Broccoli Beef

One of my favorite Chinese dishes is broccoli beef. For this dish I used a sauce from Lee Kum Kee called Sauce for Broccoli Beef, how easy is that? What's best about this dish is that it tastes like you just ordered it in a Chinese restaurant.

 

Ingredients:
1 cup long grain white rice

3/4 pound beef. In this dish I used sliced Flat Iron steak, but flank steak, skirt steak, new york steak or rib eye would work great. 

Broccoli
2 cloves sliced garlic
1 teaspoon avocado oil

Diced green onion

chopped cilantro

 

Preparation:
Prepare your rice in a rice cooker according to the package directions which is usually 1 cup rice, 2 cups water and 1 teaspoon salt.
 

Prepare the broccoli by using a stove top steamer to steam the broccoli. Cook the broccoli about five minutes so it's cooked, but still is firm to the bite, also called al dente. When cooked, rinse in cold water and set a side.

Take a 12" sauté pan and heat to high. Add the avocado oil and let heat 30 seconds. Add the beef and garlic and cook 2 minutes. Add the broccoli and toss until heated and your done.
 

 To serve, place some rice on a serving plate and top with broccoli beef. Garnish the dish with diced green onions and cilantro.  

Pumpkin Soup

Here's a quick and easy soup that I will sometimes make for lunch. In this version I left out the dairy, but if you want to take this soup to the next level of richness, add 1/4 cup half and half and a tablespoon of butter.

 

Ingredients:

32oz organic chicken broth

1 can Farmers Market organic pumpkin available at Whole Foods

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Combine the chicken stock and organic pumpkin in a large stock pot and bring to boil. Reduce the heat and let simmer for 10 minutes. Take half the soup and blend until silky smooth. Blend the rest of the soup and check for proper salt and you're done. 

Roasted Beet and Blue Cheese Salad

I love the roasted beet and blue cheese combination. The key to this salad for me is to keep it as healthy as possible by using the proper ingredients. I like Treasure Cave reduced fat blue cheese and Opa brand Greek yogurt blue cheese salad dressing. This dressing is so good and only has 6 grams of fat per serving.

  

Ingredients:

1 head green leaf lettuce

Opa Greek yogurt blue cheese salad dressing

Roasted beets. Found in most grocery stores and Trader Joe's

Treasure cave reduced fat blue cheese

Fresh ground pepper

 

Preparation:

Prepare you lettuce by cutting the lettuce into bite size pieces washing in a salad spinner. Make sure the lettuce is perfectly dry because if there is water on the lettuce, the salad dressing will get watered down and won't be nearly as good. Place the prepared lettuce in a large salad bowl and toss with the blue cheese dressing.

 

To serve, place a portion of the salad on a plate. Top with chopped roasted beets, blue cheese and a grind of fresh ground pepper.

Sweet Hot Mustard Roasted Chicken Breast

It's simple....it's easy...it's awesome. It's sweet hot mustard roasted chicken breast.

 

Ingredients:

Chicken half breast, bone in, skin on
Beaver brand hot sweet mustard
Salt and pepper

Preparation:
Rinse the chicken breasts in cold water and set on some paper towels to dry. For a more attractive presentation, take your poultry shears and cut off the thin boney section of the chicken breast.

Place the chicken breasts on a baking pan and brush on a thick layer of sweet hot mustard and then a grind of salt and pepper. Take your spray canola and spray on a thin coating, this will keep the mustard from burning. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 40 minutes depending on thickness of the meat. Use a thermometer to check the temperature,which should be 160 degrees or higher when done. 

Black Pepper White Beans and Rice with Chipotle Chorizo Chicken Sausage

While this recipe is close to my red beans and rice dish, the black pepper white beans have a completely different flavor because there is no tabasco sauce in the beans, just lots of fresh ground black pepper.

Interestingly, when you add 1 to 2 teaspoons fresh ground pepper, you don't really notice the spiciness of the pepper, but rather the flavor of the pepper. Pair the black pepper white beans up with a chipotle chorizo sausage for an awesome meal.

 

Ingredients:

1 package al fresco chicken sausage

2 cans Bushes white beans

Salt to taste

1 - 2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper to taste

1 teaspoon olive oil

Dice green onions

Preparation:

Preparation: Rice

Start the rice off in a rice cooker first and it will be done just as everything else is coming together. 1 cup of white basmati rice to 2 cups of water and teaspoon salt.

 

Preparation: Beans

Drain and rinse the beans and add to a sauce pan. Add 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. Once heated take a large fork or potato masher and mash 1/2 of the beans. Add 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper and some salt. Taste the beans and if you can't taste the pepper add another teaspoon. Mix in the olive oil and turn off the heat while preparing the rest of the dish.
 

Preparation: Sausages

The sausages are usually already cooked so all you want is to heat in a sauté pan until golden brown.
 

To serve, place some rice on the plate, use a mold for presentation if you like. Add some beans to the plate and top with a sausage and garnish with fresh ground black pepper and diced green onions.

Sautéed Garlic Eggplant

One of my goals of my blog is to have  many eggplant recipes because they are so good and so good for you. Here is just a straight up sautéed garlic eggplant recipe, but the key to cooking sautéed eggplant is that you add the garlic at the end of the cooking process so the garlic doesn't burn.

 

Ingredients:

2 medium eggplant

6 cloves crushed garlic

1 tablespoon olive or avocado oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Red pepper flakes

 

Preparation:

Peel the eggplant and cut into 3/4" cubes. Add the avocado oil to a 12' sauté pan and then the eggplant and toss to mix in the oil. Cover and cook the eggplant on medium stirring every few minutes so all the sides of the eggplant get browned. The eggplant actually takes longer than you think cook, about 20 minutes.

 

After 15 minutes, add the crushed garlic and mix well. Continue to cook the eggplant for another 5 minutes stirring regularly and you're done.

 

To serve, place the eggplant on a serving dish and garnish with red pepper flakes, finely chopped Italian parsley and salt and pepper to taste.  

 

Crock Pot Vodka Chicken

This is why I love cooking; I have a couple of chicken breasts and a jar of Emeril's Vodka sauce....and a crock pot. Five minutes of preparation and 6 hours later, BAM...so good!

 

Ingredients:

2 half chicken breasts

1 jar Emeril's Vodka Sauce

1/2 pound pasta of choice

 

Preparation:

Rinse the chicken breasts in cold water and add to the bottom of a crock pot. Pour on the vodka sauce, set the crock pot for 6 hours and that's it.

 

Prepare your pasta of choice according to directions. To serve, place a portion of pasta on the serving plate. Place some chicken and sauce on the pasta and garnish with parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes, fresh ground black pepper and chopped Italian parsley.

Southwestern Chicken Caesar Salad

This is a really nice diversion from the standard chicken Caesar salad. The roasted corn, black bean cilantro and peppery crunchy croutons fit right in with the garlicky Caesar dressing.

Ingredients: Serves 2

Romaine lettuce
4 tablespoons Girard's light Caesar dressing
1 large grilled and diced chicken breast
2 crushed garlic cloves
3/4 cup roasted corn
3/4 cup black beans
1/2 bunch chopped cilantro
Croutons, home made if possible
Parmesan cheese
Black pepper

Preparation:
Mince 2 cloves of garlic and mix in with the salad dressing in a small bowl and set a side.

Rinse, dry and cut up into bit size pieces 1 large head of romaine lettuce and place in a large salad bowl. Make sure the lettuce is very dry because if there is any water on the lettuce it will dilute the salad dressing and dilute the flavor.

What I like to do is mix in half the chicken, corn, black beans, and cilantro and toss with the salad dressing. I then take the other half of the ingredients and place on top of the salad.

Finish the salad with croutons and fresh grated parmesan cheese and ground black pepper.

Fish Tacos

I love Rubio's fish tacos. We don't have Rubio's in the Northwest and I don't get to California that much anymore, so I'm on the quest to make the perfect copy cat Rubio's fish taco with black pepper beans. Stay tuned...

This recipe is a solid fish taco, but it's not Rubio's. The key to this taco being so good is the uncooked flour tortilla. When you cook the tortilla yourself it takes the taco to a whole other level. Second, you have to find the right battered frozen fish fillets. This time I use Haddock. It had the right batter, cooked up nice, but I didn't think the flavor was all that great. Next time I'll stick with battered cod.
 

Ingredients:
Tortilla land uncooked flour tortilla's
Frozen battered fish filets
Shredded lettuce
Shredded Monterey jack cheese
1/2 bunch chopped cilantro
1 large avocado
1/2 cup light sour cream

Preparation:
Heat the over to 450 degrees and place the frozen fish on a baking sheet and cook for 15 minutes turning once. While the fish is cooking, prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Take the avocado and combine with the light sour cream. You can completely mix in the avocado or leave slightly chunky depending how you like it. Shred 1/4 head iceberg lettuce and set a side. Chop the cilantro and set a side.

To make the fish taco's heat a 12" sauté pan to medium high. Toss on two 6" flour tortilla's and cook about 30 seconds per side. Please the tortilla's into a taco holder. Add some shredded lettuce and a crispy fish fillet. Top the taco with the avocado sour cream sauce, cilantro, jack cheese and a couple dashes of hot sauce.

Serve with black pepper beans: