I've been quite the slacker!

I'm so busy cooking and enjoying life that I just have had an epic fail with blogging about all the wonderful cookings and going ons! Since I had a friend ask me how do you do Mongolian Beef in the slow cooker.......... well here is how! I found the original recipe over at Notes from the Heartland... I had to make some changes because I refuse to spend $10 on a little bottle of cooking sherry and some of the things I had on hand and it's worked out every time just fine...

Crock pot Mongolian Beef
1 1/2 lb. ball tip steak or flank steak
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 sliced green onions
1 t. onion powder
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. white wine
1/8 c. red wine
1/8 c. balsamic vinegar
1/2 T. white wine vinegar
1 t. olive oil
1 t. toasted sesame seeds
1 t. molasses
1 t. powdered ginger
1/4 t. black pepper
1 t. red chili flakes
1/2 T. peanut butter
3 T. brown sugar
1/4 c. cornstarch

1) Slice meat thin, toss with cornstarch.
2) Put all liquid and dry spices into crock pot, add PB, mix well.
3) Add garlic and green onions.  Put meat on top, toss gingerly.
4) Cover and cook on low 4-6 hours (mine took around 4).

I also like to slice up half of a medium/large onion and then serve it over white rice. Since the husband doesn't really care for broccoli, I roast some asparagus to serve on the side...  If I remember I'll take a picture before I tear into it later! Otherwise check the original source for a scrumptious looking picture :)

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

The theme this week seems to be chicken, aside from the Mongolian beef I plan to make... Yesterday was Chicken Parmesan the way my mom always made it with some wild rice, asparagus for the husband and broccoli for me... Tonight I adventured into chicken pot pie making... I didn't give a rats ass, a cows ass, a spiders ass (etc., etc. etc.) if the husband says he doesn't like chicken pot pie... I have not had one in like a year (basically since  before I moved down here to Lima) so god dammit we were having a chicken pot pie!!! I chose to try out this recipe from Annie's Eats... Instead of 6-8 little ones I did two larger (one for tonight and one that I'll freeze for the future) and experimented with a mini full crust one...

We ate half of this one

Plenty of left overs!!!

Good news is that the husband, Scott, did enjoy the chicken pot pie... He just doesn't have a fondness for them like I do... And as I told him, I can't help that Marie Callendar made delicious little microwaveable convenient little chicken pot pies for the "server on the go" (more like poor morning time management)... These I would have to say were more delicious... less convenient (and who cares, I have the time since I don't work), but much much more delicious!

Now that I've started a gaggle of leftovers going, I'll either make tomorrow a left over night or make some crock pot Mongolian beef and I've got plans for whipping up some chicken pad thai this week too!

Getting In Touch With Our Inner-Italian

Although neither of us have any Italian what so ever... Scott had been wanting a pasta maker for a long time, so we bought one with some of our wedding money... Last week was definitely a learning experience and a very late dinner as a result... Our spaghetti and meatballs (everything made from scratch!) was good none the less and looked like we were going to feed all of Lima with it... This week we adventured into flavored pasta, tortellinis and raviolis.... We again probably over did it on the product but have chosen to freeze some and go with a jar of alfredo sauce rather than doing that from scratch today... Well here are some picture highlights of our adventure today! Who knew I was a natural born tortellini making machine!

Scott rolling the dough

Smile!

My first tortellini

That's a chicken, garlic, parsley, oregano filling for the tortellini

This is how I assemble my awesome tortellinis

Cut off the excess

fold up

And then fold the other two ends together and ta-da!

The camera battery died between then and now! But again we made a feast!

 Because we had so much chicken filling we used that for tortellinis and took our cheese mixture and made 4 cheese raviolis.... And why is our pasta orange? That's because it's tomato pasta!!! Next time we are going to try and make spinach pasta :)

Dibble Dabbling!

I'm dipping my toes in the waters of meal planning... I find I go to the store almost every freaking day!!! I mean I guess it's good because it gets me out of the house but I guess my tolerance for dealing with mentally challenged drivers and people at the store is dwindling.... I kinda meal planned half way through the week last week and this week I think I've got a fairly decent plan in place...

Tonight: Southwest Chicken Salad (adding some corn and avocado)
Tuesday: Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken
Wednesday: LEFTOVERS! We have a ton of spaghetti and meatballs from our pasta making adventure last night
Thursday: Taquitos! Except I'm using our leftover pulled pork from Saturday instead of the chicken
Friday: Dijon Chicken Linguine this could be another pasta maker adventure

I'm imagining this will result in plenty of leftovers for the husband for work and possibly the weekend.... I also like to leave the weekend open for Scott to have some cooking/grilling fun!

This little piggy went to the market...

And came out in the form of a pork tenderloin smothered in peanut orange sauce... So during one of those moments when I had this brilliant idea and motivation to eat healthier and get in shape, I was browsing and scouring the Shape magazine website for workout ideas and found they had a few recipes.... This one caught my eye and turned out to be rather delish! I did do a little Lima Limitation change to theirs (you can find theirs here.)

1/2 cup orange marmalade

1/4 cup orange juice

2 Tbs reduced-fat peanut butter

1 Tbs Dijon mustard

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp vegetable oil

a dash or two of salt

a few dashes of cayenne pepper

a couple dashes chili powder

a pinch of red pepper flakes

1lb pork tenderloin, trimmed of fat

I gathered all ingredients and they say to process everything but the pork in a blender or a food processor, but I found some good ol' fashion man power (or in my case woman power) with a whisk works just fine... and seriously it's not like you have to whisk hard to blend it all....

Now at first it's going to look totally like a baby shit in your bowl which seems totally unappetizing.... but trust me it's safe to add your little piggy into that shit looking mess.... The piggy will be happy, it's like being back in its natural environment when it was alive....

The little piggy can go ahead and bathe in what will be later some delicious filth for about an hour....

When that hour is about up, preheat the oven to 400°F and place the tenderloin on a foil lined baking sheet... Don't toss that marinade!!! Instead put it in a little sauce pan... Bake the little piggy for about 20 to 30 minutes and in the mean time boil that marinade for a few minutes and turn it down to low while the pork cooks....

Ding! The pork is done, let it rest of a minute or two and then slice it up!!! Pour some of that goodness in the sauce pan on top and enjoy! I served it up with some wild rice...

See it really did go from looking like shit in a bowl to deliciousness on a plate ;)

Feliz Año Nuevo!!!!

Ok three things... Thing 1 is spinach and artichoke dip that was really damn good... Thing 2 is some awesome pasta I just made and ate.... Thing 3 is that both I can't take any credit for the goodness of the recipe {but I can take credit for making it and it turning out totally awesome as per what the recipe and their bloggers said would occur}

For New Years Eve I made up this spinach and artichoke dip from Annie's Eats.... I'm really sure it would have been totally devoured if there had been less food around and we weren't all so busy drinking... The plus to it not being totally devoured means leftovers for me! and well Scott too...

Tonight we decided to do a beer can chicken and I remembered this lovely pasta from The Pioneer Woman that we could do as a side to go with the chicken! And that was one smart decision made by me! Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelish!!!!

In short, Happy New Year and Happy Cooking everyone!

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Fish is what was for dinner a week before Christmas. For once, it was a sunny warm day here in Lima instead of a cloudy warm day. I thought hmmmm some sort of grilled fish sounds good. So I went again to Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour and started digging through her recipes. She had yet to steer me wrong so I figured when I found one of her little Tilapia gems. I basically followed what she did with a minor adjustment or two. It was one of those few dishes where I can actually get everything it calls for without any of those Lima limitations popping up. I served it with some brown rice and a variety of grilled veggies.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

2-4 Tilapia fillets

1 cup Zesty Italian Dressing

2 tsp. crushed red pepper

mixed veggies {enough for a side for 2-4 people}

brown rice {enough for a side for 2-4 people}

2 tbsp. grated parmesan cheese {more for garnish if you choose}

First I got the freaking brown rice going. Whatever Peruvian brand I bought seems to take like 45 freaking minutes. I recommend using anything that is faster than that shit. As for the veggies, I picked up whatever sounded good at the store which ended up being a little bit of white onion, broccoli, red bell pepper and carrots. I just diced and seasoned those up with some salt and pepper and put it in a foil package that had been sprayed with a little bit of Pam {or whatever nonstick spray you have on hand} I think it took about 20 or 25 minutes on the grill. I put those on right as I threw the fish into the fridge to marinate for a bit.

All this fish needs is that cup of Italian dressing, red pepper flakes, and the parmesan cheese {I used the powdered Kraft stuff for marinating purposes and then freshly grated for garnish purposes}. I just grabbed a gallon ziplock bag and poured in the dressing, pepper flakes and the cheese. I placed those tilapia fillets in there and sealed it up! I proceeded to give it a gentle shake for a couple minutes to coat everything. I also may or may not have danced around singing "shake shake shake! shake your booty!"........ Okay let's focus back now to cooking and not that silly image of me dancing and singing around. I placed it in the fridge for about 15 minutes. At some point before I started preparing this, I had the husband get the good ol' Webber Grill going. If you don't have a Webber you could use a George Foreman type grill if you so choose or even a propane grill. I plopped that fish on there and poured a little marinate over the top and after a few minutes, flipped the fish over and poured a little more marinate on the top. After a few more minutes it was done. As A result we ended up with this freaking goodness on our plates.

And since we love some Parmesan cheese up in this house, we sprinkled some on top and then dug in to enjoy!!!!! This is a definite must do again when the sun shows it's beautiful face again!