Sautéed Collard Greens with Quinoa and Roasted Chicken

Just getting into #CleanEating😀 Hubby not so happy,  but he'll get over it. This was really simple and really yummy. Took a bag of pre chopped and cleaned collard greens, 1/2 bunch of asparagus cut into pieces, 3 large carrots sliced/shaved with a peeler, red pepper chopped, 4 garlic cloves and juice of 1 lemon, S&P to taste. I sautéed all in a large skillet with 2 tbs of olive oil until the veggies were cooked and the greens wilted, about 10 minutes. I cooked the quinoa per directions and added 2 cloves of chopped garlic when it was finished cooking. I had roasted several large bone in chicken breast on the grill. I removed the skin and bone and chopped the chicken and reserved 8 oz for this dish and saved the rest for later. Served the chicken over the quinoa and greens and shaved some parmigiana reggiano cheese overtop. NOM NOM!!! Followed this with organic, free trade dark chocolate for dessert!!

Yummy Italian Wedding Soup

It's still winter here in the Ohio, so today felt like some Italian Wedding Soup. Used a recipe from Giada with a few modifications. So, if you make it my way you'll need to bake off your meatballs for 25 minutes at 350. You'll also need to omit the eggs at end of her recipe. I instead opted to add Acini di Pepe pasta #70. I brought the broth to boil and added the pasta and escarole and let that cook for 6 minutes. I then added the baked meatballs and let it boil for 2 more minutes. Just finish off with a sprinkle of Parmesan to your bowls and enjoy. Good eats on this not so Spring Day.

GF Yum Yum Bars

Instead of using graham crackers I substituted a 8 oz pkg of gluten free animal crackers. They turned out yummy. So here's what you'll need: one 8 oz pkg gluten free animal crackers, 1 stick of butter melted, 1 cup of chopped pecans, 1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips, 1 cup of toffee chips, 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips, 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, 1 cup sweetened coconut flakes, one 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk.
What to do: preheat oven to 350, in a food processor pulse the animal crackers to a fine texture, add animal crackers to a bowl and add melted butter, mix well. Press mixture into a 12"x9" baking pan. Layer pecans over the crackers followed by chocolate chips, then the toffee chips, peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, coconut flakes, lastly pour milk evenly over all. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely before serving. Yum Yum!!!

GF Mexican Lasagna

This is another gluten free recipe. Really good, especially the next day. What you'll need is 2 rolls prepared polenta, 1 lb ground turkey, 1 15 oz can diced roasted tomatoes, 1 can black beans rinsed & drained, 1 c of your favorite salsa, 1 green bell pepper diced, 1 med onion diced, 3 cloves garlic chopped, 1 tbs olive oil, 1 pkg of taco seasoning, 1 pkg shreddedMonterey Jack cheese, 1 pkg shredded quesadilla cheese.
What to do:

• preheat oven to 375
• Over med heat, heat oil in large skillet
• Add pepper, onion, garlic sauté until softened
• Add turkey and cook thru
• Add black beans, tomatoes, salsa and taco seasoning mix and bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
• Remove polenta from wrapper and add to food processor and pulse until it's broken and has a crumb like texture. 
• Take 3/4 of polenta and press into bottom of 13"x9" pan. Sprinkle with 1pkg of the quesadilla cheese.
• Add the turkey mixture and spread over polenta evenly.
• Dollop remaking polenta overtop
• Sprinkle Monterey Jack cheese overtop
• Bake for 35 minutes
• Remove from oven and let stand 15 minutes before serving

Oven Tacos

Yummy! Very good eats. What you'll need:

• 1lb ground turkey
• 1 small onion small diced
• 12 super size taco shells
• 1 16oz can refried beans
• 1 small can diced green chilis (drained)
• 1 pkg taco seasoning
• 8 oz salsa verde
• 2 c shredded Colby Jack cheese

Toppings:

• Shredded lettuce
• Chopped cilantro
• Sour cream
• Avocado
• Chopped jalapeños
• Chopped black olives

What to do: 

• Preheat oven to 400
• Grab a  12x9 baking pan
• Heat a med pan, cook turkey and onion. Drain off excess liquid.
• Add taco seasoning, green chilis, refried beans, salsa verde.
• Mix well in pan and cook 5 minutes. You want very little moisture, otherwise your taco shells may become soggy.
• Once your meat mixture is heated through, add the mixture to the shells and line them in the baking pan. Sprinkle cheese overtop and bake for 10  minutes.
• Remove and add your toppings.

This are Good Eats!

My Tfal ActiFry

Purchased the Tfal ActiFry today from Bed Bath & Beyond today. What a deal was $ 249 but they had $50 off sale on the item plus I had a 20% off coupon, so basically got $90 off. Love this thing, the fries were crispy, not greasy at all. This was a very good buy, can't wait to try some more foods from the recipe collection.

Slow Cooker GF Chix n Dumplins

Yep, gluten free chicken & dumplings. Used a Rachel Ray recipe, but modified it for GF dumplings. The tasted fine, but way too big. I would make this dish again, but I would omit the potatoes and I would dice the carrots.  I would add a touch more seasonings. This dish was just too chunky for my liking. Just Ok Eats

Ninja 3 in 1 Slow Cooker Chicken Curry

Chicken Curry

Recently purchased the Ninja 3 in 1 Cooking System and LOVE IT!!! This is the third dish I've made so far. The first thing we tried was pulled pork. That turned out AWESOME. Yesterday we did a Food Network Texas Chili and today we did a Food Network Slow Cooker Chicken Curry, both dishes delish!!! Love this thing. You can use it as a stove top, so you can sear and sauté and it can be used as an oven for baking. You can even bake a cake in this thing. It's a little pricey, but I used my 20 % off one item coupon from Bed Bath and Beyond, so I got a little over $30 off. Not bad!! Will continue to post more stuff from my Ninja adventures!!! Good eats to all!!

Gluten Free Polenta Lasagna

Two words! GOOD EATS! This lasagna is one of the best I've had, it's easy and it's Gluten Free. My hubby has some tummy issues, so I try to limit the gluten quantities. Anyway, found this dish on the Food Network. It's a dish from Chef Michael Chiarello. Not going to list ingredients or how to, just click HERE if you want to try it. BTW, be sure to drain and squeeze the cooked spinach otherwise you're going to have a lot of liquid in the dish, which I had to drained off, otherwise you'll have eat from a bowl with a spoon;-).
Good eats everyone!!

Stuffed Poblanos Straight From The Garden

I've had an abundance of peppers this year, especially Poblanos. So tonight when I got home from work I went straight to the garden and picked 12 of them. It's been years since I've done stuffed peppers, so I kind of made this up. First thing off cook some rice, I used brown rice. Preheat your oven to 350. Things you'll need:

1. Some peppers 8-12
2. 1 tsp olive oil
3. 1/2 white onion chopped
4. 4 garlic cloves chopped
5. 6 button mushrooms chopped
6. 1 jar of your favorite marinara 
7. 1 egg
8. 2 tbsp if Italian seasoning
9. 1 tsp of salt
10. 1 c of cooked rice
11. 1 lb of ground chicken 
12. 1.5 c of shredded italian blend cheese

While rice is cooking, over medium heat, heat olive oil and add onions, garlic, and onion and saute until soft. Add the marinara sauce and simmer. In a large bowl add chicken, egg, 1/2 c of cheese and your seasoning & salt, and 1 c of cooked rice. Mix together. Mix in 1/2 c of the marinara. Grab a deep baking pan and spread a layer of marinara on bottom. Begin stuffing the peppers and place them in the pan. Once that's done if you have remaining meat mix crumble over top of peppers and layer remaining marinara over top. Place in oven for 55 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle remaining cheese overtop and baked for an additional 5-10 minutes until melted, not browned. Remove from oven, let cool for 10 minutes. Serve and enjoy!!

The Best Stuffed Mushrooms

These are awesome! Easy to make and delish to eat. What you'll need: 2 pkgs of very large button mushrooms, 1.5lbs of turkey Italian sausage (cooked, drained and broken into very small pieces), 1 pkg garlic & herb Boursin (at room temp), 2 C of shredded mozzarella cheese.
Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Mix cooked sausage, Boursin and 1.5 C mozzarella cheese together
3. Remove stems and scoop out gills from the mushrooms
4. Stuff each mushroom w/ sausage cheese mixture
5. Sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese over each mushroom
6. Place mushrooms on baking rack and place rack over  a cookie sheet lined w/ parchment for easy cleanup
7. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes
8. Remove from oven, cool for 5 minutes and enjoy.

You're gonna love these and they'll be a hit at your next party.

Chorizo Fiesta

Spicy Chorizo Mac N Cheese

Went to the grocery and they had chorizo on sale so I bought a few pounds and yesterday we had a chorizo fiesta.  Will wanted a chorizo con queso dip, so I googled a few recipes and these are the ones I tried.  This recipe from food.com was very easy, but Will didn't like it.  He's not fond of cream cheese, so that would explain it.  The other one I found on food network.  Will liked this one much more and that is the one he proceeded to eat in its entirety.  I also made a spicy macaroni and cheese also from the food network.  Yummy!!  This is one of he best mac and cheese dishes I've had in a long time.

Since Will didn't like the recipe from food.com I took the dip and added an additional pound of cooked chorizo (casing removed), a few TBS of my own mexican spice blend and a blended a can (to eliminate the chunks) of Rotel tomatoes to it and I simmered it for about 20 minutes.  I served it over a pasta with cilantro.  This was a very good use of the dip that wasn't a huge hit and it really tasted good.

All of these dishes were easy to make and not too time consuming.  Give them a try and good eats!!

New Years Peas & Ham

We need all the luck we can get so today I made Black eyed Peas with Ham, mixed greens and  cornbread.  For the peas you will need:

• 1/2 large green bell pepper chopped
• 1/2 large yellow onion chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic chopped
• 1 C of cubed ham
• 1 15 oz can of black eyed peas
• 1 C of chicken broth or stock
• To make the pea dish I sauteed 1/2 green bell pepper chopped, 1/2 yellow onion chopped, 3 cloves garlic chopped for about 4 minutes.  I added 1 cup of cubed ham (leftover from Christmas) and cooked an additional 3 minutes just to get the smokiness out of the ham.  I then added 1 15 oz can of black eyed peas, 1/2 C of basmati rice and 1 C of chicken stock.  I stirred to mix it all the ingredients.  I brought it to a boil, covered and reduced heat and simmered for 20 minutes.

I bought Glory canned mixed greens which were ok, but not great.  Not sure what they should taste like, but again they were just ok.

For the corn bread.  I preheated my oven to 450.  I took my cast iron skillet and added 2 tbsp of bacon fat to it and placed it in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes.  Yes, I store leftover bacon fat in a container in my fridge and use it periodically.  Anyway, for the corn bread you will need:

1 C of Martha White Self Rising White Corn Meal Mix

3/4 C of milk

2 tbsp of bacon fat.

Mix the corn meal and milk together and then add the hot melted bacon fat.  Mix together, pour into hot cast iron skillet and bake for about 20 minutes in the oven.  This corn bread is very thin and crunchy, not fluffy at all, so you might not like it if you're used to fluffy cake like corn bread.

Anyway, that's all their was to this meal.  Let's hope it brings us lots of good fortune in 2013.  Good Eats in 2013!!

Still Here!

I'm still here, just having a busy year.  DIY projects, getting my Motorcycle license, and riding alot.  Stay tuned for some Autumn eats!  Be back soon!

Hoppin Jon w/ Andouille & Bacon

I took this recipe from Sunny Anderson and modified it to work w/ what I had on hand. Instead of the Cannelini Beans I used the traditional Blackeyed Peas that I had in the freezer. I also used 1.5 cups of brown basmati rice, this rice only takes about 25-30 minutes to cook. I followed the recipe until I got to the bean part. I added the peas and the rice to the pot and covered with 3 1/4 C of chicken stock, stirred the mixture, brought to a boil, covered and reduced to simmer for 30 minutes. This is a very easy, fairly quick and yummy dish! I will definitely make again. If you would like to try it click HERE for the recipe.

Tilapia w/ Asian Slaw & Noodles

My plan was to make fish tacos w/ slaw but I forgot to get tortillas, so I fried the fish, served it over crunchy Asian slaw with noodles. What you'll need: Slaw-1/2 pkg shredded cabbage mix, 1 garlic clove minced, 1 inch piece ginger peeled & chopped, 3 scallions chopped. Put this in a food processor and pulse 5 times. Place in a large bowl. Add 1 tsp sugar,  2 tbs soy sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds, 1 tbs rice wine vinegar, 1/4 c mayonnaise. Toss this well with the cabbage slaw. Refrigerate until ready to use. Noodles: 1 pkg ramen type noodles cooked, rinsed and drained, 1 c of blanched green beans cut into 1 inc pieces, 2 scallions sliced, 1/4 c cilantro chopped, 2 tbs soy sauce, 1 tbs rice wine vinegar, 1 tbs sesame oil, 1 garlic clove finely minced, 1 inch piece of ginger peeled and minced, 1 tsp chili flakes. Add these ingredients minus the noodles & beans into a medium sizes bowl an mix them well. Toss in the noodles & green beans. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Fish: 1 lb Tilapia cut into 3 inch pieces and set aside, 1 c all purpose flour, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp sea salt, 1 tsp white pepper add these to a large zip lock bag and shake, place 2 eggs in a small bowl and beat them, place 1-2 c of panko on a large plate, 1 c of canola oil heated to 350 in a large non stick skillet. Add 5 pieces of fish at a time to flour mix and shake. Remove fish and dip into beaten eggs 1 piece at a time. Dredge fish into panko and fry fish pieces in small batches for about 3 minutes. Place fried fish on a plate layered w/ paper towels. Repeat until all fish is fried. Serve the fish over the slaw with the noodles. I drizzled some Siracha sauce over the fish. Next time I will make a Siracha mayo or Siracha sour cream sauce to drizzle over the top. Enjoy!!

How My Garden Grows

Love having a garden.  I wish I could grow more,  but my space is limited.  Love the idea of sustainability, organic, local home grown. My garden this year consists of 4 tomato plants (2 roma's for sauces and salsa, 1 beefsteak for burgers and sandwiches, and 1 grape tomato for salads), lots of pepper plants, (3 jalapeno, 2 habanero, 1 ghost, 1 cayenne, 1 red bell, 1 green bell and 1 poblano) 2 chives,  lots of herbs (3 basil plants, 1 thyme, 2 oregano (spicy and italian), 1 sage, 1 flat leaf parsley, 1 rosemary, 2 dill, 1 celery, 1 tarragon).  That's it.  I also have some marigolds growing in there, supposedly keeps out the furry critters.  Seems to be working or the furry critters just don't like what I grow.  Hope to harvest some grape tomatoes soon, the plant doesn't seem to be very happy, so we'll see.  I'll keep you posted with photos, and recipe as soon as the harvest comes in.
If you have any photos of your garden please share, would love to see what everyone is growing this year.
Keep growing good eats!!

Bacon & Chive Purple Potato Salad

Just returned from a Memorial Day trip to see my brother and sister n law and to visit a few family memorials.  My sis n law surprised me with this really awesome cookbook "Taste of Home" so I decided to try a simple side dish from the book.  I modified the recipe slightly using purple potatoes instead of the redskin and I added 2 boiled eggs and some fresh dill also.  The chives and dill came from my garden.  The only thing that would've made this really awesome is if the bacon would've come from hogs that I raised, but I would have to have livestock and I don't.  Anyway, everything in the dish was organic, local or home grown so that's a  bonus.  The salad is very easy to make and really yummy.  I served it along some organically grown corn that I grilled along with local farmed raised beef tenderloin and chicken.  Can't wait to dig into the cookbook some more, it looks like it has some really great recipes.  I will definitely share how they go and will post how to create,  but for now Good Eats!

Pork Chops with Rice & Beans

This is another Food Network recipe they I tried the other nite.  It's very easy and yummy, although I did have to do some modifications.  First I cut the recipe in half and I didn't have any tomato sauce, so I made my own by taking 1 part tomato paste to 1 part water.  Also, my chops were a little thicker than the recipe called so I broiled them until the internal temp reached 145 degrees F.  Also, my chops didn't have any juices left in the pain, it burned off.  I used leftover brown rice too.  The beans and rice were really good and I will definitely make them again.  I added a few drops of Louisiana Habanero Hot Sauce to the beans and that added a nice kick. The chops were good, but nothing special.  I really don't think the addition of the cider vinegar or the tomato sauce added anything to the chops.  Anyway, give the dish a try or at least the beans and rice.  It's healthy and Good Eats.

Chinese Beef with Broccoli

Found this recipe for Beef with Broccoli on the Food Network.   It's really simple to make and it tastes great.  I used the scrap meat from a beef tenderloin that I had cleaned.  The meat is extremely tender and quite yummy.  I also marinated the meat overnight, which really allowed the meat to absorb the flavor of the marinade and made it even more tender.  It literally melted in your mouth.  I opted out of using tomatoes because my hubby doesn't like them.  But I don't think that it took away from the dish.  I served it over Basmati Brown Rice.  Give it a try, it's definitely Good Eats!!