Let's see what we have in the fridge....

Tonight's dinner was made up of whatever I could put together from whatever I had already. I had a few steaks that I had taken out yesterday, and didn't get to cook so we grilled those, BBQ'd some potato packets, and I made a veggie concoction.

Potato Packets:

I peeled and sliced up some potatoes, sliced some onion (I think it was a sweet onion?) and tossed that in a bowl with  some melted butter, salt, pepper, garlic powder, rosemary, parsley and some fresh thyme. I mixed that all up in the bowl and put single serving portions in some aluminum foil and wrapped it up and threw them on the grill first.

Veggie concoction: (I started this about the same time as we threw the steaks on the grill)

I used some zucchini I had (that had actually seen better days but we won't talk about that),  half an onion, two plum tomatoes, garlic and (sort of) fresh basil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and red chili pepper flakes and some goat cheese. It was actually super delish. I sliced the zucchini into 1/4 inch thick circles, then cut those into semi circles, diced the onion, minced the garlic, seeded and chopped the plum tomatoes, tore up the basil and crumbled the goat cheese. (I do that by putting it into a small bowl and using two knives to slice it up.)
First I heated up some veg oil and butter in a non stick skillet, and sauteed the zucchini, onion and garlic with S&P,  until they started to get some colour. When they were browned to my liking, all at once I tossed in the tomatoes, basil, red chili pepper flakes and about 1 TBSP of balsamic vinegar, and stirred that for less than a minute. I served it with some goat cheese sprinkled on top.

I didn't do anything special for the steaks. Just a sprinkle of steak spice and grill them on super high heat for about 3-5 mins a side, (depending on how you like them done. I like them med-rare) then we let them rest on the kitchen counter for a few minutes to let the juice distribute itself all over the steaks.

Simple and delicious.

Shrimp & Mango Noodle Salad, and a Tuna and Avocado wrap

Today was hot. Really really steamy hot. So for supper I wanted something cool and refreshing. I figured wraps or sandwiches of some sort, and a salad would be perfect. While at the grocery store looking for something cool and refreshing ( aka enjoying the free air conditioning there- they keep it like an ice box) I saw a box of mangoes that were ripe and grabbed a few figuring I could incorporate that into dinner. Mangoes are delicious, and since is feels tropical outside I figured we may as well eat something tropical too.
They also had some decent looking corn on the cob.
So I came up with a shrimp and mango salad with rice vermicelli, and a tuna and avocado wrap.
The mango shrimp concoction was quite delicious and I will definitely be making that again. The tuna wrap was pretty standard as far as wraps go. I love avocado on my wraps.

 

Mango & Shrimp Noodle Salad

300 grams of rice vermicelli

1 large mango

1/4 cup lime juice

1 Tbsp brown Sugar

1 Tbsp hot chili garlic sauce

1/4 tsp salt ( next time I might use fish sauce. I didn't have any today)

cooked, peeled shrimp

1/2 cup snipped basil and mint ( 1/4 cup each)

Cook the vermicelli according to package directions. I give mine a boiling water bath. When the noodles are tender, drain them, rinse in cold water and drain again.

Peel the mango, struggle to get the pit out without wasting any of the flesh, then dice the flesh while cursing at how difficult mangoes are to pit and peel. If you don't have a  mango splitter, I highly suggest you get one. I LOVE mine. I hated trying to get into a mango before Santa left me one in my stocking a few years ago. It is easy as pie. Actually easier than pie. Pie can be time consuming... I digress.

So now that you have managed to get into your mango and dice it up, stir the lime juice, sugar, chili-garlic sauce and the salt or fish sauce in a bowl, and toss in the mango chunks, shrimp, herbs and the cooked noodles. It is ready to eat right away.

The sauce does something magical to the mangoes. I love mangoes but this was especially delicious, and even my hubby liked it and he does NOT like mangoes.

For the tuna avocado wrap-

I mixed a can of tuna with some mayo, lemon juice and dill. Spread some hummus or whatever you like on a whole wheat  wrap, add a glop of the tuna, some alfalfa sprouts, thinly sliced red pepper and red onion, a pinch of bagged broccoli slaw, some avocado wedges, some lettuce, or whatever you like on your wraps. I like a mixture of crunchy and soft things. Then  place it on some waxed paper, or saran wrap and  roll it up, and wrap it up in the waxed paper/saran so it doesn't fall apart, and if it's especially juicy it contains the drippage too. I slice it in half and peel the paper back as I eat it. 

And here is a pic of a mango splitter. You really need one. They are available at most department stores.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!

Caramel Apple Cream Cheese and Skor bits = yummeh!!

Recently I had to improvise because I was at a cottage and didn't have a nice shallow dish to serve this in, so I spread it on an aluminum pizza pan and used a spatula to shape it into a circle in the middle and arranged the apples around the outside. It looked like a sunflower :)

I think from now on I might just arrange it like this.

Caramel Apple Dip

Fast, easy and always goes over well.

1 brick of cream cheese (a tub of spreadable cream cheese works well too) at room temperature
1 container of caramel dip (usually found in the fruit section)
Part of a bag of Skor bits (found in the baking section) or a few Skor bars crushed up.
gala or granny smith  apples

In a shallow dish, spread softened cream cheese covering the bottom of the dish. 
Now spread the caramel on top.
Sprinkle a few handfuls of the Skor Bits over top or break up the skor bars into small chunks and spread that over top.
Slice up the apples dunk then in the dip and enjoy.


If you aren't going to be serving it right away, put the sliced apples in a large ziploc bag with a few tablespoons of water and lemon juice to stop them from browning.


If you plan it right, you will run out of apples before you run out of dip and you will have to scrape the rest of the dip out of the bowl with your finger.  Take the hit for the team :)

Pam's black bean soup

Always a hit, this yummy, healthy easy to prepare soup is filling and easy as 1.2.3.

5-6 slices of bacon, cut up

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 large onion, diced

handful of diced cooked ham

1 large can of diced tomatoes

Clamato juice as desired, about 2 cups or more  (this is the ‘secret’ ingredient)

Can of black beans drained and rinsed. (I usually double the black beans and also use a can of navy beans, drained and rinsed as well)

Salt, pepper, Tabasco sauce, cayenne pepper or chili peppers, basil, oregano all to taste

In a large stockpot fry the bacon until crisp. Add garlic and sauté  for 30-60 seconds. Add chili peppers if using, and sauté for 30 more seconds. Add onion and sauté for 2 minutes or so. Chuck the rest of the ingredients in the pot and season to taste. Simmer for at least 20 minutes, and serve with grated cheddar cheese and sour cream on top.