A few weeks ago, my Mom and I had an amazing girls weekend in Chicago – the purpose of the trip was wedding dress shopping – but we obviously managed to squeeze in a lot of good food. Priorities people!!

I took her to my favorite little juice bar for green juices (lemon, pear, parsley and cucumber was our favorite) and then we headed to Corner Bakery & Cafe to get something a little more substantial. (Shopping = hard work) We split the Anaheim Scrambler breakfast and it was so good that we had the exact same breakfast the next day: green juice + anaheim scramble. I knew I had to make it at home and I knew that the Taster would love it as much as we did. Healthy fats, lots of protein and whole grain bread. Now that’s what I call substance.

Anaheim Scramble - 2 servings

• 4 eggs
  
• 1/4 cup skim milk
  
• salt & pepper
  
• 2 slices bacon, chopped*
  
• 2 green onions, sliced
  
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1/2 avocado, sliced
  

Scramble eggs and milk in small bowl. Season with salt & pepper.

Add bacon to small pan and heat until browned. Add green onions, heat for about a minute and remove from heat.

Heat large pan over medium-low heat. Spray with cooking spray and add egg mixture, stirring slowly. When eggs start setting, add bacon and green onion mixture and tomatoes. Stir to combine and remove from heat once eggs are cooked through.

Serve with avocado slices and toast.

This dinner party started like all of the other dinner parties I have.

With prosecco. Prosecco with ume plum wine to be exact.  I was lucky enough to participate in an Annie Chun’s Dinner Party, which meant I was to host an Asian Dinner Party, choosing between Korean, Thai or Chinese fare. I decided to go with a Korean theme, mainly because the Korean Flank Steak recipe sounded amazing!

Menu

Starters: Chicken and Pork Pot Stickers, Rice Crackers & Roasted Seaweed

Main: Korean Flank Steak with Sticky Rice, Pickled Cucumber Salad and Sigumchi Namul (Korean Seasoned Spinach)

Dessert: Black Sticky Rice with Coconut Mango Ice Cream

This dinner party was a lot of fun to plan – with a little guidance from Annie Chun’s and plenty of creative room – I decided on a menu that like most of my dishes, is healthy, simple, full of vegetables and delicious as ever.

The starters were Pork and Chicken with Vegetable Pot Stickers served alongside some Rice Crackers and Roasted Seaweed for munching. (We did have a slight fiasco with the pot stickers sticking to the pan because I don’t think I used enough oil, but thankfully my guests didn’t judge me too much and they still tasted good!)

A marinade of Korean BBQ sauce and gochujang sauce flavored the Flank Steak impeccably, and the Taster cooked it to perfection! After some quick internet searches for some side dishes to go along with the Korean Steak I decided on a pickled cucumber salad (so simple!) and Sigumchi Namul. Both side dishes allowed me to do most of the prep work ahead of time and the great thing about spinach is that it literally takes 2 minutes to cook. Since there would be rice twice during the meal, I knew I wanted strictly veggie sides. The greens also add a beautiful contrast to the plate.

Dessert was easy. But I can’t really take credit for it. You see, desserts have never really been my strong point and I just happen to know someone who makes home-made ice cream in all sorts of flavors. Yes, home-made! So Kate made some Coconut Mango Ice Cream for me and I served it over the black sticky rice. The ice cream was great – not too sweet, with hints of mango and coconut. It really was the perfect ending.

It is actually quite rare for me to have dinner parties. I love to entertain, but because our table only seats 4 and our dishes are less than desirable, entertaining is usually limited to appetizers and cocktails. Since this was a bit of a special meal, I also wanted to really think about the table settings and decorations. Just like dessert, decorating is not something I really excel at so I wanted to keep it simple. Flowers and candles were easy, and always warm up a table; and the little cards on each place setting read Jalmukesumneda, which essentially means, I’m looking forward to this meal.

And I really was.

Annie Chun’s provided me with various products and compensation for other ingredients for hosting this dinner party.