My Take on Pad-Thai

 

I would like to tell you that I have resolved to be better about posting this year, that I have lots of great post all lined up, but that wouldn’t be the truth. Life only seems to get busier as time passes. I do hope I’ll be better about posting regularly once the wedding is past!

As for my promised pad thai recipe… It doesn’t quite qualify for healthy, but it’s not too terrible for you, and it is beyond tasty! I’ve been making it for a while now, ever since the roomie suggested we try to make it ourselves and we were disappointed by the bottled sauce we tried. I’m so glad I gave it a try because it’s been good every time we’ve made it! It’s a favorite of mine, the roomie’s, and my sweeties.

I have made this dish a number of different ways: adding coconut milk for more sauce, using crunchy peanut butter vs. creamy, adding more veggies, using shrimp. This recipe’s a good starting point, but feel free to have fun with it and adjust it to your liking. You know that’s what I always do!

 

My Pad Thai

1 Tbs peanut oil (or olive oil)

1raw chicken breast, thinly sliced

½ sweet onion, sliced

½ sweet bell pepper, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbs minced fresh ginger

½ c peanut butter

1 Tbs soy sauce

1 Tbs lime juice

1 Tbs vinegar (rice or apple cider)

1 tsp to 1 Tbs Sriracha – depending on how hot you like it

2 tsp brown sugar

 

Rice noodles, soaked in warm water

 

Garnish with chopped peanuts, cilantro and been sprouts

 

Heat oil over medium high heat in a large wok, add sliced chicken breast and cook for 5 to 8 minutes, until cooked through. Add onion and bell pepper and sauté for 10 minutes. Drop the heat and add the garlic and ginger, tossing gently.

Add the peanut butter, soy sauce, lime juice, vinegar, Sriracha, and brown sugar to the wok. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until all ingredients are thoroughly combine.

Serve over the rice noodles, top with chopped peanuts, cilantro and been sprouts.

Braised Chicken

Like just about every food blogger I would love to eventually turn all my recipes into a cookbook… A dream that would be better furthered by actually posting recipes more then once a month! I’ll work on that; I swear (wonder how many times I’ve said that in the last year). Guess regular posting will yet again be a new years resolution for 2012.

An average week in our household means planning the menu and doing our grocery shopping on Sunday. We usually switch off on dinner, so neither of us get too burnt out on cooking. This was a random creation so I could make some lemon-dill roasted potatoes (they were great by the way). The chicken came out quite tasty and is well worth making again!

It had to cook for a while but was an easy main course to throw together. Mushrooms could be a good addition to this as well. I paired it with a salad and some lemon-dill roasted potatoes. This would also be great served over pasta.

 

Braised Chicken

4 chicken thighs

Black pepper and garlic powder

1 Tbs olive oil

½ medium onion, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

½ bunch parsley, minced

2/3 c red wine

2 Tbs balsamic vinegar

1 can tomato sauce

 

Heat oil in a medium pan (with a lid) over medium-high heat. While the oil heats season the chicken with black pepper and garlic powder. Brown the chicken, about 5 minutes on each side. Add all remaining ingredients and cover the pan, stirring occasionally. When it comes to a boil, reduce he heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.

Cinnamon Shrimp

Our household is currently working towards smaller waistlines for our impending wedding. To be honest, we’re not so good at diets or watching what we eat… But we’re trying. As part of that effort we are working on healthier dinners. This great recipe is one of those. And grilled shrimp, paired with roasted butternut squash and a salad makes for a pretty light dinner!

This is a delicious recipe that came from my wonderful father (thanks dad)! He’s made it for me many times and this was my first attempt at making it myself, with the help of my sweetie of course. It was almost as good as my dad’s version!

 

Cinnamon Shrimp

1 Tbl Cumin

1 Tbl coriander

1 ½ tsp fresh cracked black pepper

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground cardamom

½ tsp ground cloves

1 tsp salt

2 Tbl vegetable oil

1 Tbs butter

1 Tbs olive oil

 

Combine all ingredients in a plastic bag and allow shrimp to marinate for at least 30 minutes, up to a couple of hours.

Skewer shrimp on rosemary stems. Grill briefly, 3 minutes per side.

Cranberry-Balsamic Vinaigrette

Judging by the fact that I haven’t posted in over a month, I’m think I might of spoken too soon when I ever so proudly announced I was back… Things are starting to fall into a more consistent rhythm in our home. But there is always so much to do, on top of wedding planning that is! Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve really got nothing to complain about. But it has made blogging more then a little bit difficult.
But enough whining about not having enough time and on to the good stuff! My sweetie and I are trying to be better about what we eat so we can slim down for the wedding a bit. I’m also trying to make sure we’re being good about using any leftovers we have (which is how this vinaigrette came to be!). This is a great salad and a fun way to use leftover cranberry sauce (the homemade variety).
The salad itself certainly requires no recipe, just spinach, crasins, walnuts, a pear, goat cheese, and baked chicken breast. What I want to share is the Cranberry-Balsamic vinaigrette, which starts with balsamic marinated onions!
I tend to marinate onions for salads, all I do is thinly slice onion and cover them in balsamic vinegar and 1 tsp honey. Just let them sit, stirring occasionally for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Cranberry-Balsamic Vinaigrette
Reserved vinegar from the onions
2 Tbs leftover cranberry sauce
2 tsp olive oil

Mix all ingredients thoroughly and drizzle over your salad!

I’m Back, with Apple Cinnamon Nut Bread!

Well, I have survived (and enjoyed quite a bit of it while I was at it) a very busy few weeks. We closed on a house, my sister got married, we moved, I orchestrated a huge work event, my honey dealt with quarter end, we got a good bit of work done on the house, got appliances delivered, and we have come out the other end alive! Sister’s wedding was beautiful (and I have a brother now!), we love the house and our work stuff went well. So all in all, life is going well and has finally calmed down! This also means I finally have the chance to start cooking again!

 

This bit of baking was prompted by my office’s biannual bake sale, which I always volunteer for. As busy as this fall has been I decided against doing cake balls since they are so time consuming. I settled on my family’s tried and true chocolate chip peanut butter cookie and my Betty Crocker Nut Bread. Only, me being me, I couldn’t just do the basic banana nut bread. I decided I wanted to go seasonal and try apple nut bread.

 

I love a good, crisp, tart, fall apple. Bake that into a sweet nut bread and it makes a fabulous fall treat. I made this one with honey crisp apples and walnuts, but you can certainly change the apple and nut parings based on your preference!

 

Apple Cinnamon Nut Bread (adapted from Betty Crocker)

1 ¾ fresh apple, cored and chopped

1 Tbs butter

2 ½ cups All-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

3 ½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 Tbs oil

¾ cup milk

1 egg

1 cup chopped nuts

 

Melt butter in a large sauté pan over low heat, add apples and continue to cook for about 20 minutes, or until apples are soft. Set aside to cool.

Pre heat the oven to 350 and grease and flour either 2 loaf pans or a 8” x 8” x 2” pan.

Thoroughly mix all remaining ingredients in a large bowl.

Mash about ½ of the cooked apples with a fork and add to other ingredients. Mix the apples in well.

Pour the batter into the pan. Top with brown sugar and cinnamon (I garnished my loafs with a few thin apple slices).

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes.

Quick Dinner and an Update

I am a bad blogger… and honestly, I probably will continue to be bad until October. Things have just been so intensely busy these days and it’s looking like my sweetie and I will be moving in a matter of weeks! Here are just a few of the things that are keeping me busy these days:

 

Harris, the sweet kitty who walked into my life last week.

 

The House!

 

Wedding stuff (P.S. this picture was taken by my amazing photographer and friend Lindy Cordell)

And of course… work, particularly the Power of Pink Luncheon I’m coordinating for my hospital (you should come, it’s going to be a good time!). Oo, and I guess I’ll share one of my favorite quick and tasty I’m-too-stressed-out-and-exhausted-to-cook-real-food dinners: Chicken nachos.

Chicken nachos

1 chicken breast

½ medium onion, chopped

½ green bell pepper, chopped

4 cloves garlic, mined

1 jalapeno, minced

½ bunch cilantro, chopped

1 can Rotel tomatoes

½ c frozen corn

Dash cumin, coriander, and chili powder

 

Shredded Monterey jack cheese

Sliced avocado

lettuce

Touch of lime chips

In a large skillet heat oil over medium-high heat. Cube the chicken breast and toss into the hot pan. Sauté for about 5 minutes. Add the onion, bell pepper, garlic, and jalapeno, cook for another 5 minutes. Add the cilantro, tomatoes, corn and spices and allow to simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Spoon chicken mixture onto a large plate, top with cheese, avocado, and lettuce. Use chips to eat!

Going Lighter and Learning

To say that I’ve been overwhelmed lately would probably be an understatement. I keep trying to do better; be more organized, less frantic, and to get my various to do lists knocked out. But lately I’m just barely keeping my head above water. In the midst of all the work/wedding stuff/house hunting I have learned a few things:

• Asking for help and saying no (when it’s appropriate) will help immensely at work. People are generally very helpful and understanding.
• Planning a wedding is not nearly as fun as it sounds. I have found it to be a ton of research/stress/frustration trying to create the wedding you want with in the parameters of reality.
• HGTV lies – buying a house is no where near as easy as they make it look! We have gone over so many different numbers, calculations, and so much legalese my head is going to be spinning for weeks.
• I am a bad dieter… I had the terrible realization last Sunday that my engagement pictures were less than a week away and some slimming and toning was much needed. I created a pretty good “quick” diet plan, but I am miserable trying to stick to it.

Now on a more positive note, I created a pretty darn good “light” dinner last night as a result of my dieting stupidity. It was a quick, easy and seriously tasty dinner!

 

Goat Cheese Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

2 Portabella mushrooms

2 ½ oz herb goat cheese

¼ c bread crumbs

¼ c chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained

3 cloves garlic, minced

Dash dry rosemary, basil, and crushed black pepper

Splash balsamic vinegar

 

Sauce:

½ medium sweet onion, minced

½ bell pepper, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 can tomato sauce

2 oz spicy tomato juice

2 Tbs lemon juice

1 Tbs balsamic vinegar

Dash red pepper flakes

2 Tbs chopped fresh basil and parsley

 

Pre-heat oven to 450°.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat with 1 Tbs oil. Cook portabellas  for 5 minutes on each side.

While they cook combine the goat cheese, bread crumbs, spinach, garlic, rosemary, basil, and crushed black pepper. Mix thoroughly.

Gently press the filling into the mushroom caps, place on a baking sheet, and bake for about 20 minutes.

While the mushrooms bake, make the sauce and whole wheat pasta.

Add the onion, bell pepper, and garlic to the sauté pan and cook for about 6 to 8 minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients and simmer over medium-low heat until the mushrooms are done.

Serve the mushrooms over whole wheat pasta, toped with the sauce.

Creamy Tomato Bisque

Yes, I realize it’s been over a month since my last post. In fact, it has been so long since I last posted a friend actually asked me if I had given up the blog. I promise that’s not the case! I’ve just been boarder line crazy busy with life and been far to lazy about writing or even cooking! I swear it has been on my to do list… it just seems like everything else on the list is more pressing. But as I was recently reminded that I need to write, and I found a few spare minutes, here we go!

I think I’m one of the few people who likes soup year round. Even in the ridiculous heat of summer in the south, I still have random soup cravings. Now this particular soup craving is entirely to blame on one of my co-workers who brought in some of the most amazing tomato bisque I’ve ever had. So, of course I had to go home and attempt my own version.

I thought this came out quite well. It’s not as amazing as the inspirational soup; it was a tasty take on it.

 

Creamy Tomato Bisque

1 Tbs olive oil

¼ sweet onion, minced

4 – 6 cloves garlic, minced

Hardy dash dry basil, cayenne, black pepper, celery

1 can tomato sauce

1 c red wine

1 c cream

1 Tbs flour

1/3 c shredded white cheddar cheese

salt

 

Sauté the onion and garlic with olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until the onions begin to brown. Add the spices and cook for another minute.

Add the tomato sauce and wine, bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring regularly.

Wisk together the cream and flower. Slowly pour the mixture into the pot, whisking as you pour. Bring back to a boil, stirring regularly until the soup begins to thicken, about 5 minutes. Add the cheese and cook for a few minutes.

Serve hot. Best with cheese and fresh basil on top.

Classic Potato Salad

Memorial day is behind us and it is getting HOT here in the south! It’s been in the 90’s for days, and humid as all get-out. Now summer may not officially begin for a few more weeks, it feels like it’s already in full swing. And what say’s summer more then a delicious, classic potato salad?

This is one of the best potato salads I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating. It is chunky and creamy and crisp. Pretty much a perfect combination when it comes to potato salad. I strongly suggest whipping this up for your next cook out or picnic.

Classic Potato Salad (From the amazing lady at Smitten Kitchen)

1 Lb new potatoes, scrubbed and quartered

1 dill pickle, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

1/3 sweet onion, chopped

½ c mayo

1 Tbs Dijon mustard

1 Tbs apple cider vinegar

1 – 2 tsp dried dill

1 tsp ground black pepper

Dash salt and paprika

Place the sliced potatoes in a medium sauce pan and cover with water. Cook over medium-high heat until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain completely and set aside.

Stir together all of the remaining ingredients. Fold in the potatoes until completely combine.

Birthday Food = Red Beans and Rice

I may or may not have been a kind of weird kid (I blame this entirely on my parents!) growing up. Example of this: for many, many years my birthday dinner of choice was red beans and rice. Seriously, when my parent’s asked me what I wanted for birthday dinner, my answer was beans and rice. See, not a normal kid! So in honor of that and my birthday I am re-posting my beloved red beans and rice recipe. I highly suggest you give it a try!

Dad’s Red Beans

2 lbs dry red beans)

1 large onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

½ green bell pepper, chopped

1 jalapeno

4-6 cloves garlic

Spicy sausage (aka Andouille) or shredded pork shoulder

2 bay leaves

Salt

Dash cayenne, Thyme, and parsley

Sort and rinse the dry beans to remove any stones and dirt. Soak beans overnight in large soup pot.

Drain beans and set aside.

Sauté onion, celery, bell pepper, jalapeno, and garlic over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Slice meat into chunks and add to pot, sauté until fully cooked.

Add beans, 6 c. water, and remaining seasonings and simmer for 2 – 4 hours; until beans are fully cooked and broth thickens.

Best served over rice.