Teriyaki Salmon

My husband isn't a  huge fan of how full I can get our freezer. It's always pretty stuffed. So, I decided to start using up a lot of the stuff that I have in there. I don't think it's the amount of stuff in there but there are so many odd shaped things that it doesn't fit together very well and things are always falling.

I had frozen rice and frozen salmon in the freezer that I decided to incorporate into a meal last night. It turned out delicious and was so easy! Easy meals are a must now with this little guy demanding all of my attention. I'm not complaining though. This little one is so much fun!

I got the recipe from Damn Delicious

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons honey 
• 1 cup water
• 2 salmon filets
• Cooked rice, for serving
• Sesame seeds, for garnish
• Sliced green onions, for garnish 

Directions:

• In a small saucepan over medium heat, add the soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic powder, honey and 1 cup water; bring to a simmer.
• Stir in the cornstarch until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 2 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.
• In a gallon size Ziploc bag or large bowl, combine the teriyaki marinade and salmon filets; marinate for at least 30 minutes to overnight, turning the bag occasionally. (Instead of using salmon filets I used a longer, thinner piece of salmon so I put it in a 9x13 baking dish, poured the teriyaki sauce on top, covered with saran wrap and let it marinade in there about an hour before baking. It turned out great!)
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly coat an 8×8 baking dish with nonstick spray.
• Place the salmon filets along with the marinade onto the prepared baking dish and bake until the fish flakes easily with a fork, about 20 minutes.
• Serve the salmon immediately with rice.

Olive Garden Bread sticks

My sister came to visit us last week and we had a lot of fun! She was supposed to come in September for her birthday but I ended up having a baby the day before her flight was scheduled so we had to postpone it. She comes to visit every summer and I absolutely love it. I always have a long list of things I want to do with her when she comes. This year was a little different since I had a little one but we still got to do quite a bit of stuff. We love to cook together when she comes into town so one of the first things we made was homemade chicken broccoli Alfredo. It was absolutely delicious. We decided to make homemade Olive Garden bread sticks to go with it. They take a little bit of time to rise but the preparation is pretty easy. I got the recipe from Moms Crazy Cooking

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the finished product. They were so delicious. I will have to make them again soon and take final pictures of them before they are all gone. 

Ingredients:

2 tbsp granulated sugar
3/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup; plus 1 tbsp warm water (105-115 degrees)
3 cups bread flour
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, softened

(use for topping after baking)
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 tsp garlic salt

Dissolve the sugar and yeast in the warm water in a small bowl or measuring cup and let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes, or until it becomes foamy on top. If it doesn't get foamy, check to make sure your yeast isn't expired or the water wasn't too hot or too cold. This step is called proofing. If the mixture doesn't get foamy that means that the yeast didn't activate and the bread won't rise if you continue on.

Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Use the paddle attachment on your stand mixer to mix in the softened butter to the flour. Don't worry if it still looks like flour, you just don't want to see lumps of butter.

Switch to your dough hook and add your foamy yeast mixture to the flour. Combine ingredients and then knead for 10 minutes.

Transfer dough to a lightly greased bowl and cover with a damp towel, let rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, it will double in size.

Once doubled, measure out portions to roll into bread sticks. The easiest way to roll is between your palms but you can also roll on the counter or a cutting board.  Place dough on a parchment lined baking sheet, or Pam sprayed baking sheet.

Once all dough is rolled, cover with a damp cloth and let rise for another hour to 1 1/2 hours. Until the dough doubles in size again.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake the bread sticks  for 12-14 minutes till golden brown. Remove from oven and add the garlic salt to the melted butter and then brush it over the bread sticks.

Makes 12-13 bread sticks.


We dipped these bread sticks in homemade Alfredo which was delicious! If you want the recipe to homemade Alfredo sauce go here

Peanut Butter Bars

Last week one of our good friends came over to meet our new bundle of joy and she brought us some peanut butter bars. My husband is obsessed with peanut butter and these were so delicious! We ate them all in just a few days. Last night he wanted some more so I found a recipe online and we made some. They are so easy and delicious! This is my new go to dessert recipe. It only took about 10 mins to make and then about  40-50 minutes to set in the fridge. No baking necessary. Awesome, right? I love that all of the ingredients are things that I usually have on hand too. Five ingredients is all you need for a delicious peanut buttery goodness treat!

I got the recipe from JensFavoriteCookies

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups peanut butter

1 cup butter

2 cups powdered sugar

2 cups crushed graham crackers

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips 

Directions:

1. In a bowl melt 1 cup butter with 1 cup peanut butter until melted. Add the graham cracker crumbs and powdered sugar to the melted butter and peanut butter mixture. Spread mixture evenly in a 9x13 pan. 

2. Melt the chocolate chips with 1/4 cup peanut butter in the microwave 30 seconds at a time until melted, stirring in between. In my microwave it only took one minute to completely melt the chocolate and peanut butter. 

3. Pour chocolate mixture over the bars, spreading evenly over the top. 

4. Chill 40-50 minutes until the chocolate sets.

Steamed Lobster Tail

My husband went on a lobster trip with some of his cousins last year off Catalina Island. He brought back delicious scallops and lobster. We had eaten all of the scallops and lobster tails, except for two, soon after his return. As my husband and I were trying to decide what to do for our three year wedding anniversary this year and we decided to stay at home and celebrate with the last two lobster tails. I was going to be 36 weeks pregnant and since we had done big things the past two years to celebrate we were alright with doing something small.

Well, as some of you know, our little bundle of joy decided to come 4 weeks early on our wedding anniversary. Needless to say, we did not have lobster tail, instead we had a steak celebratory dinner at the hospital with a bottle of sparkling cider. It was so delicious after almost two days of eating nothing.

Well, two and a half weeks later we decided to make our lobster tails. They were delicious and easy. We decided to steam them instead of grill them this time and I liked them much better.

Ingredients: 

Lobster tail

Butter

Garlic

Directions:
Fill a pot half way with water. Bring to a boil and fit the top of the pot with a steam chamber, steam basket, or use a colander.

Place lobster tails in steam chamber, basket, or colander. Cover with lid.

Steam lobster tails for 5-7 minutes. I used a colander and some of the holes were not completely covered so I steamed our tails for 7 minutes and it was perfect. Remove the lobster tails from the steamer and rinse with cold water. There will be a grey, stringy film on the outside of the tails when you take them out, you can take this off under cold running water.

serving suggestions:
We enjoy our lobster tails with lemon garlic butter. We mix grated garlic and melted butter in a bowl and then brush it onto the lobster tails.