Calling all foodphiles. What are easy recipes for the single girl? I'm really sick of MoJo Fiesta (brown rice, chili beans and chicken).

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2001

Answers

Chicken Parts Special

Ingredients: peppers, onions, carrots, any other vegetable you choose to chop up and throw in, salt, pepper, garlic powder, chicken hearts and/or gizzards, egg noodles.

Fill a big pot full of water. Throw in chopped-up vegetables along with chicken parts of choice. Add salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. Cook about 20 minutes (I'll check this with The Smoker) or at least until chicken parts are fully cooked. Serve over cooked egg noodles.

Make sure to have plenty of plastic containers to freeze leftovers, as opposed to being a big dork and putting them in glass containers, which crack.

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2001

If you have a big pot, not in a hurry, and enjoy left overs or want to give a party:

Chop up chicken (breast, thighs, whatever you like, leave out bones) into roughly one inch squares and coat lightly with flour.

Brown in bottom of dutch oven/big pot in a bit of oil of your choice until just lightly browned.

Add all of the following: 4-6 (or more) plum tomatoes, peeled, roughly chopped 3 - 4 bell peppers in festive fall colors (yellow, red, orange, green if you simply must) the corn & "milk" from 4 ears of corn (take a corn cob and put it on a big ole sheet of wax paper or in a big bowl, standing up; with a chef's knife cut the kernels from the cob, taking care not to cut into the little husky shell thing that holds the kernels; after all corn is removed from cob, run the BACK of the knife up and down the cob to release the corn pulp/milk) thyme, orgeno, parsley to taste (i like lots) salt & pepper

Bring to a simmer, let it cook until the chicken is done and the vegetables are at the stage you like them (I like them all really soft); the tomotoes release juice and the corn milk make this a sort of chowder; add a couple of tablespoons of milk if it's too think *when you are ready to eat it* and let it simmer a few minutes; if you add the milk before the tomatoes really cook down it will be too watery

eat in a bowl with bread topped with butter & old bay and browned under the broiler;

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2001

Hannah, I recommend fish. It is the easiest thing EVER to prepare and you can buy it in single servings, or easily freeze extras. I usually steam some broccoli to go with it, or I saute some snap peas or zucchini in some olive oil. And that ten minute brown rice is the shizninny. Easy easy easy, and quick, and good for you.

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2001

The prep time on this is a little much, but it's so good and really cheap.

Put a pot of water on to boil. The water should be enough to barely cover two to four packages of ramen noodles. You won't need to use the seasoning packets, just the noodles. Oh those noodles.

Meanwhile, in a large frying pan, saute two chicken breasts in a little olive oil, season with salt, pepper, and a dash of red pepper flakes if you like things a little spicy. Drizzle a little SoyVey sauce or any other soy-ish sauce that you'd like (I don't know if they have it everywhere, but SoyVey is this really good soy sauce thing that's got sesame seeds in it and is sort of thick and just really, really good and not as salty as regular soy sauce) Just before they're done, slice them and saute more, so that the SoyVey sauce and seasonings coat all sides/surfaces. Scoop into a bowl, and keep warm in the microwave/cover with plastic wrap.

Empty half a package of frozen vegetables, (I like the kind that come with asparagus tips, etc) or your choice of fresh chopped veggies, into the pan. Add a can of slice water chesnuts, if you desire. Saute until cooked/hot, then pour into the bowl with the chicken and set aside again.

Remember the pot of boiling water? Throw the ramen noodles inside, and cook until al' dente. Drain, and quickly throw into the pan, add SoyVey and soy sauce, red pepper flakes, etc, to taste. Basically you're sealing in all the good flavors while cooking the noodles. Add in the chicken and veggies, stir some more, adjust seasonings to taste, pour into a huge bowl, and let them at it.

Another recipe that came about while trying to figure out what to do with Grits, (And forgive me, my Grandma was like "LAUREN! OREGON HAS KILLED YOU! DON'T MAKE GRITS LIKE THAT!", if this is a bad bad way to even think of using grits), is that you take like three cups of stiff (Not as moist as regular grits, this came about after messing up while trying to cook grits in their natural state) grits? And a cup of chedder cheese? And one of those little cans of green chiles? And a tablespoon of milk, a dollop of butter, six slices of crumbeled bacon, salt and pepper to taste? Mix that all together? Pour into a baking dish? Top with more chedder cheese and broil until the top is all bubbly and golden? You? Are GOOD TO GO!

So that's the college student's way of life. Slap me silly and call me Julia Child.

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2001

Here is some good comfort food to have on those lonely nights when you miss home. Approx. 2 c. cooked chicken breast cut into small pieces. Half a bag of Pepperidge Farm Seasoned stuffing mix. 1/2 c. mayonaise. Large Pasta Shells. Chicken gravy (I make my own, but you can use any can or cream of chicken soup diluted...etc)

You mix the stuffing mix, in a large bowl, with however much water and butter the bag says, add mayo and cut up chicken and mix well (with you hands is best). Meanwhile, you've cooked the Shells according to package directions, and when they are cool enough to handle, you stuff them with the stuffing mix. Pour some gravy into the bottom of a baking pan, lay the stuffed shells on top, cover with more gravy, cover pan with foil, bake at 350 for about 45 mins. These things are amazingly good (Thanks Pop) and even better with some cranberry sauce on the side. Oh, for the single girl, they freeze very well. Enjoy

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2001

Chicken and Rice

Set oven to 400. Season 1 or two chicken breasts with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Just sprinkle it on. Bake chicken for 25 minutes. Mix a can of Cream of Mushroom soup with 1/2 can of milk. Pour over chicken, bake for another 5 minutes. Pour gravy over rice and chicken. Enjoy! And you can have the leftovers for lunch or dinner the next day. And for God's sake don't use Uncle Ben's perverted rice. Get a nice Calrose rice or maybe some jasmine.

There's a lot of chicken recipes posted (yum!), here's a pork chop recipe.

Onion smothered pork chops (originally published in Bon Appetit magazine, I think) This recipe is best with the really thick pork chops, but you can use the thin ones too, just reduce the cooking time. This recipe is for 1 package of pork chops.

Salt and pepper pork chops. Brown on both sides. Remove from pan. Slice up an onion (less or more depending on your fondness for onion)and cook it over medium heat for 8 minutes or so, till it's nice and limp. Add 1 teaspoon thyme and cook for a minute. Shove the onions off to the side of the pan, add the pork shops back with 1/2 cup of chicken broth. Arrange the onions around the pan, cover and cook 10 minutes, 5 if you're using the thin chops. Serve pork chops with onions over the top.

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2001

Go to the store and buy: 1 package stew meat, 2 cans whole tomatoes 14.5 oz. each), 1 bunch celery, 1lb. carrots, 1 onion, parsley flakes.

Put the stew meat in a big ol' pot, cover with water, and bring it to a boil. Drain the water, rinse the meat off, and put it back in the pot with the cut up onion. Cover with water again. Boil for 30 minutes.

Cut up the celery and carrots, and add them and the cans of tomatoes and about a can of water, and a bunch of parsley. The parsley is important. Salt, pepper, Tony's to taste. Simmer until the vegetables are done, about 30 minutes.

Serve over pasta (acini di pepe if you can find it, or little shells), and sprinkle a whole bunch of Italian cheese on top.

Soup! It's what's for dinner!

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2001

Also--you can freeze the leftovers, or you can eat it all week like I do.

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2001

CRD's Spag Bol (seeing as nobody's posted one yet)...

Ingredients: 1 packet of pasta, 1 onion (more if you like onion), 500g mince, 2 tins crushed tomatoes, about 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, whatever herbs you like.

Boil about 3 litres of water. While this is boiling, cut up the onion and start frying it.

Once the water has boiled, put the pasta in and let it simmer. Put the mince and any other veg in with the onion and brown the mince, then add the tomatoes, tomato paste and herbs. If you're using standard pasta (12 to 15 minutes) then the mince will usually be done about the same time as the pasta, but you can cook it for longer if you want.

Drain the pasta then take the mince off the heat. You can tip the sauce into the pasta pan if you want it all mixed up, otherwise serve yourself the pasta and the mince separately. Add cheese as necessary.

This makes 3 to 4 servings (depending on how much onion and veg you add, and how big an appetite you have) and it freezes well.

-- Anonymous, September 11, 2001