Thursday, September 29, 2011

Healthy Turkey Meatballs


This was another new health recipe my dad tried out. I liked them a lot for being so healthy. The only thing I might different is chopping up the vegetables a bit more. Although, it was quite interesting having pieces of veggies in every bite.


Ingredients
3/4 cup plain cooking oats
2 pounds ground turkey
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon salt
chopped onion & bell peppers (optional)


Chop the pepper and onions up.


In a medium bowl, mix all of the ingredients by hand.


Shape the mixture into golf sized balls and place onto a non-stick sprayed baking sheet (or you can use aluminum foil) and stick it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes until they're lightly brown on top. You can tell they're done by sticking a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean. We ate them with some spaghetti and marinara sauce.


Verde Chicken

My parents recently purchased a groupon for a month of boot camp. This has inspired some healthy living (at least for the time being) in the house. The trainers who teach the class posted this recipe and my dad decided to give it a try. It was delicious so this is now his favorite recipe to make and have leftovers throughout the week. I have to admit it's pretty delicious and awesome wrapped up in a tortilla with some guacamole and/or salsa.


You will need:
8 raw chicken breasts
2 jars of salsa verde
3 cans of roasted green chilies
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
a very large pot


Boil some water in the large pot.



Put the defrosted chicken breasts into the boiling water and keep them in until the chicken is about 75% cooked. My dad keeps them in for about 15-20 minutes or so.


After the chicken has been taken out of the pot, use two forks to shred the chicken.



Turning the burner heat to a simmer, put the shredded chicken and all other ingredients back into the pot. Allow the mixture to simmer for about 10 minutes, until the chicken is completely cooked. The dish is ready to eat and will stay good for about a week in the fridge! 



Thursday, September 22, 2011

Kale Chips

So if you know me at all I tend to go through phases with foods that can last anywhere from a few days to a week. I get really into a certain food or type of food and that's all I want until that phase is over with. Very weird, I know. Lately (I think all thanks to Michael and my parents) I've started to go into a healthy phase. So until I'm through this phase I'll try to share some recipes that are much healthier than my normal sugary desserts. The first recipe of this health "series" will be kale chips. I'd heard about kale chips on several blogs and thought they sounded pretty interesting. I finally got the motivation to try them out tonight. They're pretty awesome and with a few more test tries they may even rival potato chips AND they're so healthy!


Okay so it looks kinda weird in this picture but don't be intimidated - it's quite good!


I happened to see a bag of ready to eat kale chips at Trader Joe's so I thought I'd take the lazy route, but feel free to buy the kale by the bunch.


Separate the leaf from the stem and throw away the stem. Feel free to use however much kale you want. Although keep in mind, the kale bakes down a little so while it may look like a lot I chomped down on 4/5 of the amount shown above in about 3 minutes. 


Lay the kale out on a baking sheet with parchment paper (next time I'll try putting foil  underneath because my baking sheet got a bit messy.)


Next, drizzle some olive oil on the kale. I put a bit too much so I'd recommend trying to use a cooking brush so the oil is more evenly spread. Next, you have two options..what I did was divide the kale in half and lightly sprinkles some salt over one half and drizzled soy sauce on the other half. I'd recommend trying both your first time in case you happen to like one more than the other. I'd say I liked the soy sauce better but it will really depend on what you like.


Finally, put the baking sheet in the oven at 350 degrees from anywhere between 10 to 15 minutes. Some of the recipes I saw said to wait until they're starting to brown on the outsides, but not to overcook them. I just kept opening the oven and trying a piece until it was a crunchy consistency. Take them out and they're ready to eat!



Saturday, September 17, 2011

Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies


When I was choosing a recipe to bake this weekend I was so surprised to realize I had never posted these cookies before. If you are a fan of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, these are your cookies. When you take the first bite you have a soft peanut butter cookie and by the time you get to the center you have a Reese's peanut butter cup to complement the peanut butter cookie. It's great!

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
1 to 2 packages of mini reese's peanut butter cups depending on how large or small you would like the cookies to be


Mix the dry ingredients and set aside.


Mix together the butter, sugars, and peanut butter.


Mix in the egg, vanilla and milk.


Slowly add the dry ingredients while mixing.


Roll the dough into balls and bake at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes. Immediately after taking them out of the oven press a Reese's peanut cup into the center.


Let them cool and they're ready to eat! If you want to try something different - put the dough into mini muffin pans instead of a cookie sheet to create a Reese's peanut butter shape with the cookies.

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Sunday, September 4, 2011

The Perfect Summary BBQ Dessert

Since we were having a labor day BBQ, we decided to make a cake with some sort of fruit involved. We decided on Angel Food cake with cool whip and berries. Using my mom's method of layering, it was super easy and delicious!


All you need is a tub and a half of cool whip, angel food cake mix, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries or any combination of berries. (I didn't end up using the blueberries because one of my brother's is not a big blueberry fan.)


Use the directions on the box to determine how much water to add.


I used a 13x9 inch pyrex and baked the cake at 325 degrees until the top is a perfect golden brown color (probably about a half hour or so.)


After the cake is taken out of the oven let it cool.


Scoop spoonfuls into a large pan (I used a big disposable tin pan) so it fills the bottom of the pan.


Next using a spatula, spread a layer of coolwhip over the cake.


Add a layer of fruit.


Spread another layer of coolwhip. 


Top it off with another layer of fruit and you're done!


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Asian Influenced Cole Slaw

We had a labor day bbq today so my mom asked me to make an Asian influenced coleslaw. After looking around on Allrecipes I found a few that sounded interesting so I decided to take bits and pieces from each and the result turned out pretty well.


Ingredients
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
9 tablespoons white wine vinegar
6 tablespoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 packages of chicken flavored Ramen noodles (you'll use all of the season packages but only 1 1/2 packages worth of the noodles)
16 ounce bag of green cabbage & carrots (see packaging below)
1 to 1 1/2 cups of sliced almonds
1 small can of water chestnuts


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.


Lay the almonds out on a baking sheet and place them in the oven for about 5 minutes.


Once you take the almonds out add the ramen noodles on the baking sheet and put it back in for another 5 minutes. This will keep the noodles and almonds toasted and avoid them becoming soggy when you add in the sauce.


Next combine all of the ingredients and sauce and mix well. It's that easy and you're now ready to enjoy! If you are making this ahead of time feel free to store it in the refrigerator.

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Caramel Popcorn

I never imagined how fun it could be to make homemade caramel corn. I found this recipe, which uses a homemade caramel corn recipe. I figured I'd try both out and while they're great together, I thought the caramel corn deserves it's own post.

Ingredients
Around 16 cups of popped popcorn. (I used about 3/4 cups of unpopped popcorn and popped it myself.)
1 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 to 1 teaspoons of vanilla extract


The way my mom taught me to pop popcorn is to pour enough vegetable oil in a pot to fill the bottom and turn up the heat. Toss one kernel into the pot and once it starts to boil, fill the bottom of the pot with kernels. Then, put the lid on the pot. Once the popcorn begins to pop, shake the pot around until 3 seconds goes by without anymore popping noises. 


Lay the popcorn out and continue the process until you have your 16 or so cups of popcorn.


Next, combine the brown sugar, corn syrup and butter in a microwave safe bowl. Put in the microwave on high for 1 minutes.


Take the bowl out and stir. Repeat the process until the mixture has been microwaved for a total of 5 minutes.


Add the baking soda and vanilla extract and stir until the mixture become foamy. Put the popcorn and caramel mixture into a brown paper bag (I just used one from the grocery store) and stir to mix the caramel around the popcorn. Fold the bag over and microwave for 1 minute. Take the bag out and shake it around it a bit. Microwave for another 30 seconds and shake again.


Finally, pour the popcorn out on parchment paper to cool. And voila! You have homemade caramel corn!
If you're feeling like an extra treat, add a few more ingredients to make s'more popcorn!