Pepper Steak Stir Fry

Hey guys! I want to start off by apologizing to you about not blogging in a few weeks. I've just been so busy with getting registered for school, working, and spending tons of time with my daughter that I really haven't had a chance to do anything else. I'm hoping to be back in full force with the blogging now, but it's likely to come to an abrupt halt once school starts back in January. I will be blogging as much as possible, but in the likely event that I won't have time to cook, I won't have time to blog. I hope you understand. Don't leave me; I'll still be here and cooking to share, just around a very busy schedule! :)

So... About this Pepper Steak Stir fry! I found this recipe about two years ago, tweaked it, and my family has always enjoyed it ever since. It's one of Stacy's favorites, and my daughter loves it too. I am about to share with you how I make this recipe instead of following the one on http://www.cooks.com/.

MY INGREDIENTS:

1 lb pork roast or beef flank, cut into thin strips

2 Bell Peppers, cut into thin strips

1 large onion, thinly sliced

olive oil

2-3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp butter

1 fresh container of pre-sliced mushrooms (optional)

2 tbsp flour

1 beef bouillon cube

black pepper

soy sauce

water

DIRECTIONS:

I start by heating enough olive oil that will cover the bottom of my large skillet (about 2-3 tablespoons) and then adding butter to melt into it.

Once my oil and butter heat enough, I add my onions and let them saute for a couple of minutes.

Then I add my bell peppers and whole garlic cloves. When the garlic starts to get a slightly glazed look, I crush them with the tines of my fork, like suggested in the original recipe.

I let the vegetables saute for about a minute more, but not long enough for the bell peppers to be too... flimsy (for lack of a better word). When the vegetables are finished, I take them out with a slotted spoon. When all of the vegetables are set aside, I add my meat (this time I used pork roast) into the oil and let it cook several minutes before adding the mushrooms.

I usually let my meat cook on medium heat for about 10-15 minutes and take it out with a slotted spoon as well to set aside with my vegetables. Next, I turn my heat to a very low temperature and add flour into my broth that has made on its own while the meat was cooking. Then I stir my flour into my broth to make it into a thick texture. Once it becomes a clumpy thick texture, I add about 1-2 tablespoons of soy sauce and about 1/2 a cup of water or more until I find the consistency of gravy I like. With this particular recipe, I make my gravy pretty runny so that I can pour some over the rice I eat with this. 

                                     

   Next I add my beef bouillon cube and let it dissolve into the gravy.
This is what I like my gravy to look like:

After I get my gravy to the right consistency I add black pepper, stir it well, and then put all of my vegetables and meat back into my skillet. I then toss all of this until all of the meat and vegetables are covered in gravy, let it heat for about five more minutes, and it's done!

After the meat and vegetables are hot, I serve it with a bed of rice.

I actually got really hungry doing this blog post. I wish I could eat some of this right now!

Speaking of eating; I'm doing so well on my whole diet! I have cut down eating, counted calories, and drank tons and tons of water every day. I'm well on my way to being thin again and I'm so proud of myself! Keep a lookout for blog posts on my diet plan because I plan to keep you all posted on my progress!

Happy Eats!

Poppy Seed Chicken

The first time I ever had Poppy Seed Chicken, if I am not mistaken, was at Stacy's (my fiance) family reunion a few years back. I didn't even know what it was; all I know is that it was good! I always look forward to going to the family reunions, especially for that dish! Here recently I went to a "meat and three" in Wetumpka which is a small town a few minutes from my home. I ordered Poppy Seed Chicken for my daughter not even knowing what in the world I was ordering. When the dish came to my table and I tasted it for Autumn to see if she would like it, I immediately ordered some for myself. Point of the story? I love Poppy Seed Chicken. It has so much flavor and my family loves it.

The first time I made this dish I looked online for a bunch of different recipes, like I always do, and tried to make my own but they're almost all the same. I don't like being the same as everyone else, in case you didn't know, so I tried to come up with a different recipe. The first time was awesome, the second time was better, and the third time was almost perfect!

Here's what I did:

I used the basic recipe with a couple of little twists.

INGREDIENTS:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 cans cream of chicken soup

10 oz sour cream

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 tsp garlic

2- 3 tbsp poppy seeds

3/4 cup melted butter

1 1/2 sleeves Ritz crackers

salt and pepper for taste


PREPARATION:

I first started preheating my oven to 350 degrees and then by cutting my chicken into one inch cubes. Once all the chicken was cut up, I threw it into boiling water and let it cook for about 20 minutes. on med-low heat.  

While my chicken was boiling  I made the sauce that would go over the chicken. I mixed the cream of soups, sour cream, cheese, garlic, salt, pepper, and about a tablespoon of poppy seeds into a small mixing bowl.

Once the chicken was done, I shredded it with my fingers and spread it out into a greased casserole dish. While some people like to keep their chicken cubed, I prefer to cube and then shred mine because I like the chicken in every bite I take once it's on my plate. I learned this time around that cubing the chicken made it easier for me to shred the chicken with my fingers and was less time consuming because the pieces were much smaller to shred!

My next step is to merely spread the soup mixture on top of the shredded chicken.

After all of the soup mixture was spread evenly, I crumbled up a sleeve and a half of Ritz crackers and evenly distributed them over the soup mixture. Once the crackers were evenly spread, I poured my melted butter slowly and evenly  over the crackers making sure to have butter on almost every piece of cracker. 

Lastly, I sprinkled about two tablespoons of poppy seeds on top of the Ritz crackers. I then stuck my dish into my preheated oven for 30 minutes.

Here is my final product. I typically serve my chicken on top of white rice and eat it like that, but this plate was for one of the children who came over to eat so I had to separate it.

This recipe is sure to be a crowd-pleaser! I ended up being able to serve four adults and four children with this dish and still have about two servings left over. It's so good and has become a regular entree in our household. I try not to make it very often because, like every dish, if you eat it too much you're going to get tired of it and no one in my family wants to get tired of this. It's that good! :)

Steak and Shrimp Kabobs & Stuffed Mushrooms

The other night was the last night one of my very best friends, Cindi, had in Montgomery before going off to BFE (just kidding) for two months so I wanted to make her dinner. The original plan was to cook rice, kabobs, squash, and stuffed mushrooms, but I got bored with it so I made Christina's Stuffed Mushrooms, and my own special kabobs.

I must first start by telling you about Christina and how friggin fabulous she is! You can find her website at http://www.dinneratchristinas.com/. Almost all of her recipes are original and are to die for! Every time I have ever made her stuffed mushroom recipe, I giggle to myself because they're one of the most wonderful appetizers I've ever put into my mouth and she hates mushrooms. I don't know how she came up with this recipe, but you have to try them. Man, they're good! It's not only this recipe that I've absolutely loved, but also her Mexican Shredded Pork, too! Anyway, enough about Christina; she's gonna steal all the fame one day! ;)

As for the kabobs-- These things were sooo damn time consuming, but were well worth the wait!

Marinade:

I'm gonna go ahead and tell you guys. I'm not one to measure the ingredients I put into my recipes. On all of my past posts, the've been approximate, so bare with me and use your imaginations if you're going to copy these recipes to a T!

You'll need:

Soy sauce

Worchestershire sauce

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Thyme

1-2 limes


I can tell you that I used half of the worchestershire compared to that of the soy sauce. In other words, don't use much worchestershire. :)

Once I made the marinade, I threw my meats and vegetables into it.

Ingredients for kabobs:
One BA sirloin steak (I think mine was like 1 1/2 to 2 lbs)

3/4 pound of shrimp

2 zucchini

1 extra large purple onion

2 packs of fresh mushrooms

2 large bell peppers



I cut all of my vegetables except, of course, the mushrooms into one inch cubes as best as I could. I marinated the meat in one bowl of marinade and the vegetables in another bowl of the same kind of marinade for a good two hours. Once the vegetables and meats were marinated enough, I just put them onto the bamboo skewers and threw them on the grill for about 5-6 minutes on each side.

The only thing that I urge is that you wait to cook the shrimp lastly because they cook very quickly and you don't want them tough and rubbery. The grill should be cooled down towards the end of cooking the steak kabobs and this is when the grill should be just perfect for cooking the shrimp.

 You see all these dang kabobs I made? I think there were about 25-30. There were only 4 1/2 people eating off of them and I only had two left the next morning. I was pretty proud. We'll definitely be making these agin!

Spinach stuffed chicken

This is one of my absolute favorite recipes and the reason being is because I completely and solely made this recipe on my own with my own imagination, and it turned out great! I came about this recipe for the first time when a friend of mine was telling me how he has stuffed chicken with spinach before. Now to me, just plain spinach in a chicken didn't sound very appetizing so I did a good bit of research to find a recipe that suited my taste, and I couldn't find anything! I finally decided to experiment and I was very happy with the results!

INGREDIENTS:


4    BONELESS SKINLESS CHICKEN BREASTS


3    CUPS (ABOUT) OF SPINACH CHOPPED


1/2 ONION CHOPPED


1 1/2 OUNCE CREAM CHEESE


1/2 TEASPOON GARLIC POWDER


3    TABLESPOONS FETA CHEESE


3    TABLESPOONS PARMESAN CHEESE


8    SLICES OF BACON


1    TABLESPOON OLIVE OIL


SALT AND PEPPER TO TASTE




PREPARATION:


Alright, so before I tell you how to properly stuff the chicken breast, I have to tell you how I stuffed the chicken breast the first time I did this recipe. Up until the other day, I was wondering why on earth my food turned out so messy when I stuffed my chicken. It's because I really wasn't even stuffing my chicken to begin with. I was rolling it. Yes, rolling it-- let me explain.


I would start by pounding out my chicken breast with whatever that hammer looking thing is that you use to pound your meats with (don't judge me... my kitchen vocabulary isn't proper, obviously). After I got my chicken really thin, I would spoon the stuffing on into the middle and roll the chicken. (No, I am NOT kidding.) I would then secure the chicken by wrapping it with bacon and poking toothpicks all throughout it. Folks: Don't try this at home! It's disastrous!


Now if you're laughing at me, I certainly don't blame you. The mess I made with that was something I still laugh about now. So I get it! Laugh on!

Now I will tell you the proper way to stuff the chicken breast. It's so much easier and much less messy! :) I start off by sauteing the onions and spinach. Once the spinach has the bright green color (which won't take long at all) , remove from heat and pour into a mixing bowl. Then add the garlic, all cheeses, salt, and pepper. It's okay to taste test this and add until you get to the flavor that you like.

Now for the Rachael Ray way of stuffing chicken. You start by inserting a pairing knife into the fattest, plumpest part of the chicken and going into the chicken about 3/4 of the way down. Next, twist the knife a couple of times so there is enough room to stick your fingers inside of the chicken so that you can loosen it up enough to insert the stuffing. Your hole should look something like the hole in this picture.

After making a hole deep enough and big enough to add the stuffing, I began with a spoon full of stuffing and tried to insert it. For me, it didn't work out well so I just got my hands clean and started stuffing the breast with my fingers. Once the breast is stuffed as much as possible, I wrap the breast with two pieces of bacon.

Once all chicken breasts are stuffed and wrapped, place them in a casserole dish and bake them at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Your chicken should be a light golden color and your bacon should be well done.

I also served my chicken with yellow squash and this smashed potatoes recipe from Giada at Home. I must say, this is a very delicious dinner. Everything compliments one another and  the chicken is to die for!

Sinigang (Filipino hot and sour soup)

Love hot and sour soup from those Chinese restaurants? Well baby dolls, you'll LOVE this!!! I have been eating this soup since I was a small child and  my mother always used to cook it for me. I love it! It is by far my favorite Filipino dish. Laugh if you'd like, but I think I liked it so much because when I was a kid, my mom would use a leafy vegetable called kangkong (swamp spinach) and I could slurp the soup out of the stems. Don't judge me. I was a strange kid! ;)

So anyway, I was sitting around the house earlier procrastinating on going to the store when I remembered that I had pork in the fridge and the tamrind soup base in the pantry. HECK YES! That called for sinigang and sinigang is what I made!

INGREDIENTS:

1    Pk of pork (Can be boneless or w/ bone. My mom always used bone-- I don't. You can also use shrimp, chicken, or a combination of all in this recipe as well!)

1    Bundle of leafy vegetables (Its what I use... If you don't have access to an Asian  Market, you can use regular cabbage and it's just as good!)

1    Packet of Tamrind soup base. I think it's only sold in Asian markets.

10 Cups Water

The rest of the things I put in this recipe are optional. (Like I said before, I like to put my on twist on recipes, and besides, I put this recipe together by myself.)

I also used 8-10 cherry tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, Frank's Hot Sauce (Good stuff!), a small slice of fresh ginger, about 2 cups of bean sprouts, and 1 small onion. This recipe can be changed just about any way you want. I have seen potatoes, carrots, and cabbage put into it as well. What makes this soup so good is the base.

PREPARATION:

If you're using the leafy vegetables in this recipe, just cut them into 1 inch thick strips. If you're using cabbage, I usually cut mine into about 3 inch thick chunks all the way around.It'll break apart once it's softened up.

I usually just go ahead pour the sinigang (tamarind) soup base into the 10 cups of water and once it is boiling, I put in my 1 inch thick, chopped pork. I make sure the pork is cooked, which I usually let boil for about 20 minutes. Once that is all done, I throw in the leafy vegetables or cabbage, whichever you prefer, the cherry tomatoes that I cut in half, and all of the rest of the vegetables.

Now here is what I have learned from experience. Depending on the flavors that your taste buds can tolerate, you may have to add more water OR (as my mother would tell me) you could cut down and use only about 3/4 of the tamarind packet. The base can be a bit strong, but I like it like that so I use the whole pack and don't use as much water. This is where I also add my salt, black pepper, and hot sauce. Just keep taste testing it to your liking. If you think the soup is even almost where you want it, you'd better stop adding because once the food starts settling and the flavors start coming together, the flavors are going to be a lot stronger.

After adding all of my desired vegetables, I let them boil for about 10-15 more minutes, depending how soft you want your vegetables. When I cook this recipe with cabbage especially, I don't like my evegetables too soft. I like my food with a slight crunch. Mushy food is not my style!

Now the soup should be done. I serve this soup over a small bed of rice, and.... VOILA!!! Dinner is served!

*Side Note: If you are in and around the Montgomery area and would like to try any of the Asian recipes that I post, there is an excellent little Asian food market in Montgomery. It is located at the corner of Federal Drive and Madison Ave which is in the shopping center directly across the street from Captial Heights Jr High School. The lady's name is Brenda and she is so helpful. I have known her since I was a kid. She'd be happy to help you in anything that you're looking for!*

Getting to know me!

Hello everyone!!! My name is Cheryl and I'm from the deep south, Montgomery, AL. I'm half Filipino and half redneck. I'm a mother to my daughter, Autumn; I'm a soon to be wife to my fiance, Stacy; and a daughter to my late Filipina mom and to my awesome redneck daddy.


I'd never had an interest in cooking before I became pregnant, which is when I moved in with my fiance. I figured that the whole going out to eat all the time thing was way overrated and after a year of rarely having a home cooked meal after my mom died, I figured it was time to get off of my butt and try out my lack of skills on the stove. It turned out that it actually wasn't a lack of skills at all. After eating my first home cooked meal of hamburger steak and homemade gravy and adding my own twist to the recipe, the food was DELICIOUS. Still, four years later, this is a regular entree in our household.

I have tried out many diferent recipes over the past few years and, typically, I always put a twist into the recipe to make it my own. I love trying out new things and cooking all different types of food. Up until last week, I had never tried to cook Filipino food because I never thought I would get it as good as mom cooked hers. I ended up trying several different Filipino dishes last week and mastered all but one (adobo). This is what inspired me to start a food blog. The Filipino food last week turned out amazing and I have been cooking it over and over again for the past few days!

I'm not really sure how this food blog will play out since I have never done this before. I know I will be critiquing different restaurants as I visit them around the city. I also plan on giving you recipes sometimes, and also showing you step-by-step instructions on how I come about some of my meals. I plan on showing and/or blogging about my failed attempts at cooking as well because this, no matter whether I am proud of it or not, is part of my journey in the kitchen.

So here we go! Let's get started you guys! I'm ready to start up some good cookin'! :)