Teriyaki Beef & Soba Noodle Soup

Cooking for two can be easy.  Whats better than soup on a stormy cool day?  Soup & teriyaki beef skewers.  I'm doing my own thing like I always do and trying my own twist on this meal.  I always try to use the freshest and healthiest ingredients I can get.  Sadly, we just started growing our garden this last week.  All my ingredients that I'm using are store bought for this.

What you will need:

1 pound of beef (thinly sliced beef sirloin)

2 servings of soba noodles

1 32 oz box of garlic onion infused beef broth (basic beef broth would work too)

1 teaspoon of fresh or powdered ginger

2 garlic cloves

1 medium onion

2 large carrots

1 bag of fresh bean sprouts

1 hand full of fresh chives

2 teaspoons of olive oil

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon of sesame oil

1/2 cup of soy teriyaki sauce (for marinade)

2 teaspoons of teriayki sauce (for after beef is cooked)

2 teaspoons of sweet chili sauce (for topping on soup, if desired) 

wood skewer sticks

chop sticks

Soaking wood skewers in water so they won't burn while cooking the teriyaki beef.  I always set out what I'll need ahead of time to save time when cooking later.  Garlic & roasted onion infused beef broth for the soup, soba noodles, ginger ( I wish I had fresh, sadly just powdered) and a couple garlic cloves.

I cut my beef into strips and put into a shallow dish with the soy teriyaki sesame seed marinade.  Then I covered the dish and set into the refrigerator until I'm ready to use.

Once your ready to start cooking, you take the wood skewers that have socked in water and put the teriyaki beef onto the skewers placing them onto a sheet pan.  Preheat over to 400* while you put together the soup.

After getting the beef skewers ready and set aside now start boiling a pot of water to cook the soba noodles.  The soba noodles I used take only 2 min. to cool.  Then chop up one onion two cloves of garlic and thinly slice two large carrots.  I also set out my bean sprouts and chives.

The noodles cook fast so I have a bowl set aside to put the finished soba noodles into while I make the base of the soup.  I put the beef into the oven for 16 to 17 min. leaving it set to 400* and flipping them once.

Putting a bit of olive oil on the bottom of the same pot you boiled your noodles in after dumping the water out.  Put on medium heat, add in the onion garlic and carrots and cook until soften.  Just a few min. will do.  Add the beef stock into the pot along with some soy sauce and sesame oil ginger pepper if you want.

Once the beef is finished pull out and let rest while you add the bean sprouts and chives into the soup.  Quick and easy your simple dinner is ready to enjoy.

  

The beef I leave on the skewers when serving.  Before I plate the beef I like to drizzle a bit of extra teriyaki sauce onto of them.

We like to top our soup off with some sweet chili sauce.  Leaving the beef on the skewers makes for easy eats and looks fun too.  The next time I make this soup I plan on using mushrooms and celery.  I hardly ever make things the same way twice.

Just another perfectly simple easy meal for two or more.

Eat, Love & Live

Scones

Just want to share one of my favorite Sunday morning treats with all of you.

I do love my coffee that just happens to pare really well with something lightly sweetened fresh warm yet popping with fresh fruity flavors like SCONES?  Well... maybe coffee cake!  

These two flavors are by far my favorite and I really think only best when served right out of the oven pipping hot.  Raspberry Lemon and Blueberry both with a sprinkle of sugar crystals or just sugar in the raw on top.  I like to use frozen organic berries out of season, they work nicely.  Looking forward to in season and fresh warm berries are by far much better.  That's almost a given that fresh is better than frozen, however sometimes you must do what you have to do.

Now, I do a few different types of scones.  When I do not have time to do from scratch yet I cheat and use a box mix.  When I have more time and am willing to take the time I do use bisquick mix.  I'll let all my readers know right now I am not the baker in the family at all.  When I do bake it's out of need and want for something sweet and tasty.  My sister happens to be the one that is our little baker in the family.  I enjoy more the savory foods than the sweets when it comes to making and creating.  

Again, this time I'm at a loss for a recipe to share with all of you, mostly just popping out some yummy ideas and photos, that is more up my ally.  Just so you all know the photo up above I took of my sisters home made Blueberry Lemon Scones.  Now, I hope you all enjoy these yummy creations and that they might spring some ideas into your head, and in my cooking world I believe that if you think of something that seems and sounds good and not sure if it will be... TRY!  You won't know unless you give it a go.  With my scones it's a basic mix and I just thought how cool it would be to have berries sitting on top that have been baked along with the scones.  These are best eaten fresh due to all the juice and the fresh berries on them.  Next day is okay, however they don't save as well as if you were to mix the berries in with the dough.   Just a helpful tip! 

Best enjoyed with good friends and family.

Now go and make you & your friends some scones and coffee, then enjoy your day!

Eat, Love, & Live

Quinoa & Chicken

Trying new this is fun.  Don't ever be afraid of something new and different.  This is a really good meal in your dutch oven pot and great for a house full or dinner guest.  

Tonight we tried something new.  Quinoa!  It was really easy, just like cooking rice.  Tasty and very filling, also rather pretty and light.  Perfectly paired with chicken veggies and tomato basil sauce.    Tonight I just wanted to post up a beautiful picture of our dinner and share the new food we tried with all of you!  No recipe this time, I just threw this together and it worked out rather well... Inspired by a recipe I saw, I changed it up to make it more our liking and we loved it... Served up with some left over fresh bakery bread from the other night dinner was a hit!  This meal only took me 40min. to make and that was mostly due to trying to figure out what all I wanted to add to the pot... I so love being about to just cook it all in one dutch oven and call it a meal.  Less mess and work on trying to watch other items in other pans pots etc. and hope nothing buns... Easy and simple whenever you can is a must!

We are still on a quest to eat even more healthy than we do now.  More white meats and sea food, fish, and much more veggies and fruits.  Looking for more flavors and more colors.  Food to fuel us and keep us going for as long as we can live.  To eating for a long healthier life!  If any of you have not tried this Quinoa I highly recommend giving it a go.  It's really quite good!  Get out there and try something new this coming week!  

Try Quinoa!

Eat, Love, & Live

Chicken Potsticker Soup

Dinner doesn't have to be boring or take over an hour to be amazing!

Soup is a perfect dinner meal all in one.  Simply full of flavor, color, and totally healthy.  

Finding fun and easy quick meals doesn't have to mean you go to a drive threw or pick up pizza on your way home from work.  Fresh veggies and a few healthy short cuts to help whip up something warm filling and tasty is right before your eyes.

I must give credit to Trader Joe's for this idea I took a spin off from them and just ran with it. Giving it my own twist adding and changing a few things along the way.  Hey, that's what great chefs do, get fantastic ideas for others and change it up!  Here is my take on it.

Chicken Potsticker Soup is a perfect meal in one bowl that's full of flavors that pop in your mouth yet delicate with a hint of heat.  Really fresh veggies are the way to go and with your favorite filled potsticker make this meal all yours.  You can use veggie filled, chicken, pork, or shrimp!  I'll totally recommend Trader Joe's frozen potstickers.  Most of the time I tend to shy away from boxed, canned, frozen, anything processed, however with Trader Joe's I have found that I don't have to worried about the frozen products.  They are good and all healthy.  Everything in moderation people.  

I have to cook just for two so most of my meals I create I cook up for two but anyone can double the recipes and a lot of the time we end up with leftover for lunch the next day.  This was perfect for the two of us.  I made just enough for us to both have plenty of soup for dinner.  We both really like trying new fun things when it come to food and I plan on sharing some of our fun with all of you.

In the last year or so I have really started to take a turn to much more healthy food choices than ever before.  Never eating out hardly ever, mostly only when we travel has it's up sides for sure.  I have become very creative and willing to spend the bit of extra time and money to really enjoy what we eat.  I totally believer it's paying off.  Remember key to a long happy healthy life is a healthy you.  Food plays such a large roll in that.  You are what you eat!

Here is how I did this.

What you will need:

1 package of Trader Joe's Chicken Potsticker's 

1 large box of veggie broth (I use organic only low sodium)

1 small yellow onion

2 small carrots

2 stalks of celery

1 cup of fresh spinach 

1 cup of bean sprouts

small hand full of fresh cilantro 

small hand full of chopped up fresh green onion

1 tablespoon soy sauce 

1 tablespoon sesame oil

4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

sweet chili sauce to taste after serving

You will need about 30 or 40 min. for this meal.

Here is how you put it all together to make a bowl full of yum.  

The first thing I did was set all my items out. Then getting out a large frying pan putting 2 of the 4 tablespoons of olive oil into the pan, setting it at a medium heat.  Once the oil and pan was warm I put 14 of the potstickers into the pan, yes still frozen.  Just having them over the medium heat to lightly brown them. I would keep a close eye on them so that they do not burn, turning them often is what I found worked for best evenly browning. 

I then chopped up my onion, celery, and carrot really quick to put into a large pot that has the other 2 tablespoons of olive oil in it.  Turning that onto a medium heat as well.  Once that is warmed up put in the mirepoix (onion, celery, carrot) to cook until the onion is translucent.  

Now your potstickers should be almost done and if they are all I did was set them off to the side with a cover on them to keep warm.  Then once the mirepoix is ready add in the veggie broth bring up to a gentle boil and also add in the spinach, bean sprouts,  soy sauce, and sesame oil.  Giving that just a moment to combined after coming to a gentle boil.  Then you add in the chicken potstickers.  Quickly chop up your green onion and grab some cilantro for your garnish and your ready to enjoy this fantastic full of flavors soup.

I loved adding the sweet chili sauce to mine after plating, so did my boyfriend.  I think it gave it a nice added bit of sweat and heat.  I sure hope that all of you try this with an open mind and be ready to fall in love with this soup.  We sure did.  

Eat, Love, & Live