Tonight's Dinner: April 26, 2013

As we get older I'm beginning to relish the fact that I'm still in my 20's.  Late 20's, but 20's nevertheless.  Nick had his 29th birthday today.  If you recall, I got him the whole hog butchering as a birthday gift, but I still wanted to take him out for his actual birthday.  He's been wanting to see the new G.I. Joe and I had been refusing to go with him for weeks.  I decided to be a good girl friend and get him surprise tickets and reservations to Bridges Restaurant (the restaurant from Mrs. Doubtfire) in Danville.  We did manage to make it to Bridges, but not the movie.  One of our good friends is moving to Bend, OR for good and Friday night was her last day in town.  Nick, being the good friend that he is, passed up the movie to hang out with her.  I wasn't too sorry about missing the movie.  We were able to get vouchers and he went with his Dad and Sister the next day.

I found Bridges to be underwhelming to say the least.  The ambiance and service was really good, but the food was mediocre at best.  My $30 steak wasn't worth $30.  Nick and I make better steaks than the one I got.  It was under seasoned and I didn't enjoy the bacon and potatoes that it was on top of.  The sauce was also too concentrated with an acidic-winey taste.  Our risotto was also under cooked and I found the fried oysters to be too meaty and slightly fishy for my taste.  The creme brulee, however, was quite good.

Fried Oysters

Steak with cognac butter.  ( I took off the butter)

Seared Tombo over forbidden rice.

Mushroom risotto

Espresso cocktail

Creme Brulee

Day 2 of Cleanse

Welp, this didn't really happen.  I started out with a juice in the morning, but by noon, I had a Nation's Cheeseburger, grilled cheese, and chili fries in front of me.  I was feeling weak, unfocused, and seeing bright spots when I looked at my computer.  Not good.  I've heard that you get past this part when your body adjusts to the lack of food, but I don't want my body to have to adjust.  I want to cleanse, not starve myself.  So I'm back to eating normally.   One day was enough.

I am, however, going to borrow my Mom's Vitamix for a while to start juicing.  Nick and I agreed that it would probably be healthier for us to juice in the morning, have a large lunch, and then juice with a light dinner in the evening.  So I'm going to try to do that (and see how long it lasts).  We need a lifestyle change.  Last night we had Chick-fil-a.  Fast food will be our downfall.  I just love the junky stuff so much and it's so easy.  I had a juice and got a small sandwich for dinner.  I guess health wise, it's better than Taco Bell since the chicken actually looks recognizably like chicken. Thankfully, I haven't had enough of it yet to actually crave it.  Not really something to write home about.  I still prefer KFC and Popeye's.  See...fast food will be the death of me, literally.

Tonight's Dinner: April 24, 2013

Nonexistent.  I'm on a juice cleanse and it is horrible.  I feel less bloated today, but I could feel like this if I did more running and drank less beer.  It's a three-day cleanse, but that's not going to happen.   That may just be the better, healthier long-term option.  Nick has already thrown in the towel after the first day, and I may be after 1.5 days. So until I finish this cleanse, which is probably going to be in about 30 minutes, no posts until the dinner that I'm taking Nick to for his birthday.

Tonight's Dinner: April 22, 2013

I decided last week that after I got back from Vegas this weekend that I would go on a three-day juice cleanse.  Well, when I got back on Sunday afternoon, Whole Foods didn't have any of the juices that I wanted.  So we weren't able to start the cleanse today as planned, but I did make a great "goodbye to solid food for three days" meal. In actuality, we will be starting on Wednesday because I had a really nice administrative lunch planned for Tuesday.  I bought the juice though, which isn't cheap mind you, so this will be happening. Nick has begrudgingly agreed to do the cleanse with me so that we can support one another in the process. Lets just hope that with the moods I get into when I'm food deprived that it won't break us up!  I just keep telling myself that it's only for three days and that it will make me feel amazing.

For dinner I made us a giant pile of garlic noodles and seafood.  We will be eating all of the noodles for dinner on Tuesday also so that we don't have so much waste.  Thankfully, I was able to make most of the vegetables that I had in the fridge so that we won't have so much going bad. We did pretty well last week with our NWD.

Double scallops.  I was extremely excited. 

Tonight's Dinner: April 15, 2013

Happy Tax Day!  Work has been super busy which always makes me feel lazy once I get home (hence the lack of blogging this week.)  Plus, with our NWD I didn't go grocery shopping so that I could use up the random items that I had in our fridge.  It's working out fairly well.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to make dinner o just have leftovers. I decided to make something.

Tonight for dinner I busted out more quinoa since it's my new favorite seed and very easy to make.  I am enjoying trying different spices mixed in. I added a sprinkle of cloves and all spice while cooking it with low sodium beef stock.  It came out much darker in color and had a very rich flavor.  Nick thought that it would be strangely like a holiday cookie, but the flavors mellowed out quite a bit. I also roasted up cauliflower and beets to go with a roasted honey-mustard chicken breast.

Today's Lunch: April 14, 2013

For my little cousin's third birthday we headed out to Jen Jen's house for lunch.  I cannot express enough how much I love good catered Chinese food.  The fried chicken is the best.  I know it's not good for you, but I think I could eat it everyday and I don't like chicken all that much.  Everything that Jen Jen had was really tasty.  Times like these I wish I could eat more, but I just couldn't stuff more food into my stomach.

One of my aunt's is really good at making cupcakes so that the kids can decorate
them when they are together.  She has a Hello Kitty pancake mold that she used
with white cake mix.  Too cute!

Tonight's Dinner: April 13, 2013

I've been running out of ideas for easy dinners that I can make when having guests.  I decided to put together a lasagna for our Les Miserables girls night. It was a lot of work to make, but when it came time, all I had to do was pop it into the oven for an hour and a half.  Nowadays, I prefer to use the no boil lasagna noodles, but Mrs. Fong gave me a Costco-size box of regular lasagna noodles so I wanted to use up those.  They taste great, but are just so much more work.  With the no boil noodles I'm much more keen on lasagna.

I don't really like egg plant, but I saw some mini ones that were labled as Indian
Eggplant and wanted to try.  It also didn't hurt that they were the size of large
plums and very cute.  The flavor isn't bad, but you do have to peel them.  I
didn't know this when I was making the lasagna.  Their skin is pretty tough and
bitter.

I also chopped up the crock pot turkey I made during the week and added two
packs of frozen spinach.  

I also baked a couple of the Otis Spunkmeyer chocolate
croissants. 

Emmy's Furcut

Every year Emmy gets a summer furcut and every year I have to post it because it's just too cute.  She always looks the same, but I still love to post pictures anyway. She looks so little!

She hates going to the groomers so I picked up a couple
of special treats for her. 

Tonight's Dinner: April 11, 2013

Who doesn't love boxed mac and cheese with hotdogs? I do!  Tonight we baby sat Nick's nieces and nephew so I wanted to make something quick and easy and something that they would actually eat.  I haven't had this kind of mac and cheese for years.  Years!  It really is quite good for being $0.97.

Tonight's Dinner: April 10, 2013

Tonight I headed to my parent's place for dinner since I hadn't seen them all week.  My mom tried out a Mario Batali recipe from The Chew cookbook that we got her for her birthday.  It turned out really well!  She made drunken noodles with a bunch of veggies.

Tonight's Dinner: April 9, 2013

We haven't crock potted for quite some time because Nick said that whenever we do crock pot meals they are acidic.  I had never noticed before, but after he mentioned it, I agreed.  So we laid off the crock pot meals for a really long time.  This week though, I thought I'd try it again.  I didn't think that it was too bad, and it was darn easy.  I got a bone-in turkey breast from Sprouts with the intention of using it for two meals.  We are babysitting Nick's nieces and nephews so I plan to put the leftover turkey into their mac and cheese...or at least our portions of mac and cheese since they may not like turkey in their noodles.  If we still have some left over after that, I'll use it for breakfast on Saturday with eggs.

I had prepped the turkey the night before while I was making Monday night's dinner.  It was another Allison's creation as I was trying to use up cilantro and limes before they went bad.  NWD!  I threw in a can of Cream of Chicken soup with a box of chicken stock, mushrooms, and onions.  It turned out pretty well and not acidic at all.  I'm trying to mentally narrow down the normal ingredients that I put into the crock pot. I think I usually use a lot of onions.  I only put one in this time so that could have done the trick.  There were also no tomatoes, which always turn out acidic to me in a crock pot even though I add a pinch of sugar to help balance it out.

There was quite a bit of broth left over so I used it to make rice and Nick made a gravy.  We still had broth left over, but much less than if we didn't use it to make the rice. The rice turned out like a rice pilaf and the gravy made the dish taste like a turkey pot pie.  The last complaint I have about crock potting: the dishes never come out very pretty. ...but that is a minor detail.

Crock Pot Turkey 

1 turkey breast

1 can Cream of Chicken soup

1 box chicken stock

1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped

1 onion, quartered

5 mushrooms, quartered

1 lime, quartered

1 jalapeno, halved with seeds 

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for 8-9 hours. 

For Gravy: 

2 tbsp butter

1/2 c flour

1 c broth 

Directions:

Melt butter in small sauce pan.  Add flour and stir to cook. Add broth and whisk until it becomes desired consistency. 

Tonight's Dinner: April 8, 2013

We've kicked off our No Waste Diet, now dubbed NWD, with a bang!  Because we had gone to a Game of Thrones viewing party, I wanted to make turkey legs. It is what I would make if we had a viewing party, but since we don't have HBO, we can't have a party at a normal time since we all have to work on Mondays.  Why can't it be on Saturdays?! Anyway, I bought two turkey legs that turned out to be the perfect amount of meat and very tasty.  Maybe we will offer to bring the entree next time so that I can bring these.  They were really tasty!

I seasoned the turkey legs with Harris Ranch steak seasoning,
cayanne pepper, and lime juice. 

Nick grilled the legs on low heat for about 30 minutes.

Roasted brussel sprouts and garlic

Tonight's Dinner: April 7, 2013

Tonight we went to a friend's house to watch the new Game of Thrones episode.  I'm not very into Game of Thrones and was a little bit lost, but it was fun getting together. They were doing themed food so we brought at Tyrion Lannister worthy cheese plate.

From left: mild cheddar, pepper jack, brie, aged English white cheddar,
 peppercorn pate, grapes, and bartlett pears.

 

Tonight's Dinner: April 6, 2013

One of the only things that I didn't throw away in my fridge clean out was the two sausages and some veggies.  I had a wonderful day of staying home on sofa doing wedding crafts and watching episode after episode of NCIS.  My parents got me hooked and now I can't stop watching. I marinated some zucchini in soy sauce and Italian dressing and soaked the corn in the husks so that they wouldn't catch on fire.  Nick grilled up the dinner while I tested out quinoa. I had bought a couple of scoops from Sprouts months ago, but didn't know how to cook it.  Neither of us had actually had it before.  We've been missing out!  It is so easy and delicious.  Be ready to see a lot of quinoa in our future.

Holy Toledo Batman! That's a lot of garbage!

As I said in one of my recent posts, we've been having a lot of wasted food lately.  It became even more  clear to me this weekend when I did a mass refrigerator clean out.  I practically had to throw everything away.  I found leftovers that I'm pretty sure were at least three weeks old.  Thankfully, those were all in sealed glass containers and surprisingly had no mold.  Well, visible mold anyway. I'm definitely on a mission to make only what we need since we are so bad at eating left overs.  My mom suggested putting leftovers in the freezer, but then they get lost in there and come out with freezer burn.  So instead of buying four proteins per week (I only really cook four times a week) I bought three.  I also only bought one large chicken breast to split in half instead of two large chicken breasts.  I don't really enjoy chicken breast that much, but buy it because I know it's better than red meat.  Usually I end up only eating my vegetables and leaving the chicken for Nick to take to work for lunch.  If it gets lost in the fridge, then it goes in the trash.

We may actually lose weight off of this "no waste" diet.  I think that's a pretty good diet to be on.  It almost made me sick seeing all that food go to waste.  The smell wasn't so hot either.  Good thing we have a garbage disposal.

The trash can was already half full, but still, that's a lot of garbage.

Tonight's Dinner: April 4, 2013

For as easy as this meal was, it was super tasty.  Loaded potatoes!  So easy.  I've gone back to the game where I try work off of inexpensive grocery items.  I bought some of Sprouts' pork linguica to stretch between two meals.  We've been having so many leftovers go to waste that I'm trying to be smarter about my shopping.  For tonight's dinner I took the sausage out of the casing to cook with onion, roasted garlic, and spinach.  I plan to grill up the other two sausages with corn, zucchini, and cauliflower. Piled with lots of cheese, the sausage mixture on top of baked potatoes was amazing.  I also roasted two heads of garlic to mix into our potatoes and sausage.  We smelled like garlic the rest of the night, but it was very worth it.

Tonight's Dinner: April 2, 2013

I totally forgot to take pictures of last night's chicken Tikka Masala!  I had picked up a container of pre-made sauce and chicken tenders.  It was super easy to throw the tenders into the sauce and let it cook for 30 minutes.

Tonight I did remember to take pictures.  A while ago, I had made my Mom's black bean and pork loin with bell peppers dish.  She nowadays, she always uses boneless pork because she said that my brother is too lazy to deal with bones.  Nick liked the dish the first time I made it, but thought that he would like it more with bone in.  It really does turn out better with bone in.  I had gotten a strip of pork short ribs from Sprouts.  I sliced the ribs, threw them in a pot with a little bit of salt and pepper until they were browned.  Using a premade black bean-garlic sauce, I braised the ribs with red and green bell pepper for about 2.5 hours while I went for a run and did my nails.  Holy moly, the dish turns out way better with bone in. Normally my Mom and I don't use red bell peppers because they don't hold up to the braising as well, but I had them in my fridge from the week before and wanted to use them before they went bad.

Mom's black bean pork 

3 lbs pork short ribs
4 tbsp black bean garlic sauce
2 bell pepper; chopped
salt and pepper to taste
water
3 tbsp corn starch 

Directions:
Cut ribs into individual pieces.  Salt and pepper meat.  Brown over medium-high heat.  Add black bean sauce and cover with water.  Bring to a boil then reduce to simmer; cover cracked.  Let simmer for an hour. Add bell pepper and simmer until meat falls of the bones; cover off.  Once meat is ready, in separate bowl mix corn starch and some of the braising liquid.  Add cornstarch liquid to pot.  Stir until braising liquid becomes thick. Serve over rice.

Tonight's Dinner: March 31, 2013

Trying to start fresh with the blogging, Happy Easter!  As I said the other day, I haven't had much to blog about.  We did have a notable dinner at Peony's in Oakland when we were taste testing the Chinese banquet food for our wedding, but that will be a surprise for those who will be there.  Tonight we planned to make dinner for my family and also get together with my cousin.

My aunt and uncle love reading my blog.  My cousin and I have been talking about getting together to cook for both of our families for a while.  We were finally able to get together because our Easter party plans fell through.  The easiest thing while still being cost effective for us was to make filet mignon.  We could have done a ham, but Nick doesn't care for it much and my Mom doesn't like lamb so we couldn't do traditional Easter lamb dish.  I didn't want to do prime rib or turkey since to me those are for Christmas and Thanksgiving.  My aunt and uncle were impressed by the dinner that we made for my parent's 40th Anniversary a couple of summers ago so I decided that we would do the filet mignon again.  It was much more budget friendly than I thought.  Since we didn't go overboard with proteins, all of our fillers were vegetables, which made it very easy on the pocket book and pretty good for us.

Nick cutting off the silver skin.

Nick has gotten really good a cooking filets. 

We were trying something new with caramelized fennel.   I've never really had
fennel, but have seen it used a lot in cooking shows.  We were using the Ad
Hoc at Home cookbook that Dennis got us for Christmas.  The fennel turned
out well, but I didn't like how much we had to waste with the fronds.  If I make
it again I'm going to have to see how those can be used.  

We also tried beets, which I now really enjoy.  The Ad Hoc directions said that
they only need to roast for 30-45 minutes, but even after almost an hour and a
half they were still a little hard.  Thomas Keller said that we could easily peel
the skins off with paper towels once the beets were cool.  Not the case.  So next
time I will pre-peel them with a potato peeler.  

Just in case the fennel and beets didn't come out well, I made two classics.
The green beans and garlic potatoes turned out well as planned. 

Happy Easter!