Delectable Shrimp...My Way!

By now you know I love to cook. Since Dave passed away, cooking for one just has not been my thing. But Saturday evening I decided the Shrimp bug had bitten me.

Delectable Shrimp...Oh so good!

What to do...I really didn't want to make the same old thing of overcooked shrimp and homemade shrimp sauce, so I put on my thinking cap and came up with this little number. I recently had been to Heavenly Olive Oils in Kansas City and had purchased an 18 year old Traditional Balsamic Vinegar, and decided that my shrimp dish would benefit from a dash or two. 

This is not difficult and so simple that Dave could have put it together.

So let's begin...

Equipment needed:       

Mushrooms and Shrimp in broth.

Saute pan
Tongs                           Spoon

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp. Butter
10 Frozen Shrimp 
1 Cup Cremini Mushrooms
1 Tbsp. Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic
6 to 7 Turns of Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt from a mill.
2 Tbsp 18 Year old Traditional Balsamic Vinegar


Melt butter over medium low heat, add Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic then immediately add frozen Shrimp. Spoon butter garlic mixture over shrimp till they start to thaw.  Add mushrooms and continue to toss in butter garlic mixture releasing moisture from shrimp and mushrooms. There should be a good bit of broth at this time.  Add the Traditional 18 year old Balsamic and stir gently. Shrimp will start to shrivel or get more in a circle, this is the time to remove them from the heat and serve. You want to make sure you have a nice broth to dip with.  The key to this dish is to cook it slowly. 

Serving suggestions: Shrimp can be served over noodles, brown rice or spiraled  zucchini that has been lightly sauteed in coconut oil.  


Peace, Love and Happy Eating…

Nuts and Wings....My Way

Crispy Oven Fried Chicken Wings

Last Sunday (Super Bowl Sunday) I was busy prepping wings and nuts for snackers for the big game.  I decided that we needed some nuts to chow on, but I didn't want the normal run of the mill nuts. The canned ones are too salty for my liking. Hmm what to do...I had raw cashews, pecans, walnuts and pumpkin seeds.  An idea struck...off to the computer I went and pulled up the page I was looking for, went back to the kitchen, with spoons and spices flying, I went to work creating a concoction that was so yummy I just wanted to eat it all. 

The other item I did was crispy oven fried chicken wings that were so good that Dave asked where the next batch was.  It came out wonderful and crispy. Next time I will do a little different marinade.

Nuts My Way Gluten-Free

1 cast iron skillet
1 Cup Raw Cashews
1 Cup Raw Pecans
1 Cup Raw Walnuts
1 Cup Raw Pumpkin Seeds
1 Tbsp Coconut oil
4 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp low Lawry's Low Sodium Season Salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp cayenne powder (optional)

Put all the nuts in a dry cast iron skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly so the nuts don't burn.  Once nuts are lightly toasted add the next 6 ingredients in order, stirring after each addition. Stir constantly until all the ingredients are mixed together. Turn out onto a pizza pan, to cool. Put in air tight container.  Enjoy

Garlic Grater

Crispy Oven-fried Chicken Wings Gluten-Free

22 chicken wings thawed

Marinade

Juice of one lime
5 garlic cloves, grated
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp Lawry's Low Sodium Season Salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
sea salt + pepper to taste

In a large pot of boiling water add wings and let cook for 8-10 minutes. Remove, drain and let cool.

In a bowl add the ingredients for the marinade, mix well and pour into a Ziploc Bag. Turn the bag several times to make sure that all the chicken is coated.  Put in refrigerator and let marinade for 2 hours turning bag every 30 minutes to coat chicken.

Heat oven to 450 degrees. 

Take a baking rack that fits a half sheet pan and spray with Coconut spray or Pam.  I put parchment paper under the rack to catch the drips so clean-up is easy. Lay chicken on rack and put in oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes turn chicken and bake for another 10 minutes. 

Chicken on baking rack

Remove from oven and place on platter and serve with your favorite dipping sauce.  I had Frank's hot sauce with mine.              Soooo Gooood!

The trick to getting crispy oven-fried chicken is boiling it first. And what a trick it is.  You would never guess that it wasn't fried. 

What is your favorite Chicken Wing recipe?  I would love to know.

Peace, Love and Happy Eating!

Mmmmmm Salad Dressing to....

Salad, it's what for dinner, but you have to have dressing!

The other night I reached for my favorite bottled salad dressing to see how much sugar was in it, 4 grams of Sugar!  Maybe to you that does not sound like much but to a diabetic that means a lot. That means for every serving, 2 Tablespoons a serving of dressing, there is 1 teaspoon of sugar.  On top of that, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar will put the immune system to sleep for up to 4 hours.  So just that one serving of sugar would put your immune system to sleep for 8 hours. YIKES! Think, if we consume up to 10 teaspoons of sugar a day or more that equates to seeing the Doctor a lot over the course of a year(1). How many grams of sugar in a single coke can?

It becomes a rude awakening when you begin reading nutrition labels and start jotting down how much sugar is in a serving of food.  Try it for a day and you will be amazed to see how much sugar you are consuming without realizing it. 

But I digress...I decided that I needed to start making my own salad dressings instead, so I could control the amount of sugar I was ingesting. I have come up with several that I really like, but this dressing takes the cake, so to speak.  I call it... 

"Boy That's Damn Good Dressing"! Gluten-Free

Equipment:

Good Seasonings Shaker Bottle 

Markings indicate fill lines

Ingredients:

2 Tbs    Fresh Pesto

            Extra Virgin Olive Oil (The good stuff)

            White Wine Vinegar

            Balsamic Vinegar

1 scant Tbs Mrs Dash Garlic and Herb Seasoning
1 scant Tbs Greek Seasoning See recipe below
1/8 tsp Pink Sea Salt or regular sea salt. 

            Filtered Water

            Pepper

Homemade Gluten-Free Greek Seasoning

2 tsp Himalayan Pink Salt

1 tsp basil

2 tsp dried oregano

½ tsp thyme

1 ½ tsp onion powder

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dill

1 tsp marjoram

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp dried parsley flakes

1 tsp rosemary

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

Grind in food grinder and store in tight closing container. Makes about 3/4 Cup.

Instructions:

In a clean Good Seasonings Shaker bottle pour in enough white wine vinegar to come half way up to the add vinegar line.

White Wine Vinegar

Pour enough Balsamic Vinegar to reach the top of the Vinegar line.

Balsamic Vinegar

Add filtered water to the top of the water line.  

Water

Mrs Dash, Greek Seasoning, Sea Salt and Pepper

Add about a Tablespoon each of the Mrs Dash Garlic and Herb Seasoning and Homemade Greek Seasoning. Add about an eighth of a teaspoon of the pink sea salt (found at your local health food store) add pepper, this depends on how much you like pepper.  I put a pinch in. 

Shake Well

Add Extra Virgin Olive Oil up to the oil line.

Shake again

Add 2 heaping Tbs. of fresh Pesto (purchased from your local market that makes it fresh)

Shake and let set for 20 minutes for flavors to meld.

The finished product, no additives, fillers,
 stabilizers or  preservatives.

Make it your own, add more of something or delete something.

The next time I might add just a touch of  juice from the Pepperoncini bottle. Wow! that would give it a nice kick! Or I might add some finely crumbled Fete Cheese YUM! The sky is the limit.

When you make this, leave a comment in the comment box below and let me know what you changed up.

Peace, Love and Happy Eating...

(1) Paul Chek, Holistic Life Coach http://chekinstitute.com/blog/
14 Day Sugar Detox by Paleovalley, Page 36  "Sugar Shuts down
Your Immune System"

  

Stuffed Chicken Breast...Veggie Style

Grain Free Stuffed Chicken Breast

If you hear the phrase Stuffed Chicken Breast what comes to mind is a bread stuffing of some sort.  I have discovered that bread (wheat, corn, etc.) is not good for me.  Apparently it causes inflammation in my body and I will gain 4 lbs overnight when eating it. YUCK!!! Therefore, I've had to come up with alternatives using non-wheat product like almond flour, coconut flour or Amaranth seed, ground up. My system seems to do rather well on these alternatives.

But I digress.  Back to the Stuffed Chicken Breasts. Last week I went to Sprouts Market, a local grocery store carrying organic grass fed beef, chicken, lamb and other various meats and came away with a package of 4 chicken breasts, honestly the largest chicken breasts I have ever seen. I froze two of them the other two I turned into Stuffed Chicken Breasts. Oh my, but they were good! One breast was large enough to feed both my hubby and me.  We had the other stuffed breast a couple of nights later and it was just as good.  

Equipment: 

Sharp Knife
Genius Vegetable Chopper (Not a must but mighty nice if you don't like chopping all those veggies)
Cutting Board
Wax paper
Meat Mallet
Cast Iron Skillet 12"
Medium size Bowl
Paper Towels
Tongs
Spatula
4 Toothpicks or Cotton Twine


Ingredients:

1/4  medium onion, diced
3     cloves garlic, crushed and minced
4     mushrooms washed, diced
1/4  cup Celery, thinly sliced (Optional)
1/2  large red bell pepper, diced
3     cups fresh spinach
1/2  cup chicken stock (If you can find it, Organic 
       Imagine Free Range Chicken Broth)
2     large chicken breasts, pounded to 1/2 inch thick
2     tsp. Greek Seasoning When I first developed this recipe I used                       Cadavers Greek Seasoning. It contains cornstarch.  I now make my own Greek                         Seasoning included in the above link which is Gluten-Free. 

1/2  tsp. Adobo Seasoning
       Pepper
       Coconut Spray or Olive Oil in a pump sprayer
1    Tbsp. Coconut Oil or Olive Oil 

Step One: 

Turn oven on to 350 degrees.

After all your vegetables have been chopped by hand on a cutting board or a vegetable chopper,

My go to kitchen gadget, a Genius Veggie Chopper

in a non-stick skillet over medium heat, lightly sprayed with Coconut or Olive Oil, saute the first 5 ingredients. Once onions become translucent add spinach and chicken broth, sprinkle with Adobo Seasoning

Seasonings that were used

Wilt the spinach, all the while stirring occasionally, reduce the chicken broth to almost next to nothing.  Remove from heat and pour into a bowl to cool. Wipe out skillet with paper towels for Step 2

My favorite Chicken Broth

Step Two:

Pound chicken breast between two sheets of wax paper with the flat side of a meat mallet until 1/2 inch thick (once pounded out my breast was approximately
6" wide by 8" long.) Size may vary due to size of breast.

Sprinkle Greek Seasoning (approx. 1 tsp. per breast) over chicken breast.

Divide vegetable stuffing in half and spread over each breast. Sprinkle a pinch (your judgement)of pepper over each breast.

Start at bottom and roll up

Start at the narrow end of the chicken and start rolling toward the other end secure with toothpicks or cotton twine (I used toothpicks, just be sure to remove all of the toothpicks before serving). 

In a hot cast iron skillet melt Coconut oil.  Carefully place chicken breast in the hot oil. Lightly brown on both sides about 10 minutes each side reducing heat to medium. It takes tongs and a spatula to turn the chicken breasts, as you don't want to loose the filling. 

Into the skillet it goes

One turned, one added

Ready for the oven

Place cast iron skillet in oven and continue to bake for another 20 minutes. 

Remove from oven and let set for 5 minutes. 

Plate and serve with your favorite vegetable and a salad.

Finished and plated

Peace, Love and Happy Eating...

Where's The Beef...Broth, That Is?

Over the holidays I made a pot roast from an nice piece of chuck roast. Thank you Ree for giving me the idea for fixing roast that night! I had everything, or so I thought. I had failed to purchase a box of beef broth. Duh!  I had the roast searing (sear both sides) in the cast iron skillet, seasoned with Kosher Salt and Pepper and garlic powder, got out the roast pan to put the seared roast in and low and behold...no broth.  I didn't even have any beef bouillon cubes on hand! What to do...What to do?  

Worcestershire Sauce

I looked in my refrigerator and on the top shelf in the far back was a bottle of

Oyster Flavored Sauce

Lee Kum Kee  Oyster Flavored Sauce.  It was brown folks, and flavorful. Then I spied a bottle of Lea and Perrins Worcestershire Sauce. "Ok!" I said to myself "I can do this."   I got out my four cup measuring bowl, put in: 

In A Pinch Beef Broth

2 cups of hot water 
1/4 cup Oyster Flavored Sauce (Contains Cornstarch)  
2 Tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce 

Whisk it together and WALLAH!  Beef Broth!  I poured it over the roast in the roast pan, lightly browned  the halves of a peeled onion in Coconut Oil and put those in the pan.

I set the temperature on the oven at 300 degrees, put the lid on the pan and we were ready to cook.  I put it on a 3:00 p.m., at 7:00 p.m. I scrubbed up some carrots and cut them into bite size pieces and tossed them into the cast iron skillet with at touch of coconut oil on medium high heat to put a caramel coating on the outside then tossed those in with the roast to finish cooking.  The roast was done when I could take a fork and insert into the roast with no resistance...like cutting room temperature butter with a knife. I fixed cauliflower as side.  

Oh my...that roast was so delicious. The meat just melted in your mouth, and flavor...fabulous!

So the next time you find yourself without Beef Broth...well let's just say Oyster Sauce and Worcestershire Sauce is a good combination. 

Peace, Love and Happy Eating…