Oh, Honey!

Hello Everyone!

I made something very appetizing this week! Honey garlic shrimp served over fried rice! This recipe is one of my top five favorites. I really thought that I cooked up a meal from a Japanese steakhouse. I thought this would be a great meal to end the week and start off my Thanksgiving break. The flavor of the marinade was sweet and bold! Plus, this recipe is simple! I had all the ingredients in my kitchen, except for the shrimp.. I had to go catch those.. haha I am kidding of course! Let’s get to the recipe!

Here is what you need:

• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup soy sauce (I use reduced sodium)
• 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 lb medium shrimp, peeled & deveined
• 2 teaspoons olive oil

Here is what you do:

1. Whisk the honey, soy sauce, and garlic together in a medium bowl
2. Place shrimp in a large zipped-top bag or tupperware. Pour 1/2 of the marinade mixture on top, give it all a shake or stir, then allow shrimp to marinate in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Cover and refrigerate the rest of the marinade
3. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Place shrimp in the skillet. Pour in remaining marinade and cook it all until shrimp is cooked through.
4. Serve shrimp with cooked marinade sauce and any side you chose.

The marinade was not what I expected, but in a great way! I am not a fan of soy sauce but the honey and garlic really took away the salty taste of soy sauce. In general, the combination of honey and garlic is music to my taste buds. Once the marinade was cooked in the skillet, it turned into a wonderful sauce to put over the fried rice. Basically, this marinade served two purposes, a wonderful marinade to soak shrimp in and a yummy sauce! Not only is this dish healthy, but also quick and easy to do! I only had a 20 minute dinner on my hands. I even spoiled myself a little bit, I cut the tails off the shrimp, so that I would not have to later. I gave my roommate a bowl and she ate it all up! I would say that I am pretty good at cooking Asian inspired food, might have to put that on my resume!

There will not be a blog next week, I AM ON BREAK! Hallelujah, I am in need of one badly! But when I get back, all hell is going to break loose! But I will make sure I have bomb recipe for the next blog post!

 

 

CAUTION: VERY HOT!

Watch out everyone, this weeks dish is extremely spicy! That is okay with me because I love spicy food! I made Sweet and Spicy Honey Sriracha Chicken, served over rice. It turned out pretty well! My roommate, Elisabeth, did not like it, only because she felt as if her mouth was on fire! This dish did have a few more ingredients than I usually use, but some of them I already had in my cabinet. I was pleasantly surprised at the way this turned out. It sort of has an Asian spin on it. This dish has the most directions, than any of my other dishes I have made.

This weeks grocery bill was $32.08! The chicken alone was $8, because it was not frozen. Included in my grocery bill was, panko bread crumbs, chicken, and soy sauce, among other things that were not needed for this dish.

Here’s Whacha Need:

Sweet and Spicy Baked Honey Sriracha Chicken

• 8 ounces boneless chicken breast, cubed
• ¼ cup all purpose flour
• 1 egg, whisked
• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs

Sweet and Spicy Honey Sriracha Sauce

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons sriracha
• 3 tablespoons water
• ⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Here’s Whacha Do:

Sweet and Spicy Baked Honey Sriracha Chicken

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Start by breading your chicken. Begin with flour, egg and then panko breadcrumbs.
3. Bake for 15 minutes until fully cooked and lightly brown on the outside.
4. Take chicken out of the oven and toss with the Sweet and Spicy Honey Sriracha Sauce.
5. Serve immediately, with white rice for an amazing dish

Sweet and Spicy Honey Sriracha Sauce

1. Add oil and garlic to a large saucepan. Cook for 1 minute.
2. Whisk in soy sauce, honey, sriracha, water and crushed red pepper. Cook sauce on high heat until it thickens, stirring constantly. (About 2 minutes.)
3. Set aside and keep on low heat until you are ready to toss with the chicken.

Now, while I was making the sauce, it was extremely spicy, so I added more honey, plus some sugar to cool it down and give it more of a sweet taste. Overall, this dish had a great, bold, spicy flavor. It you are willing to try it, do it! If anything, just make sure you have a large glass of water beside you! Please let me know if you make it! I would love to hear from you all.

Not sure what is coming next week, but it might be something sweet to switch things up!

Bacon-It Cheesy

Alrighty, I only had a few people participate in my little game! Thank you to those who did! I think I made the best grilled cheese ever!!! The winner for this weeks dish was the Crispy Bacon and Brie Grilled Cheese. My roommate and I absolutely devoured it, as we ooh and awed, over how delicious it was. Two days later, we are still talking about how great that grilled cheese sandwich was! Now, I only made this for two people, so you may have to increase your ingredients if you are making for more people.

This week was pretty hectic for me! I had 2 tests on top of, working and group meetings. Then, also trying to plan out my Halloween outfit! I think I’ve made 3 trips to Walmart this week. So, I’ll be honest, I do not remember what my grocery bill was this week. Now, in the picture below, there is two onions but I only actually used one.

Here’s whacha need:

• 1 pound of bacon
• 2 onions
• 4 tbsp of brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 2 tsbp of red wine vinegar
• 4 pieces of bread
• Brie cheese wedge

Here’s whacha do:

1. Fry your bacon, then set aside
2. Dump bacon grease, chop onion and place in frying pan with olive oil and salt, once they are soft and golden, then add red wine vinegar and brown sugar, allow to caramelized. Then set aside
3. Wash frying pan out, if you need too.
4. To make sandwich butter both sides of the bread, then top with caramelized onions, brie cheese and bacon
5.  Grill on the frying pan, til each side is golden and heated all the way through.

Guys, this was incredible, I will definitely be making this again! Now, the cheese was slightly expensive, $7! But let me tell you, it was worth it. The combination of the creamy cheese, with the sweet caramelized onions then the savory bacon, made for a wonderful concoction in your mouth! Just thinking about is making me want other one! Please make this one chilly night, and pair with French onion soup! Mmmm yum! I think I will actually be doing that soon, to be honest!

Next week, I have an idea, and it will be a little on tougher side! My roommate actually sent me a Facebook message saying to do it, so maybe I will! Please stayed tuned for next! It is bound to be delicious!

HELP WANTED!

Unfortunately, this week I chose NOT to make a mouthwatering dish. I’ll be honest, money is a little tight this week! That is not the main reason though. Since, this blog is for my Social Media Marketing class, my professor would like us to switch up the content ever so often. For instance, I could post my top 10 favorite meals of all time or giving tips for baking and cooking. Possibly, even something holiday related! Fall is my favorite season, I may just go crazy with pumpkin! PUMPKIN EVERYTHING!!! Then again, I may just write about my overall thoughts about this project and the progression I have made. Maybe even a little bit of it all…? Which is exactly what I going to sort of do. I am half way through the semester, THANK GOODNESS! Therefore, switching it up is best, so you all do not get bored!

I am a huge fan of Pinterest and my “Get In My Belly” board has almost 400 pins. Now most of us Pinterest users, pin a lot of delicious foods but never make them. Well coming next, I will make something I have been dying to make, regardless of how many ingredients. Yes, that is a factor when I am determining what I want to make…lol. Now, I need YOUR help. Below. I will share 5 dishes that I want to make and I need you to either comment on my blog, Facebook or twitter and pick which one! One of my goals for my Passion Project is to gain more insight from my viewers! Ready to pick?

1. Pumpkin Spice French Toast
2. Sweet and Spicy Honey Sriracha Chicken
3. Crispy Bacon and Brie Grilled Cheese Sandwich
4. BBQ Onion Meatball Bombs
5. Sloppy Joe Casserole

These may seem slightly random, especially the pumpkin spice french toast but they all look delightful. I highly encourage Pinterest users to look these up because the pictures of the dishes look absolutely amazing. But if no one comments on this post or on Facebook, I won’t be too upset…

In general, my overall blog has been gaining viewers! Thank you all so much for supporting me! Share and like my post, and comment as well! At first I completely dreaded having to post a blog every week. This is because sharing my writing with people is nerve racking to me. I have had a couple of people say that I am doing a good job. That honestly means so much! It is a real boost of confidence!

Please do NOT forget to comment on which dish you would like for me to make! I am looking forward to see what you all have to say!

L

Got Beef?

Hello again! This week I thought I would treat myself, and this is my favorite recipe so far! I made one heck of a dinner, if I must say so myself. Just so you know, this does take a little bit of pre-planning people. I made deliciously marinated steak bites! Literally, just smelling the marinade made my mouth water. My roommate and our friend, Emilee, loved them! Elisabeth did have some objections, as usual… she is a picky eater!

Now, most of the ingredients I used, were in my cupboard. If they aren’t in yours… Go get them, they are very useful! I’ve noticed ingredients do tend to overlap, which is good, more money in my pocket. I replaced an 2 ingredients and added another. Later I will tell you which ingredients! My grocery bill was $25.82, now that included, $8 steak bites, milk, Worcestershire sauce, 3 vegetable steamers, apple cider and Oreo’s! The typical college student grocery list. This is not what I live off by any means. This girl looovvveesss food!

I will be honest, I did not measure at all. It was just a marinade, I used enough ingredients so that most of the steak bites were covered. I encourage you all to just go with the flow and determine for yourself how much you’d like to put in the marinade. Even though the recipe is mainly the ingredients for the marinade, I will tell you how long I cooked the steak bites for. Also, a key factor in this recipe is that, you need to let the steak soak for at least 3 hours, but mine marinated for 5 hours. I put the steak into the marinade at 2pm and took them out at 7pm. Now let’s get to the recipe!

Here’s whacha need:

• Worcestershire sauce
• Olive oil
• 1 red onion
• Minced garlic
• Dried basil
• Crushed red pepper
• Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 pound of sirloin steak/ steak bites already per cut by Walmart

Here’s whacha do:

1. Place all ingredients, as you feel what is needed, into a large Ziplock bag, or bowl. Except the steak.
2. Drop steak pieces into marinade and seal or cover, marinate for at least 3 hours or up to 24.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once skillet is hot, scoop steak pieces out with a slotted spoon. Cook steak according to desired temperature. 3 minutes for medium well.

Now, the ingredients that the recipe called for were soy sauce and dried parsley. I substituted those for balsamic vinegar and crushed red pepper flakes. Remember, I love some spice. I added the red onion, basically because I needed to use and you know why not? Now, my own personal objection is that I added too much balsamic vinegar. It gave the steak too much of a balsamic taste, whereas, I just wanted there to be a hint. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. I absolutely love when I just throw ingredients together and it turns out great! Especially, when other people enjoy what I cook as well. It is very rewarding. Then as a side, I used a vegetable steamer, which was all sweet potatoes. It was pretty good. Tonight I ate very well for a college student and my group members were jealous because I sent them a picture (see below).

If anyone happens to use this, please let me know how it turned out for you! I would love to hear about it! Hopefully I can come up with something just as good next week!

 

Throw Your Hands Up and SPROUT!

Ladies and gents, this week I put a twist on how I did things! My roommate, Elisabeth and I, made a dinner together! Elisabeth does Pinterest bakes,therefore together we prepared, a foil packet with kielbasa,potatoes, white onion,corn and old bay seasoning.Then as a side, we made balsamic roasted Brussels sprouts. Together, the meal only costed us, $8.22! You can’t even go out to dinner and find a sandwich for that much. Also, it fed 3 people plus left overs, so lets just round that up to 4 people. Now, a $16 dinner for 4 people, beats going out any day! Look at all the savings! Seriously people, stay home and cook.

Now, if you read my blog you MUST read Elisabeth’s, it is only fair, plus you have to get both recipes! You don’t want to miss out on our delicious dinner. If I must say so myself, Elisabeth and I will make great wives one day. We cook, clean and we are cute! (I will post her URL at the bottom of the post).

I will be focusing on my side dish, the balsamic roasted brussels sprouts.

Here is what you need:

• 2lbs of Brussels sprouts
• 1 red onion
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1/2 tsp of pepper
• 2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp of honey
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp dijon mustard

Here is what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil
2. In a mixing bowl, toss brussels sprouts, red onion, olive, salt and pepper. Then put on baking sheet and spread evenly.
3. Roast veggies for 25 to 30 minutes, under sprouts are tender and slightly brown
4. In a small bowl, whisk together balsamic vinegar, honey and dijon mustard.

Guys.. Elisabeth doesn’t like any type of mustard, so I snuck in the mustard when she wasn’t looking.. haha! This is a good test to see if she reads my blog too!

I will be honest, I not a huge fan of brussels sprouts but this seemed like a really good recipe. Elisabeth liked them but had some objection to the brussels sprouts with a lot of the balsamic glaze mixture. Then we had a friend come over, Tyler, who is in our group for a group project and always wants to try our food. Tyler and I helped ourselves to seconds they were so good! The only thing I did not include were mustard seeds, I just did not find them necessary.

After tonight’s dinner, I was so stuffed I needed a wheelbarrow to get to the couch! Together, the meal was simple and easy! Only took about 40 minutes for Elisabeth’s foil packet and 30 minutes for the sprouts. On the plus side, you can cook them together because coincidentally they both need to be cooked at 425 degrees.

Thank you to everyone who reads my blog weekly! It truly appreciate it! Please let me know if you decide to try a recipe!

CLICK HERE TO SEE ELISABETH’S BLOG POST

Here is our dinner!

It’s Getting Hot In Here

Welcome back!

This week I promised I would do a healthy recipe! I selected to do Buffalo Cauliflower bites. I know what you are thinking, “cauliflower, yuck!” You can’t knock it, til you try it! I have always wanted to try buffalo cauliflower bites, so I figured I would take this opportunity to do so. Since, it is football season, this would be a good healthy alternative snack or appetizer compared to buffalo wings. Even if you wanted to use this recipe as a meal then add sides, you could totally do that as well. This week my grocery bill was $20.34, that included the cauliflower, buffalo sauce, coffee creamer, 2 snacks and coconut shrimp. Also, I still had food left over from last week, which means more money in my pocket!

Here’s what you need:

• 1 head of cauliflower
• Frank’s RedHot Buffalo hot sauce
• 2 teaspoons of garlic powder
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of pepper
• 1 tablespoon of butter, melted

Here’s what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 450
2. Spray baking pan with olive oil, set aside
3. Mix garlic powder,salt, pepper,melted butter and hot sauce in bowl
4. Add the cauliflower into large gallon-sized bag, pour the buffalo sauce mixture into bag. Shake until the cauliflower florets are fully covered
5. Spread on baking pan
6. Bake for 35 minutes
7. Serve with ranch or bleu cheese dressing

 

I was honestly surprised at how full this recipe made me, I did have a decent sized bowl of it, but it was just buffalo cauliflower. I think this recipe was playing a mind game or something. I really cannot think of a better way to serve cauliflower. By itself, it is a bland,boring vegetable, but if you like spice, this is the way to go! It is a definite game changer.

I usually add an ingredient to the recipe, but I added time for it to bake. Letting it bake longer made it not as crunchy. The softer it is when you bite into it, the better because it changes the flavor and texture of the cauliflower, so it is less like it’s original state.

I strongly encourage you all to try this out! This is a cheap, easy recipe that anyone can do. If I could have added anything, I would have added bleu cheese crumbles to the buffalo mixture. I think that it would have added some savory goodness to the buffalo cauliflower bites.

Stay tuned for another delicious recipe next week!

 

 

 

Get In My Belly!

Welcome back! This week I chose to do an Italian Sausage & Tortellini Skillet! I found this on Pinterest after a few minutes of looking over the weekend. I’ll be honest, I expected it to be more flavorful but it turned out pretty well. I did swap and add a few ingredients though, so maybe that is why..oops! I also really never measure anything unless it specifically calls for it but I will try my best to help you all along. This recipe is short and does not call for many ingredients. My grocery bill this week was $57.60 and that is including lunch food, snacks, milk and 2 more dinners. Plus, this skillet will make 6 servings!  Leftovers, heck yes, a girl has to eat!!

Here is what you need:

• Large bag of Buitoni cheese Tortellini (or your choice of tortellini)
• 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
• 1 pound of Jimmy Dean’s Italian Sausage
• 1 bag of shredded Mozzarella Cheese ( you don’t use the whole bag silly)
• 1 jar of Classico of Roasted Tomato Alfredo
• 1 bag of baby spinach leaves
• Red pepper flakes

Now lets get cooking! First, I cooked my Italian sausage in a skillet, while that was cooking I started to boil my water for the tortellini. Once, the sausage was close to being done, I poured the bag of tortellini into the boiling water. I then added 2 handfuls of the baby spinach leaves and the tablespoon of minced garlic into the cooked sausage, keeping the skillet on simmer so that the spinach can cook down. After about 5 minutes I strained the tortellini and poured it into a plastic storage container, because I wouldn’t be able to eat all of this food in one sitting! I poured the whole bottle of Classico Alfredo into the plastic bowl, then the sausage and spinach concoction. Mix all together, then sprinkle mozzarella cheese and red pepper flakes on top and voila!

I actually added the spinach, garlic and red pepper flakes but swapped the called for marinara sauce for alfredo. I’m not a big fan of marinara sauce, that may be because I do not like tomatoes, whatsoever, yuck. As you continue to read my posts, you will notice that I love garlic, cheese and spice. I truly do enjoy cooking, once I am finished I feel accomplished! I would say I took a somewhat simple recipe and elevated it. I learned the regularly used cooking term “elevate” from watching Chopped! I probably will not ever be a professional chef, but the more I cook, the better I will become. Practice makes perfect!

Hint for next week, I’ll be cooking something that is more toward the healthy side!

Here are some pictures! I know it does not look like the featured picture, sorry!(I started cooking the sausage before I thought of taking the first picture, so I used hamburger meat instead)

 

Simple, Spice, and Everything Nice

Wanting to cook for cheap, but still satisfy your taste buds? Congratulations, you clicked on the right blog!

Hello everyone! I’m Savannah, a senior at Radford University, who is majoring in Marketing and thoroughly enjoys cooking when I am able and can afford too.

Majority of my blog posts will be about meals and recipes, I think of personally, I have learned from watching family members, or from my absolute favorite site, Pinterest. I have “pinned” a lot of delicious recipes to my Pinterest board, and I am excited to share them with you all. I already know of one recipe I will use from a family member as well. I hope to inspire other college students to begin to cook, rather than eating fast food or going out to eat. So that hopefully, it’ll put money back into their pockets.

When I cook, I typically just throw ingredients together and it turns out “pretty good”, says my roommate Elisabeth. I rarely make anything from scratch, I don’t even think I know how to make anything from scratch actually. The ingredients are typically store bought spices, fresh vegetables or sometimes frozen, protein, and a delicious side item. I am trying to work on buying healthier items, but sometimes you can’t resist going down the cookie isle. By no means, am I a fabulous cook. To me, it is all about taking simply food and adding some spice or something fresh to it to make it have more of a twist. I am a college student, so therefore, I cannot go and buy high quality ingredients, that I may only use once, it is just not practical for me to do. I just make my own concoctions and hope it turns out well, which it usually does… not to be cocky. I am always thriving to push myself and my roommates to make something different and try new things. I don’t like to eat the same food over and over again, it gets bland and boring after too many times of eating. As the weeks go by, I hope to expand my knowledge and others about cooking.

As I mentioned earlier, I am not a fabulous cook, I actually slightly scalded my eggs this morning, but only because I was unloading the dishwasher. Multitasking is not a real thing. I still ate them though, the extra ingredients I added where milk, garlic salt, pepper and sriracha. I needed some spice this morning to get me up and going because my cup coffee did not do it for me.

Stay tuned for next weeks post!