anyone have recepies for a small kitchen?

Question

i live in an apartment with my fiance. we have a small kitchen, which means that we dont have a whole lot of room for ingredients. so i need to come up with a lot of recepies for 2-4ppl that will use just basic ingredients. thanks for the help!

Answer 1

Spices dont' take up much room. Use them a lot.

Make room for rice, pasta, hot cereals. Dont' waste space or money on cold cereals.

Utilize your freezer. Keep bnls, skls chicken breasts/tenders on hand, as well as ground beef, sausage, shrimp, pork chops, or other cuts you like and use often. Same w/ frozen veggies and fruits.

Go to the grocery store more than once a week. Go 2-3 times... buy just enough for 2-3 days, so you dont' have to store it. Let the grocery store warehouse it until YOU need it!

Also, consider clearingyour countertops of small appliances. How often do you use the blender, really? If you only make coffee once a week, put it away, or relocate it on top of the fridge. Never use the mixer? Ditch it and get a hand mixer that will store in a drawer.


Chicken Breasts & Mushrooms in Lemon Sauce

4-5 Tbsp. butter
olive oil - optional
8 oz. fresh white button mushrooms - sliced thick
6 green onions with tops, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup A/P flour
1 Tbsp. fresh rosemary or 1/4 teas. dried
½ tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. white pepper
1/4 tsp. paprika
4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
½ cup chicken stock or canned low sodium broth
¼ cup dry white wine (ie. chardonay)
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Capers, to taste

1. In a large skillet over medium heat melt 2Tbsp. butter, add mushrooms, onions and garlic and saute for about 5 minutes (do not over cook).
2. Transfer mushrooms & onions to the bottom of a covered casserole dish.
3. Combine flour and spices and toss chicken to coat. (Save left over flour)
4. In same skillet over medium heat, add 2T butter (and 1-2Tbsp. olive oil if desired) and brown chicken on both sides. Combining olive oil and butter helps prevent butter from burning while browning chicken.
5. Transfer chicken to casserole dish and place on top of mushrooms and onions.

Preheat oven to 350°.

6. Add 1T butter to skillet if needed. Add reserved flour mixture and whisk. Add stock, wine, lemon juice to flour and butter mixture and heat until it thickens (about 5 minutes). If it becomes too thick add mor stock or wine.
Pour over checken. Place some of the mushrooms and onions over the chicken & sauce. Sprinkle with capers.

7. Cover and bake for 30-40 minutes until chicken is done and no longer pink. Serve over rice.

--"Big Book of Casseroles" by Maryana Vollstedt
_______________________

Deep Dish Taco Squares
2 cups biscuit mix
½ cup cold water
1( 8-oz )carton sour cream
1/3 cup prepared Ranch salad dressing
1½ pounds ground beef
½ green or red bell pepper – finely chopped**
2 Tbsp. chopped onion**
1 pkg taco seasoning mix (¼ cup)
1 (8-oz) can tomato sauce
½ cup mild salsa
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Combine biscuit mix and water, stirring with a fork until blended. Press mixture in bottom of a lightly greased 13 x 9 x 2” baking dish. Bake at 375ºF for 9 minutes.
Combine sour cream and Ranch dressing. Spread over baked crust and set aside.
Cook ground beef, green bell pepper, and onion in a large skillet until meat is browned and crumbled; drain well. Stir in tomato sauce and taco seasoning mix, spoon over Ranch filling.
Sprinkle cheese evenly over meat mixture. Bake at 375ºF, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until casserole is lightly browned. Cut into 12 squares to serve.

** If serving to picky children, you can omit the bellpepper and use 2 tsp. onion powder instead of fresh onions. Omit salsa and add a second can of plain tomato sauce.
_____________________

Caramelized Baked Chicken
Yield: 6 servings

3 pounds chicken pieces
2 Tbsp. olive oil
½ cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp. ketchup
1 cup honey
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400º F. Place chicken in a greased 9”x13” baking dish. Mix together remaining ingredients. Pour over the chicken. Bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes. Turn chicken over, baste, and bake 45 minutes more.
______________________

Pork Tenderloin with Dijon Cream

Serves: 2
Prep time: 15 min Cook time: 15 min

1# pork tenderloin, cut into 2" slices
Seasoned flour
2 Tbsp. butter, divided
2 tsp. canola or olive oil
Sauce:
2 green onions, sliced (coin shape), white and green parts separated
1/3 cup white wine or dry vermouth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. Dijon mustard (or more to taste)
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to low, about 170 degrees.

Lightly pound pork medallions to 1" thick.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter and 2 tsp. oil over medium high heat.

Dredge pork in seasoned flour. Add all at once to pan and saute 2 minutes per side.

Remove to a plate and hold in the oven while finishing the sauce. (pork will be a bit underdone but will finish in the oven.)

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon butter to pan. Add white part of onion, saute for 1 minute. Add wine or vermouth, simmer until syrupy and reduced to about 3 tablespoons. Add cream, simmer 2 - 3 minutes until thickened.*

Stir in Dijon, add salt and pepper to taste.

Return pork to pan to coat with sauce. Serve over rice or pasta, garnishing with the green part of the onion.

*If sauce ends up too thick, add ¼ cup or less of water or milk.
_________________________

Sweet and Sour Pork

1 pound pork rib chops
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup corn starch
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups oil
a little ginger, scallion and salt

Cut meat into the size of small mushrooms. Cut ginger and scallion into very find strips. Marinate the meat with soy sauce, salt, ginger and scallion for 15 to 20 minutes. Mix the flour and corn starch with one cup of water, then mix together with the pork. Let every piece of pork is coated by the batter. Put the wok on high heat, pour oil in and heat until it's half warm. Put the pork chops in one by one; fry until a crust forms. Switch to medium heat, cover the wok and fry until the crust is golden brown. Take the meat out and drain the oil. Leave about two tablespoons of oil in the wok. Put the vinegar and sugar in the wok; stir slowly until the sugar melt. Switch to high heat, put the meat in and stir quickly so that all the pork chops are covered by the sweet and sour sauce.

Answer 2

After you go to any kind of resteraunt make sure to bring home the leftover meat. Then, the next day, you can wrap the meat in tortillas or as the meat for a sandwich. Be careful though, it doesn't work for EVERY kind of meat... Also, Ceasar salads and other easy stuff like sloppy joes and stuff are always good! Hope that helps!

There's also this recipe that ROCKS! You need...
1 bag of Cabbage
some Romein noodles
Almonds
Sunflower seeds
1/2 cup of oil
chicken seasoning mix
tablespoon of sugar

mix everything except the last 3 ingredients in a large bowl. then, in a seperate bowl, combine the last three to make the dressing. Add the dresing right before you serve it! It's SOOO good!

Answer 3

Just get creative. Many times, I bake my meat at 375 for about 30 minutes, depending on thickness. My steaks turn out great! I also use frozen vegetables, I can use what I need and put the rest back until I need it. Another thing I like to do is cook enough for a couple of meals so I don't have to cook everyday. I plate it up and wrap the plate and all in plastic. Then I just put it into the microwave when I am ready to eat the next meal. Here is another great recipe:
2 lbs of green beans (fresh, canned, or frozen)
5 to 6 medium potatoes cubed
1 large onion, sliced
1 bell pepper diced (optional)
16 oz of beef broth, or chicken broth, or just water (2 cups)
1 lbs of smoked beef sausage, (sliced and the slices halved)

Place green beans and broth into a large pot. Add 1 cup of water. Cover pot and put on a medium-high flame. When the green beans comes to a boil, turn the flame on low. When the green beans are tender, add the potatoes and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the onions and smoked beef sausage. Cook until all vegetables are cooked and the sausage is heated through. Make sure to keep the top on the pot to keep in the vitamins.
Just try new things and keep it simple and good.

Answer 4

You can maximize your space for spices by using a spice step you can buy in any Target, Linen's n Things etc. Make room for your different types of vinegars & oils, flour, sugar, rice, potatoes and pastas. We are in an apartment temporarily while our home is being built and have had to work out of a smaller kitchen than I'm used to. But I have managed to fit in what I need and still make the same recipes I always have done. I just had to be more creative with the space and of course, I couldn't bring in all my cookware, dishes and the like. I scaled it down to what was necessary. You can do the same by choosing key pots and pans or baking pieces.

Answer 5

My husband and I lived in a 12x 30 ft storage building we turned into a house when we got married, so I know what ya mean when you say mall kitchen. I found the best thing was a crock pot. Try this recipie for Crock Pot Pot Roast

1 - 3lb roast (whatever kind you like)
1- can condensed french onion soup
1- medium onion, sliced thinly
1- small bag of baby carrots
2- large potatoes, peeled and chopped in large chunks
1- tsp Paprika
2- tsp. Onion Powder
2- tsp. Garlic powder
1- tsp Season salt
2- tbs. Parsley Flakes
2- tbs. Worchestershire sauce
1- tsp pepper
2- tsp salt

Throw all of this in the crock pot and leave it on low for at least six hours. Serve it with biscuts from a can. Awesome!

Answer 6

Mmmmmm.....water! I don't know if you consider fish to be a red meat....but... Try Salmon. If you go to Wal-mart, they sell individually packaged salmon fillets for around a dollar each. The teriyaki ones are delicious. Also, they're super easy to cook, it only takes about 5 minutes in the skillet once thawed. To go with them, I just make rice. But when you add the equal part water, leave a little empty space in the measuring cup and add some teriyaki merinade. It flavors the rice very nicely. Then, just place the rice on plates, and put the salmon on top.

Answer 7

check any book store they always have books for 4, 5, 6 or less ingredients and they are very useful. A lot of times i go thru the bargain section and find them on sale.

Answer 8

Some quick things are pasta and rice dishes. You boil the pasta, and you can add anything! Some of our favorites with pasta are:
- red sauce with wine and green and black olives,
- mushrooms, garlic and olive oil in red sauce,
- pesto with olives, asparagus, and red & yellow peppers.

With rice one quick thing that is very good is beans and rice with sausage:

- fry sliced polish sausage (Kielbasa, sp?) with cut up onions and green and red peppers ( you can get a frozen mix of onions, red, and green peppers cheaply at the grocery store in frozen foods), oil and spices.

- Then add the sausage mix to cooked red beans and rice (spice however you want. We use seasoned salt, pepper, garlic, chili powder, and a little tomato sauce)

You can even use a beans-and-rice packet. It's good, cheap and easy!

Answer 9

I love this kind of question. I have a very decent size kitchen and barely use 1/3 the available space, but if you ate here you'd think you were in a fancy restaurant.

The first phase of minimizing your "foot print" in the kitchen is to do the same thing in your head. Example: salad dressing. Got a bottle handy? Go get it. What's it say on the list of ingredients: top three or four things are going to be oil, water, vinegar and sugar. I haven't bought prepared salad dressing for years. I make it up as I need it. Suppose I want Italian dressing: Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, oregano, cilantro and I'm done. Suppose I want Thousand Island? Mayo, catsup, relish. Done.

Suppose I want pancakes? Buy pancake mix, or Bisquick? Fer Pete's sake, that stuff is basically repackaged flour, but at 5 times the price! Flour, sugar, egg, oil, milk or water, vanilla and baking powder -Done!

Point is here that all the prepacked stuff in any particular category basically uses the same ingredients over and over again. So why not use the basic ingredients themselves? They're cheaper, and you get to control the taste and quantity to suit yourself.

One of the problems with food stuffs is that the packaging, as well as the food, takes up space. So, fewer ingredients means more space. Get flour, oil, sugar, molasses, baking powder, yeast and vanilla flavor and you basically can make any cake or bread or roll. I keep the bulk stuff like flour and sugar in big plastic bottles that sit on an open shelf over my food prep area.

Get olive oil, balsamic vinegar, white vinegar, lemon juice, mayo and some herbs and spices and now you have the basic ingredients for any salad dressing. Add bottles of sheery and port wine and/or marsala, soy sauce and worchestire, and now you have what you need for sauces and marinades. And get the wine and sherry from the wine shelf -NOT "cooking" wine.

Get tomatoe paste and whatever pasta you like, and now you have a start on any italian style sauce or barbeque sauce, because you already have the other ingredients you'll need. You just don't need canned spaghetti sauce or barbeque sauce.

I've just named everything that takes up shelf space in my kitchen -aside from the very basic set of cooking tools, pots and pans. And I make everything from scratch in not much longer than it takes to use "Hamburger Helper."

I haven't given you recipes because I'm relying on you to buy things to your taste. That said, if you want to know what's "in" something you like -read the label. The stuff in the bottle or can or box doesn't know what that label is on the outside.

There are somethings you COULD make yourself that are probably NOT worth the effort, and mayo is a good example. Mayo is basically oil and eggs whipped up together with some flavoring such as lemon juice. And the ingredients in may show up in a lot of other things. It is so cheap to buy, it makes more sense to get it already made then to make it up myself. I rarely use it as a spread -its shows up as an ingredient in sauces and dressings. Here you go: mock hollandaise sauce: mayo, lemon juice, melted butter and a pinch of tarragon. Done. Tastes like hollandaise because it basically IS hollandiase, I've simply used the eggs and oil already whipped together in the mayo.

Another example: "Cool Whip" (or store brand of the same stuff). Its actually not that bad for you and can be made into some heavenly dessert. Add Ovaltine dust to cool whip and stir it up with some chocolate chips. Put in cups and freeze. A very good fake mousse is the result.

So, when you want a recipe, "search" for it here on Yahoo or in Google. When you see something you like, ignore ingredients that specify a brand name of something, or something that's made out of something else. Example: ignore "Bisquick" and just think "flour and baking powder."

Now that leaves some condiments which are better purchaed already made up: things like jellies and james and apple butter. But guess what; wanna a really tasty oriental dish? Make the sauce with soy, port wine, minced garlic, molasses and apple butter! Don't go buy "hoisin" sauce or teryaki. No need.

Same deal with "creole sauce." Sugar, yellow mustard, a tiny pinch of red pepper (or hot sauce, like Texas Pete), a splash of sherry. Throw that on top of ham slices in a pan and stir it in, or coat a ham for baking with it.

Are you following me here?

Good luck!

Answer 10

try buying cook book