Cute Chicks Cookin' Check-in !!!!

I know i'm not the only cute chick cooking! Starting this week, I want to start highlighting other "CuteChicks" out there cooking & affiliated with the food industry! Since I started in October, I've stumbled across tons of fabulous female chefs & bloggers who love food just as much as I do.

My first CuteChick is none other than Nik G a.k.a. @ThisIs_NikG on twitter. We met through some mutual friends here in Atlanta and she just happens to be a big foodie like myself! Catch her over at www.nickstarwashere.com ! She not only blogs about food, but her experiences as a super fab S.A.H.M , fashion and natural hair. Check her out!! And be sure to check back next week for some "CuteChicks" cookin'!

p.s. If you  or someone you know would be a perfect "Chick" , let me know!

CuteChicks Recipe #12 - Curry Chicken Pizza on Naan Flatbread

This recipe actually started out as a random idea in my head. I had some leftover naan (Indian flatbread) and thought "hey, this would be really good as a pizza". I then started thinking of a bunch of possible toppings for it ..... curry chicken, roasted red pepper hummus & spinach came to mind. But what kind of cheese could I put on it? It would def have to be something mild & non-conflicting w/ the other flavors. That's when I thought goat cheese would be a nice touch & voila!! my pizza was born!! it's super simple & extremely good!

Ingredients
cut up curry chicken (refer to http://cutechickscook.blogspot.com/2011/09/cutechick-recipe-1-caribbean-style.html ) I omitted the peppers & potatoes and used boneless chicken thighs
3 tablespoons Sabra roasted red pepper hummus (or whatever flavor you'd like)
1/3 crumbled goat cheese
about 10 fresh spinach leaves
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 good sized piece of naan flatbread ( it's usually in the bakery section of the supermarket)

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle a few drops of water on the naan. Mix the garlic into the hummus and spread evenly over the naan. Next, arrange the chicken evenly and top w/ the goat cheese. Finally, evenly place the spinach leaves on top and place on a cookie sheet into the oven. Let bake for about 10-15 minutes or until the naan browns some and the goat cheese looks melty. Enjoy!!!

CuteChick Recipe #11 - Ribeye Steak, baked potato & bacon wrapped asparagus!

Yes i know I haven't blogged since February....i'm ashamed! lol, This is actually a recipe post I back in December (hence the christmas tree in the background,lol) and I forgot to post it. At the time I was having the biggest craving for steak so I made a ribeye topped with bleu cheese, red onion & horseradish sauce alongside a baked potato & bacon wrapped asparagus. I've gotten quite a few requests for the recipe, so here it is!! Let me first begin by telling you a dinner of this caliber isn't going to break your wallet or take up a bunch of time. I promise you the most time consuming part of this meal was the baked potato. After a rough  calculation in my head, this meal probably cost about $10 per person. This is also a PERFECT date night meal! Whoever you make it for will swear you slaved all day making it for them! :-) 

Ingredients (for 2 servings)

2  thin cut ribeye steaks (or any cut of meat you'd prefer)

2 large russet potatoes

2 strips of bacon (beef or pork....PLEASE no turkey bacon, this ain't the time for it! lol)

20 pieces of asparagus

1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil

coarse ground pepper & sea salt (reg table salt will do as well)

creole seasoning

1/4 cup sliced red onion

1/3 cup crumbled bleu cheese

1 tablespoon of horseradish sauce (can be found in the condiment aisle in the supermarket)

4 tablespoons of unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. First things first, rinse & dry the potatoes. Pour about half of the olive oil into your hand and rub it all over the potatoes. Wrap them in foil and place on a baking sheet and place into the oven. These will take about an hour to fully cook so put these in ahead of time. In the meantime,  take your meat out of the fridge & season well with the salt, pepper & creole seasoning. Let your meat come to room temperature, this should take about 20 minutes or so. While that's sitting, rinse & dry your asparagus well. Place in a bowl and drizzle remaining olive oil and season with salt & pepper, lightly toss. Take a strip of bacon & wrap around 10 pieces of asparagus. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place in the oven on the top rack. These should be done in about 20 minutes or when the bacon is brown & crisped. 

Let's go back to our steaks, preheat a medium/large skillet on high heat for about 3 minutes. Melt the butter & then add the steaks to the pan. I have no real exact method on pan frying steak to be honest. However, my best method so far is to let the steak brown well on one side, reduce heat & then place a lid on the pan. Once the other side has browned some, I drain the juices & then let it crisp up some without the lid. Overall, I cook them no longer than 15-20 minutes. You can add your onions at this time also   Since I used thin sliced ribeyes, they cooked pretty quickly. Once your steak is at your desired doneness, top with the cheese & onions. Once it's plated, add your horseradish sauce or any other desired condiment, along with your potato & asparagus. Enjoy!!!

CuteChick Recipe #10 - Caribbean Brown Stewed Beef

Helloooo everyone!!! I know it's been entirely too long since my last recipe post. Today I bring you my Caribbean brown stewed beef recipe. I love island cuisine & brown stewed chicken is one of my favorite meals. I then got to thinking one day....what if i use beef instead? So a few months ago i substituted beef and loved it!!! I recommend at least 2 hours cooking time to get it super tender. With that being said, this is definitely what i would call a "Sunday dinner meal" since it takes a considerable amount of time to cook. The perfect side dishes to this meal are some rice & peas, cabbage & plantains as shown below:

Ingredients

2 1/2lbs cubed stew beef (most stores already have it cut up as such)

1 onion (large dice)

1 green bell pepper (large dice)

3 medium sized potatoes (peeled & roughly chopped)

1 1/2 cups baby carrots

1/3 cup chopped green onion

3 tblspn minced garlic

2/3 cup ketchup (tomato sauce would work fine also)

1/3 cup brown sugar

juice of 2 limes

2 1/2 tblspn browning liquid

Seasonings (jerk seasoning, ginger, allspice, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, thymed)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 cups of water

First things first, lets season your meat. I seasoned mine w/ about 2 tablespoons of the jerk seasoning, the lime juice & the browning liquid (I used this brand). 

Mix well & set aside. 

While the meat marinates for a little while, prep all of your veggies

Heat the oil over medium high heat for about 5 minutes. Brown your meat for about 10 minutes (not fully cook)  & then remove from the pan

add all the vegetables & garlic to the same pan and sautee for about 15-20 minutes and season generously w/ all the seasonings mentioned above according to taste (except the jerk seasoning)

next, add the meat back to the pan & mix in the ketchup along w/ the brown sugar and water

Reduce heat to a low boil & let cook down & reduce for at least an hour. Taste a sample to make sure it's seasoned correctly & adjust according to taste. This is what the finished product should resemble

ENJOY!!!!!

CuteChick Recipe #9 - Chicken Alfredo Lasagna

  Hello everyones!! Today I thought I'd post the recipe for the chicken alfredo lasagna I made last night. Now I will tell you now, this recipe is a bit involved in regards to the prep work & making the sauce. It's what I call a "Sunday dinner dish" since you normally wouldn't have this much time to make it during the week & it's a little pricey as the cheeses are not cheap! But it's a meal that'll last you at least 2 days & oh so good! You may certainly substitute with jarred alfredo sauce to cut some time out. I also cut time out by using the bakeable lasagna noodles as opposed to the traditional boil first kind.

Ingredients
1 16oz box of lasagna noodles
1 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 cup milk (I used whole)
2 cups shredded parmesan
3/4 stick of butter
3/4 grated parmesan (the kind in the can) set aside 1/4 cup
2 cups of any pre-shredded italian/pizza cheese blend (set aside 1/4 cup)
30oz tub of ricotta cheese
2 boneless chicken breast halves (cubed in 1 inch chunks)
1 strip of bacon  (beef or pork only, if you don't eat either used about 2 tablespoons of olive oil)
1 egg
1 medium shallot (minced)
1/3 cup italian breadcrumbs
1 red pepper (small dice)
1 15oz can of diced tomatoes (drained)
1 14oz frozen broccoli (thawed)
1 strip of bacon
2 tablespoons flour
6 tablespoons of minced garlic
4 tablespoons olive oil (vegetable oil is fine also)
Italian seasoning, salt & pepper, garlic powder, onion powder (no exact measurements, you can go off of preferred taste)

Whew! I know that was a lot of ingredients. Let first season the chicken, I did so w/ salt, pepper, garlic & onion powder and italian seasoning....set aside

Time for the sauce. In a medium saucepan over medium high heat, cook the strip of bacon until very crispy, once the bacon is done remove & set aside to drain on a papertowel. Add the butter to the pan & melt. Sautee the shallots for about 5 minutes & then add 3tablespoons of the minced garlic & sautee for another 5 minutes. 

Mix in the flour and cook for about 3 minutes. Whisk in your milk & cream until it comes to a boil. Stir constantly so you don't develop a skin on top. 

Reduce your heat to medium once it has come to a boil. Season well w/ salt & pepper. Mix in your shredded parmesan cheese, reduce heat to low & cover. Now it's time to prep your ricotta. In a medium bowl mix, the ricotta, egg & 1/2 cup of the grated parmesan thoroughly & set aside.

In a large skillet, heat about 4 tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat and sautee the red pepper until soft. Add the remaining minced garlic & cook for another 3 minutes. Add your chicken & cook until done and slightly browned as shown below.

Once the chicken is done, add the drained tomatoes & broccoli and heat through. Season w/ salt & pepper. Drain the liquid from the pan & combine the alfredo & chicken mixture in the skillet like below & remove from heat.

Now it's time to make the actual lasagna! In a deep lasagna pan, ladle about a cup of the sauce mixture to cover the bottom of the pan. Then layer the noodles, ricotta mixture, shredded cheese blend & sauce. Thats the order I did mine in. In a separate bowl, combine the bread crumbs, 1/4 cup grated parmesan, 1/4 cup italian cheese blend & bacon crumbles from earlier. Evenly spread this on the top of lasagna as your topping.

 Bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes. Allow lasagna to sit for at least 20 minutes after baking to set well & enjoy!!

CuteChick Recipe #8- Jambalaya!!!!

Happy Thursday everyone!! I thought I'd hit you guys w/ a recipe for my jambalya :-)  It's actually not too difficult to make & sooo good! TRUST ME! You're not going to use the box kind again! I normally use shrimp & smoked sausage, but you may certainly substitute w/ chicken, crawfish, scallops or any other flavored sausage. The secret of this recipe is to use stock/broth  instead of plain water. Seafood or chicken flavor works really well. I made a quick seafood stock this time. All I did was boil the discarded shrimp shells w/ some garlic & onion powder, celery salt & bay leaf in a small saucepan for about 20 minutes & then let it simmer for about an hour. You can definitely do this way ahead of time & just freeze it until you're ready to use it. 

Here's the finished product. I served fried tilapia & broccoli alongside it for a complete meal. 

Ingredients

3/4 lb. of shrimp (cleaned, peeled & deviened)

1/2 lb. of sliced smoked sausage ( I used beef)

1 cup chopped celery (I didn't have any this go around, but try not to skip this if you don't have to)

1 diced medium yellow onion

1 diced green pepper (I used a red one as well since I didn't have celery but you don't have to)

1 15oz can diced tomato

3 tablespoons worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 cups rice (I recommend parboiled)

2 tablespoons of minced garlic

3 cups seafood stock (chicken flavored works well also or just plain water)

3-4 tablespoons of creole seasoning 

1 stick of unsalted butter

Creole Seasoning

2 1/2 tablespoons paprika

2 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried thyme 

What you want to do first is clean the shrimp & season w/ about 1 tablespoon of the creole seasoning & set aside.

Here's what your seasoning mixture should look like...if you want to make a spicier dish, add about 1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper flakes. 

 In a large deep skillet, melt your butter over medium high heat and sautee the onions, peppers & celery for about 15 minutes. Add the can of tomatoes along w/ the garlic and 2 tablespoons of the creole seasoning and the worcestershire sauce. Cook for an additional 5 minutes. It should look something like this.

Add your sausage sausage & cook for another 3-5 minutes. Add the rice and mix thoroughly as shown below.

Add your liquid and bring to a boil for about 5 minutes. Once it begins to boil, reduce heat to a very low simmer and cover. Let it cook for a good 15-20 minutes or until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid. Add your shrimp as shown below, mix thoroughly & place lid back on the pan.

 Let cook for another 15-20 minutes or until the rice as set & liquid is just about all absorbed. Your dish is done! You may certainly serve it as suggested above, or alone w/ cornbread is really good too! Enjoy!!!

CuteChick Recipe #7- Pineapple upside down cake!!!

Happy Friday everyone!!!! I made a pineapple upside down cake yesterday & I've definitely gotten some great feedback about it so I decided to post the recipe. It's Curtis Aiken's recipe & I actually got it off of the Food Network website ( http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/curtis-aikens/pineapple-upside-down-cake-recipe/index.html ) Pineapple upside down cake is my favorite cake & this recipe is soooo yummy!! I did make a few changes & omissions....I didn't have rum on hand so I left that out (I'll make sure I don't the next time! lol) & I did not separate the eggs....just because I was lazy & my hand mixer broke so I didn't have anything to whip the egg whites,lol...it still came out great though!!