A Hot Cheese Steak Sandwich

Stuffed Husband LOVES red meat.  I enjoy a bite of his steak every now and then but could ultimately, and often do, live without red meat.  There is one guilty pleasure of course.  A hot cheese steak sandwich.  Hallelujah, Amen.

For reasons I don’t totally understand, I often opt for chicken or fish when we eat out.  Chicken tenders, chicken salad, chicken soup, chicken sandwich, chicken, chicken, chicken.  And when it’s not chicken, it’s usually tuna, shrimp, crab, or crawfish.  (side note: pepperoni is the only meat I order on pizza. period.) But this cube steak sandwich…it’s a whole ‘nother level of amazingness.  I promise this will make your mouth happy and tummy full.  Let’s get started.

Here is what you’ll need:

• 1 pd of cube steak (this is usually available at any grocery store. it’s basically tenderized beef)
• 1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce
• Bottle hot sauce
• 2-3 tbsp of butter
• 1 cup of chopped lettuce
• 1 large tomato
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1/2 yellow onion
• sliced jalapeños
• Sliced swiss cheese/Mozzarella
• mayonnaise
• Spicy mustard
• Dinner rolls or pistolettes

Start by throwing some sliced onions into a skillet with butter

Let the onions cook down to a nice translucent color and transfer them to a separate bowl

Slice up a few cube steaks…try not to be grossed out at the squishy red flesh.

Season them with a little salt and peppah’ lovin (push it, push it real good)

Throw the pile of flesh into a medium-heat skillet with a little buttah

At this point, place a few slices of tomato into an oven safe dish.  Season with salt and pepper.  Drizzle a little olive oil cause it’s the right thing to do.

Let the tomatoes get all warm and yummy for about 15-20 minutes…you’ll thank me for this, I promise.

Now that your meat has had a second to start cooking, add in your Worcestershire sauce

Then a sprinkle of hot sauce because meat without heat ain’t right.  And you can quote me on that.  Ya heard?!

Throw the onions back into the mix.  They’re so tired of being alone.

Place the lid on this skillet.  Set the heat to low (simmer) for 10-15 minutes. 

In the mean time I had stuffed husband butter up my pistolletes.  He likes to butter up my pistolletes.  I hope you have someone to butter up your pistolletes.  Ok, I’ll stop.

Toast your bread for a few minutes just to get the bread soft.  Follow by adding some mayo and/or mustard.  Stuffed husband really loves when I mix pesto into his mayonaise…just like this.

Follow with your roasted tomatoes

Add a little of the juice from your meat skillet to the other side of your bun.  This will ensure your sandwich is splendidly sloppy.  Everyone knows the best sandwiches are the messiest.

mmmm.  I’m hungry all over again.  Follow with meat

Add your cheese (I used swiss and mozzarella) and pop this into the even on the broil setting just long enough to make your cheese oogey and gooey, the way God intended it.

Top with lettuce and jalapeños.  Drool.

Try to make it to the table before you swallow this guy whole.  It’s ain’t easy.

This lunch was so good, I actually thought I could die from happiness.  Food does this to me from time to time.  Especially when cheese is involved.

Try this recipe.  It is brilliantly delicious and simple a the same time.

And last, but certainly not least, here’s a new pic of Isabella because well, I just can’t get enough.  Who could?!

IsabellaBug My Love

Let me know what you think of this sandwich.  Are you more of a chicken person? Or do you crave red meat?  Are you a fan of pesto?  I’d love to hear all about what makes your tummy and tongue sing praises!!

Peace, Love, and Life beyond chicken~

The Hungry Wife

Lick-itty Split Nachos

Right NOW Nachos

Sometimes my tummy gets an attitude.  It doesn’t care what I’m doing or what I have planned for dinner, it reminds that I am hungry NOW.  On days when the hunger monster in me rises up, I try to make food that will take me less than ten minutes from prep to done because waiting really isn’t an option.  OM nom nom.

Last night my hunger monster visited.  So did stuffed husband’s.  They’re a pair, those two piggies.  Made for each other I’d say.  In any case, I decided to make NACHOS!  I threw this recipe together about a month ago and found it was HEAVEN both in terms of taste and ease.  Here’s what you’ll need…

• 1 bag corn tortilla chips
• 1 can refried beans
• 1 can diced tomatos
• 1 can sliced jalapenos
• 1 can chicken
• 8 0z. shredded cheese
• Sour Cream for dipping

Start by setting your oven to broil.  Follow by grabbing a baking sheet.  Line it with aluminum foil.  This makes clean up easier on that guy you married.

Next, place a layer of corn tortillas onto your baking sheet.  Be generous and try not to leave too many empty spaces.  Eating chips while you do this will both increase the quality of your cooking and the size of your waist.

Now add a layer of refried beans evenly across the plane.  Be sure to get each chip so that every bite has all the yummy flavors in the mix.

Follow by adding your drained dice tomatoes over the plane.

Break up the chicken and distribute evenly.  Don’t be afraid of canned chicken.  I used to be a frightened little weenie as well.  It’s so easy to use, very cheap, and when it is mixed in with other ingredients you can hardly even tell the difference between fresh and canned.  TRY IT!

The smell will already have you weak in the knees.  Plus you’re only minutes away from nachos now!  Sprinkle a generous coating of shredded cheese over every inch of this Pollock-like piece of art!

Now pop this bit of heaven on earth into the oven, set to broil, for about 5 minutes.  Keep an eye on it to prevent scorching.  No one likes a burnt nacho.

DISCLAIMER:  Please ignore my seriously dirty oven.  It’s on my list of things I need to do but never get around to because I’m a major procrastinator and would rather eat nachos while playing scrabble with stuffed husband.  See, I feel better already.  Thanks for listening.

After five minutes, you get nacho-heaven.  Throw on a few jalapenos for good measure.

Give thanks. Stuff your mouth.

Stuffed husband likes to add sour cream to his nachos.

I try not to laugh when I catch him like this… (TRY being the key word)

He even tried to share with Chloegirl (my lil piggie)

Bellabug was too tired from studying to care.

The next time you need a quick, fun, and SUPER yummy recipe, try making Lick-itty Split Nachos.  You won’t be sorry!  And your hunger monster won’t complain either.

Find the printable recipe here!

Peace, love, and lick-itty split nachos~

The Hungry Wife

Freedom and Pasta Salad

I’m baaack.  Did ya miss me?  I’ve been swimming in work-work and home-work lately.  Luckily my FOURTH tax season finally come to an end and to make things even sweeter I am off of school all this week.  Amen. Hallelujah.

This freedom in my schedule means two things.  1. I can no longer use my busy life as an excuse to avoid the pile of laundry growing out of my closet, through the living room, and into the laundry room.  It’s a work in progress.  2. I have a lot more free time and energy to get busy in the kitchen!  Laundry = bad, cooking = good.  If only we could invent disposable clothes.  This way you can stay trendy and never have to match 1800 socks.  Like we have time for that sort of thing.  Really.

With my free time from school last night I decided to whip up something fresh and light.  I’m trying to be less drawn to things that are mostly fried and full of cheese.  At least this meal was NOT fried.  I’m working on it people.

Here is what you will need to make what I call, Perfect Pasta Salad.  You don’t have to agree on the perfect part.  Just shut up and eat it.

• 1 1/2 cups of dry whole wheat pasta (ziti, rotini, shells, it’s up to you)
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp of basil pesto
• 1 lemon’s zest (3-4 tsp of lemon juice)
• 8 oz. of mozzarella (I buy the pearls because I’m lazy)
• 1 1/2 cups of cherry tomatoes
• 20-25 pepperoni slices

This recipe leaves room for tweaking.  I made this dish on a whim, a hope, and a prayer.  So adjust ingredients until you get the ratio of your dreams.  Start by boiling water for your pasta.

Next, and this step is crucial to the integrity of your dish and your title as cook, pour a serious glass of wine and take a slow and satisfying sip.

Red, white, cheap, expensive, carbonated, or not, it does not matter.  If you are not into wine, opt for beer, root beer, or Shirley temple.  Just try to enjoy yourself.  Cooking should be like therapy only cheaper.  And you get to eat at the end.  I’m babbling now.  I think it has something to do with my repressed childhood feelings of inadequacy.  Freud? Anyone?  Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

While your water is heating up, zest the rhine of one lemon.

Then chop the lemon in half.

Squeeze about 3-4 teaspoons of lemon juice into a bowl.

Next add your pesto.

Then dump in your olive oil and stir it all up.

Now dip your finger in and give it a taste.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Try not to drink this straight from your bowl  but if you do, just repeat the above steps.

Next, chop your washed cherry tomatoes into halves.

Your pasta should be cooked by now.  Drain your pasta and rinse it with cool water then place it in a bowl.  This will stop the cooking process and keep the mozzarella from melting.

Add your cherry tomatoes.

Then add your mozzarella.

Next, add the lemon zest.  The amount of zest will depend on your preference for tartness.  It balances well with the basil in the pesto.

Now pour your basil, lemon, oil mixture onto your pasta.

You could certainly stop here and mix your ingredients if you are not the kind of person who like to eat meat.  I’m not a really big fan of meat myself.  I eat it. I’m just not always in the mood for flesh.  If you are in the mood for a lil carnivore action, chop up a few slices of pepperoni.  You could even go healthy and make this turkey pepperoni.  But I’m a purist and like the real stuff.

Throw it in the bowl with the other good stuff.

Now lightly toss this mixture together.

Serve this up with a turkey sandwich or a grilled chicken breast.  I had a rotisserie chicken waiting to be taken advantage of sitting in my fridge.

 

 Eat it up!  It tastes even better the next day.  Enjoy, my hungry friends!

After I enjoyed with yummy meal with my favorite stuffed husband, I got to spend a little cuddle time with my two other loves.

They melt my heart everytime.  Exept when they poop and I step in it, then walk around the apartment with poop on my shoe for five minutes before I realize that I am the source of that fowl smell.  Thanks Chloe.

I’ll be back later this week to share a super special surprise I have in the works!

Peace, love, and perfect pasta salad~

The Hungry Wife

Fried cheese sticks on my mind.

I’m always on the lookout for easy recipes for appetizers.  Sometimes I just want a nibble for dinner rather than a meal.  I believe it has something to do with the fact that I eat large amounts of thin mints throughout the evening thus ruining my appetite for a proper dinner.  It’s just a theory I’ve come up with.  But hey, no one is here to tell me not to spoil my dinner.  So really it’s not even my fault. Right?

Because I love string cheese and panko breadcrumbs AND had both at home last night, I made fried mozzarella sticks.  They were crunchy on the outside and ooey gooey on the inside.  I was a happy chick.  So was stuffed husband.  Let me share this tasty, all together, delicious appetizer with you.  It’s a piece of cake…well, cheese. You know what I’m saying.

Here’s what you’re going to need and you probably already have most of it in your fridge or pantry.  This is fancy cookin ya’ll.

FRIED CHEESE STICK INGREDIENTS

• 4 sticks of string cheese
• 1/2 cup of flour
• 1 large egg
• 2/3 cup of panko bread crumbs
• 1 tbsp of dried parsley
• 4/3 cup of vegetable oil
• marinara sauce for dipping, or licking off your fingers.

Start out by heating the vegetable oil over medium-high heat.  Next, cut each stick of cheese into two equal parts.

Then grab three bowls.  Place flour, breadcrumbs mixed with parsley, and a lightly-whipped egg into individual bowls.

Place your string cheese in the flour, then the egg, and finish with bread crumbs.  Here’s what they should look like.

Place your battered cheese sticks into the vegetable oil.  Check to make sure your oil is hot enough by dipping one stick in the oil.  If it bubbles immediately, you’re good to go.  If not, wait until your oil is hot enough.  Putting your cheesesticks into the grease too early can leave you with soggy food.  Soggy food is bad.  Just don’t do it. Wait. for. heat. Ya heard?

Let each side brown for about 2 minutes.  While these bad boys fry up, ask your sweet husband to heat up a lil marinara in the microwave.

Ain’t he just precious.  I love him.  And his taste in women.  I’m not biased or anything.

Once your mozzarella sticks have browned on both sides, set them on a paper towel to absorb some of the grease unless you’re just into that kind of thing.  Grease, I mean.  Then just go ahead and gobble them up right there.  Be careful not to burn your mouth, it hurts.  Not that I did anything like that.  Me?  Never.

Then just add a little marinara sauce and enjoy!

Mmmmm. cheesy, crunchy goodness.

Just make sure you don’t lose track of your little peeing pup in the hustle and bustle of battering cheese.  She’ll make a white blanket yellow.

Who? Me???

Stay hungry because I’ve got plenty of new ideas brewing.  Also, later this week I’ll be posting a recipe for PIG CAKE.  You read that right. PIG. CAKE.  It’s so delicious you won’t be able to keep from eating seconds.  Just ask Stuffed Husband, he’s already had four slices in two days.

Peace, love, and panko-

The Hungry Wife