Fettuccine Alfredo

Tonight I made a new twist on chicken fettuccine alfredo. First of all, to reduce the pasta guilt, use spinach fettuccine, this significantly increases your nutritional value. Secondly add a vegetable, green peas work nicely with this dish. Just throw a box of frozen peas in the last few seconds of boiling your pasta (they overcook easy). Additionally, to ease and quicken cooking, I cut boneless skinless chicken breast into approximately 1 inch pieces that I then very (emphasis on very) lightly bread with a mixture of bread crumbs, oregano, basil, s&p, and garlic. Then sauté pieces until cooked through, throw everything together in the big noodle pot with your favorite alfredo sauce. Very Yummy!

Honey Wheat Bread

Wow has it ever been awhile since I posted one of these fancy things.....I guess its been my renewed interest in blogs (specifically reading Pearmama's World) that has encouraged me to get back on my Kitchen Ninja blog and start the bloggins again. I know I'm making up words, but thats what I do, I'm a housewife who cooks and makes up things like words and dishes. One thing I made recently was a homemade loaf for the ABM of Honey Wheat bread for a friend's birthday. Unfortunately, I am as yet unaware of how it came out, though fairly confident its tasty, and awaiting the birthday boy's judgement. I think tonight, to go with my turkey spaghetti sauce, I may make a homemade loaf of italian bread if I can pull it off....this shall be an adventure. I'll post a follow up soon!

1 1/8 cups warm water -- (110 degrees)
3 tablespoons honey
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Add ingredients according to the manufacturer's directions to your bread
machine. Use the wheat bread cycle and light color setting.

This recipe yields a 1 pound loaf.

expert note, when looking up a bread machine recipe make your google search something like this: Honey Wheat Bread ABM....ABM helps you pare down your results to just bread machine recipes

Bison Burgers and Steak

Well, the title says it all...bison burgers and steak are what was for dinner last night, along with some grilled eggplant and portabella mushrooms. It was sheer awesomeness from a grill. While we here at the Kitchen Ninja house try to restrict red meat consumption to once a week, when we do eat red meat, its gonna be worth it. I didn't use chimichurri for the steaks, it was getting late and we were getting hungry, so I used a steak seasoning blend that I rubbed into the steaks. For the bison burgers, they have such a wonderful flavor, you don't wanna cover it up. Mixing the ground meat with some Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, salt and pepper is more than enough for some moist delicious bison burgers! That mix is good for all ground burgers really.

With it being Memorial Day weekend, its officially summer, so drag out those grills! Just about anything can be grilled up in a jiffy. Veggies are good on the grill too. If you're vegetarian, then ground up some eggplant, onion, zucchini and garlic in the food processor and shape into patties, or use big beefy portabellas as a hamburger patty. That charcoal flavor is summer to me, gotta love the grill! Of course, the Kitchen Ninja is charcoal ONLY! No gas grills around here!

In honor of Memorial Day, I'd like to thank those men and women in the service. My cousin is currently serving in Afghanistan, and I have a friend who's husband is overseas as well. In this time of uncertainty, I'm glad we have the men and women in uniform backing us up! My grandfather served during the very end of WWII and the Vietnam War, he survived to come home to his family, but many of his colleages didn't. That's what Memorial Day is for, remembering those fallen in past and current wars. Thank you, soldiers, for your sacrifice, thank you!

I know I don't update this nearly enough, but sometimes even the Kitchen Ninja gets bored! However, I must say I did make some very yummy dark chocolate and peanut granola bars (they went very fast). Today I'm trying my hand at peanut and blueberry granola bars and will be attempting to make another batch of dog treats as well. I feel guilty not having made the treats in a while, my dogs love them so much its ridiculous! Since I spent all night Saturday cleaning house, perhaps today will be cooking and working on the cookbook. Wish me luck on that endeavor, and I hope to have a new post available soon!

chimichurri

Ok folks...DH and I went to Panama for the wedding of a family friend and while we were there we got to enjoy some very tasty local flavors. By far our favorite was the steak we had at a wonderful little chain restaurant called Leños y Carbon. This grill had some of the best steak I have ever eaten! The meat cuts were fantastic, and the marinade was a new flavor for me that tasted like heaven! The basic recipe is simple, and you can adjust it to taste, but I would recommend going heavy on the flavors and in your marinating style.

8 cloves of garlic, minced (heres where those little hand graters make your life much easier)
a bunch of cilantro or parsley (I like cilantro, but it tends to be a very polarizing herb)
3/4 a cup of olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

Make sure your herb is clean, dry and then very finely chopped-use the food processor if you have to, then whisk in your other ingredients. Add in a couple of pinches of dried oregano and plenty of salt and pepper and even some red onion if you like. My first preperation could have used more garlic and salt (both of which I skimped on for safety. The salt helps tenderize your meat so be liberal with it. Marinade your favorite cut of beef, pork, or chicken in this delectable green sauce! If you want, make it a red sauce by adding tomato and red pepper, give it a kick with jalapeño, whatever your heart desires! I plan on experimenting with it a bit by adding thyme and lemon for pork (instead of the oregano and vinegar). The most important ingredients in the sauce are the herb, oil, and garlic, the rest is fluffing to taste. Prep this in bulk ahead of time, because the longer it sits, the better it gets, and once you've worked out your favorite version you'll use it again and again!

cookbook struggles

I'm struggling with my efforts on the cookbook. I have managed to find about 30 recipes in my regular repertoire, but every time I ask the facebook fans for requests, they go unanswered. I am serious about writing this book, but I want it to contain things people actually wanna know how to make. I can't expect to sell a book if I can't give the people what they want.

I intend on including a sections on helpful tips and tools of the trade so to speak. I also want to take some old favorites and give them a new twist, dress them up for enterainment, etc. If anyone out there is actually reading this thing, than please feel free to request a recipe type, genre, specific ingredient you are unsure of what to do with or would like a new look at an old favorite-let me know and it'll probably make it into the book!

Kitchen Essentials

There are a few things that I absolutely must have in my kitchen/fridge/pantry

tools:
a hand grater (i.e. microplane)
pastry scraper for moving lots of chopped vegetables at once
a good knife
a knife sharpening tool

fridge/freezer:
boneless chicken (your favorite cut)
bone in pork chops
and ground beef
cheese
some sort of fresh vegetable

in my pantry:
stock in a box
pasta
biscuit mix
a large variety of spices (most important chili powder, cumin, s&p)
EVOO
cider vinegar

with these items all menus are possible!