Chicken, Cheddar, Bacon & Rice Bake

I came upon yet another fun food blog titled, What's cooking in the burbs! She has some serious great looking recipes that I can't wait to try! I'm no where near going through them but I did however find this little gem on Pinterest which is what got me to her blog in the first place. She adapted this recipe from AllRecipes and we LOVED it! I really struggled with putting the bacon in or leaving it out (healthy eating...remember?)! However, I still had a ways to go before I reached my goal for the day, so in went the bacon! Just FYI in case you're interested, this recipe, as is, runs about 445 calories per serving. If you leave out the bacon you can subtract 135 calories and come up with 310 calories per serving! If bacon is involved, I will typically favor the bacon IN instead of the bacon OUT! So let's get started, because once you make it, you're not going to want to stop eating it! This recipe serves about 6 people, so for 2 of us we had plenty of leftovers!

Ingredients

4 TB butter

1 medium onion, chopped (about one cup)

4 garlic cloves-minced (I used 3 because they were pretty big)

1 tsp seasoning salt

1 tsp Kosher salt (I forgot this when I made it-tasted just fine)

1/2 tsp black pepper

4 TB flour

3 1/2 c chicken stock

3 1/2 c milk

1 1/2 c long grain rice

3 c cooked chicken

1 1/2 c cheddar cheese-shredded

1/2 c cooked-crumbled bacon

To start it out you're going to melt the butter in a pan and add the onions. Cook the onions until they are tender, then add the garlic, seasoning salt and pepper. Stir this all together and add in the flour. Mix well! It's going to start to "clump" together so make sure you don't leave it alone for too long! Stir in the milk and chicken stock and turn the heat on the stove up to medium-high. Add in ONE CUP of cheese! (NOTE: This is not all the cheese for the recipe! I ALWAYS mess up and see "stir in cheese and add the whole cup and half and then realize later I was only supposed to put in a portion of the ingredient.) 

Continue to whisk until everything comes to a simmer. Add in the rice and lower the heat to medium-low and cook about 20 minutes or until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid! 

While this mixture was cooking, Dee Jay was working on getting the bacon cooked and crumbled!

Once your rice mixture is finished on the stove, add in the chicken and bacon to the rice/sauce mix! Pour all this into a 9x13 pan and sprinkle the remaining 1/2 c of cheese on top! Place it in the oven for 20-25 (we did 22 minutes) and bake until the cheese is bubbly! 

This is everything in the pan EXCEPT for the cheese topping!

I cannot express to you how much we enjoyed this recipe! It's not to heavy or loaded down, it's just...dare I say...perfectly delicious! Stay tuned for some more yummy recipes! 

Until then...

A little taste of the Orient

Is everyone as excited as I am about the return of Fall weather? I love the Fall...the smell, the world changing colors, the football games, the World Series baseball games, and definitely the cooking! Making dips and chili for Sooner football games, and warm, hearty foods to ease into the return of colder weather (hopefully)!! This recipe I made reminded me of Fall. It was warm, delicious, hearty, colorful, and would be divine with some lo mein noodles. We ate it as is, no rice and no noodles and it was absolutely wonderful! Next time, I will definitely "beef" it up with some noodles to make a exquisite dinner! So here is how you're going to cook up this delightful piece of the Orient...

For starters, I found this recipe on myRecipes (it can also be found on my Pinterest). It is full of colorful and tasty ingredients, so let's get started!

Here are the ingredients you're going to need:
2 TB ginger
1 TB minced garlic
3 TB low-sodium soy sauce
4 ts cornstarch, divided
1 ts sesame oil
1/2 ts red pepper flakes
1 pound of flank steak thinly sliced (I used tri-trip and cut it up into slices...it still worked and didn't break the bank)
Cooking spray
2 cups thinly sliced mushrooms- Shiitake
1 cup vertically sliced onion
1 cup red bell pepper strips
4 cups Bok Choy sliced/chopped
1 cup beef broth

First (about an hour or so before you're actually ready to cook) you are going to marinade your steak. I actually kept it in the fridge for 3 or 4 hours, just as long as it is in there for at least 20-30 minutes. You are going to combine the ginger, garlic, soy sauce, 2 ts of cornstarch, sesame oil, and crushed red pepper in a large Ziploc bag. Add your steak, seal the bag and pop it in the fridge.

When you are finally ready to get going, you are going to coat a large skillet with cooking spray and warm the pan over med-high heat. Add your mushroom, onion, and bell peppers. Cook about 3 minutes, then remove and transfer the vegetables to a bowl. Add the bok choy to the pan and saute until it is wilted (only takes a couple of minutes). Then, add the bok choy to the bowl of vegetables! 

Now you are going to re-coat your skillet with cooking spray and add half of you steak mixture. Cook about 3 minutes until the steak is browned (I actually had to turn up the heat just a tad). Remove the steak to the bowl, then repeat the process (coat pan--add steak--brown steak--place in bowl).

Now in small bowl, you are going whisk together the broth and remaining 2 tsp of cornstarch. Add this mixture to the pan and scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen the browned bits stuck to the skillet. Bring broth to boil and return your bowl of goodies to the skillet.

Toss this all together (gently) to coat everything with the "gravy". Take your skillet off the heat, make noodles or rice if you wish, and serve! It is delicious and packed with lots of goodies like greens, peppers, and mushrooms!!

This truly is a wonderful dish, and if you add noodles or rice, let me know how it turns out!! I get a lot of feedback from you all about what you like! Don't forget either that we are on Facebook!! Be sure to "like" the page so you can see when new recipes have been added!

Here is the link to the actual recipe again...RECIPE

~Happy Eating~

Here is my funny photo I found this week that I had to share with ya'll!! Keep your head up...Tomorrow is Friday!!

 Photo courtesy of http://www.mopo.ca

 

Pork Sirloin and Broccoli Stir Fry

I found a recipe that will save you some money when it comes to ordering Chinese take-out! I pinned this recipe to my Pinterest page, we tweaked it to fit the meat we had in our freezer (Bone-in pork sirloin chops) and went to work creating this wonderful and delicious stir-fry dinner. You can find the original recipe on Rainy Day Gal's blog. She has many great ideas and recipes on her blog and I can't wait to try some more of these delicious creations! Here is how our Asian dinner happened...

We started with the pork chops and sliced them into thin strips.

Be sure and trim some of the fat off before putting these in the skillet

In a large bowl you are going to whisk together a half teaspoon of baking soda, one teaspoon of sugar, one tablespoon of cornstarch, one tablespoon of soy sauce (low sodium if you have it), and one tablespoon of water. Then take your pork strips (or steak strips if you prefer) and place them in the bowl with the marinade and mix it all together to make sure the pieces are coated. Place them in your fridge to marinade for at least an hour. 

While this is marinating you can make the sauce! In a bowl add a half of a cup of soy sauce, two tablespoons of brown sugar (I used heaping tablespoons) four cloves of garlic, two tablespoons of flour, and one tablespoon of sherry (which is optional but tastes great). Whisk this all together and set aside. 

When you pull the marinated strips out, you will heat up two tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large skillet. Add two heads of broccoli (just the tree top parts) and saute in the hot oil for three minutes. Once your broccoli has turned a nice dark shade of green, place them on a plate and off the heat. In the same skillet you just sauteed the broccoli in you are going to toss in the meat with half of the sauce. Once the meat is cooked through, you can add the broccoli and the rest of the sauce and stir it all together. Remember to leave your post at the stove because the liquid you add will caramelize and burn quickly. 

We added a few sprinkles of sesame seeds to the skillet and sauteed them in with everything before we served it!

Once you have everything mixed together you will spoon it over a bed of rice and you will find yourself much happier than when you order take-out! 

  Feel free to add in your own vegetables or flavors! It almost looks like it's calling for the color of carrots! 

Again....Super easy and very tasty! Here is the direct link to her version with the run-down...

1-1 1/2 lbs. flank steak (or Pork)

1/2 ts baking soda

1 ts sugar

1 tbs cornstarch

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs water

Marinade the meat in the above mixture for at least one hour

1/2 c of soy sauce

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

4 cloves of garlic minced

2 tbs flour

1 tbs sherry (optional)

(whisk together to make sauce)

Heat 3 tablespoons in a skillet on high and stir in 2 heads of broccoli for 3 minutes.

Take broccoli out of skillet and place on plate then add the marinaded meat and half of the sauce to the skillet and cook through. 

Add broccoli and the rest of the sauce (sesame seeds if you like) and stir around until all the mixture is heated through. Serve on a bed of rice!

~Happy Eating~

A quick shrimp and rice lunch plate

Alright, I'm not a professional chef by any means and normally it is hit and miss (more miss than hit) when I get in the kitchen and try to create something new. However, this time around I made a quick lunch for us before we headed out to the lake and it was great! So I'm going to share it with you and you can tell me what you think! Deal?!

I started with one bag of shrimp (I believe it was large sized) and heated up about a half of stick of butter in a skillet. While that was simmering in the skillet, I chopped up a couple green onions and minced two cloves of garlic and threw it in the pan. I cut a lemon in half and squeezed the juice all over the shrimp. While that was simmering and smelling great, I did a run through of my spice cabinet and decided to go with red pepper/cayenne pepper. I added a couple dashes (by dashes I mean I shook the spices over the shrimp twice). When I make this again, I will probably add more than a couple dashes because it was hardly spicy at all.

I left that on low and went to work looking for a side. I was excited to find that I still had an asparagus bundle in my fridge so I cleaned them up, cut the ends off and tossed them in another skillet. I added maybe a tablespoon or two of butter and a dash of kosher salt. I threw in a couple dashes of onion salt and garlic powder and let it simmer until the asparagus was warmed through.

Now to top it off, I made some white rice while the shrimp and asparagus stayed on low heat and then served the shrimp on top of a bed of rice (whole grain rice would be great too, I just didn't have the time to wait on it to cook). This was incredibly delicious, super easy and kept me satisfied until dinner time!
Hope ya'll enjoy this new recipe and let me know if you try it! I always like to hear back about the things we cook up!

~Happy Cooking~

Sweet and Sour Meatballs with Rice

So, it's been kind of rainy and blah in Tulsa the last couple days so I decided to make one of our favorite new dishes that we haven't had in awhile. Sweet and sour meatballs with white rice! I found this little gem on a blog I love to follow, Lauren's Latest. (The direct link to her recipe is here... Recipe). Think of almost a meatloaf flavor meatball with a tangy and sweet sauce over white rice. Heavenly? Yes!!! We haven't had time to go to the store yet this week, and all of these ingredients I still had in my freezer/fridge, so it was a pretty easy decision to make. One thing I love about cooking is getting your hands dirty (a big reason I love to garden as well). I like getting in there and mixing the ingredients together and forming the perfect meatballs to make a delicious meal. So here's how to make this mouthwatering dish!

First you will take a half of a pound of meat and throw it in a bowl (I always use at least a pound and add a little more to each ingredient as I go along because it's something easy Dee Jay can warm up when he gets home...Gotta love those leftovers)! Next I chop up 1/4 cup (plus a little more for us) of white onion. I usually try to cut my pieces pretty small but I was in a hurry today so the pieces were bigger. Toss the onion in with the meat. Next, you will cut up one clove of garlic and add to the mix along with some salt and pepper and one egg. Then add 1/3-1/2 cup of breadcrumbs and get ready for the fun part! I like to take my hands (if it grosses you out use a spatula or something to mix with) and really mix those ingredients together. I knead mine together, kind of like I'm making bread dough until everything is thoroughly mixed.

 After you have finished, you will scoop a little meat out and roll around in your palms to form a small meat ball. Keep rollin' until you run out of meat!

Now it's time to make the sauce (because you will need to pay attention to the meatballs in the skillet it's best to make the sauce ahead of time). Grab a bowl and mix together a cup of ketchup, 1/2 cup of water, a teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of yellow mustard, 1 clove of minced garlic, 2 tablespoons of finely chopped onion, 1 1/2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, a little bit of pepper, and a 1/4 of a cup of packed brown sugar.
NOTE: I added a dash of Worcestershire and soy sauce to the meat mixture or you can just stick with the recipe and use it in the sauce only).
Stir this saucy goodness around until it's mixed together and set aside.

Now you're going to take a large skillet and pour in some olive oil. I usually go around the pan 2-3 times and then coat the bottom of the pan very well. Carefully add the meatballs into the oil (watch out for grease splashes) and brown on all sides. After I have browned the meat I set it on a plate with a paper towel to help soak up some of the oil and grease. Then I drain the extra grease out of the pan run a paper towel over the grease to help soak it up and then put the meatballs back into the skillet. Turn the heat down low and coat the meatballs with your sauce and put a lid on it and sit back for about 15 minutes and let your mouth water as you smell the goodness in the air. When you have about 5 minutes left I throw the rice in some boiling water and let stand for 5 minutes as the package directs.

Once the 15 minute waiting period is over (it seems to take FOREVER), I take the skillet off the stove and let cool for about 3-4 minutes (that is really all I can stand once I take the lid off and can smell the sauce)! In a bowl we add rice and then top with the meatballs with sauce and DIG IN!! Have I mentioned how yummy this is?? Because it will leave you wanting more and more and more and so on. I think I need to have a dance off in my living room now to burn some extra calories because one bowl is just not enough.

Here is the link to the site again with the recipe and I'll put the ingredients below as well!
~Happy Eating~

Sweet and Sour Meatballs
 MEATBALLS
1/2 lb ground beef (80/20)
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
salt
pepper
1 egg
1/3-1/2 cup breadcrumbs
(I add a dash of Worcestershire and soy sauce)
Olive oil (for the pan)

SAUCE
1 cup ketchup
1/2 water
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons yellow mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1-1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
pepper