A Hello Strangers and Lettuce Wraps!

Hello all. I have been MIA for a while now. My photography has kind of taken over again and I haven't had time to break out the camera for food. But I have a lovely lens that I rented and I wanted to use it before I sent it back.

I got the recipe from Whole Foods. The only difference was that I used romaine lettuce. The sauces I used were peanut sauce, Hoisin sauce and sesame ginger.
YUMMY!

Serves 4
Surround your serving platter with plenty of whole lettuce leaves. Your guests will wrap each leaf with their choice of fillings, then dip in the sweet and spicy Hoisin sauce.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive, peanut or sesame oil 1 pound ground turkey or chicken 2 tablespoons minced garlic 2 tablespoons finely minced ginger 2/3 cup Teriyaki Sauce Vegetables for filling: grated carrots, mung bean sprouts,julienned cucumber Boston lettuce leaves, rinsed and dried Hoisin Sauce
Method
Heat oil in a large skillet and brown ground turkey. Add garlic and ginger and saute briefly. Add teriyaki sauce and simmer for 10 minutes while preparing vegetables. Place filling and vegetables in center of a large platter, then surround with lettuce leaves. Serve with Hoisin sauce for dipping.

Easy Spicy Sesame Chicken with Scallion Rice-RR Inspiaration

So, I got the new Rachel Ray mag and saw a recipe that I figured I could tweak to us and what I had on hand. It was a keeper for sure!

Scallion Rice:

1 package boil in a bag Jasmine Rice (hey, I am a busy mom and have my own business, some stuff has to be easy!)

4 Cups chicken broth

1 bunch scallions chopped

Cook rice according to directions but sub brother for water. Drain and place in bowl. Sprinkle with scallions and fluff with fork.

Chicken:

1 pound chicken tenders

2 bell peppers (any color you have) seeded and sliced thin

3 T tamari

3T honey

1 T garlic chili sauce

1 T Cajun mustard (you can use any Dijon)

2 t sesame oil

1 t chili sauce

sesame seeds

small handful of snow pea sprouts, trimmed

After seasoning the chicken lightly to your taste, grill until done. :) Easy, huh? Set Aside

Saute peppers in oil of your choice (we used olive) for about 2-3 minutes.

In a bowl, mix together tamari through chili sauce

Toss the chicken and peppers in the sauce and place in top of rice. Drizzle left over sauce if any on top. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and snow pea sprouts. Enjoy.

Cedar Plank Salmon with Spicy (and I mean spicy) Asian Slaw

Ok. Yum!

This recipe is estimated so adjust to your taste. Something that Chad and I decided on together. He created the salmon marinade with some help from me and in returned he helped me tweak the Asian slaw.

We went way more spicy than usual on the salad, since the kids had their own dinner planned (plus they had the first part of the salmon last night and didn't want fish again). These measurements are totally estimated since we adjusted everything to our taste, so be brave and do the same. :)

Salmon:

After soaking a cedar plank in water for about 2 hours, Chad prepped the marinade:

(about)

1 salmon fillet

1/4 C soy sauce (reduced sodium)

1T fresh grated ginger

1 t minced garlic

1 t brown sugar

1 t chili sauce

salt and pepper to taste

We marinated it for about an hour.

Allow the plank to smoke on the grill for about 5 minutes, flip the plank and place fish on plank. Close grill and remove when it easily flakes.

Spicy Asian Slaw:

I bag finely shredded coleslaw blend

1/4 box rice sticks broken up (this was all we had and a last minute addition)

1/2 C rice wine vinegar

3T soy sauce (reduced sodium)

3T dark sesame oil

1T crushed red pepper flakes (if you prefer not as spicy reduce this amount)

1/2 T ginger

a handful of sliced scallions

a pinch of sugar

salt and pepper to taste

Handful of cashews (optional)

Water chestnuts (optional)

In a large bowl place rice sticks on the bottom and top with slaw.

In a microwave safe bowl, combine everything from vinegar to sugar (taste and adjust to your liking).. Microwave for about 25-35 seconds. Just enough to blend the flavors.

Pour mixture over slaw and gently toss. Top with cashews and water chestnuts if you like.

Refrigerate for at least an hour.

Enjoy!

Asian Nachos with Wasabi Cream Cabbage (Plus a Side of Jasmine Rice)

We had left over wontons from this . So we decided to try an Asian Nacho for the grown ups. The kids used the same topping as filling in gyoza (they dipped them in a sesame ginger dressing).

But for us adults:

Preheat over to 350
Cut wontons into triangles and fry (I used peanut oil simply because Paula Dean uses it. Haha. ) until golden. Drain and set aside on a cookie sheet.
In a large bowl combine 1 pound ground pork
2T Soy Sauce (I use low sodium)
2T ginger (I used the ginger in a tube, didn't have fresh on hand)
2 stalks of celery and 2 carrots finely chopped by hand or in food processor
3 chopped chives
And for the grownups...a good helping of crushed red pepper flakes. Yum.

Once combined cook in large skillet until done.
Drain pork mixture and top each wonton chip with a good helping.
Top lightly with mozzarella or any white cheese and bake for about 8 minutes until cheese is lightly melted.

In a small bowl combine a cup of shredded cabbage (or slaw mix) with:
2T mayo
3T sour cream (I use fat free)
1T wasabi paste (adjust to taste)

Top each nacho with wasabi cabbage and enjoy!





(I just used a fast cook jasmine mix topped with soy sauce).