Showing posts with label recipe reviews entrees. Show all posts

red beans and rice

9:03 PM

It's no secret that I'm obsessed with all things Louisiana. From the food to the culture to the history... it's all just my "thing."

So, it should be no surprise the we celebrate Mardi Gras in my home! This past year I made red beans and rice, boudin balls and bread pudding. It was fantastic - but I'd rather have been in NOLA!

I used a wonderful Emeril recipe for the red beans - I'll make it again, any day of the week! Although, I was informed by a true Louisianian that red beans and rice are for Mondays, not just any day! It's a neat tradition actually... but the history behind that is another post! :)

Red Beans & Rice

recipe here

Of course, I paired this with Abita! Although, the Mardi Gras Bock would have been more suitable.

I followed the recipe pretty closely, but I did not cook the sausage with the beans. We grilled the sausage on the pit and then sliced it and served it on top. Also, I garnished it with some sliced green onion and that added a good oomph!

Here is a view of our night :)

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Chicken & Avocado Enchiladas

12:02 PM

OK, I have a ton of reviews - we have been cooking up a storm in the Muegge house. But I have no pictures of my own and no new recipes of my own. So I will post reviews of the recipes we've had recently (all of which I found on Pinterest!!) and then you will know which ones are worth a try!! I've already posted a few - here's one more:

Chicken & Avocado Enchiladas

recipe here

photo courtesy of Gimme Some Oven

This recipe is from Ali over at Gimme Some Oven. It is scrumptious! Even Reagan chowed down and ate about 2/3 of an enchilada which is HUGE for her!!! And BONUS! They are awesome warmed up as left overs. Kyle took some to work and I kept some home and man they were great!! I will say that we rolled Reagan's particular enchilada without the onions and peppers - mainly b/c she won't eat them, although I usually make her pick out the things she doesn't want but since I LOVE them I wanted more on mine, haha. I will say that this recipe, for me... made way more than 8-10 tortillas worth. I had to use a 9x13 AND an 8x8 and the 9x13 was lined horizontal AND vertical - I think there were 13 just in that pan. So, not sure if my tortillas were too small or what, but it worked out just fine and tasted the same nonetheless.

One thing I will say about this meal - either make some of it ahead or cook it on the weekend! We made it on a normal week night and it took A LONG time and made LOTS of dishes!! You could easily buy a rotisserie chicken and use that meat but I boiled chicken breasts first - so there was that pot. Then I sauteed the onion and poblano (I did not use the jalapeno and that was fine), so there was that pan. Then I made the sauce, so there was that pan. And I blended the sauce in the food processor, so there was that. So, you see how this adds up to lots of dishes!! If you plan accordingly you could probably figure out a way around this, but I was trying to get it done as quickly as possible :)

This is definitely a must have again! Maybe even for company?! Who's coming over?!?!?!

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Pork Chops with Mushroom and Shallot Sauce

2:06 PM

Another notch on the Pinterest board! I'm really starting to think Pinterest is the best site ever. Yeah. Thinking over. It is.

This recipe is from Gina over at Skinny Taste. There is NOTHING skinny about the taste of this meal!! It was delicious!! All of her meals are excellent!!

photo courtesy of Skinny Taste

We read through the recipe and we really wanted to grill our chops because Kyle and I are not that great at pan frying things. They tend to burn on us... LOL. But since the sauce uses the drippings from the chops I was worried we'd lose some flavor... so we improvised! I cut off a chunk of fat from one chop before Kyle seasoned them and cut it into cubes.

Kyle seasoned the chops with salt, pepper and Canadian steak seasoning. He grilled them on the gas grill.

In the meantime I started the sauce. Before I followed her directions, I warmed the skillet over med-high heat and sauteed the pork fat making sure to get it in all areas of the pan and let some stick! Once it was completely cooked, I removed the pork fat and threw it away. I then followed her directions as written. Oh, and I didn't realize we were out of chicken stock so I used vegetable stock. I was again worried the flavor may be off, but MAN - this sauce ROCKS! It was perfect.

Kyle grilled some yellow squash with the chops and we also served it with Stove Top Turkey Stuffing. The stuffing and the sauce went VERY well together!!!

I definitely give this recipe an A++ - it's truly amazing. She also has the same chop recipe with a different sauce and we will FOR SURE try that one soon!!

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Pan Grilled Flank Steak with Soy-Mustard Sauce

7:29 PM

I found this meal on Pinterest and we have had it twice and I crave it for days afterward!! It is so delicious and pretty quick to make. This is definitely a recipe you want to add to your repertoire and not only is it well rounded, it's actually also very low on calories and not too fatty. We made some slight changes which probably change the nutritional values, we use regular soy sauce but the real recipe calls for low sodium and we also use olive oil instead of both canola oil and cooking spray. I serve it just as suggested, with garlic mashed potatoes and garlic asparagus. We love it! And I've never tasted a better sauce - melts in your mouth!!

Ingredients:

1 pound flank steak, trimmed
3/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp + 1 teaspoon olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3/4 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

Heat a grill pan over high heat.

Coat the steak with olive oil and then sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper.

Add steak to pan; grill for 5 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness.

Let stand 3 minutes.

Now for the sauce.... Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add garlic; cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add soy sauce, mustard, and sugar; cook 1 minute or until bubbly.

Remove pan from heat. Stir in cream and 1 tablespoon cilantro.

Cut steak diagonally across grain into thin slices.

Serve steak with sauce, garlic asparagus and garlic mashed potatoes.

DELISH!!!!

Have you made recipes you found on Pinterest??? I've had some flop, so I'm skeptical sometimes, but this made me trust it more!!

Oh, and here is the original recipe.

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Sun Bird Mongolian Beef - Review

5:36 PM

This was a HIT! And sooooo easy!!! Reagan asked for seconds - if you know Reagan you know this is HUGE! LOL

This is the packet, made by Sun Bird:

I can only find this at WalMart - HEB does not carry this flavor, although they do carry Sun Bird. Not sure if other HEBs carry this, ours for sure does not... don't get me started on that though! LOL...

So, back to the food :0)

We followed the directions exactly, and they are printed on the back of the packet - but so you know before you buy or track this down, here is a list of ingredients and directions...

Ingredients:

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 Tbsp water

1b beef (we used flank steak), thinly sliced

2 Tbsp oil

1 bunch green onions, roughly chopped

cooked rice

Directions:

Combine seasoning packet with soy sauce and water, mix thoroughly and set aside.

Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over medium heat. Add beef and cook until browned. Leave all juice IN the pan.

Stir in the sauce mix and continue to cook until the meat is fully coated and the sauce has thickened.

Stir in green onion chunks and continue to cook until slightly wilted (or to personal preference. I like them less cooked, Kyle likes them more fully cooked.)

Serve over cooked white rice.

VIOLA!

It took us about 25 minutes from slicing the beef to eating and it was REALLY good. I love meals like this b/c they are so easy and relatively healthy and hearty. The packet itself has about 100 calories, so whatever you add with the meat, soy and oil is all it has in it. I don't really count calories, but that sounds OK to me!!

Have you tried any other Sun Bird packets or are you curious about some??

Previously we've tried their Fried Rice, Hot & Spicy Kung Pao, Honey Sesame Chicken and the Teriyaki Marinade. They are not all as good as this one, LOL... the Teriyaki Marinade we did on chicken wings and that was literally the first meal of our life that we threw out and ordered pizza!! We've had just a couple of those in six years, not too bad, LOL - but that was horrible! The Fried Rice is OK but making homemade fried rice is really very simple and SO much better!!

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Pioneer Woman's Herb Roasted Chicken Recipe

12:40 PM

This is a Pioneer Woman recipe. It is EASY to follow and delicious! We've made this several times. She has step by step instructions as well, so check out her original post here: Pioneer Woman recipe.

We also served this for Easter dinner one year, big hit! But remember... the amount of time you cookk it depends on how big your bird is!!!

Ingredients:

3-4lb whole fryer chicken
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary
1 Tbsp fresh sage
1 Tbsp fresh thyme
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/2 Tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 lemon, halved
1/4 yellow onion, roughly cut
8 garlic pods, gently smashed

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 450°.

Finely chop fresh herbs and combine in bowl.

Add kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. It HAS to be kosher salt... as the chicken is cooked, the herbs and salt are crusted onto the skin. The salt doesn't melt, so there are still these amazing little granules of salt that just melt on your tongue. DELISH!

Add the vegetable oil and mix well. It will be a pasty consistency.

Cut your lemon, onion and smash the garlic.

Wash your chicken off and remove the neck and innards. Pat the chicken dry after washing. Super important!! The herb paste won't stick unless the chicken is totally dry. We cooked our chicken on a roasting rack. We have not had much use for our roaster - but man, when you need it, it's perfect! Place the chicken on the rack and rub thoroughly, using all of the herb mixture. Make sure you rub under the wings and the drumsticks and the whole underside of the chicken.

Place the garlic cloves, onion and lemon halves inside the chicken.

You will need to pour about 3-4 cups of water in the bottom of your roasting pan before placing it in the oven, otherwise you will smoke out your oven from the burned drippings. The water will boil in the bottom of the pan and you will need to replenish it 1-2 times during the cooking process. We left ours in the oven for about 1 hour and 10 minutes. We did not need to tent our chicken, but if yours starts to brown too quickly or too much you can tent your chicken. Also, check out Ryan's tips about over cooking the legs, he shares a great idea. Here is the done deal:

We served this with garlic butter linguine (make linguine as directed, in a separate pot melt butter with chopped garlic, drain pasta and toss with butter, viola!). We also had a simple salad of red curly leaf lettuce and toppings of our choice. It was amazing!!

If you make this, let me know - it is SO easy and SO scrumptious! Reagan ate a ton and she is a PICKY eater!!

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Emeril's Kicked Up Pasta with Four Cheeses

12:20 PM

This is an Emeril Lagasse recipe... all credit goes to The Man himself! You can find the original recipe here. However, anybody who knows Kyle and I know that we rarely make recipes exactly as instructed, LOL. So we did make some small changes to this recipe. It was amazingly delicious and very filling... saving room for dessert was almost impossible! This recipe calls for four different cheeses, which we did use exactly what he said... and I must say - they all TRULY compliment each other... so lovely! Below is the recipe as we made it. Again, you can click above for Emeril's original recipe. :0)

Emeril's Kicked Up Pasta with Four Cheeses

Ingredients:

1 pkg penne pasta
1 Tbsp olive oil
8 slices of bacon, diced
2 Tbsp salted butter
2 Tbsp garlic, minced
1/4 cup white cooking wine
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/4 cups grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 cup crumbled Gorgonzola
3/4 cup grated Fontina
1/2 cup grated Percorino Romano
Fresh cracked pepper

Directions:
Cook pasta according to directions on package. Once al dente, drain and return to cooking pot, toss with olive oil and coat evenly to prevent sticking.

In a large saute pan, cook the bacon until browned.

Remove from pan and place on plate with paper towels to drain fat. Melt the butter in the pan with remaining bacon grease, over medium heat.

Add the garlic, and cook until soft and lightly golden, about 2 minutes. Add in white cooking wine and increase the heat to medium high. Stir to deglaze the pan then cook until reduced.

Add the cream and cook about 2 minutes, it should reduce by about half.

Turn the heat down to medium low and add the cheeses one at a time - I went in order of firmness... I started with the Pecorino Romano, then did the Parmigiano-Reggiano, next the Fontina and lastly the Gorgonzola - stir well after each addition.

Pecorino Romano