I’m back with another favorite from the simplest healthy cookbook, Cook This, Not That! These Hoisin Beef Kebobs are tender, sweet and savory. Pieces of sirloin steak get alternated with mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and scallions before being glazed in a five ingredient sauce and grilled.

I love that the scallions get nicely charred while the cherry tomatoes burst, which brings the best flavor to the steak. These kebobs are a perfect dinner dish because the vegetables could be swapped out with so many other kinds of vegetables since the sauce is versatile and really would taste delicious with most veggies.

I usually serve these kebobs over rice, but they would also be great served with salad or alongside some more vegetables, like some grilled corn.

The most important thing to remember when you’re making this recipe is that the other vegetables can’t be taller than the cuts of steak – and that the cuts of steak need to be equal. Particularly if you are cooking on a grill pan, which is requiring direct heat, if you have one large mushroom or one large piece of beef, that other piece of steak won’t get cooked enough since it won’t be touching the grill pan. This is less important if you are using an actual grill.

If I’m making these in our grill pan, I actually usually grill the steak and vegetables individually in two batches since our grill pan isn’t long enough for the kebob sticks. Either way, Matt and I can’t get enough of the juicy bites of steak and glazed veggies!

Recipe from Cook This, Not That!.
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I wanted to make Matt a special breakfast treat during his birthday week so I dug into my Brunch at Bobby’s cookbook to get the recipe for these Pineapple Upside Down Pancakes. Ironically, after I had already scheduled these in my Lemon & Mocha calendar, Matt picked this cookbook and this recipe as what we should make in March for our monthly new cookbook challenge.

I guess I was spot on when I thought he would like the recipe! I’ve actually already cooked from Brunch at Bobby’s though (check out these Cast Iron Home Fries with Creamy Garlic Dressing!), so I had Matt pick another cookbook anyways.

These are fluffy pancakes that have little chunks of caramelized pineapple inside and get topped with a warm pineapple maple butter syrup. Yum! When you pour the pancake batter onto your frying pan or skillet you then add a couple pieces of pineapple and a sprinkling of sugar so that when the pancake gets flipped, the sugar caramelizes right on the exposed pineapple chunk.

I did have to adapt this recipe from Bobby Flay’s cookbook version because his pancake batter recipe let me down. The batter was too thin and as soon as I put it in my frying pan I knew it wouldn’t make the big fluffy pancakes that I wanted. So instead, I used the sour cream pancake base from my The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook, which have the perfect pancake texture and taste. Don’t worry – they don’t taste like sour cream! It just helps to keep the pancakes moist and light.

The best part of the whole recipe, though, was the simple pineapple maple butter syrup. Butter, maple syrup and pineapple chunks get cooked together to make a velvety sauce that you will want to drizzle over all your pancakes. And your waffles. And even your french toast. Maybe even on an actual pineapple upside down cake! Which I’ve never made before, but after having these Pineapple Upside Down Pancakes taste so good it’s on my list to try soon! Enjoy!

Pancake recipe adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks.
Syrup recipe from and pancake recipe adapted from Brunch at Bobbys.
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My go-to diner order is a tuna melt. I love tuna fish and when it’s sandwiched between two toasty slices of bread along with some gooey melted cheese I’m in heaven. I had some leftover egg roll wrappers from the Baked Barbecue Chicken Egg Rolls and when I was brainstorming what I could make with them I thought of my favorite diner food. Skinnytaste turned me on to baked egg rolls with the Southwest Turkey Baked Egg Rolls from her cookbook and I’m constantly thinking of new variations.

I stuffed the egg roll wrappers with cheddar cheese and a quick tuna salad I made with canned tuna, mayonnaise, scallions and fresh ground black pepper. Then I baked them until they were crispy and crunchy on the outside and had the perfect melted cheese in the middle.

As I mentioned in my Pasta Tuna Salad post (if you love tuna fish then you will go nuts for that dish!), Matt does not like tuna fish so I made these for myself for lunch. This is a small batch recipe as it only uses one can of tuna fish to make two servings. You could certainly make more if you are making it for more people, but I would not recommend saving them for leftovers as they taste best fresh from the oven.

Now that I have those Goat Cheese Spinach Pesto Egg Sandwiches on my mind from Wednesday I’m thinking I missed an opportunity to put some everything but the bagel seasoning on the top of the egg roll wrappers just for some added flavor. I’m not sure if you’ve ever had tuna fish on an everything bagel, but it is so good. There’s this place I used to order from at work that would make a tuna melt on an everything bagel with some of the bagel scooped out so it would get nice and crispy. Like these egg rolls! Minus the everything but the bagel seasoning, but maybe next time!

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Friends, we have another epic sandwich on our hands and I’m having trouble containing myself yet again. This little breakfast sandwich is savory, creamy, tangy and a whole lot of deliciousness.

My inspiration for this sandwich came from a little weekday date Matt and I had. There is a cafe near Matt’s office and a couple months ago we had lunch there together. I got this crazy delicious egg sandwich with spinach, pesto, goat cheese and pickled red onions on a buttery roll. I’ve been craving it ever since so I decided to re-create my own.

Instead of keeping all the components separate I made the pesto with spinach and goat cheese. I’ve made spinach pesto before, but I’ve never used goat cheese in my pesto. Oh my goat cheese heavens! It made the pesto so creamy and gave it the consistency of almost a pesto spread. Which could not be more perfect since it gets spread right onto these toasted kaiser rolls. These are the same rolls from the Barbecue Meatloaf Sandwiches with Caramelized Onions and I used the same egg wash method with everything but the bagel seasoning since I’m channeling breakfast. You really could eat this sandwich for any meal, but I wanted to include some of those breakfast flavors since we’re working with eggs.

Next, we have the scrambled egg patty. You could scramble your eggs in a pan, but if you cook the egg in a ramekin in the microwave then it will be the perfect shape for egg sandwiches. Finally, after being slathered with goat cheese spinach pesto, it gets topped with some tangy Quick Pickled Red Onions and some additional creamy goat cheese. Yum!

Okay, back to the goat cheese spinach pesto because I’m still not done talking about it. The recipe below makes more pesto than you will need for the sandwiches, which is amazing because then you can either a) make even more sandwiches with it or b) use it on everything for the next few days. I had the pesto on chicken, mixed in with rice, on turkey sandwiches and stirred into pasta with shrimp. I couldn’t get enough of it and was very sad when we used it all up. I guess that just means I have to make it again soon!

 

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This recipe for Quick Pickled Red Onions has to be the easiest recipe I’ve ever posted on Lemon & Mocha. Which is perfectly okay because easy is great. Easy means you can make these mild and tangy pickled red onions anytime you want! Especially when there’s only five ingredients and those five ingredients are water, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt and red onion so it really doesn’t get much more simple than that.

The reason pickled red onions are so amazing is because they bring the perfect amount of acid to a dish. Remember the Thai Peanut Chicken Tacos? The addition of pickled red onions helps burst through the rich and savory peanut flavors to bring some much needed brightness to each bite.

Aside from tacos, my other favorite way to eat pickled red onions is on a salad. When I have a batch of them in the fridge it’s such an easy topping to throw on my salads for an added crunch and punchy flavor. Putting pickled red onions on grilled cheeses and grilled sandwiches is another favorite in our house. I’m sure there’s plenty of other delicious ways to use pickled red onions, but after some tacos, salads and a few sandwiches ours are already used up so I haven’t experimented with other uses!

To make pickled red onions you heat water, apple cider vinegar, sugar and salt in a small saucepan. Once the sugar has dissolved – it’s only 1 1/2 teaspoons – you pour the warm mixture over the thinly sliced onions in a bowl. Let them sit for one hour and then you’re well on your way to effortlessly taking your meals up a notch!

 

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