Crab Stuffed Shrooms

This was kind of an after thought when making some appetizers.

I didn't really measure any ting...sorry!

Baby Bellas, Imitation Crab, Green Onion, Old Bay seasoning, Mozzarella cheese, Greek Yogurt and season with salt and pepper to taste!

Bake @350 for 30 min.

Yum!

Oven 'Fried' Pickles

I used the same breading and same cooking directions as the Chunks-O-Chicken!

I used Light Three Cheese Ranch for dipping!

Delish!!!

Oven 'Fried' Chunks-O-Chicken

1 Full Chicken Breast (ya know...2 boobs! Or more if you have small breasts!!!)

Cut into chicken chunk size and soaked in low fat buttermilk for at least an hour

Combine in a big bowl:

4 C Crushed Corn Flakes

1 C Season Bread Crumbs

Season to your liking with Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder

(you could also add cayenne, cumin, chili powder...just depends on the flavor you want)

Preheat oven to 415

Generously coat a cookie sheet with cooking spray

Coat each chicken chunk thoroughly and place on cookie sheet

Bake 5 min on one of the top shelves in your oven, flip, bake 5 more min. (check one of the bigger ones to make sure that they are cooked through...your chunk measurement could be bigger than mine)

Dig In and Dip In your favorite sauce!!!

I did half this way and the other half I strained from the milk, coated with Spicy Garlic Sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings and then crusted and baked. They were really good!

Enjoy!!!! :)

French Onion Soup

This is one of my all time favorite soups. As much as I like it, I know that it is very high in calories. I read a couple recipes that called for at least 1/2 C of Butter.
I made this with only 3 T of Olive Oil.

This is low callorie, delicious, light dish!!!

INGREDIENTS

6 Small Yellow Onions sliced
2 Garlic Cloves minced
2 Fresh Thyme sprigs
2 Bay Leaves
1 Shallot thinly sliced
1 tsp sugar

Saute all together in a non-stick pan for about 20-30 minutes over med-low heat until the onions are caramelized.

Then add:
1 C Dry White Wine
1/2 C Cooking Sherry

Reduce down while simmering until the liquid is almost gone.

Then add:
2 Cans Beef Broth (low sodium)
2 T Better Than Bullion Beef diluted in 1 C water (mix very well)

Let all of the ingredients simmer very low for about 20 minutes! While simmering, toast rounds of white french baguette slices in the oven @ 250 for 20 min. Shred /grate Gruyere cheese and mozzarella cheese.

Fill soup crocks full of soup, lay toasted baguette rounds on top of the soup and cover with a good layer of mozzarella and Gruyere cheeses!

Put under the broiler for a couple minutes to melt and brown the cheese on top. Remove from oven and serve. Remember not to touch the soup crock or bowl that was broiled. They get REALLY hot!!!

Enjoy!!

Light Blue Cheese Vinegarette Salad Dressing

While putting myself through complete hell at the gym on the "Wave" machine the other day I watched, but didn't listen to, the Martha Stewart Show. She had a chef on her show from South Africa. He was making a salad. It looked amazing! I watched him make a salad dressing that I couldn't wait to try to make. I now have a new favorite, low fat, super flavorful salad dressing that takes no time to make.

Ingredients

1 Shallot very finely chopped

3/4 C Red Wine Vinegar

2 T Agave Syrup or Honey

1 tsp. Miracle Blend (seasoned salt)

A couple grinds of the black pepper mill

1/2 C Light Crumbled Blue Cheese

Mix all together in a bowl vigorously (HA!) with a whisk so that some of the blue cheese chunks break up and give the dressing a creamy look. Serve over you favorite salad fixins!!!!

My $1,000,000 recipe entry!

I will be entering the following recipe in the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest for a chance to win One Miiiiiillion Dollars!!!

(Yeah right, I know! But I've had fun perfecting it!)Peanut Cilantro Dipping Sauce
Mix together and refrigerate for at least 2 hours
1/4 C Jif Natural Creamy Peanut Butter

1/4 C Soy Sauce
2 T Sugar
1 green onion chopped
2 T Agave Syrup
1/4 C Water
Mix all together until smooth
Add 2 T Cilantro cleaned, stems removed and chopped
Set aside and let marinate in refrigerator

Dumpling filling
Saute together in a pan on medium heat until translucent (about 20 min):
2 Garlic Cloves minced
2 Small White Onions thinly sliced
2 C Cabbage Coleslaw mix
Season with salt and pepper
2 T Olive Oil
1 T Sesame Seed Oil

Remove from heat and let cool.

While the veggies are cooling, in a separate bowl, mix the following ingredients together:

1 lb. Lean Ground Pork (I got boneless center cut pork chops and had the butcher grind them)
½ C. chopped raw shrimp (I use frozen, peeled, tail removed and deveined)
3 Green Onions finely chopped
1 tsp Fresh Ginger Root grated
6 T Soy Sauce
1 Tsp. Garlic Chili Paste
½ Tsp. Sesame Seed Oil
1 Tsp. Sugar
¼ Tsp. Hot Chili Oil
1 Tsp. Oyster Sauce
3 tsp Corn Starch
Add in cooled veggies, mix and refrigerate!

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Bring a large pot of water to a slow boil.

Dough
2 cans Pillsbury Crusty French Bread dough unrolled onto a lightly floured surface, and rolled to stretch a little bit without making holes.
Cut dough sheet into 3 inch wide strips
Wet all four of the edges of each strip.
Place a heaping teaspoon of the meat mixture all along the right side of each dough strip leaving at least 1/2 inch between each scoop (you should be able to make 5-6 out of each strip).
Seal bringing the opposite side over to cover the meat and seal along the right side.
Seal in between each meat ball and along each side and end.
Cut into dumplings with a knife or pizza cutter.
Pick up each dumpling and pinch all along all three edges forming a pocket to hold the meat mixture.
Place about 6 dumplings into the boiling water at a time.
Boil for 5 min and then place on a cookie sheet coated with cooking spray.
Bake @ 400 for 20 min flipping half way through.
Repeat forming dumplings, boil and bake.
Serve with dipping sauce!
Enjoy!!!!!!

Sweet n Sour Beef and Vegetables

My plan was to make Mongolian beef but when I started to round up my ingredients I was all out of soy sauce. So I switched gears and decided on this.

Ingredients:

Flank Steak sliced paper thin against the grain

Sear quick in a little bit of olive oil and sesame oil just to medium rare and set aside in a bowl.

In the same pan add a little more olive oil and sesame oil and saute the following together until the broccoli is tender:

2 small onions sliced

2 cloves garlic minced

1 leek chopped

2 C broccoli

Make the Sweet n Sour sauce in a separate pan while the veggies cook.

Mix beef, veggies and sauce together all in one pan and serve over your favorite noodles or rice. I added a couple drops of hot chili oil to mine and it was great! Enjoy!!!!!

P.S. I really need to stop taking these pictures with my phone. The pictures don't look half as good as the food actually is.

Rubens for St. Patty's Day!!!

I've had my fair share of Jigs Dinners in my life. It's good, I guess.

Corned beef, onions, cabbage and potatoes all boiled together in a pot.

It taste as good as it sounds!!

In keeping with the Irish tradition I made corned beef and cabbage with a twist.

Grilled pumpernickel bread, thick sliced corned beef, muenster cheese, spicy horseradish coleslaw with a sweet and spicy sauce!

Much, much better way to enjoy corned beef and cabbage!

HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY!!!

Corned Beef Brisket

BEFORE

I went through the whole cooler to find this perfect specimen of corned beef!

AFTER

5 HOURS @ 275 DEGREES=PERFECT, JUICY, GOODNESS!!!!

(ADD 1/2" WATER TO BAKING DISH, COVER WITH FOIL AND LEAVE IT ALONE)

I baked again!!!

I even colored the frosting and cut out a stencil to make the 4 leaf clovers on top. It was fun!!! BTW.....the cup cakes came from a box mix this time.....semi-fail!!!!

Skinny Fries

So good, so easy and so healthy!

8-10 Red Skin or Fingerling Potatoes sliced into thin wedges

Rinsed and dried

Lots of salt

2 T Olive Oil

More salt

Toss all together in a bowl

Bake @ 400 degrees for about 20 min, flip bake 10 more min.

Eat

YUM!!!

Tex Mex Brisket Tacos

Steamed Corn Tortillas filled with:

• Slow Roasted Beef Brisket seasoned with Goyza, cumin, chipotle chili powder, garlic powder and black pepper. Bake on top of 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped garlic clove and 1/2 bottle of dark beer. Cover and bake fat slab on top for 3 hours @ 275 degrees. Slice thin across the grain.
  
• Homemade Salsa
  
• Guacamole
• Lettuce, black olives, green onion, fresh cilantro and lime juice

• Chipotle Chili Lime Cream (FF Greek yogurt, chipotle chili powder, fresh lime juice and salt)

SO, SO GOOD!!!!

Dinner w/ Gretch @ Reverend Chicos in BG

Grilled Steak Salad w/ Blue Cheese and Craisins...Delish!!!!

Cuban Sandwich w/ Onion Rings.....NOT on the diet menu but OH so good!

I also tried a new beer, Goose Island 312, and loved it!

It was a fun dinner with the best cousin a girl could ever ask for!!!

P.S. These pictures really don't do the food any justice. I need to work on my mobile photography skills!!!

Seafood Tacos w/ Fruit Salsa

One of my favorite dishes at our local Mexican restaurant is the Tacos De Pescados. It's a simple, light dish of broiled talapia, corn tortillas, lime and a mango salsa.

I decided to make up my own. It was a pretty simple meal aside from all of the chopping for the fruit salsa but that was well worth all of the work.

FRUIT SALSA

Chop the following and combine all in a bowl....

• 1/2 of a Pineapple
• 1 Apple
• 1 Grapefruit (meat only)
• 1 Orange (meat only)
• 1 Mango
• 8 Strawberries
• 1 Kiwi
• 1/4 C Cilantro
• 1/8 C Mint
• 1/2 of a Jalapeno Pepper
• 1 Poblano Pepper
• 1 Green Onion
• Juice of 1 Lemon and 1 Lime
• 1/2 tsp. Salt

Mix, marinate and enjoy!!!!!

SEAFOOD TACOS

• Broiled Grouper (0r any mild white fish)seasoned w/ Old Bay Blackened Seasoning

• Sauteed Raw Shrimp w/ 1 T Butter and Fresh Lime Juice

• Lime Cilantro Slaw (made with cabbage, lime juice, green onion, FF Greek yogurt, cilantro, red pepper, salt and a little agave syrup)

• Guacamole(I used FF Greek yogurt instead of sour cream to lower the fat and it worked great!)

• Fresh cilantro, black olives, poblano peppers limes and cilantro

All served on steamed corn tortillas

(soak about 4 paper towels with water, squeeze off excess water, open and put corn tortillas inside, fold tortillas in paper towels, wrap all in a dry clean kitchen towel and microwave for 1 min, open and separate. The tortillas should be perfectly steamed.)

I call her Ginger

My piece of ginger looks like a little person. I don't want to cut it. Oh well....off with her head!!!!

Surf-N-Turf

Matt requested steak and crab legs for his birthday dinner.

No argument here!

We prepared for the mess that comes along with crab legs by using newspaper as a table cover, so I decided to go with the casual decor and used paper plates.

It really made the clean up quick and easy!

The meal included:

*Grilled steak on the grill cooked to a medium rare with a horseradish sauce

*Sauteed mushrooms and onions

*Twice baked potatoes

*Jumbo Snow crab legs w/ melted lemon butter

*Cesar Salad

It was a birthday dinner success!!!

Guilt Free Twiced Baked Potatoes

I'm a carb lover but most are notorious for being very high in fat.

These are easy to make and guilt free.

2 Baked Potatoes (I used the potato setting on my microwave and they were done perfectly in just a couple minutes!)

Cut in half and scoop out the inside, leaving only a thin layer along the skin.

Combine the potato with:

2 T Fat Free Greek yogurt

1 T Light Margarine

2 T Fresh grated Parmesan Cheese

2 T shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder

Mash all ingredients together, spoon back into potato skins,

top w/ chopped green onions and cook again in microwave for about 2 minutes

or in oven just to heat through and melt the cheese!
YUM!!!

P.S. This picture doesn't do the dish justice....AT ALL!!

Blood Orange Ginger Dressing

I love a salad w/ a good ginger dressing at a sushi bar. I decided to try to use a blood orange.

This is a easy, light, low fat and great dressing!

Juice 1 Blood Orange

1 tsp. fresh grated ginger root

2 grated baby carrots

1 T agave syrup or honey

Couple drops of sesame oil

Mix and serve over you favorite salad greens, green onions and anything else you desire!

Enjoy!!!

I'm not the only one that loves Sriracha.....

Sushi Extravaganza!

Spicy Shrimp Tempura Roll

Shrimp Tempura, Spicy Crab mix, red pepper, green onion, avocado and eel sauce!

Spicy Alaska Roll

Salmon, tuna, crab, spicy crab mix, cucumber and green onion!

Salmon Roll and Salmon Sashimi

Salmon, cucumber, green onion, avocado, cream cheese and red pepper!

Shrimp Tempura Roll

Tempura Shrimp, red pepper, cream cheese, green onion, red pepper and cucumber!

Tuna Roll

Tuna, cream cheese and green onion deep fried and topped with eel sauce!

I also made a spicy tuna roll but that was before the rice was behaving so the picture would not do the flavor justice! I can't wait to do this again. I have so many ideas......

Sushi Preparation

Although sushi requires LOTS of prep work, it is well worth it.

We made a trip to Rohr Fish Market in Toledo and got sashimi grade salmon, tuna and some raw shrimp to put in our sushi rolls, sashimi and appetizer!

Tuna: I cut the tuna steak up 3 different ways. I kept about 1/3 of it in a large 2 inch wide chunk to use for the Seared Ahi Tuna appetizer, sliced 1/3 of it into slices for sashimi and diced the remainder to make a Spicy Tuna roll with. The spicy tuna mixture was made with the diced tuna, light mayo and sriracha!

Salmon: After skinning the salmon filet I cut half into sashimi slices and half into longer peices to use in the sushi rolls.

Sushi Rice: I have lots of work to do on this part. I watched a video and followed the instructions but my rice just wasn't sticky enough. After a couple rolls I was able to doctor it up a little to get it to the right stickiness. I don't feel too bad that my first attempt didn't go so well after I found out that Japanese Sushi Chefs spend years mastering the art of making the perfect sushi rice.

Condiments: The other fillings that I made for the rolls were shrimp tempura, spicy crab mixture, cream cheese, green onions, red pepper, cucumber, avacado, eel sauce and imitation crab meat.

And of course the perfect beverage to accompany all of the perparation.....Asahi!!! Mmmmm....


And NOW we are finally ready to make some rolls!!!!!!!!

Seared Ahi Tuna Appetizer

This is one of my favorite appetizers to order at restaurants. I've had some good experiences and some bad. This turned out amazing!

The dipping sauce is Eel Sauce!

1/4 C Mirin

1/4 C Soy Sauce

1/8 C Sugar

Bring to slow simmer for a couple minutes, let cool and top with chopped green onions!

The tuna steak was lightly seasoned on all sides with Old Bay Blackened Spice, then coated with a light spray of olive oil and seared in a non-stick frying pan on each side only for about 1 minute so that the middle of the tuna is medium rare.

Sliced thin and served with the eel sauce!

DELICIOUS!!!!!

Turkey Meatball Subs

I am trying to keep my recipes very low fat, nutritious and healthy.
Today I made turkey meatball subs!!

Ingredients:

1 small onion chopped

1 clove garlic minced

1/3 each of a green and red pepper diced

2 T olive oil

season w/ salt and pepper

Saute together, let cool and then add to the next ingredients

1 lb. ground turkey

1 egg

1/4 C bread crumbs

1 T miracle blend (seasoned salt)

A little shake each of garlic powder and onion powder and black pepper

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and let sit in the refrigerator for a couple hours. Roll into balls, brown in a non-stick frying pan and then cover with marinara sauce. Cover and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Serve on a sub bun w/ melted cheese, sauteed mushrooms and onions and marinara sauce! Yum!

Sumac Vinegarette

I ate at an Indian Restaurant in Toledo and loved it all, specially the salad. I decided to try to make it at home. Sumac is a spice that was in the salad and used in a lot of Indian food. My friend Cory gave me some to try. Thanks Cory!

After some experiencing I think I figured it out!!

Dressing:

2 T White Wine Vinegar

1 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/4 tsp. Sumac

1/4 tsp. Miracle Blend (seasoned salt)

1/4 tsp. Agave syrup or sugar

Dash of black pepper

Spicy sprouts were another new ingredient that I used in this salad along with the sumac.

Salad:

Romaine lettuce

Spicy sprouts

Carrots grated

Green Onions

Toss in dressing and and Enjoy!!!!!

Meat-N-Taters

After a more than stressful 48 hours of preparing and standing guard at my home from a potential flood, while I was home alone, I decided I should take some time to make myself a dinner I wouldn't do just any night of the week! I didn't have any desire to venture out to see if I could get to the store to buy new ingredients so I used what I already had on hand. It was well worth all of the work over the last couple days.

Potato pancake, bacon wrapped filet minion, sauteed onions and a parmesan cheese cracker! It was all pretty easy to prepare and put all together it was delicious!!!

Breakfast for a basketcase....

Chicken Alfredo Pasta.....why not!!?

It's a quarter after 4am I'm all alone....

and I need something...... noodles had to do!

I set my first flood level check alarm for 2:30 am. I couldn't go back to sleep, started feeling sick to my stomach with worry and decided that nothing would make me feel better than a big hot spicy bowl of noodles. As usual I made enough for about 4 people but it did it's job. I finally got back to sleep around 5 am and then up only 1 1/2 hours later to my next alarm. And so my day begins......

This bowl full consisted of:

Miso broth w/ a little soy sauce and red hot pepper flakes

Chicken

Carrot

Onion

Garlic

Bok Choy

Green Onion

Sugar Snap Peas

Cabbage

Lo Mein Noodles

and topped with a little sesame oil and hot chilli oil!!!