Playing Chopped in the Kitchen

Hi Crushers!

As you know, I'm in love with the Food Network. One of my favorite shows is "Chopped". I could watch this all the time. I am always amazed at how the chefs on this show problem solve. "This is too sweet; it needs something bitter." "We'll grill this to bring out the smokey flavors." "Let's make a sauce from candy we've never heard of!" It's amazing.

On Sunday night, I looked in my fridge and realized I had some brussel sprouts that needed to be used up. Time for a chopped challenge right in my own kitchen! What to do with brussel sprouts that will keep the integrity of the vegetable and yet use them in a new and interesting way. Challenge accepted!

OK, so I think that brussel sprouts are less "sprout" and more "baby cabbage looking veggie". What do you make with cabbage? Hint: we were having pulled pork sandwiches for dinner. What's a great side for this BBQ sandwich? Coleslaw!

Now, brussel sprouts can be kind of bitter, so I decided to haul out my food processor and add some sweeter veggies to balance the brussel sprouts. I [very carefully] put the slicing blade on the food processor and started tossing in carrots, onion and green peppers. When I made the dressing, I took care to think of what would be tangy, but not over-powering. There are staples like sour cream, vinegar, pepper and such, but how about some mustard? Mix, taste and be prepared to start over!

Overall, it turned out great. The only thing is that we have A LOT of coleslaw. Fortunately, it's a pretty versatile side dish and it's got tons of vitamins and nutrients. I used the "low fat" kind of mayo and sour cream, so it's not even that bad for you. So good...

Colorful, tasty and good for you! Trifecta of an awesome side dish.

Brussel Sprout Coleslaw
Ingredients:
1 lb. Brussel sprouts, washed and trimmed
1 1/2 medium green pepper, unseeded
4 medium-large carrots, peeled
1/2 medium onion (I wish I had had green onions, but the chefs on Chopped have to use what's in their basket!)

Dressing ingredients:
2/3 cup sour cream (I used the low fat kind)
1/3 cup mayonnaise (I used Hellmann's low fat kind)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp pepper (or more if you really like it)

Gear you'll need: Either a food processor or a sharp knife for chopping, a LARGE bowl, measuring cups and spoons

Directions:
Mix all of the dressing ingredients in the bowl (no need to make a separate bowl dirty). You could mix them in a different bowl so that you could measure out how much dressing you want, but trust me, this is just enough to coat everything without having a puddle of dressing.

Get your food processor ready to slice! Carefully assemble everything without cutting yourself (otherwise, please see my kitchen first aid post here). Make sure that you have cut your veggies into chunks that will fit in the feeder tube. Then turn it on and start loading the feeder tube with your veggies for slicing. With the carrots, I actually switched the blades to the grater one. It made really nice long strips of carrots.

Tip: If you don't have a food processor or mandolin, just take a large, sharp knife and start chopping up your veggies into small, long strips or just dice the onion finely. 

When it's all sliced, dump all of the veggies in the bowl with the dressing and mix. It's so easy! The carrots and green peppers are sweet enough balance the brussel sprouts and the lemon juice gives it a nice zing. I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Thanksgiving prep - Pommes de terre

Paula Deen

Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman)

Gina Neely

I love all of these ladies dearly, but there is no question that the real Queen of Comfort Food is Julia Child. She was the original celebrity chef who encouraged everyone to use butter and plenty of it. Yes, some of her food is ridiculously hard to make, but most of the time it's just delicious food that seems difficult to cook because it has a fancy French name. For instance, my husband's favorite side dish is Puree De Pommes De Terre A L'Ail, also known as garlic mashed potatoes. See? Not so scary after all. (Really not scary if you watch the clip at the end of the link I posted where they set some Julia Child to Guns N' Roses - HA!)

Thanksgiving is the food Superbowl of comfort food. There is turkey, which has the sleep-inducing tryptophan (although the wine and overeating are also culprits). There is starch everywhere from stuffing (or dressing) to rolls to potatoes. The creamy goodness of green bean casserole and mashed yams just make you think of napping. Oh, and that dollop of whipped topping (mock me, I'm a Cool Whip fan) sitting on top of a slice of pie doesn't hurt either. Everything about this day suggests comfort.

I try really hard to eat healthy meals with a variety of color and texture. My kitchen crush mom always said that you need at least three colors on your plate. I was assigned to bring potatoes to dinner at my in-law's house. Now, they didn't specify what kind of potatoes to bring. I thought I could try out a new recipe or put a twist on the Ina Garten roasted potatoes from this blog post by adding other root veggies like parsnips and beets for vibrant colors. Wouldn't that be fabulous?

When I suggested this to my husband, he was horrified. HORRIFIED. He couldn't believe that I wouldn't make cheesy potatoes. It's a staple in his holiday diet. So, I made the roasted veggies for my office's Thanksgiving potluck lunch and bought all the ingredients for cheesy potatoes.

Here is the recipe I'll be using:
Cheesy Potatoes
Ingredients:

2 lbs shredded potatoes (you can cheat and buy the frozen hash browns and thaw them)
1/4 cup butter
1 (10 1/2 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup (if you can, find the low-sodium kind)
1 cup sour cream
1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (save some for topping)
1/2 cup onion, diced (more or less to taste)

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 cup corn flakes
salt and pepper, to taste 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all of the ingredients together in a big bowl except the corn flakes and a handful of the cheese. Pour the mix in a greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish and cover with foil. Remember, if the veggie grows underground, cover it up! Bake for 50 minutes. When the timer goes off, take the dish out of the oven and remove the foil without burning yourself. Steam is hot, people. Sprinkle the top of the whole dish with corn flakes and the cheese you saved. Put it back in the oven without the foil for 10 more minutes so it gets nice and crispy and melty. I don't know how it gets both crispy and melty, but it does. I don't question miracles. 

"But Jen, how do you shred all those potatoes?" Well, crushers, I usually cheat and buy the bags of frozen potatoes. However, this year I own a food processor with one of those fancy, schmancy slicer attachments, so I'm going to try that. If that doesn't work, I'll end up slicing them and making potatoes au gratin. I'll post that recipe next week.

I know I haven't been around much and I'll be MIA for the next few days, but that's because my sister is getting married this weekend, so I don't have to do much cooking! I'll be eating Thanksgiving potluck dinner, then leftovers and rehearsal dinner and then wedding food and then more leftovers all weekend! WHOO HOO!

Thank you to all the crushers who read this blog, make comments, share what you've learned or made you laugh and special thanks to those who take it one step further and either donates to get food to those who need it or just shares meals with others.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Zucchini for the win!

Tonight we're having Mr. and Mrs. Coach S over for dinner. I have never met them before, so I'm just going with foods that I think most people love. They are bringing dessert, so I only have to worry about dinner... ha!

As I said in the last blog post, the menu includes garlic oven potatoes, BBQ ribs and a mystery veggie to round it out. I think we're going to go with zucchini. Not only do my in-laws have a bumper crop of them that they shared with everyone, but they taste great and they are good for you!

Zucchini is a versatile summer squash that can be baked, grilled, eaten raw, fried, and... made into tots! Thanks to my kitchen crush, blogger Gina Homolka over at Skinnytaste.com, I found a great new way to eat zucchini. Zucchini tots are savory and great as a side dish or a snack.

I followed Gina's recipe pretty closely. The only thing that I changed was that I used a regular muffin tin instead of mini one. This was purely done on accident. However, it does change the serving size. Instead of 4 tots as a serving, you would probably only need 2 of the ones I made.

You can find the recipe for Zucchini Tots here. Definitely take a look at her pictures since I did not take a picture while squeezing the excess liquid out of the grated zucchini. Instead, I was making a slight mess in the sink...

Ingredients (again, go to Gina's website for more information and her amazing food photos):

• 1 cup zucchini, grated
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 medium onion, diced
• 1/4 cup reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1/4 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
• salt and pepper to taste
• cooking spray

Here we go:
Once you've preheated the oven to 400 degrees, you need to grate your zucchini. I used a food processor instead for a couple of reasons:
1. We got it as a shower gift and I've been dying to use it.
2. I broke my old grater and no one gave us a new one for a wedding gift.
3. My mom, another kitchen crush, said that a food processor would totally work instead.
4. I could add the onion right away and not have to smell like onion for the rest of the night.

This is what the chopped zucchini looks like before I squeezed out all the extra juice.

Mix the zucchini and onion in with the other ingredients.

Here is what it looks like in a regular size muffin tin.
Make sure that you press them down firmly.

This is the delicious result!

For more amazing healthy recipes, visit Skinnytaste.com because Gina is one amazing cook and food photographer!