Arroz con chorizo

This one pot dinner was delicious and came together quickly on a weekday night. I had recently oversaturated some rice for a pelau dish over Father’s day and had the dish still fresh on my mind when I decided to make this. I made sure not to add too much water and liquid this time.

Ingredients

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp sofrito

1 packet of sazon con achiote

1 lb uncooked chorizo (sliced)

2 cups long grain white rice (washed)

8 ounces tomato sauce

1 can of black beans (rinsed and drained)

1.5 cups of water

1 Tbsp adobo or salt and pepper to your liking

Method:

In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil in over medium-high heat. Add sofrito and sazon and stir until fragrant. About 1 or 2 minutes. Add chorizo and allow to sear; stir frequently about 7 minutes. Add rice and stir; allow to cook for 2 minutes. Add tomato sauce, black beans, and water. Allow to come to slow boil then cover and reduce heat to low; let cook for 30 mins. After 30 mins, fluff with a fork and serve.

Thought this would be spicier than it was but the whole family enjoyed it tremendously.

First Father’s Day Pelau

Tags

chicken, Pelau, Rice, Trinidadian food

It’s day “I don’t know” and we still haven’t been able to go out to eat; with this being hubby’s first Father’s Day, I opted to make one of his favorite dishes: Pelau. I don’t have a lot of experience making this but I have had a version of this once or twice and neither of those times yielded a perfect Pelau.

Today will make the 3rd time and once again, it’s not perfect but it was still tasty.

Pelau is a rice and chicken dish, this particular version is Trinidadian, which is where my husband’s family is from. It contains brown sugar and coconut milk; almost like a carribean arroz con pollo. I am listing the recipe as is but will add my modifications for next time. It came out very mushy – still tasty but will def add less liquid next time.

Found the recipe from The Spruce Eats here:

• 3 pounds chicken thighs (and/or drumsticks, cut up into large pieces) 2lbs chicken legs and thighs
• 2 tablespoons green seasoning  sofrito
• 2 teaspoons grated garlic
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
• Salt (to taste)
• Pepper (to taste)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (or canola oil)
• 3 tablespoons cane sugar (can substitute for brown sugar) brown Sugar
• 2 cups rice (washed, drained and parboiled) long grain rice 
• 3/4 cup onions (chopped)
• 1/2 cup sweet peppers (chopped)
• 2 cups cooked pigeon peas (canned is fine) soaked green lentils
• Optional: 1 cup carrots (diced)
• 2 cups fresh canned coconut milk (dilute milk with water if using canned coconut milk)
• 2 cups 3/4 cup cooking liquid (stock, water or reserved cooking liquid from peas)
• 1 whole scotch bonnet pepper
• 1/2 cup sliced green onions (white and green parts)

At leaset

At least 1 hr before cooking, combine chicken with sofrito, garlic, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, ketchup, salt and pepper in a bowl or sealed bag and let marinate. I marinated mine overnight.

When ready to cook, I find its easier to have all ingredients ready to go since so much needs to be monitored while you’re cooking.

Heat oil in a large pot over medium- high heat. Get the oil nice and hot and add the sugar. For this part, you want to almost burn the sugar and look for it to be foamy with dark edges. Once the sugar is browned and foamy, add the chicken. The chicken should make a loud sizzling sound and you should brown the chicken for 10 minutes over the medium- high heat.

Add rice, onions, peppers, carrots and peas and fold to combine – about 5 minutes.

Add cooking liquid and coconut milk and bring to boil. Let boil for 3-5 minutes, cover, and reduce heat to low. Allow rice to soften for 35- 40 minutes.

My rice had too much liquid in it so it was really mushy – like risotto. I tend to like my rice a little fluffier so the choice is yours. If you like risotto style rice, the recipe from The Spruce Eats tastes great. I tweaked it so next time it will be fluffy. When cooking rice, you can always add more water but you can’t “fix” mushy rice.

Hubby enjoyed it and there were enough leftovers for the following day- it tastes even better on day 2.

Crustless Apple Crisp with Oat topping

I had an abundance of apples and couldn’t think of a better way to use them up than with an apple crisp. Sure, apples are more of a fall fruit but my weekly vegetable delivery has been sending a regular supply of apples like Gala, Pink Lady, McIntosh and honeycrisp – and I have made apple butter 3x now – it was time to change it up. It’s almost 4th of July – America’s Independence Day and apple crisp like a crustless apple pie… what’s more American than apple pie???

The recipe is easy to follow with the most annoying part having to peel (optional) and core the apples. Other than that- its a dessert you literally throw together.

Apple Crisp (serves 6-8)

Ingredients:

8 to 10 apples, peeled, cored, and diced (peeling is optional)

3/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp All- Purpose Flour

1 Tbsp Cinnamon

1/4 cup water

juice of half a lemon

Topping:

1 cup quick cooking oats, dry

1/2 cup All-Purpose flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup melted butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*.

Place diced apples in a 9×13 inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Pour apples in baking dish and in a medium bowl combine flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Once combined, pour over apples and lightly toss to ensure the apples are evenly coated with the sugar mixture. Add lemon juice and water.

In a large bowl, combine oats, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and melted butter. Texture should feel like wet sand. Pour mixture over apples making sure to cover all the apples.

Bake uncovered for 45 minutes to an hour, or until apples are soft and topping is crisp.

Serve warm, in a mug with a scoop of your favorite ice cream or as is.

I used my Halo Top chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.  What a comfort!

Beef Teriyaki Meatballs over Rice

I’ve been getting a consistent order of ground beef and steaks from Walden Local Meat and I have been seeking ideas for things to keep dinners interesting.

I was perusing Tik Tok and saw a recipe for teriyaki meatballs. Of course I didn’t think to save it and if you know anything about #FYP you’ll know it’s hard to find something you scroll past and then the page refreshes.

So I decided to wing it.

1 lb ground beef
1Tbsp fresh grated ginger
2 tsp minced garlic
3 scallions (chopped) (reserve some greens for garnish)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp Sriracha (optional)
1 egg
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs

For the glaze: store bought or homemade teriyaki marinade ( i used store bought)

Combine ingredients (except marinade) and form 1 to 2 inch meat balls (about the size of a golf ball). Place in air fryer that has been prepped with non stick spray. Brush meatballs with teriyaki marinade or glaze. Air fry at 400 degrees for 15 mins.
Toss meatballs in teriyaki marinade and scallions. Serve over white rice.

Nice change of pace.

Would def make again. Will try with pork.

My First Mother’s Day

Welp, it happened!

I celebrated my first Mother’s Day… in quarantine. Before COVID-19, I had dreams of going out to brunch with my family and feeling truly pampered. However, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.

When my husband asked me what I wanted for mother’s day, I told him I just wanted to be pampered for the day. Put my feet up and spend time snuggling with the little one that made me a mommy.

You can forget about sleeping in since my infant thinks 6AM is an ideal time to wake up regardless of the time she goes to sleep; my husband prepared a breakfast feast while I showered and put on real clothes instead of the leggings that I have been wearing in quarantine. It felt nice to gussy up for a change.

Hubby prepared a massive breakfast if bacon, sausage, eggs, and toast that we all enjoyed. I sipped a hot cup of coffee while snuggling my little one while he cleaned up.

I opened my gifts – a necklace from Tiffany’s and a bottle of moet chandon.

We watched movies. Hubby baked a cake. I facetimed with my mom and cousin.

We took pics. And I waited anxiously to devour this baby:

It was box vanilla cake mix with French vanilla frosting.

I inhaled that cake with a glass of champagne.

It was a nice and quiet day spent with my little love who made me a mommy. Ideally I would have loved to go out but hopefully we can go back to normal before the next mother’s day 😅.

My First Tri-Tip

The absolute beauty in subscribing to an online butcher lies in the wonderful surprises that await in each order. I’m so accustomed to the steakhouse cuts of beef that I find myself not knowing how to cook different cuts.

The tri-tip in my box this month was one of those cuts I have never had the pleasure of cooking. I did a little research and was able to whip up something delicious for my family and I would definitely make it again!

Ingredients

1 2lb tri-tip

Steak seasoning of choice (I used salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, and Italian herbs)

Directions

Marinate your steak with dry seasonings and some olive oil for at least an hour. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 400*.

When ready to cook, heat a heavy bottom skillet with 1 Tbsp of olive oil. When the pan is nice and hot, place the tri-tip in the pan and cook over a medium high heat for 4 minutes on each side.

Place tri-tip on a roasting pan with a rack lined with foil underneath. Roast for 10 minutes per pound for a medium rare. My roast was almost 2lbs so I roasted for 18 minutes.

When done, transfer tri-tip to cutting board and let rest for 10 minutes.

When ready, thinly slice against the grain.

I served this with roasted carrots and potatoes along with a frissee salad and used the steak pan drippings as my “dressing”.

The steak was cooked perfectly. It was a nice treat and definitely felt like a meal we would have had while dining out… which feels like a thing of the past after all this time quarantined but I hope to get more tri-tips in my butcher delivery in the upcoming months.

Stay safe everyone!

Pasta Carbonara

This is probably the quickest and most delicious dinner I have made so far during this period of isolation. I’ll admit when the talk of hunkering down at home for weeks was just talk, I ran to the grocery store after the mayor declared a state of emergency. I was in search of staples because our pantry was bare – unfortunately I wasn’t the only one thinking this. At 7AM at the grocery store on a random day of the week, the supermarket was packed and the shelves were sparse.

Of the items I picked up, one was spaghetti – the only pasta left in the pasta aisle- so I got 5 boxes of spaghetti.

I like to keep things different when I cook so aside from the classic spaghetti and meatballs or spaghetti with olive oil and garlic, I was looking for something different. My family mechanic was a guest on a TV show so I happen to find myself watching daytime talk shows when Rachael Ray came on and she was doing a Q&A from home. One of her viewers asked what was the first dish Rachael cooked for her husband and he said carbonara. I happened to have all the ingredients so carbonara was on deck.

Ingredients:

1 lb Spaghetti

6 oz thick cut bacon, chopped

1 Tbsp minced garlic cloves

2 large eggs beaten

1/2 to 1 cup of pasta water

Parm cheese

Dried parsley

In a large pot set the water to boil and cook the spaghetti per your liking.

In a frying pan, over medium heat, cook bacon until its crispy. Remove crumbled bacon to a paper towel and add garlic to the rendered bacon fat. Lower the heat to low and cook garlic until fragrant- about 2 minutes.

While the pasta is nearly cooked, reserve a cup of pasta water.

In a small bowl, beat the eggs and add parm cheese. I like to add 2 or 3 tbsp.

Once the spaghetti is cooked, drain and place back in the pot. Pour the rendered bacon fat and garlic onto the spaghetti and toss.

Temper the beaten eggs by adding in the pasta water 1 tbsp at a time to slowly bring the eggs to a higher temperature without scrambling. Start with adding half cup of pasta water to the eggs. You can always add more of you need it.

I whipped the eggs, parm, and water together and quickly tossed into the spaghetti to coat. When it was fully incorporated, I added the bacon crumbles and served with parsley and more parm cheese

Took about 20 minutes from start to finish.

Loved this and my family did as well.

Red beans and rice with chorizo

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has started cooking more now that we have all this time on our hands. Prior to COVID-19 with commuting, picking up and taking care of the baby, among other things cooking dinner would be the last thing I would want to do so actually having time to make something hearty and delicious has been a silver lining.

I live in a densely populated area and grocery shopping has been a complete nightmare. My husband and I decided to subscribe to any and all subscription services to limit the amount of trips we have to take to the overcrowded and often poorly stocked grocery store.

We use Misfit Market for organic produce and Walden Local Farms for our meats.

Walden, so far, has been an amazing service. We don’t specify what we need so they just send us a variety of cuts and meats. We get a freezer full of meat and get to try new things.

The chorizo looked great and I wanted a creative way to enjoy it rather than with some eggs. So I did a little research and thought a play on the Louisiana classic Red Beans and Rice would work well.

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1lb chorizo

1 medium onion (diced)

3 ribs of celery (diced)

3 cloves garlic (minced)

1 bell pepper (roughly chopped)

2 cans of kidney beans (drained)

3 bay leaves

2 tablespoons of tomato paste

2 cups chicken stock

1 heaping tbsp creole seasoning

Steamed white rice

Directions:

Grill or pan fry the chorizo until browned – this cooked for about 8 minutes. While the chorizo was browning, set up a large pot and heated olive oil. Sautee the onions with celery, garlic, and peppers until soft over medium heat- about 5 to 8 mins.

Add the beans, bay leaves, tomato paste, and chicken stock. Stir to combine. Add creole seasoning – taste and season with additional spices if you like.

Slice the chorizo and add to the pot. Stir to combine and bring to bubble. Let simmer for 30 mins.

Serve over rice.

Not completely authentic but very tasty none the less.

Hope you’re staying safe, healthy, and well-fed.

Birth Story (sort of)

Tags

Birth, birth story, C-section, labor, Pregnancy

I sort of journaled my pregnancy experience on here as a note to self and also for those that were curious. So many moms told me that they forgot all the woes of being pregnant and I honestly didn’t believe that was possible… but here I sit with an 8 month old and reading the old posts I wrote I realized I actually did forget.

Aside from my normal woes in the first and second trimester, I was feeling pretty good. I was staying active and making sure to take walks everyday and eat well- balanced meals. I am proud to say I only gained 15 lbs during the pregnancy but this isn’t very uncommon among moms that are plus-size but either way, I was proud of this accomplishment.  Around week 30 of the pregnancy I was hit like a ton of bricks. The weeks that were once flying by, started to painlessly drag. I was losing sleep, I was constantly in the bathroom (every 30 mins), my feet were the size of balloons, and the waddle was REAL.

That stupid freaking waddle.

I had what you would call Pelvic Girdle Pain – a condition I never heard of until I had it. Its when your pelvis gets misaligned due to the weight of the baby – my little angel wasn’t huge or anything but the pain was so severe that i needed help putting underwear on. Good thing it was summer because I could not be bothered to wear pants. Getting up and down, laying down, etc. everything hurt like my pelvis was going to snap in half. So, 10 weeks left felt like 10 more months.

During my final trimester, i learned baby girl was breach; due to my age my doc thought it was best to schedule a C-section for Aug 15. She got into position on her own but they still kept my date just in case she wanted to go back to breach – she didn’t – she kept herself right on top of that pelvis lol. I had a scare during week 36 – I was officially on maternity leave but i developed a rash that alarmed my OB and I was sent to Labor and Delivery to see if I needed to be induced. Thankfully all was well and I was sent home.

No one tells you all the fun you get to have when you’re super pregnant and have to go see the OB 1x per week and have a sonogram 1x per week. All the lovely trips.  During my week 37 visit, my OB told me my girl was NO WHERE near ready to be born as she was high up and I wasnt dilating at all. LIKE, at all. And she guessed I would carry until 42 weeks. I almost started crying when i got the news because i wanted to deliver already- I couldnt even dress myself let alone imagine another 5 weeks of it just waiting for baby.

But my doc was surprised to learn my Csec was still scheduled and she asked if I wanted to give birth week 39 instead of waiting.

Fam, can I tell you how those sad tears became happy tears??? I signed the dotted line and prepared for my c-sec.

Some may say I took the “easy” way out but as selfish as I may seem, I couldn’t bear anymore pain or the risk of needing an emergency C-sec. So I got a full nights sleep the night before my C-sec and had a very good and uneventful surgery.

Getting an epidural was surreal. Getting morphine was awful – the moment the surgery began I was telling my angel, my anesthesiologist every time I was feeling nauseous and he would adjust my dosage. I was a special case as he had never met anyone as sensitive to morphine as I was. My baby girl was delivered with zero complications and the sound of her cry was indescribable. She was covered in blood and guts, puffy, and screaming her little head off but she was so perfect.

Once they stitched me up, the let me hold her for the first time. The moment she smelled me she was rooting for my milk and they encouraged me to feed her if I wanted to; so I did. They wheeled me to recovery and my parents showed up to meet their first grand baby. There were pics taken, people taking turns holding her, etc and I remember none of it – i only remember shivering uncontrollably and sweating profusely with the worst nausea ever.

Not having eaten the night before, i was hungry and my husband fed me some jello. I was still really nauseous, shivering, and sweating – a symptom from the morphine leaving my body. I was still in recovery and unable to walk  when I called for a nurse because I really didn’t feel well. As she was coming near me, I locked eyes with her and projectile vomited across the room.

COMPLETELY Mortified. I continued to vomit like I was in the exorcist for TWELVE HOURS. God bless nurses. I swear. if they weren’t cleaning up my vomit, they were literally wiping my behind because I still couldn’t walk after having the c-section. Happy to say that I didn’t get any sick on my baby – she was happily nursing while her new mommy was tossing her cookies LOL.

Now, the one thing I was worried about was recovery since the last weeks of pregnancy were hell. To my amazement, I felt amazing. Once they removed the catheter, I was up and about like nothing. The pelvic pain was GONE, and aside from being gentle and avoid bending because I was literally cut open, I felt great.

I was so at peace with my decision to have the c-section but the downside was obviously getting sick from the morphine and having to stay in the hospital for 4 days. Would I do it again? The verdict is still out. I love being a momma but pregnancy was TOUGH and if it is to happen again, I leave that in God’s hands.

If you’re still reading, thanks for taking the time to read my “birth” story. Props to you Mommas doing it all – its not an easy job.

COVID Cooking and Updates

Well, since my last post I had a baby. Like, I made a human being. It’s so crazy. It’s been 8 months since I had my baby and things have been crazy to say the least. I don’t even know if anyone still reads this – and if you do, thanks for reading. Means a lot to me.

My hat goes off to the mom bloggers who find time to blog on a regular and consistent basis with posts that are filled with good stuff.

I am writing from my home office on day “I don’t know what” of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The last few weeks? months? have been interesting with the toilet paper shortages, masks being worn in public places, non-essential workers working from home, daily news updates, working from home, and caring for an infant. Whirlwind is more like it.

I am grateful to work for a company that allows us to work from home and even more grateful for what feels like an extended maternity leave. I get to see my daughter reaching her milestones and growing up right before my very eyes.

Also, I have been reacquainted with my kitchen and we have been cooking up a storm. We tried to order from Seamless a few times but during the COVID crisis, we have had bad experiences with delivery people stealing our food or leaving our food outside of our residence and not telling us – so cooking has become my escape. Aside from the dishes after making a delicious meal, I have forgotten how much I really enjoy cooking. If you follow me on IG, then you know the last few weeks have been indulgent. Hope I can make more time to share what I have been making.

If you or someone you love is an essential worker or a hospital worker- I just want to say THANK YOU for all that you do. These are scary and uncertain times but the entire world is going through this and its not easy.

Stay safe!