Mexican Quinoa

Mexican Quinoa

**Notes: I made this in my rice cooker, but you could just as easily do it stovetop, in a lidded saucepan. Also, I don't measure the Mexican spices, so I did my best to estimate. Feel free to modify to suit your taste.

1 tsp olive oil

1 small onion, diced

1 cup diced tomato

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1 cup quinoa

2 cups chicken broth (get organic/yeast free)

Heat oil in a small skillet over med-high heat. Once heated, add onion and tomato, and sauté until onion begins to turn transparent. Add spices, and stir well for about 30 seconds. Add mixture to rice cooker. Add quinoa and broth to rice cooker, stir, cover, and cook.

Week of 10/5/15 - Build my own diet!

Might as well use this fancy blog, yeah?
I've had us on the "Cooking Light Diet" for the past 3 months. Where the recipes are SO delicious, and it's been fairly easy to maintain, like everything I do for 3+ months, I'm sick of it. So, I cancelled my subscription, and will try to make my own diet this week.

(Check it out if you'd like. It really is a great plan, and I've enjoyed it, I'm just tired of paying someone to make my decisions for me. They've given me a lot of great ideas and recipes, though, and I will likely be using many of them in my own plan. Tell me what you think, if you join!)

Now, I must come clean and say that in the past week, I've adopted a "fuck it all" mindset to consuming and exercise (pardon my French). I cancelled my trainer, with an option to re-start in January after the holidays weight-gain, and self-loathing. In the meantime, we're going off the rails. KIND OF.

I did start off the weekend by making a Sausage-Pumpkin Lasagna. It was a departure from our usual recipe (which I couldn't find on Friday when googling), and added the challenge of making my own pumpkin puree (!!!) due to the store being out of the canned, and coming home to no power, and *accidentally* consuming the entire bottle of Rose before dinner was done, it still turned out delicious, despite its ugly, eggy color. I will say that the leftovers have been YUMMO, and if you'd like to come over and eat it, I will happily recreate it for you (with some minor changes).

It's been Monsoon season in ATL due to Hurricane Joaquin, which has dumped torrential rain on the  East Coast, so Saturday was made for a crock pot full of Loaded Potato Soup, which we had Saturday night with Caesar Salad. Needless to say, the leftover situation at our house will easily get us through today and maybe tomorrow.

I HAVE to make a grocery list for the week, and get the groceries on Sunday. I feel unprepared for my week if I don't. And I LOATHE having to stop at the grocery on the way home from work, unless absolutely necessary. In order to do this, I have to have a plan, and make a list of what we'll eat each day, so I know what to buy. This is an OCD-situation I developed later in life. I'm sure schooling would've been much easier if I had this disorder in my formative years.

This is what I've come up with for this week:

**You'll notice I got lazy, and made oatmeal jars for breakfast every day. Don't judge me. But please note: These are NOT the overnight oats that are found in many places. I have an allergy to milk, so I did a recipe with all dry ingredients, because I can fill with boiling water, let sit, and have a perfect breakfast ready to go. By next week, I plan to have a Cream of Wheat jar scenario to replace the oatmeal, because after 5 days in a row of hot, bland mush, I'll be ready for a change (oatmeal is NOT my favorite, unless it's in cookie form).


Monday:
Breakfast: Oatmeal Jar
Lunch: Egg Salad Sandwich
Dinner: WILLY'S (derby practice Monday night means I don't cook.)


Tuesday:
Breakfast: Oatmeal Jar
Lunch: Egg Salad Sandwich
Dinner: Kung Pao Chicken / Rice


Wednesday:
Breakfast: Oatmeal Jar
Lunch: Cafeteria Club:
Wrap: 1 oz. oven roasted turkey breast, 1/2 oz. low sodium ham, 1 slice crumbled center cut bacon, 1 tablespoon guacamole on half a whole wheat wrap (such as Flatout) 
Dinner: Enchilada Casserole / Black Beans


Thursday
Breakfast: Oatmeal Jar
Lunch: Couscous Salad
Dinner: Maple-Mustard Chicken / Green Beans / Rice


Friday:
Breakfast: Oatmeal Jar
Lunch: Couscous Salad
Off-the-Rails Dinner: Fried Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, Brussel Sprouts

I'd love to hear your thoughts! And I'll keep you posted on how everything goes. 

Have a great week!

2014 - Breakfast for Dinner Resolution

Because I want to remember the one time I succeeded with a NY resolution, here's a list of the 2014 Sunday night Breakfast for Dinner meals we had:

1) January 5 - Waffles, Bacon, Scrambled Eggs
2) January 12 - Breakfast Burritos with Chorizo and Egg, refried beans
3) January 19 - Sausage, Gravy, Biscuits and Eggs
4) January 26 - Waffle House Waffles (recipe: http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/bread/other-bread/waffle-house-waffles.html ), Eggs, Cheese Grits, Hash Browns, Bacon

5) February 2 -
6) February 9 -
7) February 16 -
8) February 23 -

9) March 2 -
10) March 9 -
11) March 16 -
12) March 23 -
13) March 30 -

2014 - "Resolutions"

We didn't really do resolutions this year… but I do have a few things I'm "working on" and used the 1st to kinda reset.

First, we've declared every Sunday in 2014 to be Breakfast-for-Dinner nights. We started it off last night with waffles, sausage and eggs. Next Sunday will be Breakfast Burritos.


Second, I've quit smoking. Well, I've quit smoking tobacco cigarettes. I got Mike and I both those Blu e-cigs, and I can say that I've not had an analog cig since just after New Year's Eve. I don't know the medical consensus on e-cigs and being better for you, but there has to be some benefit, and hopefully after a little while doing only e-cig, I can quit nicotine altogether. I was thinking last night, though, and since it's the 6th, I totally have 6 things that I like better about not smoking analog cigs:
     1) I like the way my laundry smells, and I like that all day, my clothes smell like laundry, and not smoke.
     2) I like how my hair doesn't smell like smoke.
     3) Windows-up "smoking" (e-cigs) = no cold air/mussed hair, and no ashes inside the car, or on my clothes.
     4) I can re-wear my clothes from day to day, as they don't smell like smoke. Not a typical habit, but Saturday night, I wore an outfit for literally 4 hours, and I was able to wear it again all day Sunday because it didn't stink (just jeans/t-shirt, but still, it was impressive).
     5) Smoking at hockey games/restaurants/inside my parents' house. Nuff said.
     6) My mouth doesn't taste like stale cig smoke when I wake up in the morning.

I'm going to try to think of a new reason each day to stay off analog cigs, but for now, these things are good enough.

Chicken and Dumplings in the Crockpot

This is by far one of my favorite things to eat when it's cold out . And the leftovers are delish! I use my 5 qt crock pot.

Ingredients:

- 3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken (frozen is fine. I use breasts because it's always what we have.)

- 1 onion, chopped

- 8 oz mushrooms, sliced or chopped (I get presliced)

- 16 oz frozen veggies (get the ones you'd get for veggie soup)

Cream Soup:

Combine these ingredients in a saucepan, and heat until thickened:

- 4 tbsp butter

- 6 tbsp flour

- 1 cup milk

- 1 cup chicken broth

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1/4 tsp black pepper

-1  tsp poultry seasoning

 Drop biscuits:

- 2 cups flour

- 1 tbsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 2 tbsp melted butter

- 3/4 cup milk

* mix with fork and drop into soup one hour before serving

Directions:

Spray crock with cooking spray. Put the chicken and veggies in the bottom of the crockpot. Cover with the cream soup.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or high for 4-5 hours.

An hour before serving, shred the chicken with two forks, and drop in biscuit dough. Cook on high one more hour. They Will be a bit spongy and will be a tad brown if they're sticking out of the soup. You'll be able to insert a knife and it'll come out clean.

Pasta Sauce - AKA What to do With All These Fuggen Tomatoes

We planted a container garden out by our pool, in lieu of building a fence and putting one in the ground in the backyard. It's been quite fruitful, but I've found myself each weekend wondering WTF to do with all these tomatoes before they spoil! So, I made pasta sauce. It doesn't just have to go on pasta. We used it on garlic bread pizza. It is super tasty with chicken and pasta, though. And not too complicated. I bet even an Italian would be satisfied.


Garden Tomato Pasta Sauce
makes 3-5 cups of sauce
Cooking time: 2-4 hours

Ingredients:
Tomatoes - However many you have! I just use all the ones in our bowl that are going to spoil if I don't use them... which is typically all the ones in the bowl. For the most recent batch, I used around 35 cherry tomatoes, 3 Parks Whoppers and 4-5 Lemon Boys

2 TBSP Olive Oil

3-4 TBSP minced garlic

1 onion, diced

1-2 TBSP Oregano

1-2 TBSP Sage

1 TBSP Thyme

1-2 TBSP Paprika

(Optional: 2 tsp crushed red pepper)

Salt and Pepper to taste

About 3-4 TBSP Fresh Basil, chopped - what you can find. Supplement with dried if it's not a lot.

1 TBSP white sugar

1 TBSP Balsamic Vinegar



For all tomatoes except Cherry, cut, quarter and remove any bad spots and the stem of your tomatoes. Food process them until there are no chunks left, and set aside.

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over med-high heat. Once heated, add in the garlic and onion and sauté until the onion starts to turn translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Lower heat to medium, and add in your spices (except fresh basil), stirring constantly, until they become fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.

Pour in processed tomatoes, fresh basil, sugar, and vinegar, and heat until simmering. Simmer on medium or medium-high until most of the juices have evaporated out. Let cool and transfer into container to freeze or refrigerate. Use refrigerated sauce within 2 weeks. Frozen sauce will last 6 months.




Tomatoey Chicken Pasta

12 oz pasta, cooked and set aside

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thawed and cut into bite-sized pieces

2 TBSP Olive Oil, separated

1 TBSP minced garlic

1 TBSP Oregano

1 TBSP Sage

1 TBSP Thyme

3-5 cups Pasta Sauce

Salt and Pepper to taste

Parmesan cheese


Put the pieces of chicken in a bowl, and toss with Olive Oil, garlic and spices.

Heat remaining oil in large skillet. When hot, add in chicken. Cook over medium-high until chicken is done, and most of the moisture has evaporated from the pan. Add in the sauce and heat until everything is hot. Pour sauce and chicken mixture over cooked pasta, and toss to coat evenly. Stir in some parmesan cheese, or portion on plates, and allow each person to add their own cheese.

Great with garlic bread or yeast rolls.





Enjoy!

2012 - The Summer of the Pool Cocktail

I've found these delicious cocktail recipes for by the pool this summer. Screw you, Mike's Hard Lemonade - we're going DIY!





Vanilla Pear Vodka Cocktail: http://www.two-tarts.com/2011/09/vanilla-pear-and-vodka-cocktail.html

Blueberry Lavender Mojito: http://www.drinkeattravel.com/cocktail-recipes-memorial-day-weekend/

Lavender Lemonade (But add Vodka): http://www.munchinwithmunchkin.com/2012/03/19/lavender-lemonade/

Blueberry Infused Vodka Lemonade: http://www.keepitsimplefoods.com/summer/blueberry-infused-vodka-lemonade/

Raspberry Beer Cocktail: http://www.acupofmai.com/2012/02/raspberry-beer-cocktail.html


Mainly just made this blog to save the recipe links. Enjoy! Cuz we sure as heck will!