Mexican Spring Salad

I'm sure anyone who used to follow this blog is certain that I had fallen off the face of the recipe earth! I have been so busy with yoga and my kids that getting dinner on the table has been quite the challenge. I have created several new recipes however getting the pictures and writing down the details have been another story.

This salad tonight was too good not to share and since I took the picture with my iphone....well here goes...

Ingredients:
1/2 English Cucumber, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 jicama, peeled and diced
2 ears of corn, kernels removed
1 T fresh cilantro
2 T red onion, minced onion
3 T feta cheese
juice of 1 lime
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and gently stir. Enjoy!

Vegetable Chicken Salad

I have been very absent for a while now and I apologize. Between the yoga studio and kids and sports I am hardly cooking! Oh and the fact that we got the Big Green Egg and now my hubby is making all kinds of yummies for us! I will get back on it this winter for sure!

Anyhow this is totally a stolen recipe, from Trader Joes, I was in there a couple weeks ago and they were sampling this and it was way too good and easy not share!

Ingredients:
1/2 package or 2 cups of Trader Joe's Healthy 8 Veggie Mix
2 cups chicken breast, diced very small
1/3 cup mayo (I use the real thing...it's just so much better)
Siracha Hot Sauce, to taste

Directions:
Mix all together and serve! Wow that was hard right???
It is so good!!!

*If you don't have a Trader Joe's near you, you can cut up the veggies your self it includes, red cabbage, green cabbage, jicama, broccoli,green bell pepper, radish, carrots and celery.

 

WW Friends: This dish serves 6 and each serving has 4 points! It is so crunchy and delicious!

Sausage and Polenta Triangles

My family is very traditional at Thanksgiving we all meet up at our family farm, my mom makes the turkey and dressing, my aunt makes a ham and her special cranberry jello (my favorite dish at Thanksgiving click here for the recipe) my cousin Dana, brings sweet potato souffle and macaroni and cheese my brother brings collards and mashed potatoes, and I always bring broccoli casserole. We are so lucky that we all live close to each other so no one really has to travel far to be together on holidays. I try really hard to instill gratefulness in my kids. In a world of give me, I need more, enough is never good enough, I think gratitude is one of the best values I could instill in my children, honestly if they don't get any others I pray they get gratitude. Each year at the beginning of November we make a tree and cut leaves, each day we all write something we are grateful for and paste it to the tree. My kids love doing it and this year when friends or family came over they would immediately give them each a leaf and ask to them to contribute to our thankful tree.

You probably can't read any of our thankful leaves so here's a close-up...

This is an important part of the season in our house and one I hope makes an impact on my kids. 

As far as this recipe, I found it in a Cooking Light magazine and as soon as I saw it I thought it would make a perfect addition to our traditional Thanksgiving! Of course I made a few changes, I just have such a hard time following directions, however it is a trait that I am actually grateful for as it helps with my creativity in the kitchen.

Ingredients:
1 roll of reduced fat pork sausage (I used Jimmy Deans)
1 small onion, diced small
1 stalk celery, diced small
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 1/4 cups 1% milk
1 cut polenta (corn grits)
2 T grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
2 t Olive oil, divided

Directions:
Heat a large pan over medium-high heat. Add sausage and cook, as sausage begins to brown stir to help crumble into small bits. Once browned, add the onion, celery and garlic. Cook until the vegetables have softened, about 5 minutes. Next add chicken stock and milk and bring to a boil. Slowly add the polenta constantly stirring so no clumps form. Add Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Once thickened, spoon the polenta-sausage mixture into a large casserole dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Cool to room temp then cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or overnight. Once chilled, using a butter knife cut the polenta into 8 squares then cut each square diagonally to form a triangle. Heat a large non-stick skillet to high heat and add 1 teaspoon olive oil, place half the triangles in skillet and brown on each side about 3-4 minutes per side. Serve immediately.

I took this picture with cornmeal see the notes below, don't use cornmeal.

This is the sausage cooking with the celery, garlic and onion, love that steam!

Here is the 1st batch I made with cornmeal...

Here is the 2nd batch I made with polenta.

Sauteing the polenta batch, Yum!

It tastes like an Italian Thanksgiving. So delicious, I can't wait for my family to try these babies tomorrow!

*Notes I searched for polenta for in 6 regular grocery stores and the only kind I could find was:

Don't use this...instead use this...

The only place I could find this was at Natural Foods Warehouse!

I made it once with cornmeal and it was not as good, if you can't find polenta, just use grits! Really it's the same thing other than the color. 

Weight Watcher Friends: Each triangle has 2 points.

Source: Cooking Light Magazine Nov 2012

Happy Halloween

I love the fall and the Halloween season but all the candy and junk food make me CRAZY! So a couple of years ago I decided to fill my kids up with healthy snacks before we headed out to Trick-or-Treat. I did some research on the Internet and then made up a few of my own. I thought I would share these pictures with you in case you wanted to try something like this as well. My kids loved this, they thought it was all so great. But the best part for me was that I knew they were getting some healthy things in their little bodies before they were filled with food dyes, sugar and artificial ingredients!

It was quite a spread of fun! This was done before my blogging days so excuse the horrid lighting.

 

Spooky Eyes:

Take a dried apple ring, top with a dried apricot then top with a raisin. I think I used a dab of cream cheese to secure it all.

 

 

Mummy Pizzas:

1/2 bagel bite, top with pizza sauce, strips of mozzarella cheese and use black olives for eyes. I made noses with mine but I think the eyes would just be fine. Then bake for 10-12 minutes.

 

Finger Dip:

Take your favorite veggie dip and slice a small flat part on the tip of the carrot then use some cream cheese to attach sliced almonds to make fingernails.

 

Freaky Mouths:

Cut apples in half, gently remove the core. Carefully cut a small opening in the skin side. Use your knife and make slits under the apple skin to stick almond slices in for the teeth.

Bread Stick Bones:

These are just refrigerated bread sticks, that I shaped into bones and baked.

 

All extremely simple but lots of fun for the kids!

 

This is a little picture I found of my babies from a couple years ago.

 Have a Happy Happy Halloween!!

 

                



 

 

 

 

Bang Bang Shrimp (my way)

I have posted another remake of a Bonefish Grill dish on here before, Lily's Chicken. It is really good and gets a lot of action on this site. I also really like the Bang Bang Shrimp at Bonefish Grill but I hate the way I feel after I eat fried food, ugh! (note the emphasis on the worked after because I actually feel quite good while I am eating fried food). After researching several remakes of this dish online and tried a few the one this is closet to is Gina's from Skinnytase, love her site! But I made a few changes of my own.  This is so super yummy!! You can make it as an app, a salad, or a main course, but just go make it, I promise you won't be sorry!


Ingredients:
1 lb fresh shrimp, peeled & devained
1 1/2 t cornstarch
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 t canola oil
2 cups bib/butter lettuce
4 scallions/green onions, chopped

Sauce:
1 1/2 T Mayonnaise
2 T Sweet Thai Chili Sauce

Directions:
Toss shrimp in cornstarch, salt and pepper. Heat wok over high heat add oil then toss shrimp in and cook until done. Plate the lettuce, add the shrimp and top with green onions. Use the sauce to dip. (Really, does it get any easier than that?)

 

 

 

 

Weight Watcher Friends: Serves 4 and is 5 points plus per serving. It really is super yummy, if you use a low fat mayo you could probably save points but I hate low fat stuff, I'd rather eat good and count the points!

 

Pork Wraps

As soon as I mentioned making these my husband said YES! He loved this dinner and at the end said "wow babe, this is award winning" which I must say is a pretty big deal. So I figured I better share this little gem of a recipe. If you have never had Savoy cabbage before it is a little chewier than regular green cabbage. I love the flavor and the texture is fine in the mix however for the wraps I feel like regular green cabbage would be best. However, we like to try new things in this house so so we ate it up with no problem, but for next time I will use the savoy in the mix and regular for the wraps.

Ingredients:
1 head Savoy cabbage
1 lb pork tenderloin
1 t sesame oil
1 t canola oil
2 T soy sauce (I always use Tamari, Gluten Free)
2 T Sweet Thai Chili Sauce
1 t corn starch
1/2 cup matchstick carrots
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced

Directions:
Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage (about 8 for the wraps) and dice the rest of the head of the cabbage. Set aside along with the diced onions, carrots and garlic. Slice the pork into 1/4 inch pieces and toss with 1 teaspoon of cornstarch . Heat wok over high heat add 1 teaspoon sesame oil and 1 teaspoon of canola oil, once hot add the pork, allow the meat to brown on one side before moving it around the wok about 1 minute. Then toss around and allow the pork to cook through. Mix the soy sauce and the sweet Thai chili sauce together and add to the pork. Allow to soak into the pork and simmer for about 2 minutes. Move to a plate and cover to keep warm. Next add the remaining teaspoon of canola oil to the wok, once hot, add the onion and carrots. After about 1-2 minutes add the garlic and the cabbage, toss to combine with the onions and carrots. Finally add the pork back to the wok and toss to combine. Place about 1/3 cup into each of the cabbage leaves and serve. We used some of the sweet Thai chili sauce to dip. These were great!

Really is a beautiful vegetable

Pull 6-8 leaves off  to reserve for the wraps

Diced up the rest

I cut about 8-10 baby carrots into sticks, and had 1/4 of a red onion in my fridge so I used both

1 whole pork tenderloin

Chop it up, I really hate cutting raw meat, but it was worth it for this recipe

Once it's all cooked serve in cabbage cups!

Weight Watcher Friends: This recipe serves 6 and each serving is 4 points.

Nam Sod

This recipe is from my cousin, Rusty, he's a great cook. He made this up at our farm last year and everyone loved it! My husband has asked me to make it about 15 times, I finally called up my cousin to get the recipe. It was great! Enjoy!!!

Ingredients:
1 lb fresh lean ground pork
2 T fish sauce
3 limes, juice & zest
2 T garlic, minced
2 T fresh ginger, minced
5 green onions/scallions, chopped
3 T Cilantro, chopped
5-7 small dried Thai chili peppers
1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts
1 head of cabbage
1/2 bag broccoli slaw*

Directions:
Brown the pork making sure to cook through. Once the pork is cooked, add the garlic and ginger, cook for about 1 minute then remove from heat. Add the remaining ingredients, fish sauce, lime, zest, green onions, peppers, cilantro and peanuts.  The Thai peppers can either have the seeds included or removed depending on the amount of heat you like, I served this to my kids so I removed the seeds. Quarter the cabbage head & separate sections. Use the cabbage slices as a wrap and enjoy together.

If you have never used ginger, peel it then chop, it is a root so it is very fibrous 

 Fish sauce does not smell great (imagine that) and is very salty so do not add any additional salt.

Thai chili peppers

Mine were full of seeds so I had to remove most of them.

Brown the pork

*the broccoli slaw is not a typical part of this recipe, I just had it on hand and threw it in when I added the garlic and ginger.

This dish is tangy, delicious and unique mix of flavors.

Clean the cabbage leaves and tear them to cup sizes.

Fill the cups with the pork mixture and enjoy!

 Weight Watcher Friends: this recipe serves 5 and each serving is 1 cup and has 4 points per cup. 

Gazpacho

I love summertime for all the yummy veggies we grow right out of our garden. My mom's garden is so over-run with delicious cucumbers that we need to figure out something to do with them! My mom makes this and it is wonderful, I took her basic recipe and added my own touches.  My daughter and I can't stop eating this one!


 Ingredients:
4 ripe tomatoes
3 cucumbers, unpeeled
1/2 red onion
1 bell pepper, any color
1 shallot
3 cloves garlic
1 handful fresh parsley
2 cup tomato juice (I used V8)
Juice of a lime
1/4 cup vinegar (red or white wine)
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 t salt
Fresh cracked pepper to taste


Directions:
Roughly chop vegetables, (tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, shallot, garlic, bell pepper and parsley) in large pieces. Add them to your food processor and pulse so they are combined but not puréed. (I like it a little bit chunky, for the texture otherwise I think I would feel like I was just drinking tomato juice!) This may take a couple of rounds depending on the size of your food processor. Next transfer the vegetable mix to a bowl then add the tomato juice, lime juice, both vinegars, salt and pepper. If I wasn't going to be serving this to my kids then I would have added a jalapeno pepper but since I knew my 4 year old daughter was going to devour this one i didn't. place in the fridge and chill for at least 3 hours. This is best served the next day!

I love having homegrown vegetables available!

I took the seeds out of the cucumbers because they were so big and rough chopped the veggies

Throw them in the processor, how easy is that??

It looks frothy at first but once it chills and settles down it looks much prettier

Like this! Yummy!

Weight Watcher Friends: This makes about 7 cups of soup, each cup has 1 point! Actually individually there are 2 points in the whole recipe but when I put them all in on the point builder on the WW site it says it has 1 point per serving, regardless whether it has 0 or 1 points, eat up it's super healthy  and delicious! I love making weight watchers 0-point soup in the winter, so this is my summer version!!