Fast Food Revamped

Tonight we did a new take on burgers and fries. We made turkey burgers and sweet potato fries. The meal was excellent.

This meal serves 4. You need:

-1 pound of ground turkey
-1 clove of garlic
-some diced onion
-some diced mushrooms
-sprinkle of Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 tablespoon of egg whites
- salt and pepper.

Mix all the ingredients together and make 4 individual patties. Even though it's summer, we cooked them on a frying pan because we don't have a grill. They cook about 7 minutes on each side.

For the french fries:
-4 small sweet potatoes - scrubbed but not peeled. We cut shoestring style and seasoned with salt and pepper and olive oil. We cooked at 400 for 20 minutes. If you want crispier fries, we suggest 25-30 minutes in the oven.

For toppings we used:
-1/2 avocado
-pepper jack cheese
-bacon which Tori burnt to a crisp

Any toppings would be great including the traditional onions, tomatoes, lettuce and pickles! You could also use an actual bun :) we went bunless.

Summer Treats

Tough to believe that July is almost over and we haven't blogged at all. But don't worry we've still been cooking! Today we thought we would share a few things we've made this month as well as a brand new recipe!

Up first, a tried and tested pinterest find! Tori's sister has made "slutty" brownies a few times so Tori thought she would try them herself. They are very simple to make. We just don't recommend baking them when your apartment is already 90 degrees.

These are a 3 layered brownie. The first layer is chocolate chip cookies. Tori made the cookies from scratch but you could just as easily buy the ready to bake cookies. Next up is a layer of oreo cookies. Followed by brownie mix.

Preheat the oven to 400 and bake for 55 minutes. Simply spread the cookie dough over the bottom of pan. Then add oreos. Then add the brownie batter- make sure it covers all the cookies!

Next up this summer, we made a peanut butter dough ball. Again so simple and another tried and true pinterest find. All you need is:

-1 cup powdered sugar 

-3/4 cup creamy peanut butter 

- 1 block of cream cheese (softened)

- 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar 

Combine these ingredients and then form them into a ball. Once you have a ball of dough, cover it with:

-3/4 cup milk chocolate chips 

-3/4 cup peanut butter chips 

Refrigerate until serving. We served with cinnamon graham crackers and the plate was practically licked clean. Sorry no picture!

Sunday Funday

Happy summer!!! Happy Sunday! What a glorious day! The weather is gorgeous. While it could be slightly warmer out, no worries we have a couple different recipes for y'all today! First let us start by saying we had a special guest today! Our dear friend Erica from college has moved to Boston and we couldn't be  more excited!!!!

We started out with a little app, then some sangria and pizza, topped by a couple 'a cones from JP Licks!

For the app -- We did tomato and mozzarella. First let us say that Tori HATES tomatoes but she ate the whole thing. This was really really simple. We just sliced a tomato, added a basil leaf, and then added a slice of fresh mozzarella on top. It's so easy to pull together and so so so delicious.

Next up-- Sangria! Who doesn't love Sangria? Today we went with a white sangria.
We used:
-2 bottles of pinot grigio.
- 1 bottle mandarin seltzer
-2 peaches- diced
- 1/2 cup of smirnoff sorbet lite- mango passion fruit
- 1/2 of mango OJ from TJs.


Chill until serving

Main Course-- Pizza. This was a weight watchers recipe inspired by Laalosh: http://www.laaloosh.com/2008/11/11/weight-watchers-pizza-recipe/
We took our own take on the recipe mainly because Tori doesn't have a grill LOL

We used:
-3 tortillas by Joseph
-pizza sauce (eyeballed)
-3 slices of provolone cheese (divided)
- 2 tablespoons of parmesean cheese divided evenly
-shitake mushrooms sliced and divided evenly
- diced onion
-handful of mozzarella cheese sprinkled on each.

First we heated the oven to 400 and warmed the tortillas for 6 minutes . Then we added the pizza sauce, onions, cheeses and mushrooms. We returned to the oven and cooked for 10 minutes. Then we feasted and served with sangria. They were delicious. This was the first recipe in a few that we were seriously content with. This was really easy to make and would definitely be a good and quick after work dinner. For our friends doing weight watches out there the pizza was about 5 points! Can't speak for the sangria:)

Well at least the chicken was good

Hello fellow readers! Sorry that we've been on yet another hiatus, our longest one yet. We've moved to opposite ends of the train line and it is now very inconvenient to cook together after work. We've gone back to trying out restaurants, we really liked Tia's on the harborside check it out!

Anyways we're back, enjoying Sunday Funday. We will try to cook more regularly on Sundays coming up. Today we made mojitos and chicken enchiladas.

We started with the mojitos, clearly the most important part. We used a shot of silver rum, ice, mint leaves, seltzer (any flavor), today we tried black cherry, lime juice and sugar to taste. It was crisp and refreshing.

Then we got to cooking. We found today's recipe on siriouslydelicious.blogspot.com. Per usual we took our own spin.

Ingredients:
4 chicken breast halves -- shredded
Skim Monterey Jack Cheese - 6 oz
sliced avocado - 1 half
8 corn tortillas
1 jar of Trader Joe's verde salsa

We started by grilling the chicken on a George foreman. Meanwhile we grated the cheese and warmed the tortillas in the oven. Next we diced the chicken in small pieces. We stuffed each tortilla with chicken and cheese, rolled it, and placed it in a casserole dish. We poured the jar of salsa on the top and baked for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. We topped the enchiladas with the remaining grated cheese and baked an additional 5 minutes. The enchiladas were served with diced avocado on top.

The dish was filling and somewhat light but overall the flavor was both bland and salty, which we attribute to the green salsa. If we were to do it all over again we would use flour tortillas instead of corn, as they were too crumbly. Both of us are not fans of corn tortillas but thought we'd give them another try.

Happy Sunday, catch ya next time!

Tonight we fish

Okay. We don't actually fish but can we go to the seafood department and buy some. Tonight we're making cod and veggie foil packs!

We found the recipe from the Food Network, http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/citrus-tilapia-en-papillote-recipe.html.

We bought two 4oz cod filets.

First we chopped up a bunch veggies:

-1 medium potato
-1 zucchini
-1 cup of bella mushrooms
-diced garlic

Then we made the seasoning:

-2 teaspoons light soy sauce
-2 lemon wedges
-1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
-freshly grated black pepper

We placed the fish in the foil packs. Before adding the veggies, we seasoned the fish. Then added the veggies and more seasoning.We closed the foil packs and placed them in the oven and baked at 350 for 35 minutes. Essentially the foil pack is supposed to act as a steamer.

For our readers doing WW out there, I'm calculating the points plus as 4! Before the wine that is :)

We served with a glass of Chardonnay from TJs. This dish was amazing. We can't wait to make it again or better yet now we've been inspired to make a seafood casserole!!

A Breakfast Treat

Hello! It has been a few weeks since we got together to cook. We had been planning to make a quiche for a for awhile but kept rescheduling. Finally, we had the perfect opportunity -- brunch! It was also perfect because we didn't have to eat the whole thing ourselves like we usually do.

We made a green chili quiche. We found the recipe in a recent issue of the Food Network Magazine. As always, we took our own spin on it and decided to skinny it up a bit. It called for milk and heavy cream which we didn't do want to. Also for our readers doing Weight Watchers out there, one serving of the quiche was 6 points plus. The recipe serves 4.

We used:
4 eggs
1 cup of skim milk
1/2 cup of light cream
2 scallions, chopped
1 can of green chiles
1/2 cup of chopped pepper jack cheese
Handful of spinach
A reduced fat pie crust

We combined the ingredients together and poured them into a pie dish. We baked at 400 for 30 minutes. It was delicious and our friends loved it! We served it with coffee.

Next time we would add more veggies or perhaps bacon or sausage. This dish was excellent as is. We highly recommend it for brunch. It would also go great with mimosas.

Happy Spring!

All that glitters is not gold

It's quinoa. Quinoa goes everywhere just like glitter. We just made a dish using quinoa and we got quinoa EVERYWHERE.

Tonight, we decided to recreate Skinny Taste's dirty brown rice with shrimp recipe, found here: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/02/dirty-brown-rice-with-shrimp.html.

Dirty rice is a traditional NOLA dish, typically made with brown beef, rice and peppers.

Per usual we took our own spin on the dish. We subbed quinoa for the rice which in hindsight we would have done a little differently. The hamburg to quinoa ratio was 98:1.

Here's how we did it:
-1/2 cup quinoa and 1 cup of water. We added salt, paprika, thyme, chicken bouillon, and a bay leaf to the water.
-Bring quinoa to a boil, then simmer and cover on low for 10 minutes or until the water evaporates.

-Simultaneously, in another pan, saute garlic, onion, green pepper and scallions in oil for about 5 minutes. Then add in a pound or so of hamburg and your spices. We used: salt and pepper, thyme, paprika, cayenne pepper and another bay leaf. Brown up the 'burg and then the best part: add a poundish of peeled shrimp. Once the shrimp are cooked, mix everything and add the quinoa. Then serve and eat.

Things we'd do differently:

We would either increase the quinoa to meat ratio or skip quinoa an use rice or even try spaghetti squash. Also add more veggies such as red pepper. The recipe did call for celery but we don't care for celery so we didn't add it.

We only used a quarter teaspoon of cayenne but would use more to increase the kick.

We would also add garlic powder.

This would be a good dish to feed a crowd as it makes a lot. Very easy to clean up besides the quinoa  glitter.

Until next week!

Our Bout with Beef

Beef Stroganoff is a classically rich dish. We were craving comfort food on this warm spring day, but realized we can't eat mass amounts of sour cream with warmer weather and beach trips approaching. We had a recipe and decided to make a number of substitutions...a few too many substitutions. 

We started by sauteing a diced onion and one package of sliced baby bella mushrooms in olive oil for about ten minutes, until the onions browned. Meanwhile, we seasoned cubed steak with salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. The meat was added to the vegetable mixture and cooked all the way through. Once this was complete, we turned off the heat and added plain Greek yogurt. We opted for yogurt instead of sour cream, hoping to reduce the fat amount. Unfortunately, the texture of the dish was compromised. The sauce was a little watery and the yogurt began to separate. 

Traditionally beef stroganoff is served over egg noodles but we wanted to use a vegetable instead of carb heavy pasta. We cut up a head of broccoli and partially boiled it. This was drained, and transferred to a skillet with olive oil and sliced garlic. The broccoli was cooked in the garlic oil mixture until the garlic browned. 

All in all this dish had a lot of positives and an equal number of negatives. The healthy alternatives were a good idea in theory, but because of the number of them we felt that it barely resembled the actual dish. When a situation like this happens, we tend to add extra ingredients to give the recipe more flavor. We ended up with broccoli, topped with beef stroganoff, topped with mozzarella cheese...an undesirable menu. 

 

Until next week where we "experiment" with shrimp-its all about learning from mistakes.

PS If you're looking for a twist on cocktails, check out our BFF Kata's new blog: http://alcoholidays.wordpress.com/

Hungry Hungry Hippos

jkjk. But we ate pretty late so we were pretty hungry. Almost as hungry as hungry hungry hippos.

We're extremely sorry for the long hiatus. Tori casually went to China for half of February which didn't leave us a lot of time to cook and blog and wine. Becky was forced to eat candy while she was gone...

China was a great experience. Tori actually cooked with a hot pod over there. A hot pod is essentially a boiling pot of water placed in front of you and you individually cook veggies, noodles and lamb. Wasn't really a fan of the lamb but she gave it a go. It was all about trying new things and going with the flow. Very zen.

While Tori was gone, Becky was cooking up a storm. She experimented with ricotta sausage lasagna, chicken noodle soup, baked pesto pasta, and breaded chicken legs with garlic roasted broccoli.

Onto tonight's dish!

Tonight, we used a recipe from skinnygirl.com for tortellini mushroom soup. We eliminated some ingredients such as garlic and halved the broth to make it heartier.

We used:

4 cups of low sodium chicken broth
1 cup water
2 tablespoon butter
1 onion
1 stalk celery
1 colored carrrot
A blend of bella and shitake mushrooms
A package of cheese tortellini fresh from Trader Joe's

We added:
salt and pepper to taste
freshly grated Parmesan

and a bottle of Riesling.

First we diced all of our veggies and sauteed them in butter until tender. Then we added the chicken broth and water. Brought it to a boil and added the tortellini. We tasted it and it was a little bland probably because of the low sodium broth. So we added salt, pepper and parmesan. Next time we would use a beef broth to deepen the flavor.

The veggies really enhanced the flavor of the broth to give it that authentic homemade taste. In total this meal took 20 minutes. It was very quick which was great because we were hungry hippos.

As a side note, the recipe said it served 4. The package of tortellini served 3. As a main course for 2 hungry hungry hippos, it served 2.

Stay tuned for next week's beef stroganoff!

Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai

aka the BEST thing we've made to date.

We can't recommend this recipe enough. We're obsessed. It tasted exactly like pad thai and was super easy to make.

Tori's mom found this recipe for us on pinterest! Big shout out to her!! Thanks Mom! The recipe came from Closet Cooking. http://www.closetcooking.com/2014/01/spaghetti-squash-shrimp-pad-thai.html

We followed the recipe almost exactly, with a few modifications and other ideas for how we would make it next time.

We were worried we wouldn't have enough spaghetti squash or enough sauce, but once we pulled everything together, we had more than enough. We probably could have made 3 servings, but it was so good we clearly split it.

First we halved the spaghetti squash and baked it in the oven for 30 minutes at 400. Then we set it aside.

Next up, we made the sauce. We used soy sauce, a squeeze of lime, peanut butter, brown sugar and chili sauce.

Then we sauteed fresh shrimp, carrots, garlic, green onions, cilantro and cloves. Once the shrimp were cooked, we added the egg to the middle of the pan.

After mixing the ingredients and scrambling the eggs we added the spaghetti squash and the sauce. We mixed them all together and added a handful of peanuts.

Then we dug in and it was DIVINE.

Modifications we made or will make next time:
-We did not use bean sprouts, mainly because we couldn't find them anywhere but we didn't really need them.
-We also didn't use shallots
-We only used the juice of one lime instead of a quarter cup.
-We won't use carrots next time, they didn't add a lot of value.
-We would crush the peanuts next time as the recipe calls for.

Next time, we also will try it with chicken or beef or maybe all 3!

The Time We Cooked and Had To Order Take Out...

The time we learned how spicy Adobo Peppers actually are.

Tonight we wanted to try Garlic Chipotle Shrimp Tacos. It was our first time making shrimp. Becky found a misleading recipe in a magazine. It was described as a subtle smokey flavor. We practically needed a fire hydrant while attempting to eat them

Ingredients:
-1/2 pound of shrimp
-1 can of Chipoltle peppers in Adobo Sauce....WAAYYYYYY TOOOOOO MUCHHH. If you would like to try this we suggest reducing the measurements to 1 tablespoon.
-Diced onion
-1 ripe avocado
-1/2 lime
-Green Leaf Lettuce

We peeled the shrimp, let them soak in the sauce (mistake) and then sauteed the mixture with olive oil and onion for about 2 minutes. We plated them with the lettuce, topped them with avocado slices and a squeeze of lime.


We adapted the recipe by actually only using the adobo sauce because we were too lazy to get the food processor out and it was still way too hot. We also used lettuce tacos wraps instead of actual taco shells. Go Paleo!

It looks really harmless but looks can be deceiving. Those shrimp sure had a kick to them. Our eyes watered, sweat was coming out of our pores. We decided we couldn't finish this meal and it actually wasn't going to be that filling regardless. It was more of an appetizer. OOPS. So we decided to venture out in the rain for a better taco experience.

Unfortunately, no such luck. Becky got pork tacos and Tori got the grilled steak plate. But neither of these were tasty.

On the plus side tonight, we learned just how spicy adobo sauce is and what neighborhood restaurants to avoid. Peace Out!

Bacon Wrapped Meatballs

Hello Cooking World! We're sorry for the long hiatus we've been celebrating the holidays and been doing lots of cooking and eating.

We thought to start we would share some standouts of what we've been cooking! Becky made a chicken and leek pie, veggie pad thai, and pumpkin pancakes. Tori made buffalo chicken in the crockpot, quiche cupcakes, sugar cookie martinis!

But now we're back in action cooking our way through January. Tonight we're making bacon wrapped turkey meatballs with a side of roasted butternut squash. We were inspired from a recipe we saw on Paleomg.com. We're paleo'ing it up tonight because Tori is doing the Whole30 diet for the month of January. We're also not sampling wine tonight because of the diet.

Back to the recipe:

Slice and dice a butternut squash, season to taste- we used sea salt and olive oil. Cook at 400 for 30 minutes.

Turkey meatballs- pound of ground turkey mixed with 2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 an onion, salt and pepper, and garlic salt. Then the best part, wrap the meatballs in bacon - 1 piece for each meatball. Cook at 400 for 35  minutes. We made about 10 good sized meatballs aka now we have leftovers!!

These bacon wrapped meatballs were DELISH. Highly recommended! Becky topped hers with Parmesan cheese.

 Until next time friends!