Thai Friday

First things first. My baby is broken. Not Midget or Peanut, but my beloved DSLR. For some reason, it just pooped out in the middle of our vacation in Montana. I guess it just couldn't handle the utter gorgeousness of my home state. But I prefer to blame it on the hubby, since he was taking pictures of me being a total bad*ss on a jetski when the camera died. Yeah. I'm awesome like that...

So, not like you're used to super awesome pictures on this blog, but you can expect some super crummy pictures for at least the next few weeks. I'm just praying that my camera is back before the turdlets' birthday party, which is in less than a month.

Anyway, remember my little bitty Thai Container Garden? Well, this is what it looks like now!












Thanks to our lovely plant-sitting neighbors, the container didn't die while I was gone for almost two months. As a thank you, I planted them their own Thai container. I ended up removing two pepper plants from this one, so one went into the garden and one went into their pot, I separated one of the Thai basil, and then transplanted the lemongrass that I propagated. Their container looks lovely as well, and I am a bit surprised that all of their plants thrived after such a brutal transplanting and the fact that I rooted out their lemongrass!

First order of business was to snip all the basil flowers. The flowers smell lovely and I'm thinking it will make fabulous Thai Basil Flower Vinegar. I'm steeping most of the flowers in plain white vinegar for a few weeks and will report back to you whether or not it was a successful endeavor. I'm thinking it will make a neat gift for friends.

I'd like to take a quick second to brag about my first garden harvest of the season.

Isn't it gorgeous?? Grape tomatoes (the orange ones were an awesome surprise), cubanelle peppers, banana peppers, red bell pepper, crookneck squash, a better boy tomato, and some OBSCENELY large cucumbers. I've since pulled gobs more tomatoes, but the cucumbers are slow to grow after supporting those giants!


Next, it was time to put that gorgeous Thai pot to good use! For dinner on Friday, it was Gai Pad Prik Khing (Chicken and Vegetables in a Chili Ginger Curry) and Som Tam-inspired salad (Green Papaya Salad) made with zucchini instead of green papaya. Just so you know, I'm not attesting to the authenticity of these Thai dishes, but they are DELICIOUS!











The curry recipe is all my own--a mishmash of many recipes I found online and using what I had on hand. The Zucchini Ribbon Salad is from Aarti Party on foodnetwork. I would highly suggest you start with only ONE tablespoon of fish sauce in the salad and then add more to your liking. I really love cooked fish sauce, but raw fish sauce is, well, fishy. Just take a piece of zucchini and dip it in the sauce (before you dump it on all the zucchini) and then add more fish sauce if you want it.

Here's my curry recipe. Have lots of beverage nearby and reserve a bit of chicken and veggies before you add the curry if you have kids. Midget took a bite, said "YUM!" and then spit it out on her plate once the heat hit. Peanut kept shoving it in his mouth, chewing, then crying, then gulping his water. I'm not a two-meal sort of family, but they both got some ham to eat after the hubby pointed out that there are some adults that wouldn't eat my spicey curry.

Wusses...

Gai Pad Prik Khing

2 Tbs Vegetable Oil, divided
1 small Onion
1 Thai Dragon Chili (VERY optional, as the curry paste is quite hot anyway) cut into very fine mince
1 cup diced Zucchini
1 cup diced Eggplant
2 Tbs Fish Sauce
10 oz boneless skinless Chicken Breast, cut into thin strips
2 Tbs Prik Khing Curry Paste (recommended brand Mae Sri)
1 can Light Coconut Milk
Cooked Jasmine Rice

Heat 1 Tbs oil in a large skillet with high sides (at least 4 inches tall) over high heat. Add vegetables and saute for 3-4 minutes. Add fish sauce and then chicken and saute for another 3-4 minutes until chicken is no longer pink. Remove chicken and veggies to a plate and turn heat down to medium-high.

Heat remaining oil in skillet and add curry. Fry curry until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Add chicken and veggies back in and stir until coated with curry paste. Stir in can of coconut milk, reduce heat to medium-low and heat through.

Serve over Jasmine Rice.

Birthday Beer Can Chicken

There's something decidedly obscene about Beer Can Chicken. I can't help but guffaw every time I look at that poor chicken with a beer can shoved up its hoohah... *snort*

However, the moist deliciousness of the chicken is enough to overlook how weird it looks to have a chicken sitting straight up in your oven.

Today is Jdub-the-hub's birthday. He had to be out of town for work today, so we celebrated this weekend. The menu was fantastically trailer-trash, if I do say so myself. Yuengling Chicken, Dijon Roasted Potatoes, Peas, homemade vanilla ice cream, and.....

wait for it....

TWINKIES! Yes, my husband requeted Twinkies instead of birthday cake. The ease factor of making the cake for him--rip open box, rip open plastic, set twinkies on plate, and insert candles--was fantastic.










Beer Can Chicken

4 lb Chicken, washed and thoroughly dried
1 Tbs Kosher Salt
1 Tbs Dark Brown Sugar
1 Tbs Smoked Paprika
2 tsp Black Pepper
1 can of Beer

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Make rub by mixing salt, brown sugar, paprika, and pepper together in a small bowl and set aside. Be sure chicken is completely dry on the outside or your rub won't stick to the chicken. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the rub inside the chicken and then cover the rest of the bird with the rub.

Open your beer can and drink about 1/3 of it. Yummmmmmy. We used Yuengling and it was AMAZING!!

Now comes the fun part. Stick that chicken on top of the beer can with the legs and the beer can acting as a tripod. Giggle a little, then bend the wings back so it looks like the chicken is crossing its arms behind it's non-existent head.

Roast for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until a thermometer stuck into the chicken's thigh reads 165.

Go turn on some Nascar (just kidding hubby), cut your hair into a mullet, and ENJOY!

Midge sure loves her Daddy. And so do I.

Flat Turkey

My Stepson's wedding was Thanksgiving weekend, so we did a very simple Thanksgiving on Wednesday night. I didn't start cooking until about 4 and we ate at 7.

I spatchcocked our turkey, which means you cut out the backbone and break the breastbone so the turkey lays flat. Our 12 lb turkey cooked in 70 minutes! I know y'all have probably moved on and are getting ready for Christmas, but since it's all fairly non-traditional, this meal would be perfect for Christmas as well.

Menu:
High Roast Butterflied Turkey
Savory Butternut Squash Dressing
Mrs. Hoggle's Stuffed Cranberry Sauce
Roasted Brussels Sprouts (no recipe--just halve sprouts and toss with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and roast at 425 degrees for 20-25 minutes and top with toasted almonds)
Frozen Pumpkin Mousse Pie

Lusciously Lowercal Chicken Spanakopita

I figured I'd better redeem myself after posting that last disgusting-looking pile of goo. Yes, we ate them. No, they weren't as disgusting as they looked. Maybe I'll try again with a thicker dough instead of a batter.

This should remind you that I AM a cooking prodigy in an ever-shrinking platinum blonde package. hehe




So you might be going, "Chicken Spank-a-what??"







Spanakopita is Greek for Spinach Pie. Traditional Spanakopita is FATTENING--buttery layers of phyllo dough stuffed full of eggs, onions fried in olive oil, and full-fat feta cheese. It normally comes in around 12 Weight Watcher points (approximately 500 calories and almost FORTY grams of fat), but I made several small changes and kept the dish lip-smacking delicious and cut the WW points down to FIVE!

Phyllo dough is a mystery to some and many people are frightened to work with it, but by using cooking spray instead of melted butter, it not only cuts the calories, but it's as easy as (spinach) pie!

*bah dah bomp-chhhhhhh* Thank you folks, I'll be here all week.

By the way, you can find phyllo dough in any decent-sized grocery store freezer aisle, usually in a box containing two 8 oz twin packs of dough. Be sure to let it thaw out completely at room temperature or you will hate me forever for suggesting working with phyllo is easy.

This recipe is simple enough to make for a weeknight dinner and impressive enough to make for company! This dish manages to stay lowercal and adds ground chicken to make it a complete meal. Pair it with a salad dressed with Red Wine Vinegar, a sprinkle of garlic salt, and just a tish of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and you've got yourself a meal you'll want to scream OPA!! after!

Lusciously Lowercal Chicken Spanakopita


Nonstick Cooking Spray (butter or olive oil flavor recommended)
1 teaspoon Olive Oil
1 large Onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 lb Ground Chicken
2 10 oz. packages frozen chopped Spinach, thawed and squeezed to drain liquid
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
dash of Nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon Dried Oregano (or 1 Tablespoon Fresh)
1/4 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
1 cup Lowfat or Light Feta Cheese Crumbles
1 cup Egg Beaters
8 oz (9 x 14 in) Phyllo Dough, THAWED COMPLETELY


Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Over medium high heat, heat a large skillet and add Olive Oil. Add onion and cook for 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute, then add chicken. Cook until no longer pink, approximately 8 minutes. Add spinach and all spices. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until there is no liquid coming out of the spinach.

Remove the spinach mixture from the heat and set aside while you are working with the phyllo.

Spray a 9 x 13 x 2 inch baking pan with cooking spray. Open and unroll the phyllo dough. Place one sheet of phyllo in the bottom of the pan (the dough is nearly paper thin, so be sure to just do one sheet at a time) and spray with cooking spray. Repeat with 9 more sheets of phyllo, making sure to spray with the nonstick spray between layers.

Mix the feta cheese crumbles and the egg beaters into the spinach mixture. Spread this mixture over the the phyllo "crust" in the pan.

Repeat the same phyllo, then cooking spray technique over the top of the spinach mixture with the remaining sheets of phyllo (there should be about 10 sheets remaining).

By the way, if your phyllo sheets tear, don't worry--it doesn't matter at all! Just piece it back together and keep layering.

LISTEN UP! Do not skip this next step or you risk your spinach pie turning into a crumbling mess!

Cut the top layer of phyllo crust into 8 equal pieces BEFORE PLACING IN THE OVEN and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the top is nicely browned. You will need to cut your 8 pieces again after baking to cut your bottom crust.

Makes 8 servings, 5 Weight Watchers points per serving.

This is what your pan should look like. Give yourself a few activity points for all the jumping up and down you'll be doing after you taste this dish!

It's a TWEETZZA!!

Last night, after I made a batch of no-knead pizza dough (recipe at the end of the post), I sent out a tweet looking for topping inspiration. I would pick a winner, make their pizza, and post about it here on my blog. I have dubbed the creation tonight my first Tweetzza!

Thank you all for the great suggestions!! Can I get a drumroll please??

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The winning suggestion was Angie's creation!

@oikology101 My fave is artichoke, chicken, and garlic...with the garlic clove and artichoke hearts cut into chunks and scattered around mmm





Angie blogs at Homemaker Chronicles. You can follow her on Twitter here. I met Angie during an iHeartFaces Twitter party. She takes gorgeous photos and has a beautiful family! Please go say hi and congratulate her on a SCRUMPTIOUS TWEETZZA!!!

I peeled and chopped four cloves of garlic, cut the breast and thigh off the rotisserie chicken and chopped it into bite size pieces, and drained and chopped two jars of artichokes into slightly smaller pieces.

I knew I wanted to cook the garlic before I put it on the pizza. Given more time, I would have roasted it. But tonight, I just gave it a quick saute.

I did add one ingredient to her creation--mushrooms. I figured as long as I was going to saute the garlic for a quick second, that I might as well add mushrooms!

Oh, wait! I added a second ingredient (because you know me--I can never leave well enough alone). Fresh Basil! Mostly because I had it and because it's delicious!

In addition, I used 1/2 cup of prepared pizza sauce, 1/2 cup of mozzarella (go light on the cheese to save calories), and a tablespoon of real parmiggiano reggiano grated on the microplane.

So what do you think of my first Tweetza??










The pizza dough recipe was given to me by my friend, Jessica, and I've made just a few modifications. It is super delicious and so EASY!! You just mix it up, let it sit, and that's it! It doesn't have a single bit of fat in it and gives you a big puffy and chewy crust. The recipe makes two pizzas, so you can make a huge pizza for dinner and make another one an entire week later!

You MUST let this dough sit (total time needed to develop is at least 10 hours). The reason it doesn't need any kneading is because the glutens have TIME to develop! Because it can sit up to a week, you can make it and wait a few days to make your pizza(s). I promise that you'll want to have this in your fridge at all times!

No-knead Pizza Crust


1 1/2 Tbs granulated yeast (or 1-1/2 packets)
1 1/2 Tbs kosher salt
1 tsp Italian seasoning
3 Cups Lukewarm Water (NOT HOT)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
6 1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour
Cornmeal for the pizza stone or cookie sheet.
Your choice of toppings (pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni etc.)


In a large plastic bowl with a fitted lid (at least 18 cup capacity--I use my 4.3 litre Tupperware Impressions bowl), mix salt, yeast, and Italian seasoning. Add water and minced garlic; stir. With a stiff spoon, incorporate the flour into the water mixture until well combined.

Place the lid over the bowl, but do not seal (some of the gasses need to escape or the container could burst). Leave out on counter for two hours or until at least doubled. Seal bowl and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.

When you are ready to make your pizza, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Spray the baking stone or cookie sheet with cooking spray then sprinkle with cornmeal. Your pizza will stick big time if you skip this step.

Sprinkle flour on top of the dough, while it's still in the bowl. Rub your hands with flour to prevent sticking. Take out half of the dough for one pizza. Use a serrated knife if necessary. Put the remaining dough into the refrigerator (covered with the lid). You can keep this for another seven days if you can wait that long to eat more of this delicious pizza!

Drop the dough into a bowl of flour to coat both sides, shaking off the extra. To form the dough ball, roll the dough down and under itself, with a tucking motion. Turn and repeat two or three more times, until you achieve a nice round mound of dough.

Roll or stretch out the dough almost to the edges of the large baking stone or cookie sheet. If your dough resists rolling, let it rest for about 5 minutes and try again. I use my fingers and gently press the dough out to the edges of the cookie sheet.

Spread sauce on pizza. Top with your desired toppings and bake at 450 degrees. Set your timer for 10 minutes and check your pizza. I use the large Pampered Chef baking stone. It took 23 minutes on the bottom rack to cook the pizza to perfection this evening. If you are not using a stone, you will most likely need to place your pizza up higher to avoid burning the bottom of the crust.

Yields two pizza doughs, eight HUGE pieces each. Crust only--3 WW points per piece. To reduce the topping calories, bump up the amount of sauce, use less cheese, and do mostly vegetables and a little (or no) meat. Turkey pepperoni is actually pretty good and only adds a few points to the entire pizza.

Come on! You know you want a bite!!!!

Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot, Chicken Pot Pie

Do any of you remember Slow Donnie from Just Shoot Me? Truly, one of the best plot lines on a show--EVER! You can go here to get a refresher--or a HUGE laugh!

Here's a little snippet and what I think of every time I think of Chicken Pot Pie (just click on it--it's FOUR seconds long):


When I started Weight Watchers back in November, I thought I'd need to swear off all comfort food in order to lose the weight (I'm 32.6 lbs lighter today than I was when I started). What I've discovered is that it's easy to make good food. You just have to make different choices and adjust your way of cooking.

By not making a true "pie," you save yourself TONS of calories and fat and you still get all the great taste of a pot pie, complete with flaky pie crust!














Lusciously Lowercal Chicken Pot Pie

1 15 oz package refrigerated pie dough (such as Pillsbury)
Cooking spray
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 lb chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 1/2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
2 10 1/2 oz cans condensed reduced-fat, reduced-sodium cream of chicken soup

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Cut 6 4-inch circles out of dough. Place the circles on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Lightly coat dough with cooking spray and sprinkle evenly with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Pierce top of dough with a fork. Bake dough for 8 minutes or until lightly browned.

Combine flour, poultry seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper in a zip-top plastic bag; add chicken. Seal bag, and toss to coat. Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add chicken mixture; cook 5 minutes, browning on all sides. Stir in chicken broth, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Stir in vegetables, mushrooms, and soup and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Spoon 1 cup chicken mixture into bowls; top each serving with 1 piecrust.

Yields 6 Potpies. 7 WW points per pie*

*I am obviously not Weight Watchers endorsed and all points values are estimates. So if you want to sue me because I don't have points values EXACT, you will be wasting your time because I am poor.

Basic Crepes

This recipe was printed in Jeff Smith's "The Frugal Gourmet" cookbook. I've made many of the items in this cookbook multiple times in the ten years (at least) I've had it. If you run across it at a thrift store or garage sale, I highly suggest you pick it up!

For this recipe, I used an 8 inch hard anodized saute pan and non-stick cooking spray instead of the peanut oil and it worked marvelously!! Had non-stick spray been invented yet back in 1984? If it had been, I'm pretty sure TFG would have used it!













Basic Crepes

2 eggs at room temperature
3/4 c milk
2/3 c beer
1 cup flour
1/4 t salt
2 T peanut oil

Place the eggs, milk, and beer in a blender, and then the flour and salt. Blend for 30 seconds, and then scrape down the sides of the blender. Blend for 1 minute. Cover, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Fry the crepes in a saute pan oiled lightly with the peanut oil over medium heat. Pour in 1/4 cup portions. Tip and turn the pan until the batter covers the bottom. Cook until the top appears dry and the bottom has just begun to brown. Turn (or if you're brave, flip sans utensil) the crepe with a rubber spatula and brown the other side very briefly. It should have only little specks of brown. Stack with a piece of wax paper or parchment between each. Makes approx 12.

Greek Style Stuffed Peppers & Minted Cucumber Salad

Don't forget to enter the GIVEAWAY!!

Here are my HappyToBe@Home Day 1 dinner recipes. They will be posting about my kitchen beginning on Sunday. Be sure to catch me there!

Once a month, I buy 7-10 pounds of ground beef and brown it with onions, salt, pepper, and garlic. Then I freeze in 1 lb. portions. That is what I used for this recipe. I got my inspiration for the peppers from here and here. For the cucumbers, I took inspiration from basic tzatsiki sauce.













Greek-Style Stuffed Peppers

2 large Bell Peppers, halved, seeded, and membranes removed
1 lb lean ground beef, browned (or 1 1/2 lb raw ground beef)
1/4 c bulghur wheat, pre-soaked in 1/2 c boiling water for 1 hour
10 oz frozen chopped spinach thawed and water squeezed out
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 T fresh mint, chopped (or 1/2 t dried)
1 t dried oregano (or 2 T fresh)
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1 pint stewed tomatoes (or one 15 oz can)
crumbled feta cheese, to taste

Arrange peppers, cut side up, in a microwave AND oven-safe dish (I used pyrex).

Mix the ground beef, wheat, spinach, onion, egg, and spices in a separate bowl (you do not need to brown the ground beef if you are using raw, you will just increase your cooking time slightly).

Pile the stuffing inside the peppers (it's okay if some falls out), top with some canned tomato chunks and pour juice from tomatoes around the peppers. The juice will help cook the peppers. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 8-10 minutes for pre-cooked beef or 10-12 minutes for raw beef.

Remove plastic wrap carefully (watch for steam) and crumble feta on top of peppers. Place under broiler until feta browns slightly.


Minted Cucumber Salad

3 cucumbers, peeled and sliced into half moons
1 T salt
2 scallions, minced finely
2 T white wine vinegar
2 T olive oil
1 c plain yogurt, greek-style is the best!
1/2 t ground cumin
1/4 t turmeric
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 t black pepper

Place sliced cucumbers into a dish and cover with cold water and salt. Stir and let soak while preparing the yogurt sauce.

In your serving bowl, combine the remainder of ingredients.

Drain cucumbers thoroughly and do NOT rinse. Add to yogurt sauce and toss gently.

This Ain't Yo Mama's Meatloaf

I may not be good at sewing, gardening, cleaning, or most things domestic, but I CAN cook!

I had a hankerin' (that's right, I said hankerin') for meatloaf yesterday. But I didn't feel like the plain old tasteless hamburger slices that come to mind when I think of meatloaf. I went online and started looking up recipes. I found one that sounded interesting, so I changed it up a bit to make it even better (actually just so I didn't have to go to the grocery store--teehee). This is what I ended up with and MAN oh MAN! I had to unzip and lay down afterwards from the sheer exhaustion of saying "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............." and "ooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh" so many times!

Italian Meatloaf

1 T Olive Oil
1 med onion, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 t italian seasoning
3 T fresh italian parsley, chopped
1 c grated parmesan (the kind in the canister is fine for this--seriously, save your good stuff for something that doesn't cook an hour)
3/4 c breadcrumbs
1/4 c pinenuts
2 eggs
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 T worchestershire sauce
1 lb ground chuck (do NOT use 90% lean--use 80% or you will have DRY meatloaf)
1 t salt
1/2 t black pepper
1 c marinara sauce (jarred or canned is fine--remember this cooks for an hour)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Over medium heat, saute onion and red pepper in olive oil until just softened. Add garlic and cook 1-2 minutes more. Remove from heat, add italian seasoning, mix, and place in a large mixing bowl to cool.

When pepper and onion mixture has cooled to room temperature, about 15 minutes, add the remaining ingredients, except marinara sauce, and mix until well blended (it's okay to get your hands dirty and squish around in there). Pack down into a greased loaf pan. Spread the marinara sauce evenly over the top.

Bake for 55-65 minutes until a thermometer inserted in the middle of the meatloaf reads 160. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Put on your fat pants and chow down! I served this with pesto smashed red-skin potatoes and char-grilled summer squash medley. Mmmmmmm...

I made Jdub the hub a meatloaf sandwich for lunch today. Do you think he'd notice if I took a bite?