BBQ Onion Burger

Hamburgers are probably one of the most difficult things to fit into a low-calorie diet. We've addressed this in two ways: 1) finding lower calorie ingredients to make the burgers from and 2) reducing the size of the meal. These days we don't have any sides with them, but if you're looking for low calorie fries, we found that steak fries tend to have the lowest calorie count of the frozen, oven-baked fries, and even if 3 oz doesn't look like much, it's pretty filling.

For a little extra flavor this time, I experimented with making home-baked onion "straws" - just without the breading. Most of the flavor comes from the onions themselves, so the breading really only serves to make them crispy and easier to deep fry.

Makes 2 burgers

Ingredients:
1/4 medium onion
1 teaspoon oil
1/2 lb lean beef patties (we prefer 96% lean)
Your favorite grill spices (we use the Weber hamburger blend)
4 slices tomato
2-4 pieces of lettuce
2 tablespoons barbecue sauce (I used Rub With Love Ancho & Molasses BBQ sauce)
2 hamburger buns (I use Ballpark or Sarah Lee, as they're both lower calorie)

Taco Salad

Adam and I love to have Mexican food, but it's often high in calories. This taco salad hits the spot without breaking our calorie budget.

Makes 4 salads

Ingredients:

For the taco meat:
1 pound lean beef (I prefer 96% lean)
1/2 onion, diced
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
salt
pepper

For the salad:
Lettuce (romaine, butter, or iceberg work well)
1 red onion, diced
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
2 ounces lowfat cheese
1/2 cup fat free sour cream
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 cup chipotle salad dressing (I make this recipe but with 1/3 of the oil)
4 crunchy taco shells

How to Make English Toffee

How to Make English Toffee from Liz Schwab on Vimeo.

Here's a video on how to make English Toffee.  The ingredients are:

1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
2 teaspoons water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)
1/2 cup toasted almonds
8 ounces chocolate

HUGE thanks to Adam for all his help in filming, editing, and enjoying the fruits of our labor. :)

Vegetarian "Stuff"

Here is my first audio podcast. I hope you enjoy! If the player doesn't work for you, please let me know and I'll look into it.

Mango

Who doesn't love mango? The fresh fruit can be difficult to slice up, though. Here are some tips to help you out.

Star Fruit

Star fruit has an almost melon-like texture with a sweet, almost citrus flavor. It's also easy to prepare, as the skin is edible.

Dragon Fruit

Dragon fruit has a lightly sweet flavor and is full of fiber and vitamins. Here's how to serve it fresh.

Sukiyaki

Traditionally, sukiyaki is served in a "hot pot" style, where you dip your meat and veggies into a pot full of sauce on the table and cook it as you go (kind of like fondue). However, it's just as delicious when done in a stir-fry version at home.

Making sukiyaki sauce requires dashi stock, which even though I love making Japanese food at home, I don't typically keep the ingredients for on hand, so it makes more sense to me to buy a pre-made sauce than to make it myself. You can find sukiyaki sauce at most stores in the Asian foods aisle. There are many brands out there, but probably the most recognizable is Kikkoman.

(Makes two servings)
Ingredients
1 large carrot
1/2 medium onion
1 bunch green onions
2 ounces shiitake
4 ounces thinly sliced beef
1/4 cup sukiyaki sauce

Broiled Swordfish

Swordfish is rather expensive fresh, but can be fairly inexpensive when purchased frozen. It has a bold flavor that pairs well with lemon, and can be quickly prepared, making it one of my favorite weeknight meals.

Ingredients:
2 swordfish steaks
1 teaspoon butter
salt
lemon pepper

Roasted Beet and Arugula Salad

I used to hate beets with a passion, but when roasted they loose the 'dirt' flavor and take on a sweet flavor. When combined with dark greens, sharp cheese, toasted nuts, and citrus flavor, they really shine.

For each salad:
1 cup arugula leaves
1/2 medium roasted beet (see recipe below)
1/2 naval orange
1 to 2 slices red onion
1/2 tablespoon orange flavored oil
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon gorgonzola cheese
2 tablespoons sliced almonds

Mini Guinness Pies

(Makes 6 mini pies)

I really enjoy chicken pot pies and beef pot pies in the colder months, but with a full double pie crust you end up with a lot of crust that I find don't add a whole lot to the dish. I also really enjoy Guinness stew, so I combined the two concepts together.

Ingredients:
2 to 3 cloves garlic
1 stalk celery
1 medium carrot
1/2 medium red onion
2 ounces mushrooms
1 small potato
1 lb stew meat
2 tablespoons corn starch
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup Guinness (or other stout beer)
1 cup beef stock
1 pie crust

Roasted Chick Pea Hummus

There are a lot of different ways to make hummus, but I prefer it without the extra calories found in tahini (sesame seed paste). It's also rather expensive and can be difficult to find, and the only time I ever use it is for making hummus.

Roasting the chick peas helps to bring out a sweet flavor and adds an extra depth to the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 16 ounce can of garbanzo beans (chick peas), liquid reserved
2 to 4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Paprika

Pita Bread

Today I'm going to make this blog's first foray into yeast breads. I know they are intimidating if you've never tried one before, but I'll try to explain everything in a way that makes sense. Once you start to get the hang of working with yeast, it's really not that difficult.

I started with a recipe I found on the real Greek recipes blogspot, but made a few alterations. First, I decreased the amount of olive oil quite a bit, and then I adjusted the cooking method so that I could bake it in the oven instead pan frying. I also used honey instead of sugar, as a personal preference (either will work fine).

Thai Cashew Chicken

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2-3 cloves garlic
2 celery stalks
1 medium onion
1 bell pepper
1 cup cashews
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (for frying)

For the Sauce
1 tablespoon chili sauce (for a spicy version, substitute 1 teaspoon chili paste or 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes)
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoons white sugar

Dressing Up Zucchini Bread

Skip to a specific section of this post:
Basic Zucchini Bread recipe
Lemon Pistachio Zucchini Bread
Orange Walnut Zucchini Bread
Guava Coconut Zucchini Bread

It's Fall, and that means finding creative ways to use up all of the zucchini in the garden. While I don't currently have a garden, I still can't pass up purchasing a giant zucchini squash at the farmer's market. One of my favorite recipes for zucchini is zucchini bread, and one of my favorite things to do with sweet breads is to play around with new flavor combinations.

New flavor combinations aren't as easy to come up with as it might seem, and finding a good pairing can be tricky at times. However, once you find something that works, it can be pretty easy to make tweaks here and there to get something entirely new but playing on the same theme. For example, last year I came up with recipes for Orange Walnut and Lemon Pistachio Zucchini bread (I will share them below). These are variations of the same theme; a citrus flavor paired with a nut flavor. Even experienced cooks fall short sometimes, though. At the same time I came up with those recipes, I tried a lime coconut version that just didn't have a very good flavor. Don't be afraid to fail sometimes; the sucesses make it worthwhile. If you start with small changes, like changing the flavor ingredient but nothing else, you're a lot more likely to get a favorable outcome.

For this round of zucchini bread, I made the orange walnut and lemon pistachio recipes from last year along with two experimental recipes: guava coconut and chocolate cherry swirl. The chocolate cherry didn't come out very well at all, so I won't be sharing the recipe here, but the guava is definitely one of my new favorites. I asked Adam which he preferred, and he liked the orange walnut and guava coconut best.

I've got a quick, "about this blog" blurb on the side of this page, but I wanted to go into a little more detail about my plans for the blog.  It seems that all of my friends are either really good at cooking or really intimidated by it, and I know that when I was still learning it was really frustrating to try and understand vague wording in recipes.  Not to mention, a lot of recipes out there assume you know a lot of things already, like how to brown meat or how to sauté.

My plan with this blog is to take a different approach and describe cooking techniques with more precise wording and photos.  I also plan to give as much background information as I can to help you to understand why things work the way they do.  I might not be able to anticipate all of the questions you might have, so feel free to send any questions my way.

Also, expect a lot of changes in the look and layout; it's still a work in progress. :)