I'm finally getting around to blogging about all of the food my family and I made during Christmas..... Here we go....

 

 

 The Seafood grocery section made me soooooooo happy... take a look at those gigantic octopi!

 The first night we made a whole chicken.... This was a baked chicken with onions and carrots. The chicken was rubbed down with Spanish Provential Spices and olive oil. The chicken was stuffed with dates and lemon for some extra flavor. Heat your oven to 400 degrees and bake the chicken according to how many lbs of chicken you have... Serve with a rice or pasta side.

 Chicken Sausage Pasta!!! This was delicious. We chopped a whole zucchini, a red pepper, and an onion. Then we put the pasta on to boil.

 Cook your chicken chorizo sausage to 90 percent done.

 Spice your veggies with basil, oregano, salt, pepper, and maybe something a bit spicy....

 Put your sauce on the stove and spice however you like it. We used basil, salt, pepper, and about a tablespoon of chopped garlic.

 Chop your sausage and put into pan to finish cooking and put a slight sear on it.

 Add your veggies to the pan to cool until just slightly crispy.... cook longer if you like your veggies soft.

 Here are the finished serving dishes for this delicious pasta!

 So..... now we venture onward toward a traditional Spanish dish.... Paella!! We decided on a seafood and sausage paella.

 First we started our broth. We used a vegetable bouillon cube and 3 cups of water.

 Then we have our paella rice to cook.... so cook your rice according to the box but cut off about 1/3 of the time so it's not too soft.

 We used some leftover sausage....

 Octopus and squid....

 Paprika, Salt, Pepper, Garlic, Lemon, Saffron, and Cayanne Pepper for our spices.... Spice to taste.

 We used a red pepper, an onion, and a bag of diced zucchini for our veggies. Put your veggies in the pan to sauté for about 7 minutes. Add your spices except for the saffron. Add your proteins and sauté for another 5 minutes. Add your cooked rice, saffron, and about 1 cup of your broth. Let simmer until all of the broth is absorbed. Try your rice.... If you like it.... serve! If you want it softer... and another 1/2 cup of broth and allow to absorb again.... repeat as necessary.

 Serve with lemon and enjoy!

 

 My dad also made an amazing spiced and grilled salmon.... but I don't have pictures....


Try to make and enjoy a couple of these dishes with your family!

Beef Stroganoff...Delicious!!!!

Ingredients

• 1 ½ pounds beef, top sirloin, thinly sliced
• Olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 ½ cups mushrooms, sliced
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 2-3 Tablespoons flour
• 1 ½ cups beef broth
• 1 Tablespoon ketchup
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon basil
• 4 Tablespoon white wine (something relatively dry)
• 4 Tablespoons sour cream
•  1 Tablespoon chopped garlic
• 2 Cups chopped green beans
•  1 Tablespoon chopped garlic
•  1 package of egg noodles

 

I don't have any pictures for this one except the final one... So I'll just try to give pretty good instructions...

 

1. Heat a sauté pan over medium-high heat until hot. Briefly sauté half of the beef in ½ tablespoon oil to brown. Remove beef and any juices from pan into a bowl. Repeat with ½ tablespoon olive oil and remaining beef.
2. In same pan, add 1 more tablespoon oil and sauté onions, mushrooms, and garlic until only slightly crunchy. Remove to bowl with beef.
3. Melt 2 tablespoons butter. Mix in 2 tablespoons flour and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. My flour butter mixture was really thick and I added the beef broth pretty much immediately.
4. Add ketchup, paprika, and basil. Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring for pretty much the whole time.
5. Add meat, mushrooms, and onions to sauce and continue to simmer for 15 minutes more.
6. Put your egg noodles into boiling water for about 7 minutes. Make two batches if you want more noodles with your sauce. 
7. Throw your green beans into a steamer pot at the same time and steam for 5 minutes. Then remove the green beans to a sauté pan with 1 tsp of olive oil and 1 tbsp. of chopped garlic.
8. Remove the sauce from heat after the 15 min and stir in wine and sour cream.
9. Serve over the noodles.

 

 

Soy Chicken Pesto Pasta

Ingredients:
- Whole Wheat Pasta
- Romero Cheese
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
-A few Sprigs of Parsley
- Gardein Chicken Strips
- Oregano
- Basil
- Pesto Mix
-2 tsp chopped Garlic

 Toss your pesto mix in a pan with olive oil and water. Add Parsley, Oregano, Garlic, and Basil to taste. I added a tsp of each.

 Add your Chicken and sauté for about 5 minutes.

 Make your Pasta while your sauce is cooking.

 Make some Garlic Bread to go with it and enjoy!!

 

 

 

Lemon and Herb Pasta Salad

 

 Alright here are your ingredients:

Cup of Spinach
Cup of lettuce
2 tsp of Thyme
1 tsp of Basil
1 Lemon
2 Tbsp of Lemon Juice
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 cup of chopped protein.... I used left over ham from thanksgiving!
1/8 cup Feta Cheese
Pasta....I used Miracle Pasta

 Chop your thyme, lemon, and ham....

 

 Toss half of your lemon juice, a tsp oil, half of your thyme and basil, your pasta, and your ham into a fry pan and cook on low for about 5-7 minutes.

 Toss the rest of your lemon juice and herbs, and your Dijon mustard in a bowl.

 Add your lettuce, spinach, and feta.

Add your heated pasta mixture to your bowl and toss! Add a couple slices of lemon and enjoy :)

The Beef Well-well-Wellington...is actually kinda rare....

 

 

Strap on your Wellington boots and grab some ingredients...here we go

 

THATS A LOT OF MEAT!

 

Don't forget to flip that big guy

 

 chop up your shallots, thyme, parsley with your scariest knife

Get your shallots drunk on wine and mix in your garlic and herbs

 

 

 

Set your behemoth to the side and rub it down with Dijon mustard... this feels inappropriate at first but its ok.... its worth it  

Peel this paper thin prosciutto and place onto plastic wrap.... easier said than done

Place your drunk shallots and herbs onto your paper thin meats

 

 

Place your mustard massaged tenderloin on top

And wrap up this meat on meat crime like so... and place into the freezer

 make sure your pastry dough is not frozen like mine was... or you'll have to wait 40 minutes to thaw

 Prep your potatoes how ever you like your taters... = )

 Time to break out that big wooden thing your mom used to chase you around the house with and roll out some pastry dough so that it will completely cover your beef like a meat sweater

 cover your meat with said sweater ; )

 baste your care package with egg wash and place in the oven

 Take out of oven after 27 minutes

 Cut open, realize its still mooing... place back in oven for 10 more minutes

 

Well Well Well..... Beef Wellington! Enjoy

Todays captions brought to you by......greg. :-D

Ranch Herb Chicken with Greek Yogurt Mac & Cheese

So for the Mac & Cheese, here are the ingredients:

-2 cups of pasta

-2 cups shredded cheese (I used veggie cheese)

-1/2 cup Greek yogurt

-1/4 tsp onion powder

-1/4 tsp garlic powder

-salt and pepper

 

Chicken Ingredients:

-chicken tenderloins (5-6)

-shake and bake or panko bread crumbs

-parmesan cheese (I used veggie)

-egg wash (1 egg and 2tbsp water)

-whatever veggie you want to use as a side (I used broccoli)

 

 

 

 

 I poured 1/4 cup of parm cheese in the shake and bake seasoning, dipped the chicken in the egg wash and shook them in the bread crumbs.

 Cook at 350 deg F in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

 I used my steamer pot to make some broccoli as a side.

 Gather your ingredients for mac & cheese while your pasta is boiling.

 Boil until al dente. (About 10-15 minutes)

 Before draining your pasta, save 3/4 cup of the pasta water.

 Pour 1/4 cup of the water back into your pasta and add your cheese; mix until melted.

 Add all other ingredients and serve immediately.

 Enjoy a normal portion.....

OR a gigantic portion...... :-D