fairly inexpensive – Page 4 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

7-37: Easy Sweet-and-Sour Pork

Jamie Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses April 13, 2020April 13, 2020Asian, black pepper, boneless, brown sugar, carrots, Chinese, cornstarch, dairy-free, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, frozen, garlic, ginger, gluten-free, green bell peppers, green onions, leeks, marinated, minced, pan-fried, peeled, pineapple, pork, pork loin, pork shoulder, red wine vinegar, salt, sautéed, scallions, sherry, sliced, slurry, snow peas, soy sauce, stir-fry, sweet peas, sweet-and-sour, sweet-and-sour sauce, tamari, tender-crisp, untested, vegetable oil, vegetables

Sweet-and-sour is not new for Simply Delicious–there’s already 6-27: Sweet-and-Sour Chicken and 11-6: Sweet and Sour Shrimp if you’re in the mood for a different protein besides pork. However, 7-37: Easy Sweet-and-Sour Pork is the only one to advertise itself as “easy”.

Pork is probably the most common version of sweet-and-sour that you see in Chinese restaurants–there’s even a vegan version of it you can buy in most stores. In case you’re looking for something more refined (but maybe not as easy or meatless), here’s Serious Eats’ take on it.

12-24: Cannelloni with Chicken

Jamie Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses March 14, 2020March 14, 2020all-purpose flour, black pepper, boiled, breasts, butter, cannelloni, cheese, cheese sauce, chicken, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, cottage cheese, creamy, cubed, dinner, dried herbs, dry vermouth, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, filling, food processor, frozen, grated, lunch, marinated, meal prep, melted, milk, nutmeg, Parmesan, pasta shells, pasta/noodles, salt, spinach, strained, strainers, stuffed, thyme, untested, vegetables, yellow onions

Meal-prepping is trendy now, but it’s always been a good idea if you want to save money and calories. 12-24: Cannelloni with Chicken works well if you want to make it on a Sunday, split it up into a few containers, and reheat it throughout the week. At least, that’s how we ate it.

Even Simply Delicious advises you can make this meal ahead of time, although their suggestion is for entertaining guests. This recipe/concept is pretty versatile–it’s good fresh or as leftovers.

8-25: Stir-Fried Beef

Jamie Martin Group 08: Beef, Section 2: Main Courses March 2, 2020March 2, 2020Asian, beef, canola oil, carrots, Chinese/dark soy sauce, dairy-free, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, ginger, grated, green onions, julienned, leeks, marinated, mushroom soy sauce, mushrooms, red bell peppers, salt, sautéed, sesame oil, sirloin, soy sauce, stir-fry, tender-crisp, vegetable oil, wok

Stir-fry is not a new concept for Simply Delicious, so you may feel a sense of déjà vu while reading this recipe if you’ve spent any considerable time on this site. 8-25: Stir-Fried Beef isn’t much more than you’re expecting, so if a quick and easy stir-fry is what you’re looking for, read on.

With rice, 10/10.

In this case, 12-28: Tri-Color Risotto. So more like 6/10.

12-28: Tri-Color Risotto

Jamie Martin Group 12: Pasta & Rice, Section 2: Main Courses February 26, 2020February 26, 2020beef bouillon, beef broth, blanched, boiled, Cheddar, cheese, chopped, easy, fairly inexpensive, green bell peppers, grind, long-grain, olive oil, peeled, pine nuts, red bell peppers, rice, risotto, saffron, salt, sautéed, shallots, shredded, untested, whipping cream, white wine, yellow bell peppers, yellow onions

If you haven’t figured it out by now, there’s a bit of a lag between when I make these recipes and when I actually post about them. It helps me to reread the recipe to figure out what I’m doing in a lot of these photos. While rereading the recipe for 12-28: Tri-Color Risotto, I realized I didn’t even make it right.

That’s my first explanation for what happened here. My second is that I don’t like cooking rice in a pan–I’m spoiled by rice cookers.

My third is that this isn’t risotto–it’s pilaf.

14-22: Strawberry-Peach Cobbler

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 25, 2020February 26, 20204th of July, à la mode, apples, baking powder, biscuit cutters, biscuits, butter, cobbler, cookie cutters, cored, dessert, dough, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, filling, fruit, gift ideas, granulated sugar, hot desserts, hulled, nectarines, party food, pastry, peaches, peeled, salt, sliced, strawberries, summer, untested, vegetarian, whipping cream

Finally, we’ve reached the first recipe (for this project) made in my new (to you) kitchen: 14-22: Strawberry-Peach Cobbler. It was summer and 4th of July, so something with fruit that goes well with ice cream was bound to be a hit.

Speaking of 4th of July, I made 2-37: Chicken-Salami-Rice Salad for a party that I attended with a guy that I had just started dating. 10 years later, this is the first recipe I cooked in my very first house, that I bought with that same guy (who I ended up marrying not long after I made that first recipe).

Told you this book has some memories.

15-17: Summery Cantaloupe

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods January 27, 2020March 9, 2020blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, breakfast, brunch, cantaloupe, cassava, chilled, cold desserts, currants, dessert, easy, fairly inexpensive, fruit, fruit salad, gluten-free, honey, honeydew, lemon juice, lemons, marinated, MD2019, melon, melon baller, mixed fruit, Mother's Day, port wine, raspberries, sherry, side dish, strawberries, summer, untested, vegetarian, watermelon

Obviously, the name of this recipe is 15-17: Summery Cantaloupe, and if you’ve seen any of the pictures of the recipe (like above, as a header image), you’ve put it together that the melon pictured is in fact, not a cantaloupe.

The CSA box that week provided a very nice watermelon, and so that’s what I went with for part of my Mother’s Day 2019 brunch (MD2019). Yes, I’m also behind on writing these up.

I’ve made Simply Delicious fruit salads for Mother’s Day before–if you’re looking for similar ideas, check out 15-19: Layered Fruit Salad and 15-30: Champagne Sundaes from 2017‘s brunch. If you’re up for the challenge of carving a cantaloupe (or in my case, watermelon), continue on.

1-15: Chinese Spring Rolls

Jamie Martin Group 01: Hot & Cold Appetizers, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters November 5, 2019January 27, 2020all-purpose flour, appetizers, Asian, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, brown sugar, butter, canola oil, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, Chinese, Chinese cabbage, cornstarch, deep fryer, deep-fried, egg wash, eggrolls, eggs, fairly hard, fairly inexpensive, filling, griddle, ground meat, ground pork, hors d'oeuvres, mushrooms, pancakes, party food, salt, sautéed, sherry, soy sauce, spring rolls, sweet-and-sour, untested, vegetable bouillon, vegetable broth, vegetable oil

Simply Delicious has made numerous attempts at Chinese-American cuisine, and we can add 1-15: Chinese Spring Rolls to that list as well. There’s some interesting history behind the terms spring roll and egg roll–it goes much deeper than just what the wrapper is made of.

The terms are used interchangeably here, and seemingly in most other places as well. The biggest takeaway from the spring vs. egg roll debate is that spring rolls are originally from China, but have been Americanized along the way (while egg rolls were always American).

They tend to have a thinner wrapper than egg rolls, and are often also associated with the transparent rice paper rolls you tend to see in Vietnamese and Thai restaurants.

6-58: Chicken Pie with Puff Pastry

Jamie Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses October 15, 2019October 15, 2020all-purpose flour, American, basil, bay leaves, black pepper, boiled, boneless, breasts, butter, carrots, celery, chicken, chopped, deboned, diced, dinner, dried herbs, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, filling, frozen, herbs and spices, individual, lunch, melted, pearl onions, pie crust, pies, pot pie, puff pastry, roux, salt, sautéed, simmered, skinless, slit, strained, sweet peas, tender-crisp, thighs, untested, vegetables

Yo. As I’ve said previously, I take breaks from this project when life gets in the way. This summer was BANANAS, and fall seems to be quickly passing me by as well. I haven’t given up on cooking and photographing recipes, but I seem to have dropped the ball on actually writing them up and posting them.

I made the first attempt to rectify this earlier today when I uploaded about 600 pictures from two memory cards that I’ve filled up since May of this year. I made the second when I set up all the folders to start organizing the pictures (we’re talking over 50 recipes here).

Here’s the third: a recipe I cooked back sometime in early 2019, 6-58: Chicken Pie with Puff Pastry. This has been in various draft stages since April, and I’m finally finishing it NOW. This isn’t even part of the memory card dump from today–that’s how far behind I am.

This is essentially chicken pot pie. I mean, how is it not? The major difference between this and Marie Callender’s is that this one only has pastry on top.

2-11: Santiago Chicken Salad

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters July 6, 2019February 25, 2020avocados, black pepper, broiled, chicken, chicken salad, chili powder, corn, cucumbers, dairy-free, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, garlic, gluten-free, lemon juice, lemons, lunch, Mexican, mushrooms, olive oil, oregano, party food, red bell peppers, salads, salt, spicy, untested, white onions, white wine vinegar

Hey there. Haven’t fallen off the face of the planet–just spent the last few months buying a house and moving into said house. Needless to say, things have been busier than normal.

However, I’ve been trying to do a few recipes here and there throughout the process, so there’s content coming at some point. So before you get to see the new (and hopefully VERY permanent) kitchen background, you’ll still get a few from the old apartment. Here’s one of those, 2-11: Santiago Chicken Salad.

In preparation for moving, we were looking for easy recipes that didn’t involve a lot of cooking or prep work. A lot of Simply Delicious recipes tend to be very heavy and calorie-dense–this one was a light option that involved very minimal work.

15-36: Pear-Orange Sorbet

Adam Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 3, 2019October 29, 2020boiled, brandy, cold desserts, cored, dessert, easy, fairly inexpensive, food processor, frozen, fruit, Grand Marnier, granulated sugar, grated, Greenback apt, ice cream maker, liqueur, orange juice, orange peel, oranges, pears, purée, revisited, sorbet, summer, vegan, vegetarian

The photo of this delectable dish is enhanced by the superior dishware chosen to accentuate the fluffiness of the iced desert within. I made 15-36: Pear-Orange Sorbet before a few years ago when we first started this project, but I forgot to take photos. I finally got back to it in January 2019.

The recipe card describes this dish about as well as I could. The ripe pears did have an intense fruity flavor that was intriguing. Can’t beat that.