Healthy Herbed Meat Sauce and Farfalle

My favorite thing about summer is the garden.  I have a very, very small garden and I grow tomatoes, peppers, garlic and herbs.  One of these days I'll have a garden where I can grown corn, beans, cucumbers, squash, potatoes and more,  the sky is the limit, but right now I'm happy with my little garden.  Tonight I made a meat sauce and I used fresh herbs from the garden, basil, oregano, thyme, Italian parsley and rosemary.  This is a really simple dish; first thing, I got my pasta going.  Then I chopped 5 cloves garlic, 1/2 red pepper, 1/2 green pepper and 1/2 vidalia onion and sauteed them in 1 tbs of EVOO until they were softened.  I took 1lb of Laura's Lean ground beef w/ 4% fat and a and little fresh parmigiana reggiano.  I served it over farfalle, but you could use whatever pasta you like. One thing I would like to mention is that tonight while making the dish, I was conscience of not adding additional salt to anything.  Not the best idea, because pasta really needs salt and this pasta didn't have any flavor.  I recommend adding salt to the pasta water.  The sauce was fine with no added salt especially with the cheese.  If you want something healthy then I would give this dish a try.  Good Eats!

Grilled Chicken Drumsticks and Smallwoods

Tonight I was tired and I wanted something that required little effort, little mess and clean up, and I didn't want to sacrifice taste, so we grilled up some drumsticks and made a Smallwood.  I started by preheating my gas grill,  the 3 left burners on med and the 2 right on low.  I would've used my charcoal grill, but I was out of charcoal, and like I said I was tired.  You know when I was a kid I hated the dark meat of chicken, but now it's my favorite.  I love thighs and drumsticks they just cook up so juicy and flavorful.  Don't get me wrong I do like a good breast, but it has to have the skin on and bone in. So I pulled my drumsticks from the frig, a stick of unsalted butter and my veggies for my Smallwood.  I melted 4 tbs of butter in the microwave.  I rinsed and dried my drumsticks, placed them in a large bowl, poured 1/2 the butter over them and sprinkled them with S & P and then I just worked it all into the flesh.  I sat those aside and started chopping up the veg for the Smallwood.  If you don't know what a Smallwood is, it's just your favorite veggies roasted in a foil pack with butter or oil and your favorite seasonings.  I learned this little trick on a rustic camping trick.  You know when your camping primitively, which I seldom do now, everything tastes great.  Especially over an open fire.  Camping for me today consists of setting up camp in Hocking Hills and using my Coleman Stove, Coleman Grill and just about Coleman everything.  We save the campfire for smores. I failed to mention that we sleep in the trailer that we haul our ATV's in with a queen size blow up mattress, fans and heaters and electric.  I have to say it's pretty cushy.  We just lack running water and a toilet, but who needs a toilet when you have the woods and a shovel.  Right?  OK, back to the Smallwood- tonight I had on hand garlic, poblano, red and jalapeno peppers, asparagus, zucchini, yellow squash and red skin potatoes.  I chopped the veggies and quartered the potatoes and left the garlic cloves whole (they roast up so nicely).  I placed in a bowl and remaining butter and some cajun spices mixed it all up and just placed in a foil packet.  I placed the Smallwood on the low heated burner side and the chicken drumsticks on the medium side.  I grilled it all for about 25-30 minutes, turning the chicken occasionally and basting it with the butter that was leftover in the bowl. Always check your chicken with a thermometer, there's nothing worse then serving up bloody chicken. I also shook the Smallwood occasionally, so that everything inside cooked evenly. That's pretty much it and look how it turned out.  Looks good doesn't it?  Well it's not difficult so give it a try.  Bon Appetit!

I Don't Know, But it Sure Was Good!!

Last night I pulled some leftover frozen smoke pulled pork from the freezer.  I had smoked the pork butt back in the winter.  I thought when I pulled it out that I would just do pulled pork sandwiches, BORING!!  But tonight I decided to put a tex mex flair on it.  I started by getting my rice concoction started.  I added 1 C basmati rice, with 1.5 C water, 1.5 tsp chicken bouillon granules, 1 tbs cumin, 1.5 tbs hot hungarian paprika, and 1 tsp of turmeric, 1 can of rinsed and drained red beans, 1/2 C frozen corn.  I just mixed it all up, brought it to a boil and then I covered it and let it simmer for 20 minutes.  You could add whatever beans you like, I just had the red beans on hand.   While the rice was cooking, I chopped 1 jalapeno (w/ seeds), 1/2 poblano pepper, 1/2 red pepper and I sliced 1/2 of a red onion.  I heated a large skillet and added a 1 tbs of EVOO and then added my veggies and let them saute for about 5 minutes.  I then added 1 1lb of the smoked pulled pork and 1 C of no salt chicken stock and mixed it up.  After several minutes I added about 2.5 tbs of my mexican seasoning which consists of cayenne, chili powder, cumin, oregano, hot hungarian paprika, salt and  corn starch.  I'm partial to the paprika and cumin so my mixture has more of those 2 ingredients.  Just play with your mix and find what's right for your palate.  I let this simmer for about 15 minutes.  You might need to add water if the mixture gets too thick.  I served the pork over the rice with chopped scallions and cilantro, grape tomatoes and sour cream.  Enjoy!!

Grilled Pork Chops with Smallwoods

I'm very sorry to say, but my dad past away 2 weeks ago Saturday morning.  Obviously not really interested in posting lately, been so busy, so tired, so everything!!!  Although, yesterday Will and I did have a really nice day, we rode the bike to Yellow Springs and had lunch at Peaches Grill.  Love Peaches, great biker joint with great burgers and over 20 brews on tap.  Anyway, we spent most of the day riding and later stopped to visit with his folks.  My in-laws are great people, I'm blessed to have them.

I failed to mention that my parent's gave Will and I this really kick @#$$ charcoal grill.  I've never been much for charcoal grilling,  but I'm a convert!!! Love it.  So when we got home we grilled up some nice pork chops (no brining-trying to cut back on salt).  I just seasoned them with some Cajun spices and little EVOO.  I guess it took them about 20 minutes to grill.  We also did something referred to as a "Smallwood".  A Smallwood consists of taking your favorite veggies, garlic, your fav herbs/spices w/ butter/evoo and place them into a foil packet and grill them.  I don't puncture the foil.  Just let the veggies steam in their juices.  If you add potatoes, sweet potatoes or carrots you will have to steam for a least 25 minutes.  Oh, but when it's finished, it is oh so yummy.  What I love about this dish is that you use seasonal veggies and they are SOoooo good.  Give it a try, it's so easy and very little mess and clean up.  BTW, in our Smallwood we had asparagus, green beans, mushrooms, whole garlic cloves, red skin potatoes, red bell pepper, zucchini, squash, jalapeno and flat leaf parsley.    Bon Appetito!!!  Will be back soon.

Tex Mex Drumsticks and Rice

Tonight I made a Tex Mex dish that I found from All Recipes, but I made some Mods.  Before I get to that, I must preface that these drumsticks were delish!!!
Ok, so I first took five drumsticks (skin on) and rinsed and dried them, put them in a bowl and poured 2 tbsp of unsalted melted butter over them and massaged the butter into the flesh.  My grill has five burners, so I heated the outer 2 on med high and the inner 3 on low.  The gauge read 400 when I placed the drumsticks on the grill.  I grilled them to perfection for about 30 minutes.  They had a golden brown outside and of course the temp was 166.  While my chicken was grillin, I started the sauce, which I modified for my liking.  I used 1.5 C skim milk, 1 C low fat sour cream,  3 chipotles in adobo sauce and 1 tbsp of the chicken bouillon granules.  I put it all in a large mixing bowl and used my immersion blender to blend it all together.  In the mean time I took a large skillet and heated on med low 1tbsp of unsalted butter.  Once the butter was  melted I added the chipotle sauce to the skillet and simmered it while my chicken grilled.  I also made some rice cooked in chicken stock and added 1 tsp turmeric, 1tbsp cumin, 1 tsp kosher salt 1 can black beans rinsed and drained, 1 C frozen white corn and just just let that cook.
When the chicken had reached temp, I removed it from the grill and  placed it in the skillet with the chipotle sauce and let it simmer in the sauce for about 10 minutes.  I served the drumsticks with a drizzle of the chipotle sauce over top and the rice.  I garnished it with cilantro, chopped onion, dollop of low fat sour cream and chopped jalapenos.  This was really yummy.  The drumsticks were so moist and most awesome.  Give the recipe a try and let me know what you think.  Enjoy!!

Grilled Curried Chicken Thighs w/ Curried Couscous

Hey Folks! Wow my last food post was awhile ago. Been very busy w/ my family. My dad was placed in hospice care, which has been very stressful, yet it has also been a blessing. Hospice is a wonderful thing and they are taking great care of my dad. This experience has really brought the family together and it's just been really good all around.  I've cooked a few unusual dishes for my dad and I think he's been pleasantly surprised.  I made low sodium dishes for him and found that the dishes still were really tasty minus the salt.  Mrs Dash has become a good friend lately.  I'm working on a low sodium pizza, he's really been craving it.  Anyone out there have a yummy low sodium pizza recipe that you would like to share?  Did you know that the average slice of pizza with Mozzarella cheese has about 4000 mg of sodium?  OMG!!!  I also read that we should only consume about 1500 mg of sodium per day.  Read the labels on your prepackage food, loaded with salt!!!

Anyway, back to the food- tonight I took 4 bone in, skin on, chicken thighs, rinsed and dried them. I set those aside and I heated the grill, 1 side on high and one side on low. I prepared a rub of 1.5 tbsp hot curry powder, 1 tsp hot paprika, 1 tsp cumin, a dash of cinnamon and 2 tsp of Mrs Dash (we are cutting back on our Sodium). I placed the spice mix in a large bowl and laid the thighs in the bowl and just rubbed the spices all over the meat.  I then took 2 tbsp unsalted melted butter and poured that over thighs and massaged the mixture onto the thighs.  Once the grill was preheated I placed the thighs skin side down on the high heated side of grill. I let those brown and let the skin crisp up, then I turned them and let the other side brown as well. After about 3 minutes I moved them to the low side and continued to grill for 12-15 minutes turning occasionally until they reached a temp of 166.

While my chicken was grilling I prepared my couscous. I placed 1 c of low sodium chicken broth, 2 tsp hot curry, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp hot paprika and 1/2 c frozen peas in a med pot, brought it to a boil and then added 3/4 c of couscous. I stirred in the couscous and covered the pot, removed the pot from heat and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. Afterwards I fluffed the couscous with a fork and I served it with the thighs with a garnish of cilantro and cucumbers. I love this combination of flavors and textures: spicy, cool, crunch and chewy. Try it and let me know your thoughts. Good Eats!

Jus' Happy That We Still Have Our Fathers!

Shout Out To All You Fathers. God Bless, We Love You!