Last week I bought Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Chik'n Strips and have been wondering on what to do with them. This morning I just thought of it. Pad Thai! That is something I never made so was looking forward to venture myself into this meal.

INGREDIENTS

16 oz. of rice flat noodles
Canola oil
3 Bok Choy heads
1 Package of MorningStar Farms Chik'n Strips
2 Green onions
1 Shallot
6 Cloves of garlic nicely minced
1 tbsp of sugar
2 Beaten eggs
2 cups of bean sprouts
3 tbsp of vegetable stock
1/2 bunch cilantro
1/2 cup of finely chopped peanuts


For the sauce:
3/4 Tbsp. tamarind paste
1/4 cup hot water
4 Tbsp. soy sauce
chili sauce or ground chili peppers to taste
3 Tbsp. brown sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Soak the noddles in boiling water for about 10 minutes
2. In a wok warm the oil and sautee the green onions, shallot, garlic, and chik'n'strips together until golden
3. Mix all of the ingredients for the sauce and add it to the wok
4. Stir is for about 5 minutes and serve with a few fresh cilantro leaves and chopped peanuts on the top and lime wedges on the side

This is an awesome desert that can be created in minutes or even have in prepared ahead of time and freezing it.

INGREDIENTS

2 ripe avocados
1 can of sweet condensed milk
lemon juice from half a lemon
crumbled walnuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a blender add the avocados and sweet condensed milk
2. Blend it until a smooth paste
3. Add the lemon juice and blend it again
4. Serve cold plain or with crumbled nuts

To all my followers above all I would like to pardon my not having posted any new recipes lately. I have been busy cooking up a storm for a Day of Portugal Party I am hosting at our house on June 12th. Meanwhile an amazing job opportunity landed on my lap, so I switched jobs, yet at night time still trying to help out the company I worked for, GemEx Systems. I now work for eCornell and for all those wanting to accelerate your professional life, do check it out as eCornell has some fantastic certificates, some of which are in the hospitality sector. Therefore if there are any hotel management or restaurant management people out there, do check it out. Cornell University is very well known its the Hospitality Department.

Next week you will be bombarded with all types of recipes I am preparing for this coming Saturday. Meanwhile I would like to share yet another blog that has a fun little game "Portugal Day - Calling all Food Bloggers". Do check it out!

This is the simplest form of Piri-Piri. From here you can have fun by adding garlic, herbs, etc

INGREDIENTS

1 bottle of extra virgin olive oil
Whole dried red chillie peppers from Mozambique or anywhere from Africa

DIRECTIONS

1. Remove about 2 to 4 tbsp of the olive oil
2. Add the chillie peppers until the bottle is half full with them
3. close bottle of Olive Oil
4. Let it stand on the kitchen counter until most of the peppers have fallen to the bottom (approx. 20 to 30 days)
5. Start using it in your meals

So today, during my lunch break I noticed someone had left me a comment on my blog. I decided to check out and it was my new-found online foodie friend Mhel, from The Philipines letting me know about the Award she was giving to my blog. On a beautiful Spring sunny day, it could not be more perfect. I met her through halfhourmeals.com as I was checking out some of her recipes that sounded fabulous. Needless to say I had to try to make a few of them and loved every single one of them. Since we have been following each other's blogs and am always looking forward to seeing her next recipe. So DO check out Mhel's site and again thank you for the award!

So now it is my time to choose the bloggers and pass on the award. The people I chose are those that I enjoy reading their blogs on a regular basis, give me great ideas and inspirations to keep on blogging and sharing my culture and recipes with the rest of the world.

Please do check out these fabulous bloggers:

I have a piece of news for you

Sleeping Kitten - Dancing Dog!

A Thousand Soups

Portuguese Cook's Blog

The Redhead Riter

Women's Marriage Ministry

Mimi's Kitchen

Chef Tom Cooks!

Living the Gourmet

Eco.Logical.Mom

Greek Food & Beyond

Life As Mom

Congrats to the winners! And now, it's time for you winners to share the award and make somebody happy:

1. Put the award logo on your blog or within your post
2. Pass the award to 12-well-deserving bloggers
3. Link the nominees within your post
4. Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received the award

I love to eat fish as well as to cook it. I must admit though I prefer to cook a whole fish - that means with its head- than fish fillets. I was feel a little overwhelmed with them. After much reading recipes from halfhourmeals.com, two of them caught my attention and I decided to blend them together in my own way. My inspirations were Fried Fish with Coriander/Cilantro Sauce and Herb and Lemon Butter Tilapia.

INGREDIENTS

12 tilapia fillets
oil
salt & pepper to taste
chives

For the cilantro sauce
1 bunch Cilantro
1/2 bunch Parsley
1 cup Green onions
4 cloves garlic
lemon juice from 3 lemons
1 cup seafood stock (from the shells and fish bones)
1 cup Heavy cream
1 tbsp peppercorns
a dash of sea salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Season the fillets with salt & pepper
2. Add a little oil to a cast iron pan
3. Slightly brown the tilapia fillets
4. Remove them from pan

For the cilantro sauce

Well a week passed and we all enjoyed this venture. My daughter wants to keep on going so we will keep this style of cooking. Last night we make a quiche pie type. It has just about everything in it was very hearty and filled with protein.

My challenge now to to try to come up with last minute meals as I used to do when cooking with meat. It is way early in the morning, everyone is still sleeping and I have no idea what dinner will be. During my lunch break I will go to the local supermarket and hope to be inspired by the ingredients I will find.

This whole idea started from a group I joined in facebook called A Portuguese Cook - The Series.
As we were talking about food and comparing the Portuguese Meatballs with the Italian ones, the Founder of this group came up with the idea of what about creating seafood balls with the traditional Portuguese flavours.

A few days ago I did a fish sauce that I was real happy with so I decided to incorporate it here. In terms of the seafood balls themselves, imagine an açorda but thicker in a ball.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE SEAFOOD BALLS

2 lbs of Minced Shrimp
1 lb Minced Crab Meat
2 lbs Minced fresh cod fish
1 can Clam Juice
1 bunch Cilantro
1 bunch Parsley
2 Minced Onions
6 cloves Minced Garlic
4 Eggs
salt and pepper to taste
Canola oil to fry

DIRECTIONS

1. Mince all of the seafood, onions, cilantro, parsley, garlic
2. In a bowl mix it all together along with the clam juice and the eggs
3. Create 1.5 inches balls
4. In a pan add the oil then gently brown the balls. Remove them and set aside

INGREDIENTS FOR THE SAUCE

1 bunch Cilantro
1/2 bunch Parsley
1 cup Green onions
4 cloves garlic
lemon juice from 3 lemons
1 cup seafood stock (from the shells and fish bones)
1 cup Heavy cream
1 tbsp peppercorns
a dash of sea salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Add all ingredients in a blender and blend it until you get a nice smooth green sauce
2. With the pan still warm, remove excess oil add the green sauce
3. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes, then add the heavy cream
4. Add the seafood balls to warm them up

Serve over white rice and chopped fresh tomatoes over it along with a few cilantro leaves

I am amazed. I was a little worried to venture myself into this but with a little imagination it REALLY is easy to become a vegetarian. Last night we made a traditional Portuguese meal called Ervilhas Guisadas com Ovos Escalfados, which translated it means Pea stew with Pouched Eggs. This recipe is supposed to have chouriço and other meats, usually pork or it really can be made with just about any meat and even better if leftovers you may have in your fridge.

So instead of meat I substituted with Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Grillers, Soyrizo and Tofurky Sweet Italian Sausages. Recipe will be posted later on.

Everyone is adjusting amazingly well. Even my husband is. For breakfast we had eggs and morningstar bacon. Lunch as usual was left-overs. Dinner I made a shrimp, veggie whole wheat pasta dish that came out fabulous especially considering the little amount of time I had in my hands.

Now that I am starting to get the hang of this, I am going to start creating some traditional Portuguese meals in a vegetarian way. We will see how that works!