Buffalo Chicken Fingers or How Devilish of You.

     Welcome and thank you for checking out my blog, today's dinner (snack) is Buffalo Chicken Fingers.

     When we first started this diet back in January I was in the habit of working late on Mondays and picking up take-out on the way home. One of our favorite places for Monday night take out was BW3; we used to get wings, salads, and a couple of sandwiches or wraps. The problem that we have is that it's hard to eat take-out from this type of restaurant on a regular basis and maintain a diet. The bigger problem we have are the wings; those delicious wings with their breading and their spicy delectable buffalo sauce and their rich and tasty ranch and blue cheese dressing that just begs you to dip your wings into it. How devilish of you to tempt me and make me want you so much. But no, I understand that you don't fit well into my diet and that you are probably not a good choice for me. How many of you readers out there can relate to this?
     Luckily, while looking through online recipes to find snacks for Friday nights I stumbled across buffalo chicken fingers. Could it be? Were wings going to be part of our diets after all? Well, sort of. As I read through the recipe I realized that these were not breaded wings but boneless, skinless chicken breast trimmed of all fat and cut into more manageable "fingers". The other difference between these chicken fingers and the standard wings that you'll find in a restaurant is these fingers are not soaking in a bowl of heavy buffalo sauce but are instead lightly coated in a lower fat buffalo sauce that has all of the kick and flavor of the restaurant style sauce. Also, when you make your own buffalo chicken at home you have the option of using low-fat ranch and blue cheese dressings instead of the full-fat dressings that you get with restaurant wings.
     Now that we know there's a healthier alternative, let's look at today's snack.

                                 Buffalo Chicken Fingers


Prep time   17 Min.     Cook time   8 Min.   Serves   4

Ingredients

1 spray cooking spray

1-1/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 16 strips

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp paprika

1 tsp garlic, minced

2 Tbsp. fat-free margarine

4 tsp Frank's Red Hot sauce, or to taste

1/2 cup fat-free blue cheese dressing

4 ribs celery, cut into 4 sticks each


Instructions

Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium-high heat.

Place chicken on a plate and sprinkle with salt and paprika. Add chicken to skillet and cook, turning occasionally until lightly browned and cooked through, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic; reduce heat to low, stir and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Remove skillet from heat; stir in margarine and hot sauce until margarine melts. Serve chicken with blue cheese dressing and celery on the side.

This recipe yields about 4 pieces of chicken, 4 celery sticks, and 2 tablespoons of dressing per serving.


     This is a wonderful recipe that will allow you to have buffalo chicken in a more diet friendly way. I do want to caution you that if you make it for a get together consider making a double batch because it is sure to disappear fast. As always if you try this snack check back here and leave a comment and let me know how it turned out.


Next week - Mini Italian Meatloaves with Penne and Sauteed Zucchini or With a Twist.

Chicken Cacciatore or Little Did I know.

     Welcome and thank you for checking out my blog, today's dinner is Chicken Cacciatore.

     As you've probably guessed by now Italian is one of  my favorite types of food.
I enjoy everything about it from the different types of pasta to the sauces to the different ways to prepare it. I get excited about going to new Italian restaurants and I like to try new Italian recipes. I've tried it in almost every form and I've eaten it on five different continents. I love Italian food.
     Another thing about Italian food is that it's ubiquitous which is to say you can find it anywhere. If you were dropped into a little two street-light town in Oklahoma you would be able to find an Italian restaurant within twenty minutes. The most out of the way place I have eaten Italian food was at a restaurant in a little no-name town of about 200 people in the middle of nowhere Luxembourg. I believe that even the restaurant at the end of the universe is Italian..
     But, up until recently, one thing about Italian food has eluded me - Chicken Cacciatore. I've heard of it and I've talked to people who've had it but I have never found a restaurant that serves it or anyone that knows how to make it.
A few months ago while looking through diet recipes online I came across chicken cacciatore and decided I would try it. Little did I know how good it would be.
As I read through the recipe I quickly realized that chicken cacciatore is a stew that is perfectly suited for the crock pot and is very easy to make. I spent a Thursday morning prepping all of the ingredients, threw everything in the crock pot, and went to work.
     The aroma that greeted me at the door when I got home later was amazing.
I still didn't know what I had made but I knew I wanted some. That want was solidified when I walked into the kitchen and removed the lid from the crock pot.
So this is chicken cacciatore; this wonderful smelling and delicious looking Italian stew that was sitting there, residing in my kitchen, waiting to be devoured.
     Well, that's enough babbling, let's dive into this recipe.

                                      Chicken Cacciatore


Prep time   15 Min.     Cook time   480 Min.     Serves   4

Ingredients

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces

1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced

1 green pepper, sliced into thin strips

1 cup onion, chopped

 1 clove garlic, minced

1 Tbsp. canned tomato paste

14-1/2 oz. canned crushed tomatoes, fire-roasted

1/4 cup red wine, dry variety

3/4 tsp dried oregano

3/4 tsp salt, divided

1/4 tsp black pepper


Instructions

Place chicken in a crock pot. Add mushrooms, green pepper, onion, garlic, tomato paste, tomatoes and juice, wine, oregano, 1/2 teaspoon salt and black pepper.

Cover crock pot; cook on high heat for 5 to 6 hours or on low heat for 6 to 8 hours. Taste just before serving and add remaining 1/4 teaspoon of salt if necessary.

This recipe yields about 1 cup per serving.


     This is a rich and hearty dinner that should please every member of your family. Try it with some fresh baked Italian bread and a salad with a light red wine vinaigrette. As always, if you try this dinner leave a comment here and let me know how it turned out.


     Next week - Buffalo Chicken fingers or How Devilish of You.


    


    

Grilled Flank Steak with Corn, Black Beans and Avocado Salad or If It's Too Hot In The Kitchen.

     Welcome and thank you for checking out my blog, today's dinner is Grilled Flank Steak with Corn, Black Beans and Avocado Salad.

     It's that time of year; the sun is out, the weather's nice and we all want to be anywhere other than indoors.What better excuse could you have to fire up the grill than a new and exciting recipe. At this point we are well into grilling season and it should be safe to assume that you've got your grill out, cleaned it, given it a tune-up and put it through it's paces a few times. Now's the time to go beyond burgers and brats' and really dazzle your family and friends.
     Growing up in my parents house I was lucky to have a mom who grilled year round. From Fred Flintstone sized steaks and ribs to the perfect burgers, brats' and kabobs I figured out early the value of being able to cook over an open flame. Grilling is the oldest and easiest form of cooking there is; from the earliest caveman hanging meat over a fire to the barbecue pits of Texas, Kansas City, Memphis, and the Carolinas every culture has their own form of grilling and whether you cook with gas, charcoal, or wood you can conquer any grilling recipe.
     Now that I've got you "fired up" let's dive into today's dinner.

   Grilled Flank Steak with Corn, Black Beans and Avocado Salad

Prep time    20 Min.     Cook time   11 Min.     Serves   4

Ingredients

1 pound lean flank steak

1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed with the side of a knife

1 tsp fresh lime juice

1/8 tsp salt

Salad

1 Tbsp. jalapeno peppers, minced (do not touch seeds with bare hands)

1 piece corn on the cob, cooked, kernels removed

1/2 medium avocado, peeled, pitted and diced

1 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed

4 tsp fresh lime juice

2 Tbsp. cilantro, fresh, minced

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp black pepper


Instructions

Preheat grill to medium hot.

Score steak on one side by making shallow crisscross slashes with a sharp knife; rub garlic over cut surface of steak. Brush steak with lime juice and season with salt and pepper; set meat aside for 10 minutes to allow meat to absorb flavors.

Meanwhile, combine salad ingredients in a medium bowl; stir gently and set aside.

Grill steak for 5 minutes on first side; flip and grill until well browned on outside and medium-rare inside, about 5 to 6 minutes more. Immediately remove steak from grill and set aside on a clean plate for 5 minutes to let meat reabsorb juices. Thinly slice steak across the grain and serve with salad.

This recipe yields about 3-1/2 ounces of steak and 1/2 cup of salad per serving.

Notes

Follow the link to a video that demonstrates and easy and ingenious way to shuck corn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnBF6bv4Oe4

     You've read through the recipe; get your ingredients, prep the salad, throw the steak on the grill and gather your family and friends in the backyard, it's time to enjoy the great outdoors and get your grill on.
If you try this dinner check back here and let me know how it turned out.

     Next week - Chicken Cacciatore or Little Did I Know.

Chicken with Balsamic Vinegar, Sweet Onions, and Thyme or Behind the scenes.

     Welcome back and thank you for checking out my blog, today's dinner is Chicken with Balsamic Vinegar, Sweet Onions, and Thyme.

     Since the name for this dinner is so long I am going to refer to it as Chicken with Balsamic Vinegar from here on out.
     The reason that this post is sub-titled "Behind The Scenes" is because I couldn't come up with something more interesting so I think I'll tell you how this blog is written. When I first committed to writing this blog I didn't have a fully formed plan(and still don't) for what I was going to do. The only things I knew were that I wanted to post a picture, tell a short anecdotal story that hopefully ties into the recipe, and post the recipe. I've never done anything like this before and to be honest I've never really had any interest in writing. In my mind this whole thing started out as an experiment and to this day it is still largely an experiment.
     The ideas for the stories come to me based on the recipes which is to say that I pick a recipe and then write a short anecdotal story around it. In the case of this post I decided that I was going to write about chicken with balsamic vinegar, realized I got nothing, and decided to write about writing.
     The writing process is the most involved part of the blog. Early in the process I realized that I need to stay on top of the writing or I will get behind and will end up doing it all at the last minute. As you've probably figured out I am not a writer and I do very little editing. The way that I write is I sit down with a yellow legal pad and start writing, most of this is just a stream of consciousness type of let the words flow and hope they make sense. My time line for writing is usually 1 to 2 weeks before posting but sometimes when I know that I am not going to have time to dedicate to the process I will work ahead a few weeks. Right now I am writing this four weeks before it will be posted. My deadline for posting each entry is Monday afternoon before I announce the posting on Facebook on Tuesday. What this means is that if you subscribe to this blog or you save it in your favorites you will be able to read it on Monday evening before it is announced on Tuesday.
     The pictures that you see on each post are taken at the time I make each dinner. As you can probably tell I am not a photographer, all I do is take a few pictures and choose the one I like best. The pictures aren't staged in the way that you would see in a cookbook or magazine but rather I cook the food, put it on a plate, take some pictures, and then eat dinner. Due to the trial and error nature of cooking most of the pictures that you see come from the second or third time that I make the recipe. Occasionally I will include additional pictures if I think that they are needed for clarification but generally one picture of the finished product is enough to let you know what each dinner should look like.
     I don't have any set in stone format for my posts yet but I am trying to get into a regular rotation of types of dinners. My goal is to post regular dinners on the first two or three weeks of each month followed by a crock pot recipe on the next to last week and a snack recipe the last week of each month.
     So, what's next? Over the last couple of months I have been I have been trying to have one vegetarian day each month. I have found a few vegetarian dinners that I like and I've had some success with, I'm thinking about posting a vegetarian dinner roughly every three months or so. Also, since we are enjoying nice weather and summer is starting I thought that I should post some recipes for the grill. Be sure to check back here for these new and exciting dinners.
     Now that you know a little bit about what goes on behind the scenes of this blog let's take a look at today's dinner.


       Chicken with Balsamic Vinegar, Sweet Onions, and Thyme


Prep time   10 Min.     Cook time   20 Min.     Serves   4

Ingredients

3 Tbs. all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp salt, divided

1/2 tsp black pepper, divided

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, four 4 Oz. pieces

2 tsp olive oil

1 small vidalia onion, cut in half lengthwise, thinly sliced

1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth

2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar

1 Tbs. thyme, fresh chopped

2 tsp butter


Instructions

On a plate, combine flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Dredge chicken in flour mixture and turn to coat; shake off any excess.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook, flipping once, until golden and cooked through, about 7 minutes; remove to a serving plate and cover to keep warm.

Add onion to skillet; saut'e over medium-high heat until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Add broth, vinegar, thyme and remaining 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; cook, stirring often, until onions are tender, about 5 minutes.

Remove skillet from heat and stir in butter until melted; spoon sauce over chicken.

*Don't have fresh thyme? Use 1/2 tsp of dried thyme instead.

This recipe yields 1 chicken breast and about 1/4 cup onion sauce per serving.


     From the moist tenderness of the chicken to the biting tanginess of the balsamic vinegar to the sweetness of the onions this dinner has some interesting flavors. Thank you for bearing with me through these short stories and I hope you are enjoying these recipes. As always, if you try this dinner check back here and let me know how it turned out.


     Next week - Grilled Flank Steak with Corn, Black Beans and Avocado Salad or If It's Too Hot in the Kitchen.

Spicy Beef Tacos or Always On The Run.

     Welcome and thank you for checking out my blog. Today's dinner is Spicy Beef Tacos.

     As I covered a while back when I wrote about Cheesy Chili-Mac my Mondays are very busy and I don't have time to make time consuming recipes. This is when I turn to quick and easy dinners like Spicy Beef Tacos. This recipe can easily be made in 20-30 minutes.
     Before I found this recipe I had always used the Old El Paso tacos in a box kits but I was never satisfied with the results. I had also eaten a lot of Taco Bell and Mexican like restaurant food but once I started my diet these habits had to stop.
The other problem with most Mexican like restaurant food is that it is bland and generic and has very little resemblance to authentic Mexican food. If you follow the recipe that I post below you will end up with tacos that are full of flavor, low in fat, and appealing to your whole family.
     The three ingredients that you have to be most concerned with are diced tomatoes with green chilis, cumin and coriander, all of these can be found in the Mexican aisle of the ethnic section of your local grocery store. Diced tomatoes with green chilis are pretty self explanatory but in the recipe below the amount is listed as 1-1/2 cups which can be confusing. 1-1/2 cups is about 10 ounces but depending on the availability you might only be able to find it in 14.5 ounce cans.
If this is the case go ahead and use the larger can. Cumin is cultivated globally and is the second most popular spice in the world, black pepper is number one.
It is used in one form or another in every type of cuisine worldwide. In stores cumin is usually found as cumin seeds or ground cumin, in this recipe you want to use ground cumin. Coriander can be confusing because it comes from the cilantro plant and the names are commonly interchangeable. For clarification I use coriander to refer to the seeds from the cilantro plant and cilantro to refer to the leaves from the cilantro plant. In this recipe I am referring to ground coriander seeds which you should be able to find in a spice bottle labeled ground coriander. Although they are not listed in the ingredients you can add your own touch to these tacos by adding fresh chopped cilantro(leaves), scallions or tomatoes.
     So now that we've covered the basics, let's jump into today's dinner.

                                          Spicy Beef Tacos

Prep time   12 Min.     Cook time   13 Min.     Serves   4

Ingredients

3 sprays cooking spray, divided

2 cloves garlic, minced

3/4 pound 93% lean ground beef

1-1/2 tsp ground cumin

1-1/2 tsp ground coriander

3/4 tsp salt, or to taste

1-1/2 cups canned diced tomatoes with jalapenos or green chilis

8 small corn tortillas

2 cups lettuce, shredded

1/2 cup low-fat shredded cheddar cheese, sharp variety

1/3 cup fat free salsa


Instructions

Coat a large skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium-high heat. Add garlic; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add beef; cook until browned, breaking up meat as it cooks, about 5 to 6 minutes. Add cumin, coriander, salt and diced tomatoes, stirring occasionally, until liquid is almost absorbed, about 5 to 6 minutes.

Place tortillas on a flat surface. Top each with about 1/4 cup beef, 1/4 cup lettuce, 1 tablespoon cheese and 2 teaspoons salsa. Fold tortillas in half and serve.

*To toast tortillas, coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. Place tortillas on top and coat with cooking spray. Heat in a 300f  oven until slightly crisp but not too crisp that they break when folded.

This recipe yields two tacos per serving.


      This recipe is wonderful for those times that you want something quick, easy, and that will please everyone. If you try this dinner check back here and leave a comment to let me know how it turned out.


     Next week - Chicken with Balsamic Vinegar, Sweet Onions, and Thyme or Behind The Scenes.

Baked Honey-Mustard Chicken Bites or Second Time's a Charm.

     Welcome back and thank you for checking out my blog, today's dinner is Baked Honey-Mustard Chicken Bites.

     This is actually a party snack that I make occasionally for my Friday night get-together.
     Very early in this experiment before I had even thought about writing this blog I posted a picture of honey mustard chicken bites on Facebook. The response that I received was strong and a few people asked me to send them the recipe.
After sending out a couple of emails I quickly realized that I was going to have to come up with a more streamlined way of making these recipes accessible to the general public. Thus, I created this blog to address that issue and to allow my experiment to evolve.
     The reason that I sub-titled this "second time's a charm" is because the first I posted a picture of it on Facebook was the first time I made it, and, like many recipes there was a certain amount of trial and error involved in making it and getting it to turn out the way I thought it should. The first time I made this I cut the chicken into large squares and I used the wrong Pillsbury dough which had to be rolled out and didn't want to stay rolled out. What this lead to was a piece of chicken with a piece of dough stuck to it. While it still tasted good it was a little visually off-putting. The first solution that I found was to cut the chicken into smaller rectangular pieces so that the diameter is smaller and the ends of the chicken exceed the width of the dough. The second solution was to buy the Pillsbury crescent roll dough that comes in a tube and can be unrolled into a sheet of dough. Once you have this type of dough it's easy to cut it into 24 uniform rectangles. When you are ready to assemble put the dough in front of you so that the rectangles are arranged vertically and then put the chicken on the dough so that it is oriented horizontally.
I Know this sounds simple but the first time I made this recipe it gave me fits.
By the second time I made this recipe I had learned from my mistakes and everything went much more smoothly, the results can be seen in the picture above.
     Now that I've covered the pitfalls that I've encountered let's take a look at today's snack.


                       Baked Honey-Mustard Chicken bites

Prep time   10 Min.     Cook time   20 Min.     Serves   24

Ingredients

8 Oz. refrigerated crescent roll dough

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 24 equal size pieces

1/4 cup honey mustard

Dipping Sauce

2 Tbs. honey mustard

1-1/2 tsp low-sodium soy sauce

2 tsp chives, fresh, minced


Instructions

Preheat oven to 375f. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Unroll dough and cut into 24 strips; place strips vertically in front of you. Top each strip with a piece of chicken and brush chicken with some mustard; roll dough around chicken (chicken will stick out on the ends).

Place chicken bites on prepared baking sheet. Bake until dough is golden brown and chicken is cooked through, about 12 to 16 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Meanwhile combine mustard and soy sauce in a small bowl; sprinkle with chives.

This recipe yields 1 chicken bite per serving.


     This is an easy to make party snack that will have a broad appeal and will get a lot of compliments. As always, if you try this recipe check back and let me know how it turned out.


     Next week - Spicy Beef Tacos or Always On The Run.


  

Pork Piccata or Eureka.

     Welcome and thank you for checking out my blog, today's dinner is Pork Piccata.

     This dinner should more accurately be titled "Pork Piccata with Garlicky Spinach" since it is pork and spinach cooked separately in one skillet.
     Early in my diet I was looking through recipes online and I was trying to find some new and interesting recipes that might challenge my cooking skills and offer new tastes and flavors. As I narrowed my search I selected "only dinners" followed by "only pork" and there on the screen was a list of over 500 pork dinner recipes.
Over the next hour I clicked on different recipes solely based on the interestingness of their names and printed the ones that sounded good. As I got a little more than halfway through the list I saw an interesting name that I had never heard before - Pork Piccata. When I clicked on it a picture popped up on the screen, a picture of medallions of pork nestled on a plate and covered with a light sauce and dotted with capers. Next to the pork was wilted spinach with minced pieces of garlic.
What had I found, this looked delicious and the instructions seemed easy enough to follow. I clicked print and added it to my growing stack of recipes.
     Fast forward a couple of weeks and I am going through my stack of recipes, as I flip one more sheet of paper there it its again - pork piccata.
Wow, that staged picture looked delicious and what's that ingredient; capers, I've never had capers. I decided right there that I was going to make this dinner.
The next day I loaded my shopping list in my phone and off to the store I went.
I got pork, spinach, lemon juice, and yes I even found those little caper things.
When I got home I launched right into the recipe, I prepped everything and started cooking. As I went through the instructions everything was going well; there were no real difficult steps, everything looked like the picture, and the smell was becoming intoxicating. The recipe was coming together well so I threw together a salad and baked a loaf of mozzarella bread.
     The moment of truth. We sat down to eat and there it was, the pork was tender and moist and the sauce with those little capers, so lemony and delicious.
Next was the spinach with the garlic and a hint of lemon. Eureka! I didn't know exactly what it was but I had found it. This recipe was full of unexpected flavors that the picture just couldn't convey. I was instantly hooked and I still look forward to making this dinner at least once a month.
     Piccata is an Italian term that refers to a way of cooking. It means sliced , sauteed, an served in a sauce containing butter, lemon, and spices.
It can be applied to chicken or veal as easily as it's applied to pork here.
Capers are simply the edible flower buds from the caper bush that are picked before they bloom and are pickled in vinegar and salt. If they are allowed to bloom they would become large white to pinkish-white flowers. The idea of cooking the spinach is not to overly fry it but to heat it just to the point that the garlic is Incorporated and the leaves have wilted enough to release their flavor.
With all of that in mind let's take a look at today's dinner.


                                           Pork Piccata

Prep time   10 Min.     Cook time   10 Min.   Serves   4

Ingredients

3 Tbs. all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt, divided

1/2 tsp black pepper, divided

1 pound lean pork tenderloin, trimmed, cut into 16 thin slices

2-1/2 tsp olive oil, divided

3/4 cup canned chicken broth, reduced sodium

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 tsp cornstarch

2 tsp butter

1 Tbs. capers, drained

1/2 tsp minced garlic

12 Oz. fresh spinach, baby variety


Instructions

In a small bowl combine flour, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper; sprinkle over both sides of pork, shaking off excess.

Heat 2 tsp oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork (in 2 batches if necessary) and cook until just cooked through and golden, about 1 1/2 minutes per side; set aside on a serving plate and cover to keep warm.

In a cup whisk together broth, lemon juice, cornstarch, 1/3 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper until blended. Pour into same skillet and whisk to combine with pan drippings; simmer until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove skillet from heat; stir in butter until melted. Stir in capers and spoon over pork; cover to keep warm.

Heat remaining 1/2 tsp in same skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic; cook, stirring until fragrent, about 30 seconds. Add spinach to skillet in batches, tossing mixture and adding more spinach as some of it cooks down; cook , tossing, until wilted and tender, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 tsp salt, a pinch of pepper and serve with pork.

This recipe yeilds 4 slices of pork, about 3 Tbs. sauce and 1/2 cup spinach per serving.


     This is an amazing dinner and if you only make one of the recipes that I post here, this is the one I would recommend you try. As always, if you try this recipe check back here and let me know how it turned out.


     Next week - Baked Honey-Mustard Chicken Bites or Second Times a Charm.