Cooking: Portabella Pizzas

Another Pinterest find, portabella pizzas!

4 portabella mushrooms, 4 roma tomatoes, 1 onion, 1 leek,
1 lemon (juice), garlic, parsley, basil, parmesan cheese,
olive oil, salt

Chop and saute the onion in olive oil

Chop the leek and roma tomatoes, mince the garlic, add to the pan with the onion.

Saute until soft. Then add basil and lemon juice.

Split the mixture between the 4 mushrooms. Top with fresh-grated parmesan.

Bake for 12 minutes at 400°.

Top with parsley before serving.

These were excellent! And I never would have thought to use leeks on pizza! You have to eat them with a fork though, they aren't easily picked up.

Cooking: Creamy Cajun Chicken With Zucchini Noodles

I just [finally] joined Pinterest, so I've been collecting all sorts of new ideas to try!

I always try to give credit where credit is due. My inspiration for tonight's meal came from 2 different blog posts I found on Pinterest:

• Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta on "Plain Chicken"
• Zucchini Noodles with Chicken and Tangy Peanut Sauce on "Kitchen Confidante"

The mats:

Chicken thighs, sun-dried tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash,
butter, heavy cream, parmesan cheese, garlic, basil,
Cajun seasoning, pepper, salt, green onion (not pictured),
and cayenne pepper (not pictured)

I started by using the shoe-string blade on my mandolin to cut up the zucchini and yellow squash.

And also cutting the chicken thighs into strips with kitchen shears. The chicken was then tossed with the Cajun seasoning, about 2 tablespoons.

The easiest way to "toss" the chicken with the spices
is going Alton Brown style and using your hands!

In a large pan, saute the chicken with a couple tablespoons of butter until it's done.

While the chicken is cooking, blanch the zucchini and yellow squash in boiling water for about a minute. Drain well. I gave it a rinse in cool water to stop the cooking process so it wouldn't get mushy.

When the chicken is done, add the heavy cream (I ended up only using 1 cup), minced garlic, diced green onions, diced sun-dried tomatoes (easiest to cut-up with kitchen shears), basil, salt, and pepper. I also wanted a little more heat, so I added some cayenne pepper. Heat a few minutes until everything is warm.

Toss in the "noodles".

Serve topped with fresh-grated parmasan cheese.

Husband Approved! The husband said this was definitely a "repeat" meal! He was skeptical at first (and even tried to talk me out of it) when I told him I was using zucchini and yellow squash instead of traditional noodles, but he was pleasantly surprised!

Horrible Product: SlimCado

Introducing: The SlimCado!

Ok, so they aren't quite horrible, they are a natural fruit (non-GMO), but they are misleading with their marketing.

"SlimCado" is the brand name of the Florida Avocado, which boasts 35% less calories and 50% less fat. I've seen them in the grocery store several times, I finally decided to do a little research on them.

There is a significant size different between Hass Avocados, which are what we think of when we hear "avocado", and the SlimCado. An average Hass Avocado is about 136 g (4.8 oz), while an average SlimCado is about 304 g (10.85 oz).

SlimCados on the left
Hass Avocados on the right

Because of the size difference, I have the numbers below for 1 fruit as well as 1 oz. In the difference columns, the amount is calculated on 1 oz as to have an equal comparison.

	Hass Avocado		Florida Avocado		Difference
	136 g	1 oz	304 g	1 oz	Amount	%
Calories	227	46.74	365	33.62	-13.12	-28.07%
Fat (g)	21	4.32	31	2.86	-1.47	-33.96%
Saturated Fat (g)	3	0.62	6	0.55	-0.07	-10.53%
Monosaturated Fat (g)	13.3	2.74	16.8	1.55	-1.19	-43.49%
Polyunsaturated Fat (g)	2.5	0.51	5.1	0.47	-0.04	-8.74%
Carbohydrates	11.8	2.43	24.4	2.25	-0.18	-7.49%
Omega 3 (mg)	150	30.88	292	26.89	-3.99	-12.91%
Omega 6 (mg)	2298	473.12	4804	442.47	-30.64	-6.48%
Protein (g)	2.7	0.56	6.8	0.63	0.07	12.67%
Vitamin A (IU)	200	41.18	426	39.24	-1.94	-4.71%
Vitamin C (mg)	12	2.47	52.9	4.87	2.40	97.21%
Vitamin E (mg)	2.7	0.56	8.1	0.75	0.19	34.21%
Vitamin K (mcg)	28.6	5.86	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Thiamin [B1] (mg)	0.1	0.02	0.1	0.01	-0.01	-55.26%
Riboflavin [B2] (mg)	0.2	0.04	0.2	0.02	-0.02	-55.26%
Niacin [B3] (mg)	2.6	0.54	2	0.18	-0.35	-65.59%
Pantothenic Acid [B5] (mg)	2	0.41	2.8	0.26	-0.15	-37.37%
Vitamin B6 (mg)	0.4	0.08	0.2	0.02	-0.06	-77.63%
Folate [B9] (mcg)	121	24.91	106	9.76	-15.15	-60.81%
Choline (mg)	19.3	3.97	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Betaine (mg)	1	0.21	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Calcium (mg)	17.7	3.64	30.4	2.8	-0.84	-23.16%
Iron (mg)	0.8	.16	0.5	0.05	-0.12	-72.04%
Magnesium (mg)	39.4	8.11	73	6.72	-1.39	-17.11%
Phosphorus (mg)	73.4	15.11	122	11.24	-3.87	-25.64%
Potassium (mg)	689	141.85	1067	98.28	-43.58	-30.72%
Zinc (mg)	0.9	0.19	1.2	0.11	-0.07	-40.35%
Copper (mg)	0.2	0.04	0.9	0.08	0.08	101.32%
Maganese (mg)	0.2	0.04	0.3	0.03	-0.01	-32.89%
Selenium (mcg)	0.5	0.10	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

  (Nutrition information from: NutritionData.com)


Yes, SlimCados may be lower in calories and fat, but they are also lower in nutrients nearly across the board!

As far as the fat issue goes: Fat is not the enemy. Certain types of fat are bad, but avocados have healthy fats. Without fat, the body cannot function or absorb many nutrients. "Rabbit starvation" is a prime example of this, where people, eating plenty of food that was very low in fat (wild rabbits are extremely lean), were starving from lack of nutrition, not lack of calories. Eating fat does not make you fat!

Don't be fooled into thinking SlimCados are health food; it's just cleaver marketing to sell a nutritionally inferior product. I haven't tried SlimCados myself, but from the reviews I've read they are also less tasty than Hass avocados. I'm sticking with Hass.

2011 Garden Planted

With the help of my wonderful fiance, 2011's garden is in the ground!

Don't count on any of my gardening blog entries to be sound growing advice, I am a newbie, last year was the first time I had a garden of my own. I also tend to have a "brown thumb".

On second though, there is one way you can use my gardening blog entries for advice: If I can manage to keep it alive, anyone can!

This year, in-ground we only planted tomatoes. Last year we also tried peppers and cantaloupe, but they didn't so so well. It could have been due to our soil, aka clay. Last year we had added a bunch of top soil pre-gardening, and in the fall we added our compost and raked all our leaves on the garden area and covered for the winter. Hopefully our soil is much better for growing this year!

Tomato Patch - mostly assorted heirloom varieties
(With my dog Josie helping out.)

I tried growing many different herbs last year. Some I succeeded, some I failed. Basil was the one I kept alive the best, so this year I'm concentrating on basil first and foremost. And it will be oh-so-yummy with the fresh tomatoes and some olive oil!

Basil

Strawberries are a new adventure. I haven't tried to grow them before, so we'll see what happens!

Strawberries

Cooking: Pot Roast

Pot roast: An extremely common dish that I have never cooked before!

I do a lot of cooking, but I don't typically do the "meat and potatoes" route. I used the recipe Emeril's Pot Roast.

1. Cut slits in roasts and stuff with garlic cloves.
2. Rub with olive oil, season with salt & pepper. (I tried to do the oil "nicely" using a basting brush, but ended up just using my hands.)

I happened to have had 1 corn fed and 1 grass fed roast.
Check out the difference in color & marbling!
(Grass fed roast is on the right.)

3. Sear roasts on all sides.

4. Put in dutch oven and add 4 cups beef broth/stock. Cover with lid.
5. Put in 350° oven for 4 hours.

6. Toss veggies (1 lb each carrots, potatoes, turnips, and parsnips; 2 onions) with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
7. Add to dutch oven, return to oven for 1 hour.

 Finished product!

For gravy:
Drain remaining liquid in the dutch oven into a saucepan, bring to a simmer.
Whisk together 1/4 cup flour with 1/2 cup water, whisk mixture into saucepan. Simmer for 5 minutes.

What I would do different next time:

• Deglaze the searing pan with some of the stock/broth so all those tasty bits would be in the pot and not washed down the drain.
• Nix the potatoes and up the quantity of other veggies. Next to the other vegetables, the potatoes were rather bland.
• Not use as much water when making the gravy, it was a tad too runny.