We made it back from our weekend trip yesterday (Sunday). We had a great time in Chicago :) One of the highlights was going to Sprinkles cupcake shop and using their "Cupcake ATM". You can just see the excitement in Ian's face!
I have to go out of town again for a couple of days but I thought before I left, I might surprise Ian by having dinner waiting when he got home from work :)
But before I get into that, I'd like to talk a little about leftovers. I mentioned in the last post that Ian used our leftovers to make us wraps for lunch before we headed out. I'd like to take the time to embellish on that a little....
Although most of the recipes give a serving size of only two, we've ended up having leftovers for almost every meal. I think this is going to be great as we move forward with our cooking for a couple of reasons. Number one: there might be nights that we just don't FEEL like spending a lot of time putting something together. And number two: we might not actually HAVE the time to cook as was the case when we were hurrying to get ready for our trip.
But before I get into that, I'd like to talk a little about leftovers. I mentioned in the last post that Ian used our leftovers to make us wraps for lunch before we headed out. I'd like to take the time to embellish on that a little....
Although most of the recipes give a serving size of only two, we've ended up having leftovers for almost every meal. I think this is going to be great as we move forward with our cooking for a couple of reasons. Number one: there might be nights that we just don't FEEL like spending a lot of time putting something together. And number two: we might not actually HAVE the time to cook as was the case when we were hurrying to get ready for our trip.
Now for the surprise! Since we had extra tilapia and tomatoes from our previous nights of cooking, I decided to try and throw together some fish tacos. I searched through the cookbook to find something to add with the fish and came across a recipe for salsa. I ended up having all the ingredients except for cilantro but I decided to go ahead and move forward without it.
I began by preparing the tilapia just like the other night. Since I had done this before, it went much more quickly and smoothly. Not that it was hard the first time, but this time I had more confidence and didn't have to keep checking the recipe to make sure I had things right. Once the fish was thawed, prepping it only took a couple of minutes then I just had to throw it in the oven until it was done!
Now, on to the salsa. The recipe called for two tomatoes but I only had one so I tried to adjust things accordingly. Besides, I wasn't sure how it would turn out so I figured less was probably best.
I began by chopping the tomato and dicing the onion and jalapeno. I have to admit, the other night I had to google the difference between chopping and dicing. While I'm still using a lot of guess work as to what the proper chop and dice size should be, I feel like I now have a pretty good idea of what the recipes are asking for when using these terms. But if I'm still not sure, I just do it however I think I will like it :)
I began by chopping the tomato and dicing the onion and jalapeno. I have to admit, the other night I had to google the difference between chopping and dicing. While I'm still using a lot of guess work as to what the proper chop and dice size should be, I feel like I now have a pretty good idea of what the recipes are asking for when using these terms. But if I'm still not sure, I just do it however I think I will like it :)
I got everything cut then mixed it in a bowl with a little salt and pepper and started to call it done when I remembered the lime. Now the other night when we made the tilapia with lime, we had a little trouble getting the lime to juice. I think that maybe it wasn't ripe enough or something.
Ian's mom had told us that we could put the lime in the microwave for around 10 seconds and it would soften it up and make it juicy so I tried that and it seemed to work! I squeezed most of the juice into the salsa bowl and put the rest on the tilapia. Then I was finished. The whole thing took maybe 20 minutes but I think next time will be much quicker!
Ian's mom had told us that we could put the lime in the microwave for around 10 seconds and it would soften it up and make it juicy so I tried that and it seemed to work! I squeezed most of the juice into the salsa bowl and put the rest on the tilapia. Then I was finished. The whole thing took maybe 20 minutes but I think next time will be much quicker!
I never actually got to taste the tacos but Ian assures me they were very good so I'd call it another success :)