Chili, The Weekend Pizza Pocket, and a Deconstructed Sandwich

I've always wanted to make chili for the longest time, but never had the guts to do it I suppose. It's just one of things that seems like a daunting task until you actually do it. So I did it :) Instead of ground beef, I bought a flank tip steak and chopped it up into bite size pieces (my family doesn't like to buy ground meat...I guess we're paranoid about contamination) and browned it with onions in a hot pan for about 5 minutes. Then, I added red/green/yellow bell peppers, V8 juice, and mixed beans. Threw in some garlic cloves, bay leaves, and chili powder and let it simmer for 45 minutes.

It turned out okay, but my roommate said it was really good so I'll trust him on that :P I just felt there was something missing, so next time I think I'm going to make it from scratch (without the V8 juice). However, it was super easy and quick to make, and has been added to my repertoire :D

This weekend, I decided to make grilled cheese sandwiches just like I had back in the days of camping haha. I packed Monterey Jack cheese, pasta sauce, and cilantro in between two pieces of olive bread, and minced garlic to spread on the outside of the olive bread. I pan fried them on med-low heat, sprinkling oregano, salt, and pepper on top. The meal kinda doesn't match well with the whole 'eat healthy' thing I've been doing, but it was just one of those days where you give in haha. For three sandwiches.

For dinner I worked on my pan-fried fish (in this case, salmon) topped with a salsa made of onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives. I planned to have the salmon sitting on top of the salsa, sitting nicely on top of the rice (like I would imagine it in a restaurant), but that didn't really work out... Not bad though, just needed some salt.

Finally, I threw together a spinach/cilantro omelette, olive bread, and chopped vegetables today for a Deconstructed Sandwich. Now, it's not just my fancy name for this dish, because as I ate it, I would sometimes take a bite of each ingredient or I would build a mini open-faced sandwich playing with the order of the layers of food (wow that was a long sentence). In other words, I played with my food because I'm still very a much a kid at the dinner table.

(For my omelette I use two eggs and I add egg white for extra protein and volume of food)