James' Chili

  This past weekend my brother came to visit and made his chili for us one night. It was the best chili I think I have EVER had. Knowing that Mom and I don't like spicy much, and our young kids would be eating it, he made it without the cayenne and less chili powder than he usually makes it with, but it was so good. It was a good, thick, hearty chili. I immediately had him give me the recipe so I could make it and post it here. Until now I didn't have a good chili recipe because I am addicted to my Mom's Chili Soup  so whenever we are in the mood for chili, I usually make that. Because it is amazing and full of veggies and well, it's delicious. So now I have a great chili recipe too! I'm so excited. Anyway- it is cold outside and perfect for a nice bowl of chili. Make this and curl up by the fire and enjoy! James said it is even better if you throw all of this in the slow cooker and let it sit all day while you're at work. I may have to try that! Love a good slow cooker recipe! 

James' chili

1 large tomato sauce
1 regular tomato sauce
1 can green beans
1 can corn
1 can dark kidney beans
1 can light kidney beans
1 bell pepper, diced
3-4 cloves garlic
2 T flour
1 T garlic powder
1 T onion powder
2 tsp chili powder
2 tap cumin
1 tsp basil
2 lbs ground beef

If you want it spicy- do 4 tsp chili powder and 1 T cayenne

Mix seasonings and flour together, set aside.

Brown meat, and drain.

Saute pepper and garlic and add to pot,

Add all canned ingredients, stir.

Add seasonings and bring to a boil, lower temp and let simmer for a couple of hours.

Serve hot with crackers, diced onions, shredded cheese, sour cream... whatever your family likes.

Chicken, Bacon, and Sage Fettuccine Alfredo

  I saw someone make this last week on Food Network and decided I wanted to try it. I already know I LOVE fried sage so of course that is what caught my eye. Just a nice way to change up your normal Fettuccine Alfredo, even if you want to leave out the sage- the bacon wrapped chicken would be delicious. But I suggest trying the fried sage. It takes 2 seconds and it is really delicious.

4 Chicken Breast
several leaves of fresh sage
Butter
1 Package of bacon


    Start by putting a few tablespoons of butter in olive oil and melting the butter. Once the oil is good and hot drop in your leaves of fresh sage and fry it for just a second. It will burn quickly, so be careful. You just want to crisp it up a bit. Then pound out your chicken breast to thin them out a bit, place a pad of butter in the middle, along with a 2 or 3 pieces of fried sage. Fold the chicken back over itself and wrap with bacon. Place it seam side down in a greased 9x13 pan. Once they are all wrapped and in the pan bake it at 425 for 40 minutes, or until a meat thermometer says the chicken is done. Then place the chicken under the broiler for a minute or 2 to crisp up the bacon. Now, if your chicken is swimming in a lot of bacon drippings and butter- you may want to drain that off first, otherwise the bottom side will never crisp up. Once the chicken is completely done, slice it into large slices and place it over a plate of Fettuccine Alfredo. Talk about delicious!! I mean.. it is bacon. 

Hipper Chippers Cookie Recipe

  This is a recipe that my nephew brought home from school and made. Then last night my SIL decided to try them and made a double batch for everyone.. they were gone pretty fast. So now I am posting the recipe here to share! These are really good and the batter is the kind where you can add anything you like to change them up. The original calls for mini M&M's, which is what we used. But you could use any candies like Reese's Pieces, or nuts, or whatever you like. I think these would be great with some chopped walnuts or pecans in them myself. :-) 

   Hipper Chippers

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup mini M&M's 

Preheat oven to 375°
Cut the butter or margarine with a table knife. Put butter in mixing bowl and beat with electric mixer on medium speed about 30 seconds or until butter is softened. Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and baking soda. Beat on medium speed until combined, stopped the mixer occasionally to scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula. 
Add the egg and the vanilla and beat of medium speed until combines. Add half the flour and beat on medium until combined and then stir in the remaining flour. Then fold in the M&M's. 
Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto a cookie sheet, leaving about 2 inches between cookies. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are slightly brown. 

NOTE* the recipe says that it makes approximately 32 cookies. We made a double batch and came out with maybe 24...?? 

Herb Roasted Chicken

I have never really roasted a chicken before, I have no idea why. So when I realized I had a whole chicken in my freezer that I needed to cook I decided to look up a recipe to roast it that didn't include lemons. I love lemons but I use them on my fish a lot and Hubby was getting tired of lemon pepper. Plus my little brother was coming over and I knew he wasn't a fan of lemons on anything. SO I found this one by Anne Burrell and even though I think she is a great chef and somewhat like her show (when she isn't being obnoxious...) I have never tried one of her recipes, it didn't have lemons.. so I went for it. It turned out delicious. It was super easy and everyone loved it. Going in the "keeper" box for sure. I made a few modifications to the recipe so I will post how I made it and link to her original recipe below. Enjoy! 

Herb Roasted Chicken

By: Anne Burrell 

1 whole chicken
2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary, picked and finely chopped
5-6 fresh sage leaves, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
dash of red pepper flaskes
1 T onion powder
2 tsp fresh chives, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp bay leaves, chopped (not whole leaf) 
2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
4 cups chicken stock or broth (large box) 
4 T olive oil plus more for drizzling


Preheat oven to 450°

    In a small bowl combine all seasonings with olive oil and set aside.  Using your fingertips carefully work your way under the skin of the chicken to separate the skin from the breast to make a pocket. Now push handfulls of your seasoning mix into the pocket and rub all over to coat the inside of the chicken, using all the seasoning mix. Now drizzle the outside of the chicken generously with olive oil and massage it into the skin all over. Basically think of tanning oil and rub it all over. Sprinkle with salt and any little bits of herb stuck to your hands from stuffing it under the skin is fine. 
   
    Using a large roasting pan with a rack place the chicken on the rack and pour the chicken broth into the bottom of the pan. Cover with foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Then take the foil off and bake an additional 15-20 minutes or until the skin is nice and crispy with a nice dark color to it. 

     Remove from the oven and let rest for about 10 minutes before carving. While chicken is resting pour the stock from the pan (and all the drippings that have fallen into it from the chicken) into a sauce pot over medium heat. In a small bowl to the side mix warm water with corn starch to dissolve the corn starch. When the drippings and stock start to boil add the corn starch mixture to the stock slowly until it starts to thicken to your desired consistency. This is a fantastic sauce to pour over your chicken or sides. Carve your chicken and serve while hot! 

Roasted Sunchokes with Salsa Verde

Another recipe from my favorite cooking show, Extra Virgin. I have made several recipes from the show and every one has came out delicious, not to mention they are easy and fresh. I have never tasted sun chokes before, or anchovies or capers for the matter,  but when they made them on the show they looked delicious, so I just had to try them. The salsa Verde is delicious and would be fantastic to put on lots of things. Potatoes, fish, pasta... anything you want to add a little kick of flavor to. Surprisingly, I can see myself making sun chokes again in the future,and most definitely trying the salsa verde with some other dishes as well! Don't be skeered. Just try it and you will like it!

Roasted Sun chokes with Salsa Verde

From: Extra Virgin

Sun chokes, washed and chunked into bite size pieces
Generous bunch of fresh parsley
2 cloves garlic
Olive Oil
1 T capers, rinsed
salt and pepper
4-5 anchovies
squeeze of fresh lemon

Preheat oven to 400

Sun chokes:
   Place chunked sun chokes on baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.

Salsa Verde:
    In food processor place parsley, garlic, capers, anchovies, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Blend well while adding olive oil until you get a smooth consistency.

When sun chokes are done baking dress with Salsa Verde and serve.

White Sandwich Bread

I have always wanted to make my own bread, but seeing as how I am not a baker, it never turned out very well. When we started eating "cleaner" the hardest part has been finding bread that Hubby and Little Man would eat. So I made it my mission to find a good bread recipe and make my own sandwich bread. This one did the trick! The first time I made it, it turned out good and every time I make it, it comes out better than the last. This recipe will make 3 loaves. Enjoy! 

Sandwich Bread

2 T yeast 

2 cups warm water

1/4 cup honey or sugar

1 T salt

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup vegetable oil or soft butter

6 1/2 to 7 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in water to activate. Add honey, salt, eggs, oil, and 3 cups of flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in additional flour, 1/2 a cup or less at a time, until a soft dough forms and the dough is pulling away from the bowl. 

Turn dough onto an oiled surface and knead until smooth, about 6-8 minutes. (If your mixer has a kneading hook just leave the dough in the mixing bowl and put the dough hook on, let knead for at least 5 minutes) Place dough in a greased bowl (you can leave it in the mixing bowl, just take the dough out and form a small ball and place it back in the bowl) Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down and divide and shape into 3 loaves. Place in loaf pans and let rise until doubled once again. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes. Remove from pans and let cool. 

If you wish, brush some butter on top while still warm.

*NOTE* I didn't want to knead the bread by hand so I used my dough hook on the stand mixer. The first time I let it knead for 5 minutes and I used a fast rising yeast. It came out a tad on the crumbly side. The last time I made it I used a regular active dry yeast, and I let it knead for 7-8 minutes in the mixer with the dough hook and it came out much better. I am not sure if it is the extra kneading time or the different yeast that made it come out better? 

Chicken Parmesan Baked Pasta

Once again, I found this recipe (and a great blog by the way) while searching recipes on pinterest. This one was easy to make and had a great, lighter flavor. I will definitely be making it again and again!!! 

Chicken Parmesan Baked Pasta

By: Tracy's Culinary Adventures

1 (28 oz) can whole peeled tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups water
1 - 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
12 oz pasta (I used shells) 
2 oz (about 1 cup) grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 oz (about 1 cup) shredded mozzarella cheese 
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Preheat the oven to 475 F.

Add the tomatoes to the bowl of your food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped, about 10 pulses. Set an oven-safe 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil, garlic, oregano, red pepper flakes, and salt and cook just until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the chopped tomatoes, the water, 1 cup of the chicken broth, and the pasta to the pan, stirring to combine. Bring the mixture to a vigorous simmer, then cover the pan and continue simmering (you may need to reduce the heat slightly) until the pasta is tender, about 16-18 minutes. Stir the pasta frequently as it cooks.

Once tender, remove the cover and stir in 3/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese, the pepper, and the chicken. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper if necessary. If the mixture seems dry, mix in as much of the remaining 1/2 cup of chicken broth as needed to loosen it up (I didn't add any of it). {Note: if you don't have an oven-safe skillet, transfer the mixture to a baking dish at this point.} Sprinkle the top evenly with the mozzarella cheese and the remaining Parmesan cheese. Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for 5-10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and bubbles around the edges. Garnish with the basil then serve.

How to cook a steak

So I have never attempted to cook a steak. It has always been intimidating for some reason. So I decided I was going to buy some steaks and learn how to make them finally. So I googled it. I found several recipes for the cut of steak I had, Tenderloin Steak, and picked the one that looked best. Turned out it was perfect. I made good steaks! Yay!! And it was actually reallllly easy. Now that I know how easy it is, I will be making them more often! Here is how I did it.

How to cook Beef Tenderloin Steak

1) remove the tenderloins from the refrigerator 20 minutes before cooking to bring them to room temperature.

2) Pat the tenderloins dry with paper towels. Sprinkle generously with salt and fresh ground pepper. Massage the seasoning into the meat.

3) Rub oil on the outside of the steaks.

Cooking:

1) Heat the skillet over medium-high heat to scalding, until a drop of water sizzles and dances on the skillet. Put 1 T of oil into the middle of the skillet and swish it around to cover the cooking surface. Heat the oil until it begins to smoke.

2) Place the tenderloins in the middle of the skillet. With your fingers or tongs, move the steaks around in a circular motion to spread the oil. Sear the steaks for 2-3 minutes. Use tons to flip the steaks and sear the other side for 2-3 minutes. This searing causes proteins in the steaks' surface to interact with the sugars, creating a flavorful crust containing hundreds of different-flavored compounds.

3) Lower the heat to medium. Cook for and additional 7-9 minutes total, flipping the steaks occasionally, for medium rare or medium. Cook the steaks to 125 Fahrenheit for rare, 130 for medium rare and 140 for medium. The steaks will continue to heat after you remove them from the skillet.

4) Transfer the steaks to a plate and cover them loosely with aluminum foil. Allow them to rest for 10-15 minutes. This chances their flavor and gives the juices time to distribute evenly through the tenderloins.

5) De-glaze the skillet with 1 T butter and 2 T water. Heat the skillet over medium heat and scrape the bottom of the skillet with your spatula to loosen any charred remnants. Reduce the liquid a little. Drizzle the  liquid over the tenderloins. 

Coconut milk cream

I am sure everyone has seen the pin on pinterest about refrigerating a can of Thai Kitchen coconut milk and making cream with it? Well I finally made some and it turned out delicious!!! You really have to try this. It is especially good with strawberries. The original blog said they use a spoonful in their coffee in the mornings, but I haven't tried that yet. It all got ate up with the last of our strawberries. lol This is a yummy, healthy, and clean alternative I will be using many times in the future, I am sure. 

Coconut milk cream. 

Very simple really- stick a can of Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. Take out and once you open the can the top will be full of thick cream. Spoon that out into a mixing bowl, leaving the watery juice in the can. Sprinkle in some cinnamon and a little vanilla and whip up with a whisk. (Next time I am putting it in the mixer with my wire attachment to see if I can get it fluffier) I also added a dash of cane sugar to mine. You can play with it to get it how sweet you want. If you drink smoothies for breakfast save the juice in the bottom of the can and add it to your smoothie. 

Scrambled Eggs with Ricotta

I had heard someone mention putting fresh ricotta in scrambled eggs to make them creamy once and have wanted to try it since. Then I made my own fresh ricotta and then it was like everywhere I looked there was someone talking about scrambled eggs and ricotta. So this Sunday I decided to whip some up since I was making some ricotta for another dish anyway and I had some other goodies in my fridge and pantry I needed to use up too. So I scrambled some eggs, mixed in some ricotta and added some onion, cheddar cheese, and tomato. It was delicious. I may never make plain ole' scrambled eggs again. Just like any omelet what you can add to it is up to you. Endless possibilities. But the ricotta is the key. Yummm. 

Scrambled Eggs with Ricotta

From: Me

6 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 cups fresh ricotta 
Green onion, diced
Tomato, diced or cherry tomatoes halved
1/2 cup shredded cheddar
salt and pepper to taste

Mix 6 eggs with 1/2 cup milk and scramble in a frying pan as usual. Once eggs are cooked, but still hot, mix in the ricotta, onion, and tomatoes. Toss until all ingredients are heated warm. Add shredded cheddar and toss until melted, serve while hot. 

Chunked Baked Potatoes

I make this ridiculously often. Because potatoes are such a quick and easy side dish and everyone likes them. I have been trying really hard to have potatoes on our menu a lot less and other varieties of veggies a lot more, but it seems you can never totally escape the potato. This is a super easy way to have potatoes fast that aren't smothered in butter and cream and all that. A much healhier option. You can season these however you like. 

Chunked Baked Potatoes

By: Me

small bag new potatoes (or 4 russet potatoes) chunked, skin on. 
3 T olive oil
1 T dried parsley
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 T dried chives
salt and pepper to taste

Toss all in a large bowl, pour into a 9x13 baking dish and bake at 400 for about 20-30 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft. 

The above is my super fast version, I really like to use fresh parsley, diced up an onion, and use 2 or 3 garlic cloves and fresh chives. So you can switch out the "quick" ingredients for fresher if you like. You can also add to them all kinds of things to change it up or to use up things you have in your pantry. The other day I had some baby carrots in my fridge so I tossed them in with some onion. I have added some cheddar cheese, black olives, diced green onion and crumbled bacon in the last 5 minutes of baking time then dolloped with sour cream... lots of possibilites. 

The basic version of this makes 6 decent portions and breaks down to 167 calories per portion.  

Slow Cooker Cinnamon Apples

Can't remember where I found this, but I am pretty sure it was from pinterest.... as most of my recipes are lately! This was super easy and delicious, plus it was really decent calorie for a dessert, plus it is super healthy.

Slow cooker cinnamon apples

1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup walnuts
2 T butter
1 tsp cinnamon
4 apples, cored
1/2 cup apple juice or cider

Preheat crock pot on high. In a bowl mix maple syrup, walnuts, butter, and cinnamon. Pour apple juice/cider into crock pot and place the cored apples in. Spoon the mixture into the middle of each apple until full. Cover and cook for 3 hours or until apples are soft and start to collapse. Serve warm. 

You could serve these with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and they would be delicious, but they are fantastic by themselves. It breaks down to 262 calories per apple. Plus it makes your house smell FANTASTIC. Low cal, healthy, delicious, easy, and house smells good.. can't get better than that. 

Avocado Dressing, Chicken Salad

I found this recipe on a blog via pinterest. I decided to make it with what I had in the pantry, which was most of what the original recipe called for, and tuna instead of chicken. It was delicious. The dressing part of this recipe is the best part. I have a zillion ideas for it bouncing in my head as soon as I trasted it. It was great with the tuna, diced tomato, onion, and diced avocado on toasted bread. You could do the dressing, avocado, diced tomato, onion, and chunked chicken and toss it with pasta. I used the dressing alone instead of mayo on my sandwich today for lunch. Put it on tacos, enchiladas, nachos, anything mexican it would be perfect for. Use the dressing as dressing on wedge salad. Use it as a dip with tortilla chips. You get the idea. It's fantastic. And the best part is compared to oh say ranch dressing at the store.. it is remarkably low calorie! 12 calories per tablespoon compared to 70 in a tablespoon of ranch, even the light ranch has 40 calories per tablespoon. The nasty fat free ranch is 15 calories per tablespoon. And the avocado is not only fresh and better for you- it tastes WAY better than fat free or low fat dressing. Plus it was super easy to whip up in just a few seconds. The recipe below is how I made it, click the link to see the original recipe. 

Avacado Dressing / Chicken Salad

From: Framed Cooks

Dressing: 
2 avocados
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup diced onion
1 T dried parsley
juice from 2 limes (about 2 T) 


Salad: 
tuna, drained (or chicken as the original recipe calls for.. can use anything you have on hand) 
1 avocado, diced
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved (or a larger tomato diced) 
1/2 red onion, diced

In a food processor blend all the dressing ingredients until smooth. Toss dressing with salad ingredients and enjoy on toasted bread, tossed with pasta... endless possibilities. 

UPDATE: I made this last night with chicken and poured it over nachos. Just some good tortilla chips with shredded cheddar, stick it in the oven (or microwave) to melt the cheese then I globbed the chicken salad over the top and spread it around. It was delicious! 

Low cal cupcakes

I am sure everyone has seen this recipe on pinterest, but I tried it today and it is really good! So I wanted to add it to my blog as a "tried and true" recipe. It is a great way to feel like you are cheating without consuming a ton of calories. I made strawberry cupcakes, but you can make any flavor cake mix you like. Make sure you check the box and break down your calories yourself because it will most likely vary from box to box. Also you can use diet soda, but I just cannot do it. I hate the taste and the stuff that is in diet soda is just plain scary. So I didn't use diet. You can also use lite cool whip, but I didn't this time. Plus using the regular cool whip and the regular soda added 10 calories per cupcake.. so not a significant difference. I also used Sierra Mist because the ingredients list is a lot less frightening than that on the other brands. (I mean... it IS soda.. but ya know..) 

Lo-cal cupcakes

From: Pinterest

Any flavor cake mix you like
2 cups (16 oz.) lemon lime soda (sprite, 7up, sierra mist..) 
cool whip

Combine cake mix and soda and beat with mixer. Pour into greased cupcake pan and bake as directed on cake mix box. Once cooled "ice" with cool whip. 


You can garnish with fruit such as a slice of strawberry if you are making strawberry flavor, lemon zest if lemon flavor.. you get the idea. This made 24 cupcakes for me, and this is how the calories broke down in my case- 

cake mix- 1,700 calories for entire box
Soda- 140 calories for 16 oz. 
Cool whip- a 2T dollop on top (which is a lot) is 25 calories. 
Total calories- 1,840 (minus coolwhip) 
divided by 24 cupcakes- 77 calories, plus cool whip is 102 calories total. 

If you used zero calorie diet soda that would make them 95 calories (with cool whip) and if you used lite cool whip it would be (if memory serves me..) 92. 

Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi

  This is a recipe I saw on my new favorite cooking show, Extra Virgin, on The Cooking Channel. I had never heard of fried sage leaves and I just had to try it. I know it doesn't sound like it would be good, but they were delicious! Especially with the spinach and ricotta. My 2 year old loved them so much, he kept snatching them off everyone's plate and asking for more. Who knew? This was a really easy recipe that turned out delicious and definitely something different from the every day. I didn't make my own ricotta in this one because I knew I was making this before I had made it and knew it would be good, so I had already bought ricotta for this, just in case. I can't wait to make it again and use fresh ricotta in it! 

Spinach Ricotta Gnocchi

From: Extra Virgin cooking show

2 lbs (3 bunches) fresh spinach

2 egg yolks

16 oz. ricotta cheese

6 T shredded parmesan

4 T butter

2 handfuls fresh sage leaves

Dip spinach into boiling water for one minute to blanche. Roll into balls and squeeze out all water. Chop into small pieces.

In mixing bowl add 2 egg yolks, ricotta, parmesan, salt and pepper. Mix all together with spinach and start rolling into balls about 1 inch in size. Place spinach balls into 9x13 pan. When done add a thin pad of butter to top of each gnocchi ball and sprinkle with parmesan. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

While that is baking, melt half a stick of butter and a little olive oil in a frying pan. Add fresh sage to butter and oil and cook until sage browns slightly. Pour butter and sage over baked gnocchi and serve hot.  

Fresh Ricotta!!

OK So I came across this recipe and thought, oh how I would love to make my own cheese! I decided to start with the simplest one I have collected and that was definitely the ricotta cheese. I would love to make mozzarella too.. but that's another day. What I would really like to do is make this with raw milk, real buttermilk, and real cream. But since I don't have any of those right now...I made do. This was so simple I was really shocked. I may never buy ricotta again. I bought a big container of ricotta for a recipe I am making later this week because I didn't want to rely on this recipe turning out good. So I did a comparison taste... there is no comparison. Even the really good ricotta at the store, tasted bland and flavorless after tasting the one I made. So easy and so delicious. I don't use ricotta often, but when I do I will make it myself now!! 

Fresh Ricotta

From: Framed Cooks

4 cups whole milk
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup heavy cream
salt

1. Line a colander with several layers of cheese cloth (3-4) and set it in your sink. 
2. combine milk, buttermilk, and cream in sauce pan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil until cooking thermometer registers 185. If you don't have a thermometer, keep an eye on it to see when the curds (solid white parts) are mostly separated from the whey (cloudy liquid). This will take about 10 minutes. Stir a couple of times during the boiling process. 
3. Remove from heat and using a slotted spoon, scoop spoonfulls of the curd into the cheesecloth-lined strainer, sprinkling with salt every few spoonfulls or so. 
4. Let the ricotta drain for about 5 minutes and then taste to check consistancy. If you like it drier, drain more. If you like it moister, stir in a tablespoon or 2 of milk. This ricotta is best used right away, but will keep a day or 2 in fridge. 

*Note this made almost 3 cups of ricotta.