Mango Pineapple Salsa
I made this in May and never posted it…. but this was the best mango salsa I’ve ever made! I don’t remember the amounts, but the key unique ingredient was mint!! Very delicious, very summer. We ended up using it in pulled pork tacos! So good.
Ingredients:
Mango
Pineapple (I used canned)
Red Pepper
Onion
Tomato
Mint
Cilantro
Lemon Juice
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Chicken and Gnocchi in a Sweet Tomato Basil Sauce
Crockpot chicken and gnocchi with onion and mushroom in a sweet red sauce. :)
No recipe used, just threw everything in the crockpot (salt/pepper seasoned chicken, onion, mushroom, garlic, rosemary, basil, oregano, brown sugar, tomato sauce) and made the store-bought gnocchi separately before serving.
Scrambled Eggs with Veggies
I’m not sure I ever posted about my usual breakfast that I make as often as I get the chance to for the past 3 years… I make scrambled eggs with veggie sausage. Well, I recently decided to change it up by adding veggies and although this is sooo not post-worthy, I decided to post about it anyway. I don’t make it the normal way, in fact, I don’t really like eggs unless I make them this way.
I know you’re supposed to put like a tablespoon of milk into your eggs no matter how you end up cooking them, but I put in 2 oz of milk for EACH egg. I usually only eat 1 egg in the morning, and it fills me up and keeps me full for half the day, and I usually lose weight when I’m consistent with eating this… probably because it’s filling and I don’t need to snack the day away. Also, I have high cholesterol, so one egg with yolk provides me with a ton of nutrients but won’t up my cholesterol. Benefits def outweigh the risks when it comes to egg yolk. I don’t care much for egg yolk, but I eat it for the nutrients. Most people avoid it, and I haven’t figured out why. Maybe if you’re eating like 4 eggs, then yes, avoid most yolk, but keep one! It’s like a multivitamin!
Anyway, I recently spiced up my fave morning dish with some fresh veggies, and it really upped the ante on my mornings. And it’s not hard, I do make extra for the following days though.
For each egg, I use 2oz of milk (I use a mini cooking scale every morning and just add milk until it reaches 2 oz.. I can’t promise you that matches any other measuring tool, and something tells me it doesn’t.)
For the sausage, I actually use veggie sausage patties, which I am in the process of trying to find a better option, because I’m not really into all the fake crap that goes into these things. I could go for real sausage on occasion, but not for daily intake. If you have suggestions, let me know. But I use one sausage patty for each egg as well, and i heat it and dice it and toss it in once eggs are almost cooked.
The veggies I use are normal- green and yellow squash, mushrooms, onions, red peppers.
I always melt cheddar cheese on top (1 oz of cheese per egg/serving) and don’t vomit when I say this, but I put ketchup on top too. :)
Like I said, not post-worthy, but just a suggestion for a different way to cook eggs. And yes, keep the yolk!
Fish Tacos
Ok, ok, I know. This is getting old. But I am obsessed with this Mango Salsa, and I will come up with 400 more ways to eat it. This one was amazing as well, inspired by one of the fish tacos I had in San Diego.
This is pretty self explanatory for the most part. Some lettuce, some fresh avocado, any kind of white fish, some shredded cheese (not really necessary, but good nonetheless), and the infamous fresh mango salsa (that I will have to learn to make on my own if I ever move), and… ANDDDD…. avocado cilantro lime sauce.
I looked up some recipes for cilantro lime sauce and they all called for some crazy stuff that I had not picked up at the store nor did I have laying around, such as sour cream. What?! Who needs sour cream when you have limes and skim milk. So, what could thicken that? Avocado. I was going to put it in the taco anyway. So I made up my own sauce.
Avocado Cilantro Lime Sauce:
1/4 avocado
3 oz skim milk
handful of cilantro (stems and all)
juice from 1/4 of a lime
1/4 tsp miced garlic
1/4 tsp crushed mint
blend in a blender… and let me tell you, since my blender is ghetto, half the chunk of ‘cado I put in there didn’t even blend, and it was still good…. delicious I should say.
Shrimp, Quinoa & Mango Salsa Salad
I was inspired to make shrimp today, and since I have never cooked shrimp myself, I decided to stick with the flavors I’ve been working with lately and try to make another version of the chicken I last posted. This time it was better. No Far East quinoa here, but real organic quinoa with my own herbs added. I did not post the chicken recipe, but I’ll go ahead and do the best I can with sharing this recipe. I guess this is considered a salad of sorts? Whatever, it’s good and mostly healthy, and that’s all that matters.
Shrimp:
I bought frozen raw shrimp with shell and tail intact and pulled out about 20 of them from the bag to thaw. I put them in plastic ziplocks and placed in a bowl of cold water for like…. the whole day.
Marinade:
-Less sodium soy sauce
-Honey
Mix these two together, I have no idea how much of each. Maybe 1/2 cup each. Sure.
-Add a ton of pepper. I like to count turns on my pepper grinder. I did 30 turns for my age. Yup, this is how I cook.
Once shrimp is thawed, get rid of all the water in the bowl, empty the shrimpies into the bowl and rinse them. Add the marinade. Mix it all up and do weird things like add minced garlic and more pepper as you mix it up.
Quinoa:
-1 cup organic quinoa
-2 cups water
-2 tsp olive oil
-1/2 tsp rosemary
-1/2 tsp minced garlic (I used the dry stuff from McCormick, and I’ll admit I added more lately after the quinoa was cooked)
-1/4 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp crushed mint (I also used the dry stuff from McCormick here too)
-half of a red bell pepper diced
Toss it all in a pot, mix it up, and bring to a boil, then simmer covered for 10 minutes or however long it takes for it to cook (I just keep checking, I never count time)
I actually added the red bell pepper like a few minutes before it was finished, only because I completely forgot to add it… but it worked out because it kept it kind of crispy and fresh.
I added a bit of the leftover marinade from the shrimp to this once cooked for some extra flavor.
Cook:
Lay the shrimpies out onto a cookie sheet and bake/broil at 400 degrees for 8 minutes (I hear Barefoot Contessa says 8 minutes). Once they are cooked, pull them out of the oven and peel them and if you want to, like I wanted to, you can add some leftover marinade to them.
Mango Salsa:
My grocery store makes this fresh, thank goodness, because ain’t nobody got time for that! It has mango, onion, red bell pepper, cilantro, and I think that’s it.
Eat:
Add quinoa to a bowl. Put shrimp on top.
Top with mango salsa.
Cut some avocado up and add that too, just because avocado is delicious.
And because I like saucy things, I drizzled it with even more leftover marinade!
Drink:
Iced green tea is best with this meal. Yummmm.
Chicken & Mango Salsa
Chicken breast baked in honey and soy sauce topped with fresh mango salsa served on a bed of rosemary and olive oil quinoa. (quinoa blend courtesy of Near East)
Honey Sesame Chicken Crockpot
I received a delicious recipe from my friend, Mitzi for honey sesame chicken. I also made this for my coworkers and it was a hit. It was truly delicious! I even left out the garlic, because I thought I had some at home but ended up not having any, and I left out the sesame seeds because I didn’t care enough to find them at the grocery store at 7:30am.
This isn’t the most attractive picture, but I forgot to take one at home, so this one was at work on my phone.
Yum!
The Slow Cooker
Thai Red Curry with Chicken
Ohhhh yummy. With just a little help from Trader Joe’s, I was able to make some delicious red curry! I used one bottle of Trader Joe’s Thai Red Curry sauce, a can of lite coconut milk, 2 tbsp of brown sugar, some mushrooms and red peppers, and chicken. Was easy peasy and delicious!
Chili
My First Lasagna
I used Martha’s recipe found here to make some frozen lasagna meals for days I didn’t feel like thinking about what to make/buy for dinner. Not so easy peasy, but turned out really good. I actually really like it and seems to be tastier after being frozen than when I first made it fresh! Is that possible?? I thought it was a bit bland when I ate it the first night, but maybe freezing and reheating brought out the flavors? A tough critic gave it a “6”, but I think it’s an “8”. (How Rude?! –> Steph Tanner voice). This recipe says 10-12 servings, but it turned out to be more like 20! I’m not sick of it yet though. After I made it, I swore I would never make lasagna again, however, it was totally worth it! I’ll definitely make it again one day… in a few years..
France Meets Mexico
Kind of gross, but kind of delicious. I often roast a variety of veggies and either just eat them like that or make veggie quesadillas. The other day I had bought veggies but no tortillas and I had some crepe batter leftover so I thought it might work.
The veggies are tossed with a ton of pepper, sometimes a bit of salt, and in this case some sort of limey seasoning stuff. I always roast my veggies at 475 F for a total of 40 minutes, pulling the roasting pan out of the oven and mixing up the veggies every 10 minutes.
I made some quick guacamole using just a half of an avocado and added it to the crepe in the pan along with some salsa and cheese and then put some veggies in the center.
Fold up, eat, repeat if necessary.
Definitely need a can of Coke with this one.
Broccoli Cheddar & Chicken Crepes
I’ve been making crepes for a little while now and they are just amazing. They are perfect for me because I’m not a bread fan, as I think bread takes away from all the wonderful flavors of what I’m really supposed to be eating. I also get extremely weirded out by eggs and don’t really enjoy omelettes- so this is a perfect medium that is oh so delicious. I found this crepe recipe just after the new year and unintentionally went on a “crepe diet.” I ate nothing but crepes for 2 weeks straight, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert, and lost about 5 lbs! It was really fun to experiment with different fillings and combining unique flavors. The first one I made was an apple cinnamon and sugar crepe topped with some melted vanilla frosting. After that fun creation, I was hooked. I made a mushroom filling using mushrooms and mushroom soup, then I made lemon curd crepes, and some other fun creations. However, my two favorite crepes were the goat cheese and fig jam crepe, and the broccoli cheddar and chicken crepe. This tastes even more delicious than it looks! I just ate this one for lunch after photographing it :o)
My crepe recipe comes from allrecipes.com, however I have tweaked it a bit by adding vanilla extract. It is so incredibly easy to make and is not unhealthy by any means. This recipe makes approximately 8 crepes.
Basic Crepe Recipe:
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Directions
1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, continuing to whisk. Add the salt, vanilla, and butter; whisk until smooth.
2. Spray a frying pan with Pam spray and pour the batter into the pan, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.
Cook on high until the bottom is light brown and can easily slide around in the pan and the top loses it’s shine. If you’d like you can flip and cook the other side, but it is not necessary.
3. Add filling, roll crepe, and slide onto plate.
I have no formal recipe for this filling..
I just use two packets of frozen chopped broccoli and cook as described on back, boiling them in a bit of water.
For the chicken, I buy thin sliced breast and put them on a Pam sprayed roasting pan and rub in sea salt and fresh cracked pepper on both sides. I toss in the oven on 475 for about 8 minutes or so. I slice into small pieces and add to the broccoli and continue to cook both together in the pot on low.
Once my crepe starts to cook in the pan, I shred cheddar cheese over top, and then add a bit of the filling and shred some more cheese over that.
I then roll it and slide it onto the plate- and wa-lah! There you have it. Deliciousness.
Enjoy!