Peanut Sauce Stirfry

Last weekend a massive bag of frozen stir fry veggies ended up in the cart at Costco. So I was thinking what to do with them last night.

Peanut Sauce Stir Fry

Sauce:

3/4 cup fresh squeezed orang juice

3/4 cup Asian Toasted Sesame lowfat salad dressing (or similar)

1/4 cup chunky natural peanut butter

1/4 cup chili garlic sauce

1 tsp low sodium soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp diced dried garlic (or 4 fresh cloves)

1/2 tsp ground ginger

Stir Fry:

1 pound frozen stir fry veggies

1 large sweet onion, diced

3 to 4 precooked chicken sausages, skinned and chopped

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Directions:

Whisk the sauce in a large glass bowl, set aside.

In a large non stick pan heat the oil over medium high heat. Add in the veggies and onion, cooking till nearly done. Add in the sauage and finish cooking the vegetables till how you like them done.

Add in the sauce, lower the heat to low and heat through.

Serve over Jasmine rice!

Serves 3 large appetites.

~Sarah

Artichoke and Chicken Quiche

Kirk was talking about quiche this past weekend and I realized something – I had never made one. I have eaten many of them but I guess I always ranked making one as ‘too fussy’ or something. Not sure why either!

So today I started poking around for ideas and checking out how to make one. After looking at most of the recipes and gasping over the fat content (tons of cheese, bacon, heavy cream, eggs) I got thinking that I should be able to make one a little bit healthier. So I used Egg Beaters® for the eggs, cut the cheese in half and used fat free half and half. We still got the texture but without as much fat – and I added chicken to give more protein (though it would have been fine without). I have to say….I liked it with the egg replacement! It was much lighter in texture and not heavy sitting in the stomach.

For the pie crust I grabbed a frozen 9″ deep dish from the grocery store. The Safeway brand ones work well and have a great taste – while you can use refrigerated ones, I do not recommend that route. The frozen ones have a very short list of ingredients (flour, water, salt and fat basically) where the refrigerated ones have fake colors, texture additives and preservatives. Read carefully! And of course if one has time and talent, make it yourself. (I don’t! I can bake nearly anything but pie crust and me? We don’t dance well together. I gave up that dream years ago..lol!)

Artichoke and Chicken Quiche

Ingredients:
1 14-ounce can artichoke hearts, drained
1/2 tsp diced dried garlic or 2 fresh cloves
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup Egg Beaters® or 4 eggs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 cup fat free half and half
1 12-ounce can chicken, drained
1 9-inch  pie crust (in a pie pan)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350. If using a frozen pie crust, take it out of the freezer and gently poke dots in the bottom a couple times with a small fork. Place the pie pan on a cookie and set aside.
Chop artichoke hearts in a large dice. In a small non stick pan over low heat, add oil and saute artichoke hearts and garlic until they start to smell yummy. Take the pan off the stove and let the artichokes cool.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat the eggs and half and half, add in the cheeses and pepper, mixing well.
Add the cooled artichokes and chicken to the egg mixture, mix well. Spread mixture into pie crust.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until filling is set and is turning golden brown. Let sit for 10 minutes to cool a bit before slicing.
Makes 1 9″ pie.

I served it with an Asian inspired salad full of dried cherries and Mandarin oranges. Yum!

~Sarah

Chicken Artichoke Barley Risotto

A couple months ago I tried my hand at making my first barley risotto. It was very tasty – something I didn’t expect. To say the least….barley was never a grain I liked. More due to only eating it mushy in soups. My mom loved barley – she would have loved the concept of turning it into risotto! Barley is cheap, filling and is very good for you!

With barley, be sure to spread it out and check for any field debris. It is usually quite clean though. A cookie sheet works well to do this.

This is the second version of it and I was very happy with the results. I didn’t get any photos though – sorry about that!

Chicken Artichoke Barley Risotto

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup pearled barley
1 large sweet onion, diced
4 1/2 cups lower sodium chicken broth, divided
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp diced dried garlic or 4 fresh cloves
1 12-ounce can chicken, drained
1 6.5-ounce jar marinated artichokes, drained and chopped
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Fresh ground black pepper
Salt, if desired

Directions:

In a large heavy saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add onions and barley, cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add in 1/2 cup of the broth and seasonings, cook until evaporated, about 5 minutes, stirring often.

Add in 2 cups boiling broth, chicken and artichokes and bring to a boil. Lower the heat back to medium and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring often.

Add in the 2 cups more boiling broth and continue cooking for another 15 minutes or until nearly all the water is absorbed. You may need an extra 5 minutes.

Take off the heat and stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. Add pepper to taste and salt, if desired.

Serves 3.

~Sarah

Cornmeal Sage Biscuits and Gravy

Cornmeal Sage Biscuits and Gravy

Ingredients:

Biscuits:
1 3/4 cups biscuit mix
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
2/3 cup milk
1 tsp dried rubbed sage
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Gravy:
Drizzle of olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
6 breakfast sausage patties, thawed and chopped
1/4 cup biscuit mix
2 1/4 cups milk
1 tsp dried diced garlic or 4 cloves fresh
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Directions:
Heat oven to 450ºF. Stir biscuit mix, cornmeal, milk, sage and pepper till a soft dough forms. Drop 12 spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 minutes or until golden brown.

While biscuits are baking, heat the oil in a large non-stick large pan over medium high heat. Add in the onions and saute till turning golden. Add in the sausage and heat through.  Sprinkle the biscuit mix and seasonings over sausage and onions; stir in to blend. Gradually stir in the milk until well blended.

Cook until thickened and just starting to bubble, add more milk if wanting thinner. Serve biscuits with sausage gravy.

I served steamed green beans on the side to make a full dinner.
Serves 3 to 4.

~Sarah

Note: For the baking mix I used a lower fat version and on the sausgae patties, reduced fat as well.

Sweet Orange Biscuits

These quick to make biscuits are awesome right out of the oven for breakfast or for dessert. I used for the baking mix Bisquick© Heart Smart – it has less fat, calories and sodium than regular. Use what you prefer/have on hand though. With the jam, I used more of my good friend Cat’s homemade Cran-Orange jam. It worked perfectly with the sour edge of the cream cheese, giving it a super tart taste – which I loved. On the fresh oranges, I used 3 small ones that my MIL sent me from Florida. If you use the California massive oranges, you probably can get by with 1.

Sweet Orange Biscuits

Ingredients:
3 cups baking mix (see above)
1 Tbsp fresh grated orange peel
3/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

2 Tbsp sugar
3 ounces lower fat cream cheese
2 Tbsp cranberry orange jam (or any preserve of choice)

Directions:
Heat oven to 450ºF. Stir baking mix, orange peel, orange juice and sugar until soft dough forms.
Knock dough on surface sprinkled with more baking mix; roll in the mix to coat. Shape into a ball and knead 10 times.

Roll 1/2 inch thick. Cut with 2 1/2-inch round cutter or a drinking glass (measure across the open end). Place on two ungreased cookie sheets.

With a whip, beat together cream cheese and jam. Spoon about 1 teaspoon cream cheese mixture onto center of each dough circle. Sprinkle with more sugar if desired (I didn’t). Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Let cool on cooling racks, unless being eaten right away while hot. Store tightly covered and eat within a day – leftovers should be chilled overnight due to the cheese.

~Sarah

Book Review: Hungry Girl 200 Under 200

We were at Costco last week and I saw a copy of Hungry Girl: 200 Under 200: 200 Recipes Under 200 Calories newest book.

I have been a long time subscriber to Hungry Girls newsletter and often find good things in it (particularly new food products being released by companies), so picking up the newest book was pretty natural – and Costco was selling it for $11.39 as well.

While I enjoyed the book and yes, I will use it a bit, in many ways it was a waste of money. Why? The book uses a lot of proccessed foods and more so, a lot of the book is desserts. The first book Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World had more savory dishes. I was hoping for more dinners/lunches and the biggest issue for me is many of the desserts call for items I cannot eat (that contain artificial dyes). If one sticks to the savory dishes you will do well, you can find a number of items that work.

Having said that, one has to accept that much of Hungry Girl’s recipes call for proccessed foods – which used sparingly isn’t a bad thing and you can always substitute in the real item (for example fake bacon and sugar subs? I’d rather suffer a few more calories and have the real thing!), so if you can work around it you might find some good recipes in the book. And if you love Cool Whip© this is the dessert book for you (I don’t).

So flip through it before buying….you may or may not like it. I am still sitting halfway on it, after I try a few more recipes we will see. Overall though the book was well done, the recipes easy to follow/laid out. The book has 2 sections of color photos, though one can see every recipe in color on the website as well.

~Sarah

Oatmeal Fruit Bars

I am still working on the recipe for the bars – they were great tasting…but not quite where I wanted them to be (the bars were too damp, too much fruit in the mix). Still, the best part of the bars was cracking open a jar of Orange Cranberry Jam that my friend Catzia had made. The jam gave the bars a great flavor and I still have half the jar for eating on scones this week.

~Sarah

Easy No Knead Crusty Bread

Awhile back one our readers, Beth, sent me a link to this great recipe for a ‘no knead crusty bread‘.

Check it out – they also have a couple more tasty bread recipes on the website as well.

~Sarah