Dinner Is Served

This is what the Furious Household had for dinner tonight. This might be my best semi-homemade dinner concoction yet!
Tortellini With Bacon and Peas

Place Tortellini in salted boiling water.
Place 2 strips thick cut Hickory Smoked Bacon in a cold pan and turn to medium high heat.
At seven minutes remaining on the pasta pour into the pasta water 1/2 c frozen peas.
When the bacon is crisp remove it from the pan and cut into small pieces.
Drain pasta and peas and add to the bacon pan.
Return bacon to pasta mixture, toss to coat, season with salt and pepper, and heat over low until ready to serve.

This makes 3 servings at 300 calories a piece.


I used Buitoni Portabello Mushroom & Cheese Tortelloni. Mr F hates mushrooms and he still liked these. I think these had the best flavor of all the flavors I have tried.

I have a pasta pot with a pasta insert and a steamer basket on top of that. Outside of boiling the water I can make this whole dinner in 11 minutes. I prep my vegetables once the pasta goes in the pot and at about 4-5 minutes remaining I put the steamer basket on top of the cooking pasta. Everything is done at once.. couldn't be simpler.

Excuse Me While I Toot My Own Horn

Tonight for dinner I reheated up some frozen Cornflake Crusted Tilapia fish sticks (well nuggets really) and they were as good, if not quite possibly better, than when I first made them. I know I've talked these babies up before but I'm fairly certain none of you have broken down and lined up your pie plates as of yet. Well what are you waiting for... Get On It! These are so good I cannot even get over myself! If I had a restaurant these would be on the menu every goddamn night. These were so good, even reheated mind you!, that Mr F and I were fighting over the extra nuggets left in the pan.

Here it is one more time:

Cornflake Crusted Tilapia

1 lb Tilapia filets (4-6)
2.5 c cornflakes, crunched up
1 egg, beaten
1/4 c flour
2T spice rub*
2T oil


preheat oven to 400 baking time 10 mins

Coat the bottom of a large rimmed baking sheet with the oil, spread to coat evenly and set aside. Line up three pie pans or shallow bowls or plates. Place the flour and spice rub in one and whisk together. Beat one egg in the 2nd pie pan. Pour the crunched up Cornflakes in the third (I just crunch them with my hands). Dip each filet, one at a time, in the flour turning to coat evenly, the egg mixture and then the cornflakes. Place them on the oiled baking sheet. Bake for 5 mins, turn over and finish baking for an additional 5 minutes.

each filet is 200 calories

*Israeli Spice Rub (care of Racheal Ray)
1 1/2 tablespoons (1 1/2 palmfuls) sweet paprika
1 1/2 tablespoons (1 1/2 palmfuls) ground cumin
1 teaspoon (1/3 palmful) dried oregano
1 teaspoon (1/3 palmful) ground coriander
1/2 to 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (medium to hot in spice level)
1 1/2 teaspoons (1/2 palmful), coarse kosher salt

Note: I omitted the red pepper flakes for this recipe!


If you decide to do a double batch go ahead and cook them then transfer them to a cooling rack so they don't sog up on you. Once they are completely cool I just put the cooling rack in the freezer. Once the fish is frozen through pop the filets (or nuggets if you decided to go that route... and I suggest you do!) in a freezer bag. I freeze things this way so that I don't end up with a frozen clump of fish, cookie dough, what have you... trust me on this one! When reheating I just popped the frozen fish onto a lightly oiled baking sheet, sprayed the tops of the fish with oil and put them right into a hot (400) oven. I forgot to time them (sorry!) but they heated up pretty quick and I did flip them once half way through. Around 10-15 mins.... just don't burn them. The coating was even crunchier and if possible more delicious! Tonight I served it up with a creamy cocktail sauce. Yum!

And I'm not kidding around, the spice mix is key in this recipe. Take the time to do it right. I just make up a big batch and keep it around. In fact that's what I seasoned last weeks steak with and it was fantastic.

Delicioso !

Yes... that would be a "Kashi Go Lean Roll!" in Caramel Peanut.
Delicious. I'm a very picky *energy* bar eater... most of them suck and have a terrible texture unlike anything else in the food world. These "Roll!" versions are really good and if anything slightly too sweet. I've been having the Chocolate Turtle flavor for awhile now and those are good, kind of like a huge tootsie roll covered in rice syrup and coated in nuts and kashi type stuff. But my god this Caramel Peanut flavor is sooo much better. I could easily eat this for dessert and be completely satisfied. 190 calories. 12 g of protein (not bad!). 6 g of fiber. Unfortunately it does have 14 g of sugar.... but hey that's why it's good!

Dinner was *%^&$#@ Delicious

Let me just say I was practically making out with my flank steak sandwich tonight! The bread is even better than I remember it being. Nothing could have been better than the still warm from the oven bread slathered in horseradish sauce and covered in a good amount of steak... I mean it was mother fucking fantastic! I have rarely had something as completely satisfying as this sandwich. So simple and yet so delish!

So the bread is worth making. If you've made bread by hand I'm confident that you will turn out a good loaf or two. If not here are my tips: bread is not complicated, there are not a lot of ingredients, but you do need to be sure to knead it well to develop the right texture (I'd say gluten but I don't want to scare you away). Also be sure to follow the "Traditional Method" the steam produced by the boiling water is what gives the bread such a nice crust. I like to make my bread with the minimum amount of flour needed to pull the bread together and work it in well getting it pretty elastic. That means I don't put all the flour in... I usually reserve 1-2 cups and knead it in just to get to the texture that isn't too sticky. I keep dusting my board (ie counter) and the dough while I knead. I'm scaring you already right? Just follow the directions.... if it sucks go feed some ducks or use it for french toast.

As for Flank Steak if you have either a grill or a cast iron pan (my personal favorite cooking tool these days) this is the easiest thing to make. Take your steak out and let it rest and come up to room temp before you cook it (no you are not going to get food poisoning.. you are going to cook your meat faster and more evenly) Heat your pan with just enough oil to coat over medium high heat (or grill to med-high) I get about 1.75 lb and that covers us with 2 dinners of 4 oz each (believe or not Kid Furious can throw back some serious "steak meat") I know, I know, you are doing the math and you're coming up with 1.5 lbs, well the steak cooks down so keep that in mind when you are making your purchase. Back to the cooking. So you've let your steak come up to room temp and you've either started your grill or you've got your pan ready. I change my seasoning up all the time but what you need to remember is that all you really need is salt and pepper. If you've got some ethnic side dish just throw those same spices on your steak, or buy a "steak seasoning", you cannot mess this up (and yes Ms.B I'm talking to you!) This week I put on some garlic powder, onion powder, ground thyme & ground oregano... just because I had them on the counter... perfectly good. Alright, your pan is hot (or grill) put the steak on it. For 1.75-2 lb your gonna cook that about 8 mins and then flip and cook another 8 mins. For a smaller steak 6 mins per side. Take it off the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes (do not cut into it to check it or anything you'll end up with a dry steak... it's fine). Now if you are me you had a pot of water on the other burner and you diced up a potato (yes just one big yukon gold... I'm on a diet...you could do as many as you want) and as soon as it was fork tender you scooped out the potato with a strainer and let them sit on the counter but kept the water on. When you take your steak off the heat you add a little more oil to your steak pan (yeah I know there's bits all over the bottom) and throw the potato in there and season it up with salt and pepper. Cook it flipping them around while the steak rests. At the same time I put some ears of corn in the old potato water. When the steak is done resting your corn and potatoes are done too. Slice that steak across the grain (that means parallel to the stubby end) as thin as you can. Dinner's done and you should have about half a steak leftover to make those delicious steak sandwiches. That's how its done Mrs. Furious style.