Best mojito ever!

I'm not sure where I found the recipe... But after having a mojito at a restaurant and thinking mine is better, I had to share!

Ice cubes

6oz rum

12 mint leaves ripped apart

Juice of 2 limes which is a rough equivalent to 6T of freshly squeezed lime juice 

4T sugar

1 can of plain seltzer

Shake and pour out completely. Makes about 26oz :)

Apparently this is made by Bacardi, it's delicious and it's 10 bucks, can't beat it.

I have loads of fresh mint in my garden!

 

1 of these makes me want to dance on a table, 2 make me think I'm on top of the world, and after 3 I hope the room doesn't spin! 

Vacation Epiphany....

Recently I went on a mini vaca and had to choose restaurants to eat at for dinner & breakfast. After looking at all the tourist magazines and getting a couple of local recommendations, we went to a very touristy spot for dinner. We were by the water and we ordered a lot of seafood & some hot dogs for the kids (their choosing, not mine)... First up was the mussels and calamari... The mussels tasted bad, terrible actually. The worst mussels I've ever had in my entire life. They weren't gritty- they just tasted horrible. The calamari was very sad, dry... maybe old, but upset me greatly was they served these plump strips that almost looked like clam strips in the calamari basket. ? I kept thinking to myself, what the hell is that? Oh boy, I had ordered a crab cake sandwich and after a very disappointing beginning was expecting the worst & the restaurant delivered. It was a sandwich that if it had crab at all in it, it was so finely shredded that the taste of being fried and the patty itself heavily breaded that that was all I tasted. I made two decisions mid-bite. First, I will not go to a restaurant that I can't smell from the street... When asking for a recommendation for a restaurant I will beg the locals (which I actually ended up doing for breakfast) please, please don't send me to some tourist trap. I don't care where it is, I don't need any gimmicks and even if its a hole in the wall that sells good food, send me there. Please. The second decision I made, although I had been thinking about it before I left, was to begin to elevate my style of cooking. In fact, I really have been doing that slowly... not every day, but more and more meals are beginning to pop up with more elegance... and attention to executing excellence.
If you can believe it, I'm pretty new to grilling... its a task I've long given my husband and have only recently (and I do mean, the last month) started giving it a try. Yesterday I made grilled chicken that was... perfect. The outside was grilled until crispy, the inside was thoroughly cooked but juicy & the marinade came out like a flavor explosion...
I have ambitions to, for the first time ever in my home kitchen, to start making bread from scratch and BY HAND (I have a bread machine I normally use, but I want to start going into artisan bread).
If its not good.... I don't want to eat it OR make it. My quest for executing the perfect dish, whatever it may be has always been... Except right now, I'm really fine tuning it. I want to explore countries cuisines that I had before stayed away from (for example, French food). And again, if it's not exceptional- I don't want to make it.
I have small children. I realize that every meal isn't going to be this way... but darned if I'm not going to try.

2 week menu:

Sun- chicken balsamico

Mon- one pot pasta

Tue- lentils & pasta

Wed- chicken cordon bleu casserole

Thur- Mac & cheese

Fri- beef spring rolls

Sat- grilled veggie sandwiches

Sun- Stromboli, beef stew with mashies

Mon- African beef curry with rice, kettlecorn

Tue- grilled steak tips & my signature pasta salad

Wed- chicken chili with rice

Thur- Vietnamese egg rolls

Fri- chicken curry salad over balsamic dressing

Sun- biscuits & sausage gravy

Mon- Dutch apple pancake

Tue- milk pancake with chocolate chops

Wed- pumpkin muffins

Thur- crepes

Signature cookies

2 weeks menu:

Sun- Teriyaki meatballs, gumbo & cornbread 

Mon- tortellini, Alfredo & spinach 

Tue- Asian sausage- peppers & onions with rice

Wed- chicken tenders with spatzel & broccoli

Thur- phili cheesesteaks

Fri- maple pork chops with sweet potato hash

Sat- chicken bstilla 

Sun- honey hoisin ribs with Asian broccoli slaw

Mon- chicken enchilada

Tue- falafel, tzatziki, broccoli slaw & pita pockets

Wed- ropa vieja

Thur- meat sauce & cavatelli 

Fri- sheppards pie

Strawberry scones

Cheaters chicken cordon bleu

Wow... I just made this and thought it was a great quick meal

Prepare chicken boxed stuffing & put aside

Cook chicken breasts & cut into pieces

Toss the chicken pieces with:

Cream of chicken soup

A bag of broccoli (defrosted & drained)

1/2# Black Forest ham chopped up

Grease baking pan- oven 375 bake for 35-40 min

So layer chicken mixture and put that on the bottom, layer 1/2# Swiss cheese on top, layer the chicken stuffing on top of that AND a container of French's French fried onions. 

Baked it off and it was cheesy & tasty & yummy... Not diet food ;)

Asian sausage & peppers

2# sausage removed from the casing 

Peppers sliced or diced

Onion sliced or diced 

Soy sauce 

Garlic cloves 

Package of mushroom gravy 

Up to 1C water 

S&P

Dump all in the same pan with heated sesame oil

Serve over rice made with tarragon & parsley 

Beef spring rolls & spicy mayo

3/4C mayo, 2tea soy sauce, 1T sriracha- combine in a bowl 

12oz sprouts, 3/4C cilantro, 6 scallions green parts (reserve whites) sliced thin put in a bowl + 1/4C mayo mix

Keep scallion whites in reserved & 1T minced ginger in another bowl

Heat 1T veg oil & cook ground beef add 2T and 1 tea soy sauce

Once meat is cooked, add your scallion whites & ginger- cook for about a minute 

Add cooked meat, ginger/scallions into the mayo mix & that's your filling 

Use 1/2c per spring roll wrappers

Thank you americas test kitchen simple weeknight favorites for the recipe!!

Update- I would use less than 1/2C of filling per wrapper, some of mine exploded... I served this for dinner & they were gone in a split second! Very good, very tasty!!

Chicken curry salad over mixed greens & balsamic vinegarette

Fresh chicken, shredded

High quality curry powder

Mayo

1/2 onion, chopped fine

2 celery stalks, split down the middle & cut into small pieces

Scallions, sliced thin

Mango chutney

Slivered almonds

Ginger- grated or minced fine

S&P

Mix & let to sit for a few hours in the fridge.

Serve over mixed greens & balsamic vinegarette 

Sausage, broccoli rabe & penne

2T- EVOO

1 onion chopped

Sauté for about 5 minutes

Add:

6 garlic cloves (rough chop)

1/8tea- red pepper flakes

Sauté for about 30 seconds

Remove casing from sausage 

Add sausage & break up the pieces

Cook for 4 minutes

Add 1T - flour, cook for 1 minute

Add 1 1/2C- chicken broth

And add broccoli rabe cut into 1" pieces minus the stems (discard).

Cook until broccoli rabe is tender then toss in cooked penne pasta.

Thank you Americas test kitchen pasta revolution for the inspiration!

Chicken Balsamico

The ingredients are simple, but the result is a quick & tasty meal.

Take a chicken breast or two & marinade it in your favorite balsamic vinegar dressing (this one is my favorite)

Layer a bag of spinach then your marinaded chicken breasts, throw some red roasted peppers & then mozzarella on top of it all. Final step pour more balsamic vinaigrette over it all & bake for about 30 min @ 350

Thanks Virginia Cosgrove for a really yummy dish!!

Canadian bacon & zucchini medley

Zucchini 

Yellow bell pepper

Onion

Canadian bacon 

Fresh parsley

Zucchini was cut into ribbons using a vegetable peeler

Everything else was chopped up...

Sauté all veggies and Canadian bacon together.... As the zucchini begins to soften, add fresh parsley. 

S&P

Fruit bars

This time I wanted to make a really fruity bar. I think it's a nice change of pace! All fruit used was dried.

1/2C- peaches

1/3C- apricot

1/3C- coconut

1/2C- almond

1/4C- pecan

1/2C- dates

1/4C- cherries

2oz- pineapple juice

Just keep adding the ingredients to your food processor-- I chopped up any large fruit before adding it... Scoop it out and let it set in your fridge for an hour & if you let it sit overnight the flavors mature more. Enjoy!

One pot pasta

Pasta

Diced tomatoes

Onion

Garlic cloves

Oregano

Fresh basil

5C- veg broth 

EVOO

S&P 

Put all above in a pot- bring to boil- 10 minutes & stir every 2 minutes

Gonna add my water in a second

 I give this a B+ it kinda grows on you as you eat!

Almond, coconut, honey bar

1C- almonds

1C- coconut

1T- chia seeds

1/2C- Rice Krispies

Put all the above in the food processor and pulse to this consistency 

Add 1/3C or 1/2C- honey (less quality honey add the 1/3C) & pulse until mixed.

Scoop it out using a small cookie scoop. This will firm up in the fridge 

1 hour in the fridge :)

** UPDATE: I have made another batch of these because I liked them so much. I brought the honey down to 1/3C and omitted the rice krispies and added 1T of flaxseeds

Orange, chocolate, coconut bars

1/2C- pecans

1/3C- almonds

(Pulse until you get a consistency like this)

1/2C- dates

1/3C- raisins

Orange juice & orange zest

(Pulse until you form a paste. Be generous with the freshly squeezed orange juice)

1/2C- coconut

1/8C- MINI chocolate chips

1/2C- Rice Krispies (optional for extra crunch)

1T- Chia seed

1T- flaxseed

Mix all the dry ingredients with the date/raisin/ orange zest & juice paste. Mine came out very loose but I packed it in to a small cookie scoop- laid it out on a baking tray and put it in the refrigerator for about an hour. They firmed right up.

I love orange chocolate flavor combination and I LOVE these, I feel like I'm eating something totally sinful instead of something healthy!

Rotisserie style slow cooked chicken

Ingredients: 

Sea salt

Fresh cracked pepper 

Emeril's steak rub

Paprika

Garlic powder

Minced onion powder

EVOO

I just sort of free poured here leaning towards our taste- we like a lot of garlic powder, pepper-- you get the drift, play with your spices here!!

I think I added too much EVOO, came out more like a sauce then a paste- no matter... Just scoop it all up & give your raw chicken a massage ;)

I'm trying the tin foil method to elevate the chicken ( allowing the fat to drip off instead of sitting in it )

My chicken is rubbed & ready to go in my slow cooker- I will leave it on low for 7- 8 hours (you can also cook it on high and it won't take as long... I just started it very early this morning so I have the time for the low and slow method.

Apricot coconut lime bars

I wasn't going to post these because I didn't take pictures or measurements while I made these... It was my first trial run at homemade Larabars... I have:

Dried diced Apricots

Unsweetened coconut flakes

Fresh lime juice and zest

Some almonds

A couple of pecans (like 3)

3/4C- dates

1/4C- raisins

They are so good... I can't wait to continue to develop new flavor combinations & recipes!!