More Cooking Goodness - Chicken Satay w/Peanut Sauce & a Green Bean & Cucumber Sweet Chili Sauce Salad

So, as most people know I'm a foodie...I love food especially when I can replicate dishes that are some of my faves. Today is one of those recipes. I LOVE Chicken Satay...and until today, I never realized how easy it was to make. So...I'm putting two recipes up today:

Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

Green Bean & Cucumber Salad with Sweet Chili Sauce




Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

Ingredients:

8 chicken breasts
1 onion roughly chopped
4 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1/4 tspn crushed red pepper seeds
1 tspn ground cumin
1/4 tspn salt
1 tblspn soy sauce
1/4 cup oil
1 tbspn soft brown sugar
cucumber slices

Peanut Sauce Ingredients:

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup water
2 tbspns sweet chili sauce
1 tbspn soy sauce
2 tspns lemon juice

Chicken:
1. Combine onions, garlic, red pepper seeds, cumin, salt, soy sauce, oil & brown sugar in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
2. In a bowl or plastic bag combine the marinade and chicken and let sit for 2 hours.
3. On a skillet or in a pan, heat the chicken thoroughly.
4. After the chicken is browned on both sides, remove from heat and cut into strips.
5. Any chicken that is still undercooked (inspect each strip for pink areas) should be returned to the skillet or pan to finish cooking.

Peanut Sauce:
1. Combine peanut butter, coconut milk, water, chili sauce, soy sauce and lemon juice in a pan.
2. Mix thoroughly and place over a low to medium heat.
3. Once the mixture begins to bubble, remove from heat and stir.
4. The sauce should begin to thicken as it cools.

Serve chicken with drizzles of the peanut sauce over it and with sauce on the side.

Green Bean & Cucumber Salad with Sweet Chili Sauce

Ingredients:
1 package of fresh green beans with the ends cut off
1 cucumber peeled and chopped
1/2 tspn of black pepper
1/4 tspn of salt
1/2 tspn of garlic
1 tbspn olive oil
1 tbspn sweet chili sauce

1. In a bowl combine the green beans, black pepper, salt, garlic and olive oil in a bowl and toss.
2. In a pan, heat the green beans until they become a bright green color and tender.
3. Remove from the stove and let cool in the fridge.
4. After chilling the green beans, add the cucumbers and sweet chili sauce. Add additional olive oil if needed. Toss & serve.

My Yummy Stuffed Shells Recipe

More awesome recipes from me! So today I decided to make a tray of Stuffed Shells! Total time to prepare (prep & cook) 1 1/2 hours.







Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 package of ground beef
1 package of fresh asparagus
1 package of fresh mushrooms
1 red onion
1 box of jumbo shell pasta
1 container of ricotta cheese
2 packages of shredded mozzarella
fresh mozzarella (optional)
1/4 tspn basil
1/4 tspn oregano
1/4 tspn salt
1/4 tspn pepper
1/4 tspn garlic powder (or 2 fresh cloves of garlic)
1/4 tspn Goya Adobo
1 package Goya "Beef Bullion"
2 jars of Tomato Basil sauce (from Ragu)
Olive Oil

This recipe is done in three stages...listed  below:

*The Veggies:
1. Cut up the onions and mushrooms and store in a separate container.
2. Rinse the asparagus and trim the ends. Combine with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic and saute over medium heat until asparagus is tender.  (The salt, pepper and garlic powder used in this step is just to taste - not in reference to the 1/4 tspn sizes listed in the ingredients list)
3. Cut the asparagus into small pieces and store with the onions and mushrooms.

The Beef & Pasta:
1. Combine all of the 1/4 tspn ingredients and beef bullion with the raw ground beef and mix thoroughly. Brown in a skillet until the juices run clear.
2. While the beef is browning, heat the shells  and cook until al dente. (if you cook the shells too long, they'll be too soft to handle in the next step & might even fall apart - which will really suck! ^_^)
3. Once the shells are soft (yet still firm), remove from heat and drain. Let them sit under cool running water to keep the shells from sticking & to cool them down so you can handle them in the next step.

Stuffing the Shells!:
1. In a big bowl combine the veggies, cooked beef, the entire tub of ricotta cheese and half a bag of the shredded mozarella. Mix thoroughly.While you're at this step, preheat your oven to 425F.
2. In a 12x9 pan, spread a base of the tomato sauce to completely cover the bottom of the pan.
3. Begin stuffing a tablespoon of mixture into each shell and place on top of the tomato sauce in the pan.
4. Once all of the shells are stuffed, (note! I used an entire box of shells, and only ended up not using 5 of them) put another layer of tomato sauce to completely cover the shells. If you like your pasta extra saucy, feel free to add as much sauce as you please. I bought 2 jars to be safe and ended up using 1 1/2 jars of sauce.
**The shells can be visible, but none of them should look dry like no sauce has touched them.**
5. Take the remaining shredded cheese from the first package and sprinkle a layer over the shells. Again, if you like a lot of cheese, feel free to use the 2nd package.
6. If you opted to also use fresh mozzarella, place pieces of mozzarella at random over the top of the shells. You don't need a lot - unless you're really going for a super cheesy experience!
**if you used a disposable pan like I did, make sure you place the pan on a cookie sheet to give it support**
7. Place the pan of stuffed shells in the oven and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 10 minutes. 5 shells should be a good serving amount! Serve with garlic bread and a little parmesan cheese...enjoy!

A Weekend Spent Cooking!

So, if you don't know by now, I'm a huge fan of cooking. I love to cook, but of course, only when people are around for me to cook for them. So, this weekend, I did an appetizer, and an awesome pasta dish. Just a quick note...I don't typically measure, so if some of these recipes don't have exact measurements, now u know why!:

The Appetizer - Guacamole:

Ingredients:
2 ripe avocados
4 cherry tomatoes
three small sweet chili peppers
1/8 sweet bermuda red onion
Adobo
salt
pepper
crushed red pepper seeds
lime juice

To make:

1. Dice tomatoes, peppers and onion into very small pieces. Combine.
2. Slice avocados into workable pieces in a large bowl (There's no special way to cut the avocados so don't go crazy trying to peel them! My method is to cut them in half, and use a knife to separate the flesh from the skin. Slice the avocado into pieces and put in the bowl).
3. Mash the avocado into a paste like consistency - it's your choice how chunky you want the guacamole to be.
4. Mix the veggies into the mashed avocado paste.
5. Add salt, pepper, crushed pepper and Adobo to taste. Mix.
6. Add a splash of lime juice (or lemon juice) to the guacamole to keep it from turning brown!


The Pasta Dish - Fusilli with Spinach and Mozzarella Cheese
*This is a remix of a recipe I saw on Giada's "Everyday Italian" show!! Her's just had spinach, tomatoes, asiago cheese and the fusilli.

Ingredients:
1 box fusilli pasta
cherry tomatoes
spinach (either fresh or frozen)
broccoli (fresh or frozen)
garlic (fresh)
olive oil
fresh mozzarella (or packaged, but not the shredded kind!)
shrimp (fresh or pre-cooked frozen)
basil
oregano
salt
pepper

**If you're using frozen shrimp, defrost the amount you want to cook by letting it sit in cool (not hot!) water for at least 5 minutes. Depending on how long the shrimp has been frozen, you might need to let the shrimp sit for longer than 5 minutes.)

**If you're using frozen broccoli or spinach, you need to defrost it before you start cooking with it!

1. Create a marinade for the shrimp by combining salt, pepper, oregano and basil in a zip plastic bag along with the shrimp and olive oil. Shake/mix so that the shrimp are evenly coated. Let sit.

2. Chop the broccoli, spinach (if using fresh spinach), tomatoes, and garlic. Combine in a skillet pan with olive oil. Add salt, pepper, basil, and oregano and sautee on medium heat.

3. At the same time, heat water for the pasta. (some people choose to salt the water, I don't but this is up to you)

4. Once your spinach begins to wilt, add the marinated shrimp to the pan and continue sauteing.

5. Around the same time that you begin cooking the shrimp your water should be hot enough to begin cooking the pasta...the level of cooking is up to you (al dente or fully cooked - I like mine al dente!)

6. Once the shrimp is done (pre-cooked shrimp should be ready to go in 5 - 10 minutes max!) begin adding pieces of mozzarella to the pan and reduce heat so you don't overcook the shrimp.

7. Once your pasta is cooked, drain it and then return it to the pot. Combine the sauteed shrimp and veggies from the skillet and mix thoroughly. Add additional salt,pepper and/or olive oil to taste.


Enjoy!