Quick Zucchini Asian Beef Bowl

It appears that summer is over. All the familiar and signs of Fall are here. Football preseason has started (yay!), my tv bill (with the nfl ticket) has jumped in price, and my husband and I counting down the days until our fantasy draft. Crazy. Its still over 100 degrees outside, but everything else is saying goodbye to summer. I am always relieved as a mom when summer is over because we have made it another year in Az with the high heat. Its hard living in air-conditioned spaces for a couple months. It starts to feel like you have all become bears living in caves by the end of July. Maybe thats another reason why Autumn is my favorite season. Or maybe I just like the food it brings onto everyones tables..... yummy hearty bowls of food, stews, casseroles, hearty soups, large bowls of pasta with new fall veggies throughout squash, zucchini, pumpkin, and root vegetable staples like potatoes, parsnips, and carrots roasted capturing their natural sugars. So for that....you will need this easy recipe. Its easy and quick enough to fill the most hungry of little stomaches even on a school night, with just enough salty and meaty flavor to perk up the most adult taste buds. 

One of my favorite fall ingredients is zucchini. When I was young I wanted a garden so bad. But to the side of our house there were these "sticker bushes", wild blackberries bushes, that were out of control. Thus no room for a garden, even a small one. But one day my dad decided to remove them. My memory is sketchy here. I don't know if it was all in one day or a weekend. But I do remember being very excited! He was pretty creative in cutting them down and then actually driving over some of them to flatten them, to cut them down easier - as some plants were just as tall as he was. This created a great side yard for us kids to play in. In part of the space, we planted a vegetable garden one year, and had good success. Then the next year, I don't know what happened. We didn't plant anything new. But the zucchini plant still made the biggest zucchinis. I don't even remember watering it much that second or third year but we had zucchini coming out of our ears every fall. I thought it was the most incredible plant ever. To this day, its still a favorite fall vegetable. 

Paring zucchini with beef is easy. They go really well together. I have this chili recipe that uses big chunks of ground beef with lots of zucchini - its really great. But back to this recipe...The sweet salty sauce is so tasty you pour over the zucchini and onion will make the pickiest eater not flinch over the veggies. Veggies? What veggies? See. The zucchini lightens the very meaty dish up a touch without it appearing to be a "healthy" meal. To make it healthier use brown rice. So lets kick off this fall football season with a quick easy bowl of food. Perfect for families with kids, perfect for watching the game, perfect after a long day of work, and amazingly perfect for your budget with an short list of ingredients. 

And the pictures...... the life of a mom with two small kids. I was taking pictures with my phone again. Ugh. But at least you get the idea of what it could look like. I do intend to make this again soon so I will get some better pictures then. Until then make it yourself so you can see how beautiful and simple this dish is - dark rich browns and vibrant green zucchini :)

Quick Zucchini Asian Beef Bowl

Serves 3-4

Adapted from: A reinvented Mom

Prep + Cook time: 15-20 mintues

Ingredients:

3/4 - 1 lb of beef (I used the smaller amount of beef since I have kiddos - but if you are feeding 4 adults I would do the 1 lb or slightly more)

2 small/medium zucchini diced (about 1 1/2 cups - 1 3/4 cup)
1/4 onion diced (approx 1/2 cup)
1 tsp oil, any kind (I used vegetable oil)
2-3 cups of rice, cooked

1/4 cup soy sauce (I used organic)
1 Tbsp. coconut oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
1 tsp. ginger, grated

optional: roasted or toasted sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Cook your rice in a saucepan if needed. This would be a great way to use leftover rice form another meal. I cooked 1 & 1/2 cups of white rice with 3 cups of water and 2 tsp salt. Took about 15 minutes. 

2. While the rice is cooking, start chopping the veggies. 

3. Over medium heat, in a large skillet, heat the veg oil, and cook together the ground beef, zucchini, and onion. Cook mixture until beef is cooked through. Use a spatula to stir occasionally and keep meat pieces small.  This part took me about 8 minutes. 

4. While rice and beef mixture are cooking, make the sauce. In a small bowl, combine the remaining ingredients except the sesame seeds with a fork or whisk. 

5. When meat is fully cooked carefully drain any extra oil, fat, or excess water from the zucchini off the meat using a strainer. Put the coconut oil in the pan and put it back on the stove to melt it. Then return the meat and saluted veggies to the pan.

6. Next pour the sauce over the meat mixture and simmer the meat in the sauce for about 5 minutes over medium heat. Keep it warm until the rice is done cooking. 

7. Serve the deliciously sauced meat and veggies over the rice. 

8. Optional: sprinkle sesame seeds over the top of each serving

Enjoy this quick meal

from my az kitchen
Stephanie

Ginger Orange Chicken & Brown Rice

Hi there. 

I got a sweet, zesty, and easy Asian inspired dinner for you to try. Easy as in 10-20 minutes! Serious. Quicker than pizza delivery and much healthier too :) 

This is a recipe from an old cookbook but picture just looked too good to pass up. I love cookbooks with pictures. Do you? I have passed on buying perfectly good cookbooks that didn't have many pictures. I totally eat with my eyes first. 

The recipe turned out great! The thick sweet tangy slightly zippy sauce was perfect on the nutty brown rice and moist lean chicken. I think this would go great with pork or chicken. 

The original recipe was easy to follow and and I was immediately impressed of the short list of ingredients. Short list = easy on the wallet :) Short list also means, in most cases, an easier recipe. The only change I made was more than doubling the fresh ginger. To me, the orange flavor was too sweet, and it needed more zest to balance it out. The thick almost sticky orange sauce kept the lean chicken breast halves really moist and delicious. You could totally make the sauce ahead of time, but it came together within 5 minutes, so it didn't feel like a chore. I chose nutty brown rice to complement the tang of the oj and again balance some of that sweet flavor from the juice. Plus, it used up leftover brown rice I already had in the fridge. So with my leftover rice, put a quick cook on a frozen vegetable, and the entire meal came together in 10 minutes. LOVE! Even though I love cooking, when my husband is working late, and I am home with the kids at dinner time, I love anything that's healthy and fast. This was a huge win for me. 

Totally going to make this again adding in some sautéed or steamed broccoli and maybe some toasted almond slivers or sesame seeds, and egg rolls for a complete Asian style family meal (and hopefully get some better pictures using my camera and not cell phone). I hope you like it too. :) 

Ginger Orange Chicken & Brown Rice

recipe adapted from: Robin Miller's cookbook, Robin to the Rescue

Serves 2 but easily doubled (enough sauce for 3 or 4) 

Ingredients:
Salt 
Pepper
1 tsp oil ( I used veg oil but the original recipe calls for toasted sesame oil) 
2 chicken breast halves
optional: toasted sesame seeds (I didn't use them but wished I did for some crunch)
1 cup oj
2 Tbs reduced sodium soy sauce (I used organic)
1 Tbs brown sugar (I will halve this next time - sauce was really sweet)
1 Tbs corn starch
1 Tbs finely grated fresh ginger (I used organic from the produce section)

Helpful hint: If you buy a knob of ginger, peel it with the back of a spoon, and then throw it in a freezer bag for an hr and its much easier to grate. You don't even need to defrost it. Keep the remaining chunk in the freezer and it won't go bad for months!


Directions:
1. Cook your brown rice. I used a 2 to 1 ratio on my mine. 1 cup of rice for 2 cups of water. Takes about 45 minutes and i put about 1 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp black pepper. In the place of water I used homemade chicken stock. But water works well too. I have done it both ways.

2. When the rice is more than half way finished start everything else. Salt and pepper your chicken breast halves on both sides about a pinch of each. I used one chicken breast and just butterflied it, pounded it even, and sliced it into two separate pieces. Pan fry them in a skillet with tsp of any kind of oil for about 3-4 minutes each side over medium heat. For thicker pieces of chicken, not pounded thin, you'll need to add an additional minute but no more than that.  

3. While chicken is cooking, start your sauce in a small pot. Combine soy sauce, juice, sugar, corn starch and ginger with a whisk. Bring it to a boil and then turn it to low until everything else is ready. Sauce should thicken in about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally. 

3. When chicken is almost cooked through, pour the sauce into the skillet right over the top of the chicken and everything. Turn the chicken over in the sauce once to coat and finish cooking in the flavorful sauce.  I pulled my son's chicken out of the pan at that point, and sliced it and carefully set it back into the sauce to soak up some of that great flavor and to stay moist. Let the chicken finish cooking in the sauce for about a minute or two. 

4. When rice is cooked. Serve up the chicken and ginger orange sauce. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if using. 

Enjoy this quick family meal
from my Az Kitchen

Best Ever Frosted Chocolate Brownies - healthy or not

When life hands you lemons, you should make some frosted chocolate brownies.

Life has been beating me up a little bit, the kids are sick, we got stuck at the hospital for 30 hours with a feverish little guy, and another day we spent another few hours at a walk in clinic for pink eye with another little guy. Things have been busy, yada yada yada welcome to another school year filled with germs! (tiny bit of sarcasm there - I might need some more coffee). Then I found the best ever chocolate brownie recipe. Things are much better now. Chocolate and coffee makes things easier, right? right.

Originally I was going to try this recipe and bring the finished little frosted squares of heaven with me to share with friends - but that was before both kiddos got sick. Probably not a good idea to share food from a sick house so we are stuck with a huge pan of delicious brownies. Darn? I guess I should admit here that even though they were made yesterday, the once was full big pan of brownies is now a half of pan of brownies. The kids, husband, and I have devoured half. Thank goodness this rave worthy dessert is healthy! This delicious easy recipe has both melted chocolate, cocoa powder, and a healthy secret ingredient, that I am not telling my family at least for the next year or two. They'll have to read this blog to find it. (insert evil laugh).

Yep, I hide healthy stuff in my family's food supply. I am that kind of mom and wife. I just don't care what they think. They are going to eat spinach in their burgers, eggplant and zucchini in their pasta, occasionally some blanched broccoli or cauliflower in their mac and cheese, and perhaps veggies and other fibrous healthy eats in their desserts. Honestly most of the time they don't notice, don't care either, and/or are used to it.

1- 0 Mom vs. the sugar laden society around us

This delish dessert has quite a bit of brown sugar which I intend to eventually mess with but for now these wonderful frosted brownie squares are the best I have ever eaten.  Click on over to the recipe here and try them for yourself. I do encourage you to share since it makes a huge batch and you might end up eating a half of pan in 2 days like we have.... oops. Moderation yeah that kinda just fell out of the window with this one.

The only changes I made to the original recipe were adding 1/4 cup of water to the blender because I wanted to make sure to get it as smooth as possible, I used a store bought chocolate frosting for the top, and halved the amount of nuts because my hubby doesn't care for them - personal preference.

So make these and enjoy the best brownies ever... healthy or not. 

Stephanie

Chicken Caesar Sub Sandwiches

So my little one is finally on the move - big time. My husband and I are both excited about this finally coming around, since it was delayed a bit, due to medical stuff. But it also has made dinner a tiny bit harder since we haven't finished baby proofing yet, and one of us isn't quite used to having to always keep stuff off the floor. So far the only sacrifice has been a piece of sheet music.... Thankfully replaceable, and with a chunk of it now in my child's stomach, thankfully non toxic. 

So heres a fun recipe that twists up the usual chicken caesar salad for something that will help you get in and out of the kitchen quickly incase you have a little mover too. Or anyone that waits until your back is turned, to go after computer cords, books, the cat, and anything else left laying around. Yes my little one has managed to get the cat's tail a few times much to my cat's surprise. We have a great pet. A more skittish cat would have not been so patient or kind to our littlest one. 

I eat salads all the time. One my favorites is caesar salad but getting the entire family excited about salad for dinner is a bit harder than pizza or a burger. So when I saw this recipe for caesar chicken thighs I knew exactly how to make this a kid friendly, dare I say it, husband friendly dinner..... turn it into a sub sandwich. A sandwich can easily be halved for little hands. It can thankfully be eaten one handed although a bit messy to help the parent feeding the baby in the high chair. Can I get an amen from that one? It's portable so take it with on the way to a baseball game, preseason football game, take with you on that last summer picnic or road trip before school starts. AND this fun new dinner idea only takes 2-3 minutes of prep time, and 35-40 minutes of hands off cooking. Another win for an easy dinner. Pair this with chips, tater tots, or cold watermelon, and crispy crunchy veggies for a healthy dinner.  P.S. If you make extras they make a fabulous lunchtime sandwiches too see the note at the end.

Chicken Caesar Sub Sandwiches

Recipe serves 4

Recipe adapted from I Wash You Dry

Ingredients:

4 chicken boneless skinless thighs (or sub breast halves for a leaner version)
1/4 cup of flour
1/2 tsp dry Italian seasoning, your fav blend
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1 cup of store bought caesar salad dressing + a little extra for the sandwiches
1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese + super thin slices for the sandwiches
4 wheat or white soft sub rolls
2 roma tomatoes or one large one, sliced thinly 
1-2 pieces of kale or romaine for each sandwich

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375. 
2. In a small casserole dish, spray some nonstick spray or use some butter to lightly coat

3. Set up a dredging station. In one bowl put the dressing. In another bowl put the flour and seasonings.  
4. Use tongs or a fork to dunk the chicken, one piece at a time into the flour mixture, turning it over once. Then dunk it into the salad dressing turning it over once until completely coated. Put the coated chicken into the prepped casserole dish. Repeat three more times.
5. Sprinkle the cheese over the coated chicken pieces. 
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cheese should be golden brown and chicken should be cooked all the way through. 

7. Assemble the sub sandwiches. Each sub gets one piece of chicken, some romaine or kale, some tomato pieces, some parmesan cheese and little extra salad dressing or mayo. 

Save any extras for the next day. It tasted great on hardy whole grain sandwich bread. See picture below on the bottom right. 

BBQ Cheese Stuffed Bacon Burgers

I heart summer bbq food. My last few burger recipes have focused on being light, tasty, and healthy. I have put avocado in burgers, zucchini, and even broccoli rabe. Now here is a burger all about decadence, indulgence, and tantalizing flavors. 

Lets start with some crisp crunchy bacon that tops a mouthwatering juicy bbq-ed beef burger stuffed with cheese. To make it extra indulgent we aren't using any regular common cheese, but super creamy, smooth, decadent brie that oozes out so beautifully as you bite in a few bites towards the center. This will completely impress anyone you know AND is easy enough for a weeknight dinner. That is what I call a win win. 

BBQ Cheese Stuffed Bacon Burgers

Serves 4 
Recipe adapted from Rachael Ray magazine. 

Ingredients:
4 Slices of thick bacon
1 lb lean ground beef
3-4 oz brie cut into 4 pieces
Veg oil
Salt and pepper
4 hamburger buns
Optional toppings: Tomato, lettuce or kale, ketchup, mustard, mayo, ect.

Directions:
1. If cooking everything outside, preheat your grill with one part being low heat and the other medium heat. 
2. Grill the bacon over low heat, use lid or cover, turn the bacon over halfway through, until crisp approx 10 minutes. *
3. Divide the beef into 4 burger patties and insert each chunk of brie into the center each burger.
4. Give each burger a brush of oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. 
5. Grill/bbq each burger, oil side down to start, over medium heat for 5-8 minutes. Turn once. 
6. Toast the hamburger buns over low heat. 
7. Assemble burgers with bacon and any additional toppings you prefer. 

*Side note: Its 107 degrees at my house so I did the bacon inside in my oven where I could relax in the air conditioning. But if the sun is not scorching your feel free to cook everything outside on the grill. 

Enjoy another great burger recipe
From my Az Kitchen
Stephanie