Time for Thai: Marinated Chicken/Beef with Thai Peanut Dipping Sauce, Coconut Basmati Rice and Ginger Snap Peas

A dear friend of mine made a meal similar to the one below when I was visiting her in Texas last month.  It was Y.U.M. and a true crowd pleaser.  The marinade works great on chicken and beef, but it would also be quite tasty with shrimp or even marinate tofu for you vegetarians out there.  You can put on skewers and use as a great appetizer as well.  I make the marinade and dipping sauce side by side since both require many of the same ingredients.  Who doesn't love peanut butter?  And if you don't have time to marinate the meat, just making the peanut dipping sauce will turn a regular dinner into a recipe you will be sending your friends.


Thai Chicken Marinade
Ingredients
1 package of boneless, skinless chicken breast (you can use this recipe with flank steak, shrimp or even tofu)
3 tbs. of fresh lime juice
zest of 1 lime
3 garlic gloves, minced
1 tbs minced ginger (remove skin with the back of a spoon and use a micro-plane if you have one, to grate)
1/4 cup of low sodium soy sauce
1-2 tsp. of red pepper flakes (depending on the heat level you prefer)
1 tbs. of brown sugar


Instructions
Place all of the ingredients in a freezer bag and marinade for a few hours or overnight is even better.  Take chicken out of marinade and grill on skewers, on a grill pan, or simply in the broiler.


Thai Peanut Dipping Sauce
Ingredients
1/2 cup of peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
1-2 tbs. of brown sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)
1-2 tsp. of red pepper flakes (again, depending on the heat level you prefer)
juice and zest of 1 lime
1/2 cup of coconut milk
chopped cilantro or scallions (optional)


Instructions
Whisk all of the ingredients together.  This is where you can "be your own chef" and adjust the sauce to your liking.  If you want more of a peanut flavor, simply add a little more peanut butter.  If it needs to mellow out, add more coconut milk.  You don't want the sauce too thick, but you also don't want it watery.  You won't mess it up.  Believe me.


I serve this meal with coconut basmati rice.  This simply means that instead of cooking your rice with water, use coconut milk.  Jasmine rice or white long grain rice work great here as well.  Using the coconut milk creates such a creamy side dish.  I try to find light coconut milk when I can.  Add scallions, toasted coconut and sesame seeds to the rice if you wish.  I also saute sugar snap peas in a little minced garlic, minced ginger and some red pepper flakes.  If you don't like snap peas, apply the same method to sauteed spinach, broccoli, asparagus, carrots, or bok choy.


Thank you Kelli for feeding me this wonderful meal!

First Thing on Weekend To-Do List: Must. Use. Grill.

This weekend was simply beautiful and it reminds me why I love California.  After a day at the beach, we decided to grill.  But this is grilling turned up a notch.  Grilling really does many things for me.  It let's me know summer is on its way.  It is quick and healthy.  And it just is plain ol' fun.  Not only did we grill dinner, but tonight I wanted to make extra chicken that could provide lunches for the week.  I have always thought that making extra food on Sunday was such a smart idea, but I never have done it before.  I simply thought I didn't have enough time.  If you want to do it, you will make time.  I feel this is true for cooking your own meals during the busy work week as well.  Many people simply don't want to carve out a half hour at the end of the day because, well, we are tired!  But if you have any interest in saving some money, being more healthful, and providing a nice experience for yourself, your spouse, or your friends, then taking a few easy steps to cooking at home is all it takes.


This was my Sunday plan of action:
11a.m. - marinate chicken!
Noon - spend the day at the beach
6p.m. - heat up the grill
6:45p.m. - enjoy the fruits of our labor


Quick and Delicious Marinated Grilled Chicken with Flavorful Grilled Asparagus and Sweet Potato Spears


Marinated Chicken 


Ingredients
1 package of chicken breasts (cut each breast in half)
1 tbs. of minced garlic
1-2 tbs. of chopped rosemary
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
1 tbs. of white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar (adding vinegar to your marinades makes such a difference in the end result)
salt and pepper


Instructions
Add all ingredients to a casserole dish - making sure to season the chicken with salt and pepper before you dunk in the marinate.  Cover and refrigerate as long as you can (few hours, all day, or overnight!)  Then grill!  


Grilled Asparagus and Sweet Potato


Ingredients (obviously bump up the amount if you are feeding more than 2 people)
1 bunch of asparagus
1 large sweet potato
2 tbs. of olive oil
1 tbs. of minced garlic
1 tsp. of red pepper flakes
1-2 tbs. of chopped parsley
salt and pepper


Instructions
To prepare asparagus simply snap the bottoms of and toss in olive oil, salt and pepper.


To prepare sweet potato, cut one sweet potato in half and boil for 15 minutes or until when pierced with a knife it goes through easily.  Then cut the sweet potato into spears, thick enough to hold up on the grill.  Season with salt and pepper and a little olive oil.  Grill until cooked and you can see some nice grill/char marks on both the asparagus and the sweet potato spears - about 5-6 minutes.


The vegetables are just fine this way.  But I like to heat about 1-2 tbs of olive oil in a small pan and add some chopped garlic and crushed red pepper flakes.  Heat for about 30 seconds and then take off of the heat, making sure not to burn the garlic.  If your garlic turns brown quickly, simply discard and try again.  There is no going back if the garlic cooks too long!  If you are in the clear add 1-2 tbs. of chopped parsley and toss the veggies to coat.  This turns the flavor up on basic grilled vegetables.  You can do this with any vegetable (zucchini, portobello mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, etc.) , but these are the two I used tonight.


This turned out to be such an easy, flavorful meal that really only called for a few ingredients and a few basic steps.  

Black Bean Burger and Quinoa Salad with Basil-Lemon Vinaigrette

Friday night means date night.  But it doesn't mean you have to go out and spend a ton of money on dinner.  With just a few ingredients, you can make a vegetarian meal that even the biggest meat lover (aka Brian) will enjoy.  


Best Black Bean Burger (4 servings)


Ingredients

• 2 slices of bread, torn into pieces (any bread you have on hand.  I prefer wheat.)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 2 teaspoons chopped garlic
• 1 (15.25-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup of chopped onion
• 1/2 cup of chopped carrot
• 1 teaspoon grated lime rind
• 3/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh basil (you can substitute oregano, parsley, or cilantro)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 large egg white, lightly beaten

Instructions

1. Place bread in a food processor; process 4 times or until crumbs measure about 1 cup. Transfer to a bowl.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil and cook chopped onion and carrot until tender.

• 3. Combine 1 tablespoon oil, garlic, cooked onions/carrots and beans in processor; pulse 8 times or until beans make a thick paste. Scrape bean mixture into bowl with breadcrumbs. Stir in rind and remaining ingredients. With moistened hands, divide bean mixture into 4 equal portions (about 1/3 cup mixture per portion), shaping each into a 3-inch patty.  Don't be alarmed!  The patties will be very moist and sticky, but they firm up when you cook them.
• 4. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add patties to pan; reduce heat to medium, and cook 4 minutes or until bottom edges are browned. Carefully turn patties over (don't worry if they don't flip perfectly; cook 4 minutes or until bottom edges are done.

Quinoa Salad with Basil-Lemon Vinaigrette

Ingredients 

• • 1 1/2 cups uncooked quinoa
  • 3 cups vegetable broth 
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons salt, divided
  • 1 cup chopped fresh basil
  • 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/2 cup sliced green onions
  • 1/2 cup chopped carrot
  • 1/2 cup of onion
  
  
  Instructions
  Combine quinoa and vegetable broth in a saucepan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until broth is absorbed and quinoa is tender. Remove from heat.

• Heat 1 tablespoon of oil and cook onion and carrot until tender.
• Make the dressing: combine remaining 2 tablespoons oil, remaining 1 teaspoon salt, basil, and next 4 ingredients (through garlic) in a large bowl; stir with a whisk until blended. Stir in quinoa, chopped scallion, cooked carrots and onions.
• Stir gently to combine. Store, covered, in refrigerator until ready to serve.  

This is a great make ahead dish (i.e. Sunday make a big batch and you have a great addition to your lunches for the week), great side dish, or a great dish to bring to a party.  You can add other veggies such as asparagus, zucchini, corn, and edamame.  Adding grilled shrimp or chicken would be a great meal as well.  Adjust this dish to your liking!  It makes around 8 servings.  The vinaigrette really makes this dish pop and adds such light flavor to a healthy meal.

Magic Ice-Cream You Have to See to Believe

So Brian and I are on a super health kick right now.  We have been eating like bunny rabbits and I feel starving most minutes of the day.  I wanted to make some sort of dessert, but that wasn't filled with fat.  This is a crazy good, amazing recipe.  You just need a food processor.  I saw this recipe on Claire Robinson's Five Ingredient Fix.  You won't believe it.  I didn't.  This is so good and so healthy and so fast to whip up.  You won't believe me until you try it yourself.  


Ingredients 
(Serves 2 - just up the ingredients for more people.  You can't mess this up.)
2-3 Bananas
1 tbs. creamy peanut butter
1 tbs. honey
nonfat milk (optional and only needed if your mixture needs thinning out - just add a tbs. at a time until you get the consistency you like)


Instructions
Peel and cut bananas.  Lay them out on a cookie sheet and freeze.
When frozen, add bananas to a food processor.  Start to puree.  It will sound like you are breaking your food processor, but just work through it!
Add peanut butter, honey, and milk (if you need it), scraping down the sides making sure to incorporate all of the ingredients.


That's it!  You will have the most creamiest, surprising dessert that is so good for you.  My husband was shocked and so was I.  You really can add any toppings you like, but we wanted to keep this VERY healthy so we just had as is.  Folding in whipped cream, adding crushed graham crackers, reese's peanut butter cups, caramel....the list could go on.  But why mess up the healthy factor.  You don't need these extras.  It is that good on its own!

A Simple Technique: Roasting Vegetables

I felt compelled to blog about roasting vegetables on this Saturday morning.  I think it is confirmed that I am a food nerd.  That being said, I shall embrace it and continue to write.  Yes you can steam your vegetables and that is all fine and good.  But they taste, well, like dirt most of the time.  If you roast your vegetables with little or no oil, you are still getting all the benefits of steamed vegetables with 100% more flavor.  I feel that we steam our vegetables because it makes us feel better and healthy about how we are eating.  But why not feel healthy and eat healthy - with flavor!


I roast everything.  Here are a few of my favorites:


Roasted Broccoli (the best way to eat broccoli in my opinion)


Ingredients
Broccoli florets or Asparagus (same method)
1 tbs of olive oil
1 tsp of lemon zest (optional)
1 tbs of lemon juice (optional)
1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese (optional)
1/4 cup of toasted pine-nuts
salt and pepper


Instructions
Pre-heat your broiler 
Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray
Toss the broccoli or asparagus with the oil and season with salt and pepper
Roast in the broiler for about 7-10 minutes.  Keep an eye on the broccoli or asparagus around the 7th minute and rotate the tray and flip the broccoli or asparagus so all sides get crispy.  You will see some of the florets get a crispy, golden brown - that is okay!  That is flavor!
Now the veggies are delicious just like this.  But to add more flavor, you can add parmesan cheese during the last minute of cooking.  You can also add the lemon zest, juice and pine nuts after you have taken this out of the oven.  


Roasted Sweet Potatoes 
(add other root vegetables if you like)


Ingredients
Sweet Potatoes (peeled and cut into fries or half moon shapes - sometimes I keep the skin on because there are lots of nutrients in the skin)  I usually have one medium sweet potato per person
Carrots/Parsnips (optional)
1-2 tbs. of olive oil
1-2 tbs. of balsamic vinegar
1 tbs. of honey
1 tbs. of orange juice
1 tbs. of chopped fresh rosemary
salt and pepper


Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray
Toss the sweet potatoes in the olive oil, vinegar, honey, orange juice, rosemary, salt and pepper
Arrange on sheet tray so the sweet potatoes aren't crowded.  If you have too many sweet potatoes, roast on 2 sheets.  You want each piece of potato to have contact with the sheet tray.  Too many sweet potatoes = steaming, not roasting!  Now I put 1-2 tbs. of oil and vinegar because you will have to eye ball the amount depending on how many sweet potatoes you roast.  I usually buy a medium sweet potato per person.  This recipe is based on that.  If you have more people, just bump up ingredients.  You really can't go wrong with this recipe.
Roast for 30-45 minutes - every oven is different.  I like to flip the potatoes once or twice during roasting to make sure each potato gets nice and crispy.


I highly recommend these recipes.  Obviously the more olive oil you use the crispier they will get.  I like to keep my olive oil in moderation (per my recipes) to make sure to keep it low in fat.  Enjoy!

Cloudy Saturday = Marbled, Chocolate Banana Bread

It's Saturday.  It's cloudy.  And I'm sorry, I don't want to watch basketball.  I thought it was called "March Madness."  It is April people!  So my only choice is to make a light, marbled, chocolate banana bread.  For me, banana bread is a great way to have a low-fat snack in the house and use up those old bananas.  I have tried many different recipes. The below recipe doesn't taste low-fat and is a fun spin on the old classic.

Yield: 1 loaf, 16 slices (serving size: 1 slice)

Ingredients

• 2  cups  all-purpose flour
• 3/4  teaspoon  baking soda
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 1  cup  sugar
• 1/4  cup  butter, softened
• 1 1/2  cups  mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
• 1/2  cup  egg substitute or 2 eggs
• 1/3  cup  plain low-fat yogurt
• 1/2  cup  semisweet chocolate chips
• Cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add banana, egg substitute, and yogurt; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist.

Place chocolate chips in a medium microwave-safe bowl, and microwave at HIGH 1 minute or until almost melted, stirring until smooth. Cool slightly. Add 1 cup batter to chocolate, stirring until well combined. Spoon chocolate batter alternately with plain batter into a loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Swirl batters together using a knife. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack and enjoy!

Spice Girl: Roasted Vegetable Cous Cous with Chickpeas and Caramelized Onion/Pine-Nut Topping

Yes, it is true.  I did want to be a "Spice Girl" in the late 90's.  However, this post is about taking an ordinary weeknight dinner and spicing it up.  I was having a few girlfriends over for dinner mid-week and as usual, I was hunting for an easy, light recipe.  I found one on Cookinglight.com.  I adjusted the recipe below to my liking and it was a beautiful, delicious, healthy, and fun meal.  The cinnamon really comes out in this dish and roasting the chickpeas turns them from mushy into yummy.  It is great mid-week meal or a fun dinner party idea.  This meal would be wonderful with chicken, but we kept it vegetarian.  The only thing missing that night was the 

Sangria. . .   

Roasted Vegetable CousCous with Chickpeas and 

Caramelized Onion/Pine-Nut Topping

Ingredients

• Couscous:
• 5  cups  diced peeled sweet potato (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 1  cup  (1/2-inch) diced zucchini
• 1 1/2  tablespoons  extra-virgin olive oil
• 1  teaspoon  cumin
• 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 3  carrots, peeled and cut crosswise into 2-inch pieces (about 9 ounces)
• 1  (15-ounce) can no-salt-added chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
• 1  teaspoon  kosher salt, divided
• 2 boxes of Near East Couscous (any flavor will work, but I used the one with pine-nuts)
• 1 lemon
• 
  
• Topping:
• 1  tablespoon  olive oil
• 1  yellow onion, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices, separated into rings
• 1/4  cup  pine nuts
• 1/4  cup  raisins
• 1  teaspoon  ground cinnamon
• 1  tablespoon  honey

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 450°.

2. Combine the first 11 ingredients (hold off on adding the zucchini until the last 15 minutes of roasting) in a large bowl; stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt. Place potato mixture on a baking sheet. Bake at 450° for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.

3. Make the couscous according to the packages.

4. To prepare topping, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add onion to pan; cook 15 minutes or until tender, golden brown and carmelized, stirring occasionally. Add pine nuts and raisins; cook 2 minutes. Stir in cinnamon; cook 30 seconds. Stir in honey, and remove from heat.

5. Mound couscous in the middle of a serving platter. Place the roasted vegetables around base of couscous, spoon topping over top of couscous, and squeeze lemon juice over according to taste.