Eggplant and Feta Dip

Ok, honestly, this is easily one of my new favorite dips...well second to Megan's buffalo wing dip. Ok, this is my new "on the healthier side" dip. haha. I modified the recipe from delish.com...I tend to always not add as much olive oil as the recipe asks...I mean, I hate to say it but olive oil really doesn't have that much flavor to me; by adding less, I feel like there's more flavor in the dish. ALSO, who knew eggplants were soo mushy! I went to the store to buy one and thought they were all rotten because they were so squishy! Anyway, I'll stop ranting.

Ingredients:
1 medium eggplant
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons crumbled feta cheese
2 tablespoons diced up shallots
1 jalapeno seeded and diced
1 tablespoon parsley
1 tablespoon cilantro
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of pepper
1 pinch of cayenne pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to broil.
2. Cut eggplant in half and place face down on a cookie sheet. (Pam or butter the cookie sheet or else the eggplant will stick)
3. Put in broiler for about 10 minutes.
4. Take out and let cool.
5. Spoon the insides out of the eggplant into a bowl.
6. Add lemon juice to prevent discoloring.
7. Add oil, feta, shallots, jalapeno, parsley, cilantro, salt, pepper, and cayenne.
8. Blend. (or else dip will be stringy)
9. Serve with chips!

I actually think I might make more of this tonight just because I'm so addicted to it! Here are the nutrition facts...so I'm not sure how to make it more visible without making blurry, but I figured out you can press on the picture and get it in full size. I did one serving size, even though this is easily 3 or 4.
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Curried Chickpeas

Curried chickpeas....yummm. This has all my favorite things right now!...There is ginger, curry powder, and garlic...all it needs is some SOUR CREAM! haha, the funny thing is that it would actually probably go well with sour cream because it is so spicy, but for the sake of my health, I decided to leave it out. I modified this recipe from epicurious.com by substituting tumeric with curry powder. One of these days, I will buy that spice...;) ANywhere, here is what I did.

Ingredients:
1 can of chickpeas
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon cumin
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 inch cube of ginger minced
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (this can be adjusted depending on how spicy you want)

Instructions:

1. Drain chickpeas and rinse.


2. In a little olive oil, cook chickpeas in a saucepan.


3. Add curry powder, cumin, garlic, ginger and cayenne pepper.


4. Mix until chickpeas are hot.


5. Serve!!

Super hard huh? Now, I've gotten requests to start putting nutritional values to my dishes and while it's a work in progress, here is what I have got for this one. I just plug the ingredients into a calorie counter website and out comes the results. Now, I am still trying to figure out how I am going to post it...I'd like to eventually make it look all pretty, but you will have to just make do with what I give now. Now, I just put it as 1 serving size because I'm not really sure how to allocate serving sizes and this dish is really more of a side dish so you figure it out!!

Hot Wings!!

Umm, can I please say that these wings are better than Wingstop's? Ok jk, no wings are better than wingstops, but nate says it's a close second! I got this recipe from Siao who actually got it from the Frank's bottle with some alterations. Frank's is awesome...I mean tangy hot sauce, who can ask for more? Here is what I did.

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/3 cup frank's hot sauce

1/3 cup melted butter

2 lbs of chicken wings

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Bake wings for about an hour.
3. Take wings out, let cool.
4. Combine Frank's hot sauce, butter, lemon juice, paprika, and chili powder.
5. Coat wings in sauce.
6. Serve!

So, I LOVE hot wings...and I know this is stupid, but my fingers started kind of cramping from holding the wings, getting the meat off, and that whole ordeal. I am totally down with just taking the meat off of wings, coating them in the sauce and eating them with a fork. Is that so wrong? Would I be considered blasphemous from the hot wing community? Anyway, curried chickpeas next!!

Soy Ginger Salmon

Mmmmmmmm, soy ginger salmon. I wish the salmon didn't break apart like in the picture. It could have looked so much prettier. Oh well ~ So I have grown a great appreciation for ginger since this dish. A little really goes a long way...and on this dish you really don't see much on the salmon, but oh you can taste it. ;) So I got this recipe from epicurious.com - it's a pretty good website for recipes and there's even an iphone app for it.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons pepper
1 tbsp lemon
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1 inch ginger minced
1/3 cup orange juice
4 salmon fillets

Instructions:

1. Rub salmon with 1 tbsp brown sugar and lightly sprinkle the lemon and garlic powder.
2. In a saucepan, pour soy sauce, olive oil, gigner, remaining brown sugar, and pepper. Bring to a simmer until sugar is dissolved.
3. Remove from heat, then add the orange juice.
4. Place the fish in the marinade and refrigerate overnight.
5. Preheat broiler and place fish in a baking pan.
6. Broil fish for about 6-8 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes.

Gosh I have completely blanked on what I served this with now...anyway, my next dish is more of a side dish. It's chickpeas in this spice blend...with ginger. ;) Wait for it.

Zucchini Fritters

Zucchini Fritters!!! So, my health kick is gone, if you can't tell. Man, and those chicken recipes failed me...I had high hopes, but they are not worthy for this blog. ;) Anyway, this zucchini fritter recipe makes about 10 fritters ~ let me correct, 10 DELICIOUS fritters. I think they would go really well with a squeeze of lemon too...I dipped them in hot sauce. haha ~ well, enjoy!!

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium zucchini
2 garlic cloves (minced)
1/3 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup milk

Instructions:

1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in skillet, add zucchini and garlic until zucchini is brown.
2. In a mixing bowl, stir flour, baking powder, oregano, salt, and pepper.
3. Add milk and whisk until smooth.
4. Stir in zucchini mixture.
5. Heat rest of olive oil, drop 1 tbsp at a time until golden brown (4 minutes per side).
6. Serve!

So the next dish is salmon. Basically it is salmon cooked in sugar...I've started this unhealthy kick now, so you'll enjoy the next recipes coming.

Mac and Cheese

Photo is courtesy if Jason Joseph. I'm having a really hard time getting my pictures to show light in them, but Jason gave me a tip to point the camera upward? ;) Anywayyy, MAC AND CHEESE! Yummm, so we had kind of a potluck type dinner; Jason, Faye, Jake and I worked on the mac and cheese. Nate graciously grated all the cheese. Faye and Jason worked on the appetizer, then Megan and Jake made the delicious dessert. However, this post is just for the mac and cheese. I got the recipe from Josh because last time he made it, it was divineee. =) BUT, I made a crucial mistake...I forgot to add the parmesan cheese!! Well, it was still good; we live and we learn. I'll post the CORRECT recipe though.

Ingredients:
1/2 teaspoon Salt
16-ounce package macaronia
1/4 pound bacon (about 3 large slices)
1 medium onion diced
6 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 bay leaf (we didn't use this)
1 1/2 cups grated fontina
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
3/4 cup grated gruyere
3/4 cup grated white cheddar (australian)
3/4 cup grated parmesan
3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
1/4 cup break crumbs

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Butter the 9 by 13 inch glass baking dish
3. Cook macaroni in a large pot.
4. In another pot, saute diced bacon until crisp.
5. Remove bacon, leave the bacon drippings.
6. Saute onion in drippings until soft.
7. Add the 5 tablespoons of butter until it melts.
8. While mixing, add the flour until well mixed, making a roux.
9. Mix in the mustard.
10. Gradually add the milk and cream while mixing constantly.
11. Add thyme, bay leaf, and salt.
12. Let come to a simmer and stir frequently for about 15 minutes.
13. Strain the hot milk mixture and discard solids (or use them in a different dish as Jason will be doing).
14. Working quickly, mix in 1 cup fontina cheese, blue cheese, 1/2 cup gruyere, 1/2 cup white cheddar, 1/2 cup parmesan, the reserved bacon, and parsley.
15. Stir until all cheese is melted.
16. Add cooked noodles to the cheese mixture to coat.
17. Add the noodle mixture to baking dish.
18. Mix the remaining cheese and bread crumps together and sprinkle on top of the noodles.
19. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until bubbling and golden brown.
20. Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes.
21. Serve!

Gosh, mac and cheese not from the box is a lot of work! But WELL worth it. Now, I have four recipes lined up to make this week! We'll see how many I actually do. But there's rosemary chicken, peanut chicken, soy ginger salmon, and hot wings! Wait for it. ;)

Cod over sauteed Cabbage and rice

My last post on cod and I made it a good one! I don't know what's going on with this camera..If I use flash, it's wayyy too bright and if I don't use flash, it's too dark. Hmmmm, anyway, I think this dish is making it's way to the top of my list. It's so simple, but has a lot of flavor. It's basically white rice, some sauteed cabbage with this soy sauce mixture, and pan-fried cod! The cod was super easy. I just sprinkled it with salt and pepper, then put it on the pan with some oil for 3 minutes per side.

Ingredients:

2 cups sliced cabbage

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 teaspoons sugar

2 cloves of garlic

cooked cod

cooked rice

Instructions:

1. Put cut up garlic in a pan with some oil.
2. Add cabbage, let saute.
3. In a separate little bowl, put soy sauce and sugar together. If sugar does not dissolve, you may need to heat it up a little bit.
4. Add half of the soy sauce mixture into the cabbage.
5. After cabbage is cooked, put on top of rice.
6. Add fish, then add the rest of the sauce.
7. Serve!

What's next?!?