Mongolian Beef

Hey you guys? Do you realize its September? When did that happen?

Wow. This summer went by so quickly. I hope you all had a great time with plenty of relaxation and time outdoors. I'm a huge fan of summer (I live in Florida, land of eternal Summer) but this year I didn't get as much time to relax as I usually do. As you know, I'm a Ph.D. student in a psychology program, so "rest" and "relaxation" don't really work well in graduate programs. Rest and relaxation are often combined with guilt and feelings of inadequacy. "Oh, you want to go to the beach this weekend? Make sure you print out two or three articles to read. No pleasure reading for you!"

Thankfully, my husband and I were able to schedule a beach vacation in Naples/Ft. Myers/Sanibel Island just after I turned in papers that completed my comprehensive exam process. This timing allowed me the perfect opportunity to go away on vacation with almost no guilt (6 months of torture was enough) and I really had a chance to disconnect from work (NO EMAIL FOR 9 DAYS!).

The great thing about living in Florida, other than no snow, is that beautiful vacation spots are always nearby. We wanted to spend a week on the beach, and we looked into international travel, but the flights were all too expensive. We chose to spend a few days in Naples, Ft. Myers, Sanibel Island, Florida (Naples is only 1.5 hours from where we live). We quickly fell in love with Naples and enjoyed our entire vacation. We ate great food, lounged on beautiful beach, swam in clear warm water, and collected tons of shells. I would recommend a trip to Naples to anyone looking for a relaxed beach vacation without of the crazy touristy feel of most beach town. Beach access is everywhere, parking isn't expensive, and we found a nice inexpensive hotel just a few minutes from the ocean. Here are just a few photos of what we did/saw.

But alas, it's back to the grind. The semester just began and I'm back to making dinner every night. I recently discovered an amazing recipe for Mongolian Beef (I hear it tastes just like PF Chang's, but I've never eaten there… I prefer local Chinese food places) that is a quick hearty weeknight meal.

Mongolian Beef (30 minutes or less!)

1 large steak (about 1-2lbs…I use London broil, I can find it on sale for $3.99/lb, but flank steak would work as well)

½ C cornstarch

1 C oil

2 tbsp ginger (grated/diced)

2 tbsp garlic

1 C soy sauce

1 C packed brown sugar (you can go a little light on this if you want)

Assorted veg: steamed broccoli, cabbage, bok choy, chopped green onions, mushrooms, edamame, carrots, etc

Cooked rice/quinoa (I like 2/3 basmati rice and 1/3 cup quinoa), or noodles

                                                                                                                                                

Directions

Beef cooking up

Slice up the beef really thin, about a ¼ inch (it helps if it’s a little frozen, about 30 minutes in the freezer) and toss it with the cornstarch. Let the cornstarch sit on the beef for a few minutes while you prep the sauce. Mix the ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and brown sugar together in a bowl. Heat up the oil in a skillet or wok. Once good and hot, add the beef and cook until just cooked through (meanwhile prep and steam your veggies). Once the beef is cooked, remove it from the pan and let it drain onto a plate lined with a paper towel. Add the sauce to the hot skillet and cook until it bubbles and thickens. Add the beef and veggies back into the skillet and toss to coat. Serve hot over rice/quinoa. Dig in!

Fun story: I found an oyster mushroom on a free at my apartment complex, and I added it to my stir-fry (disclaimer, I do not support you randomly finding and eating wild mushrooms unless you really know what you're doing).

Finished Product: Yum!

Do you have any great Chinese food take-out recipes? I love me some good healthy take-out swaps!

Crispy Honey Crunch Chicken Breasts

When given a choice between steak, pork, seafood, or chicken, my husband will always choose chicken. It kind of baffles me. I grew up eating a different meat every night, seldom having one type of meat twice in a row (except for Thanksgiving when we had leftover turkey for a month). Not my husband. He would eat chicken every night of the week without complaint.

Because of this, I've become very good at making a vast variety of chicken dishes so that I don't become too bored. Chicken Alfredo with spinach on Monday, General Tso's Chicken on Tuesday, Chicken Quesadillas on Wednesday, BBQ Chicken on Thursday, and then maybe something with sausage (Pasta a la vodka with sausage) on Friday for some variety. This is how it goes.

Therefore, I'm always on the lookout for new chicken dishes that are quick to make on a weeknight. Here is one of my new favorites. This is an especially quick meal to make if you do a little prep beforehand. It is also good for using up some of those spices from the back of your pantry. Adjust the spices to your liking.

Crispy Honey Crunch Chicken Breasts

Chicken & Breading:

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts (or 6-8 cutlets)

2 cups flour (wholewheat is good too)

4 tsp salt

4 tsp pepper

3 tbsp ginger

2 tbsp nutmeg

2 tsp thyme

2 tsp sage

2 tbsp paprika

1 tsp cayenne pepper

4 eggs

8 tbsp water

oil

Sauce:

several cloves of garlic

1 cup honey

1/4 soy sauce (low sodium)

1 tsp black pepper

First, slice the chicken breasts so that you have two cutlets. Then, place one slice at a time between two sheets of cling wrap and pound them out with a large blunt object (I have a meat hammer, but you can use a jar or heavy pan). This can be done beforehand or you can just buy cutlets (but I think the price they charge for cutlets is outrageous).

Sift together the flour and spices in a large flat bowl or pan (pie pans work well for this). In another flat bowl,  scramble the eggs together with the water to make an egg wash. 

Heat enough oil in a large pan with enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Then, take one chicken cutlet and cover it with the flour mix. Next dip it in the egg wash, and then back into the flour, patting the flour into the meat. Shake off the excess and put it into the hot pan to cook. Do this will all the chicken, careful not to over crowd the pan. When the chicken is brown (watch closely so it doesn't burn) place on a cooling rack laying in a baking sheet and keep it in a warm oven. Finish all the chicken.

Next, drain the oil out of the pan and add a tablespoon or so into the pan with the garlic. Cook the garlic for a minute and then add the honey and soy sauce mix. Carefully cook the honey mix down into a thick sauce. Remove the honey sauce from the pan.

If desired, add some greens into the hot pan (I used arugula) to wilt. Just stir the greens around for a minute or two and let them pick up the leftover sauce in the pan and golden bits from the chicken.

Serve the chicken on a plate, top with greens and sauce, and a side of roasted potatoes. Enjoy!

Summer Fun: Strawberry Peach Lemonade and Cold Brewed Ice Coffee

Summer is wrapping up and back to school supplies are on sale all over town. But before its too late, its time to taste some of the fantastic flavors of the summer before its too late.

I was reading a list the other day of 50 things to do before the end of summer. Sadly, I hadn't done more than a hand full of them. But with summer being a year-round season in FL, I don't feel too badly. Plus, as any Floridian knows its best to do "summer fun" in the winter when you don't want to just sit inside an air conditioned building.

On my list of summer completes:
Outdoor concert
Beach
Frozen Custard
Watching thunderstorms roll in
Eating fresh produce
Summer fruit pie
Make lemonade from scratch...

Strawberry Peach Lemonade
1 cup sugar
4 large lemons (3/4 cup of juice)
1 cup strawberries
1 large ripe peach

Combine the sugar with 1 cup of water in a small saucepan. Boil the sugar and water for a minute or until the sugar has completely dissolved into the water. Set aside to cool.

Squeeze the lemons. Put the strawberries and peach (minus the pit) into a blender. Add the lemon juice to the blender and pulse until completely liquid. Strain the lemon and fruit mix through a mesh strainer into a pitcher to remove seeds and pulp. Add simple syrup (sugar mix) and add another 4 cups of cold water. Serve over ice.

Also really good with Malibu rum!

If you're at all like me, you enjoy a nice glass of iced coffee on summer mornings. But if you've ever brewed yourself a pot of coffee in the hopes of making yourself some iced coffee, you've likely been disappointed by the results. Cold coffee, but bitter and in need of a lot of additives to make it drinkable.

The trick to good iced coffee it to "cold brew" it! It allows the mellow cocoa flavors to develop without the bitterness of cooled hot coffee.

Cold Brewed Ice Coffee
1 cup coffee grounds
4 cups water
Cream and sugar to taste


Put the coffee grounds into a large bowl with the 4 cups of water, stir. Let it sit (covered) overnight, or at least 6 hours. Strain with a coffee filter in a mesh strainer. This is your coffee base. This can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

To make in the morning: Mix your coffee base with 1 cup of water. Cream and sugar. Add ice as desired. Enjoy!

Takes less time to make in the morning than brewing normal coffee or stopping into dunkins!

Light and Dark Pinwheel Cookies

If you're anything like me, you like having a go-to recipe or two that will impress others but that is quick and simple to make. This is one of those recipes. These cookies take only a few ingredients (which you most likely have in your pantry), can be made ahead of time, and only take a few minutes to make. You also don't have to dirty more than a dish or two.

Check these out!

Light and Dark Pinwheel Cookies
1 box of chocolate cake mix
1 box of white cake mix
1 cup butter
2 eggs
Optional: Bittersweet and white chocolate chips for dipping

First, melt the butter a little. You want it to be very soft but not completely melted. Mix half the butter and one egg into each of the cake mixes. I mixed the white mix first, then the chocolate. To mix, either use a mixer or a stiff spatula or your hands (hands worked best for me and they are easy to clean) until you get a nice dough.

After both batters are mixed, roll out the chocolate dough into a large rectangle (you want it to end up around 1/2 an in thick). I put down a sheet of waxed paper to roll the dough on as well as put a piece on top the dough to keep it from sticking. Do what works for you.

Next, roll the white dough out on top of the chocolate dough. Use your hands to get the edges to line up as well as you can.

Working from the long edge, roll the dough up so that it forms a spiraled log. Wrap the dough log up in a sheet of waxed paper and place in in the fridge or freezer for about an hour. I put mine in the freezer because we keep the apartment around 80 degrees so my dough was a little warmer than most.

After chilling and getting firm, unwrap the dough an use a sharp knife to cut the log into 1/2 in thick slices. Place them on a large cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.

Once the cookies are cooked and cooled, you can dip the edges into melted chocolate for an extra treat.

Enjoy!

Bang Bang Shrimp

Here is one of our favorite dinner items, Bang Bang Shrimp. I found a recipe for these shrimp about a year ago and have been making them ever since. From what I read, this recipe is a staple on either Bonefish Mack's or Bonefish Grill (I can't keep them straight), but I've never eaten there so I can't tell you if these are anywhere close to theirs. I've been told they are usually served over lettuce or on tacos.

But its an easy recipe. It takes less than 20 minutes, I usually have all the ingredients on hand, and I can sneak a bunch of veggies in it.

Here is how I make Bang Bang Shrimp

~1 lb peeled and de-veined shrimp (any size, I get what's on sale)
~1 cup light or fat-free mayo
~1 cup sweet chili sauce (I use Frank's Red Hot Sweet Chili, its cheap and easy to find)
~1 tbsp srircha hot sauce (adjust depending on your heat tolerance level. This stuff is lava hot)
~1 cup of corn starch
~1/4 cup oil (I like light olive oil)
Optional: Rice, noodles, veggies, soy sauce, garlic, ginger

First, mix up the Bang Bang Sauce by combining the mayo, chili sauce, and hot sauce, set aside.

Dredge the shrimp in the corn starch. The easiest way I do this is after I peel them, I pat them dry, and put them on a plate and sprinkle the corn starch on top. Move them around until completely covered but without a bunch of extra. Heat the oil in a large fry pan. When hot, add the shrimp and cook until they are cooked through, golden and crispy (less than 5 minutes).

At this point, I usually move the shrimp onto a plate while I stir-fry some noodles/rice with veggies (broccoli, peas, corn, mushrooms, water chestnuts, etc). I add soy sauce and the rest of the bottle of chili sauce to coat the noodles. Then I add the shrimp back in and add the Bang Bang sauce. Stir it up and serve!

Dinner is served!

Bacon Wrapped Cheesy Jalapenos

There has been a momentary lapse in baking around my apartment. Its due to a combination of wedding planning and school work. Just before the semester began my research was recently published (yay!) and there has been a surprisingly large amount of press buzz around it. I know, press buzz? But seriously, the research has huge implications for early autism detection which makes it a big draw for the media. Its great that we are getting so much attention (its extremely rare and difficult to get this type of attention) but its taken a lot of work and time.

So, instead of a new recipe, I'm going back into my photo bank to find something that I made a few months ago but never got around to posting. I present to you...

I couldn't get a picture before one was eaten!

Bacon Wrapped Cheesy Jalapenos!

15- 20 small jalapenos
8 oz light cream cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or any other cheese you prefer)
1 packet of vegetable soup mix
1 package of bacon


Mix the cheeses together with the soup mix and let it sit for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, while wearing gloves, cut off the top of the jalapenos, and slice them down the side. Remove most of the seeds and membrane (the more that is left, the hotter these will be). Using a spoon or a pastry bag, squeeze the cheese mixture into the jalapenos. Wrap each stuffed jalapeno in a slice of bacon (or half if you have more peppers than bacon slices), and secure it with a toothpick. Place on a foil or parchment lined baking sheet (they get oozey and messy) and bake at 375 for ~15 minutes or until the bacon is cooked. Allow them to cool for a few minutes before serving.

These can be made ahead of time and baked just before serving. They're a great treat for game-day!