Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Fried Plantains=Yumm

Plantains are a very cool fruit, they come from the banana family so if you like bananas, you will probably love fried plantains.  They are extremely easy to make. Simply cut into slices and fry in some butter and brown sugar. They only take a few minutes on each side, and you get a sweet treat. Enjoy!!
1 Fried Plantain
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of butter
Melt butter in a nonstick skillet, place plantains in the pan, sprinkle sugar on top and fry on both sides until golden brown.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Chicken Fried Rice.....

Whenever I need a quick fix meal, I turn to my fridge and take a quick inventory.  Vegetables...check.  Chicken....check.  Leftover Rice from yesterdays takeout....check.  What can be easier than throwing everything together in a Wok and having a delicious meal in just minutes.  Not only do you get a home cooked meal, you get to save a few ingredients from going bad and ultimately ending up in the trash.  When I cook for 2, I usually use half or even quarters of certain vegetables, the rest get stored in a ziplock bag, to use the next night.  By the end of the week, I find quite a few zip lock bags laying around and find myself so happy to save them from going bad.  The Other night I made a very quick Chicken fried rice.  It went like this.
1 chicken breast, raw or cooked, cut in very small pieces
dices onion, pepper, zucchini, and carrot
1 scrambled egg
a container of rice from Chinese takeout
soy and teriyaki sauce
I started with a hot wok, little bit of olive oil, throw the chicken in, stir until white, about 3-5 minutes, add all the chopped veggies and stir.  Add soy and teriyaki sauce, and rice, mix all together, stir and cook for about 3 minutes until everything is uniformly cooked and coated with sauce, add the scrambled egg, and you've got yourself a delicious meal.  Any of the ingredients can be swapped.
Enjoy!

cut up veggies


Sunday, April 10, 2011

No. 7 Sub... and my Sub

 I love discovering new restaurants, shops, specialty food stores, anything that introduces me to a new culinary experience. Nothing can please me more than when this happens during my lunch hour.  Lets call a spade a spade, food is my passion, and when I get a little action during my regular work day, well, my day just goes from an average of 5 to a 10. My coworker recently took me to a new sandwich shop called No 7 Sub,  this gem is about the size of my kitchen and does takeout only. I had one of the best sandwiches ever, the Cilantro Chicken, with a pickle, which was out of this world.  I have to briefly talk about this pickle, because I've never had anything quite like it, it almost tasted like Kimchi, it was spicy and just so delicious.  The sandwich had the perfect combination of flavors, the main ingredients were shredded chicken, avocado, feta cheese on a freshly baked sub bread.  It really was perfect, and perfection really should not be messed with, however, one of my favorite things to do is try to recreate something I really love, so I tried.  Did I succeed?? Yes.. was it as good as the sandwich I had from No 7 sub?? Not really... But it was pretty close, so close that my husband asked for seconds and thirds, and even the baby ate his little sandwich to the last bite. 
Here's how I made my version, I bought a whole roasted chicken at the supermarket and shredded the white meat with 2 forks, this gave me perfectly cooked moist white meat.
I added the following:
1/4 finely chopped red onion
1/4 finely chopped green onion
bunch of Italian parsley - finely shopped( which is probably where I went wrong, the sandwich had cilantro and since I'm not a big fan, I decided to substitute with parsley, totally different flavor, next time i will try it with cilantro)
1 whole avocado ( mashed and salted, with a squeeze of lemon juice)
1/3 lb crumbled feta cheese
mix everything together until smooth. Add Salt to taste. 
Slightly toast a sub, smear with a little mayo, and pack generously with the meat.  Enjoy!!!
you can try for yourself, but for the real thing, head to No 7 Sub http://www.no7sub.com/



the original sandwich, which I had for lunch
 


this is what the salad looks like

shredded chicken



chopped ingredients