Recipe # 7, Steak Kebabs

The cooking experiment continues.  I think I am almost caught up with the recipe per week thing.  And, I am now known as the cooking expert by my stepdauhter!  Just add another jewel to my crown of coolness! (slightly inside joke, sorry about that).  I am starting to really like these recipes from a card, because you can take it with you to the store for shopping and you don't have to have a book out on the counter while you are cooking.  The only thing is that I tend to lose the recipe about 4-5 times while cooking, or it gets wet and then is all wrinkly.  At least the recipes I am trying are getting recorded on here so in case I really do lose or ruin them I will have this wonderful blog for all eternity right?

So, down to business. 

Steak Kebabs
Perparation time:20 minutes plus marinating (1-2 hours) Funny how they think marinating time doesn't count, it is not like you can find this recipe, think great, we can eat in 20 minutes and then all of a sudden try to put your family off for 1-2 hours while the meat just sits there.
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Clean up time 4.5 hours! One hour to wash the dishes (ok that is a little generous) and then 3.5 hours to put your oven through a self clean cycle as you try to rectify the damage done from the drippings!  My tip, use the grill, even though it is ungodly hot outside.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp Reduced- sodium soy sauce
2 Tbsp honey (I really did have honey this time!)
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger or 1 tsp ground ginger
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1/4 tsp crushed hot red pepper flakes
12 oz boneless sirloin steak, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes (we just went with some of the stew meat we had in the freezer, it was a little tougher but good)
8 cherry tomatoes
4 large mushrooms, cut in half
1 green bell pepper, core, seeded, and cut into 8 squares

If your family eats like my family, double this recipe.  We tripled it and were still only left with 3 skewers, just enough for my lunch the next day.

1. In a shallow glass dish, combine say sauce, honey, ginger, garlic, lemon peel, and red pepper flakes.  Mix well.  Add beef; stir to coat.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

2. Preheat broiler.  Remove beef from the marinade. Discard marinade.  Using four 10-inch metal skewers, alternately thread beef, tomatoes, mushrooms, and bell pepper.  Place on Broiler pan.

3. Broil 2 inches from heat, turning 2 or 3 times, until meat is medium-rare and vegetables are lightly browned, about 10  minutes.  Place on serving plates and serve immediately.

The Verdict

I think this recipe is mostly about the marinade, and that got great reviews.  I may add some meat tenderizer to the marinade if I make it with stew meat again so the meat will not be so tough.  Also, I added some onions since there are some people in my family who don't like tomatoes or mushrooms (imagine! sheesh, I am working on that) and they did not cook well with the other ingredients so they wound up under-done. 

I do like the marinade and may find some other uses for it.  I might make this again with just the meat, I think that call that tandori?

Recipe # 6 Chicken Teriyaki

This is another recipe from a group of cards.  I did actually complete this collection, back in the late 90's but this may be one of the first recipes I have actually made.  Are you sensing a trend? Yes, I have a lot of barely used recipe books, thus the desire to learn a new recipe a week, to make the books useful.

Chicken Teriyaki
Preparation Time: 15 minutes plus marinating (at least 30 minutes)
Cooking time: 10-12 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce (can you tell this is a healthy recipe?)
2 tablespoons honey (again, substituted corn syrup and one packet of stevia, since I know that oriental food sometimes needs that little bit of sweetness)
1 teaspoon oriental sesame oil (optional)  (I opted out since I did not want to buy something just for one recipe)
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (4 ounces each), cut into 1-inch chunks.  (I used 3, 6 oz breasts, I know, what a rebel)
Green onion for garnish (yeah right)

1. In a medium bowl, combine sesame seeds, soy sauce, honey, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and pepper.  Mix well.  Set aside 2 Tablespoons of marinade.  Add the chicken to remaining marinade in bowl and stir to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; refrigerate for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Preheat the broiler.  Remove the chicken from marinade; place on a broiler pan.  Discard the marinade in bowl.  Broil 5 inches from heat, basting with reserved marinade and turning once, until no longer pink in center, about 10-12 minutes.

3. Garnish chicken with green onion.  Serve immediately.

Again it was getting pretty late at night when I was wrapping all this up so I went ahead and divided it up for lunches.  As you can see I have my trusty little Ricey in the background making some rice to go with this.  I did overcook the chicken a little because I forgot to set a timer and, like I said, it was late, so it was a little on the dry side.

The Verdict

Even though I overcooked it and it would up dry, it is still pretty tasty.  I will definitely make this recipe again in the future since it works out great to put in the freezer and take for lunches at work during the week.  I love making my own microwave meals!

Recipe #5 Meat Loaf Supreme

Again in a desperate attempt to play catch-up on recipes I found this one among a set of recipe cards I have gathered from somewhere in my life.  I don't remember where this set came from but I am pretty sure it came in the mail on a weekly or monthly basis and I was supposed to collect a whole ton of them, but fortunately good sense prevailed eventually and I cancelled the subscription because it was just way too expensive of a way to collect recipes.  But since I have them I better use them right.

So here we go.

The Recipe is called Meat Loaf Supreme and usually I can locate it on the Web to do a quick cut a paste so you can have the ingredients, but not this time.  

Preparation time: 10 minute (according to the recipe, it took me a little longer)

Cooking time: 1 hour

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 small onion (in my grocery store it seems like onions only come in one size)

1/2 green bell pepper

1/2 cup milk (we don't keep milk around because nobody drinks it, so I used some powdered soy milk)

1 egg

3/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 tablespoon dried parsley

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef

Topping:

3 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon honey (I really thought we had honey, turns out we didn't so I substituted light corn syrup)

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Line a 9x5 inch loaf pan with foil.  Spray with cooking spray.  Chop onion and bell pepper together in a food processor.

2. Combine milk and egg in a large bowl; add bread crumbs, basil, parsley and pepper.  Stir until blended.  Add onion and pepper, mix well.  Add beef; mix just to combine ingredients.

3. Shape the beef mixture in prepared loaf pan.  Do not pack.  For topping, combine ketchup, honey and Worcestershire sauce in a small bowl.  Mix well.  Spread evenly over the top of the meat loaf.

4.  Bake meat loaf until cooked through, about 1 hour.  Place pan on wire rack; let stand for 5 minutes.  Lift meat loaf out of pan and place on a serving platter.  Remove foil.  Serve immediately.

So it was getting close to 10:00 pm and I was not interested in eating this immediately so I divided it up into containers to take for lunch.  Let me just say, ignore the direction not to pack the meat.  It absolutely fell apart and looked more like meat mush that meat loaf.  I don't know if that is usual or not for meat loaf since this is only about the second I think I have ever made in my whole life.

The topping did turn out very good with the weird substitution I made.  I think it might have actually have been for the best since I do not like my meat to taste sweet.

The Verdict:

I will try meat loaf again, maybe not this exact recipe but I had fun making it.  It was very quick and easy.  Even though it looks a little unappealing it was very tasty.

Please leave me a comment if you know how to keep your meatloaf from falling apart.

Print from Mary

I finally found a groupon to Deck the Walls and got the print Aunt Mary got for me in Denver framed.  I loved this etching because it really reminded me of my husband.  She traded for it for me because she is just awesome that way.  I think it turned out perfect and now I just have to figure out the best place to hang it.  I even sprung for the gallery glass that has some uv protection so hopefully it will look great for a very long time.

Recipe #4 North African Style Burgers

I am falling so far behind in this endeavor I went for a quick and easy recipe to make for my husband as I was heading out to a restaurant for girls night out.  I did not make the full burgers with the bun and stuff the way the recipe says, because this is a Weight Watchers recipe it does get very specific about how to prepare it so you can have your points value all figured out for you.  Since I am not concerned about that any more I really just wanted to try a recipe that sounded different and I was pretty sure my husband would eat.  I was only pretty sure because of the cinnamon.  So here we go.

The ingredients

I used a pound and a half of ground beef because that is what I had in the freezer left over from the Lasagna recipe.  So I increased all the ingredients again by half.  

I then forgot to take any pictures until I had all the patties formed.  It wasn't really interesting so I don't think you missed anything.

Into the frying pan.  My little ring of burgers, aren't they cute?

All done

The Verdict

David said they were okay, because he couldn't really taste the cinnamon.  I tried one and I thought they were interesting.  I don't think I will include cinnamon in any burger recipes again but the cumin and tomato paste were very good.  I will include those ingredients again for sure.

Weigh in

Today I weighed 164.7!  What a great thing getting off your period can be!

I have a girls night tonight with done girls from work and I am really looking forward to it.  I have tried not to eat too much during the day today so I can really enjoy tonight with my friends without worrying about overeating.

Weigh in

Ok gotta get honest with myself again.  Today I weighed in at 165.8 pounds.  My period was this week and I blame it entirely for the load of sugarry crap I ate Monday and Tuesday.  I started working out at the house Tuesday though and went for my long walk this morning.  Hopefully I will be able to keep myself honest and keep my weight on the right path. 
I don't think the lasix I took this morning to help get rid of the last of the water weight will hurt though. ;)

Recipe #3 Peach Jelly

I am falling way behind in my recipes but I am still going.  Ashlee told me that she wanted to make jelly again.  The first thing we ever did together, just the two of us, while I was still dating her dad was make fig jam from the tree I had while I lived in Marion.  

So we settled on Peach jelly.  David doesn't like peaches but that is good, then it will just be for us.  I have a ton of pectin left from making the fig jam so we used Sure.Jell for less or no sugar recipes.  I copied and pasted the recipe from the website below the jump.

Six pounds of peaches at $0.88 per pound

I cooked the peaches with a little water for a while.  they were slow to cook and there wasn't really a whole lot of juice coming out of them, until I reread the instructions.  I guess I could have put the peaches through a food processor first but a potato masher worked pretty well to get the juices started.  

To get three layers if Cheese cloth I put them one inside another three times then tied a knot in the bottom.  I then stretched it over a bowl like this.

The we figured out how to hang the bag by closing it in the microwave door. (Shhhh! Don't tell David we did that.)  Then we were too impatient to wait for four cups of juice to just drip out so we had to help it out a little.

Then we added the pectin and sugar.

A little butter to keep the foam down.

The rest of the sugar.

Then finally, a full rolling boil,

My favorite part, ladling it into the jars.

Processing the jars, it only made three full and one small one went straight into the fridge for immediate sampling.

The final product set perfectly and I tried it the next day.

My verdict

Delicious, I will definitely make it again.

Kitchen gadgets I love

When I saw him for the first time in Costco I wasn't blow away, but there was just something about that little round, pasty white body that was calling to me.  But I took a chance one day after yet another relationship went south, and it was the start of a beautiful love affair.

I am talking about my rice cooker.  This little guy seems like a frivilous expense; yet another gadget to junk up the counter.  With time I have learned the intricacies of loving him, and he is now something I would never want to part with.  Not only does he make my favorite side dish almost perfectly every time, he is much more than that.  I have cooked spanish rice with him, made my favorite steel cut oatmeal and steamed chicken and veggies while my rice is cooking.  Not only that, I have a whole recipe book of exciting new opportunities with him.

Dragon Fruit

Look at this and tell me it doesn't get you at least a little bit curious.

Well It got me.  It was unfortunately $4.99!  But, what won't I do for my blog!

So I had to look up on the internet how to cut into the thing.  Turns out is something like a Kiwi in that it has small black seeds and similar texture to the fruit.

Kind of cool looking though.  After you cut it in half you scoop it out with a spoon.  The peel is soft and it was very easy to get the insides out.

Then you cut up the fruit and viola!

The siet I found recommended this as a real cute way to serve it.  Not very practical though, so I went with...

The good old bowl.

The taste?  Bland!  Yuck!  I even put a little salt on it to see if I could bring out any of the flavor.  That didn't really help though.

My verdict

Never again, save your money.

We did it again!

Ok I am again becoming one of "those" people.  I think I may just have to accept my fate as one of those crazy pet people. 
This weekend brought a new surprise into our lives.
His name is Buck.  He is an almost 2 year old

As I finally get around to publishing this post we have had Buck for almost three weeks.  He is a pretty good dog.  He goes everywhere with Dixie and is a pretty good walker.  I actually walk the two of them together on a leash splitter though their height differences do make it kind of funny.

Last week he got in two fights with Sara, one right in front of me.  I thought he was attacking her, it sounded vicious and I had to turn the water on them to get them to stop it.  I screamed so loud I felt it in my throat the rest of that day.  Can you tell it was traumatic for me?
I think looking back at it now that he was playing and Sara was not.  I still don't like it and if he does it again I may seriously reconsider keeping him.  He knows that what he did was wrong because David and I both made sure to let him know he was in big trouble that day.
It has been a few days now without any more fighting.  I hope it keeps up.

Mary Kay Seminar Day 2

I am still very happy to be at seminar learning everything I need to know to be successful in my business.  I have not been treating myself as a business woman.  I can't remember the last time I did a facial or called a customer for reorders.  Just before I left for seminar I had a customer call me, she asked if I had.  fallen off the planet.  I jokingly replied that I kind of had but I was slowly getting back on.  That is actually the truth.  Mary Kay refers to the pink bubble.  The pink bubble is the atmosphere that develops when consultants get together at an event.  I have not been in the bubble for so long I forgot how nice it can be to be with people who can share your vision for what you are trying to do.

Now don't go thinking I have gone over the edge or lost my mind or anything.  I have goals for myself, but they aren't going to take over my life, like I know they could.
These are my goals:
1.  To work my business consistently all year long.
2.  To work 2 days a week at my Mary Kay as well as 2 days a week at my nursing job.
3.  To meet as many new people as I can.
4.  To help women feel the confidence that having great skin and wearing makeup, knowing that what they are wearing looks great on them, can provide.
5.  Keep my goals in front of me so I will not forget what I am working towards.
6.  To keep adding to my goals so that I neevr grow so comfortable that I forget to grow.

Then there was the awards ceremony.  Oh my God!  I want to wear some of those dresses.  I am not usually a crier but seeing some of the women that were on stage accepting awards and the pride in their husbands faces, I have to admit I teared up a little.  I am sure there will be more on this later but right now the band is playing "I love rock and roll" and I want to dance, so later!

Mary Kay Seminar Day 1

A good nights sleep can completely change you outlook on everything.  I am excited to be here in Dallas, I am blessed to have very considerate roomates that are also super sweet.  Most importantly I remember how much I love Mary Kay products and how happy I am to be able to make money doing something that I can truly enjoy this much. 
It doesn't hurt that our seats are absolutely awesome!

As the day continued my enthusiasm waxed and waned.  Looking back on the day I am extremely happy that I am here at seminar making decisions and getting inspired for the year to come.

Mary Kay Seminar Day 0

I am currently in Dallas at the Mary Kay annual seminar.  This is my frst year with Mary Kay and therefore my first seminar.  There are so many excited women around me, all with absolutely beautiful skin.  I have seen some very interesting takes on how makeup can be worn I must say. 
Unfortunately I am not one of those hyper excited women tonight.  By all rights I should be.   I had a geat first year with Mary Kay, especially since I found out I finished the year at number 2 in my unit and I made the princess court of sales for my national area.  That doesn't mean much to people who aren't in Mary Kay, and honestly I don't think I really did anything to deserve that except spend a whole heck of a lot of money building up a full store inventory. 
Don't worry, the heck of a lot is paid off and now whatever I sell  I am making money which is quite nice.  I just wish I was as excited as some of these other women seem to be.
Maybe it is lack of sleep.  Maybe it is that I have been outside of the pink world for too long.  Whatever it is, I still love selling Mary Kay and will sell and use the product for the rest of my life.

Weigh in

I just need to keep myself honest on here so since I haven't posted anything about my weight I thought I would just drop a quick line.

My weight has been steadily going down.  Yestereday was 164.6.  Yippee right?
Well this morning all of a sudden it was 167!  What the heck?  I guess it could be that I was out in the sun all day with my hubby and got a little heat sick so I really poured in the water when we got home and maybe I am retaining some of it.  I don't think my eating has been that far off and I have been doing my walks in the morning, except this morning though.  I was up late last night because I got called in to work.  I know I did a little snacking last night before bed but I honestly cannot remember what I ate.

Recipe #2 Lasagna with Meat Sauce

So far so good, two new recipes in two weeks.

This weeks recipe comes thanks to my stepdaughter Ashlee.  I have been trying to cook something with her when we get together after she mentioned that she had never had a cake made from scratch.  So for no good reason we made a cake from scratch, then an apple pie with help from my mother, because I had never made a pie crust from scratch.  Next on the list was a lasagna, my only request was that the recipe include both meat and vegetables.  Meat because then my husband would eat it and veggies for me.

This recipe comes from the weight watchers new complete cookbook (slightly adapted)

Makes 8 servings
9 lasagna noodles
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 pound ground beef
1 onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
2 (15 oz) containers refrigerated marinara sauce
1 1//2 c ricotta cheese
1/2 c shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 c grated Pecorino Romano cheese

1. Cook the lasagna noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse the noodles, then set aside.
2. In a small dry skillet over medium-low heat, cook the fennel seeds, shaking the pan and stirring constantly, until lightly browned and fragrant, 2-3 minutes. (Watch them carefully when toasting; seeds can burn quickly.) Transfer the seeds to a coffee grinder and grind to a powder.  Or pound the seeds between two clean kitchen towels with a mallet until finely crushed.
3. In a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, heat the oil; add the beef, onion, bell pepper and zucchini.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until all the pan juices evaporate and the beef browns, about 10 minutes.  Stir in the marinara sauce and fennel; bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered until slightly thickened and the flavors blend, about 10 minutes.
4. Preheat the over to 375 F. In a 9x13-inch baking dish, spread one-fourth of the meat sauce.  Top with 3 of the noodles; spread with 1/2 cup of the ricotta, Repeat the layering twice, ending with the meat sauce.
5. Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes, Remove the foil and sprinkle with the mozzarella and Romano.  Bake until heated through and the cheeses are lightly browned, about 20 minutes longer.  Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

This link should take you to the recipe as it looks in my book.  Hopefully this is not plagiarism since the exact same information is available with a simple google search.

Link to recipe from Google Books search

Shopping:
Lasagna noodles $1.42
Fennel seeds - got 'em
Olive oil - got it
ground beef - grew it, kind of
onion - grew it
bell pepper - $1.98 (they didn't have organic red so I went with organic orange)
Zucchini - grew it
marinara sauce - $7.76
Ricotta - $4.46 (I went with part skim, in the interest of having the hubby eat it)
mozzarella - Forgot it! I used the cheddar I had at home instead, this is shaping up to be a very orange lasagna.
pecorino Romano - way too expensive I went with a 3 cheese blend that had some romano in it $3.63
total = $19.25

Fun stuff:
Toasting fennel seeds.
Did you know they smell like licorice?  I knew that so I never knew how to cook them, I tried once before with a request from hubby to not do that again.  So toasting and grinding huh?  We will see.

Home grown beef.
We have the butcher trim all of our meat lean, I have no idea if it is 10% fat or less.  We have it bundled in 2 pound packages, so to get 1/2 a pound you cut it into 4ths, at least that is what Ashlee said. :)

It is beautiful seeing it all come together

Getting it all layered up

Hubby was getting hungry so he made sure to point out where I still needed some cheese.

All put together

The Verdict?

See for yourself

Will I make it again.

Definitely, but maybe with the recipe just serving as a guideline.