Chicken Kafta with Tzatziki

DH selected this dish for our weekly menu -- and I think we both thought it would be more like "gyros" than it was.

Admittedly, a little disappointed. I didn't particularly like the flavors in the chicken...I think I just found them too weak, to be honest. We also don't have a grill, so I broiled mine -- but grilling may have added to their flavor.

I did take Culinary Infatuation's advice, and served it with a little tzatziki sauce -- quite tasty!

Chicken Kafta

1 lb. ground chicken

1/4 cup grated onion

2 tbsp. fresh chopped parsley

2 tsp. ground coriander

2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. olive oil

1.5 tbsp. bread crumbs

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

- Preheat oven to Broil

- Mix all ingredients together and shape into oblong patties

- Lightly oil an oven-safe grill pan and arrange patties on top

- Put in broiler and cook for about 5-6 minutes per side (temp may vary -- keep an eye on them!)

Portable Breakfast is Awesome

My Google Reader runneth over here lately with recipes that I can totally rationalize making. 

Don't get me wrong -- I've probably got 200-300 recipes bookmarked that are things *I* would never eat, or DH would never eat -- but the pictures look so darn tasty, I convince myself I'll try it "someday".

But in amongst all those recipes are a few that -- upon seeing them -- I had to have. Instantly. This is one of them!

These little egg cups are wonderful. Apparently everyone is getting into the portable-egg-muffin craze. I first saw them at Our Sweet Life, and then again on several-other-blogs-who's-names-escape-me.

Like Beth, I get completely and totally bored with my rotation of oatmeal, and pb& j on whole grain. Those are my two workday breakfasts. And after 6 months of a work training schedule which required my breakfast to be totally portable (no microwave, no bowl, no NOTHIN') -- I am completely sick of PB&J. In every sense and flavor.

So this week I whipped up a batch of egg muffins. The recipe makes 6, and I plan to take 2 muffins per day for a few of my workdays this week (the days I have access to the microwave!)

Now, Beth's are probably WAY healthier than mine, because she used soy sausage. But textured vegetable protein and I are in a Crusades-like war, and I hate the stuff. It's disgusting. It's not food. 

/end rant

My egg muffins include a little bit of bacon, and a little real cheese (versus low fat) -- cuz that's what we had, and I used so little it wasn't a big deal.

Egg Muffins

(Adapted from Our Sweet Life)

Makes 6

5 eggs

1/4 cup 1.5% milk

Shredded cheese (I had a mexican blend this week, but use whatever you want/have/need to get rid of)

1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach (Mine was partially thawed, so I squeezed some of the extra water out before adding to my eggs)

1/3 cup diced onion (I used fresh onion, Beth calls for frozen)

6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

dash of hot sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

- Spray a 6-muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray (I only have 12-muffin tins. I sprayed 6, then put 1-2 tablespoons of water in the other 6 to ensure even cooking. Worked like a charm)

- Whisk the eggs, milk, and hot sauce

- Add the onions and spinach, and stir in the crumbled bacon. Mix well.

- Use a ladle (or a 1/3 cup measure if you're me...) to fill each muffin cup almost to the top (they do rise a little)

- Sprinkle each filled cup with shredded cheese

- Bake at 375 for 45 minutes -- the egg will appear totally cooked and look a bit golden when finished. (I let mine cook to a nice golden brown...I love that)

With the type of bacon and cheese I used, stats come out to...

Per Muffin:

Calories: 139 

Carbs: 9 

Fat: 7

Protein: 9

Fiesta Rice

This rice dish looked like it was right up my alley -- unfortunately, I didn't particularly care for it.

I found it to be a little too spicy for my tastes (that could probably be remedied with a few ingredient changes, though!)

I may try it again...we'll see.

I served it as a side to some ground-turkey-taco's. THOSE were delicious! :-)

Fiesta Rice

(Misadventures with Tori)

*Warning: This recipe makes A LOT of rice -- Tori says 8 cups prepared -- so if you don't want leftovers, or aren't sure...I highly reccomend making half.

*Warning #2: Tori also says it took her forever to get her rice cooked. As I was short on time, I cooked up some quick-cooking (<10>

2 teaspoons olive oil (I omitted)

1 (10 oz.) package frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed (I omitted because of DH's aversion to corn as a filler in recipes)

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup chopped green onions

1 1/2 cups uncooked brown rice (I used half white and half brown quick-cooking rice)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 cups fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

dash of salt

1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes with chiles, undrained (I couldn't find that size, so I used 1.5 10 oz. cans)

1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed (Tori recommends -- even if you halve the recipe -- keep the entire can of black beans. I agree!)

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Directions

- Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat

- Add corn to the pan, cook 10 minutes, or until corn starts to brown, stirring occassionally

- Remove from pan and set aside

- Melt butter in the pan, add onions and saute for 5 minutes or until tender

- Stir in rice, cumin, and garlic; cook 1 minute

- Add chicken broth, black pepper, salt, and diced tomatoes to pan; bring to a boil

- Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occassionally

- Remove from heat, stir in reserved corn and the black beans

- Cover and let stand 10 minutes

- Stir in cilantro and lime juice

Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon-Sugar Tortilla Chips

This recipe was recently posted on the What's Cooking board that I frequent. Everyone was asked what their "best" item was -- and Robyn said hers was fruit salsa.

We all begged for the recipe, and this was what she told us!

This is AMAZING. Eating the fruit with the chips, it tastes like healthy apple pie! It's deeeeelicious!

Warning: This makes enough to feed an Army. I didn't stop to consider this when chopping the fruit, so now I've got enough fruit salsa for the Armed Forces. If you're making this for 2 people (like I did) you may want to halve everything. If you're making it for company -- make the whole thing. They'll eat every ounce!

Fruit Salsa

(Robyn, on What's Cooking)

2 red apples

2 green apples

2 pears

2 peaches

1 carton raspberries (I used blueberries because DH doesn't like raspberries)

3 tablespoons orange juice

2 teaspoons honey

2 lemons (or equivalent in juice)

Directions

- Dice all fruit very finely and put in a large mixing bowl

- Squeeze 1/2 a lemon's worth of juice after each addition (1/2 lemon after adding all red apple, 1/2 lemon after adding all green apple, etc)

- Whisk together the orange juice and the honey and pour it over the fruit. Carefully mix together

**It's best made the day before, and as long as you use plenty of lemon and orange juice, it won't brown**

Cinnamon-Sugar Tortilla Chips

10-15 10" flour tortillas (I had enourmous burrito tortillas...next time I'll use smaller ones for smaller chips!)

melted butter

cinnamon/sugar mixture

Directions

- Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F

- Brush melted butter on whole tortilla and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mix

- Use a pizza cutter and cut into 8 sections

- Fill up a baking sheet with them

- Bake at 350 degrees for 10-11 minutes, or until crisped up

Protein Bars

I exercise 5 days a week. And I do so in the afternoon -- after work and before dinner. This means I'm almost always looking for some kind of afternoon snack to get me through my workout and give me time to get home, shower, and make dinner before I am ravenously hungry.

I've tried the store-bought protein bars, but they often upset my delicate stomach, or, they simply have the WORST consistency on earth (I am a "consistency" eater -- if it doesn't feel right in my mouth, forget it!!)

Chelley had these bars on her blog, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to give them a try. The protein would be of much use to me as an afternoon snack, and I'd never tried protein powder, so this seemed like a pretty safe introduction!

These bars are actually pretty good. I'd like to try them with vanilla or unflavored powder -- see if they taste more pea-nutty than chocolate-y. The chocolate flavor just has a little too much of that "this is health food chocolate" taste to it, for me.

DH also enjoyed these bars immensely. I've bookmarked several others to try, but this is the only no-bake, 5-minutes-flat style bar I have saved!

No-Bake Protein Bars
(Chelley's Blog)

Makes 9 bars

1/2 cup natural peanut butter (I used a chunky version and really liked the peanuts in these bars)
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
4 scoops chocolate protein powder
2 tablespoons flax seed
6 tablespoons milk (I needed a splash more milk than this)

Directions
- Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl
- Spread into a greased 8 x 8 glass dish and refrigerate until firm enough to cut.
- Cut into 9 squares, wrap individually, and store in the refrigerator.

Nutritional Info:
(Per Chelley)

1 serving = 1 bar

200 calories
8 g fat
15 carbs
15 g protein

Open-Faced Turkey Patty Melt

I received this recipe in a cooking e-mail list I belong to, and DH approved it for trying.

It was tasty, but a lacking a bit on flavor. I added some garlic to the mix to help it, but feel free to add any of your usual turkey burger ingredients to it -- it needs some kick!

Changes are in bold.

All-in-all I'd make it again...it WAS tasty!

Open-Faced Turkey Patty Melt
(Original from Cooking Light)

(Makes 4 burgers)

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup vertically sliced sweet onion
1/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons Worchestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 pound ground turkey breast
1 large egg white
cooking spray
4 1-ounce slices reduced-fat swiss cheese (I used provolone)
4 slices light ryebread (I used Portugese bread)
1/4 cup dijon-style mustard (I left this off mine, DH said it was tasty)

Directions
- Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat
- Add onion to the pan and cook 5 minutes, or until lightly browned, stirring occasionally
- Transfer onion to a bowl

- Preheat broiler

- Combine ricotta cheese, worchestershire, black pepper, minced garlic, turney breast and egg white.
- Divide the turkey mixture into 4 equal portions, shaping each into a 1/2-inch-thick patty (Gently -- this mixture is VERY wet!)
- Return pan to medium heat, and coat pan with cooking spray.
- Add patties to the pan, cook approx 4-6 minutes or until brown. Turn patties over, cook until center is cooked through.
- Top each patty with 1 cheese slice; cook 2 minutes or until cheese melts and patties are done.

- Places bread slices in a single layer on a baking sheet and broil for 2 minutes or until toasted.
-I then placed the turkey burgers on the sheet, and slipped it under the broiler for another minute to lightly brown the cheese
- Spread 1 tablespoon of mustard on each toast slice, then top each with 1 patty.
- Divide onion mixture amongst 4 burgers

We served it simply, with a veggie medley.