Taco Monday

I had some extra time this afternoon so I decided to make my husband, Mr. Bear, and I some tasty chicken tacos.  I love fruit salsas so I decided a pineapple salsa was the way to go. The only problem is cutting a pineapple can be such a pain in the rear.  It's not difficult, just time consuming.  On the flip side, buying a pineapple and cutting yourself is way cheaper than buying a pre-cut pineapple. You could buy at least two whole pineapples for the cost of a pre-cut variety.   I made up some time by using a jarred mango chipotle marinade for the chicken. I know that's cheating a bit, but this lady has a full time job and a starving husband.  I don't want a hungry Mr. Bear roaming around the house for too long.  Back to dinner.  The pineapple salsa is easy and worth the knife work.  See recipe below.  I made a quick guacamole, cut cup some romaine lettuce, sat out cheese, sour cream and roasted tomato salsa.  I grilled the chicken and we were good to go.  I also warmed up the tortilla's on my grill pan.  I like my tortilla's to have a little smokey flavor.  The above picture is Mr. Bear's first of two taco's. We even had some left over chicken for Bear's lunch tomorrow.  The only thing this dinner was missing was a margarita.

Pineapple salsa
1 whole pineapple diced
1/2 cup minced red onion
1 lime juiced
3 Tbsp. minced cilantro
1 minced jalpenpeno or habañero
2 Tbsp. honey (or more/less to taste)

Cajun Easter

I experienced my first crawfish boil yesterday.  It was AWESOME!  My girlfriend, Lucy, a New Orleans native, and her husband, hosted an Easter party- Cajun style! After a quick tutorial, I got to work on my first crawfish. I went into this with major doubt and a little fear.  Just looking at those things scared me. Not wanting to be wimp, I decided I had to try at least one.  I was pleasantly surprised.  They tasted like chicken.  Just kidding!  They tasted like crab.  I wasn’t brave enough to suck the head.  Maybe next time…maybe not!  The corn was REALLY good.  All those spices gave it a nice kick! I come from a long line of corn lovers so I was in heaven.  

If you haven’t tried crawfish, I encourage you to do so.  It’s not a scary as it looks.  I hope everyone had a lovely Easter surrounded by family and friends.

I heart crab!

On my way back to the office from a work event, my co-worker, Meg and I spotted one of the best local restaurants in Virginia Beach- Surf Rider. They have delicious she-crab soup and tasty crab cakes. The crab cakes were full of lump crab meat.  And not full of junky filler.  What's the point in eating filler?  Meg ordered steamed shrimp. Yummy! If you’re ever in Virginia Beach, you have to try the Newtown Road location.  You won’t be sorry. And yes, I doubled up on crab at lunch.  Don’t judge me.

Tuna Boats

My husband and I love seafood.  I'm always trying to come up with new recipes to spice things up in the kitchen.  I recently saw a recipe for canned tuna with half of an avocado in the Everyday Paleo cookbook by Sarah Fragoso.  I immediately knew this would be a hit in my house. After our time in San Diego, CA we both fell in love with avocados.  I try to use them as much as possible.  Instead of using half of an avocado, I decided to up my version to one whole avocado and grilled yellow fin tuna.  Canned tuna?  I don't think so.  I'm a classy lady.  And classy ladies don't use gross canned tuna for a nice meal for her husband.  Instead of being a fatty and spending a lot of money, I decided to buy just one yellow fin fillet.  Since he's always telling me to spend less money, I figured this would be a more budget friendly option.  And the more money left over for cute dresses at Nordstrom, the better.  I grilled the tuna to medium and mixed it with halved grape tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, lemon juice, garlic powder and salt and pepper.  And I added a small salad w dried cranberries, goat cheese and sliced almonds. This got rave reviews from the husband.  In fact, he said this was his new favorite meal.  Score one for me!

Roasted Grouper with Seafood Risotto

I saw this recipe in this month's Coastal Living magazine. This hungry Navy wife will definitely be making this very soon. Recipe for Roasted Grouper with Seafood Risotto

Girl's Weekend

I went on a girls weekend to Charlottesville, VA this past weekend. We went to six different wineries, laughed a lot and enjoyed some tasty wines. While I was away, my husband was home and cooked up a storm. Everyday he would send me pictures of his culinary delights.  I was quite impressed.  Clearly, I've taught him well.  On the flip side, I was kind of jealous that he was becoming so independent. Since he made so many amazing meals while I was gone, it's time for me to show him who's boss.  I just bought Giada De Laurentiis's new cookbook, Weeknights with Giada so watch out! This hungry Navy wife is on a mission.  Operation Dinner is on! I'll send pictures and recipes of what I come up with this week.