Made crab cakes and wild pecan brown rice. Had some remoulade to top the crab cakes off obviously. Baked instead of fried and used imitation crab meat to save money and some calories. Came out awesome
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Crab Cakes and Football...THAT'S WHAT LOUISIANA DOES
Made crab cakes and wild pecan brown rice. Had some remoulade to top the crab cakes off obviously. Baked instead of fried and used imitation crab meat to save money and some calories. Came out awesome
Get Me To the Greek
One night back in March, Holly said she wanted to go out for dinner. I told her to pick a place, but once she did she wouldn't tell me where we were going, convinced that I wouldn't want to go for "that" type of food whatever "that" was. Well eventually we got there and it was a place called Mediterranean Cafe. Her apprehension to telling me where we were going was certainly warranted since I never ate much ethnic food and I am not always eager to try those kinds of things. Well once we were there I had to roll with it and realized that falafel and gyros were actually really good. Since then we've tried other restaurants and they weren't quite as good. Well recently I've had a craving for Greek food and was like to hell with it rather than go out and pay almost $35 for the two of us to eat food that is probably really bad for us, why don't I just make it myself. So within 6 months I went from not willing to try something to making it myself. So last nights menu was Chicken Souvlaki with peppers and onions, pita bread, rice, tzatziki sauce, and yogurt with honey and toasted walnuts for dessert. I know it sounds like a lot and that ethnic cooking can be strange to attempt (have you ever cooked Chinese or Indian food at home? no its easier to just get takeout), but with a little preparation this meal can be went from raw to cooked in 15 minutes.
Chicken Souvlaki (could use lamb or beef if you wanted):
Mix up a little bit of oregano, thyme, rosemary, olive oil, and garlic in a bag. Add the meat and let it marinate in the fridge for as long as you want. Broil skewers on hi for about 10 minutes. Also add some green pepper and onion chunks to the skewers before cooking to give your meal a bit more substance.
Before I get into how to make the tzatziki, I want to talk about one of its main ingedients, yogurt cheese. No its not cheddar or swiss flavored yogurt. Its where you drain the whey liquid out of nonfat plain yogurt. The longer you let it sit, the more whey that drains out and the thicker consistency it gets. I took a coffee filter and put it inside of funnel. Fill it with the non-fat plain yogurt and sit it on top of a large cup. Sit it in your fridge and let it drain. Drain for 6-8 hours and you have sour cream consistency, 24 hours will give you cream cheese. The idea is to give you a healthier substitute for high fat creamy products. It will also take on the flavor of other things so can used to make healthier versions of mayo, peanut butter, whipped cream, ice cream, chocolate mousse, or vanilla frosting. Look on the internet and you can find plenty of ideas of what you can do with yogurt cheese. Look through a diet cookbook and you will find recipe after recipe that utilizes it.
So on with the Tzatziki:
Grate a half of a peeled and seeded cucumber, then pour off the excess liquid from the bowl. Add some dill, lemon juice, olive oil, a bunch of garlic, and about a cup of yogurt cheese that has drained for 2-4 hours. Mix all together and let sit in the fridge until your ready to eat. The longer the flavors sit together the better the sauce is supposed to get.
Serve the meat skewers and tzatziki with rice, warmed pita breads, and maybe some katalamata olives. As an alternative to meat and rice, you can make this as a vegetarian option, use quinoia a grain that is an excellent source of protein.
Yogurt with honey and toasted walnuts:
Toasted a few walnuts halves and pieces in the toaster oven and then cool it. Take a scoop of yogurt cheese (again 2-4 hour draining) top it with the walnuts and some honey.
It was unbelievable to us that it was possible to make such a delicious dinner so quickly. You just have to make sure that you drain the yogurt in advance, otherwise the meal won't be complete until about 10 o'clock at night. Enjoy.
Chicken Souvlaki (could use lamb or beef if you wanted):
Mix up a little bit of oregano, thyme, rosemary, olive oil, and garlic in a bag. Add the meat and let it marinate in the fridge for as long as you want. Broil skewers on hi for about 10 minutes. Also add some green pepper and onion chunks to the skewers before cooking to give your meal a bit more substance.
Before I get into how to make the tzatziki, I want to talk about one of its main ingedients, yogurt cheese. No its not cheddar or swiss flavored yogurt. Its where you drain the whey liquid out of nonfat plain yogurt. The longer you let it sit, the more whey that drains out and the thicker consistency it gets. I took a coffee filter and put it inside of funnel. Fill it with the non-fat plain yogurt and sit it on top of a large cup. Sit it in your fridge and let it drain. Drain for 6-8 hours and you have sour cream consistency, 24 hours will give you cream cheese. The idea is to give you a healthier substitute for high fat creamy products. It will also take on the flavor of other things so can used to make healthier versions of mayo, peanut butter, whipped cream, ice cream, chocolate mousse, or vanilla frosting. Look on the internet and you can find plenty of ideas of what you can do with yogurt cheese. Look through a diet cookbook and you will find recipe after recipe that utilizes it.
So on with the Tzatziki:
Grate a half of a peeled and seeded cucumber, then pour off the excess liquid from the bowl. Add some dill, lemon juice, olive oil, a bunch of garlic, and about a cup of yogurt cheese that has drained for 2-4 hours. Mix all together and let sit in the fridge until your ready to eat. The longer the flavors sit together the better the sauce is supposed to get.
Serve the meat skewers and tzatziki with rice, warmed pita breads, and maybe some katalamata olives. As an alternative to meat and rice, you can make this as a vegetarian option, use quinoia a grain that is an excellent source of protein.
Yogurt with honey and toasted walnuts:
Toasted a few walnuts halves and pieces in the toaster oven and then cool it. Take a scoop of yogurt cheese (again 2-4 hour draining) top it with the walnuts and some honey.
It was unbelievable to us that it was possible to make such a delicious dinner so quickly. You just have to make sure that you drain the yogurt in advance, otherwise the meal won't be complete until about 10 o'clock at night. Enjoy.
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