Michelle Cooks Everyday» Just In Time

Rachael Ray: Taquitos

Michelle — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:00:35 +0000

I’ve had taquitos, and I used to eat them all the time as snacks when I was younger. This Rachael Ray recipe was thrown in with some burrito recipe; as if she is trying to hide a good thing. These are really easy and very tasty. I planned to add some cheese to them, just to give them something extra, but I only had mozzarella, I didn’t think that would go well. So, you may try these out, I think you’ll like them!

Recipe: Taquitos

Taquitos

Cookbook: Just In Time

Total Time: 15-20 minutes

Husband Says: “They were pretty good.”

Notes: I pretty much followed the recipe on this one, but my corn tortillas were soft, so I brushed a little vegetable oil on them before I put them in the oven so they would crisp up a bit. These are simple, but they’re good!

Ingredients

mix chicken, green chilies, and spices

place on corn tortilla

roll, brush with oil, and bake

Bake until nice and crunchy

Rachael Ray: Calzone Rolls with Salami and Tomato

Michelle — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:00:08 +0000

You may notice this week my Rachael Ray recipes are quick and easy. Well, it’s hot outside, and we’re making some changes at home so things are pretty hectic. I feel like this recipe is very similar to other ones I have made, and it was surprisingly better then I expected it to be while I was making it. So, if you’re looking for a quick and easy meal you may give this one a try!

Recipe: Calzone Rolls with Salami and Tomato

Calzone with Salami and Tomato

Cookbook: Just In Time

Total Time: 20 Minutes

Husband Says: “It was pretty good.”

Notes: I didn’t use salami from the deli, but some pepperoni that I had in the fridge. I also had planned on using the rolls I bought for the burgers earlier this week, however, I ended up buying hamburger buns so I just use some french bread. I think it all worked together just fine. Surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, there was no basil at the store, so I used a little dried basil, which is not a substitute for the real stuff.

Ingredients

hollow out bread and stuff with ricotta cheese and salami

top with tomatoes

cover with cheese and bake

bake until cheese is melted

Rachael Ray: Buffalo Chicken with Slaw

Michelle — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:00:55 +0000

This Rachael Ray recipe I thought looked good enough to try. My husband is a huge buffalo wings fan, so I like to make them in different ways. We’re not red cabbage or slaw fans, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to give that a try either. The chicken was a hit, the slaw was a miss. This took a long time to cook, so make sure your chicken is thawed before you cook it!

Recipe: Buffalo Chicken

Buffalo Chicken with Slaw

Cookbook: Just In Time

Total Time: 1 hour

Husband Says: “I don’t like red cabbage, I’m not going to try that. The chicken is good, moist, it isn’t hot though.”

Notes: I only made chicken breast for this recipe, and maybe I didn’t add enough hot sauce, or it wasn’t hot enough, not really sure. You could see the color in the marinade, just wasn’t spicy. I also forgot to get carrots, so our slaw was carrot-less. I thought the slaw wasn’t bad, but I couldn’t eat too much of it because the red cabbage is such a strong flavor. Overall, it was an okay meal. The chicken was very moist, after cooking for so long I was surprised.

Ingredients

marinate chicken in buffalo sauce

combine mayo, blue cheese, and lemon juice

add red cabbage, celery, and scallions

bread chicken in breadcrumbs

bake until done

Rachael Ray: Shrimp with Pancetta, Peas, and Shells

Michelle — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:00:43 +0000

I always pick Rachael Ray recipes that I make based on the ingredients, not the directions. Well, this is one wake up call, and I know I’ve said this before, I really need to read the directions on the recipes. But, for this one it had shrimp and peas; I don’t like shrimp, my husband doesn’t like peas, so I thought I’d half it and we’d both be happy without the ingredient we didn’t like. I didn’t realize the peas made the sauce, oops! Overall, I think we both liked it alright, not the best pasta dish I’ve ever had, but it wouldn’t be the worst either.

Recipe: Shrimp with Pancetta, Peas, and Shells

Pancetta, Peas and Shells

Cookbook: Just In Time

Total Time: 20 minutes

Husband Says:“It’s okay, I like grilled shrimp with Cajun seasoning better.

Notes:Well I followed the recipe, except I cooked the shrimp in a different pan, and reserved some of the pasta and served that topped with Parmesan cheese, then I left the shrimp off the rest of the pasta and covered it with the sauce. I did use bacon oven pancetta. I thought the sauce was okay, its not my favorite. It is different, but when you’re cooking a different recipe every day, what do you expect?

Ingredients

cook bacon in EVOO

add garlic and onions

blend peas and parsley

cook shrimp with bacon, onions, and garlic

add pasta shells to the sauce

without shrimp or without peas

Rachael Ray: Caribbean Burgers

Michelle — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:00:24 +0000

This Rachael Ray burger is actually a pork or turkey burger, but I made it with beef! I don’t really know much about Caribbean flavors, but I would think of them as fresh, spicy, and colorful! These burgers are all of the above. I’ll just say the patty flavor may beat the Burger for Brad: Barbecue Deluxe burger! All in all, you don’t need dressing for this one and flavors are so good.

Recipe: Caribbean Burger

Caribbean Burger

Cookbook: Just In Time

Total Time: 20 minutes

Husband Says: “The meat is good, they are spicy.”

Notes: Instead of chopping all the vegetables you could buy some pico de gallo already made and add mango. I wish the salsa that I made had more mango, but I’m awful at cutting that fruit up. I even watched Rachael Ray do it on a show, so I don’t know if I’m not picking good ones, or what the deal is. So we had what mango I could scrape out, so any helpful hints on that out there send them my way! The salsa is spicy, so to help with that you could probably cook the raw jalapeno a little bit, it would have a little less bite.

: Ingredients

mix spices with meat

form the meat into patties and grill

mix pepper, jalapeno, and mango with lime juice for salsa

Rachael Ray: Cheesy Pasta Presto

Michelle — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:09:38 +0000

I apologize for the delay of tonight’s dinner, I actually did make this for lunch because I was going to be out of town. I didn’t get it posted and then I trouble connecting to the Internet, but we’re all up and running now! So I like to have a few meatless recipes during the week, and this one wasn’t completely meatless since it has some bacon, but bacon is cheap! I always know I’ll like Rachael Ray’s pasta recipes, because she loves pasta, she doesn’t disappoint. Again, another one with no tomatoes, but I think if you added them it would enhance the dish!

Recipe: Cheesy Pasta Presto

Cheesy Pasta Presto

Cookbook: Just In Time

Total Time: 20 minutes, this is the last “15 minute meal” and it wasn’t 15 minutes, closer though

Husband Says: “It was spicy, that was the main thing I noticed. It was okay.”

Notes: The main thing I did different here is I used spinach over arugula, because I don’t like arugula, other then that I followed the recipe. Like I said I’d probably add in some fresh chopped tomatoes, for a little color, and I think it would taste good!

Ingredients

saute the bacon, onion, and garlic

add chicken stock

stir in basil, spinach, and ricotta cheese

mix with pasta

Rachael Ray: Chicken Sausages and Pumpkin Polenta

Michelle — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:00:34 +0000

So Rachael Ray may be on to something about this polenta. Which means I broke down and went back to the local gourmet food store to buy it. It took about 4 months for me the muster up the courage to try it, so I understand if it may take you a while. It is similar to grits, with more of a rice texture. I don’t know if trying it with pumpkin for the first time for me was a good idea, I’m still adjusting to cooking with pumpkin. Overall this meal was okay, not the best we’ve had, not the worst we’ve had, and I’m cooking polenta again next week. Just a heads up if you buy polenta, at least my box said to refrigerate after opening!

Recipe: Chicken Sausages with Pumpkin Polenta (not exactly the recipe in the book, this one has grilled veggies which would be good!)

Sausage and Pumpkin Polenta

Cookbook: Just In Time

Total Time: 20 minutes, close to the 15 minutes

Husband Says: “It was better then I thought it would be.”

Notes: Well, I just bought my favorite cheese sausages because I couldn’t find chicken sausage, and to be completely honest, we probably wouldn’t like them anyway. We’re chicken leg, breast, shredded, or thigh people here, chicken other ways is just not right. I also did not make the salad that is included in the recipe, it would’ve added some color and been healthy, but arugula and I do not get a long either. I never considered myself to be a picky eater, maybe I am more picky then I thought.

Ingredients

cook the sausages in a skillet until browned

stir in pumpkin, cheese, nutmeg, and cinnamon to polenta

Pumpkin Polenta

Rachael Ray: Cold Chicken Satay Noodles

Michelle — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:00:56 +0000

I thought this Rachael Ray recipe was a little different, but I thought why not give it a little try. If you’re looking for something new, I’d give this a try. I think you’ll like the flavor of the peanut butter, it’s like a peanut sauce. Overall, it had a nice blend of flavors, would I have it again? Oh, I’m not really sure if I would, but I did enjoy what I ate. So I’d put this in my “it’s okay” category!

Recipe: Cold Chicken Satay Noodles

Cold Chicken Satay Noodles

Cookbook: Just In Time

Total Time: 20 minutes, so we’re over 15 minutes here

Husband Says: “I like the peanut butter, it is nice, different, but good.”

Notes: Well I did not put in chopped peanuts or parsley. Just didn’t have them. Also, as I’ve said before I am not a fan of wheat pasta, so there was no wheat pasta in our recipe tonight, just regular pasta! I also just boiled 2 chicken breast and shredded those for our chicken, it may could’ve used 1 more chicken breast. The only other thing was I grated the carrot and maybe I grated it to small.

Ingredients

combine pb, honey, and water

add soy sauce and hot sauce

shredded chicken and grated carrots

mix with the sauce

add the noodles

Rachael Ray: Skillet Tamale Pie

Michelle — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:00:33 +0000

Rachael Ray has a lot of recipes that contain polenta, I’ve always been to afraid to try it, but I thought why not we’ll have it twice this week. Well, I went to 2 stores and I could not find quick cooking polenta, so I didn’t use it tonight, but I’m going to try to find it for Thursday. I have tried a real Tamale, like ones they make in Mexico or Central America, but I’ve never been a big fan. I love the Mexican flavors, but this is just something I haven’t developed a taste for. I do not think that this tasted like a Tamale, but it was still good!Maybe the polenta changes the entire taste. So if you make this with polenta and are an expert in Tamales, let me know what you think!

Recipe: Skillet Tamale Pie

Skillet Tamale Pie

Cookbook: Just In Time

Total Time: 25 minutes…that’s 10 over the 15 minute claim

Husband Says:“It was good, you couldn’t really taste the jalapenos or spices, I likeds hte cheesey rice.”

Notes:Well I just gave it away, I used rice instead of polenta. I found some already made polenta today but it had sun-dried tomato and rosemary in it, so I thought rice might be a better fit. I did cook the rice in chicken stock, but I didn’t use the milk obviously. I also cooked the bacon in the microwave instead of skillet, in hopes it would increase my chance for this to be a 15 minute meal. Maybe tomorrow!

Ingredients

brown the meat, onion, pepper, and jalapeno

tomato sauce

cover with rice

cover with cheese and bake

Rachael Ray: Caesar-ish Salad and Toasted Ravioli

Michelle — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:00:50 +0000

Finally we have a Rachael Ray 15 minute meal that’s closer to 15 minutes! This meal was okay, you’re supposed to make a caesar-ish dressing, you can see what I did in the notes. My husband and I love caesar salads so I thought this meal would be good. It’s a nice lighter supper, so it was perfect for after my run! The baby liked the ravioli, he ate all of his.

Recipe:Caesar-ish Salad and Toasted Ravioli

Toasted Ravioli and Caesar Salad

Cookbook: Just In Time

Total Time: 20 minutes, not 15 but close

Husband Says: “It was good, you couldn’t taste the cornmeal on the ravioli.” (I’m not sure that’s a bad thing.)

Notes:Well there isn’t a link for this recipe, so this is what I did. I couldn’t find anchovy paste, so I used romaine lettuce and caesar dressing already prepared. Boil the ravioli then drain it and toss it with cornmeal and parmesan cheese. Then throw them in a skillet with some EVOO. I think a better way to do this would be throw them on a baking sheet and broil them in the oven, drizzle a little EVOO on them. It would be less messy, less oily, and overall easier! This is similar to another ravioli recipe I did, but it is different, so don’t be confused!

Ingredients

Drain ravioli

bread in cornmeal and parmesan

"Toast" In Olive Oil

Caesar Salad

Toasted Ravioli