Monday Night Meals

NFL Recipes

Kansas City Barbeque

Ingredients:

BBQ Sauce

Salt and Pepper

1 c ketchup

¼ c yellow mustard

¼ c cider vinegar

1 lemon

2 T Worcestershire sauce

2 T steak sauce

2 T molasses

2 T honey

1 t hot sauce

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

Meat:

We are using Chicken Thighs, but all meats would work just fine.


Directions:

      Mince the onion and garlic, place into a medium bowl. Add the ketchup, mustard, vinegar, lemon, Worcestershire, steak sauce, molasses, honey, and hot sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.

      Turn on BBQ to medium heat. Place the meat of choice on the grill, we are using chicken. Allow the chicken to grill completely on one side, and flip. Cover the grilled side of chicken with BBQ sauce. Allow the sauce to stick to the chicken. Flip the chicken, and add sauce to other side. Repeat until desired amount of sauce is on chicken, as well as meat is fully cooked. Enjoy, Go Chiefs!

Carne Asada Fries

Ingredients:

Carne Asada

2 lb flank steak


4 garlic cloves

1 jalapeno

1 c cilantro

2 limes

¾ c orange

½ cup olive oil

Salt and pepper

Instructions:

      Place a 2 lb flank steak in a large baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper on both sides. Pour the olive and orange juice over the steak, and flip so both sides are covered. Chop up the jalapeno, cilantro, limes and garlic cloves. Cover the steak on both sides with the spice mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least six hours.

      Heat a grill over high heat and grill the flank steak for 5 minutes on each side. Add marinade every time you flip the meat on the grill. Remove from the grill and let rest before slicing.

For the Fries

3 russet potatoes

2 t garlic powder (1/2 for potatoes, ½ for guacamole)

1 t onion salt

1 t cumin (1/2 for potatoes, ½ for guacamole)

1 T olive oil

2 avocados

2 T cilantro

Chopped carne asada

1 cup cheddar cheese (shredded)

1/2 cup salsa

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

      Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

      Cut the potatoes into thick wedges. Each potato should yield about 8 wedges. Place the wedges into a medium-mixing bowl and add the garlic powder, pepper, onion salt, cumin and olive oil. Toss or stir the bowl so the potatoes are evenly coated.

      Lay the potatoes on aluminum foil on a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes or until fork-tender. Make sure to flip the potatoes halfway through, so they brown evenly on both sides.

For the guacamole, peel and remove the sides from the avocadoes. Add the garlic powder, cumin, salt and pepper and cilantro. Mash until smooth and delicious.

      Place the baked steak fried onto a plate. Cover with the carne asada, cheese, pico de gallo and finally the guacamole. Serve and enjoy, go Chargers!

      Happy Halloween From Darren & Shannon @ True Treats

The Great Pumpkin

 "There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin."
                                  ~Linus

            It is almost Halloween, and pumpkins are everywhere. I see them in large piles in the grocery store, decorations around houses and carved as creative decorations. Besides for celebrating the fall time, pumpkins also make a great meal. Although I do not recommend eating a pumpkin you have previously carved, most pumpkins you can find are edible. If you just get one of the average pumpkins in the grocery store, try to find some that seem heavy for their size; doing so means the pumpkin will have a lot of meat to work with. You can also go to a local growers market, farm or co-op type of store that will have a large variety of pumpkins. I usually grow a type of pumpkin called Cinderella, which I highly recommend. You can experience with these different types, and see which ones you prefer.

            I feel that most recipes that include pumpkin are often comforting as well as perfect for the fall weather. They are usually full of flavor, and make you feel warm inside. Besides for being oh so tasty, pumpkins are surprising great for you, and are known to be a super food. Pumpkins are really low in calories, have no saturated fat or cholesterol. Pumpkins are also rich in potassium, calcium, folates, as well as extremely high in vitamin A. What puts pumpkin is the super food category is that has one of the highest amounts of crotenoids, which are proven to increase your health, decrease the risk cancers, as well as decreasing the risk of heart disease. To see what all pumpkin offers you, check out these site, super food and nutrition. Not only are these pumpkins amazing, but they are versatile as well.

            For beginners, pumpkins can be cooked in many forms. The first thing you always want to do is cut the pumpkin up, and cut the skins off the outside. First way of cooking, which is very flavorful, is to bake the pumpkin. You can also boil the pumpkin, stream it or sauté in a pan. Then you can simple enjoy, puree, or can for later. From these possibilities, comes how you actually incorporate pumpkin into recipes, the possibilities seem endless. Between soups, stir-fries, bread, cookies, pies, and my favorite, curries, it seems that you can have pumpkin often, and not tire of it. Try these recipes out; enjoy the variety while putting such great nutrients in your body!

Pumpkin Puree

Ingredients

1 pumpkin

Olive oil

Directions

            Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

            Cut the pumpkin in half. Remove seeds and pulp. Cut pumpkin into evenly sized chunks, lightly cover with olive oil, and place on a baking sheet. Allow to bake 30-45 minutes, or until tender.

            Place the pumpkin in a food processor, and mix well. All ready for tasty foods. 

Curry Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients

            2 T butter

            3 T flour

            2 T curry powder

            4 cups vegetable broth

            3 ¾ c pumpkin puree

            1 ½ c half-and-half cream

            1 T honey

            1 t ginger

            salt and pepper to taste

Directions

            In a pot on medium heat, melt the butter. Add the flour and curry powder until well mixed and smooth. Slowly whisk in broth, turn on lower heat, and allow to thicken. Add in pumpkin and half-and-half (can replace with milk, but won’t be as thick). Add the honey, ginger, salt, and pepper. Bring just to a boil, and then remove from heat. Enjoy

Roast Pumpkin and Feta Risotto

Ingredients

            1 ½ c pumpkin puree

            1T olive oil

            4 c vegetable broth

            2 cloves garlic

            1 medium onion

            1 cup spinach

            6 ounces feta cheese

            salt and pepper

            2 c Arborio rice

Directions

            In a saucepan, heat up olive oil. Chop the onion and garlic, and add to the oil. Add the rice to the oil, and allow to brown. Slowly add the vegetable broth, adding small amounts at a time. Allow the broth to be absorbed and add more broth until all incorporated and rice is cooked.

            Add the pumpkin puree to the rice and stir well. Add the spinach, feta, and salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Gingerbread

Ingredients

            1 c sugar

            1 c honey

            1 c vegetable oil

            4 eggs

            2/3 c water

            2 c pumpkin puree

            2 t ginger

            1 t allspice

            1 t cinnamon

            1 t cloves

            2 c flour

            1 ¼ c whole wheat flour

            2 t baking soda

            1 ½ t salt

            ½ t baking powder

Directions

            Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and oil two loaf pans.

            In a large mixing bowl, add the sugar, honey oil and eggs, mix until well incorporate. Slowly add the water, and mix well. Stir in pumpkin, ginger, allspice cinnamon, and clove.

            In an additional mixing bowl, add the flours, soda, salt, and baking powder, mix together. Slowly add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture, incorporating it all together.

            Add the mixture to the loaf pans, and place in oven. Bake 45- 1 hour, or until springs up.

For those who are curious about a pumpkin pie recipe, I am saving that for Thanksgiving, and I promise it is worth the wait!

Enjoy, and have a great Halloween.

Shannon & Darren @ True Treats

Halloween Week                   

            I am so excited for Halloween, it is my favorite holiday. Although I am between the age of trick-or-treating and having children to bring trick-or-treating, I still have a lot of fun on the day. I still dress up, go out with friends, as well as check out haunted houses. Also, there always seems to be a large amount of Halloween parties. A theme I have seen as wells as create at these parties is gory and scary treats. I used to make white chocolate covered truffles that look like eyeballs, scream puffs (cream puffs with ghost coming out),  and spider cupcakes. These type of treats aren’t just tasty, they usually set the mood for an eerie party. There are also those party people that like to set the creepy stage by having items that are purposely gross, such as disguising spaghetti as brains, grapes as eyeballs, and so on. Well, I recently came across the next step in creepy for the Halloween treats.

            So, when it comes to food I am usually open for adventure but these creepy recipes cross the line for me. The first recipe I found that would set the creepy Halloween theme is Bordeaux Grilled Rat, which is literally a grilled rat, eww. This strange recipe box also has creamed mice, coyote droppings recipe, as well as a tuna twinkie souffle. I also found some bug inspired recipes, such as banana worm bread, meal worm fried rice, and as far as rootworm beetle dip, check out the full bug list to try a recipe. So, for those who dare these recipes, let me know, because I am beyond interested in how they taste. I am not even sure how you find a rat besides in the streets... I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween, and celebrate as mild or creepy as you like! 

Monday Night Meals

NFL Recipes             


This week we had a first, frog legs. I was nervous about trying them, but this was a way to try new things. To my surprise, they were pretty good, and I recommend this recipe to you!

Steamed Crab Legs and Corn on the Cob

Ingredients:

1 lb crab in shell (whole or legs)

½ dark beer

2 c water

1 lemon

½ c rice vinegar

¼ c old bay seasoning

2 corn on the cobs

Directions:

            In the bottom of the steamer place water, beer, vinegar and the old bay seasoning. Shuck the corn. Slice half of the lemon into wedges, and reserve for serving. Slice the other half of the lemon into circle slices. Place crab legs into steamer. Place the lemon circles on top, and then add the corn. Place steamer on for fifteen minutes and enjoy.

Frog Legs

Ingredients:

2 sets of frog legs

3 roma tomatoes

¼ c basil

¾ c white wine

½ c flour

1 c milk

3 T olive oil

2 T butter

salt and pepper

Directions:

            Place the milk into a medium sized bowl. Place flour on a flour, mix with some salt and pepper. Place frog legs into milk, this allows the flour to stick. Remove from milk, and place on the flour plate. Cover each size well with flour.

            Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat up the olive oil and butter. When hot and bubbling, add the frog legs. Allow the legs to brown on one side before flipping. You will see the meat getting tender, and removing itself from the bone. Allow other side to brown and remove from heat.

            Leave the oil mixture in pan, and add the white wine. Cut up the tomatoes and basil, and add to the wine mixture as well. Allow the tomatoes to stew. Serve either on top of frog legs, or on the side. Enjoy!

Save Your Salads!

            So I am all about finding ways to save money, so I can spend money on fun stuff and traveling. I am also a fan of finding healthier alternatives, as well as sharing my new healthy and money sharing ideas. One thing that I learned in a restaurant is that salad dressings are really easy to make and save tons of money making them yourself. Also, making them yourself also saves a lot of calories, as well as adding carbohydrates and sugars. I feel if you are going through the effort of making eating a healthy salad, you should match it with a healthy dressing as well. If you are willing to make the time, it is overall worth it to your health as well as your wallet.

            Sometimes when I bring up making your own salad dressings to people, they often say they do not have the time. Today I will provide a recipe for Italian dressing that will take under five minutes to make, and seriously, it takes longer to go shopping at the store then to make. You can also make a large abundance of dressing, and can or freeze dressing, so you can only make it once in awhile.

            I decided to price out Italian dressing so you can see how much can be saved. I found that making the salad dressing recipe below cost about $2.00 to make, and that is with being able to make more than one bottle with the dry mixture of ingredients, plus no additives.  If you so buy store brand salad dressing, you can often find things on sale for $2.00. For natural dressings, sub as Annie’s natural dressing, average price is around $3.99. Here are four dressings below you can give a try.

Italian Dressing

Ingredients

            1 T garlic powder

            1 t onion powder

            ½ t white sugar

            2 t oregano

            1 t black pepper

            1 t thyme

            1 t parsley

            1 T salt

            2/3 c canola oil

            ¼ c white vinegar

            2 T water

Directions:

So, this first step is what saves you so much time.

            Mix together the garlic powder, onion powder, white sugar, oregano, black pepper, salt, thyme, and parsley. Place mixture into a Tupperware that seals well.

            For dressing, ad the canola oil, vinegar, and water with 2 T of the above mixture. This will not only save you money, but a ton of time in the future. Enjoy!

Honey Mustard Dressing

Ingredients:

            1/4 cup mayonnaise (or plain yogurt)

            1 tablespoon prepared mustard

            1 tablespoon honey

            1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions

            In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard, honey, and lemon juice. Store covered in the refrigerator.

Poppy seed Dressing

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup cider vinegar

4 1/2 teaspoons grated onion

3 teaspoons ground mustard

1 teaspoon poppy seeds

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Slowly add oil, while whisking briskly. Cover and refrigerate until serving.

Blue Cheese Dressing

Ingredients:

2 1/2 ounces blue cheese

3 tablespoons buttermilk

3 tablespoons sour cream

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 teaspoons white wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

            In a small bowl, mash blue cheese and buttermilk together with a fork until mixture resembles large-curd cottage cheese. Stir in sour cream, mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, and garlic powder until well blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Monday Night Meals

NFL Recipes      


This week was one of my favorites. Not only was it delicious, but we found healthy alternatives as well. Check it out!

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Ingredients:

1 T thyme

1 T all spice

1 T salt

1 t black pepper

1 t cinnamon

1 t nutmeg

1 t ginger

½ c olive oil

½ c soy sauce

1 lime

1 c orange juice

1 c white vinegar

3 jalapenos

½ yellow white

4 cloves garlic

6 pieces of chicken (breast or thighs)

Directions:

In a food processor add the thyme, all spice, salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, olive oil, soy sauce, lime, orange juice and vinegar. Mix well, about thirty seconds. Meanwhile, slice the onion, jalapenos and garlic.

Place chicken in a large storage bowl. Add the onion, garlic and jalapenos over the chicken, and mix up. Now add the sauce mixture over the chicken, and once again, mix well. Store into refrigerator for at least one day.

When ready to cook, heat up large saucepan on medium heat. Place a small amount of olive oil in pan, and when hot, add the chicken and a small amount of sauce. When well cooked on one side, flip, and allow to cook until it is a dark brown on both sides.

When cooking chicken, heat oven to 375. When chicken is brown on both sides, add remaining liquid into pan, place into oven with lid, and allow to cook for about 20 to 25 minutes. (Use a thermometer if not sure the chicken is done).

Enjoy! Go Miami.

Waldorf Salad

Ingredients:

            2 apples (red or green)

            1 c celery

            1/3 c walnuts

            2 ½ t plain yogurt

            1 t honey

            1 t lemon juice

            ¼ c grapes

            Romaine Lettuce

Directions:

            Mix in a large bowl the yogurt, honey and lemon juice. Make sure they are well incorporated. Cut up the apples into chunks, and add to the yogurt mixture, this will stop the apples from browning. Slice the celery and grapes, and cut up the walnuts. Add to the mixture, and stir well.

            Place large leafs from the romaine on a place, and place the apple mixture on top. Enjoy, Go jets, kick some butt!

Say No to Diets!

           So I constantly run across articles talking about things not to eat or avoid, which is helpful in a way, but makes you wonder what you are suppose to eat. Also, there always seems to be a new b.s. diet claiming that your abs will be smaller in four days, or guaranteed to loss weight over the weekend. These articles annoy me, and they usually are more harmful for your body than you would think. Then there is always the how awful food of the week article. I can’t even tell you how many times I have heard that eggs were bad for you, then vis versa. It seems like every food item has been on the bad list, as well as the good. How do we know when to listen?

            I recently found this article that stands up for food that may have gotten a bad reputation. Daniel Duane, the writer, seems to have a similar idea of boundaries as I do, stating, “ we believe a good-for-you diet should include both buckwheat and bacon”, I definitely agree. It is all about moderation. To begin with the article, he stands up for bacon, letting us know that almost half of bacon is full of the good-fat, that actually helps lower our cholesterol. So there, bacon haters! The list continues with other foods that have had bad reputations or just none at all, such as whole milk, pine nuts, duck, and watercress. To see the full list and what they offer click here.

            Overall, this list just reminds me of how certain foods can get horrible reps, just by what the news and diets say. I am not saying go out there and eat some cantaloupe, more to just enjoy what you eat. I feel the more you deprive yourself out of a craving, will just lead to some crazy binging. I will admit, we usually have bacon for breakfast on one day of the weekend. It seems like knowing that there will be one day a week I get to eat it allows me to be mindful of what I eat the rest of the week.

So, if you listen to any of my advice, list to this, stay away from stupid diets. To clarify, I like cleanses, or cutting out items such as sugars or carbs. When I say stupid diets, I mean the ones that have you eating just meat and cheese, or last a few days with some ridiculous overpriced juice. Also, the way you must deprived yourself usually has a negative outcome, besides the fact that is has a negative impact on your health as well your mind. Eat what you want, be mindful of what you put into your body, and enjoy the day!

Try this balanced breakfast this weekend!

Buckwheat Pancakes

Ingredients

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup buckwheat flour

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup quick cooking oats

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup skim milk

3 tablespoons safflower oil

2 tablespoons honey

1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions

                        In a large bowl, stir together wheat flour, buckwheat flour, all-purpose flour, oats, and baking powder. Stir in milk, oil, honey, and egg.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides, and serve hot.

Serve with Bacon, yum.

Smoothie

Ingredients

1 c frozen fruit

1 banana

¼ c yogurt

½ c juice

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a blender and enjoy.

           

Take care of yourself, while enjoying what you eat!

Much love from

                        True Treats

Shannon & Darren