Youtube Cooking

Sometimes when I’m stitching, I’ll have Youtube on and be listening to some of my favorite cooks. Last night I came across two recipes that I immediately added to next week’s menu.

One of my very favorite recipes to make is Sticky Chicken. In my opinion, roasted chicken goes with everything – broccoli, baked potatoes, green beans, asparagus, baked beans, any type of dry beans . . I can’t really think of any side dish that doesn’t go well with roasted chicken. Because I always want to use leftovers and because we won’t even eat half of a roasted chicken at one meal, I want to knoI w how I’m going to use the leftovers before I even roast the chicken because I don’t want it to go to waste.

One of my favorite Youtube cooks is Rachel of Rachel Loves to Cook. I really love her patio/outdoor kitchen! Yesterday I watched this video of her making Cheesy Chicken & Pasta Casserole. Definitely not low carb or low fat but we can have it with a salad and steamed broccoli or asparagus. I will make Sticky Chicken on Monday and have the Cheesy Chicken & Pasta Casserole on Tuesday and probably have enough of that to freeze part of it.

Another YouTube cook I love is Bruce Mitchell. Gotta love those Louisiana cooks! I saw him yesterday making Tequila Lime Shrimp Tacos. Here’s a printable version of the recipe. Of course, this recipe could easily be made with chicken – start with raw, diced, seasoned chicken or I would use leftover roasted chicken, add the same Tequila Lime Seasoning and sear it quickly. Also, of course, you could do all this in a skillet if you don’t have an outdoor grill. We do but right now, I wouldn’t dare try to cook outside with the mosquitoes the way they are. We love coleslaw and I think it would be great on those tacos! I will thinly shred cabbage and grate carrots – I won’t use the prepackaged slaw mix (but I have in the past and have nothing against it).

As luck would have it, I had an appointment out of town yesterday. I love shopping the sales at Dillon’s and there’s one where we were. I so wish they had built back in Joplin after the tornado. I feel like Joplin is seriously lacking in grocery stores. We have Walmart, Aldi, Food 4 Less and there’s a Harps in Carl Junction. Food 4 Less has good sales but otherwise, I don’t shop there much. Harps is outrageously expensive. Dillon’s kinda is too but they have great sales. Yesterday I got two bags of scallops on sale (for way less than regular price at Aldi) and 5 pounds of gray shrimp that were on sale. I could use either the shrimp or the scallops in the tacos. I will probably use shrimp.

Speaking of cooking . . we ate at a restaurant while out yesterday. We had eaten there when we lived here before and it was good. Granted, that was 14 years ago but we will not be going back. The food was not good – not horrible but definitely not good at all. Our bill was close to $50, not including the tip, and we ate off the lunch menu. I had a chicken dish and there probably wasn’t 1/2 cup of chicken in it. Vince had a dish with no meat! Crazy! Our entree arrived before our salads. When it was time to leave, we asked for our ticket; waited probably 10 minutes. Another server came by and said “She’s working on it.” Vince said “Let’s go up to the counter and I’ll get it and pay it there.” We waited another 10 minutes. It was ridiculous – they weren’t even busy. I think there were only two other tables that had customers – one with two people and one with four. We’ll definitely not go there again. If I’m careful and make good use of leftovers, we can eat dinner at home for a week for less than $50.

I think we’ll continue to eat more at home than we do eating out.