Cooking!

Since I'm off for the summer, I have been cooking more. I'm starting to really enjoy it and if I say so myself, I've made some pretty good meals lately that are appealing to the eye. It makes me feel good when I prepare a meal and it looks pretty on a plate and tates good. I don't like cleaning, but when the house is clean it makes me feel good and appreciate what we have more. So anyways, here is some of our recent meals.

Baked chicken with green beans & new potatoes

I just seasoned the chicken with s & p and tony's creole (our favorite) and then I mixed the green beans and new potatoes in italian dressing. Then poured them around the chicken. To finish it off, I sprinkled some french's friend onions on top and then baked it at 350. for about 45 minutes.

Blackened Pagnasius, tortilla crusted Tilapia & mexican rice

For this meal I actually made two differnt types of fish, only because I had always seen this tortilla tilapia in the fresh fish section of the store and always wanted to try it.  So I also tried Pagnasius, instead of the usual Tilapia I cook.  It is a white fish & tastes just as good as the Tilapia and it was actually half the price too.  Anyways, I seasoned the Pagnasius with s & p, tony's creole, & a little lime juice and pan fried it in a skillet w/ a little olive oil.  The tortilla crusted tilapia was baked in the oven.  The mexican rice is yummy and one of our favorites (thanks to colleen for the recipe), we actually make it about 2-3 times a week.  I recently changed it up a little though, from white rice to whole grain brown rice, to make it healthier.  Then all you do is add a cup of rice to a skillet, and add chopped jalapenos (1-2), cilantro, onions, garlic (1-2 cloves), and I also just added to the recipe about 1 T of caldo de tomate.  My friend, Megan, let me try it and it gave it a lot of flavor.  So anyways you add it all to a skillet w/ butter and pan fry it until it browns then all you do is add a can of chicken broth and let it simmer for about 40 min for the brown rice, 20 for white.  Then it is done and delicious!  By the way I much prefer the blackened Tilapia or Pagnasius then the tortilla crusted tilapia.  It could be because it was baked, but we didn't like it as much and I won't cook it again.

Also, for a quick topping for the fish, all I did was cut up a couple of peaches and then chop up some cilantro and mix it together and put it top of the fish.  It makes it look pretty and tastes good!

Blackened chicken, mexican rice, stir fried zucchini, & baked sweet potato

This meal was probably my favorite.  I seasoned the chicken the way I do everything, with s & p and tony'c creole.  I pan fried it in a little butter or olive oil, can't remember which, I use both, then when it was cooked I added some cilantro (my favorite) and jalapenos to it.  Then I cooked the rice the way I explained above and pan fried the zucchini the same way I did the chicken.  The sweet potato took about 1 1/2 hours in the oven at 350.  When it was done, I just put a little butter and cinnamon on it.  Delicious!

I hope you enjoyed my cooking and it inspired you to go cook something or try something new!