Swedish Meatballs

I was excited to make these meatballs. They looked real tasty and best of all, they're made up of ingredients we usually have in the fridge! I did do a couple of substitutes in order to make this keto-friendly though. I also knew that making meatballs was a bit time consuming, but what I didn't know was just how amazingly delish these would be! =) Here's the link for the original recipe: Swedish Meatballs (Svenska Kotbullar)

Here's what my meatballs are made of:

2 tbs butter, unsalted (not pictured)
3/4 cup minced onion
2/3 lb ground beef
1/3 lb ground pork
6 oz tofu, crumbled (not pictured)
1 egg
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp pumpkin spice
1/4 tsp ginger zest
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup water + 1/4 tsp chicken bouillon or 1/4 cup chicken stock (not pictured)

(The photo above has coconut flour and sour cream, which was used for the gravy later.)

Step 1: Melt 1 tbs of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir and cook the minced onion until it is nicely browned.

Step 2: In the meantime, mix the ground beef, ground pork and crumbled tofu in a mixing bowl. 

Step 3: When your onions are done, add them to your meat mixture, along with the kosher salt, black pepper, nutmeg, pumpkin spice, and ginger. Then mix in the heavy whipping cream. It should look something like the below picture.

Step 4: Preheat your oven to 350°F.

Step 5: Melt 1 tbs of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Form balls of about 1-1/2 tbs of meat mixture and place them into the skillet. Cook until all sides are browned, turning meatballs often. FIY: It's scrumptiously fragrant. The meatballs may not be cooked inside, but that's okay, bc it'll bake more in the oven. I actually took a bite of the outer rim of my browned meatball to check its taste to see if it needed more salt or pepper. It was perfect for me! 

Step 6: Place browned meatballs into a baking dish, pour in chicken broth, and then cover with foil. 

Step 7: Bake in preheated oven of 350°F for 40 minutes. It'll look oh-so-tasty and very mouthwatering!

Om nom nom nom nom!

Handy to have for meatball makings:

Escali Weigh'N Digital Kitchen Scale (Google Affiliate Ad)

Corningware-Pyrex 6001001 CLR (Google Affiliate Ad)

OXO Good Grips Cookie Dough Scoop, Medium (Google Affiliate Ad)

Chicken Burrito

Making a chicken burrito is pretty self explanatory:

1. Heat up a tortilla. Place rice and shredded chicken.

2. Add lettuce and tomatoes.

3. Add cheese and sour cream.

4. Roll it up and let it heat until the flour tortilla is nice n crispy.

5. Eat! (I had curry ketchup on the side for a dip.) 

Om nom nom nom

DIY Faux Corn Dogs

First, cook your hot dogs. A pat of butter always makes everything tastier.

While the dogs are cooking, prep your sliced bread (we used wheat) with a slice of American cheese.

When the dogs are cooked to perfection, place one on your prepped bread and roll. The hot dog should melt the cheese and allow the bread to stay into a roll.

Place back into the pan and toast all sides. Add another pat of butter if needed.

It should look like the above. It reminded me of a corn dog but with a wheaty taste and no stick. It had a crunch on the outside and was nice and soft on the inside, just like a corn dog.

Serve with a side of salad.

Don't forget your condiments! Twas delicious =)

Sausage and Salad

Tonight's dinner was too pretty not to post. 

(Keto friendly version is don't eat them raspberries and tomatoes!)

Here's a link to a previous post to make perfect sausages. 

And here's a link to ramsey's delicious scrambled eggs.

The salad is just green leaf lettuce with chopped roma tomatoes and raspberries.

Steak and Salad

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

For father's day, we were gonna treat dad and go to Road to Seoul to stuff our faces with delicious meats and side dishes for lunch. Sadly, it turned out that dad decided to eat with his fellow church people and didn't come home til about 2pm. That meant  the hubster and I had to think of something else. What other meats to eat? Why, a steak of course! And so we set course to our local Pavillions and bought ourselves some steak and our favorite kettle chips!

This was supposed to my pop's Father's Day dinner, but my he was still too full and so this ended up being my hubby's and my dinner:

Mm-mmmmmm

However, pops did find room for dessert that we bought esp. for him:

Danish pie! Twas super yummy. I can't remember the last time we had danishes in the house. It's been awhile, which made it that much more enjoyable.

The next day, pops did get his steak and salad though:

Chicken Stew

Sooooooo, I wanted to make chicken pot pie, but I noticed our flour was infected by bugs =( so I ended up just making the good stuff that goes into the chicken pot pie.... hence, chicken stew.

I used one of Ina Garten's recipe as a guideline since I didn't have everything on hand...



Here's what I used:

4 cups cooked shredded chicken
7 cups water
6 tsp chicken bouillon
4 tbs unsalted butter
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup rice flour
1 cup milk
1 cup peas
1 cup chopped squash
1 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup panko (breadcrumbs)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp pepper

First, I made the chicken. The drumsticks (it was that or thighs and the drumsticks were already thawed...) were brined for a couple hours or more and then placed in a cast iron and baked at 400°F for 45 minutes. Then set aside to cool. Then all the veggies were chopped. The chicken should have cooled down enough by now to pull the meat from the bones. 7 drumsticks gave me 4 cups of meat.

Then, make the chicken stock with water and chicken bouillon and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, heat up a pan and melt the 4 tbs of butter. Cook the carrots and onions until the onions are translucent. Then stir in the rice flour 1/4 cup at a time. It'll look pretty crumbly. To help with this, I ladled some of the chicken stock into the pan and stirred until most or all of the rice flour lumps dissipated. Then, it was poured back into the chicken stock, carrots and all. The shredded chicken was then added. Then the milk (I didn't have heavy whipping cream on hand as it was all turned into whipped cream), salt, pepper, panko and other veggies went in as well.

It ended up tasting pretty delicious but I wished it was more thick. I should've add a LOT more panko to thicken up the stew. Nonetheless, the stew was quite tasty and hearty. Yum!

The hubster even said it tasted like the stuff that goes into a chicken pot pie. :D Yay!

Nutella Cookie Sandwich

So, I found an amazing nutella cookie sandwich recipe. So easy and so simple! But as I was making it, I noticed exact measurements weren't really given :(. Still, I HAD to make them. It is nutella after all. And they came out perfectly so I have to share!


Here's what you'll need:
10 oz nutella
1 egg
2 tbs butter, melted
1 cup all purpose flour
1-1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt




First, get the nutella weighed out in a mixing bowl. Then, mix in the egg and melted butter.

In another bowl, mix the flour with the baking powder and salt. This is your self-rising flour. So, if you have that, use 1 cup in place of the all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. It'll save a wee bit of time. Then add the flour into your nutella batter in stages until well incorporated. Should look something like the below.

Then, spoon them out onto your parchment lined cookie sheet. It should yield about 20 cookies if dosing them out by the tablespoon. After scooping them out, I flattened them with the back of the spoon.

Place them in a preheated oven of 350°F and bake for 15 minutes.

Let it stand for about 10 minutes or until it cools down enough to spread some nutella on and make them even more delicious and decadent sandwich cookies!!!

They are suuuuuuuuuper scrumptious. And I can't wait to make more, but I'm not too keen on sharing my cookies! hehe

Btw, here's the original webpage that had the original idea of nutella sandwiches.

And here's the webpage for turning all purpose flour into self-rising flour.

Disaronno Banana Nut Bread

I've been making banana nut breads for a while now and I'm pretty sure I've got my go-to recipe down. However, this time around, I wanted to add Disaronno to it for an almond flavor. Here's what I used:

Dry ingredients: 2 cups flour, 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Wet ingredients: 3 old bananas~ mashed, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup butter~room temp or melted, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup Disaronno

Optional: 1/2 walnuts, chopped, 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chip, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl. Set aside.

3. Mash your bananas first, then add the eggs, then the butter and sugar and Disaronno. Mix well.

4. Then add your dry mix in stages to your wet mix until all the dry mix is well incorporated. 

5. Fold in your chopped waltnuts and chocolates if you want.

6. Spray your bread pan with Pam or butter it down, then pour in your bread batter.

7. Bake it in the oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until done.

This is super delicious and perfectly moist with a hint of almond flavor. Perfect. Mm-mmmmm.

Macaroni Salad

A couple of weeks ago, my dad asked for macaroni salad. I said sure... when I get the ingredients. I finally have them all. It's quite easy to make, just takes a bit of time. Here's what you need:

3 cups uncooked pasta (this time I used mini penne as I tend to change it up)
2 big roma tomatoes (~1 cup)
3 carrot sticks (~ 1 cup)
2 celery stems (~ 1 cup)
1 cup frozen peas
3 boiled eggs (~ 1 cup)
1 can of spam
1/2 cup mayo
salt n pepper to taste

1. Boil the pasta first before you chop anything!! That way the pasta will have time to cool off.
2. Then chop up everything!! (If you haven't any boiled eggs, boil them second, then chop everything).

3. Just mix in all your chopped foodies into your pasta, including the spam.

4. Add in the mayo and mix well. You could always add more if you are a mayo lover. I tend to add only a little bit of mayo and then when I serve it, I either mix in more mayo (cuz it looks like it dried out) and/or some ranch or blue cheese dressing for added flavor.

Om nom nom.... I added another dollop of mayo and some black pepper for tasty. Mmmm

Handy to have these:

Pyrex Glass Measuring Bowls, 4 cups (Google Affiliate Ad)

Denby Wooden Spoon (Google Affiliate Ad)

Garlic Salt Spare Ribs

For tonight's dinner, the hubster wanted to make spare ribs a bit different than usual. We did a test batch where the ribs came out too salty but otherwise quite delicious! Here's what we did for our actual dinner:

Take the spare ribs and trim the fat and remove the membrane film thingy. Then cut into manageable sizes.

In a small bowl, mix 2 tbs kosher salt, 1 tbs garlic powder and 1 tbs onion powder. (There may be leftovers depending on how much meat you're cooking up.) Sprinkle this mixture nicely over the top of your spare ribs. If you rub this salt mixture everywhere like what we did with our test batch, it'll end up toooooo salty.

Then you'll need to mix 1/2 cup (8 tbs) water with 2 tbs liquid smoke. Ratio is 4:1.

Pour the diluted liquid smoke into your spare ribs dish. Try not to pour over your ribs as you may wash out the garlic salt mixture. It should just cover the bottom of your dish and then some.

Place in preheated oven of 350°F and bake for 1-1/2 hours. It should look like the above. PS: When it's baking, it smells like the most delicious hot dog ever... I'm pretty sure that's from the liquid smoke :D

The ribs came out amazingly delicious, perfectly salted, and very juicy! It wasn't dry at all. Definitely finger-lickin' good!

Super handy to have these:

Pyrex 4-Qt. Oblong Baking Dish (Google Affiliate Ad)

Super sharp knives (cuts through bones like paper!)

Salmon Sashimi

One of the things my hubby got me hooked on when we first met was salmon sashimi. That's right~ before I met him I was an everything well-cooked kinda gal. But man oh man, sushi and sashimi can be pretty expensive. Then we found a cheapER yet still satisfying and delicious way of fulfilling our salmon sashimi needs. Buy a regular ole salmon fillet and just make sure it's as fresh as possible... in other words, it doesn't look old.

Here's a picture of our fillet of salmon that I just had to have to fill a craving. :o)

First you need to skin it then place it in a deep dish.

Then add rice wine to cover the fish and let it soak for a good 3-5 minutes.

Dad's munchie portion... he doesn't eat that much raw meats...

My hubby's and my lunch portion. Served with soy sauce and wasabi. It was oh-so-yummy!!! And no terrible consequences afterwards if you know what I mean. Although, if it'll ease your conscience, you could always drink some kind of alcohol with this meal.

om nom nom nom :D

Handy to have something similar to this to slice your fish:

Wusthof Classic Filet Knife, 7" (Google Affiliate Ad)