SURPRISE REVEALED!!!!!!!!

Hi! Hi! Hi!

I am soooooooo happy to FINALLY reveal my surprise! :)

I have a new website! A real website!

www.siouxcitygirleats.com

Please check it out, read my post which navigates you through the new site. It is sooo cool and has a lot of great features! I think you'll like it, and I can't wait to hear what you think!

Since I have revealed this, there will be no more posts on this blog. You can find all new posts at www.siouxcitygirleats.com

How to Roast a Chicken

Hello. I apologize for my lack of "postage" lately. I am so busy trying to get my surprise ready to reveal... and I'm working overtime this week... so it's been a lot of freezer meals this week, etc. :) (yes, I just said "freezer meals" on a food blog. sorry!)

We did roast a chicken not too long ago, and I thought I'd share my "recipe". 

I like to wash the chicken with water first. Then I slather on a whole bunch of canola oil and sprinkle the heck out of it with salt & pepper. 

That's really it. It's simple, but its delicious. You can add lemon or garlic or sage or whatever... but this is really where it is at. Oil, salt & pepper. 

I like to roast it at 425 degrees for about an hour- hour 1/2. Depends on the bird. I usually peek at about 45 minutes and sometimes have to cover it with foil or the skin will burn.

Oh yes, and here's a look at my breakfast one day. I really just wanted to share my neat plate I found at Hobby Lobby with the rooster! Cute. 

But I had 2 "dippy" eggs as Aaron calls them and a slice of toast with PB and honey. 

Ok, I'm off to work. Have a great day!

Spinach & Mushroom Lasagna

Love me some weekend!

This weekend was especially great, as my mother-in-law took all of us girls to the Compel Women's Conference at the Marina Inn in South Sioux City. Great speakers and wonderful topics. One of their missions is human trafficking (sp?). I couldn't believe how prevalent this is in the US. Most girls that are trafficked are between 9-14 yrs old... and 70-80% of all missing children get approached by a "trafficker" within 24 hours of them going missing. THAT'S NUTS! And not just in big cities like New York or LA. Here in Iowa! Sporting events draw lots of children for trafficking. We learned that for last year's Super Bowl in Dallas/Fort Worth 10,000 children were brought into the city for the weekend!!! 10,000!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even wrap my head around that. I realized this happened around the world, but I didn't realize it was so prevalent on Main Street, USA! This is just terrible! 

They did share a hotline number to call if you ever feel you have seen a victim of human trafficking. 888-373-7888. Common indicators include- No ID, disorientation (due to being shipped from city to city over night so no one can trace them), malnutrition, STDs, scars, bruising, and not being able to answer for themselves. Please take action if you see this!

I don't have a good intro to this lasagna after that...

Thank you Laa Loosh for the recipe! I just made a few changes.

Spinach & Mushroom Lasagna

• 8 ounces lasagna noodles
• 5 medium portobello mushroom caps,diced
• 2 sweet onions, thinly sliced
• 2 cups cooked & diced chicken 
• 4 cups baby spinach
• 2 cups nonfat ricotta cheese
• 2 cups non-fat milk
• 2 oz crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 4 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp whole wheat flour
• 4 garlic cloves
• 4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. To prepare onion filling: heat 3 tbsp butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
3. Add onions and cook, stirring frequently, until golden brown and very soft, about 20 minutes. (If they begin to stick, add water 1/4 cup at a time to release them and prevent burning.) Add mushrooms and cook, stirring, until just beginning to soften, about 3 minutes.
4. Add wine and 2 teaspoons salt and continue cooking until most of the liquid is absorbed, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in pepper.
5. To prepare spinach filling: Place spinach, ricotta, basil, garlic and 2 teaspoon salt in a food processor and process until smooth.
6. To prepare white sauce: Heat 1 tbsp butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.
7. Add flour and stir until bubbling, about 30 seconds.
8. Gradually whisk in milk and 1/2 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Cook, whisking, until the sauce has the consistency of thick gravy, about 1 minute.
9. Add Gorgonzola and gently whisk until it is melted. Remove from the heat. (The sauce will continue to thicken as it sits.)
10. To assemble lasagna: Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
11. Spread 1/2 cup white sauce in the prepared pan. Place a layer of noodles over the sauce.
12. Spread half of the spinach filling over the noodles and top with one-third of the onion filling.
13. Evenly spread 1/2 cup white sauce over the onions.
14. Repeat with another layer of noodles, the remaining spinach filling, half the remaining onion filling and half the remaining white sauce.
15. To finish, top with a third layer of noodles, spread the remaining onion filling over the noodles and then spread or dollop the remaining white sauce on top.

Bake until hot and bubbling, about 30 minutes. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving. Cut into 8 equally sized servings. 

 

 This lasagna was good when I made it. But I felt it was missing something. So, the recipe I posted has more salt than I made it with to help. And later I realized I forgot to add the red wine... that definitely would have helped flavor!! :)

 In other news-- we bought a Sam's Club membership. Yikes! We used to have one when we lived in Kansas, but we had to drive 30 minutes to get there. Now I have Sam's in my backyard. This could be very dangerous! :) 

That's where these strawberries come in. Sam's strawberries always seem to be better. Better than Hy-Vee, Fareway & Wal- Mart. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think they're better.

 You haven't forgotten about my surprise, have you?! Ok, good! Me neither. I am still diligently working on it, trying to perfect it! I will tell you that it is some sort of improvement on this blog. It will make reading it, etc easier and hopefully more enjoyable & interactive. 

Pizza & Wings

Well, it's Sunday night... we like us some pizza & wings on Sunday night. 

Those puppies are homemade. Whew... a lot more work, but a lot more juicy and yummy! 

 So, here you go-

20 chicken wings
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup buffalo sauce
2 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp butter
2 bay leaves
Celery & carrots

Throw all that in a large skillet, heat to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer for 15-20 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. When chicken is done simmering, place wings on a greased baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, flip chicken, bake another 15 minutes. 


Save the sauce!!! Keep simmering that while chicken is cooking in the oven. When chicken is done in the oven, remove carrots, celery, and bay leaves. Toss chicken with sauce. Serve with blue cheese, fresh carrots and celery.

Now, for the pizza!

This is Greek-style Pizza!!


I used a store bought whole wheat crust. And you can check out all my toppings-- chicken, kalamata olives, tomatoes, red onion, and feta cheese! Of course the traditional pizza sauce & Mozzarella play a part too.

So, assemble the pizza. Bake at 425 degrees for 12 minutes. 

Bam! That's a pizza!!

We were worried that this pizza would lose the "pizza taste", but it tasted like pizza with pops of onion, olive and feta! It was great!

Minervas

Helllllllllloooo. 

We ate at Minerva's tonight. It was delicious.

Portabella mushroom, scallion, and Gorgonzola Bruschetta

For Her- Black Pepper & Bernaise Salmon... it was a little dry.

For Him- Steak & Garlic Mashed Potatoes... it was heaven.

Guess what?!!?

I have a really really really cool & BIG announcement coming soon!!! :) YAY!!

(P.S. No babies. This announcement does not include babies. Please do not spread rumors regarding babies. I repeat... no babies yet. Thank you.)

But anyways, I hope to be able to share this announcement in the next few weeks. I want to share it with you all right now. But I want it to be perfect... and absolutely amazing before I share. You will love it. I promise. 

I can share hints I suppose. It's pretty... it's bright... it's darn cool...it's freakin' awesome... and it's going to change your life. Well... a very small part of your life.

Pizza Casserole

Happy New Week to you! It's hard for me to believe it's only been 1 week & a couple days since I was sitting on the beach in Mexico. NUTS! 

The recipe I'm sharing with you today is courtesy of this blog

I found this recipe from pinterest.com! 

It is so simple, and easy to put together. Let's see if you can figure it out via pictures...

Did you get it? Here it is-- 

1 xlg bottle of spaghetti sauce
1 lb of ground beef, cooked and drained
3 cups Mozzarella cheese
1 box pasta (bow tie, rotini, etc)
Pepperoni

Then all you do is layer them up. Sauce, pasta, cheese, meat, sauce, pasta, cheese, pepperoni. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes covered. Then 10 more minutes uncovered, until cheese is bubbly and pepperoni are cooked. 

Yum!!

Mexico Review + My new favorite kitchen gadgetS!

Dec 26-31 my family went on a Christmas getaway to Cancun, Mexico! We had a blast... here are some of my favorite memories...

 

Oh yes, the food was amazing! This was an asparagus and mushroom salad. 

 

Apple Pie

There was mild drinking... :)

Royal Catalonia Tulum is the name of our resort. It was fantastic, and the 3rd time my parents have been there. Would definitely recommend going there. The beach and pool were amazing... better than our honeymoon resort. The sand was white and clean, and the water was crystal blue. 

I should probably share a recipe with you, huh? You're probably starving! Well, how about I share some of my new favorite kitchen gadgets with you?!?! I'm DYING to share them with you. They are *fantastic*!

#1 Cusinart Griddler

This griddler = George Foreman + panini press + flat grill + flat griddle. AMAZING!

#2 Black & Decker Food Processor

 This dealio whips whole vegetables into diced, shredded, or sliced masterpieces in like 10 seconds! No more dicing for hours with a knife... it now takes longer to wash the food processor than the time it takes to chop veggies! *LOVE*

#3 Lime & Lemon Juicer

I mean... really?! You squish the fruit on the top and the juice streams below into a measurer!! Like genius!

#4 Avocado Slicer & Smasher

You slice the slicer through the avocado to make slices.

See? Slices.

 And then the opposite side of the tool has a smasher! Guacamole in a flash! :)

These gadgets have made my life fantastic! I now make things like--- 

Omlets made on my Griddler with Pico de Gallo on top. The pico ingredients were diced with my food processor! 

And then these guys! A toasted English Muffin topped with turkey, guac and pico! 

P.S. Pico is my new favorite food. It has changed my life.