Thai salad

Thai Salads are awesome. This one is very low-carb friendly and quite tasty. If you don't like real spicy food you can omit the chiles and it still tastes good.

1/2 lb boneless pork, cooked and sliced thin
1/2 lb shrimp, cooked, peeled and cut in half lengthwise
1 cup of shredded chicken
2 hard boiled eggs, quartered
1 cucumber, peeled, split lengthwise and seeded and thinly sliced
1 scallion sliced
7-8 leaves of romaine lettuce, torn into bite size pieces
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
2-3 sprigs of cilantro torn up into small sprigs
1 cup dressing (see below)
10 fresh mint leaves
1-2 fresh serrano chiles, seeded and slivered

Dressing (makes 1 cup)
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup fish sauce
3 tblsp sucanat
1/4 cup splenda
2 tblsp cider vinegar (or white vinegar)
1/2 cup lime juice
1 tblsp minced cilantro roots or stems
3-4 minced serrano chiles
1 clove minced garlic

dissolve the sugars and salt in the vinegar and fish sauce, then add everything else and mix well.


for the salad, combine all ingredients except the mint and chiles and toss together, then add the mint and chiles as a garnish and serve.

Roast Chicken breasts stuffed with pesto and wrapped in proscuitto

I got this recipe from a tv show. Its really good!

Chicken Breasts
pesto (about 2-3 tblsp per chicken breast)
proscuitto (about 3 slices per chicken breast)

to make the pesto, mix equal parts of basil, pine nuts, and parmesan cheese
in a food processor with a few tblsp of olive oil, you can add some garlic too if you like. it works also if you leave out the pine nuts (but then i would do the garlic for sure)

preheat oven to 350

slice a slit in the chicken breasts along the side - make the slit as deep as
possible with out going through so that you end up with a big pocket to put pesto into. put as much pesto as you can in the pocket, stuff it in there so that
it wont leak out. then wrap 3 slices of proscuitto around the outside of the chicken and put it in a pan, bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the chicken is done.

Fish with Ginger lime sauce

The sauce for this fish reminds me of one of the sauces they have at Japanese Village. Very good. The sauce works for shrimp or chicken too.

Ginger Lime sauce
2 tblsp grated fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic crushed
2 tblsp spenda, or sugar
1/2 of a lime, juiced
2 tblsp water
2 tblsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp chili garlic paste (optional, adds heat)

mix it all up in a bowl.

for the fish part:
1/2 a cucumber
1 tblsp coconut oil or peanut oil
salt and pepper to taste
18 oz of fish fillets, sea bass, red snapper, sole, flounder, tilapia, orange roughy or mahi mahi

split the cucumber in half the long way and use a spoon to remove the seeds from inside. then grate the cucumber on your box grater the long way, trying to get the longest possible strands of cucumber. gather up the shredded cucumber and dump it into the bowl with the dipping sauce.

in a large skillet, add your oil and set heat to medium high. salt and pepper your fish fillets and put them in the skillet once it is hot. cook 4-5 min per side.
when serving, fish out the cucumber strands from the sauce and dump on top of the fish fillets. drizzle a bit more sauce on top too if needed. serve immediately.

Steak with Chipolte butter

I made this chipolte butter the other day and it was awesome. Have this with some vegetables and it is compatible with a low carb diet. Enjoy.

Chipolte butter
4 tblsp butter
1 chipolte from a can plus 1 tsp of the adobo sauce from the can
2 tblsp onion
1 tblsp fresh cilantro

mix in a food processor until smooth. Store extra that you don't use in the freezer.

Rub a little of the chipolte butter on your steak and bbq the way you like it. When serving drop another tsp of chipolte butter on top of the steak. I like this with some bbqd asparagus that has another tsp of chipolte butter on that. Yum Yum :-)

bean burritos

This is a great recipe I got from a friend. Its easy, healthy and good, and you can do it in your slow cooker.

4 cups dried pinto beans, or use 4 cans of pinto beans
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
2 cloves crushed roasted garlic
1/4 cup buffalo chipolte sauce (use tabasco brand chipolte if you can't find buffalo but it isn't as good), or you can grind up an equivalent amount of canned chipoltes in adobo sauce
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cumin
1 large onion, diced

put pinto beans into a pot and add at least 3 inches of water above the level of the pinto beans, soak pinto beans overnight, at least 12 hours. or you can just use well washed canned pinto beans.

add all ingredients to crock pot and cook on high for at least 5 hours. mash well and serve with some soft tortillas, herdez chipolte salsa, cheese and sour cream, or whatever else you like on your burritos.

some ideas im going to try for this recipe:
- add some cream to the beans when done mashing them up
- lightly stir fry half of the onion (so it still has a bit of crunch) and add it to the mashed beans at the end for a bit of texture.
- try black beans instead of pinto beans

its great as it is but I like to experiment sometimes.

Tomato and Mozza Salad

This is a great cheese delivery system disguised as 'salad'.

First, the pesto
2 cups basil leaves
1/4 tsp salt
2 large garlic cloves
6 tblsp olive oil
1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
fresh ground pepper to taste

if you want a 'light' version of this, reduce the parmesan to 1/4 cup and replace 5 of the 6 tblsp olive oil with a medium peeled and seeded tomato.

put the garlic and pesto in a food processor and chop it up, add all of the remaining ingredients and mix in the food processor.

Next, the salad
Some good quality ripe tomatoes
Some good quality italian mozzarella

1-2 minced garlic cloves
1-2 tblsp balsamic vinegar
2 tblsp of the pesto from above
salt and pepper to taste

slice up the mozza and tomatoes. place a slice of tomato on top of a slice of mozza. mix up the pesto and garlic and vinegar with salt and pepper to taste and pour some on top of the tomatoes. serve.

Red Chili Roasted Turkey

Tired of the traditional turkey recipe? Here's one I tried:

Red Chili-Roasted Turkey

8 dried mild and/or hot New Mexico or guajillo chilies or 5 dried guajillo and 3 pasillo or ancho chilies. (I used 3 acho, 3 new mexican mild, and 2 guajillo)
5 canned chipolte peppers with adobo sauce
4 cloves garlic, smashed
half white or spanish onion, chopped
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp oregano, dried
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp coriander seeds
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp black pepper
*******************
1/4 cup oil
1--12 pound turkey

Seed dried Chilies and place in blender, pour in 2 cups boiling water and soak until softened, about 30 minutes. Add rest of ingredients (to black pepper) Puree.

Thaw and dry turkey. Spread mixture insdside and out. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.

Bring turkey to room temperature drizzle with oil. Roast in 325 F oven for 1 hour. Baste with juices. if drying our cover with foil. Continue roasting until thermometer inserted in thigh reads 180F about 2 1/2 hours in total. Romove from oven, let stand 20 minutes. Carve and cover
with pan juices. Garnish with cilantro, lime wedges, tortillas if desired.