Potsticker Sliders

If you are looking for a flavor packed burger variation, this is a great one to try. It has all the flavor of potstickers without the labor. They are a bit delicate, so I would suggest cooking them in a skillet or grill pan instead of the actual grill.

The sauce is a nice glaze and a little goes a long way. It also goes great on veggies, rice, or stir fry.

Potsticker Sliders 

Patties:
1.5-2 pounds ground pork and/or turkey
1.5 cups thinly sliced cabbage (the bagged "angel hair" cabbage slaw in the salad section works well)
1/2 cup canned water chestnuts, diced small
3-4 green onions, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced/grated (or 2 tsp granulated dried garlic)
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger (or 1 tsp dried)
1 egg
4 tbsp soy sauce (or tamari or aminos)

Sauce
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce or tamari
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp-1 tbsp sriracha sauce (depending on how spicy you want it)
2 tsp rice wine vinegar (I've used red wine vinegar or balsamic in a pinch)
1 clove grated/minced garlic (or 1 tsp dried)
1 tbsp fresh grated ginger (or 1 tsp dried)
1 tbsp tomato paste (or ketchup)
1 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp water

1 (12 count) package hawaiian king rolls

Directions

Combine all the patty ingredients well, but don't over mix. Divide and form 12 patties. Heat up a skillet or grill pan. Spray/coat with oil of choice and cook patties 3-5 minutes on each side, or until done. Probably will be in batches.

Meanwhile, combine soy sauce, sugar, sriracha, vinegar, garlic, ginger, and tomato paste in a small sauce pan. Heat over medium until boiling. Combine water and corn starch and add to sauce. Lower to medium low and simmer 3-5 minutes

To serve, place a patty on a bun and drizzle some glaze on top.

Blender Pancakes

I'm going to be up front and say we do have a Vitamix, so this recipe might not work as well in other blenders. But definitely give it a try because I think even if the oats don't get ground completely smooth, that it will be ok. Just be sure to blend the dry ingredients first.

There are many substitutions you can use depending on what you have or want to use. Mix and match. Experiment.

For the sweetener, you can use maple syrup, honey, regular or brown sugar, or skip it altogether. I actually made a sweet date paste and froze it in ice cube trays and I use one of those.

Some variations I have done:
Cinnamon and applesauce. Cocoa and banana. Almond butter and frozen blueberries (you can either blend them right in for purple pancakes, or stir them in). Pumpkin puree and pie spice. You could add spinach for green pancakes.

You can also add a tbsp or two of ground flax seed or chia seeds.


Blender Pancakes
Ingredients:

2 cups old fashioned/rolled oats
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sweetener of choice
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream OR plain greek yogurt OR cottage cheese (or combo thereof)
2/3 cup milk (or alternative milk)
2/3 (approx) cup of fruit, such as a banana, applesauce, pumpkin puree
1 tsp spices (cinnamon, pie spice, etc) AND/OR 1 tbsp flavoring like cocoa powder, almond/peanut butter
Optional: Chia seeds, flax meal, vanilla, spinach

Place all dry ingredients in the blender and pulse or blend until a flour consistency (or as close as you can)

Add the dry ingredients and blend until smooth. Lower powered blenders may need you to stop periodically and scrape the sides down.

Warm a skillet over medium. Once fully heated, melt some butter or drizzle/spray some oil and pour about 4 inch circles of batter from your blender pitcher. Once the bubbles out the outer inch of the pancakes stop forming, flip and continue to cook.

I let the pancakes rest for a minute or two before serving.

Lemon Garlic Chicken with Zucchini Noodles and Asparagus

I make this garlic chicken a lot right now. Its incredibly flavorful and freezes great. Its based on a "dump chicken" pinterest recipe. Meaning you can dump it all in a bag and freeze it. Then you can thaw it and use it in several ways. In the crock pot, sauté it, grill it. Its great on its own, sliced on a salad, or like this over noodles (or zoodles). I lightly floured the chicken and that helped thicken the sauce. I used a all purpose gluten free blend when I made this today, but obviously regular AP flour is great too.


If you don't have all the dried herbs I suggest, just use what you have. The real flavor comes from the lemon and garlic. The herbs are just bonus, but recommended. The herbs give a nod to "ranch" flavor.

I like to make the meat stretch, so I made 4 adult servings with 2 chicken breasts and the veggies. If you are making the lemon chicken to be a larger part of a meal, I would double this part of the recipe.

Normally I marinade them whole, but since I knew I would be cubing them for this recipe, I cubed them before adding the marinade. If you make this with whole breasts to freeze, and decide to make this with them later, you can obviously cube it later. Or even cook whole and then cube. Whatever floats your boat.

You will need some sort of vegetable noodle maker for this recipe. Or a mandolin to make julienne strips. There are several types of veggie noodle makes on amazon.

You could easily use angel hair pasta if you desire

Lemon Garlic Chicken:

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
juice of 1 large lemon
2 tbsp oil
5 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp dried chives
1 tsp dried dill

Combined everything but the chicken, and then add to chicken in a zip top bag and either marinade for a few hours or freeze and thaw overnight in the fridge.


Lemon Garlic Chicken with Zucchini Noodles and Asparagus:

Ingredients:
1 batch lemon garlic chicken (cubed, or cook it whole and cube)
3 large or 5 medium zucchinis
1 bunch asparagus (thinner is better, but not needed)
1/2 cup flour
salt and pepper
3 tbsp oil
1/2 cup white wine (can sub for more broth but the wine is amazing. You could buy the individual mini bottles of wine in some places)
1 cup broth
salt and pepper to taste

Zoodle your zucchini.

Place a strainer over a bowl and dump the chicken into it.

Heat a medium sauce pan of water to boiling. Add a good amount of salt. Have a medium bowl of ice water waiting

Cut the bottom couple inches of the asparagus off. Cut into 1-2 inch chunks. Add to boiling water and boil about 2 minutes. Drain and add to the ice water. Set aside.

Heat the largest skillet you have on medium.

Combine the flour, salt, and pepper. Take the chicken (save the bowl with any juices that drained off) and toss it in the flour until coated.

Add the oil. Once hot, add chicken. Cook until done. Some of my breading fell off or stuck a little. Not a big deal. Take the chicken out and set aside.

Add the wine and scrape all the brown bits off the pan. Whisk in the broth and let simmer for 5 minutes or so.

Taste the sauce and and salt and pepper if needed (I make it a little salty because its also seasoning the noodles and asparagus.)

Add the chicken, drained asparagus, and zoodles to the pan. Toss with tongs and heat until warmed through and remove from heat. Serve.

Knock-Off Shake and Bake Mix

I set out to whip up my own version of this flavor bomb and it definitely paid off. These awesomely flavored breadcrumbs can make a very fast meal out of chicken or pork chops, or makes for a great breading for nuggets, risotto cakes, or even a topping for casseroles or baked mac and cheese.

This makes a lot. I keep it in my freezer in a couple zip locks.

Knock off Shake and Bake

Ingredients:

4 cups panko bread crumbs
1/3rd cup oil (I use olive or avocado)
1 tbsp seasoning salt
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp celery salt
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp dried parsley
1 pinch dried oregano

Whisk together all ingredients and keep in freezer in an airtight container. 1/2-3/4 cups is enough to cover 4 pork chops or 4 chicken breasts.

I like to coat and heat up a cast iron pan. Put some oil in it. Cook the chops on one side, flip them, and put the whole thing in a 400 degree oven until the internal temp shows its done. It all depends on the thickness of the meat.

Zuppa Toscana Soup

There are several variations of this recipe around. I looked at many of them and took what I felt sounded good and went with it. I've made it twice this month and its been a hit

I use my mandolin to cut the potatoes. I peel 2, cut in half the long way, and slice them on the "very thin" setting so they cook and break down to thicken the soup slightly. Then the other 4, I cut in half the long way and slice them on the "thin" setting with the peel still on.

If you want, you can just dice or cube up the potatoes.

You can also use mild/sweet italian sausage and add some red pepper flakes

Zuppa Toscana Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb hot italian sausage
4 slices bacon
1 large onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
8 cups chicken broth
6 russet potatoes. Sliced, cubed, or diced.
1 large bunch kale, tough stem removed and sliced into ribbons
1 cup whole milk, half and half, or cream
salt and pepper, to taste
parmesan cheese for serving, optional

Crumble and brown the sausage in you stock pot or dutch oven. Dump into a strainer and rinse well under hot water for 15 seconds. This sausage has a orange grease, and if you don't rinse, the top of your soup will be orange.

Wipe out your pot and heat to medium. Cut up the bacon into chunks and cook until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and add onions. Cook until transparent, 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute

Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add potatoes. Simmer until fork tender. 15-20 minutes.

Add sausage and bacon. Check seasoning and adjust as needed. Add kale. Let simmer 5 minutes and serve with parmesan cheese on top.

Chocolate PB Banana Smoothie

This smoothie will keep you full for hours. You can modify to what you have on hand, but the full deal is really dynamite.

You can make smoothie packs for the freezer with either zip top bags or these reusable containers I found on amazon. Im all about cutting down on plastic in my life, but these are cheap, washable, and stack. I let them thaw on the counter for 20 minutes just to make it easier to blend. I add everything but the liquid to the packs. I put in all the ingredients but the greens and then pack the greens to the top

Soaking the oats are really important. One, they help you digest the oats better and get more nutrients from them. And two, it helps the blender break them down better. This is really important if you don't have a high end blender like a Vitamix or Blendtec.

To soak oats, take 1 part dry rolled/old fashioned oats and 1 part filtered water. Add a splash of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar and cover. Let sit overnight. No need to drain. When I make the smoothies in advance in the freezer, I just make a large amount. If you want to make the smoothie one day at a time, just get in the habit of taking 60 seconds to do this the night before. The oats are really important in this to help keep you full. For one smoothie, I soak 1/4 cup oats and get roughly 1/2 cup once it soaks.

I get a large bag of ground flax seed from Costco and keep it in my freezer to keep it from going rancid. I would suggest doing the same or buying flax seed and a cheap coffee grinder and grinding it yourself if you want. Chia seeds would also work (but they are super not fun to clean out of the blender, in my opinion.

I use dark chocolate almond milk for the liquid. Its fast and is just sweet enough to make the smoothie perfect. However, if you are preferring a more "whole food" approach, I have also used plain almond milk or full fat organic milk with a tbsp cocoa powder and some sweetener. Honey, maple syrup, or dates.

For the greens, I generally use baby spinach, kale, or baby kale. I have also used the super greens blend at Costco. I generally can easily pack 2 cups of spinach into the smoothie, but generally use a little less kale because I find it a tad stronger.

Ok, enough talk.

Chocolate PB Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 cup dark chocolate almond milk
1-2 cups greens, such as kale, spinach, chard, collards
1 banana
1 tbsp ground flax seed
1 tbsp peanut butter
1/2 cup soaked oats
Ice

Put the ingredients in the blender in the order listed. I start with just a little ice and add until I get the consistency I want. The level of ice I use depends on what ingredients are already frozen.

Pasta with Broccolini and Sausage

I came across a similar recipe on Pinterest, but it was very poorly written and the instructions were awful. So since I had to wing it so much and I tweaked to my own tastes, I didn't feel bad reblogging it as my own.

Broccolini is a wonderful thing. My dear husband hates broccoli. Despises it. So I have avoided broccolini as well, assuming it would be the same deal. Well, one day I decided to give it a try, and alas, he liked it! The broccoli flavor is there, but subdued. It almost has an asparagus taste. A great green and now a favorite.

This pasta dish is delicious. I really recommend using the orecchiette pasta if possible, but any short pasta will work. I finally found a package of orecchiette at Trader Joes, so that is what I used. I love it because the sausage and cheese really gets inside the divots and makes for a delicious bite.

If you use the orecchiette, a couple tips. Its a starchier pasta, which is great for using the pasta water to help create a creamy sauce. But along with that perk, comes an annoyance of REALLY wanting to stick together. So, make sure you use a LARGE pot with a LOT of salty water. Make sure its at a RAPID boil, and make sure to stir VIGOROUSLY for 1 minute after you add the pasta. I don't mean to yell at you, but pasta that gets stuck inside itself and doesn't fully cook as a result makes me gag.

Pasta with Broccolini and Sausage 

Ingredients:

3 tbsp olive oil
2 bunches broccolini, 1 inch trimmed off the ends and larger pieces sliced in half the long way.
1 lb sweet italian sausage (casings removed if applicable)
1 package short pasta, preferably orecchiette
6 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced.
6 sun dried tomatoes, patted dry (if in oil) and sliced thin
salt and pepper
1 tbsp fresh basil (optional)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup shredded parmesan

Bring one large pot full of water to a boil. Add a good amount of salt (like salty ocean water, is how it should be)

Add the broccolini and boil for 2-3 minutes, Use tongs to remove them and plunge in ice water for 2-3 minutes.

Return water to a rapid boil and cook pasta as directed on package. RESERVE 3/4 cup pasta water (put the measuring cup in the strainer to remind yourself)

Meanwhile, add 3 tbsp olive oil to a large skillet on medium heat. Add and crumble the sausage. Cook until browned, stirring often. Use a slotted spoon to remove sausage. Turn to low

Add sliced garlic to pan with juices. (can add another tbsp olive oil if needed). Cook until golden brown. Take care not to burn. Add broccolini, sausage, sun dried tomatoes, basil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Once heated through, add pasta and pasta water. Toss well and check seasonings.

 Serve with shredded parm