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 :)

Toxic Waste

Ok so I love sour candy... Since moving to the States, I have yet to find  TRULY sour candy... Going into a candy store asking for something sour simple results in them handing me candy they find sour, but tbat relly is nothing more then a brief flash of something that preteends to be sour, before the candy turns sweet.  Wusses I tell you... wusses.  If you can't eat a lemon straight out, like you eat an orange, you cannot be relied upon to judge what is sour enough for people... :)

So want to start documenting my quest for sour candy.  I will start with this "Toxic Waste" I fouud in a candy store @ Universal Citywalk.  It claims to be hazardously sour!!  oh brother, these guys are really getting my hopes up!

I will have a sourmeter going from 1 to 10, 1 being "Are you kidding me?" and 10 being "Holy crap my face will never unpucker from this hefty dose of sour... (Ie 10 being the most sour...)


 Here is a pic of the toxic waste....

It even has a challenge on the back to see how much of a wuss you are, depending on how long you can keep this candy in your mouth... so now I'm REALLY intrigued....

This is the contents of the bucket, drops in various flavors such as apple, watermelon, lemon and black cherry...  Judging from the wrapping alone, I was expecting something more disgusting... like slime.. I'm already disappointed....

I'm about to taste it, i'm choosing apple flavor....

it is sour in the beginning, but thee challenge on the back of the can is already blown as the sour doesnt last more than a couple of seconds before it turns sweet and according to this bucket of candy, a total wuss is all you willl ever be due to the short duration of sour.

i'll give this a 1 1/2 on the sour meter.. the half star extra because the sour was slightly intense in the first second, but faded fast.  

basically, im still looing for sour candy.... this one was lame.

(ps im writing this on my blackberry which suddenly is forbidding me to capitalize any letters... so dont worry, i did not forget the rules of punctuation... my blackberry did... probably due to the giant letdown of "toxic waste" ...y

New phone, new opportunities

merry christmas!

now if i could figure out why this blog refuses to accept capitalized letterig, we'd be all set!

Back on track!!

Ok, so it has been a long time & I've severely neglected my blog. Oh well. I've got no excuses, I've just been lazy I guess. (That's not entirely true, my big rig blog has been updated a couple of times... does that mean that I value big rigs more than anything else that goes on in my life?? Hm... time re-evaluate my values! hehe)

Well, the pregnancy is going really well. I'm feeling good, I have very few side effects. My only very small complaint is that my joints are hurting, especially my fingers. But compared to what some women go through while they are pregnant, I'm not complaining. My baby bump isn't even that big yet, but now it's growing.... People are commenting now that they can see the belly ... and to those of you on Facebook who want pictures, judging from how much I've eaten today, I'm guessing that there will soon be something to photograph! So be patient my friends, be patient .... :-) We're working on the baby bump ;-)

Jellybean has already been to 2 concerts! Bon Jovi and A-HA! It'll be a culturally diverse baby I think ... however I've heard that the baby starts reacting to external sounds in month 7. So ... according to that theory .... guess who the baby's REAL first concert will be!! BRET MICHAELS!! That is right!! The first concert where the baby will actually experience what's going on, will be BRET! How's that for coincidence! August 2nd, Bret will be performing his only LA show this year and me & jellybean will be there! :) I can't wait.
Other than that, I'm already pondering on what songs to put on my iPod that I should be playing for the baby while still in the womb ... I better research and see what kind of effect rock'n roll will have on the baby's state of mind...lol.

I'm also picking up my guitar again... it has been neglected almost as severely as this blog and my fingers are paying the price. I mainly like plucking on Kris Kristofferson songs, I hope jellybean enjoys it :) I figure some music can never hurt... Although I'm no American Idol, I do have an OK voice so it's not too much torture for him/her to have to listen to me :)

I have some ultra sound photos, they are in the process of being scanned, so I'll be able to post those soon. It's an interesting development and I can safely say that Jellybean is no longer a jellybean .... :-) Nevertheless.... looks like that nickname is going to stick ;-)

Until next time ........ (and I promise it won't be that long.....)

Stay safe everyone!

Oh I almost forgot...

Cravings... Nothing weird! I've been craving a lot of fruit. Watermelon & peaches. Cherries. Garden salads with ranch. Have barely touched chocolate since I got pregnant and no frozen yogurt. Ice cream now and then is good. I'd say foods I crave the most are costco hot dogs & pizza ... and steak. I get beef bowls now instead of chicken bowls when I go to these teriyaki places. So beef is definitely on the menu!

And let's not forget the milk .... there was a time where I had to pour out a gallon because it was past its due date .... these days I drink a gallon in less than a week. It'll be a strong boned one :)