My 7-Eleven Layer Dip

This is my version of the seven layer dip. You have many different options when it comes to this recipe. To be exact, you have 11 different layers that you can jazz up and personalize with a little time and effort and really make it your own. You can also make it super simple with all store-bought ingredients, or you can pick and choose which layers you’ll use and which you’ll lose. Below I have listed my ingredients for both the store-bought and the homemade version.

Ingredients

• 1 can refried beans (16 oz.)
• 1 can chopped green chilies (4.5 oz.)
• 2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend (8 oz.)
• 1 container sour cream (16 oz.)
• 1 lime, zested
• McCormick Taco Seasoning Mix
• 1 jar salsa (store-bought or homemade)
• Chipotle Guacamole (or store-bought guacamole)
• Pico de gallo (or store-bought, or even 1 large tomato, diced will do)
• 1 can (6 oz.) sliced black olives
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped
• Cilantro
• 1 pkg shredded Mexican cheese

Directions

Prepare Ingredients:

• Make pico de gallo (or 1 large diced tomato).
• Make guacamole (or don’t and use store-bought guac).
• Mix sour cream with McCormick’s Taco Seasoning, lime zest and lime juice.
• Heat olive oil and stir in beans and green chilies.
• In the same pan, pour in drained black beans and cumin.

Start Layering:

1. Layer bean mix into 7″ x 11″ serving dish
2. Layer nacho cheese
3. Layer black beans
4. Layer guacamole (homemade or store-bought)
5. Layer salsa (homemade or store-bought)
6. Layer sour cream
7. Layer shredded cheese
8. Layer tomato (or pico de gallo)
9. Layer green onion
10. Layer black olives
11. Layer cilantro

Notes: I tend to leave out the black bean layer and sometimes I add 2 cans of refried beans if I want a little extra bean thickness. It’s up to you. Play with it and make it your own. Also, don’t forget to serve dip with a sturdy chip. The last thing you want is failed broken soggy chips left in the dip bowl. 

• Source: My Recipes

Rigatoni & Italian Sausage Bake

Last night I made a wonderful meal from my 500 Casseroles recipe book. I love this cookbook line, because the recipes are pretty easy and straightforward, and the book is compact but jammed packed with great recipes and even better pictures. I hate cookbooks that don’t have pictures. How do I know what the dish is supposed to look like, or if I even want to make it? Have no fear, this book has tons of pictures and my meal looked almost as good as the one in the book. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but mama did good. Toot toot! I served my rigatoni bake with a side Cesar salad and another one of my attempts to create my own garlic bread recipe. Ehhh the bread wasn’t bad, but I am still working on it and trying to find the right garlic/cheese ratio.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ lb. mild Italian sausage
• 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
• salt ad freshly ground black pepper to taste
• ½ cup tomato paste
• 2 (28 oz.) cans whole tomatoes with liquid
• 1 lb. uncooked rigatoni
• 2 cups provolone
• ¼ cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

Directions

Remove sausage from casings to form small chunks. Brown sausage in large, heavy saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Set browned sausage aside, and discard all but 2 tablespoons of fat. Sauté onion, garlic, herbs, salt, and pepper until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and continue cooking for 3 minutes. Add tomatoes with liquid. Break up tomatoes into smaller pieces and bring sauce to a boil. Return sausage to sauce and reduce heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes, until sauce thickens.

Preheat oven to 375°F. In large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta for 6 minutes, until al dente. Drain and add to sauce. Add ¾ cup grated provolone and chopped parsley, and stir to combine. Transfer to a large (9×13-inch) rectangular casserole dish and top with remaining cheese. Cover casserole with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes, until hot and bubbly. Remove foil 10 minutes before the end of cooking to brown top of casserole.

Notes: This recipe could feed and army. Next time I will definitely cut the ingredients in half. However, it does keep very well and warms up perfectly.

Not So Cheesy Chicken Casserole

So I made it to round 2 of the Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole and lets just say I was more than disappointed. Remember how last time I made it I was nervous about the amount of chicken I used, so I added  some chicken stock and it came out a little soupy, but very tasty? Well this time I did everything the same minus the extra bit of chicken stock and it was definitely less soupy but also WAY less flavorful. It was totally B-O-R-I-N-G! The good news is I have the perfect solution. Instead of the ⅓ cup of water I am going to substitute the ⅓ cup of chicken stock. I am pretty sure that will fix the problem and make this meal delowcious again!

Fishy Spicy Mayo Chicken

Last night I made Paula’s Spicy Mayo Chicken and Veggie Basket. It was super simple and easy to make. Plus it was nice to make a chicken dish that only takes 20 minutes of cook time. It came out okay, or as the Hubby puts it, “I cooked it as good as I could have.” No no he is not that big of an asshole. He totally appreciates my cooking. For sake of the blog, I ask for his honest opinion and he was just not a huge fan of the marinade itself. He felt as though it was more of a fish marinade than a chicken, which I agreed. I think this marinade is very seafood suitable. However, since the marinade is so heavy due to the mayo base, I would recommend using a firm white fish, like a snapper or something similar.

I absolutely loved the flavor of the Veggie Basket. I cooked them on a stovetop grill and they came out great. My only issue arose when I drank a little too much wine at dinner and decided to clean the dishes up in the morning. The grill sat all night in the veggie grease and I think it is now ruined.

Notes: Isn’t my Hubby getting good at the food pictures?

Totally Tubular Tilapia Taco Tuesday

I am so fricken proud of myself right now. Not only did Tilapia Taco Tuesday actually happen on an actual Tuesday, but it was delicious. Pardon me, delowcious! I am not going to lie. I was a little nervous, but about the weirdest things… Like cutting the cabbage… I have never cut cabbage before, and I had no idea how to make it look all professional. I am not sure if I accomplished the look I was going for, but it worked. I conquered the cabbage.

So I started with making my own pico de gallo. I used the one from the Tilapia Taco Tuesday recipe, but I left the seeds in my jalapeno and used red onion. I prefer more of a spicy bite in my salsa, so I was not feeling the whole sweet onion and mild spicy flavor of the one they suggested.

Then I moved onto the yogurt sauce. I know I said before I was not sure about their recommended yogurt sauce, which was right, because it was totally boring. BUT I found out that I LOVE Greek Yogurt. Oh my God it is amazing. It tastes like the tart frozen yogurt at those self-serve yogurt places.  Love, love, love and I am going to literally eat it all day, which is ok, because Greek Yogurt is good for you! Ok back to the yogurt sauce. Obviously it tasted ok, because it basically tasted like Greek Yogurt and lime, and as we already established I love Greek Yogurt, but it was just a little boring for fish taco purposes. So I jazzed it up. Remember the Wahoo’s Fish Taco Green Sauce recipe I posted? I used the base of what I already had with the Greek Yogurt, mayo and lime and added some of those ingredients to give it a little more flavor. I broke out the food processor… Ha that is funny that I say BROKE out, because after I added all my ingredients and pressed go the light went on, but that was it… Nothing… Not even a hum. I am pretty sure it is broken and I only used it once. The Hubby thinks it’s the motor, I think it is bullshit! Whatever, Crate and Barrel better take that shit back and get me a new one. Ok sorry, as you can see I am a little fired up about it….

Okay maybe a new paragraph will help – Lets talk taco sauce… Again. I added some more lime, cilantro, salt and since I did not have a pablano pepper, I used a little of the jalapeno I had left over. Then I put it all in my trusty food processor Magic Bullet and mixed it all together. Can you believe that? My fancy and very expensive Cuisinart food proccessor crapped out after one measly use, but my magic bullet that I have had for like 6 years, beaten up, moved across country, left in storage and basically not taken care of what so ever, yep that motor is humming like a 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 fastback… Ok maybe it sounds more like a 1963 Volkswagen bug, but at least it gets the job done.

Next I moved onto the avocado. I always have an issue with serving avocado, because I can never make it look pretty. When I do Taco Tuesday, I don’t like to make your taco for you. I lay all the ingredients out in little matching serving bowls, with little mini serving spoons and let you build your own. I figure I registered for all this damn serving wear, I might as well use it. It is fun. I feel like we are having a dinner party every night. So anyway, I can never display the avocado slices so they look pretty. Part of it is my problem, because I mush the avocado somehow when I try to cut it into pieces. So basically, I need to learn how to cut the avocado properly… I will get there… Someday I will get there. Instead, I took the avocado and added a little pico and made guacamole. Done and done.

Then I cooked the fish and I did it just as the recipe said. Here is my only issue, (Well, not my issue, but the Hubby’s) How do you keep the fish warm? I tried really hard. I kept it covered in its serving bowl and everything. In my opinion it is a fish taco, it doesn’t have to be warm, but next time I will work on it. Maybe next time I won’t make him take pictures of the food before he eats… That might help.

Well that is pretty much the end of the meal… It turned out great! Oh I also used fresh tortillas from the grocery store. Our Kroger has a section where they make fresh hot tortillas… I think that really helps. I hate prepackaged tortillas. They are enough to ruin any meal. I also used feta cheese. The flavor really complimented the fish. If you don’t like feta, you can use any cheese really. Go run with it and make it your own. Maybe you don’t like cilantro, or jalapenos, or fish… Well, if you don’t like those things maybe you should eat a different meal, but feel free to tweak your recipes all you want and you might ruin it or you mind really like it. Who knows, you may find out you love Greek Yogurt more than life itself and don’t know how you have gone 27 years on God’s green earth without eating it. You never know…

Mmmm Chicken Chili

Round 2 of Chicken Chili went seamlessly. I added black beans this time, which I think totally gave it the chili flair it was lacking before. I also learned a little trick (by mistake of course). I accidentally did not make enough chicken for the amount of broth that we had, but in retrospect, if you are only cooking for 2 people, that is okay and in fact even better. There is NO WAY that any 2 persons could ever polish off the amount of chili this recipe yields, so without a doubt it is going to be eaten as leftovers. We actually have had it for leftovers twice since I made it last week and there is still enough for a nice little lunch. Mmmm I am excited just thinking about it now. Maybe it will be breakfast. Anyway my point is, the chicken is the most delicate ingredient in this recipe. After it is cooled and warmed up a couple of times, it starts to get tough and unappetizing. FYI tough and unappetizing are not words you want to use to describe your food. So, if you make just enough chicken for the 2 of you to eat on the first night, it is super simple to cook up some more chicken and add it to the warmed up chili the next time you eat it. That way the chicken tastes fresh and the chili tastes even better than the night before, because the flavors had a chance to marry.

This brings me to a very important factor in cooking this meal. The cHiCkeN. As I said above, the chicken is the most delicate part of the meal and in my house the most important, because the Hubby needs his protein. You want to make sure it is cooked just right so it really stands out (for the right reasons) in this meal. Be sure to bake it until JUST COOKED almost under cooked! You want the chicken very tender and juicy, because you are going to let it simmer in a pot of hot chili for like half an hour, plus possibly heat it up again the next night for leftovers. All this time the chicken is still cooking so be kind to the chicken and don’t over cook it.

Note: Apparently my Hubby is not a fan of any light dairy products… God you learn a lot about your spouse in the first couple months of marriage. So if your hubby is like my Hubby, leave the Light Sour Cream in the dairy isle and commit to a calorie splurge ladies… Or do like we do with our bathrooms, each get your own! Luckily sour cream comes in smaller containers, so buying one light and one regular is not out of the question.

Pasta alla Fabulous

Finally I got to make Pasta alla Formiana. Yes, I know I only posted the recipe today, but it has been on my mind ever since I saw Giada make it on the Food Network weeks ago. I personally thought it was delowcious. That is until the Hubby chimed in. It all started with when I simply asked him to cut the tomatoes, and he not so politely informed me that he had an issue with big chunks of tomato in his food. I quickly thanked him for his opinion and asked him to get out of my kitchen. Don’t think I will be asking him for help again. I thought that was the end of it… I was sure that once he tasted this amazing meal he would eat his words… Nope. He was silent through most the meal, especially when I was declaring it my favorite dish I have cooked yet. Then he suddenly voiced his need for meat and went to the fridge to fetch last weeks left over turkey from Turkey Taco Tuesday… Wow, really that bad huh? I absorbed the blow the best I could and thought, “Ok maybe he is right… I could stand to put some sausage in here or maybe some ground beef.” After he finished the meal, but was obviously unsatisfied, he wanted to know what the dish was seasoned with. After I told him, he quickly let me know he does not like oregano. What?!? You, Mr. Grasso, don’t like oregano? Aren’t you Italian? Ok whatever… I loved this meal so much I refuse to not make it again. Instead I will try to adjust it a tad to appeal more to my picky husband.

Next time I will probably cut the amount of oregano in half (¼ cup is quite a bit especially for someone who apparently does not like it) and I will make up for the other half  with basil instead. I will also add some sort of protein so my growing boy will get his fix. I am not as annoyed as I sound… Ok, maybe I am. But I will calm down eventually. I just don’t like not having someone not like my food. It just makes you feel crappy. Ya know? Another day another meal I guess.

Notes: I served the pasta with a lemon infused Cesar Salad. Maybe a little chicken in the salad would have rectified the situation. Actually, I don’t think anything could have saved this one. Until next time Pasta alla Formiana… Until next time. On another note, thank you to said complaining Hubby for taking the wonderful pictures. I now have proof that I cooked a legitimate meal and that it looked presentable, even if nobody liked it. Correction, I loved it!

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole Success

So I made the Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole and it turned out really well. When I say “well” I mean it tasted good… It did have some other issues. It came out a little watery, but that is probably my fault. I ended up using a little extra chicken than the recipe recommended, which made me a little nervous about the seasoning with added the chicken, so I added a tad of chicken stock for good measure. I’m assuming this is where the extra liquid came from. I think if I would have added a little more rice it would have all leveled out, plus I think it could use a little more rice regardless.

All in all it was a hit though. I spooned it into bowls instead of a plate due to extra liquid, and the chicken was so tender and juicy we did not even need a knife and were able to fork it. It was a nice little compact meal on the couch in front of The Office. A welcomed contrast from all the more complicated and involved meals I have been making that use almost every dish in my kitchen. I will definitely make it again and maybe adjust the moist to dry ingredient ratio a tad. FYI the Hubby warmed it up for leftovers last night and it seemed to age well and definitely lost its too much liquid factor after a night in the fridge.

What I Learned: Next time I will add a tad more rice and try it without the chicken stock for experimental purposes… If it’s not amazing, I am going back the original cause I kinda liked it that way.

Notes: YAY! I made it to the UPDATE stage of the blog… Next on the list add pictures of my creation with the update next time! Slowly but surely we will get there I promise. One step at a time people. Want the full Chicken and Rice Casserole recipe? Click Here!