Easy Spaghetti Squash

This is an easy great dish as a side, or as a main (but you'd have to eat a LOT of it).

Ingredients:
1/2 spaghetti squash
1 16oz can of diced tomatoes
1/3 medium yellow onion diced
feta
salt and pepper, sprinkle
olive oil, for cooking

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and attempt to cut spaghetti squash in half (long ways) - I always have issues with this and normally have my husband help if he's around.  Remove the seeds from the squash, place in a pan or cookie sheet with open sides facing upward, and cook for about 35-40 minutes.

You'll know the spaghetti squash is ready when you scrape it with a fork and the stringy particles (like spaghetti) are easily removed.  If not, cook it a bit longer.  When ready, scrape it all and be prepared to throw it into your other pan as needed.

Dice 1/3 of a medium yellow onion.  Heat a medium pan on medium, put a tablespoon of olive oil in, and after about 1-2 minutes (so pan is hot) throw in your onions and cook until translucent, about 4-5 minutes, or until fragrant, adding salt and pepper on it  Pour in the can of diced tomatoes (with juices) and cook for about 1-2 minutes.  Then, add your scraped spaghetti squash, cook it with the tomatoes and onions for about 3 minutes, and then you're all done!  Sprinkle crumbled feta before eating (if you add it while cooking, it looks really gross).

Tuna Casserole

Would you believe me if I told you I never had tuna casserole until Andy made it for us recently (a few months before we moved from LA?)  It's true!

My mom made a slightly different version of it, but there was never any tuna and it was more clam chowder than cream of whatever and I just remember there being a lot of seafood in it and it being baked.  I'll have to get the recipe from her sometime (though knowing her, she probably just threw it all in!)

Not my go to for dinner, but it is great for those weeknights when you are really busy!

Serves 4, with some leftovers

Ingredients:
for casserole:
1 package of frozen peas, cooked
2 cups of noodles, cooked
1 can of tuna, drained
1 can of cream of whatever - I'm using potato
1/2 cup of milk
1/4 cup of cheese
for sprinkling on top:
more cheese and bread crumbs (1/2 cup)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook noodles, set aside.  Cook peas, set aside.  Mix noodles and peas with tuna, cream of whatever, milk, and cheese.  Put into a 9 x 12 glass dish (spray with Butter Pam) and pour in mixture and top off with some bread crumbs and cheese.  Cook for about 30 minutes.

Crock Pot Chicken Stroganoff

I love the crock pot. It is a busy woman's best friend and this is now included in my list of easy to do recipes!

2-3 frozen chicken breasts

1 can cream of mushroom or chicken

1 cup of LIGHT sour cream

1 package of dry onion soup mix (Lipton's or generic - find it in the soup aisle in a box)

2 cups of baby carrots

1/2 cup of chicken stock or broth

Cook on low for 7 hours

Serve over pasta or rice with Tabasco!

Cafe Rio Salad and Dressing!

This is the recipe I got from my sister-in-law, Tammy to imitate the barbacoa pork salad from Cafe Rio!

Meat:

3.5-4 lb pork roast

2 t cumin

1 and 1/2 t Kanye (cayenne) pepper

1 t salt

Mix spices together and rub onto pork and cook on low overnight in crock pot.

In the morning, add the following:

1 cup of chicken stock or broth

2 cups of chopped white onions or 1 small white onion chopped

16 oz or 2 cups of Coke

2 cloves of garlic

Cook all day on low and one hour before serving, shred the meat and add in 1 cup of brown sugar and cook for another hour on low.

Creamy Cilantro Cafe Rio Imitation Dressing:

1 1/3 cup of LIGHT sour cream

3/4 cup of LIGHT mayo

1 bunch of cilantro

1 whole pack of Hidden Valley dry Ranch dressing

4 T green salsa verde

2-3 crushed garlics

1/8 tsp of Tabasco (or a couple of dabs)

Juice of 1 lime

Mix in food processor or VitaMix until all blended, and ready to eat!

Spicy Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

I love using the crock pot for cooking - it's so easy! This dish takes a bit of prep work before loading up the crock pot, but it's well worth it, and it's from my favorite all time magazine, the Food Everyday, a Martha Stewart magazine, the light issue!

1 T EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
Kosher salt
Ground pepper
1 medium yellow onion, diced small
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced small
3 garlic cloves, chopped (or if lazy like me, use the minced garlic in a jar)
1 can (14.5 oz) crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup hot-pepper sauce like Frank's(go less if you don't want too much kick, I used a teaspoon of Cayenne pepper and 1/3 cup of BBQ sauce since I didn't have any sauces!)
3 T Worcestershire sauce
3 T yellow mustard
1 T unsulfured molasses

Serves 8 - so 8 wheat hamburger buns to be healthier, OR, if you like, use Hawaiian rolls (we LOVE these and they are super cheap at Costco)

Prep: Heat oil over medium-high, add chicken thighs, season with salt and pepper, cook until meat is done - about 5 minutes, repeat with chicken breasts. Then, move (without oil) to crock pot. Next, add onion, garlic and bell pepper and cook over medium, about 6 minutes (until onion is translucent), then add 1/4 cup of water and continue cooking for about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and move to crock pot.

Crock Pot Prep: Add can of crushed tomatoes, hot-pepper sauce, molsasses, mustard and Wrocestershire. Stir with chicken and veggies made from prep above and cook for 4 hours on high until chicken is very tender. Shred chicken and wa-la! Ready to serve on buns!

Spice-Rubbed Fish with Lemony Rice

I love Martha Stewart! Her stuff is just GOLDEN! Her wedding website was awesome and as a result, I not only got a sweet seating chart scaled to size that I inputted, but following the big day, I wrote a couple reviews for my vendors and now get a free Food Magazine by Martha Stewart that has TONS of awesome recipes! I am only beginning my adventure with her magazine but man, do I love having a photo and easy recipes that don't take longer than 1 hour and normally consist of items I already have in my kitchen!

Tonight, I made "spice-rubbed fish with lemony rice," with a substitution of cucumber for zucchini (because that's what Andy got for me but in reality, it's like he knew because I prefer cucumbers!).

First, I made the spice mix for the fish rub:
1/4 cup ground coriander
1 tbls ground ginger
1 tbls paprika
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/4 cayenne pepper (I added this myself)

Any extra spice can be sealed and stored up to 3 months. I put what we had left in a ziploc bag and I think it will probably make one more fish but only time shall tell.

Ingredients:
4 tsp butter
1 small yellow onion - diced
1 garlic clove (or I use the already chopped garlic in a bottle cuz I don't like how it makes my hands smell after handling it)
1 cup rice (we used white but brown also works)
1 lemon
2 cups chicken broth (low-sodium preferably)
1 cucumber
fish pieces - we used tilapia

So, first you chop up the onion, get your garlic ready, zest your lemon and cut it in half, and slice up your cucumber.

Next, in a medium saucepan, heat the butter on medium and then add the onion and garlic for about 4 minutes or until the onion is soft. Next, stir in the rice and cook for 1 minute. Now, stir in the lemon zest, squeeze half a lemon, the cucumber slices and season with some salt and pepper (I used kosher salt and ground pepper). Bring the mix to a boil and then let it simmer for about 13 minutes. While you wait, wash the dishes you already used, fold some laundry (all things I did) and get the fish ready by putting the spice mix on one side. Next, put the fish on top of the rice with the spice side up and cover the saucepan for about 7 minutes (fish cooks fast!). Wa-la! Dinner is served!!!!!

The recipe is supposed to make 4 servings but between Andy and me, we about 1/3 cup of rice left with a tiny piece of fish left (think one tim tam). Not sure what that means but it was delicious and we got our vegetables, grains (sorta) and protein!

Easy Fish for Dinner

I made this last night for our New Year's even dinner (from my favorite Mormon cookbook) and it surprisingly took only 45 minutes from start to finish (including waiting for the oven to heat up and not really knowing 100% what I was making until maybe 15 minutes in...)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Ingredients:
2 salmons
4 baby carrots
1 red bell pepper
1 red onion
1 lemon
salt and pepper
lemon pepper
butter
thyme

Chop up 4 baby carrots, 1/4 of a red bell pepper and 1/4 of a red onion - put aside

Put 2 salmons on a generous sheet of foil on a 12 x 9 pan
Squeeze one lemon's juice on the fish
Flavor with salt, pepper and lemon pepper
In separate bowl, warm 2 tablespoons of butter and mix thyme in
Drizzle butter and vegetables over salmon, wrap the foil so that salmon is fully covered
Put in oven for 20 minutes.

Enjoy!