Cilantro tip

I bought some cilantro yesterday for the fish tacos. I learned a while back that buying fresh cilantro can be hard. You can only buy it in bundles, and it's hard to use that much cilantro. But we really enjoy it and do use it sort of often. So a while back I googled ways to keep cilantro longer. Anyone who's bought it fresh knows it doesn't always last too long. The best tip I found is this: Put it in a glass container or cup filled with water and cover it with a plastic bag. When the water turns yellow, empty and put in fresh water. Store it in the fridge. This keeps the cilantro much longer. I also try to plan meals that use fresh cilantro within a few weeks of buying it, so I can really utilize the cilantro bunch. Luckily for us, our recipes using fresh cilantro are varied and different, so we don't have to have many similar meals close together just to use our cilantro. However, if you find it hard to use it fresh, I have found it freeze dried. It's not as potent, obviously, but offers some of the flavor.

Fish Tacos

This is a recipe I've cooked many times. My mom sent it to me. It's called Baja Fish Tacos. It's really quite easy, and if you do any chopping and mixing before hand, the only thing you have to do is cook the fish and heat up your tortillas (if they're soft). It's pretty sweet!

Ingredients
¼ cup sour cream
¼ cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 pkg taco seasoning
1 pound cod filet or other white fish cut into 1 inch pieces
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 pkg taco shells  (We used wheat tortillas)

Toppings: shredded cabbage, chopped tomato, lime juice, taco sauce

Combine sour cream, mayonnaise, cilantro, and 2 T seasoning mix in small bowl. Combine cod, oil, lemon
 juice, and remaining seasoning in medium bowl; pour into large skillet. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium-high heat for 4 to 5 minutes or until fish flakes easily. Fill taco shells with fish mixture. Top with desired toppings.

Pizza #2

So we did pizza again last night. It came out awesome! When I made the crust last time, I made 2. I precooked the second one and then froze it. (Like the directions say, without adding the toppings for the second bake) It worked out great. I also made sure to add some flax seed to my sauce for added fiber! The sauce was also leftover from last time. The recipe I shared makes 2 pizza's worth.  On this pizza we had pepperoni, mozzarella, sauteed green pepper, onion and garlic. We also had a few chicken tenders in BBQ sauce that we put in the pan too. I thought it might be weird having pizza sauce with BBQ chicken, but it was great. Oh yeah, we also had a few strips of bacon chopped up as well. Add some canned olives and mushrooms, and we had a monster pizza! It was really good!

Homemade Lemonade

Yesterday I was inspired at the grocery store and bought some fresh lemons.  So with our dinner last night we had some homemade lemonade. It was super easy and I must say, pretty darn good!

It may not be much to look at, but it was good lemonade. All I did was this:

juice 3 lemons

Add to pitcher with 1 cup sugar. Stir lots to help the sugar dissolve.

Fill up with water to 2 quarts (my pitcher marks 2 quarts, so it was easy.)

Stir and add some ice to get it cold. Enjoy!

Pancakes with Homemade Syrup

Well, I wanted to do something simple, and it came out great! We made some Krusteaze pancakes (equivalent to Bisquick) with a few modifications. The first was flax seed! Oh yeah. I made a recipe using 2 cups of Krusteaze. For that amount, I added 2 tbsp of flax seed (This is always ground flax seed, remember. Otherwise it's not doing much for you.) I also added some butterscotch chips. I thought about adding some blueberries (which yes, is the obvious healthy choice) but the butterscotch chips are almost gone, so I thought I'd try and get rid of them. However, I ended up using way more that I thought. So, to quote my husband "You made them healthy just to make them bad for you." They were still great. The flax seed didn't change the taste whatsoever. The butterscotch chips did.

I also made some homemade syrup! Woohoo!

Ingredients

2 cups sugar
1 cup water
2 tsp mapleine

Boil sugar and water until sugar dissolves. Add mapleine and heat through.
 
I like to make this occasionally and store it in a store syrup container. I rarely buy syrup. It's awesome. You just can't wait too long to use it or the syrup will crystalize and be really hard to get out of your container.

Cheesy Garlic Bread

Butter your bread, sprinkle with garlic salt and Italian Seasoning. Sprinkle with grated mozzarella or sliced string cheese. Put under the broiler for 3-5 minutes.

For last minute creations, these came out pretty darn good!

Goulash

We were out and about yesterday and so I made dinner in a bit of a rush. We ended up having goulash and some yummy seasoned cheese bread. I didn't think I would want noodles or anything, but in the end it was a great dinner. Here are my last minute creations.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups elbow macaroni
approx. 15 oz. tomato sauce
approx. 3 oz. tomato paste
1 - 1/2 tsp basil, oregano, parsley, garlic powder, onion powder

This recipe is adjusted because I used half a can of tomato sauce and half a can of tomato paste in an other recipe. Just use the can size that is closest to those amounts. Boil the noodles and drain. Add the tomato sauce ingredients and heat thoroughly. Combine sauce with noodles and serve warm.

If you're feeling adventurous, you can add 1/4 cup of flax seed to this for added fiber.