Coconutty Happiness

I’m home by 6:00pm tonight. Workout behind me this morning and no plans this evening! How in the world did this happen? Score! So I cranked the Madonna Pandora station and got to work on dinner…but clearly not before a little bit of dancing! Hey, its Madonna and life is a mystery!

So I’m using a lot more coconut product these days for a couple of reasons. The first is that I absolutely effin love the stuff! I have loved coconut since I was a kid and even my cupcake choice for our wedding was coconut! Luckily for Josh, we had several flavors so he wasn’t subject to my coconut obsession. As a side note, I ate two of these cupcakes at 5am the morning after our wedding for breakfast on the way to Greece! Hey, I’m the bride, I’ll do whatever I want! The second reason is that the more I read about coconut, the more I find it’s actually much better for us than I ever knew. I was always scared of it because of its high fat and calorie content. But lo and behold, some genius has decided its healthy and I’m on the bandwagon!

So I’ve stockpiled coconut milk and oil in my house! I’m even putting it in my coffee as a dairy substitute! But typically if I’m thinking coconut milk for a dinner situation it is some kind of curry. Frankly, I may be more obsessed with curry than coconut. So I made a coconut curry shrimp that cured me of all my cravings! And I’m certain you’ll love it too!

Coconut Curry Shrimp:

1lb shrimp

1 can coconut milk

2tbsp red curry paste

2 garlic cloves, minced

½” fresh ginger, minced on a microplane

juice of one lime

sprinkle cayenne pepper

basil

Mix coconut milk, curry paste, garlic, ginger, cayenne and lime juice. Marinate the shrimp in half the mixture for an hour or so. Whatever you have time for. Then skewer and grill your shrimps. They won’t take long, 3 minutes or so per side depending on shrimp size. DO NOT overcook them….there is nothing worse in life than overcooked seafood! Heat the rest of the coconut milk mix in a small sauce pan over medium heat and put cooked shrimp in the sauce constantly stirring for 2 minutes. Then spoon them onto a plate garnished with fresh basil. And voila! Spicy and coconutty!

I paired this with a salad. This particular salad was pretty rockin if I do say so myself. I found these fabulous organic baby kale. Yes, kale, not spinach! 

Here’s the deal…

baby kale

mixed greens

*both Olivia’s brand

blueberries

orange pepper

sliced almonds

coconut flakes

shredded fresh basil

Basically pile this up like any other salad. I mixed up some fig balsamic vinegar with olive oil and pepper to dress it. Because of the coconut and basil the salad was completely cohesive with the shrimps. I love when I can carry an awesome flavor through the whole meal without it becoming overwhelming.

At the end of the dinner, Josh says, “Thank you for making me eat healthy!” Big Eater Small Body VICTORY!

High Five and Salud!

The Middle Egg

I am currently consuming eggs at a rapid pace. This is so strange for me because as I’ve mentioned before, I’m not really a breakfast eater. I have been doing it because it is fueling me for my days. Period. However, I’ve found myself really embracing the incredible edible egg! So much in fact, that I made a dinner with them GASP!

It is no secret that I love Middle Eastern food. So I made this great dish called Shakshuka Sunday night. I was a little concerned that it would be too far out of the realm of “dinner” so I also made Kefta Kebab. Anyway, those two middle eastern flavors should work nicely together and if not, shut up and eat it anyway, right? *wink wink

So I ventured into a dish I was incredibly unsure about. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Usually the greatest food risks breed the greatest successes. I mean, whoever said, “WOW! That’s a great plain old plate of food!” That’s right, no one!

So here’s the skivvy on this incredible edible Middle Eastern dinner albeit a little Americanized as my buddy Ray felt due to the addition of chili powder. What can I say…oh wait, what I said to him post dinner was, “Not too bad for a white girl!”

Shakshura

½ medium onion, diced

2 jalepenos, minced

1 red bell pepper, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

6-7 tomatoes, chopped

2 tsp tomato paste

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp paprika

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

s&p

6 large eggs

fresh parsley, chopped

oil

In a cast iron skillet put a splash of oil, I used coconut, over medium-high heat. Add onion, jalapeño, and bell pepper. Sauté for 5 minutes. Then add garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste, chili powder, paprika, cayenne, s&p. Sauté for about 10 minutes until the tomatoes really start to break down. You can go longer, just eye ball it. You want it to look more like a sauce than a salsa. Then crack 6 eggs into the sauce, arranging them evenly. Put the whole skillet, covered, into a 400 degree oven for approximately 10 minutes or until the whites are firm and well, white. Take out and sprinkle with fresh parsley. COULDN’T BE EASIER!

Kefta Kebab

*Ok disclaimer, there are a million different recipes for this and they all pretty much taste the same! Ha! But here’s mine

1-1  ½ lb beef

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion, minced

*I actually did this in the food processor and recommend it that way but if you don’t have one, don’t sweat it

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1 Tbsp dried parsley

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp cinnamon

1-2 Tbsp chopped fresh mint

Put all the kids in the pool together. Mix thoroughly and let sit in the refrigerator for 2 or more hours. Soak wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes or more. Then form the beef into 8 equal logs. Skewer the beef. Preheat the grill to 400 or 450. Or screaming hot if you don’t have a thermometer on your grill. Grill on each side for about 4-5 minutes.

Now, these two dishes can be eaten independently of each other, but I’m the kid who swirls everything around on my plate. So make your choice. But I ate this concoction piled up on romaine lettuce leaves. Basically, Shakshuka then beef. It was AWESOME! I added a few banana pepper rings as well. Here’s my only thing….make sure that when you stack this masterpiece, you get some egg. Your mind will tell you not to mix it, but just do it! Trust me!

All were full and we moved on to watching some extreme waterslides with smiles!

Salud!

Sexy Legs!

Welp I’m back from Paris approximately 3-5 pounds fatter than I was when I left. Yup, you can see the baguettes and croissants poking out of my belly and the creamy soup hanging out on my thighs. Wouldn’t change my consumption last week for anything. I don’t mind eating pretty healthy most of the time if when I go to the food Mecca of the world I have no guilt. And clearly there was no guilt. Well, not until I got back. So I got back into my workout routine and a predominantly protein and veg meal plan.

When I cleansed, the food was set right out for me and I didn’t really bother to think outside the box on how to make it delicious while staying within the parameters of the cleanse. But now that I have a general idea that protein and lots of fiber dense veggies help you lose weight and feel great, I can adapt them to taste good. Which, if you know me, is IMPORTANT!!

So tonight I decided to make Asian inspired chicken legs. I stole a recipe from Food Network as I actually never cook them and pretty much the only way I’ve ever had them is fried. But I wanted to grill them. The problem is, chicken legs take a while to cook all the way through. So, thank you, Food Network for a fabulous Apple-Honey Drumsticks recipe. Per usual I modified it a bit. And per usual, I think my way is better! Wink Wink

Here’s the breakdown

6 chicken legs

olive oil

salt & pepper

2 cups apple juice

½ cup apple cider vinegar

¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce

zest of one lemon

¼ tsp red pepper flakes

sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place chicken in a cast iron dutch oven. If you don’t have this, a glass Pyrex will do fine. Cover the chicken in a little olive oil and sprinkle salt & pepper. Bake covered for 30 minutes. Turn the legs over and lower heat to 300 degrees. Cook another 20 minutes. While the chicken is cooking, mix apple juice, vinegar, soy sauce, lemon zest and red pepper flakes in a sauce pan and cook for approximately 25 minutes. Let it cool. Then preheat your grill to about 400 degrees. You want it screaming hot because you’re not cooking the chicken, just charring it. Put your chicken on the grill and brush with the sauce; turning and coating several times. Then pour any of the left over sauce on top of legs after you’ve removed them from the grill. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

I served this with a green salad and some grilled asparagus which also doesn’t take long on the grill so you can put them on at the same time.

The chicken was super tender and spicy sweet! Absolutely fabulous actually. And the best part really was that I learned how to cook something I’ve only ever seen deep fried! Now that’s a Big Eater Small Body WIN! I’m sure you’ll enjoy this as much as I did!

Mexican Food Memories

When I was a teenager, a friend’s mother turned me into a Mexican food monster! This woman not only made delicious dinners for me, but she made homemade salsa that I will never forget, nor will I ever find anything that compares. It was super spicy, just like her, but you could taste the love she put into it. This woman, incidentally, was one of the hardest working and loving women I’ve ever known. She worked tirelessly at work and it was a bit of a guilty pleasure to eat her food because she literally cooked all day when she did. But there was nothing better and with that said, she quickly turned me into a Mexican food snob. And while in general I admit to being a food snob, this is particularly true for Mexican food and specifically salsa!

So anyway, I don’t really cook Mexican food too much. Partly because it’s never going to be that good. In fact, while talking to my friend about this dinner, I may have mentioned that my Mexican food always has a “tint of white girl” in it! Nevertheless, I attempted a chili relleno Big Eater Small Body style. Which means no deep frying. But if I’m being honest, the fried part of chili relleno is not really my favorite part anyway, so I wasn’t too bummed out about the healthy conversion! What I came up with was a much healthier and equally tasty dinner that may have gotten a round of applause from even from my little salsa making mama!

Here’s the breakdown:

2 chicken breasts

6 poblano peppers

1 can corn

1 small can green chiles

1 jalapeno, minced

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1-28 oz. can whole tomatoes

1 can Rotel

1 package Sazon

queso fresco

olive oil

Sprinkle chicken breasts with Sazon seasoning on both sides. In a cast iron dutch oven, heat 1-2 Tbsp olive oil over medium high heat and add chicken. Let cook approximately 3-5 minutes and flip over. Cook for an additional 3-5 minutes. Then add the can of whole tomatoes with the juice and the can of Rotel. Cook in the sauce for about 5-10 minutes covered. Then add to a pre-heated 350 degree oven. Cook for approximately 30 minutes. Time here is loose because the chicken will be cooked regardless, but you’re trying to get it where it will pull apart with forks. Meanwhile, roast the poblanos. You can do this on the grill very easily or directly on a gas stove. Either way roast them until they are well charred. Then put them in a bowl with a covered top. Let them sit 5 minutes or longer to return to room temperature. Then peel the char off them and make a slit in one side to remove the seeds. Sauté corn, jalapeno, garlic, onion and green chiles for about 8 minutes. Turn off the heat. Take the chicken out of the oven and shred. Add the chicken to the corn mixture. Then crumble the queso fresco to the mix. Add as much as you like, but remember, its BIG EATER SMALL BODY! Spoon the mixture into each pepper. Add a tsp or so of cumin to the leftover tomato sauce. Then spoon about half that sauce into the bottom of a baking dish, line the dish with the peppers and bake at 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes. Everything is already cooked, you just want to heat through.

I served this with the rest of the sauce spooned over top and a cucumber, cilantro, lime and pineapple salad. This salad is super easy, just throw all those ingredients into a bowl.

What I ended up with was a super delicious labor of love. Yes, it took longer to cook than most things I blog about. But it was totally worth it! And if you’re feeding a few people, it’s really inexpensive but definitely doesn’t taste so!

I truly enjoyed the meal, although it really could have used some of that salsa!

Fish "Guidelines"

So I normally try to change up what I’m eating in a day or even in a few days in a row. However, due to some slightly poor planning, I found myself cooking fish for dinner last night after a fish lunch. As a sidebar, I’ve learned that I can cook fish at work with veggies in the toaster oven! This is an AWESOME discovery as I absolutely refuse to eat re-heated seafood or fish. And I know I’m not crazy because a friend at work agreed with me as I was preparing my fabulous fishy lunch. Microwaved protein in general grosses me out, as it gets that boingy, sketchy Chinese restaurant quality. But before my recent Easter gift of a lunch crockpot, I nuked chicken, beef, what have you. The lunch crockpot is a wonder for another day, but if you Google lunch crockpot, you’ll likely find it and I assure you its worth every nickel! However, I absolutely WILL NAAAAHT reheat fish and seafood. Holy tangent Batman! Back to the fish.

So again, due to my poor planning, I was forced to cook fish for dinner last night as it defrosts quickly. So I found a great recipe on All Recipes for Ginger Glazed Mahi. Per usual I completely adapted the recipe to make me happy, but the original recipe was a great guideline

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Here’s the breakdown

2 Mahi Filets

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 ½ inches of fresh ginger, grated

*I typically store fresh ginger in the freezer then grate it on a microplane

3 Tbsp. soy sauce

3 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

3 Tbsp. honey

2 tsp olive oil

Mix all of the ingredients and put in a gallon size Ziploc bag. When you’re mixing the ingredients for the “glaze” you may have to microwave it quickly to break down the honey. Then add the fish and put it in the fridge to marry for about 30 minutes. The longer the better, but I was post workout and starving so 30 for me! Then, because Mahi is strong enough to hold up to the grill, I grilled them. Get your grill screaming hot and cook for about 5 minutes per side, lid down.

Then, because I had an Asian flavor going with the fish I decided on a quick and easy veggie stir fry. Now, don’t forget the most important of stir fry rules. Add so much seasoning you think its going to be terrible!

Stir Fry breakdown

3 baby bok choy, chopped

1-8oz package snap peas

1 container pre-sliced shitake mushrooms

*make it easy on yourself

1 ½ - 2 cups bean sprouts

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp crushed red pepper

*the wet stuff, not dried spices

olive oil

sesame oil
1 tsp sesame seeds

In your pan (preferably a wok) heat 1 Tbsp or so of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic and crushed red pepper. Sauté for about 1 or 2 minutes. Then add the snap peas tossing it all around. Cook for about 3-4 minutes and then add the bok choy and mushrooms. Toss everything around (add more oil if you need it and you likely will) cook for about 5 more minutes. Then add the bean sprouts. Toss around and then add a drizzle (a very small one) of sesame oil. You won’t need a lot, this stuff is potent. Toss it all around and cook for another minute. The only rule here is I would make sure the bok choy gets wilty. It’ll retain some of its crunch, and you totally want that, but you don’t want it raw. Then sprinkle the sesame seeds.

Well, this was a super yummy Asian inspired meal on the fly and even though it meant eating fish for lunch and dinner, I was perfectly content. And feeling a bit healthy.

Spicy Fish Sweety Greens

I love spicy food. On any given day, I would gladly trade out a cookie or other sweet for something that burns my mouth! Absolutely love it. So I usually look for spicy recipes that aren’t just hot for the sake of being hot. I like my spice to have some depth and a good flavor as well. Well that’s just what I got when I found this tilapia recipe on my handy dandy iPad app for All Recipes. It is called Tandoori Fish and was submitted by Rina H. The depth in this recipe is crazy and the flavors were so complex that the extreme heat only added to an already delicious flavor. And even though the recipe suggests to marinate the fish for 4 hours, it is not necessary. I’m sure it makes the flavors marry more, but even after 1 hour, it was super!

Here’s the deal:

4 tilapia filets

*recipe calls for catfish, either would be fine

1/3 cup white vinegar

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced

*I put the garlic and about 1 ½” ginger in the mini food processor

½ tsp. salt

1 Tbsp cayenne pepper

THAT’S RIGHT FOLKS 1 TABLESPOON!

1 Tbsp ground coriander

*Here’s the complexity

1 Tbsp cumin

½ cup olive oil

*recipe calls for vegetable, I don’t use the stuff

This is super simple. Mix all the ingredients minus the fish to make a thin paste/marinade. The recipe says to blend it in a blender….who has time for that??? You don’t need to. Coat the fish in it (in a Ziploc bag would be the most efficient way to do this). Let it sit for 1-4 hours. I wouldn’t let it sit too much more than 4 or the vinegar is going to start to cook the fish. Add a small amount of olive oil to a hot pan and cook on both sides until the fish is flaky. Only flip the fish once and remember the second side goes faster than the first. The recipe also call for you to broil it, but again, not necessary! I feel like you run a much larger margin for error with a broiler.

So what was I going to eat with this fish? Well, originally I though okra. Some of my absolute favorite okra dishes are Indian recipes and I thought the two would really compliment each other. But I pulled out the okra and GASP mold! I was sooooo bummed out. Then I remembered that the good people at Boston Organics brought me collard greens that week! So collards it was.

Now here’s the disclaimer on collards. I DO NOT have time to cook them the way I always knew them to need to be cooked. Which is all day. This is old school southern food and I adore it, but there’s no time for that, period. So I crossed my fingers that a half hour or so would be plenty.

BEST COLLARDS EVA

1 large bunch fresh collards

½ gala apple, diced

¼ white onion sliced semi thin then in half

1 tsp hot madras curry powder

*use whatever kind of curry powder you have

½ - ¾ cup white wine

honey

water

s&p

olive oil

Wash your collards really good. Make sure you pull the leaf away from the stem. You won’t miss this stem, promise. Stack the leaves up and roll them lengthwise. Then cut them in ½” strips. I usually then cut the long pieces in half or thirds after that. Put them in a semi deep pan with about 1 cup of water and a small drizzle of olive oil. Cook over medium high heat covered for 10 minutes or so. Stir and add the white wine plus a little more water. You want these greens to soak up the liquid and cook out some of the bitterness. After you’ve cooked them for about 20 minutes add the onions and apple. Stir and keep cooking, covered. Keep adding water until you’ve cooked them for about 30 minutes. Once the liquid is mostly cooked off (not all of it) add the curry powder and stir it in. Cook for a minute or two. Then add a drizzle of honey. Stir it up, let the honey heat (this will only take a second) then serve them piping hot!

I know exactly what you’re thinking….Too many things in the pot! Normally, I would agree, but this total accident was a HUGE SUCCESS! Not only were the collards legit amazing by themselves, but when you ate them with a piece of the fish on one fork it was seriously a masterpiece! Not to toot my own horn! This is one of those times when taking a risk and being creative with food really pays off. And I got a big pat on the back from Josh. Who, by the way, doesn’t really like collards, chard or other bitter greens. So I knew it wasn’t just me, the any greens any time girl!

I urge you to try both of these, but if you’re choosing one….go with the collards!

Cheers!

A Healthier BBQ Sangwich

One of my absolute favorite things in life is good barbeque. This is not because I am from Kentucky. Contrary to popular belief, not all barbeque in the south is delicious. There’s not even such a thing as Kentucky barbeque. But I frequently get the “Oh of course you love barbeque you’re from Kentucky.” As far as I know there’s only one real place to get barbeque in Kentucky besides your own backyard and it’s not “Kentucky” barbeque really. However, as I’ve mentioned before, my brother in law and sister in law used to live in Austin, Texas and we used to visit every year. There IS such a thing as Texas barbeque. And frankly, it’s my favorite. I mentioned the delicious BBQ Sause from Rudy’s in a previous blog which is only one component to the fabulous barbeque at this place. They also serve the best brisket you’ve ever tasted. When you get this BBQ at Rudy’s they give it to you with a loaf or so of white bread. And I like mine with cole slaw. Typically I build a sangwich with all of the above ingredients! It’s my own little guilty pleasure although I really don’t feel that guilty since I have to truck it all the way to Texas to get it!

Nevertheless, I wanted to try to adapt the barbeque love to something that’s slightly healthier and logistically easier. So I started thinking hard about what flavors make up my favorite BBQ Sangwich. I’ll start with the protein. Ok, so brisket is not good for you. Especially my favorite type which is pretty fatty. But I could use ground turkey. So the tastes on the meat are typically onion (don’t ask me how or why), smoke (from a smoker if you do it right), and barbeque sauce. So to recreate the smoke flavor, I used liquid smoke. Now, I’m absolutely not going to replace the Rudy’s BBQ Sause…it’s too good and I wouldn’t be using much. Instead of creamy cole slaw, I used the Health Salad from my July 28, 2011 blog. However, my organics box had red cabbage in it this week, so I used that. There’s no real need to make it with green,  done and done. I did put it on bread, but used a whole wheat sandwich thin. Anyway, I didn’t want the bread to outweigh the taste of the turkey or the slaw, so I didn’t want much, but I wanted it to be a sangwich.

Here’s the breakdown for this creative BBQ Burger

1 lb ground turkey

*I used organic and would recommend it b/c of the texture you get which is surprisingly different from non organic

1 ½ Tbsp. dry minced onion

1 ½ Tbsp. Rudy’s BBQ Sause

*If you don’t have this, use your favorite sauce

1 Tbsp dry parsley

1 tsp. liquid smoke

1 tsp. dry ground mustard

Cajun seasoning

Mix the first 6 ingredients together in a bowl and let sit all day or even overnight. I mixed it up right before I left for work. Patty out the turkey into burgers. Then spray them with olive oil spray. Turn your grill on high and let heat up for 15 minutes or so.

Then I sprinkled each side of the burger with Cajun seasoning. Now, I have a recipe for the rub that I use, but I’m not sure that it’s not a guarded Montgomery family secret. So until I know for sure, I can’t share. But the basic ingredients to look for in a seasoning you’ll want to use are brown sugar, cayenne pepper, pepper, & salt. Mine has a lot more to it, but if you Google a meat rub with those ingredients, I’m sure you’ll find something good. And maybe one day I’ll share the Montgomery Mix! Grill the burgers covered for about 5 minutes per side. The last thing you want is an underdone turkey burger! Ick! Brush on a little of the barbeque sauce on each side of the burger while on the grill. Then just stack up the sangwich accordingly. Bread, meat, health salad, bread.

So here’s the truth. This is not as good as brisket barbeque and creamy cole slaw. I didn’t think it would be. Fortunately it is yummy and does remind me of that sangwich. And it’s so much better for you! I really enjoyed it and who doesn’t love a good burger on the grill? Especially when it’s been winter for a million years and you’re ready for spring!

Cheers!