Lemon Chicken with Garlic and Basil Zucchini

Over the weekend, the boy mentioned to me about trying gluten free. It was just a passing comment, but I took on the challenge! I am taking on this challenge with no gluten-free substitutes, i.e. bread and pasta. I am taking this to throw extra veggies his way and the zucchini was a success! I personally use a julienne peeler to julienne my veggies but am looking into something better if anyone has suggestions. Has anyone used a spiralizer? Are they easier? The peeler is great, just very tedious for large amounts. My mandolin also has a julienne attachment but it sucks so any and all suggestions are welcome =]

Original Recipe

Lemon Chicken with Garlic and Basil Zucchini

2 Chicken breasts

1/4t Thyme

1/2t Rosemary

2T Lemon juice

2T EVOO

Dash of salt and pepper

2 Medium zucchinis

1T Butter

3T Minced garlic

1/2T Basil

1 Chicken bouillon cube

1. Cut your chicken weirdly. The only way I can explain it is to slice it, but not all the way through. This will help it marinade quicker, like this

2. Mix thyme, rosemary, lemon juice, EVOO, salt, and pepper together and marinate chicken. I just threw mine in a plastic baggie on the counter for 20 minutes

3. Julienne your zucchini. Do this however you can, see my notes above for gadgets

4. Melt butter in pan and add garlic, basil, and chicken bouillon cube. Saute until fragrant, about 2 minutes

When I made this I used the 4T of butter called in the original and most of the butter was sitting in the pan after we ate it, hence why we cut it down to 1T. If you like it saucy, feel free to use 2T

5. Add your zucchini and toss to coat. Cook until zucchini is tender but not mushy

6. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet and add your chicken. I always cook it with the marinade so that went in there too. Cook it until it is no longer pink in the middle, flipping halfway through. Ours took about 10 minutes total.

This was seriously delicious and the boy actually said he wanted more vegetables when he was done! That is impressive!

Roasted Red Pepper Ravioli

I have a thing for roasted peppers. It doesn’t matter what color or spicyness they all taste good. After seeing tons of roasted red pepper alfredo recipes up on pinterest (and trying a few) I wanted to make one that zeroed in on the pepper. So I made this. It used jarred red peppers but would taste even better with fresh roasted if you have the time. So, enough chit chat and onto the food!

Roasted Red Pepper Ravioli

1 Jar Roasted red peppers, or about 2 fresh roasted

1T Minced garlic

1/2t Basil

10-oz Frozen ravioli

1. Bring water to a boil and cook ravioli according to directions

2. Blend peppers in food processer and add to small saucepan with garlic and basil. Let simmer while ravioli is cooking

3. Drain ravioli and cover in red pepper sauce. Sprinkle with basil if desired.

 

Mongolian Steak

I’m back with more Chinese food and less guilt! It’s my favorite way to eat Chinese food now and I honestly rarely ever crave it anymore from takeout. It’s awesome! I followed this recipe almost exactly, but did cut the brown sugar in half as we don’t have a big sweet tooth in this house.

Original Recipe

Mongolian Steak

1lb Steak, thinly sliced. I used flank steak

Cornstarch

2T EVOO

1/2t Grated ginger

1T Minced garlic

1/2c Water

1/2c Soy sauce

1/4c Brown sugar, not packed

1/2t-1t Red pepper flakes, depending on how spicy you like it

1. Coat steak in cornstarch. The original recipe says to used 1/4c. I just poured it on and shook off the excess in my hands as that was easiest

2. In skillet or wok, heat 1T EVOO with ginger and garlic until fragrant, about 1-3 minutes. Add water, soy sauce, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes and cook just for a minute or so to mesh the flavors and dissolve the brown sugar. Pour into a bowl and set aside

3. Use other 1T of EVOO to brown the steak in. Once it is browned, add the sauce back in and let simmer until desired thickness. The longer it cooks, the thicker it will get with the cornstarch. Ours only took about 5 minutes and it was perfect

Serve with rice or veggies and enjoy!

Homemade Pizza Sauce

This was a pretty delicious pizza sauce and very easy to make since you don’t have to cook it first, you just mix it and put it on your pizza! The boy even approved and he is picky about his pizza sauce. So here is the easiest pizza sauce known to man!

Original Recipe

Pizza Sauce

1- 15oz can Crushed tomatoes

2T Minced garlic

1t Basil, dried

3/4t Oregano, dried

1/4t Thyme, dried

1/4t Pepper

1 1/2T Red wine vinegar

Salt to taste (I didn’t use any)

1. Mix everything together in a bowl

2. Once mixed, put on pizza! I used this on our Grilled Pizza and it was awesome!

Sweet and Spicy Teriyaki Chicken

This was a delicious recipe. In the original, they used wings. I don’t like dark meat so I used breast tenderloins. Actually, they were breasts that I cut into strips. In the future I will be using more hot sauce. We were feeding the boys little sister that night so I left it pretty mild and we just added ours. This was pretty delicious though and I will be making it again for sure!

Original Recipe

Sweet and Spicy Teriyaki Chicken

3-4 Chicken breasts, sliced

1T Cornstarch mixed with 1T Water

1 1/3c Soy sauce

1/4c Rice vinegar

Splash of Dry white wine, I used Chardonnay

1/4c Honey

3T Minced garlic

1t Minced ginger

2-4T Hot sauce, I used 1 1/2T and it was not spicy at all, will be upping that next time

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly oil your baking dish

2. In bowl, mix together cornstarch and water mixture, soy sauce, rice vinegar, chardonnay, honey, garlic, ginger, and hot sauce

3. Place chicken in baking dish and cover with sauce

4. Bake for 30 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked

We enjoyed ours over rice since we had a lot of sauce and it was delicious!

Swedish Meatballs

Swedish meatballs is something I used to love growing up. Well, I think so anyways. I remember having Swedish meatballs but I don’t remember what they taste like. It could just be the meatballs we bought from Sam’s were called Swedish meatballs. Point is meat+pasta+sauce is good in any combination. I did alter the recipe a little as I was missing a few ingredients but they turned out super tasty!

Original Recipe

Swedish Meatballs

1lb Ground beef

1/4c Bread crumbs

1 Egg Yolk

1/8t Nutmeg

Dash of Cinnamon

1T EVOO

2T Butter

1/6c Flour

2c Beef Broth

3/8c Plain Greek Yogurt (I subbed this for sour cream so feel free to use either)

1. Combine ground beef, bread crumbs, nutmeg, cinnamon, and egg yolk until well mixed

2. Form into balls, I made 12

3. Heat 1T EVOO in pan and brown meatballs on all sides

Make sure meatballs are mostly cooked before you remove them as they will only cook in the sauce a little bit

4. Remove meatballs

5. Melt butter in same pan and scrape any bit of delicious beef that have stuck. Stir in flour and stir until well combined.

6. Stir in beef broth and bring to a simmer. Let it simmer for a few minutes to thicken it up

7. Add in Greek yogurt and stir until it is all mixed up then add your meatballs back to the sauce to coat and warm back up and finish cooking.

You’ll notice there are now only 6 meatballs, I left the boy six of them to eat with spaghetti since he doesn’t like cream sauce. I’m so nice =]

Traditionally you can eat this over egg noodles or mashed potatoes. I chose spaghetti solely because I was heating up spaghetti for the boy otherwise I would have used egg noodles.

 

 

 

Birthday Party!!!!! (100th Post =])

Ladies and  gentlemen, I bring you the most anticipated blog post of the year! My birthday party food!

Now, if we can be honest for a minute, I do not have the money to throw elaborate birthday parties. At all. So I did a BBQ and it was awesome! I made everything myself which was honestly one of my favorite parts of the day. I never get to cook for anyone so that was awesome that I finally did! And I learned I can definitely handle a big crowd. I made five pounds of Juicy Lucy’s and 3Q (yes, quarts) of Salsa! I also made some homemade guacamole and sangria for which I will include the recipe for here. But first, can we seriously marvel at all this salsa?!

That’s a lot of freaking salsa!

Guacamole

5 Avocados

1 Jalapeno, seeded

1T Minced garlic

1T Lime juice

Salt to taste

1. Put jalapeno into the food processer and chop up real smooth

2. Get the avocado out of the skin. I usually cut them in half and scoop it out with a spoon

3. Mix everything together in a big bowl and let sit in the fridge for a few hours for the flavors to meld

 

Cooler Sangria

Yea, I ran out of room in my crock pot which was what I was originally going to use to hold it but oh well. The cooler worked double duty as it was also cold

2 Gallons Moscato Sangria, I used Carlo Rossi

2c Raspberry Bounce, my uncle makes this so I’m not sure of a substitute. Raspberry pucker maybe? Anything super fruity with liquor

2c Frozen raspberries

2c Frozen strawberries

1. Put everything in a cooler

2. Drink lots of sangria

3. Snack of drunk fruit =]

Crock Pot Pot Roast

This is my perfect pot roast recipe. My mother will be ecstatic that I am putting it up on the internet. My sister claims it’s the best roast she’s ever had. WINNER!

This recipe does not make a huge amount of roast. If you have a large family or would like a ton of leftovers, use a bigger roast and double the ingredients. I use a 1.5lb roast so that it fits in my small crock pot and I’m not stuck eating it for days on end, which I definitely could =]

Crock Pot Pot Roast

1- 1.5lb Roast, which ever cut you prefer

2 Carrots, peeled and sliced

1/2 Onion, sliced

2 Tomatoes, diced

1T Minced garlic

2 Bay leaves

1/2t Thyme

1/2t Oregano

1/2t Basil

1/4-1/2c Wine, I normally use merlot but I was out and used chardonnay this time and it was still good

1-2 Potatoes, optional, I like them but the boy doesn’t and we were out of potatoes haha

1. Put carrots, onions, and potatoes (if using) in bottom of crock

2. Rub roast with thyme, basil, and oregano and place on top of veggies

3. Top roast with bay leaves, garlic, and tomatoes

4. Cook on low 8-10 hours and enjoy!