Brussels Sprouts were one of those things that I didn't have until I was able to have a kitchen of my own. So when I bought them I was kind of leery, assuming that they were this awful vegetable moms mad their kids eat. I roasted them in a steamer bag and was so impressed! They have a leafy, juicy texture and a bright, green flavor and soak up anything you put on them.
Oh! And fun facts about Brussels sprouts! I always thought they were Brussels sprouts but they are (capital "B") Brussels because they originate from Brussels. Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and lettuce are in the same family which makes sense because they have a similar shape and flavor. This was one of the more interesting things I learned in my biology class in collage. Probably because it had to do with food. Go figure...

I know there are about 1,034 ways to make fish tacos but this is how I made them yesterday.

My housemate made this yesterday for lunch and it was AMAZING! I love all things lemon and all things garlic so put the two together and I'm a happy girl!

This turned out fantastic and ALLL the chicken was devoured quickly. I wish I'd made more! It takes some time to make but it is worth it!!

This is one of those things I made because I wanted something specific and I had to work with the meat I defrosted. I am kind of obsessed with sweet potatoes and carrots lately so I wanted a Shepard's pie with sweet potatoes. But, I had defrosted a whole chicken so this was my solution.
I need to think about a better name for this one. It is not shepherds pie because it is a chicken stock gravy and chicken instead of beef. Also, it has sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes. It isn't chicken pot pie because of the potatoes. Whatever it is it was awesome!

I am not going to give you the recipe for the rice in this meal because it was awful. I have yet to master baked cheese rice and pork chops. But the cabbage was great and very easy.

My gama makes a version of this and calls it gofuther (go further but it ends up being gofuther because of our Texas slur). It is usually leftover chicken and veggies and cream of something soup. Not my favorite thing in the world, mostly because of the cream of chicken soup. So this is my solution to leftover chicken, veggies and it is best with leftover rice but you can make some too.
One of my best friends, Karelle, taught me how to make authentic fried rice. She said that the color on the rice comes from cooking the precooked rice for a long time, essentially roasting it in a skillet. That was interesting because I thought it came from the soy sauce so my fried rice always turned out mushy.

This was a really quick easy dinner to put together! I love the idea of simple, hearty meals! Earlier this week I had seen a recipe for quinoa stuffed sweet potato that sounded good. I searched for it, because of course I didn't pin it. As I scrolled through all of the amazing looking stuffed sweet potatoes, quinoa sounded less good and meat stuffed sounded better! I found this recipe and simplified it a little: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/02/bbq-chicken-stuffed-sweet-potato-skins/

I have this goal to learn how to make traditional dishes. When making these dishes I feel connected to the history of how they came about and the people that made them. One of the first things I made was gumbo! It's one of the first foods I think about when talking about New Orleans.

I started off with Emerald's recipe, because he is my go to for traditional New Orleans, and went from there. So it's not really healthy for you and it starts off with a lot of fat but hang with me it is fantastic!