School's Out!

Ancho Chili Shrimp or Chicken Street Tacos

In all the cooking I did last week, this was the best. It was so yummy! The idea came from Cooking Light but I had to make a number of changes. Ron doesn't eat shrimp and I don't eat chicken (it's real fun at mealtime in our house).

Ancho Chili Shrimp or Chicken Street Tacos

Ingredients:

chicken tenderloins, cut into bite sized pieces
shrimp, (I used frozen which I defrosted under cool water for a few minutes and took off their shells/tails)
chile powder, preferably ancho but any will do
garlic powder
salt
ground cumin
olive oil
grated lime rind
fresh lime juice
chipotle mayo
sliced avocado or guacamole
packaged angel hair slaw
sliced green onions
chopped fresh cilantro
corn tortillas

Preparation
1. Heat a large skillet over high heat. Sprinkle chicken or shrimp evenly with chile powder, garlic powder, salt, and cumin. Add about 1 tbl of olive oil to skillet. Add chicken to pan; cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently. Remove chicken from pan and squeeze lime juice over top. Same with shrimp. I don't recommend combining the chicken and shrimp.
2. Heat tortillas according to directions. I put them in a hot dry skillet for a minute or so and flipped them until they were golden. Remove from pan.
3. Spread a small amount (less than a tablespoon?) of chipotle mayo on the hot tortilla, add some chicken or shrimp, sprinkle with lime zest, slaw, green onions and cilantro. Add a dollop of guac or fresh avocado. ENJOY. and I mean that. ENJOY!

Pasta with Roasted Asparagus, Roasted Tomatoes, Arugula and Goat Cheese

This was recipe #3 in my effort to cook 4 recipes from Cooking Light magazine (May 2011). Sometimes I get the magazines but never get around to making anything from them and this was a good challenge to myself to keep up the cooking this week. This recipe was dynamite. I followed it exactly, except I substituted orchiette pasta cause that's what I had. I also followed my own personal cooking motto, which is "more more more" and more or less doubled the recipe. I always use as much as I have when it comes to vegetables so I used a HUGE bunch of asparagus and a HUGE bunch of cherry tomatoes and pretty much doubled the vinaigrette. Again, it's kinda sorta a pasta salad but I served it warm and that counts as dinner. The arugula, goat cheese and olives were just the right accompaniment.

Pasta with Roasted Asparagus, Roasted Tomatoes, Arugula and Goat Cheese

Ron didn't think it would be good reheated the next day so he left it at home instead of taking it to work. His loss because it was awesome. The arugula heated up like it was spinach and it was just divine!

Pistachio Chai Muffins with Vanilla Sugar Glaze

Holy Crap these are delicious! And I don't even LIKE muffins! This is my fourth recipe from Cooking Light (May 2011) this week-- so I reached my goal (even though this one isn't a meal I'm counting it). I made two intentional adjustments to the recipe (made mini muffins instead of regular sized so the baking time was about 10 minutes instead of 15, and I only put pistachios on half the muffins because my kids are dumb and think they don't like nuts). Unintentionally, the kids were a bit heavy handed with the vanilla in the recipe and my brown sugar was a little hard so it wasn't disributed as evenly as it could have been. And yet still, these are out of this world. Try them!

Pasta with pistachios, green beans and lemon thyme vinaigrette

I'm trying to make an entire week's worth of meals (about 4 dinners) from my Cooking Light Magazine. I'm not even sure if it's the most current issue - it's just the one that's been in my bathroom for the last week. Two nights ago I made their Gemelli pasta with pistachios, haricot verts and lemon thyme vinaigrette.

http://m.myrecipes.com/details/searchR.rbml?id=50400000111785.xml&bcat=search&cat=Search%20Result

It's supposed to be a pasta salad but I served it warm so that makes it dinner. I made it with a mix of half boxes of pastas that I had lying around (if the cooking time is the same, you can safely mix different shapes). And I used plain old regular green beans instead of haricot verts, of course. I actually cooked them separately in boiling water because I didn't have enough room in the pasta pot. Since when do I need a pound and a half of pasta for my entire family!?! I boiled them for 8 minutes, drained them and ran them under cold water to keep them looking bright green.

Other than that I followed the recipe exactly. The only change I would suggest is to add the lemon juice from the lemon (you're suppose to just use the zest) to the dish - either to the vinaigrette or just over the entire thing. It was a great dish for our first dinner outside on the porch!

Last night I made ancho chili street tacos, adapted from another Cooking Light recipe. They were out of this world! And super easy! Hopefully I can post that later.