Erica & Wes make house made pickles.

The first time I had fancy "restaurant's own recipe" house made pickles was at Iron Starr BBQ a few years ago. I'm sure I've had house-made pickles before at various restaurants but this was the first time that it was brought to my attention. The menu highlighted them and our waiter praised them. After the waiter left our table, Wes told me that he's had them before and they were gross. LOL Their pickles were okay. I didn't really like them but I wouldn't say they were gross either. I never really paid much attention to pickles after that.

Fast forward a few years... I had dinner at Goro Ramen and they have the best house made pickles ever! I excitedly went home to tell Wes. He replied by telling me that ALL house-made pickles are gross. They're never pickled enough and they always still taste like cucumbers--and he hates cucumbers. A few weeks after that, we had dinner at Uptown Grocery (By the way, having a hot bar & salad bar inside of a grocery store is GENIUS! You get to have dinner and then go grocery shopping all in one place.)  I got some of their pickles and they were awesomely delicious. How does Wes not understand this? With that, I decided that we needed to make our own house-made pickles that wouldn't be gross; ours would be pickled enough and no longer taste like cucumbers.

House-made pickle recipe:
       Ingredients needed- 3 cucumbers, 1 teaspoon (1/2 teaspoon per jar) minced garlic, a handful of fresh basil (most recipes call for fresh dill but we are only growing basil & mint and I don't think mint pickles will taste as good), a pinch of red pepper flakes*, 1 cup water, 1 cup vinegar, 1 1/2 tablespoons salt, two jars with airtight lids
*We actually made two batches... one jar of spears with only basil & garlic and then a jar of round discs with red pepper flakes added.

1. Wash & dry the cucumbers. Cut off both ends and slice into spears or rounds.

2. Chop the basil.

3. Put the garlic, chopped basil and pepper flakes into the jars.

4. Place the cut cucumbers into the jar.

5. Boil water, vinegar and salt. (This will be the pickling brine.)

6. Pour brine into jars. Make sure the cucumbers are covered completely. I did this in the sink so it wouldn't make a mess if the brine spilled.

7. Tap the jars against the counter a few times to remove the air bubbles then put the lid on. Make sure it is nice & tight.

8. Let jars cool and then refrigerate. Leave in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. (Wes prefers 3 weeks to make sure they're pickled enough with no annoying cucumber flavoring.) Then look... yummy pickles!

Erica & Wes' adventures in ramen noodles.

Home creation: beef flavored instant noodles with dried seaweed, topped with a fried egg and crispy onions.

When Wes & I went to Sydney, my cousin, Kent, suggested that we go to a local ramen house. "Ramen," I asked, "those cheap noodles you get at the Asian grocery store for 0.79 dollars a bag?" (I obviously knew nothing about ramen noodles.) One night during our stay, Wes & I walked to Ippudo. (http://www.ippudo.com.au/) It was a small restaurant inside of the mall and extremely packed with hungry customers. The entire staff (dressed in traditional attire) shouted greetings and thank you's in Japanese as each guest entered and left. The menu was both foreign and adventurous, two of my favorite things when trying new foods. Our dinner was good but I wasn't instantly hooked.

Our meal from Ippudo.

Fast forward two years and there are now two ramen houses -that I know of- in Oklahoma City. I've eaten at them both and enjoyed thoroughly the food (Sydney planted the seeds and it just took me a while to come around). I decided to make some of our own ramen concoctions at home. Wes has made "fancy ramen" before and was on board with the idea. Here are some of the bowls we've come up with. (To all you foodies out there...pretty pretty please don't get offended... this isn't claiming to be as good as the traditional ramen served in the noodle houses. It's definitely an easy DIY imitation using instant noodles and creative pairing of ingredients.)

Instant imitation ramen noodle recipe-

       Ingredients needed: instant ramen and whatever you want to mix into it. Simple enough, yeah?

1. If you're using meat, make sure it is pre-cooked. We used leftover protein from the previous night's dinner.

2. Prepare ramen noodles according to instructions on package.

3. When the water is boiling, add in meat & vegetables along with the noodles & spice packet.

4. Add toppings and serve.

Here are some delicious ideas:

Chicken with edamame and eggplant, topped with cilantro.

Duck and zucchini, topped with cilantro and crispy fried onions (not pictured). I put the zucchini in last so it didn't get too soggy.

Shrimp with mushrooms and edamame, topped with sesame seeds. This was my least favorite combination. I don't think the shrimp worked very well.

The possibilities are endless (as long as you're willing to break tradition)! It's a quick and cheap meal. It's also relatively healthy, the only bad part is the sodium content in the spice packet. And it's fun getting to be creative with what you want to add in. We bought a twelve pack of instant ramen for $7 and had cheap, healthy and fun dinners for a month! 

Erica shares another healthy recipe.

•        Healthy breakfast (hard boiled egg or yogurt or milk & cereal),
•        Savory morning snack (nuts or a piece of cheese or popcorn or vegetables),
•        Lunch (leftovers or a sandwich),
•        Fruit for an afternoon snack (trying to limit my intake of refined sugar so no more afternoon sweet tooth!),
•        A serving of grains, vegetables and meat for dinner (only eating out once a week),
•       And lots of water throughout the day.

Here's a teaser of the recipe I'm blogging about tonight. It's the chicken I make over a bed of greens.

That has been my diet for the past few months.  I've also kept up with my work out regimen. I do a 7 minute ab workout each morning as soon as I get up, walk a leisurely half mile at my morning break, walk a brisk half mile after my shift at work and attend a yoga class once a week. My secret is that I watch "America's Next Top Model" during my walks on the treadmill. I see all those beautiful people and notice how far away my body is from that physique. It makes me stick to my diet and exercise. LOL I don't know if it's working (I rarely weigh myself) but I don't look or feel any larger so I guess it's doing something.

Why am I telling you all of this? Who knows, really. Sometimes I just like to say things out loud to affirm that this is actually what is happening in my life. Or maybe, my job has become very busy and craft shows are picking up and the combination of the two is making me delirious. Anyway, here is a recipe I made up a while ago. I made it for Wes & his friends last Christmas. That time I used salmon (instead of chicken) but the recipe tonight uses chicken, and really, you can switch out choices of meats and it turns out the same.

Simple baked chicken with fresh vegetables:

Ingredients needed: chicken breast, asparagus, basil (I used fresh basil we grew ourselves), tomato, goat cheese and Cuban seasoning 

1. Cut the asparagus to be the same size as the piece of chicken breast. 

       I cut the ends and bottom half of the stalk off. I discarded the ends and saved the bottom half for egg drop soup... maybe I'll blog about that next week.

2. Slice the tomato.

3. Place the asparagus on a large sheet of aluminum foil and the place the chicken on top to your "asparagus boat."

4. Place tomatoes and basil on top of the chicken.

5. Sprinkle with your seasoning.

6. Wrap the foil all the way around your chicken and vegetables and place your foil chicken package on a baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 50 minutes.

7. Garnish with goat cheese and serve with rice or bread. Or if you want to replicate my recipe exactly, I served it over a bed of spring mix greens with a few banana peppers on the side and a drizzle of Italian dressing on top.

And there you have it... a super simple and inexpensive healthy dinner idea. Someone sign me up for Top Chef! 

       P.S. I've been on a reality TV competition kick. I started with a few seasons of Project Runway, then I moved on to watching RuPaul's Drag Race with a friend (Lacey, we still need to finish that season!) Now, I'm concurrently watching America's Next Top Model (cue Tyra saying "Cycle 22...double X, double I") and So You Think You Can Dance. And, I'm thinking of starting Top Chef: Masters. 

       Do I have a problem? LOL

Erica & Wes are trying to eat healthier.

Just a warning before we start this... it is currently 7:17 am on a Friday morning.
       I work half-days on Fridays, meaning I don't go into work until noon. I am up entirely too early!! (so please pardon any typos and/or nonsensicals...and it's too early for pictures.) I usually do chores and errands on Fridays before I go into work. On the to-do list today is to make a slow cooker meal and then head to my mom's to do my laundry. Since no one would want to read a blog about laundry, I'll will be doing another recipe blog post.

Wes & I are starting a "diet" next week. It's not necessarily a diet, technically. We are just changing our meal choices by eating healthier. And we're limiting ourselves to one sweet treat a day (which will be extremely hard for me *sad face*). We're getting older so we need to start watching our cholesterol, sodium intake and such. Also, I feel as if I am the heaviest I've ever been and I'm starting to look a little frumpy (damn metabolism... why you gotta slow down?) Plus, I don't exercise as much as I used to so I'm trying to get back into that as well. Changing lifestyles... that's the ticket!

I tried this once before when I did the Super Shred diet with a coworker in January. Surprisingly, it wasn't bad at all. I'll certainly miss sweets and chips but the rest of it is actually doable. I won't be starving myself or limit myself to eating certain things by calculating calories. There's a lot of variety and meal options in me & Wes' diet plan. The key is eating small portions throughout the day and choosing healthy things to eat for those portions. This isn't exactly the Super Shred regime but it's pretty similar.
       So here's what we're doing... we complied a list of "super foods" such as almonds, leafy greens, salmon, yogurt, beans, and the like. We are eating breakfast (something from our list like yogurt, oatmeal or a hard boiled egg), one morning snack (another item from our list--say a handful of almonds), lunch (something from our list like rice & vegetables, a salad or a turkey sandwich), and an afternoon snack (you guessed it--something from our list) and then for dinner, we'll have a serving of a grains or legumes, a meat and a vegetable. And then one sweet (can be used as one of the snacks or a dessert at dinner).
       I also have been going to the gym on my breaks and lunch at work so I'll continue that routine to have some exercise dispersed throughout the day. Oh and yoga... I go to class once a week for that.

So back to my slow cooker meal... I love the slow cooker, by the way. I throw some stuff in there in the morning and it magically cooks into a meal by the time I get off work. Today, I'll be making soup. It is literally three ingredients: a leafy green, a meat and some vegetable broth. I've done this with kale, collard greens, cabbage, and mustard greens. I haven't explored as much with the meats... only smoked turkey legs and ham hocks (which I know are both superbly unhealthy). It always turns out hearty and delicious.

THREE INGREDIENT SLOW COOKER SOUP:
       Ingredients needed: a leafy green (we're using type of Chinese choy today, "swamp cabbage" is what it is labeled at the market), a meat (we're using lean beef meatballs) and vegetable broth.

1. Prepare the meatballs by rolling a spoonful of ground beef into a spherical shape. Or you can use a cookie scoop to make meatballs of the same size. Set aside.

2. Wash and cut the greens. Set aside.

3. Put the meatballs in the slow cooker.

4. Cover with greens. This may look like too much but it will cook down.

5. Pour vegetable broth over the greens. I also add a can of water but it's probably not necessary if you want to only use broth. If you would like, you can add in a bay leaf or some herbs and salt.

6. Cook on low for 8 hours. Then you'll have soup for dinner!

Some of Erica's favorite places are Asian grocery stores.

If you haven't been to an Asian grocery store, I highly suggest that you go visit one. Wes & I go to the Super Cao Nguyen here quite often. It's pretty low key compared to the ones in Texas and California. Those are ah-maze-ing!! There's all sorts of unique (aka weird but delicious) groceries, different languages being spoken throughout, a local restaurant and/or bakery serving fresh hot foods and the whole environment is just so much fun. They're almost like the open air markets you find in big cities and in other countries. All forms of manners and politeness are null once you walk in: there's no such thing as waiting in line or saying excuse me; if you want something, you just reach and grab it (pushing aside whomever is in your way); there are wild children running around parent-less, and if you want to tell your cousin something who is three aisles over, just yell it out loud in Chinese. Now don't get me wrong, none of these things are bad. It's actually rather exciting. (The only stressful part is the parking lot.) I love to visit the 99 Ranch Market every time I go out of town. And, I like the experience of going shopping here locally on a Sunday afternoon.

OMG just look at all those green vegetables...and ramen, tofu and chips!!

When I was younger, my cousin would often spend the weekends with me. My parents would take us to the old Cao Nguyen market (before it got a makeover and moved into a much larger building) and drop us off at the rice pallets. Toward the back of the store, there were a few pallets piled high with large bags of rice (25lb bags, 50lb bags, etc.) We would climb all over the rice as if it was a jungle gym and play "King of the Mountain." Strangers would tell us how cute we were and we would thank them in Cantonese, which made us cuter, and then they'd give us candy. Oh, those were the days!

Shrimp, lychees and choy (leafy greens)... three of my favorites.

This afternoon, Wes & I went to Super Cao Nguyen to get groceries and ingredients for dinner. For my blog tonight, I would like to share our dinner recipe with you-- HOMEMADE VIETNAMESE SPRING ROLLS.

Our shopping basket.

Spring roll recipe:
       Ingredients needed- 

• spring roll wrappers (I like the "baby in a box" brand)
• rice noodles
• lemon grass
• shrimp
• tofu
• mint
• shredded carrots

We're using fresh mint that we've been growing ourselves.

(Actually, if you could prepare steps #1, 2 & 3 at once, that would be ideal. It is best if the shrimp, tofu and noodles are finished cooking at the same time so all the components can stay hot and fresh for wrapping.)

1. Prepare the meat (shrimp in this case; you can use whichever meats you fancy).
       Peel the outer bark off the lemon grass. Then chop into small pieces and dice in a food processor. Set aside.

       I always get fresh shrimp from the butcher section of the market so it's necessary to peel and de-vein the shrimp. If you are using frozen shrimp, go ahead and skip this step.

       In a wok or large sautee pan, cook the shrimp with the lemon grass and a little bit (probably a tablespoon but I never measure) of water. Set aside. Lemon grass shrimp is delicious so try not to eat any...

This picture is blurry so it doesn't look as appetizing but I promise it is yummy.

   
2. Prepare the tofu.
       Slice the tofu into long slender pieces.

       Pan fry the tofu until browned on each side. Set aside.

3. Prepare the noodles-- boil a large pot of water, throw noodles in, stir around with chopsticks and let them boil until they're soft (let's say 5 minutes. We want them cooked but not mushy.)

4. Set out all your ingredients in an assembly line fashion.
       Shrimp, tofu, noodles, mint, carrots all in separate containers.

5. Fill a large bowl half full with cold water.  Soak the spring roll wrappers ONE AT A TIME in the water. Soak until they are softened and malleable. Try not to tear the wrappers. They should not be too soft, wrinkly or begin to disintegrate.

6. Place a small handful of noodles, a few shrimp & slices of tofu, some carrots and mint at the base of the wrapper. Tightly roll the spring roll, folding in the sides and continue rolling until the entire wrapper is rolled in.

7. Serve either immediately or chilled (I prefer immediately). Serve with sweet peanut sauce (yuck) or Sriracha or soy sauce.

I tried to take an artistic picture but my soy sauce went everywhere. I could never be a fine dining photographer :(