Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about you. My ADD has just kicked on overdrive. I have lots of recipes lined up, it’s just a matter of getting to posting them! Summer has officially kicked into full gear, even though you could never tell judging by the Chicago weather, and I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Chicago comes alive during these fabulous months, and I just want to be part of all the action.
With my busy schedule comes finding yummy recipes that don’t take terribly long to make. I’m sure many of you can relate 100%. This recipe is one of them. I think many people think that grilling = more work. It’s actual quite the contrary. Turn that bad boy on and let it heat up. Meanwhile prep everything, throw it on and pretty shortly after you have deliciousness. You can actual quicken this recipe by using canned corn instead of corn on the cob, like I used.
Ingredients: Makes 4-6 tostadas
1 large zucchini, cut into round slices
1 can organic black beans
1 corn on the cob or 1 can organic corn
1/4 red onion, sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
About 2 tbsp chihuahua cheese or any other melty cheese per tostada
4-6 corn tortillas (gluten-free)
Salt & pepper to taste
Cooking spray
Garnish:
About 6 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
Plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
Directions:
Heat grill to medium-high heat
Meanwhile, slice zucchini and red onion, and drain black beans (and corn if you choose to use canned)
Remove husk from corn
In a medium size bowl toss zucchini with 1 tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper, then set aside
In a skillet, saute red onion with 1 tbsp olive oil until it’s cooked down a bit and then throw in the black beans (and corn if you are using canned)
Season that with salt and pepper to taste, cook until beans are heated through, and then remove from heat – set aside in bowl
Bring everything to grilling area – corn, black bean/onion mixture, corn tortillas, cheese, zucchini
If you’re using corn on the cob, throw that on the grill and grill until you have some nice char marks
At the same time place zucchini slices on the grill and cook until you have char marks – then remove and set aside
Remove corn from grill and remove corn from cob using a knife – transferring to black bean & onion bowl and toss
Turn the heat down to medium
Spray corn tortillas with cooking spray on both sides and place them on the grill
Let them crisp up for about a minute
Be careful and place about 4 slices of zucchini on each tostada, then a spoonful of black beans & corn, and top with about 2 tbsp of cheese per tostada
Close the lid to grill and let cheese melt and the tortilla crisp up some more – this took me about 4-5 minutes, but keep an eye on it
Remove and garnish with cherry tomatoes and a little plain Greek yogurt or sour cream!
My gosh, so much has been going on I haven’t even had time to post this week until now! Eeek! I’ve been really focusing a lot on my photography and photography classes over the last couple of weeks, so that plus my ADD has proven challenging to balance all the thoughts in my little noggin! Check out a couple pics from the latest engagement session I shot of our friends Krista & Joe. Such an awesome and beautiful couple!
Over Memorial Day weekend we had a lot of lounging and cooking time. Most of our friends were out of town, so we took advantage to the max! We stayed in most the weekend and this Mexican Corn on the Cob is one of the fabulous things I made. I honestly can’t imagine eating corn any other way now – yes, it was THAT good! Hubs and I literally scarfed it down within 30 seconds and then had one of those ‘did that really just happen?’ moments. Yes it did. And it was glorious.
Ingredients: Serves 4
4 cobs of corn, husks removed
2 tbsp soft (room temperature) unsalted butter
1/2 tsp lime juice
Zest of 1/2 lime
2 tbsp mayonnaise (I like full fat, because I’m a fatty)
About 2 tbsp Cotija cheese (you can also use Parmesan if you can’t find Cotija)
Cayenne pepper
Tiny pinch of salt
Garnish: Lime wedges
Directions:
Heat up grill to medium-high heat
Remove husks from corn
Combine butter, lime, lime zest and tiny pinch of salt in a small bowl
Place cobs on grill and grill until you can see some charred grill marks – this took me about 15 minutes or so
Remove
Brush butter all over on hot corn using a knife or cooking brush. The process is messy – deal with it
Brush some mayo all over
Sprinkle some cayenne pepper followed by Cotija cheese all around
The waiting has almost come to an end – the 3 day weekend is finally here! Ahhh, Memorial Day Weekend, I love you. I have been looking forward to this for like a month. And no, I’m not going anywhere super fun and I don’t have any exciting plans. I’m looking forward to this weekend, because I have absolutely NO PLANS and I couldn’t be happier about it. I’m really excited to just wake up and decide what I feel like doing each day. That NEVER happens. Our lives consist of constant plans, so I’m really pumped!
Memorial Day weekend and grilling go hand in hand, so here are 8 grilling recipes that I know you’ll love! I brought back some oldie but goodies towards the end too! #flashbackfriday
Looking back at grill recipes 6 through 8 really makes me feel proud of myself, as I can see how much my photography skills have improved over the last 11 months. Those recipes are from back in the early days of Reel Flavor. Not that we’re an old or established site by any means, but that was back when this was still a place to store my ideas and not quite a serious passion.
Also, check out a few other grill recipes from fellow food bloggers that I look up to. I’ve got my eye on these and want to try them soon!
I came across Urban Accents seasoning blends a while back when I was shopping at World Market (love that store!), and was immediately intrigued by their unique blends because they are all gluten-free and look amazing. I have tried a few different Urban Accents rubs and seasonings in the past, but just the other day I noticed a new one on the shelf that I had to have – their Miso Salmon Grilling Rub. I figured I’d give it a whirl and let me tell you, this is the best salmon I’ve had in a long time thanks to Urban Accents. The first time I tried it I brushed my fillets with only honey then added the rub, but the second time I made a honey-dijon mustard as the base. YUMMO! Isn’t “yummo” annoying? Why did I just type that? Anyways, you must try this stuff out. I highly recommend it!
Grilled Honey-Dijon Miso Salmon with Garlic-Mirin Sauteed Broccoli
Ingredients: Serves 3-4 For Salmon:
4 salmon fillets
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp dijon mustard
Urban Accents Miso Salmon Grilling Rub For Broccoli:
2 heads of broccoli
3 cloves pressed garlic
Splash of Mirin
Salt & pepper
Olive oil
Directions:
Combine mustard and honey in a small bowl
Brush salmon fillet with honey-dijon
Sprinkle a generous amount of Miso Salmon Grilling Rub on to each salmon fillet
Toss onto grill on medium heat and grill for about 8 minutes (no more than 10 minutes max)
Meanwhile prepare broccoli into florets
Add a bit of olive oil (roughly 1 tbsp, but who’s counting?)
Toss in broccoli and let saute just about a minute
Add in garlic and stir
Season with a little salt and pepper
Let cook about another minute
Then give a good splash of the mirin and stir
cook for another 30 seconds to a minute and then remove from heat and serve
First off, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the tragedy in Oklahoma. It is so incredibly devastating and I’m struggling to understand why these things happen to good people, and especially to children. It’s times like this that life really makes me reflect and realize that whatever BS is going on in my life that I might feel is so terrible really doesn’t matter at all. It’s humbling and brings me back down to earth and reminds me to take a moment to really cherish my walk to work and the smells and the sunshine. I am in great health and have amazing people surrounding me every day and life is beautiful. I shouldn’t forget that. EVER. Not even for one second. Life is precious and we must live in the now for we never know when it can be taken from us. Oklahoma, my heart goes out to you. You are in my prayers.
This recipe screams summer. I love the shrimp and pineapple combo so very much. I served it over a bed of arugula tossed with a little GF soy sauce, olive oil, salt & pepper, drizzled with a little bit of sriracha, but all of this is optional.
Ingredients: Serves about 2 people
1 lb uncooked shrimp, tails on Seasoning on shrimp: just a little salt and paprika
1 pineapple, skin removed and sliced into 3/4 inch “steaks” with cores removed Shrimp marinade:
1/4 cup soy sauce (gluten-free)
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp sriracha
Directions:
Combine marinade in a large bowl
Toss shrimp in marinade and let marinate for about 30 minutes
Prepare pineapple by first cutting ends off, removing the skin with a knife, slicing them into 3/4 inch slices, and removing core from each slice
Skewer shrimp
Toss pineapple then shrimp on grill at medium heat
Flip when shrimp is pink and has light grill marks
Flip pineapple when grill marks are visible and slightly charred
Up until this meal I had never quite mastered the turkey burger until, DING! I thought to myself, ‘why don’t you try using mayo?’
*Insert singing chorus and a bath of sunshine*
During my pre-mayo turkey burger days I tried using oil, eggs, really anything I could think of to make the patties stick together. Even so, every time was a disaster that would fall apart or stick to the grill. Either that or they were dry and I felt like my cat trying to cough up a hair ball as it would get stuck in my throat on the way down. I was not a happy lady and I didn’t look classy while eating them either. The trick, my friends, is mayo. Even if you don’t particularly like mayo (WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!) you won’t notice that it’s in there. The other trick is to char the patties enough on the first side before you flip them. That way the whole turkey burger grilling process is easy peasy and everyone’s happy and you look super cool, which is super important, of course.
I also made a lemon & dijon yogurt sauce to go on these burgers and topped them with a little spinach and onion, but all of that is optional. You can dress them however you choose.
Here we go.
Ingredients: Serves 4-6 People
Hamburger buns (I use Udi’s gluten-free buns)
Turkey Patties:
1 lb. ground turkey
2 tbsp mayo (I like the real stuff)
1 tbsp dijon mustard
4 green onions, chopped
Roughly 1.5 tbsp corn flake crumbs or breadcrumbs (GF)
2 cloves pressed garlic (when do I not use garlic?! My husband doesn’t have a sense of smell so I can get away with it!)
1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped Lemon-Dijon sauce (optional):
About a cup plain Greek yogurt
About 1 tbsp dijon mustard
Splash of lemon juice Garnish: Whatever veggie or cheese you want – I used baby spinach, red onion and the lemon-dijon sauce above
Directions:
Chop up green onions and parsley
Fold all turkey patty ingredients into turkey meat until everything is well blended
Heat up the grill on high
Form meat into patties
Throw them on the grill and let them char and cook about 1/2 way through on first side before flipping
Add cheese if you’d like on the second side and serve on buns with your choice of garnishes
I’ve been attracted to vegetarian meals lately and it’s not because I am or want to be a vegetarian (as I scarf down some chicken while typing this), but there is something about the weather warming up that makes me crave them. They’re so pretty aren’t they? All colorful and happy. Plus if I eat more veggies and less crap I might not only feel better, but maybe I’ll get a little more excited for swimsuit season just around the corner!
The husband and I are going on a weekend lake trip in a few weeks to Lake Geneva with a group of friends, and while I’m so excited to go I’m also dreading that first strip down of the season where you can swear everyone is looking at every imperfection. I know it’s crazy and no one is really examining you, but nonetheless, the thoughts are still there – you ladies know exactly what I’m talking about.
This recipe was really tasty. I cut up a bunch of veggies and I thought there was no way that we could finish all of them between the two of us. But of course, Garbage Disposal and I finished all but a few pieces.
Thought I should note that I’m not only on a veggie kick, but also on a grilling kick. I bet my neighbors think I’m insane with my tripod and camera out on the back deck filming in my 80′s pants. Yes, my 80′s pants. Check them out in the recipe reel below. I didn’t intentionally include them in the video, but as I was editing I realized oops! The world is going to think I’m nuts! Or really awesome…
I’m going with the latter. At least everyone knows I’m stylin’ behind the scenes !
Ingredients: Serves about 3-4 (or in our case, 2)
1 large zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch rounds
6-8 white mushrooms
10 cherry tomatoes
1/4-1/2 red onion, cut into chunks (depending on how much onion you like to eat – I like a lot)
1 green bell pepper, cut into chunks
1 red pepper, cut into chunks
8-10 small boiled red potatoes, kept whole or cut in 1/2 depending on how large they are
2-3 tbsp olive oil
Splash of ponzu or soy sauce (gluten-free)
1 tbsp sriracha
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp honey
4 cloves pressed garlic
Salt & pepper to taste
Directions:
Prepare and mix all ingredients in a large bowl and let marinate for at least 30 minutes, but up to 2 hours
I never thought to buy heirloom tomatoes mainly because they’re more expensive and they look funny. I decided to buy a couple this past weekend and seriously, am I stupid? Heirloom tomatoes have SO much more flavor than regular tomatoes and honestly I kinda like their funky look. Super amazing. If you don’t usually buy heirloom just give them a try this weekend with this delicious and nutritious salad.
Yesterday we had the most amazing weather. Spring has finally sprung here in Chicago. I took my time walking to and from work so I could capture some of the new blooms around the neighborhood. Check out some of the shots from my walk. I love Spring time . Let’s just hope it doesn’t snow again…you never know, it is Chicago we’re talking about!
Ingredients: Serves 4
1 large heirloom tomato, thinly sliced
8 eggs, sunny-side up
12 slices of fresh mozzarella cheese
Handful of grape tomatoes per serving (I used orange for extra color)
Palmful of fresh basil leaves (about 4 per serving)
2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt & pepper to taste
1-2 pieces of toast per serving (I usually use Udi’s gluten-free bread)
Directions:
Slice up both heirloom and grape tomatoes
Start frying up your eggs sunny-side up
Build salad by placing 2 slices of heirloom tomato on the bottom
Top with 3 slices fresh mozzarella
Then drizzle with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Season with salt and pepper
Top with fresh basil
Add 2 eggs on top and season with a little more salt and pepper
I recently realized that I don’t post enough chicken recipes. To be honest, chicken isn’t my favorite meat, but I know that it is a common favorite among the majority of people out there. I will try my best to post more chicken.
This recipe is in honor of my mother-in-law and today is her birthday! Happy Birthday, Ellen! I have been meaning to make this recipe for quite some time now, as she has been raving about it. She actually gave me the recipe, but forgetful ol’ me forgot where the heck I put it. Grrr. So I had to create an ad hoc version of her recipe from what I remember. I even planned it out, I ordered some gluten-free miso paste from my favorite store, Amazon. Btw, gluten-free-ers, you need to make sure you don’t buy just any miso paste. Did you know that some brands aren’t gluten-free?! Lame! So do your research. Some grocery stores carry this stuff, but always check the ingredients list before purchasing. If you can eat gluten, just forget I ever said anything !
This chicken was really really delicious. If I remember, I’m going to make some miso chicken wings once football is back on. I think that would be out of control good. I paired it with some Asian-style cucumber salad and topped it with sauteed spinach and mushrooms. I like to add a touch more of the miso dressing on top of everything to give a little more flavor. Yummy!
I think the miso dressing would also be perfect on many salads.
Ingredients: Serves 2-3
About 1 lb. chicken tenders
6-8 white mushrooms, sliced
2 cups fresh baby spinach
1 tbsp olive oil Seasoning for veggies: 1 tbsp sesame oil, splash of ponzu or soy sauce & mirin
Cucumber Salad:
1 large cucumber, spiraled or thinly sliced
1 clove pressed garlic
Small pinch of salt Seasoning for cucumber salad: Splash of sesame oil, ponzu or soy sauce, mirin and rice vinegar
Miso Dressing:
1/8 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup white miso paste
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp ponzu sauce (make sure it’s gluten-free)
1/2 tbsp sriracha sauce
Splash of mirin
2 cloves pressed garlic
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375ºF
Prepare miso dressing by combining all ingredients listed into a bowl
Transfer chicken to a pre-sprayed baking dish
Top chicken with about 1/2 of the miso dressing
Bake in oven for about 20 minutes
Meanwhile, prepare cucumbers and toss with garlic and seasoning
Saute mushrooms and spinach with olive oil, sesame oil and seasoning until veggies have cooked down
Plate by creating a bed of the cucumber salad on the bottom, top with a couple chicken tenders and then top that with a bit of the veggie mixture
Then I like to drizzle a little more of the miso dressing on top of everything
What a whirlwind of a week/weekend I had! From friends and work events in NYC most of last week to weekend visitors in Chicago, I have been one busy lady lately. This weekend we celebrated a friend’s birthday at Butterfly Sushi Bar in the West Loop of Chicago, which I was really impressed with, we hit up an awkward neighborhood DJ party, and then had friends over yesterday and cooked up a bunch of Mexican food to celebrate Cinco de Mayo! Despite all of our plans, I did somehow manage to get a little cooking time in this weekend, which is always nice because it’s my chill out me time that I can’t live without. Oh, and then I found this video that kept me entertained for most of the weekend. Just my kind of humor . If you follow me on Facebook then you’ve probably already seen this, and if you don’t follow me then click the button to the right and please do so!
This recipe was one of my random throw it together last minute genius creations. I just love when things work out like that. I knew I wanted to make something with grapefruit, because I’ve noticed that it’s so hot right now – I swear every restaurant we’ve been to in the last few months has worked grapefruit into their menu somehow. There was something about how the slightly sweet and bitterness of the grapefruit combined perfectly with the smokey flavor of the roasted curried fennel. The peppery flavor of the arugula really provided a solid base for the dish, and the toasted walnuts (I love any kind of toasted nut, yumyumyum) and the creaminess of the avocado were really the icing on the cake.
I will make one suggestion that I regret not doing…cover your baking sheet with foil before seasoning the fennel. The curry powder definitely stained mine . Lesson learned.
Ingredients: Serves 2 people
1/2 grapefruit, peeled in cut into bite-sized cubes
1/2 avocado, thinly sliced
Handful of walnuts, toasted For Fennel:
1/2 bulb of fennel, thinly sliced
Olive oil
Paprika
Curry powder
Salt For Arugula:
Roughly 4 cups arugula
2 tbsp olive oil (or 1 per salad)
Splash of rice vinegar, per salad
Salt to taste Garnish: Fennel sprigs
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425ºF
Slice up fennel
Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with a little cooking spray
Transfer fennel over to baking sheet and brush with olive oil
Season with a little salt, paprika and curry powder
Pop in oven and bake for about 10-15 minutes
Meanwhile, spray a small frying pan and toast walnuts for a few minutes (you’ll be able to smell them when they’re ready) – keep a close eye on them so they don’t burn
Peel grapefruit and cube
Slice avocado
Toss arugula with olive oil, rice vinegar and salt
Chop up toasted walnuts
Remove fennel from oven and start building your salad in this order: arugula, avocado, grapefruit, walnuts, and top with fennel and garnish
As many of you know, my favorite holiday is almost here! Cinco de Mayo! It gives me the opportunity to overindulge in my favorite cuisine, Mexican. But who am I kidding, I don’t need Cinco de Mayo to do that…it’s just more acceptable to eat tacos every meal of the day and I don’t feel as crazy obsessed. Oh how I love living in denial…
These tacos sound all crazy fancy-pants, but in reality they’re not. If you have a blender or food processor it’s actually quite easy. You just season the scallops, fry up the bacon (God, I love bacon), and you throw some oranges, a bit of red onion, cilantro, olive oil and a half of a habanero pepper into a blender. That’s basically it. And then you’re left with this amazing salsa that you just want to pour over everything. So simple yet so unique. Love when that happens. Oh, and you can’t forget the radicchio, but that’s just easy-peasy.
My one problem is that my grocery store only sells containers of 5 or 6 habaneros, so now I have to figure out some more recipes I can use habaneros in. I guess I’ll be eating spicy for a while!
Ingredients: Serves 2 people
1 lb. uncooked scallops Seasoning for scallops: Salt & cumin
2 cups radicchio, roughly chopped
4 slices of bacon
6 corn tortillas Orange-Habanero Salsa:
2 oranges, peeled
1/4 red onion, roughly chopped
1/2 habanero chile, seeds removed
2 tbsp fresh cilantro
2 tbsp olive oil
Directions:
Throw salsa ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth – taste and add more habanero if you want it spicier or cilantro if you’re a big cilantro fan
Season scallops and set aside
Start frying bacon in a skillet until crispy
Meanwhile, chop up your radicchio
Remove bacon and set aside on a paper towel
Discard a bit of the bacon grease from skillet, but leave enough to cook your scallops in
Saute scallops until lightly browned on each side – 3-4 minutes total
On a lazy day I usually just microwave my corn tortillas to soften them up, but you can heat them up in a skillet too
Build tacos, garnish with a little extra cilantro if you’d like and devour
Alright, friends…I found the key ingredient to creating a successful lettuce wrap – butter lettuce. This whole time I’ve been trying iceberg, romaine, really anything that I thought I could roll. Little did I know that a little butter lettuce would make such a huge difference. It makes beautiful little cups of joy and it doesn’t tear as easily. Pretty sturdy I’d say.
I’m guessing most of us know the yummy chicken lettuce wraps at PF Chang’s, right? Well, they use iceberg lettuce and it really doesn’t work out so well. I love the filling, but the lettuce tends to piss me off. Always breaking on me and shiz. Maybe I should write them a letter and suggest they switch to BL…um, get with the program…
Moral of the story to all you lettuce wrap people out there, tell your friends about butter lettuce .
Ingredients: Serves about 2-3 people
About 3/4 lb. uncooked shrimp, deveined & detailed
Seasoning for shrimp: paprika, garlic powder & salt
Head of butter lettuce (I love you!)
1 can organic black beans (you can use regular – I’m just a snob)
3-4 radishes, diced
1 green onion, chopped
1/4 red onion, chopped
1/2 jalapeno, diced
2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Dash of cayenne pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
Directions:
Dice up jalapeno, radishes, red onion and green onion
Season shrimp
Drain black beans
Start sauteing the jalapeno, red onion and radishes in a little olive oil
Add in black beans and saute for about a minute
Then add shrimp and cook until pink
Remove from heat and transfer mixture to a bowl
Add cilantro and green onions to bowl
Season with salt, pepper and a dash of cayenne (or as much as you’d like) to taste
Blend everything through
Peel butter lettuce leaves gently to ensure you end up with sturdy cups for filling
Fill lettuce with shrimp/bean filling and enjoy!
Spicy Shrimp & Black Bean Lettuce Wraps Recipe Reel:
Well we’re back after a good week off from Reel Flavor! Do you ever feel like life is speeding by and you’re struggling to keep up? I’m sure this is a feeling many of us share. There are so many great things going on in our lives right now. Just a recap – we became the Godparents to the cutest little baby boy, we traveled to Dallas to spend time with both of our families, I started photography school and am working toward becoming a pro (ha, we’ll see how it goes!), I’m heading to NYC for work and to visit friends, and on top of all this fabulousness Reel Flavor is really starting to take off. Now I just need to find more time! I’m still working on that one.
While trying to keep on my whole simplicity mantra I decided to pull out the ol’ crockpot. I love crockpots. You just throw stuff in, walk away, and come back to the most amazing smelling house. Chow time. I still can’t believe I forgot to register for a new crockpot on our wedding registry. I’m sure they sell fancy modern looking ones nowadays, but I’m still happy using Granny (featured in the recipe reel below). She’s a real gem. Oh you’ll also see our cat, Nippy, in the background. She smelled the chicken. You know how that goes…
So my Chicken Enchilada Soup was inspired by my friend Michelle’s creation. I had heard of chicken tortilla soup before, but never chicken enchilada soup. Since most enchilada sauces aren’t gluten-free, I decided to make my own from scratch using corn starch as a thickener. However, you can most certainly cut out all that business by buying canned enchilada sauce. I honestly would if I weren’t gluten-free. Unfortunately, gluten-filled sauces have always been worse on my stomach than even bread is, so I try and steer clear of them at all costs. But anyways, this soup is divine and I urge you to try it!
Ingredients: In crockpot:
2 thick chicken breasts Chicken seasoning: Salt, garlic powder & paprika
1 quart or 1 box chicken stock (make sure it’s gluten-free if you’re going that route)
1 can organic corn
1 can organic black beans
1/2 Jalapeno, diced
1.5 cups red enchilada sauce (see recipe below)
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
3 cloves pressed garlic
1 tomato, diced
1 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 lime, juiced Garnish:
About 6 corn tortillas, sliced into strips & seasoned with salt & paprika
2 green onions, chopped
Shredded cheddar cheese
More chopped cilantro Homemade Red Enchilada Sauce:
1/4 red onion, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 can organic tomato sauce
2 cloves pressed garlic
1/4 cup canola oil
1.5 cups chicken stock (gluten-free)
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp corn starch
Salt to taste
Directions:
Make red enchilada sauce in a sauce pan by first sauteing red onion and garlic in olive oil for about a minute or so
Add in tomato sauce, canola oil and chicken stock
Then season with chili powder, cumin and salt
Bring to simmer
Slowly sprinkle in corn starch while continuously whisking until sauce is a bit thicker
Remove from heat
Season chicken and toss all crock pot ingredients (except garnishes) into slow cooker and cook on low of about 6 hours
Meanwhile, slice up tortillas, season, lay them out flat on baking sheets, and then bake them at 400°F for about 20 minutes or until crunchy
Closer to the 6 hour mark, remove chicken and shred using 2 forks
Toss shredded chicken back into crock pot and stir
Once 6 hours are up serve in bowls topped with garnishes
This past weekend was fabulous and yesterday was the nicest weather we’ve had yet here in Chicago. We put the cushions back on our patio furniture and Andy and I grilled out and ate our chicken sausage hot dogs and salad outside last night. It was so nice to be outdoors again for the first time since like late September/early October. I can’t remember exactly, but regardless, it’s been a long time. We started our first round of Spring cleaning and opened up all the windows. Ahhhh, felt so nice. I love this time of year when the weather first changes. It makes everything so sweet and fills me with optimism.
I was feeling so happy about life yesterday that I whipped up this delicious gem of a meal, then ate some frozen yogurt and took a nice afternoon snooze! Life is beautiful . Treat yourself next weekend with my Cajun Shrimp & Sausage Eggs Benedict. You deserve it!
Ingredients: Serves 2
About 20 shrimp, detailed & deveined Seasoning on shrimp: Salt, garlic powder & paprika)
4 Slices of toast (I use Udi’s Gluten Free Whole Grain Bread)
4 Poached eggs
2 Andouille sausages, sliced (I used AmyLu’s Chicken Andouille Sausage, which is delicious & gluten-free!)
1/2 Green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 Jalapeno pepper, chopped
1/2 Celery stalk, chopped
Onion powder
Garlic powder
1-2 Tbsp olive oil Hollandaise Sauce:
4 Egg yolks
1/2 cup melted unsalted butter (1 stick)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cayenne
Pinch of dried thyme
Pinch of dried oregano
Directions:
Prepare vegetables, season shrimp and set aside
Slice up Andouille sausage and set aside
Make Hollandaise sauce using a stand mixer by beating 4 egg yolks. Slowly pour in the melted butter while mixer is still on. Beat for a little bit longer – until mixture is a bit thicker. Season with seasoning listed above. Taste and add more seasoning if needed. Set aside
Begin sauteing your veggies in a large skillet with a little olive oil
Add sausage and continue to saute
At this time begin poaching eggs
Meanwhile toss your shrimp into the veggie-sausage mixture and cook until pink
Place two slices of toast on a plate, top with 2 poached eggs, and then top that with a generous serving of the veggies, shrimp & sausage
Drizzle with as much Hollandaise sauce as you’d like – I like a lot
Well hello there Mr. Gouda Sandwich. Mr. Gouda Sandwich and I have had a few dates (haha, get it?!?!) over the last couple weeks and I think I might be in love. That could also be the reason why I’m having difficulty buttoning my pants right now (wow, that sounds so wrong!). In all seriousness though, I love all grilled cheese sandwiches, but this one really does it for me. If you don’t know much about dates I will tell you this, they are amazing with cheese. Melted cheese is even better.
Oh, and in other news…it’s Friday, which is fabulous. And then there is this…
This one is going to be stuck in my head for the rest of the day.
Ingredients: 1 sandwich
2 slices of bread (I use Udi’s Gluten Free Whole Grain Bread, of course!)
3 slices of gouda
About 3-4 dates, depending on how big they are **Using a panini maker would be best for this, but you can rock it old school on the stove if you’d like
Directions:
Build sandwich as shown in video – 2 slices, add dates and top with another slice, then close sandwich
Grill until sandwich is all amazing and melty-like
Grilled Gouda & Dates Sandwich Recipe Reel:
Cat? I’m a kitty cat…and I dance, dance, dance, and I dance, dance, dance…Cat? I’m a kitty cat…
. Lesson learned.
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