So I’ve been feeling pretty crummy for the past few days. And I’ve been craving soups like crazy. One of my favorite options when I want a comforting meal is ramen, specifically Shio-style from Nom Nom Ramen in center city Philadelphia.
Ramen is typically made with pork belly, but I couldn’t find any in my supermarket so I went with beef. So this Slow Cooker Beef Ramen is definitely not a traditional style ramen.
With the weather starting to cool off a bit, I had a hankering for something a little more hearty that I could still prepare on a weeknight. This recipe from Cooking Light incorporates mushrooms and turkey sausage into a tomato sauce to make a filling but lighter meal. The polenta is kicked up a notch with the addition of some cream cheese to add some decadence to the whole dish. I kept this recipe mostly in tact and just messed with some of the amounts for the ingredients. To see the original recipe, click here. Ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
8 ounces hot turkey Italian sausage
3/4 cup chopped onion
20 oz sliced baby bella mushrooms
2 large (or 4 small) garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon coconut aminos (or soy sauce if not gluten-free)
Summer months are just meant for barbecue. And not just barbecued foods on the grill; your slow cooker can make some mean pulled pork for you as well! This recipe for Pulled Pork with Bourbon Peach Barbecue Sauce is perfect for a crowd and is great on a kaiser bun with some coleslaw!
I found this recipe in my Cooking Light magazine, made it over the weekend, and enjoyed it during the week for a quick meal to assemble. I also froze half of the pork to bring to the beach for my extended family to enjoy and it held up great! I changed the recipe a bit because I ended up with a 5.5 pound pork shoulder so I altered the amounts to compensate for that.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Spanish smoked paprika
I received a fun challenge from the Mystery Ingredient Blogger Showcase a few weeks back: have a mystery ingredient sent my way and come up with my very own recipe using it.
I received the package last week and found the following inside:
Coleman’s Mustard and Mustard Powder! Coleman’s has been producing mustard products in England since the early 1800’s so they know their product. As one of the oldest existing food brands, Coleman’s yellow tin is a symbol of quality mustard powder and prepared mustard.
I have never worked with mustard powder before so I wanted to use that in a recipe. I was just at a wedding in Texas and didn’t have time to get some barbecue while I was there, so I’ve had quite the craving for ribs. I have no idea what a traditional Texas barbecue sauce would be (and a friend of mine told me mine is actually more of a Kansas City sauce) but I figured mustard powder would be a great addition to my Slow Cooker Baby Back Ribs and would hopefully fulfill my craving.
Coleman’s Mustard Powder is no joke; it’s pretty hot. It’s made from a mixture of both brown and white mustard seeds and heats up when added to a liquid. So I used it sparingly in the sauce but for the spice enthusiasts, feel free to increase the amount used.
A few weeks back I was invited to go to a super cool event hosted by Goose Island Beer. The last week in September was Goose Island Migration Week in Philadelphia and one of the events was a Painting and Tasting at New Deck Tavern. While sipping on Goose Island’s delicious beer, a painting instructor guided us through painting a Goose Island themed painting!
Creativity is not my strong suit. I can’t sing, dance, act, play an instrument… you get the idea. So I was excited and somewhat intimated by this whole process. But it was awesome. And here’s the end result!
Me, my friend Ericka, and our works of art
Please ignore that my oranges look like peaches. And that my goose on the glass looks more like Nessie. I’m still pretty jazzed with how it turned out! Ericka’s turned out great! I tried to switch it with mine before she signed it, but alas.
The Process
The feature of our painting was a glass of Goose Island Sofie in its signature glass. Sofie is a Belgian Style farmhouse ale (Saison) that is aged in wine barrels with orange peel.
This beer is SO good. I first heard of it through my sister who just loves Sofie, but this was the first time I had ever had it. After the event, I couldn’t stop thinking about Sofie so I picked up a four pack the next day! I wanted to use Sofie in a recipe and highlight the citrus notes in it, so I used this recipe I found from Cooking Light that makes a honey-beer sauce to serve with chicken. I marinated the chicken in orange juice prior to cooking to emphasize the orange peel flavor of the Sofie beer.
Ingredients:
1 cup fresh orange juice (~2 oranges)
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
I am in a never ending search to find ways to make chicken into a new and different meal. Cooking Light’s September issue had this recipe for Japanese Chicken Meatballs, or Tsukune, that were mentioned as a great “party snack.” I decided to change the recipe size and pair it with grilled baby bok choy and some rice to make this traditional appetizer/snack into an entrée.
I am excited to announce that I will be a Perfect Protein Blogger for the summer, to help promote a book called The Perfect Protein: The Fish Lovers Guide to Saving the Oceans and Feeding the World. Written by Andy Sharpless, the CEO of Oceana, and Suzannah Evans, the book discusses how protecting, maintaining, and consuming wild seafood can help to fight both famine and obesity globally.
I am only a few chapters in to the book and already find it fascinating. The general idea behind the book is to try to eat seafood, but to try to eat WLLS: Wild, Local, Little, and Shellfish. Many supermarkets, such as Whole Foods, label their seafood which makes sticking to these more sustainable choices a cinch. But even without the labels, you can still find sustainable options at your local grocer.
As a food blogger, I immediately went to the back of the book, where there are 21 sustainable seafood recipes from some of the nation’s top chefs. They all sounded delicious, but I decided to start off my Perfect Protein posts with a recipe that is simple but packs a ton of flavor into the dish: Sam Talbot’s Thai Coconut Mussels. I love making mussels because they cook up so quickly. This recipe takes about 30 minutes from start to finish. (For another take on mussels, check out my recipe for Mussels in White Wine Garlic Sauce)
I altered the recipe a bit to make it into a meal for 2 instead of an appetizer. I also subbed in some ingredients for what I could find. All of these ingredients can be found in Whole Foods.
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons peeled and grated fresh ginger
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons lemongrass
2 tablespoons unsweetened coconut
1 pound mussels, debearded, scrubbed well, and washed clean
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sambal (chile-garlic paste)
1 (13.6 oz) can coconut milk, divided
2 tablespoons torn cilantro leaves, stems discarded
With grilling season here, I am in search of recipes that aren’t just, well, burgers. I love a good grilled burger, but they can get old pretty quickly. I realized recently that I haven’t had many mushroom recipes lately so this is the perfect time to try grilling a portobello mushroom! I kind of combined two recipes for inspiration for this post. The mushrooms are first brushed with a soy-balsamic marinade and grilled. They are then filled with a mixture of tomatoes, mozzarella, roasted garlic, and basil.
Certain foods just seem to be ingrained in what we thing about certain cities, countries or regions. The South is known for its barbecue (which is different state to state), Italy is known for its pasta, Philadelphia is known for its cheesesteaks… you get the idea. I was recently sent a cookbook that plays off of this idea of a region’s traditional foods: The Yankee Chef: Feel Good Food for Every Kitchen by Jim Bailey. The cookbook is filled with traditional New England fare, from pot roasts to chowder, but also gives a “Yankee” spin to other foods, such as Lobster Fried Rice.
Jim, the Yankee Chef himself (or, more appropriately, third generation Yankee Chef) fills the pages of the cookbook with background stories, tips, and a bit of humor, which had me reading the cookbook page by page. Not to mention, the photos are breathtaking! I wish my photos looked like the ones found on these pages.
I wanted to test out one of his recipes so I went for the Plum Sweet and Spicy Chicken because I don’t think I’ve ever made anything like it, and it sounds fantastic! I altered the recipe so that I didn’t have to cook a whole chicken and added some fresh seared plums to top it off. I also made a quick homemade chutney that I thought would highlight the plums in the dish.
Ingredients:
Chutney:
2/3 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, divided
2/3 cup sugar
1 strip of orange peel
1/4 cup red wine
1 cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon chopped crystallized ginger
1 tablespoon golden raisins
1 tablespoon water
1/2 each lemon and orange, sliced
the juice of the other 1/2 of the lemon and the orange
salt and pepper, to taste
Chicken:
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 chicken breast and 1 leg (multiply as needed)
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce (or coconut aminos to make gluten free)
I made a realization this weekend. Chili is so hearty that I really don’t realize if there is even meat in them. So why add it in?
With a bunch of different beans and peppers, you can still deliver an absolutely delicious chili that doesn’t even need meat! (I’m not knocking those that like meat in their chili, I just apparently prefer the vegetarian version)
Katherine Martinelli had a chili link up last week on her blog and I couldn’t stop thinking about chili. Her Three Bean Chili in particular looked so fantastic, I decided to make my own version of it below. It is based off of her recipe but I did make some changes, so to see the original recipe, check it out here.
This Tri Vegetarian Chili is aptly named. It uses three types of beans, three types of dried peppers, and three types of bell peppers.
There is a good chance I have a rice problem, I love all things rice. My go-to meal in a pinch is always risotto. So when DailyBuzz Food had an opportunity to work with RiceSelect through their Tastemaker program, I jumped at the chance. RiceSelect is one of my favorite rice brands. You may notice their nifty containers popping out of a bunch of my posts so I was really excited to work with their rice. The catch was that they sent me one of RiceSelect’s rice randomly, I didn’t get to choose it. When I opened up the package, I discovered brown rice. Hum. I’ve never worked with brown rice before, but I was up for the challenge!
I decided to make a stir fry teriyaki dish using my favorite protein, salmon. Normally stir fry is a quick dinner choice but brown rice takes quite a bit of time to cook. But it gives you plenty of time to prep your veggies and hang out with your dinner guests!
Ingredients: (I cut this recipe for Salmon Teriyaki Stir Fry down to two servings to make it easier. Multiply as needed)
I have no idea who decided that different foods should get taco-fied, but I am all for this movement. I love tacos, and Cooking Light comes up with the best taco recipes. These Kung Pao Chicken Tacos are everything I want in a meal: quick and easy to make, colorful, a hint of spice, and full of many ingredients I already had on hand.
Kung Pao chicken is a spicy stir-fry Chinese dish that includes peanuts, vegetables, chili peppers, and chicken. It is usually served over rice, but Cooking Light took some inspiration from Korean taco trucks and added the Kung Pao chicken to corn tortillas.
Ingredients:
6 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce, divided (or coconut aminos to make gluten free)
I was recently sent a clay pot from Romertopf to try out and review. Cooking in a clay pot is something I never really thought about, or even considered. You just cook your meal in a clay pot which has been soaking in water. This releases steam while it cooks and keeps the food moist. Clay pots have been used for cooking dating back to Roman times and are still used around the world. The clay pots are perfect for making roast chicken, paella, ratatouille, or even dessert!
I honestly had no idea how to go about finding a recipe to try out my new spiffy clay pot. So I just used a recipe from the Romertopf website as my first attempt. The Curry Clay Pot Chicken sounded right up my alley. (https://www.romertopfonline.com/chicken-recipes.htm)
Ingredients:
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger
1 tablespoon cornstarch
6 small new red potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch slices (I forgot to cut mine! Make sure you do though!)
6 baby carrots
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 medium tomato, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
1 tablespoon soy sauce (or coconut aminos to make gluten free)
Tacos are one of my go-to’s for a quick weeknight meal. However, there’s only so many nights you can make traditional tacos before you start craving some new flavors. Cooking Light’s Korean-Style Beef Tacos sounded like the best of both worlds: a quick meal with new spices. I ended up changing the method of cooking, but the ingredients remained the same. Cooking Light suggested topping the tacos with a Quick Pickled Cabbage as well, so I’ve included that below. This recipe does require you to marinate the beef for an hour, so plan accordingly. To make it a quick meal, you could also just marinate the meat overnight.
Ingredients for the tacos:
1/3 cup sugar
5 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons chile paste (such as sambal oelek)
the juice of 2 limes
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
12 ounces flank steak, sliced against the grain into thin strips
