Homemade Hand Roll Sushi
serves 2

Ingredients:
1 lb. sashimi grade salmon
Avocado, sliced
1 bundle of radish sprouts
2 cups of cooked brown rice
1/4 cup of toasted sesame seeds
Seasoned roasted nori sheets, cut in half crosswise
Soy sauce
Wasabi

Directions:
Lay out your nori, place a couple spoonfuls of rice diagonally on the right third of the nori, sprinkle on some sesame seed, add a layer of radish sprouts, a couple slices of avocado, and layer on top a couple pieces of salmon. Fold near corner of nori over into a cone shape and enjoy!
This isn’t your traditional sushi because we use plain brown rice, instead of making sushi rice, and also we love to use seasoned roasted nori sheets. That bit of flavoring on the nori makes it extra delicious. I’m not that great at folding my hand rolls, so I’m sure I wouldn’t win in a hand roll folding contest, but it’s good enough to go in my mouth then down to my tummy. If you love sushi, this will totally hit the spot. Those radish sprouts also give the rolls an extra zing and it’s just not the same without it, at least for me. I love having wasabi and soy sauce with my hand rolls too.

My BFF taught us how to do sushi this way (she teaches me a lot of cooking stuff actually). When she made it for us, it was with tilapia, daikon, kimchi, and egg as fillers. We’ve modified the ingredients a bit, and since salmon is our favorite fish that’s what we use. If you don’t do the raw fish thing (or sashimi grade fish isn’t easily accessible to you), this would certainly be equally delicious with some crab inside (or shrimp tempura with a drizzle of teriyaki sauce). On our sushi date nights in, this would be my vote on what sushi recipe to have for dinner, but salmon grade sashimi costs more, so it’s more a once a month kind of thing. Thus, we mix up the weeks with the coconut serrano ceviche, tilapia cevichce on crispy won tons, and tuna poke.

We totally devour our dinner once the girls are in bed and we have some peace of quiet. I love our little date nights in together. Those times are very special to me.

Spicy Seafood & Udon Stir Fry. It’s a recipe from my best friend  and it was so  yummy (all her recipes are!). I will have the recipe up for you in the next few weeks. The best part is that it’s loaded with vegetables!

Fish Tacos with Creamy Chipotle Sauce. I was feeling a little adventurous and was trying to recreate the tacos we had on our date in Austin. It came out pretty good and Ben was impressed with my sauce. I like it when I impress him! I want to tweak a couple things, but if I get it just right, I will share the recipe with you. We evened added carrots to our tacos; I think we will be adding that to our fish tacos all the time. The more veggies, the better!

Tilapia Ceviche on Wontons. One of our Friday night date-in dishes. It’s the perfect way to end our week and start the weekend.

Week of 1/20 – 1/24
Monday: Chicken Enchiladas
Tuesday: Korean Pork Roast Lettuce Wraps
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: White Bean Chili
Friday: Sushi/pizza night

I want to be sure to make this the following week. I need to remember to pick up some fontina cheese!

I love chocolate. I have an unhealthy love for chocolate. Actually, for anything sweet really. It’s a dangerous thing for me to have at home. I get weak and I can’t resist. So when it’s birthday or holiday time around here, I get nervous because I know there will be an influx of sweets galore. Moderation, what’s that?!

This cake was made for Soul’s fancy fourth birthday, and since it was “fancy,” I felt a good chocolate cake was needed. I pinned it here, followed it to the recipe and made it. It’s basic and easy and I definitely give it a two thumbs up. My change is that I separated the batter into two smaller ones so that we’d have a double decker chocolate cake. The best way to eat this is to warm some up with the gooey ganache goodness, and maybe if you’re feeling wild, pile a scoop of ice cream on top. It’s dangerous, but it’s okay to live dangerously once in awhile, right?!

What’s your go-to chocolate cake recipe?

Spicy Udon & Kimchi Soup. Spicy? Yes, please! I made two batches, one non-spicy for the girls, and one super spicy for us.

Week of 1/13 – 1/17
Monday: Fish Tacos
Tuesday: Seafood Stir Fry
Wednesday: White Bean Chili
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Pizza/sushi night

I’ve made a couple other meals this week, but never got around to taking a picture of it, so all you get to see is our soup. My best friend took us to her favorite Korean market and we love it! The produce and prices are good and we can’t wait to stock up on more groceries there later today.

Meal planning definitely helps save time and money. When I look back at all our meals, I can’t believe all the different recipes I’ve cooked. It has for sure been a lot of fun learning and growing in the kitchen. Ben used to be the one to cook every day, but he pretty much only cooks on special occasions now. Who’s in charge of cooking in your home?

Coconut Serrano Ceviche
about 4-6 servings

Ingredients:
1 lb. sashimi grade tilapia
8-10 tomatillos, chopped
1 pint of grape tomatoes, quartered
2 serranos (throw in 6 is you like it spicy like us!)
1 lime
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 cup light coconut milk
Salt

Directions:
Chop the tilapia, tomatillos, tomatoes, and cilantro. Mix them all together into one bowl and set aside. In a blender, blend together the coconut milk and serranos, until completely blended. Add a pinch of salt to taste. Pour the coconut serran mixture into the bowl with the other ingredients. Cut the lime and squeeze all the juice into the ceviche. Mix well and add salt to taste. Serve with a batch of baked tortilla chips.

This is one of the dishes we frequently have on our Friday night date nights in. Ben comes home, we watch a family movie, then send the girls off to bed, and Ben and I continue to have our quiet Friday evening together eating something yummy and a movie just for us. It’s our way of getting in a date night, but not really going out. We are major sushi lovers, but it’s quite costly to pick up from a restaurant weekly, so we satisfy our love for raw fish by whipping our own recipes at home. Thankfully, we have good Asian markets nearby where we can easily pick up affordable sashimi grade fish. This is usually one of our Friday night options, or this other Tilapia Ceviche on Wontons, or this Tuna Poke dish, or just plain hand rolls (another post for that soon). I’m so used to making those dishes that I can pretty much do them in my sleep now. The habanero recipe is one of Ben’s most favorite things to eat!

Baked Corn Tortilla Chips
yields about 80 chips

Ingredients:
10 corn Tortillas
Cooking spray
Knife
Baking pan
Salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Stack your 10 tortillas together and cut them into eighths. Lay out a single layer of chip pieces onto your baking pan, and lightly spray cooking spray throughout all the pieces. Lightly sprinkle a couple of pinches of salt throughout. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown and crispy.

I always like to keep a close eye because my oven tends to cook faster. I usually do a second batch, since not all 80 pieces fit in one pan or you could also bake 2 pans at one time.
Chips and salsa is Ben’s idea of dessert, so it’s much more guilt-free to have them baked. Writing this post up also has me craving some of my mother-in-law’s homemade salsa. Her salsas are always bomb dot com. When we were in Texas, we were spoiled by all the deliciously spicy salsas she made for us. I’ll have to get the salsa recipes from Ben’s mom to share with you.

Putting a batch of chips to bake in the oven is so easy! They come out much thicker than store bought tortilla chips, but I’ll take baked over fried any day. I have another recipe to share with you soon, so that you could eat these baked chips with something super yummy.