Sriracha Devilled Eggs

Sriracha is everywhere right now. This makes me very happy, as I add Sriracha or Tapatio to everything. I can carry a small bottle of Tapatio in my purse, but Sriracha has to be refrigerated, which means no go on the travel size bottles with that iconic rooster label. (Having two different types of hot sauce in my purse might be pushing it a little, anyway.) Needless to say, I’m ecstatic to see Sriracha in restaurants, on TV, and popping up in recipes everywhere.

A few nights ago, Brian was watching one of those restaurant makeover shows on Travel Channel or Food Network, and they made a version of Devilled Eggs they called, “The Devil’s Eggs,” because they were loaded with Sriracha. Brian, who’s getting more and more into my idea of, “healthing,” things up and blogging about it, has started suggesting I make recipes he sees on TV.  I’m pretty sure he’s just using my new project as a way to try said recipes without having to make them himself, but these Devilled Eggs are fantastic, so I’ll just go with it!

I made a few changes, including replacing the traditional mayo with Greek yogurt and rice wine vinegar. If you miss the extra tang of mayo when you substitute Greek yogurt, just add a little vinegar. Yogurt’s a good substitute on its own, but the addition of the vinegar makes it almost indistinguishable from actual mayonnaise.

Hope you love these!

                  

INGREDIENTS
12 eggs
1/2 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
4-6 teaspoons Sriracha hot sauce
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Pickled carrots and radish, for garnish (optional)
Finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves, for garnish (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS
Hard-boil the eggs; cool and peel. Cut the eggs in half, length wise, and carefully remove the yolks. Set the whites aside.

Combine the egg yolks, yogurt, Dijon, lemon juice, vinegar, and cilantro in a medium bowl. Add 3 tablespoons of Sriracha. Season well with salt and pepper, then mix well until the yolks are broken up and the ingredients are evenly incorporated. Taste, and add more Sriracha to taste.

Spoon the yolk mixture into the reserved egg white halves. As desired, top with pickled carrots, radishes and chopped cilantro leaves. Chill until ready to serve.

Brian’s Steak or Chicken Fajitas with Black Bean Mango Salsa

Brian’s making fajitas with a black bean and mango salsa tonight. I can’t tell you how excited I am. Every artist has a standard repertoire, and fajitas are part of Brian’s. They’re also one of the only recipes in his, “repertoire,” I eat guilt free. As long as I can deny his, “babe, you want some more?” luring me to the dark side of over eating, his fajitas are a healthy, and incredibly delicious meal. Which — by the way — they should be. At it’s core, fajitas are nothing more than grilled meat, vegetables, and tortillas. Ingredients that make up a pretty well-rounded, healthy plate. Unfortunately, depending on who prepares them,  fajitas can be terribly deceptive. Chevy’s chicken fajitas, for example, have 870 calories, and 37 grams of fat per serving! Their steak fajitas have 790 calories, and 49 grams of fat! Oh, and, by the way, that’s without tortillas! Wha Whaaat?!? Who eats fajitas sans tortilla?!?

I’m not sure why some restaurants or recipes call for so much oil and fat; fajitas is a meal that truly does taste as amazing when prepared with calorie and fat content in mind as it does when only taking taste into consideration. I hope, after trying Brian’s, you agree. Enjoy!

Black Bean and Mango Salsa

Ingredients

1 1/2 can (12-14 oz each) black beans drained and rinsed

1/2 red onion very thinly diced

1/2 mango diced

1 can (12-14 oz) diced tomatoes

1/2 can (12-14 oz) sweet corn drained

1 tbsp diced cilantro

1 tbsp hot sauce (I use tapatio)

1 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

splash of fresh lemon juice

Directions

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl. Cover and chill. The longer it chills, the better it is. Make it a day in advance, if you can. If not, chill while you’re making your fajitas. Taste and add more salt, pepper, and hot sauce before serving.

Fajitas

Ingredients

1 lb flank steak/flat steak or chicken

1 green bell pepper sliced thinly

1/2 red onion sliced thinly

1 cloves diced garlic

1/2 packet (1.27-ounces each) fajita seasoning mix

4 tbsp Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Tortillas as desired

Greek yogurt

Hot sauce

Directions

Season both sides  of meat with 1/4 packet of fajita seasoning, salt, and pepper.  Lightly oil grill, grill pan, or frying pan. Grill the meat over medium-high heat for 4 minutes on each side and then transfer to a cutting board, cover with tin foil, and let rest for 10 minutes. Once rested Slice into thin strips.Once the meat is off the grill pan and resting, oil the grill pan again, and then add the bell peppers, onions, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Grill the mixture for 2 minutes at medium high. Turn down to medium low, and saute for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add remaining fajita mix to pan, and return meat to the pan, with 1/4 cup water. Bring mixture to a boil, and then lower the temperature to medium low, and simmer for 5 minutes.

While fajita mixture is simmering preheat oven to 350. Warm the tortillas in the oven for 1-2 minutes. Plate tortillas, and top with greek yogurt, hot sauce, and black bean mango salsa as desired. Add fajita mixture, roll, and enjoy!

Sweet Potato Shepard’s Pie

For Labor Day weekend, Brian and I had two of our closest friends over for burgers, beer, and catching up. I made turkey burgers for the ladies, while Brian made a more sinful burger for the gents.

I was surprised a couple of days later — bent over, with my head in my fridge, staring at  leftover ground turkey — at how rarely I eat ground turkey. It’s delicious, nutritious, and inexpensive. I’m not sure why it took me so long to get on the ground turkey bandwagon, but I am officially on. This recipe was a result of having ground turkey, a handful of leftover veggies, and a couple sweet potatoes lying around. I hadn’t eaten Shepard’s Pie in years, so I adapted a recipe I found posted on simplyrecipes.com by Elise Bauer. Click here for the original.

Don’t be put off by the photos. Shepard’s Pie is one of those meals that doesn’t look like much, but I promise each bite is like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 lbs ground turkey

1 onion chopped

1-2 cups vegetables – chopped carrots, corn, peas (your choice)

2 large yams

Nonstick no calorie butter spray

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4-1/2 cup soy milk at your discrepancy

Salt, pepper, other seasonings of choice

1/4 cup Panko Bread Crumbs

METHOD

Peel and quarter yams, boil in salted water until fork tender (about 20 minutes).

While the yams are cooking, coat large frying pan with large amount of butter spray.

Sauté onions in butter spray until tender over medium heat (10 mins). If you are adding vegetables, add them according to cooking time. Put any carrots in with the onions. Add corn or peas at the end of the cooking of the onions. Add additional cooking spray each time a new vegetable is added.

Add ground turkey, and sauté until no longer pink. Add salt and pepper. Add Worcestershire sauce. Add half a cup of water, and cook, uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes.

Mash yams in bowl with soy milk. (Truthfully, yams are velvety enough by themselves, that you don’t have to  add milk, but you absolutely can if you’d like.) Season with salt and  pepper to taste.

Place turkey mix in baking dish. Distribute mashed yams on top, and sprinkle with Panko. Rough up with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely.

Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 30 minutes). Broil for last few minutes if necessary to brown.

Yield: Serves four

Smoked Salmon Breakfast Pizza

Breakfast is the one meal awesome enough to eat at any time of day. Most Sunday’s, Brian and I roll out of bed, take our Frenchie, Baxter to the dog park, and then come home and make brunch. Mimosa’s with Simply Orange, or Simply Cranberry are usually involved, Brian makes home made breakfast potatoes, (I’ll have to share the baked version in a later post. They are AWESOME!) and we choose between making 5 or 6 different meals we rotate week to week.

A couple of years ago, Brian and I made the now regretted decision to move from Denver back to Southern CA, and he moved back a couple of months ahead of me. Anyone who’s been in a long distance relationship understands the loneliness involved. I found myself watching, “his,” t.v. shows, listening to his favorite bands, and following some of our silly traditions on my own.

Brunch was definitely a tradition I held onto — only with a little more adventure. Brian’s All-American when it comes to food. He has a list of food he won’t eat that’s a whole lot longer than the list of foods he will eat. He likes routine, and he needs security. I’m the opposite, which is probably why we work. He helps me focus and stay grounded. I remind him to have fun and take a risk now and then.

We do breakfast pizzas often, but with Brian halfway across the country, I started experimenting with ingredients. The Smoked Salmon Breakfast Pizza, is hands down, one of my best experiments, and — dare I say — one of the best pizzas I’ve ever eaten. I hope you love it!

Ingredients

Flour, for work surface
1 (8-ounce) ball purchased whole wheat pizza dough, or whole wheat thin crust Boboli. (Not a big difference, except in how much work you want to do, and how much control you want over thinness of crust.)
Olive oil, for drizzling or zero calorie cooking spray depending on your diet
1/4 cup feta cheese, at room temperature
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed, drained, coarsely chopped and dried on paper towels

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 ounces smoked salmon, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1/4 cup sliced red onions

2 large eggs

Cooking Instructions

Put an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.On a lightly floured work surface, roll the pizza dough as thin as possible.  Using the tines of a fork, prick the dough all over. Drizzle with olive oil or spray with cooking spray and bake until golden brown, about 7 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes.Fry eggs using zero calorie cooking spray ONLY until half cooked. Now, this is where your taste comes into play. I love my eggs runny, so I don’t break the yolk. If you don’t want that rich, hearty, deliciousness running across your pizza, simply break the yolk while, “frying,” and cook the egg halfway.

Coat a separate pan thoroughly with cooking spray. Julianne red onions and saute over medium low heat for 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Spread smoked salmon, capers, red onion, and feta cheese evenly over the pizza, and top with one partially cooked egg on each half.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste

Cook at 450 until cheese is soft, eggs are cooked, and crust is golden brown — 8-12 minutes depending on taste. The eggs and the golden brown crust are the tell. When those are done, the pizza is ready. Cut into quarters, and ENJOY!!!

Enjoy!