Tomato/Tortellini Salad

Inspiration for this one came from a Rachel Ray recipe. I made a bag of frozen tortellini, tossed it in olive oil and minced garlic, and then added green beans and heirloom grape tomatoes. I also sprinkled it with parsley and added cubed mozzerella.

Something like this is super easy! You can add any veggies you want to pasta to make a complete meal. Oh yeah, and did I mention healthy? :)

Chilli

Some of the "secret" ingredients. And yes, I use a spice kit.

Yep. Fogged up the camera lens on that first one. That's how you know it's good.

Anyway, it was a cold and rainy Saturday and the Chef and I were watching football. Naturally, chilli sounded like a good idea! We typically make 2 lbs of ground beef with the Carroll Shelby's kit you can find with all the McCormick sauce packs at Meijer (it's in a tan box)

Chilli-making is so easy! Basically, just pick your protein, add beans, veggies and spices and BAM! A delish but filling meal for a cold day:) I'm not going to give away my secrets, but let's just say it's mild in spice, BIG in flavor! We typically eat about 1/3 and then freeze 2 containers to take out for lunch another day.

Authentic Mexican!

Some of our neighbors had a baby recently, and we made them dinner so they wanted to return the favor. My neighbor just brought over a bag of food... made by her mother-in-law who is visiting them and lives in Mexico! This was our one acception to the "no beef, pork, or chicken" week. Those of you who know me well, know that I LOVE Mexican food- authentic or not. In fact, my husband and I have "Mexican Monday" most weeks (we eat some sort of Mexican dish).

Pasta with Poblano Pepper Sauce

MMM! Delish pepper flavor, not too hot.

The meat. Peppers included. MMM!

Marcelo's own homemade salsa! Get out the Zantac! Great flavor with some spice on the end.

<3.

Thanks, neighbors!

Sweet Potato-Topped Shepherd's Pie

Sadly, I did not take a picture of this one. Here's the one from the recipe on Rachel Ray's site:

This is a recipe that I found in Everyday with Rachel Ray from September 2010. Click here for the recipe!

So on a serious note, what couldn't be better than Shepherd's Pie.... topped with sweet potatoes?! Well...

It was good. I wasn't that impressed though.

First of all, I did not use a dutch oven. I used a skillet and it worked just fine. Also, you might want to make this dish when you are having dinner guests because it made ALOT. Since I wasn't that big of a fan and The Chef isn't home during the week to eat it, I ended up pitching most of it today. If I make this recipe again, I would use Russett's instead. The sweet potato flavor with the gravy for the meat was a little weird.

Cheese, Wild Mushroom 'n Bacon Pie

First let me say that anything involving bacon is a great idea! I found this recipe in a Rachel Ray mag...It was a contest-winning recipe by Barbara Estabrook.

3 Garlic Cloves (although I used a fair amount of roasted garlic sauce)
4 Bacon Strips cut into pieces(I used 6)
1 Lb of sliced assorted fresh mushrooms (I used 3/4 lb of baby bellas)
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
3 eggs
1- 8oz pkg of Philadelpha cream cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 Pilsbury refrigerated pie crust
1 cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese (I just covered the top)
1/8 tsp paprika

If you aren't using garlic sauce, roast the garlic at 425 for 15-20 min. You'll want to wrap it in foil and drizzle with olive oil.

Cook the bacon until crisp in a large skillet (I made bacon for breakfast and saved a few slices a couple of days prior). Saute the mushrooms and onions in the bacon drippings until tender. (This grosses me out, so I used butter).

In a large bowl, beat eggs until foamy. Add softened cream cheese and beat well. Mix in salt, pepper and mushroom mixture.

Unroll the pie crust in 9" pie plate. Fill with cheddar cheese and bacon, then add the garlic. Pour bacon and egg mixture over the top. Sprinkle with parmesean and paprika.

Bake at 375 fir 30-35 min until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let rest for 15 min.

Ok, so this was super easy, quick, and delish. "A" for the day! However... it was very rich and did not please my tummy. Verdict? I probably will not make this again for that reason.

Crabbies!

My friend (we'll call him "The Marine") came to visit from Maryland this week. He drove here so he picked up few crabs on his way....

"The Marine" and his dad steamed the crabs in a roaster and then cracked them all (like..80 crabs!)

Trail-mix Cookies

I found this recipe on Epicurious.com. It's from the September 2009 issue of Bon Appetit by Marie Helm Sinskey.  The sweet thing about this recipe is that you can make the dough and freeze it or bake it right then AND they are vegetarian. (Really, you can do this with most cookie recipes) I did not use the coconut that the recipe called for as I am allergic to it. Click here for the recipe!

Ok, so first of all, I forgot to take the butter out of the freezer because I was busy trying to feed the kiddies. Let me just say, make sure the butter is ROOM TEMP like the recipe says. It would have saved me a lot of frustration. Definitely a rookie mistake. Also, line your baking sheets with parchment paper. I didn't because I never do as we have non-stick airbake pans. That was regret #2.

The recipe wants coursely chopped trail mix- I threw it in the food processor and pulsed a few times. I also baked it 14 min on my airbake pans, but 13 on the cookie sheet that was a non-airbake. I used a scooper so that the cookies were uniform in size (and I hate getting my hands dirty).

The verdict? This recipe is DEFINITELY a keeper! The cookies are absolutely delish! They are packed with oats and nuts...a great homemade substitute for a granola bar! That was my plan... I thought that The Chef could take them to school with him for a quick snack before class.

Bacon-wrapped Cod with Brown Rice and Seasonal Veggies

The cod is a Jamie Oliver Recipe. Basically, season the cod with salt/pepper. Wrap it with bacon, sprinkle rosemary on top. Grill or bake. Next time we will broil the fish/bacon, because we like crispy bacon and the fish started to dry out because we were trying to crisp the bacon.

The Chef seasoned the brown rice with Herbs de Province. He also stir fried the veggies- carrots, grape tomatoes, zucchini and summer squash with some salt/pepper, olive oil, garlic and oregano.

The Chef's cousin G was also present for this delish meal. He brought this French white wine along.

Barton and Guestier Vouvray. <3

Traditional SC food... during and after brewskis.

Speedy Q Nachos.

Obviously, it was dark and I was swatting mosquitos and not able to take a great pic of this munchie snack... but I will tell you there is NOTHING special about them. Chips, melty cheese... but SO good. And also a tradition. I beleive this was a large and I paid like, $4 for it.

Mike's Breakfast at Achatz. Eggs, potatoes, sausage and raisin toast.

My breakfast. Grilled cheese, pickles, onion rings.

Restaurant grilled cheese is always so delish because they use the flat top grill. And lots of butter. I typically broil my grilled cheese on an airbake cookie sheet. It takes like, 1/2 the time of using the traditional skillet on stove method and requires less grease:)

Cavis Wedding... cake.

Ok so obv I didn't make this cake, nor did Mike. But, I'm featuring it because it had CANOLI filling inside! mmmmmmmm:)

And... it was very pretty.

Kath's Homemade Mac and Cheese

SUPER easy.

2 cups of uncooked elbow macaroni noodles

3/4 cup of milk

8 oz of velveeta-cubed (or you can use a lil velveeta and other cheeses)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Cook the pasta. Mix the soup, milk, salt and pepper in a 2 qt baking dish (I usually spray mine first with EVOO spray). Add the pasta to the dish. Bake uncovered for 45 min, stirring 1/2 way through.

Creamy, cheesy, HOME COOKIN'!

St. Clair Inn

I haven't been to St. Clair in quite a while... over a year I think. Mike and I (and numerous other people) decided to hit the lounge for some snacks and bevs. I had the chicken club wrap and Mike had a chicken ceasar salad.

It wasn't that good. Overall kind of bummed. The beer was good though:)

Zuchinni and Ricotta Tart

This recipe came from Rachel Ray's magazine, "Everyday with Rachel Ray." Click here for the recipe

This recipe asks you to salt the zuchinni... DON'T go overboard. And make sure you rinse it very well. We opted to add some grated parmesean to the top, and that made it WAYYYYY too salty. We also couldn't find puff pastry sheets at our local grocery store, so we used phyllo dough. It definitely would have been better with puff pastry because it has butter between the layers, whereas phyllo doesn't. Also, be sure to poke the bottom alot or it will rise like crazy and your filling will spill out.

Overall, I didn't like this recipe. It reminded me of Spinach Lasange, which I hate. (The spinach, not the lasagne. Food poisoning incident a few years back. Spinach= YUCK)

Garlic Pepper Pork Tenderloin with Thyme Roasted Apples and Onions

The Chef marinated the pork loins in water, garlic and pepper (black and crushed red) for a few hours in the fridge. You should pan sear the pork loin to give it a crispy texture and so that it holds some of its juices. Then, we baked it covered in foil at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. Then we removed the foil and baked for 10 more. Check the temp... 155 degrees is where you want to be with clear juices.

The Chef also made a "gravy" for the meat using apple cider, madiera wine and cornstarch. It was pretty amazing. You will want to boil some apple cider and madiera wine in a small saucepan. Make sure that you wisk the corstarch in some liquid before adding it to the boiling apple cider or it will be lumpy.

For the apples/onions, I got the recipe from Epicurious.com... Thyme Roasted Apples and Onions

We only did 1/2 of the recipe as it serves 8-10... and it was perfect for The Chef, my 17 month old and I with no leftovers. DO NOT USE FOIL on a pan... it stuck. BAD (because of the sugar). Instead, you could try parchment paper... or a glass baking dish that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. We used Braeburn apples like it said to, but I think it would be better if you used a few different kinds of apples. My personal favorites are Ida Red and Granny Smith.

Cheesy Jambalaya

Super Quick, Super Easy. Super inexpensive.

1 box Zatarain's Cheesy Jambalaya

1 pkg of smoked sausage

Brown the sausage. Cook the rice. Combine. Done-zo!

(Break out the Zantac....)

Who knew leftovers could be this great?!

We had leftover shrimp so The Chef sauteed them in garlic and butter with a hint of lemon. The brown basmati rice was leftover from Emeril's epic fail. The carrots, which my daughter ate (literally I think I ate 3), were from the night we had cod. The green beens were fresh from my parent's garden and we added garlic (duh... it's great on pretty much anything) and almonds. Because we have a ton of almonds and why not, right?

Smoked Gouda Mac and Cheese

If you've never had smoked gouda...try it. It is creamy and smokey and perfect for this dish!

This dish was inspired by some Mac and Cheese that I had at the Winchester Restaurant in Grand Rapids. I was pregnant and craving "soul food." (This was pre-lactose intolerance phase of the pregnancy) It was smokey, creamy, and HAAAA-MAZING.

Ok so obviously, you need some pasta. We used the mini-farfalle because I really like the mini noodles. They're cute:) You need a block of smoked gouda (which you will find by the deli, with the more sophisticated cheeses), some grape tomatoes, BACON, milk, flour, butter, parsley and peas. We added the peas to make this a complete meal.

First, grate the gouda. Slice the bacon into small piece and brown it up. While you are waiting for the pasta water to boil, melt some butter and add the flour to make a roux. This is how all great sauces begin:) Add milk to thin it out and then add the gouda a little at a time and whisk it in. once your sauce is to the desired thickness, stop adding cheese. Also remember that as it sits, it will thicken a bit. You can season the sauce with garlic, salt, pepper, and any other herbs you'd like. We stuck to garlic, salt and pepper. Add the peas and bacon and eventually the pasta after it's done. If the sauce needs to thicken, add a little pasta water. OR, just be patient, because it will do this on it's own. Then add the some grape tomatoes that you've sliced in half (or quarted if they are large). Also, add a small amount of lemon juice. You won't really taste the lemony flavor, but a little acidity will ensure that the creamy sauce won't sit on your palate all night. Enjoy!

Breakfast for Dinner (Brinner)

My husband's family really enjoys having a big breakfast. My family was never really too into breakfasts like that... but I'm getting used to it:)

This delish-ness is a fritatta, friends:) To make this fritatta, you will want to heat a small amount of EVOO in an oven safe skillet. Saute' your veggies so that they soften up just a little bit. If you are adding meat, you can put that in the pan after the veggies are soft-ish. Beat some eggs (I think we did 9 or 10 in a 14 in skillet) and add them. Top with cheese (or you can mix it into the eggs) and bake in the skillet at 350 for 10 min (or until the eggs are the texture of scrambled eggs). We also really like crispy cheese, so we broiled it until it was starting to brown. We sauted mushrooms and garlic in some butter and added those on top after cutting and plating. NOTE: If you throw in the mushrooms when you saute the other veggies, your eggs will have a brownish hue to them.

EPIC FAIL.

So I found this recipe for black bean cakes and shrimp on the food network site. It was an Emeril Lagasse recipe (click here to view it) and I should have second guessed making it because I feel his recipes are hit and miss. This one? A definite miss. It had 5 stars so I thought it would be delish. There was also a review in which the person combined the shrimp into the cakes (which we decided to do).

This was a trainwreck dinner. Both of our kids were crying. We ran out of a couple of things (not that it would have mattered bc this recipe was still gross).

First let me say that the creole spice recipe is like eating a colony of fire ants. I didn't even use half as much cayanne pepper as it called for, knowing that it would be crazy hot. The Chef suggested I add sugar and lime juice. It was still hot. I added like 3 tablespoons of each.  I also made some of my world-famous guacamole to put on top thinking that would cut the heat. NOT.

I suffered through and ate all but a bite or two. Then the chef made an exec decision that we were going to eat something else as we were still hungry...

Cod, Sweet Potato Bake, Green Beans and Carrots

Sunday was pretty warm so my husband grilled some cod for us. It was seasoned with a lemon-pepper/herb seasoning. Turned out pretty decent- could have used a little more lemon which we could have remedied by squeezing a lemon on it.

I also paired the fish with my homemade tartar sauce.

To make it:

Use Mayo (I used light Hellman's)

Dill pickle relish

lemon juice

Frank's Red Hot Sauce

Salt

Sugar

I don't measure so I can't tell you exactly how much of each there is...so we'll say "to taste." :)

For the sweet potatoes- We baked them in the oven until they were soft. Then we threw them in the food processor with some cinnamon, sugar, cloves and nutmeg. We spread them in an 11x7 baking dish and topped with walnuts and raw sugar. We broiled it for a few to carmelize the sugar and toast the walnuts.

The green beans were picked fresh from my parent's garden the day before:) Nothing like fresh green beans! We steamed them and then sauteed with minced garlic, butter and sliced almonds.

My husband made his famous "candied baby carrots."

Lots of veggies, lots of delish-ness!

Vegetarian Steamed Dumplings

Tonight we decided to have vegetarian dumplings. The recipe can be found here. My husband and I are big Alton Brown (of The Food Network) fans and when I found this recipe, I was pretty pumped because most of his recipes are great. This one, however, was not. We decided to fry the dumplings because our steamer was only large enough to hold 3-4 dumplings at a time (and we were HUNGRY so that wasn't going to work.)

The first problem was making the dumplings. We had 4x4 wonton wrappers, which were WAY too small. If you decide to make this recipe, I would suggest egg roll wrappers. The second problem was that, although I purchased extra-firm tofu, it became too soft. I also opted to use broccoli cole-slaw mix in place of the cabbage because I'm not a huge cabbage fan. This is where prob # 3 came in- we should have chopped the mix into smaller pieces before attempting to stuff the dumplings. They also could have used a little more salt, and a dipping sauce. We remedied this by making a dipping sauce out of General Tso, sweet and sour, hoisin and soy sauces. (BE CAREFUL when heating this up- the sweet and sour is mostly sugar and will become molten quickly- try 20 sec and test...)

The finished product:

Overall, pan-frying was a great choice. They weren't greasy but were crispy and golden brown. We will definitely pan fry them again, but will make our own filling.

Will we make this recipe again? No. We threw it away. In fact, we had a discussion that sometimes recipes should only be used as a guideline- we are fairly certain that we can make these OUR way and make them better without a recipe. We will try to make dumplings again and will definitely post about making them our way.

Shrimpies and Cream Sauce with Chedda bisquits

Last night, we had my sister-in-law and her fiancee over for dinner. Keeping with the theme of the week, we had farfalle with shrimp, peas, and a cream sauce (that I made!) and the Chef made cheddar/garlic biscuits. No recipe involved on the pasta, but here's how I made it:

Boil some pasta- I used farfalle bc it's one of my faves:) SAVE THE PASTA WATER AFTER THE NOODLES ARE DONE!

While the noodles are cooking: melt some butter in a skillet, add flour to make a roux. I added about 1/2 a pint of heavy cream that was left over from the creme brulee and then more 2% milk to thin it out. I also added garlic, salt and oregano. Then you let it come to a boil to thicken. After that, I added about 1/2 a container of parmesean/romano shredded cheese. Note: If it is still too thick, you can either add more milk, OR some of the pasta water you've saved:) Then add the peas. Then the shrimpies. Garnish with some fresh parsley:) I also heated the shrimp in the reserved pasta water. They were pre-cooked shrimp, peeled and de-veined. The Chef was nice enough to pull the tails off for me:) You will also want to be sure that you RINSE them before cooking so that there aren't any tail pieces hanging out in your pasta.

"Yum!" as my 17 month old said!

Vegetarian BBQ

So as we all know, Mike and I are note eating beef, chicken or pork for the next 2 weeks (with one possible exception- I'll explain later). Yesterday, we had our friends Derek and Adrienne over for a lil BBQ. Adrienne is a vegetarian and offered to bring tofu kabobs. I made stuffed mushrooms. Mike made creme brulee for everyone (even a mini one for Miss B! What other 17-month-old do you know that gets the pleasure of eating creme brulee?!).

The kabobs were delish! Red onion, lemon, mushroom and tofu paired with a special sauce.

Click here for the Rockin' recipe!

I promise to start taking better pics... these were done with the ol cell phone cam.

For dinner tonight: Black bean quesadillas!

They don't look that impressive, but they were delish! Black beans, onions, corn. Delicioso!

Salmon Baked in a Foil Parcel with Green Beans and Pesto

So for the next two weeks, Mike and I decided that we will NOT be eating beef, pork, or chicken. Instead, we will find other forms of protein to use... such as fish, shellfish, quinoa, and tofu for example. This decision was made because we are definitely tired of chicken, and are making a serious attempt to overhaul our diets as we have not been the healthiest eaters as of late. I also think this could aid in my shedding of baby weight!:)

To tonight we made a recipe from Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution" cookbook. I purchased this book for Mike as part of his first wedding anniv gift (Fun fact: paper is the traditional gift for a first wedding anniv). Jamie rocks! He is trying to transform American's diets and asks that you share his recipes with 2 people. So here goes...

Ingredients: (serves 2)

2 handfuls of green beans
2 lemons
2- 7 ounce chunky salmon fillets, skin on, scaled and bones removed (ours were about the size of our hands)
(Andrea's note: PLEASE use wild-caught salmon... google farm raised fish.... you will understand after reading about how nasty farm raised fish can be)
2 heaped tablespoons of green pesto (We used Mike's homemade pesto)
olive oil

sea salt and black pepper

Basically, you make 2 foil pouches , put the green beans down in a row (we also added onions), put the fish on top of them, top with pesto, lemon and oil, and then wrap the pouches so they don't leak. Bake em for 15 at 400 and you have yourself a super easy, delish dinner! It's also great because there is hardly any mess to clean up afterward! 

So how does it taste? Excellent! I'd never had pesto with salmon, but it's not a bad combo. I wil say that it does kind of overpower the overall salmon flavor. I actually scraped some of it to the side. The beans in the bottom were delish and resting in a lemony sauce that was great for dipping the salmon in as well!

Sidenote: I purchased the lysol automatic soap dispensor today...I heart it. I'm a huge germophobe and it totally makes me want to wash my hands. Frequently:)