Only day 2

Today is only the second day of my new cooking challenge and I already hit a wall. I actually Google what can I make for dinner? 30 or more recipes later I was ready to quit. But then I came across Almond Dijon Tilapia. Sounds good right. Only problem, I do not have tilapia,  almond flour, or dijon mustard. 
This recipe got my wheels spinning. How about substituting chicken breast for tilapia? I will still work. Can I create my own almond flour by grinding almonds up? Can I take out the dijon mustard and add garlic and ground pepper? Mmm fresh parmesan cheese would be good too.
This is just ending up to be almond parmesan grilled chicken. I am doing a flash fry then baking it for 20 min. Right before it is done I topped it with a little mozzarella cheese and browned.
Serving it on a bed of macaroni. It is nutty, cheesy, delicious goodness. 

Blueberry pie

Last night I decided to make pie crust from a basic biscuit recipe. I made the dough, then baked it on the back of cupcake tins.

This is the result. Blueberry pies for breakfast. I think it is safe to assume Benjamin likes it.

Vietnamese spring rolls

This is the kids favorite meal to make. They love the rice noodles, rice paper and filling it with the vegetables they want. Tonight we are doing lettuce cucumber, zucchini, carrots, sprouts, chicken, mint and anything else the kids may want to add to it.

For mine and hubbies we have rice noodles, lettuce, sprouts, grilled wasabi chicken, zucchini, cucumber, carrots and mint. I made a sweet and spicy dipping sauce.

Full disclosure: this is our 5th time making them. The first time it took me 2 hours to prepare all the veggies, cook the shrimp and 3 attempts at the rice noodle before they were correct. The first attempt ended with very soggy gross noodles. The second attempt was slightly less gross noodles. The third was magical. The rice paper was also a learning curve. Very steep curve at that. Either the paper was perfect or a soggy mess. There really was no in between.

TOO long

It has been too long since I last blogged on my cooking. I will begin again tonight. The meal for tonight will be Spring Rolls. Let's see how this works out.

Ravioli and Alfredo sauce

Today is day two of a migraine, so dinner was simple. Actually to be perfectly honest it was not even dinner it was a late lunch. I digress.

I made ravioli. How hard is that too make? Most would answer HARD. Especially given the fact that I have a migraine. Well I am here to tell you I CHEATED. I boiled water with a bit of salt. Added pre-made ravioli, turned heat to low. Cooked at soft boil for 3 min. Took them out.

Made an easy alfredo sauce that I have perfected over the course of four months. It is basic, sour cream, heavy cream, garlic, basil and milk. I boil it while stiring constantly. Then I add some corn starch to thicken it up and it is good to go. This whole proccess takes about 8 min. VERY easy.

Plop that all onto a plate and there was dinner/lunch.

And off to bed I went.

Woke up today feeling better. Only to my suprise Migraine came back.....

Grilled foods

I did not take pictures today. So let me start with that. Today's meal was charcoal grilled foods. It included rib eye steak. I made a yogurt peppercorn rub for it. The rub had vanilla yogurt, instead of plain. It also had whole and crushed peppercorns. It also had chili peppers and Cheyenne pepper. I also added rock salt and fresh herbs. I was unsure how the yogurt would taste, but the outcome was good. The steak was very moist and so yummy.

We also grilled all kinds of veggies. They included squash, shallots, onions, green peppers, bell peppers and a lemon for good measure.

Along with all of that we grilled some chicken that was lightly seasoned. When the chicken was almost cooked we squeezed lemon over it. Really good also.

For dessert, Grilled pineapple. This was lightly grilled then sprinkled cinnamon over it.

Tangy sweet Mahi Mahi

My last blog was over two months ago. It has been SO long sorry for my laziness. I am back now though. I started two days ago. First day back to cooking was making cornish hens, grilled finger potatoes and salad.

They were all so good. I was happy with the outcome.

Yesterday I cooked Mahi Mahi. I was craving fish. Mahi Mahi was what we had in our freezer so that I what I started with. I found a recipe that I did not need to go to the store to get more items. Basically I was going for the easiest recipe I could find. 

I started by making the sauce. It was lime peel, honey, seasonings, and cooking sherry. I boiled and boiled, then added flour to thicken it up. Then boiled some more. Here is a picture of the sauce.

Once the sauce was done I placed the Mahi Mahi in a pan to bake it. Baking fish seemed weird to me, but I was up for the challenge. I baked it for about 15 min plain. NO seasonings, no oils, nothing. After 15 min. I added about half the sauce and baked it for another 5 min with the sauce. 

That was it. The fish was done.

While the fish was cooking I made some rice. By the way, I have gotten really good at making rice. I finished the rice and the fish at almost the same time. Plated it and sprinkled with fresh cilantro. 

Outcome...

Another WONDERFUL meal. I was so happy. Two days of cooking and two days of success. YAHHH. Now what to make today....