What we ate: dinner series.

It's Thursday so we're back for another installment of dinner recipes! This week was all about fries and wings with some steak, pasta (always pasta!) and salad. 

The first meal we have for you was inspired by my love for the Outback. It seems like all the locations near us are closing up shop and I'm sad about it! I love their aussie cheesefries and side salad so Sean tried to recreate it for me. It was a success!

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Bacon cheese fries -- 

Ingredients:

4 medium russet potatoes (sliced)

oil for deep frying (vegetable/canola/peanut)

1 cup monterey jack/colby cheese

2 slices bacon (cooked)

Seasoning:

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

¾ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

½ teaspoon onion powder

1/8 teaspoon ground thyme

ranch dressing

Preheat oil to 375 degrees in a deep fryer. Submerge all of the sliced potatoes in a large bowl filled with cold water for 30 minutes. Combine all of the seasoning ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. Remove potato slices from the water and place onto a clean towel. Blot dry. Fry potato slices for 8 to 12 minutes in hot oil until light brown. Drain fries on a rack or paper towels and sprinkle with some of the seasoning.

Arrange the seasoned fries on an oven-safe plate. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle the cheese over the fries. Crumble the bacon and sprinkle it over the cheese. Bake for 4 to 5 minutes, until cheese is melted. Serve with ranch dressing on the side && and the salad below (you know, to balance out all the calories. ha.)

Classic Salad --

Ingredients:

package of spinach and arugula Salad

1 roma tomato (cubed)

1 red onion (sliced)

1 cucumber (cubed)

croutons

monterey jack/colby cheese

Assemble salad and top with toppings.

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Shrimp Scampi --

Ingredients:

6 oz small raw shrimp

1 ½ stick of salted butter

4 tablespoons olive oil

6 cloves garlic (minced)

1 shallot (minced)

¼ cup fresh parsley (chopped small)

parmesan cheese

pasta

kosher Salt

pepper

In a large pan (Le Creuset Dutch Oven) put 2 tablespoons of olive oil. On medium high heat, sauté and sweat out garlic and shallots until translucent. Chop 1 stick of butter into 6 equal slices. Turn down heat to low-medium and add in 1 piece of butter at a time. Mix everything together to make sure the garlic and shallots do not burn. Every time the butter is almost completely melted, add in another piece until all are gone. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and continue stirring frequently.

In another sauté pan on low medium heat add a ½ stick of butter. Once melted, add in shrimp. Salt and pepper to your preference and mix frequently. Once the shrimp turns pink with red tails and the flesh is slightly opaque and a little white in color, it's done. Set it aside.

In a large pot, boil water and cook pasta according to instructions. If fresh, it should only take 2-3 minutes. Make sure to take the pasta out a little al dente because it will finish cooking in the large pan.

Once pasta is done, toss in the garlic, shallots, oil, and butter. Mix in ¼ cup of parsley. Serve on a plate and top with some fresh pieces of parsley, parmesan, and the shrimp. Enjoy! It's especially good with garlic bread!

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Garlic Parmesan Deep Fried Chicken Wings --

Ingredients:

4.5-5lbs Chicken Wings (break down into drumette/wingette and toss tip)

Parmesan Garlic Wing Sauce

Oil for Deep Frying (Vegetable/Canola/Peanut)

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon adobo

1 tablespoon garlic powder

Half a packet of goya sazon cultantro y achiote

A couple spins of fresh black pepper

Set the deep fryer to 325F. Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl. Toss the wings until they are all evenly coated. Set aside and let sit for 10-15 minutes.

Toss the wings in the deep fryer for about 10 minutes until they are a light golden color. Take out and set aside. Set the deep fryer to 350F. Once ready, toss the wings back in until they are crispy and golden brown.

Take wings out and toss in a bowl with the parmesan garlic wing sauce. Don’t put too much or you will get rid of the crispiness! We had this with our favorite fries (recipe in this post)!

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Beef tenderloin filets with habanero butter --

Ingredients:

For the filets:

2, 2 lb center-cut beef tenderloin cut into 2 inch steaks

kosher salt & cracked black pepper

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

For the butter:

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1 habanero, seeded, minced

zest and juice of a lime

2 tablespoons minced shallot

2 tablespoons minced roasted garlic

1 tablespoon minced parsley

1 teaspoon kosher salt

4 or 5 turns of fresh ground black pepper

Saute garlic and shallots together and sweat out until translucent. Add all the ingredients together for the butter. Wrap in Saran wrap and make the shape of a stick of butter. Put in the fridge and let set. Heat the oven to 425F. Heat a cast iron skillet to high heat. Once hot, pour olive oil in pan and sear steak on one side for 1-3 minutes. Make sure it doesn't burn. Flip it over and put a half stick of butter in pan. Baste the steak in the butter for 1-3 minutes. Stick in oven on a broil pan for 5-7 minutes until medium rare. Take out of oven and cover with tin foil. Let rest for 5-7 minutes. Put habanero butter on top of steaks and serve. We had these steaks with mashed potatoes -- so delicious!

We'll be back next week with more meals in under an hour!

What we ate: dinner series.

Here's to another week of dinner meals! You can find more recipes here and here. This week we ate chicken tacos, coney island hot dogs and philly cheesesteaks! Javi was really only interested in the tacos -- toddlers! -- am I right?! I really thought he would like his first hot dog but he mostly just ate the ketchup (and the chili). 

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Chicken --

You need:

- 3 Chicken Breasts

- 6 Chicken Thighs

- 2 12oz cans of Pickled Jalapeno slices

- Salt to Taste

Pico de Gallo -- (for the best flavor, make it the day before! Store it in the fridge)

You need:

- 3 roma tomatoes (cubed small)

- 1/3 cup red onion (finely chopped)

- ¼ cup fresh cilantro (chopped)

- 1 jalapeno (finely chopped)

- 1 lime (juiced)

- Salt to taste

Grab your crockpot and put the chicken and the jalapeno slices inside. Set it for 8 hours! 

Make tortillas. (Previous recipe)

After the 8 hours, take the chicken out of the crockpot and shred it in another bowl. Add some of the juices from the leftover jalapenos mix to your desired level of spiciness. Taste as you go and add salt if needed. Serve (you can add a cheese of your choice, too. We like monterey jack, cotija and queso fresco)!

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For Chili -- 

You need:

- 1 ½ pounds lean ground beef

- 2 cups water

- ½ cup diced onion

- 1/3 cup ketchup

- 2 tablespoons butter

- 2 cloves garlic (minced)

- 2 tablespoons chili powder

- 1 ½ teaspoons salt

- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

- 1 teaspoon ground cumin

- 1/2 teaspoon celery salt

- 1 pinch cayenne pepper

For hot dogs --

You need:

- 8 all-beef hot dogs

- 8 hot dog buns

- 1/4 cup prepared yellow mustard, or to taste

- 1/4 cup diced onion, or to taste

- Fiesta Blend Cheese

Brown the ground beef in a little bit of olive oil in a pot. Combine ground beef, water, 1/2 cup diced onion, ketchup, butter, garlic, chili powder, salt, black pepper, cumin, celery salt, and cayenne pepper together in a pot. Mix with a potato masher or spatula over medium-high heat until mixture has a finely ground consistency and begins to bubble. It will take about 10 minutes.

Bring beef mixture to a simmer, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens and reduces, about 1 hour. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook hot dogs in boiling water until heated through, 5 to 7 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Arrange hot dog buns on a baking sheet. Cook buns in the preheated oven until soft and warm, 2 to 3 minutes.

Place a hot dog in the bun and top with meat sauce and top with cheese. Drizzle yellow mustard and diced onion over the meat sauce. Repeat with remaining hot dogs. Serve!

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You need:

- Sub rolls

- 1 lb. of Rib-eye (shaved thinly)

- 1 white onion (sliced thinly)

- 1 red, 1 orange, 1 yellow bell peppers (sliced thinly)

- 2 garlic cloves

- American cheese

- Extra virgin olive oil for grilling

- Salt and pepper

Heat a griddle of a large saute pan over medium-high hight. When hot, cover the bottom with olive oil. Add onion and bell peppers and cook, stirring until carmelized (6-8 minutes). Add garlic and salt and pepper and cook for another 30 seconds. Push the mixture off to one side of the griddle and add the meat onto the griddle (or pan). Cook continuously flipping the meat over and slightly chopping the meat into smaller pieces. Mix the meat, onions and bell peppers together. Divide into 2 portions and top both with cheese to melt. Fill sub rolls and serve!

What we ate: dinner series.

I've decided to partner up with Sean for a new blog series -- What We Ate: Dinner Series. It makes sense because we can finally team up and have a shared hobby! Usually, we like different things but this is an area that we will allow us to meet in the middle. He'll cook (for fun) and I'll blog about it (for fun). You can read last week's recipes here and I'll dive right into what we ate this week. :)

As I've said before, most meals take under an hour to prepare. I don't help necessarily, unless you consider occupying Javi by singing disney tunes at the top of my lungs, helping. And he makes most things from scratch. I know -- I'm so lucky.

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Tortillas:  

- water

- masa

- 2 tbsp. vegetable oil

- pinch of salt

- parchment paper

- tortilla press

Knead the ingredients on a floured surface for at least 4-5 minutes. Let rest for 10-15 minutes. Roll into inch size balls. Line your tortilla press with parchment paper and press each ball. Heat cast iron skillet to medium-high. Drop tortilla in pan -- if you hear a sizzle you know it's the right heat. Flip after 15-30 seconds, flip again and again every 30 seconds. As you finish each one, wrap them in a towel and keep warm in a tortilla holder.

Meat:

- 1 tbsp. canola oil, plus more for frying

- 2 cloves minced garlic

- 1 lb. of ground beef

- 2 tsp. ground cumin

- 1 tsp. kosher salt

- 1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce, minced

- 3 oz. shredded monterey jack cheese

Warm the 1 tbsp. of oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, and saute just until soft (like a minute). Add the ground beef and cook (stir occasionally). Cook through (around 10 minutes) and then get rid of the fat. Add cumin and salt and cook for a minute. Transfer the mix to a bowl and let cool. Stir in the chipotle chile and then the monterey jack. 

Avocado crema:

- 1 avocado

- lime

- mexican crema

- salsa

Scoop the flesh from 1 avocado, halved and pitted, into a small bowl and mash with a fork until creamy and smooth. Stir in 1/4 cup of mexican crema and 1 tbsp. of fresh lime juice. Season with salt and mix in as much salsa as you like (the more you add, the spicier).

Assembling the taquitos:

Pour oil into a frying pan, you need enough to reach halfway up the taquitos. Heat the oil at 350.

Fill each tortilla with 2 tablespoons of the meat filling. Roll up tightly and secure with a toothpick. Add the taquitos to the hot oil, a few at a time so there's room, seam side down until they are golden-brown like a minute and a half. Use tongs to turn them around and cook them another minute and a half. Transfer them to a plate lined with paper towels to dry a bit. Serve the taquitos with the avocado crema on the side! 

This dish was toddler approved :)

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Pizza sauce:

- 16 oz. crushed tomatoes

- 1/2 cup tomato puree

- 2 tbsp oregano

- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

- pepper to taste

Sean cooks this in our le creuset for 30-40 minutes. Typically he makes a larger batch and cans it to have on hand when he wants to make pizza. But you can make it and use it right away, too. Honestly... I had no idea. 

Here's another post with a different kind of pizza using the same sauce.

Dough:

- 1 cup of warm water

- 1/2 packet of yeast (let bloom for 10 minutes)

- pinch of salt

- pinch of sugar

- 3 tbsp. olive oil

- 2 1/2 cups of flour 

Knead ingredients together for 10 minutes. Once it's dough and not separate ingredients it's best to put it in an oiled Ziploc bag in the fridge for a few days. So "we" make this on the weekend when we plan to have pizza during the week. This week "we" used a special kind of flour and yeast. 

Assembling the pizza:

- 2 small red bell peppers

- 1 pizza dough

- 1 cup tomato sauce

- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

- 3 oz. pepperoni

- olive oil

- kosher salt, pepper

- fresh basil

Roasted red pepper:

Roast the red bell peppers over an open flame. We used the grill. Char them on all sides (15 minutes), transfer to a bowl to cool. Once cool, peel, seed and chop the peppers. 

Pizza:

Place a pizza stone in the middle of the oven at 450 degrees. Let the stone heat up for 15-30 minutes and don't open the oven door. Put corn meal over the pizza peel so the dough slides. Stretch the dough onto the peel. Leave an inch border and spread the sauce over the dough and top with cheese, roasted peppers and pepperoni. Brush the outside edge with olive oil and season the whole pizza with salt and pepper. Slide the pizza from the peel to the hot stone and bake for 10-12 minutes. Use the peel to transfer the pizza to a cutting board. Let cool and scatter fresh basil on top. Slice and serve.

This meal was totally toddler-approved. 

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You need:

- kosher salt

- 1 lb. sweet Italian sausage

- 12 oz. fusilli

- 3 tbsp. olive oil

- 1 red bell pepper seeded and cut

- 1 yellow bell pepper seeded and cut

- 4 cloves of garlic, minced

- 1 cup chicken broth

- 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

- 1/4 cup fresh basil

Start boiling a large pot of salted water. Heat a frying pan to medium-high. Add the sausage, cook then drain and transfer to paper towels to cool. Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook as the package says. Drain and set aside. Use the same pan as the sausage to sauté the bell peppers (put some olive oil in the pan). Add garlic and continue to cook (this should all take about 5-8 minutes). Add the pasta, sausage, and chicken broth to the pan and cook until the broth boils. Stir in the Parmesan cheese and basil. Drizzle with olive oil and serve. 

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Sometimes we need an even quicker meal... and for that, we love Trader Joe's. These gyozas are the best.

You need:

- a package of gyozas

- rice of your choice

- green veggie (we like green beans but we had peas)

- gyoza suace

Steam gyozas in a dimsum steamer for 7-10 minutes. Heat a skillet to medium-high heat with a good coating of oil. Add the gyozas and flip often so they don't burn. Remove when they have a golden-crispy exterior. Serve with rice, a veggie and gyoza dipping sauce. 

So tell us, what did YOU eat this week?

Dinner in under an hour. 3 meals we love!

I don't like the kitchen. Ours especially is pretty old, the cabinets are deep and the drawers are so heavy, I can never seem to find what I need and I always manage to miss a step in a recipe or move too quickly and knock something over. Sean, on the other hand, loves to cook. While I find comfort in sitting on the couch after work doing nothing, Sean winds down in the kitchen. It works to my benefit because I get such great dinners (and typically leftovers, too) and he has a hobby he gets to practice every night at dinnertime. We try to switch up the menu each week, and try new ingredients or the same old ones in a new way. Here are some meals we've had this week -- you'll notice a theme of freshly grated parmesan -- it's my newest obsession.

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Chicken Parm (without the chicken parm) so basically just pasta: [The back story behind this dish was that before we went to the store I asked Sean if we needed to buy chicken so we could have chicken parmesan. He said no, the next day we discovered we only had 1 piece of chicken to split between the 3 of us. So... we altered the plan a bit!] This meal is so simple and so yummy. 

You need:
- fresh pasta
- chicken breast
- some type of tomato sauce (we use pastene kitchen ready)
- garlic cloves to taste (we use 6... we like our garlic)
- 1 shallot
- salt, pepper and parsley to taste
- fresh basil
- fresh parmesan cheese

For the sauce: Place your garlic and shallot in a pan and sweat out. "We" use this pan for almost everything "we" make. Add your tomato sauce, salt, pepper, and parsley and let simmer for 20-30 minutes. The longer the better. About halfway through, add in some parmesan cheese. Stir occasionally.

For the chicken: Heat a cast iron skillet on high. Cube chicken into thin pieces, add salt and pepper. Pour a bit of olive oil into your skillet and quickly add the chicken to cook. Then mix it in with the sauce.

For the pasta: Boil water, add salt to the water and cook the pasta -- if it's fresh it only needs a few minutes to cook. Strain then add some butter, olive oil, salt and pepper. Serve with the sauce and finish it off with fresh basil and freshly grated parmesan cheese.

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Basil and mozzarella pizza - I'll be perfectly honest I didn't know Sean made this whole pizza from scratch until after the fact. When I asked him to send me the recipes for this week and he sent me this one I was a bit shocked!

Dough:

- 1 cup of warm water

- 1/2 packet of yeast (let bloom for 10 minutes)

- pinch of salt

- pinch of sugar

- 3 tbsp. olive oil

- 2 1/2 cups of flour 

Knead ingredients together for 10 minutes. Once it's dough and not separate ingredients it's best to put it in an oiled ziploc bag in the fridge for a few days. So "we" make this on the weekend when we plan to have pizza during the week.

Pizza sauce:

- 16 oz. crushed tomatoes

- 1/2 cup tomato puree

- 2 tbsp oregano

- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

- pepper to taste

Sean cooks this in our le creuset for 30-40 minutes. Typically he makes a larger batch and cans it to have on hand when he wants to make pizza. But you can make it and use it right away, too. Honestly... I had no idea. 

Putting it all together...

- pizza stone

- pizza paddle

- pizza pan

- corn meal

- toppings (sauce, mozzarella, pepper, fresh basil, freshly grated parmesan cheese, olive oil)

Preheat the oven to 525°F with the pizza stone inside. Roll pizza dough in corn meal, stretch it into a circle in the air like they do in restaurants. Put corn meal on your pizza paddle and once your pizza is shaped into a circle you put the dough on the paddle. Shimmy the paddle to make sure there's enough corn meal, if the dough does not slide you need more corn meal. Add toppings -- sauce and mozzarella. Take the paddle and slide the dough onto the pizza stone in the oven (it's super hot!). Cook the pizza for 10-12 minutes but keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn. Use the pizza paddle to remove the pizza from the oven and put it on a pizza platter. Add pepper, fresh basil, freshly grated parmesan cheese and drizzle olive oil over the top of the pizza. Cut and serve!

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Rib-eye with kale and freshly grated parmesan cheese - I got this idea from Love, Taza but I'll write a super brief summary of how to make this and suggest you go watch their video. :)

You need:
- 1/2 inch thick rib-eye
- 1 bunch of kale
- freshly grated parmesan cheese
- olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- butter

Steak:
Heat your cast iron skillet on high heat. Salt and pepper your steak to taste. Add a chunk of butter into your skillet and place your steak directly on top of the butter to sear. It only needs to cook a few minutes on either side. [side note: the house gets super smokey! open a window!]

Kale:
Add a little olive oil to a nonstick pan -- medium heat. Add kale and salt and pepper it to taste. Mix it all up and sautee a bit but not too much.

Serve steak and kale on a plate and finish with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

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And there you have it! 3 meals that can all be made and served in under an hour! And I know that's true because I'm typically the person complaining "I'm so hungry! When's it going to be ready?" -- and it's always ready by 6pm. Always. 

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