Healthy Pub Grub

I love a good burger and fries at my favorite bars and pubs around town. But the high fat in a juicy burger and deep fried french fries is a deterent. I am also trying to cut down on the amount of meat I eat. I could never totally give up on meat in my diet, but I do feel better when I eat less of it. I also find it easier to lose weight when eating less meat.

To satisfy my cravings, I decided to make a Veggie Patty Melt with oven roasted fries.

I started with the fries first. I preheated my oven to 425 degrees. I cut one large potato into small cubes and tossed the cubes in 1 teaspoon of olive oil, a sprinkling of Italian Herbs, and fresh cracked pepper. I then sprayed olive oil spray on a heavy cast iron Le Creuset baking pan (but any baking pan will do) and poured the potato into the pan. The potatoes need to bake a total of 30 minutes to get crisp and you should flip the potatoes in the pan 15 minutes into baking.

For the patty melt, I bought some of MorningStar Farm's Grillers Prime Veggie Burgers. In an iron skillet, I grilled a veggie burger according to package directions with a few slices of onion (until soft). I used a vegetable oil spray to keep things from sticking and reduce fat. After the burger and onions were cooked, I assembled the patty melt with two slices of fat free American Cheese and grilled burger and onion between two slices of 100% whole wheat bread (I like Nature's Own). If you can't go totally fat free on the cheese, consider 2% fat slices. Once assembled, I sprayed both sides of the sandwich with vegetable oil and returned to the iron skillet. I grilled each side for about 4 minutes.

I plated the burger and potatoes and later added some ketchup for the fries.

The verdict? I loved it! Veggie burgers have come a long way and I have grown to like them, especially from Morningstar. I gave up the tastless Boca burgers a long time ago. I will say that you should not expect your veggie burger to taste like meat. But Morningstar and other companies are creating some flavorful alternatives that stand in a category all their own.

Slow Start

I hope to be dining out this weekend...so I'll keep you posted! Thanks for the invite Will!

Thanks for the invite

Will,

Thanks for inviting me. I plan to take this opportunity to share with each of you my favorite family recipes. I challenge each of you to make and enjoy them.

Sharing with each of you very soon.

Curtis

Sauces

So...tonight's cooking class was about different ways to cook in oil (sauteing, stir-fry, frying, searing).  We talked about which types of oil were better for each type of cooking Really cool stuff.  In class tonight, we did something different in that in our teams we were assigned at random different dishes to be in charge of.  I got the fish and beurre blanc sauce.  We coated the catfish in a flour, salt, pepper and paprika mixture and then cooked for about 3 min per side.  Awesome!!  I was also in charge of the sauce to go with it.  I'd never heard of beurre blanc sauce that I can recall.  But I definitely want to have it again!  Our recipe included shallots, white wine, white wine vinegar, lemon juice, black peppercorns, fresh thyme, heavy cream, butter and salt.  OMG it was rich.  We poured it over the fish.  If I hadn't been at class, I might have licked the plate.  Believe me, I was close.

Our sauce was much prettier than this.  :-)
 

The other dishes we made tonight were chicken Parmesan, veal piccata and shirmp/vegetable stir fry.  We've been focusing quite a bit on the different sauces that go into each dish.  I think that's what I'm enjoying most about the classes because I've struggled with sauces.  Can't wait to try out all these dishes with you guys. 

Let Me Introduce Myself

I wanted to introduce myself, food is a very intimate thing for me and you want to know who you are eating and cooking with, right? My name is Chrissie, I am Will's sister in law. I am a chef by trade and own a catering business. My approach to food is keep it simple, no fuss but tasty! We have a 15 month old little girl, so my newest food passion is introducing her to the wonderful world of food and showing her at an early age what taste is all about. Now don't get me wrong, the child eats her fair share of chicken nuggets and hot dogs but we try and sit down to a meal every night and we all eat the same thing!! No substitutions. I am amazed at how adventurous she is. Her newest love is Gumbo?!? Who would have thought.
Enough about my child, this is a food blog. I by no means know everything about food and feel like there is always more to learn, but I am here if you ever have questions.
I use to teach cooking classes and there are two things that I think make a good cook a great cook. A good knife (and knowing how to properly use it) and SALT! Good salt, Kosher is my favorite and don't be afraid to use it.
Here is my recipe for Gumbo, I was given this recipe from a good friend from Homa LA. She didn't give me an exact recipe, and I have just thrown it together all of these years, but I am going to write a recipe for y'all.
GUMBO
1 stick of butter
1 cup flour
1 medium onion diced
1 medium green bell pepper diced
2-3 stalks of celery diced
1 1/2 cups shredded chicken (rotisserie chicken works great)
1 kielbasa sausage
1 cup white rice
8 cups water or chicken stock
Lawry's & Tabasco to taste

The key to an amazing gumbo is the Roux, start with a heavy bottomed pot, a trusty spoon that you feel comfortable with and time to watch the roux become beautiful!! Melt the butter over medium heat whisk in the flour and let the roux begin to brown. This takes some time, so you have to be patient, but don't walk away or you will end up with burnt roux (yuck!) Sir occasionally until the roux becomes the color of chocolate, it will feel like forever but trust me, it is where all of the flavor is. Once you have achieved chocolate color, add all of your diced vegetables and cook for about 10 minutes until they are tender. Add water or stock and whisk until everything is combined well. Add the sausage, cut into bite size pieces, however you like is fine. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 30-45 minutes. I season it towards the end with Lawry's Seasoning Salt & Tabasco to taste. Add 1 cup of dry rice and stir occasionally. The rice will cook in the gumbo. Once the rice is tender, normally about 15 minutes you are ready to eat!!

Chrissie Batts

First time...

Tabitha:  So I hope I'm doing this correctly!  I'm excited about this, too!  Can't wait to learn about exciting recipes and get some good ideas.  I'm new to the cooking venue.  Well, sorta.  I'm divorced, but when I was married and would try to cook my now ex-husband would get irritated because he preferred to eat every meal out.  Everyday.  Seriously.  Yeah, that was fun for like a month, but through 5 years of marriage??  Can we say exhorbitant?!?

So here I am, tyring it again just for me, (and my staunch guinea-pig friend at work lol).  Thus far, I have made 3 different dishes.  Here's the first one.  I boiled boneless-skinless chicken breasts and shredded them up in some 100% whole grain linguine with butter and garlic and black pepper.  For a salad-y side I diced some roma tomatoes and put them in the Italian dressing that you make yourself with the little envelope of seasoning you get at the store...olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and water, add contents, shake like hell, you know the drill. 

I did not salt the chicken, but I did salt the water in which I cooked the linguine.  I used course sea salt from a grinder.  I should mention that I eat very differently than I used to and try to only eat whole grains, use organic ingredients, (VERY difficult in NW TN!) etc.  This does not, by any means, infer that I will not stuff a brownie in my mouth if given the chance.  I just try to cut as many corners as I can so that I can enjoy more brownies haha!

Ok, that's enough for now.  I'll tell you about the other stuff later because who has time to read all this anyway?  :) 

Chicken Chili

One of my favorite things to make.  It's warm and filling and very easy to make.  The best combination!  Measurements of spices are estimated; season to taste.  I make this in a crock pot.

3 chicken breasts
4 cans great northern beans
2 cans chicken broth
1 med/large onion, diced
1 small can chopped green chilies, drained
1 clove garlic, minced
1-2 TBSP olive oil
2-3 tsp oregano or Italian herb blend
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground cloves

Broil/roast the chicken breasts covered in a little olive oil, salt & pepper; cube when done.  Be sure not to overcook.  Saute the diced onions in a little olive oil. Throw it all in the crock pot and let sit for 3-4 hours.  Serve with a little Parmesan cheese and garlic toast.

This is gonna be fun!

I'm so much more excited about a group blog than doing one by myself.  Back in 1994 I started using my first e-mail account to have group conversations with people I liked and admired.  The first one was called Quote of the Week.  I took interesting comments/passages from stuff I was reading in grad school and we all chatted and shared ideas.  Only common feature among the people was that they knew me.  I actually printed out the first few months.  Still have them somewhere.  I've created lots of variations over the years: Menu of the Week, Movie Quiz, Not Invited, and some others I can't remember the exact names of.  The constant theme was that I wanted to hear perspectives from people of many different views.  I've really enjoyed it.

This will be a little different, I think.  It's a more controlled theme with a smaller group of people.  But I'm really jazzed about sharing recipes, fabulous meals or cooking experiences with y'all.  We may add people later, but I think the core is pretty strong. Yippee!