~Mexican Chicken Rice Bowl~

I was having a fit tonight trying to figure out what to have for supper.  Unlike me I left it to last minute, didn't have anything pulled out or planned for that matter.  I did have leftover chicken from dinner the night before and a couple of corn on the cob that were cooked but not ate.  So I decided to do a clean out the fridge night!  I hit Pinterest for some inspiration and saw several recipes for a Mexican Rice Bowl...usually I don't really care for rice that is flavored with tomatoes but I thought worse case we could do a drive thru!

So I bravely plowed ahead and assembled a cast of ingredients: 2 corn on the cob, a can of black beans, a 28oz can of diced tomatoes, rice, green chilies, cumin, leftover chicken, salt, chicken broth, onion, garlic.

I got the rice started first by sauteeing the onions and garlic in a little Ooil till they were soft.  I then added 2 cups of rice and cooked it, stirring frequently, until the rice began to brown a bit.  Then I added the can of diced tomatoes, 2 cups of Chicken stock and 2 tbslp of green chilies, 1 tsp of cumin, dash of sea salt. I brought it to a boil then turned off the heat and let it cook.

I cut the corn off the cob,rinsed the black beans and diced up the leftover chicken.  When the rice was almost done I started the corn in a pan with a bit of Ooil.  I then added the chicken and a tsp of cumin and a dash of sea salt.  I cooked it together for about 5 mins on medium heat until I added the black beans.  I left it on just to heat the beans through. 

To serve I put about 1/2 a cup of the rice mixture in a bowl and topped with about 1/2 of the chicken mixture.  I sprinkled some cheddar cheese and a tsp of sour cream on top with a couple tablespoons of diced fresh tomatoes from my garden.

I cleaned my plate!!!  This was so good and soon to be a new family favorite!  Everyone ate it, including my picky 5 year old!

I made some corn tortillas to go with dinner.  It was my first attempt and quite honestly it didn't go well.  I think my problem was I didn't let it rest long enough.  Making corn tortillas is super easy actually.  You simply mix 2 cups of Masa Harina to 1.25 cups of warm water and a tsp of lime juice.  Mix until its a play dough consistency.  Let it sit for 20 mins.  Roll into small ping pong sized balls and press in tortilla press lined with parchment paper (or use a rolling pin).  Place on med-high heat flat grill or fry pan.  Let them cook for a minute then flip for 30 sec then flip for another 30 sec.  Keep warm in tea towel. 

I really think it was timing that made my tortillas less than tasty!  I will try again.

Anyhow I will put the recipe here with ingredients and amounts so it can easily be copied!

Mexican Chicken Rice Bowl

2 cups chopped chicken breast
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
2 cobs of corn (corn removed) or 1.25 cups of corn kernels
1 can of Black Beans (rinsed and drained)
1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
2 tblsp green chilis
2 cups chicken broth
1 small onion - diced
2-3 garlic cloves - diced
2 cups rice
2 tbsp Olive Oil

Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil in large pot until soft.  Add rice and cook, stirring frequently until rice starts to brown.  Add canned tomatoes, green chilies, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp sea salt, 2 cups chicken broth.  Stir and cover to bring to boil then shut off to cook rice.

After rice has cooked for about 10 minutes heat up olive oil in pan.  Add corn and cook, stirring often.  Add chicken and 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp sea salt.  Cook for about 3 minutes and add black beans, and let cook until beans are warmed through.

Put rice in bowl, top with chicken topping, some fresh diced tomatoes, cheddar cheese and sour cream!  You have a home run!  So tasty you will want seconds!

~BBQ Season!~

So let’s be honest…we’re Canadian.  So we BBQ year round.  Winter just means that the BBQ is closer to the door and we eat inside!  But when summer comes we BBQ almost every night of the week.  There is nothing better then a good steak on the Barbie.  It’s not something we have every day, about twice a month we’ll have a great steak with all the fixings.  We wouldn’t want to ruin our stylish figure right?

Anyhow, during the winter when we want steak we run to Blackmans Butcher Shop just down the street and grab a yummy Rib Eye steak.  A hot $30 or so dollars later we are home…too expensive for us to do very often!  So when summer comes I head over to Costco and buy a whole Rib-Eye and make my own steaks. 

For $117.65 we got enough steak for Randy and I to have 9 Steak dinners…..$13.07 a meal, a much better improvement on the prices we pay at Blackmans.  Quality wise I think the they are just as good as the ones we get from Blackmans and for 20 minutes worth of using my butcher knife we get to enjoy steak almost all summer!  As you can see from the pictures I cut a generous steak, so if you don’t like your steak as thick you could get many more meals then I did!  I got this huge cost saving trick from my BFF Melissa.  Thanks chicky! 

Steaks! VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

And yes, I do wear an apron when cooking…it’s my fancy Williams Sonoma apron…I feel like a chef in it, LOL!  Someday my pink and white kitchen will be re-done so that my apron matches it, LOL!  For now, I bring the style to it….well enough of that!  Enjoy your BBQ’s this summer, I know we are going to…let us know you’re coming, I’ll pull some steak out!

~Mmmm Yummy Breakfast!~

Breakfast from a couple of weekends ago.  Got to love how easy it is to make this Breakfast Pizza.  The recipe came from a magazine but it is basically just puff pastry put in a casserole dish with a layer of cooked breakfast meat, onions, scrambled eggs and cheese.  Then you close it up leaving a small opening and bake it for 15 minutes, take it out and crack an egg in the opening and put it back for another 15 minutes until the egg is fully cooked. 

What I love about this recipe is that you can personalize it to whatever flavors you like, sausage, bacon, ham, flavored cheeses, throw in some cooked veggies like mushrooms, onions, broccoli…you name it!  It’s basically a quiche but in yummy puff pastry!  It sure looks good too!

~Happy Birthday Randy!~

Today is Randy’s Birthday!  Not much celebrating going on, just spending the day together…I did however make him a special breakfast in the morning.  I’ve had the recipe for awhile and decided to give it a whirl for his special breakfast!  It was really good and we will be doing that again soon!  

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It’s basically a breakfast braid, made with your choice of  breakfast style ingredients wrapped in a Pillsbury Pizza Dough.  We had Ham, Egg, Onion, Herb & Garlic Havarti and Cheddar cheese…I think that it would be phenomenal with sausage, peppers and cheese too!  And i can see this being carried through to a savory supper meal too!  Everybody loved it!  Best of all?  It took less then 20 minutes to throw together and have on the table!

~Pickled Jalapeño Peppers~

We LOVE our hot stuff in this house!  So much that we always have taco beef made in the freezer, salsa and tacos in the cupboard and pickled jalapeños on hand.  Problem is, I’m cheap and pickled jalapenos are pricy so I taught myself a couple of years ago how to make them at home.  We just ran out of them a couple of months ago from the ones I made in the summer of 2008.  So since we were on a roll on Sunday night I went to the store again (if you are counting that is 3 trips to the store in one evening, LOL!) and I picked up jalapeños to make it. They cost a whopping $5.69.

So how to make Pickled Jalapeños?  It is actually ridiculously easy!  Start by cutting up the jalapeños however your like them.  We like ours with seed and in rings so I got to work cutting them up!  I was smart enough this time to pick up some gloves to wear while cutting them.

Just to prove that the gorgeous hand model is me:

 

Then you pack them into jars.  Make an acid mixture for them of 4 cups of vinegar, 4 cups of water and 2 tsp of salt.  Simmer but do not boil the mixture and ladle it over the packed peppers.  Process in a hot water bath for 20 minutes.  We processed for this long to cook the peppers a bit more then the last time.  We wanted them a little softer…you could do less time, the recipe suggests 15 minutes.

Enlist strong man again to pull the hot jars out…just saying, much easier to have a strong man around sometimes….

Let them sit and pop their little heads off sealing nice and tight!

So here are the spoils of our evenings’ work:

We ended up with 4 large jars and one small of Pure raspberry jam, 4 large jars and one small of Triple Berry Jam and 3 large jars, 7 very small jars of Jalapeño peppers.  I didn’t want to make huge quarts of jalapeños so I used small jars which will pretty much be good for one meal.  I usually make them in 250mL jars because its the perfect size but I was all out of that size.

Anyhow, we won’t have a need to buy jam for the next couple of years and we should be good for jalapeños too!  I’m thinking I want to try to can some peaches some night this week.  I’ve never done it before but peaches are so cheap right now and it would be tasty to have summer fresh peaches in our lunches year round!  I’m sure I’ll be calling you for help Mom!

~ The Making of Jam ~

We went berry picking for the last two weekends.  We made jam from both trips…however we had two very different experiences in making it.  Only us I tell you!

So last weekend we went to Dunvegan Farms.  We got a pail and a bit of strawberries and decided to make strawberry jam.  We had jars and sugar already and just needed to pick up some pectin.  So we set out to make jam one night after Ethan was in bed.  First of all I had to hull the strawberries.  As you will remember from my post on the subject, the strawberries were very small this year.  So it took forever to hull them! 

Once I got that done we washed them up and started to prepare the jam.  This is where I screwed up and added the pectin too early…oops.  Not to mention we had too much in the pot and this was the result.

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Yup, a colossal mess!  It boiled over, all over the stove, almost light on fire and resulted in runny strawberry jam.

Fast forward to yesterday.  We went out to Old Bezanson Town Site, about 20 minutes from Grande Prairie for the afternoon.  We had stumbled upon it last year and remembered that there was a lot of saskatoon and raspberry bushes there.  So we went out and walked along a path picking berries and playing with sticks.  Ethan had a blast and once he petered out we put him in the truck with Randy while I walked along the road picking berries.  Again there wasn’t much for berries, they were very small and slim pickings.  I managed to get about a quarter of a pail of raspberries with a few saskatoons.  There were quite a few saskatoons but Randy is not a fan so I didn’t bother picking many. 

We got home and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them because I didn’t have enough to make jam.  So I decided to thaw out some berries I had in the freezer and mix it all up and make a triple berry jam.  While I was thawing the berries, Mary showed up for a pail and returned with almost a full pail of raspberries that she picked from a friends house.  So now I had enough berries to make a pure Raspberry jam as well as a Triple Berry Jam.  Off to the store went Randy for Pectin and sugar.  He barely got back before I sent him again for more raspberries because I was sure I would need just a few more berries to make the recipe.

Anyhow long story short, here are the pictures of the whole jam making experience!

How do you make jam?  Here you go!

Start with yummy berries. this was before I picked out the saskatoons I had picked.  It looks pretty though eh?

Mash so that your berries are all crushed.

Dump in a big pot…special note here, make sure your pot is big enough for everything!

Add sugar, 

Lots and lots of sugar!

Mix together the berries and sugar and 1/2 tsp of butter.

Wait for the sugar to dissolve then bring to a full rolling boil that can’t be stirred down.  THEN add the pectin and continue to boil and stir for 1 minute. (This is where I always screw up and add the pectin too early…I didn’t this time though)

Ladle your jam into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4” of head room.  Wipe the rim and seal with a ring and seal.

Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes or longer if you are above sea level.  We processed for 15 minutes total.

  Enlist strong man to pull out hot jars from boiling water.  Let them sit on the counter overnight and listen for the popping noise that tells you that you have made jam successfully!

That’s how you make jam!  Next post is how to make pickled jalapeño peppers…mmmm good!  Plus pictures of the finished jam!

~Mmmm my Man can cook!

Randy made me supper tonight.  Yup, you read that right, Randy made supper tonight.  We had gone through some of my recipe books the other day to find a new batch of recipes for the summer.  Have I mentioned how much I love Jamie Olivers cookbook, Food Revolution?

this book is chock full of great recipes that so far all taste good!

Tonight Randy made two recipes from this cookbook. Ground Beef Wellington and Creamy Leeks.  We’ve had the Wellington before and really like it.  The Creamy Leeks…well they were okay.  Randy loved them, I found them rich and greasy.  I would use the concept of them again but add it to something like mashed potatoes to cut the greasy richness of them.  Ethan liked the Wellington with gravy but wouldn’t even touch the leeks.  Then we had Turtle Cheesecake (bought) for dessert. 

I thought I would share how good it turned out though!  Tada Ground Beef Wellington:  (which I of course ended up helping to make!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is basically a meatloaf wrapped in puff pastry and baked.  It takes no time at all but looks fantastic!  Let me know if you want the recipe!

~The Results Are In!!!~

So I baked the cake yesterday. Then my day went to complete shit. No word of a lie. SHIT.

Long story short I waited since before Christmas to get a call from Penningtons for the manager job they have had posted for the last 4 months. I've applied six times. Yes 6...so yesterday I get an email from the DSM asking if I would do an interview. That day. As in Saturday. Randy was working so I called Mary and asked her if she could come over and watch Ethan since he's sick and whiny. So we set the time for 1pm. She gets here, I sit downstairs with my phone waiting for her to call. No call, so I call her, she says she's just running out and she'll call in a bit...ummmmmm WHAT???!!?!?!? So she emails after 2pm to say she'll call at 4pm and does that work? Sure I say, but I'll have Ethan and he'll likely interrupt us. So by this time Mary was gone. I call her and she says she can come back at 4 to help me out. 4pm comes and goes and no call, 5pm no call...Mary leaves...I fume....so she finally emails and says she's stuck in traffic and she'll call in 20min. She calls 40 min later. So I'm pretty pissed but I need the job so I suck it up for the 'interview' Yeah...she gets on the phone, says that she is sorry to tell me that she promoted two people into the position of Assistant Manager and Store Manager two weeks before and would I be interested in a part time position????WTF??? Needless to say I was beyond pissed off. She screwed me around all day and wasted my time and Mary's time for NOTHING. So back to square one. NO JOB.

So I called the day a write-off and didn't do a damn thing after that except eat supper, sit on the couch and watch a movie and fell asleep.

So today after doing errands and packing a boat load of food into individual bags for the freezer from Costco I decided to finish my little baking project. I did only half of the cake because I wasn't too keen on having too many of the sweet little buggers in the house!

So here are the pics of the process and the final result:









Cute eh? I'm so going to be the cool Mom! Thanks again to Chantel for hooking me up with this site!

~Baked Potato Soup~

Well I work tonight so I need something quick and easy that I can leave for Randy to heat up later. So I'm making baked potato soup, sandwiches and fruit salad. I can't find my usual recipe for this soup so I'm trying this one. It's sounds very similar to mine...I am of course making half this recipe otherwise we'll be eating it for a week!

Baked Potato Soup V
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 1 Hour Ready In: 1 Hour 15 Minutes
Yields: 12 servings


INGREDIENTS:
9 baking potatoes
2/3 cup butter
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
6 cups whole milk
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup bacon bits, divided
4 green onions, chopped
10 ounces shredded Cheddar
cheese
1 (8 ounce) container sour
cream

DIRECTIONS:
1. Prick potatoes with a fork and cook in the microwave, 3 or 4 at a time, and scoop out the flesh (while the others are cooking).
2. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in flour and cook about a minute. Whisk in milk, a little at a time, stirring constantly until thickened. Stir in potatoes, salt, pepper, 1/3 cup bacon bits, 2 tablespoons green onions and most of the cheese. Cook until thoroughly heated. Stir in sour cream and heat through. Serve topped with remaining bacon, onions and cheese.

~Happy Birthday Daddy!~

So on the 18th it was Randys' birthday. We had cake after school with Mary & Cole over to sing Happy Birthday. Then we dropped Ethan at Auntie Marys' house and we went for a YUMMY dinner at the Keg. It was so nice to go out just the two of us! Here are some pics of Randy blowing out his candles and sharing the icing with Ethan.






So onto other things. I bought Ethan a couple of toys at Winners the other day. I couldn't believe the deals that they had on toys there! I got a couple for Christmas to tuck away and a fun little one to give him to chew on that day. I was so excited that when I gave it to him, he grabbed hold of it and started chewing on it right away! Unheard of for him! I, of course, grabbed the camera and got pictures which I will share!




Finally, today was a day for me. I got Randy to stay home with Ethan while I ran out to have some time to myself, Hahahah...I did like 5 kajillion errands that are easier without Ethan! I did get a coffee while I was out on the run. Anyhow, I came home and after Ethan went to bed I made this:


I pickled some jalapeno peppers. We love them and they are stupidly expensive so I figured I could make them cheaply. Yup! Cost me like $4 for the peppers and I had everything else on hand. I can't wait to try them!

So after playing with the peppers I figured a shower was in order. So I ran a bath and lazed around in it, then I had a shower. After that I did this:


It was time. So now I have soft skin and pretty toes! Anyhow, that's all I've got for now. Big Happy Birthday to my friend Jess today!

~Yummy New Recipe~

Ginger Beef in Lettuce Wraps with a Pita Holder and Marinated Cucumber-Carrot Aftertisers
Recipe Courtesy of: Sandi Richard host of Fixing Dinner
Yield: 4

Ingredients:
Flank or sirloin steak (1 lb / 450 g)
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup water
2 x eggs
Canola or peanut oil
Parchment paper
2/3 cup shredded carrots
2 tbsp chopped green onions
1/4 cup finely chopped or shredded fresh ginger (or use ginger in a jar)
1-2 cloves garlic (or use garlic in a jar)

Sticky Sauce
1 tbsp canola oil
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp wine, red or white
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 cup sugar
Dash crushed chili flakes
1 head Romaine lettuce
1 x large carrot shredded
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp flax seed (optional)
1 x English cucumber
4 x pita

Sticky Sauce
In the morning…
Slice partially frozen steak across the grain into narrow strips. Place cornstarch in a large mixing bowl. Add water gradually while you are whisking. Beat eggs into cornstarch mixture. Toss in beef and stir to coat. Pour 1 inch of oil into wok or stove top fry pan with sides. Heat oil until hot, but not smoking. Add a quarter of the beef to the oil at a time. Separate with a fork and cook, stirring frequently, until crispy. Remove with a large slotted spoon, drain on parchment paper and set aside.
When you are ready to have dinner…
Shred carrots. Chop green onions. Grate fresh ginger. Mince garlic.
Heat oil in wok. Add shredded carrots, onion, ginger and garlic in that order. Stir briefly over high heat. Combine soy sauce, wine, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar and chili flakes in a small bowl. Add to vegetable mixture and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer.
Wash lettuce leaves whole and pat dry with a paper towel. Set aside in fridge. Shred an additional carrot and place in a separate bowl. Sprinkle with sugar and add lemon juice. Add flax seed. Set aside to marinate.
Wash cucumber. Slice into disks and set on a plate. Pile carrot mixture on top.
Set aside covered in plastic wrap in fridge. Slice pita in half. Split open carefully.
Just before you are ready to serve dinner, bring sticky sauce back up to a boil and toss beef into sauce to coat.



I didn't do it split up with half in the morning and half at night, just all at once for supper. They were fantastic. I also didn't make the cucumber aftertisers...just didn't have the ingredients and didn't want to run for them. Anyhow, huge hit and Randy has told me I can make it as much as I want! Next time I'll make it with rice and extra sauce and not put it in the pita, it is quite versatile. Anyhow, give it a try and save the money ordering it out!

~Awesome Recipe~

Since I have to watch my salt intake very carefully because of my high blood pressure I don't like buying pre-packaged seasoning mixes very often. That's why Epicure Selections products are a favorite of mine. My biggest problem with Epicure is that their taco mix is too bland for us. So tonight I went to my favorite recipe site: http://www.allrecipes.com/ and searched for Taco Seasoning and found this awesome recipe:

Taco Seasoning I

Submitted by: Bill Echols

1 Tblsp of chili powder

1/4 tsp of garlic powder

1/4 tsp of onion powder

1/4 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp paprika

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp of sea salt

1 tsp of black pepper

I omitted the salt, used smoked paprika (Epicure) and was generous with the cumin. I added it to my beef with about a 1/4 cup of water and let it simmer just like you would with a package. It was soooo good! A definate keeper! I like that I can control the amounts to adjust the spiciness of it, and an extra bonus is that I always have all these spices on hand so I can whip it up very quickly and easily! I can see why this recipe had 5 out of 5 stars by 609 reviewers!!!