Overnight Steel-Cut Oats

I have wanted to try this for a long time. I like having oatmeal for breakfast, except the fact that even with me piling up the toppings to the old fashion rolled oats, I still feel hungry about an hour or so later. I have heard about steel-cut oats but was frustrated about the cooking method and the length of time it takes to cook them. I decided to Google a better recipe in prepping the oats and I found it here. I tried it and it was a success! The meal was satisfying and sustaining. I did not feel hungry after breakfast until noon time. The best part, I am not the only one likes it. Now this recipe is here to stay for sure.

I soaked the boiled oats overnight and this was what I found this morning. So happy!

Delicious meal!

Peter ate up the whole bowl by himself - he only wanted maple syrup as topping.

Salad

Ever since I started the Juicing journey, I have been eating more salads. It is a new thing for me as I did not grow up in a family that eats salad as part of a meal.  We eat luttuce and herbs and other hard veggies such as cucumber and hiccama with cooked meat or egg rolls and rice pasta though. Just not a salad before main dish.

Then I came to America.

I first learned to eat sushi and I found out I like it but unfortunately I am the only one in my family who likes the raw fish.  Joshua will eat the California rolls but that's all from the Japanese cuisine.

I still miss my noodles and rice soup for breakfast from time to time - those are my comfort food in the morning.

Then I discovered the organic food world.  That has changed our entire eating habit. We now shop at Trader Joe's and Lassen's almost exclusively except for a few canned green chilies for a certain recipe I have to get at Pavilions and certain type of cheese from Costco. Our immune system has improved greatly due to a healthier diet.

Then entered the raw foodies I found on blog land.  I read about them but eating raw food all the time is just not my cup of tea so I discounted it.

Lo and behold, after juicing for almost two months now, I have been eating many salads before dinner.  Yeah... lettuce and all other raw veggies... I also have become a very discriminated salad eater.

~My salad has to be colorful and nourishing. Period.~

I can't just eat a green salad, it somehow just does not please my palates.  I have to have the colors of green, red, white, yellow (no blue though) and something crunchy like croutons (most of the time I made them from scratch) in my salad bowl and the ingredients have to be nourishing at the same time. I normally put avocado pieces, sliced eggs, cransins, pine nuts, carrots, mushroom, green onion and of course Romain lettuce (please quit eating iceberg lettuce, it has no nutritional value what so ever.  Romain on the other hand is a more hearty green for your health - just Google it and you will be surprised at the goodness this lettuce provides.)

Here is a blurry picture of my half eaten colorful salad...

 Yummy...! and I eat a smaller portion on the main meal. So yeah, I still eat everything as I used to before my juicing life but now in a moderate portion (except the salad).

I purchased this book because I really like the author and her In-Law family.  Of course I like the book as well as it is full of whole food info and just overall a very enticing book for a salad newbie as myself. Go check out her website. You will be glad you do. :)

Lacinato Kale

I have heard so much benefits about kale but the truth is I never try cooking any of them (the varieties scared me off, I guess). This past weekend I came across this Organic Lacinato Kale from the Farmer's Market so I decided to give it a try. This vegetable has very hard stems (hence the name Dino Kale) and my common sense led me to rip the leaves off the stems before cooking them. I was glad to find out I did the right thing after reading about it from Google. It tasted so wonderful that I know I would do it again. It is loaded with vitamin K (680%!) besides all the other good nutrients it contains.

These dark leaves looked very interesting, they looked good enough to be a center piece on the dinner table, in my opinion. The dark green color made me feel healthy eating them.

We tried to put some water on the back of the leaf and voila! They looked like pieces of crushed ice. You have to see it in person to see the amazing effect!

I sauteed the veggies by following this supper easy recipe - I added some unsalted butter, some sweet corns and two small bowls of water (one bowl at a time as i sauteed it) to keep them from turning brown.

It was an yummy side dish with the "Dash" roasted chicken and rice. I will definitely make this meal again.

~This post is linked to Alicia's Homemaking

Baked Penne

Two nights ago I made one of our family's favorite dinner - Baked Penne.

The rightful name actually is Baked Rigatoni from the Saving Dinner cookbook, but since TJ doesn't carry that pasta I just got what looks close enough to it and made a couple more modification on the recipe to call it my own. :)

Oh and I doubled the recipe to make two meals out of one cooking effort - my kind of cooking. 

I do make a monthly menu but I cook daily most of the time.  I so much wanted to try the monthly cooking but Robert is not keen on eating "frozen dinners" too many times in a week, so I try to double a favorite recipe, especially the one with sauce involved, somehow it taste better after a few more nights of the "soaking in" even in the freezer.

Perhaps one day I will figure a way to make delicious monthly cooking meals, but for now, two meals at a time works for me.

Now onto the recipe:

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees F.

 Remember, I doubled the recipe.  So my ingredients included 1 pound extra-lean ground beef, 2 cups rolled oats (I soak my oats), 2 jars of Spaghetti sauce (I use one big can of Marinara sauce instead), 2 cup non-fat cottage cheese (I used the small curd and I think it is whole milk), 6 cups cooked Rigatoni (I cooked a whole bag of Penne Pasta instead), 2 cup shredded part-skim-milk mozzarella cheese (I used whatever was left on hand - which was more than 2 cups, and it is just fine with us.  We love lots of cheese) and 1/2 cup of grated Romano cheese.

Got my oats soaked and drained (I soaked it early in the morning.  It would be even better if I did it the night before) 

Got my pasta cooked and drained according to the pasta's package instruction.

Browned my ground-beef in the skillet. (you can drain the grease and blot the beef with paper towel to make it leaner - I didn't)

 Now added the soaked oats and incorporated them.

Normally, I just add the spaghetti sauce, cottage cheese, and the Penne Pasta into the skillet, but because I doubled the recipe, it was easier for me to mix up the ingredients by transferring the beef and oats from the skillet into a big mixing bowl before adding the ingredients.

All mixed.

I divided the mixture into two 9x13 baking dishes.  I lined one (for storage and reheat purpose).

Twenty-five minutes later. Mmmmm..... dinner is ready!

The best part is, dishes were done (I washed as I went).

One meal for the night,

Another same meal for next week.

My "Dash" Oven Baked whole chicken

Tonight I made my family's favorite dish for dinner - the "Dash" oven Baked whole chicken. "Dash"? you said. Yes, a dash of this and a dash of that (get it?) :) I don't measure the seasoning in this particular dish. Since I have made it so many times, I kinda know how much to "dash" onto the chicken. You can do that too. Just look at the pictures below and you will be able to have your own "dash" oven baked chicken at no time. Promise. :)

Defrost the chicken in the refrigerator (not on the counter) - very important. I did this yesterday morning.

Today at about 1:00PM, I gathered all of the seasoning and these are what I used on the chicken today (clockwise): Butter, Organic sugar (sometimes I use honey), garlic powder, pepper, sea salt, soy sauce, fresh garlics, fresh red onions (I use whatever onion I have on hand).  Very commom ingredients

After I cleaned the chicken, I pat dried it with paper towel. It is crucial that the bird is pat dried entirely.

Yes, even the inside. :)

Time for a bird rub-down. I put on my kitchen glove (I don't like messy hand), and rubbed some butter (or oil if you prefer), on top and under the skin.

Added some sea salt.

Some ground pepper...

Shook on some sugar (this will help make the chicken skin crunchy and yummy).

Soy sauce for color.

After I gave the bird a good rub with all of the seasoning, I then slit some slits on the breasts....

and one on each thigh.

Pushed the fresh garlic gloves into the slits.

1, 2, 3... I have 8 - 10 slit son the bird. Poor birdie.

This is the easy part. I just threw some red onions on top of the chicken.

I placed the gizzards and neck at the end of the bird. I eat them. They are delicious to me. I let the bird marinated for a whole afternoon (minimum two hours). It smelled so good. The smell always make the kids feel hungry for dinner.

At about 4:30PM, I put the chicken into a 400 degree pre-heated oven, uncovered, for 40 minutes.

40 minutes later... Sorry about the blurry picture. It looked better than this in person...

I placed a piece of parchment paper on top of the chicken and turned the oven down to 350 degree, for another 30 minutes. After that, I turned off the oven and left the chicken in the oven for another 10 minutes. So the total baking time was 70 minutes plus 10 minutes "cooling in the oven".

While the chicken is baking, I started the mashed potato process. When I make this chicken, mashed potatoes is always the most requested side dish.  Sometimes we have rice as a side dish.

Dinner is ready.

Joshua beggedd to eat it right the way (we were waiting for Robert and Christine, who were to come in at any time now).

While waiting for the two of them, I got my corn and peas ready. Do you like my frozen corn holder? I re-purposed it from the Taster's instant coffee" container. I am waiting for Roert to finish his coffee so I coudl have another one for the peas. The container store well in the freezer.

Mashed potatoes is ready...

So are the corn and peas.

Drained the corn and peas and added some butter. Now my favorite seasoning - the T.J.'s 21 Seasoning Salute!

Dinner was served and everyone liked it.  Peter ate half of my dinner for me (he doesn't have his own plate just yet).

This picture has nothing to do with the chicken.  Just want to show you what I am soaking away...

Oatmeal for tomorrow's breafast!

Oh and these are not dirty dishes. They are the dishes I am keeping (after I minimized the cupboard) for Christine in case she needs them in her first appartment or dorm. Some of them I think I will just give away. She really only need one set. I did finally put them all away while I was cooking tonight when I had some "waiting" time.