Category: Recipes

Chicken Carnitas Daikon Tacos

Chicken Carnitas Daikon TacosTrying new recipes is really the main purpose of this blog. Every week, I rummage around the web looking for new recipes for our meals. Sometimes we find a recipe that we use over and over, though even the most repeated of our recipes has only been re-used 4 times. I am constantly amazed by the variety of recipes out there, and that we’re closing in on 4 years of menus and there’s always more recipes to try.

When we find one that turns out well, I’ll make a note of it, perhaps snap a photo and, for some really great ones, write up the recipe, especially if I’ve modified it a bit. This recipe is one that I almost skipped over because the original is a pdf file (often problematic) and is written to make 48 tacos by a chef at a restaurant–all flags that this could go badly in my hands. But what we ended up with was so delicious that it had to be written up! The flavors and textures were amazing! The recipe below is probably a poor rendition of Richard Sandoval’s Duck Carnitas Daikon Tacos, but wow, they are delicious!

I simplified this a lot–perhaps too much?? Be sure to look at the original recipe and follow it where you want. I am sure duck would be delicious, and I’m not sure what Peking duck is, but sounds like it’s kind of orange-flavored, so I opted for chicken thighs and brushing with marmalade since we had some. You could steep the sauce overnight, but hadn’t read that part and it was fine without it, plus we used ground coriander, and finally grated orange zest, so no need to remove the solids.

Anyway, enjoy and let me know if you try it. I am sure we will do them again and I’ll update the recipe and add some more photos–this was a cell phone shot taken at the table when we realized just how delicious these were.

Chicken Carnitas Daikon Tacos

MealsWeLike.com
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Course Main
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

  • 8 Boneless/skinless chicken thighs
  • 1/4 Cup Orange marmalade
  • 1/2 Daikon sliced thin ~1/8 in on a mandolin (probably even less--a few slices per taco is good)
  • 1 Green apple sliced thin
  • Orange Coriander Sauce below
  • Curry Aioli below
  • 1/4 Cup Cilantro chopped

Orange Coriander Sauce

  • 1/2 Cup Sugar
  • 1/2 Cup Water
  • Zest of 1 Orange
  • 1/2 tsp. ground corriander
  • 1/4 cup Sweet Chili sauce
  • 1 Orange cut the peal off, slice and remove seeds
  • 1 Tbs Corn starch
  • 1 Tbs water

Curry Aioli

  • 1 Tbs Curry powder
  • 1 Tbs Turmeric
  • 1 Tbs White balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 Tbs Lemon juice
  • 1 Tbs Honey
  • 1/4 Cup Mayonnaise

Instructions
 

Chicken

  • Barbecue the chicken thighs, brushing with the marmalade in the last 5 minutes or so.
  • Slice the daikon and apple with a mandolin

Orange Coriander Sauce

  • Bring the sugar and water to a boil
  • Stir in the orange zest and coriander powder
  • Add the hot sauce and orange segments
  • Make a slurry with the corn starch and water
  • Add cornstarch slurry to the sauce and simmer until thickened
  • Keep warm

Curry Aioli

  • Combine all the ingredients and mix well.

Assembly

  • On a tortilla, place a few pieces of daikon and then apple.
  • Add half a chicken thigh.
  • Top with Orange Coriander sauce
  • Top with Curry Aioli
  • Sprinkle with cilantro
  • Serve warm

 

Sweet Potato Kale Pizza

Sweet potato kale pizzaLooks like we’ve been on a pizza kick lately–I posted the Arugula pizza last week and now this. I’ll get to some other recipes in a bit, but it is always fun playing with new ways of making a classic like pizza. I opted not to use our purple sweet potatoes for this recipe, though I suppose that could work too…

I adapted this from this recipe at TwoPeasAndTheirPod.com.

Sweet Potato Kale Pizza

MealsWeLike.com
Sweet potato kale pizza with rosemary and red onion
Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Course Pizza
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

  • Recipe of pizza dough
  • 1 Large sweet potato sliced into 1/4 in rounds
  • 1 Red onion sliced
  • 1 Tbs Olive Oil
  • 2 Cups Shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 2 Cups Kale leaves stem removed and chopped into pieces
  • 1 Tbs Balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tsp dried Rosemary

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 400 F, if you have a pizza stone put it in now
  • Toss the sweet potatoes and onion slices with olive oil
  • Spread on a baking dish
  • Bake for about 20 minutes
  • Raise the oven to 500F.
  • Roll out the pizza dough
  • Brush with a little olive oil
  • Spread 1/2 (about 1 cup) of the cheese on the crust
  • Top with the roasted potatoes and onions
  • Toss the kale with balsamic vinegar
  • Put the kale on the pizza
  • Top with the rest of the cheese
  • Bake for 10-15 minutes or until crust is golden and cheese begins to brown.

 

Arugula Pizza

Arugula PizzaOne of the things everyone says about getting a CSA share is that it forces you to find new ways of using vegetables you may never have used in the first place. Sometimes this can be a good thing. One of the items we seem to be getting a lot of is arugula. We’ve used arugula in various ways before, but mostly in salads of various forms. With a recent batch of arugula, I looked around on some of my standby sites and found this Lemon Arugula Pizza on TwoPeasAndTheirPod.com. The original recipe calls for squirting lemon juice over the pizza, which was the plan, but when it came out of the oven we forgot…by the time I realized, the pizza was gone…might add it next time, but delicious without it.

We typically use the no-knead pizza dough recipe in Mark Bittman’s Food Matters Cook Book, which is adapted from Jim Lahey’s recipes like this one. This time we forgot to make the dough an grabbed one from a local pizza place that sells dough.

The pizza was excellent and even the kids who often balk at the spiciness of arugula ate it all up.

Arugula Pizza

MealsWeLike.com
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Pizza
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

  • A pizza dough see description for no-knead options we normally use, or grab one somewhere
  • 1 Tbs Olive oil
  • 6 oz Grated mozzarella cheese
  • 1/2 Cup Shredded Parmesan cheese plus some to sprinkle on top
  • 2 Cups Arugula
  • A grinding of pepper

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 450
  • Roll out the dough
  • Spread the olive oil across the pizza with a brush or your hands
  • Top with mozzarella and parmesan cheese
  • Place the pizza in the oven
  • Bake for 12-15 minutes or until pizza crust is golden and cheese is melted
  • Remove the pizza from the oven
  • Top with arugula
  • Season with a grinding of black pepper
  • Sprinkle with additional parmesan cheese
  • Slice and serve

 

 

Quinoa and Shrimp Paella

Quinoa and Shrimp Paella
Quinoa and Shrimp Paella

Ok, it’s been a while since I’ve added any recipes to the site…but it’s busy here. There’s a long backlog of photos from great recipes we’ve found. That’s one thing about doing this site that always amazes me, week after week, I can find 5-7 new recipes to try for dinner, most of which are really yummy and not too hard to make. There’s so many food blogs out there that I keep finding new ones. Like SkinnyMs.com, not a site I would normally have found, but I was looking for shrimp dishes and wondered about adding quinoa to help make a filling meal while keeping the cost down…and that’s how I stumbled across this Quinoa and Shrimp Paella. We first made it a couple of weeks ago, but one of the kids requested it again, and it was yummy so we made it again. The one thing that we’ve changed is to up the cooking time. We’ve found that it takes another 10-15 minutes in that last step to finish absorbing the chicken stock and make sure the shrimp is cooked through.

Quinoa and Shrimp Paella

MealsWeLike.com adapted from SkinnyMs.com
A delicious and healthy twist on a classic Spanish dish.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Course Main
Cuisine Spanish
Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Onion diced
  • 2 Cloves garlic minced
  • 1 Tbs Olive oil
  • 1 1/2 Cups Quinoa rinsed, we use Inca Red quinoa
  • 3 Cups Chicken broth
  • 1/4 tsp Crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1 Bay leaf
  • 1/2 Tsp Saffron threads
  • 1/2 tsp Paprika
  • 1/2 tsp Black pepper
  • 1/2 Cup Sliced sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil
  • 1 Red bell pepper sliced into 1/2" strips
  • 1-2 Cups frozen green peas
  • 1 lb Large shrimp peeled

Instructions
 

  • In a large skillet, heat oil to medium-low and sauté onions until tender, about 5 minutes.
  • Add bell pepper strips and sauté an additional 4 minutes.
  • Add garlic and sauté 1 minute.
  • Add quinoa, chicken broth, red pepper flakes, bay leaves, saffron, paprika, black pepper.
  • Cover and bring to a boil, reduce heat to a low boil, and continuing cooking approximately 10 minutes.
  • Add sun-dried tomatoes, peas and shrimp, cover and continuing cooking 15-20 minutes (was 5 in original, but that didn't seem to cook the shrimp or quinoa fully).
  • Remove from heat, leave covered and allow to set 10 minutes.
  • Remove the bay leaf and serve.

Here’s the original recipe: http://skinnyms.com/quinoa-shrimp-paella

Simplified Korean Chicken Tacos with Sweet Slaw, Crunchy Noodles and Queso Fresco

Korean TacosI am sure the original recipe from Half Baked Harvest is better, but it looks a bit too involved for a weeknight dinner, and I am not sure what Gochujang sauce is, or if it’s safe for nut and fish allergies. Even with the simplifications we made, this was a definite hit with everyone and we’ll surely make it again.

Not sure what kind of noodles the original really called for, but the store bought fried chow mien noodles worked just fine and didn’t need frying again. Speaking of which, not sure what the deal is with frying the chicken twice as the original called for…we just did it once. And Sriracha sauce worked fine for some kick in place of the gochujang sauce.

 

Simplified Korean Chicken Tacos with Sweet Slaw, Crunchy Noodles and Queso Fresco

MealsWeLike.com adapted from Half Baked Harvest
Print Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Course Main
Cuisine Korean
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

For the fried chicken

  • 2 cloves garlic grated with microplane
  • 1 Tbs fresh ginger grated with microplane
  • 3 Tbs soy sauce
  • 1 tsp Sriracha
  • 1 1/2 Tbs rice vinegar
  • 1 Tbs Olive oil--original called for sesame which is probably better, but we didn't have
  • 1 Tbs honey
  • 2/3 Cup Flour
  • 1 Tbs Cornstarch
  • 1 Lb Chicken breast or thighs cut into bite size pieces
  • 1/2 Lb Chow mein noodles

Sweet Slaw

  • 1 pkg Coleslaw mix about 3 cups
  • 2 Spicy red chiles seeded + sliced
  • 1 clove garlic grated
  • 2 tsp Fresh ginger grated
  • 1 Tbs Soy sauce
  • 2 Tbs Honey
  • 2 Tbs Rice vinegar
  • 1 tsp Olive oil
  • 1 Lime juiced

Putting it all together

  • 8 warmed flour tortillas
  • queso fresco
  • fresh cilantro

Instructions
 

The slaw

  • Mix the slaw dressing in a medium bowl.
  • Add the coleslaw and red chills and toss to coat everything.
  • Put in the fridge while you make the rest of the dish.

The Chicken Sauce

  • In a large bowl (the cooked chicken will be tossed in this bowl later) mix the first 7 ingredients.
  • Set aside.

The Chicken

  • Heat an half inch of oil in a skillet.
  • Whisk flour, cornstarch, and 2/3 cup water in another bowl.
  • Add chicken chunks and toss.
  • Working in batches, fry chicken until golden, 6–8 minutes.
  • Drain on paper towels.
  • Add the chicken to the bowl with the sauce and toss well.

Assemble

  • Divide the chicken among the warmed taco shells. Top with slaw, crunchy noodles, cilantro and queso fresco.

 

 

Spicy Sausage and Penne Casserole with Broccoli Breadcrumbs

Spicy Sausage and Penne Casserole with Broccoli BreadcrumbsTheKitchn, one of my favorite recipe sites featured these broccoli breadcrumbs. In looking for a good casserole to put these on, I found this Spicy Sausage and Penne Casserole. The two were made for each other. A good way to add some veggies to a casserole!

Spicy Sausage and Penne Casserole with Broccoli Breadcrumbs

MealsWeLike.com
Print Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Course Main
Servings 4 -6

Ingredients
  

  • 12 oz Box of whole wheat Penne pasta
  • 1 Package of andouille sausage thinly sliced (about 12 oz)
  • 1/2 onion chopped
  • 1 Red bell pepper chopped
  • 2 Tbs butter
  • 2 Tbs flour
  • 1 1/2 Cups Milk
  • 2 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese
  • 1 tsp Creole seasoning
  • A good grinding of pepper
  • 2 medium broccoli heads finely chopped
  • 2 Tbs olive oil

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350.
  • Spray a 2-quart casserole.
  • Cook pasta according to package directions; drain, rinse, and set aside.
  • In a large skillet, cook the sausage with onion and red peppers until things start to brown.
  • Put the mixture on a plate.
  • Melt butter in the same skillet over medium heat
  • Stir in flour.
  • Gradually add the milk
  • Add creole seasoning.
  • Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened.
  • Add the cheese and stir until melted.
  • Add salt and pepper to taste.
  • Stir in the drained pasta and sausage mixture.
  • Pour into the prepared casserole dish.
  • Bake for 20 minutes.
  • While that's cooking, chop the broccoli and toss with olive oil.
  • Top the casserole with the broccoli and bake for another 10 minutes.

 

Sweet Potato, Caramelized Onion and BBQ Cheddar Pizza

Sweet Potato, Caramelized Onion PizzaI found this recipe on Once Upon a Cutting Board a while ago and have made it twice already. The first time I made it, I was looking for a potluck dish and had the ingredients on hand. But since I didn’t want to deal with transporting a pizza to a potluck, I rolled out the dough, cut circles out and lined muffin tins with the dough. I added topping and baked. They were a real hit at the party! It was so good that we decided to make for dinner as regular pizzas.

Sweet Potato, Caramelized Onion and BBQ Cheddar Pizza

MealsWeLike.com, adapted from Once Upon A Cutting Board
Delicious pizzas
Print Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Course Main dish
Cuisine Pizza
Servings 4 -6

Ingredients
  

  • 2 Medium sweet potatoes peeled and diced into about ½-inch pieces
  • 2 Large sweet onions peeled, halved and sliced
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  • 2 Tbs Olive oil
  • Ground pepper
  • 1 ball of pizza dough or 4 pieces of whole wheat naan bread
  • 4-6 Tbs BBQ sauce
  • 1 Cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 375--if you are using a pizza stone, put that in now.
  • Dice the sweet potatoes and toss with about 1 Tbs of olive oil.
  • Spread on a baking sheet and roast for 20-30 minutes or until nicely browned.
  • While that is cooking, heat the other Tbs of olive oil in a pan and sauté the onions on medium heat stirring occasionally for 15 minutes.
  • Add a grinding of pepper and the sugar.
  • Continue sautéing for another 15-20 minutes. The onions should be deeply browned.
  • Once the potatoes are cooked, remove from the oven and bump the temp up to 450 or so to cook the pizza.
  • Combine the sweet potatoes, onions and BBS sauce in a bowl and mix. If you are mixing muffins, add about half of the cheddar cheese here too.
  • For pizzas, roll out the dough, top with the onions and potatoes. Top with cheese and bake.
  • For muffins, roll out the dough, cut rounds big enough to line the muffin cups, and put the dough in the cups. Add the onions and potatoes, top with remaining cheddar and bake.

 

Pepperoni Spinach Quiche

Pepperoni Spinach QuicheThis recipe from Taste of Home was quick and delicious. We even gave in to the kids requests and let them have the leftovers for lunch the next day where they were the envy of the cafeteria. I made a pie crust from scratch rather than use the canned crescent rolls–doesn’t take that long. We also upped the spinach and pepperoni a bit. Definitely a keeper!

Pepperoni Spinach Quiche

MealsWeLike.com modified from Taste of Home
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Course Main
Servings 6

Ingredients
  

For the crust

  • 11/2 cups flour we typically use white whole wheat flour
  • 6-8 Tbs butter
  • 8-10 Tbs ice water with some lemon juice

For the filling

  • 1 Red pepper chopped
  • 1 Tbs Olive oil
  • 1 Clove garlic minced
  • 5 Eggs lightly beaten
  • 1/2 Cup Shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1 Package Frozen chopped spinach thawed and squeezed dry
  • 1/2 Cup Pepperoni slices cut in half
  • 1/4 Cup half-and-half cream
  • 2 Tbs Parmesan cheese
  • 1 Tbs Fresh parsley minced
  • 1 Tbs Fresh basil minced or 1 tsp dried basil
  • A grind or two of black pepper

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 375˚.

For the Pie crust

  • Cut the butter into the flour
  • Add the ice water--add about 6Tbs at first and then mix and add more as needed to form a nice dough.
  • Roll out the crust on a floured surface
  • Place into a quiche pan

For the filling

  • In a skillet, sauté the red pepper in oil until tender.
  • Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer.
  • In a small bowl, combine the remaining ingredients
  • Stir in red pepper mixture.
  • Pour into crust.
  • Bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.
  • Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting.

 

Brown Rice Salad with Grapes

Brown rice salad with grapesSomehow I ended up picking a bunch of rice salads a few weeks ago. I think there were 3 on the menu in a couple of weeks–kind of odd given that we rarely make salad with rice…

But they were yummy and I made a couple of cups of brown rice early in the week and put it in the fridge and dinner was ready in no time! Worked out well. Also no cooking, which is always nice on a hot summer day.

This one came from TheKitchn. We switched out the walnuts for sunflower seeds due to allergies and maybe simplified things a bit here and there. With rice in the fridge, this can be ready in about 10 minutes. It’s a very hearty salad that could be a main dish.

Brown Rice Salad with Grapes

MealsWeLike.com adapted from theKitchn
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 55 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Course Salad
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

For the salad:

  • 1 cup brown rice
  • 1 cup sunflower seeds
  • 1 bag salad greens
  • 2 cups red grapes sliced in half
  • 1 cup crumbled ricotta salata Trader Joe's has this

For the vinaigrette:

  • 3 Tbs white wine vinegar
  • 3 Tbs olive oil
  • 1 Tbs brown mustard
  • pepper

Instructions
 

  • Cook the rice and cool. I found it easiest to make up a batch of rice in the morning, put it in the fridge for the evening or a day or two later.
  • In a large bowl combine the cold rice, sunflower seeds, salad greens. Toss.
  • In a small bowl mix the vinaigrette, whisking to mix.
  • Pour vinaigrette over the salad and mix.
  • Add the grapes and ricotta salata, toss a bit and serve cold.

 

Sweet Potato Torta Española with Chard

 

Sweet Potato Torta Española

This Torta Española with Rainbow Chard recipe on theKitchn sounded really good, though we tend not to eat regular potatoes. I wondered if it could be made with sweet potatoes and Googled around and ran into this recipe on Well Fed, Flat Broke. So, while I am sure Spaniards would complain that this has no resemblance to a true Torta Española, we mixed and matched between the recipes and came up with the delicious dinner. We increased the chard to 1/2 the bunch, and sautéed the rest with some garlic and served that on the side. Our only regret was that there were no leftovers!IMG_9026

Sweet Potato Torta Española with Chard

MealsWeLike.com adapted from theKitchn and Well Fed, Flat Broke
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Course Main
Cuisine Spanish
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

  • 2 Medium sweet potatoes thinly sliced
  • 1 Red onion thinly sliced
  • 3 Tbs olive oil
  • 1 Clove garlic minced
  • 1/2 Bunch of chard sliced into strips
  • 8 Eggs beaten

Instructions
 

  • Heat the oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat.
  • Add the potato and onion slices, stir to mix and coat with oil.
  • Add the garlic and mix in.
  • Cover and let cook until potatoes are soft, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • Put the sliced chard on top of the potatoes and cover.
  • Cook another couple of minutes so the chard wilts.
  • Pour the beaten eggs over the chard and cover, cooking another 5-8 minutes, or until the eggs are mostly set.
  • Loosen the edges with a spatula and carefully slide the torta onto a plate.
  • Put the pan on top of the plate and invert so that the torta is back in the pan upside-down.
  • Cover and cook a few more minutes, until the eggs are cooked through.
  • Slice and serve.