Category Archives: food

{Recipe} Tandoori Chicken with Mango Salsa

Friends, yesterday left me defeated. Mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted. I had this whole big woe-is-me post written in my head, then realized… nobody probably gives a crap. So, instead, I decided…hell yea! It’s Friday. And pay day. And I have a pedicure with a girlfriend calling my name at 5:30 tonight, followed by a high school football game with my little family. Screw yesterday.

Remember earlier in the week I told y’all about the awesome dinner I cooked on Sunday night? I promised I’d share the recipe, so here we are!

I remember the first time I had this…it was at my sister’s house, probably 8 years ago. That was before I was really “adventurous” when it came to trying new food. I was skeptical, at best. But, my sister assured me I would love it so I took a piece of chicken, and a tiny little scoop of the mango salsa. Before I knew it, I was back in the kitchen for another helping of the salsa. Yumm doesn’t begin to describe it! She copied down the recipe for me and I’ve been making it ever since.

People…I don’t think you understand just how good this recipe is…while Andy & I were engaged, I made it for a BBQ that his best friend was also at. Upon trying it, his best friend turned to me and said “Can I marry you too?”. I now make it whenever his friend is in town…

Anyway…on to the recipe!

Please note…I am giving you the recipe as I make it, not in the original form. When I make it, I pretty much make a marinade more so than a paste. (It’s WAY better this way…trust)

Ingredients for the Tandori Spice:

6 garlic cloves, minced
3 tsp salt
2 Serrano Chiles (seeds make it spicier!)
1 quart plain yogurt
Juice from 1 whole lime
2 Tbl peeled, grated fresh ginger root
1 Tbl ground coriander
3 Tsp Turmeric
1 Tbl ground cumin
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
6-8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Directions:

Combine all ingredients. Make 3 cuts, about 1/4″ deep in the chicken. Place in marinade. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or over night. Grill on medium heat, for 25-30 minutes, turning once. Serve with mango salsa.

Ingredients for Mango Salsa:

4 large mango, peeled, pitted and cut into 1/4″ pieces
1 small red onion, chopped fine
1/2 – 1 serrano chile, minced
juice from 1/2 lime
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
pinch of sugar

Directions:

Combine all ingredients. Mix. Serve with the chicken.

If you make it, I’d love to know! And if you have any questions at all about it, feel free to track me down and ask away!

Enjoy!

A picture perfect weekend

Recipe: Cheesy Stuffed Eggplant {AKA: We’re Having WHAT for Dinner?}

2 Replies

Since nearly every night directly after dinner for the last month or soAndy has been heading down to the rental for the renovations, dinners have had to be quick and easy. I feel like we’ve slumped into an all too easy food rut lately.

So, this weekend while planning this week’s dinners and making my grocery list, I started thumbing through some of the cookbooks I rarely use an came across this gem. I knew Andy had eaten (and liked) eggplant parmesan before but that he would be skeptical of this…so I opted NOT to tell him about it. When I started pulling ingredients out of the fridge he looked at everything and said “and WHAT exactly are we having for dinner?”

I got the original recipe from America’s Test Kitchen’s 30-Minute Suppers, Winter 2010 then made some of my own additions/adjustments. {I seriously love, LOVE ATK!}

Ingredients:
4 small eggplants, stem ends trimmed (small = about 6″ in length)
1 pound ground italian sausage
1 small onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbl tomato paste
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
3 Tbl chopped fresh basil
1 Cup shredded italian style cheese
1/4 Cup Parmesan cheese
Salt & Pepper
1 Tbl Olive oil
1/3 C Panko bread crumbs

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 475 degrees, adjusting your oven rack to the upper-middle position. Slice off the top third of each eggplant lengthwise and set aside. Scoop out the insides of each eggplant, leaving a 1/2-inch layer of flesh all the way around. Arrange the eggplants, cut side down, in a baking dish. cover with plastic wrap and microwave until eggplant is completely tender, 6 to 10 minutes (mine was 7 1/2 minutes), removing plastic halfway through. While the eggplant is in the microwave, chop up the remaining eggplant you had previously set aside. {Using all the chopped eggplant makes A LOT, so I would recommend only using 1/2 of it}

Cook the sausage until no longer pink. Add the onion and chopped eggplant and cook until soft…5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and tomato paste. Stir and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add tomatoes and cook until mixture is thickened, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in basil and most of the cheeses.

Spoon the mixture into your eggplant shells. In a separate bowl, combine Panko, olive oil and remaining cheese. Top stuffed eggplants with panko/cheese mix. Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown and heated through.

Enjoy!

The verdict: I thought it was really, really good! By the end of it though I found myself eating just the guts and leaving about 1/4 of the eggplant itself. Andy? Well, he like the guts but was not a fan of the eggplant. He said the flavor was good, but it was a texture thing for him. So he literally just ate the stuffing part.

The original recipe was meant to be vegetarian and I’m sure it would be great by following the recipe as well.

What We’ve Been Up To… v.2

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Well it happened again…I went to bed last Wednesday night and I woke up almost a week later.

Ok, maybe that’s not exactly how it happened but holy moly did this last week/weekend fly by.

So here we go…our last week via iPhone photo dump with a little bit of words.

Our new renters moved in over the weekend so that meant that Andy worked around the clock, literally, nearly all last week to finish up the renovations on the upstairs. He’s still not done with it (touch-up painting and flooring to go), but it was at least mostly move-inable. When I say around the clock I really mean it…one day/night/morning he was crawling into bed about 10 minutes before my alarm was set to go off. That man? He’s crazy. See also: hard working, dedicated, rock star, glutton for punishment

However…it has come a LONG way and it looks pretty awesome, if I do say so mahself.

A little peak at the stairway? stairwell? Whatever, the stairs.

My bed-mate and snuggle-mate while all the renovations have been taking place.

In related news: I really miss my husband. We all do.

I have been trying out some new recipes.

Did you know you get a deal when you have carpets cleaned in TWO houses!?

What my Friday nights now look like. See also: lame

My mom and younger brother & sister came out to help Andy one day. Ry & Keri made me a bouquet.

On Saturday since the new renters were moving in so Andy did work outside. Rylee was eager to help him. (that lasted about 10 minutes)

Rylee & I have been spending LOTS of Mama/Daughter time together so far this summer.

Ry wanted to play in “Daddy’s orange thing”. Oh Sweet Rylee…so does Daddy….

Yesterday at work we unloaded a 54 foot truck with approximately 20,000 units on it…in less than 2 hours. That? Oh that’s just a giant bruise on my leg. Proof of the hard work.

This?…this is what happens when you put on a pair of pants you haven’t worn in a long time after you’ve lost weight…they fall about 4 inches lower than normal and the top of your underwear hangs out. Thank goodness for long shirts, ammiright!?

Just a little cheese before leaving for work this morning. Gosh I love that kid.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Lasagna

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Since Andy has been working NONSTOP down at the rental to get it ready for our new tenants (T-minus 5 days, folks) I knew I needed to have really fast, really easy dinners this week. But I also didn’t want them to all be hotdogs.

My slow-cooker and I kind of have a hate-hate relationship. I’m convinced it actually cooks on sterroids because anytime I cook something on “low” heat it’s done if HALF the time the recipe says it will. HALF…that totally throws off the entire concept of a “turn it on before you leave to work then have dinner ready when you get home” slow cooker.

However, since Andy was going to be home with Rylee for the day, I thought this would be a pretty safe, non-hotdog recipe to try.

Although I will admit… I was very skeptical.

I found the recipe on my go-to easy recipe website, the trusty old Kraft Foods. Instead of my typing it all out or trying to mess with the formatting of copy & paste, you can find the recipe HERE.

I did alter a few things in the recipe…for example: I used a spicy italian sausage instead of ground beef, I used part skim ricotta cheese and I used fresh basil instead of parsley.

I was able to get most of this prepped the night before so that I could throw it together Monday morning and put it back in the fridge for Andy to turn on later that day. I had Andy put it in at 2 PM because according to the recipe it only takes 4 hrs to cook and I figured w/ my track record I’d better skim off an hour or so.

Here’s the quick run-down…

The goods…

About this time I’m thinking “Really? This is supposed to work?”

All assembled.

The after-math. Yes, it was so good that 2 of us ate almost half of it.

Judge away folks…

So there you have it! Easy. And it was ready when I got home from work…all I had to do was melt some more cheese on top.

And also? Please make a note that this is NOT mexican food!

Somewhere In The Middle

Mostly Average Accounts of the World's Okayest Mom.