Taco lettuce wraps-Take 1

Granite I have not been doing a ton of cooking lately but what I have done is cooked 2 great meals of taco lettuce wraps.  The 1st one being of the beef variety. 

I started with these ingredients:

• 2 (1-pound) flank steaks, trimmed 
• 3 cups thinly vertically sliced red onion
• 2 cups red bell pepper strips (about 2 peppers) 
• 2 cups green bell pepper strips (about 2 peppers) 
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 6 tablespoons thinly sliced pitted green olives
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 6 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 3 cups fat-free, less-sodium beef broth
• 1 tablespoon no-salt-added tomato paste
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add 1 steak to pan; cook 2 1/2 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove steak from pan. Repeat procedure with cooking spray and remaining steak.
2. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion, bell peppers, and garlic to pan; cook 7 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in olives and next 5 ingredients (through black pepper); cook 30 seconds or until fragrant. Stir in vinegar, scraping pan to loosen browned bits; cook for 2 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates. Stir in broth, tomato paste, and bay leaves. Add steaks; bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat, and cook 1 1/2 hours or until steaks are very tender. Discard bay leaves.
3. Remove steaks from pan; shred with two forks. Stir shredded beef and cilantro into pan.

The finished product I used butter lettuce to eat as wraps, with a little guacamole of course. 

Working for the weekend, everyone wants a little rest...

I know I have been slacking lately on the post, the truth is I haven't really been cooking much lately so I have no new recipes to post! Things have been pretty hectic lately between John traveling the last 3 weeks, wedding planning an everyday tasks I have been a little over whelmed.

This weekend our 2 families will be meeting for the first time. I know your thinking what they haven't met before! I am from PA and my family still obviously still lives there and John's family lives in NH so it's hasn't been ideal for them to meet.  Friday night we have a great cook out planned which John's parents are so graciously hosting then afterwards we are spending the weekend at John's family's lake house for a weekend full of boat rides, sun (hopefully) and good food.

Since I have been lacking on food here are a few of my favorites that you must give a try:

Chicken & kale:

Turkey burgers with zucchini:

Pasta with sweet potatoes:

 Thai lettuce chicken wraps:

Banana chocolate chip cookies:

And lastly baby Ella:

Although you can not eat her she is sooo cute you would like too!!!

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

When grocery shopping I do not by any treats or desserts on purpose. Because I have no will power what so ever and if it's there I'll eat it. (First step to recovery is admitting you have a problem)

So if I am in the mood for dessert I have to make something. Which usually does not end up happening because lets face it when you get a sweet craving at 8pm your most likely not going to bake that batch of cookies.

But tonight was a different story, John is away again this week for work and I was caught up on all my dvr shows soooo
I baked these:

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoons sea salt plus extra teaspoon salt for final sprinkle

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

3/4 cups packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1  teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips 

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 2 large baking sheets 

Mix together flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.

Beat together butter and sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Lightly beat 1 egg with a fork in a small bowl and add 1 3/4 tablespoons of it plus remaining whole egg to butter mixture, beating with mixer until creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and mix in flour mixture until just blended, then stir in chocolate chips.

Scoop 1/4 cup batter for each cookie, arranging mounds 3 inches apart, on 2 baking sheets. Flatten mounds into 3-inch rounds using moistened palm of your hand.  Form remaining cookies on additional sheets of parchment. Sprinkle each cookie with a dash of additional salt.

Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until golden, 13 to 15 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool and continue making cookies in same manner using cooled baking sheets.

Makes 9 large cookies. (adapted from source)

They were soo good, they were definitely sweet with a little salty mixed in. And had they wonderful ooey gooey texture on the inside. 

Wedding dress shopping

This past weekend my mom and sister visited for wedding dress shopping. The good news is I found a dress! But I had to try on about 20 until I found the one. When I came out in the last dress both my mom and sister started crying so I knew that was the one!

For those of us who hate shopping it is a pain staking awkward process. The sales ladies tend to be very strongly opinionated and suggest what they think you'll like and then are in the dressing room with you (while your practically naked) helping you into all these dresses. Which again if your not a shopper leads to a LOT of awkward moments.

Here are a few I tired on: (none of these are my dress)

Olive & feta turkey burgers

This week my meals have consisted of leftover chicken, turkey burgers and subway- turkey with avocado and spinach (due to no electric).

Last night we had a power outage at our condo complex. It wasn't pretty folks, what did people do without electric? And worse by themselves.
I tried reading by candle light, Fail. The candle flame kept flickering (as candle flames do) and I was getting a headache reading not to mention they aren't to bright. Then I tried to watch a dvd on the computer but then the battery died. Because leaving the apt after I was already in pj's was not an option I did what any normal person would do and stared out the window in a creepy dark apt and spied on the neighbors and walker byers.

Now that that I made myself sound creepy, on to turkey burgers! As promised I decided to make a second round of turkey burgers but this time using olives instead of the zucchini.
I mixed together :

• 1lb of organic ground turkey
• 1 glove of garlic (minced)
• 1/3c fresh cilantro
• 1/3c feta
• 1/2t cumin
• 1/2t coriander
• 1/4t of red cayenne pepper
• 1/3c chopped olives
• a dash of olive oil

Made into 4 patties

 

Cooked on a grill pan and then finished in the oven.

Ate with a side of sweet potato fries of course. :)

Chicken and kale

This weekend was a wonderful weekend full of baby Ella, and family. Sunday we came home early so I could catch up on laundry, cleaning and errand running that hasn't been done in weeks! John is gone again this week so dinners will be easy again.

Sunday I made roasted chicken and kale for dinner. John for what ever reason loves this dish (maybe he doesn't know kale is healthy?). It's super easy to make and only dirties 1 pot can't get simpler then that!

Here is what you'll need ingredient wise:

• organic chicken (leg and thigh bone in pieces)
• 1 big clove of garlic
• 1 bunch of kale
• 1 can of no salt added diced tomatoes
• 14oz of no salt added chicken broth 
• evoo
• 1/2 c flour
• salt & pepper

Start by salt and peppering the chicken then shake it around in the flour. Next add a little evoo to your pot (you'll want to use a deep pot) and brown your chicken about a min or so each side.

Remove the chicken and set aside add a little more evoo if needed to the pan and add the garlic and sautee for 30 sec then add the kale in batches until it wilts. 

Next add the tomatoes and chicken broth and bring to a boil.

Once boiling add the chicken back in and bake in the oven at 325 for about 1.5 hrs.

There is not to much to it, just a bit of waiting time! The chicken falls off the bone! I served our with a little brown rice.

I'll be eating the leftovers this week.

I've died and gone to tomato heaven

Early this week I stopped by Whole Foods to pick up some grocery for myself and when you walk in the door they have this beautiful display of heirloom tomatoes. I skipped over it because I didn't need tomatoes this week (that was a mistake) I finished up my shopping and headed home.

All week I couldn't stop thinking about those tomatoes. Now let me preface this by saying until about 2.5 years ago I hated tomatoes, it was a texture thing I couldn't get over it. Then at John's Superbowl party there was a big bowl of cherry tomatoes starring me down and all of a sudden I had a really weird urge to eat one. 

And I did just that and now I can't stop eating them. I would say a good tomato ranks right up there with some of my favorites cheese, pasta and pickles.    

So Wednesday night after work I headed back to Whole Foods just to purchase these lovely things. I had a wise friend tell me once if you aren't sure if you want to spent the money on something don't purchase it immediately. If after a few days your still thinking/in love with the item go ahead and purchase it. Of course she was referring to a purchase of a bigger item but I was still thinking about those tomatoes so I purchased them.

My plan was to make a quiche in sticking with the protein theme this week. So I gathered what I wanted to put in it. 

• organic ham lunch meat
• green onions
• tomatoes

Sliced them all up and started to assemble.

 Then threw is in the oven at 400 for 20 mins. Mean while I had some extra tomato left so I sprinkled a little sea salt (because I am learning that sea salt is the best) then and started eating. 

 And upon the first bite OH MY GOD! Hands down these are the best tomatoes I have ever had!! I can't even begin to describe it I was speechless. It was the perfect ripeness a little mushy on the inside but still with a firm skin. I ate almost all of the 2 tomatoes but decided I should probably save some since I was never going to get a tomato this good again. I will always be telling the story- you know that one time I had a tomato that was soo good...

By this time the quiche was done.

So I ate. 

Thanks for reading my tomato story. :)