This is such a treat. Extremely quick and simple, yet so satisfying. You will never expect how magical these cookies are.
Ingredients:
1 cup of peanut butter, smooth or crunchy
1 egg
3/4 cup of white sugar
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 350F. Mix all 3 ingredients together until smooth using a spoon. Drop about 1 TBSP of dough on a dry cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Leave enough space in between.
Optional: You can press the cookies down with the back of a fork to create the criss-cross pattern of a classic peanut butter cookie. Or, who cares how they look, they won’t last long sitting on a plate 😛
Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, slightly cook and enjoy these beauties warm with a cup of a coffee or warm milk!
I made ground beef tacos for dinner, aiming at getting vegetables in my kids. What? Yes, you read it right, vegetables, and here is how I did it.
Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef, the leaner version is better
1 yellow onion, medium size, diced
4 cloves of garlic, peeled, roughly chopped
2 carrots, peeled
1 yellow squash
1 ripe avocado
1 handful of fresh cilantro leaves
1 package of home style tortillas, flour, corn or wheat of your choice, or try make your own
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 lime
Method:
Heat up a dry nonstick pan over medium high heat, brown ground beef for about 8 minutes, break up the meat chunks thoroughly.
Add garlic and diced onion into the pan, cook for another 2 to 3 minutes until onions are softened. Grate carrots and squash directly into the pan over the meat mixture. Stir around, mix well and the grated carrots and squash would disappear into the brown goodness.
Add all seasoning into the pan and mix well. Taste for salt level, add more if desired.
Warm up tortillas as desired. Spoon some meat mixture into the center of the tortilla, squeeze lime juice, top with fresh cilantro and avocado and enjoy! Kids love these and they have no idea they are eating a healthy serving of various vegetables!
This is a twist of classic Chinese Fried Egg and Tomato soup. I swapped out tomatoes not only because I used my last 2 Roma tomatoes in my Bison Picadillo dish, but also I wanted to get some leafy green into my kids. This soup is so easy and tasty, it is a perfect dish to seal an amazing dinner.
Ingredients:
4 large eggs
green leaves of a bundle of radish
1 tsp salt
1 chicken bullion
Method:
In a soup pot, yes, a soup pot, heat up 1 tsp of vegetable oil on medium high heat. Beat the eggs in a bowl lightly and pour into the soup pot. The eggs will immediately start to sizzle. Don’t rush, let the eggs fry a bit on it’s own to form almost an egg pancake at the bottom, for about 20 seconds.
Use a wooden spoon, roughly break up the eggs, push the eggs around and form bite size pieces. It’s important not to scramble the eggs, otherwise you won’t be able to have large egg pieces later on in the soup.
Once eggs are all set, add about 4 cups of water, drop in the bullion cube and let it completely dissolve. Bring the water to a boil. Immediately kill the heat and drop in the radish tops.
Push the radish tops into the soup and let the residua heat cook the leaves until they are wilted. Serve immediately or cooled.
All I had to say was WOW. This dish was way better than I expected. Frankly I did not expect both of my kids tear up this dish over rice. Give it a try, it is quick and easy enough for a week night dinner. And yes, I had jalapeno, onions and tomatoes in this dish normally kids would shy away from.
Ingredients:
1 package of ground bison meat
1 large russet potato
1 jalopeno
2 Roma tomatoes
1 medium size yellow onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 beef bullion cubes
Method:
In a large nonstick pan, brown bison meat over medium heat, break up any lumps with a wooden spoon, for about 8 minutes. Be patient. If the meat seems watery, the liquid will evaporate as the meat is browning. In the mean time, peel and mince the garlic, dice the yellow onion. Seed the jalapeno pepper and mince, dice the tomatoes, peel and dice the potato.
Add garlic and onions into the browned meat, cook for about 3 minutes until garlic and onions are softened. Add diced potato and jalapeno pepper. Add about 2 cups of water and beef bullion cubes. Lid on and let the potatoes cook through, about 5 minutes. Ensure the water is not fully evaporated during the 5 minutes. Add more water as needed to ensure the potatoes are cooked through and tender. Add tomatoes and cook for another 2 minutes. Add all seasonings and stir thoroughly to combine and let the flavor develop.
Serve over rice, inside of a home made tortilla, inside of a savory version naan bread, or simply spoon from the pot, anyone would love this dish!
This one was amazingly good! I had to say, it surprised me too. Try it on a hot summer day, you get fruits into your kids, and they are super happy thinking they just got treats. And the bonus? There are literally only 3 ingredients!
Without further due, let’s dive into the details:
Ingredients:
2 cups of cubed seedless watermelon, chilled or frozen
1 cup of cubed cantaloupe, chilled or frozen
1 lime
Method:
Dump watermelon and cantaloupe into a blender, zest the lime and squeeze the juice into the blender. Blend until no more chunks of melons are visible.
In a pinch of time and really sad fridge collection on a weekday night, I whipped this baby up for dinner. Man, I gotta tell ya, this is one amazing salad that you will feel GREAT eating it. Also, this recipe is so versatile, use whatever you have in the pantry, the end result is still going to be super delish!
Ingredients:
1 can of black beans
1 can of chick peas
1 can of corn kernels
1 tomato
1/2 bundle of fresh cilantro
1 small onion, red preferred, but I only had a white, so that would do
1 avocado
about 2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp ground cumin
1 lime
1/2 tsp smoked paprika, or any sort of chili powder for a tiny bit of heat
Method:
Open canned beans, rinse under running water on a strainer to remove any excess starch. Drain well and put into a large bowl. Drain corn and put into the same bowl.
Cut up tomatoes, onions, avocado and any other vegetables you have or prefer into small pieces and put into the bowl with beans.
Finely chop cilantro and put into the same bowl. Zest the lime into the bowl too, only the green outer skin, not the white part, that will make the salad taste slightly bitter.
Drizzle olive oil, add salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder, squeeze the fresh lime juice directly into the bowl, mix well. The cilantro, lime juice and cumin will give that unmistakable Mexican flare of the salad.
Optional, you can always add grilled chicken, shrimp, salmon, steak, whatever you like to make it more filling and satisfying.
I know this post will have selected audience. But I am Asian, we eat everything. I know some may share the same appreciation of everything nature has to offer. If you are interested, keep reading. This is actually one amazingly good appetizer.
Ingredients:
1 package of pig’s feet, cut up into chunks.
about 1 TBSP pepper corn, divided, mixed color if you got those, if not, black pepper corn is fine
4 bay leaves
Pickled jalapenos with juice, about 2 TBSP jalapeno slices, and 1 cup juice
3 to 4 slices of fresh ginger
1 cup white vinegar
4 TBSP salt
Method:
Thoroughly clean and pluck hair off pig’s feet. Or, alternatively, burn them off on open flame of your stove with a pair of metal tongs, or using BBQ skewers. Last thing you want is tasty pickled pig’s feet with loads of hair on them, especially between the toes.
After thorough cleaning, put pig’s feet into a medium pot, cover with cold water. Put in 2 bay leaves and all ginger slices and a handful of pepper corns. Bring the water to a gentle boil for about 5 minutes, lid off. The pig’s feet will release all the gunk and foam. Drain the pig’s feet in a colander, save the pepper corn, ginger slices and bay leaves in the colander. Rinse the pig’s feet pieces under running water. Rinse pot and bring another pot of water to a boil. Put in the pig’s feet along with the aromatics into the boiling water. Lid on, lower the heat to medium low after it’s boiling and let it go for about 2 hours to fully cook and tenderize the pig’s feet.
In the mean time, prepare the pickling liquid. In a large jar or container, mix about 4 cups of water, white vinegar, jalapeno juice, jalapeno slices, remaining bay leaves, salt and pepper corns. Mix well to dissolve salt.
Once pig’s feet are done and tender, but still has a bite, rinse off the pig’s feet pieces and let them cool completely. Put pig’s feet into the jar or container and mix well. Refrigerate for about 2 days before serving them as a cold appetizer. They are actually VERY tasty!
Tips: you can always add some vegetables into the pickling juice, such as sliced carrots and onions, even celery.
Another recipe for the same classic dish. This one was done in the oven, so mainly hands-free cooking of a delicious fall-off-the-bone crowd-pleaser, what’s not to love? All you need is a large oven proof pan and lid.
Ingredients:
Chicken drum sticks, I made a huge batch, a whole family pack, 11 drumsticks in that pack
1 bundle of thyme, I had some nice wilted ones in my flower pot, yep, I haven’t been keeping up with the watering…
1 bundle of Thai basil, not traditional ingredient for this dish but adds a nice mild earthy flavor
A ton of garlic cloves. I honestly did not remember how many cloves I peeled, probably 5 heads worth. I was watching cooking channel and peeling garlic, gotta say, it was kinda therapeutic.
Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
Liberally salt and pepper the drumsticks on one side. Oven pre-heating at 400F.
Large oven safe pan with a thin layer of oil on medium high heat.
Carefully put drumsticks into the pan, seasoned side down, and liberally season the other side.
Brown all sides of the drumsticks, take your time, be patient. This golden brown color will carry over to the final cooked drumsticks. Brown them in batches if needed to.
Sprinkle all the garlic cloves, thyme bundle and Thai basil all over the top of the chicken drumsticks.
Drizzle the top of the whole dish with a couple rounds of olive oil. Cover with an oven proof lid.
Bake at 400F for about 20 minutes and lower heat to 350F. Bake for another 40 minutes.
You won’t believe how tender these drumsticks turn out, and how sweet and soft the garlic cloves would be. Enjoy as an appetizer, or over some simple cilantro lime rice and asparagus and bell pepper stir-fry…
Another winner y’all, simple and super tasty. Very kid friendly, my little munchkins loved it. Serve it with some steamed rice and vegetables, quick, simple, healthy and tasty weeknight dinner easily achieved!
Yes, I know, it looked different, sliced cucumbers weren’t my first choice, I had to admit. I wanted thinly sliced green onions on top, but of course, life happens, I didn’t have any green onions on hand, so cute little Persian cucumber slices did the job.
Ingredients:
8 chicken pieces, I used 4 drumsticks and 4 thighs, you can use wings or even breast if you prefer, but please choose the skin on bone in option. The skin is the star of this dish.
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1/4 cup oyster sauce
2 TBSP dark soysauce
2 TBSP honey, no need to measure, just eyeball the amount, really doesn’t matter for this large amount of meat
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp of ground black pepper
1 green onion thinly sliced for garnish at the very end
Method:
Mix all ingredients together except for the green onions in a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave in fridge to marinate over night, or 4 hours before baking. This allows the flavor to penetrate the meat.
Pre-heat the oven to 400F. Line a baking dish with foil, for easy clean up, since the marinate has honey, it will burn in the oven. Put a rack on top of the foil. Line the chicken on the rack, skin side up for the thighs, and bake for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, pour the rest of the marinate into a small sauce pan and reduce on the stove for a couple of minutes to thicken.
After 10 minutes, remove chicken from the oven, reduce to 350F. Brush chicken pieces with reduced sauce to glaze. The color of the chicken pieces are amazing at this point and you could already smell dinner.
Chicken pieces go back into the oven for another 25 minutes to bake all the way through. Remove chicken from oven, dish up and garnish with green onion slices, enjoy with some rice and vegetables, what can I say, winner winner, chicken dinner!
This sauce really isn’t called my hometown sauce. But my hometown is famous for hotpot, and this sauce typically is made for hotpots. I made this sauce one time when we ate at a hotpot restaurant, and it was requested to be some sort of dipping sauce. What else is a better option than some poached chicken breast to showcase this amazing sauce? So I made the sauce and called the dish Hometown Chicken.
Ingredients:
10 cloves of garlic, minced
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 bundle of cilantro, stems and leaves chopped
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1/8 cup black vinegar – I know this sounds weird, but trust me on this
1/2 cup toasted sesame oil – no, it is not a typo.
1/4 tsp salt – optional
Method:
Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl, that is it! Taste the sauce for seasoning, if you like it saltier, add the salt at the very end, but normally the oyster sauce is salty enough for most people.
I know you are thinking that’s too much sesame oil and every single chef under the sun had said it is very potent, a drop or two goes a long way. This is true, but in this sauce, the sesame oil is the carrier of all strong flavors, the garlic, cilantro, green onions, you will be amazed when you actually taste the sauce, the garlic loses the pungent smell and slightly spicy taste, and becomes pleasantly fragrant.
Give it a try, you may want this sauce on more of the simply steamed meats and vegetables from now on.
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I am an American Chinese, mother of 3 wonderful children, senior engineer, but passionate about cooking, arts and crafts, travel, gardening, sewing…
I value honesty, sincerity, simple happiness in family and friendship. Life has its surprises all the time, the only thing we could do, is to keep a positive attitude, welcome every spin with a smile and make the best out of any situation.
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