Jones Home Kitchen

Zoodles with Parmesan Cheese

Zoodles, what are they some people ask. Well they are zucchini noodles, spiraled with this neat and handy kitchen tool! There are other brands but personally it has worked very well for me for a great price as well, so no complaints on my end. Okay, so my husband and I planted about 3 zucchini plants in our garden this year. We have never planted zucchini before so we were very surprised when we saw how much of our garden the plants took up! We also planted habaneros, jalapenos, cayenne peppers and also tomatoes. The zucchini pretty much covered the habanero plants so I do not think they will yield any peppers this year, sadly I will not be able to make my habanero mango jelly with my own fresh garden peppers!

I decided to check to see if we had any zucchini and luckily I was patient enough to look closely and found a huge one covered by a huge leaf, so glad I did. I wanted some zoodles for lunch so I decided to quickly make some. This recipe is super quick and easy when using the spiraler!

I quickly spiral the zucchini, put it all in a pan with about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and cook on medium high heat until soft, about 3 minutes, tossing occasionally. When the zucchini is about done I grind some sea salt and black pepper to my liking over it and also included a little bit of garlic powder. Feel free to season however you would like though. When the zucchini was cooked I turned off the heat and sprinkled 1 tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese and let it sit for a minute to melt a little. Zucchini is very watery so with the heat and the bit of water the cheese will make almost a creamy sauce that reminds me a little of alfredo sauce, without all the calories of course! See all done in about 7 minutes, enjoy as a side dish or as a quick low cal lunch. Try it out soon and as always, Enjoy!

Ingredients:
-1 large zucchini, washed
-vegetable spiraler
-1 tbsp EVOO
-1 tbsp Parmesan cheese
-salt, pepper, garlic powder

Directions:
-Wash zucchini, and spiral until desired amount. Place in hot pan with EVOO and cook for about 3 minutes of medium high heat, tossing occasionally. When zucchini is almost completely cooked add in seasonings. When finished turn off heat and sprinkle the Parmesan cheese, let sit for about a minute. Serve and enjoy!

-Cris J.

Greek Lemon Chicken

I have been meaning to make this post for weeks now so I sincerely apologize for the hold up!! I have so many recipes that I am excited to share with you that I totally forgot to write out a quick recipe for it. What made me remember about it was that my husband asked me to make this chicken for dinner tomorrow! So luckily because of him you may now have this delicious instant winner dinner!!

I will keep this short and sweet for ya, the ingredients and instructions are very straight forward. The only time consuming part is cutting the chicken (if you buy whole like I do) and making the seasoning (so I recommend tag teaming the effort and dinner will get done two times faster!). So essentially cut up the chicken and onion, place chicken on onion bed in baking pans and season with oil/lemon/seasoning dressing. Cook for about an hour or until a thermometer reads 160 on the thickest part of the chicken. Make some roasted potatoes and fresh green beans with this chicken and you will have an instant classic dish! Try it out soon and as always Enjoy

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons Garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
2 tablespoons salt
3 tablespoons oregano
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 whole fresh lemon, squeeze juice out of
1 4 pounds chicken, cut into pieces
1 whole onion, cut into 1″ pieces
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Cut chicken into pieces
3. Mix dry ingredients together, then add the wet and whisk together in small bowl
4. Cut up onion and place on bottom of cooking dish
5. Place chicken on top of onions and season with ingredients in bowl. Make sure to put the seasoning inside and on top of the skin so that the chicken is thoroughly seasoned.
6. Sprinkle Italian seasoning on top of chicken as desired
7. Cook chicken for approximately 1 hour, or until a thermometer reads 160 degrees
8. Take out of oven, let sit for a few minutes, and enjoy!!

-Cris J.

Crock Pot BBQ Brisket

Okay! So, I have a few recipes I’d like to share with you today! The first will be my popular Crock Pot BBQ Brisket. I first made this recipe about 3 years ago, when I had started dating my husband, this quickly became his favorite. I have since then made it countless times so I’ve got this recipe down pat! Now the recipe does call for Chipotle Peppers in Adobo sauce which, if you have never had it before is quite spicy, I recommend if you don’t like spice to just put one chopped up pepper in it. I would not omit the pepper because it does give very good flavor to the BBQ sauce! Alternatively, if you cannot find the peppers in adobo sauce you can just use Chipotle Pepper spice (1 tbsp=1 pepper).

Let me start off by saying that I wasn’t one for BBQ. Brisket was just okay and I never really liked pulled pork either, I guess I just never had damn good BBQ to know the difference. So upon meeting my husband he introduced me to probably one of the best Smoked BBQ places in Chicago, Smoque. I had the brisket, which was highly recommended by many people, and I was blown away. The meat was so full of flavor, tender, juicy and the homemade BBQ topped the sandwich off perfectly. From that day forward my views on BBQ changed. I make pulled pork frequently in my household by either using the oven to roast it or just slow cook it all day. But my favorite? It would have to be this brisket recipe. After being in the slow cooker for 8-10 hours the brisket is so damn tender it just shreds itself (so it makes it quicker to serve). So I can’t say that this brisket is comparable to Smoque’s Brisket, but when I have a hammering for brisket and don’t feel like driving into the city to get it, I go to this recipe. The best part is that the slow cooker does all the hard work for you, so your welcome 😉

I like to prepare my brisket in this dry rub the night before. It let’s the rub really set into the meat to help give it plenty of flavor. I also make the BBQ sauce the night before ( I usually wake up super early to put it in the crock pot in the morning so I like to have everything ready to just dump and start cookin’!) Make this easy brisket and I’m sure it will please the whole crowd! Enjoy 🙂

INGREDIENTS:
For the barbecue sauce:
1 1/2 cups ketchup
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 chipotles in adobo sauce, finely chopped
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
For the brisket dry rub:
1/4 cup paprika
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more as needed
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more as needed
1 (5-pound) beef brisket

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Place all of the barbecue sauce ingredients in a 3-quart or larger slow cooker and stir to combine.
2. Place all of the measured brisket ingredients except the brisket in a medium bowl and stir to combine.
3. Place the brisket on a cutting board and cut it in half widthwise. Evenly coat it with the spice rub and place the 2 brisket pieces in the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low until fork-tender, about 8 hours.
4. Transfer the brisket to a clean cutting board. Pour the barbecue sauce from the slow cooker into a medium heatproof bowl and set it aside.
5. Slice the meat against the grain into 1/4-inch-thick pieces and return it to the slow cooker. (Alternatively, you can shred the meat with 2 forks.)
6. Return the sauce to the slow cooker and stir gently to combine it with the meat. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.

-Cris J.

Happy 4th of July!

Hello and happy 4th!! Hope everyone is having a great weekend so far, what kinds of food are you making our eating this holiday weekend?! Visit my Facebook page and share with everyone else here!! 😀 My husband made a salt brined Chipotle seasoned chicken on the grill last night, wow it was amazing! I will be posting a recipe to that tomorrow, so make sure to check back. Don’t be afraid to reach out about any of the recipes I’ve posted so far, I will get back to you quickly. Have a wonderful holiday, talk to you all soon!

-Cris J

Sweet Fried Plantains

Hello and happy Tuesday! I’m very excited to share with you a very simple and delicious recipe for fried plantains.

Plantains, my favorite memory of cooking as a child. My mother would buy them and wait days before being able to make them. It was torturous waiting for the plantains to ripen up enough to make!! I would help my mom cut them and I would watch her do the rest. Within minutes the house would smell of the sweet plantains. Then I would steal one and gobble it down before my mom noticed!

Now usually when I go to the grocery store I can find a few of these gems hidden away by the bananas but, they are not ready to be cooked yet (of course!). I like to let them sit for about a week (give or take a day or two depending on how ripe they were when I bought them). The ultimate plantain is one that is almost completely black and soft, that’s when they’re the sweetest! So a little patience goes a long way with these!!

So, once you’ve found a couple stow them away for ripening (put in dark cold spot to help ripen quicker). I personally have always fried the plantains in vegetable oil, but there are other recipes that just use the oven to cook them. But I’m just going to use the method I’ve always used just for simplicity, authenticity and that’s the only way I’ve ever done them 😉

I start off with cutting off the ends of the plantains, then scoring the peel from top to bottom for peeling. Peel off the skin and cut the plantains at an angle so you have longer slices, cut about 1/4 inch thick or so. Warm up a skillet with vegetable oil for frying! Use medium low heat and fry until you notice the bottoms are started to get brown, about 5 minutes. Then flip over and do the same. When both sides are nice and brown they are all done!! How simple right?! I lay them on a sheet of paper towel just to soak up some extra oil. Let the plantains sit for a few minutes to cool down then you may enjoy!!

There you have it, sweet fried plantains. A Puerto Rican classic side dish, enjoy with some Arroz con Pollo, Arroz con Gandulez or just as a snack! I’m so happy to share a little slice of childhood with you and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, thanks and as always, Enjoy.

Ingredients: Servings: 4
– 2 large ripe plantains
-3/4 cup vegetable oil

Directions:
-Cut ends off of plantains, score down the side and peel.
– Cut 1/4 inch pieces at an angle
-Fry one side for approx. 5 minutes on medium/low heat or until bottoms are brown
-Fry other side until brown and enjoy!!

-Cris J.

Quick update!

Hey everyone, it’s been a busy weekend so far! So apologies for not posting any recipes. I’ve been working on a recipe for fried plantains so I will post very soon (tomorrow, hopefully!), and I also made some homemade pancakes yesterday that are my absolute favorite so I want to share that with you all as well 😉 so remember to come back soon and check out my page on Facebook to see more recipes that are being shared! Have a wonderful Sunday!

– Cris J

Jalapeno Popper Portobello’s

Hey there, just starting off with a quick cheesy and spicy side dish (or lunch in my case!) So these are jalapeno popper portobello mushrooms! So cheesy and gooey with some kick to them.
Okay so, I had a thing with mushrooms in the past, and by that I mean I used to HATE mushrooms with a passion. I think it may have been a texture thing and also because they are funny looking and I’m kind of weird that way. But anyways, since meeting my husband I’ve been trying new mushrooms and liking them! I started with shittake mushrooms, and by pan frying them they to me at least taste like bacon, so win win for me!! Now I’ve worked my way up to eating a whole portobello which is a huge accomplishment for me haha

. Portobello Mushroom, Jalapeno Pepper and Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Now onto the good stuff, the recipe for this delicious mushroom. I start with cutting out the stem to make it even to stuff and add some freshly ground black pepper.
Then I add a layer of cheese and add in some jalapenos, I prefer more because I love the spice but you can add as little as you’d like!

Mushroom with layer of cheese and peppers

And, another layer of cheese to finish it off!! You sure can never have too much cheese ya know. I also wet the bottom of the mushroom with some olive oil so it doesn’t stick to the pan, just enough to get it moist and a few drops on top to get the cheese melted quicker. Pop it into an oven preheated at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes (you will know it is done when the cheese is bubbling and the mushroom is soft)

And there you have it!! The Jalapeno Popper Portobello, what a treat! So cheesy and spicy. I love it as just a lunch or a side dish for dinner. Hope you try it soon and as always, Enjoy!

Ingredients: Servings: 1
– portobello mushrooms
-sharp cheddar cheese
-jalapeno peppers
-1/8th teaspoon black pepper
-2 tsp olive oil

Directions:
-Preheat Oven to 400 degrees
-Cut out the stem and season with black pepper
-Put first layer of cheese and jalapenos on top, then top off with cheese
-Cook for about 20 minutes or until mushroom is soft and the cheese is melted and bubbling!

-Cris J.

Green Powerhouse Smoothie

Okay so I know that I said I would do my first recipe post tomorrow but I have a couple of quick ones I’d like to share with you today!! Alright so this is my savory green smoothie, it’s packed with lots of flavor, nutrients and can be done in about 5 minutes or less. If you’ve made green smoothies before you know that they are very versatile and you can use whatever ingredients you have handy 😉 I enjoy making these smoothies to kind of clean out my fridge at the end of the week haha! For the smoothie pictured I used:
– 1 cup coconut water
– 2 cups packed baby spinach (organic, washed)
– 5 strawberries
– half a mango
– 1 tsp light agave nectar (or honey if preferred)

So, put all the ingredients in a blender and blend that bad boy until it’s nice and green and all the veggies/fruits are well blended! This makes 2 servings so share with a loved one and enjoy the lightly sweet but nutrient packed smoothie for breakfast, lunch or just a snack in between! As always, Enjoy!

-Cris J.

*Also please excuse the lousy pictures as I was too hungry the day I made these and just wanted to gobble it all up before I got a good shot in!

Happy Wednesday!!!

Hey everyone! Hope your having a great week so far! I just wanted to start off by saying that I’m so sorry for not posting in almost a week 😦 it has been a busy week, but hey that’s not a good enough excuse! Okay so, just a quick update here, I am finishing up the first recipe and will be posting tomorrow. It’s a delicious Greek Lemon Chicken that I know you will love. This is a recipe that my hubby looks forward to coming home and eating lol. So I sure hope that you enjoy it as much as we do! Hang tight and tomorrow I will kick off my first recipe. Be sure to check out my Facebook page Jones Home Kitchen as I post daily food motivations, share recipes from others, and interact with anyone that wants to contribute to the page! Have a great rest of your Wednesday, and stay tuned tomorrow for some yummy Lemon Chicken!!

-Cris J.

Welcome to Jones Home Kitchen!!

Hello all and welcome to Jones Home Kitchen! I wanted to start off with just introducing myself and why I decided to start my blog. My name is Cristina Jones and I am a new nurse in the emergency department (yikes! is the reaction I usually get). Helping people in their darkest hours is a passion of which I am blessed to have. I am a wife (of almost a year) to a wonderful man named Andrew and we have made our home in the beautiful city of Chicago. My passion for cooking began when I was very young, I come from a long line of great cooks, but my mother’s has always been my favorite. She is Puerto Rican and my father is Cuban so I luckily have learned many different techniques and styles of cooking from them both. In this blog I want to share my family recipes and approach a cleaner way of eating! I love using whole clean foods in my recipes, and also incorporating healthier alternatives when possible. In this blog I will include appetizers, entrees and some desserts (for those with a sweet tooth). I have for a few years now been wanting to start a blog and start sharing my recipes with others so here I go! Please bear with me and feel free to give suggestions about anything, I sure would love any help I can get! Well that’s all I have for now without boring ya, so check back real soon as I am working on my first recipe to share and it will for sure be a crowd pleaser this summer.

-Cris J.