Rainbow Salad

This salad uses green leaf lettuce, canned tomatoes (drained), shredded carrots, chopped orange bell pepper, canned corn, canned olives (quartered), and black beans (soak beans overnight, then cook in pot of water til soft. season with salt). Top with shredded cheese. Nom nom nom. Healthy and delicious!!

Whole Roasted Chicken

A few key things for a perfect roast: 1. Set Up. You want your chicken on a rack so the fat can drip. Make sure to have a drip pan under to catch the drippings. 2. You want to tie your chicken legs close and fold the wings under so that it'll roast as a whole, otherwise, you've got a burnt leg here and a burn chicken wing there as they cook faster. 3. Your chicken should have been brined over night to get that that delicious moist juicy taste of chicken perfect. If your chicken isn't brined, your chicken will be dry. Our brine is just sea salt, brown sugar and pepper in water.

Place your chicken in the oven at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour. Make sure your chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit before consuming.

The chicken was quite scrumptious and very moist and juicy. Brine-ing chicken has given me a new love for chicken.

Alton Brown's Meatloaf

I've made a turkey version of Alton Brown's Meatloaf before, but this time I used all ground beef since that's what we had. For Alton's recipe, go here. This held better than the turkey meatloaf in terms of texture because this time i really packed everything into one container. The glaze is just amazing.

Cinnamon Buns

Homemade cinnamon buns. My bf made it! Amazing, right?

Frosting: see previous blog: Cupcakes with homemade frosting

Cupcakes with Homemade Frosting

I made cupcakes from a Pillsbury Funfetti box and then added drops of colored dye for fun.

The frosting was homemade though. Just mix 2 cups powdered sugar, 2 tbs melted butter, 2 tbs milk and 1/2

tsp vanilla extract.

Such yumminess in my tumtum. These babies were gone in two days. Such goodness hardly ever lasts.

Boeuf Bourguignon

Boyfriend decided to try something a little bit different for tonight's dinner. Boeuf Bourguignon. Only, we used whatever we had on hand. Nothing fancy.

Things we already have on hand: beef 2-3lbs, carrots, onions, red wine (cheapppppp), celery, salt, pepper, cornstarch, and cumin

1. sear meat in dutch oven in batches and season with salt, pepper, and cumin

2. brown onions until clear, salt a little

3. scrape all brown stuff and mix with 3/4 bottle of wine

4. return meat to pot, add carrots, celery.

5. add cornstarch + water to thicken -- stir constantly and scrape bottom of pan 

6. simmer for 3 hours or until meat is tender

7. add broccoli during last 20 minutes of cooking. 

We don't really measure. We just eye the amount or do a taste and trial. For the fancy version, see link above.

Plate over rice and top with shredded cheese and a dollop of sour cream. It was pretty mouthwatering with the beef and veggies melting in your mouth. Soooooooooo gooooooooooooooood.

Noodle soup

I haven't had noodles in such a long time! It was soooooo good. Sometimes, you just want something plain instead of fancy...

 Cooked veggies (chopped bok choy)

 Cooked noodles

 Seasoned sliced beef, sauted

 Chopped green onions

Pour in scalding hot soup. (Just add chicken broth bullion to pot of boiling water with a dash of soy sauce. Easy peasy and quite delicious

neat joe, not sloppy

A bit of a modification towards a sloppy joe. The meat is ground beef, seasoned with salt and pepper and cumin, mixed with chopped onions and a chopped chili pepper. Scoop on top of toasted bread and top with cheese. Viola! Yumsters.

Panda

We were tired of cooking so we bought Panda for dinner. It's was purty good!

Burgers

We had some leftover hamburger buns that needed to be eaten so we made burgers for lunch. Burgers aren't complete without lettuce, cheese n tomato. We used ranch on the bottom of the bun and ketchup on the top (under the tomato). I think we make the best fresh burgers ever. It's always juicy and comes together in your mouth for one tasty treat. nom nom nom

Raspberry Shocktop Bread

 

Boyfriend made another loaf of bread. This was beer bread made with raspberry shocktop. It looks delicious and oddly enough tastes (and smells) like there are cranberries inside!

 

 

I took a couple slices of work, spread creamy peanut butter and topped off with dried fruit. It's pretty delicious... if only I had a glass of milk to go with, it'd be even better!

Salmon Burgers

Salmon burgers are so easy to make cuz the patties are frozen and bought in a bag from costco and heated in a frying pan according to directions on the bag! Costco is so awesome! The sauce is homemade though: one part mayo, one part relish - and mix!with lettuce and broccoli florets for greens. Yummy!

Beef, Cheese n Starch

Tonight was a pretty laid back meal with seasoned ground beef n onions topped with shredded colby cheese on a bun for the burger, more colby cheese between a flour tortilla topped a scoop of sour cream and broccoli for veggies.

Mantou

It seems my bf is getting into baking breads. He modified the other homemade bread recipe by adding honey into the mix and then steaming the dough. It was almost like biting into a store bought mantou only this was fresh outta the steamer! :D Delicious and fresh!

Beef Tacos

Mexican night! We do <3 our tacos!

Homemade Bread

Can't believe this turned out very pretty! It did taste like any other normal bread. Purty good!

Homemade Dumplings

 Homemade dumplings from scratch: I used 2.5lb of ground pork, 1 small head of cabbage, shredded, 2 Tbs grated ginger, 3 tsp minced garlic, 1 Tbs sesame oil, 2.5 tsp of kosher salt, .5 tsp of ground pepper. Blend all together in a food processor.

 Wrap the ground pork mixture in dumpling wrappers. Freeze over night.

Place frozen dumplings in frying pan. Add a little water.

Cook on medium heat until the water disappears and let it sit til it's browned.

 Flip over and brown other side.

Fried dumplings are pretty awesome! I think I'll add a little less ginger next time though. Other than that, it was pretty delicious!

Beef n Tomatoes Quesadilla

Quesadillas with previously cooked seasoned sliced beef, sliced tomatoes, chopped lettuce, shredded cheeses and chopped avocados and green salsa on the side. YUM! :D

Hot Pot

Sliced brisket

 Sliced lamb

 Cabbage

 Seaweed

 Rice Noodles

 Imitation Crab Meat