Saturday, March 23, 2013

Drinking my salad

Thinking this would be a nice light lunch was a little off. I'm so full I could use a nap.
Recipe time!
One carrot all chopped up
Three stalks of celery similarly chopped
Whatever fruit you've got hanging around ( we had pineapple leftover from teriyaki chicken)
Three kale leaves
Water or milk product
I added a teaspoon of jam as well
Hit the smoothie button on your blender and let it work its magic.




Wednesday, March 20, 2013

White Bean Turkey Chili with Cornbread Waffles

Or how to induce a full on food coma.

Oh dear, this was a delight. We're talking I got high fives from Chad good.
Insanely easy too. A little too easy. If I tell you how easy it is, my street cred as a good cook is going to go crashing to the floor.
Screw it.
Here we go.
Ingredients:
-Let's go with about 3/4 of a cup of greek yogurt (yeah, i use the hell out of this stuff)
-two cans of white beans
-a can of artichoke hearts
-half an onion and about 1/3 of one of those big bell peppers or 1/2 if you can't find one of those big bastards
-half a brick of fat free cream cheese
-one normal size package of ground chicken or turkey
(I usually make this with chicken but City Market finally got their head out of their asses and got organic ground turkey...EEEEEE!:-) )
-can of hot chilies (or mild if you don't like that sort of thing
-Can of corn.(not creamed, that's just awful)
-fist-full of spinach (optional)
Garlic powder, salt, pepper, ya know,the spices you'd like to season up chili with.
Waffles:
Bob's red mill cornbread mix, an egg, a tablespoon of olive oil, half a can of chilies, and some water. (Oh yeah, you're going to need a waffle iron)

Directions-
Bust out the crock pot.
Marvel at it's greatness. This little machine is going to do for your cooking what calculators on cell phones did to math skills.
Plug it in and turn it on high. Leave the lid off, cause you're going to be throwing stuff in there left and right.
Start with the yogurt and cream cheese.
Next chop up that pepper and onion and throw it on in the skillet. Yes, we're going to cook them before putting them in. You'll thank me.
Then throw in the crock pot. Try not to miss it.
Empty the (drained and rinsed)cans of  corn, beans, chilies and artichokes into the pot.
Cook the meat. And break it up real good.
You may have to put down your drink for this step.
Throw all of that in the crock pot too....add about a half a cup of water.
Stir.
IVery important. It's not going to look like enough liquid, but it totally is. Trust in your crock pot.
Now, you've got about three hours until this is ready.
Oh what's that? The waffles. Well, they take a whole five minutes to prep, so you're good.
What to do?
Chad and I went to the gym and did cardio and weights then played one of the best games ever!!! What you do is stand on one foot on the bosu ball and toss a weighted ball back and forth. Sounds boring, but when you're trying to get the other person to drop the ball by throwing it too low or way out to the side, shit gets real.

Then you come home and smell the house and just about lose your mind.
Fire up that waffle iron.
Start with the egg and oil and beat them together in a bowl. Add a little more water than you think you'll need and beat that. Add chilies.
I used about a quarter of the package of mix.
Spray your waffle iron and make up a couple of waffles. Make the whole package per instructions but with more liquid  and a whole can of chilies if feeding 4 or more.
These made the meal.


Presentation isn't everything, but it's something.
 

Sprinkle the top with a little bit of cheese if you like, or just dive in.

If it's just two of you, you'll have leftovers like a boss. I've been asked to make a couple more waffles so they can be used with leftovers. It'll keep about a week, but let it cool quite a bit before stickin this bad boy in the fridge.
Also, I put all of the ingredents into a little app and found out this has less than 300 calories per serving.
Booya, health!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Tuesday Night Comfort Food

Ughhh, it's not even Wednesday yet...

This afternoon I'll be playing with an idea I came across a couple of days ago. Chili served with a cornbread waffle. Of course, I'm picky as all hell and don't like normal chili. White bean turkey chili it is!
This is on of my favorite kinds of recipes too. Crock pot.  Yeah


Monday, March 18, 2013

Ranch Dressing mix

You'll never buy those packets again....
unless you're like, really really lazy.


I don't know where this came from but I've had it saved on my computer for a while now.


  • 1 tablespoon parsley

  • 1 teaspoon dill

  • 1 teaspoon onion powder

  • 1 teaspoon dried onion flakes

  • 1 teaspoon salt 

  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

  • 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
  •  
    I add it to Greek yogurt for dressing or dip. If you are using it as a dressing (like one you want to pour) then use regular yogurt.

    Buffalo Chicken Pasta Bake

    This would have been up sooner, but I was in a food coma.


    If there's a way to eat chicken with buffalo wing sauce, I've found it. Pizza, sandwich, wrap and now...PASTA!

    There's kind of a lot of stuff involved in this one, but it comes together really quickly. All of this, and carrots and chicken and ranch dressing mix.


    I used about half of the box of pasta. While that's boiling put about two cups of cooked chicken breast in the oven with a good amount of wing sauce and half of the brick of cream cheese. Once everything warms up give it a nice stir and add about a 1/4 of the packet of ranch dressing mix. I use organic valley or make my own. (Oh you want that recipe you say? I'll post that later)
    This looks a lot more gross than it really is.
    Next up, chop some celery and carrots. I went with 4 stalks and two carrots. Don't go too fine. It'll get lost in the mix
    I added about a cup of spinach to it as well.
    Next is the super easy part. Add cooked pasta, stir and cover in cheese. I'd say a 375 oven for about 20 min should do the trick.

    Now what to do with 20 min???

     





     
    DING DING DING...Dinner's Ready!

     
    

    Stay tuned...

    Tonight I'll be experimenting with chicken wing pasta bake.



    But first...the gym.

    Avocado Egg Salad

    Avocados are on sale, ya'll!


    Let me just start by saying, I don't like egg salad. I'm only recently okay with avocados. (I have texture issues) But, while on the elliptical machine looking at stuff on pinterest I came across a different version of this little jewel. When I told my dude about it I learned something new: He loves egg salad. After 5 years together, I had no freakin idea.  This recipe is a bit of a compromise between his love of egg salad and avocados and my aversion to mayo.

    Ingredients:
    2 ripe avocados

    4 eggs
    some Greek yogurt
    salt
    pepper
    whatever spice really floats your boat

    Boil those eggs.
    Let's all pause for a second and note that the burn mark on the counter was there when we moved in. True story.
    

    Next, let's chop up that avocado. Oh yeah, that's pretty.


    This is where some people start freaking out....That's right. Yogurt. I'd say a seriously beefy tablespoon should do the trick.


    Now grab your potato masher and go baby food style on that stuff then add your now peeled and cooled eggs. Again, go crazy. Get out some of that aggression you built up peeling the damn eggs.
     

     
    Add your salt, pepper, and whatever spices you think you'll dig. I did curry powder. Damn good.
     

    I have no idea how long it keeps because it's always gone within a day.
    In wraps, on crackers, or a massive sandwich...

    boom