The Healthy Kitchen: BBQ Quinoa Bowl

 Quinoa bowls are my go-to for healthy meals. They are so versatile, and you can make one for any food type you like. I had an idea for a quinoa bowl using BBQ flavors and ingredients. 

For any quinoa bowl I start with making my quinoa in a rice cooker. I use 1 cup of quinoa to 2 cups of broth. Mine usually takes about an hour to cook completely and I use the brown rice setting. 

For this recipe I cooked my meat, in this case ground chicken, in a skillet with a bit of oil and seasoned liberally with Meehan's BBQ seasoning. 

I then added my veggies and beans. In this case a bag of frozen corn and a can of black beans. This would also be good with green pepper added. I then add a bit more of the Meehan's BBQ seasoning to taste once cooked through. 

While that is cooking, I toast some friend onions in the oven at 300 for about 5 minutes just to brown a bit. 

Once that is done it is time to assemble. 

I start with a bed of quinoa about 1/2 C for a serving, then top with the meat and veggie mixture, then add the onions. I then top with a bit of actual BBQ sauce. In this case I used G Hughes Sugar Free Carolina Gold BBQ sauce. I just drizzle over the top. Then I garnish with some cilantro. 

I really feel like the onions add something. I love the crunchiness of these fried onions. This was a tasty recipe and I just loved the BBQ flavor. 

The Italian Kitchen: Baked Spicy Cauliflower Gnocchi Alfredo

 This is a first time making an alfredo sauce from scratch. I have always worried about it turning out, but it ended up being very good. This was a great dish to make for Meatless Monday. You could also add meat or extra veggies to this dish if desired. 

The ingredients:

2.5 C milk

1/2 C heavy cream

3 TBSP butter plus more to grease pan

2 cloves of garlic finely chopped

3 TBSP flour

8oz grated fontina cheese divided

1 C freshly grated parmesan cheese divided

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2-16 oz packages of cauliflower gnocchi (you can use regular if desired instead)

The recipe:

Preheat oven to 375. 

In a large liquid measuring cup or glass bowl add milk and heavy cream and heat up in microwave for 3 minutes.

In a large saucepan, add butter and melt over medium heat. 

Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. 

Sprinkle in the flour and whisk constantly until bubbly and lightly golden. 

Pour in the milk and whisk until smooth scraping the bottom and sides. Cook stirring frequently until reaches a low boil and thickens (6-8 minutes) and reduce heat to low. 

Reserve 1/2 C of both cheeses for the top. Add the remaining cheese to the milk mixture and whisk until smooth and melted. 

Add the spicy pepper spread and mix until combined. Whisk in the salt and pepper. 

Add the gnocchi and break into individual pieces and gently fold into the sauce. 

Butter or spray a 9x13 baking dish. 

Transfer the gnocchi and sauce to the baking dish and top with the reserved cheese. 

Bake until bubbly around the edges 30-35 minutes. 

Broil for 2 minutes on Hi if desired to brown the top (I omitted this step).

Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes. 

Garnish the top with basil or I sprinkled some Pizza party seasoning on top. You can also use crushed red pepper. 

The Soup Kitchen: Kentucky Burgoo

 I know most people make soup mostly during the fall and winter when its warmer. But I have found that soup is a great way to make lunch in bulk. I can make one batch of soup and eat on it all week. So, I am starting a new series called the Soup Kitchen. This will feature soups that I am making. Today's soup is one I have wanted to make for a while. Kentucky Burgoo is sort of like an Irish stew or a thick vegetable meat stew. They key for it to be a burgoo is that you must use three different types of meat. Usually it is beef, pork, and chicken but you can use any combination you like. 

First you will need to choose your cuts of meat and sear them to start the cooking process and brown a bit. For my burgoo I used bacon, pork shoulder, and boneless skinless chicken thighs. Now if you have the ninja multicooker you can sear the meat right in the pot but if not, you will need to use a skillet or Dutch oven. Once the meat is seared you can add it to your slow cooker. You will want 8 slices of bacon crumbled, 3-3.5 lbs. of pork shoulder cubed and trimmed, and 3-4 boneless skinless chicken thighs. Salt and pepper the meat prior to searing. 

The ingredients:

8 slices bacon

olive oil

3-3.5lb of pork shoulder trimmed and cubed

3-4 boneless skinless chicken thighs

salt and pepper

1 small to medium onion diced

1 green bell pepper diced

24 oz. small gold potatoes quartered.

1 TBSP poultry seasoning (I used a Rivierra seasoning blend)

10-12 oz frozen sliced okra

10-12 oz frozen corn

10-12 oz frozen lima beans

6 garlic cloves minced or grated

2 heaping tsp of better than bouillon (any kind, I used chicken)

28 oz crushed tomatoes

32 oz chicken broth

1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp cayenne

pinch of bay seasoning or bay leaf

2 TBSP masa harina

The recipe:

Add all the ingredients to the slow cooker except the masa harina. 

Set slow cooker on Hi and cook for 4 hours. (Or low for 8 hours)

After 3 hours add the masa harina to thicken the stew. If you don't have masa harina you can use a cornstarch flurry. 

Burgoo is traditionally served with bread, biscuits, or cornbread.

This can be made a bit healthier by sticking to leaner meats like chicken and turkey. It can be more budget friendly by using pork instead of beef. The vegetables used are not strict you can change them up a bit. It would be really good with peas and green beans as well. 

When mistakes turn into something interesting: Tamale Spoon Bread

I had this great idea! A breakfast tamale pie. All the joys of a breakfast casserole with tamale dough on top. Well, the implementation was not exactly what I planned but turned out interesting and pretty good. So first you may ask, what is spoon bread? It's a southern classic using cornmeal basically like a cornmeal souffle that you eat with you guessed it a spoon!

The ingredients:

Corn kernels 

Can of black beans drained and rinsed

Can of green chiles

Chorizo cooked and drained

1/2 to 1 C of shredded cheddar cheese

6 eggs beaten

1 tsp of taco seasoning

1 tsp black lime

1/2 C of milk

Combine the corn, beans, green chiles, and chorizo and place in a greased baking dish.

Beat eggs with seasoning and milk and pour over the meat mixture. 

Top with shredded cheddar cheese.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 C masa harina flour

1 TBSP baking powder 

3/4 tsp salt

4 TBSP melted butter, cooled

1.5 C milk

1 egg 

Combine all the above ingredients until a dough is formed. 

Drop the dough by spoonfuls into the egg mixture. 

Bake at 350 degrees until the dough is done mine took about 1 hour. Check to make sure top is not getting burnt. If it starts to get too brown cover with foil. 

Mistakes happen but sometimes when you make them you stumble onto something pretty good. 

Don't let mistakes discourage you. I'm sure a lot of popular recipes were created by accident somehow. 

In order to make this more like my original thought. I need to cook the casserole for a bit first until it is set up then add the dough to the top until the dough it done.