Parmesan crusted pesto grilled cheese

After working in my garden all morning.  By all morning I mean about an hour.  I worked up quite the hunger.  I was feeling lazy and a sub sounded really delish but then I remembered it's grilled cheese month and I should really do something to celebrate.  So i did just that.  I looked at the jar of homemade pesto that was given to me by a friend and that's where this little ditty came from...

Not the most flattering photo but let's be honest... I really just wanted to eat it, not take it's picture

I grabbed two slices of bread and spread a thin layer of pesto on each of them.  Then I pre warmed my cheese in the microwave for like 15 seconds just to warm it up a little.  I sliced it rather thick and there is nothing worse than having the center of your grilled cheese not melted.  I warmed the pan and added a tiny bit of butter (yes I used butter.  We normally don't keep butter in the house because we eat far too much of it) then I threw in one of the slices of bread pesto side up, added the cheese(I used swiss because I love it.  I think mozzarella would be just as good if not better), put a thin layer of sliced tomatoes, and the other slice of bread pesto side down.  I cooked it like a normal grilled cheese until it was almost done and then sprinkled it on each side with a little shredded parmesan until it was brown and amazing looking.  This totally hit the spot and helped me forget about that sub I was longing for.

Buffalo shrimp wrap w/creamy ranch slaw

Okay... I am going to just go out there and say it.  I am extremely proud of myself for creating this meal, start to finish(that includes thinking of the idea and thawing the shrimp) in 15 minutes.  So delightful.  I am on a buffalo kick lately I just can't get enough buffalo sauce!  With next to nothing in my fridge and 20 minutes to cook dinner this idea just popped in my head.

I opened the fridge and saw the bag of broccoli slaw mix sitting there and I thought..."hmmm that would most likely be amazing if I added ranch to it"  So here is how it went down...

I grabbed a bag of shrimp out of the freezer (raw and unpeeled) then I dumped them in a bowl of cool water.  While those were hanging out I took about 3 tablespoons of mayo dusted it with ranch powder and added a touch of milk to thin it out and that was my dressing for the slaw.  I added a couple handfuls of the broc slaw (about a cup maybe) and mixed it up.  While that was getting all flavorful and delicious I peeled the shrimp.

this is the slaw getting all flavorful and delicious

  Then I melted a tablespoon of butter in a pan and added a generous amount of franks red hot sauce maybe about a quarter cup?  Once that was all bubbly and awesome looking I added the shrimp and cooked it about 5 minutes. This is what it looked like while cooking...

When the shrimp was done I heated a tortilla on a hot dry pan and then assembled the wrap.  First I sprinkled the tortilla with some shredded mozzarella(you could really use any cheese it was just what I had on hand), then put a little lettuce, a pile of shrimp, a little more cheese, and I topped it off with the slaw.  Then I folded it up and threw it in the pan a minute to warm the wrap and the rest is history!

Man it was good!!  Sometimes I am so easy to please.  This was so easy and tasted just right!

Black bean sweet potato burritos

Short and sweet today...
I used a few things I had left over from dinner last night to make some yummy healthy almost vegan burritos.
First I diced up a sweet potato and sauteed it in some olive oil.  When the sweet potato was tender I added some black beans just to warm them up.  Then I tossed the left over brown rice and chicken chunks in the microwave(which I don't normally do but I was lazy) just to warm it.  Then I threw it all in a whole wheat tortilla and browned it on a hot dry skillet!  Here is what it looked like.  I also served it with salsa.

They were good and super filling.  Dustin ate his with aged brick...I wouldn't recommend it, in fact I would recommend never eating aged brick if you don't have to.  It is so gross!  Happy day! :)

Rice Bowls on a plate

Well hello there.  Sorry it's been ages since I have written a blog but I have had the equivalent of writers block lately and have not been cooking.  I think it has left the building though, I am feeling motivated to create delicious things again :). 

Tonight I decided dinner had to be extremely healthy due to the extreme overload of food we consumed yesterday.  Seriously it was not necessary to eat enough to feed a small army but that didn't stop us!  So here is my weird healthy rendition of a rice bowl.

I started by poaching two chicken breasts in chicken broth with a little garlic seasoning and pepper.  Depending on what kind of rice you use and how long it takes to cook you may want to start the rice right away too.  I also cooked my rice in chicken broth.  I always cook rice in some sort of broth.  I like to insert flavor wherever I can. While the chicken was cooking I chopped up whatever random veggies I had in the fridge (pictured below).  It ended up being carrots, onion, red pepper, yellow pepper, and zucchini.  I also cut up a few cherry tomatoes and an avocado but kept those separate(didn't think they would taste very good stir fried).

Once the chicken was cooked, I diced it up and set it to the side.  Then I heated a pan rather hot and threw in a little olive oil.  I stir fryed the veggies for about 4 minutes.  Just until they were heated and starting to brown a little.  I still wanted them to be crunchy and delish.  Here is what they looked like.

Now for the assembly...
I stared with a bed of red leaf lettuce followed by brown rice, the stir fried veggie mixture, diced chicken, cherry tomatoes, and avocado to top it off.  Dustin ate his with western salad dressing but I just doused mine in lime juice.  I would have made cilantro lime rice but my cilantro is not quite big enough to use.  See...

Anyway back to dinner.  It was a perfect dinner to follow up a day of unnecessary eating!  This is what it looked like.  It wasn't pretty but it was so damn good!