vegetables

How to Cook an Artichoke

August 22, 2017

I grew up eating artichokes. Maybe it’s a California thing. If my memory serves me correctly (which it probably doesn’t, considering these memories are many years old), every Saturday during the Summer my dad would grill a steak and he would serve it alongside an artichoke and a healthy bowl of melted butter.

Now that I live outside of California, I rarely see artichoke served in any other way than with spinach and cheese in dip form. Almost never do I see it served plain with a side of butter or other dipping sauce. And that is really the best way to eat an artichoke. Au natural!

There are several ways to cook an artichoke, but the best way I have found is boiling it. It keeps the artichoke moist and tender, which is really the only way you want your artichoke.

But first you have to prep your artichoke. I like to trim the stem of the artichoke so that there is just a little nub left and then a cut off the top. Then I peel the outer leaves off and trim the tops with my kitchen shears.

Like avocados, artichokes brown pretty quickly. So as soon as I am done trimming the ‘chokes I pop them in a bowl of cold water with lemon juice. I also rub a cut lemon on the top cut portion.

Once all the artichokes are prepped, I dump them in a pot of boiling water that I enhance with the lemons from earlier, a bay leaf, and some salt. After about 40 minutes, the ‘chokes are nice and tender.

Ok, so artichokes are fine on their own. And that’s putting it nicely. The best thing about eating artichokes is that you dip them in something super fatty and delicious like butter or mayonnaise.

Butter is a classic. It’s my favorite way to eat artichokes. But aioli (fancy mayonnaise) is also great. Something about that creamy, salty, garliciness is perfect with the artichoke.

A new-found favorite is roasted garlic olive oil. It’s like dipping the artichoke into, well, roasted garlic olive oil. Delicious.

And I guess I am assuming that you know how to eat an artichoke. For those of you are new to artichokes, they are pretty easy to eat. I just pick the leaves off, dip it into my dip of choice, then scrape the flesh off the base of the leaf with my teeth. I know it sounds weird, but it’s delicious.

Once pretty much all the leaves are gone, I pick off all the smaller leaves and then cut out the choke, which is the actual spiky center of the artichoke. Do not eat the choke. What you are after is the heart. After all the choke is removed, you are left with the heart, which you can just dip into butter and eat whole. It’s the best part. It’s what all that hard work was for.

It’s the best part. It’s what all that hard work was for.

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Zucchini Squash Fritters

March 29, 2017

What is a girl to do when she buys a Costco sized bag of zucchini and summer squash? I mean, I can only eat zoodles so many meals in a row. Baking zucchini bread seemed to defeat the purpose of buying the zucchini in the first place (not to stuff my face with carbs). So I thought I would try something a little different: zucchini squash fritters!

Not only did I now have a healthy and delicious lunch option that wasn’t a bowl of zoodles, but was finally able to use the one attachment I have never used on my food processor! The grater!

Let me tell you, that was almost more satisfying than actually eating the fritters.

Start by grating your zucchini (and in my case, also some summer squash) in whatever way you prefer. If you have a food processor, break out that grater attachment and have some fun!

Then dump your grated squash into a colander and set it in the sink or over some paper towels. Sprinkle in some salt to extract the moisture a bit more quickly.

After about 15 minutes, transfer the zucchini to a couple layers of paper towels and then squeeze out as much moisture as possible. Add it to a bowl and mix in the rest of the ingredients, including two different types of cheese, garlic, turmeric, and black pepper.

I have been on this kick of adding turmeric to a lot of my food just for all the health benefits. (Don’t believe me? Just Google “turmeric” and you would have to dig pretty deep past all the healthy articles before you got to any recipes.) But it also adds a nice subtle flavor that goes really well with the zucchini.

Finally, mix the zucchini in with the rest of the ingredients and form into ball. Place the balls into a hot, oiled pan and press them flat into their fritter shape. Once the first side starts to brown, they should be easily lifted off the pan. If you meet any resistance, they may not be fully cooked, or you don’t have enough oil.

I guarantee you will be pleased with these little zucchini squash fritters. They are a little crunchy on the outside, and soft on the inside. Since there is a little cheese hidden in there, every once and a while you will get a little of that melted goodness.

These made for the perfect light lunch and the second most delicious way to use up some extra zucchini (first if obviously this way).

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Mediterranean Chicken Bake

May 13, 2016

Healthy Mediterranean Chicken Bake

Even though I love the process of cooking and will happily embark on a recipe that I will know will take hours, there are some days where I just don’t want to. I want to come home and have dinner ready for me, or at the very least ready for me to pop in the oven with very little prep work. And although rewarding in other ways, I have found Paleo cooking rarely meets that criteria. There are so many ingredients to prep and various stages of a recipe to make up for the lack of gluten, dairy, etc.

That is exactly what inspired this Mediterranean Chicken Bake. It’s low maintenance with little prep work and can be made ahead of time if needed. It basically consists of lots of delicious veggies, chicken breast, and a mixture of herbs and spices. All I had to do was chop up the veggies and chicken and toss them together in a baking dish then bake until everything is nice and roasted.

I used a combination of artichoke hearts (I used frozen), onion, broccoli, tomato, bell pepper, and mushrooms. And for the spices I mixed lots of garlic with basil, oregano, paprika, crushed red pepper, salt, and pepper with some olive oil and lemon juice. I also topped it all with some pine nuts, but for those who want some extra flavor and are not afraid of a little dairy, some feta cheese would be amazing with this!

Healthy Mediterranean Chicken Bake

Of course you could bake your chicken and veggies separately, but then you would have another dish to clean, and nobody wants that. I love cooking everything together because then all the flavors meld together and chicken stays nice and moist.

This would also be a great dish to make ahead of time. I would mix everything together in the dish and the stick it in the fridge until it’s ready to be baked. That was I could immediately come home and toss this in the oven. Which is exactly what I need after a long day at work!

Paleo Mediterranean Chicken Bake

I would also recommend serving this over rice or quinoa if that’s on your diet. Since I made thing while I was on the Whole 30, I couldn’t, but I will be making this again soon and adding some quinoa on the side to soak up all the delicious flavors!

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Veggie and Turkey Meatloaf

April 21, 2014

Meatloaf is having a bit of a renaissance. At least here in the South were “Down Home Cooking” is the latest trend. There are several high end restaurants around us that have their own (dressed up) version of mom’s go-to recipe. Even I have hopped on the bandwagon in the past couple years making a bison and a vegan version, both of which got rave reviews in our house. Today I am posting my latest experiment on the meatloaf front: veggie stuffed turkey meatloaf.

What exactly is that? Well, I basically took a normal meatloaf recipe, exchanged the beef for turkey, the breadcrumbs for carrots, and added in some spinach for good measure. Sure, it’s not the sexiest dish on the planet, but it pretty tasty and healthy.

Because I am limiting the fat in this recipe, it was pretty important to me to add in a lot of additional flavors. To the meatloaf mix I added cilantro (Yes, that is rosemary in the picture. Forget you ever saw that) and loads of garlic. Then to the ketchup basted on top, I added some paprika, garlic powder, and chipotle chili powder. If you like things spicey, you could also add in hot sauce to either the meat mixture or the ketchup or both.

I baked the meatloaf in the mini loaf tins because they are the perfect individual size. You could of course use a normal loaf tin and cut the meatloaf into slices. We served ours with a side of steamed veggies to complete the meal, but these little meatloaves would be great with some smashed cauliflower, too!

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