Lemon Sage Roasted Chicken + a BONUS recipe!

Wow. I'm already getting behind on my goal to post 2 recipes and 1 information/support/rambling a week and it's only January 16th! It's ok, I'm cooking more, I'll get better! I shall press on toward the goal!

As I've stated here (and facebook) before, when in doubt for what to cook for dinner, I roast a chicken. I love pretty much everything about it: the juicy, flavorful meat; a golden, crispy crust (skin... you shouldn't eat it. But just one bite fulfills my roasted chicken fantasies!); and leftovers. How I love roasted chicken leftovers. They're perfect on a simple salad for lunch, great to throw into a simple chicken pot pie, a nice topping on a homemade pizza-- I could go on and on. So for today's recipe, you shall get 2 in 1. A new chicken recipe (I try not to get into a rut with the same roasted chicken EVERY time) along with a Chinese chicken cabbage salad for the next day. Enjoy!!

Lemon Sage Roasted Chicken

adapted from Health Magazine

• 2 lemons thinly sliced
• 6 fresh sage leaves
• 1 (6-pound) chicken
• 3 tsp olive oil, divided
• bunch of carrots (depending on how many you want to eat, and if you want leftover veggies), washed and chopped in equal sized chunks (about 1 1/2-2 inchs)
• bunch of mushrooms (chopped into chunks equal to carrots)
• bunch of broccoli (yep, I said it. You're roasting broccoli. Trust me.), chop these evenly with other veggies, too.
• any other root veggie you want (Think parsnips and turnips. I do not recommend potatoes), chop.

1. Preheat oven to 425.

2. In roasting pan, place all chopped vegetables. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with kosher salt and black pepper. Using hands, mix veggies until ALL are evenly coated with oil. You don't want any dry spots. Dry spots won't taste as good.

3. Remove giblet and all that jazz from the chicken cavity. Place chicken on top of veggies in roasting pan. Use your fingers to make some space between the chicken meat and skin on top of the breast and cut a slit between the leg and thigh areas to get your fingers between the meet and skin of those areas. Rub all meat with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper. Place 6 lemon slices and sage leaves under skin of chicken, distributing between breasts and thigh/leg areas. (if you have a large chicken, and use more than just 6 slices, that's ok.) Put remaining lemon into the cavity and maybe a couple sage leaves if you have them. Brush about 1 tsp of olive oil over skin of chicken.

2. Roast for 45 minutes, then check to make sure skin isn't burning. If skin is already golden brown, cover with aluminum folk. Roast for an additional 45 minutes, or until a thermometer inserted in the chickens thigh (away from the bone) reads 165. Transfer chicken to cutting board and let rest for about 10 minutes before carving.

Carb options

could be served with a potato of your choice (mashed sweet potatoes or sweet potato "casserole" would be beautiful and delicious, I think) and/or a dinner roll.

SUPER BONUS RECIPE!!!

Chinese Chicken-Cabbage Salad with Peanut Sauce

• 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 bottled thai peanut sauce (this can have a lot of sugar in it. So if you can't find a sugar free version, make your own using smooth natural peanut butter, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, garlic powder, white pepper and ground ginger.)
• chopped napa cabbage (about 2 cups per salad)
• shredded carrot (a few pinches per salad)
• 1 green onion (green and white parts), sliced (more if you're making several servings)
• left over roasted chicken.

1. Whisk together rice wine vinegar, olive oil, and peanut sauce in a medium bowl. Set aside.

2. Toss together cabbage, thinly sliced, shredded carrot, green onions, and chicken in a large bowl, or in individual serving dishes.

3. Pour peanut dressing over the salad, and toss together until evenly coated.

4. Season salad with black pepper and some black sesame seeds.

Thai Hot and Sour Soup

This recipe tastes as though it's straight from Surin of Thailand, my favorite restaurant back home in Huntsville, AL. It's a great soup to warm the soul, without feeling heavy afterwards. The taste is light and refreshing; plus, it's from Cooking Light, so you know it's not bad for you!

Scott RAVED over it.

I served this with some quick stir-fryed snow peas. Just heat some oil in a skillet on high heat and throw in the peas. Season with kosher salt, black pepper and ground ginger to taste. Stir or flip in pan until crisp.

Thai Hot and Sour Soup

• 6 cups fat free, less sodium chicken broth
• 4 kaffir lime leaves (optional)
• 1 (4 inch) lemongrass stalk, halved and crushed (NOT optional)
• 1/2 habanero chili pepper, minced (increase for spicier soup)
• 1 cup thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms (about 2 ounces)
• 1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled * deveined
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1 medium tomato, cut into wedges
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced (about 1/2 cup)
• 1 cup light coconut milk
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

Combine chicken broth, lime leaves, lemongrass, and habanero in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and shrimp to pan; cook 3 minutes or until shrimp are done (seriously, 3 minutes). Add juice, fish sauce, tomato and onions to pan; cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in coconut milk and cilantro. Discard lemongrass stalk and lime leaves.

Carb Options

Serve with a small bowl of brown rice, or maybe even a few crab rangoon.

PS: This photo is from Cooking Light's website because my camera battery died and I haven't got to purchase the $40 charger yet. Hopefully tomorrow! :)

Spiced Braised Beef

Hello, my dears! Welcome to 2010!

January 1st is the traditional time to set goals for the upcoming year. I have a few holding over from last year (finish the weight loss!! 50lbs down, 30 to go!), but I've added a few, too. My goal related to this blog is to post 3 times each week. Two of these times will be new recipes (with photos, hopefully!) and one will be something else related to weight loss whether it be some exercise tips I've picked up somewhere or a spiritual link or even just a rant on my personal frustrations. As always, the recipes will be low-carb and relatively low-fat. So let's get started on the first recipe of 2010!

This recipe originated in Cooking Light back in September. However, the original recipe had about 7 Tbsp (tablespoons) of brown sugar in it. I made it in the original form for a dinner party we had in the fall, and it was fabulous! So if you can have the sugar, do it. Seriously. I will include the sugar options along with the recipe instructions. However, the spices and the slow cooked beef is delicious without the sugar, and is a great home cooked meal for your family.

I do realize that many of you don't have 3 hours to cook a week-day dinner. I promise recipes in the future will not be so time consuming. But hold this recipe in your pocket for a day that you need something comforting and delicious on a Saturday or Sunday evening or after a holiday off! Serve with a lightened coleslaw, or the Chopped Coleslaw Salad recipe following.

Spiced Braised Beef

for roast:

1 Tbsp paprika

1 Tbsp dark brown sugar (optional)

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dry mustard

1/2 tsp ground red pepper (can adjust according to desired heat)

1 (3 pound) boneless chuck roast, trimmed

sauce:

Cooking spray

1 cup chopped onion

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (can adjust according to desired heat)

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 (28 oz) can of crushed tomatoes

1/2 cup water

6 Tbsp dark brown sugar

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1. To prepare roast, combine paprika, 1 Tbsp dark brown sugar (optional), garlic powder, 1 tsp salt, dry mustard and ground red pepper; rub over roast. Place roast in a large zip-top plastic bag. Seal and refrigerate at least 1 hour, but it's better if you let it marinate overnight.

2. To prepare sauce, heat a large oven proof pan with a lid (Dutch oven, braiser, iron skillet with a lid, etc) over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion, crushed red pepper and minced garlic; cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add tomatoes, water, 6 Tbsp dark brown sugar (optional), red wine vinegar, and tomato paste and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally (if you don't have time to simmer 30 minutes, this step could be skipped if absolutely necessary). Stir in salt and pepper.

3. Preheat oven to 325°.

4. Remove roast from bag. Add roast to sauce in pan. Cover and bake for 2 1/2 hours or until tender. Serve with sauce.

Note: Sauce can be made up to 3 days ahead, just reheat before adding the roast.

Chopped Coleslaw Salad

Be sure to allow to marinate 2 hours to make the cabbage more tender.

2 Tbsp mustard seeds

1/3 cup sugar (optional)

1/3 cup white wine vinegar

1 Tbsp prepared mustard

3/4 tsp salt

2 cups green cabbage, cut into 1 inch pieces

2 cups red cabbage, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 cup julienne red bell pepper

1/2 cup sliced red onion

1/4 cup sliced green onion

Place mustard seeds in a small saucepan over medium heat; cook, partially covered, for 2 minutes or until lightly toasted. Remove mustard seeds from pan. Add sugar and vinegar to same pan; bring to a boil over high heat. Remove pan from heat; stir in mustard and salt. Combine mustard seeds, vinegar mixture, cabbage, bell pepper, and onions in a large bowl; toss well. Cover and chill 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Carb options

Well, first, add the dark brown sugar! It's like a spicy BBQ sauce. So delicious. Second, this would be great with some cornbread or cornbread muffins. Also, you can go all-in on the bar-be-que idea and have baked beans and potato salad for your side dishes. Feels like I'm back home in Alabama!

Semester is Almost OVER!!

As you can all see, the last time I posted was September 1st, just 1 week into the fall semester. I'm sure most of you had no idea I was finishing up my Master's this fall. However, this semester has been abducted by none other than a thesis project. Due date is December 18, and then I have oral exams in the first week or two of January. After all this has passed, I shall return. I shall return with some new features and ideas that I've thought up since September but have had no time to implement. Just wait. You'll like it. I think.

Lemon Basil Porkchops with Parmesan Zucchini Chips

The end of summer is sad in some ways. It's obviously the end of warm nights and burning hot days; it's the end of lazy afternoons by a pool; and it's the end of grilling out for dinner! September and fall brings benefits of it's own-- fresh picked apples, warm comfort foods, and football, to name just a few. But before the cool days get here, I wanted to make some summery tasting foods. This is when I came up with lemon basil pork chops. The tart lemon mixes so wonderfully with fresh basil to give the other white meat a crisp and light taste. I paired it with baked parmesan zucchini chips for some crunch, but you could easily serve a fresh salad with a balsamic vinaigrette if you don't want to turn on the oven. The recipe is simple, and quick to make... perfect for summer evenings when you'd rather sit outside on the patio with a glass of wine than slave in a kitchen!

Lemon Basil Porkchops

• 2 boneless, butterflied, lean pork chops
• the juice of 1/2 a lemon (about 2 Tbsp)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• a handfull of fresh basil leaves julienned
• kosher salt and pepper
• cooking spray

1. In a medium sized bowl, combine lemon juice, olive oil and basil. whisk until juice and oil are well blended.
2. Sprinkle pork chops with a little salt and pepper. Place pork chops into lemon & oil mixture. Turn to coat.
3. Allow to marinate about 15 minutes. (good time to work on the parmesan zucchini chips!)
4. Preheat grill or grill pan to medium high heat (about a 6 out of 10). Spray with cooking spray.
5. Grill chops until done, about 5-6 minutes on each side, depending on thickness.

Parmesan Zucchini chips

• 1 small zucchini, sliced into thin 'chips' horizontally. I used my vegetable peeler to get them really thin
• about 2 Tbsp olive oil in a shallow dish
• about 1/2 cup of very finely grated Parmesan cheese in a shallow dish
  
• pepper (do not use extra salt! The Parmesan is salty enough!)

1. preheat oven to 475°. Spray a light layer of cooking spray on a baking sheet.
2. Create an assembly line of zucchini, then olive oil, and finally the Parmesan with some pepper sprinkled in.
3. Lightly coat each zucchini chip with olive oil and then Parmesan. You don't need a thick coating, just a light dusting.
4. Place onto the sprayed cooking sheet.
5. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove sheet from oven and flip chips if they look as though they're getting too brown. This might not be necessary, use your judgment so they don't burn!
6. Bake another 5 minutes, until chips are golden brown.

Carb options
This would be delicious with some sort of grilled/warmed pita bread! Also, you could add some panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) to the Parmesan and pepper mixture on the zucchini chips.

Mesquite Shrimp Salad

I have been blessed for almost the entire month of August to have Scott come home every day for lunch. It's been so great to have an extra 45 minutes every day just to hang out with him. But it also means I need to figure out an additional meal every day! This is a salad that would be wonderful for lunch (though, we did actually have it for dinner last week).

The inspiration for this salad is a salad that my best friend, Megan, used to eat every time we went to Logan's Roadhouse in Huntsville. It is no longer on the menu there, so I really just thought about what a Texas rancher would eat on his shrimp salad if he ever were to eat a salad. Therefore, this may be the most manly salad ever. Scott agrees. But, it's healthy, too! :) Enjoy!

Mesquite Shrimp Salad
makes 2 salads

• 1/2 lbs shrimp (deheaded, deveined, deshelled, de-everythinged)
• 2 tsp McCormick's mesquite seasoning (you could probably find an off brand, but this is the best grocery store brand of mesquite! )
• 2 bowls full of Lettuce chopped, probably about 2-3 cups (I used a combination of Boston, red leaf, and something really curly I got at the Farmer's Market)
• 10 grape tomatoes
• 1/2 red onion chopped
• two large pinches of julienned carrots
• 4 Tbsps shredded colby jack cheese
• 4 slices bacon (turkey, if you want to REALLY sneak it past your cowboy!) crispy and chopped
• 1 avocado, sliced
• 2-3 bread & butter pickles (if you're not on the diet! they're too sugary otherwise)
  
• 2 Tbsp chipotle ranch dressing (recipe follows)

1. Pre-heat a medium sized skillet to medium high heat (6/10) with a good spritz of cooking spray.
2. Add shrimp to pan, and immediately add mesquite seasoning. Go ahead and add more than the recipe says if the shrimp don't look covered enough. You want them well seasoned.
3. Cook shrimp 3-5 minutes, until shrimp are curled and pink and completely opaque.

Assembly:
1. Layer half of lettuce, onions, carrots, cheese, tomatoes, bacon, avocado and pickles in a bowl. Do the same with the other bowl.
2. drizzle with chipotle ranch (or any other dressing of your choice) dressing.
3. Top each bowl with half of sauteed shrimp.

** You could also skewer and grill the shrimp, which is most likely the way Logan's Roadhouse cooked their shrimp. However, sauteeing in my bacon grease was much more appealing to me... plus, I don't have an outdoor grill.

Chipotle Ranch Dressing-- home-mixed... not home made

• 4 Tbsp ranch dressing, depending on how much dressing you want on each salad (my favorite is the Bolthouse yogurt ranch... amazing ranch taste, lower in calories, fat and sugar... for the times you just need something creamy!)
• about 1/4 of a tsp of the adobe sauce that comes in the can with chipotle peppers.
  

1. Mix the two ingredients in a separate bowl.

Voila.

Carb options
I served this with some toaster cakes (the flat corn cakes that Thomas, the english muffin company, makes) for Scott. It would be wonderful with corn muffins, regular corn bread, or johnny cake.

"Naked" Calzone, AKA the sausage, pepper, spinach & tomato skillet

My husband loves pizza. Even before the diet, I could really do without it, but now that I can't have it I occasionally crave it. Does you ever have that problem? A food you don't really care for, but once you can't have it, you NEED it?

Last week I really wanted to impress Scott. I don't know why really. Maybe it's because I was gone for 2 months and didn't cook a thing or maybe it's just because I love him and I want him to think I'm cool. So in addition to the southwestern eggrolls in the previous post, I decided to make a calzone for him. Since I can't eat the dough part, I decided to cheat and purchase the pizza dough. Luckily, Price Chopper (my closest grocery store) has handmade dough available in their bakery section! It's right next to the filled cannolis, so watch out! But they even have a whole wheat option. Therefore, I just bought a ball of whole wheat pizza dough there. You are welcome to make your own from scratch if you feel like it. I've done it before, and it's not difficult, just a little more time consuming for a weeknight dinner that I wanted it to be.

After throwing Scott's full calzone into the oven, I simply made myself a delicious salad and plated up some of the filling for myself and topped it with a sprinkle of part skim mozzarella and parmesan. It really knocked out my pizza craving because the spicy, tomatoey, gooeyness was there without the carby crust.

The great thing about this recipe is you don't need to follow it!! Because of mine and Scott's affinity for sausage, that's what I used for a stuffing. And onions with red and yellow bell peppers just go well with that in my mind. However, you could use hamburger, pepperoni, grilled chicken, mushrooms, black olives, and on and on! The principle is the same. Follow the step by step in the recipe for any ingredient you choose to include!

Calzone (Naked and Fully Clothed varieties)

• premade, "raw" pizza dough (meaning, not already rolled out and baked into a crust); optional
• low fat Italian sausage (or any other meat you want. Or not)
• red & yellow bell peppers, diced (or any other veggie. Think sauteed mushrooms, sliced black olives, green peppers-- anything you'd want on a regular pizza)
• onion, diced
• fresh spinach (because you need to sneak in some greens... I promise you don't taste it)
• about 1 cup pizza sauce (I use Ragu from jar. you can use more or less sauce depending on how you like it)
  
• cooking spray

** Preheat oven (and pizza stone if you have it, or cookie sheet) to 500°
1. Brown sausage in a very small amount of cooking spray over medium-high heat until fully cooked. You will need to cook any meat that you put into the calzone before mixing it with other things. Remove meat from skillet after done and set aside.
2. Add another spritz of cooking spray to your pan. Add in any veggies you want, still over medium high heat. Note that onions and bell peppers will need more time to cook than mushrooms. So add the more hardy veggies first, and then after a few minutes, add in the softer ones.
3. Add sausage back to skillet. Spoon pizza sauce over meat and vegetables. Reduce heat to medium low. Allow all ingredients to heat up.
4. Meanwhile, divide dough (each ball of dough will make at least 2 very large calzones, 4 medium ones).
5. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to around a 1/8 inch thick, 12 inch in diameter circle.
6. Once filling is well heated, add a good handful of fresh spinach leaves. Stir until wilted and incorporated.
7. Evenly divide filling from skillet onto half of dough. Be sure to set aside filling for yourself if you're not wrapping it!!
8. Sprinkle filling with mozzarella or parmesan or both.
9. Fold empty side of dough over and crimp along the edges to seal as best as possible.
10. Using a large floured spatula, transfer calzones to pizza stone (or preheated cookie sheet).
11. Bake until dough is puffed and golden, 10-15 minutes.

Carb options
calzone dough.