Chicken Bruschetta Pasta with Zucchini

Today I got a huge pampered chef order in the mail. This inspired me to make a new dish - which in turn I (of course) posted on Facebook. After being asked for the recipe and inspired to start posting my recipes onto my blog again I decided to log on and share!

Now since this is a spur of the moment post, I don't have my normal step-by-step photos for you. We are moving in a week, so once we've gotten settled I will do an updated post with photos!

What you will need:
2-3 Chicken Breasts
Spaghetti Seasoning to taste (I use enough to cover the top of chicken)
1 package spaghetti
1 bouillon cube or enough chicken stock to cook pasta in
1 zucchini halved and sliced
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3-5 cloves Garlic
1 small package basil
1 package small tomatoes like plum or vine ripe
About a cup of Spinach
Fresh Parmesan
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Season the chicken breasts with spaghetti seasoning, salt and pepper. Drizzle with evoo. Bake 15 minutes
3. When 15 minutes have passed begin pasta. Boil a pot of water with bouillon or chicken stock. Let chicken cook until pasta is cooked.
4. While pasta and chicken cooks, make bruschetta sauce. In a food processor combine all but a couple leaves of basil with garlic and all but 2 tomatoes. Drizzle in oil. Once sauce is made, add a healthy amount of fresh Parmesan finely grated.
5. Remove chicken from oven and let rest 5 minutes.
6. Saute zucchini in a large pan with garlic salt and olive oil over medium heat.
7. Pan fry noodles with zucchini, a ladle or two of pasta water, spinach, bruschetta sauce, and chicken cubed.
8. Toss with a little extra olive oil, cheese salt and pepper. Garnish with left over basil, tomatoes cubed and more cheese.

Enjoy!

Spicy Chicken Masala

My husband and I went to a local festival that we go to every year. The sad part was this year our favorite food vendor wasn't there! After we recovered from the confusion we walked around for about an hour trying to find something to eat. We finally settled on an Indian vendor for chicken Masala and fell in love.

After about a week, we started craving it again so I decided to attempt to remake it myself. Let me warn you now, this recipe when I made it turned out to be a 500-star-sweat-out-your-eye-sockets hot. If you want it to be less hot, I suggest cutting down or omitting the chili paste and the cayenne pepper. It also gets hotter the longer it simmers, as well as the next day.

The entire meal was chicken tikka masala and rice, gyoza made like momo and some broccoli and cheese.

Ingredients:
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sweet Chili Paste
White Pepper Salt
Paprika
Curry Powder
Cayenne Pepper
Tikka Masala Mix
Diced Tomatoes
Tomato Paste
Water
Chicken Breasts cut into 1" pieces
Frozen Pot Stickers (Gyoza)
Rice

Directions

• Heat wok pan over medium high heat.
• Add a little extra virgin olive oil and 2 spoons full of chili paste  
• Add tomatoes and tomato paste with about a can of water (I usually measure the water in the tomato paste can to get the extra bits of paste out)
• Add seasonings. I eyeballed it all, about 1 tsp of the white pepper, 1 1/2 tsp cayenne, 2 Tbsp curry and 1-2 tsp paprika. I also dumped what was left of my masala mix in which I'd say was about 1/8 cup. I got the Masala Mix in the spice section of a little market in my mom's town literally called "The Market". I have no idea what all was in it, but I am guessing curry, garlic, onion and ginger at least.

                                           

• This is about where I grill up the chicken and start the rice. My rice cooker was being used as a steamer for the broccoli so I cooked my rice the old school way. (1 cup of rice to 1 1/2 cups of water, bring to a boil, stir, turn down to low heat and steam 20-25 minutes.)

                                

• Once the chicken has some good grill marks, mix in with Tomato sauce. Let simmer on low until rice is finished. (Mine simmered about 30 minutes, because I started the rice late).
• While the rice and sauce are cooking cook the gyoza per package directions..

                                         
Once everything has cooked completely, serve up your rice and pot stickers covered in the chicken asala sauce and enjoy.
 
 

Sneak peak!

I just wanted to give you a sneak peak of what's coming! It's very time consuming but I hope to have the recipe up by Sunday at the latest! See you all then!!!

Yum!

Pulled Chicken in the crock pot!

I started a new job recently so the crock pot i got for our wedding has been super handy to have! Who doesn't love the simplicity of set it and forget it??

I mixed the left over bar-b-que sauce we had in the fridge with about a cup of katsup, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste and cooked on low all day (about 7 hours) then I shredded it with two forks and served on toasted Hawaiian sweet rolls!

Cilantro Lime Chicken

I was looking for something new and fresh to make for dinner, and I was reminded of a teryiaki lime shrimp dish my neighbor used to make for our weekly bbq get together. Now for some reason I can't figure out exactly how he got his shrimp maranade to taste so good compared to when I make it, and became convinced that he had a secret recipe. This inspired me to dress up my chicken with a cilantro lime teryiaki sauce.

you can substitute boneless skinless and/or breast. I feel that the thigh is a cost-friendly and more flavorful cut of the chicken, so I tend to use it in a lot of my chicken recipes.

4 bone-in chicken thighs
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
1 whole good sized scallion (2 if they're small)
2+ cloves of garlic per taste (hey some people like their garlic!)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 lime halved
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
*1/2 small white onion optional

Preheat oven to 500F. Prep chicken by scoring the skin side down the bone in 3/4" intervals.

Chop cilantro, scallion (up to green) garlic and *optional onion until fine. Emulsify with soy sauce, oyster sauce and olive oil in food processor. Seperate sauce into 2 bowls, one for raw chicken and one for cooked.

Line baking dish. Lightly season chicken with salt and pepper. Brush chicken with sauce.

Bake at 500 for 25 minutes. Set oven to broil, and let broil for 3 minutes to get a nice crust on the chicken. Remove from oven and let rest 5 minutes. It is very important for taste that you let it rest after cooking so all of the juices can settle into the meat.

When you plate this chicken, top with some of the extra sauce, the sliced up green parts of the scallion, some fresh black pepper and cilantro.

Two great ways to serve this dish is with rice and avacado or with a fresh cilantro and avacado salsa.

Content Writing

I started a new project so-to-speak, in a way I was testing out how well I would do as a marketing content writer. I took my first job a couple days ago and got complimented by the client, with an instant per-word raise. I was unaware at how well my writing skills could be perceived by others! To me I feel I am just over viewing things and babbling, but to others I am providing useful information to someone while making a little extra money for myself.

With that, I grew from a 3-star writer to a 4-star writer in a matter of days, and am working hard towards becoming a 5-star writer. I am getting a lot of high ratings for my brief articles in the "cities" writing department. Recently, I received a 5-star rating on an article I had a deep interest for. While writing about organizing your kitchen to utilize your small space, I learned how to do just that for myself.

Some great tips I learned are to eliminate unnecessary items, utilize your space well and de-clutter your counter-tops.  As you may know, my kitchen is one of my favorite rooms in my home, so learning how use that space as best as possible, I am learning how to appreciate the space as well.

Few and Far between!

I know I have been the worst blogger lately so I thought I would update you on my projects and why my posts have been so few and far between.

I have been really moving forward with my cookbook. It actually has somewhat of a format and now I am just working on filling it with recipes. This is a very time consuming process, partly because I NEVER measure when I cook, so I am having to go back through and make a lot of my recipes to come up with measurements, aaand because I tend to forget to write down ingredients. This means some of my recipes are a little different each time I make it. I have been going through and trying to figure out which ones are best to share in my very first book.

I am also enrolled full time this quarter and took on a huuuge load. I have 3 challenging courses this quarter versus the one challenging course and one easy fun course I had last semester. This has eaten up more of my time than I anticipated, but I let the add/drop deadline come and go and have decided I want to take on the challenge. I can do it! I just have to cut a few leisure hours a day. The first week of school, I was coming home from school around 11:30 a.m. and working on homework until around 6 p.m. leaving myself with undone work! Time to work on time management and less distractions during my free hour at school! :)

Now, with all of that being said, some of you may be wondering what I am going to school for, if it is culinary school etc. Well, no. It is community college and I am working on my BA in Music. Why? Music was my first love, thus my first priority. But don't you fret kids! Culinary school is in the cards for my future! I just wanted to get this degree out of my system. It is something I have dreamed about since I can remember. If that means teaching 9 months of the year and taking summer culinary courses, or if it means being a private instructor on my free time from culinary school, I don't know, but I will also get my education in food science so to speak. If only they offered a good culinary program at my local college, I could use my electives to get a head start. Booo! But I am working it so that if given the opportunity during my last 2 years of college, if a transfer is in the future, I have some elective courses open for it! okay, rant over.

Have a great snow day!

Oh Birthday!

My birthday is coming up, oh lord. It is the first big birthday for a while, haven't had much to celebrate since I turned 21. However, this year, my insurance rates drop and I am officially the age my mom was when I was born. You know what that means! (do the math) That being said, I got some photos done with Jordan today to commemorate the occasion. Ready to see them?

MERRY CHRISTMASTIME

Yesterday was a super busy day for us! We finished wrapping our holiday gifts, wished our friends a happy wedding anniversary and had a holiday photo shoot with our friend Jordan. We also braved Target so I could get some coffee and tights.

Here is a wedding style holiday photo that she did for us

we are officially a married couple for our first holiday season. I think this is such a precious photo and cant wait to put it into our frames!

Happy holidays guys
xoxo
J

3 cheese Sweetened Bacon Mac and Cheese with Apples - mmmm

I created a new recipe after a housewarming party with some friends. Amazing appetizers including a gorganzola cream cheese, crackers, apples and sweetened bacon. That night we went to the in-laws and watched Triple-D Detroit where they made a macaroni and cheese. Instantly a light popped on in my mind. Why not make the appetizer into a delicious mac and cheese? Those who know me know that Mac is my all-time favorite food - just call me the Mac lady.



Here is my recipe
1 lb elbow macaroni
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup butter
3 Tbsp flour
dash of nutmeg
dash of pepper
dash sea salt
1/2 cup mixed shredded cheese (I used the costco mexican style blend)
1/4 cup gorganzola
2 Tbsp Cream Cheese
extra cheese of choice for baking (I like to use sliced cheddar)
1/2 lb thick sliced bacon
1 Tbsp brown sugar
Red pepper flake to taste
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup panko
1 green apple chopped

I begin by popping the bacon into the oven. Sprinkle the bacon with brown sugar and pepper flakes, and bake in a 375 oven until desired crisp. I cook until I smell the bacon across the house. Pull the bacon out and start the macaroni.

I start cooking the noodles before I start the sauce, I want them to be done about the same time so I dont have to drain the noodles and let them sit in the strainer.

Once the noodles are started, I heat the butter and flour over medium low heat to make a roux. Once my roux has formed, I add the heavy cream and mix until smooth. Add the pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Then add all of the cheeses and mix over low heat until smooth again. Add 2/3 of your bacon.

Scoop the noodles with a slotted spoon into the sauce. Let most of the water to drain out, but you want a little of it to transfer. Mix well.

Put into the baking dish, cover with your extra cheese, bread crumbs and panko. Sprinkle left over bacon on top. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes

Top with apples and serve. YUM!

Tuesday, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

Oh my goodness, I keep loosing track of my days. So today is Tuesday the 13. I haven't posted since the 7th. SHOOT. Winter break sure is eating me up and scrambling my brain!

Anywhosit. Here are some pictures!

Breakfast. Easy, quick, and HEALTHY (At least I think so?)

1/2 cup strawberries, 1 banana

I like to blend before I add anything to make sure I don't end up with big chunks in my cup.

Blueberry waffles, strawberry banana smoothie.

 

For the smoothie, after I chop up the fruit, I add some orange juice and put it on the smoothie setting, then drop in ice until its just how I want it. Tastes sooo good, and theres no extra junk to make it full of extra sugar, and whatnot.

Theeennn for dinner I really wanted Teryiaki, however, the local joint was closed so we made our own! MMMM

This teryiaki sauce was waay too sweet for us, so I added oyster sauce and sriacha to it also

Our new indoor grill lol. The chicken was so tender - ooohh my goodness

Teryiaki, asparagus stir-fr, salad and bread.

I also got a SCREAMING deal at Macy's

No jokes about my nail, I know I need a fill. That aside, my total WAS over $90. However, I paid $21.17. Whaaaat?!?! How you may ask? Clearance racks. Just because it's on sale doesn't mean it's not cute...

This dress: $4.99! Sorry its not a great photo, I was having technical difficulties also known as a new phone that I just don't really know how to work. This is the only one that turned out. I also got 2 shirts, and some lady things.

Lastly, I found this note from my bff. (crazy - her wedding song just came on pandora) and I swear, it is about my husband. Except she wrote this in 05 - I met him in 06/07 and we didn't date until 09. Its like she knew! (She can spell, I just cut off one of the words - oops!)

Finally Finished with Fall!

Hey guys,
sorry the posts have been few and far between this week. I have been trying to study hard for my final final. However, that didn't work out so well for me. I think I may have gotten in 3 hours of studying max. I hope I did well on this test!

So a funny story to start off our day. My little dog Buddy (left) has only child syndrome from time to time. Yesterday I was studying for my final and I kept hearing this thumping noise. Turned out Buddy had a monopoly on the toys, and had grounded peanut to their cushion. Every time she'd move he'd rush her and she had to lay back down before he would sit. This is him getting ready to pounce me if I got too close. He is the most hilarious thing ever.

Next how about a recipe?

Sweet Meatloaf!

Ingredients:

1 lb lean ground beef

1 small onion

about 1/3 cup breadcrumbs

4 saltine crackers

1/4 cup milk

1 egg

3 cloves garlic

1/3 cup grated cheese

seasonings are measured by taste:

Oregano

Sage

Salt and Pepper

Ground Mustard

For topping

1/2 cup Katsup

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground mustard

Instructions are easie as pie. Chop onion and garlic, beat egg, mix everything in with meat, mix with hands for best result. I only do half of the breadcrumbs and milk to begin with and add as needed until I have the right consistency, you want it to stick together but not become goo. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

While that bakes, mix katsup, brown sugar and ground mustard. When your 45 minute timer goes off brush topping onto meatloaf and bake another 7-10 minutes. 

Yum!

Serving suggestion:

No this is not directly on the counter, it is on a clear plate. :)

So with that out there for you, I am going to edit my how-to video and have it posted for you asap!

Have a great day everyone!

One down one to go!

Took my Music Appreciation final today, it was pretty darned easy! Only one left to go. Hallelujah! I am excited to start the new quarter with new classes, and new students. I am shooting high and taking 3 full credit courses - so hopefully I will survive AND graduate a little faster.

I spent a good part of today editing wedding photos. We had a big mishap with our wedding pictures and I have been doing what I can to make the best of what we have. I am pretty impressed with myself though, the ones I have fancied up look really good! Here's a sneak peak:

I increased the saturation to make it a bit more vibrant. All of the pictures we have are a bit dull so I was trying to get them to pop a little more.


I have started a new daily routine. I get up in the morning and while I get ready, I watch IJT and check my blogs. Lately I have been doing it in the dining room for better lighting, I cant wait until summer when it will be lighter in my office/fashion room!

We are using up some of the plates and silverware from the wedding and I think it is amusing that the plates are see through. Dinner last night was my homemade maranara with monkey bread, italian veggies and green beans. Can't forget the side of peach smoothie!

Let me know if you want any of the recipes!
See you guys tomorrow!

Todays about a spruce!

    Apparently, I get way to excited when I get to go out on the town at night. Last night we went out to the old bar we used to hang out at and I was so excited that I stayed up far too late and slept in until 11:00 this morning! Needless to say, I was completely off of my game. I totally forgot my camera all day! Who does that?

So to let you know about my day first we went to Ranch 99, my favorite ethnic store in Lynnwood, Wa. I was like a kid in a candy store. Let's just say I am starting to become more familiar with my own ethnic background, and the more I learn the more excited I get for the things I can find in these stores. One thing I have fallen in love with is Mochi Ice Cream. Oh-Em-Gee YUM! I didn't get any because it would be melted before I got home but this is what is it:

It's pounded sticky rice which makes kind of a jelly outer and it is filled with yummy creamy ice cream. My favorite is green tea. So I got some plain mochi thinking it would do until I could go get some and come straight home to get them into the freezer. Not so good. I learned that the part I really like of mochi, is the ice cream. Not the goo...

Then we went to Verizon and I got a new phone plan, meaning I dropped T-Mobile. Well hey, they actually dropped me. They discontinued my plan, and constantly dropped my calls...so it was just time to move on.

Not a very exciting day (after Ranch99 that is,) so I am spending my normal blog time tonight sprucing up my page. The layout I was using was making it impossible for people to subscribe so I am going to make a plain layout into a pretty layout.

See you all tomorrow!

AAAHH Finals Week!

So Sorry I didn't get my post up yesterday! Finals week is finally catching up with me. I have tons to share and a new video going up on my YouTube channel as soon as it finishes loading! How exciting! I have a new goal for the next year, and that is to attempt YouTube partner by next winter. I don't know if I can do it, because I am extremely camera shy - but I am working on it!

So the last two days have been full of ups and downs for me. I broke my favorite mirror this morning tripping over my dog :( But I have almost finished putting my work room together YAY! I cant wait to have that room done, because I will have a comfy quiet workspace for working and for studying that is like my own me space. I know my husband will love this because I will stop trying to make all the other rooms in the house "more girly".

I thought it would be fun to share my nighttime skin care routine with you - I do this every other night, I will post what I do on the off nights soon as well.

I start off with a makeup remover. I got these for free from Target wit a $2 off coupon (They retail at $1.99!) After I use these up I got the ones Judy talks about on her skincare video on YouTube Kirkland Signature from Costco. $12.00 for 150!

Next I use AVON eye makeup remover. Since I wear a lot of eyeliner and waterproof mascara, I want to make sure I get that all cleaned up at night.

These two steps I do every night, the rest is every other night. After removing all of my make-up I use the Neutrogena Wave to wash my face. Right now I have the deep clean pads for it.

Lastly I use an astringent, since my skin gets oily over night, I just take the extra step to make sure my acne prone skin isn't about to break out. 

Dinner

Last night we made homemade pizza's together. Here are some pictures. My husband was teasing me for taking pictures so I stopped. That's something I will be working on by goal date.

1 Package Jiffy pizza dough
1 Can DelMonte tomato basil sauce
1 half green bell pepper
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic sliced
1 tomato sliced
1/4 cup shredded colby jack cheese
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
a sprinkle of basil
a sprinkle of oregano
(My husband put salami on his)

Bake according to directions on box.

Lastly for the night I was very disappointed that my favorite candle exploded!

And here's a treat for you! My new YouTube video!!

Tuesday, What a Day

Happy Tuesday!

So I totally remembered to bring my camera with me today, however I didn't stay the whole time at school, so we missed that part again.

However I remembered to keep track of my day a little better so here we go!

When I was packing my lunch today, I noticed two things.

1. We have a ton of left over soda from our wedding.

2. My hummus cups exploded.

 Sad. :( Moving on, I went to school. Only 2 days left this quarter! Turns out the kid that sits next to me in Nutrition 101 played baseball with my husband, and with his brother. What a world huh?

When I got home I did a little cleaning. I am now going to share with you something I think everyone should know, but have been surprised by how many people don't.

Laundry.

1. Lay the shirt out flat, backside up.

2.Fold the sleeves in to make the shirt into a rectangle.

3. Fold each side in 1/3 of the way so one side overlaps the other evenly.

4. Fold the bottom and top in 1/3 so they also overlap evenly

Okay - rant over, stepping off of my soap box and moving on with my night. I decided to marinade our dinner in some homemade marinade.

 1 1/2 tsp seasoning

 About 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Mix together and pour over chicken thighs.

Cover and marinade for a few hours. I had this in the fridge for 4 hours.

At this point, I talked on the phone with my bestie for an hour and swept and mopped our house. Pretty dull day today if you ask me. While deciding on what else to have with our dinner, I did decide to test out our Dollar Store scalloped potatoes

We also had some honey jalapeno shrimp the hubby's mom gave us so I thought these would go good with dinner tonight.

I grilled them on the new griddle that Ryan and Tiff got us for a wedding gift. This bad boy is going to be a kitchen staple, I can already tell. I not only cooked our shrimp on here, I also cooked our chicken.

They cooked up pretty well, but just to be safe, after a few minutes on each side, I popped them into the oven under broil for an extra 5 minutes.

And there is our dinner! The dollar store potatoes weren't all that bad, they were really good actually! Have a great night everyone!