Quick & Easy Avocado Quinoa for One

I have wanted to like quinoa, but never found it very tasty... until now! This meal for one is quick, tasty, and healthy! 

Servings: 1
Prep time: 15 minutes

Ingredients: 
1/4 cup quinoa
1/2 cup vegetable broth
Pepper to taste
1 clove of garlic or 1/2 tsp. minced garlic 
1/2 an avocado
Lime juice, enough to drizzle over avocado

Instructions: 

1. Rinse quinoa with water until water runs clear. Drain well.
2. Heat quinoa, broth, and pepper to taste in a small sauce pan to boiling. Reduce to simmer and allow to cook until liquid has evaporated (about 10 minutes). 
3.  Stir in garlic, then remove quinoa from heat and leave covered a few minutes while preparing avocado. 
4. Cut avocado in half lengthwise (if not done previously) to get 1/2 an avocado. (Tip: leave the pit in the half being saved for later to prevent it from browning.) Remove peel and cut avocado into pieces. Drizzle lightly with lime juice. 
5. Plate the quinoa and add the avocado to it. Mix as desired. Enjoy!  

Note: If you want a different amount of quinoa, this recipe can be easily adjusted. Just use one part quinoa and two parts broth. 

Hubby's Fried Deer Steak Fingers

Fried deer steak fingers is one of my favorite meals that Luis makes! He makes the deer and I make mashed cauliflower and gravy to go with it. Luis eye-balls all of his spices, but I asked him to try to estimate what he uses so I can share this delicious recipe with y'all. For it to be authentic, don't be afraid to eyeball the spices and make this your own. Do note, he was being a little funny when he came up with some of these instructions. ;-)

Ingredients:

• Strips of deer cubed steak
• 1 cup flour
• 2 tbsp. creole
• 1 tbsp. black pepper
• 3 shakes of sea salt
• 2 shakes of garlic salt
• 6 shakes of garlic powder
• 3 non-gmo cage free eggs
• 2 splashes of milk
• Oil for skillet

Directions:

1. Mix flour and spices in one container.
2. Whisk eggs and milk to combine in another container. 
3. Take deer steak fingers dip into flour, then dip into the egg wash, then back into the flour, then back into egg wash, and then back into flour  (repeat as much as you like or until you run out of egg wash or flour).
4. Add oil to skillet, set stove to little more than medium, and let oil heat up.
5. Set deer steak fingers in skillet for about around 3-5 mins or until blood flows up from within the steak fingers, then flip and cook for about another 3-5 mins.
6. Serve and enjoy!

3 Ingredient Berry Blast Syrup

I never find pancakes entirely satisfying without there being fruit involved. I came up with this easy recipe so that I can whip up home-made pancakes with berry blast syrup any time I get a pancake craving. 

This makes enough syrup for 1-2 people. 

Ingredients

• About 1 cup frozen berries of choice (I usually use mixed berries)
• 3 tbsp. honey (2 tbsp. sugar should also do the trick)
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice

Directions

1. Add all ingredients to a small sauce pan. Bring to boil. Reduce to a simmer; simmer until syrup begins to thicken, stirring occasionally. 
2. Remove from heat. Serve on pancakes. I recommend topping with whipped cream! 

Notes
I usually cook this simultaneously with the pancakes so they are done about the same time. If you let this sit while you cook the pancakes, the syrup may become too thick. If that happens, just add it back to the heat until it becomes the consistency you like. 

For a twist on this that I call berry lemonade syrup, use more lemon juice to taste (about 2 tbsp.). 

Pandemic Burritos: Easy Breakfast Burritos with Common Ingredients

Easy meals are crucial during busy times, or like now, times when we have not gone to the grocery store in a while because there is a pandemic. Something we are never short of at my house is eggs. Our 8 hens give us more eggs than we could possibly need.

I threw together a couple satisfying meals with eggs and other items that we typically have at home. Keep reading for an easy way to make burritos using mainly eggs, beans, and rotel!
 

Easy Breakfast Burritos

Servings: Makes about 6-8 burritos

Ingredients

• 12-14 eggs
• 1 can black beans (rinsed and drained)
• 1 can rotel with green chilies (drained)
• 1-2 cups cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Oil for skillet 
• Tortillas
• Optional: salsa

Instructions
If dividing into two meals (3-4 burritos for each meal): 

1. Heat a small amount of oil in a skillet on medium heat.
2. Add 6-7 eggs, half a can of black beans (rinsed and drained), and half a can of rotel (drained) to the skillet. Season with salt and pepper. Stir and cook until eggs are firm. 
3.  Spoon burrito mix onto burritos, sprinkle with cheese and salsa (if using). Serve and enjoy!
4. Refrigerate the other half of ingredients for later use. Repeat steps 1-3 when making a later meal. 

If making one meal (all 6-8 burritos at once): 

1. Heat a small amount of oil in a large skillet on medium heat. 
2. Add eggs, black beans (rinsed and drained), and rotel (drained) to the skillet. Season with salt and pepper. Stir and cook until eggs are firm. 
3. Spoon burrito mix onto burritos, sprinkle with cheese and salsa (if using). 
4. Serve and enjoy!  

Easy and Authentic Mexican Rice

Everyone always raves about my mother-in-law's Mexican rice. Everyone also always wants her recipe for it. The thing is, she doesn't use a recipe. I decided I would pick up what I can from her (mostly by asking my husband a ton of questions about what she does) and create a recipe for Mexican rice. Mexican rice could be made differently of course, but this is really what my mother-in-law uses and does. I also like it because it is simple and easy. I present to you an easy and authentic way to make Mexican rice!  

Easy and Authentic Mexican Rice

Ingredients

• About 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 cups long grain white rice
• About 2 tsp. minced garlic (or 4 cloves, minced)
• 2 caldo de tomate bouillon cubes
• Salt to taste 
• Optional: 1 tsp onion powder 
• 5 cups of water*

Instructions

1. Rinse rice with water until water runs clear
2. Heat oil in skillet, add rice. 
3. Cook and stir occasionally until rice starts to brown. 
4. Add minced garlic to rice and sautee for about 30 seconds until fragrant. 
5. Add caldo de tomate, salt, onion powder (if using) and water to skillet. Stir. 
6. Cover skillet and bring to boil. Then cook (covered) for about 20 minutes, or until water is evaporated and rice is tender. Stir occasionally to disperse the caldo de tomate. 
7. Serve and enjoy! 

*If all the water evaporates before the rice is cooked through, add more water in order to cook the rice longer.

Additional Tips  
You could add to this recipe by adding small pieces of onion, tomato, and/or jalapeno. You could use some broth instead of all water. You could also use more caldo de tomate cubes if you want to strengthen the flavor. 

For a treat, put chicken and queso blanco on top of a bed of this rice for what some call "chicken on the beach"!

For another treat, make "chicken on the beach" fajita style!

Easy Way to Get Tender & Juicy Chicken: Thin-Sliced Chicken

Growing up, my family used whole chicken tenderloins for entrees. My husband introduced me to using thin-sliced chicken breasts and tenderloins for entrees. I could not believe how simple but delicious thin-sliced chicken is! So long as it isn't overcooked, it always turns out juicy and tender. 

Not only is thin-sliced chicken delicious, it is quick and easy! It can be made in less than thirty minutes. It is also versatile enough to be used in many different ways. If I were to include an ingredients list, it would literally say: chicken breasts or tenderloins, oil, and whatever else you want. 

Keep reading to see how you can start making thin-sliced chicken in five simple steps! 

Step 1: Thaw chicken if needed. Trim fat from the chicken.

Step 2: Lay the breast or tenderloin down flat. Using a chef's knife or other thick knife, make thin slices through the chicken as shown below. 

Step 3: Season the chicken or put it in a marinade. We have three main ways we like to season thin-sliced chicken depending on what we are eating it with: 
1. Taco seasoning with or without lemon juice
2. Creole seasoning with or without lemon juice
3. Ranch seasoning  

 Step 4: Heat olive oil in a skillet, then add chicken. The chicken will cook in just a few minutes since it is thin, so be careful not to over-cook it!

Step 5: Serve and enjoy! We like to eat creole seasoned thin-sliced chicken with sweet potatoes, taco-seasoned thin-sliced chicken with Mexican rice, and ranch-seasoned thin-sliced chicken with mashed cauliflower.  

For a special treat, we drizzled queso blanco over our taco-seasoned thin-sliced chicken and Mexican rice in the picture above. 

Stay tuned for the Mexican rice recipe I adapted from my mother-in-law! Everyone always raves about her Mexican rice and I was finally able to replicate it and create a recipe for it.

Finally the Perfect Sweet Potato

        

 Air Fryer Sweet Potatoes 

I have been searching for the perfect way to make baked sweet potatoes for months! Only once did I get close-to-perfect sweet potatoes by baking them in the oven. My husband just got an air fryer so I thought I would try it out.

To get the perfect air-fried sweet potato:

• Wash the sweet potatoes
• Stab the sweet potatoes all over (I use a fork)
• Rub the sweet potatoes with olive oil
• Rub salt into the olive oil
• Put in an air fryer basket and cook at 390 degrees for about 45 minutes - turn about half-way through.
• Here is the key: When the sweet potatoes are done, the skin will be loose and you can peel it back easily. Do not stop cooking them until the skin is loose or the sweet potatoes will still be hard in the center. 

While still very hot, I cut a slit in the top of the sweet potatoes and add butter. I think a perfectly cooked sweet potato only needs butter, but you can also add brown sugar if you prefer!

 We usually eat sweet potatoes with thin-sliced chicken. I will post that recipe soon! It's simple but irresistible. Stay tuned!