Introducing Ashley » cooking

Daily Joy: Cooking for my Family

Ashley — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:01:00 +0000

Not only do I absolutely love cooking, but I love cooking for my loved ones. About two months ago, my mother decided that she was going to be vegan. Now I am behind that 100%, as I have given it thought on occasion and have even been vegetarian a few times in my life (I have serious problems giving up sushi). But poor Mom has been sustaining mainly on processed, packaged vegan food from the grocery store. She has never been the kind of person who enjoys cooking. Well what is a daughter to do besides cook for her mother? In the mail today arrived my three new vegan cookbooks. I already own a couple of vegan and vegetarian cookbooks, but based on my “mild” obsession with cookbooks, I figured I might as well add some more! Time to get cooking.

Chicken Soft Tacos

Ashley — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 23:38:22 +0000

For dinner tonight, I already had the multi-grain Mission tortillas, pineapple-mango salsa and shredded Mexian blend cheese. I really like this combination, especially the pineapple-mango salsa. It combines the sweetness of the fruit with the salty of the cheese and chicken. Also, the multi-grain tortillas were a bit on the sweet side. All around a good combination. The dinner was later than planned, so I only marinaded the chicken for 30 minutes.

Ingedients:

Your choice of tortillas, shredded cheese and salsa (but I recommend the pineapple-mango)
1.25 – 1.50 lbs of boneless, skinless, thinly sliced chicken breasts.
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice (I only had from concentrate and it worked just fine)
1 tbs chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300 F
Slice the chicken into strips
Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl with a lid to make the marinade(except the the first group of items).
Add the chicken strips to the bowl and marinate in the chicken in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or more.
Pour out a bit of the marinade into a skillet and heat over medium-high heat.
Place torillas on a greased cookie sheet and place in oven for about 5 – 7 minutes until warm, but not crispy.
While the tortillas are heating up, add marinated chicken to the hot skillet and cook for 3 minutes on each side. This is if you have the thin-sliced breasts. If you have the normal chicken breasts, they take longer too cook through.
Finally, add them all together! Tortilla>Chicken>Shredded Cheese>Salsa!

Roasted Red Pepper, Garlic and Tomato Soup

Ashley — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 22:17:39 +0000

I made this for dinner tonight because I am trying to clear out my cupboards of things that have remained there for the last 6 months! A lot of this stuff I really didn’t measure out, so the following are estimates
Ingredients

2 tsp olive oil
1 – 2 garlic cloves (depending on how garlicy you like it), minced
1 7.25 oz jar of sun-dried red peppers
1 cup milk (I only use skim, but it’s your preference)
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 – 2 tsp sea salt (once again, based on your personal tastes)
1 family size can of tomato soup (or make yours from scratch)
2 bay leaves
2 tsp honey

Directions

Place the olive oil in a sauce pot and once it it heated, add the garlic to saute.
While the oil is heating, place the peppers, milk, cayenne pepper and salt into a food processor and blend until smooth.
Once the garlic has sauteed, add the can of tomato soup, then the red pepper mix and stir. Add bay leaves.
Heat on medium low heat for 7 – 9 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove bay leaves and stir in honey.
Serve hot, preferably with a nice sharp cheddar and muenster grilled cheese!