Lemongrass Brussel Sprouts and Pork Chops

Hey hungry foodies, this is an easy, healthy, five ingredient (plus pantry staples) meal. Grown up and kid friendly all in one shot.

Step 1 Ingredients

4-8 pork chops with salt, pepper, soy sauce and cooking spray

Place pork chops on broiling pans and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle with soy sauce and spray with cooking spray. Broil on high for 15-20 minutes until carmelized and brown.

Step 2 Ingredients

Olive oil
1 bag of brussel sprouts with ends cut off and thinly sliced
1-3 cloves of chopped garlic
2 T. minced lemon grass (or a cheater tube of lemongrass from the produce section)
1/4-1/2 t. crushed red pepper
1/2 t. salt
Soy sauce
1 cup of pre-cooked brown rice (I buy the Uncle Ben's heat and serve pouches)

Drizzle olive oil in large pan and allow to heat. When oil is hot add the brussel sprouts and garlic. Then add lemongrass, salt and crushed red pepper. Sauté until brussel sprouts start to soften. Drizzle with soy sauce. Heat brown rice pouch in microwave per package instructions. Toss rice with brussel sprout and serve with carmelized pork chops. So satisfying, reasonably healthy, simple, and fast.

Chicken Margherita

You know when four o'clock hits, and you still aren't sure what to make for dinner? I did that today. I was lounging around on the couch after my Jillian Michael's workout not wanting to move. Then I remembered that I had fresh mozarella, pesto, and tomatoes waiting for me in the fridge. 

Which left me feeling excited, and confused. Because suddenly, the possibilities seemed endless.

If you have never purchased fresh mozarella, then you are missing out on one of life's great culinary pleasures. Mixed with good pesto, garlic, tomato, and balsamic vinegar it is divine.

1 recipe for Balsamic Baked Chicken balsamic sauce prepped

3 chicken breasts, thawed

6 oz. fresh mozarella diced (Use an egg slicer and slice it three different directions to get a perfect dice easily)

2 Roma tomatoes diced

2 T. fresh Pesto (I buy mine in the fresh foods section at Costco, it's the best pesto I have found)

1/2 t. kosher salt

In 9x13 baking dish prep Balsamic Chicken sauce and set aside.  Lightly combine the mozarella, Roma tomatoes, pesto and kosher salt. Take thawed chicken breasts and lightly slice into the side, creating a deep pocket in the meat. Stuff the meat to the brim with the pesto mixture and place into the baking dish, careful turning to coat with the balsamic sauce. Sprinkle the chicken breasts with salt and pepper, then bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. I reserved my left over pesto mixture for a pasta side dish, it was awesome.

This will serve two adults and four children. If you need more, plan to double the recipe. 

For easy variations, you can bake the balsamic chicken without stuffing it, and top with the fresh pesto mixture.

Cheese Enchiladas

Oh, how I love red sauces. This is another one of those sauces that I could drink.

Red Sauce:

1 cup water
1 T. butter
1/4 cup dried onion
1 t. garlic powder
2 T. chili powder
1 t. cumin
1 small can tomato puree
1-2 t. salt (to taste)


Combine in a saucepan and bring to a boil for five minutes. Set aside.

Enchiladas:

Corn Tortillas
4 Cups shredded cheese (Cheddar or a Mexican style blend)


To assemble, pour 1/3 of the sauce into the bottom of a 9X13 pan. Layer the corn tortillas across the sauce, then top evenly with cheese, reserving 1 cup for the top. Then layer more corn tortillas and smother with sauce, followed by reserved cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

Serve with shredded lettuce and sour cream, and beans and rice.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

I confess, I was a bit overly ambitious this weekend. I purchased the ingredients to make this recipe after hearing it's praises on Facebook. Then I was reminded that it would by my mommy's birthday on Sunday, so of course I volunteered to make that cake. Being that my oldest daughter loves cheesecake I couldn't simply ditch it without causing a lot of weeping and whailing and gnashing of teeth. So I made them both. But this is only for the cheesecake. Find the original recipe here.

2/3 package of oreo cookies
2 T. sugar
1/4 C. butter

Process the above ingredients together until fine crumbs are formed. Then press into the bottom of a spring form pan. Set aside.

1 package white chocolate chips
1 cup whipping cream
3 Packages cream cheese
3 eggs
1/4 C. of sugar
1 t. vanilla

In microwave safe cup, heat cream until nearly boiling. Pour over white chocolate chips, and set aside. In mixer, cream together cream cheese, eggs, 1/4 c. sugar, and vanilla. Now, stir the cream/white chocolate mixture until it becomes very creamy, almost like thick pancake batter. Pour the cream/white chocolate into the cream cheese mixture and quickly mix into the batter.

1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups raspberries
1/2 cup sugar
2 T. cornstarch

In large saucepan, boil water, raspberries, sugar, and cornstarch until smooth and becomes syrup like. Set aside.

In spring form pan, pour half of the cheesecake batter. Drizzle heavily with raspberry sauce, then top with remaining cream cheese mixture, then drizzle some more raspberry sauce. Swirl through batter with knife to marble the cheesecake.

Bake at 325 degrees for 55-60 minutes. When out of the oven, run knife around edges and then refrigerate while prepping the remaining topping.

1 cup cream
1/2 cup chocolate chips

In large bowl, microwave cream until nearly boiling, then pour chocolate chips into hot cream and allow to soften, then stir until a thick creamy chocolate sauce forms. Pour this over the baked cheesecake and then set it in the fridge.

Right before serving, whip remaining cream with powdered sugar to make whipped cream. Spread evenly over the cheesecake.

Steak

I love steak. I love good steak. Once I felt off for a couple of months and in desperation asked my dad to make me a good steak and after I filled up on it I was like brand new. Good steak is my best friend. Sadly, bad steak is not, and in my experience most home cooked steak ends up in the bad steak category. Because of this, I have spent some time looking into what makes a good steak, and it turns out it's not as complicated as it seems to be after so many failures. It's quite simple. Good steak requires:

High quality meat
Olive oil (or another cooking oil)
High temperatures

And that is pretty much it. My bad steak days ended when I started buying my sirloin from Costco. Costco, is nearly always the answer, it seems. So, once you have purchased a package of high quality steak from Costco, the rest is easy peasy.

Grilling steak is a great way to go. But, in the winter months, I'm not one for grilling, so I broil. And since the winter months apparently includes May in Utah, I went ahead and broiled my dinner a couple of nights ago. The process is simple. You want your grill or your broil to be hot. You also want it to be instantly hot. Never ever ever put meat onto a warm surface to cook. It has to be hot. The heat sears the meat and prevents moisture from draining while it heats up. This is why broiling is so great, because it's that hot instant heat. (the same is true of pancakes and french toast, if you wonder why your pancakes stick to the pan and peel off in strange ways, it's because your griddle isn't hot enough).

Now, it is important to do some minor prep work on your steak before grilling/broiling it. I place mine on the broiler pan, then I coat liberally with kosher salt, black pepper, and granulated garlic. Then, you either rub the steak with olive oil, or you can spray it liberally with Pam cooking spray. And that's it. Broil as closely to the heat coils as you can, and on high. Allow it to cook for about ten minutes per inch of thickness, then turn it over and crisp up the other side (this will give you medium/well doneness, adjust a bit for a pinker or more brown internal meat). I repeat the seasoning and oil when I turn it as well.

Once you pull it from the oven, let it "rest" for about five to ten minutes before cutting. Once you pull the meat from the oven it will continue to cook for a few minutes as the internal temperature rises. This means that all of the tender juices are still really runny. If you cut into your meat during this time those juices will run out, leaving  nothing but dry steak.

And what to do with the leftover meat? We went for stroganoff last night, but you could also make steak salad, or fajitas. (Those Costco packs of steak are big, so I broil two steaks and then use one of the additional steaks for each following meal.)

Once the meat is done,

Steak Salad

1 steak, broiled and seasoned, then thinly sliced
1 head romaine lettuce, torn for a salad
1/2 onion diced
3/4 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 T. butter
1 tomato diced
croutons
blue cheese (or another steak friendly cheese, fresh mozarella, gogonzola)
A1 steak sauce
ranch dressing


In skillet, melt butter, then saute onion with mushroom until nice and soft and golden. Set aside.

Spread romaine lettuce on large platter. Top with steak slices, followed by onion and mushroom, topped with tomato, and cheese.

In small mixing bowl combine two parts A1 to one part ranch salad dressing and mix. Drizzle over salad and top off with croutons.

This is one of my all time favorite summer meals. It's super flexible too, which is great. You can leave anything out, or substitute with what you have on hand, or simply throw a new bite into the mix. The secret is the "A1 Ranch" with the steak and greens. It's amazing.

Salsa: Los Hermanos Style

I have about as many salsa recipes as I do marinara recipes. Mmmm.

This one is the most simple. There is a yummy (to me) Mexican restaurant in Lindon UT called Los Hermanos. We love it. We also love the salsa (which is not unlike the Chili's Bar and Grill salsa). One day I decided I needed to make it at home so that I could drink it whenever I want to.

And it turns out it's the easiest to make.

1/4 cup pickled jalapeno (or fresh, but laziness is the key with this salsa)
1 clove garlic
1 T. lime juice (or to taste, it doesn't really matter)
Kosher salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

In a food processor combine the jalapeno, garlic, lime juice until finely chopped. Pour into mixing bowl and add a large can of crushed tomato, then add salt and pepper to taste.

And that's all.

No, really.

That's all.

Other great add ins, do one or two, or all, it'll work.
Red pepper
Green onion
Red onion
Cilantro
Pineapple
Mango
Ginger
Cumin
Cayenne Pepper