Chicken and Lettuce wraps

These are similar to the Chicken and Lettuce wraps from PF Changs. I love them! Really pretty healthy recipe. This recipe makes a lot of chicken, so I served it over brown rice the next day for dinner and the following for lunch. It looks like a lot of ingredients, but if you prep, you just throw everything together and stir ( : I served this meal with steamed edamame tossed in a little lime juice and sea salt. There are lots of veggies in this meal and it's fun to eat with your hands.

1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 shallot, chopped fine
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
5 oz pkg shitake mushrooms, chopped fine
7 leaves savoy cabbage, shredded, or chopped into thin strips
2 T hoisin sauce
2 T lite soy sauce
juice of a lime
1/4 C white wine
1/4 C fresh cilantro, chopped fine
1 C shredded carrots
1 (8oz) can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
1/8 tsp cardamom
few dashes cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
breast meat of cooked rotisserie chicken, shredded (approx 4 C)
1/2 C lightly salted roasted peanuts, chopped
2-3 Tbsp bottled peanut sate sauce (found in thai aisle)
ice berg lettuce leaves for serving

Heat sesame oil over medium heat. Saute shallots 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and saute 1 minute. Add mushrooms, carrots, cabbage,and wine and saute until tender and cabbage is wilted down. Stir in hoisin, soy sauce, spices, peanut sauce and saute 2-3 minutes. Add chopped cilantro, and water chestnuts, saute 1 minute. Add chicken, saute 1-2 minutes. Squeeze lime juice over and stir. Mix in peanuts. Peel lettuce leaves off head of iceberg lettuce. Spoon chicken mixture into lettuce wraps, wrap and eat! Serve with edamame.

Buffalo Style Turkey Meatballs with Blue Cheese

OK, I am on a little bit of a meatball kick. I made these for superbowl sunday and they were a hit, not one left. I made my own low fat blue cheese dip to dip them in. These are actually pretty healthy, made with turkey and I use oatmeal and whole wheat breadcrumbs as binders (you wont even notice the oats). These meatballs are very moist (especially for turkey meatballs).

***I have since made this several other times and this is an edited version of the recipe***

Buffalo Style Meatballs

1/4 c low fat milk (sometimes I used closer to a 1/3 C)
1/2 C. whole wheat seasoned breadcrumbs
1/2 C. oatmeal (not instant), processed in food processor until reduced to crumbs
1 large egg, beaten lightly
16 oz ground turkey
2 cloves garlic, minced (more if you like it very garlicky)
1/2 C fresh parsley, choppped
1/2 C crumbled blue cheese
1 T. unsalted butter
bottle of your favorite wing sauce, minus 2 Tbsp that go in the meatball mixture
1/4 C crumbled blue cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Pour milk in a large, deep bowl. Add oats and breadcrumbs and let sit a few minutes until milk is absorbed. Add egg and stir well. Add ground turkey, garlic, salt, pepper, parsley, and 2 Tbsp wing sauce, and 1/2 C blue cheese and mix well until combined. Shape into small cocktail sized meatballs, place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper or non stick foil.  Bake 10-12 minutes, until cooked inside. At this step you can let them cool and refrigerate or freeze them.  They freeze very well.

If you are using them right away, melt butter over med and add remaining wing sauce until heated through. Toss meatballs with wing sauce/butter mixture. sprinkle 1/4 c crumbled blue cheese over top. Serve with toothpicks and low fat blue cheese dip (recipe follows).  I also often serve these over brown rice or quinoa for dinner.  If you are reheating them, melt the butter and mix with wing sauce, toss with meatballs and 1/4 C crumbled blue cheese in covered casserole dish and bake at 350 until sauce is bubbling and meatballs are hot....prob about 15-20 minutes.

Low Fat Blue Cheese Dip

16 oz low fat sour cream
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. dijon mustard
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste (I like lots of pepper)
2tsp-1 T apple cider vinegar (depending on the consistency you want)
8 oz crumbled blue cheese

mix all ingredients together. Serve with meatballs.

Baked Clam Dip

So I made this for Christmas, and it was such a hit! I used a recipe given to me by someone and improvised a little bit. I forgot to get a picture, so I stole one from the internet. This is pretty much what it looks like. Enjoy! Oh and its pretty garlicky, so don't kiss anyone the day after ;)

Baked Clam Dip

2 (6.5oz) cans minced or chopped clams, with juice
1 and 1/2 C breadcrumbs
1 stick of butter (you read that right)
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 sweet onion, minced
juice and zest of one lemon
2 tsp italian seasoning (or you can use Italian Bread Crumbs)
tsp of sea salt

Melt butter and saute onion til soft, add garlic the last two minutes of cooking. Mix all other indredients together into saute mixture. Put into pyrex pie plate and bake at 350 for 30 min. You can broil for a minute or so at the end to really brown the top. Serve with crackers or toasted bread

Gorgonzola Truffles

I had a girls night pot luck a few weeks ago and these were one of the fabulous appetizers that someone (Michelle) brought....they really are great and also great popped into a salad! The gorgonzola truffles are on the right on the plate with the grapes


4 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 (4-5 oz.) container crumbled gorgonzola (blue-cheese)

2 tsp. finely chopped onion

1/2 tsp. worcestershir sauce

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/2 cup cooked and crumbled bacon

Grapes and/or apples and pear slices

1. Beat first 5 ingredients at medium speed until well combined. Cover tightly and chill at least 1 hour or until firm. (Can chill up to 3 days.)

2. Roll cheese mixture into 3/4 inch round balls. Roll each ball in bacon. Serve with apple and pear slices and grapes.

Deviled Eggs

I made this dish for the baby shower, it is a great brunch recipe and the filling can be made the night before and piped into the eggs the morning of the party. I make these at every brunch and there are never any leftover! I took my mom's recipe and made it my own...

Deviled Eggs

1 dozen large eggs
4 Tbsp low fat mayo
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 Tbsp low fat sour cream
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried dill weed
salt and pepper to taste
few dashes cayenne powder (optional)
fresh chives for garnish

Hardboil eggs. The best method I find is to fill a large pot with water, gently place eggs one by one in pot. Bring to a boil, shut off heat and cover, set the timer for 18 minutes exactly. With a slotted spoon, remove eggs and place in an ice bath until cooled enough to peel. I find the best way to peel the eggs is to tap several times on the counter and peel the shell off, if you want you can rinse under cool water.

Once the eggs are cooled and peeled, slice each one in half lengthwise and carefully pop out the yolks into a bowl. Place the whites into a paper towel lined container and put away in the fridge (if you are making this the night before). Add all other ingredients to yolks and mash with a potato masher until smooth. Spoon mixture into a large ziplock bag and push the mixture into one of the corners and seal. If making this the night before, put the mixture in the fridge. When ready to serve, place the egg whites on a platter and cut the tip off the ziplock bag and pipe yolk mixture onto the egg whites. Garnish by sprinkling either cayenne or paprika over eggs and topping with fresh chives if desired.

Veggies with Garlic Feta Dip

This is another recipe from the baby shower. I wanted to have something for the guests to eat while I finished the rest of the food for the shower, so I served some fresh veggies with a garlic feta dip, that I could just eat by itself with no veggies! It was great!

Garlic Feta Dip

1 C crumbled feta
1/2 C low fat sour cream
1/2 C low fat greek yogurt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
assorted raw veggies of your choice
hollowed out bell pepper to serve the dip in

Combine feta, sour cream, yogurt, garlic, season with salt and pepper. Spoon the dip into the hollowed out bell pepper and serve with veggies on a platter.

"unfried" zucchini

Courtesy of Dori at the Foodie Fashionista Blog:

http://foodiefashionista.blogspot.com/2007/08/fried-zucchini-chips.html

These came out great!!!!! So yummy and I think they would be good also with Horseradish sauce.

Crack dip aka Buffalo Chicken Dip

I got this recipe from many sources, but Im going to reference this blog:

http://nowthatswhatscooking.blogspot.com/2007/06/crack-dip-aka-buffalo-chicken-dip.html

I made a few adaptations. I made this for a girl's night and they loved it and my co workers loved it Monday too!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

4 C cooked shredded chicken (I used the breast meat of a rotisserie chicken)

8 oz buffalo wing sauce

16 oz low fat cream cheese, softened

8 oz ranch dressing (I used Hidden Valley Buttermilk Ranch)

8 oz crumbled blue cheese

8 oz shredded low fat cheddar and monterey jack cheese blend

Mix all ingredients except for 1/2 of the shredded cheese. Put in casserole dish, and sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Bake at 325 for 35 minutes covered with foil and then take foil off and broil another few minutes until all cheese on top is melted. Serve with tortilla chips, celery and bagel chips

Homemade Cheese Dip (Spread)

I havent tried this yet, but it sounds good, and you can probably vary the ingr.

1 lb leftover cheese at room temp. (use whatever you like)
1/4 C dry white wine
3 T unsalted butter softened
fresh cracked black pepper
1 clove garlic

Remove any rinds from hard cheeses. Grate hard cheeses cut softer cheese into cubes. Place cheese and all ingr in food processor. Blend 2 full minutes. Store 1 week.

My mom's mushroom turnovers

these are a great appetizer and the filling can be made ahead. You can even make them and instead of cooking them, freeze them for later. If you have any leftover filling it tastes great scrambled with some eggs! Sorry measurements are approximate--it all depends on your taste.

1 box white mushrooms chopped
2 Tbsp shallot, minced
dried thyme to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
2 T Olive oil or butter (whichever you prefer)
1-2 T light cream cheese
1 box Pillsbury Refrigerated pie crust

1. Saute mushrooms, onions and seasonings in olive oil unti dry.
2. Add cream cheese and stir until melted.
3. Roll out pie crust. Cut rounds from pie crust with biscuit cutter or rim of drinking glass. Put 1 tsp of filling on each and fold in and seal (crimp with fingers). They can be frozen at this point.
4. Bake at temperature on pie crust box until lightly browned.