From nothing...to local!

WOW! We have been horrible at keeping our new year's resolution to blog weekly! It appears that we aren't motivated to do school work or blog :( We have, however, still been cooking! Most of these we can't find the recipes for or we didn't use recipes, but they are pretty simple but really tasty!

Steak & Bell Pepper Nachos
Mushroom & Ground Chicken Sauce over Grits

Pork Tenderloin with Avocado, Black Bean & Cilantro Salad
Spinach & Shrimp Pasta
Thai Curry Veggie & Tofu Soup

Asparagus & Chicken Stir-fry over Ramen Noodles

Some really fun things have also been happening around here. My Aunt Annie is trying to start a food business and we're trying to help her on the internet/marketing end of it. She would cook meals for families and then freeze them. She is going to use local produce and wants to target busy families who care about their nutrition. We'll let you know once we get it up and running!

Also, I (lissa) am starting a 7-day cleanse next weekend with Katie at Rooted Wellbeing. My mom is also going to be doing it with me and I can't wait to get started! I'm sure it will influence how Jeff and I cook from now on.

Lastly, our CSA with City Roots starts this Wednesday! We're really excited to start incorporating anything we get in our weekly boxes into our meals. It will be really fun to cook with whatever we happen to get. Maybe that will motivate us to start posting weekly! We'll see how it goes :)

Cookin' it old school.

Every once in a while Lissa and I "scrounge" for dinner. That is to say, we use the leftover ingredients of previous meals to make new ones. Sometimes it's fun. Sometimes it sucks. Sometimes we make food that far exceeds our expectations. This was one of those times.

We started by cutting up a few chicken breasts and sauteing them in sesame oil. Then we cut up what veggies we had in the fridge (cucumber, red & green pepper) and put them over some romaine we had laying around. We topped the greens with unflavored Ramen, some wonton strips, the aforementioned chicken and then balsamic vinaigrette and sesame seeds. It was awesome. Next time you find yourself having those exact ingredients, I highly recommend it.

Roasted Vegetable Risotto

So it's been 2 weeks..but that's better than 2 months!

We tried this because of the allure of a "one pot" label. Warning: This recipe takes a few pots than 1.

This was our first risotto and we definitely learned our lesson that risottos are time-consuming and relatively difficult to make. If you are willing to put the effort into this recipe, it has a great taste! We added bacon but you could add about anything you have in your fridge.

Men's Health
1 cup 1/2" cubes peeled, seeded butternut squash
1 cup diced cremini mushrooms
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
4 garlic cloves (2 crushed, 2 minced)
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
3 Tbsp butter
1 white onion, finely chopped
2 cups arborio rice (a short-grain variety)
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

How to make it:
1 Preheat the oven to 350°F. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, toss the squash, mushrooms, tomatoes, and crushed garlic with 1/4 cup of olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bake until golden, 5 to 10 minutes.

2 In a large saucepan, bring the broth to a simmer. Meanwhile, in a 4-to 6-quart pot, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the butter on medium. Add the onion and minced garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until the onion softens, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

3 Add a ladleful of broth to the rice and stir with a wooden spoon until absorbed. Add more broth, a ladleful at a time, making sure it's absorbed before adding the next ladleful. Cook the risotto until the rice is al dente, about 15 minutes.

4 Remove from the heat, stir in the vegetables, Parmesan, and basil. Adjust the seasoning and top with more Parmesan.

Wow, it's been a while.

So... maybe once school starts our lives become not our own. This would help explain our severe lack of posts. Teaching, coaching and other basic duties and chores leech our life away like the little time-sucking vampires they are.

That being said, we've come up with a belated new-years resolution as it pertains to cooking and blogging;

1. Use all of our various cooking apparatuses at least once a month and

2. blog at least once a week.

Time will tell how well we stick by our resolution, or how quickly we let it fall by the wayside as most resolutions tend to go.

Something new with Pork!

We don't do pork very often and when we do, we usually do it this way because it's so freaking good. And easy.

Anyway.

Here's what we did. Notice how the picture looks a little different? Yeah... that's because we took some stuff out and had to substitute fettuccine for udon noodles - we can't find them anywhere down here! Nevertheless, it was pretty tasty and simple, a theme in our kitchen :)

Enjoy!

Shrimpin' ain't easy.

Bad title, I know.

Anyway, it's shrimpin' season in SC and that means we can get it pretty darn cheap at the farmers market. Couple that with the bounty that fall produces down here and we have had some incredibly fresh meals. Here's our base recipe from the pic above. We deviated a little bit and added a small salad and fresh-baked bread to cool it off.

Fiesta Pork with Cheesy Polenta

This has become one of our favorite recipes for a few reasons: it's quick, simple and tasty! I think it's a wash on "health" due to the cheese and cream. Oh well.

This is more of an assembly meal than a cooking meal, which is nice on nights when you don't have a ton of time to cook. It's basically a bunch of stuff we normally have around the house or in the pantry, with the exception being pork. However, if you watch pork prices grab some when it's on sale next and freeze it til you need it. That's what we typically do.

At any rate, here's the recipe. We add a small can of black beans (be sure to drain!) to give it a little more volume and nutrition.