Ginger Shrimp with Garlic & Olive Oil Couscous

Tonight I decided to make something with shrimp since my sous chef was absent. (He's allergic to shellfish!). I had ginger in my fridge so I googled some recipes but I never had all the ingredients I needed so I decided to wing it. I had a box of couscous that came with garlic and spices, I had shrimp and I had some veggies.

(Makes 2-3 servings)
Ingredients:
1 box of couscous (get one that comes with a spice packet!)
2-3 carrots, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 tsp sesame oil
15-20 pieces of shrimp
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 TBS parsley
salt and pepper
1 egg white
2 tsp minced ginger

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Shrimp: Thaw and de-tail. Beat egg white in bowl. In another bowl add panko bread crumbs, parsley, salt and pepper and 1 tsp ginger. Spray baking pan with cooking spray. Dip shrimp into egg whites then panko combination, covering with bread crumbs and lay on baking pan. Cook in oven for 20 minutes, turning over halfway through.

3. In saucepan, cook couscous according to package. Should take about 10 minutes.

4. In medium skillet, heat sesame oil. Add chopped carrots, green onions and 1 tsp ginger. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until tender.

5. Add the veggies to the couscous and top with the shrimp!

I actually really enjoyed this meal. I forgot to add soy sauce but I think it was okay without it. Leftovers for lunch, yay!

BBQ Bites

Just like Buffalo bites but with some different add-ins and BBQ sauce!


You can make any type of Quinoa Bites so Monday I decided to try some new ones with some extra things I had in my fridge. Here is what I made:


1 cup heaping cooked quinoa

1 large egg

3/4 cup chopped broccoli
3/4 cup chopped apples

1 can of chicken (12.5 oz Costco size)

1/4 cup BBQ sauce

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese 
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

1 tsp minced garlic

salt and pepper to taste

Dip:

2 TBS ranch dressing

4 TBS BBQ sauce

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Mix together all ingredients.

3.  Distribute mixture into a greased mini muffin tin, filling each cup halfway and press down gently to compact.

4.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.

5. Mix dip.

Broccoli and apples you might say?? With BBQ sauce? It really wasn't bad! I had leftovers for lunch today and it was delicious with the dip! And I didn't waste my broccoli, apple or leftover quinoa :)

Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Tacos

We devoured them like tacos...Yum!

Hi all! It's been awhile since I last posted. I have been so busy! I have been putting on an RSA...what's an RSA you ask? A Road Safety Audit is an independent assessment of safety in an intersection or corridor. It is 2-3 days of jam-packed field reviews, crash data review, brainstorming solutions to issues, talking to the stakeholders, putting together a presentation and presenting your findings! We did ours in a day in a half...14 hour day for me yesterday and 12 hour day today! And the work doesn't end now...next is writing a formal report. Here is more information: http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/rsa/. So the past week I have been making old recipes: avocado egg salad, chicken apple salad, green spinach smoothie (of course) and Ian and I made a double batch of Buffalo Bites on Sunday! But tonight I wanted to reward myself with a new recipe, luckily IGE posted a recipe earlier in the week and I had every single ingredient already! Ian and I made these tonight, pretty quickly, and they were delicious and filling!

I'm just going to post the link to the recipe, we did the same thing except we used 1 12.5 oz can chicken instead of 'real' chicken. And no tomatoes, ew. So we named ours Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Tacos.

Buffalo Chicken BLAT Wraps

Some suggestions/additions I would make:
- Don't add any salt to the chicken. The bacon is already salty!
- If you don't have the Ranch Seasoning package try this recipe: Ranch Dressing Mix. Don't have all the seasonings? Just add what you have, but dill and parsley are the most important. Also don't add any salt.
- Next time I think we are going to try making an avocado/greek yogurt spread for it...let me know if you try it before me!

Happy Pi Day!

math nerds celebrate

Vanilla-Chocolate Pudding Candy Pie!

This is a Choose Your Own Adventure pie that is fun to make and yummy to eat!

Ingredients:
Pudding
Candy
1 tub of Cool Whip (thawed)
1 store bought crust (or make your own!)
Milk/Almond milk/Soy milk

STEP 1: Choose your puddin's. You need 1 small box (4 serving) and 1 large box (6.5 serving).
I went with a large box of chocolate fudge and a small box of vanilla.
You could also try cheesecake flavor. Or banana cream with chocolate. Or lemon if that's your thing.

STEP 2: Choose your candy! I used 2 King size candy bars in mine.
I used a king size Reeses and king size Kit Kat.
You could also use Snickers or Milky Way. I was tempted to put marshmallows in mine but I knew I would finish the rest of the bag in two days so I decided not to (You could pair them with your banana cream pie pudding).  With cheesecake you could do canned cherries. You can put crushed nuts in too. Let the pi be your canvas.

STEP 3: Choose your crust. I went with the graham cracker crust but they have Oreo crust too.

STEP 4: Make your pudding. Beat with whisk 1.25 cups milk with the large box. Add half of the whipped cream and continue to mix with your whisk beater. For the small box, whisk .75 cups milk together. Add almost the rest of the whipped cream. You can add it all, I didn't but just keep tasting it until you like it. Pudding can be rich if you don't add a lot of milk so the whipped cream helps cut down on the richness but also keeps it more solid.

STEP 5: Crush the candy and add it to your puddings.

STEP 6: Pour your pudding layers into your pie. Put in fridge for 20-30 minutes and eat!!!

Avocado Egg Salad

My Israeli co-worker brought this dish in for the International Food Fair and oh yum. I've become obsessed, making it for the 5th time in the past week (it makes for a good lunch, okay?). I've been experimenting with combinations too. Got some extra eggs? A ripe avocado that needs to be eaten? Try it out!!

Ingredients

2 Hardboiled eggs 

1 avocado

Salt and pepper

¼ cup Green onions, diced

1 tsp Lemon juice

Optional: Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, red onions, plain greek yogurt

Combine everything in and eat on toasted Dave’s Killer Bread! Play around with the different combinations! I’m really into adding Dijon mustard right now, gives it a little kick. 

Buffalo Chicken Quinoa Mac & Cheese

Made some garlic bread to go with it and it was a perfect combination!

I got this recipe from Iowa Girl Eats and tweaked it just a bit.  We changed it a bit: added an extra chicken breast for Ian and switched goat cheese for feta for financial reasons. 

Ingredients:

1-1/4 cups quinoa, rinsed and drained

2 chicken breast

garlic powder

onion powder

salt & pepper

2 Tablespoons flour

1-1/2 cups 2% milk, divided

2 green onions, sliced

1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons Frank’s Buffalo Wing Sauce

1-1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

Directions:

1. Cook quinoa according to package directions and set aside. Season chicken breast on both sides with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper, and cook in a non-stick sprayed skillet over medium heat until cooked all the way through. Chop into bite-sized pieces and set aside.

My sous chef, Ian, always cooks the meat.

2. Whisk together flour and 1/2 cup milk in a separate saucepan over medium heat. Pour in remaining milk, and green onions. Switch to a spatula and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly, then cook for one minute while boiling.

3. Remove the pan from the heat then add in buffalo sauce and cheddar cheese. Stir until the cheese is completely melted then add in cooked quinoa and chicken, and stir to combine.

4. Pour into a non-stick sprayed casserole dish and top with feta. Broil for 5-7 minutes, or until the cheese is golden brown and sauce is bubbly.

Oh man did Ian and I love this dish! IGE does it again. We made this dish on Saturday and again on Monday, we just couldn’t go without it another day.