So many foods to blog! So little time!

I have made 6 different recipes that need to be blogged, and there seems to be so little time! I'll probably end up writing only a few at a time. Where to start? I'll start with yesterday morning...Breakfast.

So TBG's schedule changed for work, and now he has to be in at work by 6am. Which isn't all that bad..if you don't mind getting up at 4:30ish. I get up at the same time he does, so we can spend a bit of time together, and also so I can make sure he gets a good breakfast. (now that he can't have dairy either, all the quick breakfast bars we have are of no value at all) I refuse to send him to a long day of work without SOME nutrition in him-and the more, the better!

Scrambled eggs by themselves get old after awhile. Scrambled eggs with steak and/or diced bell pepper can eventually get old too. We can't do breakfast burrito's everyday, so we need another egg dish. Bring in Oyako Donburi. It's actually a Japanese dish, and is great for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's filling and healthy, and we love it. I will admit though-with breakfast happening at 5am, I'm not requiring us to eat with chopsticks like I usually do with asian dishes. Lucky TBG.

I like to serve Oyako Donburi with rice, as it should be served traditionally. (sticky rice goes with it best) So what is this Oyako Donburi? Chicken, veggies and egg. Amazingness in our mouths. ^_^ I halved the recipe, and we had it for two mornings (it actually reheats really well too!) But the original recipe is what I'm listing, and it makes enough for 4-6 people, depending on how hungry you are.

What you need:

2 tsp EVOO

3/4 pound chicken, diced or in slices, your preference

1 small onion, diced

1 zuccini, juliened

1 carro, juliened

1 cup chicken broth

6 dried shiitake mushrooms, slice and soaked in water

4 TBSP soy sauce

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup diced green onions

6 eggs

Heat the oil in a skillet, and cook the chicken and onion. It'll take 5-7ish minutes. Drain the liquid as much as possible.

When my chicken starts frozen, I toss the whole thing in, and then bring it out to slice into strips
 when it's halfway done cooking. Then I toss it back in to finish the job.

Stir in the broth and simmer for a few minutes. Add veggies. Stir it around a few more minutes before adding the salt and soy. Sprinkle in half the green onions.



I sliced my veggies at midnight the night prior, so I wasn't about to use my
mandolin slicer. Bad idea, mandolin slicer at that hour. So my veggies are a thicker
slice, which is actually really nice at early morning hours to eat!

Beat your eggs in a separate dish, as if you were going to scramble them in a moment. Then, pour those eggs into your pan! Pour them around the whole dish, and try to get eggs to cover everything. Cover with lid, so moisture doesn't escape too much. (also speeds cooking time)


This is what it looks like when almost done cooking



I'd say it takes about 8 minutes or so to cook through. Just look into the pan and see if the eggs look done. It'll depend on how high your heat is. For the above pan, I had the heat on medium high, and it was done in 5 minutes. Just keep an eye on it. Serve with rice.

You can see the rice peeping through under it..so good!

Roughly 235 calories and 11 carbs for the Oyako Donburi. Doesn't include the rice.

Skipping around, meal-wise, we'll go to tonight's dinner. TBG felt inspired after my blackberry glazed salmon, and was intrigued to try a raspberry maple glaze for beef. It was really good! We had some leftover mashed potato's from last time, so I served sirloin steak with raspberry maple glaze, mashed potato's and broccoli. He has great ideas, my man.

First, the meat:

We're trying to portion control, so we each had our own smaller slice of meat.
Which is actually a lot better for us, than when we'd make a HUGE hunk of meat and split it..

I wanted to sear the meat a bit, so I sprinkled a bit of salt on both sides of my meat to prep them.

I love cast iron skillets. Great for stove top AND oven use!
I used peanut oil-enough to cover the pan. Heat the pan until it's
so hot the oil ripples. You know you're ready then.

Flipped it. Smelled so insanely good!

After searing both sides (or all sides, if you prefer) toss it in the oven to finish cooking while you work on preparing the other food. I had it in the oven for 10 minutes at 350. 

Once they came out. Drain them well.

While the meat was searing on the stove, I had a small saucepan that was heating up. I used that for the raspberry glaze.

6 oz fresh raspberries. Mmmm...

6 oz fresh raspberries. Add just enough water to cover them all. Bring to a boil, and then lower it to a simmer. We want them to all burst.



Boiling



It's so pretty!

Time to grab a strainer and a separate bowl.

I LOVE the colors of the raspberry. So incredibly gorgeous!

Strain the juice from the pulp. Put the juice back into the pan, with low heat. Add 1 tsp maple syrup, and stir until it's combined. If you want to thicken it, use corn starch or arrowroot to thicken it up a bit.

Serve over meat. And add as much as you want! Enjoy!