Category Archives: recipe

Happy St. Patrick’s Day with colcannon!

Happy St. Patty’s Day!  We have an Irish family and this is always a fun day for us.  No green beer, but we do like to make some special dishes.

John made some Irish soda bread:

bread

I had put some corned beef in the crockpot to simmer all day and we tried to make colcannon for the first time.  This is a traditional potato/cabbage dish. Kale is often used in place of cabbage, but I am not a fan of the kale.

Colcannon

  • 2 to 2 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled (if desired) and cut into large chunks
  • Salt for boiling water
  • 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
  • 3 lightly packed cups of chopped cabbage or kale (I used coleslaw mix)
  • 1/2 small onion minced
  • 1 cup milk
  • salt and pepper to taste

Boil the potatoes in a large pot with salted water (a couple good pinches of salt) until fork tender, about 15 minutes. Drain into a colander and set aside.

Place the pan back on medium heat and add the butter.  Lightly sautee the cabbage and onions together for 3 or 4 minutes until wilted.  Add the potatoes and milk, then mash with a potato masher until the desired consistency of mashed potatoes – lumpy or smooth!  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Then serve.  Most traditional recipes call for you to make a well in the center and add melted butter, but I left this step off for calorie sake.

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Good, no?  It was very tasty. An interesting way to get in some veggies 😀 Ours looks more colorful because the coleslaw mix has carrots and purple cabbage.

Happy Mardi Gras and another chili recipe!

 

Happy Mardi Gras! We usually have a party, but did not this year. At first it was because we thought we would be in the middle of moving.  Then it was close after vacation and I ripped up the kitchen counters, so no party. Oh well!  Here is a shot from one of the museums we went to about Mardi Gras to get you in the spirit. This is an actual costume worn by a queen of one of the crewes:

costume 2

I think this weighs something like 90 pounds? I didn’t look this nice 100 pounds heavier, I’ll tell you that.

Anyhoo – This was today’s workout at the gym.

Exercise Set/rep/weight
Bird Dog

Forward Ball Roll
3 set of 10 with 5# weight

3 set of 12 (increased reps)
Stepups

3-point dumbbell row
3 sets of 12 with 15# DBs (increased reps)

3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs
Partial Co-contraction Lunge (video)

Pushup
3 sets of 12 (increased reps)

3 sets of 10 on 6 inch incline
Single-leg bridge

Bent Over Reverse Fly
3 sets of 10

3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs

Not sure if I mentioned or not, but when the exercises are grouped in a box, those are done as supersets. I made some good progress today, especially proud of the co-contraction lunge increase. Those burn.  Go me!

I made the best chili the other day and thought I would share the recipe because it was so easy and tasty! This could be done on the stove or in the crockpot – I did mine in the CP. Based on this recipe with changes

 

Ingredients:

  • 1 lbs lean ground meat of choice (I used ground pork)
  • 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 1 clove of garlic, finely minced
  • 1 (15) oz can petite diced tomatoes (undrained)
  • 1 (2 oz) can of diced green chilies (or just buy a can of rotel for these 2 ingredients)
  • 1 (15 oz) can of plain tomato sauce
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp chili powder
  • 1/2 tbsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tbsp paprika
  • 1 tsp cocoa powder
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 1 (15 oz) can beans drained and rinsed – I like the little white beans, personally

 

In a skillet, spray with cooking spray and add the meat. Season with salt and pepper. Then brown the meat, breaking it up into small pieces. Once it is browned, add it to the crockpot along with all the other ingredients.  Set to low and cook for 4-1/2 to 5 hours.  Or, you could simmer it on the stovetop just as easily for 30 minutes or so. I think the crockpot just intensifies the flavors.

Crock Pot Chili

Yummy!  This is definitely a keeper. I had some on a baked potato as leftovers and I think it was even better the next day! I didn’t figure out stats for this because I am not counting calories right now, just portions and the results will really depend on the type of meat you use.

 

Happy Mardi Gras to all!

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Stovetop mac and cheese!

Wednesday is Bagel Day!  Check it out:

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Looks so bright and sunny. It doesn’t look like -15 degrees, does it?  That’s -26 Celsius, FYI. Let’s make it feel even colder by converting it, shall we? 🙄   There is light at the end of the tunnel, though – it is supposed to break into the 30s this weekend! I told John I just might run around outside nekkid if it gets that warm.

Okay, not really.

We went somewhere different for breakfast.  Back to Cool Beans. We haven’t eaten here for breakfast in a couple years, I believe. Lots of coffee!

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It’s very Adirondack/woodsy style inside, although they were playing country music. Sorry country music lovers, but I despise it. Really cannot stand to listen to it. Isn’t it weird how some types of music do that to you?

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Still enjoyed my bagel, though.

You know what a perfect dish is for cold weather? Mac and cheese!  I love baked mac and cheese, but it takes a long time to cook and I am just not interested in boxed stovetop mixes.  However, Alton Brown has the best stovetop mac and cheese recipe.  This is our go to on weekends.  It doesn’t take very long to fix at all.

Ingredients:

  • 8 ounces of pasta of your choice
  • 2 eggs
  • 5 ounces of evaporated skim milk (small can)
  • 1 teaspoon of hot sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon dry mustard powder
  • 4 tablespoons of butter
  • 10 ounces of 2% shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Cook the pasta according to package directions.  While the pasta is boiling, assemble the sauce ingredients.  In a large bowl, beat the eggs. add the milk, hot sauce, salt and mustard powder.

When the pasta is done, drain and return to pot over low heat. Add the butter and stir to melt.  Slowly pour in the egg/milk mixture stirring constantly.  Now stir in the cheese a couple ounces at a time.  Keep stirring for 5 minutes or so until the cheese is all melted, the sauce has thickened up and it is piping hot.

Serve with hot sauce if desired (and why wouldn’t it be?)

Alton Brown Stove Top Mac and Cheese

This is so good! It’s nice because it makes a lot for leftovers as well.  Stats are approximate. With 6 servings, it comes to 386 calories, 32 grams of carbs, 20 fat grams, 20 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber.  It is higher calorie, so I do like to eat it on long bike ride days, but it sure feels good to have during the winter, too!

Recipe: Creamed Chicken and Corn Soup in the crock pot

This was a weird weather weekend, wasn’t it?  From bitter cold to warm and rainy.  Of course, lot of rain on top of a foot of snow and there is nowhere for the rain to go. What a mess.  It looked like pea soup in the afternoon on Saturday, too.

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I had company for my Sunday bagel. My momma joined me after she got out of church.

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Since it is going to be so busy for me for next few days, I wanted to prep some food. I made some crock pot soup. Always a good choice for busy times, right? Based on this recipe.

Creamed Chicken and Corn Soup

Ingredients:

  • 1.5 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (a package of 6 is usually about 1.5 pounds)
  • 23 ounce can, aka the big one, of condensed chicken soup -(or  2 batches of homemade as per below)
  • 1 can (14 oz) of creamed corn
  • 1 cup frozen corn kernels
  • 1/2 chopped onion
  • 2 medium carrots, sliced
  • 2 cups of chicken or veggie broth

Add all ingredients to the slow cooker and cook on high for 5 hours. Break the chicken thighs into small pieces with a spatula (they should just fall apart) and serve.  If you want to use chicken breasts instead of thighs, put them in frozen so they don’t get dried out.

Slow Cooker Creamed Chicken and Corn Sougp

This is really good.  I guess that’s a good thing since I will eating this all week! The chicken thighs work really well in this recipe.

Nutritional info:  These stats reflect using the condensed soup recipe below and not canned, so your mileage may vary.  Based on 6 servings of soup, approximately 1-3/4 cups: 

Calories 358,  Fat 17 grams, Carbs 26 grams, Protein 26 grams, Fiber 2 grams.

Generally I don’t care for condensed soups and never have them on hand.  I came across a recipe on Pinterest and decided to make my own for a recipe at Christmas.  It worked, so I used it again here.

Homemade condensed soup base

  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
  • 1/2 cup low-fat or fat free milk
  • salt and pepper to taste

In a small saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour.

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Whisk for a few minutes to cook out the flour taste. Then gradually whisk in the broth.  I don’t add the milk yet because adding cold milk can lead to lumps.  Once you whisk in the broth and it is smooth, whisk in the milk.

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Then cook over medium heat, stirring constantly,  for a couple minutes until very thick – like this: 

From scratch condensed soup

Voila – This equals 1 can of condensed soup. You can do this with any flavors you want, too. (Please note this pan is a double batch since that is what I needed for the above recipe)

Here’s hoping the Broncos win the game today!  I did up my Broncos manicure:

broncos mani

I used the head of a flat pin to make the dots of polish.  Worked pretty well, too.

Now I’m eating this soup and watching the game. Come on Broncos!

What I’m reading and my fabulous cranberry sauce

Thanksgiving Eve! It’s been kind of a crazy week.  Crazy weather.  We were getting snow last night and it all turned to rain today.  Thank goodness for travel that won’t be bad around here.  I hope everyone has safe travels this weekend!

Here were my reads for the last month.  One book was crazy long, plus I got distracted with other things (the table).

First up was the bad one.

wolfe

The book is about the wars between England and Scotland. A peace treaty was worked out and was to be cemented by marrying a Scottish lady (Jordan) to an English earl.  Of course, the English knight (William de Wolfe) who was to bring her to the earl fell in love with her and and the story goes from there and on, and on, and on. I liked the time period, but the main characters really were not all that likeable in my opinion. At first I liked them, but as the book went on, they both seemed emotionally unstable. Jordan really caused a lot of deaths to other people by her immature actions and William was willing to risk all those people just for her. William flew into strange rages which seemed okay with Jordan. Just peculiar. I became very annoyed with it by the end. On an editorial note, it was full of typos and really could have been made into 2 books quite easily.  I probably wouldn’t have borrowed the book if I knew how long it was – almost 900 pages. You don’t notice the length of a book on the kindle unless you actually look up how many pages are in it.  This was borrowed through the Kindle Owners Lending Library.

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lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

This book is good on so many levels.  It’s really several stories in one.  The primary story is Henrietta.  She is a woman whose cervical cancer cells were the first that were able to be cultured and be used for science. In fact, her cells were so amazing that you can trace pretty much all of modern vaccines and advancements in medicines to her, like the polio vaccine.  It’s pretty amazing.  The other part of the story was Henrietta’s family and how this affected them.  They did not know about her cells being used and finding out created some havoc in their lives.  They have not been compensated in any way to date.  The focus for this section was on Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah, and how she is trying to piece together and learn about the mother she doesn’t remember.  The interesting part is that Ms. Skloot became part of the story as well as her relationship with Deborah grew over time. Normally the writer doesn’t put themselves in the story like that, but it was pretty integral.  This book raises a lot of questions about medical ethics and privacy and made me think a lot.  Highly recommended.  Borrowed from my library via Kindle.

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12years

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northrup

An interesting side note on this book. Solomon lived in the town I live in right now! It was strange to read about Fort Edward and Sandy Hill (which is now Hudson Falls) and know that this man actually walked on these streets. 

Anyway, this is the story of a free African American in the North who was kidnapped and sold to slavery in Louisiana where he was for 12 years.  Of course, you know that he ends up free because he wrote the book, but this was a pretty gripping book any way.  He described life as a slave in detail and what life was like living on a cotton farm.  It was pretty matter of fact, which made it all the more chilling.  I know this movie is coming out soon and I already know I will be crying throughout the movie. 

I actually bought a copy of this book after trying to get it at the library forever. It was 99 cents for my Kindle.  Even a cheapo like me can afford that 😉

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And now for Thanksgiving, here is the recipe for my famous cranberry sauce! It’s super easy.

cranberry sauce

  • 1 package of fresh cranberries
  • 1/2 cup of orange juice
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • 3/4 cup of sugar
  • a cinnamon stick (3 inches or so)
  • half of a vanilla bean or 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Put all ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. The cranberries will pop open as it cooks. Let cool and fish out the cinnamon stick.  Then serve!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and I will see you all on the flip side of the holiday!

Recipe: Crockpot Butter Chicken (Murgh makhani)

I know – you are all What?? Butter chicken?  However, this recipe contains no butter at all 😀  There often is butter in this dish, but there are also plenty of versions that leave it out.  It really is a very rich dish, which is cut by using lite coconut milk and nonfat greek yogurt instead of heavy cream. I based mine on this recipe.

Crockpot Butter Chicken

I took all pictures with my phone today, too, just for fun.

Ingredients (minus the chicken):

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Haha – excuse the Mickey cup! It gets hand washed instead of being putting in the dishwasher, and it was there drying. Oopsie. Just keepin’ it real.  😳

  • 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 1.5 pounds)
  • 1 tbsp curry paste (make sure this is Indian and not Thai)
  • 1 tbsp garam masala
  • 2 tsp ground cardamom
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 1 clove minced garlic
  • 1  can lite coconut milk
  • 1 cup plain yogurt (make sure it does not have gelatin in it)
  • 1 5.5 oz can of tomato paste
  • 1 tsp of salt

Easy peasy directions:

Cut the chicken into bite-size chunks.  Add to slow cooker and then add everything else on top.  Stir well.

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Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. I was a little concerned about adding the yogurt at the start, but the recipe said to do that.

Now, when it is done, it will look like the yogurt has separated, but just mix it up.  I suppose you could always leave the yogurt until the end and stir it in, but it tasted good to me.  If you do this on the stove top, I would leave it until the last step. In fact, I might just try stirring in the yogurt at the end even with the slow cooker to see if I can get it a little creamier.

Voila – served with rice.

Crockpot Butter Chicken

I really liked this! I think the key to this dish is the cardamom. It’s a wonderful spice and smells like chai. I would wear it as a perfume if I could.  It’s worth picking up for this dish. If you don’t have it, you can try using an extra teaspoon of the garam masala, which has some cardamom in it, but it won’t taste quite the same.

I also did not put any cayenne in it for John, but next time I think I will add some. It’s also surprisingly filling.

Nutritional stats: The whole batch is 1311 calories, 60 grams of carbs, 59 grams of fat, 154 grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber.  So, divided into 6 portions, it would be about 220 calories.  That will depend a bit on which coconut milk you use, so please note. The Thai lite has about 50 calories per serving versus 140 for regular coconut milk.

 

Recipe: Sourdough Crepes

I got all fancy here at Casa Radiance for breakfast today!  I had pulled my sourdough starter (aka Breadipus Rex) out of the fridge a couple days ago to see if it was still alive. Truth be told, I forgot about it for a few months!  I thought it was dead, but I fed it and it showed some signs of life, so I left it out of the fridge and kept refreshing it for a couple days and it was alive and kicking again.  I realize this starter is over 2 years old now!  I don’t use it that much, but will feed it occasionally.  It’s the forgotten pet 😀

Anyway, I wanted to try something different and saw this recipe for sourdough crepes and thought that would be easy enough for breakfast! 

Crepes are really easy. They seem fancy, but just are a super thin pancake.  This recipe only took 4 ingredients:

crepes

Okay, I know the picture has just 3, but pretend you see milk sitting next to these items.  It was pre coffee when I did this.

  • 1/2 cup fed sourdough starter 100% hydration **
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon butter, melted
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk

** 100% hydration means the starter is made with equal parts by weight of flour and water. If you use more flour than water, that is a stiff starter.

The best pan to use for crepes is an 8 inch nonstick pan.  You don’t need a fancy crepe pan. It just needs to have slightly curved sides.  While you mix the ingredients, you want to get your pan hot over medium to medium high heat.

First, stir your starter to get all the bubbles out.  Then measure out 1/2 cup and add it to the cup of your mini blender along with the egg and melted butter.  You could do this with a whisk if you don’t have a blender, but it’s just easier this way.

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I also tossed in some cinnamon here, just for kicks.  Blend well and then stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk to thin out the batter.  How much milk will depend a little on how wet your starter is. You want it really thin so it spreads around the pan and doesn’t mound up like it would for a pancake.

Spray the heated pan with cooking spray and pour in about 3 tablespoons of batter.  You want to swirl the pan around to distribute the batter all the way around the pan and up the sides.  This is why you need thin batter.  This was a hard picture to take, I have to say.

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You can kind of see how runny the batter is and how it is swirling towards the edges.  It cooks very fast because the crepes are thin.

In about a minute, the crepe edges will start to pull from the pan like this:

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Now is the time to flip. You can try with your fingers or just use a spatula:

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This needs maybe 20 seconds on the other side:

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Then just slide to a waiting plate. I slide mine out and then fold them over. 

sourdough crepes

You could leave them unfolded and fill and roll them, but I am kind of lazy. Repeat until the batter is gone.  It doesn’t take very long at all to do all the crepes.  I got 5 crepes out of this and really the batter could have been a bit thinner and made 6.

I topped mine with my blueberry sauce and a spoon of ricotta.  Plus some cinnamon because I got all fancy!

sourdough crepes

These were quite good. Normally crepes don’t have much flavor to them, but these had a definite complexity to them. My starter is pretty tangy because it is 2 years old.  I think I will call them sophisticrepes!  These could be used for sweet or savory purposes.  You may want to add a little sweetener to these to help balance the tang if you are used to sweeter breakfasts.

I would hazard a guess that the crepes are about 220 calories or so, not including any topping.

Recipe: Crock Pot Jambalaya

Okay, this is not technically a jambalaya, but it still tastes really good.  It’s almost like a stew that you add rice to.

I found the base of this recipe here at Taste of Home and made changes.

A note on the sausage. Do NOT use an Italian sausage for this.  If you don’t have andouille, then sub a kielbasa for it (use a turkey one for lower fat).  These come from a regional sausage maker and are quite tasty (and spicy).

sausage

Ingredients:

  • One 15 ounce can of chicken broth.
  • One 6 oz can of tomato paste
  • One 15 oz can of diced tomatoes (with the juice)
  • 3 ribs of celery, diced
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup of diced onion
  • 1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
  • 1 clove minced garlic
  • 1 tablespoon of cajun seasoning
  • 1 tablespoon of hot sauce (or less if you prefer – I used more!)
  • 8 ounces of andouille sausage, sliced into rounds
  • 16 ounces of chicken breast cut into bite-size pieces
  • Hot cooked rice for serving

Bite size pieces:

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In the crock pot (I have a 6 quart, but 4 would also work), add everything up to the meat into the slow cooker and stir well.  Then add in the meat. 

Crock Pot Jambalaya

Here is the cajun seasoning we used. 

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One of John’s customers sent him this (she makes it).

Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours.  During the last 20 minutes of cook time, start the rice.

Here is the bowl to which I added a 1/2 cup of rice.

Crock Pot Jambalaya

The leftovers were awesome, too!  Reheated and it looks more like traditional jambalaya! 

Crock Pot Jambalaya

Laughing because I used the same bowl on both days to eat this, washed of course…  You could certainly eat this as is without the rice as sort of a stew.  It’s nice and spicy, too!

Nutrition:  This made 5 large servings for us.  Dividing the entire batch by 5 (between 1-1/4 and 1-1/2 cups) and you get:

210 calories, 7 grams of fat, 26 grams of protein, 8 grams of carbs and 2 grams of fiber.  Of course, your mileage will vary depending on the sausage that you use.

Add 100 calories per serving if you add 1/2 cup of cooked rice. 

This will be made again!

 

Prius love and grilled coconut chicken

Wednesday is the usual Bagel Day!  We are still riding for breakfast. It was in the low 50s and that is perfect for breakfast riding.

bagel

Mileage sits at 2139. 😀

 

Keni asked a question the other day about the Prius.

Could you do a little review on your Prius now that you’ve had it awhile. I am considering one and like you I like to be very mindful of my pocketbook and utility usage.

How do I love the Prius?  Let me count the ways!  We adore this car.  I have dubbed it the “stealthmobile” because it is so quiet.

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Also keep in mind that we had our other car for 13 years (and counting), so this was a big leap as far as technology and such.   It is almost too much technology.  I found myself wanting to look more at the display than the road at first, 😯  , but that has subsided.

The gas mileage is great!  John uses the car for trips out of town about every other weekend.  I think most times we average 50+ miles per gallon, which is about double what our Saturn gets.  It rides really smooth and we don’t have a problem with acceleration or going up hills or any of those things you hear about a hybrid.

It also feels very, very safe. It has a million air bags and it just feels nice and solid.  The interior is really nice and we can do hands-free talking on the phone if needed (the law in NY).  We can also plug in a music player through the USB drive and bring all our tunes along.  It has a CD player, but we haven’t even used that yet.

Things I don’t like?  When the car is in reverse, it beeps until you put the car in drive.  When we are backing out of our driveway, it can take a while since we live on a busy road and it beeps the entire time we sit there waiting.  It doesn’t seem to bother John, but it drives me nuts.

I also don’t like the small back window.  I don’t feel like I get as good a view out the back as with the Saturn, but that is a wagon, so only another wagon would feel like that, but it does seem smaller anyway.

I also find that the finish of the car seems to be made of tinfoil. The Saturn has dent resistant doors (basically plastic) and they can take a beating. The Prius not so much. There have been a few dings and scratches put in it by just breathing on it, I swear.  Of course, *I* have not put any of these marks on the car. I won’t say who has, but you can probably guess 😀

Those are pretty small things, though, and I would get a second Prius in a heartbeat! (Are you listening, Toyota??)

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Now on to some eats!

For dinner, I had a recipe pinned for a grilled coconut sticky chicken.  Hooray for actually making a Pinterest recipe!! I fiddled with the proportions and spice mix, but the basic gist was the same.

Ingredients:

2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 can lite coconut milk
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons oil  (I used macadamia nut)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
2 tablespoons hot sauce
1 tablespoon cajun seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon chili powder

It’s pretty easy. Just mix all the ingredients except the chicken.  Then add the chicken and marinate for 4 or more hours.  I mixed this up at lunch.  Then cooked it on the grill.

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I basted once and had a ton of marinade left over.  This actually makes a lot of marinade and you could probably cut it in half.  Or use more chicken…

Served with plain rice, although the original recipe makes a sweet coconut rice to go with, which I bet would be yummy!

grilled coconut chicken

I think chicken thighs are just made for grilling, don’t you?

Stats would be about 160 calories if you have a 4 ounce chicken thigh (raw), plus about 50 calories for the marinade.  This was quite tasty.  Not really sticky. I had cut down on the heat because I didn’t want it to be too hot for John, but I certainly would double the hot sauce and more black pepper and it would still be fine.  I like the heat 😀

Pink item of the day!

pink

 

The Breast Cancer Site

Recipe: Aloo Gobi (potatoes and cauliflower)

On to recipe number 2 for the Indian meals!  I have had Aloo Gobi in restaurants and it is quite good.  In fact, I had everything in my pantry/freezer to make this recipe! Aloo means potato and Gobi means cauliflower.  Quite obvious, eh? This was a tasty and easy recipe.  I found it here on Food Network and made a few changes.

Aloo Gobi

Maybe not the most attractive dish, but the taste is what matters!

 

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Ingredients:

  • 2 teaspoons grated ginger
  • 1 tablespoon garam masala
  • 1 to 2 cloves of minced garlic
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 tablespoon  oil
  • 2 tablespoons of diced green chiles
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 10 ounces cauliflower florets
  • 10 ounces of potato,  cut into cubes (similar size to cauliflower)
  • 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
  • 1/2 cup water

First, do your prep before starting to cook.  Chop up the potato into chunks a little smaller than your cauliflower pieces:

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In a small bowl, mix together the 1/4 cup of water, garam masala, ginger, garlic and turmeric.

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In a saucepan, heat the oil and add in the chiles and the cumin seeds.

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Stir for about a minute. The cumin seeds will pop.  Remove the pan from the heat and carefully add your cup of spices and water (be careful of splattering).

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Bring this mixture back to the heat and cook over medium heat until it thickens up a bit.

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This took just a couple minutes.

Then add the potatoes and cauliflower.

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Mix well, then add the other 1/2 cup of water and salt.

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Cover and simmer over medium heat for 20-25 minutes until potatoes are tender.  Stir halfway through.

You want most of the water to be evaporated off of this, so you can take the lid off when the potatoes are about done and let it finish if you have a lot of water in the pan.

 

This was quite tasty!  I think I would do the potato pieces a little smaller as my cauliflower was falling apart.  I also used frozen and I don’t know if that had anything to do with it.

Aloo Gobi

Lori’s notes:  I bet this would be good with sweet potatoes!  I happened to use 10 ounces each of cauliflower and potatoes because I just picked up 2 potatoes and weighed them, then did an equal amount of cauliflower. You can easily double this.  I think I might increase the green chiles a bit.  I like heat!

Nutritional stats:  For the entire batch:

415 calories

15 grams of fat

67 grams of carbs

12 grams of fiber

12 grams of protein.

 

I divided this into 3 servings, which is about 138 calories per serving.  Good as a side dish.