Amanda This week I chose “Rolled” as the theme so I made California Rolls and Spring Rolls. They were easy and fun to make. The California Rolls, sadly, did not turn out well. Although, I thought they looked ok, the taste not so much. LOL I am not sure what I did to the rice but it tasted like paste and kind of had the same texture too. My son, bless him, said they were good. Oh well, I tried. The Spring Rolls turned out great! You can basically put whatever you want in them. They do become very sticky and will fall apart the longer you let them sit. I have made these before and I decided to make them again in case the sushi didn’t work out. Can’t wait to see what everyone made! Hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day weekend. Jen Amy Welcome Amanda! And my apologies for being late with my recipe. It's been one of those weeks. Sometimes it be like that. Part of the reason why I am late with this is that I couldn't decide on what to make. So many options! But in the end I chose something that has a bit of a cult following. Something that over the years has strangely become a comfort food for me. Jailhouse Burritos! Yeah...I have several friends with, shall we say, histories. Hey, that's their business. I'm here to say that convicts can be quite ingenious on a tight budget with limited options. Case in point, Jailhouse Burritos! At home with a proper budget there are many options. But you must have the three main ingredients. Flour tortillas, ramen and chips. I have found that the chips are source of controversy. Meaning what chips are supposed to be used in the burritos. I have one friend in particular who is quite adamant that it's Cheetos and no substitute. I'd think in prison it's just whatever is available. For the sake of continuity we'll go with Cheetos. I used Flamin' Hot to make a stand. Normally when I make Ramen I toss out the seasoning packet and do my own thing. Again to keep with authenticity I used the packet provided. Being at home I have options. So I scrambled up some eggs and melted Queso Fresco in them and I made turkey bacon as well. Any leftover meat or deli meat will do as well. And you can use more than one meat, if desired. And feel free to use any cheese or no cheese. If you really want to pump up the burritos sauteed veggies work. So put the cooked Ramen on the tortilla then the eggs, meat and crushed chips. Sprinkle Parmesan on top and roll that tasty mo' fo' right up. This is a good deal for we single folk and it will fill you up! Nikita Rolled was a fun theme challenged by our newcomer, Amanda! I had some pineapple to get rid of before our big move next week and decided to tackle a Disney recipe often served at Animal Kingdom in the Avatar World - Pineapple & Cream Cheese Lumpia! DELISH! Surprisingly, not too sweet even with the coating of sugar. Now I know why my good friend enjoys these so much. Crispy outside with a creamy Hawaiian explosion on the inside. These are deceivingly YUGE! I could only eat two because they are the length of my hand, and I've got big hands! This would be a wonderful dessert to impress a guest because you can prep ahead of time and throw them in the fryer last minute. Only bad news - the house smells like oil. But worth it! Georgia I made lasagna rolls.. And they were so good. Not healthy.. No where close to being healthy. But so good I don't even have a recipe for you. I just took the ingredients for lasagna and rolled them. Cook your lasagna noodles. Brown your beef (I used half ground beef, half italian sausage) Throw in your favorite italian seasonings, once brown add your spaghetti sauce. Combine ricotta, parmesan cheese more italian seasoning, 1 egg. Spread about a tablespoon of the ricotta mixture on a lasagna noodle. Roll that bad boy up. Cover bottom of oven proof dish with spaghetti sauce, place lasagna rolls on top. Pour the rest of the sauce over your rolls. I put some fresh mozzarella over each roll. Bake in 350 oven for about 30 minutes This week Amanda had us rollin with her first challenge. Fun, fun, fun
Until next week, Amanda, Jen, Amy, Nikita and Georgia Apologies for the late post. The hubs and I spent a fun filled weekend in upstate New York!
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Georgia So the husbands birthday was this week and when I told him it was my week for the food challenge he said he wanted pepperoni. Simple man with simple needs. I really wanted to find something other than pepperoni pizza to make. Thank goodness for Pinterest. Which is where I found this. If you want to take your mac and cheese and kick it up a couple of notches this is the dish for you. Side note. I did not have any pizza sauce on hand so I made some. pretty simple. Crushed tomatoes with your favorite italian herbs and spices. The hubs, by the way.. LOVED this. But what's not to love? Homemade mac and cheese with all your favorite pizza flavors. Amanda This week I wasn’t feeling to great so simple Pizza Nachos were a good choice. Family loved it and even helped make their own. Next time we make them we will not put the sauce on until after it bakes. It made some of the chips soggy but was still very good. Can’t wait to get “rolling” on next weeks challenge! (Cheesy I know, sorry :D) Jen Amy Here in lies the problem: Pepperoni and my stomach have had a falling out. However I dutifully searched for a recipe calling for pepperoni and replaced the pepperoni with smoked turkey for my dish. I used my bubba Dutch Oven so I adjusted the amount of ingredients accordingly. Anyway, here you go: Nikita Nikita and her son Christopher came to Albuquerque to hang out with the old man and myself before they head to Sofia Bulgaria. We spent HOURS at Meow Wolf in Santa Fe.. Truly.. Hours.. The above left photo is Christopher playing the piano there. To his embarrassment he got a round of applause once he finished. The photo on the right is from the hike we took at the top of the Sandia mountain. We finished off our day with a picnic in the park. The temp at the top was a good 20 degrees cooler so it made for a very lovely afternoon. Any time spent with these two is always a blessing. So.. Three pepperoni dishes and not one pizza.. Taadaa!!
Loved how Amy modified and made a belly friendly dish for herself. Join us next week for Amanda's first challenge where she has us rolling Georgia, Amanda, Jen, Amy & Nikita Nikita Cheese Balls. They make the world go 'round! This week, I chose our theme to be Picnic Style! We had intended on doing a picnic, but the daily Arizona Excessive Heat Advisory prevented us from going site-seeing and throwing out the blanket over a grassy meadow to eat our fare. We also had a surprise visit from Matt in Sofia! He came back to the states to pick up his Bulgarian Work Visa. YAY! One step closer. To make things fun, we had an indoor picnic with a comforter and throw pillows on the floor of the living room IN THE A/C. The star of our spread was Pimento Cheese, harkening back to our good ol' Southern days in Georgia. I had no idea it was so simple to make (except for the 4 cups of sharp cheddar cheese I had to grate by hand because I am without food processor at the moment....first world problems, I know)! Tip: Let the cheese mixture chill to stiffen up, then roll it by hand into a giant ball for serving. If you let it sit out in the ball shape on a plate, it will be soft enough for your food patrons to dip their crackers right into the ball or scoop out a small serving. Enjoy! Georgia
Amanda My family and I really enjoyed the theme this week. We definitely will be going on a picnic more often. For our picnic I made the following: - Baked Salmon in Foil https://www.wellplated.com/baked-salmon-in-foil/ - Green Beans and Crushed Salt-and-Vinager Chips https://www.countryliving.com/food-drinks/a27547118/green-beans-and-crushed-salt-and-vinegar-chips-recipe/?epik=dj0yJnU9RWViNkJuU1BLdXhuWDhwOUpHeTAxWm55bVRfUGhHcEkmbj1OVWkyT3N1N3VVMU1DZ0xKOWJJc1lRJm09MyZ0PUFBQUFBRjFYUXlN - Potato Roses https://tasty.co/recipe/potato-roses Everything was delicious and traveled well. Everyone, including the kids ;), had seconds. All tasted great warm and cold. Hope everyone had as much fun as we did! Sincerely, Amanda Jen Amy Full disclosure: I had every intention of NOT doing this challenge. I'm not against picnics but I didn't wish to go to all the bother in creating a picnic for one. However, at the last minute, I had a scathingly brilliant idea. Why not try a tea time theme? It's simple, light fair that can create a lovely picture. I have subconsciously planned this as I was grocery shopping the other evening. I discovered a few new items at the store. Bonne Maman now has lemon curd and I grabbed a box of Twinings Orange and Cinnamon Spice ( herbal) tea. I grabbed a box of strawberry Pocky for nostalgia. I wanted to try Bon Appetite's Green Goddess Crunch Sandwich, it's a twist on traditional cucumber sandwiches. I made two and brought one to work for lunch the following day. Normally lemon curd is coupled with baked goods such as scones but I love it on fresh berries. Bonne Maman's lemon curd is delicious. Not too sweet. And Trixie loved it. It's still hot here in Oklahoma so this was an indoor event. I put on some John Coltrane and enjoyed my wee feast. Here is the recipe for Green Goddess Crunch Sandwich: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/green-goddess-crunch-sandwich I made my sammiches slightly different. I omitted the mayonnaise and used just the yogurt. I was unable to find any type of fresh sprouts so I used fresh baby spinach leaves instead. I've using gluten-free bread for a few weeks and exchanged multi grain bread for the gluten-free. This is a refreshing and filling sandwich to be sure. Not exactly a picnic but I think it's a picnic inspired tea time. That counts, right? Looks like Nikita's picnic challenge this week is one for the books!
Much kudos to the ladies for knocking this one out of the park! Until next week, Nikita, Georgia, Amanda, Jen and Amy Amy It's too darn hot! I am whiny in Summer...that's the truth of it. I hate being in my kitchen so I tend to just eat fresh fruit, yogurt and cereal when the temperature hit 95+ But Summer has so much wonderful produce. Hence the blender. This week I made not one but two marvelous gazpachos in my blender. Not at the same time of course. Nikita Georgia I know, I know, I know.. The challenge was blended.. This is kinda blended. I had to use a whisk to blend the flavors together. So it counts. Mostly So here's the story. I was having a hard time sleeping and remembered Amy;s moon milk recipes. I thought I'd give it a try. It was so delicious and relaxing. Sitting down at the end of the day, curled up with a cup of this yumminess. It really did the trick. Cheers to sharing some good stuff! Amanda This week I made Green-As-Spring Soup from Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook Everyday Dorie. I could not find a recipe on line, I apologize. If you have ever used the website Eat Your Books, the book is available there or it may be available to borrow from the library. The soup is very light but filling. It was great hot and cold. Since it was green and all vegetables, the soup wasn’t really a hit with the kids but would make it again for myself since it made enough for a few lunches. This was a fun challenge since I’ve never made a puréed soup before. Good to have another reason to use the blender. Looking forward to trying some of the other recipes everyone shares. Enjoy your week! Sincerely, Amanda Jen Several fun cold blended soups and one moon milk.
Not a bad week. Until next week, Amy, Nikita, Georgia, Jen and Amanda Jen The kids are finally back to school, so hopefully that means my schedule is more predictable! It’s been a tiring but good first week. I decided to test out “Hello Fresh” recently to see if what it’s all about. That’s also why I chose pork for the challenge this week – one of the recipes in my kit this week is for cherry balsamic glazed pork chops. The meal as a whole took me an hour to make. And honestly, all 3 of the different recipes that came in my Hello Fresh kit took about that long. I can manage something like this maybe twice a week, not 3 times. I normally like to cook big so we have leftovers to eat for lunches and whatnot. Most nights I need something I can put on the table fast!! So, back to this pork dish. The pork itself was pretty good. My husband says I overcooked his a bit, but my piece was perfect. The couscous and broccoli were OK. I will save this recipe for the pork itself and try again. And maybe I will slice it up pretty so it looks like their picture instead of just plopping it on the plate. 😂 I’m on the fence as to whether or not I like Hello Fresh. One of the recipes this week was AMAZING. The other two were good, but not something I’d make again. I do love that everything I need comes to my door. I don’t like spending a bunch of time chopping onions, peppers, tomatoes, etc. I also don’t like how many dirty dishes I make when cooking these. I did order another kit this week so we’ll see how it goes. I think getting my kit for a discount was definitely worth it, but I doubt I will continue at full price. (If you want to try Hello Fresh, this link gets you $40 off your first box, and gives me $20 off my next one) https://www.hellofresh.com?c=EGIAP&utm_source=raf-share&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=clipboard Amy I found this recipe https://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipe/broiled-hawaiian-pork-pineapple-bowl-recipe Rather than broil I grilled these babies. It turned out marvellous! Nikita Nikita is a busy busy lady right now. Just finished up her last day on a job that transformed her career, preparing to move, not across town or even across the country, but well across the pond to Sofia Bulgaria. With that, she's started her own blog so we can all follow along on her new adventure. Check it out right here Nikita's Adventure Amanda I don’t know why I thought of tamales when I read pork was the theme for this week but I decided to go for it. I also don’t know why I thought they would be easy to make. I will admit that half way though I wanted to give up. LOL I had to use YouTube to make sure I was making them right. Some burst open while steaming. We won’t talk about the large amount of dishes piling up and the large mess that was being made. I could only laugh at this point. Still, I persevered and my family and I were happy with the results. They were a little crumbly but no one seemed to notice. I put salsa verde on mine. Thankfully, after a day of cooking and cleaning up, there was plenty left over to freeze for another day. This was a learning experience that’s for sure. :D Can’t wait to see what everyone made! Have a great week! Amanda Georgia Super simple. Crock pot, pork ribs and my favorite bbq sauce. Work, church, classes. This is as good as it gets some weeks God is good.. And even in the chaos I can still give thanks for all that He has done for me.
4 different pork dishes and not 1 that has bacon in it.. Hmm. But truly. Pork.. 4 ways.. You decide.. Oh.. Homemade tamales.. Delish.. But no joke.. It really is an olympic event to make them. Great job ladies.. looking forward to next week. Until next week, Jen, Amy, Nikita, Amanda & Georgia |
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