. I also just have a mental block against the bananas here...sometimes they're fine, but a lot of times they're a weird texture and flavor and I just can't bring myself to eat them plain anymore. 

Enter the smoothie.

I finally realized that the textures/flavors of the fruits didn't matter so much in a smoothie, and now I can drink 2-3 servings of fruits in one glass! Win.

Here's my go to smoothie at the moment, because it's mango season. I'm sure you could change it up with pineapple or...I don't even know what else, because you can't get berries here. Someday I'll remember to get spinach at the store to add in. You could also sprinkle in some Crystal Light drink mix powder, or honey etc. to add extra flavor.

Fruit Smoothie

A few ice cubes

1/2 cup Dahi (Greek Yogurt)

1/4 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup mango cubes

1/2 of an apple, cut in small pieces

1 banana

Splash of juice (I like using Tropicana's Cranberry Delite)

Throw it all in a mixer, and blend until smooth. Yum!

What are some of your favorite smoothie combinations? I'd love more ideas!

Chicken Burrito Bowls

Yes, we are channeling our inner Chipotle today.

No, I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that this is as good as actual Chipotle. No way. There's just something too delicious about Chipotle to be copied at home. 

But this is still really tasty!

And really, it's rather simple...Just assemble rice, chicken, and a yummy black bean & corn salsa.

So colorful and delicious!

To make my chicken, I just cooked the chicken in the crock pot with some chicken broth, shredded it, and then mixed it with some fajita seasoning. I prefer that method because I'm lazy and would rather have the crock pot cook the chicken than stand over the stove it's easy. But you could also cube the chicken and cook it in a little olive oil. You could also ax the chicken altogether and have a nice vegetarian, cheap meal!

Enjoy your (almost) Chipotle goodness!

Chicken Burrito Bowls

2-3 chicken breasts, seasoned with Mexican seasoning & cooked.

1-2 cups of basmati rice, cooked according to package directions.

For the salsa:

1 can equivalent of black beans - I use 1/4 of a package of dry beans that have been cooked, drained & rinsed

2 cups frozen corn, thawed

1 large or 2 small onions, chopped

1 green capsicum, chopped (bell pepper)

3 tomatoes, chopped

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

Chopped Green chiles or jarred jalapenos to your heat taste

Handful of coriander leaf (cilantro), roughly chopped

1 TBS lime/lemon juice

1 tsp chili powder (American version)

1 tsp cumin

1-2 tsps salt

Mix all the salsa ingredients together. Layer the rice, chicken, salsa, and top with shredded cheese! I like to eat this with tortilla chips, but it would also be great rolled in a tortilla, and very Chipotle-esque. You can even get fancy and stir some lime juice/cilantro into the rice. Yummmmm.

A big bowl of delicious

The Easiest Banana Muffins

Once upon a time, I went on a quest to find a good banana bread recipe. I tried so many different ones, but none seemed right. Some didn't taste enough like banana, some were too dense, others required extra ingredients like sour cream but still didn't taste right, and I began to despair of ever finding the perfect recipe.

Then one day, in the summer of 2011, I went to India for the first time.

And my friend Amanda made me her banana bread.

And I knew, I had found the one. THE one. 

And here it is...the simplest, easiest, most delicious banana bread (or muffins, in this case).

Easiest Banana Muffins

Original Recipe

3 ripe bananas, mashed (If the bananas are kind of small, I use 4. I recommend NOT using the stumpy little banana variety though...they're too starchy and not sweet enough).

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup of sugar

1 egg

2 cups of flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup chocolate chips (or more...)

In a large bowl, mix the vegetable oil, sugar, and egg together. Add mashed bananas. Then add the flour, salt, and baking soda and stir just until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Scoop into 12 greased muffin tins or into a greased 9x9 baking dish or bread pan.

Bake at 170 degrees C (350 degrees F) for 20-25 minutes for muffins, or 40-45 minutes in a pan, or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.

I also love to make a batch of these (since bananas go bad quickly here so I seem to always have overripe bananas) and then wrap them with cling wrap, put them in a Ziplock freezer bag, and freeze them to have on mornings when I need a little something sweet with my coffee. Take them out of the freezer and microwave for about 30 seconds.

Thank you, Amanda, for changing my life ;)

Chicken Lazone

I don't really know why this recipe is called Chicken Lazone, but that's what the original recipe dubbed it, so we'll roll with it. I Googled the term and I think it's something related to New Orleans?

Regardless, this is definitely a dish you need to try.

It.was.delicious.

Landon asked for 3rd helpings, which is saying a lot from my picky eater.

This dish is definitely not going to win any awards for health or diet functionality (butter and cream tend to not make those lists) but it definitely wins on the flavor scale. And EASY! The original recipe claimed it could be done in 15 minutes, and I think that's true, except I was also making sauteed zucchini and therefore got distracted a few times. 

So the recipe calls for heavy cream, and here's the stuff I used in India:

I don't really understand what the heck this stuff is. Because it doesn't have a high enough fat content to actually whip into whipped cream, but this stuff is THICK. Thicker than any heavy cream in America. Like, a semi-solid thick. So the recipe called for 2 cups of heavy cream, and I started pouring it in and after about a cup and a half started having second thoughts, so I stopped and didn't add the full two cups. The next time I make it I plan to use a mixture of milk and cream and see how it turns out. {Edit: I tried it, and it was great! A little bit thinner of a sauce but just as tasty.}

Enjoy! Be sure to lick all the sauce off the plate when you're done. :)

Chicken Lazone

Original Recipe

2-3 chicken breasts, cut into strips like chicken tenders

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp chili powder

1 1/2 tsp onion powder

2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 cup butter, divided

1 cup cream

1/2 cup milk

250 grams of your pasta of choice

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Combine salt, chili powder, onion powder, & garlic powder. Sprinkle over both sides of chicken and rub in. 

In a saute pan, melt half of the butter over medium heat. Cook the chicken tenders until done, about 8 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pan and reserve on a plate.

Stir the cream and milk together in a cup. Add remaining butter to saute pan along with cream/milk. Stir to combine, and then place chicken back in pan. Lower heat and simmer for 5-7 minutes until sauce thickens. Spoon chicken and sauce over pasta.

Serves 3-4 people.