Seafood Wednesday: My Super Easy Tuna Casserole

Life has been getting a little busier this week and even though I was really tempted to skip my Seafood Wednesday, I decided I should make it happen anyways!  (Besides my daughter loves tuna so that was added motivation :) )  Here it is: 

My Super Easy Tuna Casserole Recipe

Ingredients: 

I used Barilla's Tri-Color Rotini, Alfredo Sauce, a can of tuna, and French Fried Onions. 

Steps: 

1. 1. Cook pasta
   (I used Tri-Color because it would be most fun for my daughter to eat. Funny thing is, she started picking the green ones out....has she already associated the color green with vegetables ??? ) 
2. Pre-heat the oven to 350. 
3. I added about a cup of Alfredo Sauce.
4. Drain the tuna and add to the mixture.
5. Mix well.
6. Top it with the French Fried Onions
7. Bake it for about 10-12 min.
   (just long enough to golden the French Fried Onions)
8. Time to eat! 

My Favorite Profiteroles (or Cream Puffs)

Profiteroles 

This would have to be one of the best dishes my Hubby has made. The pictures are totally making me hungry for them and cannot wait until next week so he can make them again. *hint, hint* 

The recipe was featured by Giada De Laurentiis in the Everyday Italian Show. This dish is called Goat Cheese and Sun Dried Tomato Profiteroles with Herb Oil  which also indicates the names of the ingredients used to make the recipe.  

This was my first time trying goat cheese. The taste is a tad bit strong, but when combined with the tomato and herb oil, it turned out soo good!!! 

Plain Profiteroles - Cream Puffs == very tasty bread!!! 

A close-up of the profiteroles stuffed with goat cheese, sundried tomato with herb oil: 

Mmmmmm!!!

My Hubby can be so creative in the kitchen that he made a sweet version of the profiteroles. 

He filled them with Chocolate mousse and made a chocolate sauce to put over it.   

perfect! 

Totally irresistible!!!! 

Seafood Wednesday: Stuffed Tomatoes - Tomates Rellenos

I've been really looking forward to Today's Seafood Wednesday's recipe for three reasons:

1. It includes some of my favorite ingredients,
2. It's a very special dish that my Grandmother used to make for me when I was a young girl, 
3. It's a Chilean dish.

(BTW - Chile celebrated 200 years of Independence this past Saturday, September 18)

I seriously went to the grocery store and got all the ingredients in less than 20 minutes. Now that's a record for me :-) I walked into the store and headed straight to the produce section. I found the tomatoes and sorted through them until I found eight beautifully shaped tomatoes. I split them into two bags to make sure they wouldn't get squished along the way.

notice how well the tomatoes made it home

Ingredients:

Fresh tomatoes (2 per person)
Corn
Canned Tuna in oil (2 cans to make sure we get a really amount of the fish)
Cooked Rice

ingredients

Preparation:

1. Rinse off the tomatoes and remove the sticky labels.

2. Remove the stem of the tomato.

*  This is what all your tomatoes should look like now:

3. Here comes the fun part - Scoop out each tomato.

I used a knife to remove the center part and scooped out the tomato.





4. Almost ready to stuff!

5. Having your tomatoes in one bowl, add the remaining ingredients one at a time.  Mix well.

I have got to tell you this was my favorite part of making this dish! The fresh smell of tomatoes with tuna and corn made my day!!!

6. Stuff the tomatoes - it took two full spoons to stuff them.

Now look at all of them:

I started feeling like a Chef at this point :)

7. Get your plates ready! - It's time to eat!

It is Chilean tradition to garnish the stuffed tomatoes with a bit of mayonnaise at the top. You could also use a black olive with a small leaf of basil to decorate the dish.

It is also part of the tradition to serve this dish with white rice.   It's served in a round shape; you could use a cup to obtain the same results.

Stuffed Tomatoes with Rice

Time to eat!

~ The Wife

McDonald's Snack Size McFlurry

I went out to run a couple of errands yesterday which involved a quick stop at one of my favorite places: McDonald's.  I looked at the panel with all the different dessert options such as sundae, ice cream cones, cookies, and cinnamon rolls. Those sounded good, but not that good.

Then I noticed the Snack Size McFlurry. Perfect, I thought! Creamy vanilla ice-cream with one topping! Or two J  (For just .30 cents you can get an additional topping for your ice-cream)

Oreo and Reese’s Pieces were just right! Great combination…you get some of the crushed cookies along with a peanut butter taste as you enjoy the ice-cream. Ahhh! I was ready to come home afterwards.

I seriously loved my snack size McFlurry to Bits!

ps: next time, i'll snap a picture of it...because I know I will go back for another one! soon!!!

The Wife

Stromboli

What words come to your mind when you think of making Stromboli?

For me:

• difficult
• complicated
• takes too long

That'd be why my Hubby made it. He's really good with recipes that take a  couple of hours and involve several steps. 

My Mom recently found a cookbook called Frame by Frame which is an excellent resource to keep in your kitchen! Why so? It provides pictures for every single step of any recipe ---especially for a complicated one like Stromboli for me. 

The pictures and instructions are straight to the point so you don't have to spend time double guessing yourself as to whether you are doing the right thing or not. (Ever done that?!?!)

I do have to tell you that Stromboli takes a few hours to make, but with an iced-Coke around and some fun people hanging out with you as you make this dish, time will pass by very quickly....AND they'll be quite happy with this dish!   

Ingredients:

My Hubby made Stromboli filled with spinach, ham, cheese, and roasted red peppers.

It can be made with a variety of different ingredients depending on what you like.

Take a look and see how the instructions from the book compare to what the actual Stromboli looked in the end!


Steps:

1. Getting the dough ready.

Book View

Real life view

2. Stuff Bread

Book View

Real Life -
Finished Stromboli

This Stromboli was a perfect way to end our day!!!

Comfort Food in my Cupboard

It may the pregnancy or just the fact that I have been feeling a little down, but I just needed some comfort food! That's when I got started looking in the cupboard and found a package of  Betty Crocker's Double Chocolate Chunk that I had bought on sale for $1 at Meijer about a month ago. I always like to get a few things like that to keep in my cupboard just in case 1) we have visitors, 2) need a quick dessert, 3) to take to someone else's house.

I had the kind Double Chocolate Chunk, I poured in the mixing bowl. I looked at it (wish i had taken a picture of it!!!) and thought "hmmm, this needs more chocolate." So I added about a cup of Hershey's chocolate chips and followed the directions from the package. I had to add a bit extra water to count for the chocolate I added.


This is what it looked before baking:

before baking 

after baking

ready to eat!

Another thing I have learned here in the States is to eat cookies with milk :-)

Triple Chocolate Chunk cookies WITH milk makes for a perfect comfort food! Thank you Betty Crocker and Hershey's!

~ The Wife

Seafood Wednesday: Rice and Shrimp

Hi everyone! Hope your week is going well and that you had a restful Labor Day!

Today, Wednesday, was my turn to cook at The Chambs':-)

Rice and Shrimp and Broccoli 

Although the name of this recipe may not be very original, I did find several versions on how to make a dish with these ingredients online. There were several that sounded really good such as Shimp Fried Rice II  and Cajun Shrimp and Rice . So I took them as a starting point as to what I wanted to make.

Ingredients:

• Cocktail size Shrimp
• (Leftover) Rice
• Garlic 
• Tumeric (yellow sesoning)
• Broccoli 
• Salt 
• Oil
• Butter
• Soy Sauce

Preparation
(I cooked everything separately for my toddler)

1. (Defrost shrimp if necessary)
2. Heat the rice and add the Tumeric
3. Melt butter and add garlic 
4. Then add the shrimp and soy sauce 
5. Stir until shrimp is tender 
6. Cook broccoli to taste  

Time to Eat! 

Rice with Shrimp and Broccoli
- My Version 

Tips

• When heating leftover rice - I add a bit of water to it to moisturize it. (oil is another alternative)
• Tumeric is a handy ingredient to have in your kitchen. 
• Tumeric turns most foods yellow.