Shrimp Coconut Soup

This soup is quick and easy, and it is soooo good! Mia kept saying, "Mm...Mom, dis soup is ree good!" : ) The original recipe called for 3 Tablespoons of fish sauce (optional), but I thought that sounded like an awful lot of fish sauce. Having never actually used it before, I only used 1 teaspoon and I thought it was fine. The only other thing that I would change would be the addition of some rice noodles or other Asian noodles just to make the soup a little more hearty. But the flavor is great. This would probably even be good with chicken instead of shrimp, or another kind of mild fish, if for some odd reason you don't like shrimp. : )

Shrimp Coconut Soup

1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled, tails removed
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 red bell pepper, finely diced
2 tsp Thai green curry paste
3 cans chicken broth
1 (13.5-ounce) can coconut milk
1 tsp fish sauce (optional)
2 to 3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp brown sugar
Garnish: green onions, cut into 1/2-inch pieces, optional

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add shrimp; stir fry 2 to 3 minutes or just until shrimp turn pink. Transfer shrimp to a plate. Add ginger, garlic, and bell pepper to pot, and saute 1 to 2 minutes or until tender. Stir in curry paste, broth, coconut milk and fish sauce. Add lime juice and brown sugar, and bring to a boil; reduce heat, and let simmer 5 minutes. Stir in shrimp. Garnish, if desired.
Serves 4

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Let me preface this by saying that I *really* dislike Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookies. I just have never liked that recipe and as a result I tend to shy away from chocolate chip cookies except for my sour cream chocolate chip cookie recipe which still ranks as delicious. So I decided to give this a try (I found the recipe on Pinterest, which was pinned from kelseysappleaday.blogspot.com, which she adapted from Food Network Canada...) and they are seriously fantastic! Oh, and naturally I adapted it slightly too. The recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate chips - sick!! - so I used milk. You can use whatever kind of chip you like.

Best-Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened

3/4 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. granulated sugar

1 egg

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 c. all purpose flour

2 tsp. cornstarch

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. milk chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.

3. Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chunks.

4. Using a standard-sized cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop dough onto a prepared baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges. (The tops will not brown, but do NOT cook longer than ten minutes.)

5. Let cool, on the sheet, on a wire rack for five minutes. Remove from baking sheet and let cool completely.

Makes approximately 3 dozen. Try not to eat them all.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Jeff was a little nervous when I told him there was no meat in these peppers, but he gave them 4 stars anyway when he tasted them. They were tasty!
I only used 1 large carrot, and the cooking time can be increased if you like the peppers really soft. This way they were still just a little crisp, which I like. The author of the recipe said that these freeze well, too. I'll have to give that a try.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

1 medium onion, finely chopped (1 cup)
2 Tbs. olive oil
2 ribs celery, finely chopped (1/2 cup)
1 Tbs. ground cumin
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 10-oz. pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
2 15-oz. cans diced tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved
1 15-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can vegetable broth
3/4 cup quinoa
1-2 large carrots, grated
2 cups grated pepper Jack cheese, divided
4 large red bell peppers, halved lengthwise, ribs removed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and celery, and cook 5 minutes, or until soft. Add cumin and garlic, and sauté 1 minute. Stir in spinach and drained tomatoes. Cook 5 minutes, or until most of liquid has evaporated.2. Stir in black beans, quinoa, carrots, and vegetable broth. Cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 20 minutes, or until quinoa is tender. Stir in 1 cup cheese. Season with salt and pepper, if desired. Pour liquid from tomatoes into bottom of baking dish. Place peppers in baking dish and fill each bell pepper half with quinoa mixture. Sprinkle peppers with remaining cheese. Cover with foil, and bake 30-45. Uncover, bake 15 minutes more, or until cheese is browned. Let stand 5 minutes. Transfer stuffed peppers to serving plates, and drizzle each with pan juices before serving.

Serves 8

I found this recipe on pinterest. : )

Japanese Chicken Wings

These wings may not be the healthiest thing out there, but they sure are good! A lovely combination of tangy, sweet, buttery and crispy, we really enjoyed these.

Japanese Chicken Wings

3 pounds chicken wings
1 egg
1 C. flour
1 C. butter
3 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp water
1 C. sugar
1/2 C. white vinegar
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Dip each wing in egg and coat with flour.
Heat butter in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Fry wings until deep brown. Place in a shallow roasting pan.
In a small bowl combine soy sauce, water, sugar, vinegar, garlic powder and salt.
Pour over wings.* Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 45 minutes, basting and turning wings with sauce often.

*I had more than 3 lbs of wings, so I doubled the sauce which wasn't actually necessary. Anyway, when you pour the sauce on the wings, make sure they're not sitting in a pool of sauce or they won't get very crispy. If you have a lot of sauce in the roasting pan, pour most of it back into the bowl and use it for basting.

Recipe slightly adapted from allrecipes.com

Pasta with Asparagus

We made this for dinner tonight and it was gooo-oood!

Pasta with Asparagus

8 oz cavatappi pasta

1 lb asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2 inch-pieces

1 tsp minced garlic

3 Tbsp walnuts or pine nuts, toasted

2 oz diced pancetta

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp coarse kosher salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper (freshly ground is nice!)

1/4 C (1oz) crumbled Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Heat oven to 475. Cook pasta according to package directions; add asparagus to pan during last 3 minutes of cooking. Meanwhile, cook pancetta on jelly-roll pan and bake for 6 minutes or until crisp.

Drain pasta. Return to pan and sprinkle with garlic; toss well. In a small bowl, combine lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper, stirring with a whisk. Drizzle over pasta; toss well to coat. Sprinkle with nuts, pancetta and cheese.

Serves 4 (2 cup servings)

Recipe from Cooking Light magazine.

Cajun Pot Roast

We had this a few weeks ago and we both really liked it. Mia would've liked it more but she thought that it was a bit too spicy. The original recipe called for quick cooking tapioca but I didn't have any so I used regular barley, which worked great. I also sauteed the onions while browning the meat so that they wouldn't be so strong....for Jeff's sake. : )

Cajun Pot Roast

1 2-to 2-1/2 pound boneless beef chuck roast
2 to 3 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1 14-1/2 ounce can Mexican style stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 C. chopped onion
1 C. chopped celery
1/4 C. pearl barley
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Hot cooked rice

Trim fat from roast. Cut roast to fit in cooker, if necessary. Rub Cajun seasoning all over meat. In a large skillet brown meat on all sides in hot oil.
In a 3-1/2 to 4 quart slow cooker, combine tomatoes, onion, celery, barley and garlic. Place meat on top of vegetable mixture.
Cover and cook on low-heat for 10-12 hours or on high-heat for 5 to 6 hours.
Slice meat; serve with sauce over rice. Makes 6 servings.

Adapted from a recipe I printed a long time ago on bhg.com

Black Bean Chicken Burritos

I made these this afternoon to freeze for lunches - I'm always looking for something new for lunch! - and they were easy and I think they'll freeze well which means I can make a batch and not have to have the same thing all week but enjoy them at my leisure. I used my panini grill but if you don't have one you can cook these in a skillet and place a cast iron skillet on top of the burritos for 3 minutes on each side.

One more thought, this calls for 2 cups of shredded chicken so naturally I only used 1 cup but that left too much of the watery juice so if you only use 1 cup of chicken reduce by half the water, lime juice and seasonings. (You don't want your burritos to be watery.) Also if you use 1 cup of chicken you can use your whole can of black beans.

Black Bean Chicken Burritos

1/4 C water

2 Tbsp lime juice

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp ground red pepper (or to taste - naturally I used way less and found it plenty spicy...)

2 C shredded chicken breast

3/4 C black beans, rinsed & drained

1/2 C salsa

4 flour tortillas

1/2 C finely shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Cooking spray

Sour cream, if desired

Bring the first 6 ingredients to a boil in a small saucepan. Stir in chicken.

Combine beans and salsa in a bowl. Add chicken mixture and stir to combine. Divide evenly between 4 tortillas. Top each with 2 tablespoons of cheese. Tuck ends in and roll up the tortillas.

Cook in panini grill for 3-5 minutes or until warmed through and nicely browned. Serve warm with sour cream.

Altered from a recipe in Cooking Light.