Monday, April 15, 2013

Best Chicken Marinade Ever

I kid you not when I say that this is the best chicken marinade ever. At the beginning of each week I marinade a bunch of chicken and then grill it. I make 5 lunches for my husband for the week and sometimes we free the rest for later meals. This marinade is awesome- have I mentioned that yet?


INGREDIENTS
Slightly adapted from All Recipes
  • 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
  • 3/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon dry mustard
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 tablespoon black pepper 
  • 1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes


DIRECTIONS

In a medium bowl, mix together oil, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, wine vinegar, and lemon juice. Stir in mustard powder, salt, pepper, and parsley. Use to marinate chicken before cooking as desired. The longer you marinate, the more flavor it will have.

Grilling the chicken tastes the best. Once it is done I steam some vegetable and cook some rice and make individual lunches for the week! It tastes great!

Enjoy !!
-Christy

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Zupas' Wisconsin Cauliflower Soup

I have been meaning to post this and I completely forgot. I went to Zupas the other day and was reminded of this wonderful soup! Every time I go there I MUST get this soup. It is delicious :)




Ingredients

  • 3 Tbsp. butter
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 cup half and half
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth
  • 2.5 lbs cauliflower
  • 1 tsp. Dijon Mustard
  • 1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
  • 1/2 cup pepper jack cheese, shredded

directions

  1. Melt butter and chopped onion together in a large sauce pan and sauté for approximately 10 minutes over medium heat until onion gets golden in color.
  2. Add flour and stir to make a roux. Heat while stirring for a couple of minutes.
  3. Slowly add half and half along with the milk. Gradually add and stir the entire time. Following the milk, gradually add water and chicken broth and stir constantly.
  4. Add chopped cauliflower and heat until boil.
  5. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until cauliflower is tender. This will take approximately 15 minutes.
  6. Place contents of sauce pan into blender and blend until smooth. Remove center part of blender cover to allow steam to escape.
  7. Return cauliflower mixture to saucepan; heat over medium heat until hot, stirring occasionally. Remove saucepan from heat; stir in mustard and cheese until melted and smooth.
  8. Serve soup topped with a little cheese for garnish.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Beef and Bean Burritos

Happy Spring Friday!!

Joking. It's snowing here in Ottawa, I mean hailing, and raining....aka a royal mess on this supposedly spring day. What can make it better? Comfort food that is also moderately healthy and kid friendly! Seriously, this was quick, easy, and delicious and I will be making this one quite often from now on!


Adapted from Shirl's Awesome Easy Burritos
Ingredients:
  • 1 lbs lean ground beef
  • 1-15 ounce can fat free refried beans
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 small zucchini, shredded (optional)
  • 3/4 to 1 cup of salsa
  • 1/2 to 1 cup of shredded cheese
  • 6 large whole wheat flour tortillas (or 10 small ones)
  • Topping ideas: cheese, avocados, tomatoes, salsa, sour cream etc...
Directions:
  1. Cook the ground beef, onions, and zucchini, drain the excess fat.
  2. Stir in the refried beans, then the salsa. Add salt and pepper as needed. Heat through.
  3. Stir in the cheese, and heat until cheese is melted.
  4. In a warm tortilla, spoon in some beef filling, and desired toppings.
This was so good and the kids loved it!!
Enjoy,

Cathy

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Coconut Curry Chicken


Ingredients:
  • 2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
  • 5 large carrots, peeled and diced
  • 1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 1 large green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
  • 1 (5 oz ) can tomato paste
  • 1 (14 oz) can coconut milk
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp curry powder
  • 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch


Directions:
Grease your slow cooker with Pam.  Place the chicken and carrots on the bottom of slow cooker. 

Place the rest of the ingredients (except water and corn starch) in a food processor and process together until mixture is mostly smooth. ***If your food processor is too small to hold everything, process everything but the coconut milk. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl then mix in the coconut milk.

Pour the sauce over the chicken and carrots, mix well, then cover and cook on low for about 6 hours. 

An hour or so before serving, mix cornstarch and water together in a small bowl until cornstarch is dissolved.  Pour mixture into the slow cooker, stir to combine, and continue cooking for another hour.

**This will thicken up the sauce.  When the sauce is to your desired thickness, turn slow cooker to warm setting until ready to serve.  

Serve over rice, with Naan, and garnish with cilantro.   

**if you want you can chop the bell pepper into larger pieces and place in with the chicken and carrots rather than processing into the sauce.  This is what I did and we loved the different textures of the carrots, chicken, and pepper in the sauce. 

Monday, April 1, 2013

Google Nose Launch!

We are so excited to announce that we have adopted the google nose technology into our blog!! You will now be able to have the aroma of our recipes from our kitchen to yours!! The application will be available as a button at the bottom of our recipes from now on. You can click on the link above to test it out, enjoy!!


Happy April!