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Just That Easy

I was at a loss today about what to cook. I had forgotten to take the chicken out of the freezer, and while I have enough spinach to sink a ship, I don’t have many other veggies to make a spinach salad. So it was off to the grocery store after work and I swear, I stared at the produce and the meat case for a long time before I figured out what to make.

I still wasn’t quite sure when I got home, but I started throwing some stuff together and wound up with a delicious Thai-style coconut curry type dish which I served atop a bed of spinach. Hey, I have to use it up somehow! Oh, and just FYI, I’m super-proud of this photo!

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Simple Thai Coconut Curry

Ingredients

2 lbs lean pork loin or chicken or 2 blocks tofu, diced and drained

1 can (14 oz) coconut milk

1 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 to 2 Tbsp. Singapore Seasoning (or something similar)

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. (or more) Sriracha

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large wok. When hot, add the onions and garlic and cook until lightly browned. Add the pork and half the Singapore Seasoning. Stir well and then add the rest of the seasoning. Add the coconut milk, stir in the sriracha, and lower the heat to a gentle simmer. Cook until pork is done, about 25 minutes. Serve over rice or veggies (or both!)

There was something about the jar of Singapore seasoning that spoke to me today. It smelled remarkably like my favorite Thai Matsaman curry, which has potatoes and blanched peanuts in it, which sounded SO good when I got home!

That’s all I’ve got tonight… I’m off to finish up my blue/green monster I made this afternoon with spinach, avocado, and blueberries and finish up reading this amazing book a student loaned me. It’s the second in the Hunger Games series, and I’ve been thinking all day about what’s going to happen next!

Have a wonderful night!




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Small and Stuffed (Giveaway Post)

Today, or rather, this afternoon, has been one of those that just needs to end. If I drop one more thing in the kitchen, I swear… ok, no more of that.

DINNER!

I got the idea for dinner tonight while looking over my post from the other day. I remembered that I had these micro-kabochas to cook up, and wanted to do something fun with them. Normally, kabochas are about the size of a small pumpkin. Mine are just larger than an apple

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I cut the tops off of them and scooped out the seeds. There was a huge ratio of seeds to edible squash in them, but whatever…I had tiny kabocha bowls at this point. I made a filling of 3 de-cased Italian sausages, 1 egg, 5 chopped mushrooms, and 1/2 c. sharp white cheddar cheese. This isn’t really a recipe, I guess, but a process. I filled the kabocha bowls to the top with the sausage mixture, and baked them at 325 for about an hour, until the squash was soft and the meat was done. The result? See for yourself:

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The squash was soft and sweet, the filling rich and spicy, and the combo together was downright dreamy. Just what I needed after an afternoon like today. Well, that and a super hot shower.

A question for today:

Do you buy organic anything? Have you seen the movie Food Inc.? I always feel like questions like these are so loaded. Yes, I saw Food, Inc. In all honesty, and call me heartless, it didn’t teach me anything I didn’t already know, nor did it change the way I look at food or what I buy. I knew about factory farms, and I know about GMOs, but I did think that how some of the companies treat their farmers was atrocious. I do buy organic when I can, but usually just beef when it’s available, and I plan on buying organic milk once Adam and I start thinking about having a family. And, even more honestly, I don’t have a problem not buying organic. Sure, if we had unlimited funds and a nearby Whole Foods, I’d probably buy organic a lot more. Right now though, it’s just not in our budget to buy organic most of the time. I buy what’s cheap. I buy what I like. I know a lot of people may judge me for this, but at least we’re living within our means.

ANNNNND the giveaway! The lovely folks at Tropical Traditions (who are dead set on making sure I never go without coconut anything) sent me a jar of their organic coconut peanut butter to try. Something about coconut peanut butter seemed a bit odd, yet a bit intriguing, so I agreed… man was I surprised! This stuff is absolutely to DIE FOR! It’s creamy and dense, with a light coconut flavor that’s just screaming to be used in oatmeal. I would recommend it to any of you… but only ONE of you can win a jar!

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It’s simple to enter!
First and foremost, leave a comment on this post. Any comment at all, and you’ll be entered!
For additional entries:
  • Subscribe to the Tropical Traditions Newsletter and leave another comment letting me know you did.
  • Become a fan of What’s For Dinner? on Facebook and leave another comment that you did.
  • Tweet the giveaway! “I entered to win @troptraditions coconut peanut butter with @imadedinner and you can too! http://bit.ly/9Fqg8l” and leave a comment that you did

Easy as pie peanut butter!

Good luck, and winners will be announced on Friday, February 19.

Have a wonderful night. I’ll leave you with another cute Ozzy picture


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Adam’s 4 a.m. Carnitas

Thank you for all my finger well-wishes yesterday! As of today, it’s a lot less gory, less sore, but still pretty gross… I hope it heals quickly! Typing is so hard with a bandage…

Since I had this lovely injury, I wanted to avoid contact with anything that could possibly make it hurt more. Last night, I asked Adam to cut the limes for the rice and chicken marinade. I had plans to make a crockpot pork meal for tonight, but last night I was in no place to chop more stuff up, so I asked Adam to help me out. He said he’d throw together dinner and put it in the crock pot for me to start in the morning.

Little did I know, Adam had assembled the ingredients in the crock of the crock pot at 4 a.m. just in time for me to start the pot at 6! Apparently, he also went to the grocery store at 11 p.m… he’s quite the nocturnal guy! It was wonderful to not only have dinner finished when I got home, but even better that Adam put it together!

Carnitas are typically a slow-cooked spicy pork dish served in tortillas. This non-recipe recipe was pretty slow cooked, and while it had a bit too much liquid in it, I thoroughly enjoyed it! Next time, less liquid for sure! Probably no broth is needed at all! I ate one open-faced sandwich on a bread thin, and then another small helping with some fat free sour cream… YUM! Thanks Adam!


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Crock Pot Carnitas
Ingredients
1.5 lb. trimmed pork loin, cut into large chunks
1 large can diced tomatoes, drained
1 green pepper, cut into pieces
2 red peppers, cut into pieces
1 poblano pepper, cut into pieces
1.5 small cans red enchilada sauce
1.5 c. beef stock
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Directions
Add all ingredients to slow cooker. Cook on low 8-10 hours or on high 4-6. Enjoy!

What’s on tap for tonight? Watching some TV and getting to bed early… it’s already been a long week, and it’s only Wednesday! Have a great night!



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Winner Winner Chinese Dinner

I know I swore my cooking posts would start again today, but after last week’s simple non-postworthy recipes, the subzero (yes, actually BELOW ZERO) temperatures, and the severe lack of ingredients in the house, we opted for a carry-out Chinese dinner from one of our favorite places, China Wok. I’m a slacker, I know.

Oh, and it was really tempting to not leave the house after seeing these hanging outside our front window:

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Those are approximately 5 to 8 feet long icicles, the longest of which hangs directly above our front door. SCARY!

Back to dinner…

I started with half of these amazing steamed dumplings full of spicy pork:

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And the rest of what I had didn’t photograph well… one patty of chicken egg foo young, a few bites of chicken fried rice, a bit of some spicy noodle thing, and of course:

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My fortune read: “You will be recognized and honored as an influential member of the community”.

There’s a lot of catch-up I still need to do which I’ll address in tomorrow’s post, but for now, I want to announce the winner of the MyBlogSpark and Progresso Soup giveaway. Thanks to random.org, I came up with number #3 which was a recipe for cabbage soup from Christina! I know you’ll read this, so Christina, when you do, email me your information and I’ll contact your benefactor!

I’m off to watch the Simpson’s 20th Anniversary Special and get to bed early… it’s going to be a LONG week!

OH, and I’m committing to you here: I WILL COOK A NEW RECIPE TOMORROW. It has been blogged, so it shall be done.


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Laying Low

Hey strangers!

Adam and I are laying low tonight after a hectic couple of days finishing up last minute wedding stuff… he had his bachelor party last night, and I spent the afternoon with Lizz and her daughter Skylar at my final wedding dress fitting, and erranding and DIY-ing for the wedding. Then I met up with Kristin at IKEA for some last minute supply-buying. I managed to sleep until *gasp* 9 a.m. today and then I was out on the run again! I bought ribbon for our card box, gift bags, shoes for the reception… I’m getting tired of spending money!

Adam offered to take us out for a “Linner” or “Dunch” meal… you know, lunch and dinner in one meal? We went to Claim Jumper. I went with total comfort food: meatloaf with roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes, and an incredibly rich (and mostly uneaten) biscuit.

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I promptly moved the meatloaf aside and ate the delicious roasted veggies, and thoroughly enjoyed the meatloaf. I wish I’d asked for the gravy on the side, as I’m currently blowing up like a balloon from all the sodium. The mashed potatoes were under the meatloaf and as good as any I’ve ever had! I brought a good portion home for the inevitable hunger monster later tonight, or maybe for lunch tomorrow…

Speaking of which, tomorrow is my last day of work before the wedding! Our district has an exceptionally long Thanksgiving break, and I’m lucky that I don’t need to take more than one day off for wedding-related stuff. I’m still looking for guest posts for this week, as I’m not going to have the free time to cook, let alone post except for Thanksgiving day…

OH and I bet you want to know who won the Red Gold Tomato giveaway, right? You’ll have to click here to find out!

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Pretty Easy Being Green

First of all, have you entered my Blogiversary Giveaway yet?? It’s a still-being-added-on-to Favorite Things care package! Just comment to enter, and link back and/or tweet for additional entries!

For dinner today, I wanted to make something that I could potentially bring for lunches for the week. There’s been this one recipe floating in the back of my mind that my friend Anne posted, and I decided tonight was the night to try it.

The backstory is that Anne’s son ate this Green Chile Pork Stew at the Omni Hotel in Austin, TX and fell in love. They proceeded to get the recipe, which makes approximately 4 gallons, and before Anne would cook the recipe for her family, her son had to do the math to scale the recipe down to a more manageable size.

Thank goodness he did, because this recipe is FANTASTIC! Thanks so much Anne! This recipe was easy and just took a little patience. I’m so happy to have it for lunches for the rest of the week!

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Pork and Green Chile Stew
From the Omni Hotel, Austin TX

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2# diced pork
1# white onion, julienned
1 clove garlic, chopped
2/3 cup diced green chiles (about 2 cans, drained)
3 quarts chicken stock
4 teaspoons cumin
3 teaspoons chile powder
salt, to taste
1 pound potatoes, diced
1 roasted jalapeno
1 stick butter (4 oz)
1/2 c. flour

Directions
In a deep pan add oil and heat until smoking. Add pork and cook for 30 minutes or until pork is nicely browned and has released all its juices. Add garlic and onions and caramelize. Add chilies. Deglaze with chicken stock. Simmer for 40 minutes, or until pork is tender. Add cumin and chile powder. Add potatoes and jalapeno and simmer for 15 minutes.

Make a roux with the butter and flour, cook until “blonde” and add to stew to thicken.

It’s not exactly green, as I thought it would be… but wow, amazing!

I have a TON of product reviews to get to, which I’ll be doing with my dinner post tomorrow… it’s a big day tomorrow! My wedding dress fitting is after school!!! I’m so excited!!!!!!! (can you tell?)

I’m off to veg out… have a great night!




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Meat & Potatoes

ÂĄHola!

I hope you’ve all been having a fantastic weekend so far. Why do I say so far? Well, I’m off tomorrow, so my weekend is still going! I spent the better portion of the last two days shopping with two of my bridesmaids for their dresses for our wedding. See, I didn’t want to do the “matchy-matchy clone bridesmaid” look (I think I’ve mentioned this before… no, I know I have), so I asked my four girls to just get black dresses that they’re comfortable in. So far we’ve had success!

Since I’m on a total teachers’ schedule, my “sleeping in” consisted of waking up at a late old hour of 7:30 a.m. and enjoying a sweet potato for breakfast. After a late lunch at Sweet Tomatoes, Adam and I went to Target to pick up a few necessities. Dinner was not on my mind yet, so when we finally did start getting hungry, to the freezer we went and found the spicy Italian sausage from Christina! I was SO excited! I started defrosting the links, and decided to make my grandma’s (help me out here mom, was it her recipe?) roasted garlic potatoes.

These potatoes were among the very first recipes I posted on the blog, and they remain a favorite. The process is simple:

  • Cut small new red potatoes into quarters or eighths
  • Drizzle with olive oil
  • sprinkle with garlic powder
  • sprinkle with oregano
  • Stir well
  • roast at 400* for about an hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

I enjoyed my roasted potatoes with 2 links of Christina’s amazing Italian sausage:

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It was quite a delicious meal with very little effort on my part… which was lovely! I felt like being lazy.

I have no idea what the rest of the night holds, but I do know that I’ll be up “late”… so maybe 11:00 p.m.!

Enjoy your Monday off, if you get it off… otherwise, have a great Monday!





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Mr. & Mrs. Future In-Laws

Last night was the last big landmark before Adam and my wedding November 28… Adam’s sister got married! It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony in a gorgeous gazebo. The weather was iffy most of the day, and just before 5 p.m. when the ceremony was to start, the clouds cleared, and we were met with a beautiful fall afternoon!

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After a short and sweet ceremony, they were pronounced husband and wife! I teared up at that point out of happiness, as well as the realization that, finally, Adam and I are next!


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There was much photo-taking after the ceremony, and I was truly touched that Riv asked me to be in a family photo with her and Adam… it was another reality check that we really are going to be one big family.

During the cocktail hour, Adam and I got OUR picture taken…

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And then Riv and Alex made their entrance as Mr. & Mrs.!

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And then…we ate!!! I was ravenous by the time the food got there since liquor tends to make me hungry (oh yeah, I had a couple!) and I was thrilled with this egg-lemon-rice soup and family style dinner. I made sure to sample everything! The roast beef definitely calmed a craving I’d been having for a while!

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There was, of course, cake as well… which I didn’t take a picture of whole! BAD FOOD BLOGGER!! Oh well, the slice was a plate of sugar that helped get me going for the dancing that occurred soon after:

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We headed home fairly late (for us) at about 11:15, and somehow got stuck in a super huge traffic jam on the interstate! By the time we got home, I was just about spent… I didn’t sleep in as late as I wanted to, but took advantage of the morning. I threw dinner in the crock pot (more on that in a minute), made baked french toast for breakfast, napped a bit, watched movies, and got a sandwich for lunch. LOVE Jimmy Johns after a night out!


Now, onto dinner…
Thursday evening, I threw together a double batch of Thai Pork Stew for my staff potluck, and made a point to take a small amount in advance for lunch. Good thing I did, because by the time I actually got TO the potluck for my lunch, the crockpot had been scraped clean! I’m so glad my coworkers loved my recipe (Hi RBMS people, if you’re reading!) but it left me wanting more.

So this afternoon, I made another batch just for Adam and I…and man was it good. The picture isn’t the best, but as you can see, this features brown rice, shredded pork, red peppers, and a spicy peanut sauce… ok, you might not be able to see that, but pretend you can, ok?!

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I’m off of work tomorrow in honor of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of Atonement. Traditionally, we fast from sundown tonight until sundown tomorrow, and spend the day atoning for the years’ sins. To all my Jewish friends, may you have an easy fast, and I’ll see you tomorrow for our “Break The Fast” meal.



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Simply Fantastic Pizza

Today, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to cook. None. Zero. I knew what I have to cook for our staff potluck tomorrow, but I didn’t know about tonight’s dinner. What did I do? I used a bit of my after-school plan time to surf my favorite food blogs…and then it hit me!

Jennifer at Slim-Shoppin‘ had posted her sister Biz’s super fast, no rise pizza dough. THEN I remembered that I had a jar of Biz’s amazing tomato sauce that she gave me at our potluck on Sunday. And THEN I also remembered that I had Italian sausage from Christina! There was my answer… homemade pizza!

I picked up the ingredients at the grocery store, and came home excited to cook. I mixed up the easy recipe:

2 cups flour
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 tsp. yeast
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix together. Roll out and top!

When I saw Biz on Sunday, she pre-baked her crust so it got a bit crispier, and that’s what I did tonight. After baking at 375* for about 15 minutes, I topped each mini crust with some of the sauce, some sliced cooked sausage, and low fat mozzarella cheese. Then mine got an additional topping of roasted red peppers and Chavrie. I baked it an additional 15 minutes.

What came out was nothing short of glorious:


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That sausage, Christina, yet again was beyond fantastic. Seriously, I was sad when it was gone! This super-thin mini pizza was very satisfying, and Adam and I decided that next time, I should use whole wheat flour.

Tonight is a HUGE TV NIGHT!!! While I watch Grey’s Anatomy from 7-9, I’m going to be helping my friend Jenny set up her new blog… trust me when I say it’s going to be FABULOUS! She’s one of the best writers I know!

I almost forgot!! I need to announce the winner of the Jewish Boot Camp Cookbook from PopJudaica.com!
There were 49 entries to the contest, and using the Random Integer Generator, I came out with…
#24!!! Hallie from Healthy Twists!!!!! Congratulations my fellow MOT!

Have a great night, and happy ALMOST FRIDAY!!

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Porkin’ Out

Have you entered the Jewish Cooking Bootcamp Giveaway yet? Jump on over to yesterday’s post and leave a comment!

Today was a big day on the wedding front! We met with our venue coordinator to set our wedding menu! This is a HUGE step in planning, and I can’t believe that it’s here already. About a year ago when we booked our venue, and the coordinator said “we’ll meet two months out to finalize a menu”, it seemed like FOREVER. I’m so excited! I’ll post our final menu once we have more of an idea of numbers…

After our meeting and all the talk about food, Adam and I were ravenous. We headed back towards home and Adam decided where we were going.

Any guesses?

No. Not sushi… I know you thought that’s where I was going with this.

Here’s a hint:

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Yes, that’s me with a 12-foot tall red Weber grill.

We went to the Weber Grill Restaurant! It’s this great place where they cook everything (well, the proteins and some veggies) on well-ventilated indoor Weber charcoal grills! It’s a favorite of ours that we tend to forget about. They have some truly excellent food, as well as one of my favorite side dishes ANYWHERE. More on that in a minute.

First of all, this place has pretzel rolls and cheddar butter. Need I say more?
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There were two of those rolls eaten… then our appetizers came. Neither of us could make up our mind as to what we wanted, so we got an appetizer combo. We each got one beef skewer, one rib, one grilled chicken skewer, and one BBQ shrimp skewer…oh, and some onion strings.

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I decided on something a bit healthy for my entree so that I could enjoy my favorite side without guilt. I got the grilled cajun catfish with all butter and sauce on the side, sauteed spinach, and…wait for it… maple whipped sweet potatoes.

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Adam got a BBQ combo of Midwest-style BBQ pork and brisket… hence the title of the post. Check out all that BBQ pork!

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I may have helped polish that off as well. It was just SO good, and much better than any BBQ pork I could’ve made!

We sat in gluttonous blarginess after we finished eating for a few minutes…this really is a true Tale of Expansion… and then went to Best Buy to pick up a replacement remote for our upstairs TV. I’m going to attempt to stay up for Top Chef tonight, but I have a feeling my night will be interrupted by sleep. Can you believe tomorrow is already Thursday!?!

Some Bloggy News:
Check out Allijag at Green Dog Wine’s Blogiversary Giveaway!
Congrats to Jenn at Eating Bender, Miss Gliding Calm, and Kath at KathEats on being named one of Fitness Magazine’s Favorite Health Blogs!

That’s about all I’ve got for now! I’m quite beat…
Happy Thursday!


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