Burrito Bowls... and Gourmet Smores???

This is a family favorite, so get ready! Burrito bowls and cheesy nachos.

Burrito Bowls
2 chicken breasts
Taco Seasoning
2 cups uncooked basmati rice
1 can black beans
1 tomato diced
2 green onion
1/4 cilantro chopped
1/2 lime, juiced
Jar Salsa
Sour Cream or Plain Yogurt

1. Sprinkle taco seasoning all over chicken breasts, then grill till done.

2. While chicken is cooking make rice (add a touch of salt to rice for flavor), prep other ingredients (I put beans, tomato, green onion, salsa, sour cream all out on my island for easy assembly)

3. The cilantro and lime juice will be stirred into your rice when it is finished.

4. Once chicken is cooked remove from grill and cut into bite sized pieces (during colder months when I don't use the grill, I use a wok and cut the chicken up before I cook, your preference)

5. Assemble bowls, layer Cilantro lime rice, chicken, beans, tomatoes, green onion, sour cream and salsa... the key to this dish is the sour cream it makes everything so creamy and tasty... this is a family favorite and one that I make A LOT! It reminds me of Cafe Yum (a Eugene favorite, or The Whole Bowl - a food cart here in PDX)

I served this with cheesy chips, I made one little plate and put it in the middle of the table for us to munch on between bites of the burrito bowl. Another nod to Relish for this one, although there are some variances to their original dish.

So my family goes camping a lot in the summer, and when I mean family I mean extended family from my dad's side that can reach upwards of 40-60 people. This trip was small, closer to about 25, but we had a great time. We had two potlucks, one is cocktails and appetizers (this time was a little difficult for some because it was mostly spicy or seafood - I had to go and make myself a sandwich because I am a wuss when it comes to spicy food and I can't do seafood) the second potluck was fantastic and more than made up for the previous one, everyone turned out to have a Tex-Mex sort of dish. We ended up with taco salad, yum bowls, BBQ pulled pork, tequila lime wings, Frito rice pie, beans (SO GOOD), and for dessert we had a dump cake (apple cinnamon) made in a dutch oven on the fire.

But I digress, after the cocktails and appetizers on Friday I brought a Fantastic Smores Buffet (say it like the British do, that is how I say Buffet in my head -think Turkey Curry Buffet from Bridget Jones's Diary) my family has been experimenting over the years a little with smores, we thought we had hit the jackpot with substituting a peanut butter cup for a slab of Hershey's chocolate until I cam across an article in the last Food Network Magazine, there was a two page spread devoted to gourmet smores. I immediately tore it out and thought we had to try them at the next camp out, I went to my local WINCO and bought everything I needed mostly from the bulk section and brought it to the fire after our Friday night potluck, it seemed to be a resounding success and one we will replicate hopefully next year. Here are some of the interesting combinations:

Elvis Smore (this one I think was the resounding winner)

Honey Graham

Peanut Butter

Banana

Roasted 'mallow

**we also did a variance where we used a chocolate covered graham cookie instead of just the regular graham, I thought it was a bit heavy but others thought it was divine**

Cinnamon Toast Smore

Cinnamon Graham

White Chocolate square

Butterscotch Chips

Roasted 'mallow

** key to this one is to melt the chocolate and butterscotch chips on the fire while toasting the 'mallow**

Peppermint Patty Smore

Chocolate Graham

Small Peppermint patty

Mini chocolate chips

Roasted 'mallow

**we did a variance on this one too with a mint chocolate covered chocolate cookie -store brand grasshopper cookie, again I thought this was a bit heavy but those that liked mint swooned - said it was refreshing**

Caramel Apple Smore

Cinnamon Graham

Thinly sliced green apple

Rolo's Candie (although maybe a different caramel that was easier to soften might have been better)
Roasted 'mallow
**must melt candy while roasting 'mallow**

Do any of you have interesting smore recipes? I would love to add it to the buffet!



Linked to Mingle Monday, Meet Me Monday, Making Friends Monday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tasty Tuesday.

Menu Plan Monday #5

Monday: Grilled Tandoori Chicken, cous cous, grilled sweet onions, steamed green beans

Tuesday: Turkey Subsandwiches, salt and pepper chips
Wednesday: Zoo Concert (picnic on the lawn style) Garlic Turkey Subs, Rocky Road Brownies, Crudites and dip, Salt & Pepper Kettle Chips (**Chicken from Relish)

Thursday: Burgers, chips, potato salad ** camping type fare**

Friday: Cocktails and appetizers while camping, I am bringing Meatballs with a Greek yogurt dipping sauce and for a cocktail I am thinking vodka tonics with lime!  (**More to come on this topic in an upcoming post!)

Saturday: Steak, garlic butter noddles, peach coleslaw (Had to nix my original idea of slow cooker pulled pork because I forgot this camping trip doesn't have electricity!)

Sunday: ???

Want more weekly menu plans ideas, click here!

Camping/ Beachside State Park

I realize that I haven't posted in awhile, lots of excuses but let me answer one thing, yes I have still been cooking. We went on a fabulous camping trip, our family goes to state parks and camps with my father's side extended family (there is about 40-50 of us every time!) It is fantastic for our miss Molly to know what a big family is like. The trips also consist of large group meals so that we can all get together and visit and eat as one. We used to have one family be in charge of cooking for everyone, which obviously had its pros and cons, now we are sticking with a theme bringing most of our own stuff and cooking together. Our first night in, again remember lots of people were rolling in at different times, we did a Top Ramen night, and I know what you are thinking really? Really, Top Ramen? But can I just say, it was fantastic! Honestly, picture cold night, large pot of water, noodles, toppings (green onions, seasoned chicken or BBQ pork, hard boiled eggs, shrimp, chili oil/ Saracha sauce etc...) I mean really the possibilities are endless. And honestly don't discount the warmth factor of eating noodles by the campfire. SO GOOD! I wish I had taken a picture it would have looked fabulous (insert here)!

Then the next day we had our infamous cocktails and hors de'ouvres, it was a fantastic offering we had everything from polenta cake pizzas, stuffed grape tomatoes, fresh (AWESOME) french fries in a dutch oven, Thai spring rolls, Union Square Cafe Bar Nuts -my offering- spicy chicken wings, bruscheta/ seafood bruscheta, cupcakes (the kids loved these) Anchovy/Tuna cracker snacks, ham cheese and salsa roll ups, ham cream cheese and pickled asparagus roll ups, and little smokies. Really quite the smorgasbord.

Then of course the cocktails! I brought homemade hard lemonade, there were scoobie snacks, 4-5-6-7's, Honey Jagger, Mango Strawberry Margaritas (strawberries picked from my cousin Trina's backyard patch! OVER ACHIEVER!) Apple Kisses, Some Kool Aide tasting drink, Cesar's??? -This was a spicy bloody Mary type drink. I can't remember any of the others, or that could be it.

Sunday night we did kabobs over the fire or on the BBQ. Trina made fantastic sticky rice, now I am going to be looking into this some more, but apparently she has her own little corner Asian market where she asked the owners how to do sticky rice. This is yet again another little reminder of how it pays to get to know people and to ask questions, it doesn't hurt to ask. Trina proceeded to get a form of rice that has no English translation (she used to be able to tell the difference because there was pink Elephant or something on the front, but now they have changed it??? If you know this rice please let me know). Also the other weird tid bit is that the owner of the Asian market proceeded to sell her a spittoon, a metal spittoon to cook the rice in. Yes, you read right, a metal spittoon! She also said a key was to soak the rice for awhile (preferably overnight). It was truly fantastic rice. So the deal was we would do our own kabobs and then there was communal rice for everyone. I did teriyaki chicken (this had been marinating for a few days) pineapple, mushrooms, red and yellow peppers. It was fantastic! But really who doesn't love kabobs?

Then scattered in there were some fantastic, FANTASTIC, breakfasts (pancakes, French toast, bacon, sausage, eggs, fresh strawberries and blueberries). We also had soup and grilled cheese, hot dogs and potato salad, seems like things just taste better while camping! Sorry this got so lengthy and with no pictures but honestly it was a great trip. Full of activities, Molly learned to pedal her trike (she isn't even two yet!) playing on the beach in the sand, Bocce ball, Ball toss (which my family calls something else... just think about it!) mini-car races, sidewalk chalk, and of course great family!

Being Brave - Razor Clams

So we went camping this weekend, Molly loves it she is a camping girl, and the men all went out in the early morning hours to dig for razor clams. Which if you have never done this activity let me tell you there is a lot of hilarity involved. A lot of stomping, looking, and frantic digging, makes you really look like an idiot for lack of a better word. But there is something about our old hunter/gatherer spirit that makes this very appealing to most.

I was very worried about how Molly would sleep in the camper, she is a real mover and shaker when she is sleeping. Thankfully Nana and Papa bought her a little removeable gate just for the camper and it was perfect, even Winston thought so. Molly would wake up each morning shocked that her "brother" was in her bed. "Buddy in Bed!" she would say in the LOUDEST voice at 6:00am. The big beach is too scary for my little girl just yet, anything too windy and it freaks her right out, so unfortunately she didn't really take part in this activity but I have high hopes in the near future she will be out there with her Papa just like the rest of them hoping to score a big one! She proved this point by really getting into the act of picking up the razor clams from their bucket of water and throwing them back in. She liked touching them, and looking at them.

And then after we returned home we thought what better way to try these razor clams then as fresh as they can be, Nana and Papa stopped by on their way home to do just this. Papa was in charge of the clams, I was in charge of some roasted veggies (the carrots made another appearance, they really were that good!) and Molly helped Papa. She was given her "hammer" a.k.a. a meat mallet and went to town pounding them out. Papa is a very brave man to get his fingers in there to show her just wear to pound. We then proceeded to flour, egg wash, and panko crust them to shallow fry. I did make myself some chicken on the grill just in case, but I did try it! I was very brave, they weren't too fishy or anything. Not really my favorite thing on the planet but I tried them without dry heaving this is a big improvement! Molly tried them as well, and I have determined that she is not allergic to shellfish which is good (yes I had a momentary panic attack after I gave her a bite) but all is well. Yay for camping!