Simple Recipes – Strawberry Mousse with Berries

 

In April I came across a super easy mousse recipe when I was flipping through a “light” cookbook. The recipe caught my eye, because it looked absolutely amazing and made me drool a little. So I tried it. I ate almost the entire bowl by myself.

The next day I made some more since we were having company. It was amazing, and I hard nothing but compliments about it.

Since it was a hit then, I decided to make it again for my Mother-in-Law’s birthday party.

AND you want to know the best part?! It takes about three minutes to make. OH yeah!

Here is what you need:

• 4 cups of fresh strawberries cut into fourths
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1.0 oz pack of sugar free instant vanilla pudding
• 8.0 oz container of Cool Whip Light

You’ll need a blander and a medium mixing bowl.

1. Put the strawberries and sugar into the blander and blend until its all smooth and liquidy!
2. Add the vanilla pudding mix to this and blend some more
3. Dump the mixture from the blender into the mixing bowl
4. Add the thawed Cool Whip
5. Mix by folding over the mixture into the Cool Whip
6. Once everything is mixed it should be a light pink in color, and super smooth
7. Pour into serving glasses and let it cool in the fridge until time to serve

I did serve them two different ways!

The first time the mousse was served in mini margarita glasses, with some coco powder sprinkled on top, and a small shot of amaretto. Very good and adult friendly.

 

On Saturday I decided to make it more summer friendly, so I added berries. I put some cut up strawberries on the bottom of the cup and scooped some mousse on top. Then added raspberries and blueberries, another two scoops of mousse went on top of that. For the finishing touch a few strawberries went on top.

These babies were decimated both times.  

Shrimp and Sausage Boil

 

When warmer weather comes around, the Husband and I love nothing more then easy meals that we can make in one pot or on the grill then dig in with our hands.

About three years ago we went down to Rockport Texas for the Mister’s family reunion and visited a little place called the Boiling Pot.

This place was very cool! The tables were covered in butcher paper, there was a roll of paper towels thrown on top. You ordered your food by the bucket and when it came out it was just dumped on the table in front of you.

 

A few months ago I was dying for some Cajun boil, and after searching high and low for an easy recipe to duplicate and coming up empty-handed, I decided to try and take bits and pieces of ones I found and create my own. I mean HOW hard could it be to boil a bunch of stuff together?!!

Well my first attempt was a little strange, the potatoes didn’t cook all the way, the shrimp might have been slightly overcooked and the sausage was completely wrong. But after several tries, I perfected it, and now it is one of our go to meals!

I’d like y’all to meet the Shrimp and Andouille Sausage Boil!!!

Here is what all you’ll need:

• 3oz bag of Shrimp and Crab boil
• 3 tbsp Old Bay Seasoning
• 4 lbs of small new potatoes
• 6 ears of corn
• 3 lbs of Andouille Sausage
• 4 lbs of medium unpeeled shrimp
• Lots of lemons
• Some Italian Parsley

Make sure to follow the following steps in order to ensure you have fully cooked food.

1. In a large pot, bring about 2 gallons of water to a boil
2. Add in the Shrimp and Crab boil, along with the Old Bay Seasoning, Let the seasoning boil around for about a minute or so
3. Add in the potatoes and let them cook for about 10 minutes
4. Cut up the corn into 2 to 3 inch pieces and add them into the boiling pot (Ha! get it!)
5. Let the corn cook for about 10 minutes 
6. Cut the Andouille into inch long pieces and add it into the mixture, let it cook for about 5 minutes
7. Finally add in the shrimp and watch for them to turn pink.

Once the shrimp are cooked, and be super careful not to overcook the shrimp, drain the pot and dump the boil into a serving platter stick wedges of lemon next to it and sprinkle parsley on top.

 

However, this meal is not done until you make some garlic/lemon butter to go along with it. This butter is my own creation and I sort of eyeball what I put into it. Next time I make it I will get measurements so that y’all can re-create it. Here is what I do put in it:

• Some butter, melted
• salt
• paprika
• garlic powder
• salt powder
• red pepper

Now go on, make this dish, dump it on the patio table and enjoy it along with a cold beer or some sweet ice tea! 

Ginger Glaze Mahi Mahi

This was a random recipe I decided to try out tonight, and my God it was actually pretty good. Let me start off by saying the ONLY reason I bought Mahi Mahi was because it was on a ridiculous sale at my local Sunflower Market. I’m talking $3.77 a pound!!!! So I bought two pounds, for some reason they gave me four pounds which I didn’t notice until I pulled it out of the fridge today.

ANYways! The Ginger Glazed Mahi Mahi turned out way better then I thought, it was actually edible. I usually don’t like fish that is fishy in smell and taste… I don’t know if you know what I mean but it sort of tastes salty without any salt. However the glaze really helped and it went pretty well with the mashed potatoes, it would have been better with just white Jasmine rice.

  The best part about this recipe was that it was super easy, fast and I had everything it required at home.
You will need:

• 3 tbsp of Honey
• 3 tbsp of soy sauce
• 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 4 medium or 6 smaller filets of Mahi Mahi

And here is what you do:
1. In a shallow glass bowl/dish mix the honey, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, ginger and olive oil together.
2. Stick the Mahi Mahi filets in the dish and marinate in the refrigerator for 20 minutes
3. Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat,
4. Get the fish out of the refrigerator and get ready to fry them, make sure to hang on to the marinade
5. Fry the fish for 6 minutes on each side, and another 4 on each after that
6. Remove fish and set aside.
7. Pour reserved marinade into skillet and heat the mixture until it reduces to a glaze.
8. Spoon the glaze over the fish and serve

DONE! Now just ENJOY!

Hawaiian Chicken Burgers… Holy YUM

 

A few weeks ago, as I was reading one of my favorite blogs, I came across the Hawaiian Chicken Burger recipe. It looked AH-mazing and I had to try it.

I recreated it, and let me tell ya… it was AWESOME. And just because I am awesome, I am going to share my recreation process.

You are going to jump for joy when you realize how SIMPLE this is!

Here is what you need:

1. Two medium chicken breasts (Cut into two pieces, and then tenderize into patties)
2. Pineapple (De-skin is that what you do to a pineapple?! Cut 4 slices of about a quarter inch thickness and remove the middle)
3. Red Onion (Cut four slices of about a quarter inch thickness)
4. Swiss Cheese (Four sandwich slices)
5. Teriyaki sauce (I prefer the Tokyo Joe’s homemade Spicy-aki)

Sorry for my lack of kitchen speak. I really have no clue if a pineapple is peeled or de-skinned or what the process is called, bottom line you don’t want any of the hard outside poky skin on. 

Start of by beating the crap out of the chicken with a tenderizer and forming into a round patty shape. Then smother them in your favorite teriyaki sauce and let them sit, while you gather the rest of the ingredients. 

  Cut up the pineapple and the onion, and grab the Swiss cheese.

You also want to grab the jar of teriyaki sauce!

Get the grill going and get ready to grill up the best chicken burgers of your life.

Stick the chicken on the grill first, and let it cook for a few minutes or so. Then add on the pineapple and the red onion. Rub some more teriyaki sauce on the chicken, the pineapple and the onion. Grill everything until it’s done.

Once the chicken is done, stick the Swiss cheese on the chicken and let it melt for a few seconds. Get your burger buns ready, pile on the chicken, the pineapple and the onion.

Most importantly ENJOY!!!

Let me know what you think of this!!!

I have a confession to make…

… I make a pretty awesome pico de gallo!!

Yup! It is pretty fantastic, and everybody loves it! I have yet to meet someone who does know love my pico! During the Spring Challenge I promised I would make some, keep track of the measurements and then share my ah-mazing recipe with y’all. Well today is your lucky day! I made some pico de gallo last night and kept track of exactly what I put in there. This made a pretty big mess in my kitchen and dirtied every single measuring device I have, BUT I now have all the little details to share with y’all.

To start off you must gather all the following ingredients:

2 cups of diced tomatoes (about 2 medium)

1/3 cup finely diced jalapeño (1 medium)

1 cup diced red onion  (about a 1/4 of a large onion)

3 cloves of garlic finely minced

1/2 cup of chopped loosely packed celantro

1/2 tbsp of salt

pinch of black pepper

2 tbsp of lemon juice

1 lime (juiced)

Pretty much you just throw all of this together, then mix it all up. Let it sit in the fridge for about an hour so that all the flavors can be mixed and it is ready to enjoy!!

This was before putting on a lid and shaking my salsa around! I feel that it mixes much better and makes less of a mess!

This salsa cost me about $1.05 Total! Way cheaper then buying ready made, way healthier and tastier. I am still saying my salsa is winning! 

We are in love with Mexican food in this household, and I love making things in big batches that can be stuck in the fridge for a few days. This pico seems to taste better and better the longer you let it hang around.

PS… yesterdays my jalapeno was not very spicy, and my salsa turned out very mild (I always leave the seeds inside the pepper), you can add more or less based on how hot you want the salsa to be.