Tandoori Prawns and Indian Style Rice

Healthy eating doesn't have to be boring. It took me a long to learn that. I always equated healthy with boring green salads and cut up vegetables. *Eeeew* But a lot of dishes, like this flavorful Indian inspired one, are simple, packed with flavor, and still pretty darned healthy. What's not to love? Also - soooooooo easy peasy. From start to finish in about 30 minutes. *Jazz hands*

This dish also works well if you are doing meal prep.

Just pop in the microwave to reheat and you are good to go! According to MyFitnessPal a serving is (recipe makes 4 generous servings) - 305 calories, 20 protein, 38 carbs, 3 fiber, and 10 fat. 

Tandoori Prawns and Indian Style Rice

Ingredients

Prawns/Marinade

1 lb prawns, shelled and deveined

1/3 cup Greek yogurt

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp garam masala

1/4 tsp chili powder

2 Tbsp lime juice

1 Tbsp oil

salt & pepper

1/4 tsp tumeric

Rice

4 cups cooked Basmati Rice

2 Tbsp oil

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 medium onion, finely diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 tsp tumeric

1/2 cup shredded carrots

Directions

Mix the marinade ingredients together in a bowl, stirring well to combine. 

Add the shrimp to the marinade and refrigerate at least 30 minutes, up to 2 hours. 

Prepare the rice - In a large frying pan or wok, heat 2 Tbsp oil over medium high heat. Add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds. 

When the seeds start popping, add in the onion, garlic, tumeric, and carrots. Cook and stir until onions start to soften - about 5 minutes. Stir in the cooked basmati and continue to cook and stir until everything is heated through. 

While rice is heating - cook your prawns. 

Cook prawns - Heat a medium frying pan over medium high heat. Add in the prawns, discarding the marinade. Cook until prawns are done and a nice pink color - about 5 - 6 minutes. 

Serve rice and prawns hot. (Makes 4 servings)

Perfect dinner for those busy weeknights. Also makes for a lovely lunch the next day! 

Healthy and tasty and NOT a boring old green salad. 

*cue angels singing*

Pop over to Carole's Chatter for some fun foody links!

Pineapple Cauliflower Fried Rice with Honey Garlic Pulled Chicken

Want to know the secret of making your meals taste even better?

Serve them out of a fruit. 

No... seriously. 

Take this rice and chicken dish for example. On a plate it's good. Pretty tasty. BUT, serve it out of a pineapple and *boom* suddenly it's spectacular. Suddenly everyone is asking, "Oooooh, what is that?" Suddenly people are lining up around the block to eat at your dinner table. 

The best part, it's soooooo easy. 

You might want to whip this up for Mother's Day and treat your mom to a delicious, healthy, filling, fancy schmancy dinner that will surely make you her favorite child. You know, if moms actually picked favorites. (P.S. - I'm the favorite.) 

Honey Garlic Pulled Chicken

Ingredients

4 or 5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts 

2 Tbsp packed brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

2/3 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup lemon-lime soda (like 7up)

3 Tbsp minced garlic

3 Tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 Tbsp corn starch

Directions

Place chicken breasts in a slow cooker. In a small bowl, whisk together brown sugar, honey, vinegar, soda, garlic, soy sauce, and black pepper. Pour over chicken. 

Cook until chicken is done - about 6 to 8 hours on low or 4 - 5 hours on high (it helps to know how your slow cooker cooks to narrow down the times.)

When done, remove chicken from slow cooker and place in a bowl or on a cutting board. Whisk the corn starch into the liquid in the crock pot until smooth. Turn temp to high. 

Shred the chicken with 2 forks.

Place chicken back in crock pot.

Let simmer while you make the pineapple rice. 

Pineapple Cauliflower Fried Rice

Ingredients

1 Tbsp sesame oil

1 small onion, diced

1/2 cup red pepper, diced

1/2 cup carrots, shredded

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup peas

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

1 small head cauliflower, grated (about 4 cups)

1 egg

1 1/2 cups pineapple, diced (amount from 1 small pineapple) 

Sauce

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

2 tsp Thai sweet chili sauce

Decorations

Green onions

toasted sesame seeds

Directions

First step - Prep your pineapple. Cut a pineapple in half vertically (a serrated knife works well).

Using a paring knife, cut out the inside meat of the pineapple. and dice to be used in the rice. You will need about 1 1/2 cups or so. (You can use less or more depending on your preference. Just remember it will be sweeter the more you add.) 

Set aside until ready to serve your dinner. 

Prepare rice - Heat 1 Tbsp of sesame oil over medium high heat in a large wok or frying pan. Add in the onion and pepper and stir fry for 3 minutes. Add in the carrots, garlic, peas, and ginger and stir fry another 3 minutes.

Add in the shredded cauliflower, stir everything together, and stir fry for 2 minutes. 

Make a well in the middle off the pan and add in the egg. Stir them about in the center to scramble it for about 1 minute.

Now stir the cooked egg into the rice mixture to combine everything together well. 

Add in the diced pineapple. Stir well. 

In a small bowl, whisk together the sauce ingredients. Pour over the rice and stir to mix well. Cook for 1 minute to make sure everything is heated through. 

Scoop some of the rice into the hollowed out pineapple halves. Remember to leave a little room for the chicken to be placed on top. 

Top with a generous scoop of the honey garlic chicken. Top with some diced green onion and a sprinkle of sesame seeds, if desired. 

Serve immediately. 

Note - I used a fairly small pineapple. Each half had about a 1 1/2 cup to 2 cup capacity. This is a great size for individual serving dishes for people to eat out of, if you use a really big pineapple then it could be used as a serving dish to scoop the meal onto plates for people. Either way it makes for a pretty impressive meal. 

Note - I figured out the nutritional counts for the Pineapple Cauliflower Fried Rice using MyFitnessPal. Per serving (recipe makes 4) it is: 172 calories, 25 carbs, 6 fat, 8 protein, 6 fiber. I didn't calculate the honey garlic chicken counts. 

Serve the rice on it's own or top it with the chicken. Either way, it's delicious. 

 

 

Be sure to stop by Carole's Chatter for lots of fun foody links.

Maple Bacon Ice Cream

Sue and I had a bacon theme going on for our Easter dinner celebrations this year. Even the desserts were bacon filled. Have you tried the sweet and salty thing by adding bacon to your dessert? You really should. It's pretty hard to beat. 

I made Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies (Link HERE), Chocolate Dipped Bacon, and Maple Bacon Ice Cream. Sue made even more bacon desserts - and we will be posting those soon as well! (Pineapple Bacon Upside Down Cake, and Bacon Pecan Pie Squares, to name a few). 

Maple Bacon Ice Cream is incredibly decadent and reminiscent of Maple Walnut with a hint of smokiness. A little goes a long way so one batch is good for a crowd. 

Maple Bacon Ice Cream

Ingredients

5 egg yolks

1 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup half & half cream

2 cups heavy cream (whipping cream)

1/2 tsp sea salt

5 strips thick cut bacon, cooked and crumbled

Directions

In a medium saucepan, whisk the egg yolks with the maple syrup until combined. Place over medium high heat and slowly whisk in the half & half and heavy cream. Continue slowly whisking for 10 to 15 minutes, until a smooth custard forms and mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. 

Remove from heat, stir in the salt, then strain the custard into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until cool - at least 5 hours. 

When completely cool, pour mixture into the container of your ice cream maker. 

Process according to manufacturer's directions. 

When machine is done, pour ice cream into a pan and sprinkle with the crispy, crumbled bacon.

Cover and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours. You can serve scoops directly from this pan OR you can scoop into a cute bowl or container to serve from.

Keep ice cream covered and frozen until serving time.

As I mentioned earlier, it is very rich. One or two scoops is plenty!

Make sure your bacon is cooked until crispy. You don't want chewy bits of bacon in there. You want them to be as crunchy as possible - mimicking a walnut texture. 

 

 

 

Be sure to stop by Carole's Chatter for more fun and tasty links!

Spicy Chinese Chicken Salad (Take 2)

Way back in 2012 Sue and I posted our recipe for Spicy Chinese Chicken Salad (Link HERE). 

At that time we were still in the beginning learning stages of our blog so we only got 2 photos of the salad and...well....they are just not good. Go ahead, click the link, check it out. It's pretty sad.

Anyway, I was looking back through old posts for something to re-shoot and this recipe jumped out at me. It was so good and was one of the few recipes that Sue and I actually agreed on as being delicious. 

I started out just going to remake the recipe as we had written it and take some new pics. But then, seeing as how I am focused on trying to eat a much healthier diet this year, I decided to play with the recipe to see how much more healthy I could make it. 

I only made a few changes but enough that I thought it was worthwhile reposting as a new blog. According to MyFitnessPal 1 serving (recipe makes 4) is: 378 calories, 46 carbs, 11 fat, 29 protein, and 5 fiber. 

Spicy Chinese Chicken Salad (Take 2)

Ingredients

Dressing

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp Chinese chili garlic paste

1/3 cup light mayo

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

1/4 cup light soy sauce

1/2 cup rice vinegar

2 tsp cornstarch

1/3 cup water

Salad

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 bag coleslaw mix (approx 6 cups)

4 cups baby spinach, chopped

1 cup snow peas, trimmed, cut in half

4 small mandarin oranges

1/2 pkg Mr. Noodles noodles (or Ichiban), crunched up

1/2 cup green onions, sliced

2 tsp toasted sesame seeds

Directions

Prepare dressing - In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, garlic paste, mayo, and ginger. Whisk until well combined. Whisk in soy sauce and rice vinegar. Scoop 1/4 cup of the dressing into a container and add in the chicken thighs. Close lid and shake to coat. Let marinade for at least an hour. 

Place remaining dressing in a saucepan over medium heat. In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and water and then whisk into dressing in pan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 3 minutes. 

Remove from heat and refrigerate until cool - at least an hour. 

Prepare chicken - Preheat oven to 350. Remove chicken from marinade and place in shallow baking dish. Bake approx 30 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Remove from oven and cut into strips - or shred if you  prefer. 

Assemble salad - Toss the coleslaw mix with 1/3 of the dressing.  

Line 4 servings bowls/plates with 1 cup spinach.

On each of the 4 servings, place 1 1/2 cups of the coleslaw mix.

Top each with 1/4 cup snow peas, 1 orange (broken into segments), and 1/4 of the crunched noodles. 

Place sliced (or shredded) chicken on top, drizzle with a bit more dressing, then sprinkle with green onions and sesame seeds.

It's a big serving. Trust me, it won't leave anyone hungry. 

You can use chicken breasts instead of thighs for a few less calories/fat but I prefer the thighs. 

Sometimes tweaking a recipe to be healthier doesn't mean losing any of the flavor or fantabulousness or the original. This is definitely one of those times! 

Also, please note - the Chinese chili garlic paste is super spicy. You can definitely use more if you like the heat but I would start at 2 Tbsp and go from there. 

Broken Glass Dessert

Some people call this dessert "stained glass" and others call it "broken glass". We've always called it broken glass. It's one of our mom's favorite desserts and we've had it around our house since we were kids. It is a pain in the patootie to make - simply because it dirties so many dishes - but is totally worth the effort. 

When you need a light dessert for after a heavy meal, this is the one you want. You can use your favorite Jello flavors and colors to customize it. It's also great because it can be made a day ahead and refrigerated so you have that much less to do during a get together. Aaaaaand....it's no bake. Seriously... the only downside is the dishes. 

Broken Glass Dessert

Ingredients

Jello

1 pkg (85 gr/4 serving size) red Jello

1 pkg (85 gr/4 serving size) orange Jello

1 pkg (85 gr/4 serving size) lime Jello

1 pkg (85 gr/4 serving size) peach Jello

6 cups boiling water

Step 1

1 envelope (approx 7.2 gr) Knox unflavored gelatin

1/2 cup cold water

1/2 cup boiling water

Step 2

2 cups whipping cream

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup pineapple juice

Crust

2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions

Prepare the 4 pkgs of Jello - Dissolve each package of Jello in 1 1/2 cups of the boiling water. Pour each into a separate shallow pan and refrigerate until set (pie plates work great).

Prepare crust - Mix together the graham crumbs, sugar, and melted butter. Reserve 1/3 cup off the crumb mixture. Press remaining crumb mixture into a 9 X 13 pan lightly sprayed with cooking spray. (FYI - you can also divide the mixture into 2 - 8 X 8 pans if you would like to share it with someone, as shown below!)

Chill crumbs in fridge while waiting for Jello to set.

Lastly, prepare the unflavored gelatin. Mix the package of unflavored gelatin with the 1/2 cup of cold water first. Stir in the 1/2 cup boiling water and stir well. Pour gelatin into a dish and refrigerate for about 1 1/2 hours - until set a little bit but not completely set. 

Assemble dessert - Whip the whipping cream with the 1/2 cup of sugar until stiff peaks form. Beat in the gelatin mixture and the pineapple juice. 

Cut the colored Jello into cubes and gently fold into the whipped cream mixture.

Spread over the crust.

Sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture over the top.

Chill until ready to serve - at least 5 hours but even better overnight. 

So pretty.

Like I mentioned above - use whatever flavors of Jello you like. I used cherry for the red, orange, lime, and peach. You could use lemon or strawberry or berry blue or raspberry or...well.... I'm sure you get the idea. 

Oh, also, I've made this several times and sometimes I have forgotten to get to the unflavored gelatin before it completely sets. Never fear, it's not ruined - I have a solution! Simply place the set gelatin and the pineapple juice into a blender and blend until smooth. Then continue mixing it in the whipping cream! Sue told me - once it sets there's no coming back. Ha! I showed her. Blending it takes away the lumps and the dessert will still set (albeit just not quite as firmly), just so you know. 

 

 

We're sharing over at Carole's Chatter. Be sure to stop by and say hi!

Asparagus and Beet Salad with Feta and Pumpkin Seeds

I'm really not one for salads. And by salads I mean big boring bowls of lettuce. 

Just....blah.

But make it look pretty, fancy it up, and *voila* suddenly it's not just a salad it's a magical dining experience. I mean.... who would have thought roasting veggies makes them magic? Not me. Not until now. 

Completely by accident I discovered the secret of the tastiest salad in the universe. 

I realize I say that a lot; the whole "best in the universe" thing. Bear with me. It's just that it's kind of true. Unless the martians have come up with an even more amazing dish. Which may or may not be something that exists. Who am I to say?

For now though, until we have proof otherwise, this one rules the universe. 

Asparagus and Beet Salad with Feta and Pumpkin Seeds

and Lemon Garlic Vinaigrette 

Ingredients

Vinaigrette

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp chicken (or vegetable) broth

1/8 tsp dried rosemary

salt & pepper

Salad

2 cups coarsely chopped beets, peeled

4 cups chopped asparagus

2 thin slices onion

4 Tbsp crumbled feta

2 Tbsp unsalted pumpkin seeds (shelled) 

Directions

Prepare vinaigrette - whisk together minced garlic, oil, lemon juice, broth, rosemary, and salt & pepper. Set aside until ready to use. (Can be made a day ahead for flavors to get stronger, if desired. Simply whisk again just before serving.)

Prepare beets and asparagus - Preheat oven to 425. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, set aside. Peel and cut beets and place on prepared cookie sheet. Bake in 425 oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and stir the beets on the cookie sheet. 

Place chopped asparagus on cookie sheet with the beets. Bake at 425 for approximately 10 - 15 minutes - until asparagus and beets are done. 

Assemble salads - When done, remove from oven and divide the beets and asparagus between 2 serving bowls. 

Drizzle each with 1 Tbsp of the dressing. 

Top each with 1 slice of onion, 2 Tbsp crumbled feta, and 1 Tbsp of pumpkin seeds. 

Lastly, drizzle each again with another 1 Tbsp of dressing. 

Look at all that craziness....

FYI - You can serve this warm or cold. I ate half the recipe for lunch on one day, warm, and then put the ingredients in the fridge until the next day. I assembled it the next day, cold, and it was also really good. 

Personally though, warm is the way to go. 

How gorgeous is that? I mean.... for a salad. 

And the good news just keeps coming - according to MyFitnessPal, one serving (recipe makes 2) is - 360 calories, 15 protein, 9 fiber, 24 fat. 

(Keep in mind you will have some of the dressing left over. You only use 2 Tbsp per salad.)

Of course, as always, you can add more or less ingredients as you please - it will just change the nutritional counts I have listed here. 

So, want a magic salad? Roast your veggies. Problem solved. 

Be sure to visit Carole's Chatter for lots of fun food links!