Before the Quarantine

March 28, 2020 7:28 AM

Okay, I know we're not really quarantined, but I didn't know what else to call this blog post. I had some pictures of things I made before my sister visited. And I know I can't tie these all together nicely, but whatever. Enjoy the pictures!

*Mediterranean Hummus Bowls (Budget Bytes) on a plate*

I've been on a hummus kick for the past few months. Back when I could still go into the office, I would snack all the time. I don't think I went a single hour without eating something. And the cafe in the office doesn't exactly offer the most healthy options.

*Or I put it all in the pita, to mix things up*

So, I'm trying to make sure I have healthier snack options. And since I love chickpeas, that also means I love hummus. And homemade hummus is way way better than anything you can buy at the store.

Remember those fish tacos I made a while back? I actually bought the family pack of tilapia, so I needed to do something with the rest of the filets. I saw a chimichurri fish recipe on Budget Bytes, and you know I love chimichurri.

Baked Chimichurri Fish Bowls (recipe from Budget Bytes) — *Baked Chimichurri Fish Bowls (Budget Bytes)*

I was going to buy a head of cabbage for this, but I saw a pack of coleslaw mix on clearance for $1 so I grabbed that instead.

Sweet Potato Tacos with Lime Crema (recipe from Budget Bytes) with some mashed avocado — *Sweet Potato Tacos with Lime Crema (Budget Bytes) with some mashed avocado*

You know a post about lots of food I make wouldn't be complete without tacos. Sweet potatoes were on sale at Aldi, and I also saw these tiny little tortillas at Trader Joes that I impulse bought!

Since the potatoes at Aldi come in 3 lb packs, I still had to so something with the rest of them. So why not continue making more Mexican-inspired dishes?

Loaded Sweet Potatoes with Chipotle Lime Crema (recipe from Budget Bytes) — *Loaded Sweet Potatoes with Chipotle Lime Crema (Budget Bytes)*

The chipotle chili powder in the lime crema was a great addition. I think I'm going to always add the chipotle powder in the future.

Sweet Potato Beef Stew (recipe Damn Delicious) — *Sweet Potato Beef Stew (Damn Delicious)*

And to finish off the sweet potato recipes, I also made some beef stew. The sweet potatoes made the whole dish sweeter, which was nice.

*See that sour cream? It's actually lime crema.*

For something completely different, here are some pierogies! That I bought from the store, because sometimes I need an easy meal.

Dumplings! The best freezer meal and completely worth the hour of prep time that goes into making a large batch.

Blackened Shrimp Tacos (recipe from Budget Bytes) — *Blackened Shrimp Tacos (Budget Bytes)*

And tacos again! Because I love tacos! All recipes on this page get a 5/5 star rating from me. Hopefully I'll remember to post more often in the future.

We really like dumplings

February 25, 2019 11:30 AM

We just keep making them and eating them!

Dumplings are just such a good lazy meal. I'll usually make a batch of about 100 and then have about 8 meals of dumplings in the freezer that I can just take out and cook. Since I try to also consume a decent amount of veggies, I made Budget Byte's Thai Cucumber Salad.

We also had dumplings twice when my mom was here! My sister even made the wrappers from scratch. I don't think that's something I'd ever do if she weren't here.

And speaking of dumpling-like things, we also took the rest of that huge batch of mashed potatoes and turned them into pierogies. We threw mozzarella cheese in it just because we had some. Yeah, it tasted weird. It wasn't too bad though.

Filed under: dumplings pierogies cucumber salad

Pierogies and Brussels Sprouts

January 19, 2019 1:11 PM

I'm exhausted. My company had their semi-annual company meetings this past week, and even though I'm pretty sure I had about 8 hours of sleep each night, I feel incredibly sleep deprived. I ate nothing but hotel and restaurant food all week, which makes my body feel really weird. I don't know how I went most of college only eating out.

Anyway, I needed to do some real cooking on Friday night. I had bacon that had been sitting in the fridge for a week, so naturally I decided to cook brussels sprouts. I actually had brussels sprouts the day before at Altius, but they were so crispy and salty I was practically eating potato chips. I decided to cook Jessica Gavin's Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Bacon.

Sauteed brussels sprouts — *This is the first post with nicer pictures! My sister took this!*

I skipped the breadcrumb step out of laziness. I also doubled the amount of bacon because that's just how much I had on hand. And I replaced shallots with red onions. Can you believe one red onion at Giant Eagle costs more than a whole bag of red onions at Aldi? I don't even want to think about how much a shallot costs. Also onions are delicious and you can never have too many onions in your dish.

Brussels sprouts aren't exactly a meal in itself, but I didn't want to do that much cooking, so I decided to be half lazy and buy pierogies from Whole Foods. My absolute favorite pierogies are Gosia's Pierogies, and I used to frequently buy their frozen packs at a local farmer's market. Every single year they've increased their prices, so much so that now they're the same price as the pierogies in Whole Foods.

Pierogies and brussels sprouts — *I almost always eat with my cheap Asian plates.*

The pierogies were just OK. My sister isn't a fan of starch inside starch, so next time we'll go with a less traditional filling. I cut up and sauteed a whole onion to go with them, but it wasn't enough. Two onions next time.

Filed under: pierogies brussels sprouts

How can I be sad when I have breakfast, lunch, and dinner?

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