It’s been one ugly heat wave these past couple days. UGLY! 100 degree weather days have been beating down hard on us in SoCal. We even had an odd thunderstorm out of the blue and it totally reminded me of Florida due to the humidity and heat. These past couple of days, I haven’t really been inspired to cook or been motivated to do much in the kitchen hence the lack of blog posts these past couple of days. When the weather puts you in a funk - your cooking is in a funk, too.
Darn the rollercoaster of cooking because this was one recipe that brought me out of my kitchen funk. It’s quite beautiful and easy to prepare. I did dare use my oven for less than 30 minutes, but it was needed to roast the sweet potatoes, poblano peppers and corn – it smelled like sweet heaven, too. While the vegetables were roasting, you quickly prepare the ground turkey and black bean mixture with my favorite spice – cumin. The dressing is similar to a ranch dressing with a bit of a chipotle kick. Then add the toppings mixed with the romaine lettuce and eat your little heart out!
This is almost like a taco salad because it’s a little fiesta that you must dig into ASAP! Definitely a fantastic and healthy meal whenever the icky weather puts you down and brings you straight back to high cooking spirits.
Charred Corn Chop Salad
Adapted from Clean Eating August/September 2011
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
2 cups fresh corn kernels (about 4 ears corn)
1 medium pasilla or poblano pepper, seeded and cut into ¼ inch cubes
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into ¼ inch cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ pound ground turkey
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
½ cup sour cream, low-fat
½ cup buttermilk
½ teaspoon chipotle Chile powder
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced, white and green parts
4 cups of romaine hearts, chopped finely
½ cup Mexican cheese (combo of Monterey and Cheddar)
1 avocado, diced
Preparation:
Season with salt and pepper. Place mixture into a large jelly roll sheet pan and roast for 30 minutes. Make sure to toss the vegetables every 10 minutes, until corn and pasilla begin to char and sweet potato softens.
In a large sauté pan over medium heat, cook the turkey until browned. Add a tablespoon of water or cooking wine to scrape the browned bits from the bottom. Add cumin and black beans and stir to combine. Cover, reduce heat to low and keep warm until ready to serve.
Prepare dressing. In a small bowl, whisk the sour cream, buttermilk, Chile powder and white parts of green onions. Cover with saran wrap until ready to use, and place in fridge.
Remove vegetables from oven and let cool slightly. Divide romaine among serving plates, and top with ground turkey mixture and corn mixture, dividing evenly. Sprinkle with green parts of the green onions, garnish with grated cheese and chopped avocados, and top with dressing.
Yield: 4 servings
Nutritional Factor: (2 cups romaine, ½ cup turkey-bean mixture, ½ cup vegetables, 3 tablespoon dressing)
Calories: 470; Total Fat: 11g; Carbs: 61g. Fiber: 10g; Sugars: 13g; Protein: 31g; Sodium: 220 mg; Cholesterol: 40mg
Review: Absolutely tasty and a very filling meal. Definitely not your typical taco salad, but with a spicy and sweet twist. Anything with sweet potatoes usually wins me over, and the creamy chipotle dressing cooled it down, too.
What a beautiful Monday it is. It’s been incredibly hot and humid these past couple days, nothing like the beach and pool-time can’t cure. I’m a couple shades tanner than normal, and loving summertime festivities. I really don’t think Fall weather will be apparent in SoCal until late October and until then I will take full advantage of all the wonderful summer-ish things.
One of my favorite summer foods that I been eating non-stop are tomatoes. My tomato garden has thrived, and has been very bountiful and sadly they are slowly withering away. It’s sad to see them not producing, but we have had our fair share of tomato-based dishes these past couple of months. I have had my eye on this dish since the beginning of summer, and I have neglected to make it earlier. Please make this if you still have tomatoes and you will be oohing in delight.
It’s a perfect Meatless Monday dinner of beautiful heirloom tomatoes on top of a tart with ricotta and mozzarella cheese.
Simple and delicious!
Adapted from Ezra Pound Cake
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
1 recipe Basil-Garlic Tart Dough (recipe follows)
8 ounces sliced mozzarella
8 ounces ricotta cheese, drained
1 teaspoon fresh Italian Parsley
2 large, ripe tomatoes (about 1 pound), cored and cut crosswise into thin slices
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Preparation:
Prepare the dough, and press it into a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl combine the drained ricotta cheese and chopped parsley together. Spread a layer of the mixed ricotta on the bottom of the tart shell and then layer the mozzarella.
Arrange the tomatoes over the cheese in a ring around the edge of the tart and a second ring in the center. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil.
Bake until the crust is golden brown and the cheese has started to brown in spots, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on a rack for at least 5 minutes before slicing. (The tart may be covered and kept at room temperature for 6 hours.)
⅓ cup fresh basil leaves
2 garlic cloves
1 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 8 to 10 pieces
4-5 tablespoons ice water
Place the basil and garlic in the work bowl of a food processor. Process, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, until finely chopped. Add flour and salt; pulse to combine.
Add butter. Pulse about 10 times, or until the mixture resembles pea-sized crumbs.
Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing several times after each addition. After 4 tablespoons water have been added, process the dough for several seconds to see if the mixture forms a ball. If not, add remaining water. Process until dough forms into a ball. Remove dough from processor.
Flatten the dough into a 5-inch disk. Wrap it in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (The dough can be placed in a zipper-lock plastic bag and refrigerated for several days or frozen for 1 month. If frozen, defrost the dough in the refrigerator.)
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into a 12-inch circle. Lay the dough over the tart pan, and press it into the pan. Trim the dough, and proceed with the recipe as directed.
Review: Pure deliciousness and a perfect dinner. I paired this with a simple mixed greens salad. Easy and simple dinners are my favorite thing about summer. How will Fall dishes fare? Luckily, I still have another month or so to change it up!
Oh wonderful Friday, thank goodness you are back. I have missed you.
Normally I like to end my Friday with a rather sweet and delicious foodie post, but I have been enjoying these scrumptious muffins all week long. If you still have plenty of zucchini from your garden, you need to make these muffins. These muffins are combination of zucchini and banana bread with a little bit of flaxseed. Flaxseed doesn’t sound right at all, but it’s healthy for you. That’s all you need to know, it’s fiber-iffic.
These are perfect for breakfast, a snack, or just because you want a muffin. It’s my darn sweet tooth that I try to fight off those sugar cravings. This is perfect for those “omg-gimme-sweets-carbs-of-fun” moments. You’ll be surprised that there is no vegetable oil or butter used in this recipe. I was a little leery that the recipe had an error, but there the magic lies within the fruits. The shredded zucchini bits and ripe ole bananas helps with the moisture of the muffin, and it gives its fantastic flavor.
Healthy and totally delicious!
Adapted from Everyday Food
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup ground flaxseed
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 ½ cups grated zucchini (from 1- 2 large zucchini)
1 to 2 mashed bananas (about ⅓ cup)
6 ounces Greek yogurt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add your muffin liners to the pan.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, flaxseed, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add zucchini and banana and stir to combine.
In the bowl of the stand mixer, mix the egg, milk and vanilla extract,. With the speed on low, slowly add the flour mixture to wet mixture until combined.
Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan and transfer to cooling rack. Cool completely before placing in an airtight container.
Yield: 18 muffins
Review: Yum, and these totally hit the sweet spot whenever that 10am morning craving came in. My typical breakfasts include eggs and coffee, and so it was nice to add a little bit of healthy carbs. Plus, I had leftover cream cheese frosting, and I might have added some on half the muffins…just for a sweeter taste.
Monday mornings are sometimes blues-y and so-so. It’s probably because you had so much fun over the weekend that you have a slight hangover of how tired you are. Or maybe you are still thinking about all those errands/chores/last-minute stuff that you have to do. Mondays are not blues-y or so-so at all to me because I now look forward to enjoying Meatless Mondays – it’s a nice change on meal planning for the two of us.
I saw this on Cate’s food blog and I knew instantly that it would be perfect for a MM dinner. I’m so in love with Mediterranean flatbreads and have been substituting them as my bread for whenever I make sandwiches. Plus, it helped that I had most of the ingredients - I had a couple cans of garbanzo beans already in the pantry that I was supposed to use for hummus. I knew that hummus would wait another week to be made.
This is one fantastic dish that I absolutely loved to pieces. I loved it so much that I ate it everyday for lunch for an entire week. No joke. The garbanzo burgers had made plenty and I was not tired of it at all because the sweet roasted pepper (muhammara) dip was out of this world. I could have ate the dip by itself! These burgers reminds me of falafels that I had made before but I prefer these garbanzo burgers more – oh so tasty and madly addicting. I topped my garbanzo burgers with romaine lettuce, tomatoes from the garden and feta cheese.
Happy Meatless Monday.
Garbanzo Burgers with Muhammara Sauce
Adapted from Cate’s World Kitchen Burgers & Sauce
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
2-15 ounce cans of chickpeas/garbanzo beans, drained
4 large eggs
½ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 onion, chopped
grated zest of one lemon
1 cup bread crumbs
1 tablespoon olive oil
Fillings: Lettuce, tomatoes, feta cheese, muhammara sauce (definite must - Recipe below)
Flatbreads or pita breads
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place a piece of parchment paper or silpat on a large jelly roll pan.
In a food processor, pulse the chickpeas, eggs and salt until the mixture is similar to a chunky hummus. Pour mixture into a large bowl and stir in the chopped cilantro, onions, and lemon zest.
Stir in the bread crumbs and mix until combined. Let it sit for a couple of minutes so the mixture can absorb the moisture. If needed, add more bread crumbs. Using your hands, form about 20 small burger patties about ½ inch thick and place on prepared pan.
Bake in oven for 15 to 17 minutes, until the slightly crisped.
Muhammara
Ingredients:
1 dried chile de arbol or 1-2 teaspoon chile de arbol
½ cup chopped walnuts, toasted and cooled
¼ cup bread crumbs
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
1 red bell pepper, roasted until soft, then peeled
juice of 1 lemon
½ cup warm water
salt to taste (usually about ¼ teaspoon)
Combine everything except the water in a blender and pulse until well-mixed. Add the water gradually until the mixture is slightly thinner than hummus (add extra water if needed). Add salt to taste
Prepare your burgers by placing a couple garbanzo patties on a warmed flatbread, add your desired toppings and make sure to add a hefty drizzle of muhammara sauce. ;-)
Review: Muhammara (Moo-HAHM-mer-ah)…it so fun to say outloud, too. Absolutely fantastic, and one of my favorite Meatless Monday meals to date.
I’m a planner. I like to make lists for almost everything that you can think about: grocery lists, my blog-wish list, my to-do list for the week, and my menu list for the week. I guarantee you will find scraps of paper floating around in my purse on any of those lists. I really try to be organized most of the time, and sometimes my endless lists are helpful at times.
Some recipes that I want to make are prioritized by the amount of ingredients that I need to buy versus what I already have in stock. Meaning if I have most of the ingredients, I will make that recipe for dinner that week. Luckily for this dinner, I had found some leftover pork loin in the freezer so it didn’t get pushed back because I would have waited until the pork tenderloin was on sale. The hard to find item was the Hawaiian papaya, my local grocery store did not carry it, and I found Mexican papaya at one of the specialty international markets.
This was a fantastic find from my new favorite magazine, Clean Eating. I already stuck a to-do cook list on the cover of the magazine, too. This dish was easy to prepare, and a nice combination of sweet and savory. I’ve only had papaya as as shake or eaten by itself. The sweetness of the papaya compliments the Thai-marinated pork loin paired with the light whole-wheat couscous.
Enjoy!
Thai Pork & Papaya with Whole-Wheat Couscous
Adapted from Clean Eating July 2011
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup whole-wheat couscous
1 medium onion, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated finely
1 teaspoon garam masala
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ pound pork tenderloin, sliced into ½ inch to 2-inch strips
Juice & zest of 1 lime
¼ cup minced cilantro
1 pound papaya, peeled, seeded and cut into ½ inch cubes
½ teaspoon black sesame seeds
Preparation:
In a medium pot over medium-high heat, bring 1 ½ cups of water to a boil. Add the couscous, cover with a lid and remove from heat. Let sit for 5 minutes, uncover and fluff with a fork. Set aside.
In a medium Dutch oven over medium heat, add the extra virgin olive oil. Sauté the onion and bell peppers until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, and cook for another minute. Add soy sauce, ginger and strips of pork, and let cook for 5 minutes. Stirring occasionally.
Remove skillet from heat and stir in lime juice and cilantro.
Place 1 cup couscous onto each of 4 plates. Top each with 2 oz. pork mixture, 1/2 cup papaya, and 1 Tbsp. skillet juices. Garnish with reserved papaya seeds if desired.
Yield: 4 servings
Review: Tasty and very delicious and a nice tropical dinner. Note to self: Find “Hawaiian papaya” to make this recipe AGAIN.
A couple summers ago, my husband and I had visited the beautiful island of Hawaii. It was one of our first big vacations somewhere fun and tropical. We spent 10 days in Oahu, and had the most amazing time with our friends. We went snorkeling in Hanauma Bay, enjoyed delicious dishes at Germaine’s Luau, had the best garlic shrimp scampi at Giovanni’s Shrimp truck, drank lava flows all night long, and we even had visited the Dole Plantation. Pineapples seem to trigger all the delightful memories of Hawaii.
Once I saw this dish in my recent Cooking Light magazine, it reminded me of the tropical summer getaway in Hawaii. Fresh pineapples are a sweet fruit to enjoy all by itself, but when paired with savory dishes – it complements them to a tee. This is a fantastic summer Asian-inspired dish and similar to the Chicken Satay dish from Thai restaurants. It’s pretty straightforward to put together for a weeknight dinner. You can prepare the chicken with or without the skewer if it’s easier for you, too.
Sweet and savory, and the sweet breeze of Hawaii.
Pineapple Chicken Satay
Adapted from Cooking Light - June 2011
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
¼ cup lower-sodium soy sauce
¼ cup sweet chili sauce
¼ cup crunchy peanut butter
2 teaspoons sesame oil
½ teaspoon curry powder
1 pound chicken breasts, cut lengthwise into 8 pieces
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
Cooking spray
1 ½ cups diced pineapple
⅓ cup red onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
⅛ ground cayenne pepper
Preparation:
In a small bowl whisk the soy sauce, sweet chili sauce and peanut butter together. Warm the sauce in microwave for 30 seconds if needed to combine the sauce. Set aside.
In a large bowl combine the sesame oil, curry powder and chicken tenders in a bowl. Toss to evenly coat. Thread chicken onto 6-inch skewers.
Heat a large grill pan with cooking spray. Add the garlic and let it sauté for 1 minute, then add the chicken until no longer pink.
In a small bowl, combine the diced pineapple, sliced red onion, chopped cilantro, and cayenne pepper. Toss to combine.
Serve the chicken with soy sauce-peanut mixture and ⅓ cup of the pineapple mixture over a bed of steamed rice.
Nutritional Factor: Cal: 330; Fat: 119g; Carb 22.7g; Fiber: 2.2g; Protein: 31.2g;
Servings: 4 servings (serving size 2 skewers, and ⅓ cup pineapple mixture)
Review: We loved everything about this dish. The sweet and hot combo is unbelievable - chicken dipped in a spicy peanut sauce and you instantly get cooled down by the pineapple salad. It seems that the pineapple has a way of absorbing the heat and then balancing it with the spicy peanut sauce to produce a superb combination of flavors. Nom-alicious!
I love Peanut Butter. Mmmmmm, it’s heaven-sent.
Peanut butter is one of my favorite foods to eat by the spoonful's. Creamy or crunchy peanut butter – I love it all. I can honestly say Eric and I have eaten our fair share of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner because it was one of the easiest things to prepare. Just saying.
Peanut butter for dinner is always an interesting way to get in more protein, and it’s a flavor that I love in anything sweet or savory. This dish reminded me of a childhood favorite, Kare-Kare. It’s a Filipino stew with peanut butter sauce and chicken and lots of other vegetables. I don’t have the recipe because I rather have my mom make it for me. (It’s not the same when you make it yourself!) This recipe was the healthy alternative and I loved the addition of asparagus, toasted coconut flakes and coconut milk. If you’re looking for more healthy dinner ideas, check out Marla’s Family Fresh Cooking blog.
Healthy and delicious!
Chicken With Coconut-Lime Peanut Sauce
Adapted from Family Fresh Cooking
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
1 ½ pounds Chicken Breast, cut into 1-inch pieces
½ medium onion, diced (about ½ cup)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
5 or 6 asparagus spears, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 1 cup)
½ cup light coconut milk
½ cup peanut butter
Juice from 1 lime
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
¼ teaspoon black pepper
⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 packet of truvia or sweetener of your choice
Garnishes: Chopped cilantro, peanuts, green onions, toasted unsweetened coconut flakes
Preparation:
In a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup, add the coconut milk and peanut butter. Place in the microwave and heat for 30 seconds or so. (Warming it will let you stir it around easier). Mix in the curry paste, lime juice, soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, truvia, and spices. Taste for seasonings, and add anything additional if needed.
In large skillet over medium heat, heat the extra-virgin olive oil. Sauté the onions and garlic until tender about 10 minutes. Add the chicken pieces and cook until no longer pink, about 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the sauce and partially cover and let it simmer for 5 minutes together. Add the asparagus during the last minutes of cooking time.
Serve over steamed white or brown rice and desired garnishments.
Review: This is a fantastic Asian-inspired chicken dish and almost like a peanut curry sauce. If you like chicken satay – this is very similar to that dish. I served it with chopped chives, and toasted coconut flakes. I didn’t have peanuts but that would have added a great texture as well to the dish.
