Salad Tip!

Here's a quick tip for the next tip you are assembling a salad, because little tips here and there make all the difference in the kitchen.

 

Drizzle the dressing along the sides of the bowl, toss the greens, add toppings. By doing this the dressing completely coats the leafy greens and the toppings don't all fall to the bottom creating a much more enjoyable salad!

Grab & Go Smoothie Recipe

Have left over browning fruit? Don't throw it out, instead take it and remix it in to a fast, healthy snack.
As we all know produce is expensive and it would be a shame to let it go to waste. Here I had leftover fruit salad, with strawberries, mango's, pineapples, bananas. Its was delicious but its started to brown and become unsightly but I didn't want to just toss it. Light Bulb! Frozen smoothie cubes. What are those you ask, well just read on...

 

Here's what you'll need:

• Fruit of your choice, chopped and ready to blend - Perfect for using up what ever you have laying around that's the glory of this recipe.
• Milk of your choice, soy, almond, etc.-I used two percent.

Add ingredients to blender and puree. Because the fruit amount will differ, approximate a three to one ratio of fruit to milk.
Pour into clean ice cubes trays, cover, and let freeze.
Once frozen remove from trays and seal in a freezer bag until ready to use.
Blending the smoothies are totally up to personal preference or whatever you have laying around. Here are some possibilities that I like to use.

 

Smoothie Combos:

 

Sour Smoothie:
Orange Juice
Vanilla Yogurt
Smoothie Cubes

 

Sultry Smoothie:
Almond Milk
Wheat Germ
Smoothie Cubes
Honey

 

Decadent Smoothie Split:
Smoothie Cubes
Ice Cream
Milk
Hot fudge
Pecans

To Juice or Not to Juice is the Question?

As a child my grandma would often make me fresh carrot or orange juice, which led to me becoming a bit of a juice snob. Unfortunately, I now love fresh, crisp carrot juice which tends to air on the pricey side. Its common knowledge that doing things yourself is cheaper because of the labor cost that tends to be factored into the price. I decided to take this and challenge it. Is it actually cheaper to make your own carrot juice verse buying it pre-juiced? The results may shock you.

 

Buying it already juiced cost break down - $6.50 = 52 oz

Juicing at home cost break down - 5 lb bag of whole carrots = $3.50 = 24 oz!

The time it took to peel the carrots and to set up and clean the juicer was a little over 45 minutes and the outcome was about half the ounces, overall it doesn't seem worth it. As for me from now on I'm just going to buy it juiced at the store

Fresh Fish Tacos

Fish tacos

Any time I feel like I need to have a light healthy meal yet I don’t want to give up any flavor I learned fish tacos satisfies my craving every time. It’s delicious but doesn’t leave me with bloated guilty feeling that you get after gorging in a fat laden feast. Fish tacos are surpisingly versatile because of the different fishes there are out there to choose from. If you want a meatier style taco salmon is a perfect chose or a white fish is good because it’s like a blank canvass for many different flavor profiles.

Here’s what I did –

I used a white fish, like tilapia and season it with my favorite Cajun seasoning, grill it up and then top it off with some fresh lime juice.

In the mean time I thinnly sliced cabbage and used red wine vinegar and salt pepper for seasoning. (The vinegar also helps to break down the cabbage) Then I added some veggies to it, like grated carrots, green onions, and cilantro. Simple enough and set aside until ready to eat.

Add whatever topping you like or have on hand, for example I used avocados and salsa. Pickled onions, radishes, or pineapple don’t be afraid to get creative!

Make a taco bar and let everyone build their own tacos, easy to cook and easier to serve.

Pasta Carbonara w/ Poached Egg

This dish is beyond good, its indulgent, savory, has bacon and easy to make can it get any better than that?! I have to use nearly all my restraint from making constantly, which is hard because I almost always have all the ingredients on hand.

This recipe is just one for 1, so don't forget to double or triple it depending on how many your cooking for.

Ingredients:
2 chopped Bacon slices (leave bacon in the freezer for about 5 minutes, it makes chopping it a breeze)
1/4 lb pound of spaghetti
1 small minced shallot
1/3 cup parmigiana cheese
2 tbsp of parsley
1 large egg
1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 ground pepper

Before

After

1. Cook bacon in a medium skillet on medium heat until nice and crispy.

2. Using a slotted spoon transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. (Resist eating!)



3. Remove skillet from heat and pour off all
but 2 tbsp of bacon fat from the skillet.



4. In the same skillet on medium low heat,
whisk in butter with bacon fat,then add the shallot



5. Meanwhile, cook spaghetti in salted water until al dente. (Don't over salt water, because the bacon adds a lot of saltiness)

Reserving the pasta water..

6. Once the spaghetti is cooked, reserve 1/3 cup of pasta water, then strain noodles making sure to shake off any excess water.

7. Add spaghetti, reserved pasta water, parm cheese and pepper to the skillet with the shallots cooking in the bacon fat. Cook until the sauce begins to thicken about 2-3 mintues, stirring the whole time.



8. Add bacon and parsely to pasta and toss. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Tossing the pasta

9. In a small skillet, fill up half way with water, heat up over high heat.Once water begins to simmer turns off, remove from heat then break the egg into a cup and gently slide into water.

10. Cover and let the egg sit for about 2-3 minutes.

11. Remove egg using a slotted spoon, top over served pasta, along with extra parm and/or parsley.

This pasta really should come with a warning.

WARNING: Eating this pasta could result in serious weight gain.

Coconut Chicken Soup

Ingredients:
2 14 oz cans light unsweetened coconut milk

3 1/2 cups canned chicken broth

2 cups chunked mushrooms
2 chopped shallots

6 tbsp finely chopped lemon grass

2 tbsp minced fresh ginger

¼ cup fish sauce

3 tsp chili garlic sauce (adjust heat to your liking)

1 thinly sliced Serrano chili

2 lbs thinly sliced chicken breast.

½ cup thinly sliced green onions

3 tbsp fresh lime juice

1.In a large pot add: coconut milk, broth, mushrooms, shallots, lemongrass, fish sauce, ginger, Serrano chili and chili-garlic sauce. Cover and simmer 10 minutes to blend flavors.

2. Add chicken and continue to let simmer for 5 more minutes, until chicken is cooked.

3.Mix in green onions, basil and lime juice

Bacon Wrapped Scallops w/ Apricot Chutney

Lately I have been on a huge scallop kick, I never realized how good these little pieces of heaven are. If you decide to make them just shell (no pun intended) out the extra cash and get the good ones. We got ours from whole foods which had came in fresh that day, never been frozen. It makes a huge difference in taste and texture.

This recipe is a good as it sounds and easy to prepare and make as well. Gotta love that...

Apricot Chutney-

Ingredients:
1/2 tsp of whole black peppercorns
2 tbsp of prepared horseradish
1/4 cup of apricot preserves

Crushed Peppercorns

1. Crush peppercorns by placing them on a cutting board and pressing down on them using a heavy saucepan. (Make sure you aren't whacking the pan on the peppercorns because they will go flying everywhere around your kitchen and you will find them later on for years)

2. In a small bowl mix together horseradish, peppercorns and apricot preserves.

Bacon Wrapped Scallops-

They are so delicate they are already falling apart.
I'm drooling...

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds of scallops (rinsed and patted dry)
3/4 pound of thinly sliced bacon, cut to the circumference of the scallop. (For the bacon lover that want to use a thick cut bacon, don't! It makes the cooking time unequal. An over cooking a scallop should be a sin.)

1. Preheat oven broiler, position rack on the highest level.
2. Spray a foil lined baking sheet with non-stick spray



3. Wrap each scallop with a piece of bacon and secure with a toothpick



4. Place scallops on baking sheet and season them with salt and pepper

5. Cook under the broiler for about 15-20 minutes (depending on the size of the scallops) until the bacon is cooked through. Turn once half way through

Crêpes

Crêpes are basically a paper thin, French pancake. Sounds simple enough, so why make and eat a thin french pancake when you can eat good ol flapjacks! Well, because theyre french of course! Just kidding! Two reason actually...

One; they are extremely versatile, you can choose to make they savory or sweet. My husband and I love to go to crêpe houses for brunch. We have tried all sorts of different crêpes, from classic like strawberries and Nutella (chocolate and hazelnut) to a chicken curry crêpe. It’s the perfect canvass for any topping or filling you can dream up.

Two; they are perfect for entertaining because they need to be prepared ahead of time. The batter needs to set for at least an hour to as long as overnight and in the mean time you can dice, chop, or whip your toppings all ahead of time. That way when your guests show up all you need to do is pull everything out and set up a sweet and savory crêpe topping bar. Then your guest can serve themselves and you can partake in the fun.

Crêpes

Ingredients:

½ cup water (I used filtered)

½ cup whole milk

¼ teaspoon of salt

1 cup flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4 tablespoon unsalted butter

Prepare the batter-

In a blender, whip the eggs then add the flour, salt, water, milk, and vanilla. Blend until everything is combined and smooth. Move to a covered container and refrigerate for at least one hour or up to 24 hours.

Make the crêpes –

Over medium heat melt about one tablespoon of butter in a 9 inch pan. Pour 2-3 tablespoons of batter into the pan, and quickly swirl the pan around so the batter covers the bottom. Once the crêpe starts to bully and brown, it’s time to flip it. Flipping the crêpe is the touchiest part of the whole crêpe making process. You can use a spatula or flip it in the air. The easiest technique for me was to loosen it crêpe using a rubber spatula until it easily slides around in the pan. Then sliding it back and forth, give it one big thrust and flip it in the air. Let it brown of the other side, then move to a piece of waxed paper.

Topping Ideas-

Here I spread Nutella, folded it up and then tossed fresh starwberries in sweetened condensed milk. I finished it with drizzling more sweetened condensed milk and dusting powdered sugar over the top.Yum!

Sweet-

Spread with Nutella, fold into fourths. Top with strawberries and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Spread with Nutella sprinkle with shredded coconut, fold into fourths. Top with sliced bananas and whipped cream.

Spread with butter, fold in fourth and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Spread with peanut butter and jelly, fold in fourths.

And the list goes on…

Savory

Swiss cheese, shredded chicken with cranberries sauce folded in fourths.

Pepper jack cheese, avocado, black beans with salsa.

Monte Cristo crêpe– Gruyère cheese covered with thin ham slices folded in fourths and drizzled with maple syrup. (I came up with that one)

Anything you would put in an omelet!