Chicken Sate Lettuce Wraps with Pineapple Jicama Slaw

This recipe gave me a chance to work with a brand new (to me) ingredient. – jicama! Prior to this, my only encounter has been on salad bars where it is typically julienned. It was interesting to see the root vegetable, closely related to the potato in its natural state. I googled how to work with the jicama and it was really quite easy.

The slaw took a lot of time to prep due to all the chopping required. I would recommend tackling that task the night before. However, once it was ready to go, the rest of the recipe came together quite quickly. We enjoyed this meal as a nice light dinner prior to Bryan’s volleyball game. It was definitely enough to feel satisfied but not be weighed down. I bet this would make a good lunch served cold as well.

Adapted from Cara’s Cravings

Ingredients
Slaw
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 lime, juiced and zested
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
freshly ground salt & pepper, to taste
about 1 cup diced pineapple (150gm)
about 1 cup julienned jicama (100gm)

Chicken Sate
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast
1.5 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
3 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 lime, juiced and zested
pinch of crushed red pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced

Peanut Sauce
3 tbsp PB2, mixed with a little water
1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp chili paste with garlic
1/2 teaspoon sugar

10 leaves Boston Bibb lettuce, washed and dried

Directions
1 Combine all of the slaw ingredients in a large bowl and chill until ready to serve.

2. For the chicken sate, combine the brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger, red pepper, and garlic. Slice the chicken into thin strips and toss with the marinade in a bowl or shallow baking dish. Let marinate for 10 minutes at room temperature, or up to an hour in the refrigerator.

3. Meanwhile, whisk together the peanut sauce ingredients.

4. Preheat large pan over medium heat. Remove the chicken from the marinade and discard marinade. Cook for 8-10 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove from heat and chop chicken into bite sized pieces.

5. Serve chicken in lettuce leaves with pineapple-jicama slaw and peanut dipping sauce. Enjoy!

The Facts
Four Servings, Including Sauce

Menu Plans 07-26-10

Saturday - Smoked Lamb with Mint Salsa Verde, Pasta with Herbed Goat Cheese, Pan Roasted Asparagus
Monday - Smoked Pork Tenderloin, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli
Tuesday - Tequila Lime Shrimp Tacos, Chili Lime Rice
Wednesday - Chicken Shawarma, Taboule Salad, Veggies and Hummus
Thursday - Trivia @ Smokey Bones
Friday - Dinner Out
Saturday - TBD

Check out some other great menus at orgjunkie.com!

Greek-American Lamb Gyros

I don’t even know where to start with these. They were SO incredibly good! Bryan and I enjoyed every single bite of this popular Greek meal. I made gyros a few months ago, but the recipe I used just wasn’t that great or worth sharing. While making our dinner menu for the week, Bryan requested gyros again. I obviously wasn’t crazy about the first recipe so I went on the hunt for a new and improved one. I stumbled across this article. Here, some chef did a food lab experiment of different methods for making gyros at home. Perfect! I read through it and really liked what he described, so I went for it!

To add to my growing collection of kitchen electronics and gadgets, I bought the meat grinder attachment for my KitchenAid Stand Mixer. Wowsa, that thing was awesome! Way better than my previous method using the food processor. We bought a boneless lamb leg roast (from Costco, ha!). I portioned out about a pound of meat and froze the rest. I trimmed some of the fat prior to grinding, however I made sure to leave enough as this is the main binding ingredient. I omitted the bacon and had no issues. Otherwise, I followed the recipe in its entirety.

The end result was delicious, perfectly juicy, well seasoned lamb slices. The only change I would make next time would be to flip the meat and broil on BOTH sides. I highly recommend reading the food lab article to see the entire process and importance of each step. We enjoyed our gyros on wheat pita flatbreads with Tzaztiki from the local Mediterranean restaurant as well as an amazing garbanzo bean salad and barley salad from the same restaurant. We completed the gyros with tomatoes, red onion and crumbled feta. I can’t WAIT to make these again!

Adapted from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt on Serious Eats

Ingredients
1 lb ground lamb
2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp picked fresh oregano leaves (or 1/2 tsp dried)
1/2 onion, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 clove garlic, sliced

Directions
1. Combine lamb, salt, pepper, and oregano in medium bowl. Mix with hands until homogeneous. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to overnight.

2. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 300°F. Place cold mixture in bowl of food processor with onion and garlic. Process until smooth puree is formed, about 1 minute total, scraping down sides with rubber spatula as necessary.

3. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. With moist hands, form meat mixture into rectangle about 1 1/2 inches high, 8-inches long, and 5-inches wide. Bake until center of loaf reads 155°F on an instant read thermometer, about 30-40 minutes. Allow loaf to rest at room temperature for 10-15 (or refrigerate for up to a week).

4. Adjust broiler rack to highest position (about 1 1/2 to 2 inches from broiler element) and preheat broiler. Slice loaf crosswise into 1/8th to 1/4-inch strips (each strip should be about 5-inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide). Lay strips on rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and broil until edges are brown and crispy, about 2-3 minutes.

5. Serve on warmed pita flatbread with Tzaztiki, red onions, tomatoes and feta.

The Facts
4 Servings (Meat Only)

Linguini with White Clam Sauce

Have you ever ordered steamed clams (or mussels) at a restaurant with that delicious wine/garlic/etc. broth? You know, the kind you can dip endless amount of bread in and savor every bite? Yes, yum? That’s what I was going for with this dish; of course with some linguini so it was an actual dinner and not an appetizer. I must say, this came out quite tasty!

They had fresh clams at Costco this weekend, so on a whim we grabbed a bag for dinner this week. I browsed google for some recipes and found a good one to serve as my base. I did however make quite a few changes as the original only called for twelve clams (yes, TWELVE). Well, I had four pounds, and although I didn’t actually count, there were significantly more than twelve little clams. There’s really no rhyme or reason to the amount of everything I used, but it worked well for the dish. A work of caution on the red pepper flakes – it was rather spicy so I’d recommend using only half a teaspoon. I also added some clam juice just to make sure there was plenty of broth for some good bread dipping.

This recipe is definitely a keeper. Everything came together rather quickly, at least once the clams were scrubbed (that takes me forever!). This is a great dish to serve for company, everyone will enjoy it!

Adapted from Healthy. Delicious.

Ingredients
1 box – 13.25 oz whole wheat linguini
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, minced
6-8 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tsp dried hot red pepper flakes
1 tsp dried oregano
1 cup white wine
1 cup clam juice
4 lbs littleneck clams, scrubbed well
2 Tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Prepare the linguini according to the directions on the package.

2. While that cooks, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Make sure your skillet is actually large enough to hold all your clams! Add the onion and sauté until it begins to soften. Add the garlic, red pepper, and oregano and cook for 1 minute, taking care not to burn the garlic.
3. Stir in the wine and clam juice. Cook for a few minutes to allow the flavors to come together. Add the clams, cover, and steam for about 7-10 minutes or until all the clams open. Remove from heat and stir in the butter and parsley; season to taste with salt and pepper.

4. Drain the pasta and return to the pot. Add the half a cup of clam sauce to the pasta and toss to coat.

5. Serve pasta, topped with clams and additional sauce, and some crusty bread for dipping if desired.

The Facts
6 Servings

Menu Plans 07-19-10

Sunday – Thanksgiving in July! Our contribution: Sweet Potato Casserole
Monday – Linguini with White Clam Sauce
Tuesday – Lamb Gyros, Tzazitiki with Cucumbers
Wednesday – Chicken Sate Lettuce Wraps with Pineapple Jicama Slaw
Thursday – Trivia @ Smokey Bones
Friday – Dinner Out

**Check out some other great menus at orgjunkie.com!

Chinese Five-Spice Steak

I had an extra flank steak left over from a dinner I hosted a few weeks ago so I turned to Cooking Light for a good recipe. After narrowing down the options, I decided to go with this one, with one major alteration. Instead of pre slicing the beef and cooking the strips, we chose to marinate the steak whole, grill it, THEN slice it. Our reasoning behind this was to achieve more of a medium to medium rare steak versus well done pieces. This method made for a more tender and juicy meat.

I also added broccoli to the original recipe. This rounded out the meal with some veggies which tasted delicious in the sauce. We definitely enjoyed this meal, however if I make it again, I will double the sauce / marinade. Between cooking the steak differently than originally called out and adding the broccoli, there really wasn’t any sauce leftover to soak into the rice. Everything had a great flavor, it just would have been nice to have a little extra.

Adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
3 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp five-spice powder
1 (1.5 pound) flank steak, trimmed
2 tbsp minced green onions
2 tsp bottled minced garlic
1 head of broccoli, chopped – florets only
2 green onions, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 tbsp chopped fresh basil

Directions
1. Combine hoisin sauce, soy sauce, five-spice powder, and steak in a large dish. Marinate for at least 30 minutes.

2. Heat large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Spray with cooking oil and add minced green onions and garlic; sauté 30 seconds.

3. Meanwhile, pre-heat grill to medium-high (350*) and remove steak from marinade. Once grill is hot, reduce heat to medium low and grill steak 7-8 minutes per side, until cooked through.

5. Remove steak from grill and allow to rest a few minutes before slicing into 1/4 inch strips.

6. While steak grills, add broccoli and remaining marinade to skillet. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and cook 5-10 minutes, until broccoli reached desired tenderness.

7. Stir in green onion pieces and chopped basil; cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

8. Immediately before serving, combine steak slices with broccoli and enjoy over rice or rice noodles.

The Facts
4 Servings

Pan-Seared Scallops with Bacon and Spinach

Yum! This dish was absolutely delicious! Once the bacon hit the pan, the kitchen was immediately filled with an amazing aroma. Both Bryan and I couldn’t wait for dinner to be served. I bought fresh scallops from the seafood road show at Costco as well as spinach in bulk. Twelve ounces looked like a TON of spinach, but it cooked down a lot. I prepped all the ingredients before hand to allow for quicker cooking. Make sure you wait for the skillet to cool slightly before adding the garlic and onions to avoid burning. Overall, this was a great meal that I’m sure I’ll make again. I enjoyed cooking with some other seafood besides shrimp.

Adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients
2 center-cut bacon slices
1 1/2 lbs sea scallops
1/4 tsp plus 1/8 tsp kosher salt, divided
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper, divided
1 cup chopped onion
6 garlic cloves, sliced
12 oz. fresh baby spinach

Directions
1. Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving drippings in pan; coarsely chop and set bacon aside.

2. Increase heat to high. Pat scallops dry with paper towels. Sprinkle scallops evenly with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Add scallops to drippings in pan; cook 2 1/2 minutes on each side or until done. Transfer to a plate; keep warm.

3. Reduce heat to medium-high. Add onion and garlic to pan; sauté 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add half of spinach; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add remaining half of spinach; cook 2 minutes or just until wilted, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; stir in remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/8 teaspoon pepper.

4. Divide spinach mixture among 4 plates; top each serving evenly with crumbled bacon and scallops. Serve immediately.

The Facts
4 Servings

Menu Plans 07-12-10

So after 2.5 weeks without AC, a holiday week with company in town and countless dinners out, things are FINALLY getting back to normal around here! When it was 90 degrees in our house (NO, I'm NOT exaggerating), cooking in the kitchen was just not an option. The heat was unbearable. I am looking forward to getting back in the kitchen and preparing some fresh home cooked meals for us to enjoy.

Monday - Pan-Seared Scallops with Bacon and Spinach, Pasta Side

Tuesday - Chinese 5 Spice Steak, Brown Rice, Broccoli

Wednesday - Grilled Chicken with Cucumber Melon Salsa, Jasmine Rice, Roasted Eggplant and Zucchini

Thursday - Home Made Pizza, Salad

Friday - TBD

*Check out orgjunkie.com for some other great menus!