Shrimp and Chicken Scampi, y'all!

So my mom was saying she wanted shrimp for some reason, which is kind of unusual because she's not always the biggest shrimp fan. I'm certainly not, but my Mike (hubby) loves it! I haven't made shrimp scampi in a long long time because I've made it only twice, the second time I made it, it wasn't so good.
This was GOOD...
First, the chicken gets thinly sliced (4lb of chicken breasts) and cooked in butter, garlic, and some leftover chicken broth I had in the freezer.  Then when it's finished, remove it from the pan. Put 2 sticks of butter into a large saute pan with a bunch of fresh garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Add 3 or 4 thinly sliced red peppers and a thinly sliced onion, saute it fast.
Add about 1.5-2 cups of white wine and a bunch of lemon juice. Let it simmer.
Mix all the ingredients together and pour it over angel hair noodles. Sprinkle some fresh parsley into the mix for a fresh add-in! Plus it's beautiful. Add fresh grated parmesan and extra red pepper flakes for a little kick.
It's simple.
It's beautiful.
And it's so delicious!

Oh yeah, of course,

we had bread with it to soak up the delicious wine sauce.

Back online!

Hey my people! I haven't looked at this blog in years, it was sort of part of my "healing process" after my sister died. I was home all the time, watching a billion kids, looking for a way to express myself and let out some of my emotions. I did it through food.
Since then, we have moved from snowy Wisconsin to Douglas, Arizona, which is about as far opposite as you can get. Pretty much we live as close to Mexico as you can get without actually crossing the border. It's been a huge change!
The food is different, the people are different, the culture is different. The weather is different, which means we make much less heavy food now. But I'm getting sick of the same old food we always eat.

I've been inspired by my own blog, and I think I want to get back online and express myself through food again. Food defines me. I love to find myself through my cooking, and I'm ready to begin that process again.

Our kids are 15, 13, and 9. All homeschooled. I'm never home, as opposed to back in 2011. I'm always out in service, preaching about Jehovah. People need it. They need to know there's a God who cares, and that things will be better.  They need hope.
I can't just do that, though. I need an outlet. So in addition to learning guitar, I'm going to start cooking more often and loving it more often.

We have a huge flat-top grill in our back yard. It's the best purchase I think we ever made. We use it constantly, and if you are thinking of buying one, you will not be disappointed, I promise you that. So I will be writing about that as well.
I also have my parents living with me! My dad loves to cook. He's overflowing with ideas, so I will be including all of his ideas too.

It's on like Donkey Kong.  Let's do this!
(Oh and on the photo, yes, that's the wall. To Mexico. We're that close) :-)

Pizza #3: Buffalo Chicken Grilled Pizza

I didn't get a picture this time because I want you to be able to use your own imagination for this wonderous pizza.

I topped our homemade pizza dough (you can find the recipe under pizza #1) with cooked pulled chicken, drizzled Red Hot Buffalo sauce ontop, added green onion, fresh tomato, Marzetti's Ultimate Bleu Cheese dressing, a sprinkle of Monterey Jack cheese, and fresh parmesan cheese.  Grilled it for 12 minutes, and WOW was it good!  My favorite so far.
I'm thinking Mike's favorite is still number 1.  It has bbq sauce and onions, what's not to love?!
But I love this one.  It's amazing.

Pizza #2: Italian Sausage & Homemade Salsa Grilled Pizza

So fresh, so good...
I actually made extra pizza crust last time we had pizza and had put it in the freezer.  It only took like an hour to defrost.  So I rolled it out and added a bunch of salsa on the bottom (made of tomatoes, peppers, onion, lime juice, salt, pepper, and cilantro) then cooked italian sausage and monterey jack cheese.  Throw it on a medium low-medium grill for, let's say, 8 minutes...
Top it off with homemade guacamole and sour cream.
Good to go! 
And don't grab the pan while it's in the grill with your bare hands.  Take my word for it, it's hot!

Pizza #1:  Bbq Chicken Pizza


Did we like it?  Yes, we did!  Soooo good.  First I made a quick and easy homemade pizza crust and put it on my pizza pan after spraying it.  Then added pizza sauce (half the amount as you usually use) cooked and sliced chicked breast sauteed in olive oil with salt and pepper, thin slices of red onion, drizzled Bbq sauce on it (we used Sweet Baby Rays-Cola).  Whatever kind you like is great!  Then top it off with cheddar cheese and crumbled cojita.  Pop it in a medium grill for about 10 minutes or so.  Mmmm!!!!!  It wasn't very greasy at all either.  So good!  What will we do next???

A GRILLED PIZZA A WEEK

Hello everyone!  It's been a long time since I've written...but I've had an epiphany.......
Is that the right word?  I don't know, BUT, I got this new grill pizza pan from Pampered Chef over the winter and thought I'd try it  out this summer.  Last summer, if you remember, I made a "burger of the week" almost every week, so this summer we're having a "grilled pizza of the week".  I've got some amazing recipes up my sleeve and intend to tell the world the ups and downs of each pizza.  The crazy horrible ones, the awesome delicious ones.

So stay tuned!  Yumminess is to come!!!!!!

Quinoa Cakes with Lemon Aioli

HI!  We're back from Costa Rica!  And I'm now inspired to start trying some new foods and incorporating even more veggies and fruits into what we eat already.

We went to the Harrises Saturday night.  I have to say, Pinterest is also an inspiration for this...but since  coming back we've been eating junk junk junk.  Chips, pizza, pop...junk.  I feel GROSS!  So we had fish over at the Harrises house.  But for me the star was Quinoa Cakes with Lemon Aioli.  Superfood and lemon together?  What could go wrong?

So...take the cooked quinoa, mix up eggs with it, some parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and green onion. Make them into little patties, and fry them in olive oil.  Not a lot, just a little bit of oil.
I roasted an entire head of garlic (in the oven at 400 for 30-45 minutes with olive oil drizzled on it).  Put that in some mayo with ceyenne pepper, lemon zest, and juice from one lemon.  And the garlic.  Puree it and serve it over the quinoa cakes.

AMAZING?!?!  I think so.  I loved them.
And so I will make them again.

Coming soon this summer:  a grilled pizza per week from the Stute household!