Whip-It Up Wednesday: One of my quick and easy stand-by dinners.

So, I was feeling pretty lazy about cooking (which has been my attitude a lot lately), so last night I made one of my super easy stand-by dinners that doesn't take any thought at all.  My freezer and pantry is getting low, but I usually always have the ingredients for this meal.

Tilapia, rice and a veggie!

Here are my ingredients:

For the tilapia, I melt a tablespoon of butter in a skillet and add a swish of olive oil.  I sprinkle the fish with lemon-pepper seasoning.  Right now my favorite is Weber Zesty Lemon Pepper, but you can use your favorite.  You can also change up this meal by using cajun spice, italian, etc.

Rice:  I usually use the instant rice that cooks in 5 minutes.  I know, it's not cooking from scratch, but sometimes a girl just ain't got the time or the inclination.  Plus, the instant rice always (well almost always) comes out nice and fluffy and my son loves it.  I add a couple of tablespoons of butter to the water and a pinch of salt.  Here's where you can change thing up easily again, just by adding garlic or parsley, whatever suits you at the moment.  When I use the lemon-pepper seasoning, I always splash a little lemon juice on the fish before serving.

Last night's veggie was a stir-fry mix.  I used a little olive oil and voila!

There you go!  One of my all-time quick, and most importantly, yummy meals.

P.S.  I forgot to tell you, you can also substitute your favorite fish:  catfish, salmon, etc.

Thanks for coming by,
Natosha

Korean Rice Bowl (from Family Circle Magazine)

Hello everyone!  I recently made this for my family.  I already had most of the ingredients on-hand.  All I had to buy were a zucchini and the shiitake caps.  I thought I had sushi rice, but I was out so I used regular white quick rice and it substituted just fine.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups sushi rice
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon peeled, minced fresh ginger
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons chili-garlic paste (such as Sriracha)
• 1 zucchini, cut into matchsticks
• 2 cups shiitake mushroom caps (1/4 pound), thinly sliced
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1 pound ground beef
• 4 large eggs (optional)

Directions

1. Prepare rice: Combine 2 cups water and rice in a medium, lidded saucepan. Bring to a soft boil. Cover and simmer over medium-low heat, 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes. (if using another type of rice, just follow the directions on the package.)
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, blend rice vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, cornstarch, sesame oil and chili-garlic sauce. Set aside.
3. Coat a large nonstick skillet with nonstick cooking spray. Add vegetables and 3 tablespoons water. Cook over medium-high heat for 4 minutes, or until just softened. Remove to a bowl and keep warm.
4. Crumble beef into same skillet. Cook 5 minutes, breaking apart with a spoon. Add sauce mixture and cook 2 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, in a second skillet, fry eggs, if using: Coat skillet with nonstick spray; heat over medium to medium-high heat. Crack 2 eggs into skillet. Cook 1 minute, then flip. Cook 1 more minute. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining 2 eggs. Place a mound of rice into 4 bowls. Top each with 1/2 cup meat mixture and 1/3 cup vegetables. Finish each with a fried egg, if using.


*Wal-Mart was out of Shiitake mushrooms, so I used Portabella and they worked great.  I also discovered I was out of cornstarch, so I used about 1 tbs of flour.

Here are my lovely ingredients:

For the sauce.  FYI:  Siracha is hot, so beware.

Ground beef and rice, I was feeding 2 people so I only used 1/3 of the beef.

Beautiful veggies.

Time to put it all together.

A food stylist I am not.

Ok, so, I was not impressed with the sauce.  It was a little sour.  Next time I would only use about half of the rice vinegar and maybe more of the soy sauce.  Also, I used a generous 2 tsp of Siracha.  Now I'm not a wimp when it comes to spicy food, but my nose started running.  Sorry for that visual.  I'm not really sure what the sauce needed, but it was missing something.  If you try it, let me know what it needs or what you did to tweak it.  I may research some authentic Korean recipes and see what spices and condiments are used most and go from there.

Well, thanks for stopping by,

Natosha