Chicken Sate with spicy peanut dipping sauce

The recipe this week was chosen by Cathy of The Tortfeasor. Check out her blog and not only will you see that she may be the wittiest person you will ever meet, like me, you may just believe she is superwoman! You see, Cathy's office is 2 doors down from mine (read, she has a very demanding job and isn't just one of those ladies who lunch (if you know what I mean!)) Cathy also has three of the cutest children ever. Plus, she is a member of at least 12 different blogging groups -- even going so far to make HOMEMADE bread! The closest thing to homemade bread I have ever made is (1) "whop-um" cinnamon rolls (you know the can ones that you have to whop against the counter to open) and (2) pizza dough. Neither of which are remotely close to the tedious knead, rise, punch down, rest, watch, wait 5 hours, rest, wait, rest, bake, etc. process of homemade bread.

So, all of this combined could mean only one thing -- this week's recipe of Chicken Sate with spicy peanut dipping sauce had to be super easy to throw together!! How else would Cathy have time to make it (ignoring the fact that I believe she has figured out how to have about 40 hours in each day!).

I changed up the recipe a little bit - mostly just leaving the coconut milk out of the marinade and I added more soy sauce to the dipping sauce than called for because I thought the sauce was a bit too thick (and peanutty for my taste). Also, I used ground ginger in place of the fresh ginger in both the marinade and the sauce. I marinated the chicken for about 4 hours then grilled on an indoor grill pan. I served the chicken sate with brown rice and some spicy sauteed broccoli.

Overall, I thought this dish was fabulous. It was very flavorful and relatively easy to throw together (despite the daunting list of ingredients). Plus, the sauce was so good with the brown rice.

Thanks Cathy for a great pick! I will definitely be making this again!

CEIMB: Grilled Thai Beed Salad

The recipe this week was chosen by none other than myself! Yay for my recipe pick week! I was really excited about this salad and diligently put the steak in the marinade Sunday afternoon so that I could put the salad together quickly on Monday night. Well little did I know how crazy my Monday would be. By the time I got home after an extremely long day 12+ hour day at the office and a 2 hour meeting after work, I had one thing in mind -- eat as quickly as possible so I could go to sleep! Afterall, it was quickly approaching 9pm!

Luckily this salad was quick to put together (although washing and drying lettuce isn't my idea of a good time). I really liked the mix of the lettuce, cilantro and basil in the salad dressing. I didn't love the steak -- because even though it marinated for a good 30 hours - it still really did not have any flavor. I think the salad needed something - maybe a fruit or a nut or maybe some toasted ramen noodles??? What do y'all think?

I will definitely be making this salad again. I absolutely loved the dressing. I think it would be very tasty on noodles too!

Thanks for cooking with me this week everyone!

CEIMB: Stuffed Turkey Burgers

Well after a few week hiatus I am so happy to be back in a routine of cooking somewhat healthy meals instead of eating out constantly! Plus, I was so excited to make the stuffed turkey burgers this week because the recipe was chosen by my dear friend Peggy of Pantry Revisited. Peggy is about to set off on a trip to Italy and I am so jealous! I hope you have a blast Peggy and drink lots of wine for me! I can't wait to hear all about your trip when you get back!

As for the turkey burgers, I thought they were really good. Typically I find ground turkey to be very bland, so I added a dash of Worcestershire sauce, some garlic powder, a shallot and a dash of red pepper flakes, along with the called for salt and pepper to the ground turkey mixture. I stuffed the burgers with sliced red peppers and mozzarella cheese and grilled the burgers. I served the turkey burger on a baked french bread roll with some tomatoes and arugula. These burgers were so very moist and flavorful. I will definitely be making them again. Thanks for picking a great recipe this week Peggy!

CEIMB: Impossible!

Despite my best efforts, it was Impossible to get around to making the carrot cake muffins this week! They sound fabulous so I will definitely try to make them this weekend. My excuse, albeit a poor one- I was out of town all last week (struggling through some bankruptcy continuing legal education at the beach!) and I'm still playing catch up. Plus, I haven't been to the grocery in 2 weeks!

But, for a fun story to make this post a little less dull --last Friday night I had the privilege of meeting Robert Irvine of the Food Network's show Dinner Impossible! ...And while it was not Ellie (which would have been far more fitting for this blog) it was fun to meet Robert.

Robert owns and runs the restaurant EAT! in Hilton Head Island, SC in the Village at Wexford). Its mostly a tapas-style restaurant and it was fabulous! Check it out if you are ever in the area!

Proof!