Larb Gai honey, not Lard Guy!

We love thai food, the flavors, the way they use savory, spicy and sweet together.

However, we rarely eat anything other than noodle dishes when we go out for thai.

I found a recipe at the Skinny Gourmet Blog. It did not disappoint, even though I was nervous to try it - since I'm not a big fish sauce fan. But I bucked up, bought the sauce and made the recipe

as is.

I served with some steamed rice. I put the meat mixure (which we used ground turkey) on top of some shredded cabbage (short cut, buy cole slaw mix in the bag), some cucumber, basil, cilantro and some pan fried green beans that were still a bit hard and crunchy.

We raved about this meal all night, the next morning, the next night, we still are talking about it.

I didn't use any added fat to make the meal except for Pam and so the meal really came out to be quite light for you as well.

This, we decided, is a make again and addition to the regular rotation.

Larb Gai

Chicken Mixture
Combine ingredients and cook until chicken is thoroughly done:
1.5 cups (10 oz) minced chicken breast
4 shallots, thinly sliced
2 slices of fresh ginger, finely grated or minced (or Thai ginza)
3 Tablespoons of fish sauce
2 Tablespoons of lime juice
1-2 tsp red pepper flakes

Serve with:
Sticky rice (or white rice), and an assortment of raw vegetables. We always use finely shredded green or red cabbage, carrots, and cucumbers. Sometimes we add julienned red pepper, sprouts, or green beans.

Mix together with the chicken mixture in a bowl, or serve separately and allow individual eaters top to their taste:
1-2 Tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped
1-2 green onion, chopped
1-2 Tablespoons fresh mint leaves, chopped
extra wedges of lime juice

THANK YOU SKINNY GOURMET!!!

You say G-Ro, I say Gy-Ro

Once again, one of my favorite food blogs did not disappoint at all with this recipe - Thank you Elly!

Her Chicken Gyros are out of this world delicious and easy!

I served them along with some small eggplants from our garden that I coated with salt and pepper and grilled. The whole meal was just wonderfully delicious and I can't wait to make it again!

See, look at this picture, doesn't it just make your mouth water??

When dinner doesn't go quite according to plan

I had this wonderful recipe picked out to use the other remaining pound of squid from our adventures in cleaning and prepping squid.

However, our night to eat that dish got thrown off and we ended up eating out.

And when I went to make the squid dinner, well, let's just say the squid was a wee bit ripe!

So, since everything else for the dinner was already started, I had to improvise - and you know what it turned out to be a great improv. dinner!

Here is the origonal recipe I had intended on making.

And here is what we ended up eating.

I made the fava recipe as directed. I then shredded zucchini to top on the fava, added some nice fresh ripe tomatoes and two eggs that were slightly runny in the yolk.

It really turned out to be a filling, delicious and healthy meal that we both enjoyed- and we'll surely make this again too!

Goodbye Last Spaghetti Squash of Summer '08

I finally used the last spaghetti squash that we wintered over in the basement - so sad!

It was a delicious meal though and a great way to use the sqaush for a nice light summer meal.

This recipe comes from Cooking Light and can be found on their website here.

We omitted peppers, of course and otherwise stuck to everything as is. Delicious, easy, light and a great summer meal or even great to make as a big batch and take for lunches!

Greek Style Spaghetti Squash Salad

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 cups cooked spaghetti squash
• 2 cups chopped tomato
• 1 cup diced cucumber
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 cup diced green bell pepper
• 1/4 cup diced red onion
• 2 tablespoons chopped pitted kalamata olives
• 1 (15.5-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained

Preparation

Combine first 6 ingredients in a bowl; stir well with a whisk.

Combine squash and remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Add vinegar mixture; toss well. Cover and chill.

A Pretty Accurate Copy Cat

When the Hubs and I were in Boston for the 4th of July, we ate at this wonderful restaurant on the North End and both had the most delicious pizzas and salads for dinner. However, another item on the menu caught our eyes as something we should try to replicate at home.

It was a pasta with squid, olives and capers in an olive oil sauce.

So we picked up a box of squid with the intent on making this and one other meal.

After a good hour of prepping all of the squid, we had it all set for our two meals for the week - pretty easy to do - not intimidating at all and would truly buy whole squid again to clean and prep at home for meals - it's an inexpensive and easy protein to add to meals.

So for the recipe...

1 lb. squid, cleaned

1 lb. pasta cooked in salted water and drained

2 cans sliced black olives

1/4 cup + drained capers

olive oil

2 cloves garlic crushed

salt and pepper to taste

1 lemon zest and juice

Boil the pasta and set aside.

While pasta is cooking, sautee the squid in olive oil and garlic. Add in the juice of half of the lemon and the zest of half of the lemon. When the squid is just about done, add in the capers and olives. Season with salt and pepper. Add additional zest and lemon juice and a couple more T of olive oil to form a light sauce.

Top pasta with the seafood and olive mixture, drizzle with another tsp. or so of olive oil and serve.

Very easy, very tasty, very light!

Seafood Feastivus Maximus

The Hubs and I are so fortunate to live in a state where we can get awesome seafood. Each summer we make our trip to Galilee a couple of times to get lobsters, steamers and prepare for a wonderful local seafood dinner.

The pictures speak for themselves, lobster, clams, some nice fresh bread and a great cold bottle of wine from our trip to Oregon.

I love summer seafood in RI!!

What's Up Doc?

Well I posted earlier how I made that coconut cream cake, which left me with a ton of delicious leftover cream cheese frosting. So I had thought, hmmm I'll make a carrot cake, but was just not in the mood for dealing with a cake. So I actually found a recipe for Carrot Cake Cookies and oh dear heaven were they out of this world! They were really good with the frosting on them, but even better just plain.

Sweet, crunchy from the nuts, and totally carrot cake satisfying without the deal of having to make a full cake!

I will be adding this recipe to my regular cookie rotation!

The recipe comes from Dozen Flours food blog and is found in full here.

Carrot Cake Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon good quality cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup fresh, coarsely grated carrots (2 medium)
1 scant cup pecans (3 oz), chopped (optional but note that if you omit them, you will end up with slightly less yield. The nuts really bulk up the batter. * I used a mix of pecans and walnuts because it's what i had on hand.)
1/2 cup raisins (2 1/2 oz)

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 2 baking sheets.

Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

Beat together butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in carrots, nuts, and raisins at low speed, then add flour mixture and beat until just combined.

Drop 1 tablespoons batter per cookie 2 inches apart on baking sheets and bake, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are lightly browned and springy to the touch, 10 to 12 minutes total. Cool cookies on sheets on racks 1 minute, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.

While cookies are baking, whip cream cheese and vanilla together until well combined. Add sugar and continue mixing until smooth.

*Eat without frosting or with - It worked well to frost them as I ate them and keep the cookies in a tupperware on the counter.

It's a Kabab!!!

I have been eyeing this recipe from my Southern Living Easy Weeknight Favorites for quite some time but wasn't quite sure about all of the ingredients - so I decided to switch it up a bit and go with the basic idea and the sauce.

Honey Ginger Chicken Kabobs.

1 1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken cut in to cubes

salt and pepper

1 yellow pepper seeded and cut in to 1 inch pieces (omitted)

1 red pepper seeded and cut in to 1 inch pieces (omitted)

1 can or jar baby corn drained (omitted)

1/3 cup hoisin sauce

1/3 cup honey

1/2 tsp. minced ginger

1 clove garlic crushed.

*ok before I start with the directions you're probably thinking, everything says omitted, so what did you put on your kabobs?!? I swapped the peppers for zucchini slices and mushroom caps and omitted the baby corn all together because I just couldn't see how they would stay on the skewers.*

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Thread chicken and vegetables on to skewers

Combine remaining ingredients and stir well. Brush lightly on kabobs. Grill kabobs for approx. 12 minutes, turning and basing with sauce mixture.

I had so much extra zucchini and a few remaining mushroom caps, so I whipped up some udon noodles and tossed with some remaining sauce and the veggies to make a nice little side dish.

Wonderful dinner!

Why I'm Slow in Posting

So I'm so slow and lazy in posting because I've found a very bad addiction...

Restaurant City on Facebook... Even Bashful finds himself a little addicted to the Restaurant City!

I have been cooking like crazy though!

I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts

My boss and another good friend co-worker of mine have their birthdays within a week of one another. I always ask them what kind of cake they want and each year they make a joint decision on a shared cake.

This year the request was a coconut cream cake. I immediately thought of Ina's recipe and decided this was the time to try it. Only problem is, our house is on the market and we've packed up a lot of stuff - including my round cake pans.

I had my large wilton sheet cake pan out so I decided I'd make that size - since a 8.5x11 is never big enough to feed my office on.

Unfortunately that meant having to double the batter recipe -which then turned out to be too much and left me with a small square cake pan of the cake as well.

Overall, everyone raved about the cake - it was good - but not quite as moist as I'd like my piece of cake. Maybe the pan was too big so the cake was too dense. I don't know - I know I would make it again in my round pans the next time I try it.

The recipe is from Food Network and can be found here.

Gosh I love me some coconut!!

Ok, so not healthy - but D-LICIOUS!!

One of the girls on my local RI Nest board made this a few weeks back - and it had me drooling at work it sounded so good. So I planned the same meal for the next week for the hubs and I.

Absolutely delicious - I don't know what else I can say about it other than hurry and make this whole meal - you won't regret it!

The Bacon Wrapped BBQ Shrimp you want to make sure you cut the bacon while it's raw to wrap around the shrimp - depending on the size of your shrimp you may need to cut your strip in to half or even thirds. And do pre-cook the bacon a bit - even the microwave is fine! Any bbq sauce will work just fine, but I used Tastefully Simple's Bacon BBQ that was out this past summer and it just added to the bacon, smokey goodness of the meal.

The Creamed Spinach - I ended up using 1 1/2 large bags of baby spinach leaves, since otherwise it was a little too creamy for us. And I did use light cream instead of heavy and it was just fine! So that's a nice way to cut calories.

The rice is a great side dish with it because you can enjoy the leftover creamed spinach sauce with the rice!

This whole meal is perfect, you won't regret it - but don't waste a night of calorie counting on this one - just indulge and enjoy!

Bacon Wrapped BBQ Shrimp

Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cup(s) Jack Daniel's barbecue sauce
1 Tablespoon(s) garlic powder
2 Tablespoon(s) lemon juice
1 Pound(s) peeled deveined shrimp
1/2 Pound(s) bacon

Directions:
Cut slices of bacon in half. Cook bacon half way (should not be crisp).

Combine barbecue sauce, lemon juice and garlic powder (pour half of mixture into separate bowl for use later). Dip shrimp into half of sauce to thoroughly coat. Wrap each piece of shrimp with ½ piece of bacon. Place on skewer (leave small space between pieces).

Brush grill with vegetable oil, place skewers on hot grill and baste with remaining sauce mixture. Grill for approximately 4-6 minutes.

Creamed Spinach - I believe this recipe is from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ingredients:
1 bag spinach
1 Tablespoon(s) olive oil
2 Tablespoon(s) butter
2 Clove(s) chopped garlic
1 Cup(s) heavy cream
1 to taste kosher salt
1 to taste black pepper
1 finely diced onion

Directions:
Over medium heat sautee onions and garlic in olive oil and butter until translucent.

Add spinach. Lightly press down and toss while it wilts. When the spinach is mostly wilted add cream. Stir, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

It's a bacon burger without the bun!!

I tried a recipe tonight that has made it's way through the local Nest Board that I'm on.

We love beef, we love bacon, what's not to love about this meal?

I totally recommend you try this - but I would add some more bread crumbs, it was a little to moist to slice properly for meatloaf. Otherwise it was delicious and great and a wonderful treat. Oh and I did cut down the amount of bacon and just used 4 slices cooked and crumbled.

No pictures, so I thought I'd blog it right away.

Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf
Ingredients
1 Pound(s) ground beef
10 Slice(s) cooked and crumbled bacon (used 4 slices)
8 Ounce(s) package grated cheddar cheese (only used about 4 oz.)
2 lightly beaten egg
1/4 Cup(s) toasted bread crumbs
1/4 Cup(s) mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon(s) Worcestershire sauce
1/4 Teaspoon(s) salt (omitted, didn't need with the cheese and bacon)
1/4 Teaspoon(s) black pepper
1/3 Cup(s) ketchup (I just put in 1 T and then drizzled some on top )
2 Tablespoon(s) mustard (did 1 T in, and a pattern squirt on top)
3 Ounce(s) French fried onions (omitted, didn't have)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the ground chuck and next 8 ingredients, mixing well. In a small bowl, combine the ketchup and mustard. Stir 1/4 cup ketchup mixture into meat mixture, reserving remaining ketchup mixture. Press meat mixture into a loaf pan, or shape into a loaf and place on a rack in a broiler pan. Spread remaining ketchup mixture over loaf. Bake 40 minutes. Top with French fried onions; bake another 10-15 minutes, or until meat is no longer pink. *Mine went closer to 60 minutes.

DELISH!

Pork-A-Licious

Once again, another FANTASTIC recipe from Your Home Based Mom's blog.

Made these - gosh it looks like back in May or June - realized I didn't have a picture of it but the recipe is SO good I don't want to loose the print out - so why not blog it and share it!

Seriously, you need to make these Salsa Verde Carnitas - get yourself a nice piece of pork and make these this weekend - Holy cow you won't be disappointed.

I'm not even going to re-post the recipe - because without pictures it doesn't do it justice and her pictures will make you want to lick your monitor (go ahead, it's OK we're not watching!).

I made it exactly as is from her recipe, seasoned cabbage slaw and all. And I did it in the crock pot per her suggestion (I also just used a pork roast I had in the freezer and it was perfect!)

God I need to make these again now!

Choco-chip-a-rific

So I haven't made these in a while, nor do I have a picture. But these are one of my favorite chocolate chip cookies.

I love it because: 1. they taste good 2. they are lower in fat and calories 3. they are very satisfying.

Darn - now I wish I had some in the house right now to munch as I'm writing this!!

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies
From Weight Watchers
serves 24, 1 point per serving, 2 per serving

2 T butter, softened
2 T canola Oil
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. salt
1 large egg white
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
3 oz. chocolate chips - about 1/2 cup (you can use milk, but they are decadent with dark!)

Preheat oven to 375
cream together butter, oil and brown sugar. Add vanilla, salt and egg white and mix together.
mix together flour and baking soda, add chocolate chips and stir.
Mix all ingredients and stir
drop rounded half teaspoons of dough on to a non stick baking sheet. bake for 4-6 minutes then cool.

DELISH!!! The perfect little snack when you're being nutrition conscious.

Not too sure it's REALLY Greek-y!

But the name of the dish is Greek Chicken and Orzo. Even with the feta, it still tasted more Italian to us than Greek. Either way it was tasty and good! And a good easy dinner too! Very comforting.

I grabbed this recipe from the Prevention Website - they have such great recipes. The search function is both good and bad - you can really narrow down your search by like what you have in the house, what type of dish - even vegetarian, vegan, gluten free. But the back function doesn't always work and sometimes you have to re-do your whole search.

Either way - do check out their site for good healthy recipes. And try this one while you are there!

Chinese Make In

We love Chinese food- but we really have never found the perfect Chinese delivery food around us in RI.

There's one that is so so - but nothing to write home about.

There's a great place we do go that's more Thai but also has Chinese, but when we're there we HAVE to have thai food.

So my friend forwarded me this recipe for baked egg rolls from Joyful Abode and I thought I'd give these a try with our pork fried rice that we make.

I made them as is - no additions/deletions. So easy, so good, made a ton of them too!!

You totally have to make these!