Comunidad Health Foods

It’s time to say farewell to jicama and transition to a completely different food: chicken. I really haven’t been on much of a meat kick lately, but I did make these Thai Chicken Sandwiches a few weeks ago and my parents both loved them. It isn’t that I dislike the taste of chicken, or that I thought these sandwiches were bad – trust me, even if my parents raved about them, they wouldn’t be on here unless I thought they were good, too – I just can’t seem to get excited about them. In fact, while I was eating the meal, I kept wondering how the sandwich would taste with Thai tofu instead. Or a Thai chickpea patty. Ok, that one I just thought of now, but it sounds awesome.

Really, this chicken sandwich is pretty tame. The chicken itself has a mild flavor but is cooked well, giving it a great texture, and most of the toppings add more to texture than flavor too (cucumbers, mostly). It’s the Thai curry paste that makes this dish, and you can use as little or as much as you like depending on your heat preference. I slathered the condiment on before I was satisfied, whereas my family used a much smaller amount and still could taste it. Really, for such a self-proclaimed foodie, my taste buds appear to be pretty lame.

I paired the sandwich with a Thai broccoli salad, which was good but not outstanding. I found myself wishing for more dressing and a slightly softer broccoli component. Maybe just chopping the broccoli more finely would work but I wouldn’t be beyond actually trying to steam it a little, too. I used soy sauce and stevia in the dressing, but aside from that, really stuck to the original – which you can find over at Kalyn’s Kitchen.

I also made homemade rolls for the occasion, which were a labor of (pretty inactive) love. They’re called three day crusty rolls because you start them before bed on day 1 and don’t bake them until day 3. It’s a very hands-off process, though, and they came out with a pretty excellent texture. The whole wheat flavor was even pretty well masked, so that no one complained that I didn’t use all-purpose. Which inevitably happens when I try to whole wheat-ify everything I make. The only thing that I didn’t do perfectly with these guys was to make them big enough – for sandwiches, you really shouldn’t try to make any more than 6 rolls out of 1 batch. You can find that recipe at Andrea’s Recipes. If I ever tweak it beyond just substituting in whole wheat flour, I’ll consider putting it on the blog, but for now, this really isn’t my recipe at all and Andrea deserves the traffic and credit.

Yield: 4 servings

Prep Time: 5 minutes plus time for marinating (1-4 hours)

Cook Time: 20 minutes

(printable recipe)

2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon lemon zest

2 teaspoons sesame oil

¼ cup lime juice

2 regular (thick) chicken breasts

4 (whole grain)rolls, for serving

½ cucumber, sliced, for serving

Thai curry paste, for serving¹

Whisk together the ginger, garlic, zest, oil, and lime juice in a shallow dish or pie plate. Halve each chicken breast and add all four pieces to the dish. Turn to coat both sides with the marinade, then cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (I did four; the recipe says 15 minutes).

Heat a grill pan, lightly coated with cooking spray, over medium-high heat. When hot, add the chicken breasts and sear, 4 minutes per side. Lower the heat to medium and continue cooking for another 6-7 minutes per side, until the breasts have cooked through fully.

Serve with rolls, cucumber, and Thai curry paste.

I have a secret to tell you, but before I do, you have to promise that you won’t point, laugh, and shun me for it. I can’t handle having to sport a branded letter on my arm, signifying to the world the truth. You see, I have this thing. With red meat. No, not making sure it’s grass fed. I mean, yes, there’s that, but that almost sounds normal compared with this other thing. This thing that’s totally bizarre-o and so not appropriate for a gourmand foodie such as myself (don’t laugh). Here goes…

If you sit me down at a table and place 2 plates in front of me, one showcasing a $35 perfectly cooked steak dinner and the other featuring a big, juicy, $5 homecooked burger…I will turn a cold shoulder to that steak before you can even say, “and how would you like your steak cooked, madam?” I actually don’t like steak, and trust me, I have had some really top notch cuts in my life. It makes only eating grass-fed beef much more affordable and manageable, since I can watch people eating steaks left and right and not get jealous, and I don’t burn a hole in my wallet trying to ethically satisfy some red meat craving all the time.

The fact that I don’t really like steak very much means something else: I basically never cook it. I barely know how. I’ve handled raw red meat I think twice in my life, and one of them was just last week. I’m a total amateur, but that’s ok. Because if I can conquer the red-meated beast, so can you. And I even went first, so you get to learn from all of my silly mistakes.

Mistake #1: Believing that you can at a whim stop by your local Whole Foods market and find the exact cut of beef that you need…in grass-fed form. Result: what was originally intended to be a Memorial Day cook out was postponed until Whole Foods’ next shipment came in…2 days later.

Mistake #2: Believing the recipe when it tells you that after 5 brief minutes per side, your full steak will not be an absolute bloody mess when you cut into it. Put that thing back on the grill, seriously! (As a side note, I know people who actually would’ve loved how rare – virtually uncooked – the meat was at this time interval, so if you’re one of those people, ignore this. If you like your meat more towards medium-rare, maybe 7 minutes per side. And if you like it well-done…just slice the darn thing and cook it that way. You’ll save yourself a ton of grief.)

Ok, so really, that’s not so bad, right? I also made a few really fantastic judgment calls when making these sandwiches. First, I decreased the amount of meat called for in general – ½ pound per person is just ridiculous, especially for a sandwich. I went with 1.5lb for 4 people and even then had leftovers – I think this sandwich is intended to be piled high with meat, and that’s just not my (or my family’s) style. Ok, it’s a little bit my family’s style, but they were following my lead and I made my sandwich first. Ha!

Overall, this is a good sandwich. I don’t know if it’s phenomenal enough to warrant Rachael Ray’s title, “Tony Soprano’s Steak Sandwich.” I mean, those are big shoes for a sandwich to fill. Still, it was tasty; I think it just needed one more element to really put it over the top. I also secretly think that turning it into burger form would make it even better, but shh! The Red Meat Snobs are going to bludgeon me for such blasphemy, so let’s keep that little recommendation between us.

You could buy jarred giardiniera for the relish, as the recipe states, but then why would you, when 100 pages later in the exact same cookbook she teaches you how to make your own? Just don’t make the whole thing – the recipe said it made 1 quart, and the sandwiches called for 1 quart – but one of those two yields was way off because I’ve basically been eating leftover giardiniera for breakfast, lunch and dinner for a week straight and still have about a cup left. The recipe below makes the full batch, but I’m pretty sure you could halve it and still have enough to pile 4 sandwiches to the sky with it. I found the recipe to be a little bit too sweet, but I’ve left the sugar content alone because I don’t know how much you could reduce it without affecting the pickling ability of the solution. And it’s really only too sweet when you eat big spoonfuls on its own (really, I wasn’t kidding, I made way too much…); on the sandwich it adds a nice balance to the savory steak.

So maybe this isn’t Tony Soprano’s steak sandwich, but I liked it, my dad liked it (ok my dad had his without any veggies and with ketchup, but he’s a Philadelphian, can you blame him?), L liked it, my mom liked it. It may not be mob-approved, but it’s certainly us-approved, and as I said before…I don’t even like steak! I mean…what?

 

There was a time in my adult life where I genuinely and wholeheartedly swore off peanut butter. I announced that I would never eat it again, at least not for the next month. It was an aversion that developed all at once due to an unfortunate peanut butter sandwich-mild stomach bug combination. I couldn’t smell the stuff without becoming nauseated. I was dejected, distraught that this silly little sickness had ruined my love affair with this not-nut-nut-butter for eternity.

My abstinence lasted a grand total of 3 or 4 days. If that.

Thankfully, I regained my strength and with it came flooding back my love for peanut butter. It was as though we had never been apart, the two of us – we fell back into our old habits quickly and naturally. And because of that, I was able to enjoy this very delicious, very satisfying spin on French Toast from Rachael Ray. I mean really, this PB&B (peanut butter & banana!)-meets-breakfast-treat is nothing short of amazing. It’s easy to make, healthy, and full of all kinds of gustatory pleasantries. It’s rich from the peanut butter, sweet from the banana, warm and comforting and oh so good. Please make this. Really, you won’t regret it.

 

With Spring finally here – beautiful weather and all – I find myself drawn more to clean, fresh flavors. Don’t get me wrong, I still love a burst of flavor or a robust sauce every now and then – I am still me, after all – but when Spring first arrives it just feels natural to me to scale back on the complexity of my meals and a eat a little more simply.

This recipe for fresh herbed turkey burgers was just the kind of meal I was craving: a modest serving of very lean meat, thinned out with a healthy quinoa filler and an array of fresh herbs. Unfortunately, I left my box of quinoa at my parent’s house the weekend before, and with it being Passover, my hands were tied in terms of being able to swap in any other grains. So, this was just a straight-up turkey burger with a combination of fresh and dried herbs. I did really like it, but I’m still curious as to how the quinoa would have changed it. I feel like it would have been just a little lighter, a little bit less carnivorous. However, the flavors were excellent so if you find yourself in a similar bind, don’t fret! In fact, because I can’t officially vouch for how it would/will turn out with the quinoa, I haven’t included it in the recipe below. If you’re interested in adding it back in, the recipe simply called for 1 cup, cooked according to the package instructions, mixed into the burger along with all of the other ingredients.

I rested my burger on top of a plate of arugula and topped it with a swirl of whipped feta, and called it a meal. The flavor of the feta paired so well with the herbs in the burger! However, feel free to leave that out if you’d like – I also don’t have the recipe for the whipped feta (it was part of a Passover potluck from the weekend before), but I’m sure you could find a recipe online or simply sprinkle a few plain feta crumbles over top the burger in the end. It would also, of course, make a nice sandwich, though I chose to eat it without the bun.

 

I think next year I’ll kick Passover off with a post about what I like to eat during the holiday to stay healthy and satisfied. It slipped my mind this year, and by the time someone suggested it to me, I wasn’t sure my advice would be particularly helpful – after all, in just over 24 hours we can all eat grains again. This year has been particularly challenging for me, as I left my box of quinoa at my parent’s house – talk about low carb meals! I admit that it has forced me to make some less healthy choices than I would like – as excited as I get about a successful and filling low carb meal here and there, I don’t like actually following a full on “low carb diet” – and I am very, very much looking forward to dinner tomorrow night. I’m not sure what I’ll make yet, but the box of lasagna noodles in my pantry is looking mighty fine right about now.

Then again, so does this recipe for grilled chile quesadillas! I know, I know, I just told you about quesadillas – how repetitive of me! But hear me out. First of all, it’s National Grilled Cheese Day, and I still don’t have a legitimate grilled cheese recipe for you so I want to make do with what I have. Second of all, this one speaks to all of the vegetarians out there (I haven’t forgotten about you!), whereas yesterday’s recipe contained chicken. I thought it would be a nice 30 Minute Thursday post to follow up a very unconventional quesadilla with a much more classic one. Plus, I ate it with a side of succotash salad, which – if you don’t follow the corn rule – could actually be eaten on Passover. So I like to think that this post does a good job of pleasing everyone this week.

This quesadilla was absolutely delicious. There was a perfect amount of cheese and using the smoked cheddar was incredible. All I would change next time would be to increase the amount of chile peppers slightly. I poured a spicy salsa verde on top (which, by the way, could not have been easier to make), which I made a little hotter by not removing the seeds, so that made up for the lack of kick from the quesadilla itself.  The succotash salad was equally tasty, and even easier to make. It wasn’t overly flavorful – it made a good pair for a spicy dish because it was refreshing and cooling. All I would say with this is to choose your oil for the dressing wisely – I used sesame and could absolutely taste it. A canola oil would be much more neutral, but otherwise go for a decent quality oil with a flavor that would go well with the rest of the dish, because you can definitely taste it. Also, if you have a little leftover succotash and a little leftover salsa verde, try mixing them together - it's fantastic!

Call it a mental Passover block or some subliminal knowledge that tomorrow is National Grilled Cheese Day, but out of the blue today I got a hankering for a good grilled cheese sandwich. Just my luck! Unfortunately, the closest I’m going to get to chowing down on a good sandwich of any kind between now and Saturday is telling you about this cheesy Tandoori chicken quesadilla that I made just a few weeks ago.

This meal actually began as grilled tandoori chicken, which was easy and quick to make. It was…nice. Not at all spicy as I had imagined, though I did admittedly play with the spices slightly to better accommodate what I had in stock. Still, it was enjoyable, and it worked really well with the sautéed spinach with garlic chips that I made as a side. I only halved the spinach recipe and ate the whole thing, meaning I ate a full 2 cloves of garlic – and while the spinach wasn’t too much for me, the garlic was. So if you’re a veggie lover and think you’ll eat a hefty serving of this, consider reducing the amount of garlic (that’s probably going to be the first and last time you’ll ever hear me say that). The only other thing to say about that spinach recipe is to really stick to the 1 minute or less cooking time – spinach is very delicate, and it continues to cook even after you remove it from the pan, so flash-cooking is really the best way to get the texture right.

The next day, I used the leftover tandoori chicken in an Indian-inspired quesadilla, and that’s where the recipe really stole my heart. Naturally, I overstuffed my quesadilla, insisting on only using 1 tortilla but keeping the same amount of filling, which means that my sandwich was a little messy to eat. If that’s a turn off but you, like me, would prefer to just use a single tortilla, consider reducing the chicken by just a little bit. However you choose to navigate the tortilla-filling conundrum, this is a delicious “sandwich.” I personally didn’t add any toppings, but think that it’d be even better with them! You could go the traditional Mexican route with salsa, sour cream/greek yogurt, avocado, etc.; or – and I think this sounds incredible – you could keep with the Indian flavors and top it with some plain greek yogurt and fruity chutney.