Tilapia with Ginger Rice

Daddy Rating: 5

(This originally came from and Everyday Food recipe, but I doubled the ginger and the rice portion overall, they had peas (yuk) and served it with shrimp. This is actually fantastic with any seafood, I served it with my favorite micro green beans. You may want to do this on a weekend rather than a weekday, we had it on a hot Sunday night and it was perfect.)

Ingredients:
Tilapia (as much as you want to eat for dinner plus some for lunch as leftovers)
Smoked Paprika
Cumin
3-4 cloves Chopped Garlic
4 tablespoons fresh grated ginger (about a 4"-5" piece of ginger root)  (I've used the jar kind, and fresh is soo much better)
1 bunch green onion chopped (white and green parts separated)
2 tablespoons veggie oil
3.5 cups chicken broth
2 cups white rice

Ginger, White and Green portions of the onions separated

Chop green onions and separate green from the white sections. Grate ginger, I find the best way to do this is using a zester - it makes it so the ginger cooks down into the oil beautifully.

I highly recommend getting a zester to grate the ginger

Heat oil over medium high heat and add ginger and white portion of the onions. Cook for about 3-4 min.

Add rice and chicken broth, bring to a low boil, then turn down to simmer, cover and let cook, stirring occationally until rice is cooked. While the rice is cooking, line a cookie sheet with foil and brush with olive oil. Line Tilapia on the pan and sprinkle with paprika, cumin and maybe even some lemon...Mmmm. Broil the fish on high until opaque (about 7 or so minutes).

Yum!

Serve fish on a bed of rice and green beans on the side (these are my favorite microwave frozen green beans) - would also be delish with some reduced spinach, but then you are adding another pan to wash.

ENJOY!

Pesto Steak Pizza

Daddy Rating: 4 (but I think he was really hungry)

So Hubby and I had a date over the weekend where, of course, he ordered the Fred Flintstone size steak. Surprisingly, he only ate half, so I used the other half for this dinner. There is no recipe to quote from - I saw a picture of a pizza like this in a magazine and it inspired me.

Ingredients:
Boboli Pizza Crust (I had to use 2 since my husband ate one pizza himself)
Red, yellow green bell peppers
Pesto
Onion
Leftover steak
Italian shredded 4 cheese
Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 325-350-ish. Warm oil in skillet. Add onions until soft, add peppers until just soft - keep in mind they will still cook on the pizza in the oven. Spread pesto on pizza crust. Slice leftover steak into strips and arrange on pizza. Cover with a little cheese. Add Onions and peppers. Add more cheese on top.

 Bake on a cookie sheet until bubbly and a little browned. My husband was quite pleased with this dinner and ate the entire pizza in one sitting.

Always serve with a glass of wine. ENJOY!

Brats, Peppers, and Polenta

Daddy Rating 4/5

I think my husband will rate anything with pork products on the higher end. this was easy and Yummy, Baby girl even liked it! I just happen to have yummy gourmet brats from the meat counter at our "farmstand" grocery store, but this would be just as good with your standard Johnsonville Brats. Polenta is a bit of a splurge for us, but is such a nice alternative to rice.

Ingredients:

1 package Brats

Bell Peppers (colors are pretty, but whatever is on sale!)

Yellow Onion

I package Polenta

Olive Oil

Cover a cookie sheet with foil and brush with olive oil. Slice Polenta and arrange on cookie sheet and brush tops with oil. Broil on high until slightly browned, then turn over - (this took longer than I thought, just keep an eye on it)

Warm oil in a 12" skillet (about 1 turn of the oil). Cook onions until they begin to soften, then add peppers until they begin to soften. Set aside on a plate. Cook Brats on each side until almost done, dump veggies back in the pan and cover.

You can keep the brats and veggies warm in the pan until the polenta is done and then everything will be on the plate nice and hot!

Always serve with a glass of wine. ENJOY!

Fish Tacos!

Daddy Rating: 4

I consider this one of my specialties. I think the idea originally came from an Everyday Food issue, but I have modified it and just make it without a recipe so I claim it to be my own. This is especially good for warmer weather because the oven doesn't have to be on too long, in fact you could do it all out on the grill if you wanted.

Ingredients:

Tilapia - 1 Filet=2 tacos, so get as much as you will need.

Sour Cream

Avocado

Purple Cabbage (it's just so pretty)

Shredded CHEESE

Fresh Tomatoes

Corn or Flour Tortillas (splurge and get the good gourmet ones - totally worth it)

Paprika

Olive oil

.5 teaspoon Ground Coriander,

.5 teasp Ground Cumin

Limes

Slice the filets into small chunks. On a foil lined cookie sheet, brush with olive oil. Line up the tilapia, brush with more olive oil and sprinkle with as much paprika as you want. Put under the broiler until fish is opaque.

Fish ready for cooking!

Chop all your fixins. Combine Sour cream with Coriander, Cumin, Paprika and lime juice - let this warm up to room temp so it isn't so cold on your tacos.

Yummy chopped fixins

My favorite is to warm the tortillas directly on the grill... there's just something super yummy about it. Combine all of the ingredients to your liking and ENJOY!

Always serve with a glass of wine.

This was my husband's FIRST plate...he made two more tacos after this.



My New Favorite House Wine

Okay, Okay, I know...It's in a BOX. But apparently this box holds 4 bottles worth of wine, costs $15 at my Target and is pretty tasty.

Give it a try is all I'm saying.

ENJOY!

Ro-Tel Quesadillas

Daddy Rating: 3

This is a fantastic, stand-by, go-to, yummy dinner. My sister discovered it on the back of the Ro-Tel can and shared the idea with me when I was new ideas. Two pans, kid friendly, easy clean up - Love it.

Ingredients:
- Canola oil (recipe calls for PAM spray, but oil is more yummy)
- Big can Ro-Tel diced tomatoes with green chilies
- Roasted chicken
- Shredded cheese
- Med onion
- Burrito-size tortillas
- Guacamole

Easy Ingredients

Heat a little oil in a skillet and saute chopped onion until soft. Add can of tomatoes and shredded chicken into skillet until warmed.

Place tomato mixture on half of a tortilla and cover with shredded cheese and fold in half. Coat the bottom of a second 12"-ish skillet with oil and place filled tortilla in skillet. When it gets warm and the cheese melty, gingerly flip quesadilla in skillet to brown other side (I use two spatulas to achieve this task).

Eddie the dog wishing the Quesadilla to fall off the counter

Remove from pan to plate - cut into 3rds with a pizza cutter and serve with Guacamole. My husband was full from ONE of these, but I think he snaked on too much Chips and Guac while I was getting dinner ready.

Always serve with a glass of wine...or beer...or margarita

Weekend Dinner - Baked Pasta With Chicken Sausage

(Daddy Rating 4/5)

(This is from an old "Everyday Food" magazine that I grabbed from my mom. I meant to cook this over the weekend, but I wasnt' feeling well and the Oscars were on so it got bumped to a Monday night...sort of a mistake, it was too much to do on a week night but it was good, so we'll keep it on hand for a Weekend Dinner or if we have company over)

Ingredients:
- Olive Oil
- Salt/Pepper
- 1 medium red onion (I used yellow)
- 1/4 cup vodka (Optional, I didn't use it)
- 1 can 28 oz whole tomatoes, lightly crushed with your hands
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 cup cream
- 1 lb rigatoni (I used cavatappi because I like the fun shape better, you won't use the hole pound, you will have some plain pasta left if you need to reserve some for picky eaters)
- 10 oz Baby Spinach (I used frozen and pressed out the water because I'm cheap, but fresh would have been a lot easier)
- 12 oz smoked chicken sausage (I used some chicken sausage from Target that has spinach in it)
- 6 oz fontina cheese (I used 8oz)
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (Or enough to cover the top of the casserole in the dish)

Everything finally chopped up....

Start the water boiling for the pasta. Then heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat (as large as you can because you wind up mixing the ingredients with the pasta in this skillet). Add onion; cook until translucent (about 3 min). Stir in garlic. Turn down heat and add vodka if you're using it. Turn heat back up until evaporated (about 1 min).

Trying to occupy baby girl by making drums out of mixing bowls so I can chop ingredients.

Stir in tomatoes and oregano and cook until tomatoes are falling apart (about 10-15 min). Add cream and cook until warmed through (about 5 min). Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 400*. Start the pasta cooking.

Drums got old, so baby girl cleaned out the spice cabinet for me...

Add Spinach and chicken sausage to skillet until wilted (if using fresh).  Combine cooked pasta (do it in small batches, you may not want to use all the pasta) and fontina cheese to the tomato sauce in the skillet and toss to coat.

Divide evenly into whatever baking dishes you have. Top with Parm to your liking and back until browned and edges are crisp - about 20-30 min.

YAY! Finally in the oven! My husband ate the dish on the left for dinner and we still had plenty of left overs

Always serve with a glass of wine.