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As promised, here’s the recipe I used to make the delicious plum sauce for the chicken that accompanied our grilled mexican veggie boats!

Here’s the thing. I never buy plums. Until a few days ago, I wasn’t even sure if I liked plums. Turns out I do. I picked up a few at the store just because they smelled SO GOOD that I couldn’t resist.

Here’s what you do:

Peel the plums. Remove the pit and put the pieces in the food processor. Add some soy sauce, sweet chili sauce and orange juice and give it a whirl.

Turns out black plums are YELLOW on the inside. To counteract my disappointment that my sauce wouldn’t have a nice plum color, I added a splash of red wine that just so happened to be in my glass on the counter. After tasting the sauce, I may have added a bit too much soy sauce, so I needed something to counteract the flavor. I settled on fresh ginger. I may or may not have gotten a little excited with my microplaner so I probably ended up adding about 1 tsp fresh ginger. It balanced the sauce perfectly and gave it a spicy kick!

Now comes the tricky part. Pour the sauce into a sauce pan, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes. *Sidenote: this is not tricky unless you go outside and forget about your sauce while it’s coming to a boil and then have it boil up all over your stove…then the cleaning part gets tricky 🙂

 

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Ginger Plum Sauce

2 large plums
3 Tbsp orange juice
1 tsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp sweet chili sauce
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
splash of red wine (optional)

Directions

1. Peel and pit the plums and place in a food processor.
2. Add chili sauce, orange juice and soy sauce and pulse until smooth.
3. Pour into a small saucepan and add grated ginger and wine.
4. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

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The hubby and I both enjoyed this sauce on our chicken. The hubby’s only comment was that it could be a little bit thicker. One of the recipes I looked at for inspiration included applesauce which I think would be a great way to thicken it up without adding any overpowering flavor. However, it was also fine just the way it was 🙂

How do you feel about plums?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Zucchini boats are nothing new. It’s one of the easiest ways to use up the astounding amount of zucchini that I seem to amass every summer. Last night I set out to change mine up from the usual by making them Mexican-inspired.

I started by preparing the zucchini. Simply slice them in half lengthwise and then using a spoon, or a melon baller, scoop out the flesh to make something that resembles this:

I chopped up about 1/3 of the zucchini innards to add to my filling and saved the rest for another dish.

Next, the filling. Along with the zucchini, I chopped up some onion, garlic and one jalapeno. I sauteeed these in a hot pan and then added some black beans, cumin, chili powder and the juice from one lime..

While that was cooking I pricked a sweet potato all over and microwaved it for 5 minutes. Then I cut it in half, scooped out the insides, diced it up and added it to the mixture, along with some tomato and leftover wheatberries.

Here’s where ingenuity struck. I thought, “I like sweet potatoes better than zucchini anyways so why not make some sweet potato skins too!” I knew I would have extra filling because I always seem to make too much. For the other half of the sweet potato, I scooped out less of the innards to make the boat more stable. If i’d had this idea in the beginning, I would have cut the sweet potato lengthwise as well.

When all your boats are ready, pop the zucchini boats on the grill for 10 minutes or so to help them cook about half way.

Remove from the grill and stuff. Sprinkle with cheese and put them back on the grill. This time I used a grill pan to catch anything that fell out. Put the lid on the grill and let them cook until the zucchini is tender and the cheese is melted.

Serve and enjoy!

They were both good, but the hubby and I agreed that we both liked the sweet potato boats better!

See that piece of chicken hidden in the middle there? That’s grilled chicken with a quick plum sauce I whipped up. Recipe coming tomorrow!

Have you ever made veggie boats?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Last night’s recipe was another that just kinda popped into my head randomly. I have no idea where it came from! I pulled some meatballs out of the freezer on Sunday without giving any real thought to how I would use them…and when I woke up Monday morning, I had a plan.

Baked ziti was one of my FAVORITE dishes as a kid. I ordered it every single time we went out to eat at in Italian restaurant. This time I decided to put a bit of a non-traditional healthy twist on an old fav!

I started by sauteing some onion and garlic in a large pan. I chopped up some previously cooked turkey meatballs that I made a couple months ago and added them to the pan. Then I added some crushed tomatoes, basil and oregano and lots of fresh baby spinach.

Next I added some rigatoni (I cut the noodles in half to help them fit into the peppers better) and a little bit of low-fat cheese.

Finally, I prepped some red peppers. I cut just enough off the bottom to let them sit level in the pan, and then I cut out the stem and seeds. I stood them in a small pan side by side and scooped in the filling.

I baked the peppers at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

This was an easy way to sneak an extra serving or two of veggies into one of my favorite pasta dishes! Using low-fat cheese and adding spinach also help boost the nutritional value!

Having a bite of red pepper in every bite was a great addition!

What’s your favorite way to stuff a pepper?

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

This past weekend I graduated from college for the second time. I’m now one step closer to becoming a Registered Dietitian. Only one year left!

I was the valedictorian of my class of 770 students. I had to sit on stage during the graduation ceremony.

I gave a speech in front of 2,000 people.

I got a medal to wear.

My family sent me flowers.

My hubby was by my side.

We had a party. It was a good day 🙂

Now it’s time to enjoy my week off before summer classes start. The hubby is on vacation too! And my parents come to visit on Thursday. Yippeee!!!!!

–Lindsay–

 

So remember yesterday when I posted about all the dough I made for my homemade lean pockets? Well, since that was just a test recipe, I had plenty of dough left over to make my first attempt at grilled thick-crust pizza!

I’m happy to report it went well!

I split the dough in half and used my hands to form it into two rectangles. Since I knew we’d be using indirect heat on the grill, I thought a rectangular shape would fit best after we pushed the coals to both sides. I brushed the top with olive oil and then threw it on the grill oil side down.

Lesson #1: Don’t freak out if the dough bunches weirdly or becomes a big mis-shapen when you throw it on the grill. It will still taste good.

Lesson #2: The dough will quickly puff up a bit. Don’t leave it on the grill too long because it will get brown very quickly.

I like my crust this way, but if you prefer it more lightly browned, just check it a minute or two before you think it should be ready to flip over.

Next, remove the crust from the grill to put the toppings on. If you want, you can try to top it while still on the grill…but it gets pretty hot reaching over this coals and the hubby and I found it was easier to just take it off and put it back on.

Add your toppings on the grilled side. Then return to the grill and put the cover on for a few minutes to help melt the cheese.

Remove, slice, enjoy!

Somebody enjoyed it with some ice cold home brew 🙂

And now for the most important lesson:

Lesson #3: Don’t take the dough out of the fridge until the grill is ready to go. If you form your crust before you light the grill, it will warm up and be much harder to transfer to the grill when the time comes!

While I do enjoy a good slice of thick crust every once and a while…I must say, thin crust is my favorite and i’ll probably be turning to my grilled flatbread pizzas more often this summer.

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Last week I got an email from a reader (Hi Erica!!!) about homemade lean pockets. These have been on my to-make list pretty much since I started this blog and I’ve just never gotten around to making them.

I considered this to be the perfect opportunity!

Best of all, they’re super easy. I decided to use my go-to whole wheat pizza dough recipe for the crust. It’s not 100% whole wheat, but it’s 2/3rds…which is pretty good in my book.

The timing on this was also perfect because it gave me the opportunity to try the grilled thick crust pizza I have been pondering.

I made a big batch of dough using this recipe:

Anyways, since I was just testing out this whole lean pockets idea, I only made one. You’ll have to excuse the horrible pictures. Next time I won’t try to photograph white dough on a white counter.

Moving on….I decided to make a mexican themed lean pocket for the hubby’s lunch. I broke off a piece of dough about the size of a baseball and rolled it out pretty thin on the counter. I knew it might puff up while baking and I didn’t want this to be all crust and no filling. You’ll want to roll the dough into a roughly rectangular shape.

Then I chopped up 1/2 a leftover chicken breast and placed it down the middle of the dough. I added some onion, green pepper and black beans and topped everything off with half a slice of reduced fat pepper jack cheese. Then I folded both edges of the dough towards the middle and pinched the seams together tightly. I did the same thing with the ends. I flipped the pocket over and placed it seem side down on a silpat covered baking sheet.

To avoid a lean pocket explosion in my oven, I cut two small holes in the top to let steam escape and baked the pocket at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes.

The hubby inhaled his lean pocket and promptly asked where his next one was! I consider that a success.

The cheese stayed inside…probably because I used a healthy amount! And the bottom browned but didn’t burn.

Even though I only made one of these, you could easily make a big batch and store them in the fridge for a few days, or even freeze some and thaw them out later. To pack them in a lunch box, let them cool all the way, then wrap in foil or saran wrap and place in a ziploc bag. Remove the wrapping and heat in the microwave when ready to eat!

The filling possibilities are endless! Just make sure to add lots of veggies and don’t go overboard with the cheeses and sauces!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

 

Last week, I finished up my classes for Spring Quarter! To celebrate, the hubby grilled a delicious dinner for me 🙂

I wasn’t home to take pictures, but he did remember to snap a few of his own!

He grilled stuffed mushrooms, potatoes, meatloaf and flatbread pizzas! We recently acquired a second little grill and it’s perfect for veggies 🙂

Check out this setup the hubby had going on:

Clearly these two characters were a big help!

Everything was delicious and we enjoyed the leftovers for lunch the next day. Then we decided to recreate the pizzas for dinner the following night!

Flatout wraps are the best for making pizzas! We made some with tomato sauce and some with garlic and olive oil and it couldn’t be easier! First get your toppings ready:

Then hopefully it won’t start pouring down rain for you like it did for us!

The key is indirect heat on the grill! Move the charcoal to either side, leaving room in the middle.

The bottom crisps up nicely and the cheese melts but nothing burns.

Our next challenge is thick crust pizza on the grill! Have you ever done it? Any tips??

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Last night I stopped and picked up some burgers for the hubby to grill for dinner. Usually we make our own burgers but we had a long day full of yard work and sometimes pre-made is just the way to go.

I’m not all about beef burgers, so I whipped up a tasty little ‘dilla for myself! And let me tell ya, it was GOOD!

It all started with this corn and black bean salsa I made.

I made a big batch and took some over to my in-laws for a cookout we were having. My salsa is a bit different every time I make it, but for this batch I used two ears of sweet corn that I cooked on the grill, one can of no-salt added black beans, 2 small tomatoes, about 1/2 c red onion, several Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro, the juice of one lime and two jalapenos. Since I made it the night before, it had plenty of time to develop a good flavor…and it was nice and spicy!

When I made my actual dilla, I started with some red pepper avocado slices.

Then I added some salsa and a little bit of cheese.

We picked up a new grill pan at Marshall’s this weekend that was much bigger than the one we had and I thought it’d be fun to see if I could grill the quesadilla and give it a nice crunchy crust.

The result? Delicious! It got a little messy because I don’t put much cheese in my quesadillas so they don’t always stick together as well as they could. But nonetheless, the dilla was darn delicious!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

One of my absolute favorite things about summer is making kabobs on the grill. There’s something about cutting up all of the vegetables that I find very therapeutic. And I love threading them onto the skewers and picking out what pattern they’re going to go in.

Ok, so I may be a little weird….but that’s ok 🙂

Usually I just put my veggies on plain, drizzle them with olive oil and toss them on the grill. Last night I wanted to change things up a bit, so I decided to make a little marinade.

Of course we were so busy yesterday that I didn’t even think about marinating the veggies until it was already dinner time and the hubby was getting ready to light the grill. Even though I knew I only had about 1/2 an hour, I was still confident I could whip up a quick marinade and give them a good 20 minute soak.

I started by dicing my veggies. Last night’s mix included zucchini, yellow squash, red/yellow/green bell peppers, onion and asparagus. *Side note, this was my first time including asparagus on my kabobs and it was awesome. Cooks perfectly along with the rest of the veggies! After dicing the veggies, I put them in a large tupperware container and added 1/2 c balsamic vinegar, 2 Tbsp olive oil, 3 cloves of garlic and lots of black pepper.

After putting the lid on and shaking things up, I realized that a ziploc bag would have been a much better choice…..so I transferred them to avoid a balsamic disaster! Every few minutes I tossed the bag around to help coat the veggies.

Just before the grill was ready, I dumped all the veggies back into the container and threaded them onto the skewers.

Then I gave them all a nice little sprinkle of McCormick’s Grill Seasoning for some added flavor.

Then I turned them over to the grill master!

While he was busy arranging his hamburgers and the veggies on the grill, I quickly sliced some potatoes, microwaved and seasoned them and popped them on my grill plate to accompany the veggies!

The veggies had great flavor even after just a quick marinade. If you’re good at planning ahead, give them an even longer soak for a deeper flavor!

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

Recently, my father-in-law found a new job after being out of work for a while. We went out to dinner to celebrate but I wanted to bring him some dessert. He’s a big brownie fan, so that’s where I started…but I knew I wanted to take it up a notch.

He’s also a big of Reese’s peanut butter cups so I decided to go with some sort of peanut butter brownies. After some googling, I found this recipe. I don’t make brownies from scratch all that often so I don’t really have a go to recipe.

I made a special trip to the store to track down some mini Reese’s pb cups. In addition, I decided I didn’t want to put peanuts in the brownies. I was planning to chop up some Snickers and use those instead. However, when I got to the store, Butterfingers were on sale and Snickers weren’t. Annnnnnnd my mind was made up.

I started by making the brownies.

Two things:
1. I crushed up about 8 fun size Butterfingers and mixed those in just before putting the batter in the pan.
2. Lining your pan with foil when making brownies is pretty much the best idea ever. I’m ashamed to say I’ve never tried it before.

After the brownies cooked, I put them in the freezer to cool. Then I got to work on the peanut butter frosting.

One thing:
This made A LOT of peanut butter frosting. I ended up only putting about half of it on. Then I threw the rest away. (Remember that…we’ll revisit it later).

Then I started on the chocolate frosting. I spread the chocolate frosting over the pb frosting, topped the brownies with chopped Reese’s and photographed away….

Now let me let you in on a little secret. I hate tasting things while I’m cooking/baking them. I never eat raw cookie dough. I don’t lick the extra frosting off the mixer beaters. Until recently, I never tasted my sauces while cooking. I just threw everything together and hoped for the best. I can’t really explain why I don’t like tasting things, other than to say that I think I’m so afraid they won’t taste good, that I want to prolong that discovery as long as possible. Weird. I know.

Anyways, as you may have guessed, I didn’t try these brownies, or either frosting, until they were completely assembled. The result? Brownies- great! PB frosting- AMAZING. Chocolate frosting- BARF. The chocolate frosting, if you could call it that, was essentially just butter and cocoa powder, with a little bit of powdered sugar. And let me just tell you…it tasted like straight butter. I gagged a little bit while eating it. Then I went outside and pouted for about an hour.

I was angry with myself for not tasting the frosting earlier. After I regrouped, I came up with a new plan. Remove the chocolate frosting. You’re probably thinking I’m a little bit crazy at this point…and I’d be inclined to agree with you. But I really wanted these brownies to work out. So I plucked all of the chopped Reese’s off the brownies and set them aside. Then I carefully scraped off as much of the chocolate frosting as I could without removing the peanut butter frosting.

Obviously I couldn’t get it all off….but I did my best. I removed enough that I knew I could just mix the rest into the pb frosting and that would overpower the butter taste. Don’t you think a little of that extra pb frosting that I THREW AWAY would have come in handy right about now? sigh….

Anyways, I wanted to add a little something extra to the top to take away from the fact that it was now kind of a weird light brown color from the mix of tan and brown frostings….so I crushed up a couple more Butterfingers and after putting the Reese’s pieces back on, I sprinkled the whole thing with Butterfingers and voila! Good as new.

 

My father-in-law texted me the following the next day:

“The brownies are unbelievable!!! Should call them death by peanut butter/chocolate brownies. Too good :)”

And the day after that, he texted me this:

“Your brownies are the best I have ever had ever!”

You get the idea.

Go make these now.

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–

 

This week we’re focusing on simple dinners. 1) Because they’ve become a necessity in my life and 2) Because they’re awesome.

In case you haven’t looked at the calendar lately, it’s already May! You know what that means? Cinco de Mayo is coming up! I thought I should whip up a Mexican-inspired recipe to get you guys in the mood.

Last week I threw some chicken breast in the crockpot with some broth and let them cook on low for 6 hours. Then I shredded them with two forks, froze half the chicken and stuck the other half in the fridge. (Side note: Katie calls these chicken boobs. Literally made me laugh out loud when I read her post the other day.)

When I got home from work today, I took some chicken out of the fridge and added some barbeque sauce. Then I pulled some black beans out of the freezer, defrosted them and mixed them with some corn and about 1 Tbsp of chopped cilantro.

Next, I soaked a spring roll wrapper in warm water until it was soft. Then it was time to build the roll! I started with the bbq chicken, added the corn and beans and topped it off with a little bit of Mexican cheese and some avocado slices. I would have added tomatoes too but I was fresh out! Then I carefully rolled everything up, tucking in the ends as I went.

Slice in half and enjoy! It’s not the prettiest thing to look at but it sure tasted good. I loved the flavor of the fresh cilantro with the bbq sauce.

I enjoyed mine with some green beans and an orange….not Mexican in the slightest 🙂

These could easily be made with regular tortillas….I’m just kinda obsessed with spring roll wrappers. 

Enjoy!
–Lindsay–