CHIPOLTE CHICKEN SWEET POTATO SKINS

I've never really cared for sweet potatoes. However, when I saw this recipe on Pinterest, for sweet potatoes with chipolte chicken, I thought I'd give it another try. This one took a bit of time to make, but well worth it. The sweet and spicy together was a perfect combination. I now have a new found love for sweet potatoes. Just add it to the list with eggplant and asparagus...

What you’ll need:
3 medium sweet potatoes
3/4 pound (about 2 small) boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cups olive oil
2 tablespoon fresh lime juice
2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
3 whole chipotle pepper, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
salt and pepper
2 (half a 10oz bag) cups spinach
5 ounces sharp white cheddar cheese, grated

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Wash your sweet potatoes and prick with a fork. Place in the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes or until fork tender. Place your chicken in a baking dish and rub with a tablespoon of olive oil, salt and peper. Place in the oven with the potatoes and bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool and shred the chicken with a fork or your hands. When the sweet potatoes are done cut in half and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.

In a medium size bowl combine the olive oil, lime juice, garlic, chipotle peppers, oregano, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper. Set aside.

Heat a small skillet over medium heat and wilt the spinach. Toss the spinach and shredded chicken together, set aside and keep warm.

Turn the oven up to 400 degrees. Scrape the sweet potato out of the peel, leaving a medium size layer of flesh inside with the peel so that it can stand up on its own and place in a baking dish. Brush the skins with with a little of the chipotle sauce and bake for 5-10 muntes until nice and crisp. While the skins bake mix the spinach, chicken and chipotle sauce together. Remove skins from the oven and stuff with the chicken mixture, top with shredded cheese and bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the skins are hot and crisp.

You can either use sour cream or greek yogurt on the side. I choose to skip the yogurt and go with sour cream. The choice is yours…

Stay tuned for the next savory dish.

Elissa Rae

ROASTED RED PEPPER QUINOA BURGERS

Something I've wanted to try but have never had was a type a veggie burger. So of course, I went to my go to website, Pinterest, and found this recipe. I wasn't sure how my family would react to this kind of burger, but I had to give it a go. And let me tell you, it was easy and delicious. 

What you'll need:
1 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 cup chopped roasted red peppers
3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs (I forgot and used Italian bread crumbs)
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon flour
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 whole wheat bun, toasted

Directions:
In a small bowl, mix together bread crumbs, basil, paprika, onion powder, salt and pepper.

In a large bowl, add beans and mash coarsely with a fork. Stir in quinoa, garlic and roasted red peppers, mixing well to combine. (Make sure you use roasted red peppers. I skipped over the roasted part and chopped up a whole red pepper.) Add in bread crumb mixture and egg, mixing well to moisten. Once combined, add in the flour and mix well. Form into four equally sized balls.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add olive oil. Press each quinoa ball into a large patty, being careful to press the sides together so they don't fall apart while cooking. Add to skillet and cook until golden and crisp on each side, about five minutes. Serve immediately on toasted buns with your favorite toppings! I added spinach, red peppers, and mayonnaise to mine. The website said they added bacon, but I'm not a huge fan. 

Despite the red pepper mix up, these burgers were great. Another success with only one small mix up. I'd definitely recommend this recipe. 

Stay tuned to see what I cook up next!

-Elissa Rae

TOFU STUFFED SHELLS WITH EGGPLANT AND SPINACH

To keep the ball rolling with a somewhat Italian theme, I went with a pasta this time. I found a recipe that took vegetarian a step further to a vegan recipe. (Except I added cheese to mine!) Again, I found this on my favorite site, Pinterest. This was by far more time consuming than the pizza. But let me tell you, it was worth it!

What you’ll need:

1 large eggplant
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (divided)
salt (for eggplant)
21oz extra firm tofu (or 1 and 1/2 blocks)
1/4 cup raw cashews
1/4 cup water
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup onion (chopped)
3/4 cups frozen spinach
1 1/2 -2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried basil leaves
20 jumbo pasta shells

Directions:
Slice the top off your eggplant and cut it in half lengthwise. Score each half as if you’re going to cube it. Then sprinkle some salt and let sit, cut side up, for about 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. After the 3o minutes, you’ll notice some water drops on your eggplant. Squeeze it over the sink and let the salty water run out. Next, put the eggplant in a baking pan lined with paper or a liner. Brush each half with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and face cut side down on the pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes.

While your eggplant is baking, cook your pasta shells. Boil for 13 minutes.

In a medium frying pan, saute 1 clove of minced garlic and onion with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. When your garlic and onion have been cooking for about 1 minute, add your frozen spinach to the mixture, and cook everything until the spinach is just thawed.

In a medium sized bowl, mash your tofu with a fork. Take about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of your crumbled tofu and put it in your blender with 1/4 cup cashews and 1/4 cup water. Blend on high until the mixture is smooth.

Pour blender contents back into medium sized bowl, and add garlic, onion, and spinach mixture as well. Mix it up.

When your eggplant is finished roasting, use a spoon to scrape out the eggplant contents from the skin, and put them  into your tofu mixture. Stir it up!

Stuff your shells with your eggplant tofu mixture, and place in a bed of your favorite marinara in a 9 X 13 in baking dish. Pour a little more marinara on top of your shells. Then sprinkle some mozzarella cheese on top.

Last step. Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for about 8-10 minutes and you’re ready to go.

These shells took a little longer and were a little messier, but definitely worth it! I even took some over to my neighbors because I made so many and didn’t tell them it was tofu. I thought I’d let them decide for themselves based off of the taste. Because if they were anything like my dad, they’d freak out when they heard the word “tofu”. Turns out, both my dad and my neighbors loved them! In fact, they brought the dish back in minutes because they inhaled them, they were that good!

I hope you enjoy them too! Stay tuned to see what’s next…

-Elissa Rae

GARDEN EGGPLANT PIZZA

Who doesn't love pizza? So this week I made everyone's favorite but in a healthier, tastier way. I've become kind of obsessed with eggplant lately. So why not add some eggplant to my pizza? I came across this recipe on Pinterest, of course, and it looked so simple. And it was! Even I couldn't mess this one up.

What you'll need:
1 Eggplant, peeled
1 Tomato
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Onion
1 small zucchini
3 T olive oil
1 Pizza crust (I use whole wheat)
2 Cups of shredded mozzarella cheese (8oz.)
1/2 t dried basil
1/2 t dried oregano
1/2 t dried thyme
1/4 t garlic powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t ground pepper

Directions:Preheat the oven to 425F.

Then chop the eggplant, red pepper, tomato, onion, and zucchini and sauté in a tablespoon of oil in a large skillet on med/high for about 10 minutes. Then take your eggplant mix  and cheese and spread over the pizza crust.
Then sprinkle your basil, oregano, thyme, garlic powder, salt and pepper on top. The finishing touch, drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil over your pizza.

Now your ready! Bake for 10 minutes and you're ready to chow down.

I absolutely love, love, love this pizza! It was so easy and quick to make, it would be difficult for anyone to screw this up! And it's healthy to top it off. I think this would also be great to cook on the grill for the summertime.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. Stay tuned to see what's next...

-Elissa Rae

PESTO & CHEESE STUFFED CHICKEN

For my first try at cooking I had no idea where to start. So where’s the best place to look? Pinterest! This site has become my new best friend for everything! I’m almost sorry my mom showed me this because I probably spend too much time on here.

I searched through the “Food & Drink” section to see what looked appealing. One thing kept popping up. A pesto and cheese stuffed chicken. There were so many variations of it and they all looked delicious! So I pinned it and looked up the ingredients.

What you’ll need:
2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 T basil pesto w/ lemon
2 T low-fat sour cream
2 T grated mozzarella cheese
2 eggs, beaten
3 T grated Parmesan cheese
3 T almond flour
black pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375F. Spray a small casserole dish w/non-stick spray. Trim any fat from the chicken, then put them inside a plastic bag one at a time & pound with a mallet until the chicken is thin. (Don’t worry about the shape.)

In a small bowl mix together the basil pesto, sour cream, and grated mozzarella. Use a scraper to spread a thin layer of the mixture over each chicken breast, stopping about 1/2 inch from the edge of the chicken. (FYI: Make sure the chicken is dry or it’ll get pretty messy! Lesson learned!) Roll up the chicken breasts and place a couple of toothpicks in the chicken to hold together.

Prepare two bowls, one with the beaten egg & the other with the grated Parmesan-almond flour mix, seasoned w/black pepper to taste. Dip each chicken breast roll first into the egg mixture and then into the Parmesan-almond flour mixture, patting it on so the chicken breast roll is well-coated w/the mix.

Put chicken breasts into the casserole dish and bake until the chicken is firm and lightly browned. It said to check after about 30-35 minutes, but it took closer to 50-60 minutes for mine to be cooked all the way.

And you’re ready to go!

Success!! There were no fire alarms and no one was harmed in the making of dinner. Everything turned out great. It just ended up being a late dinner, other than that no problems.

First dinner down, hopefully many more to go. I hope you enjoy this recipe. Stay tuned for the next, hopefully delicious, dinner.

-Elissa Rae