Cooking with Erica: Part I

Hello, Hello!

Here’s the first part to my new spin-off section of thenibbla: it’s called cooking with Erica. Erica is one of my favorite people at Miami and she’s my big in my sorority. Erica claims she can’t cook (I had a bite of her PB&J once, quite tasty, I beg to differ) so we’re starting to cook together. Plus, homegirls on her own after this year, and we don’t want her to starve.

After our Kroger adventure where we almost forgot the main ingredient, salmon, we began our process. I based this recipe off of a Cooking Light recipe, but I change everything, so now I guess I can call it my own (?).

To start we cooked the salmon over med-high heat in a little spray and butter for about 6 mins on side one (skin side first to crisp it up), maybe 3 or 4 on side two. S&P each side. Take them off the heat and keep warm

Next we added some more oil/butter to the pan and added 2 shallots and 1 garlic clove (add more next time). Soften that, then add the whole container of presliced baby bella mushrooms and deglaze the pan with leftover wine (I used a combo of pinot grigio…definately not how you spell that…and reisling). Being classy, I combined them. Don’t hate.

Just as a sidenote, I added S&P at every step to give some depth of flavor. If you add it all at the end it just tastes, well, salty.

This probably took about 10 mins maybe, since we both decided we like soft mushrooms, and the sauce had to thicken.

In the meantime, Erica put together our lovely packaged ceasar salad, which was delicious. I even saved the leftover dressing from the little pack…

Finally, add in a package of spinach and let the steam wilt it down. This won’t take more than two minutes. Before serving we threw the salmon in the microwave for 30 secs, and squirted lemon juice and a little soy sauce over the finished dishes. Voila!

We had strawberries and cool whip for dessert to match..

Only thing we both agreed on in the dinner (as a con) was the type of salmon. We got wild or sockeye, and found the meat texture a lot tougher. If this was alaskan or atlantic salmon we would have given the meal an A.

Until then: B+ on food, A+ on company

Faux Birthday Dinner…Pizza

This is the pizza that I continually try to duplicate with tortillas. The veggies are fire roasted, and the goat cheese is spread out evenly into nice chunks, and the crust is super thin on the inside (whole wheat too!)…I love it. I went to Rizzuto’s for my birthday dinner (well…early/let’s pretend it’s my bday dinner) with this on my mind (little did I know they’re pastas are equally as delicious). I had to give you a look at a dinner I just love with the people that I am even more fond of.

The works: mushrooms, artichokes, roasted red peppers, broccoli rave, garlic, tomatoes sauce, and goat cheese

Product Review: Asian Salmon Marinade

So I never got this posted because this was the night before I left for school, and then we didn’t have internet at my house at school for a week, so here it is now:) Ina Garten know what’s up: this marinade is not very sweet at all, whereas most asian glazes are, which makes it a perfect match for salmon since it’s a meatier fish.

I poured a little extra on top after grilling it on medium heat for 5 mins a side. The fish was perfectly cooked, served with garlic sauteed spinach and some sweet potatoes (microwaved)

Insider glance:

Definately give this a try: A-! (maybe a tad sweeter would have been nice, but that’s just my taste)

Disappearing Act!

Ah, hello! I realize that I have been completely out of the loop for the past couple of weeks, but I have been all over the place moving back to school, and getting back into the routine of classes/life. I did have a couple of recipes that I never got to post before I left, so I guess I’ll just have to remake them so you can get another chance to see them. I am going to try and get one product review posted tonight though (from um, mid-August) , because I was huge fan…it was quite tasty. Alright bare with me as I get movin’ again, but I’ll try and make some occaisional appearances even during the crazy fall semester. Stay tuned!…(I have cooking plans this weekend:) )

Meghan’s Birthday Festivitiiieees!

So I have officially procrastinated posting some recipes recently (I had a whole big one typed up and my safari “unexpectedly quit”…gotta love that) BUT…before I get to my recipes, you have to check out Meg’s! For Meg’s birthday today we had a very foodie day. In the early afternoon we went to see Julie & Julia which was phenomenal, and then Meg cooked her own dinner (by choice, promise!)

My sister absolutely adores Ina Garten, or the Barefoot Contessa, and decided to make to of her staple dishes tonight for dinner, both of which you can find easily at The Foodnetwork’s site. I’m going to try and create a link for you after I publish this (just incase )

Alright the menu tonight consisted of macaroni and cheese (which used gruyere and extra sharp cheddar), and red velvet cupcakes for dessert, which were so good your eyes could tear up while eating. Photos! :

There was extra so we (they) utilized the mini casserole dish…

AND….the sweets…

The big cupcakes

And the mini’s

And my mini capped with extra vanilla frosting…

You better bet that I went back for a big one after this baby appetizer.

Happy Birthday to Meg!!! Luv u:)

Sweet Peanut Butter Sauce

This is insane. I unfortunately can’t take full credit for this idea since it has been floating around the blog world for some time now, but I made it my way, so I figured I’d throw down a post for ya. Ingredients: (I didn’t really measure though)

About 1/2 c skim milk (vanilla soy would be delicious though)

~ 3 T PB, ~ 3 T honey, big squirt sugar free maple syrup, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, tiny pinch salt…and blend.

Add more thickness with the honey and PB, thin it out with milk if necessary…

(These pictures give this sauce noo justice)

This is oatmeal’s long lost soul mate. 

I’m not joking. yum.

Leftover Madness: Ahi Tuna Salad

Recently the family made a trip up to Boston. We stopped at new restaurant on Newbury street (which was okay) and to be honest, my dinner was very mediocre. I probably ate half the tuna steak I ordered and bought the rest home, hoping I could work some magic with leftovers….and, next day, I did. Why?

First of all ahi tuna is best served cold.

I luckily had some awesome salad ingredients in my fridge.

AND i made a salad dressing that actually tasted fantastic, kind of on a whim. (It contained soy sauce, lime juice, garlic, ground ginger, sesame oil, and low fat mayo..I’m going to try and remake it soon)

Ingredients include tuna, leftover cooked and cold asparagus, tomato, corn off the cob, carrot, green olives (came with the entree), dried cherries, and toasted sesame seeds…

And there’s the dressing

Point of this post? You can turn some not so great food into great leftovers with some thought:)

Grilled Italian Tortilla Pizza (with 4 cheeses)

So easy. So fast. So GOOD! What made the biggest impact (besides the combination of everything) in this recipe was the minced garlic. It gave a spicy undertone that was just delicious, can’t advertise garlic enough here. 

Here’s the painfully easy process:

Take your tortilla and add plain tomato sauce. I sprinkled on the minced garlic, torn basil, and mozzarella. I sliced some tomato, added quartered artichoke hearts, sprinkled on some parm, and shaved on romano (my personal favorite), and put a couple little blobs of light laughing cow swiss (35 cals a wedge, what’s up) 

On the half sized I threw spinach on top to see what would happen, and it turned out it was delicious. The ingredients above might seemed thought through and what not, but I basically threw things on the tortilla that I thought “matched.”

The only things you can’t forget are sauce, basil, GARLIC, and some type of cheese…

I cooked these babies on a low heat grill for maybe 8-10 minutes (?) I just waited til things looked melty and the edges were toasted…

This is an easy weeknight dinner if you have this stuff on hand…salt and pepper it while it’s cooking and it it while its hot:)

Review: Baked Banana Donuts

This baked good is basically a breakfast trifecta: it’s a donut, muffin, and a bagel all in one. This recipe has been around in blog land for a while, so I had to see for myself it’s worth the fuss. 

Preheat oven to 425

We first mixed the wet ingredients: 2 mashed, ripe bananas, 2 egg whites, 1 T veg oil, and 3/4 c brown sugar. Mix and add the dry: 3/4 cut WW flour, 1.5 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. (they used walnuts, I hate baked goods with nuts)

Let the mix sit for five minutes, and then take 2-3 T at a time and put into balls on a floured or papered baking sheet. You should end up with about 12 donuts. Spray a butter knife (meg’s method) and try and form a hole in the middle of the ball. To finish off the batch, sprinkle with about 1 T of white sugar.

Sarah’s (aka my) Changes???: One HUGE change. This recipe needs salt. Every time I eat them I salt them, which is weird. These are delicious, but a pinch of salt would make that so much better. 

So good. But don’t forget some salt.

Lastly: I slathered one half in PB and the other with butter spread, and I must say, I love PB, BUT…sometimes butter is just better. Trust.

Roasted, Sweet Butternut Squash Segments

Holy deliciousness was this good. I ate this while it was basically dark out and thunderstorming, but I really could have cared less- my taste buds were pretty psyched. This side dish is soo easy, but just requires an hour of cooking time, so it also requires some plan ahead time.

Preheat oven to 400. I cut the squash into about an inch-2 inch segments on a lined (very, very important), sprayed baking sheet. Spray and sprinkle with about 1 T of brown sugar and a dash of cinnamon.

I continued on the sweet thing by melting about 1 tsp of honey with a tsp or 2 or a light buttery spread, and then poured this mixture on to the squash. S&P, add some raisins…done.

Here’s the before shot: (I also threw in some apple since you can’t go wrong with warm apples and cinnamon!)

I only have a picture of the tupperware version here, but just so you know, the extra sugar on the foil completely charred. I don’t know if the time was too long (don’t think so since the squash tasted/was cooked perfectly), but hey, whatever. Foil was used for a reason…

You will happily eat your veggies if these are your veggies…