Spicy Rosemary Popcorn

 

This is inspired by the lovely Kris Carr. It is seriously addictive.

3T Coconut Oil
1/2 Cup popcorn kernels
3 T Olive Oil
2T Minced fresh rosemary
2T Nutritional yeast
Pinch of Cayenne
Salt to taste

Rosemary Oil
Combine the oil and rosemary in a heavy small saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

 

Popcorn:

Add 3 tbsp. of coconut oil to a heavy 3-quart saucepan

 

Pour 1/2 cup of popcorn kernels into the pan. Place a lid on top of the saucepan.
 

Shake the saucepan to coat the popcorn kernels with the oil.

 

Place the saucepan on a stove top burner at medium-high heat. Shake the saucepan occasionally until the kernels begin to pop.
 

Lift the saucepan slightly above the heat and continue to shake it while the kernels pop. Hold the lid in place carefully to avoid spilling the popcorn.
 

Remove the popcorn from the heat source when you hear 2 to 3 seconds between each popping sound. Leave the lid on for 1 minute or until the popping stops.
 

Remove the lid from the saucepan. Pour the popcorn into a large bowl.

Pour rosemary over popcorn along with the yeast, cayenne and salt. Toss to coat and enjoy!


 

 

Bobby Flay Does it Again: Grilled Chicken Wings with Spicy Chipotle Hot Sauce and Blue Cheese-Yogurt Dipping Sauce

Oh yum. We haven't been impressed with our local wing place (although I want to find their fry recipes...drool), so we decided to try making them ourselves. Since it was our 1st try, we turned to good ol' Bobby Flay. We were very pleased. The dipping sauce was perfect, although I used sour cream. We both could have used more heat also, so I will kick it up some.

Try it. You won't be sorry.

And for those of you with kids, we left out the hot sauce mixture and just let them dip the chicken and veggies in the blue cheese dipping sauce.

Grilled Chicken Wings with Spicy Chipotle Hot Sauce and Blue Cheese-Yogurt Dipping Sauce

46 chicken wings

Vegetable oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Chipotle Hot Sauce, recipe follows

Blue Cheese-Yogurt Dip, recipe follows

Heat grill to high. Toss wings in a few tablespoons of oil and season with salt and pepper. Place on the grill in single layers and grill until golden brown on both sides and just cooked through, about 4 to 5 minutes per side.

Chipotle Hot Sauce:
1 1/2 cups red wine vinegar

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 to 3 tablespoons chipotle pepper puree (depending on how spicy you like it)

3 tablespoons honey

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces

2 tablespoons ancho chile powder

Whisk together the vinegar, Dijon mustard, chipotle puree, honey, and oil in a medium bowl. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Melt butter in a large skillet or a large pot on the grates of the grill. Add the hot sauce mixture and bring to a boil. Whisk in the ancho chile powder and season with salt, to taste. Add the wings and cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes. Serve with Blue Cheese-Yogurt Dip

Blue Cheese-Yogurt Dip:
1 pint thick Greek yogurt

3/4 cup crumbled domestic blue cheese

2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion

3 tablespoons finely sliced scallions

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Easy Spicy Sesame Chicken with Scallion Rice-RR Inspiaration

So, I got the new Rachel Ray mag and saw a recipe that I figured I could tweak to us and what I had on hand. It was a keeper for sure!

Scallion Rice:

1 package boil in a bag Jasmine Rice (hey, I am a busy mom and have my own business, some stuff has to be easy!)

4 Cups chicken broth

1 bunch scallions chopped

Cook rice according to directions but sub brother for water. Drain and place in bowl. Sprinkle with scallions and fluff with fork.

Chicken:

1 pound chicken tenders

2 bell peppers (any color you have) seeded and sliced thin

3 T tamari

3T honey

1 T garlic chili sauce

1 T Cajun mustard (you can use any Dijon)

2 t sesame oil

1 t chili sauce

sesame seeds

small handful of snow pea sprouts, trimmed

After seasoning the chicken lightly to your taste, grill until done. :) Easy, huh? Set Aside

Saute peppers in oil of your choice (we used olive) for about 2-3 minutes.

In a bowl, mix together tamari through chili sauce

Toss the chicken and peppers in the sauce and place in top of rice. Drizzle left over sauce if any on top. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and snow pea sprouts. Enjoy.

Berries Berries Everywhere!

Read here about where we got these berries!

In short, we went to a farm and came back with 2 pounds of blackberries and 5 pounds of blueberries. Not too bad, huh?

So far we have made blackberry limeade (drool, Chef Eva at the farm mentioned gave me that recipe), blueberry jam, and some ice cream toppings. The kids have pretty much enjoyed eating them as they cleaned the berries for me. No complaining here.

Another recipe we made was chipotle-blueberry chutney. This is pretty versatile. I could see it at Christmas just put over cream cheese and served with crackers. We put it over chicken one night and used leftovers wrapped in a tortilla and goat cheese. It isn't the prettiest meal, but it is pretty darn tasty with a kick from the chipotles (and next time I plan to kick it up even more). This is really worth giving it a shot.

Chipotle-Blueberry Chutney

Ingredients
4 cups fresh blueberries

1 cup finely chopped apple

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup honey

1 t ground mustard

2 T chopped canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (about 2 chiles)

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Salt and pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 25 minutes or until thick, stirring frequently. Cool; pour into airtight containers.

Red Chili and Pecan Slaw-spicy and healthy

I needed a side to go with a horseradish pepper pork roast I had purchased. So I headed over to the self website to get inspiration. I had packaged cabbage mix, so my salad was not as pretty as it could have been with the cabbage suggested. But either way, it was pretty darn good. Seriously.

Red Chili and Pecan Slaw courtesy of Self Magazine

Dressing

32 oz nonfat vegetable stock, divided

2 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced

1 clove garlic

1/2 shallot, chopped

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/4 cup sweet Thai chile sauce, such as Mae Ploy

1/4 cup apple cider (or rice wine) vinegar

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Slaw

1/4 cup pecan pieces

1/2 tsp dark chili powder

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 lb red cabbage, shredded

1/4 lb green cabbage, shredded

1 small green bell pepper, cored, seeded and thinly sliced

1 small red bell pepper, cored, seeded and thinly sliced

1 small yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded and thinly sliced

Stir 1/2 cup vegetable stock with cornstarch in a measuring cup until blended. Bring remaining 28 ounces stock to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to a simmer and slowly whisk in stock-cornstarch mixture. Stir rapidly until stock is the consistency of olive oil. (It should cling to the back of a spoon.) Cool to room temperature, skim off and discard any film on top. Place cumin seeds in a dry sauté pan over medium-high heat. Stir until aroma of seeds is released, about 1 minute. Blend 1/4 cup stock in a blender with cumin seeds and remaining dressing ingredients until smooth. (Refrigerate or freeze leftover stock.) Heat oven to 350º. Combine pecans, chili powder and oil in a mixing bowl; toss to coat pecans. Place nuts on a cookie sheet and roast until the aroma of the chili powder is released, 3 to 4 minutes. Combine dressing and slaw ingredients in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
168 calories per serving, 9 g fat (1 g saturated), 21.7 g carbs, 4.4 g fiber, 3.2 g protein

Cedar Plank Salmon with Spicy (and I mean spicy) Asian Slaw

Ok. Yum!

This recipe is estimated so adjust to your taste. Something that Chad and I decided on together. He created the salmon marinade with some help from me and in returned he helped me tweak the Asian slaw.

We went way more spicy than usual on the salad, since the kids had their own dinner planned (plus they had the first part of the salmon last night and didn't want fish again). These measurements are totally estimated since we adjusted everything to our taste, so be brave and do the same. :)

Salmon:

After soaking a cedar plank in water for about 2 hours, Chad prepped the marinade:

(about)

1 salmon fillet

1/4 C soy sauce (reduced sodium)

1T fresh grated ginger

1 t minced garlic

1 t brown sugar

1 t chili sauce

salt and pepper to taste

We marinated it for about an hour.

Allow the plank to smoke on the grill for about 5 minutes, flip the plank and place fish on plank. Close grill and remove when it easily flakes.

Spicy Asian Slaw:

I bag finely shredded coleslaw blend

1/4 box rice sticks broken up (this was all we had and a last minute addition)

1/2 C rice wine vinegar

3T soy sauce (reduced sodium)

3T dark sesame oil

1T crushed red pepper flakes (if you prefer not as spicy reduce this amount)

1/2 T ginger

a handful of sliced scallions

a pinch of sugar

salt and pepper to taste

Handful of cashews (optional)

Water chestnuts (optional)

In a large bowl place rice sticks on the bottom and top with slaw.

In a microwave safe bowl, combine everything from vinegar to sugar (taste and adjust to your liking).. Microwave for about 25-35 seconds. Just enough to blend the flavors.

Pour mixture over slaw and gently toss. Top with cashews and water chestnuts if you like.

Refrigerate for at least an hour.

Enjoy!

Caribbean Taco Salad

I saw this recipe on the JENNIE-O TURKEY STORE website and had to try it. The only difference I made was I whipped up a homemade taco seasoning because we rarely have packaged on hand. You NEED to try this. I made a non-spicy batch for the kids and it was gone.

Oh, only 300 calories. Cool, huh?

Ingredients
Shells:
4 10-inch whole wheat flour tortillas
Olive oil cooking spray
Salad:
1 20-ounce package JENNIE-O TURKEY STORE Extra Lean Ground Turkey
1 1.25-ounce package reduced-sodium taco seasoning mix
2 tablespoons water
1 mango, peeled, pitted and chopped (about 1 cup)
3/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
3 tablespoons finely chopped green onion
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon grated lime peel
2 cups firmly packed spinach leaves
Preparation: Preheat oven to 425°F. Invert four, 10-ounce custard cups onto 15- by 10- by 1-inch baking pan. Spray outside of cups and one side of each tortilla with cooking spray. Place tortillas, oiled side up, over cups. Bake 4 to 6 minutes or until lightly browned. In medium skillet, brown turkey until no longer pink and cooked through. Add taco seasoning mix and water. Cook over low heat 3 to 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Meanwhile, in medium bowl, stir together the mango, bell pepper, green onion, cilantro and lime peel to make salsa. Place taco shells on serving plates. Divide spinach leaves evenly into shells. Top with cooked turkey and salsa.

Asian Nachos with Wasabi Cream Cabbage (Plus a Side of Jasmine Rice)

We had left over wontons from this . So we decided to try an Asian Nacho for the grown ups. The kids used the same topping as filling in gyoza (they dipped them in a sesame ginger dressing).

But for us adults:

Preheat over to 350
Cut wontons into triangles and fry (I used peanut oil simply because Paula Dean uses it. Haha. ) until golden. Drain and set aside on a cookie sheet.
In a large bowl combine 1 pound ground pork
2T Soy Sauce (I use low sodium)
2T ginger (I used the ginger in a tube, didn't have fresh on hand)
2 stalks of celery and 2 carrots finely chopped by hand or in food processor
3 chopped chives
And for the grownups...a good helping of crushed red pepper flakes. Yum.

Once combined cook in large skillet until done.
Drain pork mixture and top each wonton chip with a good helping.
Top lightly with mozzarella or any white cheese and bake for about 8 minutes until cheese is lightly melted.

In a small bowl combine a cup of shredded cabbage (or slaw mix) with:
2T mayo
3T sour cream (I use fat free)
1T wasabi paste (adjust to taste)

Top each nacho with wasabi cabbage and enjoy!





(I just used a fast cook jasmine mix topped with soy sauce).

Chipotle Pork Chops with a Spicy Side

Chad likes when I throw together a meal vs follow a recipe. Since we have a new grill I figured it would be nice to use it...even if it WAS snowing. Haha.

The pork (there were two chops) was marinated in (about):

4 T olive oil

3T fresh lime juice

1T minced garlic

3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce chops with seeds with about a teaspoon adobo sauce

pepper to taste

(set aside some for side dish)

Ready to grill after marinated for an hour. Drizzled with a Chipotle Drizzle Sauce

Spicy Side:

1 ear grilled corn

1 can black beans drained

1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes drained

1 diced avocado

marinade blend

chopped green onion

salt and pepper

cilantro