Sweet and Sour Chicken

This makes a nice big pan of yummy stuff!  I love the combination of sweet and sour of the sauce and usually make a piece of toast to sop up all of the juice. We serve this dish over brown rice, or you could use white rice too.

2 to 3 boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into bite size pieces
1 16 ounce can pineapple chunks, drain and save the juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, chunked
1 red bell pepper, chunked
1 onion, chunked
3 ribs celery, sliced
3 to 4 carrots, sliced
1/4 cups white vinegar
1/4 cups brown sugar
3 Tablespoons Ketchup
3 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Heat your heavy Orange cast iron pan on the stove top and add a drizzle of oil to coat the pan. Put in your bite size pieces of chicken and season with salt and pepper.  Cook until done, then remove and set aside, cover with foil so it stays warm.

Add more oil to your pan, and add in all of the chopped vegetables and garlic at once.  I use a medium heat and only cook them for a bout 5 to 10 minutes so they are not mush, i like a bite to them.

While your vegies are cooking, make the sauce:
Drain the pineapple juice into a medium bowl, and add in the cornstarch stiring until smooth. Then add in the vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup, soy sauce, and ginger to the bowl. Let sit until the veggies are done.

When the veggies are done to your liking (about ten minutes of cooking for me)  add in the pinapple chunks so they can get warmed up, and add the chicken back in to the same big pan.

Pour the liquid mixture into the pan on top of everything and cook until the sauce thickens, which just takes a couple of minutes.

Serve over rice with a side of toast.

Grilled Salmon and Seared Salad

This was a fabulous meal....It will make you want to eat at home every night!  The salad recipe I actually got from Chef Michael Chiarello...I thought it would go great with our salmon and it did.

For the Salmon:
1 cedar plank
1 large piece of salmon
glaze
salt and pepper

Glaze:
4 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup bourbon

Seared Salad:
2 hearts of romaine halved (leave on the bottom stem to hold lettuce in place)
1 avacado cut in halve, pit removed
2 roma tomatoes, cut in half
grated parmesian cheese
Olive oil
sald and pepper

Let the cedar plank soak in water so it doesn't burn on the grill.

Heat the grill.

Make the glaze by combining ingredients and let simmer until thick.

Put the salmon on the cedar plank and put on the grill to cook the salmon. 

When the salmon is almost done start the lettuce and veggies as they will only take a bout 2 minutes to cook.

To prepare the veggies, but everything in half and put on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with lots of sea salt and pepper.  Put on the grill and turn when needed to sear both sides. Remove and put on a big platter, grate some parmesian cheese over the veggies while warm, and serve family style.  Serve the warm salad with an avacado dressing.

Margarita Pizza

Okay, this was thee best margarita pizza I have ever had, no kidding, you have got to try this!

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, and just let it heat while you are prepping everything, it needs to heat for about 30 minutes or so. Also place your pizza stone in the oven to heat as well.  I have the pampered chef pizza stone and it works great, I do love it!

1 ball of pizza dough (I used dough from the grocery store) you can make your own too
2 roma tomatoes, sliced
Olive Oil
salt and Pepper
10 leaves fresh basil
1 package fresh motzarella cheese
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Put the pizza dough on waxed paper on the counter and allow it to come to room tempurature.  Slice the roma tomatoes, and the cheese into thin slices. Chop garlic very finely. Roll up the basil leaves 3 or 4 at a time and slice thinly.  Set all ingredients aside.

When the dough is room temp, toss it between your hands, or somehow get it patted, pulled, or rolled out to fit your pizza stone. I like to toss it between my hands to loosed it up. Then grabbing the edge of the dough, keep turning it quickly and it will stretch out.  Once it gets to the desired size then you are ready to go.

Remove the hot pizza stone from the oven carefully. Put the dough that is now the same size as your pizza stone on it.  Prick the dough with a fork and put back in the oven. Bake for 5 minutes.

Remove the stone and pizza and start to build the pizza.  Drizzle Olive oil and spread with a brush so the dough is covered with a light coating of oil. Sprinkle heavily with sea salt and pepper. Next arrange the motzarella slices on the dough, then the tomatoes, and garlic, then top with the basil.

Put back into the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until done.

I do believe the heated stone is the secret for success on this one, enjoy!

What is your favorite kind of pizza?

Brown Rice and Vegetables

It was the end of the week and I wanted to clean out the fridge, so I used all of the leftover vegetables and came up with this dish. It was soo good and healthy I will make it again soon.

For the Rice:
1 cup brown rice
2 cups water
salt
oil

Drizzle olive oil in the bottom of a pan and add in the rice. Let cook just for a minute, then add in the water and salt. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for about 30 minutes till done.

For the Vegetables:
1 zuchini
2 cups mushrooms
3 green onions
3 carrots
2 garlic cloves
1 roma tomato, chopped

Heat 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil in a large pan on the stove top. Chop all vegetables, and add to pan and cook. Sprinkly generously with Celery Salt, and Pepper. I do like my vegetables al dente, but cook them how you like.  When the rice and the vegetables are both done, mix them together, and add in the chopped roma tomato.

This is a Good Gluten Free Dish, and it is also good served room temperature. I made extra and had it for lunch a few days and it was a nice break from my usual soups and salads.

How do you love your brown rice?

Grilled Potato Wedges

We made these flavorful potatoes on the grill and served them with cheeseburgers and salad and it was a great combination. It was satisfying goodness.

Potatoes:
5 to 6 red potatoes
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Garlic Powder

Wash the potatoes, but do not peel them. Put the whole potatoes in a pot of cold water and boil for about 10 minutes. We are only par-boiling these as they will finish cooking on the grill.  When done, Drain the potatoes, and let cool slightly. Cut each potato in half, then slice each half into thirds to get 6 wedges out of each potato.  Put the wedges on a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, and liberally season with Salt, Pepper, Paprika, and Garlic Powder. Put the potatoes on the grill turning as they cook so each side is browned. They will take about 15 minutes total.  These would be great with a dipping sauce too!

What color of potato do you like the best, Red or Gold?

Salad with Roasted Walnuts and Warm Balsamic Dressing

I love the idea of a warmed salad dressing and this one came out great!  I did not want to use the standard warm dressing with bacon, although that would be fabulous, bacon is an ingredient I try to avoid.

Dressing:
1/2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small shallot, finely diced
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup honey
1 to 2 Tablespoons dijon mustard
1/4 cup Olive Oil

Heat pan on stove top and add in the 1/2 Tablesppon Olive oil, Saute the garlic and shallot until soft, maybe 5 minutes or so.  Add in the balsamic vinegar and let cook down about 5 minutes. Add in the honey and dijon, and continue to cook another few minutes on low heat.  Remove from heat and pour dressing into a small bowl, then wisk in remaining Olive Oil....I like less oil so only used about 2 Tablespoons at the end instead of 1/4 cup.

For the Salad:
Tear Romain or Green Leaf Lettuce into bite size pieces into a big bowl, add in the chopped roma tomatoes, 1 sliced hard boiled egg, crumbed cheddar cheese, dried cranberries, and roasted walnuts.

To roast the walnuts, heat a small pan on the stove top and add the walnuts. Cook on medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes watching them so they don't burn. You can tell they are done when they start to smell really good. You can also taste one to see if they have gotten that roasted flavor yet.  When done, throw the nuts into the salad. If you do the nuts first, then let them cool in a bowl, and not the pan they were heated in.

These roasted nuts combined with the warm balsamic dressing was a great combination!

Do you have a favorite warm salad dressing?

Shrimp, Brown Rice and Black Bean Tacos

Initially I was looking for a new recipe for Shrimp, so I found one that used Tequilla and Beer, and then started to modify it...Well this is what happened, we ended up making soft shell tacos out of all of the components and it was pretty good...the only thing it was missing some crunch so we got out the tortilla chips to solve that problem.  Eating it this way, I'm not sure that I could taste the beer and/or tequilla in the shrimp, but it was very tastey!  The beer and the flour tortilla have gluten and so will exclude both of those elements next time.  Love, Love the Brown Rice and will make more of that!

Since the Brown Rice takes the longest time to cook, start that first, then get the shrimp marinating. Then go on to getting the rest of the meal made.

Rice:
1/2 cup brown rice (or more if you want to serve more people)
1/2 Tablespoon Olive oil
1 jalepeno
juice from 1/2 lime
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat 1/2 Tablespoon olive oil in a pan, add 1/2 cup brown rice, 1 chopped jalepeno, 1/4 tsp cumin, 1/2 teaspoon salt, just give it a couple of minutes to start browning, then add in your chicken stock or water about 1 cup should do it. Turn down the heat, cover and let simmer about 30 minutes till done. When done, add in the juice of 1/2 lime and some chopped cilantro.

Shrimp:
1 pound extra large shrimp, cleaned
1/4 cup beer
1/4 cup tequilla
juice from 1 lime
cilantro
4 clove garlic
1 jalepeno

Put the shrimp and 1/8 cup beer. 1/8 cup tequila, juice from 1/2 lime, 1 Tablespoon chopped cilantro, 1 jalepeno chopped finely, and 1 minced garlic clove in a zipper bag and marinate the shrimp for no more than 20 minutes.

Heat your pan to medium to medium high heat, adding a drizzle of olive oil, cook the shrimp a couple of minutes, then turn. Add in the remaining 1/8 cup beer and 1/8 cup tequilla, juice form 1/2 lime, 3 cloves of garlic minced, salt and pepper, and more cilantro to the pan. Remove the shrimp when they are done, and let the sauce cook a couple of minutes more.  To serve, put the shrimp in a bowl and pour the sauce over it.

Condiments:
Can of Black Beans
Sliced Avacado
Grated Pepper Jack Cheese
Diced Roma Tomato

Heat up a can of black beans on the stove so they can be heated through when the shrimp are done.

Warm the flour shells for a minute so they are easier to wrap. Then add in a spoon of brown rice, a spoon of black beans, avacado, tomato, cheese, and top with about 3 shrimp.  These are very creamy with the avacado and the black beans, simply delish!

I am a now a fan of Brown Rice, are you?

Grilled Chicken and Zuchini

Hmm, the yellow plate was a bad idea...beyond that the chicken and zuchini were great!  We love to grill and to eat chicken and find that we are always looking for new ways to fix the chicken on the grill.
I am finding that marinating the chicken is a great place to infuse different flavors into the chicken.

Since we had some Salsa Verde leftover from another meal, we marinated the chicken in the salsa verde all afternoon, and then grilled it. We served some of the salsa verde on the side for a dipping sauce too.

You can find the Salsa Verde recipe on the blog from an erlier recipe!

This is what we did for the zuchini:

3 medium zuchini
olive oil
salt
pepper
garlic powder
onion powder

Wash the zuchini and slice them lengthwise. spread them out on a baking pan so you can drizzle with a little oil and season liberally with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powders.  Put these on the grill right before the chicken is done, or when the chicken is resting, as it doesn't take very long. Flip over when they start to brown on one side.  My daughters like to add butter and parmesian cheese to the zuchini when done which tastes great!

We also had some leftover Mango Salsa, and I thought it was fabulous with that too!  It added more of a sweetness that went really well with the spicy from the salsa verde.

Do you have a favorite marinade or salsa?

Spinach and Strawberry Salad

This is the salad that was featured with the blackened fish we had the other day, and I just realized I didn't post the recipe for the salad.

Since we usually have strawberries and right now blueberries in the fridge, I thought it would be good to find a use for them other than just eating them as a snack.

Salad:
1 bag spinach
handfull of strawberries
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
1 green onion

Dressing:
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Honey

Put the spinach in a big bowl. Clean the strawberries, slice and add to the spinach. Slice the green onion and also add it to the bowl. 

Heat the sliced almonds in a pan on the stove top until slightly browned, careful not to burn them. When done add them into the salad and top with sesame seeds. Mix everything together.

In a small bowl, mix balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and honey together and drizzle over the salad just before you are going to eat it.  I probably used about 1 to 2 Tablespoon of each for a small salad. Taste as you go and add more of what you like. I just make the dressing as needed so it is fresh each time.

I love fruit in my salad, and will make more of this type of salads. Do you like fruit in your salad, or just veggies?

Blackened Fish with Mango Salsa

Wow, it seems to make such a difference of how I feel based on what I eat!  Tonight we ate completely healthy and delicious food. Blackened Fish with Mango Salsa and a Spinach and Strawberry Salad. The food was really good, and I feel really good about what I just put into my body!

Fish
Talapia
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Paprika
Dash - Cayenne

Make sure the fish is thawed out. If you buy it frozen and individually wrapped, you can put the packets in cold water and it will thraw out in no time at all.

Heat a little oil in a large pan, preferrable cast iron. While the oil is heating season both sides of the fish liberally with salt, pepper, garlic, onion and paprika, then just a dash of cayenne. Put the fish in the pan and cook for about 3 to 5 minutes depending on size. Flip the fish once and finish cooking.  Don't play with it, just let it cook. You can also grill it.

Mango Salsa
1 Mango - chopped finely
2 green onions sliced thin
1/2 to 1 jalepeno - diced
1/2 to 3/4 red bell pepper
juice from 1 lime
splash of red wine vinegar
Salt & Pepper to taste
Cilantro

Mix all ingredients and let set for the flavors to combine. This is really good on almost anything, and we did actually eat it on hot dogs one day! Some times I will use salsa instead of a salad dressing on my salads.

What do you eat salsa on?

Potatoes and Green Beans on the grill

We love these easy potatoes and green beans that are made on the grill. 

4 to 5 red potatoes
2 cups fresh green beans
1 to2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
salt and pepper to taste
oil and butter
foil

Wash the red potatoes, then cut in half, and slice them. Wash and trim the grean beans, and cut into pieces. Chop the onion finely, and mince the garlic. Put the potatoes, beans, onion, and garlic in a big bowl and drizzle with a little bit of oil and season with salt and pepper. Tear off a big sheet of foil (the heavy duty works best), you may need two sheets if it is the light weight foil. Put the foil on an old baking pan, turn up the edges of the foil about an inch all the way around so it looks like you have a baking pan made of foil.

Pour out the potatoe mixture on top of the foil, and pour in a little bit of water, about 1/4 cup, and dot with chunks of butter. Cover the potatoes with another piece of foil and put on the grill on low heat for 1/2 hour, checking for moisture after 15 minutes. You may or may not need to add more water during the process as it is important to keep moisture in the foil packet.

BBQ Sauce

I didn't take a picture of the actual sauce, but this is the sauce that we used for the BBQ ribs we made over the weekend and posted yesterday.  Although we make lots of different bbq sauces, this is our go-to sauce as you don't need anything special and we usually have all of these ingredients on hand in the pantry.

1 small onion
2 to 3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon Paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teasopoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
2 Tablespoons Worstershire
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 small can tomato sauce (8 ounce)
1/3 cup ketchup
1/3 cup water

Heat a pan on the stove top, and swirl in a little bit of oil. Chop the onion pretty finely and then add it to the pan. Saute the onion until soft, then add the rest of the ingredients and let simmer for 30 minutes or so.

For us, it provides just the right blend of heat and sweet....Hope you enjoy this too!

BBQ Ribs

After a week long vacation we returned home and were hungry for some good ole BBQ so my husband made these ribs that were perfect....we like them a little sweet and a little hot, and done so they fall off the bone. These were just that!

Chuck's BBQ Rub:
1 Tablespoon Chili Powder
2 Tablespoon Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoon Paprika
2 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 teaspoon Pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon cayanne
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon celery salt

Mix the rub together in a small bowl until all spices are blended well.  Depending on how many racks of ribs, you may have leftover rub, so just save the rest for next time.  We had 4 small racks, and it was a great plenty.

Trim the ribs slightly, we like to keep the membrane on to hold them together...Rub the ribs with the dry rub on both sides and then put back in the fridge for an hour or two, or even overnight....When you are ready to cook the ribs, preheat the grill to 250 to 275 degrees.

Place the ribs on the grill so they are cooking with indirect heat for about 4 hours, checking the heat to make sure it stays consistant.  After 4 hours, Remove the ribs from the grill and wrap them in aluminum foil with a little bit of pineapple or apple juice for moisture.  Put the foil wrapped ribs back on the grill for another hour.

After the hour has passed, remove the ribs from the foil and slather them with bbq sauce letting them cook on the grill until the sauce has heated up and they are lusciously sticky, maybe about 30 nminutes or so.

Then Enjoy!

We also make our own BBQ Sauce and will post that recipe as well as the potatoe side dish we love to eat with our ribs.