Italian Sausage and Peppers

Two posts in one night? Yeah, I love food a little. Tonight I decided to make some sausage and peppers. Pretty simple really. First I chopped some red and green peppers to be cooked later. Then, I started boiling my boil-in-bag brown rice. While the rice is cooking, I laid the Italian sausage into the frying pan with the peppers and cooked for about 10-15 minutes. As always when you are cooking any type of meat, make sure it is cooked all the way through! Enjoyed with a delicious Goose Island IPA. Spicy but delicious!

Ridiculous Chicken Parm

I'm not kidding, this Chicken Parm was AMAZING. And fairly healthy too! Shout out to my friends Katie and Alexis who invited me over for dinner, and we decided to cook :) First, wisk two eggs in a small bowl, and pour 2 cups of Almond Flour into another bowl. Cut three chicken breasts in half so they are thinner, and coat with the egg and flour. Place in a frying pan with either butter, or, if you are cool like us, you can use the Land O' Lakes seasoning packet. While the chicken is cooking, prepare your sauce. Combine two cups of water, two small cans of Tomato Paste, 6 small cloves of garlic (finely chopped) and a teaspoon of herbs de provence in a sauce pan. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Make sure that the chicken crust is nice and brown and the chicken is almost cooked all the way through. Pour half of your sauce in a baking pan, place the chicken on top, then pour the rest of the sauce in and coat with cheese. Bake the chicken for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees, and you are ready to enjoy! We also added some gluten-free pasta and some delicious wine (enjoyed in mason jars) on the side. Stay classy everybody.

Mr. 1000

I have reached 1000 page views here on Cooking for One! Boston, and I can't thank everyone enough who has been reading! It's been a lot of fun writing about something that I love to do. Here's to 1000 more!

Baked Ziti

I have made a lot of pasta, and I have also made some killer lasagna (I'm sure there will be a post for that at some point!), but tonight I wanted to do something different: Baked Ziti. I figured it was easy enough, and it was! Granted, I simplified the process a bit, but it was still delicious! Most of the recipes called for adding ground sausage or beef, but I just wanted to do sauce and cheese. First, I boiled the pasta until it was al dente, then added a little olive oil to the pasta. I then added a layer of sauce to the pan, a layer of pasta, then more sauce and some cheese. I added a second layer of the same ingredients, then baked it in the oven for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. On the side, I had some leftover frozen vegetables and some garlic breadsticks! The breadsticks that I bought are the kind that you just put in the oven for about ten minutes or until they are brown and crispy. So there you have it, another simple, yet delicious meal!

BBQ Chicken

I like to cook with Chicken because there are so many things you can do with it. In the summer, I would prefer to grill it, but since I live in an apartment and because it's fall, I decided to bake some tonight. I marinated the chicken for about 45 minutes in some Masterpiece Classic Steakhouse marinade. I put the chicken in the oven and baked it for about 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees. While that was cooking, I whipped up some butter and herb noodles (see cooking instructions in photo below), and microwaved some steam fresh frozen veggies. I like the mixed vegetables. Only took about 30 minutes overall, with very little prep involved! Really awesome flavor combos and left my apartment smelling amazing!

Something's Fishy

This is my first fish post! I am not always the biggest fan of eating fish, but when cooked the right way it can be really delicious! (it's also really good for keeping those cholesterol numbers low) Tonight I decided to make some baked Haddock. It's pretty simple, I put some olive oil in the bottom of the pan, place the fish in, then season the fish with some lemon juice and some light Italian dressing. Sometimes I also like to add some cherry tomatoes as well. I cooked the fish at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes (this will probably vary depending on the oven). While it's in the oven, I also boiled some brown rice (I get the boil in a bag kind, takes about 10 minutes to cook), and also prepared my side salad. When you think the fish is done, take it out of the oven and just cut it in half, it should be nice and white on the inside and should be hot as well. I added some extra lemon juice afterwards to season. And that's it! Simple and delicious, just the way I like it! Accompanied by a smooth Lagunitas IPA.

Favorite Fridays! Restaurants

Happy Friday everyone! My apologies for a lack of posts lately, haven't been cooking as much as usual, but be prepared for next week :) It's time for another Favorite Friday! This week's topic: Restaurants. We all eat out frequently, what are some of your favorites? One of my all-time favorites is Margarita's Mexican restaurant. I feel like it's somewhat authentic, but either way, it is freakin' delicious! It actually turns out that I am going there for lunch today (how fitting!). Feel free to comment here on the blog, or tweet me @chris_kinnier using #cookingforoneboston and #favoritefriday's!

Fresh Tomato and Mozz Salad

Me? Eating a salad? Yes, it's true. And delicious! I went to the local Whole Foods and picked up some salad mix (I like the Spring Mix), some fresh tomatoes, and some fresh mozzarella cheese. I put a bed of the salad mix down on my plate, then chopped up the tomatoes and cheese and added those on top. I used a Sesame Ginger dressing for my salad, but I know that typically you would use a Balsamic or maybe even just some oil and vinegar. The dressing is totally up to you, whatever your preference is! I would just stick to something on the lighter side. I also enjoyed a refreshing Magner's cider on the side. Not only is it easy to make, but it's wicked easy to clean up after! Enjoy!

Top Chef, Season 11: Episode 1 reaction

I absolutely love watching cooking competition shows because it inspires me to further advance my own cooking skills. Top Chef has always been one of my favorites. I am so excited that this season is taking place in New Orleans. I feel like it is a place full of many different cultural influences which makes the food there even better! (Note, I have never been there, but maybe I should go and then write about my culinary experiences!) I was very impressed by this first episode, there seems to be a very high level of talent. Also, side note, how awesome is that house that they get to stay in??? I would like to try and cook some of the recipes that are cooked on the show, but to be very up front, since the three proteins in this episode were Turtle, Alligator, and Frog Legs, it's probably not going to happen just yet. Either way, if I had to pick a couple of my favorite chefs for this season, I would say Nina and Kerry to start. I was very pleased to see that Nina won the challenge, I think that she cooks from the heart and has a great personality. With Kerry, I see a very fun person with a big heart, and A LOT of cooking skills. As far as them sending home Ramon, I was honestly surprised. It seems like he had some pretty good cooking skills, he just happened to miss with this first dish, and the judges were not impressed. It seems like it will be a very intense season and I am looking forward to future episodes! Be sure to keep an eye out for any upcoming posts that may be inspired by the dishes seen on the show.

Top Chef: Season 11 Starting Tonight

The new season of Top Chef is starting tonight at 9/8c on Bravo? Who's excited?? I love watching cooking competition shows (Chopped and Hell's Kitchen are two of my other favorites). Looking forward to seeing what the new contestants come up with/hopefully will try some of their recipes!