Oodles of Nuuudons

Before I start, I wanted to say that I added another addition to my Le Creuset collection!!! This is what excites my life now, besides heels. My other half purchased the 11" Nonstick Shallow Frying Pan for me because our other pans were getting old. I have yet to use it, but he already conditioned the pan for me: washed it, put a coating of vegetable oil, rinsed it off, and dried it with a paper towel. What I really enjoy about this pan is the magnetic stainless steel base so it'll work on any stovetop/don't need to worry that it'll fall or something (I don't know how that could happen, but it could!) Also, the handle is hollow and a stay-cool stainless steel so the heat from the pan won't transfer to the handle, but that doesn't mean you should avoid wearing an oven mitt. Safety first! 

My mini Le Creuset collection!

Back to food! As I said in the "Nacho Mind" post, the rotisserie chicken lasts for 3.5 days or more for my other half and I. As I was rummaging through my fridge to see what to make with the chicken, I had leftover ingredients from the nachos, besides the corn tortillas. Then I spotted a few packages of udon and it hit me...STIR FRY UDON!

*Disclaimer: Taking photos had slipped my mind during the prepping and cooking process so I only have photos of the finished product. Sorry!

The first thing I did was boil my udon for 1-2 minutes to loosen it up and slightly cook it. Then I sliced up sweet white onions, cut fresh green beans into smaller pieces, and sliced fresh garlic. I sauté the onions first in EVOO for a couple minutes, then added the green beans. I always add garlic last so they don't stick/burn (I happen to love the taste of raw garlic!). After draining the udon, I put corn and shredded rotisserie chicken to the pan to heat it up. I added the udon and tossed everything together. I seasoned it with ground black pepper, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and cayenne pepper. I wanted to make an Chinese type of stir fry udon so I added hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, nuoc mum, sriracha, and oyster sauce. I don't measure it out, I sprinkle it on here and there, taste and adjust. I finished it off with some fresh squeezed lemon juice. The finished product was amazing! The udon noodles had just enough chewiness and the sauce was sweet, tangy, and spicy. You get a crunch from the green beans and the green onions. I forgot to add cilantro, but that would've given it a good earthiness and cut the heat.

It's a pretty easy dish to make with simple meat leftovers or tofu. 

I realized that was a lemon seed and took it out after the photo! 

Another angle!

Until Next Time!

CheFelicia

PS! Check out my new Pinterest board at: Felicia's Food Fight Pinterest! Click here!

It's still a work in progress!

Nacho Mind

I love Costco. Granted, my weekly Costco trips only consist of stocking back up on fruits and vegetables for the week, it is still a great experience. I get their rotisserie chicken once in a while because that 1 chicken lasts my other half and I about 3.5 days for $5.00! What?! Yeah, for real. It's crazy.

While talking to one of my dear friends and biggest supporter of me and this blog, she said "chicken nachos!" And started listing out mouth watering accompaniments to the nachos. I was going to make chicken and shrimp spring rolls, but nachos sounded way better. I needed to get tortilla chips, but wanted to make it "semi-homemade" so instead of buying chips, I bought yellow corn tortillas and decided to bake them! If I wanted it to be homemade, I would've bought masa harina to make my own masa dough ->tortillas->chips, but I hadn't intended on doing that. Maybe next time! ;)

I cut the tortillas into triangles (1 tortilla = 4 chips), and baked them at 350 degrees. I did 2 test batches prior to ensure I wouldn't mess any of the chips up. The 1st batch was made at 350 with 1 plain chip and the other brushed with olive oil. The 2nd batch had the same type of chips from the 1st batch, but I increased the temperature to 400. I preferred the plain chip that was made at the 350 temperature. It had a great crunch and no grease!

Freshly baked tortilla chips!

The best part of nachos is the cheese. I'm not a fan of cheese, but I love nacho "cheese". So artificial, but so good. I had low fat shredded mexican cheese but wanted to make a good creamy, yet healthy nacho cheese sauce. And I did it with 3 ingredients: Cheese, flour, and chicken broth! I don't eat a lot of dairy products so when I want to create something creamy and lush, I improvise and whatev happens, happens! I made chicken broth, whisked in flour and added the cheese and that was it! I would add water if it got too thick. I love spicy food, so I charred some diced up jalapenos to get their essence going then added the other ingredients. And voila! Healthier cheesy goodness.

Oozy, gooey, bubbly cheese

What is nachos without salsa? I enjoy acidic food cutting through the richness of the cheese, so I made a fresh salsa using a red onion, corn, tomato, cilantro, green onion, and squeezed the juices from a lime and lemon. Added a little ground black pepper and garlic powder and put it in the fridge for the flavors to blend together.

It looks so fresh and I love the colors!

With the chicken from Costco, I shredded it and added its juices to the salsa.

And there you have it! Simple, healthy chicken nachos! I added Cholula hot sauce to mine to give it more of a kick. The chips came out so good! They were not greasy and very crispy. I was on Google Hangout with my friend and she wanted to hear me crunch into a chip and it did! This meal for 2 people didn't even cost $2 because I didn't fully use all the ingredients! AND if you have leftover salsa and tortillas, you can make chicken tacos! BAM! Another meal.

The salsa really added a great raw crunch and freshness. These nachos won't make you feel heavy after!

Until Next Time!

CheFelicia

PS. You can check out my Instagram: Pholeeshia for photos!

Oink Oink!

I've been busy traveling the last couple of weeks and haven't cooked as much. The food I ate while traveling will be another post. Tonight was supposed to be a "light" meal since I have been eating out a lot, but it ended up not being very light.

I was perusing my fridge and freezer trying to come up with something to make for dinner. I remembered I had pancetta from Boccalone in San Francisco and I wanted to build a dish around it. I found tortellini and broccoli and there was my dish! My other half wanted some bacon so I bought a few slices of jalapeno cured bacon from Whole Foods.

The first thing I did was boil my broccoli for 2 minutes that way it wouldn't need to completely cook in the pan and bring everything else to a halt. Using the same water, I cooked my tortellini in it.

While the tortellini was cooking, I rendered down the fat of the pancetta and bacon.

Rendering down the pancetta and bacon

Then I added diced up onion and garlic.

Once the garlic and onion became translucent, I added the broccoli.

The tortellini finished cooking, I added it to the mix and let them all mingle together. I added cayenne pepper, ground black pepper, parsley, thyme, garlic powder, and chili powder for taste.

I topped tortellini off with a poached egg to give it a creamy texture like carbonara, green onions for freshness, and some pieces of the pancetta and bacon for crunch.

Perfectly poached egg with the yolk dripping down. YUM.

It was a great meal. The pancetta had enough salt for the entire dish, the creaminess of the yolk against the tortellini left a buttery feel to the mouth, the bacon and pancetta had a great crunch, the broccoli and green onion slashed the buttery feel and gave it a fresh taste. Thinking back I should've added lemon juice for acidity, and I also have a ton of lemons. I'll add some juice to the leftovers!
   
                                                                                   

                                                                     Until Next Time!
                                                                          CheFelicia