... Chicken Dinner

It's the start of a new year and yes, I haven't posted in a long while in between almost having three jobs and paying off bills whilst still in school, and trying to balance a social life: life gets hectic. Although from time to time I take a deep breath, take a step back and just relax. Well, it's close to midterms week and I thought I'd find a recipe that was full in nutrients and protein that will fuel my body to study this weekend. I decided to go with the one I used at my friend's housewarming party: a Lemon Chicken Mushroom Alfredo Pasta. Last time we used rotini and this time we decided to go with penne.

We started off going to Vons to get some chicken, being on a very tight budget, I'm always looking for the right bargain. Since chicken breast wasn't on sale, I opted for a large packet of chicken thighs for $5.31 (about 8-9 pieces), button mushrooms, and lemon. We also went with Classico's Creamy Alfredo  for the sauce. David cut the bone out of the thighs (we used about a piece each) and while he did that I sliced up the mushrooms and lemon that will be tossed in a wok to be stir fried.

These are the seasonings that we used to rub through the chicken. After we gutted out the bones, we put in some ground black pepper on both sides with some pink salt, and a few shake of parsley. Then we added Lawry's seasoning salt. Before putting the pieces onto the grill, take the lemons and squeeze out the juice over the chicken, let it sit for about 2-3 minutes. Once the chicken is cooking, stir-fry the mushrooms until brown, it's okay to use a box for two as once they cook they will dramatically shrink in size. After, we added in the sauce and let it simmer before taking it off the stove. Don't forget to set a pot aside with boiling water for your pasta. Boil your pasta to al dente as you will be cooking it twice with the sauce so that it'll be soft by the time you serve it.

Grill the chicken until it's golden brown, make a little slice if you want to to double check if it's cooked thoroughly. Take it off the grill and plate it. Next, we took the pasta, strained it and mixed it with the alfredo sauce in the wok turned the fire to medium and stirred it. After plating we added a dash of parsley on top of the penne as garnish for that finished look. :) Hope everyone that drops by or sees this, tries this home- it's super simple to make and a lot of fun! Until next time~!

Ciao!
Kitty~

Sweet Tooth!

I'm not a big on sweets but here's a few places that I actually like to frequent when the cravings do come. I go to some more than others depending on the level of sweetness. Perhaps you've been to these places before, if you have please leave a comment below letting me know what you thought of the places!

Everybody seems to be on the cupcake hype and bandwagon, I personally find them too sweet- but Sprinkles in Newport Beach is a really popular place with the locals to grab a few on the way out. :)

I picked out the Coconut one, which I thought was pretty good. Here's a tip: Grab a bottle of milk while eating this. It balances out the sugar.

I'm a big fan of sweet waffles versus the savory ones. There are two places I'm just in love with, one is called Love To Go in San Gabriel and the other is Cafe Haus in Walnut. Both very good places!

Chocolate Toffee Waffles from Love to Go! Great pick and very popular. :)

Here's to ice cream sandwiches! Diddy Riese in Westwood sells relatively cheap cookies and ice cream for $1.75- It used to be $1.25. The price has been jacked up the last few years, but it's still cheap compared to other places.

My favorite: Cinnamon cookies with Cookies n' Creme!

And finally snow ice, it's been popping up everywhere these days, but the only place I like the best still is Class 302 in Rowland Heights. Although I like Class 302, Ten Ren's (Also in Rowland Heights) has some pretty snow, it's decent enough to eat with plenty of condensed milk. :)

Strawberry Mango Snow Ice from Ten Ren's-

Here's to all the sweet lovers out there! Cheers! Until next time!

Ciao!
Kitty~

Quick Bruncheon in the Sun!

So I just woke a few hours ago (yes, noon...) and I was pretty hungry, went to the kitchen but was feeling groggy from sleep to make anything for myself. Di, being the awesome person that he is suggested that he'd make some Birds in a Nest for me to try as I've never tried it before and I was lurking on the web late last night looking at different versions of birds in the nest. Do they look ever so delicious... So he strolls to the stove and starts pulling bread and eggs out of the fridge. It's a rather simple recipe and I think it's a great dish for kids in the morning! And I felt this deserved a blog post~

Add a bit of black pepper I think would give it a nice kick! Maybe even draw a cute ketchup heart for your significant other, wouldn't that be cute? ;)

Another one of my favorites for brunch is Eggs with Hotdog Pasta, it's also a pretty simple dish to make. I usually buy regular hotdogs cut them into little pieces with a few chops of green onion and two eggs. Which pasta you use if really up to you, I like the shape of pasta shells, so that was the one I choose to use.

I use chicken broth sometimes for a lighter brunch dish. Boil the pasta, about 7 minutes in when their al dente, throw in the hot dog, green onion then the eggs to make a pasta soup. :) But when I'm feeling more a spaghetti type of pasta I would fry the hot dogs, put in tomato sauce under a medium fire then let it simmer for a bit before mixing the boiled pasta in it.

Ramen has always been a quick fix when one is hungry but too lazy to actually make anything. To make it more homey for myself, I literally just take an extra 5 minutes out of my time crack an egg on the fryer, add a dash of green onion for flavor and voila! A better tasting ramen!

Lastly, when I have more time on my hands, Di and I make something more fancy. Something like green onion (I love green onion on almost everything ;D) buttered corn, homemade lemon iced tea, and strawberry nutella bread.

All can be bought at your nearest supermarket! Have fun with these ideas next time and have a safe Labor Day weekend! Until next time!

Ciao~
Kitty!

Dinner For Two~

Eating out is a great way to expand your taste palette in terms of getting to know the delicious textures of Spanish cuisines or the exotic flavors of Asia. But nowadays it seems like people are such a hurry to get to places that they don't spend enough time in the kitchen to really experience the joy of cooking for yourself or for you and your family. The past few months, being the college kid that I am (and my ever so short budget) I've found a joy in making food at home when expenses are low. It's especially fun when you have someone to cook with. I spend most of my time switching off kitchens with my significant other when we do cook at home. He's quite crafty with the knife and the seasoning, somehow, someway, he always end up making dinner for two. ;)

Sometimes when we're feeling something easy, we always go to our childhood favorite: HK styled teatime spam and egg sandwich paired with french fries on the side with corn. Basic white bread with a fried egg, two slices of tomatoes, a few pieces of romaine lettuce, and spam. The fries can be bought from any of the supermarket for about $3.00 a pack, bake it rather than fry it, it's healthier. :)

When I don't feel up for heavy food, the boyfriend would always just throw some of that romaine lettuce with a few slices of honey chicken and strawberries for a light dinner.

We also get those times when we feel like we should indulge, because... C'mon. One needs to spoil themselves once in a while. ;) We throw together a steak dinner lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, garlic mashed potatoes, homemade bruschetta, and a plum ginger sesame salad.

Take some time out of your busy life and try making dinner at home, I'll guarantee you you'll have loads of fun. Until next time!

Ciao~!

Kitty

The Greatness of Paninis...

I had my fair share of paninis from Panera Bread, Corner Bakery, Urth Caffe, to Slymar's Fix. I gotta say that my favorite one by far is are the ones stuffed to the brim with delicious goodness. The ones that use sourdough bread I find the most delicious. Panera Bread had always been my favorite place to grab a good panini, but over the recent years I have found that they were starting to put less in them than they usually did and that they've stopped using sourdough bread. :( They now use plain white toast. On the other downside, if you get the sandwich alone, it's still $7.85+. It's worth more if you get the half sandwich with the salad, soup, or bread with fruits or chips for $6.99 (As they call it their U-Pick 2!)

Chicken Chipotle with Strawberry Poppyseed Salad and a side of chips. ($7.99 Premium U-Pick 2)

Corner Bakery does almost the same thing as Panera, but their paninis differentiate themselves with the different use of cheese and they add arugula into their chicken pomodoro panini. It's $7.95 for their combo that comes with a pick of soup and chips with a slice of pickle.

Chicken Pomodoro Panini with Mother's Chicken Noodle Soup and Chips

Urth Caffe's Roasted Turkey Panini had thicker biscuit like bread, the meat was a little too dry and it resulted in it being too hard to bite. It was served with baby spring mix with a really good tangy vinaigrette-like sauce. Being Urth and its organic ingredients it is a little more costly to eat here. The panini here was $12.95 although not a bad place to check out for coffee! 

Urth's Roasted Turkey Panini

Lastly, a friend introduced me to new hole-in-the-wall joint near Arleta of the greater Los Angeles called Sylmar's Fix. Raving reviews online (http://www.yelp.com/biz/sylmars-fix-sylmar#query:panini%20sandwiches) and the portions of VERY generous. By far my favorite place to get a panini fix. They were large and delicious, they stuffed it with juicy mushrooms and large slices of chicken. Totally worth the $6.95! It's located behind a shopping center on Foothill Blvd in the city of Sylmar. Pure deliciousness!

Chicken Mushroom Panini

Well, I'm still on my journey to find other great paninis out there and these are the few places that has been on my list that I want to share! Until next time!

Ciao!
Kitty~