So for some reason recently, I have been SO incredibly into cooking. I don't necessarily keep it a secret on the blog that I DON'T like cooking at all, hahah. It's not that I don't like it I guess, but it's just that I am in no way good at it. There's really nothing more to say about that. My father is a fantastic cook and my uncle is a professional chef but I guess the cooking just did NOT pass down to me. My brother never cooks either but even when he does decide, on the off chance, to make something he does a fine job. Like I said, it must have just skipped a generation or something, I don't really know.
I have discovered that recently I am getting way more into cooking. You know what's funny about this? I think the older I get, the more I think about how I cannot cook and how bad of a wife I feel like I would be (lololoolol). Although that is one of my thoughts, it's not the main one. For myself, I want to learn how to make more things so that when I'm hungry, I don't have to just order a salad or buy a sandwich. To be honest, I don't just buy something to eat because I'm lazy, I do it because I have NO idea how to make anything.
Another thought about this is that I feel as though when I say 'I can't cook' I'm self-depricating and by doing that, it doesn't instill enough confidence in myself, in turn making me never want to cook anything. I feel like I use it as an excuse sometimes because I am afraid to try something new. For the past two weeks, I have been trying new things and not only me, but my brother and dad have also really enjoyed them. This makes me so happy. In telling my dad that I made them though, he knows that I can be spastic in the kitchen so he says, 'Oh boy, I'm scared. Not because of how this is going to taste because I know you wouldn't make me taste it if it wasn't good, but because I'm worried about what it took for you to make this. I could only imagine what was happening while I wasn't home.'
LOL. Thanks dad.
So using the things that we had on hand in the kitchen, I got to work. the best part about trying to create new things is trying to create new things YOUR WAY and with YOUR INGREDIENTS. I mean, obviously don't wing it if you're trying to make something for a date or for a party, but if you're trying to start cooking more, I would suggest just grabbing a few things that you have at home and going at it yourself. Wait, did that sound weird? Well, what I mean is: Don't feel pressured to follow a recipe if you want to start cooking. I am not saying that you SHOULDN'T follow a recipe, I'm just saying that there's a lot less stress if you go with the flow. If following a recipe is more your gig, then you can go with that.
To Try You'll Need: Big/little shells (I used a mixture of both but you don't need to), red pepper, green pepper, onion, garlic, paprika, pepper, salt, olive oil.
This first dish (excuse the horrible picture, I wanted to eat it so bad), is really good! Out of all three, this is the one that I had absolutely NO direction. I was deciding how I was going to cook and what I was going to add in as I was going along. I boiled the big and little shelled pasta first and in a different pan on the stove next to it, I put some fresh green and red peppers with onions and fresh garlic. I used four cloves of garlic, half an onion and two peppers. When the pasta was done, I drained it and added it to the pepper and onion mixture when the onions were translucent and the peppers were slightly charred. I added some pepper, paprika and a small amount of salt. This was SO delicious and incredibly easy. I wasn't sure how it was going to taste because it was so 'on the whim' but I made it today and I can tell you right now, it's all gone.
To Try You'll Need: Orange pepper, yellow pepper, onion, garlic, steak, corn tortillas, ginger sauce, cilantro, olive oil.
So we're about to get real real on this one. I have no idea what kind of steak I used for this. I THINK it was a top round london broil, probably one that you aren't supposed to use for steak fajitas. I saw that we had steak in the fridge and I wanted to make fajitas with it lolololololol. I once again took to the stove and I cooked the peppers, onions and garlic the same as described above. On another burner in the wok, I cooked the steak in which I cut into strips (fajita style). I didn't marinate the steak so while it cooked I threw in some cilatntro. I felt like a freakin' chef. As things were almost done, I threw in two small corn tortillas to the toaster oven for about a minute. When everything was done, I threw it together in the tortilla and 'BAM.' Sorry Emeril, what can I say? I was feeling inspired.
To Try You'll Need: Chicken, cilantro, lime, black beans, red onion, green pepper, pepper, rice, olive oil.
For this one, I just threw everything in the wok together, starting with the chicken. I sliced the chicken fajita-style and used olive oil to cook it up a little bit. While the chicken was cooking, I sliced the peppers, onions and cilantro. Once the chicken was cooked (but not all the way), I threw the onions, cilantro, black beans, green pepper and pepper in. I cooked it until the chicken was done and the flavors really came together. I served over rice!
These are some awesome started meals and really, they are so delicious! I don't think anyone would guess that you were a beginner if you served them these. I didn't follow any recipes for these and that was the best part! I just decided to go for it with everything and I got a great result. If you think about it too, these really aren't that unhealthy, they are on the pretty good side when it comes to balanced. You don't have to have the rice, or you could sub it with brown, and save the pasta for your cheat day!
Have you been cooking lately? Leave some suggestions for things that I can try in the comments below. I am so excited to be on this 'New Chef' journey, it really makes me happy knowing that I am learning more about what it takes to make a full meal.
Send me a tweet and thanks for reading! -Brit.
