Mongolian Beef

I have new recipe for you all to try and man is it delicious! We had it tonight for dinner and it is better than takeout. I did do a tiny variation, I put veggies in it. The recipe only calls for green onions, but I left those out and added:

1/4 of a white onion thinly chopped

1/2 a bell pepper thinly chopped 

1 cup broccoli chopped.

Other wise I did just as the recipe says. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Ingredients

• 4 tsp. vegetable oil
• 2 tsp. ginger, minced
• 2 Tbsp. garlic, minced
• 1 c. soy sauce
• 1 c. water
• 1 c. brown sugar (packed)
• 2 c. vegetable oil
• 2 Lb. flank steaks
• ½ c. cornstarch
• 3 large green onions

Instructions

• Make the sauce by heating 4 tsp. vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium/low heat. Don’t get the oil too hot. Add ginger and garlic to the pan and quickly add the soy sauce and water before the garlic scorches. Dissolve the brown sugar in the sauce, then raise the heat to medium and boil the sauce 2-3 minutes or until sauce thickens a little bit. Remove sauce from heat.
• Slice the flank steak against the grain into 1/4 inch slices. Tilt the blade of your knife at about a 45 degree angle to the top of the steak so you get wider cuts. Dip the steak pieces into cornstarch to apply a very thin dusting to both sides of each piece of beef. Let the beef sit about 10 min. so the cornstarch sticks. As the beef sits, heat up 1 c. oil in a wok (or skillet). Heat the oil over medium heat until its hot, but not smoking. Add the beef to the oil and saute for just 2 minutes, or until beef just begins to darken on the edges. Stir the meat around a little bit so that it cooks evenly.
• After a few minutes, use a large slotted spoon to take the meat out and onto paper towels, then pour most of the oil out of the skillet. Put the pan back over the heat, dump the meat back into it and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the sauce, cook for 1 minute while stirring and add green onions. Cook for 1 more minute. Now at this point you can either remove the beef with a slotted spoon or tongs and discard the sauce (this is what P.F. Chang's does) OR thicken the sauce with a cornstarch-water mixture to desired thickness and serve it over rice with the beef.

Cafe Rio Copycat

Cafe Rio is one of my fav paces to go out to eat, but they don't have them many places and its always my luck that we never live near one, so after seeing these copy cat recipes on Pinterest I had to try to recreate it. It turned out pretty well but I do have a couple of things I will do differently next time I make it. I think I will do pork (recipe found here) instead of chicken, we will have to use romaine instead of iceberg, and I will make homemade tortillas instead of store bought. Now you can put any toppings you choose, but fyi we served it with tortilla, rice, black beans, lettuce, corn cheese, and sour cream. If your a fan like me this is a life saver.

  

Cafe Rio Chicken

2 lbs chicken breasts
1/2 a small bottle of zesty Italian dressing
1/2 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 pkt ranch dressing mix (mixed with 1/2 cup of water)
1/2 Tbsp. chili powder
1/2 Tbsp. ground cumin

Place all ingredients in a crock pot. Cook on High 5-6 hours OR on Low 8 hours.
Shred with fork and serve in salads, burritos, tacos…etc.

You can also double or triple this to make extras for freezing. Then simply thaw and reheat for a fast and delicious meal.

 Don't get me wrong the chicken was just fine, but I always order the pork when I go to the restaurant so that is the reason I would try to pork next time.

Cafe Rio's Cilantro ranch Dressing

• 1 packet TRADITIONAL Hidden Valley Ranch mix (not BUTTERMILK)
• 1 c. mayonnaise
• 1 c. buttermilk
• 2 tomatillos, remove husk, diced
• 1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro
• 1 clove garlic
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 jalapeno (we like it SPICY so we kept the seeds in it, if you like it mild, just remove the seeds)
• 
  
• Mix all ingredients together in the blender. That's it!

I did this one a little different. I didn't use the ranch packet or mayo or buttermilk. I just used about a cup of the ranch dressing I had in the fridge. I also only used about half of the jalapeno. After eating the salad we would have put more lime juice in as well. 

In addition to these I made my own salsa. This was fun and I had never made salsa before (though I've watched my mom many times). 

Tracy's first Salsa

2 tomatoes finely chopped

1/2 jalapeno minced

4 T. onion minced

2 large garlic cloves minced

1 T. cilantro minced

salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in bowl. Done!

Grilled Chicken Ceasar Salad

This is my new food obsession. It is so tasty and easy to make. We had it tonight and thought I would share it with you.

Grilled Chicken Ceasar Salad

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoon(s) fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoon(s) Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon(s) Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoon(s) grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
• 4 tablespoon(s) olive oil
•  Kosher salt and pepper
• 1 medium red onion, cut into 1/4-in.-thick wedges
• 2  thick slices country bread
• 4  (6-oz) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 small head romaine, sliced crosswise into 1/2-in.-wide strips (about 8 cups)

Directions

1. Heat grill to medium-high. In a large bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, mustard, Worcestershire, Parmesan, 2 Tbsp oil and 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper; set aside.
2. Brush the onion with 1 Tbsp oil and season with 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper. Brush the bread with 2 tsp oil. Brush the chicken with the remaining 1 tsp oil and season with 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper.
3. Grill the chicken and onions until the chicken is cooked through and the onions are just tender, 5 to 6 minutes per side. Grill the bread until toasted and slightly charred, 1 to 2 minutes per side.
4. Cut the bread into 1-in. pieces. Toss the romaine, onions and bread with the dressing. Serve with the chicken (sliced, if desired) and sprinkle with additional Parmesan, if desired.

Mom's Raspberry Almond Cookies

These are my mom's awesome Raspberry Almond Cookies! They are my favorite Christmas treat. I could eat a million of these. Your welcome!

Ingredients:

        1c. margarine

        1/4c. sugar

        1t. almond extract

        1t. salt

        2c. flour

        raspberry jam

Directions:

     1. Cream margarine and sugar together until creamy. 

     2. Add extract, salt, flour, and flour. Stir. Cover and chill for 1 hour.

     3. Roll dough into balls, place on cookie sheet, and fill with jam.

     4. Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes.

Coal for Christmas

 I found this recipe on Pinterest.  It is so yummy and they were SO easy to make. I'm putting them in everyone's stockings for Christmas as coal for all the time they were naughty through the year, cause no one is perfect.

Ingredients:

• One 16 oz package of Oreo Cookies
• 5 cups large marshmallows
• 4 tablespoons butter

Directions:

1. Butter an 8X8 inch baking pan. Line the baking pan with parchment paper letting the paper extend up two sides of the pan and overhang slightly on both ends. Butter paper; set pan aside.
2. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, pulse Oreos  until ground.
3. In a large, microwave safe bowl, melt butter and marshmallows in the microwave until puffed, about 1½ – 2 minutes. Stir in ground Oreo Cookies until combined. Transfer to prepared baking pan. Using a piece of wax paper, press rice mixture evenly into prepared pan.
4. Let set up for at least 10 minutes. Cut into bars and serve.

Yields: 16 bars

Dominica Food Challenge: Week 2

I havn't ever really make a recipe with pumpkin in it. We only ever eat pumpkin one of two ways. We make a beef stew, but it in a pumpkin and bake in oven for an hour or so or we eat it as a side dish. I will share the latter with you.

Dominica Food Challenge: Week 1

Week one is done, and it was tasty. If you want to check out what I did with avocados check it out here on Spouses Kitchen.

Yum!