Recipe

Better BBQ Dinner

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I know what you’re thinking, barbeque during a detox? As part of this detox I have not omitted meat. The idea of this makes Chuck cringe, though I have greatly reduced the amount of meat, and eliminated all red meats, as well as processed meats from our usual diets, I have not excluded chicken, or fish. So for this meal I chose to use chicken, and I went with barbeque, because well I saw bobby flay put together a delicious meal using jicama (with smoked barbequed ribs), which I have recently discovered is delicious, and is on sale this week. Using Bobby’s theme I created a clean barbeque recipe, that has all he delicious flavor without the harmful extras, and his jicama slaw recipe, found here. This meal is so good you feel guilty, but it’s really just meat, vegies, and spices; what’s wrong with that?

I just started using smoked paprika and I am LOVING it! It adds a depth of flavor to the sauce that I had never been able to achieve before. Also the underlying spiciness is perfectly balanced by the sweetness in the slaw. Jicama is a pretty interesting vegetable; it looks like a turnip, tastes sweet, and has a texture reminiscent of a hard apple. I can’t wait to see what else I can do with it. Unfortunately Chuck has some weird aversion to parsley, cilantro, and virtually any leafy green that adds flavor to a dish, so he said that the slaw would have been better without it. I however disagree, I just thought it may be good to hear the picky opinion on it.

French Style Vegetable Soup

By Jessica

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Knowing full well that I would not be in the mood to do a whole lot when we finally got home after a bus ride, a flight, and a several hour drive I took the initiative to put together a freezer meal for the following day, this way I could avoid grocery shopping the second we got home. A few nights before we left I chopped up all the vegetables needed for this soup and put it in the freezer. I took it out of the freezer when we got home so it could defrost overnight, and put it in the crockpot the following morning. When I got out of work I cooked up some whole wheat pasta to ladle the soup over and voila! We have the first detox meal of the week.

This recipe I found several years ago from Michelle Scicolone in family circle magazine . I only made a few modifications to the recipe, mainly because zucchini is out of season, and I had some spinach leftover. I swapped the zucchini for green beans and added about .5 cups of spinach. Michelle suggests making these swaps as this soup is one that can be altered depending on what’s in season.

The soup itself didn’t have a ton of flavor, but I assume because the added pesto over the top has a ton. However I think that each component of a dish should be able to stand on its own, so maybe next time I will add a little spice to the soup, hopefully this will add a depth of flavor once the pesto is added. I suppose we will see. A good thing about this soup is that it is still super hearty, though it is vegetarian, I still felt full and satisfied once I had finished. Perhaps at a time when I wasn’t concerned with detoxing I would serve it with buttered toasted French bread as a side. Mmm…

Dinner for One

By Jessica

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I have a lot of friends who are either on their own or work opposite schedules than their significant others, and I often hear that they don’t feel like they can make a real meal for themselves at dinnertime because it’s just them. I say HOGWASH!

Chuck ends up traveling a lot for work so a couple times a month I am on my own for dinner, and I feel no need to skimp on my meals then. In fact I use it as an excuse to whip up my favorite things that he may not like so much; it’s totally my guilty pleasure nights. Here is what I made last night:

What I love about this recipe is that its comprised of things that I typically just have around the house all the time anyway, so its super easy to through together. By swapping ingredients it’s super easy to make more or less healthy. I admit sometimes I use cream, butter and lots of cheese. Other times I use skim milk, and whole wheat pasta. I have also made it with spaghetti, ravioli, chicken, fish or no meat at all. Also if you don’t want to dirty another pan you can simply cook the shrimp in the oil before adding the garlic, the only thing you will be missing is the extra spices.

I took the pic before i added the tomatoes, whoops!

This particular recipe is my favorite combination. I love the warm creamy sauce, in contrast to the underlying spiciness of the shrimp, and the cool crispness of the cherry tomatoes.

Now for DESERT!

I’m not typically a huge desert person, HOWEVER I think every girl has a little something she craves. For me it’s usually cheese or chocolate. Last nightt I was definitely craving the chocolate, the kind of craving that requires a little more than a Cup of cocoa.

Hot Cocoa Mug Cake:

2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 egg white
1 packet hot cocoa mix (roughly 2 tablespoons)
1.5 Table spoons Milk

splash of vanilla extract
1.5 tablespoons oil

Start with the dry ingrediants and mix everything well with a fork in the mug, while slowly adding the wet ingrediants. Once mixed well pop it in the microwave for about 60 seconds.

Stolen from somekitchenstories.com because dark blue mugs dont work for good pictures.

If you want to go the healthier route you can use chocolate protein powder instead. Also be sure not to skip on the milk or oil. You will end up with a texture like an overcooked egg, and it is so unappealing. I believe the picture also has a few peanut butter chips mixed in as well, which is not a bad idea if you ask me!

More single night recipes to come!

Single Brunch

By Jessica

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Food for the body is not enough. There must be food for the soul. ~Dorothy Day

This morning I was feeling like I needed a boost. I didn’t sleep a wink and my morning run went horribly. Not to mention Ii had a very stressful week. I didn’t want to weigh myself down with heavy pancakes or sausages so I thought I’d go a little French; velvety scrambled eggs, and a fresh salad with maple vinaigrette. I don’t think I have made a wiser decision.

This breakfast was perfect! It as light and healthy and really helped to rejuvenate my mood. The leafy greens were bright and fresh, and when the vinaigrette ventured over to my eggs it added a little burst of flavor. The eggs alone were fabulous. They were light and fluffy, thanks to the cream cheese, but also full of flavor. Now I’m going to sit back and enjoy my English Breakfast tea.

Have a wonderful day!

Velvety Scrambled Eggs:

3 eggs

Nonstick spray

Table spoon of Skim Milk

.5 teaspoon Marjoram

.5 teaspoon Thyme

Salt & Pepper to taste

.5 Tablespoon Non Fat Cream Cheese

In a bowl whisk together eggs, milk, marjoram, thyme, and cream cheese. The cheese may not mix well here so be sure to break it up during the next step. Pour mixture into a warm pan coated in spray. Use a spatula to gently stir the eggs continuously on low heat. Once they begin to firm, and look opaque remove from heat and add Salt and pepper.

Maple Vinaigrette

1 teaspoon Apple cider Vinegar

2 teaspoons maple syrup

1/5 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch salt

whisk together all ingredients until well blended.

Yogurt Marinated Chicken with Polenta & Asparagus

By Jessica

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I was truly afraid of several things in this meal, but we are constantly taught not be afraid of something just because it’s different so I figured I would be adventurous, and I’m glad I was. As it turns out this is one of the easiest meals I have ever made, and I think it will become one of those weeknight staples, I pull out pretty often.

I started with the yogurt marinated chicken that I saw on chopped it seemed pretty simple, and it was very weird to me so I thought it would be a good experiment. Since I was experimenting I thought I would try some polenta. I had been toying with the idea for a while, and had even bought a package of Bob’s Red Mill a few months ago, but never opened it. This was probably one of the easiest things I ever cooked. Simply add 2.5 cups of water to 1 cup of polenta, and let it simmer, stirring constantly, until softened. Then add some parmesan cheese and garlic powder to taste then set aside off heat, until the mixture begins to pull away from its container. There is so much more you can do with it as well, such as add sundried tomatoes or asparagus, which I almost did since I was already planning on making it, but for my first time I wanted to experience the plain and simple thing as it was. It wasn’t bad, the consistency was different than I’m used to but other than that it was pretty good. I will definitely add some other vegetables to it on the next attempt, simply because the only thing it was really lacking was seasoning, which can’t be blamed on it anyway. On to the chicken!

As always I did a little research on my ideas and came up with this recipe from Alex Guarnachelli.When I saw this recipe I got super excited because of its use of Harissa. I was newly introduced to this condiment 2 weeks ago during a tasting at JK Adams in Dorset Vermont, by Teeny Tiny Spice Co. of Vermont. I purchased both the Harissa as well as Tandoori masala spice mixes. For all of my love of cooking I am pretty bad at North African, Middle East and Indian flavors. The depth of the way they blend such strong spices escapes me for the time being, however it’s one of those things that I am striving to attain. I digress, since I had already tried the Harissa on plain ol’ baked chicken, I decided to alter the recipe and use my Tandoori Masala Spice mix, the fact that the website even states that its used in yogurt marinades helped me with that decision as well. I made a few glaring changes to the original recipe I found, mostly because I wanted to really get a feel for the Tandoori Spice mix.

Tandoori Yogurt Marinated Chicken

1 container plain Greek yogurt

1.5 Teaspoons Tandoori Masala Spice Mix

2 Chicken thighs & Legs (Bone in, with skin)

Non Stick Spray

Blend yogurt with spice evenly in a baking dish. Coat chicken evenly in yogurt mixture and place skin side down, covered with plastic wrap to marinate overnight (WARNING: this is gross, something about the raw chicken and gloppy yogurt is just not appealing). Remove chicken from marinade, leaving excess and place skin down on a hot grill pan with non-stick spray. Allow to cook until the skin is browned and crispy, then flip and allow to cook through. In the interest of time I put a cover over the chicken to make sure it was cooked through a little faster; however this meant at the end I had to turn up the heat and flip it back to the skin side for a few minutes to get it crispy again. Remove from heat and sprinkle lightly with a little more Tandoori Masala.

The chicken was delicious. It was rich and juicy, and full of flavor, though I have to say there was easily room to add more of the spice mix to the marinade or at the end. I didn’t get a lot of the heat that I think it has to offer, but I was being cautious in my use of it as I am just starting to become accustomed to spice. That’s something that I think can be suited to the chef. Lastly I whipped up a simple asparagus dish which was to toss the whole vegetable in oil and roast them on a cookie sheet at 425 until tender, then toss with a little lemon juice. Adding a little acid to this meal I think is a must to help balance it all out.

All in all this meal was exceptional for the ease and simplicity, plus it’s really very cheap. The total came to $2.37 a serving, so a total of $5 bucks for both me and chuck. It was delicious, gourmet style, and rather healthy. Who knew?

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