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.

Thai Turkey Larb



We ate all of this by the end of the night, truly addicting.

Here's what you'll need:

⅔ cup fresh lime juice

⅓ cup fish sauce

1 tbsp sugar

2 tsp chili garlic paste

¾ cup canned low-salt chicken broth

1 ½ pounds ground turkey

1 cup thinly sliced green onions

¾ cup thinly sliced shallots

3 tbsp minced lemongrass

1 tbsp thinly sliced Thai chilies or Serrano chilies

½ cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/3 cup chopped fresh mint

Butter lettuce

Whisk lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and chili garlic paste in medium bowl to blend; reserve sauce.

Bring broth to a simmer in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken. Simmer until cooked through, breaking up meat with a spoon, about 8 minutes. add green onions, shallots, lemon grass and Serrano chilies.

Stir until vegetables are tender and most of liquid has evaporated, about 4 minutes.

Remove from heat. Stir in sauce, cilantro and mint. Season with salt and pepper.



Going...

Going...

Gone.

Spoon into lettuce leaves and shove it in your mouth, then let the deliciousness take over. *sigh*


Its like a Thai taco!

This dish may seem watery but what the Thai do, is soaked up the juice using sticky rice. Its unbelievable..

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

Drunken Noodles

Ingredients:

We couldn't find the wider noodles,
so we used these rice noodles.

2 14 oz packages ¼ inch wide flat rice noodles ( If you can’t find these any rice noodle will do)

¼ cup vegetable oil

12 garlic cloves, chopped

¼ cup chopped fresh Serrano chillies

1 ½ pounds ground chicken

¼ fish sauce

½ cup soy sauce

1 tbsp sugar

4 large plum tomatoes, each cut into 6 wedges.

4 Anaheim chilies or 2 green bell peppers, julienned

Anaheim Chili- tastes and smell like a
bell pepper, but it's actually spicy.

½ cup fresh Thai basil, regular will do but I warn you, it’s not quite the same.

1. Cook noodles in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite, also known as al dente, stirring frequently. Drain.

Drained noodles

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a heavy large pot over medium-high heat.

3. Add garlic and Serrano chilies sauté for a short 30 seconds, you DO NOT want to burn the garlic.

4. Add chicken, fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar, cook until the chicken is fully cooked.

5. Add noodles, tomatoes and Anaheim chilies (or bell peppers). Toss together.

6. Move the hot noodles to serving platter and sprinkle with the fresh basil.

We have delicious leftovers for days.

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