chinese-ish beef and veg with rice

cubed beef sauteed with pepper and salt, snow peas, and texas jasmine rice made with garlic and chicken stock (g-f). i used the sunbird beef and broccoli seasoning with bragg's amino's (g-f) instead of soy sauce. i used to love when my mother made cubed beef and i can't believe it has been soooo long since i've had this beef.

pot -ah- toes!

potatoes al a bec, with tomatoes, chives, cream cheese and a whole lotta spices. so great!

hummus and dolmas (yes again!)

another lebanese night! i guess we can now classify that we are officially on a "kick." a lebanese inspired "kick." and it is awesome. i'm even planning a hummus with oven roasted garlic. doesn't that sound like possibly the best thing ever? doesn't it?

also? if you've never roasted garlic do it right this moment! take a head of garlic and a medium square-ish piece of aluminum foil. then get together some spices. wrap it up with olive oil and all the spices you can imagine. pop it in the oven for oh, i don't know, like a few hours at like 350ish. until they're squishy and darker and they smell like awesome.

so we had lamb dolmas, hummus and pita (matt) slash rice crackers (me=g-f). so yum, easy to make and pretty healthy.

flameeng chiz

we sometimes frequent local eateries in an attempt to enjoy a "night on the town" so to speak. we did just that a little while ago and were inspired to create our own el fenix ap in the privacy of our own couch.

inspired by el fenix, i present for your viewing/noshing pleasure: zee flameeng chiz! mexican melting cheese and chorizo sausage served with (what else?) chips (g-f). actually, you could use flour or corn (g-f) tortillas which is nice as well if slightly more messy- you will not believe the grease that comes off the sausage! even after draining! yowza!). the meat and schiz were purchased at a little place i like to call sprouts.

on a g-f note, the waiter was super helpful with my "dietary needs.*" he checked the seasoning for the steak and something else that i ate and it was all wonderful and non-reacty.

*i don't really know why "dietary needs" is in quotes. i felt it needed quotes.

stuffed peppahs

i love peppers! the orange are my favorite, then yellow and then red (you totally wanted to know that!). also, i don't acknowledge that green peppers are even edible, somebody obv picked them too soon in an effort to make a dollah.

i present to you yellow peppers stuffed with rice vermicelli, ground beef, allspice, pepper and salt. covered in tomato sauce before the oven and then provolone perched a top when they come out of the oven. they were ok. my main change with this foray into pepper-dome was to cut the peppers vertically instead of horizontally. i am into the change.

steak salad

steak salad with leftover steak, tiny mozz balls, baby !hot! pickled corn (mmmmm), tomatoes and romaine. covered in spices and vinaigrette. what a yummy use of leftovers! yummy!

fiyaaahh

stuff it!

mushrooms that is... ha! stuffed with bacon, mozzarella cheese, mushroom stems and minced onions. de... lightful!

gluten-free stuff (that doesn't suck)

• best cookies evah! i need to know how to make them in real life.
• pizza
• yogurt (this is awesome for everyone! try it! that kid sure likes it!)
• buffalo jerky
• muffins (i read a review that was negative about this mix. i used milk as my liquid. they were moist and delish. next time i want to add bananas)
• rice (i made garlic rice with this and wow!)
• rice puff cereal
• pasta
• quinoa (there's a recipe for tabbouleh on the back!)

hummus, tabbouleah and cauliflower

lebanese night continues... i made tabbouleh with wheat and with no wheat (not pictured), hummus and sauteed cauliflower (which is officially the best veg ever). the hummus is served with paprika and olive oil. matt had pita bread with his and i, i was sad that i didn't get any wheaty breadness. BUT the cauliflower, which matt's not a huge fan of, made up for the lack of pita.

dolmas with lamb and rice (and grape leaves!)

we had a lebanese night because we got our new lebanese cookbook. i love dolmas. these are the lamb and rice dolmas and they were delish. the coolest part, i think, is that you don't have to cook the rice beforehand.

i did a pound of lamb for these and cooked them in our biggest saute pan. line the pan with extra/broken/bullet riddled grape leaves and place a couple plates on top of everything to keep the packages tight and to hold in the steam. i also put some aluminum foil on top because this pan doesn't have a top.

recipe from lebanese cuisine by madelain farab

fish tacos (part deux)

matt loves fish tacos and we've been trying to get the right for some time. this time i looked up a recipe from rubio's in cali. i used palauch fish and a "fish fry" batter instead of the beer batter. the yogurt sauce made the whole thing i think. plus green cabbage and salsa. they were delicious! and here is a shark's jaw bone piece of cabbage. watch out!