Quesadilla Burger

When we lived in Duncan, we had a plethora of fast food options.  But when it came to sit down restaurants, they were mostly local options.  That's not a bad thing, many of them were very good.  It was exciting when Applebee's came to town.  Applebee's had their own problems including a terrible manager, untrustworthy wait staff, and slow service at times.  But they served a Quesadilla Burger that became my regular order.  I've recreated it here in Oman in both a regular and low carb version.

Low Carb version of the Quesadilla Burger

Regular version of the Quesadilla Burger

Zoodle Spaghetti

As I've mentioned before, I've gone low carb.  I'm not always great at following my own rules on that, but I'm always good when I cook dinner for my family.  It probably has something to do with the amount of time I can devote to planning.  Impulse is not my friend.

Today I will outline the stupid easy meal of zoodle "spaghetti".  Let's face it, spaghetti is an easy meal.  I'm not trying to complicate things here, so this is still easy.  Feel free to ignore my sauce "recipe" below and use your own.

Yum!  Zoodle "spaghetti" with a side of steamed broccoli

Tomato Bisque

This tomato bisque is my favorite soup!  This coming from the girl who despised tomato soup growing up.  This coming from the girl who used to hate tomato anything.  I add beef for protein and noodles for kid friendliness.  Feel free to drop the noodles to make it grain free.

My tummy tomato bisque being served up with Nessy.  There are many options for Nessy on Amazon.

Makes approximately 8 servings depending upon how big of a bowl you prefer. 😉  Recipe adapted from Taste of Home.

Valentines Day in Oman

Here's the deal with me and Valentines Day:  I like the concept, but I hate the inflated prices and crowded restaurants.  I don't want flowers that cost less any other day of the year.  I loved the boxed chocolates, but I was always encouraging Stephen to get them the day after at half price.  I like going out to eat, but I want to go during the week to avoid the crowds.  I was really irritated the one year we ended up at a Japanese steakhouse (our tradition) at lunch time to learn that they would be charging dinner time prices just because it was Valentines Day.

I have no idea how much of this applies in Oman.  I know some hotels had special dinners.  We didn't go out to eat, so I have no idea how full restaurants were.  I know my in-laws found some special emoji chocolates for the boys, but I never saw a heart-shaped box.   I know without a doubt that if there had been chocolates that they would not have been half price on February 15 because Christmas items were still full price at the beginning of the year.  I did see flowers at the store, but I don't know how much they cost.  They are not normally there, so there is no telling if even the given price was inflated.

Healthy Chocolate Melting Cake

This cake is based upon the recipe for Carnival Cruise Line's Chocolate Melting cake that you can find online and freely provided by them.  When on a CCL cruise, I get this every night.  Every.  Single.  Night.  One night I made the mistake of ordering cheesecake.  It was a massive mistake.  I made mine healthy by making it low carb (I'm a carb cutter) and replacing the sugar with date paste (I'm sugarless, too).

Low Carb, refined sugar free chocolate melting cake with banana ice cream.  Excuse the slug shape of the ice cream.

Bircher Muesli

Bircher Muesli is a Swiss breakfast dish, I believe.  We discovered it on the breakfast buffet line of our hotel in Dubai.  It was a hit with my youngest son, and therefore a recipe that needed to be recreated.

I found a recipe on Pinterest via Alexandra Cooks.  This was my starting point, though I did change it some to fit my morning time constraints and products that I have on hand.  I make this in bulk and store in a sealed container.  It is important to note that this recipe should sit and soak for a bit so that the chia seeds can do their thing and plump up.  I prepare it approximately 15 minutes before the boys get up so that it is ready to eat as soon as they are downstairs.  And by they, I mean just J.  I'm not even sure E has tried it.

Bircher Muesli mixed and plumped.  This version had peanuts.  Side note:  This stuff isn't beautiful to photograph.

Joojeh Chicken

Recently I made joojeh chicken for my family.  We first tried it as part of a mixed grill at Persepolis, a local Iranian restaurant.  We then had it again at Shirazi, a Persian fast food restaurant in a local mall. Both times we really enjoyed it, which made it an obvious choice for trying at home.

Joojeh chicken and a cauliflower rice.  The rice recipe needs work, so stay tuned!  Yes, it is yellow.  It's supposed to be.

I started from the recipe found at Fauzia's Kitchen Fun.  I made a few adjustments based on our personal tastes and cooking options.  Below you will find the recipe that we all scarfed down.

Notes
Please note that this recipe should be started the night before you plan on cooking so that the chicken can marinate.  When you don't, you "have" to go out to eat.  When you "have" to go out to eat, your children miraculously choose the same restaurant of Mooyah.  When you go to Mooyah in Muscat, you get an iceberger to eat at an adult table while the kids sit at a cute little table to watch cartoons. (End this rendition of If you Give a Mouse a Cookie.)