Two things to start off with, first I need to talk about something else before my new obsession, and second, please note that this is two days in a row I am blogging...YAY!! Ok so before the obsession, last week I made homemade pesto and I just had to share. It was super easy and so delicious. It was awesome to use some of the overgrown basil in my front yard!! I just took a large handful of basil threw it in the food processor with some toasted pine nuts, parmesan cheese, garlic and olive oil. Simply delicious!
Last night I made my first recipe, Asian glazed chicken. Well it is technically called asian glazed drumsticks....but we only had chicken quarters, so that is what we used. This recipe took not many ingredients, was remotely quick to make (defrosting the chicken took the longest), was healthy and AMAZING. Holy buckets, if this recipe is any indication of what this website has in store for me then you can count me in! I served with with some steamed veggies to keep with the healthy theme.....mouth watering....
The best surprise EVER, coming home on a Friday night and to find out Matt had gone to the asain market and got a bunch of stuff for SUSHI! I LOVE LOVE sushi so this was a perfect way to spend a Friday night. I think I have tagged myself as a professional. I must say it was a great "couples" activity. It was just alot of fun. We started off with making the sushi rice. Not going to lie, waiting for it to cool was causing me a bit of anxiety because I just wanted to eat it. Matt bought crab sticks, fresh salmon and tuna, we had avocado and cucumbers on hand so we had a good variety going. The actual rolling of the sushi took a bit of practice but was fun. I am not sure if I have said it yet or not...but we have a very small crowded kitchen....you will be able to tell from the pictures.
We also made some sashami, but the rolls were my favorite. I liked mixing and mashing the different ingredients. Man sushi sounds good right now......
We even had wasabi and the pickled ginger....measuring cups made great dippers for the soy sauce. Hey when you don't have the space or the utensil, you gotta improvise!! The best roll of the night was the "all in" roll. I put every ingredient in it and I ate it all myself...Matt was full, whatever. I am a bottomless pit for sushi!!
Stay tuned for some killer recipes from my new food blog crush... www.skinnytaste.com
I have never had this much to blog about before. I am going to have to break this up into multiple posts...this is crazy!! I will try and stay on top of this from now on. Alright, well Matt worked over the weekend, so he was off work on Thursday and Friday. He had dinner planned both nights which was wonderful. Soooo lets start with Thursday night, salmon burgers. Yum, this was a great surprise. They were simple to make and we had almost all of the ingredients on hand. Since the salmon gets broken up, we just used frozen salmon, which saved us a bunch of money. Topping for the burger was arugula and tartar sauce, we aren't the biggest fans of tartar sauce but it was delicious. If you are sick of grilling the the normal hamburgers and brats, I highly recommend this.
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and pretty much any time they are around here, we are in attendance. We have developed a little "Nadas Family" as we like to call it. Well one of the members, Emma to be precise, has a birthday coming up....and she also LOVES Guinness beer. Well as I was browsing other food blogs I came across a picture of Guinness brownies with irish cream frosting and I knew they must be made for her. So that we did, and by we I mean Matt did on his day off. We make a killer regular brownie,
seriously make them, so Matt took that recipe and subtracted this and that and added a bottle of guinness. The frosting was pretty easy a little butter, cream cheese, irish cream and some powdered sugar. We just added things until it tasted good. And I must say they tasted GOOD. We brought them to the bar to surprise her and she loved them....even the waitress enjoyed them.
And last but not least, I finally remembered to take pictures of the garden during or "weeding" day. I am still anxiously awaiting the ripening of all the baby tomatoes. I mean i literally can't wait.....man I love tomatoes. So we have a ton of cucumbers and even tonight I made a new huge batch of cucumber salad. I can't wait to start making some greek salad with my fresh maters!
Look for more posts this week, I have plenty more yummy food to tell you about!!!
Well I don't mean to toot my own horn...but TOOT!! Holy cow I don't even know how to explain my past two dinners. Seriously I am in a food coma and I don't regret a single bite! Last night was a repeat of Garlic Shrimp Casserole, and somehow it was even better than before. Well actually I made a few tweaks to the recipe. I made the chicken broth mixture thicker, which helped alot. I think the thing that helped the most was my accidental purchase of lemon pepper panko instead of regular, best mistake ever!
On to the deliciousness of tonight. We had quite the little mexican fiesta at the Mangela household. We had tacos, those are pretty self explanatory, tortilla, cheese, sour cream, salsa and some browned up venison (hey it was free!) Those were good but not even comparable to the side dishes. The first was cilantro lime rice, my mouth is literally watering just typing this. Now I can't take credit for this recipe and neither can food network, this is all from my bff Kate Stone. Please everyone make this soon, maybe tomorrow.
Cilantro Lime Rice
2 cloves garlic minced
1 cup basmati rice
1 1/2 c chicken broth
2 T lime juice
salt
1/2 c cilantro
zest of one lime
Saute garlic with rice for a few min. Add chicken broth, lime juice, and salt. Bring to boil, then cook on low for 15-20 min (per cooking instructions) When done, stir in cilantro and zest. ENJOY!!
Ok, so the rice was great, but I have better! Tomatillo Avocado Salsa, sounds amazing right?? Well think about the best thing you can eat, and then just know that this is even better! As for a recipe, we make this so often that we just make it so I can only give you estimates of the ingredients. Ok, so you will need 4 tomatillos, three avocados, a small onion, a bunch of cilantro, lime juice and salt and pepper. Just chop everything and mix together. It is better the longer it sits, but lets be honest....I ate it immediately.
Now I think those of you who are reading this, read it and then dismiss all my hard work on finding these excellent recipes. So now I would like to challenge you, make at least one recipe so then reading this is worth your while. My friend Kate made the chocolate pork chops tonight and she told me it "was a win" I promise to not lead you to a gross recipe....just give it a shot next time you are at a loss for something to make.
Ok, so other updates, working on landscaping sucks when it is 100+ degrees so that is on a standstill. The garden is over run by cucumbers, which is actually awesome because now we have cucumber salad constantly. The tomatoes or starting to sprout up, as well as the weeds!! That is tomorrow's goal, pick more cucumbers and weed the crud out of the garden.
So summer has definitely taken over my life.
I have been keeping myself busy with random things as well as not making myself meals. I am what everyone should call a "slacker," but while slacking I have for sure been enjoying myself with fishing trips, trips to the lake, and hanging out with great friends. Well with all that out of the way I am back to blogging. I am making a new goal to get back into this and do at least two blogs a week!! Seems like a big goal but I can do it. So on that note lets get down to business...summer love.
The garden is INSANE and I of course don't have an updated picture, but it is crazy. The cucumbers have taken over, which is fine because I love them. Today Matt and his parents picked seven, count them SEVEN cucumbers. I am trying to perfect my cucumber salad.
Tonight I started with my usual, two cucumbers thinly sliced along with an onion thinly sliced. You then need to put these in a bowl or colander with a tablespoon of salt and let them sit for a bit. Tonight I was antsy to eat so they didn't sit as long as they should but oh well. Add a little white wine vinegar and sour cream and you have a great summer treat. Oh I forgot the best part.....fresh dill. I honestly think the dill makes the dish, so delicious. I also just eat these cukes plan with some ranch. I will have to learn to like them many new ways since I think we will have them until next year.
For dinner I felt the need to use some more garden goods. Fresh basil is probably one of my favorite things to use. I have the perfect recipe to use it in as well. I am not sure exactly where the recipe came from but I am pretty sure it came from my Aunt Theresa.
Four ingredients and some pasta and you can make a great pasta and marinara sauce. It is so simple. I just took a 1/4 cup on olive oil and sauteed the garlic in it until it became fragrant. Then I put two cans of diced tomatoes in and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Before serving throw in 8-10 chopped basil leaves, add some salt and pepper and throw over pasta. This is so yummy and I love how quick it is to make. Quick and simple delicious dinner with fresh ingredients from the garden!! I think that is the part that makes me the most happy, that I grew some of my own parts of the meal!
Ok on to the amazing house I live in.....ugh. So lets see in the past three week our newish tv crapped out, my cell phone crapped out, our a/c stopped working (this was by far the most horrible and expensive to replace), the kitchen drain was draining on the floor, the coffee maker stopped working, the sewer was backing up in our basement.....and Matt lost the only set of the truck keys. I mean honestly, the ac breaking was enough. I can finally use the phrase and mean it "when it rains it pours!" One day at the house it was 90 and it felt better outside than it did inside. Needless to say we spent a few nights at the in-law's (thanks for the hospitality Pat and Janene!) The next big task was getting the crap out of the basement (literally) thank goodness for this handy boyfriend I got. Forty bucks will get you a roto rooter for four hours....and voila, poop be gone!!
For the first time in a long time, we had no plans this weekend and it was WONDERFUL. It also gave me plenty of time to sleep in, drink some summer drinks and make some delicious food!! Lets start off with the perfect summer drink...
I am enjoying one of these as i speak, perfect blend of beer and lemonade. So back to the task at hand, happy 4th of July everyone!! In celebration of America's birthday (and a day off work) we decided to make some red, white and blue themed meals. To start off bright and early we made homemade pancakes with blueberries, strawberries and whipped cream.
We typically keep the dry mix in our cupboard at all times. Regular pancakes are a weekend staple for us, but the fruit and whipped cream was a special holiday bonus. I must say this might actually become a staple, I cut the blueberries and strawberries up and put them in the batter and then used more as topping. They were freaking delicious. The whipped cream just topped it all off, literally. You must try these....not just on the holiday, more like tomorrow!! Well since we slept in we ate late so lunch never happened today. But dinner, ohhhhh dinner, it was so worth the wait.
So tonight we went with an oldie as the main course, steak with pepper cream sauce. We actually used just one steak to feed both of us, that way we had more room for sides. I have heard of the red, white and blue potato salad so that was my goal for tonight. After sifting though numerous recipes, I found the winner, thanks Bobby Flay! Grilled Red Potato Salad with bacon blue cheese vinigarette....sounds delicious right?? Well I can tell you positively that it doesn't just sound delicious....it is DELICIOUS!!
Wow my mouth is still watering talking about the potatoes, but then we have to get to the cucumber salad. This happened on a whim, we were at the grocery store and I saw cucumbers and I needed to have them. I knew what kind of salad I wanted but I just had to find the right recipe.....here it is!! Cucumber salad will be a need for some fresh summer meals. I am very proud of my festive meals and new recipes. I will be making all of these again and I urge you all to try them as well! Happy Birthday America!!!
Ahhh summer, there really couldn't be a better way to start the day then hitting up the Des Moines farmers market. We might have headed out a little late but we still made our first appearance today. Our main goal for the morning was to try the pupusas. Honestly I didn't know what they were before and I can't honestly say what exactly they are now, even after eating one. It was good, I wouldn't have tried it if it wasn't for my friend that owns the Gooner stand at the market, I have mentioned this before, but seriously go get some gooners from him, you won't regret it. Anyway, point of the post is that you never know what you are going to find and buy at the market, today it was elk ribeye. Matt really wanted to find a meat stand and today the elk won out. So after a quick trip to Fareway we started up on dinner. Marinated grilled elk with asparagus that was topped with a vinaigrette.
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I have never had elk before and I must say I will for sure be having it again sometime. The combination of the two were delicious, def a great summer meal.
So on the note of meat, we feel that we are set for the rest of the summer!! Matt is great at finding the sales on meat. Although the price has gone up, he still found some great deals. Today we bought two whole pork loins, I believe it was about 17 pounds total. And it was about a week ago that Matt bought a 12 pound strip loin. He likes to cut everything himself and then we vacuum pack everything. Our freezer is officially full.
Matt took the cruddy parts of the pork loin and used our handy dandy meat grinder to make some ground pork.
I mean look at the picture of the freezer, it looks amazing to me!!
As far as pictures of house projects or the garden....I got nothin. I am hoping tomorrow we get a move on some more house projects, and today we visited the garden and most of it is looking fantastic. The cucumbers and the beans have little flowers on it, which is super exciting. Look for more updates soon!!
