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!