Overnight Oats and BSI Win!

When I was recently cleaning out my pantry, I found that I had steel cut oats that had never even been opened!  I did a quick google search, which led me to The Bitten Word’s post about overnight oats.  Perfect!  The only thing I did differently was to add 4 tablespoons of tapioca to the pot – I thought it would give the oats a chewier texture and I was right – so good!

love the texture of steel cut oats

this reminded me that I have to make Hannah tapioca pudding - one of her favorite desserts

I just added the tapiaco at the very end - the overnight soak really made it plump up

I was a bit skeptical because there seemed to be a lot of water, but it all got soaked up by the morning

I added 1 tablespoon of agave nectar and 1 ounce of oats - yum!

Thanks to Travel Eat Love’s husband for picking my BSI entry – Spicy Coconut Thai Soup!   I had it for lunch yesterday and I love how the broth got a bit spicier with the overnight soak of the jalapenos.  I had two mini egg rolls on the side.

So I was talking yesterday about how I was in a food coma from the Superbowl, and wouldn’t you know one of my co-workers brought in her leftover Superbowl food! I was doing fine, until I saw the Buffalo Chicken Dip.  Holy cow, this is like crack to me!   If my friend Allison were there, she would have been all over this too!  This put me over the top calorie wise – I had about 1/3 of a cup with an ounce of tortilla chips – definitely not on my meal plan yesterday!

while it looks like ass, I assure you this is heaven on a plate!

I had thawed pork chops for dinner and was looking for inspiration.  I went to Tastespotting and searched for pork chops.  The first recipe caught my eye in an instant!  Elly Says Opa! made her version of a recipe she saw on Kevin’s site – Pork Chops with Mushrooms, Dill and Sour Cream.   It was delicious!  I have to say my sauce turned out to look more like Kevin’s for some reason – maybe the lighting?

lucky I have a stocked pantry with all the ingredients I needed

And at the very end, I added the sour cream.

Even though there was paprika in the sauce, Tony said it reminded him of beef stroganoff – I believe a staple recipe his Mom made growing up.

My plate: 1 cup egg noodles, 4 oz. pork chop, 1 cup baby spinach and sauce

Hannah had to work last night so she was hangry when she got home!   I heated up some egg noodles with a touch of butter, garlic, Parmesan cheese and crumbled bacon – she loved it!

please ignore the cluttered spice rack behind Hannah's head!

So with the damn buffalo chicken dip – stats for Monday:

B+ isn't bad!

Check out this week’s BSI host – Lemon Zest!

Gotta scoot and scrape the snow off my car – we got a couple inches overnight, with a storm warning that is supposed to drop a total of 12 inches by tomorrow morning – where the hell are you spring?!

Superbowl Food!

What better reason to celebrate the last football game of the year with lots of food!  I lucked out – my store had jumbo shrimp for $9 for a 2 pound bag!

So it was only appropriate to make the best shrimp cocktail ever! What??  You still haven’t made it yet??  It’s no fail, that’s why I love it so much!

One tradition we’ve had for the last several years is steak tartare.  Gross!  But the boys love it!  First thing you need to know about eating raw meat is that you have to get it at a butcher shop – ask for ground sirloin.  We got a pound and a half of meat and it cost just under $9.  Now some people might be grossed out my adding raw egg yolk, but in the years I’ve made it, no one has ever gotten sick!

Biz’s Steak Tartare

• 1.5 pounds good quality ground sirloin
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• generous pinches of salt and pepper
• 1 tsp. anchovy paste

Mix well.  Serve with good rye bread.

the salt/pepper mixture is 4 parts salt, 1 part pepper

The boys loved it!  I still think its gross though   And what’s a party without dip?  Guacamole and homemade queso!

score - my store had avocados on sale 2 for $1

I stumbled across this blog a while back and somehow completely forgot about it!  The Homesick Texan.   I used some of her ideas and came up with my version – thank you for inspiring this recipe!

Biz’s Queso adapted from The Homesick Texan

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1/2 seeded Serrano pepper
• 1/4 of a large jalapeno
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups skim milk
• 6 cups mixture of jack cheese/Wisconsin American cheese and sharp cheddar
• 1 teaspoon chili powder (thanks for this idea Tony!)
• 1 tablespoon taco seasoning
• pinch of salt

Melt butter and saute peppers for about 5 minutes.  Add flour, stir for a couple minutes.  Add milk – at this point is when I used my stick blender to puree the peppers.  Add cheese and stir until melted.  Add chili powder, taco seasoning and salt.

My step-son loves queso.   I know he doesn’t like chunks of veggies, so I knew I would puree them.  While The Homesick Texan only had 1 cup of milk, I needed  to add another cup so that I could use my stick blender – so my version is a bit thinner, but delicious!

Mmmmmmmm.........Cheese!

And the deep fryer made an appearance!  Frozen taquitos and home made bacon cheese fries.

I am definitely in a food coma this morning!  Not even going to think about getting on the scale this week – I definitely need to get back on track – too many licks and tastes are not getting photographed!

Happy Monday!

BSI – Coconut Milk!

While it was cold outside, the sun was shining which I desperately crave this time of year.  I was reading the Chicago Tribune this morning and they were talking about snow fall totals for the month of February – turns out historically Chicago gets 39 inches of snow in February!  So I decided to warm  up my breakfast with jalapenos!  One slice sourdough bread, 1 Pam fried egg, 1/2 ounce of cheddar cheese and sliced jalapenos:

After cleaning up the kitchen, Tony and I headed to the Japanese grocery store.  I love this place.  So much to see and touch!

lots of whole fish!

huge squid!

And some products are just plain interesting!  Check out this can:

I just think its funny that its a woman on the hood of a car!

But Maggie will be happy I picked this up!

Tony and I were watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives last week and they showed a New York deli with corned beef.  We both looked at each other and said “Siegelman’s!” I actually think my friend Mara and her husband are going there for lunch today!

I don’t even know why I bother to look at the menu, because I always get the Irving.  Open faced corned beef sandwich with sauerkraut and melted Swiss cheese.  But this made me laugh!

Lucikly, I have a great MIL!

The corned beef is so tender – I’ve always hated getting Reuben sandwiches and you have to wrestle with tough corned beef.

I got home and did my menu planning and hit up the grocery store – probably the busiest I’ve ever seen it!  We have some great things on the menu this week:

• short ribs with celery root puree
• spinach and cheese stuffed manicotti with Italian sausage
• balsamic glazed pork chops with mashed potatoes
• broccoli macaroni and cheese
• short rib grilled cheese sammies and soup
• PIZZA!
  

Last night I made homemade sloppy joes.   I hated sloppy joes growing up – it was just way too sweet for me.  I love this simple version though!  I adapted it from Rachael Ray.

Biz’s Version of Sloppy Joes

• 1.25 pounds ground sirloin
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cups tomato sauce

In a large skillet, brown ground sirloin.  Combine the brown sugar and McCormick seasoning.  Add to meat and combine well.  Reduce heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes.  Add vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and tomato sauce and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.

Hannah, my non-meat eater, loves these sloppy joes!  I of course, added sliced jalapeno peppers to mine and some hot sauce!

this takes literally 15 minutes to make - so much better than Manwich!

My plate:

So this morning I had to tackle the BSI recipe – coconut milk!   Our trip to the Japanese grocery store was my inspiration.  I decided to make a spicy coconut soup!

Biz’s Spicy Coconut Soup

• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1.2 pound thinly sliced pork
• 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, finely diced
• 1 teaspoon sriraacha sauce
• 1 can coconut milk
• juice of one lime
• zest of one lime
• 1 tsp. crushed red pepper
• 1 5 ounce package yaki soba noodles
• 1 sliced jalapeno
  

This is what I like to call a “dump” soup – just dump everything in and simmer over medium heat – although I didn’t add the pork until the last 5 minutes – it is so thin that it cooks almost immediately after adding it to the broth.

I used this soup base instead of chicken broth

I love fresh ginger!

my store sells peeled garlic - only .99 cents for this whole container!

I recently bought a microplaner - love it!

serve the soup with a slice of lime to squeeze right before eating - it brightens up the dish!

I love these noodles - each 5 ounce bag is only 150 calories

adding the pork at the very end makes sure it doesn't overcook and get tough - this is so tender!

delicious! spicy with a slight sweetness from the coconut milk

Since no one in my family will touch this with a 10-foot pole, this is going to make a delicious lunch this week!

Oh, and Tony found out about that mystery fruit yesterday!   It comes from the guava family and has been banned from the U.S. for over 80 years because they were known to carry fruit flies.

What are your Superbowl plans? My step-son is coming over – today is Tony’s favorite and saddest day of the year – after today he has to wait 7 long months for football season to begin again, and we have a few months to go before baseball season.  Turns out we aren’t basketball or hockey fans!

I plan on making homemade queso, and the boys wanted taquitos and mini tacos – easy for me, just turn on the deep fryer!

Oh, and my chili picture yesterday made it on Tastespotting!  However, Foodgawker called it dull/uninteresting!

And for your information, calories don’t count on Superbowl Sunday!

Best Buffalo Chicken Chili!

Tony says that I have to stop patting myself on the back on this one, but EVERYONE said that my chili was the best chili they ever ate!

But first I had another repeat breakfast – my sourdough/apple/cheese melt with Chobani and granola.  Steve, you have to try the cheese/apple combo – you won’t look back!

I suggested a chli party at my office since its Superbowl weekend.  Everyone was on the bandwagon!   One co-worker brought in corn muffins with jalapeno cumin butter! It was so good!  Another person brought in bread, blue cheese and cheddar cheese, and someone else brought in sour cream.

Of course, Tabasco was on the table!

I decided to make three batches of chili and it was almost all gone!  I brought home about 2 cups!  Two batches filled the crockpot up to the top:

Best Buffalo Chicken Chili by Biz

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 large carrots
• 3 stalks celery
• 1 large red pepper
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 5 tablespoons of chili powder
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1/2 cup Frank’s Hot Sauce
• 2 (15 oz) cans tomato sauce
• 1 (15 oz) diced tomatoes
• 1 (15 oz) black beans, drained
• 1 (15 oz) chili beans in sauce (do not drain)
• salt and pepper to taste

Put chicken breasts in food processor to grind up – if you can find ground chicken breast, you can use that too.  Heat oil and add ground chicken and cook about 10 minutes on medium heat until no longer pink.  Rinse out processor and add carrots, celery, garlic and red pepper and puree.  Add to chicken mixture and cook about 5 minutes until veggies start to soften.

Next add the rest of the ingredients, put stove on simmer and cook for 1 hour.

Nutrition Per Cup: 239 calories, 3.4 fat, 29 carbs, 7.5 fiber and 23.5 protein.

Good points:  low in saturated fat, high in fiber,  niacin, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin B6 and vitamin C!

love the flavor of the sauce in this can of beans!

if you want a spicier chili, just add more Frank's - 1/2 cup made a medium spiced chili, which is good for a big crowd

here is how it looks after simmering for 30 minutes

of course I kicked mine up with fresh sliced jalapenos!

maybe I had a second bowl??!!

This recipe is a keeper!

I put Tony in charge of dinner last night – and even though it was snowing, that didn’t stop him from grilling!  When I looked at the meat he bought, I saw it was a boston roast, and when I googled that, all the recipes called for cooking low and slow.  I was a bit skeptical about doing it on the grill, but Tony is the grill-master – it was so tender!  He felt it was a little overdone, but I thought it was perfect!

With baked potatoes and crunchy bread on the side – perfect date night in!   Thanks Tony!

When Tony was at the store, he bought me four of this tiny fruit, but we can’t find any information about it!  On the label it says “Guataba de Mexico.”   Does anyone know what fruit this is?

Not sure if you can eat the seeds?

Plans for the Day:

• Japanese grocery store
• Seigelman’s Deli for lunch
• menu/meal planning
• wash sheets
• vacuum living room
• mop kitchen floor

Don’t forget, you can vote every day for my three recipes on the right side of my blog – thanks to everyone who has voted already!

Happy Saturday!

Comfort Food

Yesterday was all about comfort food, and when I uploaded my pictures – turns out CHEESE was the star of the show yesterday!

I made Noble Pig’s Bloody Mary Soup before work yesterday.  Oh.My.God.  Best soup ever!   I knew I wanted to make a grilled cheese sammie with it, so I decided to stop by Panera bread on my way to work and accessorize my bread – hands down their sourdough bread is AMAZING!.  I’ve made grilled cheese sandwiches before for my step-son and I think using that bread is his favorite grilled cheese ever.

I asked the girl to slice it since our knives at work aren’t that great.  So breakfast was my apple/sharp cheddar on toasted sour dough with a 0% Greek yogurt with some of Sophia’s granola that she gave me for Christmas – I still have about 1/2 cup left Sophia!

I bought the Chobani for $1.29 - is that a good price?

You’ll have to go to Cathy’s site for the bloody Mary soup recipe, although I did make two minor adjustments.  I left out the onion and added 1 tablespoon of Tabasco!   I also used two cans of these tomatoes, since I had them in my pantry:

I first sweat the onions while I was blogging yesterdays post – its all about multi-tasking!

It’s funny, Tony and I are on the fence with celery because of the onion factor.  We’ve both eaten soups before and looked at each other and said “is that celery or a fricken onion??!!”  Since I knew there were no onions, and I was going to puree the soup, I didn’t chop them too fine.  You just throw everything else in the pool, let it simmer, and 20 minutes later you have delicious soup!  I had horseradish cream from when Tony and I went to the Seigelman’s deli, and that brought the whole soup together.

And I made a sourdough bread grilled cheese on the side – sadly I mistakenly figured that each slice of bread was an ounce.  When I got home I weighed the bread and each slice was two ounces! I then realized the girl at Panera must have used the thicker slice when she cut it.

I had an ounce of cheese ends from my grocery store deli on the inside - a mix of American, cheddar and muenster

The best part about grilled cheese and tomato soup is dunking the sammie in the soup!

Mmmmmm.....cheese!

the perfect bite!

Thanks again Cathy for posting that tomato soup recipe – the flavor combination is amazing between the kick of the horseradish and the saltiness of the Worchestershire sauce – a keeper!

I had ground beef I needed to use up, so I decided to make patty melts on, you guessed it, more sourdough bread!  Although this time I sliced one slice in half.  My patty melt: 2 oz. sourdough bread, 4 ounce burger, 1 ounce cheese ends, dill pickles and 3 ounces of Ore-Ida extra crispy fries.

First I Pam fried the burgers – I let them get a nice crust before flipping:

After the first flip I put the pickles and cheese on (no pickles for Hannah!) reduce the heat to low and put a top on it to let the burgers cook through.

Hannah's is on the left with her favorite cheese - muenster! Mine is the lower right and Tony's is in the back

While the burgers were cooking I buttered my bread – but with Smart Balance butter that is only 5 calories a tablespoon!

Then I cooked up our patty melts – since the cheese is already melted, this step went by pretty quickly.

Nice and crunchy!

love all the melty cheese!

My plate:

I may have dipped my fries in jalapeno ketchup and dipped my patty melt in jalapeno mustard!

So since I was way off with the sourdough bread, I thought my day would have been about 2200 calories!  But luckily, it wasn’t!

Stats for Thursday:

• 1,665 calories
• 52 grams fat
• 198 carbs (okay, that is on the high side for me!)
• 90 protein
• 15 fiber
• 28% of calories from fat
• 47% of calories from carbs
• 35 minute jog on treadmill
• 10 minutes of abs on the balance ball

So excited for our work lunch today – we are having a chili pot luck of sorts!  I suggested bringing in chili in honor of the Superbowl this weekend, and everyone offered to bring other stuff.  Be sure to come back tomorrow for my Buffalo Chicken Chili recipe! It gets a grade of A from CalorieCount!

And Allison, each recipe has 1/2 cup of Frank’s Hot Sauce in it!

A big thank you for all who voted for my domain name – seems almost like a tie between mybizzykitchen and biggestdiabeticloser.   You’ll find out over the weekend which one I picked!

Oh, and you have until February 28 to vote for my recipes for Foodista’s blogger cookbook – I know you have to sign in to vote, but if you could vote for me, that would be awesome!  Just click on the vote for me widgets on the right side of the blog.

Happy Friday all!