My Tzatziki Sauce

I love Greek food!  Monday, we had gyro from our favorite local Greek restaurant.  It inspired me to make a variation of my husband's Greek-style burgers (recipe soon) and a creamy, cool tzatziki sauce.  I forgot to take a picture of both, but I hope you give this a try.  Tzatziki is a cucumber yogurt sauce with many uses.  It is great on top of burgers, chicken, salad, and anything else that could use a great sauce.  While mine isn't necessarily "classic," it is yummy.  Its also really easy!

Tzatziki Sauce

• Plain, whole fat yogurt (or Greek style yogurt if you want to save the straining step)
• 1 cucumber
• 1 tablespoon fresh dill (or slightly less dried dill)
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp salt (or more to taste)
• 1 tsp pepper

1. Shred the cucumber.  Put in a colander of some sort (with small enough holes that the cucumber won't fall through) on top of a bowl and place a paper towel on top.  Place something heavy on top to help squeeze excess water from the cucumber.  Let sit for about 20 minutes.
2. Place yogurt in a towel or paper towel fine mesh sieve.  Let sit over a bowl or sink for about 20 minutes with the cucumber to get rid of excess whey.  You are essentially making a Greek yogurt with this step.
3. Once the draining of excess liquid is done, mix together all of your ingredients: yogurt, cucumber, dill, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
4. Let sit for a half hour in the fridge before serving.  This step lets the flavors meld.

Caprese Chicken

I've been a little absent lately, but there hasn't been much cooking lately in my house.  Its been hot and, without air conditioning, the want to cook is missing.  When I have cooked, its been a lot of basics or things you've seen already: chicken tikka masala, enchilada casserole, chocolate mousse, and some pork stir fry (which I might share soon).

One of my favorite combinations for summer is tomatoes and basil, so when I came upon a recipe for Caprese Chicken, I had to try it.  I don't have a grill, so I had to come up with some alterations for this recipe.  It has cool, creamy cheese with fresh, bright basil on warm chicken with a zingy balsamic glaze.

Caprese Chicken
adapted from: Add A Pinch

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1 pound fresh mozzarella cheese
• a handful of basil leaves
• 1 or 2 tomatoes
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Drizzle olive oil on chicken breasts and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake until thoroughly cooked, 30-40 minutes.
2. Slice mozzarella cheese and tomatoes about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.
3. Heat balsamic vinegar in a small sauce pan or saute pan over medium-high heat until it starts to bubble.  Turn heat down to medium and simmer until the vinegar reduces down and becomes much thicker, between 5 and 10 minutes.  Remove from heat.
4. Start to build your caprese chicken stack: place mozzarella, tomato, and one or two basil leaves on top of the chicken breast.  Drizzle balsamic glaze over chicken and enjoy!

Steak and Cheese Stuffed Peppers

I posted a recipe for shaved steak and cheese recently and I love this recipe, but was looking for something a little more exciting and I wanted a vessel to cook my steak and cheese in and to allow the cheese to brown and melt.

I was scrolling through Chowstalker and found a recipe for steak and cheese stuffed peppers, which is perfect.  Most stuffed pepper recipes have rice, or some other starchy carb in them, but this one is just filled with meat, veggies, and cheese.

Steak and Cheese Stuffed Peppers
from: Peace, Love, and Low Carb

• 4 large green peppers
• 1-1.5 pounds of shaved steak
• 1 large sweet onion, sliced thin
• 8oz button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
• 12 pieces of provolone
• 1 tbs salted butter
• salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a cookie sheet with tinfoil.
2. Cut green peppers in half, top to bottom.  Take all of the seeds out and line them up on the cookie sheet.  Put 1/2 of a piece of cheese in the bottom of each pepper.
3. Heat up butter on medium heat in a frying pan.  Saute mushrooms and onions until soft.  Remove from pan and set aside.
4. Cook shaved steak in the frying pan until no longer pink.  Season with salt and pepper.  Mix the cooked steak with the mushrooms and onions.
5. Fill each pepper with the vegetable and steak mixture.  You may have a little extra for snacking on later.
6. Cook for about 30 minutes, or until peppers are soft.  Turn the oven off.  Place a piece of cheese on top of each pepper and place back in oven until cheese is melted.  This should only take a few minutes.  Enjoy!

Zucchini Boats

I'm getting excited about all of the veggies that are coming into season right now!  Everything is so colorful and tastes so much better than it did a few months ago.

It is during this time of the year that I love zucchini and summer squash, but I get bored with the same old steaming or grilling, so I searched Pinterest for some squash inspiration.  I found a beautiful picture of zucchini boats that were roasted in the oven with little grape tomatoes, perfect!  Bonus, these tasted wonderful and even got approval from the kids of a coworker!

I forgot to take a picture, so you'll have to make a mental picture :)

Zucchini Boats
adapted from: Proud Italian Cook

• 4 medium, straight zucchinis
• 16 grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder
• a pinch of pepper
• a pinch of salt
• 8 thin slices of mozzarella
• 4 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese (the real stuff is better!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with tinfoil.
2. Slice the zucchinis lengthwise and scoop the seeds out of the middle.  Line them up on the cookie sheet.
3. Place the grape tomatoes in the zucchini boats, 4 to a zucchini.  
4. Drizzle zucchini with olive oil and sprinkle on the garlic powder, pepper, and salt.
5. Bake for about twenty minutes, or until zucchini is starting to get soft.
6. Remove the zucchini from the oven.  Turn the temperature up to 400 degrees.  
7. Put the mozzarella on the zucchini and sprinkle the Parmesan on top.  
8. Return to the oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until cheese starts to brown.  Watch it closely to make sure it doesn't burn!  Enjoy! 

Its hot, no cooking!

I'm really glad that I made that buffalo shrimp the other day for salads, because it is too in my apartment for the oven to be on!  Since my apartment is the size of a toaster, it heats up really fast as soon as the stove or oven is turned on.

Since I'm melting and not cooking (Chipotle was kind to us tonight), I thought I might share a little of my story.  A little more than year ago when I moved back from Oklahoma, I stepped on the scale and realized that I officially weighed more than 200 pounds.  I knew I had let myself go a bit after a stressful spring and had slowly let the abundance of fried foods in the south to get the best of me, but I was disappointed that I had let it get that far.

So, I made some changes.  I began walking to the pond near my parent's house and paying attention to my eating.  I cut my alcohol intake by quite a bit, which was a little easier once leaving a college town!  About a month after beginning this routine, I joined myfitnesspal.com, which is a calorie counting and exercising tracking website that I have been using ever since.  This has helped me immensely and I lost about twenty pounds.  I highly recommend this site, it is a great tool and has a great community.

Although I was losing weight and feeling a little better, I needed a change of some sort.  I was still really tired and low energy and I had a lot of bloating.  I was also hungry A LOT, even though I was eating what I felt was a healthy diet.

I started poking around the internet for some nutrition information. I found some information about something called the paleo and primal diet.  A diet that encourages fat intake and is gluten free?  Sounded pretty crazy. I did some reading and read the symptoms of a gluten intolerance.  Turns out, chronic fatigue and bloating were two of the many symptoms.  So, I gave it a try.

After a week, I had energy, my belly felt great, and I wasn't hungry every two hours.  As a child, I was so low energy that I would ask my mom to push me in a stroller to the swing in my grandmother's backyard!  A kid is supposed to have more energy than that!

I was also losing weight pretty quickly!  I was amazed that I could eat healthy fats and avoid gluten, grains, and legumes and not being hungry!  No more sugar crashes or foggy head when I let myself go too long between meals.  It was an exciting feeling!

This was before Christmas and I figured I would cheat a little during the holiday season.  All of my previous symptoms came back and my weight loss stalled (I may have even gained a few pounds!).  I knew what I was doing before was the right choice for me and that I would go back to that.

Once January rolled around, I went back to my paleo/primal eating.  I felt great again shortly after and have been gluten free since the first week of January.  Sometimes I will eat corn or rice and  I have had some exposures during this time and these present themselves with some pretty obvious symptoms.  My joints will start aching and I'll find myself really tired.

Paleo and primal eating has worked awesome for me and I believe that its worth a try for most people.  Test it for 30 days and see how you feel!  Or at least try some of my recipes!

Overall I have lost 40 pounds and almost twenty of those have been since January.  I went from a 14 to a 6 and I have started lifting weight to become leaner and stronger.

Thanks for reading my story and feel free to share your own or ask any questions you might have!  I love food, nutrition, and helping people!  More recipes soon :)

Buffalo Shrimp Salad

As much as I love a good salad, I get a little bored with spring greens topped with oil packed tuna, tomatoes, and cucumbers.  That is a combo that I eat two or three times a week.  It keeps me full and tastes good, but I'm definitely not one of those people that can eat the same thing day in and day out, clearly!

When I saw a recipe for buffalo shrimp po' boys, I wondered how I could make this into a paleo friendly.  It struck me that this had the makings of a great salad topper and it was!  The warm shrimp with cool greens and tangy cheese is wonderful and very quick to make.  I think it will be great tomorrow with my lunch, too!

Buffalo Shrimp Salad

• 1-1 1/2 pound of medium to large size shrimp, whatever your preference
• 1/2 cup of Frank's Red Hot Original Hot Sauce
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• pinch of pepper
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter (I prefer Kerrygold)
• 1/2 cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1/8 crumbled blue cheese
• 1 bunch scallions, sliced thin
• salad greens of your choice (I like Olivia's Spring Mix)

1. Toss shrimp in hot sauce, garlic powder, sea salt, and pepper.
2. In a medium saucepan, melt butter.  Add shrimp and cook until completely pink.  
3. Remove shrimp from heat.  Let cool a bit before putting on top of salad.
4. If you are serving right away, top greens with some of the tomatoes, scallions, blue cheese, and shrimp mixture.
5. If you are serving later, let the shrimp cool completely, mix in tomatoes, scallions, and blue cheese and refrigerate until you want to use it.  Enjoy!

Caprese salad for a crowd

Happy late father's day!  The past two father's days have been a little rough in my family.  Little might be an understatement...Last year, my husband's father passed away and this year we lost my grandfather a week before father's day.  But I spent a wonderful day with my father and all of my uncles and ate lots of yummy food!

I kept trying to figure out what I should make for our gathering.  I wanted to make something really quick and something that I could eat with a burger in case there were limited food options (which there weren't!!).  I was thinking caprese bites, but making each tiny salad on a toothpick was going to take awhile.  Then I remembered a wonderful thing that we had started making at the in-law's a few summers ago.

This salad is super quick and is a real crowd pleaser!  The ingredient list is really short, which is an extra bonus!

Caprese Salad for a Crowd

• 2 pints grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• Almost a cup of basil leaves (not a packed cup, just a big handful size)
• 16oz mozzarella (full fat tastes better!)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2-4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• a pinch of pepper

1. Cut the mozzarella into small squares or rectangles like above.  If you can find tiny little balls of mozzarella, those would be really cute and you could cut them in half to match the tomatoes!
2. Chiffonade the basil.  This is really simple, but sounds fancy.  Stack some basil leaves and roll into a little cigar shape.  Slice down the leaves to create little strips of basil.
3. Put all of the ingredients into a large bowl and toss gently.  Sprinkle on the olive oil and vinegar and add the pepper.  Toss gently and serve
4. If you are going to eat this later, I would recommend adding the vinegar right before serving, otherwise everything turns a little brown and isn't as pretty.  Enjoy!