Thai Shrimp Stir Fry

This super-easy super-tasty dish has become a regular feature at our house. I'm posting it specifically for a friend of mine who wants to learn to cook as I often bring the leftovers to work with me to share with her.

1 can coconut milk
1 tbsp curry paste
a couple of dashes of fish sauce*
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 onion, sliced thinly
1 red pepper sliced thinly
1 cup shrimp, thawed (I use the pre-cooked and frozen shrimp)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Heat the coconut milk in a small saucepan. Whisk the curry paste and fish sauce into it. Let boil together for a few minutes (so the paste has disolved and mixed in nicely) and remove from heat and set aside.
Heat cooking oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onions and peppers to cook to your desired crispyness level (just a few minutes, you don't want to burn the onions). Add the shrimp and coconut/curry sauce. Stir everything together. Add the cilantro just at the end. Serve over basimati rice.

*About the fish sauce. When we first started cooking Thai food, I wondered if this was really neccessary. I guess you can get away without it, but the fish sauce gives it an authentic Thai taste. It's not very expensive and it lasts forever. I bought mine at an Asian food store. Just ask for fish sauce and they will know what you mean and that you are cooking Thai.

BBQ Baked Chicken and Beans

While my stomach was out of commission, my boys' were not. My oldest who is 4 has been asking for sloppy joes lately, and while these aren't exactly sloppy joe's, they are a close cousin. This is a great way to use up leftover chicken meat.

Pulled chicken meat (I had 3/4 chicken left over from the crockpot chicken dinner)
1/4 cup chopped red onion
2 cans (14 oz) beans in tomato sauce
1/2 cup BBQ sauce of your choice (I used the Chicken and Ribs flavour)
Hamburger Buns

Pre-heat oven to 300*. Spray a large casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. Add the chicken meat, onion, beans and BBQ sauce in and mix together well. Let bake for about an hour and a half. Scoop onto hamburger buns to serve.

My husband changed his a bit for his second helping to make it less kid friendly (a little more kick). He toasted his bun, added some mayonnaise, some Frank's Red Hot Pepper Sauce and some cheddar cheese. He declared them good before, perfect with his additions.

Be Careful What You Eat

So I've mentioned before that I have a pork intolerance (much to my Nana's disbelief, insisting that of course I could eat her pork chops - no, I can't Nana, really I can't). And I think it's getting worse. Yesterday we went for breakfast at a diner that we love, but hadn't been to in a while. I had my 2 eggs over easy, home cooked potatoes and raisin toast. Yummy right? Yes...until a few hours later. I was sick, very sick. So sick that if I didn't have to conduct in the music festival this week, I would have called a supply teacher in for me today. The culprit? The potatoes were cooked in bacon grease. Yep, my tummy did not like that one at all. So for all of you foodies that cook some really nice looking pork dished out there, I will continue to admire them from afar and figure out if I could make it with chicken instead.

All In One Chicken Dinner

This to me is home cooking. This is my childhood. This was a weekly traditional dish in my house, and it's darned easy. When I was a kid we called it Chicken in a Pot, but that title just doesn't seem kosher to print, so I changed the name.

1 whole chicken (rinsed and dried)
1 onion (chopped)
4 carrots (chopped into medalions)
4 potatoes (chopped into bite sized pieces)
1 tbsp margarine
salt & pepper to taste
dried sage to sprinkle on top

Spray a crockpot with non-stick spray. Coat the chicken with the margarine. Put it in the crockpot. Add the vegetables. Sprinkle everything with a little salt, pepper and sage. Cover and cook on low heat for 8-10 hours. It's that easy.

Woo Hoo!

Today marks the end of our 6 weeks Biggest Loser Challenge at work and I lost 13 pounds (while still eating all the delicious food you've read about on here), making me the Biggest Loser at work. See it can be done, dieting can be tasty. So I look forward to starting the next round, hoping to continue in my success. See weight loss doesn't look so daunting if I think about it in 6 week chunks. If I can do it again, I'll be down 26 pounds by the time school's out for summer (hopefully fitting into my shorts!). It's kinda nice to have the momentum of this challenge to go into the next one.
And I know, I haven't posted recipes for a few days. I'm still cooking, but I'm at the end of my 2 week cooking run, meaning we're eating up what's left, clearing out for the next shop. I'm so excited to shop this week. I've decided to make a Thai Carrot Salad (which I've never made before, but my favorite Thai restaurant is closed for the next 2 weeks, which saddens me greatly because we were going to go there to celebrate my husband's birthday and had to move the party elsewhere). And if I'm making the Thai salad then I need to make a Thai Curry to go along with it, and I may as well add a Chicken Satay too. Really, I need no excuse to make Thai food, or go for Thai food for that matter, it's just so tasty. Also on plan for the future is my first try at Kafta, which is an amazing Lebanese beef dish.
Meanwhile, I finished up this week with spagetti. An oldie but a goodie.

Share the Love of a Give-away

Hey everyone, in case you hadn't heard Donna at My Tasty Treasures is having a Give-Away! Check it out here

Thinking ahead to grocery day

As previously posted I grocery shop once every 2 weeks, usually planning on the Thursday before. So I'm a little early with my planning this week, mostly because my fridge was due for a clean-out/food inspection. You gotta love the odd leftovers that you find hiding in the fridge, like a half-eaten container of yogurt that my 4 year old probably started, couldn't finish and put back in there. Anyways, what I found were a huge amount of onions and carrots. I must have 3 bags of onions and 3 bags of carrots (2 large, 2 mini). So I'm wondering how to cook them up in the next week or so. I have a few ideas, Donna recently posted a French Onion Soup recipe that I'd like to try. And I haven't made my carrot-bran muffins in a while (plus I should get a picture of them on here.) But I know even after making those, I'll still need to use up more onions and carrots. So I implore you, the foodies, to hook me up with something good. Please send a link to a delicious treasure that I can try out. I'll post my results with your recipes on here as the next couple of weeks go by. Thank you in advance. Cheers!