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Stop throwing your Salad leaves away| Repurpose your salad ingredients | Asian inspired Sweet Potato Noodle Salad
Last week I wanted salad, which is a rare thing, but I purchased arugula and tomato and such for said salad! Well a week later (not even a week really) and I noticed my salad leaves were started to go bad; you know how they start to get wet and slimy and such (real gross)!
However today, I thought, why not repurpose my salad ingredients so I can stop throwing away my yummy salad leaves.
This meal is vegan-friendly, so no meat involved. So here we go with my tasty warm Asian inspired noodle salad. Everything is leftover and sitting in my fridge, looking sad.
I boiled and drained my sweet potato noodles, cut them into smaller piece and rinsed in cold water to stop the cooking and set to the side.
1 package of baby bella mushrooms quarter and about 7 baby bell peppers sliced.
3 roma tomatoes. I had a half bag of each of the following: spinach, arugula, and broccoli slaw.
In my big wok pan which I love sooooo much is olive oil, heated. Add mushrooms and peppers and garlic and stir-fry for 4 minutes or so. Then add in the broccoli slaw and cook for another 4 minutes.
Add in the salad leaves
Let them cook just until wilted then add in tomatoes and I had some alfalfa sprouts
Mix and cook for 1 minute; I just let my tomatoes get warm.
Now the last steps are adding in the noodles and sauce. The salad dressing I used was an Asian sesame dressing, but you can use what you want, this is what I had 
Mix and serve. You can eat hot, cold or room temp. I will never again throw away my salad leaves or other salad ingredients. 
After heating all the veggies, I could have added them to rice, or other noodles or even potatoes. Better yet, I could eat them without a carb!!! I just wanted to share with you guys. Until next time remember to Cook, Eat and Enjoy!!!
Apple Cinnamon and Blueberry Almond Energy Balls
Hey my foodies and non-foodies alike. School is in full swing for my two daughters which means leaving early and coming home pretty late. And all though I like to think of my children as always being so full of energy, I know they need a little boost sometimes. I had been hunting for a snack idea for them that would give them energy and have healthy ingredients minus the chocolate and peanuts since they are allergic. I came across the energy balls or bites. These were perfect because I could tailor them to each of my kids. So I ended up making apple cinnamon balls and blueberry almond balls, each with different type of butters. And better still, there was no bake involved. So here is what I used:
4 cups of rolled oats (2 cups each batch)
2 cups ground flaxseed (1 cup each batch)
2 cups sweetened shredded coconut (1 cup each batch)
1 cup of honey ( half cup each)
1 teaspoon salt (half teaspoon each)
1 cup of almond butter
1 cup of sunflower seed butter
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract (1 teaspoon each batch)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground cloves
1 cup of dried blueberries
1 cup of sliced almonds
1 cup of dried apple rings cut into bite sizes
1 baking sheet lined with wax paper or parchment
2 large mixing bowls
For all the oatmeal, I warmed in a frying pan to make the oats a bit easier to incorporate. I used my favorite Red Cooper Frying. If you want to go and get it, her is my Amazon Affiliate link. I love this pan so much!!!
https://amzn.to/2CTvSSY
So to each mixing bowl add in 1 cup of ground flaxseed, 2 cups of oats, 1 cup coconut, half cup of honey, teaspoon of vanilla extract and half teaspoon of salt.
Each cup of butters, you want to melt a bit in the microwave to make it easier to handle.
For the apple cinnamon batch: add in the tablespoon of cinnamon and ground cloves, the almond butter and the pieces of dried apple. Mix well
For the blueberry Almond batch: add in the dried blueberry and sliced almonds and the melted sunflower seed butter. Mix well.
Now the fun part for those who love to get there hands messy, so it is a great cooking activity for kids. Time to roll out the balls. If when you begin to roll the balls out and you find that they are breaking apart, this is because they are to dry and you need to add a few tablespoons of water to help them roll easier.
Make the balls as big or small as you like them. I used a healthy tablespoon size and formed a tight ball in my hand, then place them on the bake sheet.
Once everything is rolled out, place then in the fridge for 20 minutes so they can set, after which you want to store them in a airtight container. They should keep for over a week or so, however if you get the response that I received at my house, they will barely last 4 days or so.
If you would like to see the actually process, head over to my YouTube and checkout the video her at Energy Balls | Apple Cinnamon…
Until next time, Cook Eat Enjoy!!!!
I’ve update the Site!!!
Hey, Creatives and non-creatives alike. Just wanted to let you know that I have updated the site. I can not believe that it has been 8 years since I first began this blog and it has been so much fun.
Not only has the look of the site changed, but the name also is slightly different and the logo is different: 
I am looking forward to bringing new content to the blog and perhaps even collaborating with other bloggers. So, of course, I will be bringing plenty of food content your way, but also some travel and lifestyle content as well. I hope you all continue to enjoy being passengers as I continue this creative journey of life!
Also, check out my photography portfolio at Gloriousgal Studio Photography
And check my YouTube channel at Cook Eat Enjoy
Seafood Boil
Hey All,
Hope this blog post finds you well and prospering in 2018. Well let’s start this year off right and that could only mean seafood for me.
Last week, I was inspired to make a seafood boil and it turned into a Mukbang on my youtube channel Cook Eat Enjoy
I am an east coast girl, so seafood is in my blood and I could eat it everyday!!! I am actually considering becoming a pescatarian… maybe. Anyway, I had really been craving seafood and was going to go out to a restaurant, but realized that I could get more for my money if I did it at home, and that is what I did. So I was home alone, everyone else was either at school or at work, so I got to treat myself, but I did save everyone else some… I am not that greedy (although when it comes to seafood, I typically am).
My seafood boil had head-on shrimp, snow crab legs, king crab leg, little sausages, red and yellow potatoes, frozen corn on the cob, mussels and old bay seasoning.
Of course, any combination of seafood can be added, your choice.
All of this cost me about $32, and I had enough to feed 4 people and it took me about 30 minutes to make. Please tell me in the comments if you know of a place where you can get a deal like that. That is a restaurant I might just go check out with my family 🙂
Never-the-less, if you want to see how I made the Seafood boil in 30 minutes. Go check out the youtube video Seafood Boil Mukbang
Oh and while you are there please like, comment and subscribe to support your girl, me!!! Until next time; Cook, Eat and Enjoy!!!
Quick Angel Hair Pasta with Veggies
Hey Winners, this meal takes a quick 10 minutes. In the time it takes to boil a handful of angel hair pasta, the rest will be done. So quickly:
Boil a handful of angel hair pasta.
-in a pan with olive oil about 6 crimini mushrooms sliced, 1 small onion sliced, sauté. Then slice an heirloom tomato add to the pan, with a teaspoon of diced garlic.
-Cook for about 3 minutes sprinkle with a little salt. Add crush red pepper if you like it spicy.
-Deglaze with red wine vinegar
– add pasta and finish with parmesan.
No meat required or needed.
Until next time: Cook, Eat and Enjoy and take it one day at a time. Stay encouraged.
Brown Rice Stir-Fry (Leftover/ Clean out your fridge Friday)
So it was Friday and I needed to clean my fridge out before I went grocery shopping on Saturday; getting out the old, to get the new. Well, it is a waste to throw away partially bad veggies or day or two old rice. Why not throw it all in a stir-fry, as a one pot. Here is my quick and simple stir-fry that I made, using brown rice. Now, remember you can add or take away any of the following. I also used my Wok, but you can always use a regular frying pan.
For this dish, I used brown rice, and I made it fresh because I didn’t have any left in the fridge. So I cooked a pot of fresh brown rice and then ran cold water over it, to stop the cooking process so it would not get mushy.
For this particular dish, I used hog jowls that I diced up. Hog jowls are like thick bacon. I used it for flavoring of my rice and added texture. If you can’t get that you can use bacon or cut it out entirely, it is up to you. So dice it up and render it out in the Wok, then drain on paper towel. Don’t throw away the grease from the meat, because we will be using some, so pour it in a tin or a coffee mug and set aside.
While your hog jowls or bacon is rendering:
dice 1 yellow or white onion; 1 green bell pepper diced; 6-9 cloves of garlic, a handful of fresh curly leaf parsley roughly chopped; 8 or 9 Brussels sprouts cut in half and then quartered or sixth depending on the size; beat 4 jumbo eggs and scramble fluffy in a separate pan, then remove them from the pan and set aside.
Now time for the fun part. Pour about 2 to 3 tablespoons of the grease from your meat into the wok, and drop the brussels sprouts in and wok cook them for about 4 minutes, seasoning with kosher salt.
Then add in the onions, garlic and green bell pepper, salt and black pepper to taste, and cook for another 3 minutes. If the oil is being soaked up, add a bit more of the meat oil (or substitute for olive or grapeseed oil).
Now add in the parsley and cook for 1 minute.
*Be sure that you keep your food moving with a spoon if you are cooking in a wok, otherwise your food will not cook evenly and it will burn. Additionally, cook on high or med-high heat.
Now that all the veggies are cooked, add the rice, scrambled egg and the rendered out meat, back to the Wok as well as about 4 or 5 tablespoons of sesame oil. MIx well.
Now if you have a piece of chicken or steak or pork chop, etc, you can chop it up and add it to the dish at the end; why let it go to waste.
I myself had one rib leftover from Memorial Day, so the accompanied my stir-fry. I also added no soy sauce to the stir-fry while I was cooking it, because I didn’t want it to be too salty, so feel free to add it to taste as you like. I preferred sweet chili sauce on my rice, but that is me.
Until next time my food lover and explores: Cook, Eat and Enjoy
Seafood Paella
Back in April, a friend and I went to Seattle for my birthday and had the most amazing seafood paella at the Seattle restaurant Tango.
This inspired me to try and make it at home, however, I did not have a paella pan so I used my biggest cast iron pan. So here is what else I used.
-1 pound of shrimp shelled and deveined
-1/2 sea Scallops
-1 pound of mussel meat
-1 pound of baby manilla clams
-Squid sliced into rings
1 carton of chicken broth
1 jar of clam juice
1 pinch of saffron
Olive oil
Diced green bell pepper
1 package of sliced crimini mushrooms
2 medium white onion diced or 1 large
1 red onion diced
1 24oz can of diced tomatoes
Fresh parsley chopped
1 tablespoon of diced garlic
Matiz Valencia Paella Rice 4 cups
Kosher Salt
Okay, it seems like a lot, but it will come together. Preheat oven to 425 so it will be good and hot when its time.
First, in a pot, combine clam juice, chicken stock, and saffron and let boil then turn off.
Add 3 to 4 tablespoons of olive oil to the cast iron pan and heat on medium high.
Add white and red onions and cook until they start to look translucent.
Add bell pepper and cook for 4 Minutes
add garlic
add mushrooms
add tomatoes
let Simmer for 5 minutes and season with salt and pepper
add parsley and rice
Season to taste and mix well
Add in liquid and if it won’t all fit in at once, let some absorb then add more.
once the rice is almost done add in seafood, strategically.
Top with foil and put in the oven and bake until seafood is done.
unwrap and sprinkle with paprika.
You can place the whole pan on the table and serve family style or plate individual bowls.
Until next time cook, eat and enjoy!
