Chicken Molé (GiryaGirl)

When I am not prepping for a competition, which has now been 7 months, the longest period of “off season” time in years, I will stick to a clean and healthy diet 90% of the time. I will also allow myself treats like going out to eat cheeseburgers and fries (probably my favorites), some wine, some chocolate and lots of nut butters. 

I’m not a junk food junkie and never have been, so I don’t miss pizza (in fact there are very few commercial pizza’s I even like), I make my own excellent thin pizza (now David is going to want some, he can live off it), nor do I miss chips and cookies. I think a big part of it is that I do think about what goes in my body and I see what it does, I react very quickly to foods. I work hard to look good so when I see the negative effects, It really makes an impression on me.

I am a firm believer in whole foods, although I completely understand the benefits of a whey shake and simple carbs after training and take advantage of the anabolic effects. 

Diet foods, fat free foods and packaged foods modified to be lighter and less caloric are not often on my table. Cheese; yes, as it’s made with part skim milk, but that’s really it.  I will eat some fabulous foods in the off season but I still adhere to my schedule of several small meals, always a protein source (I eat fattier off season), always ample vegetables and only some starches in a couple of those meals.

I find that so many people lack imagination and think that they must stick to the tried and true, boring and bland diets. Like: Mexican is so fattening. Well, if you eat the flour tortillas, the re fried beans and all the cheese and loads of guacamole yes, it is. But you can make grilled vegetables and beef, chicken or fish and combine it with two 100% corn tortillas and have a very, very healthy and balanced meal. Top it with all the fresh salsa you want and a small amount of avocado and it's great.

So…..recently I was reading GiryaGirl.com, a site I enjoy quite a bit. Adrienne posted a healthy chicken Molé recipe made in the slow cooker. You know I love chocolate, and I love spices so, Molé has always been on my list of favorites. This had "Kristy" written all over it.

I decided to make the entire batch, 4 pounds of chicken because I would eat it for lunch, and freeze a bit for later. I used a whole chicken (light and dark) but would typically use only breast meat if really watching calories. 

I changed the method of preparation only because I have a VitaMix and it is made to process large amounts of whole foods, so I dumped all the Mole ingredients (everything but the chicken) right into that, pulsed it till smooth and ever so slightly chunky and voila, Molé sauce!  (I cannot express how much I love my VitaMix).

You can find the recipe on Adrienne’s site GiryaGirl.com and I have also included a link to a word document at the bottom of this post so that you can easily print it out if you like.

The plate at the top is my dinner. It is two pieces of chicken slathered in rich, spicy sauce  along with broccoli and avocado. Below is David's, he has no broccoli but a Mexican Curtido (pickled cabbage) that he made; along with some brown rice. I totally forgot to add chopped cilantro to it and it bummed me out because I love cilantro! Don't skip it!!

First step was roughly chopping the ingredients, so I put it all into the Vitamix and then pulsed and pureed it to a nice consistency (this is before pureeing). 

Then I got out my behemoth of a slow cooker. I really need to come up with a name for this thing, it's huge! 

The whole, cut up chicken went in, bones but NO SKIN! 

I poured in the sauce. I chose to keep it slightly chunky, it's all personal preference,  so blend it  more if you want it silky and smooth.

Mixed it well with the chicken to ensure the sauce thoroughly coats all the chicken.

I set it on low and let it cook for 7 hours. It looks stunning doesn't it? The guys were sitting in the living room watching James Bond....Cooper was home for the Thanksgiving break. I called into them "Hey, come try my Molé!" 

They acquiesce because they are always being asked to try my diet foods and they are troopers. They are also quite familiar with my saying:

"If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy"

So they both walked in, very un enthusiastically and took their little bowls and forks I offered.

And they tasted.

"This is GREAT!!!" Cooper says. He asks for more. "Wow!" says David. "Good. Really, really good!"

They ask if we are having it for dinner and I explain  "no, it's for me, for my lunches".  

Cooper asks if I will make it when he comes home for the Christmas break, and David wants it before then. I end up eating it once for one dinner with David. Cooper has gone back to school with half of it and David has eaten the remainder for his lunches.

I am excited. Something healthy, delicious, SLOW COOKED, easy and did I say Molé?

Here is a link to a Word document so you can easily print it out. 

Miracle Rice

You may have also heard of Shirataki, although these are not the same. Generally the Shirataki in the stores has soy, Miracle Noodle has none. I avoid soy and prefer this. If you are hoping this will be just like rice, it won't be, I will assure of that now. But if you are looking for a substitute, that has virtually zero calories and carbs, and has a similar texture and usage, this is your baby!

I have a bunch of rice, fettuccine and angel hair, I got it all on a special online deal. It is made of a healthy natural fiber called Glucomannan, you can pretty much eat as much as you want, feel full and satisfied and not worry about the calories. 

The bag also has health claims, but I am not aware of any real health benefits, only the fact that a bag of this won't cause your blood sugar to spike like a bowl or rice will! Now that Cooper has gone away to school, David and I are eating more of the same foods...not all the same but close. Tonight I was making some Miracle Noodles, Spanish style, he would have fingerling potatoes.

The noodles (rice)  smell when you open them, be sure to rinse them well, then boil a couple minutes and then place in a colander to drain, or on a paper towel. They will be heated later in the sauce.

I love to experiment and this one evolved quickly. I put a small amount of olive oil in a pan, and added three thinly sliced garlic cloves and let them heat just a couple minutes, I didn't brown them. I then added two large heirloom tomatoes that had been finely chopped, about a cup and a half (I found them in my purse, it's a long story but I was at a Tomato Dinner....).

I then let it cook down a bit and added a splash of balsamic vinegar, about a tablespoon. I decided it needed more so I added a teaspoon of Spanish smoked paprika, some black pepper and a big pinch of saffron threads. I love saffron and get big containers when I visit my brother in Spain, or he brings it here.

It was looking a little dry so I added some water, or you could add broth. I think I put in about a 1/4 cup. I wanted it slightly liquid, but not saucy, this would coat the rice only. I added the cooked Miracle Rice. 

I mixed the rice thoroughly in the sauce, until it was all nicely coated.

I then served it with grilled wild salmon and grilled radicchio that had been coated in a balsamic vinaigrette. I found a nice squeeze of lemon was superb on the rice. It was fantastic! This is a great side dish, and will help you feel like you ate a huge meal (if you want to feel that way).

Guess who ate several bites and asked if I might share it with him next time?

David!

I will be making this again and again, and have several ideas to change it up a bit.

Turkey Tikka

Dieting, or “eating clean” as they say can get rather…boring at times. It doesn’t have to be though; you just need to use your imagination. Spices are your friend, they add nothing but flavor and the possibilities are endless!

A couple weeks ago I was chatting with Roy, or rather texting. He sent me a picture of his food, it looked wonderful! I asked him what it was and he said “chicken in spices and yogurt”…hmm, I can do that, low cal and delicious!

I asked him to get the recipe- he sent me this:

Not a lot of detail huh? But that’s ok, I can deal with that! As I say over and over, “Cooking is an art not a science”.

I made a change though, something else I always say “Rules are meant to be broken, they are merely guidelines for people who can’t figure out life on their own.”

I used turkey tenderloins! Ha ha ha!! I just happened to have them and I am also not a wasteful person, so I use what I have on hand.

I was home for the day; Cooper had his wisdom teeth pulled so I had time to putz around the house. Not ever having this dish, and only hearing from Roy that he enjoyed it, I just used my imagination as to correct measurements.

This is what I used, if you know anything about Chicken Tikka, feel free to let me know how I did!

I assembled my ingredients and this is the beautiful pallet of colors and spices.

I then smashed it all together to make a thick paste, sounded like the right thing to do.

I added in the Greek yogurt and again mixed it well to incorporate all the spices into the yogurt.

Then I added the turkey that I had cut into large pieces and made sure it was all well coated. I snapped a lid on it and put it in the refrigerator for two days. It was only supposed to stay for one, but I forgot about it! 

Roy said to bake it at 350 degrees and cover it with foil so it stayed moist.  I texted a picture when it was done and he said it looked right to him.

About that time I decided I should write about it so I asked him what it was called. He said: “Well, if you ordered it in a restaurant it would be called Chicken Tikka.” I laughed hysterically; I have seen the name many times and was always interested as I like the name.

Doesn’t Turkey Tikka sound better?

I like it, although I have no idea if it tastes like it is supposed to. It is mild, I was expecting something a bit spicier, so I added some sriracha sauce after I warmed it up to eat it, this was quite tasty.

You can serve this with any cooked plain green vegetable and I found it delightful with sautéed mixed cabbage (I have been eating a lot of that lately). If you eat starch then a sweet potato or brown rice is good also.

Gazpacho

Summertime means fresh tomatoes from the garden and wonders of what on earth to do with them all. It also means eating foods that are room temperature or even chilled, so to me that is gazpacho!

David came to me the other day and said “where’s your gazpacho recipe? I want to make some and nothing on the Internet looks very interesting.”

I am an organized person, except my recipes, I have bits of papers and copies in many boxes in three different rooms. This was a great opportunity to find it, type it, and save a soft copy. I have been doing that lately, and it makes it oh so much easier to find them later!

Gazpacho is like spaghetti sauce, everyone makes it different. In Spain, I recall every restaurant serves this as part of the “menu del dia” and theirs is a blended gazpacho, almost like tomato soup. While I enjoyed it, mine is the exact opposite; it is a clear broth (as opposed to tomato juice), and the vegetables are all chopped by hand and crunchy, you see the different vegetables and taste each one separately.

David made this, and as usual comes to me and has me taste it. “What’s missing?” he asks, he can tell but doesn’t know. I tell him to add a bit more pepper, some salt and did he put in the Tabasco? “Ah, Tabasco! I forgot.”

This was wonderful, we had it prior to our main dish, but it would be a great meal in itself if you grilled or broiled some shrimp and added them at the last minute.

The recipe is as follows or you can click here for a word document.

Happy, healthy summer eating!

Clear Gazpacho

4 cups chicken broth, chilled (homemade if possible)

4 medium tomatoes, chopped (retain juices with tomatoes)

2 tablespoons olive oil

8 teaspoons lime juice

1 small red onion, finely chopped

2 bell peppers (red or a mix), finely chopped

2 stalks celery, finely chopped

1 large English cucumber, seeded and finely chopped

½ teaspoon fresh oregano

2 cloves garlic, minced

Several dashes Tabasco or cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon pepper

Salt to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl; do not use a blender or food processor. Chill well.

Can be served alone or with cooked shrimp added just before serving. Serves 4 as a main dish, 6 to 8 as an appetizer.

Grilled Shrimp Skewers with Watermelon, Cucumber & Yellow Tomato Salsa

This was from the Food and Wine section of the San Francisco Chronicle, a great healthy and wonderfully fresh dish. David made it too!


You can find the recipe on my Pinterest board. Just click on the link, it will take you to a lovely picture then click on that to be taken to the actual web page where it appeared. I love Pinterest, it is such a great way to keep track of anything on the Internet.


This dish serves 4-6 (I would say 4). I will explain what we did and then please go to the actual site for the detailed information. 


If using wood skewers you need to soak them for 20 minutes in water so they don't flame up on you. I just pop them in a tall glass and turn them once in a while.


Make a "salsa" with watermelon; yellow tomatoes (you can use red but the contrasting colors are nice); cucumber; white balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper. I thought it would be great with some diced up serranos but then I love spicy food. Make it ahead and let it sit a bit.


Thread raw, shelled large shrimp onto the skewers. I usually buy bags of Wild Blue Shrimp from Mexico at Trader Joe's. They are lower in sodium than other frozen shrimp and they are very sweet, I eat a lot of shrimp.


Rub the shrimp with olive oil, salt and pepper. 


Grill them on a BBQ, just until cooked through. We did them 3 minutes a side, I don't like tough, dry shrimp!


Place a skewer on a plate, serve with a side of the wonderful salsa and a salad.


I cannot wait to have this again!


I ate the left over shrimp the following day, cold in a salad, it was stupendous.

Fritatta

I have been experimenting with a no starch diet now for a month, it has been great. The only problem is,  I dropped weight and now have re-gained it. I guess I enjoyed it too much! Don't panic, I am talking two pounds, and that can fluctuate based on just what I ate and drank the day before!


So the idea of my "no starches" is that I need to increase fats. Well, I increased them too much I think, I was lazy and didn't weigh and measure. I am now doing that again so I can actually make an intelligent decision on all of this.


One thing I have quite enjoyed is fritatta. It is so easy and you can basically make it with whatever you have on hand. This started because David made something and it required 8 egg whites so I stopped him from throwing the yolks away. I combined them with slightly more egg whites from a carton!


I used whole eggs basically, full fat cheese, vegetables and pancetta (Italian bacon). So, if you were watching your weight you might use mostly egg whites (a couple yolks for richness and the flavor), low fat cheese, vegetables and no bacon or maybe turkey bacon (never tried it so I'm not sure). 


It can be low calorie and delicious, I know as I have made it before that way! You know how to do it!


In a well seasoned fritatta pan (or a pan that can go in the oven- don't use a non-stick). Coat it well with butter or olive oil ("no" calorie watching or "yes" calorie watching). Add whatever chopped ingredients you wish, here I had sautéed zucchini and pancetta, I am just warming it at this point in the process, the vegetables and pancetta were already cooked. Pour over the eggs (whole eggs or a combination of some whole eggs and some egg whites), add mozzarella cheese (or any cheese you like) and then with a rubber spatula, gently lift the edges as the eggs cook, the uncooked egg with run down the sides and fill up the space.

Add some more mozzarella (here I have small pieces of fresh buffalo mozzarella, the white chunks). 

When it is mostly set, after gently lifting the sides away and letting the uncooked egg run under, it will be time to put it under the broiler. 

The egg puffs, the top browns and the cheese melts. this was only a few minutes. It depends on the oven, the pan and the distance from the burner. I would go anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes. 

All done and ready to cut into wedges. This is great served hot, room temperature or cold. In the picture at the top of the page I had it with avocado. See why I gained some weight? I should have left out the avocado....

Do try this, even on a low calorie diet. Just use less whole eggs, less cheese, and more vegetables. Eggs are a super good source of protein and this is a great breakfast, lunch or dinner!

Vietnamese Beef Salad

One of my favorites! I love beef, and salad and the strong flavors in this dish. Of course, as usual, I did not follow the recipe, I will explain what I did and provide links to the actual recipe from Williams Sonoma.


Remember, Cooking is an art- do what feels right and what excites you.


First I got a 100% grass fed flank steak and had the butcher run it through the tenderizer once to make it very tender. The tenderizer will punch tons of minute holes in the meat and make it more tender and able to hold flavors better. I then sliced it super thin, across the grain into long strips.

I assembled the marinade ingredients, you can see most of them here. I have sesame oil, fish sauce, garlic, lemongrass, Thai red chile paste, lime juice, brown sugar. If you are concerned with sugar feel free to substitute your favorite sweetener instead.  Also, if you have never cooked with fish sauce, this is not an ingredient that can be left out, it makes the dish, you must use it! Don't worry- you can get it at Safeway or any chain grocer...look in the Asian or International section.

I mixed it all together. Be sure to smash up the hard bits of the brown sugar and stir it together well. If your lemon grass is big and tough, smack it with the flat side of a knife to release the flavors, manhandle it!

I added the meat and turned it to coat then put it in the refrigerator overnight, this is some strong flavored stuff! 

So after I let it marinade all night, I heated a cast iron skillet really hot, then coated it in olive oil and "stir fried" the beef very quickly. I then made a salad based on this recipe from Williams-Sonoma, but I left out the rice noodles and the butter lettuce. I used my favorite Super Greens, and added the other ingredients. The mint and cilantro are not optional, you must use them. I grow mint in my garden and the flavor it adds to salads is out of this world!


I did not serve it with the dipping sauce (recipe here), I actually just tossed the salad with the sauce as the dressing. It's sweet and sticky, a little goes a long way.


Also, I tripled the garlic in the meat marinade.....


You can always check me out on Pinterest, my recipes are posted there in case you lose them! 

Thought you might like to see how I look from behind these days!

LOL!

Basque Fish

I eat fish of some sort every single day, it's a great lean protein source and is typically very quick and easy to prepare. I eat a lot of tilapia because it's inexpensive and it takes on the flavor of whatever spice you cook it with.

This is what I call Basque Fish, I made it up...as usual. I do have a good reason for calling it Basque Fish, it's based on the spices found in typical Basque Cuisine and it reminds me of the Basque food I had when visiting my brother in Spain a few times. 

Above I have my 1:00 meal (lunch #2 as David calls it). Fish and asparagus. It's great with fresh lemon squeezed over it too!

I came up with this as I usually do by using the ingredients I had on hand, which happened to be a lot of very ripe tomatoes. Red ones and yellow ones. I lined a baking dish with foil then laid the tilapia filets on top. I roughly chopped the tomatoes and put them all over the fish then a very generous amount of smokey Spanish paprika (I like agri-dulce otherwise known as bittersweet).

Baked uncovered in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes (test a piece by flaking into it, it should be firm yet still moist, not raw or squishy looking inside) and the tomatoes released juices and mingled with the fish, the paprika melted into the tomatoes and a wonderful sauce was created.

Another view, you can see some of the browed bits on top where the tomatoes caramelized. 

Here I am eating it with cauliflower. It goes well with any vegetable as long as it is a plain one (no other sauce).


This is great even at room temperature, but then I can eat just about anything at room temperature these days...


You can always add some black olives if you want a bit more flavor, I would use Kalamata (Greek) not pitted black California, they have absolutely no flavor! Remember that olives are "fat pellets" though, calorie dense so if you are watching your weight, leave them out.

Turkey Chili

I have posted about this before but I think people tend to think cooking is a science and very specific, it is not. Baking, on the other hand is.

I love food in bowls, odd huh?  I was in the mood for some hot and spicy chili so I decided to make turkey chili again. I bought the ground turkey breast and then search in the fridge for the rest of the ingredients, I will use what I have!

I also love cooking, and spend hours every week making foods for the rest of the week. David is acting as the photographer today. He shouts "How about a lat spread while you stir!" LOL!

 

So what did I do this time? I sauteed red and white onion in olive oil (I had both onions), along with lots of chopped garlic. I then added about a pound and a half of ground turkey breast and cooked it till it was no longer pink. I then added lots of vegetables. I will not add beans to this so it is important to have vegetables as a carbohydrate. I have added lots of chopped purple cabbage, celery, carrots, fresh and pickled jalapenos, a Serrano chile.

The spice today were my new Spanish Smoked Chorizo rub, red pepper flakes, cayenne and a small amount of dried chipotle chile powder, I like it spicy! Then three 14 ounce cans of chopped tomatoes, a fresh tomato (it was about to die) and 16 ounces chicken stock.

I let it simmer away until it was the thickness I wanted and then package it up and freeze some, leave some in the fridge.

I got so excited I ate most before I took the picture, but I have topped it with fresh avocado and Greek yogurt. I then splash on Tabasco!

Spice of Life

Life should be lived in Technicolor!

If you haven’t noticed, I wear bright clothes, and flashy clothes. I like to be noticed. Sure, I wear black sometimes, but what a boring color that is. There are entire countries where women walk around shrouded in all black, can you imagine how depressing the place must be?

Seeing bright colors brightens my day too, I think we all smile when we see something that makes our eyes pop; flowers, clothes, houses, hair!

Just like bright colors I like bright flavors; food should not be boring either!

I have written about my spices before and I wanted to share this as I just received a big order and thought you might like to see what I am enjoying, and I have a coupon code that you can use to get 30% off an order!

I just got:

Merguez sausage rub

Smoked spanish Chorizo rub

Sichimi Togarashi (Japanese  7 spice)

Asian smoked tea rub


Curry Vindaloo

Bland food is boring to me. I love the flavor of vegetables  in season, but chicken tastes like chicken year round, same with turkey, beef and fish. So I like to season them with these spices and bake, roast or grill them. Its quite economical to get them in these plastic bags, and if you use a lot, you can get a pound for $15.00 or less for most! David loves the merguez and chorizo on his meats, Cooper loves the Sichimi Togarashi for his ramen.

I put them into old jars and usually just cut the label off and tape it on unless I haven't emptied the bag yet. I suppose I could be Susie-homemaker and buy pretty jars and decorate them, but I am a far cry from Martha Stewart (except maybe when she did her stint in jail) and I am not gonna waste money on fancy jars when old jam jars work fine.

I use the chorizo and merguez on turkey, chicken and beef. The sichimi togarashi on shrimp, the vindaloo curry on fish, the Asian smoked tea on poultry, oh and there is some wild smoked black salt I like on eggs. The crunch of the large crystals is amazing. Their white truffle salt is even more sublime.

Just writing about this makes me think everyone will picture me protecting my bowl of food, and try to take it away and I bite your hand off!

So, the good folks at Whole Spice are having a sale, you can place an order and receive 30% off the entire order through June 19, 2012!! Act fast, that's only in a few days. Enter coupon code "Spice" at checkout, and there is free shipping on orders over $75.00.

Spice up your life!