Israeli Street Tacos

Fusion... usually code for "Nothing looks good so lets throw it all together and hope for the best"... Not this time folks! See I love Israeli food, and I love Mexican food. What's better than combining them?!

This may take some effort but I assure you it's well worth it....

Ingredients:

Olive Oil
a few springs of Thyme
1 Garlic Bulb
Green onions
1 lemon
salt/pepper
Parsley (flat leaf preferably but any will be fine)
Mint
Dill
Cilantro
ground Beef (try to go decent quality and around an 85/15 fat content)
1 cup chicken stock
1 sweet onion
a scant cup of bread crumbs (I just toasted some left over garlic bread and broke it down in a spice grinder)
cumin
capers
1 egg
Baharat (don't worry, recipe for that follows)
- 1 tsp black peppercorn
- 1 tsp coriander seed (I like a touch extra in mine)
- 1 small cinnamon stick, smashed into smaller pieces
- 4-5 whole cloves
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 2 tsp cumin seeds (again, I like more cumin, it's my favorite spice)
- 4 cardamom pods
- 1/2 nutmeg, grated

Naan bread
Greek yogurt
fresh diced tomato
Extra cilantro and mint



Instructions:

In a dry pan on mid heat put in all the baharat spices. Heat until you start to smell the aromatics release. It'll smell heavenly. Like a savory Christmas smell.

Put them in a spice grinder and let her rip!

In a bowl put ground beef, egg, baharat mix, bread crumbs, shredded or finely diced sweet onion, capers (chop them up if any bigger than a small corn kernel), cumin, and garlic cloves (finely diced up).

I like to use an Ulu for herbs. It's a traditional Alaskan knife used with a bowl or alone. They're extremely sharp and quite lovely. If you don't have that, put your herbs in a small cup and use kitchen scissors to give it a good mix and chop.

Add about 3/4 of your herbs along with salt and pepper to taste to your meat mixture and mix up well. Ball it up yo! About quarter sized balls are good. I put mine in a hotter than hell cast iron pan with a touch of oil and brown the outside, then add 1/2 - 1 cup of chicken stock, and put in an oven at 300 for about 20 minutes or until they're cooked and most of the liquid cooks out.

Grab some naan and toast or bake it to warm. I like the small naan breads myself. I'd tell you I make it from scratch but I have yet to find a good recipe that doesn't turn out terrible for me.

Mix some of your Greek yogurt with your remaining herbs, a touch of salt, and lemon juice.

Spread the yogurt mixture on your naan, smash up some meatballs on there, add your tomatoes, and sprinkle on some cilantro, green onions, and mint.

We like to add a bit of edamame for some green in there. That one is up to you.

So good... really... sooooo good!

Beans! Cuban Beans!

I felt the need to stock up on some extra iron this week so I went to an old standby my Mom used to make for me. Comfort food, ahh! 

It's simple and delicious and you'll love it! 

Ingredients: 

1 bag or 2 cans of black beans (if using dry, prepare as you normally would) 
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/4 cup diced onion
1 clove garlic, diced
2 packets Goya Sazon seasoning
1 bunch of cilantro, loose chopped
1 whole fresh tomato, diced
salsa verde
sour creme
sliced green olives
finely diced onion

1 cup rice per person (if using regular rice ratio is 2 parts water to 1 part rice, if making quick rice, follow the box) 

Placed the peeled and cubed potatoes in a decent sized pot and cover with water. Add in 2 packets of Sazon, 1/4 cup diced onion, and clove of garlic. Place on high and let boil for 5-10 minutes until the potatoes are about 3/4 cooked. You will see them change colors a bit. 

Add in the beans and cook until they're soft, anywhere from 5 - 15 minutes depending on the bean. You should have a nice dark broth with your beans and potatoes now. 

Remove from the heat and add in some cilantro. Taste and add salt if needed, but not too much if you like the olives (like I do). They add a good saltiness to it at the end. 

Place rice in the bottom of a nice deep bowl and ladle over the beans and potato. Add a nice dollop of sour creme in the middle, sprinkle on some tomato, salsa verde, onion, and olives. Sprinkle generously with cilantro! You can add some nice Jalapenos too if you like. Although I will say they tend to overpower the whole thing. I haven't figured out how to add enough to get the heat but not too much to kill the subtle flavor of the beans and potato. 

Here's what mine looked like. I forgot cilantro at the store (will be rectifying that tomorrow!) so imagine it on there for me. 

It was really delicious. The best part is for you preggers or anemic folks, the potato and tomato contains lots of nice vitamin C which is necessary to digest the iron in the beans! Tada! Healthy blood! It's a nice rounded meal with lots of good stuff for you and easy to make. You could even do it in the crock pot (or mini crock pot) if the mood struck. 

Dinner for 1

Going through my current "lifestyle change" has left me with the quandary of what to nourish my system with... Typically, this time of year I make at least one pot of soup a week and eat off that for a while... My housing situation has changed and I am not as free to make those decisions as I once was (and hope to be again in the not-too-distant future). I have been left with making GF pasta (which gets old really fast) or purchasing frozen dinners. Now, don't get me wrong, frozen dinners have come a long way from the cardboard crap of the past... With steam bags and trays, frozen dinners seem a mighty good (and healthy) option... However, with my dietary restrictions, I can only eat about 1/5 of the offerings, and of those 1/5, I usually only buy 1/4 based on my own tastes... You can see where things get challenging and I end up just going to McD's and getting a plain bacon cheeseburger...

Case in point - I purchased a potsticker entree for my lunch one day... It had red peppers in the "veggie mix" but I was willing to overlook that addition and just pick them out... I also neglected to read the KIND of potsticker that was listed on the front... Getting a tofu one instead of chicken or pork is kind of a let down... Since I was the stupid one who didn't read the package all the way, I made myself eat it... or at least I tried to eat it... The potstickers tasted like sweet and sour feet and the "veggie mix" was entirely made up of red peppers... Yuck!

I had an epiphany! I can purchase potstickers that I like, add some frozen brown rice, and the veggie mix of my choice and make my OWN frozen entree! So I got a small bag of chicken potstickers (a little bit healthier than the pork variety, but still tasty) and some already-frozen brown rice. I added about 1/2 cup of the brown rice to the bottom of a plastic container and added 3 potstickers on top (the # 3 came from the amount in the original "tofu" packaging). Then I topped off the container with broccoli. **IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT ALL THE INGREDIENTS STAY FROZEN... MAKE THESE, THEN EITHER MICROWAVE IMMEDIATELY OR PUT THEM BACK IN THE FREEZER**

Still frozen, with a bit of sauce added....

Now, I know that this is NOT a GF dish - the potstickers are made with flour... But since I'm allowing myself to eat the potstickers, I prefer to keep it "gluten-lite" and use teriyaki sauce made with tamari rather than soy... It's a personal preference. If you have a better "sauce" then by all means use it... Pour some over the potstickers (to add a bit of moisture to the skins while they cook) and a bit over the broccoli... Then put the lid on and stick it in the freezer for future use... Don't go overboard or your rice will be overloaded with teriyaki sauce and it probably won't be as good. BTW - Yoshida's sauce would probably be awesome on these!

Cooked, and ready to eat!

When you are ready to eat it, just open up one of the corners of the container to allow it to vent and microwave for around 5-6 minutes... This is very easy to put together and keeps well in the freezer. Great for a night when you are by yourself and don't have the time or inclination to cook a meal... And this way, you know pretty much what went in to it (other than the potstickers, of course) because you picked all the ingredients yourself. Season however you want... I typically add just a bit of black pepper...

Raid the Fridge Bruchetta

I can't remember if I've spilled the beans here yet or not but I'm about 18 weeks pregnant at this point. (Translation - a little over 4 months along) Although I'm not experiencing the "normal" pregnancy symptoms all the books seem to talk about (frankly I feel like I'm totally allergic to pregnancy), I am starting to get a bit more of an appetite. I was hungry this afternoon and my cravings seem to center around things with HUGE flavor and that stay rather healthy.  I think I got lucky on that one. Hopefully the little one feels the same way. Either way, I did some fridge diving and came up with an old favorite I haven't made in quite awhile. It's quick, easy, and requires very little cleanup. These are all big plus signs for me so I'm going to share in case you feel the same. :-) 

Easy Bruchetta

-  Nice thick Italian or French Bread, sliced on the diagonal - my slices ended up being    about 4 inches across - average 2 pieces per person

-  1 clove fresh garlic, smashed and diced

-  1/4 cup finely diced onion

-  8-10 fresh basil leaves (estimate, it's ok), julianned

-  2 nice tomatoes, diced small (this will make about 5-6 slices)

-  2 slices of Capicola ham per serving - you can probably substitute any cured meat here, we just like capicola

-  a good quality balsamic vinegar

-  a good quality extra virgin olive oil (I noticed the irony too)

-  a pinch or two of salt

-  fresh grated Parmesan (again, optional but fantastic!)

Mix together the tomato, basil, onion, garlic, and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. 

Lay the bread out on a cookie sheet or your toaster oven pan. I like the toaster oven because it's a little easier to control and way quicker. 

Spoon the tomato mixture onto the bread evenly across all slices. 

Chop up the Capicola and sprinkle on top of tomato mixture. 

Drizzle each slice with balsamic and olive oil in about equal amounts. 

Place under broiler (or on broil in toaster oven) for 5-6 minutes. Keep an eye on it and when the exposed bread turns a little golden it's ready. The Capicola will also start to bubble and get crisp. It's like bacon but better! 

Take out and using a spatula transfer to a plate. Grate some Parmesan on top and add just a pinch more salt to finish. Salt is optional but I think it's rather tasty with it combined with the tomato. 

My Description of one serving

How much I actually ate, and savored every bite!

You get your essential oils in the garlic and olive oil, some spice with the basil and balsamic,  vitamins in the tomato, and well other than that it's just good! It's a great lunch or dinner. It's also really good paired with some mixed greens with a little of the balsamic and oil drizzled on top. Add a dash of oregano and it become spectacular. 

Quinoa with Roasted Garlic, Tomatoes, and Spinach

Jessie has some quinoa in her panty and doesn't know what to do with it... So I decided to research a few quinoa recipes for her. I found one that interested me enough to try for dinner tonight. You can find the original recipe here, but I decided to modify it a bit. Mainly, I adjusted the roasted garlic part... Jessie told me to roast the garlic at 375 degrees for 25 minutes... Next time I should probably go for 30-35 minutes, but I'll play with that part of the recipe later...

Most of the ingredients... The garlic was in the oven and the quinoa was rinsed by the time I took this picture...

I rinsed the quinoa, also as per directions (it keeps it from getting bitter). Note: either use a SUPER-FINE mesh strainer or use a bowl and your hand to drain the quinoa... the mesh strainer I used had holes bigger than the grain, so a bit went down the sink...

Rinsed quinoa....

As the garlic was finishing, I sauteed the shallots and crushed red pepper. I didn't measure the shallots out, I just used the smaller part of the bulb.... I also didn't measure the crushed red pepper, just eyeballed it... Added the quinoa, as per the directions and then splashed it with some white wine (probably more than the recipe called for but, meh....)

Quinoa, shallot, & red pepper flake mix... after wine...

After the addition of the chicken broth....

Of course, when cooking with wine, it is customary to pour yourself a glass, or two (or three, I won't judge)...

Wine... yummy... I had to have an extra glass since Jessie cannot (preggers)

While the quinoa was cooking as per directions, I took the garlic out of the oven and let it sit for a bit....

Roasted Garlic

Another departure from the recipe - it calls for a chopped, seeded, small tomato... I chose to use grape tomatoes cut in half and NOT seeded... but that was purely my choice...

Halved Grape Tomatoes

When the quinoa was cooked, I added the tomatoes, spinach, and parmesan cheese and mixed it all together...

Mix it all together...

Note: you should probably taste the combination after you add the parmesan and before you add extra salt... I used "full-strength" chicken broth (and not the reduced sodium type) for the recipe... The parmesan is a bit salty on its own and the addition of salt after the parmesan was added was a bit too much for me... Still edible (and tasty), but not as amazing as it could have been...

If you are making this for a side, it makes 4 servings... If you are making it as a main dish (as I was), it makes two...

I will definitely make this recipe again, as it is light enough for the times when I don't want to eat a heavy dinner, and it has a lot of nutritional value... Apparently, quinoa is high in protein, so it is good for "meatless" nights... It is also awesome for any garlic lover... It is awesomely garlicky!

Fabulous 15 Minute French Onion Soup

Pregnancy. It comes with lots of stuff but for me its filled with nausea, food aversion, and weird cravings. Oh yeah, and insomnia. That's where this recipe came in.

We cancelled cable awhile back. We weren't watching it and quite frankly most times I don't miss it. We Netflix now. :) That being said, when you're awake at 2 am there is VERY little on in rural Mississippi. We have religious programming, infomercials, bad newscasts, and PBS Create network. That last one is a savior for me. They are like HGTV without the vapid ugly decorating whores. Mostly though, at night, they rerun the fantastic episodes of French Cooking with Jaques and Julia. This is perhaps my favorite show of all time.

The episode on was for many things like delicious Choux pastry from which cream puffs and wonderful turnovers and danishes were made (that to come later). They also made a wonderfully simple onion soup. So I have had this craving for 2 days now. It's easy, takes like no time at all and tastes wonderfu1!

Fabulous 15 Minute French Onion Soup (for one)

1/2 large onion, large diced
1 can or 1/2 carton good beef stock, I go with Swanson or Kitchen Basics
3 healthy slices of a good french or Italian bread, we had some for making deli sandwiches in the house (note: don't use loaf bread here, go splurge the $1-$3 at your local bakery for good bread. It's totally worth it)
 1 1/2 cups Cheese, it calls for Gruyere but I didn't have that so I mixed a nice salty goat cheese and parmigiano
salt and pepper to taste (liberal)
1-2 tbsp butter

Depending on the size of your pot, put in enough butter to cover the bottom thinly when heated. Turn heat to high and add in the onion.  Sprinkle on a decent amount of salt. Crush some peppercorns and add. Saute until the onions are translucent.

Add in the beef stock and bring up to a nice rolling boil. Reduce to medium heat and add in half the cheese. Stir constantly until melted. it only takes a minute or two. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper as needed. Remove from heat.

I used my toaster oven to toast the slices of bread. Break them up and put them in the bottom of a nice bowl or crock. Add the onion soup over the bread. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on the top. Put the whole bowl in the toaster oven on broil until the cheese bubbles.

Wait a few minutes, hot cheese burns your mouth. It's quite delicious!

I never knew it was quite that easy but it makes a nice easy meal for one or two! (Jeff goes sin cebolla)

Pumpkin Pie? Why yes please!

My friend Kadee sent me this recipe. I, of course, tweeked it to make it super delicious. And come on, who doesn't want to drink pie! 

Makes a wonderful easy treat while watching for trick-or-treaters. 


Ingredients:
1 cup pumpkin puree (I used what we had left from last years Halloween pumpkins I had painted)
1 very ripe medium-sized banana, you can use the frozen ones you forgot about in the freezer
1 

cup fat-free vanilla yogurt, my favorite is a greek style
2 tbsp honey (We were out of honey and the honey dude hasn't called me back so I used Karo Syrup)
1 cup milk or cream, you could use any sort of liquid that suits you, I just went off of the standard pie recipe

a splash of Mocha or Chocolate flavored coffee creamer, totally optional but why not?! 

3/4 tsp Penzey's Baking Spice
a splash of vanilla extract
a handful of crushed ice

Toppings:

Whipped Cream

Candy

Throw everything in a blender. Make sure you remember the lid. Throw that puppy on high speed and let her rip! 

Pour into a lovely glass, preferably with a straw. A scoop or squirt of whipped cream on top and your favorite tiny candy crumbles on top. Perfectly festive! 

Redemption Spelt Berry Apple Pear Salad

This isn't an original but it's my tweeked version of a recipe found here: 

http://kitchenkathleen.blogspot.com/2008/03/apple-and-spelt-berry-salad.html#

It's so delicious and reminds me of good times in Florida. It was a regular purchase from Native Sun when I lived there and I missed it so bad I went searching for the recipe. 

Apple, Pear, Spelt Berry Salad

1 cup cooked spelt berries
1 pear, large diced (any variety, I liked the green ones)
1 apple, large diced (any variety, I LOVE granny smith but used Gala because it was handy)
about 1/4 cup celery, sliced thin
1/2 cup dried cranberries, soaked in about 1/8 cup water to reconstitute a little
1/3-1/2 cup greek yogurt, plain or vanilla work
2 tbsp cream cheese
1 tbsp lemon juice
2.5 tbsp honey, sugar, or karo syrup (I used karo because I didn't have any honey left, but honey tastes better)
1/2 tsp Penzey's Baking Spice (or something similar

Cook the spelt berries. Boil 1.5 cups water and add  in 1/2 cup dry spelt berries. Cover and let simmer for about 40 minutes. Turn off heat, leave covered, let cool. 

Mix the wet ingredients together until kind of soupy. 

Toss together dry ingredients until mixed well, including spelt berries. 

Combine everything into a nice serving dish or storage container. 

Keeps in the fridge for about 5 days pretty well. After that it gets a little soggy. 

You can substitute something like a kamut berry or even some almonds, cashews, or walnuts if you can't find spelt. I just ordered mine from Vitacost.com. It's a great site and clicking through here should get you a free $10 credit! 

It's a perfect breakfast, meal, or snack. 

Cool Weather Grub!

Fall is DEFINITELY in the air here in Juneau. It was 36 degrees this morning when I took the hubby to work... You know what that means? I can FINALLY cook soups & stews for dinner! Yay! I am trying to convert my husband over to my way of thinking when it comes to the awesomeness that is a pot of delicious soup... He maintains that "soup is not dinner" but I can usually get him to eat stew or chili with few complaints.

Earlier today, I had a craving for lentil soup. To satisfy my craving, I went to the store to get ingredients while I had a bit of time between when I got off work and when Aaron got off work. While wandering the store, I saw a bag of baby yukon gold potatoes... and changed my mind (I just couldn't convince myself that I could successfully add potatoes to lentil soup). So I could use the potatoes that I immediately craved upon sight, and so I could get Aaron to eat it, I decided to make chicken stew.

Another good thing about soup weather? You don't really need a recipe... Just a good understanding of what tastes good together...

Heat some olive oil in a dutch oven (love my Lodge Enameled Cast Iron one). Cut one chicken breast into cubes, season with salt & pepper, and brown in the oil. When browned, remove the chicken and set aside. Add a bit more oil and then add one red onion, two stalks of celery, and two carrots (all chopped) and cook until the veggies start to soften. Add the baby yukon gold potatoes (roughly quartered, but it depends on the size of the potatoes... just make sure they are about the same size, but not too small, or they'll be mushy) and the chicken. Season with more salt, pepper, and about 1 tsp. of an herb blend (I used herbs de provence, but you can use whatever you like). Then, add 1 quart of chicken broth and let it simmer with the lid on over medium heat. Cook until the potatoes are soft. Mix in some cornstarch (mix it with liquid first, or you'll be sorry.... I used some white wine I had lying around). Thicken it to the desired consistency (Aaron likes it thick, so I used about 2-3 tbsp of cornstarch, but 1-2 would probably be fine). Taste for any additional seasoning it may need. Fresh herbs might be nice (but I didn't have any luck with my kitchen herb garden, so I didn't).

Feel free to add anything else you want to it... soup isn't rocket science and it isn't exactly precise... I RARELY measure anything for my soups. And it is pretty rare for me to have a crappy batch of soup.

I didn't get any pictures of the awesomeness, so you'll just have to take my word that it looked and tasted great. Definitely hit the spot for some comfort food. An added bonus? When I plugged the ingredients in to calculate the calorie count of the dish, it works out to a little over 200 calories per serving. We each had 1 bowl and I separated the rest of the pot into two plastic containers. I figure it is about 6 servings a pot, at these quantities. Sometimes I go a little overboard with soup production, but I successfully reigned it in for this one :)

Cheapskate Chicken Dinner

Today in Mississippi it's been stormy. My joints are not a fan. I, however, am! The boy went to work today and I have been dragging myself around the house all day trying to accomplish things. That has not gone well. Dishes, yeah. Laundry, yup. Made the bed, cleaned the bathroom. Still, not one of my projects on the almighty white board has been crossed off. Why? I haven't a clue!

Now about noon every day he calls to check in. Today's Topic O' Discussion was dinner. A few weeks ago Kroger had some awesome free range chicken on sale. Folks around here seem to like the extra large family packs and didn't quite realize that the price per pound of the really good free range stuff was LESS than the over-processed over-packaged force fed birds. So for a pack of 6 chicken drumsticks I paid about $2. I took them out of the freezer yesterday night and wasn't quite sure what to do with them until about lunch. 

My brilliant idea was "shake n' bake". Of course by now you know I am not a fan of that prepackaged crap so I figured, Yeah, I can totally make my own. I started by rinsing the chicken and patting it dry with paper towels. Throw it in a bowl and add about a cup of milk and a good healthy amount of tabasco. I also added in a pinch of oregano from the garden and some Northwest Seasoning from Penzey's. Let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour but up to like 12 hours is fine. 

In the mean time... maybe have a beer and then prep this next step. 

Find a quart or gallon sized ziploc bag. Add in equal parts of flour (yes Jen, you can use GF easily for this!) and corn meal (not sure if that's GF, if not just double the flour), add in like a good tablespoon of Northwest Seasoning. If you don't have that, just kind of mix together some pepper, paprika, salt, black pepper, and cumin. You could also do a season salt of some kind. Basically whatever you wanna eat, ok?! Geez, you guys are picky! 

Shake that mixture up pretty well. Pick the chicken up from the milk and shake it a little over the bowl to get the heavy liquid off. Then put the piece in the bag and shake until it's covered. I like to do them individual for a nice even coating and no lumpy bits. 

Place the chicken in a glass baking dish, make sure the pieces aren't touching. Now add in about 2 tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp of lard. Yeah, I get that most folks these days aren't into "fat" but if you're gonna make this right, kick your conscious in the ass and go get some lard. TRUST ME! 

Now bake for 30 min at 350. After 30 min, jack the heat to 450, flip the chicken over and bake another 15-20 min until golden. And for the love of all that is food like, please use SKIN ON BONE IN chicken. You can be prissy and peel skin off later but for now, leave it on. Skin and Bones are where the flavor comes from. 

It will come out all sorts of yummy and taste sort of friend but has like WAY less unhealthy junk. Plus c'mon. The total cost for the whole dish for me was like $2.50. 

I also made some mashed taters. This is my one exception to the boxed food rule other than cereal. I love Idahoan potatoes. The box lists the ingredients as potato. That's it, just dehydrated potato. Yum! Boil some water, add in a hunk of butter and some garlic salt. Mix in the potatoes. For like $0.45 and 5 minutes you can have delicious potatoes. I love to add milk and sour creme sometimes too. Depends on how far you want to take this one. 

Some steamed green beans done in the microwave and it was cheap, simple, and surprisingly healthy. Did I mention it was damn good? Yup! 

I'd have taken a picture but we ate it too quick. Sorry!!! 

More than just baby mush... NurturMe

Recently I ran across this company called NurturMe. 

You may be wondering why I was even interested in a baby food company as neither Jen or myself have any kids. Well, here's why. These things are good. So they sent out a little sample pack of the apple powder stuff. Nom Nom. 


Here's the awesome part. Those glass and plastic jar things that baby food comes in, they break. As in big giant mess. If you're me, about anything you carry around ends up in a mashed mess, likely in the deepest crevices of your purse. You never get it clean and never get the smell out. 


This company essentially makes dried fruit and veggie powder. It comes in these great little pouches that make the equivalent of one serving. Just add water and done. 

Now on to the really cool part and why a childless cook would love them, you can add these suckers to your recipes for USDA Certified Organic produce from smaller farms. Supporting the little guy, eating whole. And that's the point of this whole blog right? Good food with good friends. What better way to make friends than supporting them?! 


They even tout a good recipe page. Everything from pancakes to pasta. Remember when I squeezed in some squash to Jeff's venison gumbo? I can't remember if I told y'all that one. Well, now I can get the same effect, just without him noticing little chunks of yellow (note: remove the skin of squash when sneaking it in!). I just wrote a post today about some Banana Sugar Shortbread Cookies. Banana's out of season? Add in 2 pkgs of NurturMe and some extra water and done! 

We also bought a sampler pack to keep in our pantry. Here in MS we are rather known for bad storms. That one a few years ago, Katrina, yeah, that wasn't good. Having a few of these pouches around is a good idea for keeping up strength to fight zombies and all. 

More than anything, I just really like the company and product. No more worries about having food for your friends kids around. From the time they eat solid foods to age 4, this is like the one stop shop. My next thing to try is mixing it into a good 48 oz of water for some healthy nutrient packed flavored water. Those things you get to add into water are all gross and sugary. Lately I've been just boiling fruit with honey down to make syrup and mixing them together anyway. 


So do me a favor, just cruise around their website, check out their blog, and send me some ideas you have for using the packets in your every day food. Never know, I may even pick a post comment to reward handsomely. That's just the kind of giver I feel like today. 


Oh yeah, and Jen, they're all GF! 

Banana Sugar Shortbread Cookies

Ever have bananas sitting on the counter and they turn that putrid brown color? You know logically they're still really tasty and since they've had time to over ripen the sugar content is like WAY higher than normal, you just can't stomach to peel and eat slimy banana. Here's your solution! This is not egg or gluten free... sorry Jen! I gotta work more on those sorts of recipes. 


Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened but not soft (about 10 seconds in the microwave for 10 minutes on a counter)
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
2 extra ripe bananas
5-6 cups flour (depends on your environment)


Directions
I use my Kitchen Aid mixer for this one. Cream together with the beater blade the butter, bananas, sugar, and eggs. When it's sort of incorporated start adding flour, 1/2 cup at a time. It will reach the consistency of a wet dough when it has enough flour. Better at this stage to add too little than too much. The dough will stick to your finger when you touch it. That's just fine. 


Put it in a bowl, cover tightly with saran wrap, and refrigerate overnight. 


The next day, remove the dough from the refrigerator. Flour a nice cool surface liberally and turn about half the dough out. Flour the top well and roll the dough about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch thick. Using your favorite cookie cutter (or a round glass if you don't have any), cut out cookies. Place on an un-greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350F degrees for about 10-20 minutes. You need to watch them. The tops will not look very different but the bottoms will brown nicely to the color of creamed coffee. Use a spatula to lift a cookie up and check. They will solidify into a shortbread texture. If you made a hockey puck, you went too far. 


Remove from tray onto a clean dish towel on the counter. I don't like cooling racks. Basically because washing them is a PITA (pain in the ass). If you want to use a rack, be my guest. 

Let them cool until room temp. If you didn't sprinkle them already with some colored sugar or sprinkles, you can put some icing on them. Here is the one I like. 


Icing Ingredients
5 tbsp butter
5 tbsp shortening
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
3 tbsp milk
1 oz cream cheese


Directions
Cream butter, shortening, cream cheese, vanilla, and milk in your mixer with a whisk attachment. Get it nice and fluffy. 
Add in confectioners sugar slowly. 

Whip it, whip it good now. It should start to stand up and have some peaks. 


Add in any colorant. I found some green sugar on the clearance rack at the grocery story after Christmas. Sprinkled in about 2 tbsp of this to turn my icing a nice pretty green! 

Put icing in a piping bag with a round tip. My preference for all things cakes is Wilton. I grew up with them and even won a few contests as a kid! 


I did a simple swirl pattern on my round cookies and traced the outline of the airplanes. Super easy and looks really cute. 

Holy Balls It's Hot!

Mississippi. Summer. Instant Sweat. Our forecast here for the past few days has been 100+ degrees every day! Needless to say, like the last thing you want to do is turn the oven on. I mean, the electric bills are bad enough. So I decided to make a quick healthy dinner from local and home grown ingredients. My garden this year is looking spectacular. Three types of tomatoes (including some amazing san marzanos!), squash, zucchini, jalapeno, onion, raddish, fresh basil, oregano, and a whole bunch more. I love the garden. So here we go.

Caprese Salad
  This is the best salad for summer. At least in my opinion. It's savory, sweet, and includes all the junk your parents tried to make you eat as a kid but never made taste right. It's super simple.

   one tomato per person, sliced thick
   one half a fresh motzarella ball, sliced thick
   a handfull of basil leaves
   1/4 c a good fresh olive oil (don't buy junk!)
   cracked pepper
   a good quality salt
   zaatar spice (so optional but after visiting Israel, a necessity on most things for me)
   red chili flakes (optional too but good for your mental health)

Alternate a good pattern of cheese, tomato, and basil on the plate. (see picture below)
Drizzle olive oil on.  You don't have to use the whole 1/4c. Jeff likes less, I like more. Depends on who you are I guess. As my Dad would say, if you're asking with or without... it's always WITH! More sauce!
Sprinkle with pepper, salt, chili, and zaatar.

You're so done! How cool is that? Looks beautiful and takes like 3 minutes to make. It's insane. Try with fresh garden tomato and basil too. Makes such a difference.


Summer Sandwhiches
Use whatever you like here. I made two variations because I like a different sandwhich than Jeff. This seems like a pattern! Hahaha.

A good, fresh, artisan bread
lunchmeat, chipped (I love smoked turkey fresh from the deli. And I use Boars Head when I can. Love that)
provalone cheese
avacado for me
pepparoni slices
lettuce - generally the baby greens are my favorite
olive oil mayo

If I have to explain how to make a sandwhich, my guess is you haven't been reading our blog long.

What I put on mine - bread, sliced avacado, provalone, smoked turkey, lettuce
What I put on his - bread, mayo, pepparoni, provalone, smoked turkey, lettuce

I hate mayo, although the Hellmans stuff isn't bad, not quite so... snotty. Couldn't really think of a better word. Sorry to be gross. At least it has some flavor.

Guacamole
I make guac 3-4 times a week. It's a favorite amongst family and friends and never gets old. Delicious and healthy, just keep some avacados in the house.

1 whole avacado, pitted, removed from shell (do this with a spoon, it's awesomeness), and mushed with a fork
1 whole jalapeno, diced fine, seeds about half removed depending on how much heat you like
like a pinky sized piece of a sweet onion, diced
Adobo, go for the red topped one. It's the best
a heaping tablespoon of Sour Cream, I'm a total Daisy snob. It tastes better, I swear.
a few dices of the tomato you were using earlier. Or you can add a whole one if you want. This is your par-tay...

Mash it all together into a loose paste. Tada! You made guac. That wasn't so hard huh?

I put it all on a plate all pretty like. To mine I was craving some marinated artichokes so I threw a few of those on and some beets for good measure. Can't go wrong with beets.

All in all it took less than 15 minutes. You have amino acids, healthy fats, dairy, 3 servings of fruit/veggies, antioxidants, peppers with capsaisin that not only raises your basal temp buring more calories but also releases endorphins to make you happy. So hell, if you don't like the dinner, your brain will at least tell you you're happy anyway! Top off with a glass of good merlot and some dark chocolate for the ultimate meal.

It's just damn satisfying on a hot as balls day.

For Cod's Sake!

Tonights dinner was unexpected but a result of a few sales at my local Kroger and a free Rachel Ray Cooks magazine. Possibly that Metamucil I had this morning too causing a prolonged visit to my office (aka, the spare bath). 

Anyway... Eggplant was on sale for $0.88 each. Great deal! Beautiful locally grown eggplant with a nice bouncy firm skin. Mmmm, bouncy and firm, generally reserved for boobs but on eggplant, delightful. Besides, I'm almost 30, nothing on me is firm anymore! 

Some fresh wild caught cod filets were in the seafood counter. Seeing as cod is a sustainable fish and so creamy and fatty and delicious, who could say no!? Besides, I have had a fish craving for awhile. Mississippi produces catfish... a lot of FARMED catfish. I'm not saying it's terrible, I'm saying I'm generally not a huge fan. I prefer my fatty saltwater fishes. 

On to my next ingredient, basil. It's gardening season and my lovely backyard garden is going nuts. My basil is like 4 ft high and bushy. Mmmm, bushy basil. While we're out there, the spring onions are going nuts too and so delicious this year. Flavorful but not that kind of onion that leaves a nasty taste on the back of your tongue, the good kind that's like fresh and pops.

The one thing I had to go searching for was cherry tomato. Blah, mine aren't ripe yet! Soon enough, for now we got some locally grown from the supermarket. 

Putting it together... 

Set the oven on a normal broil. Let it get HOT. 

Saute some chopped garlic and choppped basil in grape seed oil just until it turns light blonde. Half the tomatoes and throw them in (DO NOT STIR). I used about a cup and a half of tomatoes. Sprinkle salt and pepper on top. Let them sit until they look happy and shake the pan a bit. They'll do their own thing. When they saute a little, turn it all off and set aside. 

Slice the egg plant into like 1/2 inch slices and lay them on a baking sheet with some grape seed oil on. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put under the broiler for like 5 minutes. Don't let them burn. 

Take the eggplant out and flip it over. Pile the tomato mixture evenly divided onto the eggplant. Nom... try to contain eating all the tomatoes right here. 

Lay pieces of cod over the tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. See a theme? Just a touch at each step gives it a great flavor! I sliced paper thin slices of lemon and laid them on top of the fish here. It made it good. Nice touch of sour fresh. 

Pop back under the broiler until the fish turns kind of white and starts to seperate. That's when it's delicious. Again, do not overcook.

This tastes great served with couscous. It cooks in like 5 minutes. Boil water, add some lemon juice, chop the spring onion and basil. Let the couscous sit in the hot water until it absorbs. Stir in the onion and basil and add a dash of salt. Fluff a little (hehehe) and you're ready to go! [That's what she said]

Here's a picture! 

Happy eating!