Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Ginger Ribs

This early spring weather had me wanting ribs and when I threw that out as a possible meal for this week, Lee was totally on board.  He got to work looking for tasty recipes to make and quickly found the MMM...is for Mommy blog and her delicious ribs.  
He was looking for spare or St. Louis style ribs, but instead found some delicious and meaty rib tips on sale at Shop N Save this week so he went for them.  Being frugal paid off big time!   
I knew we were having ribs, but let me tell you, my already good day was made a thousand times better when I stepped out of my car and could smell these puppies while I was still in the drive way.  Neighbors eat your hearts out (cause you're not getting my ribs!)
Upon eating them, I declared them best ribs ever.  I love honey bbq sauce- we're from St. Louis, we like our sweet stuff here.  The way the sauce caramelized the honey sauce in the broiler was a thing of pure beauty.
I'm hoping these awesome ribs are in heavy rotation this summer... they're awesome!

Here's what he did to make this pile of deliciousness....

Homemade Cheese-Its Crackers

I came home from work today to find a snack waiting on the counter.  I popped them in my mouth without asking what they were- which sometimes can be a household hazard here.  Immediately I recognized the taste- cheese-its!   

Pastelon (Puerto Rican Lasagna)

Here’s one example of a bunch of ingredients that you’re going to read and say, “oh no, that will never work!”  But trust me, they do.  They work together beautifully!

Lee discovered this one from this blog by way of Pintrest. 

The sweet plantains form your layers, dividing the meat and filling like noodles in traditional lasagna.  Instead of marinara, fluffy eggs hold everything together.  The raisins pop like candy in the mouth and the beef grounds it all together.  Don’t be afraid when the house starts smelling smoky spicy from the adobo mix, it gives the meat some body without adding any spice. 

This is a recipe you need to try right away, it’s amazing and VERY filling.  Serve it for dinner or breakfast, you can’t go wrong!  

Cheeseburger Pie

Cheeseburger pie? For serious?  I yelled at Lee a little when he told me he was making this.  After all, we ARE trying to eat more healthily.  But sometimes, you just have try the deliciousness.   
This crustless pie is a lot like a very meat dense quiche.  The egg is a little surprising, but livens up the flavor of the whole dish.  And of course, when you add cheddar cheese to the top of anything, that makes it even better.  
Now, most of you out there are going to use ground beef for that and that's cool, but we used a ground venison and pork mixture that we had on hand. We served ours with the Polenta Fries that we posted last night... a perfect pairing! 

Baked Polenta Fries

Until recently, polenta was something I only saw on the Food Network and I still wasn't sure what it was.  Basically, it's creamy and smooth cornmeal and when prepared right is really tasty.  We've been trying to eat a little healthier, so instead of making fries with dinner, Lee whipped these up.  
They tasted a lot like cornbread, but a little denser and less cake like.  
The only thing I don't love about this recipe is that it makes A LOT!!  But it stores in the fridge for about a week and heats up beautifully. 

Miso Sesame Cucumber and Tomato Salad

Miso Sesame Cucumber and Tomato Salad

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
• 2 tablespoons red miso (soybean paste) or lower-sodium soy sauce 
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey 
• 1 tablespoon hot water
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
• 1 thinly sliced seeded cucumber 
• 1 Large Tomato - Diced

Preparation

1. Combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add cucumber and tomatoes; toss to coat.

Spicy Pad Thai

Ok folks, he's trying to kill me.   I'm hanging out while he's cooking and my eyes start watering, I start sneezing, I'm having hayfever in a snowstorm! It turns out Lee over did it on the Srichacha sauce. For those of you unacquainted with Srichacha, it's a hot Thai pepper sauce.  It makes a great, burn the front of your mouth only fire and is actually really good.  That said, make this recipe carefully!
Actually, once it hit the table, it was pretty good!  The peanuts that were mixed in with the chicken and rice noodles helped to mellow out the heat a little, my face was only a 2 alarm fire, much better than the 4 alarm I had anticipated.
For me, the star of this plate was the side dish.  Those tomatos and cucumbers were my life savers! When the heat got to be too much, I'd switch over to those cool cucumbers or lush tomatos and enjoy a second of peace before diving back into the heat!  Check that out too: http://leecooks.blogspot.com/2012/02/miso-sesame-cucumber-and-tomato-salad.html

Island Chicken Sandwiches

One of the things we're really trying to cut back on is our sodium intake.  Salt, bacon, any kind of processed food, we love them all.  So when we were talking about making chicken marinaded in teriyaki sauce, we figured we could cut out a lot of the sodium in the sauce if we made it ourselves.  It's not sodium free, but a step in the right direction.
We also got the mini sammi buns, they're about half the size of a regular burger bun.  We had been on a roll with them a year ago when we were eating a lot of salmon burgers (oh we have to post that one sometime too!) but we thought they'd be the perfect complement to this dish.

Sushi Salad Bowl

So the last three recipes are all in preparation for this great dish.  We both had been craving sushi lately and didn't want to splurge on it.  We've tried making our own before, but frankly, that was something that was tough, even for Lee!  So we were looking at different kinds of lettuce wraps and came up with this awesome plate of happiness.
This was definitely a knife and fork wrap, definitely messy, but oh so good.  It was the next best thing to going out for real sushi... and I'm not easily fooled!

Pickled Tomato and Avocado Salsa

This is the best mix of spicy and refreshing.  Don't worry, it looks like a lot of items, but its mostly spices you already have in the pantry.  
Here's what you need:

Nori Powder

This is super easy and can have so many uses.  If you like sushi and want to give that salty taste to any food and feel healthy about doing it, then this is for you.  I initially made this for our sushi salad, but will be trying it on roasted potatoes and many more dishes.

Peanut Slaw

After coming out of our Super Bowl food coma, we decided to buckle down and eat a little better.  Lee's starting on some Herbalife shakes for breakfast and lunch and making a good dinner for both of us.  
We hit the Soulard Farmer's Market and got all of this for $23.  So we're all set for a solid week of healthy.  

He's started his own Pintrest board with healthy food options and has been pinning away good stuff.  This one came to us via Pintrest via Food Gawker via the Bite House.   
Lee loves his coleslaw, until we got married, I only though there were two kinds of coleslaw- mayo and vinegar.  Little did I know...

Slutty Brownies

Starting this week, we'll be going healthy at home and on the blog. But first we're saying goodbye to junk in style with this one!
This is another Pintrest find, those of you on it have seen it for sure.
So this is a chocolate chip cookie bar topped with oreos, topped with brownies.   It's amazing. But with all of those layers of goodness, was there another option?
The inside brownie part will still be a little gooey....This is what makes it slutty I guess.  It will set up a little if put in the fridge.
However, these are really best when they are served warm with a BIG glass of milk.  They're super rich (duh) so a little bit will go a long way.  The next day (or next hour, whatever) throw a bit in the microwave for 30 seconds and they'll be perfect and ready to eat again.

Here's what you need:

Follow the directions on the cookie box.

Press the cookie batter into your parchment lined dish.

Line the Oreo's on top of the cookie dough layer.

Prepare the brownies as per the box.

Pour the brownie mix on top of the cookies and bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 Box of cookie mix

1 Box of brownie mix

2 Eggs

2 Packs of Oreos

Vegetable Oil

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F.
2. Line a baking tray with grease proof paper.
3. Follow the instructions on the cookie mix box.
4. Press the cookie dough into a lined baking tray, until it covers the bottom. 
5. Cover this layer with Oreo's.
6. Mix up your brownie batter.  Pour over your Oreo's.
7. Bake for 50 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. 
9. When it's still warm, use the paper to lift your creation out of the tray and rest it on a chopping board. 

Homemade Pretzels

I don't get to the mall nearly as much as I use to, but when I do, one of my favorite things to do is to get a soft pretzel while shopping.  Soft pretzels are one of those little delicacies in life that I'm not sure I can get enough of.  

So when Lee told me that he was going to make soft pretzels for the Super Bowl, I was psyched!  We did a test run the Friday before and we ate the whole batch in one night.
  

Beer Cheese Soup

We were planning on the Packers being in the Super Bowl when we made our menu, yeah, Lee was THAT excited about cooking on Super Bowl day.  So what is more Wisconsin than beer cheese soup? I mean, that's Wisconsin in a bowl!  
I've long been a beer cheese soup aficionado and the last time we tried it at home, it had the consistency of ball park nacho cheese, not cool.  

 

Chili Lime Oven Roasted Wings

We had quite the Super Bowl at our house, Lee missed half the game cooking!   This is probably the healthiest out of the bunch we'll be posting over the next few days.  

We wanted to some wings that weren't fried, and these were AWESOME! They were just as crispy as if they were fried and I didn't feel half as guilty chowing down on these.  And look, there's green stuff on them too, that has to be extra points right there!  

Now, the dog and I were pretty scared for a while because these puppies (or chickies?) smoked up the house like crazy, thank goodness it was in the 50's here because we had all the doors and windows open to air it out!   It was all worth it though. 

And if the name has you worried, these aren't hot at all, our 6 year old nephew who doesn't like spice at all loved them too! 

Jalapeno Steak and Cheesy Polenta

We were supposed to have house guests from Texas on Sunday night, so Lee was excited to have someone around who appreciated his spicy cooking.  Although they weren't able to make it in the long run, we had a great recipe on tap we just had to try. 
I found this recipe a few weeks ago and thought it looked tasty: The Foodie Couple: Jalapeno Beef with Cheese Polenta and Chile Sauce.  It's another food couple out of Washington after our my heart, they drink wine with their meals. I should do that.  But dinner is the only time I get my milk everyday and frankly, this Wisconsin raised girl needs her milk, but I digress.