Category Archives: Dinner

My Take on Spring Rolls!

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Fresh Spring Rolls! For those who know me, know that Vietnamese food is my least fav asian food. Nothing against it, but it always meshes interestingly in my taste buds- sometimes good, sometimes bad. I think its all the different fresh herbs and flavors and when I am not in the mood for it, I just dont want it. BUT lately I’ve had a craving for spring rolls! I think I’ve been craving simple tastes with strong dipping sauces. Actually, I don’t really know. My cravings are super random….Anyway, I bought all the ingredients and rolled them up, but BOY were they difficult to roll up!!! Vietnamese people make it look so effortless; I was totally struggling, and had to throw away a few rice wrappers. Sigh… practice makes perfect? I also bought the wrong vermicelli- theres like 5 different kinds at the store -_-. But thank god I had some left from my Thai food making obsession. [more on that some other day]

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Baked Ziti!

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So by the last day of my cleanse, I really was bored of all the drinks- the flavors, the drinking, the taste [although I really liked it as a juice]. I am supposed to ween off the diet by slowly incorporating fats and oils, but I really just wanted real food so I decided to make a baked ziti. I found this baked ziti recipe at Pioneer Woman’s blog! She does a great job documenting all the steps and her thoughts during. Its a great read, so if anyone is interested, check her blog out periodically! =)

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Halal Chicken and Rice!

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Whenever people go to NYC, they always go to this place and drunk take a picture of the Halal Guys chicken and rice. I’ve always seen it, but never ever had it before. I don’t plan on eating the real thing anytime soon either because although I am going to NYC this summer, its going to be with family again. Parents are always in search of good Asian food, but never anything outside the asian cuisine. Also, I figured that because I don’t drunk eat, I can never eat this with my friends if I ever go to NYC with them, so the only way I can eat it is to make it myself.
So I did my research and learned that halal food is food permitted by Islam for consumption because they have a list of things they can’t eat, such as pork, because they are slaughtered in a certain way. “Halal” means lawful. “Haram” means forbidden. Interesting right? I also learned that there are numerous halal street carts around NYC, and each have their own unique ‘white sauce’. I seriously thought there was only one cart that people go to, but I guess only tourists like my friends only know about one. haha! I tweaked the recipe a little bit- for example, using romaine lettuce instead of iceberg. Ew…*shudder*, I hate iceberg lettuce because its so cheap, flavorless, and nutrition-less. I also used A LOT less mayo for the white sauce…I HATE MAYO. I think mayo is awful. Anyway, my recipe and tweaks turned out pretty well- I enjoyed eating it because I love all the spices and freshness of the white sauce. Because I have never tried the real one, please dont hate me if this recipe doesnt turn out exactly like the halal cart ones in NYC.

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"The Soup"’s soup that only comes twice a year

Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Soup by

Albondigas soup-[“the crazy meatball soup”]-Ever heard of it? Well I go to Souplantation [“The Soup”] with my friends a lot and one time we happened upon the Mexican theme when The Soup was doing the Around the World themed months. So I set down my tray and I go get soup because I’m usually uber cold everywhere. I see this soup, and thought well what the hell I’ll give it a try. So I scoop some up and go through dinner. I drink some of the soup and was pretty amazed by it! My bestie then went to go get some and there weren’t anymore!!! So I basically took the last ladle of her favorite soup. We decided at the dinner table that we would re-create it one day and so we did! This is my second time making it– I am sort of on this ‘make more soup’ phase and I craved it during the holidays!

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Kale and Bacon Lasagna!

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It’s been awhile! I moved back to SD for Spring semester of my second year in law school so its been quite hectic trying to settle back in. For the holidays, I got a few new kitchen appliances to play with! I really hope that it will pave the way to many more posts! Now on to the food I made tonight =)

I first saw this cute little recipe on Skinny Taste! It was so clever– instead of layering the lasagna parts, you roll the noodle with the filling! I wanted to be healthier for the new year, so instead of my usual all fat everything ingredients, I used fat free ricotta instead. I also forgot to buy mushrooms, but luckily  had bacon. For those of you who know me though…I don’t really like bacon, but I had to use it for my potato leek soup the other night. Well, no matter what, this kale bacon lasagna is amazingly good!

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