Dinner – Gabriela Maria

Review: Ground Beef Casserole

August 12, 2023August 12, 20231 Comment

I was looking for something quick, easy, and with minimal cleaning required. This Ground Beef Casserole was a great option! I found this recipe from EatingWell. It’s intended to have some kick to it, but I opted to cut most of those out. You’ll see my substitutions below!

Rating

10/10

Recipe

Ground Beef Casserole

This was very easy to make. I only wish there was more! Items with an * were omitted in my version and any replacements will be in parenthesis.

Ingredient List:

1 lb ground beef
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 cups cauliflower florets
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp chili powder* (2 tbsp paprika)
2 tsp ground cumin*
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground chipotle*
15 oz no-salt-added petite-diced tomatoes
2 cups extra sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
1/3 cup sliced pickled jalapeños*

Recipe Directions:

Preheat broiler to high
Heat oil in a broiler-safe skillet over medium-high heat
Add onion and bell pepper cooking until softened, about 5 minutes
Add beef and cauliflower, cooking until beef is no loner pink, breaking into smaller peices. About 5-7 minutes.
Stir in garlic, chili powder* (paprika), cumin*, oregano, salt, and chipotle*, and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute
Add tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Cook until cauliflower is tender. Remove from heat
Sprinkle cheese over mixture and top with jalapeños*. Broil until cheese is melted, 2-3 minutes.
Serve and enjoy!

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Seared Sea Scallops with Cauliflower Purée Sauce

January 21, 2023January 21, 2023Leave a comment

^{Disclaimer: Any links are provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval of any of the products, services or opinions of the corporation or organization or individual.}

Recipe at bottom of post. Happy cooking!

Hello everyone! Thank you for your patience while I adjusted my posting schedule and also had some unexpected events in my personal life. I also really appreciate the following support on my Instagram. Although I was offline for a little more than two weeks, I actually gained some additional followers which was a nice surprise.

I haven’t had a chance to post any updates so I’ll start with that. For Christmas, I was gifted a noddle maker and a massive nutrition book, both of which I’m super excited to use. The noodle maker is exciting because I’ve been looking to start making more foods from scratch whether that be pasta, marinara sauce, pickles, etc. I really want to see what I can do.

The nutrition book is significantly larger than I was expecting. I thought it was a normal sized book – it’s a whole textbook. There’s a lot to go through, but I am excited for it because I want to start making my own dishes instead of focusing on recipe reviews. With the dishes I make, I want to make sure they’re covering all of my nutrition basics and why. I really enjoy learning, so this is a great way to enjoy my cooking a bit more.

A fun gift that was unexpected was a set of assorted olive oils and vinegars. Thankfully, a little recipe book came with them to offer some ideas, but I’m excited to try those out to see what new flavors I can bring to my food.

Naturally, all of these wonderful gifts will be used in my cooking blog! I’ve really enjoyed trying new recipes and making some of my own. The hardest part for me is remembering to record videos and take pictures, and remembering to post it. I think I find it hard because I enjoy cooking and I enjoy sharing my cooking, but my motive behind it is not to grow a following or have a famous Instagram account or anything. I enjoy writing and cooking, and this was a great way to bring those two aspects together. However, doing the recordings and posting on Instagram is the way for me to share these meals with other people. So although it’s sometimes difficult, I try to keep that in mind to boost my video-recording motivation.

I have many more updates since I’ve last posted, but I’ll save those for next week’s post so that we can get started!

This week I am very excited to kick-off my first series! I was originally going to post a delicious Balsamic Glazed Chicken recipe, but I wanted to kick this series off sooner rather than later, so the chicken will be for next week. Stay tuned!

Welcome to my Color Series! For each month, I’ve selected a color to represent that month or the holidays in that month. There were a few obvious ones such as February, October, and December, but for many of the months I had to think about what color might relate to them and why. There will be at least one recipe a month dedicated to that month’s color and my goal is to have an assortment of dishes: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, or desserts. So now, January….

January is white! I picked white because, although it hasn’t snowed in January in a long time, I’ve always associated January with white tones. For New Year’s celebrations, Champagne is a white wine and many of the poppers, confetti, etc. are usually a white or silver material. Way back when, when I was very young, it used to snow in January. Even now, although it no longer snows very often, January is typically cold and windy, and even the air seems to have a white tone to it because of the morning frost that occurs.

Thinking of white foods was initially very difficult. I thought of the usuals, garlic and white onion, but I couldn’t initially think of how to piece those together into a meal. Thankfully, Google exists, and was very helpful. The core of this white dish used garlic, white onion, white mushrooms, cauliflower, and sea scallops. Of course a few extra ingredients were included (that were not white). Check it out below and let me know what you think!

Seared Sea Scallops with Cauliflower Purée Sauce

Recipe List:

4-5 garlic cloves, minced
1 small/medium white onion, sliced or diced
1 pack white mushrooms, sliced
1 head cauliflower
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bag sea scallops (between 1-2 pounds)
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup of chicken broth (plus a little extra for later)
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice
A bundle of parsley
1/2 pack of linguini*
Salt and pepper to taste

Recipe Directions:

Thaw your scallops if needed. Pat scallops dry to remove excess moisture.
Heat olive oil in skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add scallops in single layer. In a separate pot, prepare water for boiling to make linguini (cooks for 8-9 minutes)*
Season with salt and pepper and fry for 2-3 minutes, then flip and fry again. remove from skillet.
Melt butter. Add in garlic, mushroom, and onion. Cook 1 minute.
Add chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Cook for about 2 minutes. Add sour cream and simmer until slightly thickened. Add lemon juice and parsley.
Remove mushroom and onion from skillet. Add cauliflower, small amount of chicken stock, and small amount of sour cream. Cook until cauliflower is tender.
- Add enough liquid to just cover the cauliflower. If easier, transfer from skillet to a pot. If there is too much liquid, the sauce will not get thick enough.
Using a blender or an immersion blender, blend cauliflower and liquid into a purée.
- Adjust consistency as needed – thickening by cooking further, or thinning by whisking in liquid.
Once blended to your liking, mix in linguine.
- You can also mix in the mushrooms, onion, and scallops!
Serve scallop, mushroom, and onion mixture over linguini. Add parsley and additional sauce as needed.

*The steps are optional depending on preference

Since this is my first “big” recipe that I’m sharing, I thought I’d also share some lessons learned:

Making a purée is much harder than I thought it would be. As you can probably tell from the pictures, my purée didn’t turn out as I had intended. I think I added too much liquid, and I think the skillet I was using was not deep enough to use the immersion blender. I had a hard time getting the cauliflower to break down even though it was tender.
It was also my first time using an immersion blender. The directions on the pack say not to use the blender for more than a minute, and to let it cool for 4 minutes. I wasn’t sure how long blending would take, but I figured it would be quick. I think it’s quick if you know what you’re doing 🙂 I think I just became impatient and gave up/ Instead of a purée, I ended up with a delicious cauliflower sauce that mixed in with the linguini very nicely.
Biggest lesson: It doesn’t have to be perfect. This was still delicious and I would make it again. I had so many firsts in this dish (scallops, purée, blending), and it was so fun to learn new things and cook with ingredients I haven’t cooked with before. While it didn’t go according to plan, it tasted just as good, and possibly even better than what I initially had in mind. Just have fun with it!

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Review: Ranch Marinated Chicken

December 2, 20221 Comment

I announced last Friday that I would not be uploading a post due to the holidays, but it feels like I’ve been away much longer. I spent Thanksgiving at my parent’s place which was nice. We had been debating whether to go out to dinner or to cook at home and ultimately decided to make a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal. I ended up helping out a bit and made Garlic Butter Roasted Carrots which I made a few years ago at my sister’s place. This time we added some broccoli to the mix to use up some of the veggies we had in the fridge. If you decide to add broccoli to this mixture, I would either cook them in a separate pan and mix them in later, or mix them in at the halfway point. The oven temperature is very high and the carrots cook for about 30 minutes. If the broccoli is in for too long it becomes a bit too soft.

Here’s our Thanksgiving spread! Shout out to my dad for making such a delicious meal!

I’m spending some time in California this week. I’m not sure how much cooking I’ll be doing so I may be sharing some old dishes on here. You can tell they’re old because the photos I took are not great, but they’ll do for now. I didn’t take PTO for this trip. Instead I’m working remotely from California following an eastern time work schedule. My day starts early, but I also end early due to the time change, so it’s actually been really nice. I have so much time in the afternoon now. I do a small workout, watch a few episodes of a TV series, and get to make progress toward a certification. Next week I am taking one day of PTO to go on a day trip which I’m excited for!

This recipe is from one of the magazines I picked up at Whole Foods. They have them strategically placed right next to the checkout counter and of course, while I was waiting in line, I was looking around and it caught my eye. That’s how they get you to spend an extra $20 at the grocery store! In all honesty, I could have put it back, but this magazine specifically focused on chicken recipes. If you’ve been following along, you’ll probably have noticed that many of the dishes I post are not very heavy with the meat and instead pull protein from other sources. Well my boyfriend loves to have meat. If eating beef everyday was healthy, he would do so, but he settles for chicken and only has red meat every now and then. I grabbed this magazine hoping it would generate some ideas of what to cook that would offer him a break from my plant-based dishes.

I remember taking a picture of the recipe, the dish name, and the magazine name, but of course I can’t find them on my phone! If I was home it would be quick to just grab the magazine and jot it down, but the official name and magazine will have to wait until I return home!

Rating

9/10

Recipe

Ranch Marinated Chicken and Rice

Don’t let “Ranch Marinated” scare you away from tryin this dish out. I thought it was a bit odd, as ranch is not an ingredient I use at all in my cooking unless it’s to have as dip for my carrots. When I read that I would be marinated my chicken in a bowl of Ranch dressing, I was a bit concerned as to whether or not I was following the recipe correctly, but it turned out delicious.

This recipe also included one of my favorite rice “hacks” which is to cook the rice in broth instead of water. This gives the rice some flavor and it makes cooking easier because there’s one less pot to clean!

Some notes and lessons learned:

Although there is spinach mixed into the dish at the end, I would have liked some additional veggies. To me, this dish was on the heavier side with the chicken broth rice and the chicken. I felt that it needed something to balance that heaviness.
Although the recipe calls for bone-in chicken, it was a hassle to remove the bone when it was time for dinner. I would have much rather purchased boneless chicken. Next time!

Try it out and let me know what you think!

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Review: One-Pan Lemon Garlic Shrimp & Asparagus

November 18, 2022November 18, 20221 Comment

I don’t have too many updates this week, but sometimes that’s a good thing! I’m in the midst of preparing for my holiday trips, some of which I will be taking PTO for and others in which I will just be working remotely. My first stop is to my parents house to celebrate Thanksgiving. We haven’t had the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving together as a family in a while since both my sister and I moved to California. This is the first time in what I believe is 6 or 7 years that we will be having a Thanksgiving dinner together. My dad is in charge of preparing the Thanksgiving meal, so I know it’s going to be delicious. I’m really excited for it. It’s been nice being back on the East Coast for a while and being able to visit my parents more often. My sister is also on the East Coast for a quick visit, so I’m glad the 4 four of us will get to spend some more time together.

After Thanksgiving I will quickly but safely drive home and get ready to head to California for a bit. I’m thrilled for this because I think it is freezing n the East Coast right now and I can’t wait to be back in California for that “winter” weather. I’ll be visiting my boyfriend which I’m excited for since we currently live on two different coasts. It’s definitely been tough, but I think we’re trying all we can to make the distance feel minimal.

After visiting my boyfriend, I get to relax in my home for a few days before I have to start packing again. This year I’m spending Christmas in Spain with my boyfriend’s family. It’ll be my first year not having Christmas with my family which makes me a little sad. I do really enjoy spending time with them and being together at the holidays is always special. We’ll be doing a mini Christmas on the 21st so that we can still say that we had Christmas together!

In between all that, I’m fitting in my work schedule, my blogging, and I’m looking to be a part of some virtual volunteering opportunities. It’s hard to find something in my location because I do travel quite a bit to visit my family and there is potential for future work travel. I don’t want to commit to an in-person volunteering event only to find out that I can’t make it. I think the virtual option is much more realistic for my schedule.

On the topic of food, I’m starting to draw a blank. I have a few recipes and pictures on file that are ready to be shared, but I can’t decide which is a good choice to share. I assume I’ll eventually share them all, but some are from before I purchased a ring light, and now looking back at those photos, they’re pretty bad.

I shared the blueberry scones on my Instagram this past Monday, but a post relating to them is not live. So if you’re looking around for it, stay tuned!

This week I’m sharing this super easy One-Pan Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Asparagus recipe. My biochem brain sees “asparagus” and immediately thinks of asparagine because that’s how I would remember the amino acid and know how to spell it. Full disclosure, I used two pans. You can find this recipe from the blog Carlsbad Cravings. I’m always amazed when I look at the home pages of the blogs I try recipes from. Everything looks so effortlessly delicious, and it usually is!

Asparagus is high in asparagine, from which it was named (of course!). Asparagine is a non-essential amino acid (amino acids our body can synthesize) which is critical for producing many of the body’s proteins, but also plays a role in the metabolism of ammonia.

I’ve started to notice that many of the recipes that I am making are not heavily focused around meat (even fish). It’s not intentional, I just found it curious that it was a pattern. This week, however, I am sharing a shrimp recipe and for dinner I made some chicken (which will be shared soon!).

Rating

9/10

Recipe

One-Pan Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Asparagus

I’m so focused on taking videos for my Instagram page that I often forget to take pictures. This is one of those recipes in which I forget to take a picture of the full, finished meal. I did take a picture of the shrimp, which turned out delicious!

This was a great recipe to make in a pinch because i only had to purchase 3 ingredients to make this work because I already had the rest at home. Some notes and lessons learned:

Add rice or pasta to make this a more filling and complete dish, unless you’re stacking up on the shrimp and asparagus
Following the cook time from the blog, my shrimp were still heavily grey when I pulled them out
- I popped them back in for the same amount of time and they turned out great. Just play it by ear to make sure you’re cooking the shrimp based on the capabilities of your oven.
If you don’t like asparagus, my recommendation would be to replace with broccoli. I personally find them to be relatively light vegetables so the dish doesn’t make you feel stuffed afterward

This is what my shrimp looks like after the full cooking session. This includes the addition of the parsley and the butter.

Try it out an let me know what you think!

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Review: Instant Pot Pumpkin Chili

October 28, 2022October 28, 20221 Comment

Another pretty open week at work. Our original project is on hold for this week to focus on a separate training aspect of our project. We had the first session yesterday and I think it went really well! There was a lot of engagement and positive feedback, and we had some constructive feedback that will help us for the next few training sessions. After these sessions are done we’ll be transitioning back into the main project.

I’m not contributing too heavily to any main content right now, but I’m pulled in when we need to make any updates to the presentations and I get to participate in all of the meetings with the senior teams. In my downtime I finished up some online Green Belt courses and have been taking some LinkedIn Learning courses to both help my project and to develop skills. Long-term (for now) my interests lie in business development and strategy, or something that couples those two aspects. Some of the LinkedIn Learning videos I watched (and took notes on!) dove into this a bit more and gave more insight into the business aspects that I’m not directly interacting with currently. Even though I’ve got a bit more free time at work, my project is still a main focus and I don’t have the bandwidth to completely dive into a business-based project to get more hands-on experience. The LinkedIn Learning gives a good opportunity to learn some of those skills so I can refer to them in the future.

This weekend I’m spending some time with my family. We bought matching glow-in-the-dark skeleton costumes for Halloween and are going to do some trick-or-treating. I haven’t gone trick-or-treating since middle school, maybe high school. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and I’m really looking forward to it!

Other than that, there hasn’t been anything too exciting this week. I did a mini online shopping spree but ended up returning more than half of the items I ordered. The few pieces I kept though I really like. Since I moved, my wardrobe has been in need of some updating due to the change in weather. I’m trying to do this progression slowly so I don’t break the bank 🙂

Now onto the food!

This week I made an Instant Pot Pumpkin Chili from the blog Noble Veggies. I’ve made chili a few times and I always love the variations I find. Most of the chilis I’ve made have been veggie based, but still filling and delicious. The Instant Pot Pumpkin Chili of course featured a special ingredient: pumpkin!

Pumpkin, like other types of winter squash, is high in fiber which supports digestive health.
Adapted from Dr. Axe

Having just driven 4 hours back to my apartment, I was most definitely not in the mood to cook or prepare food. Finding this recipe was great because it uses the Instant Pot! My prep work included cutting the zucchini, onion, and bell pepper, and mincing the garlic (with my garlic press). Other than a few minor initial steps, once these ingredients were in the Instant Pot, they were ready to go! Check out the post on The Noble Veggies blog to find the instructions!

As I said in my last post, pumpkin is not an ingredient that I regularly cook with. In fact, I think prior to my previous post, I had never cooked a recipe using pumpkin puree. I really wanted to try this recipe in the spirit of Halloween and fall, but have to admit I was a little nervous. In last week’s recipe, the taste of pumpkin was very subtle and added a small sweetness to the pasta. I was nervous that in a broth form the pumpkin puree would have a more powerful taste, and I’m not sure if that’s a flavor I like. It turns out that I had nothing to be worried about. Similar to last time, the pumpkin was subtle. I did taste it a bit more in this recipe, but it was a good taste and a great mixture of the different flavors.

This recipe cooked very, very quickly which makes it great for a busy night. I didn’t eat right away, but I kept the Instant Pot on the “Keep Warm” setting and the chili kept nicely. This recipe lasted me about 5 servings with a mix between small and generous portion sizing.

Another added benefit of this recipe is that the clean-up process is super quick. The prep work easily took me the longest amount of time. That can be cut down by purchasing pre-cut veggies at the supermarket.

Rating

10/10

Recipe

Instant Pot Pumpkin Chili

This was so easy to make, so incredibly delicious and a filling dinner. Best part was the minimal prep work and the minimal hands-on requirement. Please, please try this. It was so good! Some notes and things I learned:

Add some extra goodies to each serving like avocado and shredded cheese

Here’s the final product! I’m still learning to take good looking photos, but I bought a light source for next time that should help. Top this with some avocado and cheese!

That’s my only note and lesson learned. Honestly this recipe was perfect. It’s a bit heavy so I can’t make this every week, but I would love to make this a part of my regular meal cycle.

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Review: Creamy Pumpkin Pasta

October 21, 2022October 21, 20221 Comment

This week I had the luxury of free time and leaving work on time! We just finished a project workshop and my next set of action items are on hold until I get the needed materials. This means I’ve had a bit more free time at work to pick up other projects that were put on hold to prioritize materials for this workshop. It’s been nice to get back into the other projects and have a bit of a change-up, but by the end of this week, the main project has picked up again so we’re back to it!

Good thing is that I’m really enjoying the project and the work that I’m doing. We’ve had a few late nights associated with this project, but I always feel energized at the end of the day. We still have a lot of work, but I know we’ve made great progress and it’s great to be a part of it.

As we begin to enter the next stage, there’s “chatter” that we may be able to travel to some of the different site locations. Fingers crossed! I think it would be great to see this project implemented at some of the locations and get a better understanding of the impact it will have. There may even be an opportunity for some international travel which would be very cool!

To get into the spirit of Halloween and fall, I decided to make a recipe that had pumpkins in it! Pumpkin is not an ingredient that I regularly (or ever) cook with, so I was excited to give this a go. I was a bit relieved to be using pumpkin puree rather than having to buy a pumpkin and start from scratch.

Pumpkin is one of the best-known sources of beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant.
Pulled from Medical News Today

I found this recipe from The Washington Post which surprised me a little. I never think of looking on these types of sites for recipes, but they have some great suggestions! I’m really thinking about subscribing to get the weekly recipe ideas. They always look delicious and easy to follow.

All the goods minus the protein we added! I have two cans of pumpkin puree pictured here, but I only needed one. I also only needed one out of the 4 bottles of chicken broth.

I would say that this recipe took me about 40 minutes to make including prep work. I try to use as much fresh stuff as I can because I personally find that it tastes a little better, but you could easily cut down on prep time by purchasing prepared items.

The one thing I absolutely loved about this recipe was how easy it was. I’ve found that blog posts tend to give a lot of details for how to heat up your oven, or how to chop up your onion, and sometimes you can get lost in the weeds. These directions were very clear, very short, and very direct (directions my Fiery Red personality loves!).

The big mix! Plated with the extra goodies really makes this look delicious.

I would say this is one of a few recipes that for me, turned out exactly or very similar to the photos displayed in the article. The article suggests serving the pasta with steamed broccoli. It wasn’t clear to me if that was intended to be on the side or mixed in, so I mixed my steamed broccoli into the pasta and it was a great addition. I also switched up other additions such as protein. One night I added some leftover balsamic marinated chicken and another night I added dried prosciutto. Even though I loved this dish, I think it would have been a bit plain without some of these additions.

Rating

10/10

Recipe

Pasta with Creamy Pumpkin Sauce

This might be my new favorite comfort food. It was really easy to make and for me, gave a new twist on the classic pasta with marinara sauce. I would 100% recommend trying this, and please do and let me know what you think! Some notes and things I learned:

I think I somehow made it a bit drier than it was intended. I’m not sure how, but maybe I needed a bit more liquid or not to cook the sauce for as long
Adding protein to this was a great idea. It really upped this recipe. My recommendations:
- Small broken up pieces such as chicken, prosciutto, beef, etc.
- I think anything could work honestly, even some shrimp, etc. Experiment with it!
Don’t forget to add the sage and parmesan on top!
- I forgot for the first bite, but added it for the second and it was even better

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Review: Creamy Spinach Tomato Gnocchi

October 7, 2022November 12, 20221 Comment

I’ve officially rebooted my Instagram and am working on setting up a posting schedule to keep up the consistency. In the process, I’m learning that keeping consistency on Instagram is not as easy as I thought, and that I am not as well-versed in Instagram as I thought.

On the first note, taking photos while cooking is difficult. I’m able to use a small stand to take many of my photos and position the phone, but the “action shots” are a bit harder. I would like have enough photos on hand to keep a steady flow ready. In addition, I’m trying to take some videos of the prep work or the cooking, but that means I can either take photos or take a video. Deciding between the two becomes harder when I think about trying to keep a balance of posts versus reels on the page.

Check out my first reel on Instagram! Be sure to like and follow to stay up to date on blog activities.

On the second matter, my only experience with Instagram has been with posting photos. I’ve never used social media heavily and I don’t post “professional” photos. It’s something for fun and for my own enjoyment. The quality of the photos has never been of much concern. However with my blog Instagram, I care much more about the quality of the photos. I’m learning to use the editing tools and filters, but I have a long way to go until my photos look how I’d like them to. I’m also learning to use new features that I’ve never used before like the reels. Posting a reel this past Sunday made me feel very out of touch. I had no idea what I was doing. I eventually managed to get a reel posted, but I could tell right away that I didn’t do it “correctly” and it took me significantly more time than it probably should have. I did learn for next time though, so I anticipate it will be better!

I really enjoy taking the time to search for new recipes to try. I find it difficult at times to think of something new, or what changes I can make to a current dish to make it into something new. Finding recipes online usually takes me a long time because I want to make sure it’s something that fits the cooking timeframe I have, and I want it to look good. Regardless, I find following someone else’s recipe to be just as enjoyable and delicious, and it saves me some time.

This week I made the recipe “One-Pot Creamy Tomato Spinach Gnocchi” from the blog Fork in the Kitchen.

When searching for recipes I always look for the photos. I like meals that are either very colorful or that look like cozy comfort food. For me, this recipe hit both marks.

My biggest interest with this recipe was that it was a one-pot dish. I’m sometimes skeptical with these, but this one turned out great! Having a one-pot recipe is great when you’re busy because it minimizes how much clean up there is after! That’s a huge win for me because I hate doing the dishes, but I also don’t know anyone who enjoys doing them either.

To add to the convenience of this dish, the recipe called for refrigerated gnocchi. I’ve tried gnocchi a few times and it’s a bit too much potato flavor for me. However, the refrigerated gnocchi I bought from the grocery store this past week were delicious. I still don’t think they’re something I could have regularly, but I was pleasantly surprised to have really enjoyed the gnocchi. I think the mix of flavors helped minimize the potato taste, in favor of something better. It was also a huge time saver for me because it was one less thing I needed to prepare, either by making gnocchi from scratch or pre-cooking dried gnocchi.

Something else that really peaked my interest with this recipe was the addition of leek.

Leeks are high in vitamin A and flavonoids!
Pulled from Precision Nutrition

I’ve never tried or cooked with leek before, so I was excited to try it out. Foods such as leek sometimes fall into the domain of intimidating. For me, it was because I didn’t know too much about the taste of leek, and I have no experience preparing or cooking it.

Mix of the leek, yellow onion, and garlic cooking. Leeks are halved, sliced, and rinsed before use.

Rating

8/10

Recipe

One-Pot Creamy Tomato Spinach Gnocchi

I loved this recipe and would definitely make it again. I recommend it for anyone who is in a big rush or has a tight schedule. It was a very easy recipe to follow. Some notes and things I learned:

I opted for Vegetable Stock because it’s what I had on hand
I opted for Half & Half because it’s what I had on hand
I would pay more attention to how long I cook the gnocchi for – I think my gnocchi ended up overcooked
I had a hard time squashing the cherry tomatoes – next time I would opt for a different cooking utensil that would be able to do this better
I would add more liquid – my gnocchi turned out very thick. It was still delicious, but I would have liked it more creamy.

It tastes better than my picture looks! As you can see, the dish turned out *really* thick, so I would opt for more liquid next time to thin it out.

The Fork in the Kitchen blog lists at the bottom how to adjust the creaminess to your liking. Try out this recipe and some of the other recipes featured on Fork in the Kitchen and let me know what you think!

Quinoa and Salad

April 9, 2021October 1, 2022Leave a comment

T.G.I.F.

I don’t know how you all feel, but this has been a LONG week. I’m feeling very worn out. And this weekend only has more in store for me! I have two tests on Monday and homework, but I also feel like I still have a lot of catching up to do. But I’ll get there. Slowly powering through.

I will say, something that has really helped me stay sane is sticking to my eating and workout schedule. It’s very tempting when I get up, to go right to my desk and get some work done so I feel caught up. But I think that burns me out even more. Doing my workouts in the morning helps me start off the day feeling accomplished, and eating healthy and regularly helps me keep up my energy.

This week I’m going to share what I ate for this week, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Although, I can’t share photos of my dinner because I forgot to take them 🙂 but it was really good! Plus, the blog I got the recipe from has a better picture which makes it look even better.

Quinoa Fruit Salad

Okay, first thoughts: interesting combination…. Second thoughts: wow, this is delicious.

Unfortunately I’m not going to share the recipe because I got it through my fitness app which is paid. The app I use is called We Glow. I personally really like this app, I really like the workout programs, and of the recipes I have tried, I’ve really liked all of them and they’ve been very simple, easy to follow. Added bonus: this dish looks pretty, so I feel like it already gives a boost to my morning. I cooked the quinoa on the weekend, and would cut the fruits in the morning. Sometimes once you cut fruit, it doesn’t last very long in the fridge. It only took a few minutes to cut, so it wasn’t a big deal. 10/10 recommend (also recommend the app or any paid fitness program if your motivation is low, or if you don’t really know what to do/where to start. Paying motivates me because I’m losing money, so I better be using it!).

Buffalo Shrimp Salad

This salad was a winner. This was actually supposed to be buffalo shrimp lettuce wraps, like lunch burritos, except the ~healthy~ version. Yeah. I tried them! They were….boring. And tasted like a mouthful of lettuce. So, I converted this into a big salad instead because I felt that the lunch needed more color and excitement. This turned out really good. I don’t typically finish salads because I get bored while eating them and tend to eat all the goodies first. This is probably the first time that I devoured a salad. 10/10. I also don’t usually like iceberg lettuce because, well, it’s iceberg lettuce, but I think it was actually the better choice for this salad because it let all the other flavors really show. SO this salad was a mix of iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, buffalo shrimp, cranberries, strawberries(!!!), olives and balsamic vinaigrette for the salad dressing. it was an interesting mix but such a good mix. It was also a good opportunity to use some ingredients in my fridge that were probably going to go bad soon. Great way to just combine everything and enjoy.

Easy, Creamy Beef and Shells

Yes. This was easy, creamy, and delicious. I found the recipe on Pinterest, from the blog Kitchn. Unfortunately I don’t have pictures! This also didn’t last me very long because it was so good that I just kept eating it. I loved this dinner. It was so so easy to make and it was one of the few recipes that didn’t have a mile long ingredient list or instruction list. There were a few big differences between mine and the recipe I followed. For starters, the recipe calls for a 15-oz. can of tomato sauce, and I bought pasta sauce (which to me is tomato sauce). Looking at the photos in the Kitchn blog, there are smaller cans of tomato sauce that are literal cans. I don’t think there’s a big differences between the two, but mine was a little hard to measure out because it was a full jar of sauce. So I think this made my finished dish more liquidy, but it was still really good. I also didn’t include as much cheese. The recipe calls for 2 cups of cheese, which I had. But after the first cup of shredding, I felt lazy, so my dinner only had one cup of cheese. For me it didn’t make a huge difference, but I’m also not a big cheese lover. if you love cheese, definitely do the full 2 cups. I also used half and half instead of heavy cream, mostly because I couldn’t find heavy cream. This was such an easy and cozy meal. Great to have after a very long day of sitting in front of the computer. It was also nice to have something a little heavier after a lighter breakfast and lunch.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. I’ve got a lot of work to do…but I also bought a new Switch game soooo, we’ll see. Looking forward to at least taking a mini break today, even if it’s just for an hour. In other news, I hosted champagne tasting with some of the girls last weekend. I think we were all caught off guard by how quickly the champagne hit us but it was still a lot of fun! I also made my first cheeseboard! And to be honest, I’m really proud of it, so I thought I’d share a picture 🙂

To be continued…

Gabriela

Pesto Bean Soup with Olives

April 2, 2021September 28, 20221 Comment

Hello, hello!

Two weeks in a row of posting! But don’t get your hopes up 🙂 I’m going to try to post more regularly and make it part of my weekly schedule, but sometimes I forget to take pictures, so then I don’t really have a lot to post. We’ll see though, because I really enjoy posting these!

This week has been pretty light in terms of school work. I had a finance quiz due yesterday morning, but other than that I haven’t had anything due, just a lot of reading. This week I’ve been focusing really heavily on my campaigning for Student Government. We need 3/5 of the student population to vote, and today is the last day (if we meet 3/5 student body). Hoping I’ll win! There’s so much that I want to do in Student Government, and even if I can’t finish it all, I want to at least get it started so that next year’s representative can pick up where I left off.

But anyway, other than that, there really hasn’t been much else going on. I’ve been really productive these last two weeks. Even though there’s still work for me to catch up on, I almost feel like I’m ahead. It’s a nice feeling because I don’t feel so overwhelmed by all the work I have to get done (ideally this weekend, but let’s be honest).

A few weeks ago I made this Pesto Bean Soup with Olives that I found in Food Network Magazine: Super Easy Soups & Stews (this was a great Christmas gift!). I personally love soups. I think they’re always very easy to make, and they typically turn out great (I had one recipe that didn’t really go as planned…). Plus, there are so many options with soup! And it’s a great comfort food. I must say, I’ve tried very hard to plan out my recipes so that I’m not cooking soup every single week, and it’s hard! They just always look so good!! Also, this recipe only has two steps, so how could I not?

I love how this soup turned out. It was delicious 🙂 I actually ended up running out early because I kept adding a little extra to my bowl every night since it was soooo good. To be honest, I wasn’t going to make this soup at first. When I was originally going through the magazines to pick recipes, this wasn’t one that caught my eye. I think I tend to pick recipes that are photographed brightly/in a lot of light. Almost as if it makes them look more appealing? Or maybe it just makes me picture eating the meal on a nice, sunny day so it’s instantly appealing. The photo for this recipe was really nice though; it may have been because it was a green soup(?).

Overall, 10/10 would HIGHLY recommend. I’ve made pesto pasta in the past because I was craving pesto (and pasta), but I think this satisfied the pesto craving better. There are so many flavors in one spoonful, it was almost exciting eating it. That sounds so corny. But basically, it was really good.

Like I said earlier, I really enjoy writing this blog. It’s fun for me and even though I’m not the greatest photographer or cook, I get to share the things I enjoy with other people. Since I started, I feel like my cooking has come a long way, but I’m excited to see how much more I can improve. Overall, my execution of recipes is much better, but I also feel like my general knowledge is better. For example, when I cook something without a recipe, I feel that I have a better idea in terms of what foods go well together. It’s been really enjoyable.

I have some thoughts about what I want to try out in the future with this blog. I think it would be fun to do more cultural food. I have a few friends who are international students, but also many of my domestic friends are very closely tied with their cultural backgrounds. I think it would be fun to do some posts in the future with them to share some typical foods from their respective cultures. Food for thought…no pun intended 😀

To be continued…

Gabriela

Balsamic Chicken Broccoli Bake

March 27, 2021September 28, 20221 Comment

Happy Saturday!

There has been a lot going on the last few weeks. Between school work and clubs/extracurricular activities, it’s a bit hard to try and find time for myself. Last week we had our much needed spring break. I spent the second-half of the week up in San Francisco which was really nice. I was planning to a get some work done that week, but I ended up mostly relaxing and playing video games. I also re-made my schedule based on how my first Module went. This past week I’ve followed it really well, and it’s much easier to stick to because I’ve given myself a lot of buffer in between scheduled items. Even so, this week has been very busy with new board positions for one of the clubs I am in, and on Monday we have Student Government speeches, and I’m still trying to piece mine together. We only get 2 minutes, which while I’m speaking will feel like forever, but in reality, it’s not a lot of time. So I want to make sure I’m focusing on the most important points. Wish me luck!

One of my first weekends of the semester I tried this Balsamic Chicken Broccoli Bake recipe from the magazine All-Time Favorite Home Cooking Recipes by Centennial Kitchen. The magazine has a lot of great recipes and I’ve tried a few of them out, which I’m looking forward to sharing in the upcoming weeks. The final photo doesn’t look appealing, but the dinner was really good!

As is the case with most of the recipes I try, this recipe was super easy to follow and didn’t require a lot of work. The veggie mix was broccoli, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, red onion, and mushroom. I’m usually not the biggest fan of mushrooms, but mixed together like this I didn’t really notice them, so it was a great way to get an intake of mushrooms. I will say though, I didn’t think the mushrooms would last very long raw, so I cooked the whole package. This made the mushrooms the more dominant veggie, whereas I would have preferred more broccoli. Also once the veggies were cooked, they seemed to disappear. So if you like a lot of veggies, I would add a little extra to the pan so you know you have plenty left over. On that note, I ran out of chicken super fast! Cooking the chicken as a whole breast was really easy, but it made it very difficult to portion it out over the week. So next time, I might cut the chicken up prior to cooking it so I can better see how much chicken I really have. Additionally, the seasoning on the chicken could have been better. It was very balsamic-y, which is on me, because apparently I missed the chicken with the salt and pepper shakers.

In this recipe, it worked out nicely because there were also veggies included in the dish. However, many of the recipes I try are strictly for cooking the chicken or fish, and so there often aren’t sides. One thing I’ve been trying to incorporate more into my meals are mini side dishes, mostly to make sure I’m full on my meal before I go back for seconds (and then run out by Wednesday!). For the week I made the balsamic chicken, I didn’t actually read the full recipe before going to the grocery store, so I bought ingredients for a side dish and made that as well. For the side dish I made a Creamy Cucumber Salad which I got from the blog The Stay at Home Chef.

This cucumber salad was a great addition, and would likely make a good addition to any meal! It was very easy to make, but I unfortunately think that I managed to mess it up. I may have added a bit too much sugar, and I know for a fact that my cucumbers were not “sliced thin” (Dad would be disappointed with my slicing skills). But overall, it was still really good. I added it on the side of my plate, but this could also be placed in a small separate bowl if you don’t want to risk mixing things on your plate.

Overall, great meal! Just need to get some better photography skills, but you get the gist. On the page to the left of this recipe there’s a recipe for Honey-Lemon Turkey legs which looks REALLY good, but it’ll have to wait until I finish the recipes that are already on my list!

Next time I’m hoping to post some of the lunch wraps I’ve made, but to be honest, it all depends on if I find the photos or not. If not, I’ve got another great salmon dish to share! Until next time 🙂

To be continued…

Gabriela