Quick and Easy, Chicken Noodle

Well here is something that I have done many times, but this is the first time since I made the blog.
So here we go.....

Ingredients:

1 can of Chicken Noodle Soup (I used Cambell's)
1 can of Peas
1 Boneless Skinless chicken breast
olive oil
garlic
oregano
red pepper (flakes)

How to:

I started by cutting the chicken into cubes and then I heated up some olive oil in order to brown the chicken. I added some garlic as the chicken browned. After cooking the chicken for a little longer I added the oregano, red pepper flakes, and a bit more garlic all while I kept the chicken moving (so it doesn't stick and picks up the spices that didn't land on the chicken).
And since the Cambell's soup already has a lot of salt in, I don't bother adding anymore.

Then I opened the can of Chicken noodle soup, and added enough water to cover the chicken in the pot. I let it cook until it was bubbling before adding the peas.
















At this point I just let it simmer. And served myself.



Regrets:

1) Use an additional vegetable.
2) Brown chicken longer
3) In past makes of this I cooked elbow noodles or rice and added that, more noodles=better.

Taste Test:

As you would expect chicken noodle soup to taste, but with the added chunks of meat and peas this simple meal is a great way to make the most out of a can of soup.
I give it a 7.5 out of 10.

Worth a second try!?:

Yeah definitely, since I even told you that this isn't the first time I have done this! There is some room for improvement, but I don't think it will get too much better than an 8 out of 10. Maybe add a larger variety of veggies, the pasta/rice addition, maybe even add some little potato cubes. We shall see what all that can do....

Honey-Rum Glazed Spam, with Rice and Green Beans

I know, I know, what your thing is "He's using Spam!? Is he crazy!?".... I would like to answer that but frankly, we all know the answer to that...
Well like I said, I'm the canned cook, and am using canned ingredients so why not canned meat?.

Anyway, I had a request from my one reader, my brother. Yes, that request was in fact Rum Glazed Spam. I had some left over Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rum left by someone in my freezer. and I did have one can of Spam, so why not give my one reader his wish, but I took it a step further.

I introduce Honey-Rum Glazed Spam.

So lets start:

Ingredients:

White Rice
Spam
Cinnamon
Cayenne
Salt
Honey
Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rum


How to:

First, I took the Sailor Jerry's and warmed it in a small shallow saucepan, I used every last drop of the Sailor, (I think I'll stop with Sailor Jerry's jokes now).

I used all of that little rum I have in that picture. After it started to steam, I added honey spoonful by spoonful until the glaze started to smell like honey. I added a dash or two of salt, and like 3 times as much cayenne. (Sorry, I forgot this picture, but it wasn't much to look at anyway.)

At this point, I started the rice to try and time it to finish with the spam. I also preheated the oven to 350. Then, I took them spam out of its can and I poked holes in it on all sides, hoping to have the glaze sneak in.

I didn't have a baking pan so I made one out of tin foil, which I would recommend anyway (you'll see in a sec).
I placed the Spam in the middle of the tin foil, and drizzle some of the warm glaze on top and along the sides (doesn't it look 5-star restaurant quality?)

I baked it for 3 minutes at a time (I set a timer), when ever the timer went off, I would drizzle more glaze and scoop some already in the tin foil basket on top of it. I did this a bunch of times, maybe like six or seven.
But on like the third I got the brilliant idea to close the tin foil completely.




On the last time I put almost all of the sauce on top, sprinkled on some cinnamon (very poorly I might add), and drizzled some of the glaze in tin foil on top. During this last bake session I put the sauce left in the pan on high to bring to a bubbly boil. Then I seared the bottom side of the spam in this bubbly glaze.


I made some green beans around this point too, canned ones.

I placed the rice and green beans on the plate, as well as some slices of the spam. And put some of the Glaze on my rice as well.


Regrets:

1) Cut Spam into slices first and lean them long ways in the tin foil.
2) Then sear both sides each slice in the glaze.
3) Fold tin foil closed from the beginning.

Taste results:

It was really good, but the taste of the glaze was lost with the inner slices (hence the first recommendation). But the glaze was awesome! it was sweet with a mild after taste of the rum, I think I'll use it for chicken and other things... even ham! However the lack of the glaze on most pieces brought it down a bunch. The two ends were unbelievable, but towards the middle I almost forgot that this spam was glazed.
I give it at best a 6.5 out of 10.

Worth Second Try!?

I would do this again, but I'm just as likely to just fry slices of spam and make sandwiches.
Next time I will need to see just how much the cutting and searing slices will improve it. That's something that I just don't know.

I think with the improvements it could become anywhere from a 7 out of 10 to a 7.5- out of ten. But the glaze was fantastic.

Chicken, Peas, Corn (over pasta)

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know it isn't a creative name, but to be fair this is my first dish on this blog!
Basically I had cans of peas and cans of corn pasta and frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts. This is what I did.

Ingredients:

1 8.5oz can of peas
1 8.5oz can of corn
1 boneless skinless chicken breast
pasta (I used angel hair because it cooks fast)
granulated garlic
curry
paprika
cayenne
black pepper
sugar
water
butter
olive oil (I use extra virgin)
Cooking music (I used pandora, with mainly classic rock and metal)



How to:

First I cut the chicken breast into small pieces, I would give you a specific size but my pieces were all different sizes. So the best I can do is tell you about "bite sized". (I wouldn't test the 'bite sizededness' with raw chicken though!)

Next, in a skillet I melted about a tablespoon of butter with a "splash" of olive oil, and heated it until it started bubbling.
At that point I added the chicken and pushed the chicken around so each piece separated.

At this point I sprinkled a decent amount of curry on the chicken, then a bunch of garlic, and pushed the chicken around some more.

As the one side of each piece got cooked, I flipped each started to cook the other side and added more garlic, a touch more curry, paprika, and cayenne. Then I pushed the chicken around again.



Once the chicken started browning (note keep the chicken moving so it doesn't stick/burn), open the cans of corn and peas, drain the liquid, add the corn, and keep everything moving. After around a minute (I probably waited less then that) add the peas. After about another minute, fill one of the cans with water, not to the top but close to it, and add the water to the concoction.

At this point I started making the pasta, as I had mentioned I used angel hair. By "started making" I mean turned on the water to bring to a boil. As I prepared the pasta, I added the black pepper and sugar (I used to little packets of sugar since that is all I have). I kept the concoction on high to boil down the water to make it less of a soup and more of something you put on pasta.
It ended up looking like this.


When the pasta was finished I drained it and put some on a plate with the concoction on top of it. It looked like this on my plate.
















Regrets:

Well as I promised, here is what I think could have been done better.
1) Pasta water should have been heated up earlier so I didn't need to wait for it.
2) Use less water.
3) The combination of #1 and #2 led to peas that were starting to become mushy.
4) Drain the cans of corn and peas before putting the chicken on.
5) Wait a bit longer to add peas, and cook them longer before adding the water.
6) After making pasta mix cooked pasta in the skillet with chicken, corn, and peas.
7) Use smaller pasta, or break long pasta in half (long pasta always gets too knotted for me and doesn't mix with sauces very well).

Taste results:

It came out a little sweeter then I was expecting. Probably do to the the length of time it was cooking while I waited for pasta water to boil. I can only assume the natural sugars in the corn and peas had more time to be extracted, or something like that (as I said I am not a professional chef, but I forgot to tell you that I am not a food scientist either.)
As it came out without those 7 recommendations, I give it a 7 out of 10.

Worth a second try!?

I would definitely give this meal a second try, but I will need to take my own recommendations into account and report back. I believe it has the potential to become at least an 8.25 out of 10.

About the Blog

Welcome to my "food blog", which for now is about my attempts to create delicious foods at the cost of a college student will be able to afford easily. With that idea in mind, and my lack of car making it difficult to get to a real grocery store routinely, most of my supplies will be from a can or frozen. Sorry to those people looking to find recipes using fresh foods. This doesn't mean that everything will be canned and such, because at some point I just may find myself getting to that elusive grocery store. On such an occasion more exciting eats can be created; however the cannery periods will result in more creative cooking, or at least lots of recyclables!
Just a few things to note:
1) Clearly I'm not a professional chef.
2) With #1 in mind, if I do something that I think could be done better, I'll tell you what they are at the end of each post.
3) Positive criticism is graciously accepted, so if you can think of something to add to one of my "recipes" your more then welcome to comment on posts.

With that I again welcome you to my blog, and unless someone has claimed the title before this posting....

I am the Canned Cook.