Pineapple Fried Rice

Wow, it's been a long time since I've cooked... I'm getting back to it though and loving it! I'm also trying to excercise, eat healthier (husband and kids too) and just live healthier in general. BUT, I do not want to sacrifice flavor. I don't care how healthy it is, if it's not tasty, I'm not interested!

A friend turned me on to Gina's Skinny Recipes. Basically good food revamped to be healthier and it still tastes good. She has the nutritional value and even weight watcher points for each recipe if you're interested. I tried out the Pineapple Shrimp Fried Rice last night. We all (kids included) loved it! I was a little scared of brown rice but we really liked it and the husband even prefers it over white rice. Score! I think he recipe would be great with chicken or pork too if you aren't a shrimpy kind of person.

I changed a couple of things. I seasoned my shrimp with garlic salt although the recipe doesn't call for any season on the shrimp. I used quite a bit of cilantro because we love it in our house. Rather than just garnish with it, I stirred it into the rice just before serving. It was wonderful. One other change - I already had several cans of pineapple at home so I did not use fresh pineapple. It was still really good though and can imagine it would be even better with fresh pineapple. Cooking this made me wish I had a non-stick wok!

One word: CHOWDER

Clear Springs Cafe has an amazing Jalepeno Crawfish Chowder. I am in LOVE with it. I want to make it home but can't find a recipe for it. (anyone that works there feel free to share it with me!!!) It's spicy, it's a little sweet, it has chunks of crawfish in it... I'm thinking some corn too. It's SOOOOO good. I get it every time we go. Of course, everything I have had at Clear Springs has been good.

I found a recipe on The Pioneer Woman's blog for Corn Chowder with Chilies. I had hopes that it would remind me of my chowder from Clear Springs... just minus the crawfish. It didn't. But it was good! Spicy, corny, creamy... a little "bacony"... and hot...perfect for today!

Bacon, onion, and butter! It has to be good!

It called for two of these but I chickened out and went kid friendly with only one. With these and the green chile's... it was just spicy enough.

Throw in some corn and the peppers...

Add chicken broth and heavy whipping cream, masa/water mixture and simmer.

I added some cilantro for garnish and served with warm flour tortillas. DELISH!

Warm me up kinda food

Today would have been a good day for a nice hot bowl of chicken and dumplins... but we already had them twice this week! Honestly, I could eat them every day that it is below 50 outside but James and the kids would get bored.

When I made these, I didn't have a whole chicken on hand so I used a bag of boneless skinless breasts. It is NOT the same but it works. I boiled the chicken with a couple cloves of garlic, half an onion (left whole so I can take it out), salt, & pepper. When the chicken is done, just shred or dice and add back to the pot. For the dumplins, I used 2 cups bisuick, 2/3 cup of milk, 1 tbsp of salt, 1/2 tbsp of garlic powder, 1/2 tbsp of pepper, 1/2 tbsp dried sage. Mix it up, and drop clumps in the boiling chicken broth, put a lid on it and wait 10 minutes.

They are soooo delicious! We ate all the dumplins up! I had to make more the next day to go with the rest of the broth and chicken. Tell me, how do you make your dumplins?

What happens when you put jalepeno, pineapple,

monterrey jack cheese, bbq sauce, tortillas



and amazing grilled chicken together?



You get Grilled Chicken & Pineapple Quesadilla's! THANK YOU Pioneer Woman!! Sweet, spicy, tangy, cheesy... You must make these. Seriously.

I used the same season on the chicken as she does (Slap Ya Mama) and the bbq sauce we used is Stubbs. We will be grilling the chicken again soon...I snacked on it while I was making the quesadillas and it is probably my favorite grilled chicken ever. Next time we have the quesadillas I'll cut everything into little bites before putting it on the tortilla so I get some of everything in each bite. The cilantro was a great accent!

Cheesy, Buttery, garlicky, goodness... with a kick.

I'm not normally a grits kinda girl but I had some the other day at MOPS (Mother's of PreSchoolers). It was a complete accident. If I had known what it was, I probably wouldn't have put any on my plate. But I just saw a big bowl of cheesy goodness and on my plate it went! They were incredible! I hunted down the maker (Rhonda) and inquired about the recipe. It was Paula Deen's Baked Garlic Cheese Grits with some doctoring up. I never really thought of Paula Deen's recipes as anything needing to be doctored up so I was suprised. Take the recipe I linked back to and get some jalepeno's... the "nacho slice" kind and chop up about a 1/4 cup (more if you like it spicier) and sprinkle in some Tony's seasoning. The perfect addition! I made the grits myself last night to go along with our breakfast for supper. They were a big hit with the adults (especially Gramps), Cracker Jack, and even Nelson. Henry had to force them down but he's a little strange. :)

So... even if you don't care much for grits, try these! Make a half recipe if it's just a couple of people. We had 6 of us and had quite a bit leftover. How can you go wrong with a corn product, 1 1/2 lbs of cheese, and a stick of butter??

Here it is all mixed together and in the biggest bowl I have... topped with cheese and ready for the oven. I forgot to take an after picture but I can asure you: IT LOOKED GREAT!

M is for Meatloaf!

I have tried a couple different meatloaf recipes that were just so-so. Nothing my family has ever asked for again. Tonight however was different! I made a half recipe in case is wasn't that good... I should have known better since it's from The Pioneer Woman. We are sad that we don't have enough leftovers for everyone. Just enough for James. He is happy though. I was really surprised by how delicious the ketchup sauce was. I am trying to think of another way to use it. If nothing else comes to mind, I'll just make some french fries to dip in it! If you need a good meatloaf recipe that is not quite traditional but not too different...that is moist and has everyone wanting there to be leftovers for sandwiches then this is the recipe for you! Oh, and you have to like bacon. :) My pics are below but here is the link to the recipe. My Favorite Meat Loaf

I wasn't so sure about that bowl in the lower left corner...but it worked. (plain white bread soaked in whole milk). Notice my retro mixing bowls. They were my Mom's. I love using them! :)

Put together and ready for the oven! The ketchup mixture was really good and I had to swap out a couple ingredients - I didn't have brown sugar or tabasco so I used white sugar and Louisiana hot sauce. That and some dry mustard made an amazing sauce. And how do you like my homemade broiler pan? For some unknown reason I don't have one so I improvised. Foil wrapped around a metal rack (used for cooling cookies!) with slits cut in it on top of a baking sheet. Worked out well!

Ready to be devoured! The only problem I had was the bacon we have is too thick so it wasn't as done as we like it. Next time I'll have to make sure I get that really thin bacon that I usually avoid OR cook it a little before I put it on the meatloaf. All in all - it was a FANTASTIC meatloaf! We had it with the Crash Hot Potatoes. We can't seem to get enough of those. And this time we seasoned them with Tony's, chives, and added a sprinkling of cheese.

A is for Asparagus!

Asparagus is such a pretty, green vegetable. I love the "paintbrush tips" as my boys call them. Like most vegetables, they are GREAT with bacon and garlic! Most of the time we just cut them into bite size peices, fry some bacon, add the asparagus, garlic, and a little salt & pepper. Other times we let the asparagus sit in italian dressing then bundle them with bacon and and bake until the bacon is done. It's also great in an egg casserole for breakfast. But last night we drizzled them with oil, salt, pepper and roasted them whole at 450 until done. Simply delicious! I was thrilled when after peeking into the oven my 6 year old said, "Asparagus! Yes!! We haven't had that in a long time, Mom!" He usually loves it but last night he didn't... and neither did my 8 year old. They both insisted on dipping each bite into mustard (gag!) but whatever makes the veggies go down, right? And for the record, the baby devoured his asparagus....without any mustard.

So I want to know.... how do you like your asparagus?