Pad Thai

I have had a love affair with Pad Thai for several years now, but have never attempted to make it. My friend was excited to tell me that she found a good recipe for it a few months ago, and I LOVED it! So, here it is!

Ingredients:
1T soy sauce
1T water
1T creamy peanut butter
1T packed brown sugar
1T cider vinegar
2T canola oil
1t minced garlic
1t minced ginger

1/4c chopped green onions
1/3c thinly sliced red and yellow bell pepper EACH
1/4lb Fettuccine noodles
12 medium cooked shrimp (or chicken)
Lime wedges (for garnish)
Cilantro Leaves (for garnish
Crushed red pepper to taste

Instructions:
In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, water, peanut butter, brown sugar, and vinegar until smooth; set aside.

Heat a large wok over medium-high heat, add canola oil. When oil is hot, add garlic and ginger; let cook until fragrant (about 1 minute). Add the green onions and bell peppers and stir-fry about 2 minutes. Add the cooked noodles and meat and toss to coat.

Serve Pad Thai garnished with lime, cilantro, and crushed red pepper.


Notes:
*I used about 1/2 lb of noodles, but I do think that either doubling the sauce ingredients or sticking to less noodles. The recipe had more flavor when my friend made it for me, and it's probably because of the sauce-noodle ratio. (I will probably double the sauce ingredients, because these are going to make really good left overs)
* I used 1/2t of ground ginger instead of minced ginger. This worked fine for me, and may work better for you, since most people don't keep ginger root on hand.
*I like it a little spicy, so I was more generous with the red pepper than some people might be, but the great part is that you can add it at the end, so it can be added based on each person's preference. We also added Sriracha. This is so yummy and adds a great flavor to the dish.

Oven Baked S'mores

These tasty treats are favorites of my best friend. And they're very simple and easy to make!

Ingredients:
*crescent rolls
*mini marshmallows
*chocolate chips

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
 
Open the crescents and stuff with marshmallows and chocolate chips.

Pinch the crescent closed.

Place in cupcake tins and bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Let them cool just a little bit before you devour them... it would be a shame to burn your tongue on this YUM!

 

Smoky Corn Chowder with Shrimp

This is another recipe found on Pinterest, through this blog. The blogger adapted the recipe from Real Simple, which makes sense because it's quite yummy!

Ingredients:
* 2 slices bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
* 1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
* 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 Tbs. smoked paprika
* 1 pinch crushed red pepper
* 3 ears fresh corn, kernels removed
* 2 cups chicken stock
* 1/2 cup half and half (or cream)
* coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
* basil slivers for garnish (optional)

Instructions:
Heat a medium-sized pot over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until crispy. Remove bacon from the pan and set aside on a paper towel to drain. Drain all but 1Tbs. bacon fat, if you have that much in the pot.

Raise the heat to medium-high. Add the shrimp to the pot and sear on one side for 2 minutes. Flip and sear 30 more seconds. Remove shrimp from pot and set aside.

If you need to add a little oil (or bacon fat) to the pot, do so. Add the onions to the pot and sauté 5 minutes. Add the garlic, paprika, crushed red pepper and a pinch of salt and pepper. Sauté another minute.

Add the fresh corn to the pot and toss to combine. Sauté another minute.

Add the stock and half & half to the pot. Stir to combine. Keep on a low simmer for 15 minutes. Add a pinch or two of salt & pepper if needed (taste it).

If you have an immersion blender, place it in the pot and pulse it a few times until about half of the soup becomes creamy, still leaving whole kernels as well. If you don’t have an immersion blender, ladle about a cup and a half of the soup into a blender and pulse until creamy. Pour back into the pot and stir to combine.

Serve chowder with the shrimp and reserved bacon crumbles. Garnish with slivered basil if desired.


What I did..
*I doubled most of the recipe, however, I did not double the paprika and forgot to double the onion. I think it was really good without the extra paprika, and it could go either way with the onion. I am not a huge onion person, so I was fine with the half.
*You'll want to be careful about having things ready, because it's a pretty quick-moving recipe. I may have burned some of the bacon, and had trouble getting things in and out and ready quickly enough.
*It's the middle of winter, so I used frozen corn (and I probably would even if it wasn't winter...). I used two 12oz bags of frozen corn.
*I stirred the shrimp to sauté, but didn't "sear" each side individually.

It was tasty, and I'm hoping it will reheat well. Enjoy!

For Meal Prepping:
You will want to prep this way if you're prepping ahead with the meal prepping post.

Ahead of time

• chop up and freeze onion
• mix seasonings and keep in a separate sandwhich-size bag
• 
  

Fruit Loop Crack

This is one of the tastiest, simplest treats I've come across in a while. It has two ingredients and takes about 5 minutes to make... I discovered this about 6 years ago (I can't believe it's been that long!) when I was working my first job and got this treat for Christmas from one of our amazing teacher-moms. From first taste, I couldn't stop myself. It is incredibly addicting. Here's the simple, yet WONDERFUL fruit loop CRACK.

Ingredients:
fruit loops
almond bark

Instructions:
Melt the almond bark. Mix it in with as many fruit loops as it will cover (probably not quite the whole box). Lay it out on wax paper to cool, then break it up when it's hardened.

That's it!

Italian-Style Stuffed Red Peppers

Well, hello there! It's been a while... I fell off the blogging wagon again this fall. Sorry! But I have a really tasty recipe to make up for it... I found this recipe through Pinterest (of course!), on this blog. I wasn't sure how they would be, I was afraid they would be a bit bland, but they were FANTASTIC! The flavors in these peppers are surprising and wonderful. So, without further ado...

Italian-Style Stuffed Red Peppers
Serves: 6 (if you have plenty of sides) or 3 (if this is pretty much it for the meal)
Nutrition: 170 cal (I'm assuming this is for the 6 servings, but I haven't done the math)

For much better pictures, visit the blog above

Ingredients:
1lb lean ground turkey (or beef)
3 red bell peppers
2 c spaghetti sauce
1 t basil/oregano seasoning (or any blend of italian herbs)
1 t garlic powder (or 1 garlic clove, pressed)
1/2 salt and pepper
1/2 c frozen chopped spinach (or veggie of choice); dethawed and squeezed dry with paper towel
2 T grated parmesan cheese + 6 T to garnish over the top of each pepper
Optional 1 t low calorie sweetener of choice to put in the sauce

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Line baking sheet with foil, (for easy clean up), coat with non-stick cooking spray. Wash red peppers, and cut around the stem to remove. Remove stems.

Cut peppers in half length-wise, and remove the seeds and ribs inside the peppers. Set peppers on baking pan.

Meanwhile, cook ground turkey in a large non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Stir and break up the turkey while it’s cooking. When turkey is almost completely cooked through, add the sauce and seasonings to the pan. Stir and continue to cook until the turkey is completely cooked (when it is no longer pink).  Add the spinach and parmesan and stir until everything is well combined.

Scoop 1/2 cup of the turkey mixture into each pepper.

Sprinkle 1 tbs parmesan over each pepper (or another low fat shredded cheese, such as mozzarella).

Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until cheese is melted, and lightly golden brown.

Remove from the oven, let cool, and enjoy! 

Things I did...

*I used parmesan cheese (she suggests that you could use other cheeses) - I also added a little bit more after I pulled it out and cut it up a bit, since the stuff that was melted on was pretty much just on that top layer.

*I used a lightly flavored sauce (I believe it was Classico brand with Tomato & Basil) - I don't know if that added to the flavor, but the flavor was SO good!

*I used an Italian blend spice and a teaspoon of jarred garlic.

*I did not leave the peppers in for 20 minutes, my rack may have been too high, but my cheese browned a little too quickly, so I moved it to a low rack and left it for a few more minutes for the sake of the peppers. I also like my peppers to be a little bit firm still, so I would suggest reducing the heat or the time. Mine were probably in for 10-15 minutes.

These peppers were very, very good! I wasn't sure even as I was making them. I was just afraid that they wouldn't have enough flavor - obviously not a problem, or enough substance - no really a problem either. However, if you're feeding men or growing boys, you should probably plan for a whole pepper for each. I ate one of the halves... than then another half of a half. But then again, I didn't really do much for sides. Like I said above, you can count the servings based on the sides you provide.

Summer Salads

I love salads in the summertime. This summer I made several salads over the summer, but this was one of my favorites - and one that I plan to repeat... and repeat.

 

 

My salad contained: lettuce, chick peas, bell peppers, shrimp, peas, and probably other things that I love... It's been a few weeks, so I've forgotten some of my ingredients. Get that fresh stuff out and and make a salad!

{I may have said this before, but the easiest way to put together a delicious salad - or stir-fry - is to stop by the salad bar at the store and pick up the pre-cut veggies to save lots of time}

[Taco] Stuffed Bell Peppers

The other night my friend came over and we made dinner... she had ingredients in her head, but not exact measurements - but how can you mess up stuffed peppers? So, we went for it. This is our recipe, whether it was correct or not, it was rather tasty...

Serves: 4 (or 2 with leftovers)
[disclaimer :: could easily be made for one by reducing the recipe]

Ingredients:
 
2 cans of corn (drained)
1 block of cream cheese
1/2 jar of salsa

2 bags of instant spanish rice
1 can of black beans

4 green bell peppers, tops off and gutted


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the peppers upright in a pan. Mix together the first set of ingredients in another pan. Place both in the oven, stirring the mixture occasionally as cream cheese softens. (I think we stirred 3-4 times)

Cook the rice. Drain the beans. Mix the two together.

When everything is finished cooking (about 20 - 30 minutes -- let's be honest, I was more interested in our conversation than the cook time... but you can gauge it by the corn mixture - it should be warm,  easily stirred, and completely mixed), stuff your peppers. Or, you can do it in more of a deconstructed way (which we did because they're easier to eat this way).

If you want to actually stuff the peppers, I believe she said to put the corn mixture in first, then the rice mixture.

We topped with a little bit of shredded cheese.

This was delicious! I am not always a fan of green bell peppers... but this was really good. It would also be very tasty with a red pepper (and probably the other colors as well -- if I try it, I'll let you know). Great flavor, filling recipe.
















*Sometimes this happens when you try to get picture with a good angle... oops!



**Update**

I have made this recipe again, and decided to meal prep with some of it. I ended up with 9 smaller, but filling servings. I decided to freeze three of the servings, and will roast some more peppers when I thaw them.

I also mixed all of the corn and rice mixture before adding them to the peppers.

For the meal prepping, I added the peppers, first, then put the mixture on top.