Spicy Prickly Pear Glazed Chicken

I found a recipe online that sounded good, but it made 24 chicken thighs and used bourbon, which we don't have and didn't want to figure out what to do with the extras. I wanted to make this in much smaller portions and leave the bourbon out so I used the recipe as my base and then tweaked it. This turned out really really yummy! It was incredibly moist and tender and the sauce was perfect. I sautéed some canned green beans to go with this and tasted excellent with the sauce as well. Here is how I made it:

Spicy Prickly Pear Glazed Chicken:

Ingredients:

• Olive Oil
• 1/2 chopped red onion
• 2 seeded and chopped serrano chile (use more to give this more kick, or less for a more mild kick. 2 chiles gave it just barely a detectable pinch of spice without making this too hot)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• juice from one lime (not key lime!)
• zest from one lime
• 2 TBS Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 c. red wine vinegar
• 3 TBS brown sugar
• 1 1/2 c. prickly pear juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 TBS butter
• 6 Chicken thighs (we used boneless, skinless)
• Chopped cilantro as garnish

Directions:

1. In a sauce pot, heat the oil. Saute the onion over medium heat until browned. 
2. Add the chile and garlic and saute until softened. 
3. Add the cumin and coriander and cook for 2 minutes. 
4. Add the lime juice and zest, Worcestershire sauce, red wine vinegar, and brown sugar. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes. 
5. Transfer the mixture to an electric blender and puree until smooth. Return the mixture to the pot. 
6. Add the prickly pear juice, salt, and butter. Return to a boil. Cook until the mixture has thickened. You almost want a paste, but not too gummy. 
7. In a large resealable bag, combine the thighs with 1/3 of the sauce. Toss to cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. 
8. Preheat the oven to 375. 
9. Lightly oil a baking pan (or I just lined mine with tin foil). Lay the thighs in the pan, and brush 1/2 the remaining sauce over the top.
10. Bake for 25 minutes. 
11. Turn the thighs over and brush on the remaining sauce. Bake for 20 minutes. 
12. Broil the thighs for 3-4 minutes to finish off. 
13. Top with cilantro

Flourless Crepes

Crepes Ingredients:
3 eggs
3 TBS milk, half and half, or heavy cream
3 tsp olive oil
1 tsp sugar (or 1/4 tsp sugar substitute)
1/2 tsp vanilla

Filling Ingredients:
2 oz cream cheese
1-2 tsp milk, half and half or heavy cream
1 tsp sugar (or 1/4 tsp sugar substitute)
1/4 tsp vanilla
Jam
(that's at least what we used...you can fill these with just about anything sweet or savory)

Directions
1. Make the filling first. Mix the cream cheese, milk, sugar and vanilla together until blended (I just used a fork).
2. In a bowl (I used a large pourable measuring cup), mix all crepes ingredients together and beat.
3. Heat a pan to medium, medium high heat and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
4. Pour a small amount (about 1/8 c.) of batter into the middle of the pan and tip/swirl the pan to spread the batter out evenly. You're supposed to get a circle...I got oblong shapes with holes...but it still worked fine.
5. Cook for about 30 sec. to 1 min. Flip and cook the other side until done (slightly browned).
6. Remove from pan, fill, and eat! These get cold fast, so if you want to eat them warm you'll have to eat them as they come off the pan. For these today I put a little dollop of the cream cheese filling and a little dollop of raspberry jam and spread it in the crepe before I rolled it up. Mmmmmm.

This will make 9-10 crepes. I know, it won't look like you've made that much batter when you mix it up. I was skeptical at first, but I think we got 9 decent sized crepes out of this.

Prickly Pear Raspberry Smoothie

2 years ago we posted Cameron's Prickly Pear Slush...but I wasn't a huge fan. It just had a funny aftertaste; he loved it though. Today I played around until I had a Prickly Pear Raspberry Smoothie that I LOVE. 

I just can't get over the color of the prickly pear fruit. It really is so vibrant and awesome.

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. frozen unsweetened raspberries
• 1/2 c. prickly pear fruit puree 
• 1 c. plain yogurt 
• About 2-3 TBS of water
• About 1-2 tsp. olive oil (I know...seems weird, but your body needs good oils in it and olive oil's not bad...if you have sunflower oil that works great too)
• Sweetener (sugar, truvia, jam, whatever you want to use)
• And then I added a tiny squirt of Berry Pomegranate MiO to help cancel out the prickly pear aftertaste (I love the initial prickly pear taste...it's the aftertaste that's a little odd)
• If you have prickly pear juice and not the puree, then omit the water in this recipe

Combine all ingredients in the blender and blend till smooth. I accidentally added too much water so I had to add a small handful more of frozen raspberries to give it the right consistency. 

Healthy Fruit Dip

So I've been wanting to eat more fruit...but I'm not one to just pick up an apple and munch away. So I read a few recipes online and made a healthy fruit dip to help entice me to eat more fruit. It's working like a charm. I love this stuff.

Ingredients:
8oz. fat free sugar free (or reduced...or regular) plain yogurt
8 oz. fat free cream cheese
Sugar (I used truvia instead). I didn't measure...I just added a little bit at the time until the taste was about right. I probably used about 2-3 teaspoons of truvia (which is sweeter than sugar, so you'd have to add more sugar than that)

Just mix them all together with a hand mixer until it's light and fluffy. Mine's almost looks like marshmallow creme.

Citrus and Rosemary Roast Chicken

When I found this recipe at http://tksinclair.com/ I knew I had to make it. It sounded SOOO yummy (and it was). 

It's not burned. Really. It was just right. It looks burned, and when  we first opened the oven and looked at it I winced...but upon closer look, it was just the marinade, not the chicken itself, that was dark. 

 This was so juicy and yummy and easy!

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, patted dry (about 5 lbs)
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh rosemary leaves (I used 2 TBS of dried rosemary leaves, because that's what we already had in the cupboard)
one orange, zested
one lemon, zested
juice of 1 lemon
juice of half an orange
4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Directions:

In a small food processor, combine rosemary, lemon zest, lemon juice, orange zest, orange juice, and garlic. Pulse a few times until it looks like pesto. Add olive oil, salt and pepper and pulse to combine.

Using your hands, rub lemon-oregano marinade all over chicken. Using your fingers, gently lift the skin on either side of the neck and rub plenty of marinade directly onto the breast meat, under the skin. Don’t forget to get some inside the cavity (where the organs were).

Refrigerate for 2-8 hours to allow the marinade to infuse the meat. Remove from fridge about an hour before cooking. (We let it refrigerate for 9 hours, because that's how long we were gone today for work and school. And we didn't let it sit out of the fridge for an hour before cooking. We just pulled it out, put it in the pan, and put it in the oven).

Preheat oven to 450°F. Place chicken in roasting pan breast side up and place in oven. If desired, place small red potatoes all around the chicken and brush them with olive oil or melted butter. Roast for ten minutes. Reduce heat to 400°F and roast about 1 hour and 45 minutes, checking for doneness after 1 1/4 hours. (Ours was done at 1 hour 15 min.)

Remove from oven, cover loosely with aluminum foil and let stand 20 minutes before slicing.

Eggplant Parmesan

Eggplant has always weirded me out a little bit, I don't know why. This past year I finally broke down and tried it, and so far I like it...in the one recipe I've had it in. This is a really yummy and easy recipe. Cameron told me just now "Anytime you suggest this I think, ew, but then it always tastes really good and hits the spot when you make it." Give it a try! 

We got an eggplant in this past week's Bountiful Basket and decided to just stick to what we know and do this recipe. We'll try a new eggplant recipe someday, but for now, we love this one. 

Ingredients:

1 eggplant

3 eggs

about 1 c. of Parmesan cheese

marinara pasta sauce

extra spices as desired (I used onion powder, garlic powder, and cajun seasoning this time around)

How to make it:

1. Usually I peel the eggplant (with a knife), but I forgot to this time and it didn't make a difference in the taste. 

2. Slice the eggplant into 1/2" thick slices (like you were slicing up a cucumber, so not lengthwise). 

3. Spray a cookie sheet with Pam (or grease it however you normally grease your pans). 

4. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat them (just so they are all mixed up). 

5. Pour the Parmesan onto a plate and if you want add a few shakes of any extra spices you want. It's great with spices, it's great withough. 

6. Dip each piece of eggplant in the egg, then coat with the parmesan on both sides. Place on the cookie sheet. Don't overlap the eggplant pieces on the pan. They can touch, but you don't want them overlapping or they won't cook quite the same. 

8. Bake at 375 for about 12 minutes (or until the parmesan starts turning goldenish), then remove from oven, flip over each piece. 

9. Spoon the marinara sauce over each piece, then return the pan to the oven and bake for another 5 or so minutes (until the sauce has warmed up). 

10. Take out and enjoy!

This makes 2 good size plates full.  

Summer Solstice Dinner: Creamy Chicken (like Alfredo)

I found this recipe in a forum for 17 Day Diet recipes. It was amazing. I loved it. Cameron loved it. We're going to have this more often (on and off the diet). 

3-4 boneless chicken breasts-cut up into bite sized pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
3 cups broccoli florets (fresh or frozen)
1 can low sodium chicken broth
1 8oz. bar of fat free cream cheese
1 packet hidden valley ranch powder dip mix

In a skillet:
Saute the chicken in olive oil until almost cooked through
Add all veggies to chicken and saute until nearly all cooked. 
Add 1/2 the can of chicken broth and allow veggies to finish cooking. 

Meanwhile, in a seperate sauce pot add:
Last 1/2 of chicken broth
8oz fat free cream cheese
1 packet hidden valley ranch dip mixCook until mixture is smooth.

Add sauce to saute mixture and serve!

This mixture can be served on top of a pasta of choice, but it is really great just plain too. 

Prickly Pear Slush

Here's what you need:

3-5 Ripe Prickly Pear Fruit (more if the fruit are small)

Ice

Water

1/3 c. sugar

Here's what you do:

1. Remove the spikes. We did this by burning them off using our gas stove. You can use a candle too.
2. Cut the ends off the fruit and then cut it in half.
3. Scoop out the inside of the fruit, seeds and all, or peel the skin off with a knife.
Your peeled/scooped fruit will look like this.
4. Fill the blender 1/2 full of ice. Add the sugar, the fruit, and about 1/2 c. of water to start (more may be needed).

5. Blend until the ice is crushed to the right consistency/size. You may need to add more water to make it more drinkable.
6. Pour into a glass and enjoy! Don't you just love the color?!
7. This would also be good as a smoothie. We haven't tried it, but I think it would be good with some orange or peach sherbet mixed in with it. Maybe some orange juice.

Sukiyaki

Sukiyaki -by Cameron

Here's a few different pronunciations:

(tskee-ah-kee)-That's roughly how they pronounce it in Japan

(soo-kee-ah-kee)- How American's often pronounce it

Ingredients (for 2-3, maybe 4, people):

3 carrots

1 bundle of green onions

1/2 of a small onion

1/4 head cabbage

2 stalks of celery

1 large crown of broccoli

1-1 1/2 lbs steak (we just used steak because we had a ton of it in the fridge-love those albertson's deals!-but you can use regular stir-fry meat, or chicken, or whatever)

2 TBS of oil

Sukiyaki sauce

Rice

Optional Ingredients:

2 eggs

Soy Sauce

How to make Sukiyaki:

1. Get your rice cooking. We use a Rice Cooker, but you use whatever method you have.

2. Cut up the vegetables:

Slice the celery into about 1/2 to 1 inch slices

Cut the carrots into small strips about match stick size

Cut the end of the green onions off (you'll only use those

Cut the broccoli crowns into bite sizes

Shred the cabbage

Slice the onion

Slice the meat as thinly as possible, so you'll probably want to leave you meat slightly frozen to facilitate this.

3. After you slice the meat, you should let it thaw.

4. Heat up the oil (on high) in the pan and put your meat in the heated oil.

5. Put about a 1/4 cup of Sukiyaki sauce in with the meat.

6. Cook the meat. You don't want to cook the meat all the way, but just enough to brown the

outside of the meat.

7. Turn the heat down to low-medium and arrange your vegetables inside the pan.

8. Add between 1/2 -1 cup of Sukiyaki sauce to the vegetables/meat.

9. Cover the pan, and cook for another 10-15 minutes (just until your meat is done and until

your vegetables are cooked to your liking-we like ours a little bit more on the slightly crunchy side and not the mushy side).

10. You're supposed to leave the pan on the heat, but we weren't able to do that with the set up of our kitchen/house (well, we could have stood around the stove, but we didn't want to do that). You eat the meat/veggies right out of the pan.

11. Beat the eggs with a little bit of soy sauce.

As you pull your meat and vegetables out of the hot pan, dip it in the raw egg and eat it.

LET ME EXPLAIN BEFORE YOU GROSS OUT:

You are supposed to take the vegetables/meat out of the pan hot enough so that when you dip them in the raw egg and pull it out, the egg is cooked onto the veggies/meat. A heat transfer is supposed to occur from the veggies to the egg, cooking the egg and cooling the veggies off enough so you can eat them.

12. Eat with your rice.

Seasoned Baked Chicken

This is one of our favorite meals lately...1. because it is scrumptious, 2. because it is super easy and pretty quick to make.

Ingredients you'll need:

-Chicken pieces. Any cut you want. Frozen or thawed. We've been using frozen chicken thighs lately because that is what is in our freezer.
-Flour
-Seasoning. Now, we have used taco seasoning and malibu seasoning (a combination of spices we got at the store), but you could use really whatever seasoning you have on hand.
-1 egg for every 2 or so pieces of chicken.

How to make this tasty meal:

1. Crack open an egg into a bowl and then beat it with a fork until it's all beat up.
2. In a plastic bag or a bowl combine about 1/2 c. flour (or more if you're doing a lot of chicken) and a tablespoon or so of seasoning (careful with how much seasoning you put in...some go a long way while others you can't get enough of...even if you get too much...some mashed potatoes in the same bite as the chicken help to even things out).
3. Dip the chicken in the egg so it's completely covered, then dip it in the flour/seasoning on all sides.
4. Place on a greased/sprayed pan and place in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes.
5. The chicken is done when the juices run clear when a knife is inserted.