Happy late birthday to me!!

Well, I had a birthday this month on the 3rd, and my husband had his on August 28th. The good thing about having our birthdays close to each other, is that we only make one party in between birthdays. This year we went out for dinner, and did something fun together. We didn't want any gifts, there wasn't anything that we really needed. However, I got a $10 gift card to Amazon from a friend of mine. Now, there is only that much you can buy with $10. However, when you have been a poor student for a long time, some of the attitudes come back. Let's say they come back most of the time. I wasn't sure if I wanted to get something for me, for Perla, or for the house. I narrowed it down and decided to get something for the kitchen. It wasn't a very hard decision considering that I am continuously trying new recipes and striving to prepare healthy meals.

This is my new toy, a spiralizer. I am not going to mention which brand I got, because I don't want to advertise any of them. I love my spiralizer!!! So far I have tried it on zucchini and carrots. I am excited to try it on other fruits and veggies. I am including in this post a short summary of two of the recipes we have had using our spiralizer.

My spiralizer!! *-*

Zoodles (Zucchini noodles)

My husband cooked the first dish we had using our Spiralizer (I think he was excited too about our new toy). He sauteed the zucchini noodles in olive oil, garlic, and walnuts. The sauce is a marinara sauce, and we topped it with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Second dish is Zucchini noodles with a avocado sauce and grilled chicken, The avocado sauce was 2 avocados, 2 clove garlic, lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper blended in a food processor. Yummy!

I hope you enjoyed this post! 

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Warmly,

Juliana

Dinner tonight was.... a real SUCCESS

Today we had a busy and fun day. Perla had an appointment to the dentist and than we hang out with a friend and her child. When we came home, we were both a little tired and lied to take a nap. I was concerned that I might not wake up on time to make dinner. But dinner was finished right when my husband walked in the door. And you know what he said? He said that he had smelled the food from downstairs (we are in the second floor). Well, I don't believe that he smelled it from that far but the house surely smelled great.
I had planned to make for today an eggplant dish. Here are some pictures of how it turned out and the recipe will be below the pictures.

Right out of the oven

My plate, Perla ate the same amount as me :-) hubby had double

Eggplant Parmesan

1 large globe eggplant

1 1/2 c  tomato sauce (I used a little bit more sauce, I wanted more layers)

1 c mozzarella

1/2 c Parmesan cheese

1/2 c whole wheat flout

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs lightly beaten

1/4 c milk

2 1/2 c soda crackers, crumbled (I didn't have crackers, so I used bread crumbs)

dash of pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Cut eggplant into 1/4-inch rounds. Combine flour and salt in a bowl. Now the eggs and milk in another bowl, and lastly the cracker crumbs and pepper in another bowl. now take an eggplant slice and dip both sides in flour mixture, then the egg mixture and lastly the cracker crumbs. Repeat with all the eggplant. Layer in a 9*13-inch glass dish. Te slices may overlap, but shouldn't cover each other completely.

Sprinkle each layer with tomato sauce mixture and Parmesan cheese. cover tightly and bake 30 to 45 minutes or until fork pierces middle sliced easily. Top with mozzarella and a little more Parmesan. Return uncovered to oven just until cheese melts. Serve immediately.

Tomato Sauce:

1/2 onion 

1 clove garlic

2 tbs green pepper, chopped

2 tbsp oil

1 bay leaf

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

2 c tomatoes (fresh or canned, but I used fresh)

1/2 c tomato paste (I used tomato sauce)

1 tsp salt

Saute the onion and garlic in oil until onion is soft. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for half an hour. Remove bay leaf.

I hope you enjoy it!

Warmly,

Juliana

Sunday dinner

Yesterday and today we had Stake Conference in our Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We got a new Stake Presidency! I enjoyed the talks a lot, or at least as much as I could hear with our baby not staying still for a second. Elder Gay of the Seventy spoke both days. Something that he said that stood out to me was "Go home and ask your husband/wife what you can do better, and then go do it without being protective". I feel like sometimes when my husband tells me that he didn't like something that I did, I become protective of my actions and refuse to do what he would like me to. So, I personally need to work on this. I need to hear without being overprotective. I want to do what he would like me to, not because he asks me, but because I love him and I want to make him happy.

Enough said with the spiritual thought, now I would like to share with you our Sunday dinner recipes. I like to experiment on Sundays, but usually on Sundays we invite someone for dinner, so I am always nervous about the food I am serving. But today I was pleased with how everything turned out.

For main dish we had Easiest-Ever One-Dish Chicken Tamales. Doesn't it sound delicious??? Well, it was!

Easiest-Ever One-Dish Chicken Tamales

Ingredients

• 1 pkg (8 1/2 oz) corn muffin mix (such as Jiffy) (I made my own muffin mix at home, you can find the recipe for it here)

• 1 can (14 3/4 oz) creamstyle corn

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

• 1/2 cup  milk

• 1 teaspoon  chili powder

• 1/2 teaspoon  ground cumin

• 1 pkg (8 oz) shredded taco cheese blend (such as Sargento)

• 1 can (10 oz) hot enchilada sauce (such as Old El Paso)

• 3 cups  shredded cooked chicken, from rotisserie chicken

• 1 cup  sour cream (optional)

• Lime wedges (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees . Coat a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, combine muffin mix, corn, eggs, milk, chili powder, cumin and 1 cup of the cheese. Spoon into prepared baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

3. Pierce casserole with a small knife in about 12 places and spread enchilada sauce over top. Scatter chicken and remaining cup of cheese over casserole; bake for 20 additional minutes.

4. Allow to cool for 10 minutes and cut into 8 squares. If desired, serve with sour cream and lime wedges.

For desert we had Banana Pecan Coconut Chocolate Chip Blondie. And yes, it really had all the ingredients listed in the name. You will find the recipe here.

Banana Pecan Coconut Chocolate Chip Blondie

Ingredients

6 tbsp unsalted butter

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup, agave syrup or golden syrup

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup mashed, ripe banana

1 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup shredded coconut

1/3 cup pecan halves, roughly chopped

1/3 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 F (180 C). Place the butter into an 8-inch pie tin or brownie tin and put it into the oven for 5 minutes - just so the butter melts. Swirl the melted butter around in the tin to grease it and then pour the butter into a medium bowl.

To the bowl of melted butter, add the sugar, syrup, salt, egg, vanilla and banana. Beat the ingredients together and add the baking soda, flour, coconut and pecans. Fold in until evenly combined.

Pour the mixture into the greased tin and spread out in an even layer. Sprinkle with the chocolate chips and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool for 5 minutes in the tin before slicing/scooping and serving!

I hope you all have an enjoyable week! Follow apearlinoyster in Instagram to see more recipes!

Warmly,

Juliana

Two dinner recipes for less than $10

I have been trying to stay consistent with the days I post on my blog, but this week it has been harder to stay on track. We own two half laptops. I say half because no one of them really works. Since my husband has homework, I wanted him to use the more functional laptop to do homework and to take with him to school. But to make up for that I am posting two very easy, cheap, and delicious dinner recipes. 

The first one is a Mixed Mushroom Rice. You can find the recipe here.

I made mine more like a risotto. The difference between normal rice and risotto is that for the risotto you add the water (should be hot) little by little and let the rice absorb the liquid before you add again (about 30sec) stirring continually. I topped mine with parsley, olive oil and feta cheese.

The second recipe is a Corn casserole. This is super quick and easy to make. You can find the recipe here.

As you can see, I have topped my casserole with french fried onions that I made myself. They are actually baked so they are not cooked with too much oil. This was so good.

Now, if you know us, you will know that we love onions and garlic. I cook almost anything with onions and garlic. Now a few facts about these "Healing Foods".

They might wreak havoc on your breath, but these two herbs, can do wonders for your health. In order to reap the benefits of fresh garlic. you have got to eat it raw, as any cooking dramatically reduces its disease-fighting activity. And don't eat the cloves whole, garlic's active constituent is created when the enzyme is released by chopping or crushing the cloves and exposing them to air for more than ten minutes. Studies show that both onions and garlic contain sulfur compounds that can help with diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. 

I would encourage you all to try and implement these two herbs in your daily cooking. Onions are easier, I think, to implement, but you can add garlic to everything you cook with onions. As for eating them raw, use onions on salads, and use garlic on tzatziki, hummus, salsa etc.

I hope you are staying warm, and are enjoying the weekend!

Warmly,
~Juliana~