thai curry coconut shrimp with pineapple

June 27, 2012 by 3 Comments

I would never blog about a recipe that didn’t taste good, so I suppose it’s a little redundant and unnecessary to start every post with “OMG THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER! EAT IT NOW! Jkfewlwlskldk om nom nom SO GOOD!!!” but seriously…this Thai curry coconut shrimp with pineapple is delicious. And, best of all, it’s easy.

I adapted the recipe from SkinnyTaste.com, one of my favorite food blogs. May through August all I can think about is fruit, fruit and more fruit, so I wanted to incorporate pineapple into the recipe. It was a phenomenal choice, if I do say so myself.

The following portions will make 2 servings.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 tsp oil
  • 2 scallions (finely chopped and separated by white root and green leaf-ish part…”leaf-ish”—that’s a super advanced vocab word straight outta gourmet culinary school)
  • 1 tbsp green curry
  • 2 cloves garlic (minced)
  • ½ lb shrimp (deveined and shells removed)
  • 4oz light coconut milk
  • 1 tsp Thai fish sauce
  • 1 tbsp fresh basil (chopped)
  • A sprinkle of salt
  • ½ cup chopped fresh pineapple
  • 1 cup dry brown jasmine rice

DIRECTIONS

  1. Prepare brown jasmine rice according to package. (Boil 2 cups water, add rice, reduce heat to a simmer for roughly 30 minutes.)
  2. Heat oil on a skillet over medium-high heat. Add scallion whites and curry. Sauté for about 1 minute.
  3. Add shrimp, garlic and a sprinkle of salt to the skillet and sauté for 2-3 minutes.
  4. Add in the pineapple, coconut milk and fish sauce and reduce heat to a simmer for another 2-3 minutes.
  5. Remove from heat and stir in the scallion greens and basil.

Pour the Thai curry coconut shrimp and pineapple mixture over a serving of rice and enjoy!

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fresh corn and king crab chilled soup

June 11, 2012 by 7 Comments

You haven’t truly lived until you’ve tried this soup. IT’S UH-MAZING. It’s flavorful, refreshing and only 115 calories per serving. 115. That’s like eating an ice cube.

I love perusing cooking magazines (and methodically wiping up my drool with each page turn), and June’s Cooking Light did not disappoint. By the time I got to the end, I had pretty much dog-eared every page. But despite wanting to eat the entire issue, deciding to tackle this recipe first was a no-brainer. I LOVE shellfish. And I LOVE short ingredient lists. Nothing discourages me from trying out a new recipe like a 10-foot-long list of ingredients, half of which I’ve probably never even heard of. Spend $8 on an exotic spice I’ll probably never use again? No, thanks.

The following ingredient amounts will make 4 appetizer servings or 2 meal servings. Unless you’re me, in which case it makes just 1 gigantic serving. Om nom nom.

INGREDIENTS

  • ½ lb king crab legs
  • 3 cups fresh corn kernels (6 ears)
  • 3 cups water
  • 1/8 tsp ground red pepper
  • ½ cup 2% milk
  • ¼ cup chopped chives
  • ¼ tsp pepper

DIRECTIONS

  1. Get your Laura Ingalls Wilder on and shuck some corn. Remove the kernels by holding each cob in a bowl and carefully taking a knife down the sides.
  2. Dump the crab legs in a large saucepan of boiling water for 5-7 minutes.
  3. Remove the crabmeat from the legs. Cooking Light suggests you use “cooking shears.” I suggest you stop being a pansy and use your hands. Chop the meat up coarsely and set it aside in a covered bowl in the refrigerator. Don’t throw away the shells.
  4. Dump the water, corn, crab shells and red pepper in a big saucepan. Bring it to a boil and then reduce heat. Simmer for 20 minutes.
  5. Throw out the shells. Put the corn mixture in a blender. I used a Magic Bullet so I had to do a third of it at a time. Once it’s thoroughly blended, you’re going to dump it through a strainer so that the liquid can pass through into a bowl and the solid corn kernel shells will remain collected in the strainer. Because the mixture is thick, you may want to use a spatula or spoon to help mush it through the strainer.
  6. Stir in the milk, chives and pepper. Cover and refrigerate for two hours. When you’re ready to eat, dump in the crabmeat.

Without a doubt, I will make this soup at least 10 times this summer. Do yourself a favor and follow suit! And if anyone has some other amazing crab recipes, I’d love if you shared them—I can’t get enough!

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vegan banana maple cookies

May 14, 2012 by 6 Comments

These cookies should really be called Sugarless Vegan Maple Banana Apple Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies, but I figured that was a little excessive.

I wanted to make my mom something delicious for Mother’s Day on Sunday. I went down to the Vineyard to surprise her at work and although, let’s be real, my presence is gift enough in itself, I never like showing up somewhere empty-handed. (I kid, I kid.) My beautiful mom is vegan-ish and she LOVES cookies, so I made it my personal mission to create vegan cookies that were healthy (well, as “healthy” as a cookie can be).

After researching substitutions for sugar, butter, eggs, oil—pretty much everything that makes a cookie a cookie—I was ready to get my Bill Nye the Science Guy on and experiment in the kitchen.

Marvel at the healthiness of the final ingredient list…

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup whole grain rolled oats
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 banana
  • ¼ cup apple sauce
  • ¼ cup peanut butter
  • ¼ cup maple syrup
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • ½ tsp lemon juice
  • ½ tsp vanilla
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 2 tbsp water

Ok, peanut butter and maple syrup aren’t exactly slimming, but that is still one sexy list.

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Celsius.
  2. Stop being an idiot and adjust the temperature of your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  3. Mash up the banana and mix in all the wet-ish ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.
  4. Mix er’thing together.
  5. Stick your finger in the batter and taste the guilt-free glory of this cookie recipe. This step is mandatory because in all honesty, the dough is better than the final baked product. You also may want to lick the spoon, spatula, bowl, etc.
  6. Plop spoonfuls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. The dough will be sticky, leaving you with a great excuse to lick your fingers again.
  7. Bake 8-13 minutes. The first round, I used a heaping spoonful of dough for each cookie and let them stay in there 13 minutes. The second round, I used small spoonfuls and kept them in for only 8.

These cookies are soft, moist and delicious. I figured the peanut butter would overwhelm them, but the dominant flavor is most definitely the banana. Almost like a banana bread cookie.

Try them out and let me know what you think! And if you’re pro in the sport of vegan cooking, let me know what other substitutions you use!

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cheesecake chocolate chip cookies rolled in oreo crumbs

April 19, 2012 by 9 Comments

With a title like that, you’re probably asking yourself what the heck this recipe is doing in a blog about health & fitness. Well, happiness is a key component to overall health, and a life without the occasional cookie is not happy. End of story.

I found this recipe on Pinterest during one of my nightly 2-hour pinning rampages, and fell in love. Maybe because I had these high expectations, I was a little disappointed when I made them and wasn’t blown away. A delicious cookie, don’t get me wrong, but I was expecting to bite into them and instantly go into Cookie Monster binge mode. My slight disappointment didn’t last long, though, because a scoop of vanilla ice cream takes all cookies/brownies/pies to the next level. Cheesecake chocolate chip cookies rolled in Oreo crumbs topped with vanilla ice cream? Yes, please.

INGREDIENTS

  • ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 3 oz cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup chocolate chips
  • 1 cup Oreo cookie crumbs
  • Vanilla ice cream

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat over to 375. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Cream together the butter and cream cheese. The original recipes says “on medium speed until smooth and well-combined,” but if you’re poor like I am, and don’t own fancy baking equipment, a fork and your hand also work well.
  3. Stir in chocolate chips.
  4. Turn the Oreo cookies into crumbs by putting a handful in a double-bagged zip-lock and beating the living hell out of it with your fist.
  5. Roll dough into 1-2” balls and then roll the balls in a bowl filled with the Oreo crumbs until they’re coated.
  6. Place cookies on sheet and bake 12-15 minutes. This recipe will make about a dozen.
  7. Cool on pan for 2 minutes then transfer to a wire rack (or plate…again, I have no baking equipment).
  8. Serve with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream to take these bad boys from “good” to “I’ll-have-eight-please.”

Feeling extra ambitious? Make an ice cream sandwich out of them!

So, I went a little overboard with the cookie photography. You know that scene in the Lion King when Rafiki stands on the cliff edge and lifts baby Simba up as the light shines down on Mufasa’s son? That was the inspiration for these next pictures. I really managed to capture that same raw emotion, right?

 

Original recipe can be found here: BrownEyedBaker.com

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cheesy potato & onion soup

April 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago, I needed an excuse to go into CVS and buy a Snicker’s bar so I convinced myself that I just absolutely had to buy a food magazine to get some new recipe ideas. As you can surely imagine, it was really difficult to talk myself into it, but eventually I capitulated and bought a Cooking Light magazine (and a Snicker’s bar to balance out the whole “Light” thing).

It must have been destiny because I found this Cheesy Potato Soup recipe and holy shnykies is it delicious! And since it’s in Cooking LIGHT magazine, it’s as guilt-free as an iceberg lettuce salad with a side of air, right? Right.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 ½ tablespoon butter
  • 1 cup chopped red onion
  • 2 ½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 3 cups chopped red potato
  • 1 ¼ cups 1% low-fat milk
  • ¾ cup fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth
  • ½ cup water
  • ½ cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
  • ¼ teaspoon ground red pepper
  • 2 tablespoons chopped green onions

Original recipe can be found here: Cheesy Potato Soup

My Modifications: I used ¼ tsp of ground red pepper instead of Cooking Light’s suggested 1/8 tsp because I love spicy everything. I also used 1 ½ tbsp butter instead of the suggested 1 tbsp because I found my onions were starting to burn and stick to the pan when sautéing. Last but not least, I heaped the shit out of that cheese, so my ½ cup cheese was really more like ¾ cup.

DIRECTIONS

  1. Melt butter in saucepan over medium-high heat. Sauté onions 5 minutes. Add flour; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
  2. Add potato, milk, broth and water to saucepan. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
  3. Add cheese and ground red pepper and stir until cheese is completely melted.
  4. Top each serving with chopped green onions, serve with a piece of whole-wheat toast and get yo’ grub on!

The recipe says this makes 4 servings, but I beg to differ. My roommate and I pretty much killed the whole thing easily (I had about half a serving left for lunch the next day). This soup is DELICOUS and, according to Cooking Light, only 225 calories. Granted, that 225 is thrown out the window if you eat the entire saucepan to your face, but that’s a minor detail I’ll choose to ignore.

Try it out and let me know what you think!

 

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