Grilled Chicken and Zucchini Yakitori

Well, so much for my plan of keeping my blog updated over the summer.  Boy #1 started second grade last Monday, and Boy #2 starts his last year of preschool this afternoon.  I don't know how they got to be this old.  One of my friends posted a picture on Facebook of Boy #1 and one of his BFFs on the first day of school.  They've been friends since they were one, and seeing them so big and starting second grade had me in tears.  Anyway, now that school is back in the swing, and I have four afternoons a week to myself, I'm hoping to get back on the blog wagon.  The past few weeks I haven't made a whole lot of new stuff.  It's hard to find the time to come  up with meal plans that include a bunch of new recipes when I have both kids at home.

This recipe has been one of our new favorites over the summer.  The first time I made it I was watching my friend Amanda's daughters, and I wasn't sure how the kids would receive it.  I mean, it's grilled chicken, so I figured it would be okay.  Turns out I had nothing to worry about.  This is from SkinnyTaste.com, which is one of my favorite healthy cooking blogs.  I don't think I've ever been disappointed with a recipe I've used from her website.  I love grilling in the summer, especially if we're hanging out in our pool, but I get tired of always grilling the same stuff, so finding a new grilled chicken recipe is pretty fantastic in my book.

Grilled Chicken and Zucchini Yakitori
Source: Adapted from http://www.skinnytaste.com/2013/06/grilled-chicken-and-zucchini-yakitori.html">SkinnyTaste.com

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce (for GF use low sodium Tamari)
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1 garlic clove, crushed
3 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, all fat trimmed
2 medium zucchini, sliced into 1/2-inch thick rings
18 (10 inch) bamboo skewers

Bring vinegar, low sodium soy sauce, honey and crushed garlic to a boil in a medium-sized sauce pan, and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Cut the chicken into 1-inch pieces and place in a ziplock bag; pour half of the marinade over the chicken. Place the zucchini in a second large ziplock bag and pour the remaining marinade over the zucchini. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile, soak the skewers in water 30 minutes so they don't burn.

Thread the chicken onto skewers, discarding the chicken marinade.

Thread the zucchini onto skewers, reserving the marinade for basting.

Preheat the grill or a grill pan over medium-high heat. When hot, spray with oil then reduced heat to medium; grill the zucchini and chicken skewers about 5 to 6 minutes on each side brushing both sides of the skewers with the yakitori sauce during the last few minutes of cooking time.

*****

I said above that when I made this for my family and my friend's daughters I didn't have to worry about them not liking it.  The kids all had seconds of the chicken.  There were no leftovers from this, which was kind of disappointing because I had hoped to have some for the husband and me for lunch the next day.  The kids didn't eat the zucchini, but the husband and I loved it.  This thick-zucchini-slices-on-bamboo-skewers was actually my go-to way to grill zucchini over the summer when we'd have it as a side dish.  So easy!  If I wasn't making this recipe I'd brush the slices with some olive oil and sprinkle with some Lawry's or Tony Chachere's and throw them on the grill with whatever protein I was cooking.

This is super easy to put together (as long as you plan ahead for marinating time), and so good.  The original recipe called for sake instead of the rice wine vinegar, but since I didn't have sake on hand I substituted the vinegar.  It also called for green onions to be on the skewers between chicken pieces and zucchini pieces, but I haven't ever done that, so I took it out of the ingredient list.

I have already made this so many times this summer, but it's so easy and my family loves it, so it's definitely going to stay one of my go-to chicken thigh recipes!

Spicy Sweet and Sour Pork

My Wine Pie post was the swift kick in the pants I needed to get back to my blog. I really have quite a few things to share that I've made recently, so hopefully now I can get back on track and make my ol' blog here a priority again. I mean, right now I should be cleaning up my kitchen and putting a load of towels into the washer, but I'm sacrificing those things to write this. Ha! Like that was a tough decision.

I've been trying to have the husband help me meal plan some each week, and this was one of his choices a couple weeks ago. I pulled up some recipes I'd saved on Pinterest and had him flip through them and see what looked good. This is one he chose. I'm always down for a stir fry, and my kids love sweet and sour anything, so I figured this would be a good choice.

Spicy Sweet and Sour Pork
Source: adapted from Cooking Light

1 pound boneless pork chops, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
2 tablespoons cornstarch, divided
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce, divided
1 (8-ounce) can pineapple chunks in juice, undrained
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoons Sriracha (hot chile sauce, such as Huy Fong)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 cup chopped green bell pepper

Combine pork, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, and 1 tablespoon soy sauce; toss well to coat. Drain pineapple in a sieve over a bowl, reserving juice. Combine juice, remaining 1 tablespoon cornstarch, remaining 2 tablespoons soy sauce, vinegar, and next 3 ingredients (through Sriracha), stirring with a whisk.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add canola oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add pork to pan; sauté 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add 1 cup onion, ginger, and garlic; sauté 1 minute. Stir in pineapple and bell pepper; sauté 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in vinegar mixture; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Serve.

*****

The original recipe called for pork tenderloin, but I had pork chops on hand. Although, instead of grabbing two packages of pork chops from my freezer, I accidentally grabbed a package of pork chops and a package of chicken breasts. Oops. So ours was a pork/chicken combo. It worked out okay, and my kids thought it was kind of fun to try and figure out which pieces were pork and which were chicken. Anyway, it also called for more Sriracha, but I cut back on it since my kids don't like spicy food.

This was a total winner of a dinner! Everyone in my family loved it. Boy #1 even wanted to take leftovers to school for lunch the next day!! What?! I believe he rated this a "triple A+, 100" which is pretty freakin' good. I'll definitely make it again since my whole family enjoyed it!

Kung Pao Chicken Tacos

I absolutely LOVE Chinese food. If given a choice of cuisine, it's usually one of my top picks. Maybe from growing up in Seattle? I don't know. I haven't played around with cooking too much of it on my own (even though a few years ago I did invest in a pretty heavy duty Chinese cookbook). I was excited when I saw this recipe in October's Cooking Light because Kung Pao Chicken is one of our favorite Chinese take-out dishes. Since it has a little kick to it I decided to make it for a date night dinner for the husband and me since my kiddos don't like spicy.

Kung Pao Chicken Tacos
Source: Cooking Light magazine, October 2012

6 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce, divided
1/4 cup plus 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch, divided
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sambal oelek (ground fresh chile paste)
1 large garlic clove, minced
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped dry-roasted peanuts
3/4 cup diagonally sliced celery (about 2 stalks)
8 (6-inch) corn tortillas
1/3 cup sliced green onions
1/2 medium red bell pepper, thinly sliced
4 lime wedges

1. Place chicken in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add 1 tablespoon soy sauce to bag; seal. Marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes. Remove chicken from bag; discard marinade. Place 1/4 cup cornstarch in a shallow dish. Sprinkle the chicken evenly with salt. Add chicken to cornstarch in dish, and toss chicken to thoroughly coat. Shake off excess cornstarch.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon canola oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add half of coated chicken; sauté for 6 minutes or until done, turning to brown. Remove chicken from pan using a slotted spoon; drain on paper towels. Repeat the procedure with remaining 1 tablespoon canola oil and coated chicken.

3. Combine remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch, remaining 2 tablespoons soy sauce, honey, and next 3 ingredients (through sambal oelek) in a microwave-safe bowl, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Microwave at HIGH for 1 1/2 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring twice. Stir in garlic. Combine soy sauce mixture, chicken, peanuts, and celery; toss to coat chicken.

4. Toast tortillas under broiler or on a griddle until lightly blistered, turning frequently. Place 2 tortillas on each of 4 plates; divide chicken mixture evenly among tortillas. Top each taco with green onions and bell pepper strips; serve with lime wedges.

*****

I used chicken breasts instead of thighs because it's what I had on hand. That was my only change, though. We LOVED the taste of the chicken, but we did not like it in the tortillas. I had even bought fresh corn tortillas from a nearby Hispanic market, and we just didn't like it in the tortillas. The actual Kung Pao Chicken was FANTASTIC. There were no leftovers--we devoured every single bite, it was that good. This is definitely something I'll be making again, but I'll skip the tortillas in the future!

Beef Bulgogi

Did I mention that we just moved Boy #2 from his crib into a big boy bed? I'm freakin' exhausted. He apparently thinks it means he can get up as many times as he wants at night and come wake me up and get up at the ass crack of dawn in the morning. *yawn* I'm a tired mama. Last night I got 6.5 hours of sleep, one of which was spent laying on the floor of his bedroom. Ugh. I know Boy #1 took awhile to adjust to not being confined when he slept, but I don't remember how long it took. I don't really feel capable of getting anything accomplished around my house today (I changed into jammies after my post-gym shower), so I'm going to update my blog.

By the way, I created a Facebook Page for my little blog here. There's a link over on the right sidebar where you can like it from here or come visit me on there. I don't really know what I'm going to do with it, I'd just been thinking about doing it for awhile and today seemed like a good day.

I've been in a bit of a funk lately, which I'm sure directly correlates to my lack of sleep, and meal planning just wasn't exciting for this week. I pulled a cookbook off my shelf that my mother-in-law had gotten me for Christmas a couple years ago and flipped through it hoping for ideas. She was a teacher at a Christian high school in San Antonio (she just retired!), and it was a fundraising project from the senior class I think. I love cookbooks where people submit their own recipes because who's going to submit something that sucks? This recipe called for flank steak, but London broil was on sale, so I thought it would be good. Bulgogi, according to the recipe intro, is a Korean treatment for steak that has very wide appeal to western palates and is remarkably easy to make. Also sometimes written as Pulgogi, Bulgogi literally means "fire meat" although this refers more to the cooking method than the spiciness of the dish. So there you go. I have no idea how to pronounce it. Bul-go-gee? Bul-gah-gee? Something else entirely?

Beef Bulgogi

2 lb flank steak or sirloin
1/2 c. packed dark brown sugar
3/4 c. soy sauce (preferably low salt)
1 Tbsp sesame oil
Dash of red pepper flakes or ground cayenne
5 or 6 green onions, sliced
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
3 cloves garlic, minced or crushed

For cooking:
3 Tbsp sesame oil
3 Tbsp peanut or vegetable oil

For thickening marinade/sauce:
1 Tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tbsp water

Trim any visible fat and sinuous tissue from the uncooked steak and wrap the meat in plastic wrap or a Ziploc bag and place in the freezer for half an hour to partially freeze meat. Remove meat from the freezer and slice as thinly as possible across the grain. Lay out meat slices in a single layer in a low, glass or ceramic casserole dish. As you cover the bottom once, crumble some of the brown sugar over the uncooked meat and continue layering meat and brown sugar until all the steak is sliced and the sugar used.

Marinade: In a bowl, mix soy sauce, 1 tablespoon sesame oil, red pepper, onions, rice vinegar, and garlic. Pour marinade over sugared meat and cover to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Can be marinated all day or even overnight if using low sat soy sauce.

Heat a large skillet on medium high heat and mix the remaining sesame oil with the peanut or vegetable oil. Working in small batches to preserve the heat of the pan, use a little of the mixed oils and quickly fry the steak until just cooked medium rare. Remove cooked slices to a warm serving platter and repeat the process until the whole batch of meat is cooked. use more oil if necessary. After meat is cooked, reduce heat to medium and add leftover marinade to skillet. Bring to gentle simmer and stir in cornstarch/water mixture. Stir while thickening and pour over cooked meat.

*****

The marinade smelled fantastic. I love the smell of sesame oil. As I was cooking the meat Boy #1 kept saying, "Mommy dinner smells so yummy!" It ended up being super tasty. I think our meat ended up being more on the medium or medium well side because I wasn't really sure how long to let it cook before flipping it, but it was still good. The sauce on top was really good, too. Since it had raw meat marinating in it, I heated it to boiling just to be safe. We all really liked this. Boy #1 complained at one point that he was getting full and asked if he could just eat half of what was left on his plate. I said sure, but then a couple minutes later he and I realized he'd eaten all of it! We just had the meat with some frozen Asian blend vegetables, but I think the meat would be really good in lettuce wrap form, too. I'll definitely make this again!

Sadly, none of the pictures I took of the cooked meat turned out. :(

Broccoli with Garlic Butter and Cashews

I know I've mentioned the parenting message board I'm a member of before, The Mamasphere. This recipe was posted by one of the members and got rave reviews from everyone that's tried it. The member's username is AmRo, so it was dubbed AmRo's Broccoli Cashew Yumminess by someone else. We've actually had this several times as a side dish and as a main dish by adding chicken and serving it over quinoa. See, I wasn't kidding about incorporating quinoa more often! I love the flavors of the sauce and the crunch the cashews add to it. Really I'm just a sucker for anything with cashews.

Broccoli with Garlic Butter and Cashews

1 lb of broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces
1/3 cup of butter (I cut this to about 1/4 cup)
1 teaspoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Several twists of black pepper (to taste)
2 cloves garlic, minced
Chopped cashews, as few or as many as you'd like, but probably no more than 1/3 cup.

1. Steam the broccoli until tender/crisp.

2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for a minute or so. Mix in the soy sauce, brown sugar, and pepper. Bring to bubbling, then reduce heat to low and simmer for a few minutes to thicken a smidge. Add the cashews, pour the sauce over the broccoli and stir to coat.

*****

Super easy and super tasty!! I've made it with fresh and frozen broccoli and had good results both times. It really comes together quickly, and it's so good. I've toasted the cashews each time I've made it. Plus the ingredients are things I normally have on hand. Well, not always the cashews but everything else.

I forgot to take a picture before I was packing up the leftovers.

Marinated Grilled Chicken Legs

I have to say, I'm on a roll with the new Cooking Light recipes I've been trying. So much so that the husband said we should have Cooking Light Month at our house. I gotta say, I'm not opposed to the idea. Three of the six recipes I still need to post about are CL recipes and were all tasty. I don't remember how I came across this one. I think it was an article on their website about 101 ways to cook chicken or something. Boy #1 LOVES chicken legs, and they were on sale last week, so I thought this would be good. It's pretty funny because he calls them "chicken bones." Let me tell you, it took awhile to figure out what he meant when he was asking for chicken bones.

Marinated Grilled Chicken Legs
Source: Cooking Light website

1 cup fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon dry sherry
1 1/2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons basil oil
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
8 chicken drumsticks (about 2 1/4 pounds), skinned
Cooking spray
Green onion strips (optional)

Combine the first 11 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add chicken to bag; seal. Marinate in refrigerator 2 hours, turning bag occasionally.

Prepare grill.

Remove chicken from bag, reserving marinade. Place reserved marinade in a small saucepan; cook over medium heat 3 minutes. Place chicken on grill coated with cooking spray; grill 30 minutes or until chicken is done, turning and basting occasionally with reserved marinade. Garnish with green onion strips, if desired.

Amount per serving (2 drumsticks)
Calories: 215
Calories from fat: 31%
Fat: 7.5g
Saturated fat: 1.8g
Monounsaturated fat: 2.8g
Polyunsaturated fat: 1.8g
Protein: 30g
Carbohydrate: 4.4g
Fiber: 0.1g
Cholesterol: 97mg
Iron: 1.5mg
Sodium: 339mg
Calcium: 18mg

*****

I figure since the nutritional info was there I might as well include in case anyone else is counting calories like we are.

This chicken was REALLY good. The only thing I left out was the basil oil because I don't have any and didn't really want to buy any for the small amount that is used. Although in hindsight I probably could have just bought some fresh basil and made my own. Oh well. I used sriracha for the hot sauce and was worried I'd added too much, but it wasn't spicy at all. Dodged a bullet there because Boy #1 does not like spicy and would have been very disappointed if he couldn't eat the chicken bones.

We all really liked this. I wished I'd thrown a few more legs into the marinade so I could have had another and/or some leftovers. This will definitely be a go to recipe for chicken bones in the future!

Stir-Fried Pork and Napa Cabbage with Ginger Sauce

In case you're not a follower of my weight loss blog, you may not know that I'm going to be running the Disneyland Half Marathon in September. Are you saying, "I had no idea Claire was a runner"? Yeah...I'm not. Or I wasn't at least. I guess I'm becoming a runner. I decided to do the Couch to 5K program at the start of 2011. I have never been a runner. NEVER. My friend Jess reminded me that I used to tell people I only ran if being chased. It's true, I did say that. And now I can run 30 minutes straight without any real problems. Except for the voice in my head reminding me how much I hate running. But I'm learning to tune out that voice. Thinking about how much I hate it isn't going to get me running 13.1 miles.

Anyway, I'm running the race with my friend Jen, and last night was our first training session. I didn't want a super heavy meal knowing I'd be heading out the door to go running approximately an hour after we ate, so I thought this stir fry would be a good meal to have. The husband only chose the cookbook for the week, not the recipes. I had some pork chops in the freezer I needed to be using, so I thought this would work well.

Sadly I couldn't find it online anywhere, so I have to type out the whole thing. Lame.

Stir-Fried Pork and Napa Cabbage with Ginger Sauce
Source: The America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook, copyright 2010

Pork:
2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
2 tsp Chinese rice cooking wine or dry sherry
1 12-ounce pork tenderloin, sliced into thin strips

Stir-Fry:
3 scallions, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger
4 tsp canola oil
2 carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks
1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into matchsticks
1/2 head napa cabbage, cored and shredded into 1-inch wide pieces
1 recipe Ginger Sauce (recipe below)

For the Pork: combine the sesame oil, cornstarch, flour, soy sauce, and rice wine in a bowl, stir in the pork, and marinate for at least 10 minutes or up to 1 hour.

For the stir-fry: combine the scallions, garlic, ginger, and 1 teaspoon of the canola oil in a bowl.

Heat 1 teaspoon more canola oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over high heat until just smoking. Add the pork, break up any clumps, and cook until lightly browned on all sides but not fully cooked, 2 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, cover, and set aside.

Add the remaining 2 teaspoons canola oil to the skillet and return to high heat until shimmering. Add the carrots and bell pepper and cook until the vegetables are crisp-tender, 3-4 minutes. Stir in the cabbage and cook, tossing constantly, until it is slightly wilted and crisp-tender, about 2 minutes.

Clear the center of the skillet, add the garlic mixture, and cook, mashing the mixture into the pan, untril fragrant, 15 to 30 seconds. Stir it into the vegetables.

Return the pork, with any accumulated juice, to the skillet. Whisk the sauce to recombine, then add to the skillet. Simmer, tossing constantly, until the pork is cooked through and the sauce has thickened, 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Serve.

Per 1-1/4 cup serving: 300 calories, 15g fat, 2g sat fat, 55mg cholesterol, 20g carbohydrates, 22g protein, 2g fiber, 780mg sodium

Ginger Sauce
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
2 Tbsp Chinese rice cooking wine or dry sherry
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger

Whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl and use as directed in stir-fry recipes.

*****

I love how fast stir fries come together for a dinner. I got the pork marinating and then worked on prepping everything else. If you aren't used to making stir fries, having everything ready to go is a pretty crucial step since the ingredients usually cook super fast.

This was something my whole family really enjoyed. Boy #1 thought it looked gross when he saw the picture in the cookbook, but he ate just about every bite on his plate. I served it over some brown rice (I needed some carbs for my run!), and the husband and I each had an egg roll with ours. This is definitely something I'd make again. I think you could easily substitute chicken for the pork as well.

The picture isn't the greatest. I forgot to take a pic after I had plated, but when I thought of it my plate was kind of a mess, so I took a picture of what was left in the pan. I also keep forgetting to put the Speedlite back on my camera, so the lighting is pretty horrible.

Easy Chop Suey

How's this for back on track...new recipes, posting daily. I guess I shouldn't brag on it too much in case it doesn't last.

I was flipping through a Betty Crocker vegetarian cookbook I have to get ideas for dinners this week and saw this one for Easy Chop Suey. I had most of the ingredients and had just bought veggie sausage at Costco. I've made other recipes from this cookbook and really liked them, so hopefully this one is a success too.

Easy Chop Suey

Cooking spray
1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium stalks celery, coarsely chopped
2 cups frozen sausage-style soy-protein crumbles
1/3 cup uncooked regular long-grain rice
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup reduces sodium soy sauce
2 cups water
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 bag (1 lb) frozen seven-vegetable stir-fry, tahwed
4 cups crisp chow mein noodles

Spray 4 to 5 quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Generously spray 12-inch skillet with cooking spray. Add onion and celery; generously spray with cooking spray. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until crisp-tender. Stir in remaining ingredients except stir-fry vegetables and noodles. Spoon into slow cooker.

Cover; cook on low 6-7 hours.

Stir in stir-fry vegetables. Increase heat setting to High. Cover; cook about 15 minutes longer or until vegetables are tender. Serve with noodles.

*****

Once I got this all together I really wasn't sure how it's going to turn out. I went and saw my friend Jen and her new babies today and was telling her about it. I said it's either going to be awesome or gross and we'll need to go get pizza for dinner, I don't think there's going to be any halfway on this one. Even know I'm still not sure how it's going to be, and it's been in the slow cooker for 5.5 hours. It actually looks pretty done, so I may go ahead and add in the veggies. I'm starving, so I really hope this isn't totally nasty.

Oh, and since I've sworn off canned soups (have you ever read the ingredients for cream of mushroom soup?! Gross!!), I made my own. What?!, you may be asking. She made her own cream of mushroom soup? I did. It was really easy. I was looking through the Make it Fast, Cook it Slow slow cooker cookbook and saw that she had a recipe in there for an alternative you make yourself. It's really more like a quick little cream sauce, but I chopped up some mushrooms, sauteed them and tossed them in the mix so it would be slightly more authentic. I'm so ridiculously excited to have found a substitute for the nasty canned stuff. I really don't like to eat foods that have ingredients I have to struggle to pronounce.

Interested in making your own cream of whatever soup? Check out the Crockpot Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe on the Year of Slow Cooking blog. She has the ingredients and instructions listed with that.

*****

Did you know that Domino's Pizza is having a two medium two topping pizza for $5.99 each special right now? Guess how I found out...that's what we had for dinner. I tasted this before putting the vegetables in, and all I could taste were the veggie grounds. The husband said the texture was weird--I think partly because the sausage broke down so much it was like mushy rice with veggie sausage particles. I decided to save the bag of stir-fry veggies for another use and went to my UDBP (universal dinner back-up plan): pizza.

Barefoot Bloggers: Indonesian Ginger Chicken

Okay, I really want to go to bed now, but I was so excited to actually be posting my Barefoot Bloggers recipe on the right day that I'm staying up to do so! I'm so dedicated, I know. Okay, not really. I just checked this week to see what the January recipes are that we're going to be making. When I saw the title of this one I thought for sure I'd have to go buy a bunch of fancy ingredients which would totally defeat the Pantry Challenge, so I was pleasantly surprised when all the ingredients are things I have on hand. I even had a whole chicken I could use! Thanks to Todd of A Cooking Dad for choosing an easy and tasty sounding recipe to kick off the new year!

Indonesian Ginger Chicken

1 cup honey
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup minced garlic (8 to 12 cloves)
1/2 cup peeled and grated fresh ginger root
2 (3 1/2 pound) chickens, quartered, with backs removed

Cook the honey, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger root in a small saucepan over low heat until the honey is melted. Arrange the chicken in 1 layer in a shallow baking pan, skin side down, and pour on the sauce. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the baking pan in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover the pan, turn the chicken skin side up, and raise the temperature to 375 degrees F. Continue baking for 30 minutes or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh and the sauce is a rich, dark brown.

*****

I forgot to get a whole chicken out to defrost, so I decided to just use chicken breasts instead. And I didn't have any fresh ginger on hand, so I just threw in a couple teaspoons of the powder stuff to make up for it. And I missed the part initially about marinating overnight. Oops. I mixed up the marinade and then just poured it over the chicken breasts and let it sit all day. Oh, and I cut all the marinade ingredients in half since I was just using four pieces of chicken instead of two whole ones.

This was FANTASTIC!!! All four of us devoured what was on our plates. The butternut squash mash I made to go with it was not so good, however, so I'm not even going to bother typing it out. None of us ate that. Sad waste of a butternut squash. Anyway, make this chicken! It's easy, it's tasty, and if you have a well-stocked kitchen, you should have everything on hand for it!

Oh, and I also made another side dish from the Make it Fast, Cook it Slow cookbook--rice in the crockpot!! Instead of posting the recipe, here's the link to it on her blog. I don't remember if I've shared before that I'm not good at making rice. Brown rice and basmati I can make okay, but plain ol' white rice always comes out gummy. I was intrigued by making it this way, and honestly...it's the best rice I've ever had!!! Mine took about two hours to cook, maybe a few minutes longer. Then I just turned off the crockpot and kept tasting it every now and then to make sure it wasn't getting gummy--and it didn't!! And it sat for at least 30 minutes. This is definitely my new favorite way to make rice.



Check out my cool retro crockpot! It was my grandma's...I love it!

Asian Pork Loin

My friend Michele is a very talented photographer. We were supposed to meet up on Tuesday afternoon to take some one year pics of the baby (a month late, but whatever). I was meeting her at 4:00 about half an hour from our house, so I wanted something in the crockpot for dinner since I figured we'd get home around dinner time. I pulled out at Southern Living slow cooker cookbook that I rarely use and flipped through. I had just bought a pork loin roast, so when I saw this recipe I thought it would be a good choice. Plus I had almost all the ingredients on hand.

Asian Pork Loin

1 2-pound lean boneless center-cut pork loin roast
3/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tbsp grated peeled fresh ginger
1 Tbsp minced fresh garlic
2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp Chinese five spice powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp water

Trim fat from roast. Combine orange juice and next six ingredients in a large zipper top plastic bag. Add pork, seal bag, and marinate in refrigerator 8-24 hours.

Place pork and marinade in slow cooker. Cover with lid; cook on high heat for one hour. Reduce to low heat setting and cook 7 hours.

Remove pork from cooker; let stand 10 minutes before slicing. Pour cooking liquid into a 4-cup glass measuring cup or bowl. Let stand 5 minutes Skim fat from surface of liquid. Combine cornstarch and water in a small bowl; stir until well blended. Add cornstarch mixture to cooking liquid and stir well. Microwave on high 3 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring halfway through cooking time.

Slice pork, serve with sauce.

*****

I was glad I looked at this recipe on Sunday and saw how long it needed to marinate because I would have been mad had I gone to throw everything into the crockpot Tuesdasy morning and saw that. I had some oranges I got from a local produce co-op, and I'm not a real big fan of oranges (except Cuties...I love Cuties!!), so I used them for the juice called for in the recipe. Brilliant, eh. I cut back on the red pepper because the boy doesn't like spicy.

*****

We ended up having to cancel pictures because we had a random thunderstorm in Phoenix yesterday. I know, of all days, right?! But it was still nice to have dinner in the crockpot and not have to worry about it at all. I had even bought Minute Rice so dinner would be ready super fast when we got home. Oh well! Anyway, I don't think this is a keeper. All we could taste was heat, not flavor. I expected the sauce to be sweeter but it was super spicy. Normally I dig some spice in my food, but this was over the top. It was really the sauce that did it, the meat itself wasn't that spicy. I was glad I hadn't put any sauce on the kids' meat. I had mine in the crockpot for six hours on low, and it was pretty dried out. I think with less heat it might be okay, but I don't know if it's worth making again.

Vegetarian Mushroom Gravy

My brother is a vegetarian, and while I'm sure he wishes he could indulge in the turkey gravy we had for Thanksgiving #2, he couldn't. His friend Siri made mushroom gravy for their turkey-less Thanksgiving celebration, and my mom got the recipe from her and made it for him for Thanksgiving #2. I didn't make it, so I didn't know if I should post it, but 1) it was really good, 2) she sent me the recipe, too, and 3) I took a picture of it. So, here you go.

Vegetarian Mushroom Gravy

3/4 cup white or button mushrooms, chopped
1 small yellow or white onion, minced
1/4 cup margarine
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 cup flour
1 tbsp poultry seasoning (or 1/2 tsp each of sage, thyme and marjoram)
salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet, melt the margarine and add onion and mushrooms. Sautee for just a minute or two over high heat.

Reduce heat to medium and add vegetable broth and soy sauce. Slowly add flour, stirring well to combine and prevent lumps from forming. Bring to a simmer or a low boil, then reduce heat.

Add poultry seasoning, salt and pepper, stirring consistently. Allow to cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring regularly, until gravy thickens.

*****

This was really good gravy! It's something I would make if I wanted gravy for something but didn't want to use a packet or use drippings and go to all that trouble. I had turkey gravy on my dressing and this on my mashed potatoes. Way to go, Siri, for finding this yummy vegetarian gravy!! And way to go for my mom for making it for Thanksgiving #2!

Balsamic Chicken Drumsticks

first let me say that one of the shift keys on my computer isn't working, so I'm having a hard time capitalizing some letters. i was recently looking through my freezer and saw some chicken drumsticks that I had forgotten were out there. I got really excited when I remembered this recipe. We had only had it once before, but I liked it. Plus this time I can correct the mistakes I made last time!

(By the way, this will be my last post for awhile. The husband's birthday is Friday, so tomorrow night we're getting pizza for dinner, and then he and I are heading out for a weekend SANS KIDS!!!!!! You have no idea how excited I am!! Or if you have kids, maybe you do have an idea...)

Balsamic Chicken Drumsticks

I wanted to have some kind of couscous side with it, but wasn't sure what to do. I didn't see anything on RecipeZaar.com that looked especially good, so I checked allrecipes.com and found something that sounded good. I'll just link to it:

Company Couscous

I don't have red peppers but I do have green, so I figure I'll just substitute that.

Honey Ginger Grilled Mahi Mahi

I hope everyone has had a nice holiday weekend! You may have noticed I haven't had to cook since Thursday--it's been a nice break! Friday night some friends invited us over for dinner which ended up being great because I was REALLY off my game in the kitchen. I offered to take dessert; my friend said I didn't need to but if I wanted to I could. I had just bought a huge box of strawberries at Costco, so I figured I'd do something with strawberries. I found a few good sounding cake recipes but didn't have the right ingredients for frosting. Then I thought chocolate covered strawberries. For the life of me I could not get the chocolate to melt right. I have never had as many problems melting chocolate as I did on Friday. So I gave up on that after wasting an entire bag of chocolate chips. Then I found a recipe for cream stuffed strawberries that sounded fantastic, but the filling was disgusting. The husband actually spit out his sample. It tasted like ass--or at least what I would imagine ass to taste like. It tasted bad, we'll leave it at that. So I threw out those. I checked the blog for dessert ideas and saw a recipe for a strawberry pie I had made quite a long time ago. I remembered seeing a pie crust in the freezer, so I got it out...only to find that it was completely broken and not at all salvageable. Sigh. So I decided to scrap the idea of making a dessert. Then last night we went to my mom's for dinner. It was great; she kept the kids during the day and the husband and I went on a day date to a movie and lunch.

Now it's back to normal. I had originally planned on grilling a whole chicken tonight, but I forgot to get it out of the freezer in time, so I needed a new idea. I had some mahi mahi in the freezer, so I got that out and then checked RecipeZaar.com for a recipe. I wanted to cook them on the grill, so once I added that criteria I had 11 recipes to choose from. This one sounded good and easy--a combination I love!


Honey Ginger Grilled Salmon, Swordfish or Mahi Mahi
Recipe #320129

1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 inch fresh ginger, chopped or 1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced or 1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 green onions, chopped
1 1/2 lbs salmon fillets or mahi mahi or swordfish

Add all ingredients except fish in a large resealable plastic bag and mix well. Add fish and refrigerate to marinate for 15 minutes. Remove salmon from marinade and discard marinade. Grill on a greased grill rack over medium-high heat 5-6 per side for slightly rare salmon or cook until fish flakes easily with a fork.

*****

Some of the reviews suggested marinating the fish for longer than the time specified, so I'll probably let it go just a little longer. I might also use tamari instead of soy sauce. I'm not sure yet what we're going to have with this. I think I saw one last package of Rice A Roni in my pantry I might use up and then steam a vegetable of some sort as well.

*****

This was a really good marinade! I only let it marinate about 30 minutes, and I was glad I did because I think any more would have taken away the fish taste of the mahi mahi. I would use this again on fish or even chicken. We all really liked it! But, I completely forgot to take a picture because I was so excited to eat. Oops!

Hoisin & Ginger Pork Wraps with Cruncy Peanut Slaw

Alright, I'm back on track and ready get back into the swing of my blog! The boy started swim lessons yesterday morning, and yesterday and today have both been crazy busy. The next two days aren't looking a whole lot better either. I really should be cleaning a bathroom or doing laundry or something equally as exciting, but I miss my blog. Plus neither my dirty bathroom nor the huge pile of towels that need to be washed are going anywhere. They can wait a few more minutes while I update here.

One of my most favorite blogs is Meal Planning 101. Everything I've tried from her blog is awesomely amazing. I saw this when she posted it and thought it looked fantastic. I heart just about anything with hoisin sauce. It was funny, shortly after I had seen this recipe Jen B. sent me an email with a link to this saying something along the lines of "This looks fantastic!" I had already slated it for dinner one night this week. The recipe calls for meat from a cooked pork shoulder, but I'm just going to cook some pork chops and shred the meat and call it good. Costco had a smokin' deal on pork chops when I was there last week, so I have quite a stockpile of them now. I can't wait for dinner tonight!

Hoisin & Ginger Pork Wraps with Cruncy Peanut Slaw

Hoisin-Ginger Pork:
2 cups shredded pork
1 clove garlic, minced
1-2 inches of ginger, grated
1/4 cup hoisin sauce (or more as needed to cover the pork)

In a medium saucepan, heat 2 tsp oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and ginger and stir until fragrant about 30-60 seconds. Then add the pork and hoisin sauce. Turn heat to medium-low and let simmer for about 5 minutes until heated through and all the flavors have combined.

Crunchy Peanut Slaw:
1/2 medium head green cabbage, outer leaves removed (or 1 bag of angel hair coleslaw)
3/4 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts
4 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup light oil, like canola
1 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 tbsp sugar (or more, to taste)
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce (or more, to taste)

Slice the cabbage as fine as you possibly can, so you have little threads of cabbage (I just bought a bag of angel hair coleslaw where this was already done for me). Toss in the peanuts, green onions, and cilantro. Place the oil, rice vinegar, sugar, sesame oil and soy sauce in a resealable jar and shake. Pour over cabbage mixture and toss until coated.

Serve the hoisin-ginger pork along with the crunchy peanut slaw with whole wheat tortilla wraps. Place both inside of a tortilla and roll up.

*****

Mmmmmm...I can't wait! I need to get my pork defrosting so we eat on time since I still have to cook it. I don't think I have peanuts, but I do have some cashews left from when I made Stir Fried Cashew Pork recently. Plus I like cashews better than peanuts anyway. I also bought a bag of coleslaw mix because it was on sale for $1, and I figured that was just easier than having to slice my own cabbage. I still have no idea what we're going to have as a side dish with this. Maybe just some kind of vegetable and a salad and skip having a starch.

*****

These. Were. Awesome. Oh man...the slaw was amazing. The boy helped me mix it up, and he and I kept taking bites after it was all mixed up. I didn't have cilantro (well, I did but half of it had turned to mush), but it was fine without it, although I will definitely add it next time. The pork was super tasty, and the combination of the pork with the slaw was fantastic!! We all really liked this, and it's something I will definitely make again!

Stir Fried Cashew Pork

Two weekends ago Jen B. and I went to Sprouts for a grocery trip. It's a natural market that has amazing prices on produce and meats, and they have all sorts of yummy stuff you can't find in normal stores--and a huge bulk food section (where the stuff is in bins). I sooooo wish we had one closer to us. While we were checking out we spotted Cook's Illustrated magazine. Jen and I were both pretty excited. She grabbed one to buy, and I was going to but then I spotted a magazine under it that looked good. It was America's Test Kitchen 30-Minute Suppers. So we decided Jen would get Cook's Illustrated and I'd get that one then we'd get to trade and see both of them. There are some tasty looking recipes in the one I got--I can't wait to see Jen's! I may actually get a subscription to Cook's Illustrated because there's a card in mine to get it for $20 a year which is pretty reasonable, and I really like the magazine.

Anyway, I needed something for dinner tonight, so I was flipping through the magazine to see what I could find. There were two recipes that sounded good, and I had all but one ingredient for both. I asked the husband which sounded better, and he chose this one. I think I'll slate the other one for one night next week because it sounds really good, and I'll have everything on hand for it.

Stir Fried Cashew Pork
1/2 cup Hoisin sauce
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 pork tenderloin (3/4 to 1 pound), cut into 1/4-inch strips
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbso grated fresh ginger
1 cup roasted unsalted cashews, half coarsely chopped, half left whole
1/4 cup cilantro leaves

Combine hoisin sauce, 1/3 cup water, soy sauce, and pepper flakes in medium bowl. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add half of pork and cook until no longer pink, about 2 minutes; transfer to plate. Repeat with additional 2 teaspoons oil and remaining pork.

Add remaining oil to empty skillet and heat until shimmering. Cook garlic and ginger until fragrant, about 20 seconds. Add hoisin mixture, cashews, pork, and any accumulated juices to pan and cook until thickened, about 1 minute. SPrinkle with cilantro. Serve.

*****

I bought cashews (from the bulk section!!) at Sprouts to make Cashew Chicken, but since we had chicken last night I didn't want it two nights in a row. I'll make some brown rice to go with this, and I have a bag of frozen Asian-style veggies in the freezer, as well as some egg rolls. Yum--should be a good dinner!

*****

This was pretty good. I think I like the Cashew Chicken I made better, but this was tasty. I didn't have as much pork as I thought, so I only used two pork chops cut up. I ended up mixing the bag of stir fry vegetables in with the pork and sauce to make it a little more substantial.

I took a picture on my new phone, I just have to figure out how to get it on the computer.

Saito Chicken

I had originally planned something different for Sunday's dinner, a crockpot chicken marsala recipe. But, I was out running errands yesterday afternoon and thought that didn't really sound good at all. I wanted to grill. Memorial Day weekend and 4th of July weekend I just feel the need to grill. So I scrapped the plan for the crockpot dinner and decided to make this chicken again. I wasn't sure what sides to have with it, but I found a grilled potato recipe on RecipeZaar.com that sounded good, and I figured some peas and a salad would round out everything. I'll do the potatoes in a separate post.

Saito Chicken

Chicken on the Grill

I'm not really sure what to call this dinner tonight. I'm using my most favorite chicken marinade, but I'm using a whole chicken splayed out in all her glory on the grill. So, "Chicken on the Grill" it is. I got a late start on dinner because we had my MOMS Club Mother's Day party this afternoon, and I was too busy gabbing with friends and feeding the baby to realize what time it was and that we needed to get our butts home to get this chicken on the grill. At least I got it marinating during naptime this afternoon.

We went to Jen B's for dinner one night last summer, and they grilled a chicken like this. My uncle has grilled chicken like this before, too, and I've wanted to try it for awhile. I'm not sure why I haven't before now. I saw a whole chicken in my freezer last week and thought I might as well try it. I wasn't sure how to season it, but I thought this marinade would be good because it's good on chicken breasts. The recipe below is a combination of the marinade recipe and what to do with the chicken. I'm blatantly copying and pasting the directions from Jen's blog. I hope she doesn't mind.

Chicken on the Grill
1 whole chicken (mine was 4 pounds)
1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/4 soy sauce
1 or 2 crushed garlic cloves
1 tsp dried ginger
salt and pepper

Remove the giblets (if there are any) from the cavity of the chicken. Flip the chicken onto its breast. Using poultry shears, cut down both sides of the backbone from tail to neck; discard backbone. Or, if you don't have shears, lay the bird on its back, insert a long heavy knife into the body cavity and press down hard with a rocking motion to cut down through both sides of the backbone. Open the bird out onto your work surface, breast side up. Make sure that the legs are turned inward. Using your fist or a mallet, wallop the bird on the breast, hard enough to dislodge the center bones and flatten out the breast. Twist the last joint of the wings up over the breast and then down behind the "shoulders," tucking them in firmly to keep them in place during grilling.

Mix together remaining ingredients. Place chicken in a 9x13 glass pan and pour marinade over the top. Marinate in fridge for a couple hours, turning chicken halfway. Heat one side of a gas grill to medium. If you have a grill with three burners, heat the outer two to medium, leaving the center one off. Or light a charcoal fire and let it burn until the charcoal is covered with white ash and about medium-hot; bank half the coals to one side of the grill, half to the other.

Lay in the center of the grill (it will not be over direct heat). Cook, without turning, basting from time to time with any remaining marinade, until the juices run clear when a thigh is pierced deeply with a fork (an instant-read thermometer should register about 160 degrees when inserted at the thickest part of the thigh), about 45 minutes. If you're cooking over charcoal, you'll want to add more charcoal to the fire after an hour or so - the internal temperature of the grill should stay at about 325 degrees. Remove the chicken to a cutting board. It will lose less juice if you cover it loosely with foil and let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes.

*****

I forgot to add the garlic to my marinade. I can't believe I did that after all the times I've made this. Ugh. Oh well, hopefully it won't make that much difference. I have to say, getting the chicken ready was pretty disgusting. If I hadn't shared it before, I used to have issues eating meat. If it had a bone in it, I couldn't eat it...it reminded me that once upon a time said meat was walking around. I'm slowly getting over it, but cutting out the backbone of the chicken may have made me take a couple steps back. It seemed so inhumane and gross. Jen B. assures me it gets easier to handle and that I'll get over it. We'll see.

*****

Okay, this chicken was tasty. It was so juicy and moist and tender. Jen may be right, and I will get over the grossness of cutting the backbone out of the chicken. This was a really easy way to cook a chicken, too. I just threw it on the grill, checked on it once about halfway through, and that was it. Our grill has four burners, so I turned on the two outside burners and left the two middles ones off. Our grill has a temerature gauge on the top of it, and it stayed between 325 and 350 the whole time. My only complaint was that the marinade didn't really soak into the chicken at all. Next time I might loosen the skin a bit to see if that would help it seep under the skin and get on the meat, since we don't eat the skin (although I did take a few bites because it was super yummy!!). The husband ended up dipping his chicken in barbecue sauce, so I thought next time I might try basting it with barbecue sauce and put some under the skin before putting it on the grill. I'll definitely cook a chicken like this again!

Sweet and Sour Ribs

Ah, the start of a new year. I know it's five days in, but the husband is back at work, and now it's back to the daily grind. I have big plans for 2009, we'll see if any of them happen. Not really big plans, plans for things I want to start doing around the house. My friend Kelly has a blog for getting organized, so I'm hoping to implement some of her ideas to get things in order around my house. I need to formalize my plan, though, otherwise it won't ever happen. When I first started staying home I made a schedule for myself of what laundry got done on what day (I swear I do laundry every freakin' day) and what chores happened on one day. Then I started slacking. I figure with two kids I need to get back in the habit of being organized, and I want a clean house again. Now that baby stuff is everywhere, the clutter is driving me crazy. So one of the things on my list for today is to work up a schedule.

But, since I am a first class procrastinator, I thought I'd update the blog with tonight's dinner. This was on my to do list for today, so I guess I'm not really slacking. :)

So, sweet and sour ribs. I used to make this all the time, and it was one of our most favorite dinners. What's that you say...don't remember seeing this on my blog before? Well, you probably haven't. I haven't made it in years because for some reason grocery stores stopped having boneless ribs on sale. And I'm entirely too cheap to pay full price for them, even though we love this recipe. I was at Costco last week (by myself!! What a treat!) and walked past the meat section to see what their prices on various things were. I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw boneless pork ribs for $1.89 a pound. Lordy mama...I was so excited!! I even called my mom to tell her. I have to share when I get excited, what can I say. I'm so excited we can start having this on a regular basis again. I heart crock pot dinners because it minimizes the craziness of getting things together at dinnertime. I had a minor panic attack when looking for the recipe because it wasn't in my recipe folder like I thought it would be. Then I thought, "Maybe I actually filed it away in my recipe box." Sure enough...there it was! Crisis averted. Not really--I could have just called my mom and gotten the recipe from her.

Sweet and Sour Ribs
1 can Contadina sweet and sour sauce
1 cup barbecue sauce
Dash of soy sauce
3 T. brown sugar
Boneless ribs

Cut fat from ribs and boil 10 minutes. Mix first four ingredients together. Place ribs in crockpot and pour sauce over to coat. Cook six hours on low. Or, place ribs in baking dish, pour sauce over ribs, and bake uncovered at 350 for 20 minutes, cover and bake for 40 more minutes.

*****

My crockpot cooking time is estimated, but I'm pretty sure six hours on low is right. I remember coming home at lunch one day when I worked to put them in the crockpot, and we usually ate between 6:00 and 7:00. Also, I have only been able to find Contadina sweet and sour sauce once in all the years I've been making this, so I usually just buy the bottle of Kikkoman sweet and sour sauce and call it good.

We were going to have baked beans with this, but I forgot to buy them yesterday, so I'm not sure what we'll have. I need to go through the pantry and see what all is in there. I saw a Pasta Roni mix I'd like to get rid of, so maybe we'll have that, a vegetable, and I might make some corn bread if I have a mix or have everything on hand for it. Actually I just got a recipe for some kind of corn casserole, so if I have everything maybe I'll make that instead of corn bread.

*****

These ribs were just as good as we remembered them!! I think I cooked them a little too long (I ended up doing four hours on high because I had a baby to deal with and couldn't get them in the crockpot in time for six hours on low) because if you got a bite without much sauce, it was a bit dry. but the sauce was oh-so-yummy. I could have eaten it with a spoon. We had pasta roni, corn bread, and salad with it. I'm glad I found cheap boneless ribs so we can have this more often.