About Me Section

I'm not sure how to make it different from our family blog, cause I put all that info on our family blog and now it shows up on here! I dunno, but I apologize!

Update

For those few followers who have been waiting on a new post, I apologize. As some of you know I'm pregnant. And that means the sight of food makes me hurl. Haha. So I will not be cooking, or eating anything blog worthy for the next few months. My diet lately consists of popsicles, crackers, and cheeseburgers. Well balanced, I know. So hopefully after these next few months I'll be back to cooking!

My Girl, Paula: Fast and Furious Thai Chicken Pizza

Most of your probably already have heard me mention the fact that I just love Paula Deen! I joined a blog called My Girl, Paula, which is where members make Paula's recipes and they are posted on the site after being posted on the members own blog. So, here is my first recipe! Although, I did make Paula's pork chop with cranberry mustard sauce for Christmas dinner, I wasn't a member of this site yet. This was really yummy! Paula's original recipe can be found here, but since I made this spur of the moment I tweaked it a little and used a different type of sauce and also made mine mini!

Recipe:
6 rhodes frozen dinner rolls
1/4 cup bbq sauce
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/8 cup soy sauce
1 cup cooked shredded chicken
1/4 cup scallions
1 carrot, grated
1 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
chopped peanuts and cilantro for garnish if your heart so desires

Proof the rolls according to package directions on a baking sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. After they have risen, flatten them into circles about 4 inches in diameter. Mix bbq sauce, peanut butter and soy sauce in a small bowl. For the chicken, you can boil a chicken breast, used canned chicken, or a rotisserie, whichever may be more convenient for you. Evenly spread sauce onto dough. Top with chicken, carrots, scallions and cheese. Bake in the oven at 400 for about 10 minutes. or until cheese is melted.

Sushi Sunday

This was sooo much fun and soooo good! I LOVE sushi! We decided we would make up some rolls to eat while watching the game and decided every Sunday would be sushi Sunday, with different rolls each Sunday. Since this was our first go round, we stuck with pretty common ingredients. Plus, there were some newbie sushi eaters and we didn't want to scare them away! Going along with the "budget" aspect of this blog... It is thought that sushi is expensive, which it is if you get it at a restaurant. Prices vary from 7-17 dollars a roll. We made 10 rolls and all of the ingredients cost us around 23 bucks. And we didn't even use half of the avocado or cucumber or crab. So, this is a great way to eat sushi on a budget, make it yourself! I wish I would have taken a picture of the spicy mayo since its so yummy and my favorite sauce! I'll put up the recipe though. I'll try me best with listing ingredients and such, since we didn't really measure stuff out. Here goes...

Recipe:
short grain white rice (we cooked ours in the rice cooker on sushi setting)
sushi seasoning packet (I totally forgot to grab the name of it before I threw it out, but this can
be found in Asian markets. Or look for sushi vinegar.)
nori seaweed sheets (packages usually come with 10 sheets, which would make 10 rolls)
small package imitation crab stick, pulled into thin pieces
small package cooked baby shrimp
cucumber, cut into thin sticks
Avocado, thinly sliced
flying fish roe, also known as tobiko

Cook rice, whichever way you please. Put rice in baking dish and spread evenly. Sprinkle seasoning mix onto rice until it tastes as sweet as you wish. Let the rice cool. Spread a thin layer of rice over the nori. Place ingredients in thin lines horizontally on top of rice. You won't need a lot of each ingredient for each roll (maybe 3 pieces of cucumber, 3 pieces avocado, 7 baby shrimp..) Start at bottom of nori and roll the sheet tightly upward. Place the roll seem down. Use a very sharp knife to cut the roll into one inch sections. Repeat until you've made as many rolls as you'd like.

Spicy Mayo:
1 cup mayo
4 Tbsp sriracha (the chili sauce with the rooster on the label)

Mix mayo and sriracha together. Add more sriracha to taste, or lessen it if you don't like it too spicy.


Now I realize this wasn't SUPER helpful in teaching you to make sushi. I guess I am just more accustomed to it since I've worked in a sushi restaurant and I'm a little more familiar with seeing it made and how much goes into each roll. Here is a good website that shows step by step how to roll the sushi, since my instructions are not that beneficial. They use a bamboo mat to roll their sushi, but I've never used one so it can be done without! Also, you can leave out or add ANY ingredient you want when making sushi. We made 10 different rolls, and in some we put other things and in some we left out other things, its all up to you! One last thing, if the whole rolling idea wont work for you, hand rolls are a great way to enjoy sushi without it looking fancy. This website shows you how to make them, super easy! Wow, now that that is all said, I'll be adding more posts on other roll combinations we come up with...stay tuned!

Texas Pinwheels

Corny name, right? Oh well. I figured, I live in Texas, they have that Tex-Mex flavor to them and they are pinwheels...so why not Texas pinwheels? These are super easy to make and great to leave out as finger food for game day! Or any day for that matter :)

Recipe:
1 package flour tortillas
8 oz softened cream cheese
1/2 chopped tomato
2 chopped green onions
1 cup cooked, shredded chicken (I boiled mine, but you could use canned)
1 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp cayenne pepper

Combine all of the ingredients (minus the tortillas) in a large mixing bowl. Spread a spoonful or two of mixture over tortillas. Roll up burrito style and place on tray or baking dish. Chill in refrigerator for a few hours or overnight. Cut tortilla rolls into one inch sections. Place on tray and serve!

Peaunut Butter Cookies

I don't remember ever making peanut butter cookies and maybe they are suppose to be this easy, but I'm shocked at how easy these things were! Oh, and don't mind my baking pan, it has gotten a lot of love over the years. Anyway, it was super gloomy and rainy here today and so I decided some cookies might brighten my day...and widen my butt, although I really wasn't so stoked about the latter. Oh well! I came across this recipe at kraft and thought it seemed fairly simple enough to fix my cookie craving! These are now my go to cookies when I need something last minute to bring to someones house or just want a cookie fix. Seriously, in less than 20 minutes these things were mixed, flattened, baked and ready to eat!

Recipe:
1 egg
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped peanuts (I left these out, I don't care for nuts)

Mix egg until foamy. Add in rest of ingredients and mix well. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheet. Take a fork and flatten each ball of dough making a criss-cross pattern. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on wire rack.

Meatless Monday - Open Faced Tofu Burger With Baked French Fries

This was my first attempt at a tofu burger. I had some left over and really just didn't know what to do with it. I figured just treat it like ground beef...right? Also, I apologize for the slice of bread, I realized we were out of buns after I started making this. Oh well! This was pretty tasty, not one of my favorites though. Cameron really liked it, which was SUPER surprising. I was afraid to even tell him what it was before he ate it in fear he would just not eat dinner! This was also my first attempt at baked fries. Next time I'll probably just lightly fry them in a skillet with some olive oil to make them a little crunchier. The mushrooms and onions on top really did a lot for the burger! Perhaps someone has a tried and true GOOD tofu burger recipe. Send it my way if you do :)

Recipe:

**I made this for two, feel free to double or triple for more!**

Open Faced Tofu Burger
1/2 package firm tofu mashed up
1 egg
1/2 cup cracker crumbs
1/2 zucchini shredded
1/2 carrot shredded
1 Tbsp lite soy sauce
1 Tbsp minced garlic
salt
pepper

2 slices of bread (or hamburger bun!)
2 slices swiss cheese
mayo
mustard
1/4 onion
1/2 cup mushrooms

Mix the first list of ingredients in a large bowl. Make into two patties and cook in skillet for about 7 minutes on each side. Melt cheese on top of burgers for last 2 minutes. In a separate skillet or sauce pan, cook onions and mushrooms until tender and juices have rendered. When everything is done, assemble on bread with mayo and mustard. Feel free to add your other favorite "burger" toppings.

Baked French Fries

2 peeled Idaho potatoes
salt
pepper
cumin
garlic powder
cayenne pepper
ground mustard
olive oil

Cut potatoes into sticks. Mix seasoning in a bowl. You can use what you like according to your tastes. I like my fries with lots of flavor! Coat potato sticks with olive oil and lay on baking sheet. Sprinkle on seasoning. Bake at 400 for 25 minutes.

Now I realize this probably isn't one of the meals, but who says the foods I blog about have to be AMAZING? That would be ideal, I realize that. But perhaps this will inspire someone to make something similar or completely different and that could end up tasting GREAT. In the end, it's a learning experience!