My Dinner - New Feature Starts today!

Hey people, El Jefe posting here.

Starting a new feature on iPhone Kitchen where I'll simply post a pic of my dinner plate. I will try to caption or write about the meal or the prep, but the purpose is mainly a photo of what we made for dinner from my place at the table.

Enjoy!

jefe

To kick things off, we made a tri-tip salad and decided to try onion strings, really thin onion rings as a topping. Two medium onions made a TON of the crunchiest yummiest appetizer thingers we ever made. Gonna, gotta make again!

Citrus Pancakes!!

Chicken & Black Bean Taquitos

Last night I was trying to use up food that I already had at home. I have a pantry full of food that never gets used, so I thought it would be good to go through and see what I could make with what I had on hand.

I had grilled chicken breast leftover from sunday night, and a few leftover spinach tortillas as well as an unopened package of flour tortillas. I scrounged in the pantry and found a can of black beans, an avocado and I even had some leftover sour cream from making mashed potatoes. Thats how this dish fell together!

I shredded up about a half a chicken breast and combined it with about a cup of drained and rinsed black beans and a few tablespoons of salsa (anything you have on hand would work, or leave it out altogether) Because I didn't want whole beans that could roll out during frying I took a fork and mashed the mixture together a little bit to break down some of the beans.

I put some oil in a heavy pot on the stove to get it heating up, a few inches worked fine for frying, the taquitos didn't float around in the oil but I basically fried each side of them.

Next, lay out the tortillas (I ended up making three) and divide your chicken mixture between them, and cover that with cheese (however much you prefer - I just put a sprinkle in each). The cheese isn't supposed to make them extra melty cheesey - but it does help bind the chicken and beans together so they dont all fall out during frying. Now, I didn't heat up the chicken or beans, that was all cold, but i'm sure you could use a warm filling with no problems.

I rolled the taquitos tight and secured with two toothpicks in each since they were full size tortillas. You could also use raw spaghetti to secure if you had that handy instead. Into the oil they went! They sizzled pretty nicely, and got browned and crisp on all sides. They took longer than I expected in the oil since I am used to doing corn tortillas which are a little thinner than the flour and spinach ones I was using this time.



I made a quick creamy avocado dipping sauce (recipe coming soon!) and I think they came out just delicious! I was full half was through my second one, but I kept trekking, dont worry!

New Header Design!

I put up a new header today, I made it all by myself in paint (because that's the only photo editor I have at work...shhhh don't tell!)

Tonite I plan to make some delish citrus pancakes that i've been teasing myself with for a week now! I hope they turn out good since I've hyped them up so much.

Let me know what you think about the site - and share it with your friends! =)

Chicken & Rice Leftovers

Recently, the Barber family took a trip out to Nevada to visit family for a few days during the week, and although I was sort of bummed that I couldn't make it out there with them this time, I DID get to enjoy their delicious cooking!

Jef brought home some of the chicken Parmesan they had for dinner one night. It was amazing as leftovers, so I can only imagine how delicious it was when fresh! The chicken had a light panko and parm breading and the sauce was light but creamy.


As for cooking at home, I have made a few things but didn't take any pictures! I know, I'm a slacker with this blog so far - but I have great intentions and want to become a devoted food blogger! (But I am also busy...and lazy.)

I made some Thai chicken wraps with leftover chicken breasts, homemade peanut sauce, and some quick sauteed carrot slaw and bean sprouts on these spinach tortillas that were so good!

One morning I used some more of the tortillas, made some eggs and had quesadillas with cheese, eggs, tomatoes and bacon. They were HUGE and soooo yummers!

Last night was Trader Joe's Mandarin chicken, steamed white rice, and more cooked carrots and bean sprouts. The chicken is just really good, it has similar spice and flavor to Panda Express Orange Chicken, and its easy to make in a skillet or baked in the oven - either way creates the same texture. (And at $4.99/bag its a steal!)

Time to pick out some new recipes to try! Next I am excited to try these awesome looking citrus pancakes, I've been craving them ever since I saw the picture! I found them here.


*DROOL*

BBQ Chicken Pizza

I had picked up a Whole Wheat Pizza dough from the Fresh & Easy Market the other day with the plan to make either a thai chicken pizza or a BBQ chicken pizza. The sweet bbq, delicious cilantro, and tangy sweet red onions just sounded so good that I had to go for the BBQ.


I am working on this new cooking style where I actually prepare my ingredients ahead of time! Its amazing really, and makes cooking go SO much quicker! So first I grated some cheese and roughly chopped some red onion, I only used about a quarter of an onion for this small of pizza, but they really cooked down so I might use more next time. (Me?! More Onions?!...weird!)


The dough came in a nice round lump, so I floured my counter and played with it until it was round enough and big enough to cover my little dollar tree pizza pan. It wasn't very hard to work with, and stretching and pulling with my hands instead of rolling with a pin (because I dont have one) worked just fine for me!

I threw on some BBQ sauce...
I am still not clear what the best order for the toppings is but I did a little cheese, the cooked chicken....
some onions, more cheese, and then more onions on top...
I had to cook a little longer than the pizza dough said (it said only 10 mins when I went more like 25) and the bottom of the dough wasn't really very brown. I wonder if I could have cooked longer or its just because wheat dough cooks different than regular. Either way the dough was fully cooked and the cheese was meltylicious so I wasn't complaining!
It was really great, I know whole wheat dough is healthier but next time I might try with regular pizza dough just to see what the flavor combo is like with different dough.
The BBQ sauce was soooo good, tangy and sweet and the chicken was moist, the onions were right at that half-cooked goodness stage and anything with fresh cilantro is my favorite thing!

Its so great to work with all these fresh ingredients (except the dough I guess since I didn't make it from scratch) and come out with something delicious and some-what healthy! I had high hopes to steam up some broccoli as a side dish, but I ate a banana right when I got home from work and the two pieces of pizza I had filled me up so I'd call it a success!

Bacon Egg & Tomato Breakfast Sandwich

I love making breakfast for myself, it makes the day go so much better. For this breakfast I poked some holes in a potato and nuked it in the microwave for a few minutes, to give it a quick start with the cooking process. Meanwhile I cooked up two pieces of bacon in a small omelette pan and once the potatoes were precooked and cut I finished them up in the leftover bacon grease. This gives them some good color and flavor (bacon, yum!). After the potatoes were through I threw an egg in and put an english muffin in the toaster. These bigger than life english muffins are from the Fresh & Easy Market and they are seriously to die for! The sandwich has egg, some mozzerela cheese melted on top, then the bacon and some tomato slices. It was delicious, and somewhat of a complete breakfast with the milk and grapes. =)

Mmmm...see that melty-cheesey-bacon goodness? THATS what breakfast is all about.


Unless you're craving waffles...then maybe this is what its all about?

Dharma

Brownies that I made for the season premiere of Lost. I printed out a big dharma logo on a white sheet of paper and cut holes in it where the powdered sugar would show, and then used it as a stencil on the brownie. I sort of carved the "Dharma" and fixed up the swan with a toothpick to make it look better once I took the stencil off.