My Food Thoughts

Healthy Berry Smoothies!

2010-09-03T15:27:00.000-07:00

Smoothies:

1/2 cup frozen berries of your choice

1/2 frozen or fresh banana

Scoop of Yogurt

Pinch of Spinach if you'd like to add some vitamins

1/2 tray of ice cubes

1 cup milk

Sugar to taste

Throw it all into a blender and pulse it on high until it's well blended.

There is not chemistry to a smoothie so be creative! Add and subtract what you like or don't like. We like to add a little yogurt and spinach just for their extra nutritional value. We used to think people who did that were crazy hippies but we've since learned that you can't taste it and it's good for you!

Black Bean Hummus

2010-09-03T14:35:00.000-07:00

Black Bean Hummus:

1 can black beans (rinse)

3 cloves garlic

1/8 cup onions

1 pinch red pepper flakes

1 pinch black pepper

1 pinch seasoned or plain salt

1/2 T Olive Oil

Rinse your black beans and place them in a food processor (a blender may work just as well). Peel your garlic cloves and toss them in as well. Chop up your onions and add them in and sprinkle in your seasonings. Pour in oil. Blend until your Hummus is smooth. It'll look like a think paste or dip.

You can spread this on a tortilla for quesadillas or eat with crackers, pitta bread or even veggies!

Black Bean Quesadillas are great with a spread of this dip, cheddar cheese, and avocado all on a flour tortilla! You can microwave them for a soft treat or grill them if you like them crispy! Dip in some home made salsa and enjoy!

Teriyaki Chicken

2010-09-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

Teriyaki Chicken Ingredients:

Frozen or Fresh chicken tenders or breasts

Yoshida's Teriyaki Sauce

Garlic

This is so easy you won't believe it! Simply pull out your crock pot, plug it in. Place your chicken (enough for your family) in the crock pot. Pour in your Yoshida's Sauce just enough to make sure all chicken's are at least half way in the sauce (they will all shrink and be submerged in the sauce). You can throw in some garlic powder or cloves if you like but it's good just the way it is.

Cook it on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3 hours.

When your finished you have a few options. You can eat it with rice, mashed potatoes or on Chicken Burgers!

Chicken Burgers are great with pineapple rings on top, red onions, lettuce and a little mayo on the bun!

Crab Alfredo

2009-12-14T17:07:00.000-08:00

I got back into my food rut and I'm trying to climb back out! It's hard not to get into those silly ruts.

Tonight I decided to go with a crab dish. I haven't made one yet and thought it would a nice change. Unfortunatly, I went with imitation crab. In the past, I have had imitation crab in salads and whatnot and have loved it. I learned tonight though, it's best to go with real crab when heating it.

Other than the texture of the imitaion crab this meal was amazingly tasty and I'll make it again for sure!

3 T butter
2 T flour
2 cloves garlic (next time I'll use three)
3.5 cups of milk (about)
2 oz cream cheese
2 t black peper
pinch of curry powder
pinch of oregano
pinch of fresh basil leaves
3/4 box of medium size pasta shells

I did the basic white sauce. Melting the butter, adding the garlic then the flour. Then I added in my milk and seasonings. Started my noodles since my water was now boiling in the other pot. Just before my white sauce started to boil I threw in the cream cheese and stired it until it was melted. Finally I added in the crab meat. After about a minute I dished it up and we both enjoyed our new fancy crab dish!!

3 months without a repeat meal

2009-12-12T12:07:00.001-08:00

When my husband and I were married, I went about a month without repeating a meal. I was excited and decided to go on 2 months. Then three. Finally, I HAD to repeat some of the meals because they were just so good and I wanted to eat them again. Sadly, I wasn't blogging at the time and did not keep track of all those meals. I'm pretty upset that I can't remember what 75% of them were. Here is a list of what I remember though:

This is a list of all the things I remember making...

Pork chops in cream of chicken soup with rice

Sweet and sour meat balls and rice

Fajitas

Beef enchiladas

Creamy chicken enchiladas

Beef Tacos

Chipoltle chicken tacos

Smoky Sweet Potato Stoup

Potato Soup

Chicken and Cheese Crescent Chimichangas (Eric's Favorite!)

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

Beef Lo Mein

Tuna Pasta Bake

Chicken Devan

Tuna and cheese braid

Steak and potatoes

Chili

Nachos

Vegi Stir Fry

Kielbasa and potato skillet

Phad Thai

Stuffed Pasta Shells

Pot Roast

Chicken Salad Roll ups

Chicken Bundles

home made Chicken BBQ pizza

And those were the greatest 3 months of dinners we've had!

How to cook a turkey

2009-11-23T22:18:00.000-08:00

In honor of this Thanksgiving week, I'd like to turn my thoughts to turkey! As a young, newly wed I did some research last November in hopes to make the best turkey ever! This is what I learned about cooking a turkey.

Turkey Prep:

Thaw it in a refrigerator for 2-4 days while it is still packaged in it's plastic. Also place in a pan to keep leaking juices from contaminating other foods. (always store meats on the bottem shelf).
You can also thaw it by placing it in cold water. Change the water ever 30 minutes as to prevent bactirial growth and food born illnessses.
clean out the turkey, most come with a bag of the giblets... heart and all that. Yum! I throw these away. Some people cook them into the stuffing.
Place turkey breast down! (most people place it breast side up) Doing this allows the juices to stay in the meatyest area of the turkey!
Sprinkle seasonings (seasoned salt, pepper, garlic, onion powder...) over the entire turkey skin after brushing canola oil over the turkey skin.
Cut an onion into quarters. Place it inside the turkey to release moisture and add flavor from the inside out! You can also do this with oranges.
Cover with tin foil or with a plastac turkey bag (you can buy these at the store and no, they won't melt in the oven). Covering it keeps the juices in and keeps the turkey moist.

Cooking the Turkey!

I found this awesome and easy to use calculator on Butterball's website. On the right side is a calculator to determine how long to cook a turkey at x weight and how long to thaw it too, if you need help with that.
It is common to baste your turkey. I was shocked to hear that it actually does not help keep the turkey moist as you loose so much of the steam when you open the bag or foil to baste it. You also cool the oven down in the process which in turn slows down the cooking process.
You will know its done when it reaches 165 degrees.

** Cooking stuffing inside your turkey is a bad idea. The stuffing develops bacteria and can cause food poisoning. Just cook the stuffing on its own to be safe!**

Once your turkey has reached 165 degrees go ahead and pull it out of the oven careful not to burn or drop the heavy load! Now, one of the most important stpes in keeping it juicy is to let the turkey sit and rest for about 30 minutes. Many or most people just dig right in which releases all those juices. Letting it cool a bit allows those juices to soak into the meat and stay rather than spilling onto the pan, leaving dry turkey meat.

Now the very most important part is to go enjoy it! Look forward to some good turkey recipes these next few weeks! I've got some good ones!!!

December Dinner Calendar

2009-11-18T14:57:00.000-08:00

Tuesday December 1: Spicy Tilipia Tacos
Wednesday December 2: Small roast with veggies
Thursday December 3: Chicken pot pie
~~Friday December 4: Eat out to an Asian place~~
~~Saturday December 5: Eat them left overs!~~
~~Sunday December 6: Eat at the in-laws~~
Monday December 7: Home made chili and cornbread
T December 8: Chicken quesadillas and home made Spanish rice!
W December 9: Corned beef
Th December 10: Creamy chicken pizza
~~F December 11: Eat out at a Mexican place!~~
~~S December 12: Eat them leftovers!~~
~~Sun December 13: Eat at the in laws~~
M December 14: Zero Point soup and rolls
T December 15: Chipotle Chicken tacos
W December 16: Pork chops cooked in cream of chicken soup with rice
Th December 17: Biscuits and gravy
~~F December 18: Eat out to an American place~~
~~S December 19: Eat them leftovers~~
~~Sun December 20: Eat at the in laws~~
M December 21: Tomato basil and grilled cheese sandwiches
T December 22: Beef tacos
W December 23: Yoshidas Chicken in a crock pot served with rice
Th December 24: Ham, garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole
~~F December 25: Left overs or eat at the in laws~~
~~S December 26: Eat them leftovers!~~
~~Sun December 27: eat at the in-laws~~
M December 28: Ham & Potato soup
T December 29: Creamy chicken enchiladas
W December 30: ????
Th December 31: Make you own croissant pizzas

Tilapia Tacos!

2009-11-02T14:29:00.000-08:00

Before I even left for the office, I knew I was going to be making Tilapia for dinner. My plan was to have it with a side of rice pilaf. Well, once the fish hit the pan my plans some how changed without me realizing it. Suddenly I was creating what would become the greatest fish tacos ever!

I just cooked 3 fillets in extra virgin olive oil. Then I added some frozen corn and about a 1/2 cup of salsa. I glanced up and saw chili pepper my family had sent me from their garden. I cut it up and threw it in too.

After pulling out some flour tortillas, salsa, cheese and sour cream we enjoyed this amazing masterpiece. Yum! I'm making this again!

Stovetop Popcorn!

2009-10-29T13:50:00.000-07:00

I received an amazing Back to the Basics Popcorn maker as a wedding gift. Sadly, I hadn't used it until last week. I thought it was going to be a little more difficult which is why it took me a year to use it. I was AMAZED at how simple and quick it popped the popcorn! It was cooked within a minute! I'm never buying bags of popcorn again! Seriously, this pan made it so easy and fun!

You just need a popcorn pan ($20 at Target or Walmart). Pour in about 1 Tablespoon of oil and place 2 kernels on the bottom. Turn the stove on med high. Once the kernels pop, add in 1/2 cup of kernels and turn the handle as they pop!

Once it was finished we sprinkled a little salt and pepper on top. So yummy!

You can also just buy the bags and toss them in the microwave!

Cool facts:

Popcorn is a really healthy snack (just don't add extra butter)
It's full of fiber and low on callories
You can season it with salt, pepper, parm. cheese, sugar and cinnamon... the list goes on!
Selena Gomez likes her Texas style: about 10 drops of tabasco sauce, salt and dipped in pickle juice!
It's SUPER easy to make!

Tomato Basil Soup

2009-10-27T14:57:00.000-07:00

About a year ago my husband and I enjoyed a nice fancy dinner at Ottavio's, an Italian restaurant in Provo, UT. We were very impressed with their Tomato Basil Soup. It was rich, creamy and held unique flavors. I have been on the search for that recipe and of course, have not found it.

I have however found a handful of "creamy tomato basil soup" recipes online. This is my latest project. I'm going to try this soup and try to find the best! This week, I'm going to test this recipe:

Rich and Creamy Tomato Basil-Soup (The recipe was found on All Recipes)

I'm going to search out the best recipe and report back soon!

Recipes from an 8 year old

2009-10-26T12:37:00.000-07:00

I created a blog (Bayli Bop- Recipes for kids) for my 8 year old sister, who also loves to cook! I told her that I would love to share her ideas if she had any and quickly received the following email:

"hello here is some resipes that i want you to put on our blog!

flippy funny pancakes!

first make a pancake then buy a can of whipped cream

a bag of choclate chips and some other candy get the

pancakes then get out the wipped cream make

wiskers eyes and ears and make a little tounge

sticking out if you want you could evan

sprinkle a little bit of candy on it.

summer cool

first you go to the store and buy vanilla

and sugar if need (milk) go home and

get a cup out of the pantry or coberd

poor milk in a cup get ice and put it

in the cup put one drop of vanilla

put one spoonfull of sugar in it then

done. "

Enchiladas

2009-10-26T10:02:00.000-07:00

Enchilada's are one of my favorite foods! YUM! I love all kinds too; chicken with creamy sauce, beef with red sauce, beef with green sauce, chicken with red sauce... you get the point.

This weekend I had my in-laws over for dinner. With two extra men (one being a teenager) I needed to make a lot of food. The first thing that came to mind? Enchiladas!

With a busy Sunday ahead, I wanted to get as much done as I could the night before so I made 3 pounds of hamburger with one large onion. We ate one pound as tacos for dinner. I saved the other two pounds for the enchiladas. Then I made the sauce. I hate to admit, I used 2 McCormick packets rather than learning how to make it from scratch. I put 1/2 cup in the hamburger and put the in the refrigerator.

Sunday, around 5:00 I pulled out my sauce and hamburger, got the tortillas and cheese out and preheated the oven to 350. I poured the sauce onto the pan, filled tortillas, covered with sauce and cheese and threw them in the oven for 40 minutes. Ta da! There you have 12 enchiladas! It fed all 5 of us and we still have plenty of leftovers!

Healthy Eating!

2009-10-14T13:23:00.000-07:00

Alright, I know most American's start dieting in the Spring to look good in their beach attire, but my husband and I have just decided to start eating healthier in hopes of shedding some pounds, even if it is fall!

I LOVE cooking, I think we've established that, but I love cooking a little more when I know it's good for you too. The problem is, when I go to sites like the Food Network (which I love by the way) their healthy food recipes always have odd ingredients in them. I'm not into that.

I'm looking for some good healthy recipes that are realistic. If you have any ideas, email me!

Chicken Tacos! (Thanks to my husband)

2009-10-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

The chef!

I was out of food. Walmart was calling my name. I went shopping. I then stood in line for over 45 minutes! Yes, I was angry. Why there were only 4 out of 36 registers open when there were more than 60 people waiting in lines, I don't know. Anyhow, I didn't get out of the store to go home until 8:00. My poor husband knew of the situation and my frustrations and was sweet enough to take it upon himself to make dinner out of what we had laying around.

I walked in the kitchen and saw two chicken breasts cooking on the stove, nicely covered in spices (looked like Canadian Chicken mixture, chili powder, garlic powder and some salt and pepper). He was cooking it in butter which I never do... I use E.V.O.O. and it smelled delicious! I looked on the table and found a plate of grated cheese. "Ok" I thought "we are having a piece of chicken and some cheese".

Wrong. My brilliant husband was putting together what would become the best chicken tacos ever! He cut up the chicken into bite sized pieces, threw in some sauteed onion, cut up tomatoes, got out some salsa and sour cream. After warming up some La Favorita corn tortilla shells, we enjoyed this amazing creation!

Yes, I knew chicken tacos existed. Yes, I have made them many times. However, I forgot they existed and how easy they are to make! Whala! I have a new dinner idea.

Clone of a Cinnabon

2009-10-05T11:32:00.001-07:00

This past weekend was General Conference for our church. This means we watch the general authorities speak to us for 4 two hour sessions that we watch on tv. There are 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday, each session is different so a lot of people watch all four. As you can imagine, we get pretty hungry just sitting around on a Saturday (or Sunday) morning so I decided to make some cinnamon rolls! I had been planning this all week and was really excited!

The recipe I used (and followed with exactness!) is called "Clone of a Cinnabon". I was a little skeptical about the dough rising since I didn't use bread flour and I wasn't sure the yeast was still up to par. To my surprise, the cinnamon rolls turned out perfectly!!! I really wish I would have taken pictures but I'll just have to make them again soon so I can get one up!

On a scale of 1-10 I would rate this recipe a 10+!! Even though my ingredients weren't the highest of quality, these rolls were devoured by 5 of us within 4 hours!

(The frosting on the recipe was amazing!!! I loved it! But I just found this recipe that also claims to be Cinnamon's frosting recipe, looks good! )

Couscous!

2009-10-01T08:09:00.000-07:00

As you all have heard, I LOVE to try new foods. Yesterday while shopping at Target (which happens to be my favorite store!), I found myself in front of some couscous. I then realized that I needed to make some to see how I like it! It was just the box variety, like Pasta Roni, but I figured it would be a good place to start.

Since we were introducing one new food, I decided to also make Pigs in a blanket. They aren't my favorite but Gary hadn't tried them before and I loved them as a child.

It sounds like a silly meal... Couscous and pigs in a blanket? (Oh excuse me, Gary corrected me and told me that the correct name is "smoked sausages in croissants" ).HA HA! It was delicious non the less.

The couscous had an amazing texture! The flavor was sun dried tomato, which I don't particularly like but if I buy the plain couscous I can make it any flavor I want! Gary liked both dishes a lot! He even went as far as saying he "Loves" them both!!!

Wahoo! We found two new dishes that we like! It was a successful day in the kitchen!

Wahoo's Fish Taco's

2009-09-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

The atmosphere was pretty cool! All decked out with snow boarding gear and stickers!

Good presentation! Looks Amazing!

This week we decided to go try Wahoo's Fish Taco's. I'm not sure if this is a chain or what but one of our friends had recommended it. Gary LOVES fish taco's so we were excited!

We ordered a plate of fish tacos, one in each flavor and a plate with a shrimp burrito and a Carne Aasada enchilada. The photos above are the two plates we ordered.

The fish taco's were good. Tasty but only a bite of fish per taco AND! this place didn't have salsa! What taco restaurant doesn't have salsa?!

The shrimp burrito was by far my favorite item! It was amazing!!!!

All together the food was decent. My biggest complaint is that you really don't get what you pay for. It was $16.50 for our two plates and water to drink. I wasn't hungry when we went and I was far from full when we left. Sixteen dollars would be a fair price if we would have been satisfied but more than half the plates were filled with flavorless rice and beans. We love fish tacos but we will not be going back to Wahoo's... ever again.

I'm sorry that our first restaurant review was a negative one. It's actually rare we find a place we're not in love with! I'm sure next week will be a more positive experience!!

Salerno style Spaghetti!

2009-09-14T19:09:00.000-07:00

I have had my eye on this recipe for a while now but just made it for the first time tonight! It's simple and unglorified name is... Spaghetti with fried eggs and bread crumbs. It's fancy name is Salerno style Spaghetti!
I found the recipe in "The Best of America's Test Kitchen" from 2008 (found on page 124). I was impressed with myself, I actually followed the recipe all except for the amount of noodles I cooked (I didn't measure).

Here is the delightful Recipe (it's the basic outline of what the book says but not exactly)

2 slices high-quality sandwich bread
10 T oil (I didn't use nearly that much)
Salt and Pepper to taste
4 garlic cloves, minced (I used 5)
1/4 t. red pepper flakes
1 lb spaghetti
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
4 large eggs

1) Place bread in food processor and pulse til they are large crumbs. Toss with little oil just to coat, and salt and pepper. Spread evenly on baking sheet and bake at 375 til golden brown.
2) While that's baking, start a pot of boiling water (4 quarts and 1 T salt)
3) After the water is placed on stove coat frying pan with oil. When its hot add the garlic, red pepper flakes and salt. Cook on medium for about 5 mins (til garlic is bubbling)
4) Once water is boiling add noodles. Your bread crumbs should be about done so pull them out if they are ready.
5)Once your garlic is done, place it in small dish and throw your eggs into the pan.
6) Hope that your eggs and noodles are done at the same time!
7) Drain noodles, place back in pan and toss in garlic, bread crumbs and top with cheese and egg.

* Note: The leftovers are to die for!!!! *

How to Make a Real Grilled Cheese Sandwich!

2009-09-11T13:44:00.000-07:00

Once in a blue moon I don't know what to make for dinner and end up making... well... Tacos!!! But sometimes we just had tacos and I'm left with making something really pathetic. Last night, it was the good ol' Grilled Cheese Sandwich. As I was making them I realized that I need to share my delicious secrets that make grilled cheese worth eating!

First of all, you HAVE to use good bread!

Second, you HAVE to use good cheese! We like to throw in different types (we've even tried a little cream cheese, key word there is little!)

Adding some caramelized onions is pretty delicious! Fresh tomatoes are amazing too.

Now, this is the critical step! Add BBQ sauce! Just spread it as if it were butter on the inside of the sandwich before grilling it. It makes the world of difference!

Then you have to eat it with some salad and vinaigrette just to make yourself feel better about the lazy, unhealthy sandwich you just ate!

Frappuccino!

2009-09-10T10:13:00.000-07:00

I LOVE Starbucks Frappuccinos! I have only tried their Vanilla but at home, you can make any flavor you want! Here is how I make mine:

1.5 trays of ice cubes
1 2/3 cups milk
1/3 cup of liquid coffee creamer (any flavor you want!)
(1 T Vanilla extract if you just use regular creamer or none at all)
2 T sugar
Whipped Cream as garnish!

Just blend it in the blender til its smooth! This amount serves 3.

My first example....

2009-09-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

Earlier in the week I was looking though the blog site "Dinners For a Year and Beyond". I saw a recipe for a Shrimp and sausage fettuccine. I liked the idea so I thought about what I'd like to add and remove. This is what I came up with:

Bow Tie Noodles
Garlic roasted shrimp
Italian Sausage and
Alfredo sauce (with garlic, onion, pepper, nutmeg, dash of sugar, cream cheese and other spices that sounded good at the time)

It now seems as though I should be taking pictures of my creations! Oh well, we have leftovers so I'll have to snap a shot tonight!

About the Blog!

2009-09-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

I love to cook! I love creating new meals and I really prefer not to follow recipes. I'll do it when I'm baking but when I'm cooking a meal, I find it pointless. I find amazing recipes online and try them but it seems that I always need to make my own adjustments. After a while I decided to just look at a recipe to get an outline of an idea and go into the kitchen and just play around with it! I have never been unsatisfied with what it turns out to be.

The only flaw in my rebellious way of cooking is that I make an amazing meal and forget about it! Never to be eaten again!!! So, I decided to start blogging them so I can remember and you can try them out too!

My husband and I also go out to a new restaurant almost every Wednesday night. We try new foods and love to critique the food, the customer service and the restaurant as a whole. I'll try and post our opinions on those too!