Recipe for Bison Shephard's Pie

This isn't a traditional Shephard's pie but it is a very tasty one.  The shiitake mushrooms give it a nice earthy flavor and the little pop from the peas keeps it from being too heavy.  I made this when my parents were here visiting.  Everyone gave it thumbs up.  My Mom thought it needed a bit more gravy so if you like a "wetter" Shephard's pie, double the gravy ingredients.  I liked it as made but the extra gravy would also be good.  I mean, how can you go wrong with potatoes and gravy?

Weekly Wrap

Aloha y'all,
The Weekly Wrap is tardy today because we went to see Sir Elton John play last night.   The concert was really good-Sir Elton is such a talented pianist and even though the pipes may be a bit crusty and not have the range they once had, he can still belt it out (think "Saturday, Saturday, Saturday nights all right" and "Buh Buh Bennie and the Jets").  The venue here on Maui is a small amphitheater with great acoustics where every seat has a good view and the big screens let you feel as if you were up on stage with the band.

It is nice not to have to go to Honolulu for world class performances!

PICTURE THIS: Tuna Sashimi Pizza

Tuna Sashimi Pizza at Bev Gannon's Hali'imaile General Store, Maui

A thin, crispy crust, edamame puree, ahi tuna, sprouts, a touch of red onion, tobiko-Mmm, Mmm Good!

Recipe for Roasted Brussels Sprouts



Soggy, grey, bland, bitter.  Those are the attributes I think of when I think of Brussels sprouts.  I haven’t eaten them since I was a young kid at school and used to spit the boiled sprouts into my napkin and try to stash them somewhere the teacher wouldn’t see.  Gross, I know, but I’m just saying-bleck, that’s been my lifelong reaction to the little fellas.

But, the older I get the more open minded I get and after seeing roasted Brussels sprouts on countless menus, and Mr. ELEB dropping hints that he LOVES Brussels sprouts, I bought some.  And…ta da…I did enjoy them.  I wouldn’t say they are my favorite veggie in the whole world or anything like that but I won’t avoid an entrée on a menu anymore if Brussels sprouts are the side dish.

Recipe for Asian Marinated Pork

Here’s one of our favorite marinade recipes adapted from “The Weber Big Book of Grilling” (Chronicle Books, 2001, p. 181).  It is versatile, tasty and easy-how could you go wrong?  My intent was to cook pork tenderloin but, as sometimes happens here on Maui, “the shipment didn’t come in”, and so I subbed boneless pork chops which worked fine.  I just sliced them up for serving (and forgot to take a photo of them coming off the grill!).

I have marinated for a few short hours or overnight, both with good results.  The longer the meat marinates the more tender and flavorful.

Makes 6 servings, each approximately 302 calories, 12.4 grams fat, 0 grams carbs, 3.5 grams fiber, 44 grams protein, 7 WW Points+

Recipe for Greek Salad

This salad is always a hit whenever I make it.  It is super easy to make and each bite is full of flavor and good for you ingredients.

As part of the Food Buzz Tastemakers program I received bottles of Crisco's new Olive Oil line.  Here's what Crisco has to say about the three different types of oil:

Recipe for Dirty Martini Steak Kebabs

This concept behind this recipe sounded fun and tasty-using martini ingredients (vermouth, olives, onions) as a marinade and accompaniment for beef.  It was good, but nothing to write home about and not a recipe I’d repeat.  The meat was very tender as I marinated it overnight. But the flavor from the marinade was pretty basic.

I followed the recipe as written except for adding some green bell pepper to the skewers for some added veggie.  The recipe didn’t include instructions for soaking the skewers.  If you are using wooden skewers, be sure to soak them for several hours in plain water to prevent them from burning on the grill.  I didn’t make the salad included in the original recipe.  Instead I served my mushroom rice. 

We had company for dinner and we all ate our skewers so don’t get me wrong, there was nothing bad about it.  But, meh, just an okay meal.



Each serving Calories:418, Fat:24g, Carbohydrates:19g, Fiber:3g, Protein:28g

Original Recipe

Weekly Wrap

Enjoy the long weekend (if you get Monday off)!  This week zipped by for me with my parents here visiting. 

Monday:  a sweet treat for your sweetie.

Quick Valentine's Treat

PICTURE THIS: Grown in Hawaii

Maui Kale

Recipe for Rosemary White Bean Crostini



Here’s a healthy and quick appetizer or snack that is sure to please.  The rosemary, wine and shallots play very nicely together.  I used my new favorite healthy baguette recipe for the bread.

Makes about 2 cups of dip, approximately 83 calories, 0.8 grams fat, 13 grams carbs, 3 grams fiber, 4.3 grams protein, 2 WW Points+, per ¼ cup

Bread: approximately 21 calories, 0.1 grams fat, 4.25 grams carbs, 0.5 grams fiber, 1 grams protein, 1 WW Points+ per ½ of thin slice

Recipe for Oven Baked Fish Tacos

In the never ending quest for good fish dishes, this fish taco meal was a winner.  I chose to bake the fish instead of frying it and liked it a lot.  It would probably be faster to fry it, but would also add some calories from the oil that would be absorbed.  It was great with a side of my Cilantro Rice. 

Recipe for Crispy Potato Roast

If you want a “WOW” recipe for company or just for a special evening for yourself, give this recipe a try.  If you don’t have a mandoline, a sharp knife and some patience would be imperative.  Next time, and there definitely will be a next time, I’ll just strip the thyme off the sprigs and sprinkle it around.  It looked pretty placed whole on top but I think the flavor would be enhanced by taking the leaves off the sprigs.  The big change I made from the original recipe was adding in the pancetta-it was a good add!

Makes 10 servings, each approximately 234 calories, 5.4 grams fat, 31 grams carbs, 2.7 grams fiber, 6.8 grams protein, 6 WW Points+

Quick Valentine's Treat

If you're looking for a quick treat for your Valentine, it isn't too late.  Grab some strawberries, dark chocolate, chopped nuts and kosher salt and in less than half an hour, you'll have a sweet treat for your sweetie.

Weekly Wrap

Happy Weekend!  I hope yours is going well.  I'm happy because my parents are here visiting us on Maui.  It is long way for them to come from Georgia so their visits aren't very frequent.

Here's a summary of this week on the blog and some fun things I read.

Picture This: Maui's Finest

An excellent source of Vitamin C; 1 serving is over 100% of your US RDA.

Recipe for Cilantro Rice



Here’s a great way to bump up the flavor in rice.  You can use brown or white rice and this goes especially well with Mexican food. 

Makes 4 servings, each approximately 96 calories, 0 grams fat,  22 grams carbs, 0 grams fiber, 2 grams protein, 3 WW Points+

Recipe for Chocolate Chunk Cake

Using large chips of bittersweet chocolate makes this cake insanely chocolate.  It doesn’t need icing, just a touch of whipped cream or powdered sugar to finish it off.  If you like chocolate and salt like I do, sprinkle some kosher salt on the top and enjoy!  This is not a low calorie dessert by any means so use portion control.  You could also reduce the chocolate to 1 cup and I’m sure it would still be awesome.

Recipe for an Alternative to Plain Burgers

Even if you are like us and don’t eat a lot of red meat, you probably have a burger now and then.  I wanted to do something different than a plain burger so I put my thinking cap on (“what flavors am I hungry for?”) and looked in the pantry (“what do I have on hand?”). 

The result was this very flavorful burger with wilted cabbage and sautéed mushrooms instead of lettuce and tomato, a lemony, chutney-low fat sour cream sauce and chopped green onions instead of mustard, ketchup, and pickle, and a whole wheat naan instead of a bun.  It all worked together well and, paired with sweet potato fries, made a nice alternative for us.  Now I feel compelled to be creative on those occasional burger nights!

Makes 4 servings, each approximately 426 calories, 31.5 grams fat, 12 grams carbs, 0.8 grams fiber, 23.4 grams protein, 11 WW Points+ (including ¾ of piece of naan)

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef (10% fat content)

4 cups shredded cabbage, wilted

1 cup sliced mushrooms, sautéed in 1 tsp olive oil

½ cup chopped green onion

2 TBSP Major Grey Chutney

¾ cup low fat sour cream

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt and pepper

Whole wheat naan

Water

Method:

Mix salt and pepper to taste into the ground beef.  Make 4 patties.  Cook on grill (or in grill pan) to your desired doneness.  Meanwhile, mix wilted cabbage and cooked mushrooms together and season with salt and pepper, keep warm.  Mix zest, juice, chutney, and sour cream together. 

Brush naan with water and warm in oven on 400 degrees for 5 minutes.

Use cabbage/mushroom mix as base layer on naan.

Add burger and top with sour cream sauce and chopped onions.

How about you?  Ready to mix up your burger night a bit?  Please share your ideas!

Printable Recipe

Recipe for "Not Just For Special Occasions" Roasted Chicken



I mentioned last week that my use of store bought rotisserie chicken would probably decrease due to an amazingly quick, easy and tasty way to get a great roasted chicken at home without hours of cooking.  This is based on Mark Bittman’s high heat/Dutch oven method found on his “how to cook everything” website (Thank you Mark!)

Weekly Wrap

Aloha readers!  Hope you had a good week, and for those of you anticipating the big game, hope you get to watch some good football and eat some yummy treats!  Me?  I'm hoping to be chasing the little white ball around with a club-the golf courses are usually dead on Superbowl Sunday.

Here's a recap of this week's recipes and posts and some tid bits from other places around the Web.

PICTURE THIS: Bleuets

Mr. Spock: "What is the formula for PI?"

Chekov: "Er...apple or blueberry, sir?"

from basicjokes.com

"Healthy Bread in Five Minutes" Master Dough Recipe

Jeff Hertzberg, M.D. and Zoë François have written a couple of books and have a website and videos describing their no knead healthy and artisan breads.  I’m a big fan of whole wheat homemade bread and use my bread machine faithfully for our sandwich bread.

I was intrigued by this claim of 5 minutes a day to make great bread.  Of course, it takes longer than five minutes but it is great bread.  You can watch the authors make this basic recipe here:

 

I didn’t make the boule shape, opting instead for a baguette.  I followed the recipe outlined in the video except I used ¼ cup more water than they suggest as my dough was not wet like theirs was. 

This turned out really yummy, has only 5 ingredients-flour, water, yeast, salt and vital wheat gluten (a godsend when baking with whole wheat), and is a snap to make, even if it takes a bit longer than 5 minutes.    There is no sugar or sugar substitute in the recipe.

The master recipe mixes up a large amount, enough for 4 small loaves or baguettes and can be stored for up to 2 weeks in the fridge.

Recipe for Easy Rotisserie Chicken Enchiladas

Finding a good store bought rotisserie chicken can open up all kinds of possibilities for quick, easy meals.  What defines a “good” one though?  For me, it is one that doesn’t have a lot of added salt, has good flavor, isn’t dried out, and is reasonably priced.  The meat from one such chicken was perfect to use in this easy enchilada dish.

Since making this recipe, I made a roasted chicken using a super quick method (less than an hour for a 4 pound bird, recipe coming next week), so I may not be using store bought rotisserie chickens as much going forward!

Recipe for Caraway Cabbage and Carrot Slaw

I saw a recipe recently for coleslaw that included caraway seeds.  I had a large bag of shredded cabbage and a fresh jar of caraway seeds and pulled this slaw together on a whim.  I like the added flavor from the caraway seeds.  I think toasting seeds and grains always ups the flavor so I toasted the caraway.  I also prefer cabbage very slightly wilted over raw.  Super easy, quick and tasty side dish.

Makes 4 servings, approximately 35 calories, 0.3 grams fat, 7.5 grams carbs, 2.2 grams fiber, 1.9 grams protein, 1 WW Points+