Shuffle off to Buffalo (Chicken Dip)

Everyone has their go-to party dip, the little black dress of finger food, right? Spinach dip, hot artichoke dip, seven layer dip etc. Well mine has to be the buffalo chicken dip.

I started off with one from a blog but it used salad dressing. It was a good idea but if I was gonna eat something that good that was bad for me I wasn't going to waste my cheese calories on unpronounceable additives and preservatives.  So I made my own. From scratch.

And this is what I came up with.

Buffalo chicken dip

Ingredients

1 cup no fat sour cream

½ cup low fat buttermilk

2 tbsp low fat mayonnaise (optional but I like the extra creamy goodness it provides)

1 container crumbled blue cheese (don't you dare get low fat - ewwww!)

2 cups shredded/diced cooked chicken

1 bag shredded tex mex or habenero cheddar cheese

½ cup hot sauce of your choice (more if you like SPICY like I do)

1 ½ tsp minced garlic

½ tsp smoked paprika

1-2 tsp of chilli flakes (again – optional if you don’t like heat)

Pinch of salt

Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350;
2. Mix all the ingredients together in an oven safe dish;
3. Taste and add more hot sauce (if, like me, you have a cast iron stomach);
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes until bubbly and all the cheese has melted into an oozy mass of deliciousness;
5. remove from oven, sprinkle top with more smoked paprika and some cayenne pepper
6. Serve warm with Tostitos, carrot sticks and celery (for the illusion of healthful munching)

Eat

Enjoy!

(FYI – the dip refrigerates well and tastes even better the next day! Just zap it in the microwave for a minute to make it oozy good again)

Keen for Quinoa

As I've mentioned in previous blogs I have a couple co-workers who are gluten free and have nut and other allergies. Because of this I've expanded my horizons and started working with rice flours, gluten free breads etc. Well the other night I took the leap and came up with my very first quinoa recipe.

It was originally going to be a couscous salad because I was trying out a new kofta recipe I came up with (I'll post that one later) but then I thought 'self', (because doesn't everyone address themselves as self?) 'Self,' I said, 'why not try and make a quinoa salad instead so that gluten free friends, friends with allergies and vegetarian friends could adapt and enjoy?'

And so I did. And here it is. I'm calling it my Quinoa Turtle Salad (hehehe - Q T Salad!) for no particular reason other than it's for my friend who likes turtles. And here it is.

QUINOA TURTLE SALAD

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa

2 cup low sodium stock (chicken or vegetable)

2 green onions, diced

1 red pepper, julienned

½ an English cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced

½ carton of grape tomatoes, halved

1 block of feta cheese, cubed or crumbled (optional for those with dairy allergies)

Handful of fresh Italian Parsley, rough chopped

¼ cup olive oil

Juice of 1-2 limes

Zest of 1-2 limes

1 tsp kaffir lime powder

½ tsp. mustard

1 tsp. minced garlic

1 tsp honey

1 tsp salt (optional)

1 tsp fresh cracked pepper

1 can chick peas - drained

Directions

1. Follow directions for making quinoa using stock instead of water (pour 1 cup of quinoa into 2 cups boiling water, bring back to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook for 15 to 18 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed; remove from heat and cover for another 15 minutes);
2. In a 2 cup measuring cup whisk together lime juice, olive oil, zest, honey, mustard, garlic, pepper, salt and lime powder to make dressing;
3. Place prepared quinoa in large bowl; stir in chick peas and vegetables;
4. Mix in crumbled/cubed feta and parsley;
5. Pour dressing over salad and toss gently to absorb.

Eat.

Enjoy

P.S. this would be good with couscous too!

Out on a lime leaf limb (Cheffy tip/trick)

How many of you have been in this situation?

You find a new recipe - it calls for an ingredient you normally don't think of. Take Kaffir Lime Leaves for example. Lovely, limey, fragrant leaves popular in Thai cooking. I wanted to make Tom Yum Soup sometime in the past so I bought them dried  (couldn't find fresh) from a chinese market. A few went in the soup - the soup was delish, the rest went in an air tight container in my pantry. And sat there. And sat there. And sat there. Poor, poor lime leaves.

OH NOES! thought I, what do I do with these lovely fragrant leaves? I had to make use of their lovely green goodness somehow.  So... I added them to stews and soups, salad dressings and marinades and then...

Eureka!

An Epiphany!!!

I made lime leaf powder.

Most people have coffee and or spice grinders these days. You take the lime leaves, pop em in your grinder and (to use a Jamie Oliver term) waz 'em up. Pop em in a spice jar and now you have lime leaf powder to add to anything that you want - herb crusting for lamb, a bit of citrus zing in your burgers, sprinkled on top of fish or mixed in with ground chicken; how about some lovely limey goodness in your angel food cake? Bob's yer uncle, Fanny's yer aunt and the skies the limit! Go nuts.

Easy Summer Desserts!

It's been another scorcher of a day and I've been running around - went to the salon, picked up some groceries, forgot some groceries so had to go out again, tried to deal with an air conditioner on it's last legs ::le sigh:: prayed to a few gods that said air conditioner will make it through the summer so I don't have to get a new one until the sales start....

Anyhow, the long and the short of it is I didn't want to cook. Period. Full stop.

I bought pre packaged kebabs, grilled them, put em in a bun with some coleslaw on top and bob's yer uncle - dinner.

Dessert, however, is another story. That I made.

But fear not, intrepid readers, I didn't bake and the mess was relatively contained all things being equal. Tonight's dessert was something easy, breezy and literally lemon zesty (not squeezy)

Lemony Vanilla Ricotta CreME over fresh berries

Ingredients

1 tub of ricotta cheese (I used a light omega 3 infused one)

1 tsp good vanilla

4 tsp powdered sugar

1/3 cup of 5% cream

Zest of one lemon

Directions

1.       Put everything but the lemon zest into a bowl and whisk together until smooth.

2.       Zest the lemon and fold the zest into mixture gently

3.       Chill for an hour

4.       Spoon over fresh berries (I’m partial to fresh raspberries and blueberries are always good with lemon)

Eat

Enjoy

Gluten free, dairy free, banana cranberry loaf

I have a co-worker who willingly gave up gluten to feel better - she was a brave brave woman. Give up bread? bagels? pizza? Baked Goods??? NEVER!!!! But I can respect those that have greater willpower than me :) I have to thank her for doing it though - it's opened up a whole new world of cooking for me in order to try and make treats that are friendly for my entire office.

This recipe came about because my friend was mourning banana bread and I had rice flour in my pantry - don't ask because I can't remember why. I also had frozen cranberries in my freezer. And so my recipe was born.

Gluten and Dairy free Cranberry Banana Loaf Recipe

Ingredients

1 block silken tofu

¾ cup granulated sugar or sugar substitute
2 eggs
2-4 mashed, very ripe bananas
1 cup chopped cranberries, fresh or frozen
1 1/4 cups rice flour
1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Fresh grated nutmeg to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine sugar and eggs in mixing bowl and beat until combined;

Blend in tofu and mashed bananas;

In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg, stirring to blend together;

Add all at once to banana mixture;

Stir only to moisten.

Add cranberries, stirring only to incorporate throughout batter;

Pour into greased (pam or non-stick spray) 9 x 5 inch loaf pan;

Bake for 1 hour or until it tests done. Let stand 10 minutes.

Remove from pan and place on cake rack to cool. 

Slice, eat and enjoy!

 

Burgers, airplanes and sunburns oh my!

It was a busy weekend for me! There were planes in the sky, I vacuumed a pool and ended up doing my impression of a boiled lobster - red red red! - and I came up with a couple new burger recipes. The others I haven't tried yet but this one has the parental seal of approval.

So without futher ado I present:

The Bomba Burger

Recipe makes 6 8 oz burgers or 12 4 oz burgers

2 lbs ground beef (or other ground meat of your choice
250 grams of cubed pancetta
1 ½ cups Italian style breadcrumbs
2 tsp Italian blend spice
4 tbsp President’s Choice Memories of Tuscany marinade
1 tsp cracked black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 smallish onion – grated
1 cup of Kraft 4 cheese Italiano blend shredded cheese
5 sundried tomatoes, diced
2 eggs

 

Directions 

1. In a large bowl – grate onion using box grater;
2. Add ground beef, bread crumbs, spices, marinade and cheese;
3. Chop sun dried tomatoes and cube pancetta add to bowl;
4. Crack in two eggs;
5. Mix together by hand;
6. Shape into patties (I used the lid of a 1 ltr ice cream container because it was the right depth J )
7. Refrigerate for an hour

Cook on 400 degree heat (medium high) on barbecue for 3-4 minutes each side or pan fry or use a grill machine

Put on a nice Italian style bun (I used Brizzolio buns by d’Italiano) and top with favourite hamburger toppings

Enjoy!!

Asian Vinegairette for everything!

And by everything, I mean everything savory :)

So last night I decided I needed to use up my veggies in my fridge. I made myself one of my all time favorites - warm steak salad with blue cheese. Yum! I also decided to make my soba noodle salad for work today. This meant I needed vinegairette.

Basically I took the recipe I posted on my Soba Noodle salad post and played. Seriously - play with your food, you never know what you'll come up with. Anyhow here's the updated version

Asian Vinegairette

4 tbsp ponzu (lemon or lime)

1 tablespoon of sriracha sauce for heat (also optional)

1 teaspoon of grainy mustard to emulsify everything nicely

2 tsp mirin
2 tsp rice wine vinegar

1 tsp honey

½ tsp sesame oil

a couple pinches of Salish smoked salt (President's Choice) or any smoked salt

Put everything into a jar, shake well and pour over your salad - steak or soba noodle.

YUMM!!!

 And today I have my soba noodle salad and I just bought some salad bar salmon to go with so I have my omega 3 for the day!

Cheffy tip/trick of the day

Here's a quick and easy way to get to the flesh of a mango without getting too terribly sticky.

Hold the mango with the pit pointing north-south.
Take a sharp knife and run it down either side of the pit as close as you can go.
Take a large soup spoon and scoop out the flesh from each half of the mango like you would from an avocado. Dice and enjoy!

Caution: Watch how much pressure you apply because while the mango skin is thick you can easily punch through it with the spoon. Gentle but firm and Bob's your uncle!

Twisted Berry Buttermilk Loaf

It was Canada Day weekend this past weekend and what says I love Canada more than baking? I took my three days and I baked my little heart out. One recipe needs some tweaking, the other two are good to go.

For your day's delectation I present to you my

 Twisted Berry Buttermilk Loaf!

Ingredients

¾ cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 block silken or soft tofu
2 cups flour
½ cup oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp real vanilla
½ cup buttermilk
½ cup room temperature butter
1 cup fresh or frozen berries of choice (I’ve used both fresh raspberries and frozen blueberries)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees; spray loaf pan with pam
2. Cream sugar and butter;
3. Add eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and tofu and beat until smooth;
4. In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients together;
5. Slowly incorporate dry into wet
6. Fold in berries
7. Regular loaf pan bake for 1 hour; mini loaf pans 45 minutes.
8. Loaves are ready when a toothpick comes out clean.

Lemon glaze for the blueberry loaf

½ cup of powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Add lemon juice until you make a nice glaze.

Place blueberry loaf on wire rack over a plate, drizzle glaze over top and let set.

Eat.

Enjoy!