Tequila Lime Flank Steak Salad with Copycat Chipotle Corn Salsa

I’ve always said “salads aren’t boring” and this salad only further proves that statement.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that on Sunday I was putting a recipe to the test that involved limes.  Lots of limes.  Well now I’m here to tell you that the tequila lime marinade for the flank steak is worth making twice.  I was working on picking out a marinade for the flank steak that Big Guy will be grilling up next weekend for a party we’re helping to host for one of our favorite couples, Kristen and Adam (heeeey, KP!).  Well, this will be the marinade we use.  No need to try any others.  It’s easy and doesn’t have a long ingredient list which is awesome when you’re cooking for 40 people.

We threw our tequila lime flank steak on a salad along with a healthy helping of Copycat Chipotle Corn Salsa.  This salsa will also be making an appearance at the par-tay.

Y’all – this stuff is insanely delicious.  Forget needing a chip, I could eat this stuff straight from a spoon (or fork).

On top of my not-boring salad:  flank steak (cooked to perfection by Big Guy), avocado, grilled bell peppers, corn salsa and drizzle of the chile lime vinaigrette.  (For the dressing, I used red pepper rice vinegar instead of the red pepper oil – why?  Because it’s cheaper.  Just keepin’ it real, y’all.)

I can’t get over how good this salad was.  So many textures.  So many flavors.  A little heat – but not too much.  Tons of freshness from the corn salsa and the creamy avocado.  I’m sure that cheese, black beans and chips would be an awesome addition but I didn’t miss ‘em.

Black Bean, Hominy and Kale Stew

A hearty, vegetarian dinner that will please anyone eating dinner with you!  Don’t let the “vegetarian” part scare you away.  It’s full of flavor that is beyond whatever you’re thinking when you hear the word “vegetarian.”  I typically eat vegetarian 3 or more days a week.  Not necessarily on purpose but it just happens that way.  I will say, though, that I eat lots of beans, hummus, eggs and nut butter, all of which have protein.  Big Guy has never complained about eating a vegetarian meal.  But I make sure that it’s delicious and hearty enough to keep a grown man satisfied until breakfast.

This dinner does take a little preparation but once all the ingredients are prepped, the meal comes together in a flash.

The “meat” of this soup is the black beans, hominy and kale (hence the name, I suppose) but there’s also pureed tomatillos and roasted poblanos that add a huge depth of flavor.  Roasting poblanos is easy – simply place in the oven under broil and let them get nice and charred.  Once their charred, place in a plastic bag, seal and let them “sweat it out” for 10 or 15 minutes.  Remove the char and chop – that’s it.  There also some heat in this stew from a jalapeno (deseeded for us).

I’ve actually never cooked with tomatillos or hominy before so that was fun.  And yes, I find cooking with new ingredients to be fun.

 

I topped my comforting bowl of stew with cilantro, Greek yogurt (instead of sour cream) and white cheddar cheese.  Talk about an incredible flavor combination.  Even the texture of this stew is fantastic – lots of stuff going on in this bowl of goodness.

 

Crock Pot Sesame Honey Chicken

I love when she is in charge of dinner.  And by she, I mean my crock pot.

instagram pic

This “skinny” recipe was my answer to feeding my Momma a “warm” meal when she was in town last week for my bridal portraits.  That “warm” meal promise was a good idea after playing on the front porch of Rose Hill in 50 degree weather in a wedding dress.

Unlike a lot of Crock Pot meals, this recipe only needs 3 hours on LOW.  I happened to have most of the ingredients already on hand when I decided that this was the “warm” dinner that I was going to prepare.  The only real change I made to the recipe was using chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts and I only cooked up about 1.5 pounds of chicken.  Trust me, there was still plenty.  The chicken ends up being so tender it couldn’t help but shred easily with two forks.  And the smell!  I think that’s the best part of a crock pot meal.  You leave home as you usually would and you come home to (hopefully) the most amazing smell ever that just brings a smile to your face.

I served the sesame honey chicken over jasmine rice with a side of sugar snap peas for some green on the plate.  On top of the chicken, I added a sprinkling of sesame seeds and some green onions for a little freshness (a tip I learned from the Rach – Rachael Ray…add freshness to any crock pot meal with fresh herbs).

And the leftovers were fantastic, too.  I ate a serving of chicken on top of a salad one day for lunch and it was a winning combination of warm and cold that I love so much.

I should let “her” be in charge of dinner more often.

 

** I’m going to start naming all the food posts with the name of the dish so that they’re easier to find – I promise to update the “Recipe” tab soon!!!!**

 

Salad Beast

On average, I eat a salad every single day.  It’s my go-to lunch to pack up to take to lunch.  People thing salads are boring and boy, do I disagree!  But then again, I’ll throw anything on top of lettuce (or even without lettuce) and call it a salad.  A typical salad for me includes beans, feta or goat cheese, avocado or nuts and a light dressing.  Sometimes I’ll add fruit, like strawberries.  And sometimes I’ll add in hummus instead of beans.  Like I said, if it’s in the fridge, it can go on a salad.

Last week I add a salad of sorts not only for lunch every day but for dinner twice.  I’m a salad beast.  The bigger the salad the better.

On Tuesday night, I made the salad beast of my dreams.  A bed of lettuce was topped with candied pecans (Trader Joe’s makes some of the best ever!), dried cranberries (or you could use raisins) and feta (goat would be awesome, too!).

I always forget how much I loved dried fruit and pecans on a salad.  A combo that needs to be on a regular rotation!

And then on Wednesday night, I made Pistachio Cinnamon Chicken Salad.  I totally didn’t mean to feed my Momma two cold dinners in February but it’s just how things work out (I promised her a hot meal tonight! – yep, she’s back!). When I first came across this recipe I just knew it would be made in my kitchen.  I love pistachios and well, cinnamon is an underused spice, in my opinion.  So many people think cinnamon is just for sweet things – but I think it can be super savory, too.  The only change I made to the recipe was omitting the basil – I just didn’t want to waste buying an entire plant for 4 leaves when I knew it didn’t fit into the meal plan the rest of the week.

I used a rotisserie chicken from Harris Teeter’s deli to make the chicken salad.  I served a small salad with the most scrumptious strawberries on the side and some Nut Thins to scoop up the chicken salad.  This plate screams warm weather.  Bring.it.on.  So light and refreshing!

I am a salad beast.  No salad is too big for me.

Celebrating 5!

As I mentioned last week, Friday was our 5-year “date-iversary.”  So of course we celebrated.

On Friday evening, we kept things low-key.  I chose to make a stir-fry because it’s one of Big Guy’s favorite dinners.  The Szechuan Chicken Stir-Fry was super easy to pull together once all the ingredients were prepped.  The fresh ginger is a must! So much flavor along with a little heat from the chile paste.  I served our chicken stir-fry over Jasmine rice – one of our favorite rice varieties.  On top of the stir-fry, I sprinkling of green onions and peanuts.  Love the salty crunch the peanuts add.  And for once, I didn’t change a thing in this recipe – well, I might have added a little less chile paste.  So delicious!

 

For dessert, we shared a Mini Cheesecake that I had picked up from The Fresh Market.  It was perfect with a glass of bubbles.

On Saturday, Big Guy took me out to dinner to celebrate.  Instead of trying a new restaurant (though we have a long, long list) we went with a tried and true place.  We knew that the food would be amazing and that the atmosphere was what we were looking for.

We were not disappointed.  I didn’t take any more pictures – in fact, as soon as this pic was posted on Instagram, I was banned from taking my phone out of my clutch the rest of the evening.  It was a lovely dinner with the best date I could ask for.

I cannot wait to see what the next 5 years has in store for us.

Happy Monday to you all!

 

Roasted Chicken Thighs with Mustard-Thyme Sauce

This dinner is worthy of a glass of wine.  So go ahead, pour yourself a glass of Pinot Grigio (or whatever you glass of choice may be for dinner) and prepare to have dinner on the table in 40 minutes.

I honestly think that chicken thighs are underused.  Personally I like to buy my chicken thighs at Trader Joe’s.  They don’t have too much fat on them and they’re the perfect size.

The roasted chicken thighs with mustard-thyme sauce starts by simply seasoning the thighs with salt and pepper and searing them on the stove top until lightly browned.  While the chicken thighs are cooking, prep the green beans.  Simply toss green beans with sliced garlic, salt and pepper.  Those will roast at 425 degrees.

Once the thighs are browned, place them in a oven-safe baking dish and place them in the oven with the green beans.  Now it’s time to make the sauce!  Add butter to the pan that you used for the chicken and saute the onions and thyme.  Instead of flour, I used cornstarch to thicken the chicken stock.  The stock is added to the sauteed onions – make sure to scrap off all the yummy “bits” on the bottom of the pan.  Allow this to cook until thickened.  Once the chicken and beans are finished – remove the sauce from the heat and add in the mustard.  Serve the sauce on top of the chicken thighs along with the green beans.

 

The chicken thighs were super tender but so flavorful from the onion and the thyme-mustard sauce.  The sauce was seriously better than I ever imagined.  And the green beans – you simply can’t go wrong with green beans roasted with garlic.

Super simple, super delicious and super healthy.

Fig Jam and Sweet Potato Stacks

“This is a perfect Sunday night dinner.”
- Emily

“This is a perfect Monday night, Tuesday, night, Wednesday night, even Friday night dinner.”
- Big Guy

Those words made my heart smile.  Cooking for other people is what I love to do.  It’s my hobby.  I throw together simple (and random) meals when it’s just me eating.  But when there’s someone to enjoy the meal with, I would spend 3 hours in the kitchen.

The menu:

Pork Chops with Fig Jam

Roasted Asparagus

Sweet Potato Stacks with Blue Cheese.

For the main dish, I chose to cook pork chops (bone-in) instead of the pork tenderloin since it was just the two of eating dinner.  Also, I simply love a bone-in pork chop and The Fresh Market had two gorgeous chops on Saturday that I couldn’t resist.  The chops marinated in fresh orange juice, orange zest, grated garlic, olive oil, honey, rosemary and salt for about 6 hours.  The marinade smelled so good – there’s just something about orange zest and rosemary!  Once it was time for dinner, we seared the chops in the cast iron and then placed them in the oven to continue cooking (please, please, please don’t overcook your pork!).  The chops were served on top of a dollop of fig jam (homemade – from Granny!!!!) with a seared orange slice on top.  It was super fancy looking.  (wink wink)

The asparagus were simple tossed with EVOO and a salt blend from Trader Joe’s (it included bay and thyme in the mix).

And for the sweet potato stacks, sweet potatoes were sliced with the skin on and tossed with EVOO, salt and pepper.  They were then roasted at 450 degrees for about 25 minutes.  Once roasted, the oven gets turned to broil and you top the tator rounds with blue cheese.  Broil until it gets melty and delicious.

Ohhhh myyyy.  Sunday dinner doesn’t get better than this!  The hot pork chop literally melted the fig jam making a lovely sauce for everything on the plate.  The blue cheese actually became milder when broiled and was the perfect topping for the potato rounds.  I could have eaten the whole batch!  The combination of flavors was unreal!  Sweetness from the fig jam, tartness from the orange, herby rosemary, succulent pork that was perfectly cooked, salty asparagus and melt-in-your mouth potato rounds.  Seriously good.

Like Big Guy said, you can eat this “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.”  (Not really sure what happened to Thursday and Saturday).

Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie

Talk about comfort food!   But you don’t have to feel guilty about eating this comforting casserole.

I’ve actually never made Shepherd’s Pie before.  Shepherds Pie is a “meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.”  Also, Shepherd’s Pie was first known as “Cottage Pie” and was made using leftover meat.

I made a lightened up version of Shepherd’s Pie and it was insanely delicious - and guilt free!  Instead of beef (or lamb), ground turkey was used in the “pie.”  The best “upgrade”?  Using sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes.  Loved the color!  And I adore anything involving sweet potatoes.  (P.S.  They make a vodka now out of sweet potatoes.)  I used almond milk instead of regular milk (it’s what was in my fridge) and I used Greek yogurt in place of sour cream.

The recipe did require some time in the kitchen but that’s one of my favorite places to be.  On the plus side, there were plenty of leftovers – we both ate this for dinner twice and then I ate it twice throughout the week for lunch.

 

The recipe I used made the pies into individual servings while I made mine into one big casserole.  The serving size is huge and the meal is super filling.  Change it up – using the meat of your choice.  Or use white potatoes instead of sweet (though I’m not sure why you would do that).

Comfort food at it’s finest.

Monday Musings

Happy Monday, everyone!

1.  Big Guy has been dealing with some sinus/inner ear pressure.  He Googles everything.  Here is him trying out one of his “Google cures.”

2.  Not everything he reads on the “intra-net” works.  (“Intra-net” is how Big Guy refers to the “internet”)

3.  On Friday night I had a lovely dinner with with my sister.

4.  It started with wine (duh!).

5.  Then we had sushi (from Kami).  We ordered three specialty rolls – they were amazing and totally hit the spot.

6.  We ended the night at Target.  All sister dates need a trip to Target!

7.  On Saturday night, we had a family dinner!  Maggie made guac (which is awesome!!!!) and I made a Jalapeno Popper Chili.  I subbed in lean ground beef for the ground chicken.  It was  fantastic!

8.  February is here!  I hope it’s a super sweet month for you.

Any good football food is messy.

Happy Monday!  Speaking of Monday, I bet a lot of y’all will be strugglin’ next Monday.  I always struggle on Monday but next Sunday is the Superbowl.  I can assure you I won’t be staying up for the whole game but I do plan on catching a few of the commercials and the halftime show.  But honestly, the most fun part of the Superbowl is the food.  And it would be even more fun if you made Sticky Thai Chicken Wings.   They’re manly enough for all football lovin’ men but they are so delicious that the ladies will like them just as much.  They’re messy but any good football food is messy.

 

These wings are finger lickin’ good.  The sauce is scrumptious.

 

The combination of flavors was out of this world.  Sweet chili sauce is the base – but it doesn’t do all the work on it’s own.  The chili sauce is mixed with coconut milk, rice vinegar, brown sugar, garlic, peanut butter, ginger, lime juice and soy sauce.  Seriously, I can’t get over the sweet-savory combo.

 

After the wings are cooked until crispy they are drenched in the sauce.  And I mean drenched.  Then they are taken over the top with a sprinkling of peanuts for some more crunch and some cilantro for a burst of flavor and freshness.

Make these.  And if you can’t wait until Sunday I won’t blame you.