Refresh Yourself and Your Side Dish

Vegetables can be boring. Especially raw vegetables.

 

We all should eat more, so here is a recipe to help with that. This single serving recipe is perfect for a snack or a side dish. Pair it with grilled chicken and you have a tasty light lunch. I use cucumbers and onions in mine, but you could easily add your favorites. Tomatoes or peppers would be excellent additions. It makes veggies a little more appealing by adding some extra flavor and cheese. Because everyone loves cheese.

If you say you don’t, I don’t believe you.

Cucumber, Onion and Mozzarella Salad

1/3 cucumber
1/2 small onion
1 Mozzarella String Cheese
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried dill or mint
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1. Cut up all of your vegetables and cheese into thin slices. I scoop the seeds out of my cucumber so the salad doesn’t get too watery. Put all of the veggies in a tupperware container or bowl.

2. Sprinkle the rest of the ingredients over the vegetables and cheese and mix it all around. I put mine in a tupperware container so I could shake it around and save myself dirtying a spoon. Go ahead and let the mixture hang out in the fridge for at least an hour.

3. Take it out and enjoy! This is also a great recipe for summertime potlucks.

 

 

What am I eating for lunch?

I am so glad you asked!

I’m eating leftovers. Good news is, leftovers don’t have to be lame bits of food that are warmed in the microwave. In fact, leftovers can be super exciting and delicious. Anti-lame.

Grilled Fish Tacos

I’ve been hearing about fish tacos for awhile, but have been afraid of them. They plain ol’ freaked me out. I then realized that my view of tacos was very narrow and I should test it out. I found this great recipe for an easy fish taco on the Cacique Brand website, and happened to have everything for them except for the fancy crema sauce. I think they turned out great without it, so use some sour cream or plain greek yogurt instead.

The tacos had a perfect spice to them then the cool crunchiness of the cabbage hits you and it is perfection. Even my boyfriend said it tasted like it came from a restaurant.

*Hint- make this for company. They will be impressed.

I made a side of Mexican rice because what’s the point of having tacos without rice? I hadn’t actually made Mexican rice before, so I whipped one up.

Mexican Rice

1 cup white rice, dry

1/2 can of diced tomatoes with green chili, drained

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin

2 cups chicken broth

This is exactly like making regular plain rice, but you just add some tasty stuff.

1. Add the dry rice, chili powder, cumin, minced garlic, tomatoes and green chili all together and mix it all around.

If you are making it on the stove top cook the rice mixture with a little bit of oil until the spices become fragrant, 2 or 3 minutes. (I made mine in my rice cooker, so I skipped this step and pressed the ‘cook’ button. Also, if you cook rice a lot, invest in a rice cooker. It will change your life forever.)

2. Add your chicken stock, bring to a boil, then down to a simmer for 15-20 minutes or until all of the liquid has been absorbed.

I served this on the side of my tacos with some shredded cabbage and diced tomatoes. I had plenty of cabbage, rice and tomatoes left over, as well as one fish fillet. Anyway…

Back to lunch!

I took all of my ingredients and added mozzarella cheese to the mix. Then I made some rockin’ quesadillas.

 

I stuffed my tortillas with the leftover rice, fish, and mozzarella cheese and cooked them on the stove top with a little oil.

I made a slaw out of the leftover cabbage and tomatoes. The dressing for the slaw was a simple vinaigrette of oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, cilantro and a little bit of lime juice. It was every bit as good as last night’s supper.

Lesson learned: leftovers lunch is awesome.

Get creative!

 

 

Veggin’ Out

I’ve had packing on the brain. School ending. Two days left. Moving. Food.

Especially food.

It is difficult grocery shopping when you are about to move. What do you buy? Do you buy anything?
No one wants to have excess food go to waste, and no one especially wants to have to lug any more crap with them when they go.

So, what is a girl to do? Make veggie pasta salad. That’s what.
The go-to salad involves any fresh vegetables, rotini pasta, and italian salad dressing.

Cook the noodles, and run cool water on them. Cut up the vegetables. Add dressing to taste. That’s it.

It is the perfect salad because it is tasty, cheap, and lasts for a while, so it is there for you to munch on as you run frantically around your apartment (a.k.a. packing).

And once you’ve lost your motivation, it is coffee time.

My favorite coffee cup has been looking a little lonely lately, so I decided to make it a little jacket.

The v-stitch from This blog.

I quite like it.

And then, once you get on a caffeine kick, and get distracted by your craft bin, you start doodling.

 

I don’t like the taste of beets, but they sure are pretty.

 

I hope everyone is being productive! Enjoy!

Roast.

It’s been very busy in Food Land! Last week was the end of the semester, so it was filled with written tests, presentations and practical exams. The last two dishes I worked on in Foundations 2 was Salade Bretonne and Salade de’ Pinards.

Salade Bretonne

I must admit that Salad Bretonne is not my favorite. It is a cold seafood and white bean salad with shrimp, mussels  navy beans, cauliflower and tomato. It is just a strange combination  The shrimp were mighty delicious, however.

Salade de’ Pinards

Salade de’ Pinards may not sound appetizing, but it is mouthwatering. Poached egg, bacon, croutons and – chicken livers!

I know, I know. Chicken livers. No one seems to like livers mostly because of their rubbery texture after being cooked for too long. For this salad the livers cook for 3 minutes, 4 minutes tops, and the livers were nice and juicy and soft. Not rubbery in the slightest.

This week is a whole new ball game and we are making entire menus instead of individual dishes. Yesterday we made Roast Chicken with jus, grandmere garniture ( which is bacon, mushrooms, pearl onions and potatoes- super yum!), and mashed potatoes.

Now, I’ve been lucky in the kitchen so far, no major catastrophes and those that could have been, were narrowly avoided.

Yesterday was not the case.

The roast chicken begins in a hot hot oven to brown the skin. A classmate and I were sharing an oven, which we had preheated, and after checking on our chicken a couple of times we realized our chicken was doing absolutely nothing. Slightly annoyed, we moved them to another oven. Finally, the chicken was browning a little bit, but still not to the degree it should have been. We called our chef over and again, he told us the stove appeared to be broken. At this point we had wasted 30 minutes due to oven hopping so we were both getting flustered. Luckily, we found an empty oven that was piping hot and both of our chickens turned out beautifully. Unfortunately, some crazy woman took all of my chicken and ate 1/2 of my plate before I got to take a picture!

That crazy lady may have been me.

Moral of the story: always check your oven. Then, check it twice.

And to be safe, check it a third time. For your own sanity.

Enjoy your beautiful Fall week everyone!