Zucchini Boats

This is one of our favorites.  And I love how healthy it is!

Start with some zucchinis, hollow them out.  I used a melon baller.  And I did 3 zucchinis.

Then I browned about a half a pound of turkey meat with one minced clove of garlic.  The original recipe (from cooks.com) also calls for onion, but that's a swear word in this house.

Then I added the spices (which I don't usually measure, I just eyeball it).  1/2 tsp. basil, 1/4 tsp. oregano, and 1 tsp. worcestershire sauce.

 Last but not least, layer all the ingredients.  Put the zucchinis in a dish, scoop in the turkey, pour over a can of tomato sauce and sprinkle on some parmesan cheese.

Bake at 325 for 50-60 mins and it is done!  Delicious and nutritious!

Rating:  4.9 stars.  I can't think of anything much better than this.

Navajo Tacos

I asked Callen a while back some dishes he remembers from when he was little.  He mentioned tamales and chicken and dumplings and navajo tacos.  Very different from what I remember.  I remember mac and cheese with tuna fish and tater tot casserole.

I made the chicken and dumplings a few days ago so now I was on to navajo tacos.

Now I've been out of town for a week so Callen has been on his own.  Which means he was ready for some healthy meals.  In fact, I am pretty sure he even mentioned the word "diet".  So I decided to make whole wheat scones.

I halved the recipe (and still ended up with 3 dozen scones).  I don't know if that made a difference, but the dough ended up very... wet.  So even though I let it rise for almost 2 hours, it didn't rise at all.  But I was out of time, so they went in the fridge anyway to cool.

I had to add a ton of flour as I was rolling it out, but it still looked like whole wheat dough.

I cut them up and then fried them.  I just used generic canola oil and it was fine.  The dough didn't really puff up like it did when I made regular scones a year or so ago.  Not sure it if was because they didn't really rise or because they are wheat or a combination of both.  They puffed a little, but not big and round like normal scones that I drool over.  Oh well.  They still tasted just fine.

Next came the chili.  Super easy and quick to make, perfect to put in the crockpot so we could go fishing and have dinner pretty much ready when we got home.  When I checked the recipe originally for ingredients I needed to buy, I missed the "chili packet" ingredient.  I guess I just thought it was "chili powder".  So I had to make my own chili packet...  I just googled it, though I can't remember what site I used.  They all look the same.  

Nice and steamy.

Just throw the chili over the scones, add a little cheese, lettuce, sour cream, whatever and done!  (Yeah forgot to take a picture of the final product.  But trust me, it was pretty).

Overall rating:  3.8 stars.  Next time I'll make regular scones.  Or figure out how to make these ones puffy.

Chicken and Dumplings

When I asked Callen what types of things his mom used to make, he couldn't come up with a bunch.  He did mention chicken and dumplings.  NOT something we used to eat in my family.  The first recipe/attempt I made was a disaster.  Callen diplomatically said something to the effect of, "This isn't how I remember it, but it's good".

So here is attempt #2.  Find the recipe here.

I started by boiling the chicken and making the dumplings.  (Callen asked me later why I didn't just buy the dumplings.  Who knew you could actually do that?)

Cut them up, then boil them about 20 minutes in the chicken stock.  They looked weird to me, but apparently that's what they are supposed to look like.

Then just add the cooked/diced chicken and it's done.  

There was not a lot of spice and the dumplings' texture kind of weirds me out, but the only difference between this version and what he knew was that it was a little more "yellow" than normal.  But he went back for seconds, so I guess it was good enough to pass.  And I did get a "This reminds me of my childhood" as he was eating.  So I felt like this recipe went much better...

My opinion?  Kind of bland and like I said, weird texture.  So purely because of those two, I would have to say 2.8 stars.  A little better than half, but not something I will ever make if Callen isn't there.

Fried Chicken

Today's recipe came from here.  I made a few changes so I'll put the recipe here and show you what I did differently.  It seems easier than explaining it step by step.

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

Equipment:

Cast iron skillet or large stainless steel saucepan
Tongs
Small finger bowls or ramekins

Ingredients:

Chicken meat, pastured or free-range organic (3 pounds)
Organic whole milk yogurt or buttermilk (2 cups) — enough to cover the chicken — where to buy yogurt
Yellow or white onion (1)- didn't use
Garlic cloves (2-3)
Paprika (1/2 tsp)
Cayenne pepper (1-2 pinches)
Sprouted flour (1 1/2 – 2 cups) — where to buy sprouted flour- I used regular flour, it was what I had.
Sea salt (1/2 tsp) — where to buy sea salt- once again, I used regular salt.
Freshly ground pepper (1/2 tsp)
Beef tallow, lard or expeller pressed coconut oil — expeller pressed is flavorless so you don’t taste any coconut flavor (2 cups) — where to buy coconut oil-yep, you guessed it, regular oil.  I didn't want to spend a bunch of money when I had other things I could use.
Raw honey — where to buy honey

Directions:

1. In a bowl, Pyrex baking dish or plastic freezer bag, marinate the chicken, cut in nugget-sized pieces, in yogurt or buttermilk with the chopped onion,smashed garlic, paprika and cayenne pepper for a minimum of 4 hours and up to 2 days.

2. Place chicken in a colander and drain off the excess buttermilk or yogurt.

3. Add the sprouted flour, sea salt, ground pepper, and chicken pieces to a large plastic freezer bag, zip to seal, and shake until the chicken is completely coated. You can also dredge the chicken in the flour mixture in a large bowl if you prefer.

4. Set a cast iron skillet or large stainless steel saucepan on medium heat and add the 2 cups of expeller pressed coconut oil.

5. The oil is hot enough when it starts to bubble — but not so hot that it’s smoking. Add the chicken pieces to the pan and fry for 3-5 minutes on each side, until dark golden brown.  I had to fry it more like 7-10 mins on each side to make sure they were cooked all the way through, maybe my chicken was too big??

6. Using tongs, remove chicken nuggets from the skillet and place on a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet, or on a plate or cookie sheet lined with a paper towel. Add sea salt to taste.

7. Serve with small bowls (I use small ramekins) of raw honey for dipping.  I just served them with ranch, I didn't use honey, though it probably would have been delicious!

This post is part of Food Renegade’s Fight Back Fridays blog carnival.


Overall rating:  Easily 4.5 stars.  Brooklyn even eats these!

Potato Rings

I didn't take any pictures of this disaster, but I'll post about it anyway.  I got the recipe here.  You can see pictures on her blog of what it is supposed to look like.

I took potatoes and made mashed potatoes.  Then I spread them out in a cookie sheet and put them in the fridge.

The next morning I cut them into rings.  Well, let me clarify.  I tried to cut them into rings.  This is where the breakdown occurred.  I couldn't get the mashed potatoes to stay together, so I ended up just cutting them into circles and then dipping them into the flour mixture, the egg, and back in the flour mixture.  (See the actual recipe if you're actually interested in what is was).  My second problem may have been that I ended up with way too much flour mixture on the mashed potatoes.  But, anyhow, I finished up and then froze them.

The last step was to then fry them.  Easy, done.

So when it came down to the eating part, they just tasted very... floury.  I guess my expectations were once again different cuz I thought they would be crunchier.  But considering it was filled with mashed potatoes, I don't know why I thought that.  So maybe next time I would use less flour mixture in my breading and maybe make the oil hotter so the outside will be crunchier.  If I ever decide to make it again.

Final verdict:  1 star

Oreo Pops

We're having some friends over tonight for dessert, so I decided to use up my leftover oreos and make oreo pops.  I opened the oreos and put a popsicle stick inside.

Then I melted some white chocolate chips in the microwave (making sure to stir every 30 seconds until they were melted to make sure they didn't burn) and added a little olive oil to help it stretch a bit.

Then I dipped the cookies into the chocolate and put a few sprinkles on top!

My creations don't usually end up super pretty, but hopefully they'll at least taste good!  And hopefully I can get them off the pan without screwing them up too badly...

Messed up the first one trying to get it off.  Freeze them, they pop right off!  And had to find a place to stick them.  What better than a banana!?!  :)

Overall rating:  4.8 stars (I can't give a 5 this soon in the game since I have so many more things to make!

Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti

I'm finally ready to start posting my meals.  Mostly as a way to catalog what I'm cooking so I can remember what I liked and what I didn't.  Tonight's meal comes as a thank you to my Bountiful Basket, which contained spaghetti squash, and this recipe.

I've never used spaghetti squash before.  But it's simple enough.

Cut the squash (I used two small ones) in half, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic salt, then cover in foil and cook at 375.  My oven tends to cook things faster than recipes require, so I went with 1 hr and 15 mins.  The recipe then said to use a fork and scrape out the "spaghetti".  I was confused as to how this would go, but it was in fact, really easy.  It kinda "spaghettis" itself as you scrape, so to do both, it took about 1.5 mins.

I browned turkey meat and added it to my spaghetti sauce, and now we're ready for dinner...

And the verdict is....
It's okay.  I'm not sure if I undercooked the squash, but it was a little crunchy.  Well, crunchier than noodles.  I think my problem is I expect something to taste the same as the original, when clearly it will not.  But it was good and considering I had to use the spaghetti squash, this was an edible recipe.  Will I ever search out and purposefully buy a spaghetti squash?  Probably not.

Two.eight stars out of 5.