Chicken Lettuce Wraps Recipe

I work full time outside of the home and last week I came home to the most amazing aroma!  My husband found this awesome recipe online.  It was so good, we had to repeat it again tonight - and it was even better the second time!!  It tastes just like those fabulous yummy appetizers you get at that famous Asian restaurant (clue - the name is on the picture).

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 pound ground chicken

2 cloves minced garlic

1 diced onion

1/4 cut hoisin sauce

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon freshly grated ginger

1 Tablespoon Sriracha (optional)

1 (8 ounce) can diced water chestnuts

2 chopped green onions

salt and pepper to taste

butter or iceberg lettuce

We started by boiling boneless chicken breasts and then running them through a food processor after they cooled a bit.  Be careful not to overdo it, or your chicken consistency will be too fine.  Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium high heat.  Add ground chicken and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the chicken as it cooks; drain the excess fat.  

Stir in garlic, onion, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ginger and Sriracha until onions are translucent, about 1-2 minutes.  Stir in the diced chestnuts and green onions until tender, about 1-2 minutes; season with salt and pepper.

Spoon into individual lettuce leaves.  This is also great with tortillas, crackers, or on little slices of bread as a cute appetizer.  Add a kick to your scrambled eggs the following morning!  It reheats almost as good as when you first made it!  

cindy

Butter Tomato Sauce

It's summer and so many people are buried in homegrown tomatoes.  I miss those big beefy tomatoes from the Midwest, but love the Roma tomatoes we get from Yuma and California.  A couple of months ago I acquired pounds (I don't even know how many) of Roma tomatoes and thought I would try some homemade tomato sauce.  I found this recipe for tomato sauce made with butter and after reading the reviews, I gave it a try.

Before making the sauce I had to peel the Roma tomatoes.  (Some people don't peel Roma tomatoes to make sauce, but I wanted to give this technique a try.)  First, score the ends of the tomatoes like this:

 

Place the tomatoes in a pot of water and heat to boiling.  Watch for the skins to slightly peel back and immediately remove the tomatoes to a bowl of ice cold water.  Leave them in the cold water for a minute or two and remove them to dry.  You've just blanched your tomatoes.

 

 

 

 

See how the ends look a little bulgy?  You are ready to peel.  Carefully pull back the peel at the places where you scored the tomatoes.  If you get stuck, score them again anywhere on the peel and pull back the skin.



 

After your tomatoes are peeled, cut them up a bit or blend them if you really like smooth sauce.  Following the recipe I linked above, combine 2 pounds of fresh tomatoes with a peeled sweet onion cut in half. (Yes, you just float that onion in the pot with the tomatoes.)  Add 5 tablespoons of butter.

 

 

Cook it over medium heat until the tomatoes are reduced and not so watery and the butter is melted.  You won't be able to resist tasting it after the first couple of minutes and you won't believe how rich it tastes!  I added some chopped green and red peppers and minced garlic that was sautéed in a little olive oil.

 





At the end, remove the onion and you are ready to go!  It is so good and also freezes very well in Ziploc freezer bags.  Your family will love it, although you might not want to tell your older children there is butter in it because they tend to freak out over "weird" food combinations.

 

Enjoy those summer tomatoes!

 

cindy

Vegetable Skewers

You may remember that I had quite a few vegetables to work with:

I decided to start with the easy stuff - vegetable skewers.  I used zucchini, squash, red and green peppers, onions and cherry or grape tomatoes - all very fresh.

This is beyond easy - slice into hunks, put on skewers, drizzle with olive oil, kosher salt, black pepper and garlic powder.  I put them on an aluminum foil covered baking sheet on the grill.

When they're done, they look like this:

Really good, really easy and really fresh.

cindy

Vegetable Overload!

One of the things my family bought for Christmas was a Ninja food processor. Thee weeks into the new year and it has claimed a permanent spot on our kitchen counter. We love breakfast green smoothies and I love it as the stand mixer I never had.

One of our family New Year's resolutions was to cook more and eat out less. We agreed we will only eat out on Saturday nights and we are going to cut out all of those fast food runs.

Combine all of these positive ideas and add a chance drive-by to a monthly farmers market and you get this:

But wait, there's more:

And, because we have a productive lemon tree in the backyard:

At the same time all of this was happening, I was reading about 40 meals in one day (or something like that).  Wow - I'm thrilled if I can get most of the week planned.  So, I decided to give all of this a try.  I hate waste - which is what happens to so much of the produce we buy at the grocery store - so I'm going to try to use or freeze it all.

Now do you wonder why I've been absent from this part of the blogosphere?

Stay tuned for my (mis)adventures with fruits and vegetables (and meal preparation in general).

cindy

Easy Barbecued Meatballs

Ok, this is as easy as it gets, but you will love the result, especially if you like barbecue.  Use your favorite barbeque sauce, grape jelly (to taste) and a bag of frozen meatballs.  Combine in a crock pot and simmer for a couple of hours until the meatballs are cooked through.

Perfect for your Final Four party!

Easy is good!

cindy

Feed the Love - Valentine Desserts

Food is the ultimate aphrodisiac.  I can't decide whether looking at beautiful desserts or eating beautiful desserts is better.  I do like sugar.  I went looking for the most beautiful, yummy desserts for your Valentine's Day.  Some look easy to make, some not so much.  Of course, I have neither made nor tasted any of these desserts.  (But I might sometime!)  Here are the 10 I chose, in no particular order:

1.  Pomegranate Pana Cotta.  Pomegranates are supposed to be great aphrodisiacs, but I just like the way this one looks.

Source: epicurious.com via Cindy on Pinterest

2. Valentine Cookies.  Fancy looking without too much effort.

Source: marthastewart.com via Cindy on Pinterest

3.  Bittersweet Chocolate Pudding with Raspberries - There is something beautiful about rich browns and deep raspberry colors.  You could always make this with instant chocolate pudding mix, raspberries and some shaved white chocolate, but I bet it wouldn't taste anything like this :)

Source: myrecipes.com via Cindy on Pinterest

4. Coeurs a la Creme - If you're a foodie, give it your best shot. Otherwise, just look at the pretty picture.

Source: marthastewart.com via Cindy on Pinterest

5. Strawberry "oreo" cookies - These aren't Oreos. The only Oreo about them is that they are a sandwich cookie. Not too hard to make, but I'm just not convinced they are worth the effort when they don't present well.

Source: thirtyhandmadedays.com via Cindy on Pinterest

6. Carmel-Dark Chocolate Truffles with Fleur de Sel - Gorgeous, aren't they? You can click through to the recipe, but I would suggest leaving this one to the professionals.

Source: epicurious.com via Cindy on Pinterest

7.  Chocolate Glazed Chocolate Tart - Now we're talking!

Source: epicurious.com via Cindy on Pinterest

8. Watermelon Hearts - This is pretty, easy and light, but is that really the message you want to convey on Valentine's Day?

Source: otchipotchi.com via Cindy on Pinterest

9. Mini St(raw)berry Cheesecakes - If you like gluten free, dairy free, peanut free, egg free and more, give it a go to make other ingredients taste like all the above.  Me - I just love the picture, and it makes me want to go to the gluten/dairy/peanut/egg laden Cheesecake Factory.

Source: lexieskitchen.com via Cindy on Pinterest

10. Valentine Cake - Yes ma'am. This is stunning and really says Happy Valentine's Day. It looks pretty easy to make, but don't look at the recipe which will convince you otherwise.

Source: marthastewart.com via Cindy on Pinterest

I don't know about you, but I'm hungry (and I feel the need to turn on some romantic music). If I've learned anything from this, it's that the presentation is the thing. So I'll just be content to look, and either I'll save the calories or my husband will have to bring some beautiful dessert home.

 Cindy

Baked Rigatoni & Meatballs

I am not Italian.  However, we do have a "Soprano's Cookbook" that is pretty authentic.  Most of the recipes start with "Sunday Gravy" (a reference to sauce).  I made Sunday Gravy once.  I won't repeat that epic cooking day, because it just isn't worth 5-6 hours to make an Italian meal.  Last Sunday I decided to "wing it" and I'm pretty happy with the results.

Here's how I did it:

1 lb of sweet Italian sausage (ground)

1 lb of ground beef

2 jars of Emeril's Chunky Marinara

1 16 oz can diced tomatos

1 can tomato paste

seasoned croutons, crushed into fine breadcrumbs

2 cloves garlic
basil, red wine, oregano to taste
1 - 1 1/2 pound rigatoni
olive oil
1/2 pound Reggiano parmesan cheese
1/2 pound Pecorino Romano cheese

(Based on the ingredient list you can see I cook a little on the fly.)

Start with the meat.  Combine the sausage (make sure it's ground) and the ground beef.  Add in the breadcrumbs - just like meatloaf.  You can also add an egg if you like your meatballs to really stick together.  Mix together and roll into little meatballs (about 1" in diameter).  Put some olive oil into a 3 quart pot, just enough to thinly cover the bottom.  Brown the meatballs.  Remove the meatballs and set aside.  Drain the olive oil.

Combine sauce, tomatoes, paste, garlic, wine, basil and oregano in the same pot.  This is where I seriously cheated on Sunday Gravy.  You need to be a little creative here and work with the ingredients until you get to the taste you want.  You can also add a little cheese to taste.  Let your "gravy" simmer for a while and then add the meatballs.  Shred 1-2 cups of each cheese.

Follow the directions on the box for the pasta so cook it al dente (seriously, you don't think I make my own pasta, do you?)  Grease a baking dish with a little olive oil.  When your pasta is done, drain it and immediately put half of it in the baking pan.  Pour about 1/2 of the gravy over it and add about half of the shredded cheeses.  Then repeat another layer, finishing with lots of cheese on top.

Cover with tin foil and bake for 45 minutes at 325 degrees.  Remove foil and cook another 12-15 minutes.  Remove and let it cool for at least 10 minutes.

Serves 8 or have lots of leftovers

cindy

Watermelon Blues

As the summer ends, there are things that go away. One of those things is watermelon. There are also people who are going away - high school graduates off to college and a dear friend who is off to the seminary. A week ago we had a party to celebrate our new seminarian and I made this recipe.

DIY Girl's Summer Camp

Last week I posted about getting together with other moms to "share the joy" of having the kids at home all summer.  I suggested taking turns hosting a day camp.  Last week it was the boys and now it's time for the girls.  Even if you don't want to have other girls, here are some ideas of things to do with girls when "I'm bored!" inevitably comes.  A lot of these will look like my suggestions for boys, but they're equally applicable to girls.

1.  Swimming. This is a staple stand-by, but try to spice it up.  Go to a different public pool or a water park or get out the "slip and slide" with bubbles or shaving cream.  Hose them down when you're done.

2.  Biking. Again, take the bikes somewhere new and explore.  Many areas now have designated bike paths so you don't have to worry about traffic.

3.  Visit a Museum. This can be a great way to beat the heat and can occupy the entire day. Every area has their own "best" museums.  Here in the Phoenix area we have the Musical Instrument Museum which is just what it says, and more.  You can listen to a number of instruments you've never heard before, or try some out. You may have a great science, children's or natural history museum close to you.

4.  DIY Spa Day.  Break out the cucumber slices, lotions, nail polish and foot bath.  You can take turns with manicures and pedicures, or, if doing it yourself doesn't appeal to you, head out to the local nail salon.

5.  Crafts.  This is, of course, my favorite.  It's probably a good idea to have a plan for a specific craft ahead of time so you can have everything ready.  As an alternative, you can get out a bunch of random supplies and scraps and let them create a masterpiece!

6.  Shopping Spree.  This isn't what it sounds like.  There is no money involved.  Take the girls to the local mall and give them $1,000 in pretend money.  Keep a tally for each and let them go wild.  This is great fun and teaches them the value of money.  (You won't believe how easy it is to spend $1,000!)

7.  Fashion Show.  Have each girl bring some clothes and shoes (especially ones they would like to swap). Have the girls take turns putting together outfits with all the assorted clothes.  Perhaps they can even swap clothes!

8.  Nature walk.  Time to get outside again!  Go to a local park or nature area and give the girls a list of things to find (like an ecological scavenger hunt).  The first girl to get every item wins a prize.

9.  Cake decorating.  This is fun whether you have a lot of supplies for decorating or just a few.  Each girl gets to make her own cake (preferably from scratch) and then decorate it.  This is a great way to teach girls about following recipes and cooking.

10,  Pop Popcorn and Watch a Good Movie.  This is a no-brainer and makes for a quiet afternoon (as long as you pick out the right movie).  Don't be afraid to pick out a movie the girls have never heard of, especially if it is an older movie.  You'd be shocked to find out that little girls love Shirley Temple movies!

Hope that's enough to get you started.  I'm jealous now because I work full time outside of the home and I would love to do all of these things.  Please live vicariously for me this summer!

cindy

Fit Friday - Be Prepared

Remember that old scouting motto?  I'm starting to think it might be one of the keys to stabilizing my weight.  I have had a lot of success on any number of diets, and I'm convinced that the reason is that if someone is telling me exactly what to eat, I can do it.  (I'm also convinced that is why Weight Watchers works for so many people - you learn to make your own educated decisions about what to eat.)

I'm a busy person.  My days are not well planned and planning what I eat is very low on the priority list.  Ideally, I would carefully plan each day's meals in advance, carefully counting the calories and the fat content, but that's just not realistic.  The other thing about me is when I get hungry or tired, I will eat anything I can find, especially easy comfort food.

I am trying to work around all that.  I have come up with a short list of "meals" I enjoy for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Some of them are fast on-the-go meals (even some "fast food") and others are things that are served in places I frequent (like the work cafeteria or favorite restaurant).  By having that short list, I can go into autopilot when I'm in a hurry, tired or hungry and eat something that's not going to sabotage my day.  The short list can even be tailored to suit any restaurant, with the exception of Mexican food which is very hard to eat reasonably.  

Strangely enough, my most difficult place to eat is not "out" but at home.  When I get home from work, I'm immediately foraging for food, even when I know what I am going to eat for dinner.  That's something I have to work on.  I'm thinking about coming up with a specific "snacks" I can turn to when I get home.

A little planning now might pay off in a big way.

Come see more tips at Fit Club - just click on the link to the right --->

cindy

Last Minute Gifts - Cranberry/Orange Snack Mix

It's getting down to the wire when I've got to think about all the "little" gifts I need - for teachers, babysitters, mailmen, other last minute recipients.  These are my favorite gifts because although I like to make them interesting, I don't necessarily have to give a lot of personal thought to them.  I also like to combine my love for the deal.  Specifically, I like to buy Christmas things right after Christmas for a song and wait and use them the following year.  When I unwrap my Christmas decorations, I enjoy finding something new - like Christmas comes early.  Last year I found these glass Santa containers on sale for $1.00 each (originally $4.99) at Target.  I thought I would make cookie mix, but because of the small size, I needed to think of something else.  Cranberry/Orange Snack Mix

The ingredients are pretty simple:

2 c. Corn Chex

2 c. Oat squares

2 c. Mini Pretzels

1 c. whole almonds

1/4 c. butter

1/3 c. frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed

3 Tbl packed brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp allspice

2/3 c. dried cranberries (Craisins)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees and coat a 13X9 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Mix the first four ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.  In a smaller bowl melt butter and add orange juice concentrate, brown sugar and spices.  Mix well and pour over the dry ingredients, stirring them to coat. 

 Spread the resulting mix on the baking pan and bake for 50 minutes.  You will need to stir the mix every 10 minutes.  

Once it's done, you add the Craisins and lay the mix out on a flat surface until it's dry.  You can store it in any airtight container.  As an extra bonus, your kitchen will have a wonderful smell of spiced orange and cranberry.  

This is better than any old cookie mix :)

cindy

New Adverntures - Part 3

It's been a while since I updated the weight loss journey.  I my first installment, I talked about my goals and how I wanted to get there, and in the second installment I bragged about how fast the weight was coming off.  This installment is about reality.

I'm just over a month into this and I've lost 20 pounds.  Better than that, I've noticed serious inches coming off in all the right places.  That's the promise of HcG proponents - that the weight loss comes from "bad" fat, or fat that is in the wrong places.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that life has been getting in my way for the last two weeks or so.

Don't worry, the excuse parade isn't coming just yet.  Having said that, I have been pretty sick with a wicked sinus problem that nearly became pneumonia.  I made a decision about a week into the infection to eat a few more calories.  The problem is that once you start eating more (and whatever you want), it can be very hard to get that discipline back.  So I've had some days that just weren't so good, resulting in a serious slowdown stop gain.  (Serious gain for this diet means 2 or more pounds.)

This for me is one of those crossroads.  I have a strong perfectionist streak, so when I'm not perfect, I beat myself up and become a "failure."  It's a little hard to come back from that, but I've got a lot more to lose, both in weight and what would happen if I gave up or continued to limp along.

So I'm gritting my teeth, pulling up those big girl "you know whats" and getting back at this.  I need to reestablish my discipline before the holiday mine field is upon us.  This year the holidays are going to be about pretty, creative things, looking good in my clothes and NOT about food (unless I'm making it for someone else :)

cindy

DIY - Oven Baked Potato Chips

We're trying some new recipes this weekend and the one my daughter wanted was for homemade potato chips.  We looked around on the internet (why bother to have a cookbook anymore!)  and found this recipe:

4 russet (baking) potatoes
melted butter
salt to taste

Peel potatoes and slice the potatoes thinly.  Dip the slices in melted butter and place on cookie sheet.  If you limiting the amount of butter, use a non-stick spray on the cookie sheet.  Bake for 15-17 minutes at 500 degrees.  Watch them when you take them out - VERY HOT!  Salt to taste as they cool.

They are so yummy!  Even better, they are easy!  We LOVE easy!

Have a great weekend.

cindy

Pinterest Challenge

I recently saw a blog where someone tried to replicate some of their pins from Pinterest.  It does make sense - isn't that why so many of us like Pinterest for DIY?  I want to take the challenge to make a few items that I've seen on Pinterest.  I'm not challenging myself to make them exactly as they appear in the pin, and I'm not setting a time limit.  (This is supposed to be a challenge, not a chore).  Here's the pins I want to do:

Source: etsy.com via Cindy on Pinterest

This button idea looks labor intensive, but might be cool in my office.

Source: wearyourbaby.org via Cindy on Pinterest

I don't have a baby, but I think this would be great to make for a group of unwed mothers.

Source: marthastewart.com via Cindy on Pinterest

I know mine definitely won't look like these, but I do have a pattern for a pincushion I want to try!

Source: sweet-verbena.blogspot.com via Cindy on Pinterest

This would be great for a holiday meal!

OK, I think that's as many as I dare to take on!  Again, no promises as to when I will get this challenge going, but now that I've put myself out there, I have to try.  By the way, all of the pictures above go back to my Pinterest boards and ultimately back to the websites of origin.  I did not take any of these pictures and claim no attributes, but leave that with the original sources which you can see yourself.

Wish me luck!

cindy

Loving Me Some Sparkpeople!

`Have you checked out Sparkpeople??  This has to be one of the best weight loss sites on the web.  There's so much to say about it but I'll give you ten of the best reasons:



1.  It is completely FREE.  No, really, it is completely free.  It costs nothing to sign up and you never pay a thing.
2.  It is NOT a diet site.  It does not encourage you to pick a "diet," but one is available if you need it.  Mostly it is a support site with great tools to help you.
3.  You can track your weight, food and fitness levels, as well as energy, measurements, goals or anything else.
4.  There is a huge community of people, both local and groups with common interests where you can participate for advice, support or ideas.  There are message boards, blog opportunities and a place where you can create your own page.
5.  Sparkpeople has workout plans, exercise demonstrations, reports of your activities and suggestions for improving your calorie to exercise balance.
6.  There are great articles on health, fitness, recipes, nutrition, motivation and lots more.
7.  You can motivate yourself with streaks, challenges, group activities, spark mail and emails (only if you want them) and stages of weight loss/improved fitness/increased wellness and health.
8.  There is a mobile application to track food, fitness, weight, water consumed and give you reports about the same (oh yeah, it's free too)
9.  The site was started by a guy who approaches weight loss, increased fitness, wellness and lifestyle with a practical and easy methodology (balance calories consumed with the amount of exercise done)
10.  Did I mention it's FREE??

Free Online Diet Plan at SparkPeople.com

I can't say enough about this website.  If you are interested in a place where you can get practical advice, support, a place to track your progress and a never ending supply of information, Sparkpeople is like no other place on the web. By the way, I was not compensated (or even asked) to recommend Sparkpeople.  I just believe in it.

cindy

Recipe - Shepard's Pie

Now that I only eat 500 calories a day, I'm oddly fascinated with cooking for my family using what we have hanging around.  Keeping this in mind, I decided to do something with the Grand's Biscuits we had in the refrigerator.  I came up with this concoction and I think it turned out pretty good (even though I couldn't taste it).

First, I split the biscuit dough into two piles (4 biscuits in each).  Then I rolled out the first pile until it could fit in the bottom of a pie pan (it wasn't that difficult).  Next comes the fun, creative part.  I browned a pound of ground beef and added whatever I could find (and my family would eat).  In our case, that was a can of corn and a can of ranch beans (light pinto beans in a sauce).  I'm sure others would get more creative, with potatoes, onions, peppers, peas or other things I didn't have in my cabinets.

After combining the ground beef with the warmed beans and corn, I put the mixture into the pie pan on top of the rolled crust.  The amount of the beef mixture was higher than the sides of the pie pan, but that was OK.  Next, I rolled out the other pile of biscuit dough and put a "lid" over the top of the pie.  I put small slits around the top so it could vent (and it ended up looking very pretty too).  Here's what it looked like before I put it in the oven:

I used the directions on the biscuits as a guide and baked it for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  It was almost too gorgeous to eat!

I was surprised at how easy this was, but the bigger (and better) surprise was how much my family (especially my kids) liked it.  Even my picky son enjoyed it and ate a good helping of it.  It's not as pretty after it's been cut, but this gives you an idea of the inside ingredients:

 
The best part about this recipe (other than how easy it is) is how you can make it different each time.  You could make a pot pie with chicken with vegetables and a sauce, or a use other vegetables with ground beef.  I guess mine looks a little Southwest, although we're pretty wimpy about spicy.  All together it makes a great hardy family meal and takes less than an hour to prepare.  Enjoy!

cindy

Southern Cooking

The last couple of months I have been longing for comfort food I remember from my southern family.  My dad used to make a couple, and my mom made a few too.  Some things I definitely don't miss - brussel sprouts, liver & onions and "greens".  (However on a recent trip to Louisville, we had some great "greens" with spinach sauted in pork fat - yum!)  The two I've been particularly interested in making were chicken & dumplings and peach cobbler.   One of the interesting things about these dishes is that my husband and I both remember very similar recipes from our childhoods.

For those of you with "northern" families, I'm not talking about chicken & dumplings that are big round globs of flour dropped into boiling water.  I'm talking about the thinly rolled and cut dumplings that are gently placed in a pot with lots of chicken and broth.  My mom and grandmother never gave me a recipe for this fine dish, but I recently found a promising one on allrecipes.com.  I'm not listing it here as a recipe, because I'm not quite sure I perfected it - a little too soupy for me.  I also didn't roll the dumplings quite thin enough or have the water boiling enough.  Have to try it again.

In the meantime, it's peach time and I'm ready to try some peach cobbler.  I was wimpy (and not true southern) by using pre-made sugar cookie dough as the bottom crust, but hey, I did try grandma's pastry crust for the top.  My results were OK, but not quite good enough.  Here's the peach filling before I put the crust on:

I used white peaches, which I don't think were as sweet.  Being wimpy on the bottom crust wasn't very satisfying, but the top pastry part was promising.  I'm going to have to give this one another try too.

I'd love to hear about your favorite childhood comfort food.  In the meantime, I'll keep working on mine.

cindy