Thursday, June 2, 2011

Baked Eggs with Tomatoes

Now this one... this one is one of my most favorite dishes. Before Jordan and I got married, I read through an entire italian food cook book I bought at TJ-Maxx called The complete book of Italian cooking by Carla Capalbo. One recipe stuck out because of how healthy and delicious it sounded! I gave it a whirl... and it was awesome!

Prep: 20 min
Cook: 20-30 min
Serves: 3 large or 6 small
Level: mostly easy!

Ingredients:
4 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion
1 lb tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
6 eggs
salt and ground black pepper
1 Tbsp butter
chopped fresh parsley to garnish
parmesean or mozerella cheese

Ok, so this book is calling for like freshy freshy, but I bought a pound can of chopped tomoatoes, used my can of chopped basil and parsley, and didn't use any butter. I also added:

1/2 lb of ground turkey
a few heads of broccoli chopped
a large handful of spinach leaves chopped

Step one:
Heat the oil in a pan and add the onion, cook until soft and golden.
Step two:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
Brown the turkey in a seperate pan and drain.
When the onion is soft and golden add the tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes. Stir in the spinach leaves, broccoli, turkey, and basil.
Transfer mixture to baking dish
Step three:
Break the eggs one at a time and slip them into the dish in one layer on top of the mixture. The goal is to have the eggs, yoke unbroken laying on top of the dish. Then sprinkle either mozerella or parmesean over eggs. Cover the dish and bake in the oven. the book says for 7-10 minutes, but since I add so much extra, I bake mine for a good 20-30 minutes until the eggs ontop are set. Serve at once! Brace yourself for the deliciousness!
This also makes a great breakfast!

Stuffed Turkey Burgers!

So, forgot to mention earlier... Ground turkey is another one we have been using a lot. We sub it for beef... but sometimes ya do gotta have beef! :) Well I was searching online for, again, healthy turkey burgers... and I found this great one on, again, foodnetwork.com! Recipe by the Neelys!

Prep time: 15 min
Cooking time: 15 min
Level: EASY!!
Serving: 4

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (or less if you have a husband who hates it)
1/2 vidalia onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 lbs lean ground turkey
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp soy sauce
a little salt a little peppa
8 slices pepper jack cheese( we used mozerella)
1 beefsteak tomato, sliced into 3/4 in thick rounds
Olive oil
4 large onion buns or rolls (we used whole wheat hamburger buns)
lettuce

Directions:
preheat grill to medium-high heat.
Put garlic, onion, mustard, turkey, salt and pepper, and soy sauce in a large mixing bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon(or whatever). Divide the turkey into 8 equal-sized balls and flatten them into patties. Lay two slices of cheese on 4 of the patties and cover with another patty. Seal the edges so that the cheese doesn't melt out.
press down into the center of each patty which will keep the burger from puffing up.
Season tomatoes with salt and pepper and brush with olive oil. grill for 2 min per side. Toast the buns as well.
The burgers need to be cooked about 5 or 6 minutes per side! and done! Put the burger together how you like it!

They suggested making a Spicy Mayo Sauce, but we opted out of that... here is the recipe:
1/2 C mayo (eww gross)
2 Tbsp hot chili sauce (Sriracha)
1/2 lime, juiced
mix well.

Jordan and I LOVE this recipe!

Slow-Cooker Chicken Gumbo

I had been trying to think of something yummy to make... so Jordan suggested Gumbo! Well, from what I heard about Gumbo, it can be very involved... I am not quite ready to be a multi-tasking cook... I get overwhelmed and very very messy! I really wanted to make it for him since he kept on suggesting it.. so I took on the challenge. I asked a couple of my cajun friends for recipes and looked up online "healthy gumbo" recipes. The one that I thought would be, I hate to admit it, the EASIEST was one from FoodNetwork.com posted by Robin Miller in 2006. I followed the recipe, mostly, then added a few of my own little zingers to make it our own!

Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 6-8 hours
Level: EASY!!!
Serves: 4-6 servings

Ingredients:
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2 inch pieces
1 (10 oz) package frozen okra, thawed (or not, whatever) mmmm...
2 links andouille sausage, diced (THIS SAUSAGE ROCKED!)
1 C chopped onions
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (red pepper) (I added WAY more, we like it spicy!)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper (I added more later, and a little salt)
2 C reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 C reduced-sodium tomato juice
2 C cooked brown rice
THEN! Jordan made a few changes of his own! He added:
1/2 lb shrimp (next time we'll use a whole pound!)
1 crab leg (for flavor... you can remove it or eat it at the end!)
Jordan likes it a little soupier, so HE added:
1 C water... ( I would have added another cup of broth myself.. for flavor.

Now! Comes the oh so difficult part...
THROW IT ALL IN THE CROCK POT! Mix it well... Cover... and Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours. I cooked mine for 8 on low. Then pour it over some delicious cooked brown rice!

Jordan now has a new favorite meal... He said so himself! YEAH! Cooking healthy can be delicious and EASY!!! Try it... play with it... and let me know what you think! We LOVED it!

Just call me Susie Homemaker, I suppose.

I have been on a cooking KICK lately! I have been loving cooking, trying new recipes, experimenting and everything that comes along with it! (except the dishes) Jordan isn't an extremely picky eater, but picky enough. I really have to think about what I cook now. The purpose of the food you put in your body is more important than how yummy it is, I've learned being married to a health-nut. It makes it challenging to make yummy dishes. Basically, I have been cooking with a few staple ingredients: Chicken, beans, brown rice, vegetables, whole wheat pasta, spices, eggs... and basically that's it... it gets frustrating thinking of variety. I am lucky enough to have a few friends who have given me different ideas and recipes! I have tried some and tweaked them to make them a little 'healthier'. Believe me, I was extremely skeptical to make a few of these meals a little more on the healthy side... I thought it would make them taste bad or not be as exciting... I was wrong! Cooking healthy can be delicious and EASY!!! I'm going to post a few of my recipes and hope that some of you will try them and let me know what you think! I will put up pictures later, but for now, I'm going to post each recipe as a separate entry in case you would like to look one up later!

ENJOY! (and please let me know if you have any other ideas!!! they're welcome!)