Grilled Skirt Steak Taco's

I'm loving these taco's. Easy to prepare and so authentic with the uncooked corn tortilla's made fresh.

Ingredients:
Tortilla Land uncooked corn tortilla's
1 skirt steak
Shredded iceberg lettuce
1 diced Roma tomato
1/8 cup diced yellow onion
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Shredded Monterey jack cheese
1 large smashed avocado
Lite sour cream
1 lime

Heat the barbecue to high. Add some salt and pepper to each side of the skirt steak, a little spray olive oil and place the grill. Cook the skirt steak about 4 minutes per side or until medium rare. When done place on a plate covered in foil for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, slice into thin strips and then cut into bite size pieces.

 

Heat a 12" sauté pan or flat top griddle to medium high. Add 2 tortillas and cook for about 1 minute per side, no need for butter or oil. Place the tortilla's on a plate or taco rack if you have one. 

 

To serve, start with a little shredded lettuce across the bottom of the tortilla's and add some grilled skirt steak. Next, add a little diced yellow onion, chopped cilantro, diced tomato, shredded cheese, mashed avocado, lite sour cream. Squeeze the lime over the taco and you're ready eat enjoy and awesome taco.

 

Find my black bean recipe here:

Black Beans

Chicken BLT Salad

So, my wife says "this is the best thing I've ever had." I don't know about that, but it was pretty good though. This reinforces why I do this blog, because a week from now I'll forget all about it this recipe and I actually do want to make this again. This a perfect lite dinner that tastes so good. Ground chicken is one of my favorite meats to cook with and when you add a thick grilled tomato slice and some crumbled bacon, so good. Best part about this dish is that I use my back splash flat top griddle on the barbecue to cook the chicken patty, bacon and grilled tomato.  



Ingredients for 2:
6 Romaine lettuce leafs
4 tablespoons Bolt House blue cheese yogurt dressing
1 large beef steak tomato
1/2 pound ground chicken
4 slices precooked bacon
Shredded cheddar cheese
Lite sour cream
Green onions
Chopped cilantro
Sriracha

Preparation:

Place your grill pan on the barbecue at medium high heat and start by crisping up the bacon. Now, you want to use precooked bacon because otherwise there will be way to much grease to deal with. Precooked bacon will crisp up in 4 - 5 minutes and leave a little grease behind to cook the chicken patty and tomato. When the bacon is done set a side.

Take the ground chicken and make 2 thin patty's and place on the grill. Slice the tomato in half and place on the grill. Salt and pepper the chicken and tomato's. The chicken patty 's and tomato cook about the same time, 6 - 8 minutes. When done set a side.

To assemble the salad, place 3 romaine lettuce leaves on a serving plate and add some blue cheese yogurt dressing. Place the grilled tomato on the lettuce and the chicken patty on the tomato. Place a tablespoon of lite sour cream on the chicken patty and garnish the dish with shredded cheddar cheese, green onions, chopped Italian parsley and a dash of Sriracha sauce.

Grilled Chicken on Sesame Noodles with Diced Avocado and Sriracha

Any grilled meat combined with sesame noodles is usually pretty awesome. The simple combination of the Japanese Udon noodles, toasted sesame seed oil and green onions can't be beat. I like barbecued chicken thighs with my sesame noodles because you can get a nice charred flavor from the fat on the meat. I dice up some avocado for the for a decadent topper and of course a few dashes of Sriracha. 

 

Ingredients:
1 package Welpak Japanese noodles
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
4 - 5 diced green onions
1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs
 1 large avocado or 2 medium avocados
1 tablespoon diced red onion
Dash of avocado oil
Sriracha

Preparation:

Take the avocado's and remove the pit. Use a large spoon to remove the avocado from the skin and  cut into a large dice. Place the avocado into a bowl and add the diced red onion and a dash of avocado oil.

 

Heat your grill to high. Use some spray canola oil to coat the chicken thighs and place on the grill. Cook the chicken thighs for about 5 minutes per side. If the grill is hot enough you should have some nice char and grill marks. Remove the chicken from the grill to a plate and cover with foil for 5 minutes.

 

Boil water in a large pot and cook the Japanese Udon noodles according to directions, about 5 minutes. When cooked, drain the noodles really well and place into a 12" sauté pan. 

 

Heat the sauté pan to medium and add the noodles, toasted sesame oil and green onions. Toss until all the noodles are well coated with the toasted sesame seed oil.

 

To serve, place a portion of sesame noodles on a plate. Take the barbecued chicken and dice into bite size pieces. Place a portion of chicken on the noodles. Lastly, place a generous scoop of avocado on the chicken and garnish with diced green onions and Sriracha.  

Wild Coldwater Shrimp Salad

Costco has these amazing fresh Coldwater shrimp that looked so good that I just had to give them a try. There are plenty of ways to make a shrimp salad, like just tossing on a little cocktail sauce, but I like my shrimp salad with finely diced celery, onion, tomato, garlic and chopped Italian parsley and just enough mayonnaise to hold the shrimp salad together.

Ingredients:

Shrimp Salad
1 pound Wild Coldwater shrimp
1/8 cup fine dice celery
1/8 cup fine dice medium yellow onion
1 fine dice Roma tomato
1 minced garlic clove
1 tablespoon chopped Italian parsley
2 tablespoons lite mayonnaise

Salad
Mixed greens for 2
4 tablespoon's Brianna's Vinaigrette salad dressing
2 Roma tomato's
1/2 medium cucumber
1 ripe avocado

Preparation:

Place the shrimp in a large mixing bowl and add the celery, onion, tomato, garlic, parsley and mayonnaise. Mix the shrimp salad gently, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for an hour.

Use a vegetable peeler and remove the skin from the cucumber and cut 10 thin slices. Take the Roma tomato's and cut into 4 or 5 slices each. Take the avocado and cut in half, discard the pit and slice each half into 6 pieces.

Place the mixed salad greens in a large salad bowl and toss with the Brianna's salad dressing.

To serve, place a large portion of salad greens on a serving plate. Use a small bowl as a mold for the shrimp salad and place the shrimp salad on top of the mixed greens. Place the cucumber, tomato and avocado slices around the shrimp salad. Garnish the plate with chopped Italian parsley and a grind of salt and pepper.

Garlic Marinated Grilled Chicken Served on Cilantro & Lime Cauliflower with Sriracha Cream Sauce

Today was a fun day because Penny Nakamura, the At Home section reporter for the Bend Bulletin came over to interview me for an article called, "In The Kitchen With." This is really the first time I've cooked with an interviewer and photographer and though a bit intimidating, I thought it went very well.

This dish I chose to make was Garlic Marinated Grilled Chicken Served on Cilantro & Lime Cauliflower with Sriracha Cream Sauce. This dish has everything that I like in a meal going for it. There's great layers of flavors that work so well together and low fat, high fiber and just delicious with the Sriracha cream sauce.
 

Ingredients:

4 boneless chicken breasts

4 cloves crushed garlic
1 medium head cauliflower
1 cup chopped cilantro
4 limes
1/4 lite sour cream
1/4 cup non fat plain Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon Sriracha sauce

Preparation:
Take your chicken breasts and rinse in cold water and set on paper towels to dry. I like to flatten out my chicken breast pieces because the chicken cooks more evenly, but you can certainly skip this step. Place a chicken breast piece in a 1 gallon Ziploc bag and use your meat pound / tenderizer to flatten out the thick part of the breast. Now that you have the chicken ready to marinate, take the crushed garlic and spread some on each piece of chicken. Place the chicken back into the Ziploc bag while you prepare the rest of the dish.
 

To make the Sriracha cream sauce, combine the lite sour cream, Greek yogurt and Sriracha into a squeeze bottle. Shake the cream sauce really well so the ingredients are well incorporated and place in the fridge while you prepare the cauliflower.

To make the cilantro lime sautéed cauliflower, we're going to use a food processor with the shredding blade to shred the cauliflower. Begin by breaking the cauliflower up into large pieces and run through the food processor until the entire head of cauliflower is shredded. Take your 12" sauté pan and add a tablespoon of olive oil or avocado oil. Add the cauliflower and sauté over medium heat. After about 5 minutes add the chopped cilantro, juice of 2 limes and  some salt and pepper to taste. Cook for another 5 minutes and you're done.

To grill the chicken, brush on some olive oil and then add some salt and pepper. Grill the chicken breast 3 - 4 minutes per side. When done, remove from the grill and cover with foil and set a side until you're ready to plate.

To serve, place a nice size portion of the cilantro lime cauliflower on a serving plate. Take one of the chicken breast pieces and slice into 1/2" pieces and place on the cauliflower. Squeeze on some Sriracha cream sauce and garnish with a little chopped cilantro, diced green onions and a couple wedges of lime. 

Pear, Avocado and Pecan Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette Dressing

This is a really tasty salad combination. The vinaigrette dressing is very light in flavor that doesn't overwhelm the pear and avocado. The key to this salad is to have perfectly ripe pears and avocados.

Ingredients:
1 head red leaf lettuce
2 ripe pears
1 large avocado
Pecan pieces
Red onion slivers
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 large garlic clove crusted
Pinch of sugar
Pinch of salt and pepper

Preparation:

Prepare the dressing by adding the olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, crushed garlic clove, sugar and salt and pepper to a mixing bowl. Take a whisk and mix completely until well emulsified.

Cut the lettuce into bite size pieces and rinse and dry using your salad spinner. Place the dry lettuce into a salad bowl and add the dressing and toss.

To serve, place a portion of salad on to a serving plate. place some pear, avocado, slivers of red onion and pecans on the salad and enjoy.