So easy...

Well, Monday I opened my door to see a plethora of mail strewn about our stoop because it wouldn't all fit in our tiny and ineffectual mailbox. Included in this mail was a new Cricut cartridge, a new lens hood for DH's beloved camera, and...

Photo credit (also a link to subscribe!)

I have a slight love affair with Food Network so, when they came out with a magazine, I subscribed. For three years (it was only $30 for three years since the mag was so new!). Well anyway, this little beauty shows up and I look at the cover and say to myself "Self, this is what you are making for dinner." So I did just that.

I've decided that you can mix corn with pretty much any other veggies and it'll be delicious. The recipe is a succotash (always makes me think of Sylvester from Looney Toons), but I didn't have lima beans (nor does DH like them), so I don't know if this qualifies anymore.

Ingredients for my "succotash"

2 cups corn
1 cup cherry tomatoes (I think grape would be better)
1 medium yellow squash diced into bite-sized pieces
1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Put all ingredients in pan and cook until squash is tender and begins to brown.

The other dish was a cheese stuffed chicken. The mag's was Pepper-jack Chicken. Don't get me wrong, I like Pepper-jack, and my husband LOVES it, so I made his with PJ, but I also had some goat cheese and dill that I was dying to use up before expiration, so I made myself...

Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast with Dill

Ingredients
1 oz goat cheese
1 tsp dill
1 4 oz chicken breast
Cajun seasoning
Salt and Pepper to taste
Olive oil for brushing

Mix goat cheese with dill. Cut a two-inch wide pocket in breast and stuff pocket with cheese mixture. Sprinkle with Cajun spices, salt, and pepper then brush with olive oil. Place on preheated grill until cooked through.

This was amazing. I made the same for DH but used PJ instead of goat cheese and dill. He said it was one of the best chicken dishes I've made... and it's not even that fancy or creative! Sorry for the lack of photographs. DH's camera battery was dead. :-( With this dinner, I also made Omaha Steak's twice-baked potatoes. Nowhere near clean eating, but SUPER delicious!

***

I had substitute orientation today with the school for which I had the English teacher position interview. They filled all but one class internally and then hired someone with coaching experience for the last one. If only I'd played sports in high school. I'd love to coach! (First I'd have to get back in shape!) Oh well. There's a new job opportunity in sight, but it's low on the possibilities totum pole, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up. At least the HR rep at this school said to each one of the heads of schools (lower, middle, upper) that she wanted to use me a lot. It helps that I live extremely close to the school and that I'm awesome.

Well, it is currently monsooning outside (which we desperately need) and I am currently being told by my stomach that it is hungry (which it shouldn't be). I hope all two people who read this have a lovely day!

Cajun Skirt Steak with Creamed Corn

accompanied by a delicious salad and homemade balsamic vinaigrette!

FYI: The steak and corn recipes are from Real Simple Magazine. I love that magazine!

Um... Yum? Yes. Yum.

Ingredients


2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 small onion, chopped

4 cups fresh corn kernels (from 8 ears)

1 cup half-and-half

kosher salt and black pepper

1 1/2 pounds skirt steak, cut into 2 pieces

2 teaspoons blackening or Cajun seasoning
 
Directions
 
1.Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to soften, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the corn, half-and-half, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and simmer until the corn is tender and the half-and-half is slightly thickened, 5 to 8 minutes.


2.Meanwhile, heat broiler. Season the steak with the blackening seasoning and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Place on a broilerproof rimmed baking sheet and broil for 3 to 4 minutes per side for medium-rare. Let rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing.
 
In my salad, I used Romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, chopped pecans, goat cheese, and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette (1/2 tbsp EVOO, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, small garlic clove pressed through a garlic press, pinch of salt, pinch of pepper, and a pinch of sucanat).
 
 
 
I really didn't feel like cooking tonight, since DH has to work late this week. I put together the salad, thinking that that was all I was going to have, but then I realised that there wasn't much to the salad because I didn't chop enough romaine, so I decided to stick to the meal plan, despite DH's absence. That way he can have super leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
 
I've put my new cricut to work today, experimenting with my cartridges. I also consumed 3/4 of a bag of chocolate Quakes. Oops. My other eats for the day: Whole wheat bagel with LF honey-almond cream cheese and a bean burrito (whole wheat tortilla, black beans, salsa, 1/2 serving Mexican cheese). :-)
 
I am currently watching The Sandlot. I LOVED this movie when I was younger. Well, I'm off to scrapbook some more... or just play with my cricut, since I'm mostly just cutting stuff out for fun! :-) Have a good night!

Dinner RAVE and more

"What's cookin'?", you might ask... Well, I'll tell you.

Ellie Krieger's Crab Cakes and Ina Garten's Confetti Corn, that's what!

Crab Cakes

Courtesy of Ellie Krieger, The Foods You Crave

Cooking Spray

1 large egg, lightly beaten (I used Egg Whites)

2 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Dash of hot sauce

1/2 tsp Old Bay seasoning

1/2 cup finely chopped red bell pepper

1 scallion (white and green parts), finely chopped

1 lb lump crabmeat, picked over for shells and cartilage

3/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs (I toast whole wheat bread and then blended them on "Crumb" to make my own!)

1/4 tsp sale

Pinch of freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 400*F. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, mix together the egg, mustard, Worcestershire, lemon juice, hot sauce, and Old Bay. Stir in the bell pepper and scallion. Gently fold in crap, 1/4 cup of the bread crumbs, salt, and pepper. Put the remaining 1/2 cup bread crumbs in a shallow dish.

Divide the crab mixture into 8 mounds. Shape each mound into a round and coat evenly with bread crumbs. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet and flatten the crap cake to form a patty about an inch high. Spray each crab with a little cooking spray.

Bake until golden on the bottom, about 10 minutes. Gently flip the crap cakes and cook until the second side is golden, 5-10 minutes longer. Serve hot.

She also included a recipe for "Smarter Tartar Sauce," but I opted to make my own sauce for the cakes... I just put equal amounts of honey mustard, dijon mustard, french mustard, and mayo in with a splash of lemon juice, parsley, and basil. It was delish.

The crab cakes did NOT want to stay together AT ALL... but they were VERY tasty anyway!

Confetti Corn

Courtesy of Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa, Back to Basics

2 tbsp good olive oil

1/2 cup chopped red onion

1 small orange bell pepper, 1/2 inch diced

2 tbsp unsalted butter (I used Smart Balance with Flax Oil)

Kernels cut from 5 ears yellow or white corn (I used 2 small packages of frozen Kroger Sweet Corn)

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tbsp julienned fresh basil, minced fresh chives, and/or minced fresh parsley (I used less dried basil and parsley as the grocery store I stopped at had a bad selection of herbs on Monday)

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large saute pan. Add the onion and saute for 5 minutes, until the onion is soft. Stir in the bell pepper and saute for 2 more minutes.

Add the butter to the pan and allow it to melt. Over medium heat, add the corn, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-7 minutes, until the corn just loses its starchiness. Season to taste, gently stirring in the basil or other green herbs, and serve hot.

H LOVED this corn, as did I. There was a LOT of it, so we'll have it again with our pork loin and roasted potatoes and veggies tonight. :-) Yum!

Last night, two wonderful things happened.

1.) We FINALLY got cable. HELLO FOOD NETWORK, TRAVEL CHANNEL, LIFETIME, and MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL. Happiness! It's a SUPER deal with HD, a gajillion channels, AND a DVR!!!!

2.) We did Week 3, Day 1 of C25k and I ran the whole way and then some. This week is: 5 minute brisk walk warmup, 90 second jog, 90 second brisk walk, three minute jog, three minute brisk walk, 90 second jog, 90 second brisk walk, three minute jog, three minute brisk walk, 5 minute brisk walk cool down. We took a wrong turn in my map, so we did an 8 minute cool down walk, and I got a horrendous cramp in my right side AND one of my toenails stabbed its neighboring toe, which was also no fun, but I made it through. No walks on the jog, and I got confused about the times, so the second 3 minute jog was more like a 5 minute jog. :-) It was fun though. I did get scared half to death about 10 minutes in when a dog jumped out of NOWHERE and started barking at us... I totally screamed because it surprised me so much. He might have been right there, but I was focusing on my jog, so I definitely didn't see him. It was actually pretty funny. :-)

TONIGHT is marinated pork loin (it's been marinating since last night at about 5... YUM), roasted potatoes, red bell pepper (left over from crab cakes), and purple onion (left over from confetti corn), and left over confetti corn. YUM. I can't wait and neither can H!