Month: March 2010

Breakfast/Brunch, South Beach Diet

Savory

by Wendi2 Comments on Savory

Savory

While The Mistah and I don’t exclusively eat South Beach cookbook recipes anymore, I still keep my eyes open for SB Friendly recipes on the Interwebs.  What can I say, the SB approach really has worked for us.  I still have people tell me that the weight loss is noticeable, and this is almost two years later.  I may not have reached that elusive Driver’s License weight, but I’m more comfortable in my own skin that I have been in quite some time.  And it doesn’t hurt that the SB Friendly dishes we eat taste good or that The Mistah says my skinny jeans look freaking awesome.

Cottage Cheese and Cheddar Muffins

From Alexandra’s Kitchen (who also references Kalyn’s Kitchen and 101 Cookbooks)

BAH Note:  You don’t have to be on South Beach to enjoy this savory muffin.  It makes a great light snack or quick breakfast if you make them in advance.  Don’t be like me and neglect to spray the paper liners with cooking spray.  Because scraping savory muffin out of the paper liner is not a good start to a day. And be prepared to pay a pretty penny for the almond flour.  Luckily, there’s a French Macaron recipe in The Sweet Life in Paris that uses almond flour.  While definitely not a SB Friendly recipe, I think there’s room for French cookies once in a while...at least until the skinny jeans tell me otherwise.

  • 2/3 cup cottage cheese
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
  • 1/4 cup wheat flour
  • 2/3 cup almond flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 4 eggs
  • 3 tablespoons water
  • 1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
  • 4 slices canadian bacon

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the cottage cheese, Parmesan, wheat and almond flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.  Beat the eggs and water together and add to the bowl.  Mix well to combine.   Add the canadian bacon and grated cheddar to the bowl and fold to combine.

Place 8 paper liners in a muffin pan and coat the liners lightly with a nonstick cooking spray.  Divide the batter among the liners and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the tops are lightly browned and the egg has set.

Leftover muffins can be cooled completely and stored in the refrigerator.

{printable recipe}

Chicken, Main Course

Table For One

by Wendi14 Comments on Table For One

silverware
image from istockphoto.com

One weekend a month, The Mistah goes off and does his Army thing.  And as bad as this might sound, I enjoy it.  I enjoy having the house to myself.  I enjoy staying in my pajamas until all hours of the afternoon.  I enjoy hunkering down on the sofa with a book or movie, ignoring all the things that I should be doing.  What I enjoy most is feeling like I don’t have to cook. Continue reading “Table For One” →

Fish, Main Course, South Beach Diet

Mustard Glazed Salmon

by WendiLeave a Comment on Mustard Glazed Salmon

Mustard Glazed Salmon

So my first attempt at a Cook Wise recipe didn’t go so well.  While I haven’t retaken the Raised Waffles exam, I have aced the Salmon Fillet with Mustard quiz.  It’s quite similar to the Honey Mustard Chicken Breast that we like so much here at BAH.  But quicker.  And who doesn’t love a quick recipe?  While I could use that extra time to study up on the Raised Waffles, my assigned reading this week is The Sweet Life In Paris.  And I think there’s going to be a pop quiz coming up so I need to be ready.

Salmon Fillet with Mustard

Cook Wise

  • 2 cups apple juice
  • 1/2 cup coarse grain mustard (I personally adore Inglehoffer’s Original Stone Ground Mustard)
  • 1 tablespoon fresh dill, finely chopped
  • 2 to 4 salmon fillets, with or without skin
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a sheet pan with aluminum foil.

Bring the apple juice to a boil in a small saucepan over medium high heat until reduced to approximately 1/4 cup.  Whisk in the mustard and dill and remove from the heat.

Pat the fish dry with paper towels and place (skin side down if applicable) on the baking sheet and season with salt.  Spoon the apple juice mixture over the fish and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

Serve immediately.

{printable recipe}

Main Course, Soup

Food Memories – Creamy Vegetable Soup

by Wendi13 Comments on Food Memories – Creamy Vegetable Soup

Serve

This Food Memory is from Joanne of Inspired Taste.  She sent me the recipe right before Thanksgiving, which was inspired because I needed a serious infusion of vegetables into my diet after pigging out on turkey day.  This soup was easy to fix which was exactly what I needed on what turned out to be a busy day in the kitchen.  Thanks Joanne for helping to lighten my load. Continue reading “Food Memories – Creamy Vegetable Soup” →

Random

Flashback Friday – Patience Grasshopper

by Wendi5 Comments on Flashback Friday – Patience Grasshopper

Flashback Friday

The following originally appeared on 10/11/07 at Exit 51

Patience Grasshopper

Life is filled with ‘hurry up and wait’ right now. With SFC being away I hurry up and wait for phone calls or emails. And with the renovation that took months to begin, I hurry up and wait to get my house back in order. At least I know that one of those things should happen in the not too distant future. That’s because in the last two days, two major milestones have been reached. Continue reading “Flashback Friday – Patience Grasshopper” →
Chicken, Main Course

Sweet and Sour

by Wendi20 Comments on Sweet and Sour

Sweet and Sour

My journeys around these Interwebs leads me some interesting places.  Some I come back to time after time for inspiration and ideas.  And thanks to those sites, I discover new destinations on a daily basis.  I’m telling you, it really IS a world wide web y’all.  Today I’d like you to journey with me to the world of the Brown Eyed Baker for some Sweet and Sour Chicken.

In her post, Michelle said, “This recipe, although it takes awhile to get from the stove to your plate, is well worth the effort. The flavor of the sauce is perfect, the texture of the chicken is wonderful and all together, you’d think you ordered this from the neighborhood Chinese restaurant.”  Yeah, what she said.  For two reasons:

1 – This dish will take you a long ass time to get on the table.  So don’t come home, casually glance over the recipe and seeing that nothing needs to be marinated, decide to settle into watching that episode of The Gilmore Girls that’s sitting on your dvr before you start dinner.  You will be very sorry when you come back into the kitchen at 6:30 only to realize that you’re not going to eat until about 8pm.

2  – Assuming that you choose to ignore #1 above, it will still be worth the effort to start making this even if you don’t get to eat until 8pm.  Because this Sweet and Sour Chicken is that good.

Somewhere between coating and battering and browning the chicken, I had my doubts.  There was also some pesky basting every 15 minutes for the hour of oven time.  And then there was the whole it’s late and I’m really hungry whining going on in my head.  I was determined that under no circumstances would I like this dish.  But if the happy dance I did as soon as I took one bite of a sticky, glazed, tangy, sweet morsel is any indication, my determination is no match for Sweet and Sour Chicken.

Sorry Luke, Lorelai, Rory, and Logan, but you’re no match for Sweet and Sour Chicken either.  The next time this comes up on the week’s menu, y’all are just going to have to chill out in dvr land until I get SSC in the oven.  If you tasted even one bite, you’d understand completely.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Brown Eyed Baker’s Adaptation of Amber’s Take Out Fake Out

BAH Note:  Unless you scale this recipe down and only make half (which isn’t a bad idea if you cook for one), I suggest working in batches from the point where the chicken goes into the cornstarch.  I also suggest being prepared to get your hands pretty dirty because I found that my hands were the best tool for getting the chicken from the cornstarch to the egg and then the frying pan. Just remember to wash them thoroughly after handing the chicken.

  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 cup cornstarch
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 4 tablespoons ketchup
  • 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Heat the oven to 325 degrees.

Combine the sugar, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce and garlic powder in a small bowl and whisk to combine.  Set sauce aside.

Cut the chicken breasts into bite sized chunks.  Place the cornstarch in a resealable plastic bag, add the chicken pieces, and shake to coat.

Crack the eggs into a medium sized bowl and whisk.  Shake excess cornstarch from chicken and coat chicken with egg.

Heat half the oil over medium high heat in a large frying pan, add half of the chicken, and brown on all sides.  Remove cooked chicken to a 9×13 baking dish and repeat with the remaining chicken.

Pour the sauce over the chicken and give it a stir once or twice so the pieces are well coated.  Bake for 1 hour, basting and turning the chicken in the sauce every 15 minutes.

{printable recipe}

Side Dishes, South Beach Diet, Vegetables

Ina’s Roasted Carrots

by WendiLeave a Comment on Ina’s Roasted Carrots

We have gotten really bad lately about incorporating vegetables into our meals.  Sure, sure, we still eat a LOT of salads for lunch but back when we first embarked on our South Beach adventure, there was veg with each and every lunch and dinner.  Now, I try and convince myself that merely thinking about making a vegetable counts. Continue reading “Ina’s Roasted Carrots” →

Uncategorized

Why We Cook

by Wendi10 Comments on Why We Cook

I’m always going on about the Universe this and the Universe that and how the Universe knows when things need to happen and why.  Of course, it’s much easier when the Universe allows me to help other people see this in their lives, not so much when I need to see it in my own.  But that’s exactly what’s happening.  And it is ironic that what got me thinking about all this was a post I read over at Bon Appetempt talking about why we cook.  That led me to pay a visit to Mr. Ruhlman and Ms. Reichel and made me stop and ask myself why I cook.  And I kept coming up with the same answers.  I cook because that is how I show that I care.  I cook because it nourishes the people that I love.  I give of myself when I cook in one of the few ways that I really know how to share what’s in my heart, especially when I don’t have the courage to find the words to express my feelings.

But the Universe has decided to challenge me to find other ways to share what’s in my heart.  And for the time being, that means that I need to focus myself on the people in my world, to be present with them, to find the words before it’s too late to say them.  So I’m going to take a step back for now and go where the Universe says I need to be.

There are still new posts scheduled to go live here at BAH for a while, as well as all of the Exit 51 archives on Flashback Friday.  And I hope to be back soon to cooking and writing and commenting and following along with your adventures.  Until then, Bon Appetit Hon.

Main Course

Stuffed Peppers

by Wendi10 Comments on Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed Peppers

My Grandmother made stuffed peppers at least one a month when I was growing up.  But for some reason, it took me many years to realize that I had no idea how she made them.  What I have discovered in my personal quest to document some of her recipes is that getting her to write these things down is like pulling teeth.  Seriously, I’ve had to badger her, which is not at all how I was raised to treat my elders.  But I do what I have to. Continue reading “Stuffed Peppers” →