I DID IT!!

Round 1 of making baby food is complete. Baby girl has carrots and bananas ready when she is. I have also done some zucchini, sweet potatoes, avocados, squash, and cantaloupe. I always said I would've made baby boy's food if I had known how easy it was. So now I am proving it :-). I finally got to use my Ninja to puree and it is AWESOME! I found these cute little containers at the Dollar Store that fit two ice cubes perfectly. So after I pureed the foods and froze them in ice cube trays (except for the avocados) I had a neat little storage system in place. When I ran out of containers, I used Ziploc bags for the rest. I felt very accomplished.

Shrimp Gumbo

A while ago when the kiddo and I went to Friday Fest with my mom, we had some amazing shrimp gumbo. Since then I have been craving a recipe to make it. I found one that was doable but changed it up quite a bit to make it more similar to the bowl I had already consumed. You can find the original here. Although Emeril's looks tasty, it's not exactly what I was looking for to make my gumbo. 

Here's what I did to change it up a little:

Heat oil and fry the okra. Add 1 can of diced tomatoes minus the juices, 1 T onion powder, 1/2 cup chopped celery, 1 t minced garlic, 1 bay leaf, 1/4 t salt, and 1/8 t cayenne pepper. Cook for about 10 minutes since the tomatoes were canned and the celery was very small. No ham. Add 1 box of seafood stock (because I wanted the extra juice) and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and cook about 10-15 minutes. Add about 1 1/2 cups of precooked white rice.

While the veggies were finishing, I cut up the shrimp into thirds to make bite size pieces. I shook them in a container with premade creole seasoning. I heated them up in a saucepan until pink. There were two batches to make sure that all shrimp were cooked through. I rinsed the second batch with hot water after cooked to remove the extra seasoning. Good thing I did, too. (I'll explain later). Once cooked, I dumped all the shrimp in the pot with the veggies. Simmer for about 10 more minutes. Serve in bowls. 

The flavor was delicious but holy hell it was spicy! I only had one small bowl because the last thing this pregnant mama needs is something to add to the heartburn I already get every night. Tonight will definitely be a Tums night but it was worth it :). Hubby was not big on it because he doesn't like okra unless it's fried but he still managed to eat two big bowlfuls. This will definitely be a redo but with about twice as much so I can portion and freeze more of it. As is I still had three portions but if it's good leftover I would love to make more (minus a little of the cayenne or creole spice. In hindsight, I should've known it was going to be super spicy because I started sneezing the minute I poured the creole seasoning into the container but we like spicy...usually :).

Taco Seasoning

Just last week I was making tacos and pondering a way to make my own. I read the ingredients and figured that it wouldn't be very hard; just some trial and error. If you know me well, then you know that I can sometimes have some wonderful (and creative) ideas...but getting me to do them is like pulling teeth. I can even have all the supplies and means to complete the task at hand and just never do it. This is not because I lack motivation; it's because I am a perfectionist. There I said it - Boy that felt good. Admitting it is the first step after all :). Anywho, before I had the chance to actually try and make my own seasoning I stumbled upon a recipe on...you guessed it...Pinterest. (Homemade Taco Seasoning) I tried it tonight because, as usual, I had everything necessary to make it and just happened to be making tacos with ground chicken. If you haven't tried eating ground chicken rather than beef it takes some getting used to. For me the texture is very different and the flavor is, well, absent. I add a ton of seasoning to overcome this and it is healthier (in theory) so I'll stick with it. But alas I digress...again...

So here's the ratio I found on the above recipe:
1 part chili powder
1 part ground cumin
1 part garlic powder
1 part onion powder
1/4 to 1/2 part crushed red pepper

I only used 1T of the first 4 and 1/2 t of the 5th. I will, however, make a much larger batch to stick in the freezer and portion out as needed because it was great! And it doesn't have the extra sodium and other crap that is found in store bought taco seasoning...BONUS! This is definitely a must try if you enjoy tacos or using taco seasoning on any other dishes. My hubs uses it on popcorn sometimes so it'll be interesting to see how he likes it on his next batch. Let me know if you all have any ideas or additions that will enhance or improve the flavor.

First Attempt at Juicing

So now that I am able to be in the kitchen for longer than about 2 minutes, I decided to try something new. (BTW - You don't realize how many different smells there are at any given time until you are pregnant). After reading the blog The Verdant Life written by a vegan friend of mine from high school, I got the juicing bug. Didn't look like it would be too hard so I thought "Why not try it?" I ended up purchasing the juicer she recommended because I know nothing about them and quite frankly did not want to research them. It was only about $20 or so on Amazon so I went with it. With my little helper in tow, we went from this:

To this midway through...

To the final product: TADA!

It got really good reviews from my little critic. He finally handed me the glass with about 3 drops left and said, "I don't want anymore. You can have the rest." Thanks kiddo! 

The only problem I had with the juicer was that it didn't reverse every time I pushed down on it but it evened out well enough to get all the juice from the lemon. I also had to clean it a few times during the juicing of the 9 lemons because I was concerned about the seeds getting stuck in there. FYI: 9 lemons made just less than 2 cups of lemon juice so I still have almost a full cup of juice to make another batch of lemonade.

Yummy Dinner

Living a million miles from the Gulf and having a picky hubby (at least when it comes to cooking and variety), I find it very difficult sometimes to come up with seafood dishes. Did I mention that he doesn't like onions but hasn't ever tried them since I've been with him? I've tried to explain that tastes change but he thinks I'm tricking him. Have you ever seen a recipe that doesn't involve some kind of onion? Anyway, onion powder is substituted most of the time but it just doesn't taste the same. Rant Over...

So I tried a recipe from my Italian cookbook called Spicy Shrimp Puttanesca. OMG! It was delicious!! Shrimp, tomatoes, onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, capers (never used before) and olives (not my fav but I tried them anyway) all on top of angel hair pasta. This is definitely one of those dishes that I KNOW he will love if he'll just try it. It's got some heat behind it that he likes and all the flavors meld together very well. Definitely a keeper!

Salsa Chicken

I wanted to share a very easy, yet tasty dish that I made tonight for dinner. If you try this and have any suggestions to make it better, please feel free to share.

Salsa Chicken

1 - 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup Salsa, more if desired

1 can whole kernel corn, drained

Paprika

Rice

1) Preheat oven to 375.

2) Spray 11 x 7 baking dish (or whatever size you want to use) with non-stick cooking spray.

3) Mix corn and salsa and pour into bottom of dish.

4) Place chicken breasts on top, sprinkle with paprika, and cover with aluminum foil.

5) Bake for 40-45 minutes until chicken is done.

6) While chicken is baking, make rice according to directions.

7) Place finished chicken on top of rice and serve.

8) ENJOY!

Pork Medallions with Marsala

Tried a new recipe tonight that was absolutely delicious and very easy to make. Thought I'd share here in case anyone needed some new dinner ideas:

Pork Medallions with Marsala

Ingredients: 1 lb pork tenderloin, cut into 1/2 inch slices, All-purpose flour, 2 T olive oil, 1 clove garlic, minced, 1/2 c sweet marsala wine, 2 T chopped fresh parsley

1) Lightly dust pork with flour, Heat oil in large skillet over med-high heat. Add pork slices; cook 3 minutes per side or until browned. Remove from pan. Reduce heat to medium.

2) Add garlic to skillet; cook and stir 1 minute. Add wine and pork; cook 3 minutes or until pork is barely pink. Remove pork. Stir in parsley. Simmer wine mixture 2-3 minutes until slightly thickened. Serve over pork.

Above is the recipe from the book but here's how I changed it. I had to add more wine after removing the pork in order to make the sauce. That's it - that's all I had to change :).

The pork tasted wonderful and was so moist. It was very yummy and will definitely be made again.