Recipe Redo: Carne Bistec

Originally posted in April of 2012, I thought this recipe could do with a little picture update!

Well, time seems have gotten away from me. Sorry about that, but I'm back. Trying to balance school and work has proven to be a difficult task. But I have finally gotten into graduate school, so I'm not nearly as worried about everything as I was.

This recipe comes courtesy of Skinnytaste, by far one of my favorite websites and my blog inspiration. It is delicious, just make sure you are on the heavier side with the spices. I served it with brown rice, but Gina suggests serving it with a sunny side egg on top. With a side salad, it is a complete and delicious meal!

Tuscan Style Garlic Spinach

I was never one of those kids that hated spinach. I watched a lot of Popeye, so maybe that had something to do with it, but spinach has always been one of my favorite vegetables. I'm also quite partial to broccoli.

I also love the combination of spinach and garlic, so when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. It combines the two perfectly, and would make the perfect accompaniment to any meal.

Turkey Pumpkin Chili

It's pumpkin (and apple!) season!

But first, let me explain my absence over the past week. As I've said before, I moved last weekend. The apartment was quite a mess when we got here and we had to do a lot of cleaning, etc. to make it ready. All of my furniture was moved in last weekend, but I planned on moving the smaller items over in several trips over a few days. 

Well, on Tuesday, my car decided it didn't want to run anymore. The transmission, alternator and gas tank all needed to be replaced, and the cost to replace them FAR exceeded the value of the car.This presented a problem since I was half moved into my apartment and half moved out of my dad's house. I didn't really have enough in either place to be comfortable. Add that to the fact that i start clinical this week 40 minutes away from my apartment and have to get there too early for even the commuter rail. 

So on Thursday, I bought a new car. However, the title had not gotten to the dealership yet, so I could not actually use my new car. So that meant a weekend of not moving, not grocery shopping, not seeing friends, and generally sulking around my dad's house. 

But! I get the car tomorrow and just in time to start clinicals on Wednesday. I also started classes again today with a nice 13 hour-long day. Ugh. 

Anyway, this chili was the first meal made in my new apartment. My cooking stuff and normal photography stuff is still at my dad's but I decided to post anyway. But now that I will have transportation again, I can move that stuff over. 

Also, pumpkin!

Jicama Salad with Cucumber and Lime

Happy September and happy Labor Day! I am excited to say that I moved this weekend and my sanity remained in tact. I haven't yet slept in the apartment yet because we haven't had Internet in the apartment, but that is getting installed tomorrow. We've decided to go without cable for the time being, so that should be interesting! The past few days have been spent cleaning and organizing - the previous tenants left the place a complete wreck. It's coming along nicely and I'll probably be settled in completely by the end of the week.

This salad does not look like much, but it is really tasty. It is also incredibly easy to throw together and really low in Points+ value. It is packed with fiber to keep you full. I had it along side a rotisserie chicken leg and was actually kept full all night.

Get ready for a whole slew of pumpkin and apple recipes in the next few weeks. Fall is my favorite season and I've got some really great recipes planned!

Chicken Breasts with Dried Cherries

Earlier this month, I celebrated my (25th!!?? how did that happen) birthday. As part of my present, my dad took me to a knife skills class at Williams Sonoma. It was a ton of fun and I really enjoyed spending time with him. This class is definitely not something he would have done on his own.

This is one of the recipes that we made that night. It was totally delicious, and I had been thinking about it ever since I took the class. I made a few modifications to the recipe that they handed out to us in the end, but the same great flavor was there.

The recipe calls for dried cherries, but when we got to the end of class, we realized that we had used cherry flavored dried cranberries. Oops. That's what I used in this recipe, even though I'm keeping the name.

Vegetable Fried Rice

Happy Monday!

During the week, I generally like to eat healthy and then splurge on the weekends. One of my favorite splurges is Chinese food, but I have not had it in a long time. I guess about a year and a half ago, my favorite Chinese restaurant closed down. Since then, I haven't really wanted to get it any other place.

If you look at the back of the restaurant, the sign is still there. As I drove by this weekend, I realized that I wanted to recreate one of my favorite dishes.

This isn't Ocean East's vegetable fried rice, but it will do. I'm sure there are more authentic ways of cooking this dish, but when I wanted it, this satisfied the craving.

Chocolate Coconut Milk Ice Cream

I think ice cream may be one of the hardest things to photograph. I swear in the time it took for me to raise the camera up to my eye, the ice cream melted. I was constantly putting the tin back into the freezer to harden up and then taking it out again to quickly photograph, just to see that it melted everywhere again. It also didn't help that the sun was playing peek-a-boo-with the clouds and just as I would adjust the camera settings, the light would change and I would have to adjust them again. I played around with the idea of not posting, but then, just as I was giving up, I licked the ice cream scoop and realized I needed to share. So these pictures are not at all how I wanted them to be, but the taste definitely is!

This is my first time trying ice cream made with coconut milk and I am definitely a fan! This ice cream is pretty sweet, so you can play around with the amount of sugar in it. I also used two cans of full-fat coconut milk, but I'm sure using one full-fat can and one light can would be fine. This recipe is also vegan, gluten free and dairy free!

Coconut Shrimp

I must admit, shrimp and I have never really gotten along. Fish is pretty much the only seafood that I like to eat. However, I went out to eat a couple weeks ago at a restaurant and coconut shrimp was ordered as an appetizer. I tried a bit of it and I was surprised that I actually like it. Since I do tend to have limited taste interests and in the interest of expanding my culinary horizons, I decided to try to recreate the shrimp at home. Since I also had no clue what I was doing, I got this recipe from Skinnytaste.

While shrimp definitely is not my favorite food, I think I am learning to tolerate it a little more. Next on my "to try" list are scallops.

Buffalo Chicken Chili

Happy 2013! I'm really looking forward to sharing new recipes with you this year. For me, 2012 was a great year, despite the major surgery that kept me from blogging for several months. I am having part 2 of the surgery this spring, but hopefully I will be a little more prepared and have some recipes scheduled to post while I am away. Also, since I know what to expect, hopefully this surgery will go a lot smoother!

Also this year I got into and started nursing school! I absolutely love it, but it keeps me on the go all the time. The new semester starts in a couple weeks, but hopefully I won't completely disappear like I did last semester!

This recipe incorporates one of my favorite foods: buffalo chicken! I love it, but I don't eat it all that often. For the hot sauce in this recipe, I uses sriracha, because I love it. It is loaded with sodium, though. Feel free to use your favorite hot sauce in this recipe!

Sausage, Kale and Lentil Soup

This soup is really simple to make and packed with delicious flavor. I found the recipe on Martha Stewart and of course modified it to make it light. I found it to be really filling because of all the fiber from the kale and lentils and the protein from the sausage. One bowl was all I needed to be satisfied for the rest of the night. It is low in points, which makes it even more delicious!

This is the first time I have ever cooked kale myself. I've eaten it many times, but something about the stems and the huge leaves seemed daunting to me. I was really happy to find out that there was nothing daunting about working with kale. I plan on trying out other foods that I've been avoiding for similar reasons soon.

Pork Lo Mein

In honor of entering into the Year of the Dragon, I decided to recreate one of my favorite Chinese dishes- pork lo mein! I adapted this recipe from the Weight Watchers website and adapted it to suit my tastes. One thing I did not do that I would recommend is to add scallions before serving. I had completely intended to, but I forgot to pick them up at the store and did not realize until  had already started cooking. In the original recipe, mushrooms are added, but since I don't do mushrooms, I left them out. If you want them, for 4 oz of mushromms the Points+ value will not change.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Mayoless Tuna Salad

If there is one thing you should know about my food tastes is that I hate mayonnaise. Hate might actually be a bit too soft. I deplore it. I really like tuna, but it is my opinion that most people ruin it with gobs of mayo. I decided it was time to figure out a tuna salad recipe that did not use mayonnaise for all the haters out there like me.

Whenever I have had tuna in the past, I just through together a bunch of spices and poured them in and hoped for the best. I saw this recipe on Eating Out Loud and decided it was a perfect starting point to refine my tuna recipe. I mentioned before that I also hate olives so I thought capers (YUM) were the perfect substitution. I also threw in  few spices that I enjoyed on my tuna before.

I served this on a baguette with the insides scopped out. I'm sure it would work well on any type of bread, or if you prefer, on its own.

Slow Cooked Chicken and Rice Soup

I have been a bit under the weather the past couple of days and we have been in a string of rainy, gray days. I thought a nice, slow cooked soup would be perfect to both help me get better and also be the perfect comfort food for the bad weather. I looked up several different recipes for this dish, and in the end I decided to just wing it. I took the parts I liked best from each recipe to come up with my own. I hope you enjoy it!