Pin-teresting Eats

I've been really busy in the kitchen the past few days y'all.  We haven't been good about keeping up with our weekly cooking dinner together deal since we moved to Dubai, so in an attempt to revive that, I suggested we make Paella on Saturday night. Ram was thrilled! Even though we just checked out Rosa Mexicana a few days before, we can never have our fill of Spanish/Mexican food.

Surprisingly the ingredients for the recipe looked very simple and doable. So as we I Ram cracked open a bottle of wine, we got started and chopped up all the veggies (thank god for the slap chop!).  I chickened out and bought frozen shrimp and mussels. I really was not in the mood to clean those bad boys. I don't think the dish suffered as a result either, so I'm okay with it:)

And here's the final product:

It was light and yummy, I would definitely make this again!

On Monday, I decided to experiment with fruit leather. Ram and I love fruit roll ups but they are loaded with sugar and crap and besides, they are not sold here. In an effort to find a healthier way to enjoy this treat, I found these 2 pins, one for Blackberry Mint and Strawberry. I love that you can control the sugar content in these recipes and you can even cut them out in any shape you like, which I'll be doing down the road for baby girl:) The best part is you can mix together any fruit combination you like.

Removed the seeds for both mixes

Before going into the oven. They both smelled really good.

I didn't add any sugar to the strawberry one and I only added about a tablespoon of honey to the blackberry one. I also didn't do the full 3lbs of each fruit, because I wanted to test it out first. I also read  that heating up the fruit on the stove before putting it in the oven will give it a shiny finish, so I experimented and only heated up the strawberry. Unfortunately, the oven process takes hours and the average was 4-6 hours. I have a gas oven, and I know from past experience that usually means to cut the cooking time in half. Unfortunately, by the 1 hour and 45 min mark, I was already too late. Both dishes were too dried out to even roll and crumbled at my touch:/

Exhibit A

I was SO disappointed but I plan to try again.

Tuesday night I decided to attempt Gumbo. Ram loves Cajun food and the only Cajun dish I have mastered is jambalaya. So I decided to surprise him and add a new dish to my repertoire (plus I had left over shrimp to use!). The ingredients are very similar to jambalaya with the addition of okra. Seemed easy enough. And it turned out great!

Slap Chop to the rescue once again!