Chicken loaf

I have recently gone back to some meat eating. I am only eating organic, free range, hormone and antibiotic free. It still is only about 25% of my weekly protein, because of the expense. However, to me, it is worth the price.

As a result, this recipe has been revived in our household. It used to be an old standby and is actually a very healthy recipe, considering the source. Don't be mistaken, this is in no way a traditional "meatloaf".

This recipe is from Emeril's Louisiana Real & Rustic cookbook. I adapted it for our family, because I have no need for a loaf that takes 2 and 1/2 pounds of meat! It isn't super spicy, despite the cayenne and tabasco, but little tongues might not appreciate it. This might be better for a grown-up night, because those flavors truly make this loaf.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground chicken or turkey (I used ground turkey breast)

1/2 c chopped onion

1 T chopped garlic

1/4 c chopped celery

1/4 c chopped bell peppers

1 T chopped parsley

1 egg

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne

1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/8 tsp Tabasco

1/2 c dried bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine the chicken/turkey, garlic, celery, bell peppers and parsley together in a mixing bowl.

3. Add the egg, salt, black pepper, cayenne, Worcestershire, Tabasco and bread crumbs. Using your hands, mix thoroughly. Mold the mixture into a 5 x 10 inch loaf and place on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Bake for one hour, or until juices run clear.

4. Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes before slicing to serve.

Um... Bam.

Pizza crust

To me, there is nothing better than homemade pizza. It beats any delivery pizza out there. But, the trick is to get a good crust by having a pizza stone (or unfinished tiles), a hot, hot oven and letting the dough rest long enough.

Ingredients:
1 pkg active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 c warm water
1 and 1/4 c all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp yellow cornmeal

Directions:
Dissolve yeast & sugar in 1/2 c warm water in large bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Gradually stir in flour and salt into yeast mixture to form soft dough. Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Knead 5 minutes. Add more flour, if necessary.
Place in bowl, coat with oil. Cover & let rise at least 1 hour or until doubled in size. (press dough; if indent stays, dough is risen enough)

Punch dough down, cover & let rest 5 minutes. Sprinkle pizza stone with cornmeal. Roll into circle onto lightly floured surface (or I prefer to roll it right on the pizza stone).

Preheat to 450 degrees. Place on lowest oven rack, bake 10 minutes or until golden. Remove, top with sauce, toppings & cheese. Increase to 500 degrees. Bake 5-7 minutes on lowest rack, until cheese is lightly browned.
Rest 5 minutes before serving. Mmmmmmm.

Black bean soup

This is an easy one, adapted from the Eat Clean Diet Cookbook. I modified the measurements, because I like it thicker than the recipe dictates.

Ingredients:

2 TBSP olive oil

1 green pepper, diced

1 red pepper, diced

1 onion, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1 TBSP minced garlic

1 TBSP oregano

1 TBSP basil

1 TBSP cumin

1 TBSP chili powder

2 cans black beans, drained

1 can diced tomatoes, drained

3 cups vegetable (or chicken or beef) broth

1 can corn, drained

Directions:

Add 2 TBSP of olive oil to a pot over medium heat. Add peppers, onions, carrots and celery and saute for a few minutes, until tender. Add garlic and saute for a minute more. Add oregano, basil, cumin and chili powder and saute together for five more minutes. Add black beans, diced tomatoes and broth. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and emulsify with stick blender. Add corn and stir.

This is a very low fat meal, packed full of flavor and vegetable protein, and a great way to get your veggies in. I like to serve it with a dollop of fat free sour cream.

Hummus

If you have ever tried to make hummus on your own, you have discovered that getting a smooth product is just not easy. Why make lumpy hummus at home, when you can simply purchase a container of it... for $5.00 a pop? Yeah. The price of hummus is just silly. All you need are a few simple hints.

First, the basic ingredients of hummus: canned chick peas (also known as garbanzo beans), lemon juice, garlic, salt and tahini. Wait. What in the world is tahini?? And, where do I get it? Tahini is basically the sesame seed's equivalent of natural peanut butter. You can buy it at almost any supermarket, in their ethnic food section, or at a natural foods store. It does require some stirring, just like natural peanut butter, but it is worth it. Do NOT, and I repeat, do NOT think that hummus recipes using olive oil will give you the same taste. They won't. Blehhhh. Olive oil is for optionally drizzling on the top!

SO, what are these little tips?

First, start off with an equal amount of tahini to lemon juice: 1/4 cup each. Put them both into the food processor. The trick is to emulsify these two together first, creating a wonderful cream. Once it looks nice and creamy, it is time to add the minced garlic.

How much garlic? Oh, who knows. If you like a lot (and I like a lot!), add 4-5 teaspoons. If you aren't a huge fan of strong garlicky things, just add a little. Blend that all together. Now, you need to decide what type of hummus you are making. A basic recipe, for me, includes cumin and dried dill. Again, not measuring but probably close to a teaspoon each. At this point, you could also add olives or roasted red peppers or artichokes. Your choice. Blend, blend, blend.

Now, open up your can of chickpeas and drain them. Rinse them too, because that gets rid of the can taste. Add your chickpeas a handful at a time. Don't get impatient, or you'll end up with lumpy hummus. Blend until each handful is smooth. Do this until you have added the entire can. If your hummus starts to seem dry, add a teaspoon of water at a time.

Eventually, you will end up with a beautiful hummus. Gobble it down with pita chips, or some fresh veggies.

Meatless (TVP) mexican

I have had a bag of TVP (textured vegetable protein) in my pantry for probably a year now. I don't even remember why I bought it. I think I was going to try a meatless meatloaf recipe, and then the thing was so convoluted that I abandoned the idea. So, now... what to do with my bag of TVP?

The good thing about TVP is that it just doesn't go bad. It's like rice. You could take it out of a time capsule and eat the stuff. The bad thing about TVP is that it has absolutely no flavor, and you better be making something with some "oomph" to it, if you're using it.

Hmm. Oomph. To me, a food that always has a flavorful kick is anything mexican. So, I plugged some search words into Google and found this recipe. Of course, as usual, I modified it.

Ingredients:

1 cup TVP (textured vegetable protein)

1 can of diced tomatoes with chiles

1 can of black beans

1 can of vegetarian refried beans

1 cup water plus 1 TBSP Better Than Bouillon No Beef Base (or 1 cup beef broth if you eat meat)

1/2 packet of taco seasoning

Directions:

Take your stick blender and blend up those tomatoes and chiles. Then, throw everything into your crockpot together and stir it until the TVP is wet and distributed throughout the mixture.

Let it cook for 3-4 hours. If you have a crockpot like mine (metal), you can speed up the cooking time and the TVP cooks just fine.

The best part of this recipe is its versatility. I decided that I wanted to eat it on a salad. My husband, a meat-loving carnivore, put his into a tortilla and made a burrito. After he inhaled it, he said that he couldn't even tell that there wasn't a meat in it.

Make it a taco filling. Use it in a burrito. Throw it with some rice. Or, make a mexican salad and crunch some tortilla chips on it for good measure.

Ole´!

POM Wonderful recipes

The good folks over at POM Wonderful contacted me via my blog and asked if I would be interested in sampling a free case of their 100% authentic pomegranate juice. Well, who is going to turn down a free case of pomegranate juice?

Once it arrived, I was so excited to have 8 little 8-oz bottles of my very own! Now, the question was... what do I do with it? Oh sure, everyone has had pomegranate martinis. But, I knew that this potent juice had more punch to it than a measly martini. We have all heard about the wonderful cardiovascular and antioxidant benefits to pomegranate juice, so I wanted to give this juice some substance. So, off to work I went in the kitchen and, lucky you, you get four recipes for the price of one post!

My first choice was not very inventive, but I wanted to actually drink the juice. I added some chocolate protein powder and ice in a blender with one 8-oz bottle of POM Wonderful and was happily surprised to find that I had created a valentine day heart chocolate-tasting shake in a glass! Something about this reminded me of the creme-filled "pink" chocolates.

My next recipe was a bit more inventive. I searched online for some ideas and came up with this one. I modified it, as I always do to recipes. Instead of fire-roasted tomatoes, I used regular diced tomatoes and some Liquid Smoke. I used sugar free maple syrup instead of the real thing, omitted the marjoram (because I was out!) and I also replaced the beef with a veggie version, since I don't eat meat. (side note: Gardein Beefless Tips were perfect for this recipe!) So, my recipe went like this:

CROCK

POT POMEGRANATE BEEF

(this recipe has a lot of ingredients, but it is worth it!)

2 packages of Gardein Beefless tips (original recipe calls for 2 lbs of stew beef)

1 8-oz bottle of POM Wonderful pomegranate juice

1 large onion, chopped

a bunch of minced garlic (I'm telling you, I don't follow recipes)

2 tbsp sugar free maple syrup

1 can diced tomatoes

a few shakes of Liquid Smoke

1 tsp cinnamon, ground

1/4 c raisins (note: If you have them, I would use golden raisins for presentation purposes)

2 tsp rosemary, dried

1 tbsp basil, dried

2 bay leaves

2 tsp thyme, ground

2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat crock pot, add olive oil. Saute onions and garlic. Add meat (or substitute). Saute for a few minutes (or brown, if using beef). In a medium bowl, combine all other ingredients. Pour into crockpot and simmer for 6-8 hours. (since I wasn't cooking meat, I simmered for 3.)

I will tell you that I thickened this up slightly at the end with some cornstarch dissolved in water.

If you're trying to eliminate meat from some of your meals, you won't miss it in this dish. My meat-loving husband said, "I could sell this." I served it over brown rice, but it would have been just as amazing over egg noodles. It reminded me of a cross between a sauerbraten and a hearty pot roast. I have been craving this since I made it.

The next recipe that I tried was loosely based on this, but I made it much more basic and a lot more healthy.

MOROCCAN SHRIMP WITH POMEGRANATE SAUCE

In a saucepan, heat:

Two 8-oz bottles of POM Wonderful pomegranate juice

1/4 c of lemon juice

6-8 packages of stevia

Thickening it with cornstarch, I heated it up and created a sauce.

Then, toss 1 lb of shrimp with:

3/4 tsp ground cuim

3/4 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 tsp kosher salt

1 and 1/2 tbsp olive oil

and then stick them on skewers on the grill. Served over brown rice (and I sauteed some spinach with garlic for the side), it was easy and delicious.

My last recipe was really winging it off of this idea. Here's what I did:

PUMPKIN POMEGRANATE SOUP

Chop 1 onion and saute. Add one peeled and chopped apple and saute together until soft. Add 2 cups of vegetable broth and approximately 1/4 tsp of ginger and simmer for 20 minutes. Add one can of canned pumpkin, 1 8-oz bottle of POM Wonderful pomegranate juice and 1 tsp of coriander and simmer for five minutes. Pull off heat, use a stick blender (told you that I love my stick blender!) to blend until smooth. Add one can of lite coconut milk. Stir until heated through. This was just amazing and filled me up, too. I might need to add this to all holiday menus.

I have three bottles left. I have a feeling that some of these recipes will be making a repeat performance! Hope that you enjoy them as much as I did.

Guilt-free cream of potato soup

Looks like I'm the last one here. Thanks for saving me the seat next to the other Melissa. Yes, let the confusion begin! You can call me Melissa H. I, too, was invited by Niksmom and am thrilled to be part of this dinner party. I also join the ranks of having a child on the autistic spectrum (Asperger's), as well as Bipolar Disorder Type 1. When he isn't keeping me busy, I am a runner and also enjoy health & fitness, in general. You can find me at I Don't Need Excuses. (For the most part, that's true. :-D)

I'm also a pescetarian, which basically means that I eat seafood, dairy and eggs, but no meat. I am also pretty health-conscious, and try to balance out my meals with a healthy protein. This means that a lot of my dishes end up being inspired by the meat-filled comfort foods of my youth. This one is no exception!

I could probably eat soup every day. It doesn't matter that I live in the Sunshine State. To me, soup tastes just as good in 95 degree weather, as it does during the chilly months! I had a delicious recipe for a cream of potato soup that probably had close to a billion calories per serving, most of it from carbohydrate or fat. I knew that there had to be a way to add protein and eliminate fat, without sacrificing taste. That's how this yummy recipe was born! I promise that you won't miss the fat. It is so simple, but the flavors are divine.

- Ingredients -

6 red potatoes, peeled and diced

3 c fat free cottage cheese

1/2 c fat free sour cream

4 c vegetable broth (or water and bouillon cubes)

1 c white wine (optional, but really adds to the flavor)

dried dill

- Directions -

Bring the broth, dill and potatoes to a boil. Simmer until tender. Remove from heat. Using a stick blender, blend the 3 cups of cottage cheese until smooth. (note: you can use a regular blender or food processor if you don't have a stick blender) Add the cottage cheese, sour cream and white wine to the potatoes and broth. Blend with a stick blender (or add small amounts to a regular blender - be careful because it will be hot!) until smooth and creamy. If too thick, add some water to desired consistency. Makes 6 servings.

This soup gives you a complete protein and carbohydrate serving and, believe me, you won't be able to tell the difference between a cream-filled soup and this! I like to top it with some chopped scallions or chives, fake (soy) bacon bits and a tiny bit of shredded cheddar cheese. Serve this with a crisp salad (and my husband can't resist a crusty bread on the side) and you have a filling and healthy meal.

On a side note, if you don't have a stick blender? GET ONE!! I'll wait. Tap...tap... tap...

No, really. Go buy yourself a stick blender. It has to be the best tool that I have in my kitchen. I think I purchased it, along with some nifty side gadgets, for a mere thirty bucks at WalMart. It is well worth the investment. Oh, and you'll most probably see it used quite often in my recipes, too!

That's it for my stick blender and me... until next time!