A Life, Lived

Fajita Salad with Creamy Cilantro-Lime Sauce

Today is week six for the salad makers. Time really does fly!

Kim posted the salad recipe this week. Like many of us she was torn (no pun intended) when selecting the salad for the group to make. She went back and forth and finally ended up with this Fajita salad from Cooking Light. Mind you, the other salads she was considering look delicious and I know that we'll be making them as well.

We had the salad for dinner last night. I made a few changes (imagine . .. me failing to follow a recipe). First, there was no way that 2 T of cilantro in the sauce/dressing was enough for us so I used 4 T. Then when I was shopping I was unable to find canned pinto beans (and too lazy to soak and cook dried ones) so I used kidney beans. I used whole chicken breasts, rubbed them with the spice mixture, and grilled them. Once they had rested post-grilling I sliced them thinly and added them to the salad. I sliced the pepper and onion in thick slices and grilled them as well.

This was a hit! I wasn't too sure about the sauce/dressing because with the balsamic vinegar it turned a rather unappetizing colour but after an hour or so in the fridge the flavours came together nicely and I was able to ignore the brownish colour.

Fajita Salad with Creamy Cilantro-Lime Sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 pound skinned, boned chicken breast, cut into thin strips
Cooking spray
6 cups shredded romaine lettuce
1 1/3 cups thinly sliced green bell pepper rings
1 cup sliced red onion, separated into rings
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese
2 tablespoons sliced ripe olives
1 (15-ounce) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 medium tomato, cut into 8 wedges

Combine first 6 ingredients in a medium bowl. Add chicken; toss to coat. Place a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat until hot. Add chicken mixture; sauté 8 minutes or until chicken is done. Set aside.

Divide lettuce and next 6 ingredients (lettuce through tomato) among 4 bowls; top with chicken mixture. Serve with Creamy Cilantro-Lime Sauce.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 serving salad, 3 ounces chicken, and 1/3 cup sauce)

CALORIES 520 (38% from fat); FAT 21.9g (sat 6g,mono 6.8g,poly 6g); IRON 5.4mg; CHOLESTEROL 101mg; CALCIUM 360mg; CARBOHYDRATE 34.7g; SODIUM 1061mg; PROTEIN 3.6g; FIBER 6.6g


Creamy Cilantro-Lime Sauce

This recipe goes with Fajita Salad with Creamy Cilantro-Lime Sauce

1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
1/3 cup skim milk
3 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 large garlic cloves, minced

Combine all ingredients, and stir well with a whisk. Cover sauce, and chill.

Yield: 1 1/3 cups (serving size: 1/3 cup)

CALORIES 113 (65% from fat); FAT 8.1g (sat 1.2g,mono 2.4g,poly 4.2g); IRON 0.2mg; CHOLESTEROL 10mg; CALCIUM 32mg; CARBOHYDRATE 6.6g; SODIUM 254mg; PROTEIN 3.2g; FIBER 0.1g

Photo Hunt - Book(s)

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "book(s)". I decided to show a VERY old book today.

This picture is a panel from the 'Book of the Dead' in the amazing Egyptian Museum in Torino. "The Book of Dead" is the common name for the ancient Egyptian funerary text known as "Spells of Coming" (or "Going") "Forth By Day." The book of dead was a description of the ancient Egyptian conception of the afterlife and a collection of hymns, spells, and instructions to allow the deceased to pass through obstacles in the afterlife. The book of dead was most commonly written on a papyrus scroll and placed in the coffin or burial chamber of the deceased.

Lots of the slow travel  community members also photo hunt when they aren't traveling. You can find their posts by clicking the links below. 

• Old Shoes, New Trip
• Eden's Wanderings and Wonderings
• My Place in the Sun
• Churches in Venice – Mosaics, Marble, and Miracle-Working Madonnas
• Palmabella's Passions
• What I Really Think
• shave Ice and Gelato
• Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants!
• Keep your Feet in the Street
• Baked Alaska
• That's my story...and I'm stickin' to it!
• Postcards from the Trail
• Cooking at the Whistlestop Cafe
• Candi's Corner
• Trekcapri's Blog
• Destination Anywhere

Did you hear the one about . . .

I've posted about odd news stories before that makes me giggle. This story is one that I heard last week when I was driving to the conference. I have to admit that it made me laugh out loud at the absurdity of it all!

A High Ridge, Mo., woman says she has found Jesus in a bag of Cheetos.  Kelly Ramey says, “I think I found Jesus on a Cheeto as funny as that sounds.”

She bought a bag of a local convenience store, and inside the bag she felt something unusual.

“I looked at that and I thought, ‘Oh my that looks like Jesus on the cross.’ It was just like wow,” she says.

Family and friends agree with her.  Her daughter says, “I thought it was pretty cool.”  But Kelly Ramey’s friend, Sue Edelman, sees something different. “I looked again and I thought a horse head.”

Kelly says her husband has a special name for it. “He calls him Cheesus.”

I am sure that the bible belt folks are incensed at this. As they should be.

One has to question why Jesus would show up as a cheeto!

It just looks like a unhealthy snack food filled with chemicals and fried to death to me.

I feel badly for Kelly Ramsey - what does this say about one's life that this is their '15 minutes' on the stage? how sad for her.

I get crazed that the media makes such a big hoo haw over this.

I wonder why silly folks blog about it . . .

Grilled Pineapple

I actually whipped this together a few weeks ago but I'm just getting to it now . . .

Paul wanted to make a delicious sounding grilled turkey breast that had a pineapple salsa. We bought a huge pineapple, made the salsa, and realized that we would have about 3/4 of the pineapple leftover.

What were we to do?

I decided to grill it. We marinated it first in a sweet, spicy marinade and the grilled it. The grilling caramelized the natural sugars in the pineapple and brought out a wonderful, intense flavour. Once it was nicely browned I took the spears off fo the grill and sliced them into bite-sized pieces. These were mixed in with some of the remaining marinade and served over vanilla ice cream.

The result was delicious. Heck, it was amazing! I could not believe how wonderful pineapple was on the grill. In fact, we liked it so much that we ate it three nights in a row - unheard of for us.

Grilled Pineapple

1 ripe pineapple, peeled, cored, and cut into spears
1/2 cup low-fat coconut milk
1/2 cup dark rum
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp chinese 5-spice powder
1/4 tsp ancho chili powder

Mix the marinade ingredients in a glass dish. Add the pineapple and turn to coat.

Marinate for 1 hour.

Heat a grill to high.

Remove the pineapple spears from the marinade and place directly on the grill.

Grill until nicely browned.

Remove the grilled pineapple from the BBQ. Slice into bite-sized pieces.

Mix with remaining marinade.

Serve pineapple pieces over ice cream. Drizzle with the liquid.

Random Shots of Rednecks

It has been awhile since I mocked the beloved simple folks known as rednecks. No Nancy, I am not referring to folks from Peterborough (although many might qualify).

Actually, I won't mock at all - let's let photos speak for themselves . . .

 

Redneck Yard Swing

 

 

Redneck Mailbox

 

Redneck Yard Sale

 

Redneck Amusement Park

Star Trek: the Future Begins

Paul and I finally got to see the new Star Wars movie on the weekend. We went as non-Star Trek fans (sorry all of you trekkies out there). We went as summer movie fans though - you know what I mean, those big over-the-top, spectacles that seem to be rolling into the theatres with great frequency throughout the summer. We weren't expecting much more than entertainment - we got that and a whole lot more!

Let's start with a plot summary courtesy of that good folks at Rotten Tomatoes:

The greatest adventure of all time begins with Star Trek, the incredible story of a young crew.s maiden voyage onboard the most advanced starship ever created: the U.S.S. Enterprise. On a journey filled with action, comedy and cosmic peril, the new recruits must find a way to stop an evil being whose mission of vengeance threatens all of mankind.

The fate of the galaxy rests in the hands of bitter rivals. One, James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), is a delinquent, thrill-seeking Iowa farm boy. The other, Spock (Zachary Quinto), was raised in a logic-based society that rejects all emotion. As fiery instinct clashes with calm reason, their unlikely but powerful partnership is the only thing capable of leading their crew through unimaginable danger, boldly going where no one has gone before!

Hmmmm - and to think I am accused of using superlatives! *smile*

Like so many of the 'great' movie franchises, Star Trek had lost its way. New characters added that no one cared about and the shows/films moved farther and farther away from the intent of the originally TV series. Not unlike Batman. Many wondered if this film would revitalize the series like Batman Begins revitalized the dark tales of the caped crusader.

This is the Star Trek true fans have been missing, but barely dared hope for: a return to the original characters, in all their giddy glory and with all their hilarious hubris. Director J.J. Abrams (Mission: Impossible III, TV's Lost and Alias) delivers a solid reboot to series creator Gene Roddenberry's 1960s ideas about life in "space: the final frontier."

We haven't seen all of the movies in the series but of the ones we have seen this was one of the best, ranking right up there with such character-driven triumphs as The Wrath of Khan and The Voyage Home. The special effects were seamless.

The casting was inspired with a careful return to the characterization that many remember from the now 'ancient' TV series. The emphasis was wisely placed on talent (including good comic timing - which was used to great effect) rather than on marquee recognition or resemblance to the original cast – although in some cases, the likeness is uncanny.

The film's main thrust is to get Kirk from the point where he's a drunken rebel without a clue in one-horse Iowa, stealing cars and acting like the juvenile delinquent he is, to the point where he's ready to take flight and assume the command of the Starship Enterprise.

How Kirk gets to assume the helm fills so much of the movie, and involves so many convoluted plot twists, it's almost the screenwriting equivalent of mixing matter and antimatter. It should all explode, or at least fuse your dilithium crystal. But it's all done with such verve, and such good humour, that you don't mind sending common sense into deep space - now if that isn't a characteristic of a great summer movie I don'y know what is!

Abrams respects the past, but he's no slave to it. Kirk and Spock are both hot-blooded in the film, getting bedroom action only hinted at in the past – especially for Spock, whose romantic entanglement will cause a sharp intake of breath for any Trekkies who haven't already Googled all the spoilers.

By boldly going back to where it all began, J.J. Abrams has taken Star Trek exactly where it belongs.

Baked Shrimp with Feta

A few weeks back there was a great sale on shrimp - 1 lb of large shrimp for 3.99. Needless to say I picked up 10 Lbs of the frozen beauties. The the fun began . . . what to do with them?

I spied this recipe on the Cooking Light site - the description intrigued me . . . 'dig into a delicious seafood bake topped with tomatoes and feta cheese for a company-worthy dinner in a flash. Orzo accented with fresh herbs completes this Mediterranean-inspired meal.' It sounded worth a try.

Of course, the fact that one serving only had 238 calories sure helped to seal the deal!

We both loved it! It was quick and easy to make and the flavour was wonderful.

Baked Shrimp with Feta

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
Cooking spray
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 cup prechopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons bottled clam juice
1 tablespoon white wine
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preheat oven to 450°.

Combine lemon juice and shrimp in a large bowl; toss well. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add oil to pan, swirling to coat. Add onion to pan; sauté 1 minute. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Add clam juice, wine, oregano, pepper, and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in shrimp mixture. Place mixture in an 11 x 7–inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle cheese evenly over mixture. Bake at 450° for 12 minutes or until shrimp are done and cheese melts. Sprinkle with parsley; serve immediately.

Orzo with fresh herbs: Cook 1 cup orzo pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain; toss orzo with 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.

Grilled Tuna Salad Nicoise

This week it was Debrah's turn to select the salad recipe for the group to experiment with. She posted a recipe for a Nicoise salad made with grilled tuna. Debrah posted two different dressings that you could try - we went for the classic to start.

Salad Niçoise (pronounced nee-suaz) is essentially a French composed salad with tuna, green beans, and potato. Salad Niçoise hails from Nice, on the Mediterranean Sea, though like so many foods we enjoy here of French origin, has changed a bit to adapt to our tastes. According to the Wikipedia the Niçoise salads are always made with raw vegetables and served with anchovies. Nicoise salads that are served in North America are typically served on a bed of lettuce and include cooked green beans and potatoes. In France you'll often find that the Niçoise salads there are all made with canned tuna. Depending on the establishment here, I've had them either with canned or with freshly grilled tuna.

We thought that this salad was a perfect summer meal - we grilled it all - except for the eggs and olives of course.Clean up was a snap! We both really enjoyed this salad and can't wait to try it with Debrah's Asian inspired dressing.

Grilled Tuna Salad Nicoise

2 Tuna Steaks
2 cups Green Beans or asparagus - whichever is freshest (cut in half for presentation purposes)
2 cups cooked Potatoes (sliced, diced or quartered depending upon size)
12 Olives (use your favorite, or a mixture - obviously, nicoise are the classic)
1 Orange or yellow pepper
2 Green Onions
1 cup Grape or Cherry Tomatoes
1 hard boiled egg (if following classic recipe)
*Optional: spring baby carrots or radishes - scrubbed served whole

Dressing: (should be made up prior to cooking veggies)

Classic: (put all ingredients into a jar, cover and shake)
1/4 cup Red wine vinegar
2 small or one large shallot (minced finely)
4 T. olive oil (or toasted walnut or hazelnut oil)
½ t. anchovy paste (optional)
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 t. whole grain mustard
pinch of thyme

Asian: (put all ingredients into a jar, cover and shake)
1/4 cup Rice Vinegar
4 T Sesame Oil
Garlic - 2 cloves crushed
Ginger - about 1 tablespoon grated
4 T olive oil

Steam or parboil green beans or asparagus until just tender crisp. Put into ice water to stop cooking process.

Cook small potatoes (fingerlings are an idea) whole. Let cool, cut into shape you desire and pour a small amount of dressing on and chill. I roast or grill the peppers and tomatoes (with a small amount of either dressing tossed on) I like to cook the tomatoes until they release their juice and caramelize a bit. (If you are using really fresh flavourful tomatoes, you don’t need to bother!)

Put tuna steaks on the grill, brush with dressing and cook to your preference.

Plating: I like to present it is a composed salad - so each ingredient is given it’s own space on the plate, including the Tuna. Arrange the two plates, dividing up the vegetables, drizzle with dressing and serve.

*Clearly, you can use any vegetable you desire to finish up your plating. I think that tiny carrots whole and whole radishes add impact and more nutrients to the meal.

Photo Hunt - Plastic

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Plastic".

I'm happy to report that this was a challenge - we don't have a whole lot of plastic surrounding us . . . over the past few years we've been able to get rid of most of it. Our biggest challenge has been with packing materials!

This photo shows the aftermath of an airplane 'meal' . . . lots of plastic here!

 A good reminder of just how 'non-green' travel can be!

Lots of the slow travel  community members also photo hunt when they aren't traveling. You can find their posts by clicking the links below. 

• Old Shoes, New Trip
• Eden's Wanderings and Wonderings
• My Place in the Sun
• Churches in Venice – Mosaics, Marble, and Miracle-Working Madonnas
• Palmabella's Passions
• What I Really Think
• shave Ice and Gelato
• Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants!
• Keep your Feet in the Street
• Baked Alaska
• That's my story...and I'm stickin' to it!
• Postcards from the Trail
• Cooking at the Whistlestop Cafe
• Candi's Corner
• Trekcapri's Blog
• Destination Anywhere

Grilled Asparagus

The markets have been flooded with bundles of bright green, fresh and crisp local asparagus for the past few weeks now. Jumbo, pencil-thin, white...I've seen every iteration of these delicious spears in the stores an markets. Of course, I've wanted to buy them all because the season is so darn short!

Most people think they are eating fresh asparagus in the stores- but they are mistaken. Most of the asparagus found in grocery stores is at least 1 week old, some 2 weeks old.

Many folks only know one way to cook asparagus- boil it to death. This is totally the wrong technique. Asparagus shouldn’t be cooked very long at all.

If you haven't been tempted yet to pick up a bunch of these springtime beauties, maybe this recipe for simple grilled asparagus will push you over the edge. This recipe will ensure that you do it right - marinated for a short period of time and then quickly grilled until tender crisp, the asparagus has a delicious smokey flavour.

Enjoy!

Grilled Asparagus

1 bunch asparagus
3 T Soy Sauce
3 T Balsamic Vinegar
1 T Honey
1 t sesame oil

Combine all ingredients except asparagus in ziploc bag and mix with fingers until honey is well blended. Add Asparagus and allow to marinate for about 15-20 minutes. Grill on medium high heat or until asparagus starts to brown and reaches the appropriate tenderness. Makes 4 servings.