Dinner Tonight!

Hello! Do you ever have days when you really don't feel like thinking of what to make but you need to eat and have no money for take-out? Those are the days when you should raid your pantry and find random things to make into a meal....those are the days to make bakes and casseroles! you throw some things together, shove it in the oven and wait until its ready to eat. Its sort of like take-out, except instead of paying for it with money you're paying with some effort.

Today I knew I had to make something. I have no left overs and no pre-cooked things. I've been sick all week, so I've put no effort into setting myself up for the week. I could have just made a salad, but I pulled a chicken breast from the freezer this morning, so I had to use it. I've also been craving pearl onions. I absolutely looooove them. I bought them for when my girls came to visit, but completely forgot about them since I keep them in the potato bin instead of the fridge. In addition, I had random veggies and some left over canned peas I needed to use up asap. I decided on a cheese ravioli and chicken bake with a bunch of the veggies I had...

Chicken and Cheese Ravioli Bake with Vegetables

*everything is an approximation today. The end result can feed 3 people I think.

1 Chicken breast, diced or sliced up
1 sm. bag of cheese ravioli (mine had about 12 lg. raviolis in it, but you can use minis as well)
about 20 baby carrots
1/4 a head of broccoli divided into florets
approx. 10 pearl onions
3 button mushrooms cut into bite size pieces
1/4 cup canned peas
2 cloves of garlic
olive oil for drizzling
herb mix
fresh basil leaves (about 5)slices into strips
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup Shredded mozzarella cheese
16 ounces plain or flavored tomato sauce
salt and pepper.

1. Preheat your over on 350.
2. Dice or slice your chicken breast. Just make sure the pieces are not too thick or it will take longer to bake. Throw the chicken into a mixing bowl with a tiny bit of oil, salt, pepper and herb mix, to taste. leave it on the counter.

3. In a 8x8 baking dish, place your broccoli, carrots and mushrooms, all cut to the size you want. Chop the garlic in there as well

4. in a small saucepan, boil some water to blanch the pearl onions. Blanching them for one minute in boiling water, and then shocking them in cold water helps remove the skin. Once that is done throw the onions into your bakeware.
5. Take your ravioli (best if its thawed so you can evenly layer it in your bakeware) and place it with the veggies.
6. In a mixing bowl, combine your sauce with about 1 tsp. herb mix, pepper, fresh basil and the parmesan cheese. If you're using a flavored pasta sauce, you can omit all the herbs and just add the parmesan. Mix the ingredients together.
7. Place your chicken into the bakeware and pour tomato sauce all over, mixing well to evenly coat all ingerdients. Try to even it out as well as possible.

8. Sprinkle with shredded mozarella and cover.

Bake for about 40 minutes, uncover and bake for a few more until cheese browns a little bit.

Just remember...you can use any veggies you want here, the possibilities are endless! Dig in and enjoy!

Love Yourself

This will be short and sweet.

Remember who you are. Remember where you came from. Remember your dreams, goals, fantasies. Don't think its impossible, because everything is, in one way or another. Even flying. Be true to yourself, to your feelings. Don't be afraid to voice your thoughts or tell someone you love them. Don't be afraid to face your enemies, or your evils. Feel sexy. Feel strong. Eat. Drink. Be Merry. Smile, it uses less muscles. Laugh it boost your immune system. Cry, it cleanses your soul. Scream at the top of your lungs, it releases all that pent up anger. Love fully. Cherish your friends. Cherish your mother. Be proud of your father. Dedicate yourself to your siblings. Be a hero. Be an example. Feel. Touch. Kiss. Hug. Sleep.

Sitting Home

Being sick sucks....it literally sucks the life out of you. Today was my second day in bed nursing myself to health. By about 3 PM I couldn't sit still any longer, so I got up and started doing stuff...I finally set up my printer, I cleaned up my desk, I did some laundry and spend some time with my little monster Sly (he's the cat in my profile picture). Besides that I've been bored.

I did do some research on a place a want to visit in the summer. My two girls are going on a month long road trip across the US, and I can't because I have a job and not enough vacation days to spare. The place I want to go is Mesa Verde in Colorado. Archaeology is a huge part of my life, and the archaeology of the Southwest has been a huge passion of mine since my undergrad years. After all, I am going back to grad school for archaeology.

Mesa Verde is located in the Four Corners region of the Southwest (Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado). This whole area is full of archeological history, as it is full of ruins and beautiful findings that once belongs to America's first citizens. Mesa Verce itself is in the state of Colorado, near the city of Cortez.



Sites like these are scattered within the Four Corners. I can't wait until the girls figure out their road trip route, so I can figure out when where and how to meet them there.

Weekend Foodfest with my girls

I had the awesome opportunity to spend the weekend with my two best friends. They came up to CT from NYC to see me. We were able to spend this time together because Monday was a holiday, and being that I have a Sunday-Monday weekend, it worked perfectly. Both of them were off from work. The girls inspired me to make a light supper on Sunday, a scruptious breakfast on Monday morning, and feast of a dinner for Monday evening. Clearly I love to cook, and I wouldn't create such a full menu for just myself! They told me they were arriving on Sunday evening, so naturally Sunday during the day I shopped for food. Now this sounds like an easy task, its not if you don't have a car haha. I packed up my reusable shopping bags and walked first to one store (approx 15 min walk each direction) and after packing my two bags full, I stumbled back home, unpacked, rested for a few minutes and headed to the second store...which required a bus and such. Not having a vehicle is a lot of work!! I got all my shopping done by about 6 and started some light prep as I waited for them to arrive.

Do you know that you can buy just the pizza dough from your favorite pizza shop, and even buy extra and freeze it?! Its awesome. Just in time for the girls arrival I had all the ingredients for my pizza ready to be assembled. I was making a small white pie. About 2 hours prior to putting it together, I chopped about 2 garlic cloves, some herbs, and olive oil and let it marinate. Once I was ready to make the pizza, I had a nice garlic and herb infused oil waiting to be brushed onto the waiting dough. I loaded the pie up with mushrooms, fresh tomato, broccoli, and some onion and sprinkled it all with mozzarella cheese.... pop it in the oven at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes and it was ready to be consumed!!! yum. Sadly I have no pictures because I forgot...

Monday morning breakfast was very diverse and European styled. I had fresh rolls (I did not bake them, there is a yummy bakery down the street), butter, hard boiled eggs, strawberry greek yogurt with almond honey granola, walnuts and crasins.. also some sliced cheeses, sliced avocados, tomatos, onions and cucumbers for my rolls, and some apples and grapefruit. Oh yea I had some of my couscous left (from the recipe on this blog) so I threw that onto the table as well. All this wonderful food was served with hot tea.

Now after breakfast, we went out and about, did some fun shopping and enjoyed each other's company. On the way home we stopped by the fish market to pick up a nice salmon filet, and finally started dinner. Now here I have pictures!

The Salmon was very easy. It is such a flavorful fish that you really don't need too much to make it amazing.

Salmon with peas and dill

1 salmon filet (approx 1.3 pounds in my case)
EV olive oil for greasing and drizzling
4 slices of lemon
1/3 cup of green peas (can be fresh or canned)
a handful of chopped dill
salt and pepper to taste

1. Set your oven to 375. While its preheating, grease a glass baking dish with a little bit of olive oil.
2. Place your Salmon filet, skin side down, into the dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with oil. Rub the oil and salt/pepper into the fish.
3. Place about 4 slices of lemon into the fish. spread the chopped dill on top and finish off with the peas. Remember to rinse off the peas if they're canned to get the "can flavor" off.

4. Cover your dish with aluminum foil and place in the oven.
5. You want to let it bake for about 20 minutes, but check periodically to see if it is light pink and flaky. Depending on the thickness of the filet it may bake quicker or longer.

Once done, it should look like this:

I also made a tzatziki or cacik style yogurt dipping sauce for the salmon.

Dill yogurt dipping sauce with cucumbers and garlic

1 Chobani serving cup of plain greek yogurt
1/4 cup of peeled and chopped cucumber
1/8 cup of chopped white onion
2 cloves of garlic
small handful chopped dill
salt and pepper to taste

1. Combine all ingredients together in a small mixing bowl. transfer to nice serving bowl, cover and chill until ready to serve. Tastes better when made day before because all the flavors marinate.

Kinga and I actually ended up eating the yogurt sauce on our bread as well...delicious!

Now the salmon needed something added to it, so I roasted some veggies as well.

Roasted Vegetables

1 head of cauliflower separated into florets
3 small carrots, cut julianne
2 small zuchini, cut julianne
half a small sweet red pepper
10 (approx) button mushrooms, cut in half
3 cloves garlic chopped
EV Olive oil for drizzling
dry herb mix (mine consists of oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary and parsley)
about 1/4 tsp Paprika
salt and pepper to taste

1. place all vegetables in a large pyrex baking dish, sprinkle with spices, garlic and drizzle with oil. Mix together to coat all veggies in spices.
2. Cover with aluminum foil and place in the oven for about 35 minutes or until veggies are fork-tender.

I made a salad that I call a green salad.

Green Salad

2 ribs celery
1/2 english cucumber
1/2 avocado
1/2 green apple (granny smith or other greenish types)
dill (I had so much left over so I used it here, you can use cilatro or parsley as well)
1 hard boiled egg
lettuce of choice (I used red leaf lettuce)
red wine vinaigarette dressing (I use Marie's)

1. In a large mixing bowl combine the first 4 ingredients, chopped into desired sizes, chop hard boiled egg into bite sized pieces, chop dill (or other herb) and rip up the lettuce.
2. pour desired amount of dressing into salad and toss well.
3. Transfer to pretty serving bowl :)

lastly, I made some quick brown rice and sliced some bread and we were ready to feast!

And that was that! We enjoyed our dinner, had some fun overall, and we were stuffed by the end of it.

Dinner Tonight!

I wanted to share this awesome recipe for a mediterranean styled couscous dish. Its perfect for parties, lunches, as a side dish to dinner, or just a interesting snack. It is delicious! I found a flavored couscous produced by Near East, its the Toasted Pine Nut variety. One day I decided to play with it a bit and added other items to it, in turn making it a bit more savory and interesting. I added red grapes, fresh parsley, red onion, and feta cheese. To make it a little more flavorful, I also added lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. This dish has become my favorite thing to eat. I make it every week! Below are some pictures (good ones this time)

The recipe is as follows:

1 pkg Near East Toasted Pine Nut couscous
4oz Crumbled Feta (approx)
1/4 cup red onion
1/4 cup red grapes (I'm sure green are ok, as long as they're seedless)
4 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
2 tsp lemon juice
3-4 tsp EV Olive Oil

1. Cook couscous according to package directions. Let cool.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine chopped red onion, sliced or chopped grapes, Feta cheese, and chopped parsley. Gently add cooked couscous, sprinkle with lemon juice, drizzle with oil, and add salt and pepper to taste. (salt can me omitted since the couscous is already flavored with spices)
3. Gently fold ingredients together until well combined.
4. Transfer finished salad into a nice bowl or serving dish and chill.
5. Serve and enjoy!

I watched a movie...

After my lovely dinner, I decided to watch a movie I've been thinking about for ages....I always forget about it, but today while on Netflix, I remembered! Monsoon Wedding. Its funny because I have the soudtrack, and I just now watched it...

Monsoon Wedding came out in 2001. Its a film by Mira Nair. The movie is about a Punjabi wedding celebration in New Dehli....its a comedy, a Bollywood styled movie (just not as crazy and dancy), and it was quite entertaining. The movie had about 5 other stories happening within itself, all the people within those plots are somehow related to the wedding celebration. Anyway I don't wanna spoil it but there are some crazy things going on! Between the visitors from all over the world, to some scandalous secrets and silly comedy, I really enjoyed it because it gives a little insight into those grand Indian wedding celebration. Its amazing how they're planned, what happens between engagement and the actual wedding (in this case 4 days, I'm not really sure if this is always the case), and how many interesting cultural differences there are compared to American and European celebrations. Its not your typical Bollywood styled film.

Dinner Tonight!

every now and again I'll post a meal I made for dinner. I absolutely love to cook! I like the creative aspect of it and the emotional impact it makes on me. I cook when I'm sad, happy, excited...and of course hungry. All my meals are made from scratch. Sometimes I'll cook something delicious to accompany another thing I may have left over, sometimes its a full meal for just myself (with plenty of left overs for lunches and dinner throughout the week), Sometimes a dinner for special guests, and sometimes a recreation of something already in my fridge (aka random left overs receated into something new and exciting!)

Today I realized I have no idea what to make for dinner... I had some left over garlicky creamed corn and some chicken...I could have made a frittata or something, but instead I decided to add to the leftovers...I'm a huge fan of potato pancakes (I'm Polish so..) therefore I decided to create a new style of potato pancake...Pesto-pine nut potato pancakes! The came out pretty good actually, except next time I have to add more pesto. So I used red potatoes, pesto paste (a condiment in my fridge at all times), fresh garlic, onion, eggs, flour, pine nuts and salt and pepper to taste. Mixed all together and pan fried in olive oil....delicious! Also, as a special treat I sprinkled some mozzarella on top while still hot...perfect. My boring left overs became amazing with these little potato wonders... If anyoine cares for the recipe I can jot it down I suppose... and here is a terrible picture..

I should have been less lazy and used my camera...I was not looking forward to uploading the pics into my computer, and then uploading them to the site...next time

Spring deception

I walked outside today and I finally smiled when encountering the weather! It was warm, birds were singing, there was a refreshing smell of the coming spring in the air...I smiled all the way to work. Tomorrow it is supposed to be 55! in my book thats flip flop, skirt and tee shirt weather!!! sadly as I heard on the news recently, this is only a tease...a deception if you will...Mother nature's way of saying "yea its nice, but don't get used to it!" I guess more snow is on the way...this really bothers me...Connecticut really got slammed and we still have unwanted mountain ranges throughout our urban jungle... luckily they're about 6 feet shorter now than two weeks ago. Anyway, I'm praying to the spring Gods and hoping for a quick and painless return to gorgeous weather, suitable for hiking, biking, walking, and smiling.

Chocolatey Scavenger hunt...NYC

Just wanna put this out there...Watson Adventures is a really fun organization that creates scavenger hunts in NYC among other places. It is a fantastic! I went on one of these hunts this past Sunday with my best friends. We had a blast! We were a team of 3, and there were about 6 other teams as well. Its very well organized and entertaining. For two hours I got to experience SoHo is a way I haven't before...and I love being a detective. There is nothing wrong with a little Sherlock action now and again. Anyway this particular hunt was focused on exploring a couple of cute dessert places....from chocolatiers to bakeries to creperies. You really get to  experience mom and pop style shops in a city full of brands and trends. Everyone should try it... The best part is you get to exercise your body and more importantly your mind... Brain pain, a sugar high and loads of fun!

http://watsonadventures.com

start of something new...

So I've decided to start a blog. I'm 27 and accomplishing things that make me wanna jump up and shout to the world: "Look what I'm up to now!" A blog is the single easiest way to do this! while I have bestest friends and acquaintances that share in my accomplishments as well, I've decided to be completely crazy and post to the unknown... why not? There are people out there who live to read other people's lives! its a perfect solution to my problem haha.

Anyway I'm getting my driver's licence...for the first time. My road test is on March 5th, I've had little training but I'm pretty good....most people my age have had their licence for 10 years! what can I say I grew up in a place where cars are obsolete...NYC. The subway system is spectacular...yet annoying. It can get you anywhere you need to go! Its incredible! I was never motivated to try for a licence because of this reason. Now in CT, my job requires that I get one ASAP....so here I am.

After the licence, my next goal is a GRE exam. I hear they're switching it up...gotta get in there before its too insane! I believe the last "old" test will be given in November... I think I can accomplish that! And with a GRE score in hand, I can think about a 180 career change. I'm young...gotta do what I gotta do. Not that my new career will make me any more money, but money is not what makes people happy. Money just makes people greedy....right?

Enough banter for today...maybe tomorrow I'll have an exciting story to tell....you never know :)