Home Cooking and Monopoly!

I know.  This title goes against everything we tend to do in modern day society. Home cooking? Really? When it's just as easy to go out and eat something that's already cooked FOR us?  And Monopoly?  Hmm.... NOT on the Xbox you say.... or the Wii?  You actually have to manually roll the dice and move the pieces?
What a concept!! I'm in!!

Actually, my friend and I have gotten together before and cooked at home rather than going out somewhere.  It's fun and social and definitely a lot healthier than eating the corresponding food at a restaurant.
Tonight's menu was a combination of Mexican/Peruvian and Asian!  The jump between the two is perhaps not as big as you would think.  Our Peruvian dish of the night was Ceviche, which is raw fish and certainly, raw fish is a fairly common ingredient in Asian dishes, so there you go :) It tied together somehow.

I've included the calorie count on each dish at the end of each recipe. Please note that in all the recipes, I've used the "spray oil" to fry everything instead of actual oil, so if you do use oil to fry the chicken & veggies in, please make sure to add calories for the oil.

CEVICHE

Despite the raw fish in the Ceviche, the ingredient we were the most afraid of was the Habanero pepper.
Let me just tell you, I'm Norwegian born and bred and in Norway, the spiciest food mostly involves salt & pepper. (Although spicier dishes have been making its way in and Norwegians are slowly but surely getting introduced to spicier peppers....).   Jalapeno pepper is as spicy as I'll go, and even some jalapenos are too spicy for my taste.  Not in my wildest dreams would I touch a Habanero, and yet here I was, Habanero pepper in hand and ready to go.  To my surprise, while eating the Ceviche, I couldn't even detect that there was Habanero in there.... if I hadn't handled it myself, I wouldn't have known it was even in there. 
The ceviche turned out really amazingly good.  I'm not a big fan of fish (if you'll go back to my Baked Swai blog, you'll see what my relationship with fish is...), but I loved it in the ceviche.  Probably because it was cooked in lime, so the fish taste was pretty much non existent. 

Here is the recipe for the ceviche that we made:

2 Filets of Fish (super fresh/never frozen. Use tilapia, sole or snapper or even shrimp)
Remove spine on fish.
Cut into rounds or strips, as preferred.
Add lime juice and one crushed garlic clove, marinate the fish for 1 hour or more. (Until "cooked")
Slice 1/2 red onions transparently thin.
Chop cilantro and add to onions.
Use 1/4 of a habanero pepper, de-seeded

(Calorie count: About 360 for the entire bowl & 130 for 8 triscuits)

We ate our ceviche with triscuits, but I've also had it served on crispy corn tortillas and my friend had previously eaten it without any type of cracker/bread at all, so do as you prefer.  The triscuits actually went very well with the ceviche, it was a good combination.

Here's the ceviche, ready to go.  We used red snapper for the fish.
Also, the cilantro is very sparse as I'm not too crazy about cilantro, but

we added some on the side if anybody wanted more.

Here's the ceviche on the triscuit crackers.  They went together very well,
but it's also good when paired with a crisp corn tortilla ("flat taco shell")

EGGROLLS

Our second course of the night was homemade eggrolls.  We were both excited about this as neither of us had ever made eggrolls before.  In fact, I'm such a novice when it comes to home made Asian foods that I had no idea I could get bamboo shoots and water chestnuts in the regular grocery store.... but they have it! In fact, there's an entire section devoted to Asian foods.  Who knew!

Anyway, we were also going to bake the eggrolls, not fry them, to make them healthier.  We had no idea how this would turn out, as our recipe was made for frying.

The ingredients we mixed together smelled SO good, I'm actually surprised they made it to teh eggroll wrappers at all! We were both getting hungry while making them, so eating the eggroll stuffing straight from the bowl was something that wasn't an impossibility.  But we restrained ourselves....

Rolling the eggrolls was also fun, it's actually a very social food to make.  I've seen people make their own sushi and that always looks fun, but eggrolls are a better idea I think ... (This again relates back to my bad relationship with fish.... I have yet to meet a sushi I liked, so making my own sushi would be a gigantic waste for me...).

Here is the recipe we used for the eggrolls:

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 bag of coleslaw mix
1/2 (8 ounce) can shredded bamboo shoots (I actually got whole bamboo shoots and we just sliced them up into thin slices)

1/2 cup mushrooms, finely sliced

1/2 pound chicken (boneless, skinless)

1 green onions, thinly sliced

1-1/4 teaspoons soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon splenda

1/2 (14 ounce) package egg roll wrappers

1/2 egg white, beaten

(Calorie count: About 90 calories per egg roll)

1. Spray pan with nonstick spray (I used Safeway cooking spray with olive oil). Pour in the beaten eggs and let cook without stirring, until firmed (like an omelet). Flip the eggs over and cook for an additional 20 seconds to firm the other side. Set egg pancake aside to cool, then slice into thin strips.

2.Use the same pan, add more spray if needed. Add the coleslaw mix and cook for 2 minutes until wilted. Add bamboo shoots, mushroom, pork, green onions, soy sauce and splenda and continue cooking until the vegetables are soft. Stir in sliced egg, then scoop the mixture into a bowl and refrigerate until cold.
(We actually put ours in the freezer for a short amount of time and it cooled off almost immediately)

 3. ASSEMBLY OF EGGROLLS:
To assemble the egg rolls, place an eggroll wrapper onto your work surface with one corner pointing towards you. Place about 3 tablespoons of cooled filling in a heap onto the bottom third of the wrapper. Brush a little beaten egg white onto the top two edges of the wrapper (I actually put eggwhite all the way down on both sides), then fold the bottom corner over the filling and roll firmly to the halfway point. Fold the left and right sides snugly over the egg roll, then continue rolling until the top corners seal the egg roll with the egg white. Place the eggroll, seam down, on to a baking sheet (make sure baking sheet has been sprayed with PAM or a similar spray) and cover with a plastic wrap while making the rest of the eggrolls.
Repeat with remaining egg roll wrappers, covering the finished egg rolls with plastic wrap to keep from drying out.

Do one eggroll at a time and keep the remaining eggroll wrappers in plastic, so that they don't dry out.

4. When all eggrolls have been made, spray the top of each eggroll with PAM (or whichever spray you use).  Place in the middle of the oven on 400 F and bake for about 20 minutes.

Let cool for a few minutes, and enjoy, either by themselves or you can use additional dipping sauces, like teriyaki or sweet and sour.

The eggrolls turned out really good, I will definitely be making these again!

Here's the eggroll filling on the wrapper, ready to be rolled up!

Our finished eggrolls, sprayed with PAM and ready to go in the oven

Eggrolls, baked and ready to eat!

Eggroll on the plate with a drizzle of teriyaki sauce on top.

KUNG PAO CHICKEN



After we'd devoured the eggrolls, it was time for Kung Pao Chicken!  Kung Pao Chicken is one of the more calorie rich Chinese entrees usually, because of the sauce, so it was exciting to find a good recipe for a home made one, where we are more in charge of the calories.
Here is the recipe we followed for the kung pao chicken:

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into chunks

1 table spoon white wine (we didn't have any so we used a little white wine vinegar instead, worked great)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

2 tablespoons cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water

1 ounce hot chile paste

1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar

2 teaspoons brown sugar (we actually used Splenda)

4 green onions, chopped

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 (8 ounce) can water chestnuts

4 ounces peanuts

1. Make a marinade for the chicken: Combine 1 tablespoon wine, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, a table spoon of sesame seeds and 1 tablespoon of the cornstarch/water mixture. Place chicken pieces in a glass dish or bowl and add the marinade. Toss to coat. Cover dish and place in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

2. Making the Kung Pao Sauce: In a small bowl combine 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon oil, 1 tablespoon of the cornstarch/water mixture, chili paste, vinegar and sugar. Mix together and add green onion, garlic, water chestnuts and peanuts. Let the sauce simmer on low heat until aromatic.

3. Meanwhile, remove chicken from marinade and saute in a large skillet until meat is white and juices run clear. When the kung pao sauce is aromatic, add the sauteed chicken to the sauce and let simmer until sauce thickens

(Calorie count: About 220 per serving + rice ... we used a brown rice, it was 150 calories per serving so the total count for this dish endedu p being 370.)

The Kung Pao turned out great! In fact, as we sat at the table, we all kept scooping a little more on our plates while we were talking, even though we were full and should have stopped eating.... lol. 

I will definitely make this again as well.  At 370 a serving, it is definitely doable as a diet food.

Kung Pao chicken in the pan, ready for consumption.

Kung Pao on the plate, with brown rice.

Kung Pao, Eggroll & Rice... yum.

(I'm getting hungry for more as I see these photos lol....)

 Hm... what's missing... oh yes! Dessert!! Well, there is no need for us to make dessert on our own because we have the world's best frozen yogurt only a few blocks away from where we live.. 21 Choices!   So after dinner, we headed out there and got our frozen yogurt, then we went home and played Monopoly.

I got this really cool Monopoly for Christmas, it's a "Nightmare before Christmas" Monopoly, where all streetnames and "railroads" etc has been converted to match the movie.  It's cool, it puts a different spin on the game.  It had been a long time since I played Monopoly and I had to brush up on the rules again. It was really fun! Who would've thought non-console or non-computer games could still be fun. :-)

Great night, a great time was had by all and I can't wait to repeat it sometime soon.

Paella

When I was a kid, I always looked forward to Saturdays.  First thing Saturday morning, we got to go shopping and pick out our candy for the afternoon. (We were allowed candy once a week, and Saturdays were it!)  Then we went home and had a light dinner, it was always this particular porridge that Norwegians make and at night, after we ate our candy, we usually ate a late dinner together.  This dinner would be a non-sensible dinner, meaning it wasn't meat and potatoes, or fish and potatoes or anything of the day-to-day dinner stuff we'd eat during the week.  We'd have pizza or hot dogs or pastas, and I remembered this Paella that my mom used to make and decided to give it a try.
As I'm on a diet, I was a little hesitant once I saw the calories adding up as I kept adding ingredients to the pot, however it was a big pot, at least 4 servings, and once I divided the calories up, it wasn't so bad after all, in fact, it's quite a healthy dinner.

This is not a traditional Paella, as I believe a traditional version will have more seafood in it than this one does.  Our paella has chicken and ham in it, along with some shrimp, because that's the way we liked it!

Here's the recipe, it's about 4 servings:

1 cup rice
1 lbs chicken (you can either get a grilled chicken from the store and pick the meat from it, or just use chicken breasts)
150 gram shrimp
0.5 lbs ham (can be any type of ham/pork... I used this pre-cooked ham I found at Vons, but you can use canned ham or any type you can find...)
2 1/3 cups chicken stock
2/3 cup frozen peas & carrots (from the mix)
1/2 onion
Salt
Pepper
1/2 tbsp Turmeric (or Saffron.... I used the cheap version lol)

1. Boil the rice in 2 cups of the chicken stock
2. Pluck the chicken meat from the chicken (of you got a rotisserie one from the store), or if you use chicken breasts, grill them and set aside.
3. Saute the onion in a pan.
4. Add the ham, the peas & carrots and the rest of the chicken stock to the pan and let boil.
5. Add the chicken and the shrimp to the pan
6. Add salt & pepper to taste
7. Add 1/2 tbsp Turmerac (or more if you want, depends on your taste)
8. Once the rice is cooked, stir everything else into the rice and let simmer until the shrimp is warm.

Good sides to include with this paella is some fresh rolls, perhaps a salad and some chips (I prefer Lays)

Just FYI, the calorie count for this per portion is about 417.

(Also, this recipe was translated from Norwegian, including the measurements, so if there are any questions.... don't hesitate.... lol)

Broiled Swai (Basa) with Salsa

Fish and I.

Fish and I have a history and it's not a good one.  I have had a hate/hate relationship with fish since I was old enough to eat solid foods.  I ate my fish while growing up, but under protest and lots of grumbling complaints. I really, truly never thought fish was good.  The only fish I'd really enjoyed before was the ones I'd caught myself.  Later in life, I've come to understand that this fish was flavored with something else besides fishy taste... it was flavored with fun memories and that type of flavoring can make anything taste good :-)

Anyway, since I came to the USA, I have found a very few fish that I actually like.  I have a list that is my "Fish VIP list" and so far there are only 4-5 fish on there.... and ironically enough, most of these fish are loaded with mercury so go figure.... I guess I enjoy poisoning myself ..... with fish of all things.... aren't fish supposed to be healthy?
On my fish VIP list, I have the following fish: Shark, Tuna (preferaby Alabacore and NO tartar! I want it cooked darnit! lol), Swordfish and Swai/Basa. I also recently had catfish and it has BARELY made it on to the list... I guess you could say the catfish is on probation.

The Swai is actually a "man made" fish and doesn't have much mercury at all, so it kind of stands out. It is a fish that is farmed, their pens use natural flow from the river, and it is a type of catfish infact, but it tastes much better.  I've heard also that the basa/swai is a mixed breed of catfish and carp.
The first time I had it, it was deep fried and came with some kind of tartar sauce.... and we all know that anything deep fried is bound to be tasty.  So I wasn't 100% convinced, but was willing to take the chance last night.  I went to the market to get tuna, because I'd found a recipe I wanted to try. Well, what do you know... no tuna was to be found!  I spotted the Swai and I circled the store a couple of times while deciding and finally decided to gamble and buy some Swai instead. 
I found quite a few recipes actually, but I wanted one that was low in calories as I'm on a diet at the moment, so I decided to go with the recipe below:

Broiled Swai with Salsa
(This is for 1 serving so do your math and figure out what is needed for the amount of people you are cooking for..... :))

One Swai Fillet
4 tbsp of your favorite Salsa
Garlic Powder
Smoked Paprika
Pepper

1. Rinse and pat dry.
2. Put filet(s) on a cookie sheet lined with foil and sprayed lightly with PAM or similar spray, preferable one with canola oil. (Important step, unless you want to eat a few bits of fish that you are able to pry from the foil...)
3.Sprinkle spices on the fillet.

4.Spoon 4 tbsp of salsa on top of filet and spread to cover the fish.
5.Place cookie sheet under broiler about 6" below flame for about 15 minutes.
6. When timer goes off check the fish. It should flake to fork and not be translucent. You want to see white flesh, not translucent. Add some more time to your timer and keep an eye on the fish so not to burn it.

 

I served it alongside brown rice and a pea/carrot mix of vegetables, and it amounted to about 300 calories for the entire meal. Not bad!

 

It was my first time cooking fish and I must say, it turned out rather good. I ate my entire fillet, although I must admit that in the end, it started to remind me of FISH .... I still have a rather low tolerance for fish taste (apparently unless the fish is soaked with mercury....), but I kept up with this one until the last bite.

 

Fish on the cookie sheet, waiting to go in the oven

Fish on plate, after oven, before going into somebody's belly ;-)

Here's the fish with all the fixings!

So fish and I ... we'll never be best friends. But I think we've reached a mutual agreement and we've come to a truce.

Macaroni Oven Bake

Ok, so while I was making macaroni soup yesterday, I spotted a recipe on the back of the macaroni bag that looked good.  I browsed through the ingredients what were required and found I had all inhouse.... with exception of an onion, however I did have onion powder, and that worked just as well!

Anyway, I had made a mac and cheese bake before, and that recipe I copied from a website that belongs to one of these fancy gourmet chefs.... you know.... the ones who know this kinda stuff. lol.   Well, that mac and cheese was very good, don't get me wrong, but the one that was listed on the back of thise 2 for $3 bag of Safeway macaroni blew that gourmet mac'n cheese away!

Anyway, here it is.... the recipe.  Highly recommended, it's so smooth and tasty, but be warned, it certainly isn't a diet food.

1 pound Elbow Macaroni
1/2 cup minced onion (or 1/2 tablespoon onion powder, in my case)
1/2 cup margarine or butter
4 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups milk
3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Buttered bread crumbs

1. Cook the macaroni per instructions on the bag
2. Sautee the onion and the butter

Here comes the tricky part.... the sauce:

3. Add the flour to the butter, and whisk it around until it is smooth
4. Add the milk to the pot.  You will want to add the milk a little drop at a time in order to avoid getting the sauce lumpy.   Just add a small amount of milk, then mix it in with the butter/flour mix until it's smooth.  Keep repeating this, adding small amounts of milk to the mixture until the mixture is thinner, at which point you can pour in the rest of the milk.
5. Let the sauce simmer until it thickens while constantly stirring, and mind the pot as well... Since this is a milkbased sauce, it will boil over very quickly if you turn your back so just keep watching and stirring.
6. Once sauce thickens, add the cheese
7. Add the macaroni, fold it into the sauce mixture and stir it well.
8. Butter a pan (or spray with Pam, which I prefer) and pour macaroni mix into the pan.
9. Sprinkle with buttered bread crumbs.  (I use a can of premade breadcrumbs, which I sautee in a small amount of butter and sprinkle on top).
10. Bake for 25 minutes on 350 F
11. Serve up and eat! :-)

A photo of the finished macaroni oven bake!

And now, no more macaroni for awhile :-) I promise the macaroni fever has died down (and to those who asked, no I'm not pregnant, that is not the cause of my latest macaroni frenzy lol....)

In fact, starting Monday, it's dieting galore so I hope I'll be inspired to cook some healthier foods to keep dieting interesting.  

Macaroni Soup!

Ok so I have no idea why or how I all of a sudden had a craving for Macaroni Soup.  Maybe I was thinking of home.... or maybe I was thinking of macaroni.... not sure.   Anyway, while growing up in Norway, Macaroni Soup was a fairly common dish that we were served as kids.  I've come to find that not every Norwegian has heard of Macaroni Soup, but most Norwegian moms have made this at one point.

I remember even cooking Macaroni Soup for my 4H project... I believe my 4H Projects that year revolved around cooking, and one of the dishes I made was macaroni soup. 

The thing about Macaroni Soup is that you have to stand over it and stir it while it's cooking.  It's milk based, and milk tends to boil over really fast. Before you know it, it's all over your kitchen. No joke.  I remember one time, my brother was going to surprise my mom and me with hot chocolate.  Mom and I were out somewhere, and he'd decided to make hot chocolate for us.  In those days, we didn't put powder in a cup and microwave it.  We made hot chocolate from scratch, which meant boiling milk.  When mom and I came back from our outing, safe to say, the entire kitchen was covered in milk.  Once that milk starts rising in the pot, there's no stopping it.  I'm sure it was one of those moments in my mom's life where she didn't know whether to praise or yell at her kid.  On one hand, it was sweet to want to surprise us with hot chocolate, on the other, both my brother and I knew to be careful with the stove, especially when home alone.
Not sure what the end result was.  I think my mom might have taken mercy on us and made us hot chocolate in the end after all ;-)

Anyway.  Here's the recipe for Macaroni Soup, if anyone wants to try it.  Really, don't knock it till you try it.  I know I can't wait to cook this for Aurora while she grows up.... on days she's sick, on rainy days or on days she just needs some comfort food.  Macaroni soup it is!

MACARONI SOUP RECIPE
(4 portions)

8 dl Milk  (3.5 Cups)
2 dl Water (3/4 Cup)
1.5 Table Spoons Butter/Margerine
4 Handfulls of macaroni (or more if you like a LOT of macaroni... I do!)
2 Tablespoons Sugar

Heat the milk, water and butter in a pot, up to boiling point.
Toss in the handfulls of macaroni and the sugar, boil until the macaroni is done (I prefer them a little chewy for this particular dish....).
(NOTE: As stated above, STAND BY THE POT the ENTIRE TIME!  If the milk decides to boil over, oh boy, it'll go fast!)

I also like to throw in a cinnamon stick while the macaroni is boiling to give it a faint cinnamon flavor.

Serve up in a bowl, drizzle cinnamon and sugar in top and enjoy!

Here's a photo of the finished product! :)

I enjoyed it as I knew I would. Not sure my husband enjoyed it as much, it's possible it's best when served alongside childhood memories :-)  Either way.... I'll make sure Aurora has some memories to go along with her macaroni soup :)