Jazz it up in less than 10 minutes, from prep to plate!

Today the Boo and I had a great visit from a girlfriend I've known since middle school. She and her adorable little boy Adam came and played for a couple hours and we had a little snacky lunch. I threw together a pasta salad real quick, made some yogurt dip for vegetables and Greek potatoes(lime and dill) I had so much fun last night with The Hunebee, attempting videos, that I decided to throw something together real quick so I could get my practice on!

In less than 10 minutes I prepped up some add-ins for the already completed Pasta Salad. Inside the salad, already, was olive oil, Queso fresco, fresh thyme, fresh basil, and about a 1/3 cup Greek yogurt. I added fresh spinach, scallions (tops and bottoms), and Lime all ORGANIC and garden fresh from Momma Gina that Christine brought last night. From my fridge and pantry there is garlic and sweet peppers that I sauteed all together till slightly wilted and immediately tossed with the original Pasta.

Although it was a little different taping myself it was fun to try and it's helping me figure out my way. We are thinking of going "Go-Pro" soon so I promise quality will only improve!

ENJOY!

Pak Choi: Highly underestimated

Most of us know it as "Bok Choy" but I prefer to call things what they are. Pronouncing them as they are called is important to me as well, and that is not pretension, but a respectful preference. You can buy this in most any grocery store, I actually found this at a Mexican market, oddly though most people find it almost completely synonymous with Asian food fare. Pak Choi is actually a form of cabbage, although not looking or tasting anything like a traditional one, and is used in some versions of "Kimchi".(Korean pickled cabbage) 

My first discernible experience with this "white vegetable" was when working for Cilantro Live and they had an "Arame & Dulse" Bok Choy salad. I didn't prefer the seaweed aspect of that salad but fell in love with this cabbage's texture. It's really hard to explain to someone what it tastes like when they've never tried it before. It looks like celery, but isn't stringy, it has a leafy top, but isn't lettuce, and definitely doesn't taste like cabbage. I find Pak Choi to have a bland, earthy but pleasant flavor. I feel my liking is more about the texture, cooked or raw. 

"When speaking about health benefits Pak Choi is full of Vitamin A and C. One cup of cooked bok choy provides more than 100% of the recommended dietary allowance of A, and close to two-thirds the RDA of C." (<- From WebMd.com "Bok Choy 10 Healthy facts.)

Pak Choi is also a source of Potassium, Magnesium, Iron, Calcium and Vitamin B-6 and has been found to be one of the Cancer eliminating foods. 

Unfortunately besides Stir fry and Asian cuisine, you don't see much of it around, and I don't think most people would even know what to do with it. But here on Mondays we love Pak Choi and below is a couple quick ways to use it.

 This is a lightly sauteed version of Pak Choi with a little Olive oil and spices.

Ingredients:

2 cup Pak Choi
1 diced Scallion
dash of pepper and lemon chili salt
2-3 Tbs. olive oil

Directions:

In a bowl mix all the ingredients together. Heat a pan and throw it all in on a high heat for 1-2 minutes tossing and turning, you don't want to cook it but rather flash fry it.

Last week I made The Hunebee and Kuizzy a spicy Pak Choi and red bell pepper salad, marinated in a tangy vinaigrette and serrano peppers.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Servings: 2

Cost: $2.00 per jar

Ingredients:

(2 jars)
4 cups Pak Choi
2 serrano peppers, diced very thin
1/2 cup red bell peppers, diced
1 scallion diced

Dressing:
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vinegar
dash of ginger powder
salt and pepper

Directions:

Mix together all ingredients, and then jar it. The salad should keep for up to 5 days, but again be careful of the serrano pepper's heat. The Hunebee and Kuizzy love SPICY food. You might want to try one pepper the first time.

ENJOY!

Winner, Winner Chicken dinner!

I was about to take the easy way out tonight. I've been exhausted and I see no signs of stopping. Ugh, kinda intimidating when I really think about it, but none the less...ONWARD and UPWARD! Todays agenda was house cleaning overhaul but dinner still had to be made and that's the funny part of being a stay at home Mommy that they never tell you.

Maybe I should enlighten you with the fact that I love to procrastinate. Although in recent times I have found that knowing that and then challenging myself to work to the bone has become such a great joy. Positive energy attracts positive energy and from my diligence this evening I was met with two more opportunities in my personal cook endeavour. I "Tweeted" tonight that I'm seriously in need of a bigger kitchen now, but that has always been the case. Along with my procrastination, I'm a "more the merrier" kinda lady, and somewhere along the line those two together seem to contradict themselves in my own head, but I love it.

Back to the simple dinner that turned into work:) I decided that just doing it is better than skimping out AND the health of my two favorite people in the world is more important than me being lazy. The Hunebee's Mom sent home an organic goodie bag for me this Monday. A bundle of flowing green onions, an over-stuffed bag of minty mint, perfect limes and randomly growing cilantro from her ever bountiful, organic home garden. I had a huge bag of roma tomatoes that I got on sale, 3lb.s for $1, and I decided that I wanted to do a fresh tomato sauce. I was about to add olives and then I remembered having dinner with Momma-Gina last week and that was one of the things she told me to stop eating(tooo much salt). The sauce was for a couple chicken breasts thawing in my sink. I was mulling over what to make with it but rice, potatoes, or pasta just sounded like too much. I was really trying to go NO-carb, so I opted for a Panzanella like salad...ha.

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Servings: 4

Cost: $7 for the whole dinner

Ingredients for Chicken:

2 medium(on the large side) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced in two(4 pieces)
2 Tbs. olive oil
salt and pepper

Sauce:

3 roma tomatoes, diced
1 large garlic clove, chopped
2 green onions, dice the bulb up to the dark green(set aside for salad and garnish)
1/8 cup carrot, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
Dash of dried basil, thyme, oregano and parsley
1/2 cup fresh chopped spinach
salt and pepper
1/3 tsp. white sugar

Directions:

In a small sauce pan, saute scallions, carrots and garlic in olive oil then salt and pepper. Add chopped tomatoes, herbs, salt pepper and sugar. Once the sauce has coked down a little add spinach, turn down the heat and let it simmer very low.

I like to rinse and dry my chicken before cooking it. In the oil, fry on both sides after seasoning. Tonight I added the juice from the chicken directly to the sauce, IT"S FLAVOR!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup pre-shredded carrot
1 roma tomato, diced
1 persian cucumber, partially peeled
1 cup of croutons (Garlic)
about a 1/3-1/4 cup of scallion leaves chopped

Dressing:

1/3 cup olive oil
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp. yellow mustard
Salt
1 small serrano pepper, sliced thin, about 1 Tbs. (watch out!)

Toss the salad and dressing right before you are about to serve so it doesn't get soggy. Also be careful of  the serrano pepper, use less if you aren't familiar with its heat.

ENJOY!