Blue Apron - Seared Chicken & Caramelized Vegetables

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My sister recently sent me a free trial of Blue Apron meals. The concept of Blue Apron is that they send you all of the necessary ingredients for 3 meals, already portioned out to make exactly 2 meals per recipe, along with a step-by-step recipe and guide to follow to prepare each meal. 

Initially I was most curious to see how the ingredients were packaged, since the Blue Apron website advertises the freshest of ingredients for healthy meals, and I couldn't imagine how they could keep them cool long enough to be safe to cook.

The ingredients arrived in the box shown above, all inside a sealed thermal insulated bag with two large, reusable ice packs. I didn't realize it had been delivered that day until about 3 hours after it was delivered, because my flatmate had received the package and left it on the counter amid several other boxes (we've just moved). Still, the ice packs were about 2/3 frozen!

Inside the package I found 3 recipe cards as promised:

3 packages of "knick knacks," one for each recipe:

And a cornucopia of fresh produce, proteins, packages of grains, and a can of tomatoes:

I was particularly excited to try the recipes because the sister who sent me the trial offer actually gave up her subscription just a few days before I received my box because she said the preparation took significantly longer than advertised, and not only was it not practical for a busy mother of two, but particularly so for an amateur cook. She was skeptical that even a trained chef could accomplish the meals in the advertised "30-40 minutes". Consider the challenge accepted!

I decided to work as quickly as I could with no distractions to get the most accurate idea of how long the meals would take. The first meal I tried was the Seared Chicken & Caramelized Vegetables, which also happened to be the most tempting of the three recipes provided. The pictured mise en place made it easy to figure out which ingredients were intended for the meal I was making:

The first step was to chop all the produce. As expected, this step took the longest. The instructions recommended that I first start the water boiling for the potatoes, and then begin chopping the produce, so I did that. Though I was not instructed to, I went ahead and added the potatoes to the water as soon as it began boiling, and finished slicing up the rest of the veggies to save myself a dish and make room on my chopping board. I was glad I did this because it saved a little time by overlapping tasks.

The next instruction was to coat and cook the chicken. I appreciated the beautiful cuts of meat provided in the package, which required no trimming at all. I also liked the specific instructions to help cooks of any experience level achieve a nice crust and sear. 

What I didn't appreciate was that the necessary ingredients weren't 100% provided. At first I thought it was just a bit inconvenient that they took for granted that you would have salt and pepper in your kitchen and not provide it. It's an understandable assumption, really, but I would have appreciated something somewhere in my order mentioning the need to have essential ingredients stocked, especially because in my case I had intentionally timed my delivery to be the day after we moved in so that I wouldn't have to worry about grocery shopping or getting the pantry/spices unpacked right away. Furthermore, it turned out that in order to cook the chicken I needed olive oil. In addition to my reasons above, I don't actually believe that amateur home cooks necessarily consider olive oil to be a kitchen staple, and they may not understand food science well enough to know what to substitute. It just seems to me that it wouldn't be too difficult for them to either list additional essentials the cook needs to provide for themselves in the confirmation email, or in the package, or just include a little bottle of olive oil and a little baggie of seasonings in the knick knacks.

The next steps were mashing the potatoes (pretty easy), and setting up the tomatoes and thyme to roast. Again I needed Olive oil, and I think they could have included a sentence about how to remove leaves from thyme. It seems like one goal of Blue Apron is to encourage people who don't know how to cook to learn to do so, and it would have been helpful to teach them that step.

Next I caramelized the veggies in the same skillet that I cooked the chicken in. I did appreciate Blue Apron's attempts to reuse skillets, though they still used 3 cooking pans and 3 plates, not including the plates the food was served on and the cutting board. 

It was at this point, however, that (as I suspected would happen but I followed the directions exactly to make my review completely fair) my smoke alarm went off because the "roasting" tomatoes and thyme caused the thyme to burn. Any time you put a dry herb at high temperatures without mixing it with something or wetting it or something, that's likely to occur. Moreover, I was a bit annoyed at this step, because I feel like I could have just as easily blistered my tomatoes in the mashed potato pan or even the skillet I cooked the veggies in really quickly on a high heat after plating- the thyme added nothing but aroma. So that step felt extraneous and an unnecessary hassle between the extra dirtied pan and the smoke. 

Here was my finished product before plating:

I have to say it looked exactly like the photos, even down to the cut and sear of the chicken; Blue Apron really does set you up to be able to succeed at these recipes.

I'd rank the kitchen and dish aftermath at about a 6.5; it wasn't as bad as baking with five year olds, but it wasn't a one-pot wonder either.

I took screen shots of the counter when I started cooking and when I finished cooking to get an accurate and impartial measure of how long it took me to make this meal from start to finish:

That was 11:44-12:46, so 62 minutes from start to finish. Even subtracting 2 minutes for posing the plate and pulling out my phone, and even subtracting 2 minutes for fanning the smoke detector (though I really think it should count because I think it was their method error that caused the smoke in the first place), I still took 8-18 minutes longer than the given prep/cook times. That includes the fact that on the recipe, prep time and cook time are listed separately and add up to 40-50 minutes, though all over the website and advertisements it's indicated that these are 30-40 minute recipes. In general and especially in the case of something that is claiming to help people make cooking at home easier to pull off, I think it is more important to give an honest indication of prep AND cook time, rather than playing semantics games "well it only takes 30 minutes to cook!" because ultimately the customer is going to go off of your recommendations and set aside that amount of time for prepping and cooking.

8-18 minutes longer, and I'm a professional, trained chef. Someone less experienced, even with zero outside distractions, would likely take 10-20 minutes longer to prepare this meal.

Ultimately it was delicious. It was super guilt-free, and I never would have prepared it without Blue Apron. In fact, this recipe cured me of a strong dislike of fennel!

So I think it's worth a try for most people, just set aside a little extra time and realize that the main benefits gained are healthier food, less grocery shopping hassle, added variety to your diet, and a LOT  less waste. To me, that's actually pretty worth the price of about $10 per serving.

My biggest feedback for Blue Apron if they see this review is this: 

1) Include a list of ANY ingredients provided by the customer (water, oil, salt, pepper)
2) Include a list of tools used in the recipe (knife, cutting board, extra plates, skillets, pots, paper towels)
3) Be a bit more realistic about cook times- not how fast a chef that's made the dish before can do it, but a normal, every-day cook who's never seen the recipe
4) Consider offering limited ingredient substitution options
5) Embrace your position as an educational subscription for new cooks, and provide basic food safety facts and tips in or on each box- you take for granted that home cooks know not to cross-contaminate, and to wash their hands after handling raw meat. Don't. You're uniquely able to make everyone a little healthier and safer.

Pros:
Super Healthy
Super Delicious
Low Hassle
Nearly Eliminated food waste
Variety
Adventure
Pretty Fun
Perfect for dieting or trying to eat at home more often- very motivational

Cons:
Literally every ingredient is not provided
Moderate to high number of dishes used
Takes about an Hour
Lots of prep
No room for pickiness

My last recommendations if you try Blue Apron is to consider the recipe and instructions like an SAT reading prep course. It's the ultimate test of reading comprehension and application. I think I might have sped up my meal just a tiny bit if I had read all the instructions completely, from start to finish, before I started cooking, so that I wouldn't have to stop between each step to know what was coming next. Some of that was my desire to execute it exactly as it was intended so that my review could be completely fair- but a novice cook would likely put as much care if not more into reading the directions, too. You also might consider pre-prepping your veggies on like a Sunday evening so that you can just pull them out when you're ready to cook. That would cut back significantly on your execution time before serving the meals.

All in all, I will likely get my own subscription for Blue Apron as soon as I can budget it.

And please share/retweet this review and tag @BlueApron to encourage them to acknowledge the feedback please!

Chocolate Pancakes & Homemade Syrup

I'm in the middle of packing for a move, so my home-cooked meals have been a bit on the makeshift side lately. The other night I was making dinner for my husband, myself, and one of our friends, and I decided to make breakfast. My friend is allergic to corn, which is in almost everything store bought, so I decided to just make the pancakes from scratch, and make a syrup for her since the bottled one I had contained corn syrup. 

I gave my husband a choice between normal pancakes and chocolate pancakes, and he opted for the chocolate ones. 

The batter smelled exactly like melted chocolate ice cream, though since it's a pancake recipe and not a cake batter, it's not very sweet at all- definitely best served with syrup.

Here is the recipe:

Chocolate Pancakes

1 cup AP flour

1/2 cup cocoa (sifted)

1.5 tsp bkng soda

1 tsp OJ or vinegar (to activate the soda)

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1.25 cup milk

1 egg

3 tbsp melted butter

- Combine dry ingredients

- Add liquid ingredients and whisk together

- Use an ice cream scoop for consistent size

You may notice how very little sugar is actually in the recipe- it isn't a terribly sweet recipe, even though it's decadent chocolate. These pancakes would also be excellent served with whipped cream. If you want to make them chocolate-orange, just substitute half of the milk for orange juice- but add them to the batter separately.

Between batches of pancakes, I threw together the syrup. I wanted to make it thicker than the classic 1:1 ratio of a simple syrup, so here is what I did:

Vanilla Cinnamon Simple Syrup

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup water

2 tbsp vanilla extract

2 dashes cinnamon

- Combine all ingredients into a small pot, bring to a rolling boil, stirring occasionally

- Boil until sugar is completely dissolved

In another skillet, I cooked turkey sausage, which requires draining to get a good sear on the meat. After the sausage was cooked, I used the same skillet to cook the scrambled eggs. This allowed all that awesome sausage residue to flavor the eggs.

I'd already packed the syrup pitcher, so I just served the homemade syrup in a mug with a spoon.

Homecooked: Simple Pleasures

I try to let y'all know about not only the great places I visit for a meal out, but some of the meals I make at home, too. 

Whether it's just a fresh or forgotten easy meal idea for your family, or merely reassurance that chefs aren't eating much fancier at home than you are, I like to record my extremely low budget culinary adventures on the home front. But let's not kid ourselves- some meals just don't merit their own post. So today you get a BOGO blog deal!

My first "recipe" was on a night when I was really wrapped up in a project and didn't have a lot of time, energy, or clean dishes for preparing an extravagant meal. So I thawed a few chicken breasts in the microwave, seasoned them, and cooked them, pretty much exactly the same way I did for my Asian Chicken Salad but with a little more garlic pepper and no soy sauce. Then I washed and chopped a "heart of romaine", sliced up the chicken, and tossed it all with bottled Caesar dressing. While the chicken was cooking, I took some sliced cheddar and made cheesy toast.

It was a super simple meal, maybe 10 minutes total prep, but it was hearty and satisfying, & cleanup was minimal.

Another night I had my dad and a friend over for dinner really last minute, so I decided just to make hot dogs. I was inspired by the 4th of July party we went to this year, because the host had found Hawaiian bread hot dog buns. When I tried it at the party, it was like when that last piece of a huge puzzle clicks into place and now you couldn't find where it went if you wanted to- HOW could something so obvious as hot dogs and Hawaiian bread have alluded me all these years? The sweetness of the bread with the cured porkiness of the hot dogs go together better than sweet potato latkes and applesauce! So I made a point to look for Hawaiian bread hot dog buns, but the store didn't have them- I'm not sure they're a very common item. So I just bought a package of Hawaiian rolls and left them attached in pairs, then cut them like buns. Worked perfectly! I also served steamed corn on the cob, which I get in a frozen package at Walmart. It's great because there are 4 cobs to a package and I have a convenient "vegetable" (grain) to serve even when I haven't bought fresh produce in a while.

So there's your homemade inspiration for the week! Nothing too special, but darn good staples. What do you make when your budget is small and your time is short? Let me know in the comments!

Homemade: Asian Chicken Salad

I try to make meals that are varied, healthy, simple, and affordable. I feel like that's most people's goals. So I recently discovered the awesomeness that is the bagged salads at most grocery stores.

My favorite bagged salads are the ones heavy in cabbage. This is because it takes a LOT longer for cabbage salads to wilt than softer leaves. Still, a salad isn't enough sustenance for anyone, especially not a 23 year old man who works out regularly. My husband needs meat.

So I took some frozen chicken breasts, thawed them, and seasoned them with salt and pepper. I heated a greased skillet and lay the meat seasoning-side-down so that it seared in the flavor. then I seasoned the other side. After flipping chicken and sealing in all the lovely juices from both sides, I added a dash of soy sauce, because the bagged salad I would be pairing this chicken with was an Asian salad with a sesame dressing.

I sliced the chicken into manageable, thin pieces, added it to the salad, and tossed it all with the dressing.

Just before I served, I added the crunchy noodles and almonds into the mix, and served simply in a bowl.

Sometimes it's the super simple stuff that's most satisfying. It certainly doesn't hurt that I only dirtied one skillet and one large bowl making this meal. I think it's worth appreciating that we live in a time when it is easier than ever to eat good, healthy food that has been crafted by experts and put into a medium where we can fix it fresh for ourselves without excessive effort. Where will we be in another 10 years? Buying quality beef wellington in a box with 2-step baking instructions? How exciting that our experiences of food can be so broad, even at home!

What's your favorite gourmet-from-home option available nowadays? Let me know in the comments!

Green Waffles

Growing up, my mom cooked most of our meals, and she is a fabulous cook- truly inspired my passion for good food. But most Saturday mornings were my dad's time in the kitchen. His specialty was breakfast, especially when my sisters or I had sleepovers. When we had sleepovers, often we would fit three or four of us onto the hide-a-bed from the living room couch and we would reluctantly wake up to the sounds and smells of my dad cooking in the adjoining kitchen. Then he would give us one final startling wake-up call by pretending to fold is into a "taco" in the couch. When we finally got up to eat, we were always delighted to see what color the pancakes or waffles would be, because every time my dad made pancakes or waffles, he would add food coloring to make it fun.

So when my parents invited my husband and I over for dinner the other night, and I realized when I got there that my dad had kicked my mom out of the kitchen and was cooking us up a hearty breakfast for dinner, I naturally asked him what color the waffles would be. For me, my dad's colored waffles are as much of a tradition as how we celebrate Christmas. When my dad served us our spearmint-green waffles, I was excited to initiate my husband into the tradition, and I not-so-secretly hope he'll carry on the tradition for our kids someday.

I don't want you to think my dad is a one-trick pony, though- he also made perfectly crisp sausage and the fluffiest cloud of scrambled eggs you could imagine. My mom has taught me a lot about cooking, but my dad taught me how to scramble eggs. The trick is to add a slurp of milk to the eggs before you beat the everloving tar out of them.

What food traditions did you grow up in? Will you pass them on to your own kids? Let me know in the comments!

Homemade: Chick Flick Salad

Early in my college career, during a break, I got together with some friends to console one of them who had just gone through a nasty breakup. Since High School, we'd had a little  tradition for dealing with breakups and other major disappointments that played out similarly to those drinking games where people take a shot for every certain occurrence in a particular movie. We, however, being underage and not really much for drinking anyway, played the game with candy. 

The rules were simple: one M&M or Skittle or whatever candy you fancied for every mention of chocolate or candy while we watched Willy Wonka and/or Chocolate until you were so euphoric from sugar, chocolate endorphins, companionship, and Johnny Depp's face, that your sorrows were thoroughly banished.

During one such escapade, one of us had the brilliant idea to dump all the candy into the popcorn bowl, so that the hard candy-coated chocolate treats were deliciously melted inside, and we could have salty-sweet handfuls with fruity, chocolatey, and crunchy confections. I believe that first time, we also tossed in some goldfish crackers for good measure.

"Don't worry!" I told them, "it's basically just a salad- there's corn, which is a vegetable, and fruit snacks, lots of color, and the goldfish are like croutons- totally not bad for you!"

And with that, Chick Flick Salad was born. 

For several years, Chick Flick Salad remained a special concoction reserved only for moments of sadness, like the last night before my best friend moved to another country for 4 years, or my other friend moved to yet another country for 2, or again, breakups.

In fact, I had one friend who learned of this tradition when we invited her to partake after a breakup of her own, and I honestly suspect she might have actually dated a few guys just so that she could "break up" with them after one or two dates so that we could have a Chick Flick Salad party. I mostly say this because the conversations after those breakups usually went something like "I broke up with so-and-so.... can we do a breakup party? Make sure there's peanut butter M&M's!"

I told her we could have parties without a breakup preceding them, but the point here is definitely that this salad works emotional miracles.

There's little to the recipe for Chick Flick Salad, and it's open to liberal interpretation- a friend of mine who is allergic to corn used lentil chips instead of popcorn last time- but there are a few guidelines to make yours most successful:

1) Any chocolates need to be candy-coated- otherwise you just get a mess of melty, chocolatey popcorn. Which isn't so bad, but is distracting and messy.

2) If possible, treat yourself to a decent variety of small candies. You can always store the leftovers for your next batch!

3) Add the candy while the popcorn is warm

5) While Chick Flicks are definitely not required, it's not Chick Flick salad if the movie doesn't leave you feeling good. Save your thought-provoking, dark, depressing foreign films for Hummus and carrot sticks or something!

6) Include LOTS of people, and keep the tradition spreading!

UPDATE: I just looked at my Timehop after posting this and found that I introduced my husband to Chick Flick Salad 1 year ago today!

What will YOUR candy choices be when you make it?

Tomatillo Tortilla Soup- Healthy Food For Picky People

Today I'm featuring the first recipe I invented after I got married, and it's become a long-term favorite. The thing I love most about this recipe is that it's so light, bright, and flavorful, it's delicious during summertime- but it's still a hearty, satiating hot soup, so works in all seasons. 

I created it with picky people in mind, taking care to eliminate the vegetable chunks and unwelcome textures that many children and picky adults don't like, and incorporating hiding places for powerful vitamins and greenery to add their goodness without turning off the kiddos. While it's a healthy green hue, you can sell it to your persnickety offspring by calling it "Hulk" soup, and the pop of lime should win them over if they give it that first taste. 

SOUP:
- 2 lbs tomatillos
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 2-5 chicken breasts (frozen is fine)
-several large handfuls whatever greens are on sale (you can use spinach, kale, or even mixed greens)
- 1-2 limes
- 1/2 bunch cilantro
- 3-6 fresh jalapenos

GARNISH
- sour cream or creme fresche
- Fresh Avocados
- tortilla chips or toasted tortillas of your choice
- Optional: fried or caramelized onions

NOTE there is no salt. You won't need it! Seriously trust me. Even if you use low sodium broth you will NOT miss the salt. In fact, I have used plain water when I realized halfway through making this that I was out of broth, and it was so flavorful on its own I may continue to make it that way!

INSTRUCTIONS
- Roast washed tomatillos & jalapeno halves with the seeds removed in a skillet, occasionally turning them until the skin begins to blister and blacken (Note: this soup really is not very spicy at all. If you want it spicy, add the seeds from the jalapenos, and/or a few fresh jalapenos for heat. You can also add cilantro if you'd like.)
- Throw half of the tomatillos, half of the jalapenos, half the cilantro, and a large handful of the greens into a blender and liquify. Add some chicken broth to the blender if the juice from the tomatillos is not sufficient to totally liquify all the contents
- Dump the delicious green liquid into the crock pot
- Liquify the remaining tomatillos, Jalapenos, and greens and add to the crock pot
- Add the chicken breasts, the remaining chicken broth, the juice of the lime(s) and jalapeno seeds if you like it spicy- if you don't include the seeds, the roasted jalapenos really don't make it very spicy at all.
- cook on low while you're at work or on High if you have less time
- shred cooked chicken with two forks and add it back to the liquid

- slice the avocados and toast your tortillas
- serve each bowl with a dollop of sour cream or creme fresche, 2-3 slices of fresh avocado, crispy or caramelized onions, and crispy strips of tortilla.

 I LOVE the addition of the sweet, caramelized onion strings, or crispy, crunchy fried onion strings. It adds an unctuous umame flavor. I'm serious about no salt, too- between the sour cream, the broth, the sour lime and tomatillo, and the spicy cilantro and jalapenos, your taste buds will have plenty to focus on. This makes this recipe incidentally heart and blood pressure friendly, without tasting like something originally unhealthy that was altered beyond recognition to make it good for you. That's the kind of "improvements" I try to avoid in my kitchen.

Try it out and let me know how it works out for you in the comments! Did you add anything? Leave anything out? What's your favorite part? How did your picky dinner guests like it? I'm up to the challenge!

Not-So-Seasonal Cravings

I got married in October, & in my first week of marriage I learned a vital fact about my new husband.

He. LOVES. Pumpkin.

He loves everything pumpkin; pumpkin lattes, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin bread... He's a pumpkin eating fiend.

In expressing his enthusiasm for gourd-based confections, he bemoaned the fact that people get tired of pumpkin because it's seasonal, so they feel like they have to eat everything pumpkin-related during the limited time it's made available, and then in the spring, when they're not pumpkin'd out, there's none to be found. 

So I, being a brand new bride, I started a new tradition of purchasing a few extra boxes of pumpkin bread mix at the end of each fall season, when they go on clearance, and hiding them.

I find that my apartment is small enough I usually don't remember them again until several months have passed, and by then it's about time to treat my husband to a surprise pumpkin treat in the middle of April, and then again in June or July.

This is the second year I've gotten to do this, and it's really fun. My aunt used to do it with the Cadbury candy-coated mini eggs, before they expanded the availability from Easter-only to Christmas, too. My mom does something similar with her favorite Braum's sherbet flavor (Cherry Limeade), stocking up at the end of the summer. Unlike most people, my mom is famous for making her sweets last longer than anyone I've ever heard of.

What are your favorite limited-time, season-specific foods? Are you going to stock up on extras this year for a special treat 6 months later? Let me know in the comments!

Homemade Pickle Chicken

I recently challenged myself with an Empty Pantry Challenge, resolving not to buy groceries until I've used up every item in my pantry. I've allowed myself to purchase essential and/or perishable protein (i.e. milk, eggs, cans of tuna) as I near the end of this challenge, because it turns out I am a bit of a starch hoarder (7 kinds of rice, anyone?). The tricky part of this is that I usually plan all my home cooked meals for the week as I grocery shop, getting inspired by the items that are in season, on sale, etc. So this challenge has forced me to flex my creative muscles in order to use whatever is in my spice cabinet and condiment shelf to make something exciting and delicious to serve my husband- bland, baked chicken and rice have no place in my home!

So this is what I made the other night:

My husband often wonders how I'm able to time things so that I finish preparing multiple elements of a meal at the same time, so that everything that should be hot is served hot and everything that should be cold is served cold. It's actually a skill I learned from my mom long before culinary school, and I'm still nowhere near as good at it as her, but to kind of show how it's done, I'll explain the process rather than just posting the recipe.

I had an old package of instant fettuccine alfredo in the pantry, so I started the water for that, and then I had about 12 minutes until the pasta was completely done to figure out a protein. I thawed some frozen chicken in the microwave, and while it was thawing, I started a tablespoon and a half of oil heating in my skillet. 

I also re-hydrated some dried, minced onion flakes. To do this I simply put about 2 tablespoons of the dried onions into about 1/4 cup of hot water and let it soak for a minute or so. I then added the minced onion and some minced garlic (from a jar in my fridge) to the oil to toast the onion and garlic and infuse the oil with their flavor. 

While they toasted, I took the thawed chicken, trimmed it, and chopped it into bite-sized pieces. While many people prefer to cook chicken breasts whole or in large portions, because it locks in the juices, I LOVE to pack a punch with the flavor, and I find if I shave it thin or chop it small, every bite is saturated it powerful flavor.

At this point the water for the fettuccine had come to a boil so I followed the directions on the package and added the contents to the water, stirring and reducing it to a simmer. 

By now the garlic and onions were nicely caramelizing and toasting, so I threw the chicken into the pan. By adding the chicken directly to the oil and flavors, without creating a sauce or marinade first, I was able to sear the outside of the chicken really quickly, sealing in the juiciness of the chicken. I have, in the past, done this using diced frozen chicken because I was in a hurry. While it will still cook, and quickly, the rapid change in temperature can cause the chicken to toughen up considerably, and become a bit rubbery in texture.

After the chicken was pretty well seared on all sides, I dug in my fridge for some kind of acid. I often throw some vinegar-based salad dressing on my chicken with other seasoning for a quick source of a lot of flavor, but all I had was raspberry vinaigrette, which didn't appeal to me for this meal. So I grabbed a jar of pickled Jalapenos and a jar of bread and butter pickles, and I poured a splash of juice from both jars into the skillet. I added a few shakes of my favorite spice blends (Garlic Pepper, Lemon Pepper, Jalapeno Seasoning) and sauteed the chicken at a low/medium heat for about 4-5 minutes until the liquid in the pan mostly evaporated.

Between stirring the chicken, I pulled out a stalk of romaine lettuce, washed, dried, and chopped it up, distributing it onto our plates.

The chicken finished about a minute before the pasta, so I turned the burner off and left the skillet on to keep it warm while I gave the pasta a final stir. 

I put a bottle of ranch on the table for the salad, and served.

The pickle juice made the chicken outstanding. the strong garlic flavor, juiciness, and burst of acid balanced well with the bland creaminess of the packaged pasta kit. My husband actually thought I had changed another recipe I've served before (after planning and intentionally shopping for it) to improve it, and succeeded!

So remember, when you're out of conventional ingredients, look for something of the same genre that might be less conventional for your purposes. If you don't have salt, add some soy sauce. If you don't have lemons or vinaigrette, use something else acidic!

Will you take up the Empty Pantry Challenge? What discoveries will you make? Try it out and let me know how it goes in the comments!

Homemade Burgers

This week I got a rare treat while grocery shopping- affordable red meat. My husband and I are paying grad school tuition at the moment, so it's a special thing to find beef marked down enough to fit our grocery budget, but not only was the hamburger marked down a percentage, it was an extra $2 off the 97% lean option. I decided to make burgers.

Now the thing about burgers is that a good burger is super juicy, seared on the outside, and flavorful without condiments. Normally, a big factor in achieving that juiciness is using meat that is at least somewhat fatty. The saturated fat melts when cooked and contributes to the juice and flavor in a big way; burgers made with super lean meat often come out dry, & the patties can be crumbly.

I have two tricks to circumvent this problem. First, I added 2 whole eggs to the meat. Eggs contain cholesterol, but are much better for you than beef fat, as they also contain a huge assortment of vitamins, and some good cholesterol. Moreover, the egg whites act as a binder for the meat and seasonings. This helped add a little bit of moisture, and prevented the burgers from turning out crumbly. It also stretched the meat to make bigger burgers, and made the end result much more rich.

I seasoned the meat with a perfect trio of spice blends from a vendor at my local farmer's market. If you are in North Dallas on a Saturday, bring about $15 to the Coppell farmer's market and stock up on the best spices in the country. If you don't live in Dallas, no worries! Check out his website here. I love the Jalapeno seasoning so much I keep a backup stocked, because last year I ran out right after the market season ended, and that will not happen again! The three spices I used in my burger meat were the Jalapeno Seasoning, the "Rusty Onion" Seasoning, and the Garlic Pepper Seasoning. If my husband had my love for heat, I might've included some "What in da hell?" Habanero spice for an extra kick.

My second trick to get a great, juicy burger using extremely lean meat is that I got my griddle good and hot before I put my meat on. This way, the outside of the burger seared and sealed before the flavor and juices can escape. After I flipped them, I placed the cheese on top of the patties while the underside cooked, allowing it to melt, & removed them directly onto the toasted, buttered, garlicky buns I had waiting.

A great tip for cleaning your griddle or flat-top after a greasy, messy venture is to toss a slice or two of cheddar onto the worst of the mess while the griddle is still hot. Something about the oils in the cheese and the nature of the cheese as it first melts, then crisps up from the heat, makes it pick up gunk off a nasty griddle like nothing I've ever seen before. I admit I haven't tried it with other cheeses, but if you are wanting to experiment, I suggest you stick with harder cheeses, and DON'T under any circumstances use pepperjack! You'll mace yourself. Run the vent, too- the grilled cheese has quite a strong odor.

I served the burgers with corn on the cob, and sent my husband to buy a side of fries from Whataburger so that we could get some of their excellent condiments. We don't get to have burgers much, so this was a frugal way to avoid buying a whole bottle of ketchup or ranch that we'll never use up.

What are your favorite tricks for making burgers? Let us know in the comments!