Tag Archives: recipe

Recipe: Crockpot Teriyaki Chicken

This is one of the easiest recipes to date!  I am enjoying finding crockpot recipes and tweaking them a bit.

Now the color of this dish doesn’t look so appealing, but it is tasty!

 

Tender, fall apart chicken thighs with a sweety and salty sauce with tart pineapple.

Ingredients:

  • 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 4 oz each)
  • 1/2 cup of reduced sodium soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of minced garlic (1 large clove)
  • 2 tablespoons of fresh grated ginger
  • 1 cup of sliced pineapple (fresh or canned/drained).
  • 2 teaspoons or cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water
Mix the soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, and ginger in the crockpot. Add the chicken and stir around to coat. Then make sure the chicken is evenly distributed in the  cooker.
Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
Break up the chicken with a spoon, which can be done by pretty much stirring it because the chicken is so tender. Turn the cooker on high to bring to a boil, then add the cornstarch/water mixture and stir to thicken up the sauce.  I actually transferred to another pot because we were hungry and didn’t want to wait for the crockpot to come to a boil 😀
Then stir in the pineapple and serve.  This begs to be served with rice.
Notes:  Do *not* add the pineapple in the beginning.  Pineapple has enzymes in it that will break down the meat and make it mushy.  Also, it will absorb too much of the sauce, so leave it to right before serving.
Nutritional info:  Makes 4 very generous servings at about 250 calories (without rice)
** Tip for the ginger.  Keep the ginger hand in the freezer, then use a microplane grater to grate the ginger.  This makes it easier to grate, not to mention that you always have fresh ginger on hand if you keep it in your freezer!

 

Recipe: Country Captain Chicken

Another new-to-me recipe this week! I pulled out a Weight Watchers cookbook that I won in a giveaway.

Here is the Amazon linkie for that if you want to get this book. It actually has some good recipes in it!

Today’s choice? Best-Ever Country Captain Chicken.

I am not sure who the captain is or if this really is Best Ever, but we really enjoyed this.  Apparently this is a southern dish, but it seems more Indian to me.  Don’t be afraid of this combo of ingredients!

Normally I tweak recipes a bit, but I just followed this one pretty closely.

Ingredients:

  • 2 teaspoons of oil
  • 1.25 pounds of boneless chicken breast cut into bite-sized chunks
  • 1 small onion (or diced frozen onions like I use – easy!)
  • 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and diced. (We used a red apple because that is what we had)
  • 1 bell pepper chopped (or diced frozen for the lazy people like me!)
  • 1 teaspoon of chopped garlic
  • 1 tablespoon grated ginger
  • 1 tablespoon of curry powder
  • 1/4 tsp of cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 can of diced tomatoes (15 oz can)
  • 1 cup reduced sodium chicken or veggie broth
  • 1/4 cup of raisins
Cut up the chicken into bite size pieces.
In a pot or dutch oven with a lid, add 1 teaspoon of the oil over medium high heat. Add the chicken and brown, about 5 minutes:
While the chicken cooks, peel and chop the apple and grate the ginger.
We buy the fresh ginger and keep it in the freezer wrapped up. That way you always have fresh ginger available!
Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside. Add the other teaspoon of oil, then put the apple, ginger, onion, pepper and garlic into the pot and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
Add in the cinnamon, curry powder and salt and cook for another minute or so.
Now add the broth, the canned tomatoes with the juice, raisins and the chicken. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
This serves 4.
The flavor is complex. A little savory and a little sweet.  Chunky and delicious! I think crusty bread or some brown rice would be great with this.  The recipe also calls for 1 tablespoon of slivered almonds over the 4 servings, but we didn’t have any. That’s only like 3 slivers on each bowl, pfffft!
Nutritional Stats:
Each serving is about 1.5 cups.  Per serving:  Calories: 309, 8 g of fat, 24 g of carbs, 4 g of fiber, 35 g of protein.
This took about 35 minutes from start to finish.  Grain free and gluten free!
**addendum** Reheated the next day and it is even more flavorful!

Gluten Free Banana Bread

This was my first real foray into an alternative flour blend.  I have used coconut flour with good success, but wanted something with a different texture.  So while out shopping this weekend, I picked up 2 things.  One was xantham gum and one was some Bob’s Red Mill GF flour.  I decided to make the banana bread on the package of the flour with some modifications.

Ingredients:

  • 1.75 cups of gluten free flour (not bread mix, but plain GF flour)
  • 2 tsp of cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp of salt
  • 2 tsp of baking powder
  • 1 tsp of xantham gum
  • 2/3 cup of packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 medium bananas, mashed (approximately 1.25 to 1.5 cups)
  • 2 oz of chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line a loaf pan with a parchment paper sling (or use nonstick cooking spray).  Mash bananas and chop pecans and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, blend together the sugar, eggs, vanilla, and applesauce.  Beat well.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, xantham gum, salt, and cinnamon.

With the beater on slow, alternate adding the flour mixture with the mashed banana until incorporated.

Then stir in the nuts.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Proceed to lick the spatula when finished.

Bake for about 55 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

It was hard to wait for this to cool.  I took my walk and then came back in and made up a slice for the game.  Banana bread and football.  Just like apple pie and baseball, right?

It was also good the next morning with a little neufchatel cream cheese!

Stats for the whole loaf: 2070 calories, 59 grams of fat, 426 grams of carbs, 33 grams of fiber, 41 grams of protein.

My loaf weighed 1 pound 12 ounces (or 28 ounces).  That means  dividing the loaf into ten 2.8 ounce slices would mean 207 calories, 6 grams of fat, 42.5 grams of carbs, 3.3 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein for a slice.  Most people cut a loaf into 12 slices, but not me. I like a big piece of bread. (The slices in the photo above are about 1.5 ounces each).

The xantham gum is supposed to make the bread moist and bind it together, so I don’t know what would happen if you leave it out. I happened to find a smaller bag at my store that was not so expensive, so I bought it.  The Red Mill GF flour is a mix of bean flours and tapioca starch.  There is a lot to learn about how the different flours interact with each other, so I wanted to start out with a premixed blend.  I think I had a good start here and I shall be experimenting more.  I might have to try a yeast bread!

The original recipe called for 1/3 cup of oil, which I substituted with applesauce.  It also called for walnuts instead of pecans and 1/2 cup of raisins.  But raisins are always optional.   :mrgreen:

Crockpot Pork with Peppers and Rice

Yay – the first new recipe of the month!  It is much cooler today – in the upper 60s and gray.  So that meant a warmer dinner and an easy fix-and-forget type dinner. The recipe actually calls for beef, but we had ground pork on had, so that is what we used.  This recipe is gluten free if you make sure your soy sauce and bullion are!

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound of ground pork (or beef or turkey or even reconstituted TVP)
  • 2 bell peppers
  • 1/2 an onion (hooray for frozen and chopped!)
  • 2 bullion cubes or equivalent thing.  We have a liquid veggie broth paste.
  • 1 tablespoon of gluten-free soy sauce
  • 1 cup of uncooked brown rice
  • 3 cups of water
In a skillet, brown the meat, breaking it up into small pieces.
Seed and chop the peppers into chunks.  Also dice the onion if you use a whole one.
Drain the fat from the meat (if there is any).  Then everybody goes into the pool!
Cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 3 hours until the rice is done and water is absorbed.  I turned mine on high for about 20 minutes to finish cooking because we were hungry 😀
Finished product:
Of course, you know I had to put hot sauce on it!  I liked this dish.  It needed something crunchy on the side, though.  John ate some tortilla chips with his.  Now we have a good amount of leftovers!  A very easy recipe.
I was going to try to do nutritionals for this, but it would vary so much depending on the type of meat you put in there.  An average would be about 250 calories per cup.
Question:  Do you use a crockpot?

Recipe: Ricotta Puffs

So I jumped into my grain-free challenge with an interesting recipe for breakfast.  I got it from the The Perfect 10 book and adapted it for me.

Super easy and no fancy ingredients (aka no coconut flour – surprise!).

Ingredients:

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup of part skim ricotta cheese
  • 2 teaspoons of honey (or other sweetener)
  • 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
  • 1 ounce of pecans, toasted and chopped

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Or you could use the toaster oven, which I did so I wouldn’t heat up the kitchen.

Take the pecans and put them in the microwave for about a minute.  This will toast them without the fuss and muss. Set aside to cool while you assemble the other ingrediets.

In a medium bowl, mix the eggs and the ricotta:

Chop the nuts.  Then add those to the ricotta mixture along with the honey and the vanilla.

Mix well and divide evenly among a 6 muffin cup tin.  See how quick and easy this is?? I recommend getting a 6 cup tin to use in a toaster oven.  It’s so convenient!  I put about 1/4 cup of batter in each compartment.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes until puffed and set.

Note – they will fall once they come out of the oven, so don’t worry.

They are sort of a cross between a souffle and a cheesecake.  Not very sweet, just delicate.  They went perfectly with blueberry sauce:

The original recipe called for agave and also for 1/2 an ounce of parmesan cheese, but I didn’t think the sweet/savory of that would be so good – so I left it out.  I think you could leave out the sweetener and make these savory as well.

Nutritional Stats:

Per puff:  133 calories, fat 9.5 g, carbs 6.5 g, fiber 0.5 g, protein 7 g.

I think these might be quite portable.  I have the others stored in the fridge and will see how they are 2nd day.

Gluten Free chocolate chip cookies

Coconut Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies – gluten free!

I was sent this recipe by reader Katy – thanks!  Not sure of the source on this. These use my beloved coconut flour!  Very easy to make and just a few ingredients.  Don’t you love those type? I cut it in half so I wouldn’t have too many cookies in the house.

I also used mini chocolate chips for more surface area ratio in the cookies, I also changed the amounts of the add ins.

Ingredients:

  • 66 grams coconut flour (1/2 cup)
  • 4 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 54 grams mini chips (1/3 cup)
  • 28 g (1/4 cup) dried coconut

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone sheet.

In a small bowl, mix the eggs and melted butter with the brown sugar, vanilla, and salt.

Sift the coconut flour into the wet mix (to prevent lumps):

add in the mini chips and coconut.

Stir well to combine.  It may seem really liquidy at first, but remember coconut flour is super absorbent.

I let my bowl sit for several minutes and voila – dough!

Use a spoon, drop rounded tablespoons onto the baking sheet.  I got 14 out of this mixture, but you can do whatever size you want.

My thumb is there for size purposes, although I could also be giving an A-Okay sign if you like.

Bake at 375 for 14 minutes until the tops are lightly browned.


Nutrition per cookie (with 14 per batch):

132 calories, fat: 6.8 g, carbs: 15.5 g, fiber 3 g,  protein 2.5 g

These are very tasty and moist.

Thoughts: You can probably lighten these up with using egg whites.  Maybe applesauce instead of butter, but that would give a more cake-like texture.  I think I would also try chilling the dough and the rolling it into balls, then flattening the balls before baking.  The dough stayed in the exact shape I dropped it into on the cookie sheet.

Let me know if you try these do any changes to the recipe and I can add it here.

Enjoy!

The Great Veggie Experiment – Caramelized Onions

Okay, first off – I am going to say right here and now that I do not like onions for the most part.  If they are raw and on my plate, I pick them off.  I use a fork, too, since I don’t want the onion smell on my hands.  I won’t eat big chunks of onion in soups or stews.  I do, however, like onions that are caramelized, but only in thin strips.  I also will eat fried onion strings as well (of course they are fried, who wouldn’t like them).  Caramelized onions are a very different animal than regular onions.  The onion flavor is really mild and there is the addition of the caramelization that occurs given them a different flavor.  They are really easy to make.  They just take a little bit of time.

I used 2 big Vidalia onions here.  I think yellows or Vidalias are the best.  Have not tried red onions as I dislike that kind the most!

Peel the onions and use a knife or mandolin to cut very fine slices of onion. The thinner the slices, the faster they caramelize.

In a large saute pan, put in 2 tablespoons of butter and a drizzle of liquid oil).

Turn the heat to medium high and add in the onions.

After a few minutes, I like to add a pinch or two of salt. This helps to draw moisture out of the onions.

Cook for a while over medium high heat, stirring occasionally until the water cooks out of the onion.

Once the water cooks out, the onions will start to become translucent and take on some color:

Now you have to pay more attention to the onions and do a little heat management.  Stir the onions frequently and if they look like they are really sticking to the pan, lower the heat to medium.

Keep cooking and stirring:

You want a nice chocolately color to the onions when they are done.  If you happen to have some red wine on hand, add a few splashes for some extra flavor.  We don’t drink wine, so none available!

Onions nicely caramelized.

They shrunk down quite a bit, too.  Those 2 big onions gave about this much:

I use these mostly as a condiment for things like my omelet last night:

Or top a burger with them:

Since it takes about 30-40 minutes to do these, I will make a lot and freeze the rest.  Then I can just scrape out some onions for a topper and reheat them.  Works like a charm!

So, still a raw onion hater, but I will eat these!

Banana Bread breakfast pudding (gluten free)

While I am resting up from our 88 mile ride and having a boring day, I figured I would entertain you with my banana bread breakfast pudding!

This is a take on the other gluten free pumpkin cake.

Ingredients:

  • 2 egg whites (or 1 egg)
  • 1 ripe banana, 6-7 inches
  • 14 grams of coconut flour (2 tbsp)
  • 1/4 tsp of baking powder
  • cinnamon

In a bowl, mash the banana until it is liquidy.  The riper the banana, the easier this is and the sweeter it is.

Then add the egg whites and cinnamon

And mix well to combine.

Normally I don’t sift coconut flour, but the brand pictured above is a little clumpy, so I like to sift it to keep lumps from happening.  I have a tiny little strainer that I just plop over the bowl and add the coconut flour and the baking powder to:

All sifted and pretty.

Now mix really well.

Pour into a small baking dish.

Now you could microwave this for a couple minutes, but it really is much, much better baked.  I popped it in the toaster oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  You could also put it into 2 muffin cups and reduce the baking time (not sure by how much, but start checking at 12 minutes).

I comes out beautiful and puffed up:

Super moist and delicious!

You can top it however you like.  I, myself, love coconut butter and a drizzle of chocolate syrup:

Or even some peanut butter and jam!

This is easy to make ahead and reheat for mornings on the go.

Nutritional stats for the entire cake (no toppings):

Calories: 182

Fat: 1.5 g

Carbs: 33 g

Fiber: 9 g

Protein: 11 g

Linking this post to Fat Tuesday Forager Festival!  Check out other real food recipes.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Mini Cake

I have been playing with the recipe over the weekend and since it involves my beloved coconut flour, I was smitten right away.

I slightly adapted this recipe from Smoothie Girl.  It is quite tasty and very moist.

  • 2 egg whites (or 56 grams of liquid egg whites, 1/4 cup)
  • 1/4 cup pumpkin
  • 14 grams (2 Tbsp) coconut flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

Mix all of the ingredients really well in a microwave safe baking dish.  It should be small, on the order of 4 inches or so – like this:

I like the flat-bottomed dishes so it cooks evenly, but you can use whatever.

Put all of the ingredients in a small bowl:

Mix really well.  You will need to mash it with a spoon to incorporate the coconut flour (unless you sift it, which I am not inclined to do).

Spray your cooking vessel with nonstick spray and spread in the batter.  smooth it out evenly as that is the shape it will come out in!

Again, my hand is in there for size reference.

Pop in the microwave for 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 minutes.  This will depend on the size of your bowl.  You want it cooked through to the middle.

Let cool for a couple minutes (or heck, a long time if you want).

I topped mine with coconut butter and a bit of peach jam:

This comes out very moist and not rubbery like a lot of microwave protein cakes are.  It is the coconut flour.  That magical ingredient!  This is lightly sweet.  Deb makes hers with stevia, I think, but I don’t do sugar substitutes as most of you know.  So it’s real maple syrup for me!

Stats for the entire cake:  Calories: 168

Fat: 2 g

Carbs: 30 g

Fiber: 9 g (!!!)

Protein: 11 g

If you use 1 egg instead of the egg whites, up the calories to 200 and the fat to 7 grams.  I use the egg white version when I want to top it with fat (hello coconut butter!).

This lasted me for the whole morning when I added my 2 cups of coffee.  The coconut flour soaks up a lot of liquid in the tummy 😀

By the way, I found a better price on coconut flour on Amazon.

Azukar Organics Natural and Organic Coconut Flour, 16-Ounce Bags (Pack of 6) This is 6 one-pound bags for $18.37 – sweet!  Guess who has 6 bags in her new pantry now :mrgreen:

Pampered with protein muffins!

I took a chance and biked to the gym today. The roads were wet and it was cloudy, but I say “heck with it!” and biked. I knew the rain was supposed to end this morning anyway – And it didn’t rain!

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Stiff-legged Deadlifts 3 sets of 10 at 65# Lower Body
Cable Squat to Row * 3 set of 10 at 50# Full Body
Dumbbell Pull Over 3 set of 10 with 20# DB Back
Horizontal Wood Chop * 3 sets of 12 each side at 20# Core
Calf Raise 3 sets of 12 at 110# Calves
Barbell Bench Press 3 sets of 8 at 55# Chest
Triceps Pull Down * 3 sets of 12 at 30# Triceps
Hammer Curl 3 sets of 10 with 12# DBs (24# total) Biceps
Upright Row 3 sets of 10 at 30# Shoulders

It was pretty humid in the gym with the doors open. The * is all the exercises I did on the cable machine. Going on T/TH means the cable machine hog usually isn’t there, so I could get on there and do my thing!  I am thinking of actually getting some more weights and moving my workouts to home in August and not dealing with the gym anymore.  I may as well become a hermit.

I biked home to a yummy aroma in the house and John said “There are fresh protein muffins if you want one.”  Did I? Oh yes!  They are lemon poppyseed flavored.

I made some blueberry sauce and slathered a muffin with it.  Nom, nom, nom!  I loves my hubby.

Here is the recipe in full so you don’t have to click.

Basic Muffin
1 c. white flour
2/3 c. whole wheat flour
2 scoops (1/3 cup) protein powder (unsweetened)- this batch had pea protein
3/4 c. sugar
1 Tblsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1 c. milk (1%)
1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
1  egg

Add in Options
Zest of 1 lemon, 1/4 tsp of lemon extract, 1.5 Tbsp of poppyseeds

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl, and mix liquid ingredients in a separate bowl. Pour liquids into dry and gently fold together until mostly mixed. Then fold in add ins. Spoon into 12 standard muffin cups or 6 jumbo muffin cups. Bake at 400 for 20 mins (std.) or 30 mins (jumbo) or until golden brown.

Approximate nutritional info of basic muffin Jumbo size:

Cal: 270, Fat: 2 gram, Carbs: 37 grams, Fiber: 3 grams, Protein: 14 grams

The calories would be half that if you did the regular normal people muffin size and not the jumbo Lori size 😀

My life is good right now.  I am so appreciative of that.  10 pounds be damned.

After a busy morning of work, I had some lunch.  A burger with laughing cow and some caramelized onions.

I make up the onions and freeze them so I can pull out a couple tablespoons at a time when desired.  The only way I eat onions ever is caramelized.  Maybe an onion ring, but I am more likely to pull the coating off and leave the onion behind.  (there, I said it).

John also made me my latte today.  I really am a lucky girl.

With a date!  I am really trying to control the snacking today.  That habit really made an appearance again lately.  I lot of people complain about food in the office, but it can be just as bad working at home because there is all kinds of food available because we live here.  Not even junk food, but you can easily make a piece of toast or grab some nuts, etc.

Dinner time!  More popcorn fish.  Hello little nuggets.  I really am liking these.  Wonder if I could make these with a firm mild white fish.

An evening of house cleaning on tap.  The renovation project is pretty much done – yay!  I will get some pictures and post this week.  Now there is a lot of time in the evenings available to us :mrgreen:

See you all for Bagel Wednesday!