Not only is this delicious, but it’s also quick, easy to make and budget friendly, which I know is a big struggle for a lot people right now.

These are ground chicken, you can use ground turkey if that’s what you have, cooked down with some spices, buffalo sauce along with cream cheese and ranch. The mixture then gets spooned on top of some garlic toasts, yes those yummy frozen one you probably grew up eating all the time. They then get topped off with cheese, baked until the bottoms are crisp and the cheese is melted.

I have done this type of thing a handful of times, but never with a buffalo chicken vibe. Other variations can be a pizza type garlic bread toast with some ground Italian sausage cooked in marinara and topped with mozzarella. I have also made a “taco” version where I cooked ground beef with taco seasoning and mild salsa, then top the garlic breads with the beef and cheese. There’s many variations of this concept you can make.

This is how you make these:

Cheesy Buffalo Chicken Garlic Toasts

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound ground chicken or turkey

1 white onion, chopped

1 tablespoon lemon pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon celery powder (see note)

1 teaspoon caramelized onion powder (see note)

1 teaspoon carrot powder (see note)

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup buffalo sauce (see note) + more for serving

1/2 block cream cheese, room temp

1/2 cup ranch + more for serving

spray cooking oil

8 frozen garlic toasts, defrosted

8 slices mozzarella cheese (see note)

8 slices cheddar cheese (see note)

Crumbled Blue Cheese, for serving, optional

Instructions:

1. To a large sauté pan add in the oil and set to medium high heat.

2. Once hot add in the ground chicken and start breaking down with a spoon into smaller chunks. Cook for about 4 minutes.

3. Add in the diced onion followed by all of the spices and continue mixing until everything is perfectly combined and cook for another 6-8 minutes.

4. Add in the buffalo sauce and mix to combine, cook for 2 more minutes.

5. Lower the heat on your pan to medium low, add in the cream cheese and ranch and continue cooking while stirring occasionally until all the cream cheese has fully melted and become part of the sauce.

6. Simmer on low heat for about 6 more minutes.

7. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

8. Spray a baking sheet with oil and place the garlic toasts on there, once oven is hot, bake them for 6-8 minutes, this will start to toast the bottoms of the garlic bread before we fully top with the chicken mixture.

9. After the initial bake on the garlic toasts, remove them from the oven and using a small metal spoon, flatten out the middle of the toasts to make a little well in there for the buffalo chicken mixture to go into.

10. Once the garlic bread has the little wells, divide the buffalo chicken mixture evenly between all the toasts.

11. Top off each buffalo chicken toast with one slice each of the mozzarella and cheddar cheeses.

12. Pop them back into the oven and cook for another 12-15 minutes or until the cheese perfectly melted and the bottoms are crisp and golden brown.

13. To serve, drizzle over more ranch and buffalo sauce.

14. Pick them up and enjoy kind of like a tostada, or dig in with a knife and fork.

Notes:

1. For the seasonings I am using carrot, celery and caramelized onion powders. I get these online, from Matriarca. This is what they look like:

   

2. For the buffalo sauce, my go-to is the primal kitchen buffalo sauce, to me it’s very mild and universal in taste. You can go with an even milder if you know your family will like that better or something spicier if you aren’t serving this to kids.

3. I doubled up on the cheese for these with both cheddar and mozzarella, you don’t have to use both, you can choose one or the other if that’s what you prefer.

4. I love blue cheese, if I was making these for just me, I would’ve added the crumbled blued cheese into the buffalo chicken mixture as well as topping them with more blue cheese. If you are not a blue cheese person, totally skip this part.

I love them so much I have even made my own mexican version of biscuits & gravy with a chorizo gravy and a cotija biscuit. I have the video with recipe in caption for this mexican one on IG.

Now back to this casserole, Costco has a new item, Buttermilk Biscuits, they’re huge, delicious & only $7 for a pack of 10. I made a breakfast sandwich the first day and this casserole the next day.

I started by making the sausage gravy, which is pretty basic, except I went the extra mile and added in some cooked bacon into the mix.

Which the gravy is probably the most time consuming part of this whole recipe, but well worth it.

Once the gravy is ready, it’s all about layering the casserole to get it ready for baking.

I started with a 9x13 inch baking dish with melted butter at the bottom followed by the hash browns seasoned with salt & pepper.

After the hash browns comes the biscuit and egg mixture.

Next comes the star of the show, the sausage gravy, the recipe makes a lot of gravy, for layering into the casserole and for serving extra gravy on top after the casserole has baked.

From here, its time to top it all off with the shredded cheddar cheese and the top of the biscuits.

It gets baked for around 50 minutes & I know by this point you want to immediately dig in, but you’ll need to let it cool down for at least 10 minutes before serving or else you’ll burn your mouth.

When ready to serve, cut into squares, serve on a plate!

And don’t forget to top it all off with more of the sausage gravy!

Now I know you may be thinking, this is a lot of work for a breakfast recipe, and yes, you may be right, BUT:

• you can totally make/assemble this the night before, refrigerate and pop it into the oven first thing in the morning

• save it for a weekend breakfast if you don’t want to make during the week

• make the gravy 2-3 days in advance and have it ready to assemble the casserole whenever you’re ready to make

There’s many ways to make the process of this easy and doable for the everyday home cook.

& I know for a fact your kids will love you for making this!

Biscuits & Gravy Casserole

Serves 6-8 people

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The video for this is already up on Instagram & the recipe was also posted on here already!

In the comments of that video a ton of people suggested doing the same thing with cabbage, but with Alfredo sauce, and I ran with that but kind of took it the extra step. Behold, the Roasted Cabbage with Alfredo sauce served a la Chicken Parm Style!

Essentially the cabbage gets roasted with a whole bunch of Italian inspired spices until it’s fork tender.

Once roasted, it gets bathed in a delicious Alfredo sauce and freshly grated parmesan. I used store-bought from Carbone, but homemade also works!

From here, it goes back into the oven, but with the broiler setting to get the cabbage nicely charred and a bit of more texture.

Once it’s toasty and browned all over, its ready to serve!

It starts with a warmed up layer of your go-to marinara/pasta sauce. The roasted cabbage goes on top of that and then in true Olive Garden fashion, top it off with as much as as little freshly grated parm as you’d like. To then give it the full “chicken parm” effect, it all gets topped off with a sprinkling of toasted panic breadcrumbs. This will mimic the cabbage being fried like a chicken cutlet without having to actually fry it.

The end result is a perfectly saucy tender roasted cabbage that will satisfy any chicken parm cravings while also feeling lighter that a dish with fried chicken and pasta.

It’ll be perfect for a light dinner and is even great for meal preps for the week.

Happy cooking everyone!

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Roasted Cabbage a la Chicken Parm w/ Creamy Alfredo Sauce!

Serves 4

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Like this Gorditas pictured below, from one of my favorite restaurants in Chicago’s Little Village, Carniceria y Taqueria Aguascalientes. Which I had de Chicharron en Salsa Verde, Rajas con Queso and Carne Asada con Queso!

Which I shared a video about that you can watch here!

If you don’t know what Gorditas are, they essentially start off as a thicker corn tortilla, gets griddled up, then when still warm, sliced into through the middle to make an opening to stuff them up with whatever you’d like. From cheese, to any meats or both or in this case, some veggies, I absolutely love them and they need just as much love as the taco.

Growing up in Chicago we had them a lot in restaurants, they are huge, like very very huge, then when I moved to Texas, Gorditas there are tiny, like very very tiny….I still love them, but I prefer the bigger ones.

In concept, they are fairly simple, the masa is just masa harina, water & some salt plus whatever you decide you want the filling to be. At first, they may seem intimidating, it’s always scary cooking corn tortillas from scratch, let alone thicker tortillas that you’ll then cut into making an opening, without going all the way through, to then stuff up with your filling of choice, but once you get the hang of it and in the rhythm of making them, you won’t want to stop.

The part that usually takes the most practice is the dough for the Gorditas, like I just mentioned above, it requires:

• Masa Harina, I usually use the Masienda brand

• Water, warm/room temp

• Salt, I use kosher salt

Give or take, you’ll need equal parts masa harina & water, so 2 cups masa harina & 2 cups water, or 5 cups masa harina and 5 cups water, as for the salt, obviously it can all be to taste, I’d start with maybe 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt for every cup of masa harina. And I say give or take because the best way to approach making this masa is to know what it’s supposed to feel like and look like as you’re mixing it.

Essentially once you have fully mixed up the masa harina with the water, grab a couple tablespoons worth, form it into a ball and then using the palms of your hands, slowly squeeze the dough together, if it cracks at the edges, then the dough is too dry and you need to add a bit more water, try in increments of 1-2 tablespoons at a time. If the dough is sticking too much to your hands still, then you need to add more masa harina, 1-2 tablespoons at a time. The more you make them, the better you’ll get at it and the faster you’ll get at making them.

To cook the Gorditas, you essentially cook them the way you would tortillas on a comal, but since they are thicker, they will take longer to cook, about 1 minute on each side to begin with, then an additional 2 or so minutes total flipping every 30 seconds. After cooking, carefully with a serrated knife, we are going to cut into them making about a 2-3 inch pocket on the top without cutting through to the other side. IF for some reason the inside is still a little raw, don’t worry about it, they will continue cooking once you add in the cheese/fillings and put them back on the comal.

The cutting of the slit to open up the Gorditas is kind of complicated to explain in writing, but the video is already up to give you guys a visual on how it should look/be done.

Now for the filling, you can do carne asada, Tinga, barbacoa, picadillo, chicharron or like I am doing here, Nopales en Chile Rojo aka Cactus in a Spicy Salsa Roja!

It’s easy to make, super good for you with many health benefits that I will not list since I am not a medical professional but you can easily google the benefits yourself.

& this is how you make the filling, obviously I used it for gorditas, but you can also just use it for tacos, or serve it on a plate with rice and beans!

Recipe Below:

Nopales en Chile Rojo - For Gorditas

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If you ask me, I believe all salsas should be spicy and this one is definitely on the spicier side of salsas. Obviously the Chile Habanero makes it extra spicy since we are using a good amount of them, but the pickled carrots also have some spice to them. So if you are a spice baby but still want to make this, I would only use 1-2 habanero peppers, which you can even go the extra step and remove the seeds from them if you’d like.

Before we get into the recipe, I wanted to give a huge thanks to everyone that has subscribed to my substack so far, we finally crossed the 1,000 mark and to celebrate I will be doing another giveaway soon, which will be open to all subscribers, free and paid!

So don’t forget to subscribe if you aren’t yet!

Happy cooking friends!

Habanero & Pickled Carrot Salsa

Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients:

1/2 cup avocado oil

6-8 habanero peppers

1 onion, roughly chopped

8 garlic cloves, or more, no one is judging you

1 14 oz can pickled carrots, juice and all

1/2 cup lime juice

1/3 cup water

kosher salt to taste

Instructions:

1. Add the oil to a large saute pan and set to medium high heat.

2. Once hot, add in the onion and habanero peppers. Saute and cook until the onion and habanero peppers are starting to soften and brown in parts, about 4-6 minutes.

3. Once the onions and habaneros are starting to brown in some parts, add in the garlic cloves and continue mixing and cooking for around 6 more minutes.

4. Add in the entire can of pickled carrots along with all of the liquid they come in and mix until combine and simmer for about 4-6 more minutes.

5. Once the veggies have cooked and simmered, turn off the heat and let cool down for about 10 minutes.

6. Add these cooked veggies to your blender container, along with the lime juice, water and about 1 teaspoon of kosher salt. Cover and blend until perfectly smooth and combined.

7. Pour into bowl and serve with tortilla chips or your favorite tacos.

Notes:

1. If you want a runnier salsa, add a 1/2 cup of water when blending.

2. As it gets cold when store in fridge, the salsa will thicken up and require mixing to loosen up again.

well well well…

Salads are having their moment right now, but it’s not for the right reasons, for cyclospora reasons that cause you know what…..sure it’s only been linked to iceberg lettuce so far, but I guess better safe than sorry!

I have seen over the years many people doing roasted or seared cabbage steaks, where they get cut into thick one inch rounds and seared. This is kind of like that, but I cut the cabbage into wedges, season them and the oven does all the work, first roasting at 350 degrees then broiling to get that seared/charred effect.

It starts off with seasoning a quartered cabbage.

They then get roasted in the oven!

Followed by being drenched in some Caesar Dressing!

& they go back in the oven, but on the broiler setting to get nicely charred all over!

And then, as if it already wasn’t delicious as is, it gets topped off with more Caesar Dressing, freshly grated parmesan cheese and crispy crunchy toasted panko breadcrumbs!

It is the perfect side dish for a chicken or fish, or even the perfect light veggie lunch or dinner!

I hope you all enjoy!

& lastly, before we get into the recipe, I wanted to give a huge shoutout to for being our first giveaway winner! I posted about it here ⤵️

Planning more giveaways for the rest of the year, so don’t forget to subscribe so you wont miss out!

Caesar Wedge Salad, but with Roasted Cabbage

Serves 2 as a main, 4 as a side

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I was immediately hooked, took a picture of it on the menu and the second I was home I recreated it to the best of my ability & not to toot my own horn, but I think I did a pretty damn good job at making it at home. I dont think it is 1000& identical to theirs, but it’s pretty close and absolutely delicious!

After being on the road eating out at restaurants for almost 2 weeks, I was craving something lighter and green and this salad totally delivered. There is one main difference in mine, being that I added some large white beans into the mix to get in some extra protein then served it with some thin chicken cutlets that I seared in olive oil and added a bunch of my salsa macha and lime juice to make a saucy spicy sauce for the chicken so it wasn’t just boring seared chicken breasts.

Also, friendly reminder, I have a giveaway going on(worth over $200), extending it for one more week, winner will be announced next week on Wednesday, July 15th!

Read all about it here!

Lets start with the chicken:

Spicy Saucy Chicken Cutlets

Makes 3-4 cutlets

Ingredients:

1 boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 3-4 thin cutlets

or buy already pre-sliced thin chicken cutlets

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons lemon pepper seasoning

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion salt

3 tablespoons Salsa Macha

2 tablesooons lime juice

cilantro, chopped

Instructions:

1. To a large saute pan, add in the olive oil and set to medium high heat.

2. Season your chicken cutlets on both sides with the lemon pepper, garlic powder and onion salt seasonings.

3. Add to the pan and cook for 4-5 minutes on the first side.

4. Flip the chicken over, top each cutlet with about 1 tablespoon of the Salsa Macha and drizzle in some of that macha oil into the pan.

5. Follow this with the lime juice and slide the chicken cutlets around to mix in the sauce with the lime juice.

6. Lower heat to low and cook for 4-6 more minutes.

7. Top off the chicken cutlets with the cilantro, turn off the heat and serve.

Notes:

1. If you want to make these a little more luxurious, add in a couple tablespoons of butter towards the last 2-3 minutes of cooking.

2. If you want to make them even saucier, add in about 1/4 cup heavy cream to the pan once you have flipped over the chicken cutlets when adding the salsa macha and lime juice.

But now, for the star of the show, the Kale Peanut Salad:

Kale Peanut Salad

Serves 4 as a main or 7-8 as a side

Read more

It’s easy.

It’s delicious.

It’s a lil spicy.

It’s addicting.

& it’s a crowd pleaser!

Make sure to make a double batch because your guests will be slurping this up!

Cheesy Chipotle Bean Dip

Makes about 4 cups

Ingredients:

1 15oz can nacho cheese

1 15oz can ranch style beans (do not drain)

1 lb block colby jack cheese, shredded

1 cup whole milk

2-3 tablespoons chopped chipotle peppers in adobo

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Instructions:

1. To a sauce pot add in the nacho cheese, the can of ranch style beans, the shredded colby jack cheese, whole milk, chopped chipotle peppers in adobo, garlic and onion powder.

2. Set to medium heat and mix to combine.

3. Cook this mixture for 12-15 minutes making sure to mix every 2 minutes or so until the colby jack cheese is perfectly melted.

4. Once ready, pour into a bowl and serve with tortilla chips.

Notes:

1. You can bulk this up by topping with cooked chorizo once in the serving bowl.

2. If you have pico de gallo, add a couple spoonfuls on top when serving.

I was just in Aspen Colorado for the Food & Wine Classic which was hosting a ton of my favorite celebrity chefs, which means I was able to meet them and also get signed copies of their cookbooks to add to my collection. The thing is, some of the cookbooks I got signed I already owned, so now I have duplicates of some. I figured, instead of hoarding them, I will gift to one lucky winner.

The Lucky Winner Will Get:

• Let’s Make It - my very own cookbook, personally signed and made out to the winner.

• Bobby Flay: Chapter One by Bobby Flay

• Gather & Graze by Stephanie Izard

• Chaat by Maneet Chauhan (signed by Maneet)

• 2 jars of my Salsa Macha

• a handful of other surprise goodies

All worth over $200!!

All you need to do to qualify to enter is be a PAID subscriber to this Substack.

Subscribe to either the:

• $5/monthly subscription level

• OR

• $50/yearly subscription level

• to automatically qualify for the giveaway!

(Must be active paid subscriber come July 7th when winner is selected)

If you are already a paid subscriber, no need to do anything further. Just cross your fingers & hope you win!

Winner will be announced in 2 weeks on July 8th!

I personally will reach out directly to the winner!

The Books:

Good luck everyone!

Now back to Aspen, beautiful, stunning, amazing Aspen Colorado. Haven’t even been gone a full week and I already want to go back!

Rode gondolas up to 11,200 feet above sea level!

Pictures don’t do these mountains justice!

Ham & Cheese Croissant for Breakfast!

Finally got to meet Claudette Zepeda during her cooking demo!

More beautiful views!

Literal Tuna Noodles!

Coffee Ice Cream cone for breakfast!

Cooking demo with the incredible Stephanie Izard!

Inside the Grand Tasting Pavilion!

If you want more, there are some videos and more pics on my Instagram!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Love, Freddsters!

I do take one shortcut, using a boxed cake mix, a pistachio flavored boxed cake mix, but a chocolate or vanilla flavored one would also work here. The only thing I do different from the box instructions is using whole milk in place of the water.

I figured it was okay to use a boxed cake mix for a little shortcut because there will be so much going on here, with the:

• cake

• tres leches soaking mixture

• crunchy pistachio layer

• the sweet chocolate layer

• finished with sweet refreshing strawberries on top

Making tres leches cake is easy, but requires time, it needs to soak in the tres leches mixture for at least 12-24 hours, to allow for the milks to fully absorb into the cake without them seeping out when you cut into it.

After the cake has fully soaked it gets topped with the crunchy pisatchio kataifi.

Then topped off with a layer of chocolate and sliced strawberries.

This is a very indulgent special occasion type of cake, but so worth the time and effort!

I hope yall enjoy!

Dubai Chocolate Tres Leches Cake

Serves 12-16

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& that is how this Jalapeño Jam came to be!

It’s spicy, but also a little sweet and the perfect spread for so many things that could use the sweet/heat touch, like:

• Over a softened block of cream cheese with crackers

• on toasted up sourdough

• spread for your burger or sandwiches

• served up with some crispy pork belly

• as part of a filling in some jalapeño poppers

• the spread for a cheese flatbread/pizza

• spread for a charcuterie board

• the possibilities are endless honestly

Now for the recipe, this is what you need:

Sweet & Spicy Jalapeño Jam

Makes about 3 cups

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Now, i’m Mexican, all my tias that were coming are Mexican af, they never cook anything fancy, they stick to the basics, ensaladas de coditos, potato salads, a simple garden salad with ranch, or even chicken salads, but this was totally out of their comfort zone that I legit heard the question:

Que es eso? which translates to “What is that?”

Because most of them had never seen or had farro before. But also because this salad had such a variety of different ingredients that they just weren’t sure.

BUT the one thing everyone was sure of, was that it was delicious and as new tias approached the salad asking what that was the tias that had already tried it would say, “no se pero eta bien rica” which translates to “I don’t know, but it’s delicious”.

I think that is all the convincing you needed to make this salad!

This is what farro looks like:

It is a wheat grain, that kinda looks like rice, but also kinda has the texture of pasta even though it isn’t pasta.

Now, for the recipe:

Farro & Chickpea Salad with Pickley Things!

Serves 4-6 as a Main or 12-15 as an appetizer/side

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It is the perfect weeknight meal, serve it with some rice or potatoes, or tortillas to make tacos out of the chicken and the sauce. If you’re lucky, you’ll have some leftover chicken to shred up and use for so many different things.

The two main components:

• roasted skin on chicken thighs & legs

• the creamy spicy limey avocado sauce

Roasted Chicken w/ Creamy Avocado Sauce

Serves 4

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Initially I kept telling myself I wanted to have my own food truck and drive it around to different college campuses sharing my food. Clearly, that never happened, but I have had many Cubano Sandwiches since then, both in Miami and homemade, but I have had them more in Miami than at home.

Now I am not saying my version is 100% authentic, but I’d like to think it is pretty close to authentic, what I do know, everyday home cook should have no trouble making this version at home.

This was only the second time making them and I made a ton of the pork so I could have them more than once, made them for myself and then again for a crowd when I invited my cousins over to celebrate the 1-year anniversary of my cookbook releasing. Which you can order here if you haven’t.

Needless to say, everyone loved them and I still have a little bit of the pork left in the freezer for whenever I am craving a cubano again!

It always seems a bit intimidating roasting a giant piece of pork, but this is truly mostly hands off, up until you have to shred the pork and making the sandwiches. I did it all in one day, but you can certainly start marinating the pork butt the day before and start roasting it the next day.

Video showing how I made this is also now up on my social channels:

Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook & Youtube!

Now time for the recipe! I hope yall enjoy!

Cubano (Cuban Sandwich)

Makes around 10 sandwiches or more!

(honestly a whole bunch more, but the meat freezes perfectly to store for a later use)

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I am doing most of the charring of the ingredients using my gas stove burner, if you don’t have a gas stove, you can use the broiler setting in your oven or outside using a grill if you have one.

Salsa Negra de Chile Habanero

Makes 3 cups

Ingredients:

• 2 corn tortillas

• 6-8 habanero Chiles

• ½ white onion

• ¼ cup olive oil

• 6-8 garlic cloves

• ½ cup lime juice, fresh squeezed

• ¼ cup soy sauce

• 1 tablespoon jugo maggi

• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

• ¼ cup water

Instructions:

1. Start by charring the corn tortillas, this will take around 2-3 minutes. Making sure to flip them every 30 seconds or so.

2. Next up char the chile habanero for about 2 minutes or until charred all over.

3. Next is the onion, leaving it in the flames for at least a minute or so, this won’t get full charred, but will help soften it to eliminate the raw onion taste.

4. To a small sauce pan, add in the oil and the garlic cloves, set to medium heat and cook until the garlic is starting to brown all over, around 3-4 minutes. Turn off the heat.

5. To your blender, add in the chile habanero, garlic, crushed up charred tortillas, along with the lime juice, soy sauce, jugo maggi, Worcestershire sauce and the water. Blend this until it’s perfectly combined.

6. Now add in the oil that was used to fry up the garlic and give it one final blend on a high speed to combine everything.

7. Pour it into a bowl and serve as desired.

That being said, there is always ONE thing I crave from them and that is their Spinach & Feta Egg White Wrap. It’s delicious and I always would ask for it extra toasted. It is the only reason I ever considered walking back into one of their locations, to order one of these. So the only way to fix that craving was to make these wraps at home myself and I am so glad I did because legit they were a million times better, bigger and tastier than anything Starbucks could ever make.

It’s a fairly simple recipe with two main components, the sun-dried tomato cream cheese spread and the spinach & feta egg omelette. The hardest part to me was probably figuring out how I was going to wrap it, but it worked out super well.

It starts with the Sun-dried Tomato Cream Cheese Spread, which honestly will work great on so many things.

Then we make the omelette It may still look a little underdone here, but keep in mind that it will cook again when we toast up the wraps.

To assemble, start with the lavash wraps, they essentially look like a giant square flour tortilla. I got mine from Costco.

Spread out the cream cheese through the middle.

Top it off with the eggs.

And obviously more feta cheese.

Wrap it up!

Toast it up.

And enjoy!

Now, let’s make it!

Spinach & Feta Egg Wraps

Makes 4 Large Wraps (You can easily cut them in half once wrapped to make 8)

or use a smaller wrap or even flour tortillas to make them smaller

Read more

This time around I was there solo and had almost a full week of eating and exploring to do and this list will be just that, a list of all the places I tried this time around!

Let me know if you have been to any of there or if theres any other places I should add for my next trip!

Day 1:

Ground Central Coffee Company -

1166 6th Ave, New York, NY 10036

Nothing fancy here, I simply needed some energy for the rest of the night, I kept it refreshing with an Espresso Tonic.

Cuerno -

1271 Avenue of Americas, Time & Life Building Rockefeller, New York, NY 10020

A Mexican Steakhouse that comes from Monterrey Nuevo Leon, so being from Nuevo Leon, obviously I had to try them out and it did not disappoint. I went with two other friends and we essentially shared everything family style. I had some of the best octopus I have ever had and one of the best tacos I have ever had and well the ribeye steak with bone marrow was also phenomenal!

Chicharron de Pulpo (Octopus Chicharron)

Coliflor Asada (Grilled Cauliflower) in the back, Taco Richi in the front, a taco you’ll easily fall in love with, flour tortilla, cheese crust, thin sliced ribeye, topped with chicharon en salsa verde and some sliced avocado. Truly so delicious!

The Ribeye Steak with Bone Marrow, thats it, a little spicy, but so fire!

Day 2

Cafe Paradiso -

202B Elizabeth St, New York, NY 10012

Salted Brown Butter & Oat Latte, its on draft, the worker was constantly pouring this and only this for pretty much the entire 30 minutes I was there. It’s viral for a reason and you just have to try it for yourself!

Via Carota -

51 Grove St, New York, NY 10014

I came here with a friend for lunch, I had never been but she had, but I had seen their cookbook as someone had gifted it to me a couple years ago. It was the perfect place to have lunch and catch up with a social media friend I had never met in person before. We had some appetizers and pastas which included the fluffiest softest gnocchi I ever did have!

Octopus with Olives

Gnocchi in a Gorgonzola Sauce

Veselka -

144 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

I came here because during a previous dinner my friends and I were talking about Beets and how I am currently obsessed with them and then also mentioned how I have never had Borscht, a soup made with beets. So I came for lunch and so glad I did. The soup was delicious but so where the latkes and pierogis.

La Cabra Bakery -

152 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003

I had them for the first time maybe 3 years ago, it just so happened to be less than a minute walk away from Veselka so I stopped for some goodies. I had this Canele and the espresso cookie with like a salted caramel top that I fell in love with and wish I had gotten more!

Los Tacos No. 1 - Multiple locations throughout NYC

This is a no brainer, if you want tacos, they are good and quick service if you aren’t going during the lunch rush hour.

Day 3

Santo Taco -

Two locations in NYC

This taco shop randomly showed up on my Tik Tok feed and I knew immediately I had to go try it. It reminded me of La Once Mil in Mexico City. I had three of their tacos, their Steak Trompo, Adsada & carnitas! These tacos were good and very aesthetically pleasing, my only complaint is that the salsas were very mediocre. Their mild sasla was just that, mild. Their “spicy” salsa which was a black habanero salsa, was good, just not actually spicy! Had they had better salsas, these would have been some of the best!

Nowon -

507 E 6th St, New York, NY 10009

One of my current favorite type of foods is Korean, so when I was told about Nowon, a Korean-American restaurant I knew I couldn’t miss it and I’m so glad I didnt because i loved it so much!!!

I had their Black Sesame Caesar Salad, their Chopped Cheese Rice Cakes and what they are known for, their Legendary Cheeseburger which is not like your traditional cheeseburger because of the Kimchi Special Sauce is comes with. I ordered it as is, but you can also add bacon and a fried egg.

Day 4

Carnitas Ramirez -

210 E 3rd St, New York, NY 10009

This is exactly what it sounds like, a restaurant only serving carnitas, you can get tacos with pretty much any part of the pig, so you can truly have it all. If I could, I would eat here every weekend.

Taqueria Ramirez -

94 Franklin St, Brooklyn, NY 11222

This taqueria and Carnitas Ramirez are sibilings and both are delicious. Here you can get all kinds of tacos, not just carnitas, from tripas to suadero and pastor. These tacos are small but mighty and reminded me the most of tacos from mexico.

Oxomoco -

128 Greenpoint Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222

Oxomoco is a michelin rated restaurant, I came here with another fellow food friend who just happened to also be in NYC for her cookbook photoshoot. This food was great, had the best papitas (potato chips) that were coated in a valentina powder, which I will be recreating soon! We also had a beet tostada and beef tartar tostada along with some lamb barbacoa and fish tacos. Everything was great but this definitely is a special occasion type dinner because it was on the pricier side with pretty small portions.

The back was popcorn with a mole spice

Beef Tartar Tostada

Lamb Barbacoa Tacos

Adel’s Halal Food Cart -

1221 6th Ave, New York, NY 10020

This was a late night stop around midnight because I kept hearing and seeing videos that it is some of the best halal food so obviously I had to see for myself. Apparently the lines can get long, there was maybe 20 people in line when I go there and waited around 30 minutes. I got their combo plate which is what everyone recommends along with some falafel because I love falafel so much! It was cheap and delicious so cant complain!

Day 5

Mei Lai Wah -

41 Mott St, New York, NY 10013

Mei Lai Wah is a Chinese restaurant and bakery known for their buns, which I got a steamed, baked and a pineapple bun, all filled with bbq pork. Let me tell you, I will never stop thinking about the pineapple pork bun, it was essentially like a Mexican Concha, with a sugary pineapple topping and filled with the pork, so it was sweet and savory and legit addicting!

Artbeam Coffee Roasters -

19 Doyers St, New York, NY 10013

I needed some coffee and it was the first coffee shop I came across in chinatown, it was decent, but not my favorite. I got the Iced Ube Latte.

Tasty Hand Pulled Noodles -

1 Doyers St, New York, NY 10013

Simple no frills noodle restaurant. Delicious and to the point. I got the noodles with pork but asked for them to be made spicy!

Chelsea Market -

75 9th Ave, New York, NY 10011

If you don’t know, Chelsea Market is basically a HUGE mall for food lovers. If you grew up watching Food Network, you have probably heard of it as their offices are located in this same building. Theres shops and tons and tons of restaurants. I came here this time around for one thing and one thing only, Los Mariscos, it is the sister restaurant to Los Tacos No. 1 but it is all seafood, from ceviche, aguachile and tostadas and tacos.

The aguachile verde is possibly one of the spiciest aguachiles I have ever had but it could not stop eating it, I devoured the entire molcajete full of it!

I also got a cevhiche mixto tostada and a shrimp taco, both also delicious!

On the way out I picked up some Mango Sticky Rice from inside Chelsea Market from Ayada and enjoyed it out on the High Line.

Golden Hof -

16 W 48th St, New York, NY 10036

I came here for one thing and one thing only, the Honey Butter Pancakes. This is actually the sister restaurant to the viral Golden Diner, that has gone viral and has looooooooooooong lines for their Honey Butter Pancakes. Here at Golden Hof they have a full menu and offer these cute lil pancakes on their dessert menu. Obviously I ordered more things, like some wings(not my favorite) and some Carbonara Rice Cakes.

These pancakes will quite literally change your life.

And last but not least, the pizza I had along the way!

That’s it, this is my New York City trip and all the food I had along the way!

Until next time New York!

The plate starts with the Fideo Seco, which almost looks like a less sauce red sauce spaghetti.

Then we make some crispy pork milanesa.

Once it is perfectly golden brown and crispy, we serve it all together.

You get all flavor combos and textures in one single dish.

It has a high chance of becoming a new family favorite and staple!

I like to serve it with some of my salsa macha for extra spice, which is optional, but highly recommended.

You can shop for it on my website: shopfreddsters.com

Using code: SUBSTACK will take $5 off your order!

Fideo Seco w/ Pork Milanesa

Serves 4

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For example, a package of cheese that I used to get for $9.99 is now $14.99. But what I have really seen get more expensive is the cost of meats, specifically beef. The costs add up, and they add up quickly, every time I leave the grocery store it’s $50 minimum, so like you, I am also looking at, how can I make more filling meals for less. I made a version of these tacos 2-3 years ago and they were a big hit, so here they are again.

It is essentially a giant pan of thin pork chops that I cut up into smaller pieces and sauté along with a ton of veggies to make a little bit of meat go a lot further.

Because I live by myself, I just quickly heated up two tortillas and served the pork filling on top for some yummy and filling tacos. If you want to make it go even further, serve it alongside some cooked rice(very cheap) and some beans(if you’re Mexican, you probably already have some in your fridge or freezer).

Level up from the basic tacos and make quesadillas with this as the filling, or soften up the corn tortillas, stuff with the pork and roll them up to fry and make flautas. The possibilities are truly endless. If you’re a family of 1, like me, then this $10 pot of pork can easily feed you for the entire week of lunches or dinners.

The main components in this recipe:

• Boneless Pork Chops - 1 1/2 lbs - $6.75

• Onion - $0.50

• Bell Peppers - $1

• Jalapeno - $0.25

• Tomatoes - $0.50

• Tortillas - $1

• Total = $10

What I didn’t include in costs, usually things one already has on hand:

• Oil

• Spices

Optional Add-ons:

Salsa Macha or any salsa

Cheese to make quesadillas

Rice & beans to serve with

Pork & Veggie for Tacos or Bowls or Flautas

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon oil

• 1 1/2 pounds pork chops, chopped into smaller pieces

• 2 teaspoons tomato chicken bouillon

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon onion salt

• 1 teaspoon paprika

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon black pepper

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1 tablespoon Salsa Macha (optional), omit for no spice

• 1 jalapeño, finely chopped, omit for no spice

• 1 onion, finely chopped

• 2 bell peppers, I had some colored ones from a previous multi pack, using green bell peppers will obviously be cheaper

• 2 roma tomatoes, finely chopped

• Corn tortillas

• Limes for serving

• Salsa for serving

Instructions:

1. To a large saute pan add in the oil and set to medium high heat.

2. Once hot, add in the pork, spread out to make sure it’s in an even layer and cook for 2-3 minutes.

3. Add in all of the spices and start mixing to fully combine, cook for 4-6 more minutes.

4. If using, add in the Salsa Macha and cook for 2 more minutes.

5. Next add in the jalapeño and onion, cook for 2 more minutes.

6. Now add in the bell peppers and cook for another 3-4 minutes.

7. Lastly add in the chopped tomatoes, reduce heat to low and cook for 6-8 minutes, making sure to mix every 2 or so minutes. You want the tomatoes to break down and become saucy.

8. To serve, warm up some corn tortillas and top each tortilla with some of the pork filling.

9. Garnish with salsa and lime juice and enjoy!

It’s a little sauce, kinda cheesy and extremely delicious!

I grew up in the south side of Chicago, less than 10 minutes away from Midway Airport. There was a Mexican restaurant called Coculas, we went at least once a month and almost every single time I ordered what they called “Carne Oaxacaquena”, it was essentially thin strips of skirt steak, cooked with bacon, peppers, onion, tomatoes and topped with shredded cheese until it was perfectly ooey gooey!

I devoured it every single time. It was cheesy. Saucy. With some crunch from the bacon. Truly a great dish. It was always served with rice and beans, of course I did the same thing here.

Now let’s make it!

Guisado de Res (Mexican Stir Fry)

With bacon, onion, peppers, tomatoes and lots of cheese!

Serves 4-6

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