Weekend Update : RELAXING!

I had a fantastic weekend, I hope you did too!

Here's the rundown:

Saturday I woke up, got my food ready for the Stamp Out Hunger food drive.  It was super easy, they give you an empty bag a few days in advance, you fill it with good dated non perishables, and then set it out on the day selected, and the postal workers pick it up! 

How easy!  Anyways, so I did that, and then went to the gym, hung out on the Dreadmill for a bit, came home, showered, grabbed the hubster and went to the Minneapolis Farmer's Market to pick up some plants for our garden.  I ended up putting them in the window sill until later this week, because it is supposed to freeze tonight(and then warm up to 90!).

While we were there we saw this guy that we had met a couple years ago giving away sample tastes of Mean Green at our local Cub Foods.  We ended up buying 2 bottles.  He has you try it on a piece of french bread, and I swear, I would be just fine the Mean Green like that.

While we were at the Farmer's Market it was frozen raining on us for a brief moment.  Where they would have been rain drops, except that they froze, and never thawed by the time they landed on Earth.

After that we came home, unloaded our stuff, I tried to take a nap, the Hubster went and got a haircut, called me up, and we headed to Menards to pick up some stuff to add to the soil since ours gets so dry and crumbly.  We also ended up picking up a cheap table and chair set for our deck, since I really like to eat outside, it is basically a necessity.

After Menards we went out to eat at the Lone Spur Bar and Grill, where I had a Coronarita!  I at first only ordered a water, however the Hubster was upset that I wasn't drinking.  (what a weirdo)

The drink was only $10. But think about it.  It's a margarita, and a 12 oz. beer.  The Hubster's 2 beers were $12 or something.

Then we napped.  Well, I basically went to bed for the night, he napped, and watched NASCAR. Gross.  Glad I slept through that.

Sunday we woke up, and I scooted over to Caribou for their BOGO offer for Mother's Day.  When I got back the Hubster was washing dishes. He sat down with me to finish watching CBS Sunday Morning, and then we started moving around. 

We finished up the dishes, then moved outside to the deck to take care of the climbing vines from last year's Morning Glory's, 4 o'clocks and Moon Flowers.  And to set up our new deck set.  We grilled Corn on the cob (in it's husk) from the Market, potatoes and chicken.  

It was a particularly lovely day! 

How was your weekend?!

Dinner : Sriracha Burgers and Potato Wedges

When I was looking ahead at the weather forecast for the week, I knew I needed to get out and use the grill Monday.  The rest of the week has the possibility of either - turning very cold, or maintaining Spring. 

I hope it can maintain!!  We have had a very long, cold, and particularly snowy April.  I am hoping that May will be the warmth that everyone knows and loves.  Especially since we will be camping at the end of the month for Memorial Day.

Monday's lunch was pretty disappointing from the cafeteria.  It consisted of stir fry veggies, a piece of grilled chicken (like, a slice of it) soggy rice, and peanut sauce.  I put more Sriracha sauce on it to give it a little extra kick. And am I ever glad I did.  If you have read a few of my past posts, you may have seen my posting on Poor Man's Pad Thai that I was making for lunch for a month, for no other reason than I LOVED it.

But that got me thinking,

1. I needed to figure out dinner
2. We should use the grill tonight
3. There is ground beef in the fridge that needs to be used
4. I love Sriracha!

So I came up with this brilliant idea of Sriracha Burgers!  Knowing I am not the most ingenious person in the world, I knew I could google it and find something that would work.

The results I came up with ended up leading to The Sriracha Cookbook.  Which I should probably own. I decided to use the Serious Eats Ultimate Sriracha Burger recipe.  I followed the recipe pretty much, I posted the recipe here too.

And while I was floating for a recipe for the burgers, I knew I wanted to make 'oven fries' on the grill, and came across Serious Eats for Grilled Potato Wedges - sounds good to me!  I made a couple of changes to the Potato Wedges, my version can be found here.

One of the number one things I would say, is you should ALWAYS set up a topping station, for anything that requires assembly.  You can see in my photo the bacon slices, onions, tomato slices, blue cheese-Sriracha sauce and the Arugula, waiting patiently for the burgers to finish.

All we did was put a slice of cheese on the burgers and let it sit on the grill an extra minute, and then put them on the buns.  I was eating a Pepperidge Farm Deli Flat. Not the same as a beautiful hamburger bun, but with the average calorie count for the burger being at about 780, I needed to cut corners somewhere.

There she is in all her glory. She was super tasty!  I really liked the extra bite the Sriracha gave the burger, and the sauce? That was so delicious that I needed to dip some of our slightly over done potato wedges in.

I let the hubster do the grilling, I mean, I did buy him the grill.  However, I think we would have better results if I took it over.  He seemingly has no idea what he is doing. 

What do you like to make on the grill?  Have you checked out my Chipotle Mango Chicken Kabobs?  I am going to make them when it warms up again. 

Which hopefully will be next week.

Lunch : Salad with Balsamic

Sorry friend, your salad looks sad.

Have you tried balsamic?

Just about every brand has one.

At Cub (not sure what your shopping options are these days) they have a 1lb tub of 'spring mix' lasts me easily a week of extra large salads for lunch. ($6.99-organic section) I mix 3 c. of that with 1/2 c. broccoli slaw mix (dry-has carrots and broccoli) 1/8 cup of of unsalted roasted sunflower seeds, couple tablespoons of craisins and finely shredded Parmesan cheese, and top it with a tablespoon or 2 of Newman's Own Lite Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing.

Can you believe this clocks in at a mere 230 calories including 2 tablespoons of dressing?  It fills me up (I mean, it's 3.75 cups of veggies!).  I have been eating this for 2 weeks now, I love it, and apparently am borderline obsessed.

I had the hubster eat it last night too - Thursdays are generally pizza night, and he can put down a few slices, I wanted to limit the number of slices I ate, so he joined me in a salad before the pizza.  He still ate 3/4 of the pizza. 

Wish I were a guy, then I would only gain a pound every month by eating like that.. *sigh* but at least I get to have long pretty hair..

Do you have a great low calorie, high nutrient salad?  Please share, for I fear I will become bored with this one.

Dinner : Crock-Pot Sesame Chicken!

OH MY GOSH!

Have you tried this?  It is so yummy! And it was quite easy.

I found the recipe on Pintrest.  The link matched up to chef in training blog.  She is gorgeous.  I followed the recipe as written, only thing I changed up, was I cut up the chicken while it was still chilled prior to putting it into the crock pot, so I didn't have to do it later when it was messy. 

I will also say, I took the sauce out of the crock-pot, and put it in a pan to try to reduce it.  COMPLETLY forgetting that I had the corn starch out for some reason.  Once I realized the err in my way, it was quick and easy.

I served it with some steamed broccoli, and some brown 'asian' rice from Uncle Ben's.

Again, it was SUPER delicious!  You should try it, and tell me all about it!

Dinner : Chicken Enchiladas!

Let me just say, I have never made Enchiladas before.

They were actually really easy!  I used some shredded chicken that I had made before by putting a bunch of chicken breasts in the crock pot, and then shredding it all and freezing in roughly 3 cup portions.

So, on my way home today, I grabbed some enchilada sauce, and cheese at the store.  I had tortillas, salsa, beans, and some taco seasoning at home.

So what I did, was I took the chicken, mixed it with some salsa, taco seasoning and finely shreded cheese.  I poured some enchilada sauce on the bottom of the pan, and then I took the tortillas, added about a quarter cup of filling, and rolled them.  Put them seam side down in the sauce, until the pan was full.  Then I poured the rest of the enchilada sauce over them, and topped with cheese, glorious cheese.

I put them in the oven for about 20 minutes, covered, and then took the foil off for about 10 more minutes

While they were baking in the oven, I made some 'mexican style' rice from the box, and threw some corn in those.

Served them with some sour cream, and devoured.

I would like to say, they are really filling.  We will have left overs for a few days.  I don't know if they will freeze well, but hopefully we will be able to eat most of them before I throw them away.

Dinner : Sushi For Lent!

I am not Catholic.  The Hubster is.  I try to be accommodating.  He pretends he is hugely in to his religion.  But does not go to church, I have tried to get him interested in trying one out, or remember much of how everything works in his religion, or well, the Bible in general.

So in honor of the Catholic faith, and my Husband, I choose to not eat 'meat' on Friday.  So, I set up to have sushi at home.  I stopped by Lund's on my way home, and bought up some Spring Rolls(which, if they do not have any out, you can ask them if they are there to make them!), California Rolls, and some Squid Salad.  Generally Wednesday is the day they have $4.99 sushi, but it's Lent.  And all of it is considered Fish right?

Don't you just love the Beer Mugs?  They are a little hard to see, but they are like a wine glass, inside a mug, so when you fill it with a liquid, it looks like wine!

Very cheeky.

Dinner : Mexican Style Corn and French's Fried Onion Chicken

I first had the French's Fried Onion Chicken in Florida a year and a half ago, when we were attending my Hubster's half sister's wedding, and we were staying at his dad and step-mom's house.

I searched the Internet and came across this recipe for the Mexican Style corn, it is similar, but made with roasted corn cobs off the grill, a chipotle mayo, and a different cheese.  Looks good!

The recipe is super simple.  Basically, you take a can of corn, or a bunch of frozen kernels, and put them in a pan, add a bit of butter, and heat them up like you would normally.  Then, once you have reached preferred done-ness, add half a cup of Mayonnaise (mind you I am generally a Miracle Whip girl, but this needs Mayonnaise), and stir it together.  Then add some queso fresco on top.

For the French's Fried Onion Chicken, just follow the recipe on the outside of the container.  You take some fried onions, and crush them, add a couple tablespoons of flour, pepper to taste, stir.  Coat in egg wash, and then dredge in the crumb mixture.

Bake as you would normally for chicken.

Dinner: Gumbalaya Time!

Did you know that when you crush raw garlic, the juice is sticky?

I didn't know that either.

So, you may be asking yourself, what is Gumbalaya, surely she meant Gumbo, or Jambalaya.  Didn't she?

Well, I, in fact, did not.  Those recipes included chicken, or used flour.  I used neither.  I did use rice though, and sausage, and shrimp. I used this recipe from Iowa Girl Eats, and altered it to what I wanted. And it was delicious!

Not pictured, corn and crushed garlic.

Basically what you see is what you should get, also grab a 2 green peppers, large onion. You can find more info on the ingredient list on the Gumbalaya recipe page.

This is what I did:

First find the LARGEST stock pot you have.  I would have used a large dutch oven, but I do not own one.  Then finely dice all your first 3 ingredients (onion, pepper, celery) - this is the 'Holy Trinity'. Set aside.

I sliced the sausage at an angle, and put it in the largest pot I had.  I browned the slices.  Once they were done, I put them on a plate, leaving the oil behind.  I added my Holy Trinity ingredients, and I ended up adding a little extra oil.

  

Saute these until softened, about 10 minutes or so.  Once everything softens, add your crushed garlic cloves, cook for about a minute.

Return the sausage to the pot, add all the other canned items.  Add the broth, hot sauce and rice, and stir it all together. 

Turn the heat down to medium-low, and cover.  Keep it at a simmer for for 15 minutes, stirring frequently, then add your shrimp.  If you purchased them with tails, I recommend you remove them before putting them in the pot.

Cook for about 10 minutes, or until your shrimp are cooked, and serve.  I always add a little more hot sauce.  But taste yours first, my hubster is not a fan of anything too spicy.

Looks Delicious, doesn't it?!

Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits!

I stumbled upon this recipe today, as I was wondering if I should make regular biscuits or something more super fantastic with our Pot Roast made in the crock pot.

I took a poll on the face page, and consensus was that I should make the cheddar bay off the Internet.

They were actually pretty close. I am sure if I had the required amount of Bisquick, or cheddar, they would have been spot on!

Here is the link!

Have you ever made a copy cat recipe and it turn out fantastic?
Do tell!!

BLT's... mMMMmmMMmm....

Who doesn't love bacon?  Have you started baking your bacon in the oven yet?  I have, I like it, but to an extent.  See, yes, it is easy, and yes, you just toss it in, have no worries of frying bacon naked, and free up your stove top for other things.  BUT (and maybe it's just my oven) it tends to take like.. for-ev-er.

At any rate, I I came across this pin, and went to the source.  She used a whiskey/brown sugar syrup on it.  I did not, I am a purest.  I like my bacon - as bacon.

Pretty much followed her directions, for the most part.  I cut the bacon strips in half, weaved them set them in the oven at 350 for about a half hour/forty-five minutes. and then slapped them on top of  some lettuce and miracle whip on wheat toasted bread.

Looks great, right?  Well, it was, sort of.  Let me level with you.  I like a lot of bacon on my sandwich, and I always omit the tomato (not my thing).  But, biting into the bacon sandwich, there was too much bacon. And I generally do use probably about 6 half slices.. not sure why I wasn't a fan of this way.  It was fun, and I had high hopes, it just didn't pan out.

So, moral of the post, I will not do crosshatch/weave bacon again, but and I will use the oven, but only when I have large groups of people over, or need a mass quantity of cooked bacon. 

I am half thinking about buying the pre-cooked stuff in the store. Have you tried the pre-cooked bacon, or do you know of a fantastically faster way to make it in the oven?  Maybe I am doing something wrong. 

Thoughts?

Super Simple Snack : Peaches and Cottage Cheese!

It's August, and I have posted before about the super awesome Colorado Peaches at BoB's Produce.  Love them, absolutely without a doubt.

I also really enjoy cottage cheese.

When I was growing up, my mom would have dinner, and would sometimes serve us up for dessert, peaches and cottage cheese.  I actually like it.  She used canned peaches, proabably because that was what she had on hand.  Well, I have fresh, ripe, super juicy Colorado Peaches! 

I ate this a couple of times for breakfast, and a couple of times as an afternoon snack waiting for the Boyfriend to come home.  He's been working until 6:30 lately, and, in order for me to not be starving and cranky, this was a nice mid afternoon snack for me.

Here we have it 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, and a cut up peach. SO yummy!!

Peach segments and cottage cheese.

Tonight I made beef kabobs on the grill.  Kabobs are so simple, a great summer time dinner.  Cut up peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, potatoes if you would like, some meat if you are into that. Thread them on some skewers and pop on the grill. Turn every 5 or so until the meat is to your liking. 

I cut up some beef cubes the last night threw some soy sauce, wirshesher, garlic, red pepper flakes and ketchup.  Ahh.. yes, quite odd combination, no idea what I was doing, but thinking, they probably taste good on a piece of meat, right?

Turns out I was right, as per usual. (ha, ha.)

I tossed them in the marinate this morning, and again when I got home from work. Once I knew the Boyfriend was on his way home, I fired up the grill, and while it heated up I threaded the cut up veggies and meat on skewers, and threw them on.  Cooked the kabobs for about 15-20 minutes.  And viola!  Dinner.  I picked up some coleslaw and stuffed mushrooms(to throw on the grill) on my way home too, so we had a little mini feast!

Dinner!

I like my veggies charred.  If you aren't into that, turn the heat down.  It was all so yummy. 

Do you have a go-to marinade recipe to share?

Fantastic Weekend!

My weekend was great!  I hope yours was too!

Yesterday my dad came over and brought my treadmill to me, and he ate Crock-Pot Chicken Tacos with me for dinner.  They were pretty good. 

Literally just 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts, a jar of salsa, and taco seasoning.  Turned the crock-pot on high for 4 hours.  Pulled the chicken out to shred, and then added some canned Jalapenos at the end, but, I really didn't notice them. 

I saved a couple cups of the shredded chicken to make Chicken Tortilla Soup later too.

After that, the Boyfriend and I went to my friend's house and had some adult beverages, and played that corn hole game.  I like it, it's that beanbag/toss in the hole cut out.  And then we came home, and I watched my CBS Sunday Morning, and my little sister sends me a text asking what I am doing in the afternoon, and perhaps she and her son would like to come over.  So I offered up dinner, and that set in motion the rest of my day!

Once the Boyfriend awoke, I let him know we would be having company for dinner, and that we would be needing to go get groceries sooner than later. Because I wanted some time for my salads I would be making to marinate. 

We ended up with Corn on the Cob, Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Creamy Cucumber Salad, Broccoli Salad.



A FEAST!

It was all super good.  And then after all that, of course we needed dessert!  I had baked the 4 layers on Saturday morning.  But I needed to make the frosting and assemble this mammoth thing!

My first attempt at a gradient cake with ombre frosting.

I am not going to lie, I used 2 box white cake mixes, and added blue and violet food coloring to the Buttercream Frosting I made.  There was a lot of frosting, I made 3 batches, and used it all.

For both the cake and the frosting, I used more food coloring for the dark blue then I did for the lighter blue layers.

The frosting was Wilton's Buttercream frosting recipe.  I used a basic ombre technique I found here.

My 2 year old nephew poo'd blue the next day...  :)

Have you made a gradient cake or ombre frosting?  They are all over Pintrest - I would love to see or hear about your creation!

Independence Day!

Happy July 4th!!

My little sister's son is 2 today!  We had his birthday celebration on Sunday.  My sister made him a 'special' breakfast.  

Oatmeal with M&M's and raisins.

Growing up, birthdays were special.  You see, we always got to pick what was for dinner. 

And I am sure in most people's family; you get special privileges for your birthday.  My birthday is in September, and when I was growing up, we had a wood burning stove for heat.  And I really wanted it to snow.  And it DID!  (It was flurries that didn't stick, but still...) Since it was my birthday, I didn't have to help haul wood into the house. (Score 1 for me!)

Have you ever gone to a comedy club?  Well I have!  Since the Boyfriend had today off, he agreed to take advantage of the ACME Insiders Club promotion that was going on last night.  It's a pretty good deal.  You get 2 free tickets, and they have a dinner special at Sticks Restaurant, which you don't have to do.  This time it was steak and potatoes with choice of a domestic beer or glass of wine for $10 a plate.  We added on caesar salads for $1.25 a piece or whatever.  Pretty decent.

I have only been to the ACME Comedy Co. here in Minneapolis.  I have now been there 3 times. The first time was with the Boyfriend and a couple few co-workers.  The second time was with just a couple co-workers.  And now, the most recent time with the Boyfriend.

I would like to just point out.  You may watch those TV specials where there is a stand-up act on stage and the audience 'participates' with some good natured heckling.  That is actually frowned upon.  Who knew?  Definitely not this girl.  The first time I went, the comedian's phone started ringing on stage.  He was like, oh, who is calling me.  I yelled out (when I say 'yell' I mean it was loud enough to be heard, not really a yell)something along the lines of 'tell your mom to call back later'.  Some guy came over and was like "Ma'am, there is no heckling here, if you do it again, we will ask you to leave."  Oh, well, good to know. 

First off, don't call me ma'am.  I was like 28. Gosh. 

Second off, dude, this is what I thought you did.. my bad.   If I were a stand-up comedian, I would need the audience participation.

The Boyfriend asked the guy to get him a drink.  That is where they are bad though.  The waitresses are pretty crappy.  Last night we got 1 drink after about 15 minutes of being seated.  Good thing we had a little left from dinner in hour hands when we walked in.  No mind that she never came back after she delivered our drinks.

All in all, it was a great date night.  I got dressed up, slapped on some war paint, and the Boyfriend came home from work and changed his shirt, and threw on some AXE body spray.  Wish I were a guy.  I told him next time, I will go ahead and show him how I would really like to be treated when going on a date, he's gotten lazy.  I want some flowers that will die in like 5 days, and someone to open my friggn' door.  Do a little role reversal on him.

It is hot here in the midwest, as well as everywhere else apparently.  I do not feel like going out.  The Boyfriend has no interest in going to the beach.  Let's be honest, I am not a 'beach' person really either.. but it's hot.  So we haven't left the house.  I made a couple of iced cold brewed coffee's for us - even skipping the 2 mediums for $4 at the local Caribou because I LOVE my cold brew so much.

We will see what else we do, we are going to have to eat sometime.. maybe pick up some Jimmy John's or Subway and go melt in a park somewhere.  I should probably research some fireworks displays..

Here's a photo from last night (he didn't even shave..).



Date Night!

Chipotle Mango Chicken Kabobs!

Sounds interesting, yes?

Well they are, but they taste, DELICIOUS!  I admit I was a little hesitant.  A couple of weeks ago, I wanted to try something new, and the grocery store was offering a B1G1 on Kraft Dressings, I looked at the choices that were offered, and decided to take a chance on this Chipotle Mango Dressing. 

I, oddly enough, ended up with an email from Kraft Foods in my inbox a couple of days later.  Must have been fate, as it was advertising their new 'Anything Dressings' and different recipes to try.  So I take a gander at the page, and come across this recipe for Chipotle Mango Chicken Kabobs!

AWESOME! 

I love chicken, and I bought the boyfriend a metal kabob set last year, and this summer we have been making steak and chicken kabobs on the grill, probably once a week on average.  So, I thought, let's give this a whirl!

Last night I took 8 chicken tenders out of the freezer, and this morning before I went to work I threw the half frozen tenders into a pyrex container with some pepper, pepper flakes and the Chipotle Mango dressing. 

Made myself a delicious iced cold brewed coffee for the road, and hoped for the best.

On my way home I stopped at the grocery store and picked up a red, yellow and green pepper, and a can of pineapple chunks.  Rushed home to start on this culinary adventure.  (Yes, I know, it's not that adventurous.) 

I got home and cut up the peppers in to roughly 1 inch pieces, and busted out the chicken that had been marinating in the fridge, and cut those into 1 inch pieces as well.  Popped open a container of cherry tomatoes, and cracked open the can of pineapple and took some chunks out. 



It's really handy to have all the stuff set out ahead of time.



Now that I had everything set, I started on skewering everything, starting with the pepper pieces, and threading on chicken at random, and only actually added the pineapple chunks on a couple of the skewers.  The Boyfriend isn't a huge fan of odd foods.  When I told him what I was making, he made a crinkle face and said... "Uh, okay I guess I can eat that.  What else are you making to go with it?" (Raised over-grown eyebrow and everything.)  And then he headed off to the shower to wash his daily grime away.

So, that meant I was a girl on a mission.  Went out started the grill, and then grabbed a one of those rice packets out of the pantry.  Four cheese rice?!  The Boyfriend will love that. 

So, I started that, and went and threw the chicken on the grill.  Came back in, threw some dishes in the dishwasher, and after about 7 minutes I went back and checked on the chicken, and turned the skewers.

Halfway done - how great do they look?

Rice was done, went out, chicken is done too!  How great is that!?!

So I brought the chicken kabobs in, and we each served up our plates, I took the skewers with the pineapple on them, and am I glad I did - they were DELICIOUS!!! 

The chicken was flavorful, with a hint of spice, and a nice hint of sweetness.

I suggest you try this, here is a photo to help convince you!!



Lovely kabobs with the Four Cheese Rice.