Vietnamese Salad Rolls recipe

Today I have a recipe that we absolutely LOVE and is usually found as an appetizer at Thai or Vietnamese restaurants (often called salad rolls or fresh spring rolls). These are a little bit finicky to make, but the recipe itself isn't very difficult, and they are fresh and healthy. We make about 8 for supper between two of us (4 each). 2 each would probably be appropriate for an appetizer. I just feed Molly the inside parts without it all rolled up!

Here's the recipe card:

Cooking Instructions:

1) Cook shrimp or meat in a frying pan with water or oil of choice and spices of choice. I think lemongrass is recommended, but any kind of Asian spice works for us. I usually change this up every time, so just do what you know you like! Suggestions: yellow curry, ginger, coconut, peanut spice, etc.

2) Boil water for the rice paper

3) Boil water for rice vermicelli, cook as listed on box directions (usually only for 1 minute) - you do not need a lot of noodles as these go in the spring rolls

These are the noodles we use

4) Chop vegetables

Hello, amazing Chopper :)

Just don't let your 2 year old help you and hold the (safe and contained) chopper on her own or something like this might happen to your carrots:

I was torn between laughter and tears haha

5) Dip rice paper in a pan of hot water, then place all filling inside (meat/shrimp, veggies, chopped peanuts, lemongrass, rice noodles, sriracha sauce if you are my husband)

 

6) Wrap quickly

7) Repeat for as many as desired!

Even if it falls apart a bit (far right), it still tastes delicious!!!

8) Mix peanut butter and hoisin sauce 1:1 ratio for dipping peanut sauce, dip, and ENJOY!!!!

Hope you try these and enjoy them! You can put anything you want in them, and they are gluten-free (depending on your sauce choices). We love them!!

Note* It is not easy to prepare this meal on a weeknight and simultaneously entertain a 2 year old and take blogworthy pictures - sorry for some of the bad photos! haha!!

And now I'm hungry!

Happy Thursday, friends!! xo

Stuffed Peppers Recipe

It's almost Friday!!! This week has been a long one...a sick 2 year old, a few rough nights of sleep, and another huge Wednesday snow storm yesterday. I can't wait for the weekend so we can just relax a bit!

Part of Brian's 2014 health kick involved reducing carbs for a couple of weeks, so I  have been including some lower/healthy carb meals into our supper rotation. I first made stuffed peppers back in the fall, and we loved them! They are great because they are fully customizable, and each pepper is different, so Brian can have a bunch of his insane hot sauce in his pepper and I can have carbs (if I want) in mine! I made them again last week, and wanted to share the recipe with all of you today. It's a very filling and healthy meal, and I usually make 4 so that we can each have one for lunch the next day. Molly doesn't like peppers (yet!), so I usually just give her the filling (meat and rice) with some side veggies for supper...win-win!

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Brown your meat of choice with other cooked veggies of choice in a frying pan. I have made this with various sauces, usually spaghetti sauce or salsa, but you can use any flavour you want. We usually put some onions in with the meat to cook, but that's your call. Drain fat before adding sauce (I think this goes without saying!)
3. Cook rice or other filler (quinoa works well too) to add to the meat mixture.
4. Cut the tops off the peppers and hollow out and clean the inside.

   

   Brian doesn't like green peppers so he usually gets the red ones...we got a variety pack of these :)

5. Grate cheese and cut other veggies you might want in the pepper.
6. Mix the meat with veggies/cheese/rice/spices/anything you want stuffed!

   

   His on the left with extra hot sauce, onions and no rice. Mine on the right with rice and no hot sauce ;) Everyone gets what they want!
7. Bake at 350 for about a half hour until peppers are tender

   

   Our oven needs to be cleaned, but you get the idea :)

8. Dish out, slice and enjoy! I recommend slicing with a steak knife while you eat these. 

   

   Mine on the left, his on the right with even MORE hot sauce on top...haha

If you want your peppers a bit more tender, you can boil them whole for a few minutes before putting them in the oven. We didn't like the texture as much when I did that and I found it to be extra work. 

What would you stuff your peppers with? Let me know if you try this and your family loves it as much as we do!!! 

Chicken Fajitas Recipe

Hi there!

I think Thursdays will now be known as recipe days here on the blog, because today I have another supper recipe for you that Molly and I made this week.

Chicken Fajitas!!!

As I've mentioned, the hubby is on a bit of a health kick right now (which is awesome!) and even though we usually eat healthy suppers, we've been having a lot of extra salad or cooked veggies, which he has also been having at lunch and breakfast and he wanted a bit of a change. I used to make fajitas a lot, but I sometimes forget how easy they are to make!

What you'll need:

• Boneless/skinless chicken breasts/thighs (I estimate 1 per person, I used 4 breasts so we'd have leftovers)
• Veggies of choice including: onion, bell pepper, carrots, mushroom, zucchini strips, or anything goes, really!
• Fajita seasoning (I use THIS recipe to make my own, but you could also just buy it or use salsa in a pinch!!)
• Cheese or sour cream or yogurt for garnish
• Tortilla wraps

Step 1: Slice raw chicken into strips and fry in olive oil or water until brown

Step 2: Slice onions using a handy trick from Alex's blog post here. (This actually works GREAT for me). Keep the candles away from the 2 year old helper though.

Step 3: Get your little helper to help you use an amazing device like THIS one to chop the rest of the veggies and add to frying pan. (I don't have any affiliation with Tupperware but we love this chopper!)

Step 4: Remove veggies and chicken so that the toddler will still eat it before seasoning is added

Step 5: Add seasoning with some water to make a sauce

Step 6: Add to a wrap, add garnish of choice and eat up!

Here's a tip for wrapping tortillas!!!

You could make this recipe with steak, pork, ground turkey or chicken, or anything really! It would also be good just with beans if you wanted to go the vegetarian route. 

Bonus: Molly liked it too (mostly because she got some cheese on the side :))

Easy Slow Cooker Roast Beef Recipe

Hellooooo! So... I had a fun post planned for yesterday, but I didn't quite get the chance to finish it and publish it because we had a snow day here in Halifax and I worked from home all day (and also had a nap because my toddler refused to sleep on Tues night for some reason!)...that post will have to happen another day, but today I have a super-easy and super-delicious recipe to share for supper! Bonus: this is Molly's favourite supper and she requests it almost every day....so we probably have it once a week. haha.

We usually don't make this with the potatoes, because Brian and Molly both aren't huge fans of potatoes, but I often use the rest of the juice to make gravy when we get home and we'll have rice or hashbrown-style potatoes with it. You could also use it for sandwiches (we do that the next day) or on a salad!! The roast beef ends up being REALLY tender if you follow the 6-8 hours on low, and it will literally melt in your mouth :) We usually pair it with salad or baked broccoli.

Now what I need to do is start being more adventurous with our slow cooker...I use it about 2-3 times a week now, but I want to try some different recipes in it and get some variety!! I like this roast beef, but I definitely get sick of it at times!!

Anyone have any good slow cooker supper recipes to share? :)

PS: Unfortunately, I'm a bad blogger and I don't have a picture of this meal, but I will get one the next time we make it (which I'm sure will be soon) and update this post!