Teriyaki chicken and stir fried broccoli

January 4, 2025 12:00 PM

In order to use up the rest of that piece of ginger, I decided to make some teriyaki chicken and broccoli. Trying a Made with Lau recipe always feels like I'm cooking on expert mode, but the results area always really great so I figured it would be good on a Friday night where I have more time. In order to prepare, I made sure to watch the youtube video the night before and take notes in my journal.

And yes, it was time consuming. I still feel like stir fries are some of the hardest things for me to make. I had to wash the broccoli in a special way, cut it up, and blanch it before I got to the actual stir frying part. I ended up using so many pots and pans (especially because I also needed one for the chicken).

But it was really tasty so I think it was worth it.

I thought that cooking the chicken would be easier, and I guess it was a little easier, but I still struggled to give it a nice dark brown color. If I make it again, I think I'll marinate it in a bag instead and make sure to jostle the chicken around more so the marinade really gets into all of the pieces of chicken.

I also thought about doing the whole, cooking two things at once, but I am not at that level, so I actually finished cooking the chicken before I started cooking the broccoli, which meant having to microwave the chicken right before eating it. It's okay, still tasted good.

And I'm trying to embrace my new philosphy of living life as inefficiently as possible so it's okay that dinner takes me a while to make.

Some American food

June 21, 2023 9:43 PM

To round out the past week, I made some American dishes. I had some leftover broccoli and leftover shells from the hummus pasta, so I decided to make some mac n cheese. I've made this broccoli shells and cheese recipe before, so I knew it would taste good! (I also followed the recipe exactly)

I was having a really busy Wednesday. I went into the office that day, and then I also went for a quick run after work. By the time I had even started cooking, it was almost 9pm. But I really wanted some comfort food, so I was making that mac n cheese.

And even though it was late, it was very chill, and I didn't flail at all! Just a good, comforting, late dinner of some macaroni shells and cheese.

I made more American food the next night. I've had this bottle of Worcestershire sauce (that's really hard to spell) that's been sitting in my fridge for probably way too long, so I wanted to use it up. I was browsing through recipes that use this (that also wouldn't require me to buy more sauces I didn't have), and I came across slow cooker steak tips and mushrooms. Honestly? The picture kind of reminded me of dog food >.>

But it uses sauces and vineger that I already have, and it still looks like it tastes good, so I put this on my list of things to make. I also figured this would pair well with my mac and cheese!

Well, since this required slow cooking, I prepared it Thursday night, so I could finish it off Friday morning. It was after 10pm when I started prepping, and man, was cutting up the beef super annoying. Not chill at all. I really, really, really should get a better knife. And maybe I should buy beef from somewhere other than Aldi. I was exhausted just from cutting the meat and I was regretting even deciding to make this in the first place. And then I remembered that I was supposed to brown the beef on the stovetop! (It didn't brown. Not at all. I should have just skipped that step)

But I did it. I got everything in the slow cooker.

And the next morning, I had...something that kind of looked like beef stew, actually. It wasn't terrible. I also still had a head of broccoli, so I roasted that with some steak seasoning and chili powder, and I had a very dinner-like breakfast.

Oh, yeah I actually did eat this with one serving of mac and cheese the next day, but I never took a picture. I think it paired better with rice anyway.

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.

Meatloaf, Broccoli, and Sweet Potatoes

March 5, 2019 11:30 AM

I'm trying really hard this month to cook using the food I have and to not go to the grocery store almost every day. Yes that's right, I go to the grocery store almost every day. I found Sheet Pan BBQ Meatloaf Dinner from Budget Bytes, and I already had everything in my kitchen so I avoided a trip to the store yesterday!

The recipe said to roast the broccoli for 35 minutes, and we roasted it for 20 and that was way too long. Also I need to make sure that I cook the meatloaf and the broccoli in a separate pan next time. Broccoli with meat juices does not taste right.

I also forgot to flip the sweet potatoes halfway through, so they all just got really dark on one side.

I actually still have more broccoli and sweet potatoes, so I'll need to find more recipes that use them.

Drumsticks and Broccoli

February 11, 2019 9:00 AM

Chicken drumsticks were on sale at Aldi for $.69/lb so I wanted to make something using them.

Budget Bytes is always my go to place for recipes, so I looked up ones with drumsticks and I decided to make Cilantro Lime Chicken Drumsticks. We doubled the recipe since I bought a value pack that came with 12 pieces of chicken.

I think the recipe is great, but next time I'll marinate the chicken in a bowl instead of a bag. It's too much of a pain to try and scrape off the marinade inside a plastic bag. I only broiled it for 3 minutes, and next time I'll go with 4. Some of the drumsticks could have used a bit of crisping up on top.

And because I think vegetables are important, I also bought broccoli and roasted it, just like in this Chili Roasted Broccoli recipe. This is my absolute favorite way to prepare broccoli.

To be extra fancy, we added chives to the mashed potatoes.