1 can (15 oz) Progresso® black beans, drained, rinsed
1 can (11 oz) Green Giant® SteamCrisp® Mexicorn® whole kernel corn with red and green peppers, undrained
¼ cup water
Flour tortillas, if desired
Instructions
Spray 10-inch skillet with cooking spray. Add chicken to skillet; cook over medium-high heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until no longer pink in center.
Stir in seasoning mix, beans, corn and water. Cook over medium-high heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until sauce is slightly thickened. Serve with tortillas.
Notes
Boost your fiber with beans. Filled with many other important nutrients, beans are an excellent source of fiber that’s so important for good blood glucose management and to keep your digestive tract moving. Stir-fry chicken strips not available? Buy the same weight of boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs, and cut up the meat yourself. If you’d prefer, pinto beans can be substituted for the black beans.
Lauren is the queen of macaroons. The only other macaroon recipe I’ve posted was also adapted from her recipe. Why go elsewhere when she’s got in down?!
She recently posted some double chocolate macaroons and I just had to get some peanut butter involved in there. So I replaced half of the coconut butter with peanut butter. And they were awesome. I just had to make them the next day to see if using all peanut butter would work, and it did. So there you go. No need to buy expensive coconut butter or make it yourself. Just please, use natural peanut butter. These willnot come out well if you use the regular stuff!
Don’t like peanut butter or have allergies? Go check out the original. It’s peanut butter free! And I’m not so sure about using other nut butters here but now that I think about it, I’m so trying these with hazelnut butter.
I used 1/2 cup of maple syrup and it was enough for me, but I imagine these would be even tastier with the 3/4 cup called for in Lauren’s recipe. And because I recently found a few bags of peanut butter chips in my cupboard, I threw some of those in, too. So I guess I basically added the sugar back in peanut butter chip form, but that’s so much more exciting than in maple syrup form, right? I suppose you could leave them out, but that’d just be plain silly. And plus the peanut butter flavor isn’t strong enough without them.
I just realized that these are 100% whole grain, gluten-free and vegan if you leave out the peanut butter chips. But don’t let these labels deter you from making these. They just taste like little balls of happiness.
Oh, and another thing. I promise to stop posting chocolate + peanut butter + coconut recipes for a while. I didn’t want to post this today, but everything else I’ve tried lately hasn’t been blog-worthy. Or it just totally failed. So bear with me I try to come up with something a little different!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Macaroons
Prep Time:
Cook Time:
Ready in:
Yield: 24 cookies
Ingredients
8 ounces (225 grams) natural peanut butter
½ cup - ¾ cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup dark cocoa powder
1 cup shredded or desiccated coconut
1 cup old-fashioned / rolled oats, non-contaminated for gluten-free
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
¼ cup peanut butter chips, optional
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and prepare a baking sheet with a Silpat or a piece of parchment paper.
Using a hand mixer, mix all the ingredients through salt together in a large bowl. Add in the chocolate and peanut butter chips.
Using a 1 tbsp measuring spoon, scoop out tablespoons of dough and place about 1 centimeter apart on the prepared baking sheet. They will not spread very much.
Bake for 12 minutes and let cool until set. Store in an airtight container for up to one week.
2 bags (3-ounce) Ramen Noodle Soup in Oriental (other flavors will work, too)
3/4 stick butter
1/4 cup slivered almonds
2 bags (12-ounce) bags broccoli cole slaw (in the bagged salad section of the grocery store)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
Chopped green onions, for garnish
Dressing Mix:
3/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup brown or white sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 ramen noodle seasoning packet
Directions
Put the ramen noodles in a bag and crush them with a rolling pin while melting butter in a large skillet over low/medium heat. Add the crushed noodles and slivered almonds to the skillet and saute, stirring occasionally (keep temperature at low/medium heat). Meanwhile, whisk together all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Place the shredded broccoli into bowl and toss with the noodles, almonds, and sunflower seeds. Pour dressing over salad and toss to coat. Garnish with chopped green onions.
A five-ingredient barbecue rub and a three-ingredient basting sauce are all you need to take chicken from routine to off-the-charts good. An assortment of spices mixed with common condiments makes a thick, tangy-sweet mustard glaze with a hint of smokiness. Grilled summer squash makes a light, fresh side.
Ingredients
2 tablespoonsdark brown sugar
2 teaspoonsgarlic powder
2 teaspoonschili powder
1 teaspoonsmoked paprika
1/2 teaspoonsalt
1/4 cupketchup
1 tablespoondark brown sugar
1 tablespoonsherry or red wine vinegar
1 tablespoonDijon mustard
8 (6-ounce) skinless, bone-in chicken thighs
Cooking spray
Preparation
1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a small bowl. Combine ketchup and next 3 ingredients (through mustard) in a small bowl; stir with a whisk.
2. Heat a large grill pan over medium-high heat. Rub spice mixture evenly over chicken thighs. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan; cook 12 minutes. Turn chicken over. Brush with half of ketchup mixture; cook 12 minutes. Turn chicken over. Brush with remaining ketchup mixture; cook 2 minutes or until a thermometer registers 165°.
Grilled summer squash: Cut 2 zucchini and 1 yellow squash lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Brush with 2 teaspoons olive oil; sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Grill 3 minutes on each side or until tender.
You walk in the door at 5:30 p.m. Your highly lovable but also highly energetic kids are happy to see you and ready to be entertained. Your spouse (who is surely happy to see you even though forgetting to tell you) stares at your hands, which are holding nothing but your briefcase and now-empty lunch sack. “Did you remember to stop at the grocery store and pick up the salad for the neighborhood block party?”
Depending on your day, a blank stare or expletive-laced outburst could follow. Which will it be? How about a different option altogether in the form of whipping up this chickpea salad as did Michael Natkin, who wrote about a very similar scenario which inspired a very similar recipe. He shared both in his lovely cookbook Herbivoracious.(He writes a blog by the same name.) “Born out of desperation” is how he put it.
The desperation (so to speak) I typically face when wanting to create a quick meal is having something I can prepare relatively quickly that is also relatively healthy. I think this fits the bill. And because it is a salad, you can do pretty much anything you want with it. Add a can of black beans in place of one can of chickpeas. Not a fan of peppers or sundried tomatoes? Add olives or artichoke hearts or sunflower seeds.
Nakin suggests using fresh tarragon, dill or mint in place of a handful of basil. I did not use basil at all because I wanted the leftovers to keep for lunch. Like the overall idea of this salad but loathe chickpeas? Toss in cooked quinoa or couscous instead. No matter how you toss it, I am sure you can’t go wrong. Enjoy!
Ten-Minute Chickpea Salad
Author: adapted from Herbivoracious by Michael Natkin
Recipe type: side dish
Serves: 8
Ingredients
For the Salad
2, 15-ounce cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 cup red onion, diced (about ½ onion)
1 cup English cucumber, chopped
1 pepper or 1 jar of roasted peppers
1 cup crumbled Feta cheese
½ cup sundried tomatoes
1 garlic clove, minced
For the Dressing
3 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
Stir together all of the salad ingredients, from the chickpeas to the garlic.
Immediately before serving, stir together the lemon juice and the olive oil and pour over the salad.
Stir to coat and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Notes
If desired, roast the pepper over dry heat before adding it to the salad. Do this by heating a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat and then adding the whole pepper. Roll the pepper from side to side every few minutes or so until nicely charred. Once cool enough to handle, chop, seed and add it to the salad.
I was in Sweden for a long weekend and I returned last night. I love everything about that place, but most of all – the people and the culture. I have an extremely soft spot in my heart for Sweden and Swedes and if I could live anywhere I wanted, I’d live in a small Swedish village in a cute red house overlooking a lake. But alas – there are hightaxes to pay, jobs to be had, etc. But I have hope for the future. :)
I love Sweden so much that I chose to be an exchange student there in both high school and college. The first time, I was 16 and lived with a crazy family who happened to be vegetarian. It wasn’t a happy situation food-wise. When I knew they’d be gone, I’d go and buy a bag of frozen meatballs, prepare them really quickly and run away to my room and just devour them. It was great fun.
Then the second time I was in Sweden (which is where I met Mr. T, by the way) I decided I didn’t like Swedish meatballs and didn’t eat any of them. I’m weird like that. At least with food. Only recently was my passion for Swedish meatballs reignited and luckily, I no longer have to hide my meat eating.
These are super easy to make and relatively quick, too. Just mix everything together, bake the meatballs in the oven, and then pan fry a little so that they’re nice and crunchy. If you want, you can just bake them, but they won’t have that crust which I think is totally necessary for Swedish meatballs. Or you can just fry them in the pan without baking them first, but this will take a long time and you’ll need to stand over the meatballs to turn them every so often. The meatballs are spiced with both allspice and nutmeg so that they actually taste like something, which is something I’ve missed in other recipes.
This recipe was born out of a need to get rid of some ricotta. And it worked! The ricotta took the place of breadcrumbs and they unintentionally became gluten-free.
Another bonus with these meatballs – they’re not made from horsemeat! Yeah! :D
I know that Swedish meatball recipes usually have gravy recipes included, but I have never seen sauce served with meatballs in Sweden. It could just be who I’m hanging around with or have lived with, but I’ve always been served meatballs alongside mashed potatoes or buttered macaroni. And not only that, but I don’t like sauce and therefore can’t judge what’s good. ;) So here you are – just the meatballs!
Gluten-free Swedish Meatballs
Prep Time:
Cook Time:
Ready in:
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
½ cup (1.2dl) onion, minced
1 egg, room temperature
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 pound (455 grams) ground pork and beef mix (mine was about 60% pork and 40% beef)
⅔ cup (160 grams) Ricotta
1 tablespoon butter
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C). Get out a 9" x 13" baking dish or another pan large enough for the meatballs.
In a large bowl, mix together the first seven ingredients (onion through Worcestershire sauce). Then add in the meat and mix together, just until combined. Add in the Ricotta. You can add more or less if you like.
Form into tablespoon sized balls, place in the baking dish, and bake for 10 minutes.
The last two minutes of baking, melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium high heat. Then fry the meatballs in the butter until nicely browned, about 5 - 10 minutes, and serve.
Hello weekend! Sacramento can’t decide if it wants to be hot or cool right now. But the weather has been cooperating gloriously recently, with lots of sun, perfect for relaxing on the patio with tortilla chips or saltines and some coctel de camarones, or Mexican shrimp cocktail. I love this version of shrimp cocktail, it’s sort of like a virgin bloody mary with cucumber, celery, red onions, avocados and lots of shrimp. Perfect for dipping, or eating with a spoon. Or picking out the shrimp pieces with a fork, then the avocado pieces, and then eating the rest with a spoon as if it were gazpacho. Enjoy!
Recipe :
Prep time:20 minutes
Cook time:15 minutes
If it's tomato season, use freshly chopped tomatoes with their juices, instead of the canned tomatoes.
INGREDIENTS
1 pound medium shrimp, raw or cooked
Salt
1 cup chopped red onion
1 cup peeled, diced cucumber
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 jalapeno, minced
1 15-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, chopped OR 1 1/2 cups of freshly chopped tomatoes with their juices
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Juice of a lime, about 2 Tbsp
Hot sauce (like Crystal or Tabasco) to taste (about 1 Tbsp to 1/4 cup of Crystal)
1 avocado, cut into chunks
METHOD
1 If you have pre-cooked, peeled and deveined shrimp you can skip to the next step. If you are working with raw shrimp, peel and devein them. If you have a little extra time and want your shrimp to be extra good, put the shells in 1 1/2 quarts of cool salted water, bring to a boil, then strain the shell stock into a separate pot and cook the shrimp in that liquid. If you want to skip that step, just bring a medium pot salted water to a boil (a tbsp salt for 2 quarts of water), add the shrimp, and cook for 2-3 minutes, until just cooked through. Reserve a cup of the cooking water and chill it.
2 Cut half of the shrimp into large chunks, leaving the other half whole (for a more attractive presentation). Put the chopped shrimp in a bowl with the chopped onions, cucumber, celery, jalapeno, tomatoes, ketchup, cilantro, lime juice and hot sauce. Gently stir to combine, and chill. Once the cooking water has cooled at least to room temperature, add a little at a time to the shrimp cocktail, until the shrimp cocktail is the consistency you want (we like ours a little on the soupy side).
3 To serve, add salt and more hot sauce to taste and gently mix in the chopped avocados. Dip the whole shrimp in the cocktail and arrange them on top. Serve in parfait glasses or in small bowls with tortilla chips on the side.
