Garlic Butter Shrimp!

This recipe was the first recipe I ever Pinned on Pinterest back in the day!  It's actually called a butter, Italian shrimp, but I add the garlic to it!  It's SUPER easy and really tasty!  The whole thing takes only about 20 minutes!  Melt a stick and a half of butter in the oven on the tray you're going to cook the shrimp in.  Thinly slice some lemons and lay them over the melted butter.  Layer the shrimp over the lemon slices and add italian seasoning and some salt and pepper.....and that's it!  15 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees and you're done!  I like to add some fresh, chopped garlic to the melting butter in the oven to give it a little kick.  I also steamed some sugar snap peas on the side and made some white rice.  Easy Peasy!

Here's how it turned out:

My 2 year old's dinner - everything just chopped up over rice :)

Steak Roll Ups!

I keep seeing a post on my Facebook feed about how to make Steak Roll Ups and decided to give it a try!  It was actually SOOOOOOO easy and I will definitely be making them again!  I bought a package of thin steaks and had a bunch of veggies in the fridge and decided to make it.  I marinated my steaks in that great Trader Joe's Soyaki Sauce I always talk about and then cut all of my veggies into thin strips.  I used green and yellow zuccini, onion, cabbage, and carrots.  Again, this is just what I had in my fridge, so that's what I used!  I sprinkled some onion and garlic powder over my veggies and then rolled a few of each into the steak with a sprig of cilantro and some sticks of chive.  I then used a couple of toothpicks to keep it together and seared the steaks on my cast iron skillet.  After they were seared on each side, I placed them in a glass dish that had my favorite BBQ sauce (Diane's from Canada) in the bottom and then put a little on top of each of my roll ups and popped it in the oven on 300 for 10 minutes.  I placed it under the broiler for another 5 minutes and that was it!

Another one of my favorite kitchen things is my steamer!  I bought the one I have about 15 years ago at a garage sale and absolutely love it!  It has multiple layers for steaming and a rice dish so that you can cook multiple things at the same time!  I steamed some basmati rice while I was making the roll ups and served them both for lunch!  SOOOOO yummy!

Here are some pics of the process:

Finished product!

This is how my 2 year old ate it! I just cut it up into pieces and mixed it into the rice.

Searing the meat

On the cast iron grill

Meat rolled up with veggies

All the veggies I put inside

Rice and Peas

Every Sunday in my home is "cooking day" as I like to call it...lol.  My husband grew up in a household that had a hearty, home cooked meal EVERY Sunday and so we continue that tradition in our home today.  I, on the other hand, have no recollection of a specific day where food was cooked and we all sat down for a proper meal.  I feel like when the food ran out, my mom cooked another meal and that was it.  Because I grew up that way, that's how I cooked too!  I always just made a meal regardless of the day of the week, but that all changed when I met my husband!  It has been a joking (and not so joking) point of contention in our marriage because I never saw the point of "MUST cook on a Sunday", but because it matters so much to him, I've tried to continue the tradition.  All that being said, my husband has started taking my 2 year old to swimming lessons every Sunday morning which now gives me some time to be alone with baby and to actually cook a thought out meal :)  This Sunday, I went traditional caribbean for him and made some rice and peas, callilou, roasted yam, and chicken wings.  I got lots of compliments on how the meal turned out in such a short amount of time!

Here's how everything turned out:

Baked chicken wings with my secret BBQ sauce (Diane's BBQ sauce brought in from Canada) 

Oven roasted yam

Rice and Red Kidney beans "Rice and Peas"

Callalou - in the same family as Spinach, brought up straight from Grenada and made with Denielle's mom's recipe :) It's a mix of okra, onions, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, pumpkin, coconut milk, and I put a small piece of salt fish in it for body. After boiling it all down, I put it in the food processor for a few seconds to make it into more of a soup.

This is what my 2 year old had for dinner.  I just mixed the Callalou up with the rice and peas for her.

Here's the recipe I use from the book below.  If you like Caribbean food and don't have this cookbook, you MUST get it. 

My friend Celine got this cook book for me from Trinidad and I use it ALL the time!

Mmmmmmm Salmon!

Every now and then, we run out of our bulk supplies and have to make a Costco run.  We did so earlier this week and were very pleasantly surprised to find that they were carrying wild caught salmon!  My husband refuses to buy anything that was farm raised (for health reasons and because we've seen way too many documentaries...) and so we were happy to find a wild caught salmon fillet!  I made a SUPER simple meal that turned out great!  Made some plain, white rice, steamed a bunch of veggies, and marinated the salmon in that great Soyaki sauce we get from Trader Joe's (I've mentioned this sauce in several posts!!!!).

Here's how it turned out:

My plate of food!  I also love to put a little sweet chili sauce (found in the Asian section of the grocery store) to the top of my plain rice! 

For anyone wondering about how I feed my 2 year old, here are her portions.  The larger plate is what she had for dinner and I always just pack her a lunch for the next day whenever I cook.  The smaller container has her lunch for the next day.  I just have to heat it up and give it to her.  Makes my life easier!

Salmon straight out of the oven.  I cut up some chives and rosemary from the garden and sliced some lemons to put over it before putting it in the oven.

Simple steamed veggies tossed in some butter, salt, and pepper.

Pelau!!!!

If you're looking for a VERY tasty one-pot wonder, then you should try to make Pelau!  This authentic Caribbean rice dish is made lots of different ways throughout the Caribbean, but this is the method that I've adopted for our family and it's one of our favorites!

I like to use my deep dish Calphalon pan to make my Pelau in.  Nothing sticks to it and it's the perfect size for us to have dinner and leftovers in for the next day!  If you've never "browned" chicken, then you should definitely look up how to do it (burning brown sugar in some vegetable oil and then throwing the chicken in over it to get that deep "brown" coloring) or you can even buy "browning" in a jar at a local West Indian shop!  Even Publix here in Jacksonville now has an "International Foods" aisle that has West Indian products in it.  After browning my chicken (drummettes that were previously seasoned with homemade green seasoning and frozen), I throw in chopped onion and garlic, a couple sprigs of thyme and some green onions from my garden, and a whole can of pigeon peas.  I then add a ton of rice over it and mix it all together to get everything nice and brown for a few minutes.  Then I add half a tin of coconut milk, some chicken broth, and some boiled water, salt, and pepper and turn the stove down to slow cook the rice!  I also add about half a bag of frozen mixed vegetables to the mix!  This pot is the BEST when you add some pepper sauce to it directly, but since I always feed my two year old out of what we eat, we've started putting the pepper sauce over our own plates of food instead.  This recipe is super quick and easy and FILLING for the whole family!

Here's how the Pelau turned out!!!!

Completed plat of Pelau with some tomatoes and cucumbers!

Browned chicken, rice, pigeon peas, and mixed vegetable before adding the liquid

Browned chicken and seasoning with the rice

"Browning" or burning of the brown sugar

Here are the products I use!  Gotta love GOYA!

Chopped onions, garlic, thyme, and green onions

I also made a fresh garden salad to go with the meal and some homemade vinaigrette!  I posted the recipe for the salad dressing in a previous post!  It's really good, you should try it!

Seafood paella!!!

Last night I decided I wanted to try out a new Pinterest recipe. I've made paella once or twice before using the first Pinterest recipe below and it turned out good! But my husband requested some mussels, so I found several Pinterest paella recipes and sort of combined them and did my own thing - and it turned out great!!!

It was super easy to make and took less than an hour from start to finish (actually eating). I also just used a cast iron dish that I already had and didn't have to use a special paella dish.

Here are the two main Pinterest recipes I used, combined, and added to:

http://www.themediterraneandish.com/easy-seafood-paella-recipe/
This is the recipe I used a few times already - it was super quick and easy!

http://www.halfbakedharvest.com/skillet-grilled-seafood-and-chorizo-paella/
I picked a few things from this recipe to add to the other one!

Some changes I made:

Now, I don't eat pork, so I took out the chorizo... but I did use the idea of pouring the lobster water over the rice. I also decided to add a little Adobo seasoning, garlic powder, and onion powder. I went to Trader Joe's a few days ago and got some fresh English green peas so I decided to use those instead of the green beans.  I added some chopped red pepper and used shadow benny instead of the parsley/cilantro because I just didn't have any. Shadow Benny is used in the Caribbean and is in the same family as parsley and cilantro. Shadow Benny has a bit of a stronger taste like cilantro does.
My husband went to the weekend flea/farmer's market on Beach Blvd. and found the Shadow Benny there (for those of you interested in finding some fresh Caribbean/Asian/Hispanic fruits and veggies!).



I also chose to quickly marinate my seafood before adding it to the paella with some salt, pepper, and old bay seasoning which didn't seem to be a part of either of the recipes above.

And that's it! It was fabulous and I strongly recommend making it as a quick family meal!  Also, as a side note, I try to make a point of making sure my 2 year old eats whatever it is I cook for the day and try my best not to make something different just for her.  She loved the paella and I just cut the shrimp into little pieces and put them over the rice for her!

Paella before adding the seafood to it

After arranging the seafood and gently pressing it into the rice.  Cover it and allow the seafood to steam until the shrimp turns pink.

This is what the Beach Blvd. Flea Market looks like!