Ain't Nobody Got Time For That

If you wake up in the mornings, and all you can think is:

Source:  memegenerator.net

I found something that even you can manage.

So, making eggy sandwiches in the morning is actually kind of a giant pain in the butt...but it doesn't have to be!  All you need is slice of onion or bell pepper and you can get that sucker under control.  Just cut a relatively thick slice (complete circle--so using a bell pepper means cutting off the top and scooping the seeds out).  Whisk an egg in a bowl--add cream or milk for fluffiness--and pour that inside your "mold" in a hot-hot-hot pan.  Your egg will cook up super quick, then you can flip it and plate it on your favorite piece of bread...Bruno went for the rosemary potato bread.  I already had some diced up bell peppers on hand, so I threw a bit of those in before I flipped the egg/onion over.  It literally took me less than five minutes to make this.  You can eat breakfast.  I believe in you.

I'm on a roll, don't judge me!

Since we're talking about restaurant foods ...I have to also give you the home version of Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana.

I'm sure you've had it. It's like a simplified Italian wedding soup.  I actually learned how to make this, though I can't find the original recipe we used, back in San Luis Obispo.  You only need a few things!

1)One package of hot Italian sausage (and red chili flakes, if you love things extra spicy like I do)
2)one bunch of kale
3)one yellow onion
4)up to one pint of heavy whipping cream
5) six slices of bacon
Hey, I never said this was a healthy soup.
6) three or four medium-large white potatoes
7)two cans of chicken stock

And garlic! I totally forgot to get new garlic, so I just eyeballed a bit of garlic powder. But, if you have it, three cloves of garlic--minced.

And a large soup pot, of course.

Start out by dumping your sausage and diced up bacon to cook up in the pot. You DO NOT need any oil--sausage and bacon have plenty of fat to keep from sticking. If you want, you can even drain it after cooking before moving on. Around halfway cooked, I like to break the sausage up into very small clumps. Add your diced onion and minced garlic and give that a good stir. While that's blends together, start cutting up your potatoes. Keep in mind more surface area reduces cook time. Since Brun and I were super hungry, I halved the potatoes, diced them (think chip slices), then cut those in thirds. Add the chicken stock and one cup of water when you're half way through cutting the potatoes. Turn up the heat so your pot is heading for a nice boil. Add the potatoes and let those cook. When they look like they're almost done, pour in your cream and tear up the kale into manageable pieces (they'll cook down like spinach, but not so wilt-y). Add some cracked pepper and you are good to go. I've found sourdough or the rosemary-potato bread you can get at the store go really well with this soup.

Eat up!

Tasty Shabushabu

So, here is the other restaurant food I love Love LOVE! The restaurant is called Shabuway, and it's basically Japanese hot pot (Shabushabu). I'm sure this would be fairly easy to do at home, so let me break down what we basically get:

You'll need an electric burner (to keep that broth piping hot!) for your table. Shabu broth is basically water with a bouillon type cube of seaweed. I love it spicy, so there is chili oil and a lot of peppers in ours. You just keep the broth at a low boil and cook everything yourself as you go. This restaurant offers a bunch of different types of meats--mainly beef, but pork, lamb, and others are available--served with a plate of veggies (napa, carrot,I shroom, spinach, and tofu). Get in on the garlic and green onion ponzu-style dipping sauce and this makes for a tasty treat. Since I'm pretty sure you aren't hiding a deli-style meat slicer in your kitchen, be careful cutting thin strips of your selected meats to cook in your broth. Normally, it should only take a few swishes in the broth (the "shabu" swish swish sound it's named for) to cook the meat. Let me know if you try it at home! If I get a chance to do homemade, I'll be sure to post it!

Wannabe Benihana

I'm not going to lie, I am completely addicted to two food things in particular:

1. SHABUWAY (which I will explain tomorrow)
2. Teppan-- Benihana's in particular

I don't know what crazy Asian voodoo magic they used to create their chicken fried rice, but that stuff is like crack.

You'll need: rice, minced garlic, onions, carrots or other veggies you like, soy sauce, butter, eggs, and chicken (I didn't have thawed chicken so I went without)

If you have chicken, dice that up and stir fry it up while your rice cooks. Hopefully you have a rice cooker, but if you don't I will attach some links later to easy rice cooking directions.

You'll need just a dollop of oil heated in a pan to "fry" our eggs. Just whisk them in a bowl like you're making scrambled eggs and pour over the hot pan to cook them, breaking apart into smaller clusters. Add your diced veggies an onions (chicken, too!). Let these cook around with each other for a minute, then scoop your COOKED rice--just eyeball how much you think you'll like--into the pan. Top everything with a tablespoon of butter, a healthy dose of salt and pepper, a spoonful of minced garlic, and two tablespoons of soy sauce.


Fold everything together and let it fry up a little longer in the pan... Voila!!  Dash some sesame seeds on top, if you'd like.  Otherwise, you're ready to go.  I added a couple pot stickers, since I didn't have any chicken to cook in my batch of rice.

Use caution! It's better to use less soy sauce

and then taste after you mix everything

than to over-salt your rice with it!

Enjoy your tasty fried rice =D

Bruno Gets Cooking

Surprise!  Bruno made something a week or two ago, when I was super swamped at work.  How sweet, no?

He basically made some turkey burgers and provided store-bought steak fries and fruit salad on the side.

This one is fairly easy, you'll need:  Ground turkey, salt&pepper, and (I think he said he used) thyme...maybe it was rosemary.  You'll also need some small ciabatta or other similar rolls (think kaiser rolls), olive oil, and burger fixings.

Heat up a pan with some olive oil while you mix the meat and seasonings together.  Your patties can be as large or small as you like...Bruno's were a little bit large (they were like the first knuckle of your thumb in thickness!).  It'd be best to cook these at a med-low temperature to get them cooked all the way through without burning the outer layer.  You can cook two at a time with their corresponding buns toasting on the same pan.  Throw together with your favorite fixings and enjoy!

If my hand feels better, I might make something on Wednesday or so.  Until then, check out Getting Fit for some fun zoo pictures (and a picture of my home-made--thanks Bruno!--cast and the splint given by the doctor) or head to Wedding Spot for a quick look at my first trip dress shopping.

Easy "Mediterranean"

Two in one night!  You lucky dogs, you.  Actually, I just wanted to make up for not doing another post all week.  So, in anticipation of probably not doing another until Wednesday-ish, here's an easy mediterranean style plate.

But before I start, can I just share these super adorable containers with you?  Remember how I told you that Target was on an organization and stock-up bender as their "seasonal" items for the start of the year?  Well all that stuff went on clearance, and I may have gone crazy for these little babies.

Are they not super cool?  Don't answer that, I know I'm a little too into these.  Anyways...they're little veggie savers.  So cute!  I'm always super annoyed that I can't find another tupperware because I have like four veggies in the process of being used in the fridge.  Problem, meet solution.  These little babies are just the right size/shape for the onions, peppers, tomatoes, lemons, whatever I'm only using part of...no more rearranging which containers are holding what or using a million Ziplocs.  Anyways, on to the main event!

Quick lunch/dinner in T-minus 10 minutes!

This will require:  A little bit of chicken (I had 6 oz on hand, but only half is actually plated), flatbread, hummus, persian cucumbers, tomatoes, a red onion, and tatziki sauce (or plain greek yogurt style sauce, which I will describe for you later).

Dice up the chicken and pan fry.  While the chicken is cooking, cut the cucumber and tomatoes into similar sized pieces--think 1" cubes.  You can do the same with the onion, but sometimes red onion is too strong for me when it's a big piece, so I did really thin slices.  Mix these together with about four tablespoons of tatziki sauce.  Serve with hummus and flatbread and you're good to go--you can even make a gyros-style sandwich with everything, if you wanted.

Cucumber salad almost done.

Side note:  Tatziki sauce is a cucumber yogurt dish that you can buy pre-made (guess where!) at Trader Joe's.  It's in the section with hummus, veggies, and sushi--yeah, I don't know why sushi goes right there in their cold sections, either...just deal with it.  If you want to do it yourself, you can either buy some plain greek yogurt or use sour cream and add a bit of salt and pepper along with dill...same flavor.

Here's the finished product:  I added a bit of olive oil with paprika to the hummus and some celery sticks for something extra crunch...I love crunchy foods!  Remember to check out tonight's other post!

Chicken Tikka Masala

Let me confess something to you right now:  I love Trader Joe's masala simmering sauce.  I mean, since I found it a few months ago, it has been a favorite, go-to kind of thing in our house.  So, without further ado, I give you the easiest tikka masala you'll ever make.

Everything you need!

You'll need:

1 to 1.5 lbs of chicken

1/2 yellow onion

1 bell pepper (any color)

1 jar of Trader Joe's Masala simmering sauce

Heat up a skillet with a bit of oil while you cube up the chicken into manageable pieces.  Throw those on the skillet while you dice up half a yellow onion and a whole pepper the same way.  Following the directions on the jar for simmering.

Simmering away...almost done

I have noticed, just as a side note, that when I use chicken thighs (a little more fatty) rather than chicken breast, the sauce doesn't seem to be quite so runny.  I might just be over-cooking the chicken breast, which has been a little more dry than when I use thigh, so I'll have to experiment a little more to double check that.  I might just be adding more water (part of the simmering directions is to add about 1/2 a jar of water while its cooking) without realizing it.

Bruno and I really, really like the garlic naan that Trader Joe's sells.  I know, I know, this is turning into a TJ promotion.  But it's totally true!  So, Trader Joe's brand garlic tandoori naan--go check that out.  It's literally the best naan I've found at a grocery store.  So grab some naan, whatever your favorite happens to be, maybe some fruit (we had pineapple with ours), and enjoy!  Also, don't forget to check out the other post from tonight!

Mmmmm...delicious delicious Trader Joe's Tikka Masala