Better Than Takeout

March 16, 2019 12:30 PM

Lately my meals have been inspired by random foods that are on sale at the grocery store. I decided to get some extra chicken breast (in case I needed a little more for that pizza), and it was on sale for $1.48/lb which I figured was a decent price. I also saw these 1lb bags of green beans for $1 each, and I impulse bought two of them.

I used two Woks of Life recipes. With the green beans, I decided to make Sichuan Dry Fried String Beans. I ordered this at a local Chinese restaurant once and they were delicious. They were also like $10, so when I saw that Woks of Life had a recipe for it, I had to try it.

Originally, I had intended to use both bag of green beans, but we ended up saving the second one for a different recipe. But that's why there's so much pork. I think I'll use a lot less pork next time, or even omit it completely.

We also made Thai Chicken Stir-fry with Basil and Mint. Except we didn't use mint. This had a very strong fish sauce smell, which is great, since I love fish sauce. I probably should have doubled the basil since I didn't use mint.

So delicious and way cheaper than takeout

BBQ Chicken Pizza

March 14, 2019 12:30 PM

So I was staring at my list of foods that I have in my kitchen wondering what I should cook. I had a chicken thigh and a half, some shredded cheese, and a lot of onions. I mean I can put onions in anything, but I really had a surplus of them so I wanted to feature them in a dish. They always taste good caramelized, but I only ever think of using caramelized onions in burgers and pierogies.

And then it hit me when I was walking home from work one day: BBQ chicken pizza. Barbecue chicken is my absolute favorite type of pizza. And I had everything I needed to make it.

At least I figured I did. I could have sworn one of my go to food blogs that I frequent had a BBQ chicken pizza recipe, but I couldn't find it in any of them. But hey! I don't need a recipe for pizza. You just put a bunch of stuff on pizza dough.

And since my sister is here, we made the dough from scratch. I still am not comfortable enough with dough so I probably would have bought pizza dough from Trader Joe's if I didn't have her help.

Our pizza toppings (before baking):

• Hickory Smoked BBQ Sauce
• Colby Jack and Monterey Jack Shredded Cheese
• Chicken Thigh and Chicken Breast
• Caramelized Onions

And then some green stuff (after baking):

• Cilantro
• Green Onions
• Avocado

More food that doesn't really go together

March 12, 2019 12:30 PM

So I mentioned in a previous post that Aldi had really thin asparagus. Normally I wouldn't buy any, but they were on sale for the past two weeks, so I went and looked for the bag with the thickest stalks (which were still really thin). I needed an asparagus recipe and I came across Crispy Parmesan Asparagus Sticks from How Sweet Eats.

It seemed like a great idea since I had both Parmesan and breadcrumbs, and the recipe actually called for super thin asparagus. But I started breading them, and I realized how much of a pain it is to bread asparagus. Way too much effort for a tiny asparagus stalk.

I also had some potatoes that looked like they were getting kind of sad and growing too many eyes, so I sliced them up and made these Roasted Potato Wedges with Shawarma Sauce from Budget Bytes. The sauce was way too salty so I think that should be cut in half. I would probably also just cut the whole sauce recipe in half because now I have a bunch of Shawarma sauce and I need to figure out what to do with it.

And I completely forgot to take pictures of this Unstuffed Bell Peppers rice dish that I made (also from Budget Bytes). It was a quick and easy dish. My sister did remember to take one photo of it, combined with the potatoes and asparagus.

Odds 'n Ends

March 11, 2019 12:30 PM

We just forget to take multiple pictures of the meals we make. Or I'm stuck by myself and have to take a picture with my phone.

Root Vegetable Hash Egg Skillet from Naturally Ella

I totally forgot about this in my last Odds 'n Ends post! I had a turnip and I had no idea how to use it, but I saw an egg hash recipe, and I love egg hash. We added bacon and crumbled feta cheese on top which added some extra flavor. All of the turnip recipes I looked at used it like a potato, but I must say, it tastes nothing like a potato.

Lemon Garlic Asparagus Pasta from Budget Bytes

We needed a really quick meal for a Friday night since we had plans to play a game with our cousins. I almost said that we should just get food from a local restaurant, but making pasta is cheaper and faster. I had these really dinky looking asparagus from Aldi, so I didn't even bother steaming them, and I just sauteed them for a couple of minutes. I also added mushrooms, which you really can't see in the picture either.

Yellow Rice Chicken Skillet from Budget Bytes

This might actually be the very first recipe I ever tried from Budget Bytes. It was delicious the first time I made it, and it's become one of my really simple go to meals. This is the first time I made it with bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, though. I normally buy boneless, skinless because I'm lazy, but I'm trying to save money so I'm buying whatever meat is on sale. These chicken thighs were only $0.69/lb!

Scallops and Broccoli

March 10, 2019 12:30 PM

I've had scallops sitting in my freezer for way too long (since you know, I impulse buy seafood) and I finally cooked them.

Of course I'm still too cheap to buy the whole scallops, and instead go for the bag that has the smaller pieces. I saw Baked Scallops on Skinnytaste, which was super easy to make.

And like every other meal, I need to have vegetables. I looked for a quick broccoli recipe and I saw Sheet Pan Roasted Broccoli on Damn Delicious. I was paying very close attention to my broccoli this time, so I wouldn't overcook it! I cut my broccoli into pretty small pieces, and 12 minutes was plenty of time in the oven. In fact, I might need to cook it for even less next time.

We cooked one pound of scallops and about 3/4 of a pound of broccoli, and there definitely was not enough food to have leftovers.