Sesame Orange Shrimp Over Rice

The newest edition of Eating Well has a shrimp section, which is good for us because we have three 2-lb bags of frozen shrimp to eat so we can sell our freezer. You'll likely be seeing a lot of shrimp recipes in the next few posts :) This recipe turned out well, but I made the mistake of constantly stirring the shrimp, which caused the batter to slide off. Michael informed me that I should have just set them in the pan, let them cook for 2-3 minutes, then flip - once. Oops! I've not quite perfected my seafood cooking skills - that's where Michael usually comes in. It still tasted good, but the batter was just kind of in clumps. If you don't make my mistake, it will probably look and taste more delicious :) We served it over some brown rice to make it a complete meal - oh and also with some sriracha b/c we like everything spicy! Feel free to omit or use your favorite hot sauce. Serves 4

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons sesame seeds (white, black or a mix)
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1 pound peeled and deveined raw shrimp (21-25 per pound)
• 2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup vermouth
• 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 scallion, thinly sliced

Directions

1. Whisk sesame seeds, egg whites, cornstarch, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add shrimp and toss to coat.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add half the shrimp and cook until golden, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Repeat with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and the rest of the shrimp.
   
3. Add orange juice, vermouth, soy sauce and sugar to the pan. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened and reduced by half, 4 to 6 minutes.
   
4. Return the shrimp to the pan and stir to coat with the sauce. Serve immediately, with scallion sprinkled on top.
   

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Spicy Mulligatawny Soup

Mulliga what? That's what I was wondering when Michael said he was making this for dinner a few nights ago. Google told me that mulligatawny means 'pepper water', which doesn't sound too appetizing. But don't let that fool you, this soup is soo yummy! We got the recipe from Michael's mom & it's a perfect combination of sweet and spicy. I could eat this every week. The apple and chutney really make the recipe. I hope you all will try it!

Ingredients

• 1 lb chicken breasts
• 1 tbsp olive oil
  
• 1 cup chopped, peeled Gala apple (about 1 medium)
• 3/4 cup diced onion
• 1/2 cup shredded carrot
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 1/2 cup diced bell pepper
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4-1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 2 - 14.5 cans chicken broth
• 1/3 cup Major Gray's chutney (found in mustard aisle)
• 1/4 cup tomato paste

Directions

1. Cut chicken into thirds and saute in a large pan with the olive oil. When cool, use a fork to shred, set aside.
   
2. Add apple, onion, carrot, celery and bell pepper in same pan and saute over medium-high heat for 5 minutes.
   
3. Stir in flour, curry, ginger and crushed red pepper. Cook 1 minute. Stir in broth, chutney, and tomato paste. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, add chicken and simmer 8 minutes or until heated through.

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Spicy Blackbean Burgers

I love me some veggie burgers. I've been wanting to try some homemade black bean burgers for a while & finally I got Michael to agree (he's not the biggest fan of meatless dinners). They turned out pretty delicious! The recipe is very easy - I combined quite a few different ones I came across on the internet. Use 1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes if you're not a fan of spice. We served them bun-less, but I've included some buns in the recipe b/c i think burgers are always more delicious that way. I'm definitely going to be trying more veggie burgers in the future! Let me know if you have any great recipes.

Happy Halloween everyone! Is anyone coming up w. great costumes? Michael has been working on his witch doctor costume for work all night. It's looking pretty impressive, I must say (picture may come later if you're lucky:). I'm not sure what I'm gonna be yet, but I definitely don't think I'm gonna be able to top Michael.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 egg
• 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

TOPPINGS:

• 4 hamburger buns
• lettuce
• 2 tomatoes, sliced
• 1 avocado, sliced
• 1/2 small yellow onion, thinly sliced

Directions

1. Put beans in a medium bowl and mash well with a fork. Add egg, chopped onion, bread crumbs, cilantro, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, garlic, salt, and pepper. Mix well to combine then shape into 4 patties.
2. Heat a grill pan over medium heat. Cook patties, flipping once, until golden brown on both sides and cooked through, about 10 minutes total.
   
3. Place on buns & top with lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, and onions and serve.
   

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Remoulade Covered Crab Cakes

I hope everyone had a nice weekend! We went to Chapel Hill for the football game (which thankfully UNC won) and met up with our parents, Michael's little sister (Carolyn) and my little brother (Dylan) who are both juniors. Michael's big sis, Marye Virginia, even flew in from Montana for the affair. Big time with lots of yummy tailgating food! Birthdays were a part of the celebration, so I must give a 'happy 21st birthday' shout-out to both Carolyn and Dylan!

Now to the post. . . This is our first attempt at crab cakes, believe it or not. We've made salmon cakes and shrimp cakes before b/c salmon/shrimp is usually a bit cheaper, but lucky for us crab was on mega sale at the Teeter. Michael really wanted to serve the cakes with some remoulade sauce, which was also a first for us. Everything turned out delicious! Of course, this isn't the most healthy recipe - you could use light mayo if you want to lighten it up. The remoulade recipe makes a lot of sauce, so you could half it and still have plenty. We used the leftover as a dipping sauce for pretty much every meal the next few nights though :)

I'd recommend making the sauce first so it can chill while you make the crab cakes. Of course, you can serve the cakes alone or with another sauce if you'd like. Recipes adapted from Food Network & cooks.com. We threw together some sesame-soy asparagus to go on the side - same preparation as our sesame green beans.

I promise we'll post pics of the new kitchen soon!

CRAB CAKES (makes 6 cakes)

Ingredients

• 1 pound crab meat, picked free of shells
• 1/3 cup crushed crackers (recommended: Ritz)
• 3 green onions (green and white parts), finely chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped bell pepper
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon powdered mustard
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Dash cayenne pepper
• Flour, for dusting
• 1/2 cup canola oil

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients, except for the flour and canola oil.
   
2. Shape into patties and dust with flour.
3. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot, carefully place crab cakes, in batches, in pan and fry until browned, about 4 to 5 minutes. Carefully flip crab cakes and fry on other side until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Serve warm with remoulade sauce.
   

REMOULADE SAUCE

Ingredients

• 2 hard cooked egg yolks, sieved
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 1/2 tbsp. mustard
• 1 1/2 c. mayonnaise
  
• 1 tbsp. Worcestershire
• 1 tbsp. paprika
• 1 1/2 tbsp. horseradish
• Dash of Tabasco
• 2 tbsp. vinegar
• 1/4 c. finely chopped parsley
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl and chill.

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One-Skillet Andouille Creation and a New Home for Cheffresco

I must say sorry! Such the lack of posting lately! I think this may be the longest we've gone without posting. We just moved into our new house this past weekend and it was/is very busy. So much to do, we wanted to take the whole week off and play house :) We are going to hopefully put up some pics soon - our new kitchen is so much better than the last one! We actually have room to both be in there without running all over each other! And best of all, we have space to store all of our cheffresco plates and cooking supplies :) This makes me happy because Michael said I wasn't allowed to buy any more decorative plates until we got a house with storage space. Marshall's here I come!

This recipe we actually made before the move but are just now getting time to post it. It was quite the interesting combination of ingredients. The original recipe, from Eating Well, called for broccoli rabe and lamb merquez sausage, neither of which we could find (or tried hard enough to find I should say). You are also supposed to cook your own cannellini beans, but we just got the store bought kind for a time saver (if you want to cook your own, you need 2 cups). Unfortunately, the homemade croutons didn't turn out that delicious. Unless you've mastered homemade ones, I'd say go for store bought ones. Ours just tasted like cut up pieces of toast & they would've been better with more crunch. Other than the croutons, it was actually pretty good, as weird as it may look!

Ingredients

• 3 slices whole-wheat country bread, crusts removed
• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 4 ounces andouille sausage links
• 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 bunch broccolini (about 12 ounces), trimmed and coarsely chopped
• 1 15 oz. can cannellini beans, drained
  
• 1/2 cup water
  
• 1/8 teaspoon salt, plus a pinch, divided
• 4 large eggs
• Freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Tear bread into 1/2- to 1-inch irregular pieces. Place on a large baking sheet and toss with 1 tablespoon oil. Season with pepper. Bake until golden brown and crisp, 10 to 12 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat 1 teaspoon oil in a large skillet, preferably cast iron, over medium heat. Remove sausage from casing and cook, breaking it up, until browned and cooked through, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Let the pan cool.
4. Pour off any oil left in the pan, add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and place over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
5. Add broccolini and cook, stirring, until wilted and tender but still bright green, 4 to 6 minutes. (Add 1 to 2 tablespoons water if the greens seem dry.)
6. Add beans, water, the sausage and 1/8 teaspoon salt to the pan, stirring to combine; bring to a simmer. Make 4 indentations in the bean mixture and break an egg into each one.
7. Season the eggs with the remaining pinch of salt and pepper. Cover the pan and cook the eggs, checking occasionally, until desired doneness: 3 to 5 minutes for soft-set yolks, 7 to 9 minutes for hard-set yolks.
8. Top the bean mixture and eggs with the croutons and serve immediately.

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Chicken Teriyaki Meatballs with Edamame

When you think of meatballs, you probably associate them with beef - but wait, this is not always the case! This beef stigma has buried meatballs inside the depths of spaghetti sauces everywhere. I was reading through the Real Simple magazine at the gym the other day and came across this great, chicken-based meatball recipe.

This is actually one of the few ground chicken recipes that I have experimented with, and must tell you that it's a little slimy. It helps to moisten your hands with warm water when sculpting the meatballs. Overall this was a great, healthy, Asian-inspired dish that can be quickly thrown together and opens itself to a variety of vegetable add-ins. We decided to add some cilantro to the meatballs - feel free to omit if you're not a fan. Just be sure you do not overcook the meatballs. We accidentally forgot about them for a couple minutes and they got a little dry.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups long-grain rice
• 1 1/4 pounds ground chicken
• 2 scallions, chopped
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/2 pound snow peas, halved crosswise (3 cups)
• 1 cup frozen shelled edamame, thawed
• 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar

Directions

1. Cook the rice according to directions on package.
   
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the chicken, scallions, cilantro, and ginger. Shape into 16 meatballs.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the meatballs, turning, until cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
4. Wipe out the skillet. Heat the remaining oil over medium-high heat. Add the peas and edamame. Cook, tossing, for 2 minutes. Return the meatballs to skillet.
5. In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce and sugar. Add to the skillet and simmer until slightly thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Serve over the rice.

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Grilled Pork with Spicy Chimichurri Sauce

Man it's so crazy how fast the weekends go by - it always seems like it's Sunday night again, time to get ready for another week. This weekend, Michael and I went to Morganton and ran a race with my parents (Michael's first 5K ever and he got 2nd place in his age group!) then headed up to Blowing Rock to see his parents for a night. It's so pretty up there & perfect weather! I'm already ready to go back.



Anyways, this pork tenderloin is hands-down the best I've ever had. I've been wanting to try chimichurri sauce for a while & finally got around to it. It sure uses a lot of garlic, cilantro and parsley! It tastes delicious though. We got the recipe from Our Best Bites - a great food blog Michael recently discovered. As a heads up, you need to marinate it for an hour & you also need a meat thermometer to make sure the pork gets nice and done. We grilled up some corn and red pepper to go along with the pork. If you've never had chimichurri, I highly recommend it. You could probably serve it with any meat. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2-3 lb pork tenderloin (2 small-med pork loins)
• 1 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 1 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 4 tsp dried oregano leaves
• 2 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 3 tbsp chopped garlic (6-7 cloves)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions

1. Place pork tenderloins in a ziplock bag and set aside.
2. Place parsley, cilantro, oregano, lime juice, vinegar, garlic, salt, and pepper in a food processor. Pulse several times until finely chopped. Remove mixture and place in a bowl. Add red pepper flakes and then stir in olive oil by hand.
3. Remove 1/2-3/4 cup chimichurri (the herb mixture you just made) and place in bag with pork tenderloins. You just need enough to coat them well. Be careful to not cross-contaminate since you will be serving the remaining chimichurri over the top of the finished meat. Seal bag and set aside to marinade for about an hour or longer if you need to. Place plastic wrap over the remaining chimichurri and set aside until ready to serve.
4. When ready to cook, preheat grill. Remove tenderloins from bag and let excess marinade drip off. Place on grill and cook for about 5-8 minutes before flipping to the other side.
   
5. You want the internal temp to be about 160 degrees, so check with a thermometer and take it off the grill when it reaches 155-158 since it will continue to cook a bit as it sits.
   
6. Remove from grill and let stand 5 minutes before cutting. Slice, and serve with remaining chimichurri drizzled on top.

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Portobello Smothered Steaks

I hope everyone had a nice, long weekend and didn't have to work today!  Michael and I both had bachelor/bachelorette parties to attend, so needless to say, we are a bit worn out.  We're excited about a short work week though, that's for sure!  Sorry it's a little late, but here's the steak we made to go with our wedge salad the other night.  I love mushrooms of any type, but I especially love it when they're sauteed with wine - I just think they're so delicious. This steak was very yummy, especially topped with the mushrooms & rosemary - I highly recommend it!  Recipe modified from Cooking Light.

Ingredients

• 4 (4-ounce) rib-eye steaks, trimmed (about 1/2 inch thick)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp. olive oil, divided
• 8 oz. baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup  dry red wine
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
  

Directions

1. Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle steaks with salt and pepper. Add to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Transfer steaks to a serving platter; keep warm.
2. Add other 1 tbsp. olive oil to pan.  Add mushrooms and sauté 3 minutes or until browned. Stir in wine, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Cook until liquid almost evaporates. Remove pan from heat; add butter and rosemary, stirring until butter melts. Pour sauce over steaks.

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