Grilled steak with Cilantro pesto/sauce served over Arroz Rojo rice

As we all know, I am a loyal viewer of the television show, The Chew. After watching today's episode of Budget Friendly Mexican Meals, I automatically wanted to drive to the nearest Mexican restaurant and order my usual chicken burrito and margarita. However, I know I was ready for a home cooked meal, and I am pretty sure Jimmy was too. Soooo, why not make my own Mexican food from scratch?! How hard could it be? For the record, not very hard. :)

Mexican for me just hits the spot. I can eat it any day, hour, morning,  afternoon, or night. Even fourth meal. However, pulling off a scrumptions Mexican meal from scratch and not using canned refried beans or the Knorr spanish rice package is a big accomplishment in itself for me. So when I was roaming IGA for some inspiration, I decided to make the Arroz Rojo rice recipe I saw on TV today. They said on the show that you can pair any meat with the rice and it will be good. I decided to go with a skirt like steak (I forget the name of the meat honestly) but it was in a shape of a tri tip, but was thin. Come to think of it, I think the work Tri was in the name of the meat. Perhaps, Tri Steak? Who cares!!! You can pair this rice with chicken, pork, a scrumptious steak, buffalo testicals, WHATEVER, and I am sure it will be fantastic. The thing I loved about Chef Marcella's Arroz Rojo recipe, was that it contained cilantro. I felt that I can get most of my money by using it not only in the rice, but in a pesto/sauce as well. So besides following the Arroz Rojo recipe, I competley winged the rest. Just to let you know, it turned out UH-MAZING! Not to toot my own horn or anything....


Click here for Arroz Rojo recipe

The recipe called for a serrano chili, but I just used a jalapeno instead. Remember, its ok to "color outside the lines" when you are cooking. ;)


For my Cilantro Pesto, I did the following:

About 1 cup of cilantro
A little bit of olive oil
Two cloves of garlics-crushed
Roughly a tablespoon of lemon juice (can do lime instead)
Some parmesan cheese
A few canellini beans (pine nuts, walnuts, cashews are usually the norm)

A pesto is very versatile, and can be made several different ways. A typical pesto contains basil, olive oil, garlic, parmesan cheese, and pine nuts. for mine, I changed it up  a bit and  did cilantro, and I did not have any kind of nuts in my pantry, so I went with beans. You just need something to bind the liquid so it was be more pasty instead of liquidly. The beans also add some protein as well :) I do not own a a food processor so I made my pesto in a blender. I may have added a wee bit too much olive oil so it was on the fence between a pesto and sauce, but nonetheless, it was full of flavor and I cant believe I actually made it. You have got to try it!

With the steak, I did not feel like grilling on the grill, so I put the broiler on high, and cooked the steak about five minutes on eat side and seasoned with salt and pepper.


When the dinner was finished, and we had a chance to eat, it was amazing. The rice could have been cooked longer, but on my defense, the rice mixture was the same texture whenever you make the spanish rice out of the bag and/or when I make my risotto. So naturally, I thought it was done. The rice was spicy, but delicious. the cilantro sauce was full of flavor and amazing, and the steak was good, but probably would have been better on the grill.

Overall, I would rate this a 9/10. Jimmy rated the same way. I will definitely make this again, and next time, I will make margaritas :)

Balsamic Marinated Steak with Steak House Salad

I got this recipe off of The Chew's website. This looked really good, and honestly, I decided to make this on the spur of the moment. Instead of typing their whole recipe, I will just leave a link to their website and you can print it off if you wish!

Click Here for the Recipe


so the recipe calls for flank steak, and it is definitely healthier, but when I went to the grocery store they did not have flank steak so I went with a tri Tip. I go to to this grocery store called IGA. I had no idea what IGA was until they opened up literally right outside my neighborhood. It is so convenient; I can put my daughter in a stroller and just walk to it without getting run over by a car. Its perfect. BUT... they do not have makeup, certain medicines, etc. However, they have amazing prices on their produce and meat. Anyways, when I went to the store early in the morning, I talked to the butcher and since they did not have flank steak on hand, he convinced me to use a tri tip. It was good, but the marinade caramelizes quickly on the steak so my husband took it off early thinking it was ready, and it was not. We are not big grillers. We just got a grill so we are still learning :) The recipe was still good, and I love love love the blue cheese in the house salad, however, i would not go out of my way to make it unless I had no idea what to make  and some extra money to spend on some meat (ie: flank steak or tri tip). This recipe will work with many kinds of beef, but if you are watching the calories, go with the flank steak!

Poor Mans Steak

I am very lucky to have awesome in laws that have raised their own cattle to eat. We are always getting free ground beef, steaks, roasts, etc. I already forget the name of the steak, I think it's called cubbed steak. Which I don't understand because its not cubbed. It's like thin slices of steak. Anyways, it's good...that's all that matters, right?! Poor Man's Steak is so good, probably not the healthiest, but good! I always serve it with a side of pea risotto.

What you will need is:
A lb or so of cubbed steak, or thin steak
Flour and olive oil
An onion and bell pepper
Water
Salt and pepper

First things first is that you will need to slice the meat into little bites. My mother in law made it once with a nice portion of meat instead of bite size. Whatever floats your boat.
You will need to heat oil in a skillet and dredge the meat in flour. Once the meat is covered in flour, you will need to brown the meat. Next the onion and bell pepper needs to be cut in slices. In a casserole dish, you will combine the meat and vegetables with one cup of water and season the mixture with salt and pepper. Have your oven set to 400 and bake your meat mixture for about an onion until the vegetables are soft and the liquid has thickened. Halfway through I mixed the meat up and put it back in the oven.

The reason why I am being so vague with the directions is because cooking is not like a coloring book. In school you were taught to color within the lines. In cooking, if you color outside the lines, you can come up with something amazing. In this recipe you can add different seasonings to make if spicy, or add different vegetables. Maybe throw a little bourbon in it???

Fancy Taco Bowls

I made these a while back, and I totally forget how I came up with the recipe. Most likely I found it online. I would have made my taco bowls with ground turkey, but I had a pound of ground beef begging to be used.

As we all know, I LOVE cilantro. Love love love cilantro!! Ya, that's a lot of love :) this recipe has....you guessed it! Cilantro!
When you go to the store, you will need to purchase the following:

Ground beef, turkey, or chicken (whatever suits your fancy)
A jar of your favorite salsa
A mango or two
An avocado
White or brown rice (I used brown)
[drum roll please...]
CILANTRO


Cook your rice according to directions. When the rice is done cooking, you will want to mix the rice with the cilantro. Easy peasy!
Next you will want to ground you meat, drain it, and mix the jar of salsa with it.
You will also need to cut the mangos and avocado into little bite sizes.

If you wanted to, you could throw all the ingredients into a bowl, and you're done. When I am feeling fancy, that's not my style. What I did was super easy and you can do it too! What I did was I took the warm rice mixture, put it into a little bowl, packed it in , took a plate and coved the top of the bowl with the plate and flipped it over. That will mold the rice into the cute little round mold and all you have left to do is decorate it on top with the meat and fruit. Key is to use warm rice so it will hold its texture. Viola!

Chorizo and Bean Stew

Im backkkkk! It has been forever since I have last posted. Even though I have made a lot of yummy meals since I have lasted posted, unfortunately they have gone unmentioned. The reason I am getting back into this is because, surprisingly, I have had a few of my family and friends talk about the food blog. Now that Abbie is a little older and a  tiny bit more independent for longer periods of time, i am now able to cook, take pictures, and document the meal.

With that being said, the meal I cooked came from the TV show: The Chew. I watch this show pretty much everyday and I even have the DVR set to record the series. It is hilarious as well as informative. I love the cast, and more especially the kinds of meals they cook. They cater to the normal home cook, and everything they cook is pretty easy or at least they make it look easy! Some of the foods Batali uses is kind of "exotic" to me, but he uses more Italian ingredients and black truffles and I use more American ingredients and I opt to not may a $$$$ on black truffles and just wait until I am on Princess Cruise to eat it :)

Click here to see the Recipe on The Chew's Website

So I am going to be a tad bit lazy, and let you click on the link above for the recipe. Michael Symon used Kielbasa, but I happened to have Chorizo on hand in the freezer. Even on the  show Michael said you could use Chorizo if you wanted to. However, I forgot to buy Cilantro and I thought I had jalapenos in the fridge. Needless to say, I did not have jalapenos, and if I would have had both ingredients, then I am sure the meal would have been taken to a whole different level. I just love cilantro, just like I love sorbet. And thats a lot of love...

Jimmy rated this a 10/10. I rated this like a 6.5/10. The reason being, I hate breakfast sausage. I think the Chorizo reminded me of breakfast sausage. Fair? No. Normally I am the leftover queen and I am able to eat leftovers for the next couple of days, but I have about five servings in the fridge and I am relying on Jimmy to finish it.

It is still an easy meal to make, easy on the wallet, and not to bad on a cold winter day. 

Grandma's Lasagna

My Grandma has always made this lasagna, which usually feed 6-8 hungry people, for family and friends visiting. You can either make it the night before and put it in the fridge, or you can make it that night. I think, don't quote me, that she said, "If you are going to make it and put it in the fridge the night before, you don't have to boil your noodles. If you are eating it that night, cook the noodles". This lasagna is always a crowd pleaser in our household. I made it the first time tonight, without Grandma, for just TWO PEOPLE. So, my question is, Who's hungry?? There's leftovers... :)

What you will need:

1 - 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef

2-3 Italian sausage link, skinned and cut up (sweet or spicy)

28 OZ can chopped tomatoes

8-16 OZ tomato sauce

2 Evelopes (those little envelopes with spices and herbs in it. Lawreys is a brand) spaghetti sauce mix

1 onion, chopped

8 OZ package lasagna noodles

6 OZ mozzarella cheese (or more)

1 cup cream style cottage cheese or ricotta cheese

2 TBSP sugar

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Brown meats and drain fat. Add next ingredients (except the cheese), cover and simmer for 40 minutes. Watch, it wants to stick)

Cook noodles, drain and rinse with cold water

Place one half noodles in dish, cover with 1/3 of the sauce, and 1/2 mozzarella and 1/2 ricotta.

REPEAT layers ending with sauce on top. Add the parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes after cooking. Enjoy :)

Kathy's Egg Nog

My mother in law makes this egg nog that their whole family (including cousins) go crazy for. Well, its Christmas time and Jimmy is craving his mom's egg nog. Last night I got all the ingredients, and we mixed it in my pink Kitchen Aid, and he thinks it turned out great. I don't drink egg nog, but I did have a taste, and from what I tasted it was OK. Jimmy would rate this a 10/10. Im not going to rate this because I don't drink egg nog, at all.

What you will need:

6-8 fresh eggs

2 cups sugar

Pint of half/half or lean evaporated milk (Jimmy says half/half is much better)

dash of salt

Nutmeg to taste

Milk to make 1 gallon

Beat eggs until light yellow and fluffy. Add salt and sugar and beat on a high speed until sugar is dissolved. Add half/half or evaporated milk and beat until smooth. Add nutmeg and a little vanilla if desired. Beat again, place mixture in a clean gallon of milk jug or jar and add milk to fill container. Taste and adjust flavoring if necessary. Keep chilled