One Pot Burrito Bowls

Another quick and easy recipe to get us through the week. This One Pot Burrito Bowls recipe was found on I Heart Naptime.

Ingredients
From the pantry (or market)

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/3 cup salsa
• 1 cup Uncle Ben's brown rice
• 1 vegetable bouillon
• 1 tbsp taco seasoning
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• salt & pepper to taste

Fresh (kind of) from the market

• 1 small red bell pepper (about 1/2 cup diced)
• 1 small sweet onion (about 1/2 cup diced)
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can corn, drained
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 2 jalepenos
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in large pan over medium heat.
2. Saute onions and red bell peppers.
3. Add ground beef and cook until brown.
4. Stir in salsa, black beans, corn, tomatoes, jalepenos, taco seasoning, and chili powder.
5. Pour in 2 cups water and add bouillon and then bring to a light boil.
6. Cover pan and reduce heat to low.
7. Cook for an additional 20-25 minutes, or until the rice is all the way cooked.

I don't know if it's because the dish was so quick to make or if I am craving meat and everything tastes good, but I really liked this recipe and would definitely make it again. We also served it with the extra cabbage from yesterday's Pork Stir Fry recipe.

Vietnamese Caramel Pork Stir Fry

After the lack of meat from last week's meals, I decided we needed some meat. We got this 30-Minute Vietnamese Caramel Pork Stir Fry recipe from How Sweet It is.

Ingredients:
From the Pantry (or market)

• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 6 garlic cloves
• 1 bouillon Chicken stock
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1.5 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tsp cornstarch
• 3 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 3 cups cooked brown rice (1 cup uncooked Uncle Ben's 20 Minute brown rice)

From the market

• 1.5 lb pork tenderloin, cut into cubes
• 1.5 large sweet onion, dicded
• 3 tsp grated ginger
• 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 head cabbage, sliced
• 1/4 cup roasted peanuts, chopped
• 1/2 cup freshly torn cilantro
• 2 limes

Directions:

1. Prep your ingredients. Season pork with salt & pepper.
2. Heat oil in large wok over high heat.
3. Add pork once the oil is hot. Cook until seared and golden brown on all sides, about 6 to 8 minutes.
4. Remove pork from wok and set aside.
5. Add onion, ginger, and garlic to the wok, stirring to toss. Cook until slightly softened, about 5 minutes.
6. In a bowl, whisk together chicken stock, sugar, soy sauce, cornstarch, vinegar, and pepper flakes.
7. Pour mixture into wok and bring to a boil.
8. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 3 to 4 minutes.
9. Add pork and red pepper into the wok, tossing to coat and cook for another 2 minutes.
10. Add rice, cilantro, peanuts, and lime juice.
11. Serve over cabbage.

This was a pretty tasty recipe and pretty simple to make. If you prep all your ingredients in this order (onion, ginger, garlic, red pepper, cabbage, cilantro, pork) and set each one aside, you will only need to wash three bowls, one cutting board, one knife, and one wok. We will probably make it again because it didn't take too long to make.

One-Pot Red Beans and Rice

As with the Tandoori Quinoa, we picked this recipe for the "one pot" aspect. We got this recipe from Southern Bite and just tweeked a little bit. We were able to split it into four generous dinners for two people, keeping mostly the same measurements.

Ingredients
From the Pantry (or market)

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 chicken bouillons
• 2 cups Uncle Ben's wholegrain brown rice

From the market

• 1.5 lbs (700g) Italian sausage,* sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 1 28oz can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

*Note: we used Italian sausage because it was the cheapest option available at the market

Instructions

1. Heat vegetable oil on a pan over medium heat.
2. Add sausage and cook for 4 to 5 minutes.
3. Add onion, green pepper, and celery, and cook 7 to 8 minutes or until onions are translucent.
4. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
5. Add chicken bouillons and 2.5 cups water and bring to a boil over medium high heat.
6. Stir in beans and rice.
7. Reduce heat to a simmer.
8. Cover and cook for 20 minutes (according to cooking instructions on rice packaging) or until rice is tender.

This recipe was really tasty and I don't think there's anything else we would change aside from perhaps adding some herbs to it next (i.e. parsley or thyme). I know we changed a lot already - went away from the cajun sausage and the creole seasoning, but the ingredients were good and the dish ended up being quite tasty.

Mustard Chicken

Today's recipe was from Better Homes and Garden (http://www.bhg.com/recipe/chicken-dijonnaise/) - with minor revisions of course.

Ingredients:

- 4 chicken thighs (they were cheaper)

- 1/4 all purpose flour

- 1/4 tsp ground pepper

- 1 small leek (they don't sell single green onions at the market)

- 2 tbsp margarine

- 1/3 cup whipping cream

- 3 tbsp Jalepeno honey mustard (from Leavenworth)

- 3 tbsp white wine

We also made rice on the side and mixed in some frozen vegetables approximately 8 minutes before removing the rice from heat.

Instructions:

1) Mix the flour and pepper.

2) Coat the chicken with the flour mixture.

3) Melt the butter in a skillet on medium heat.

4) Place the chicken skin down in the skillet and cook, without moving, for 15 minutes until it is golden brown. If it starts to burn, turn the heat down a bit.

5) While waiting for the chicken, dice and wash te leek.

6) Also while the chicken is cooking, mix the whipping cream, mustard, and wine.

7) When the chicken is brown, flip an cook for another 20-30 minutes.

8) When the chicken is cooked, set aside, keeping the drippings in the skillet.

9) Add the leek to the drippings.

10) Cook until limp, approximately 2 minutes.

11) Add the mustard mixture in.

12) Cook 2-3 minutes until thick.

13) Serve sauce on chicken and rice - didn't even need srirachi since the mustard had a Jalepeno kick to it.

Beef Stroganoff

Today's recipe was inspired by Kidspot, however, we found it very unhelpful.

Ingredients:

• 400 g blade steak - they're the cheapest kind at Safeway but were sold in a huge pack. We noticed 700 g was too much for us personally, so we just used 1/3 of the package
• 4 mushrooms - it's not on the ingredient list on the recipe but it's in the instructions
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, diced
• 2 tbsp quinoa (the recipe called for cornflour, which we couldn't find and didn't want to buy a huge packet of anyway)
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 tbsp salsa (we also didn't want to buy a big can of tomato paste for just one dish)
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 cup beef stock (which we made with 1 cup water and 1/2 a beef bouillon)
• 2 tbsp flour (optional)

Steps:

1. Start your rice first, as that will always take the longest.

2. Dice the onion and garlic. Cut the steak into cubes and coat with quinoa and nutmeg.

3. Cook the onion and garlic in as much oil as you prefer on medium heat until they start browning. Then add the beef and wine.

4. When the beef turns brown, add the mushrooms. Cook until soft.

5. Add the salsa, stock, sour cream and cover to cook for about 15 minutes.

6. We found our stroganoff to be very liquid-y, so at about 14 minutes, we added 2 tbsp flour. If you like it more liquid-y, then this step is optional.

7. Serve on rice.

8. It was pretty flavourful already, but I always like a bit of extra kick in my food.

Beef and Kidney Bean Wrap

Another recipe inspired by Kalyn's Kitchen. We had some left overs from before so we used it in this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp peanut oil
• 400 g ground beef
• 1 cup kidney beans
• 4 tbsp of the fish rub from yesterday's dinner
• 1 leek
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp sriracha sauce
• 1 tbsp water
• zest from 1 lime
• juice from 1 lime
• 1 head iceberg lettuce

Steps:

1. Always start the rice first (if you're eating with rice). We added some frozen vegetables in 5 minutes before the rice was done.

2. Wash and chop up the vegetables.

3. Cook the beef, beans and fish rub in the oil on medium heat until the beef is brown. While the beef is cooking, mix the fish sauce, srirachi sauce, water, zest and lime juice. Mix it into the beef, then add the leek and cilantro. Cook for a few minutes.

4. The original recipe only has a beef filling. We added rice and topped with srirachi.

This was a really good dish. The mixture of cilantro and lime juice gives it such a complex taste. Originally, we thought it wouldn't be enough. After adding the beans and beef, it was more than enough for two people to have dinner and lunch the next day.