Vietnamese Spring Roll

This is one of my favorite recipes a very good friend of mine use to make for use in collage. I often use it as a  lite snacks when I want something quick, yet filling and is a good source of protein for me. I serve this with a nice peanut sauce on the side. This can also be a main dish or appetizer.

Vietnamese Spring Roll

• 2 ounces rice vermicelli
• 8 rice wrappers (8.5 inch diameter)
• 8-12 large cooked shrimp – peeled, and deveined
• 1 1/3 tablespoons chopped fresh Thai basil (optional)
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 green onion sliced
• 1/2 cup slice carrots
• 1/2 bag of fresh Spinach Leaves

Directions

1. Bring a medium saucepan of water to boil. Boil rice vermicelli 3 to 5 minutes, or until al dente, and drain.
2. Prep all veggie. I found it easier to make the spring rolls in a assembly line.

 

 

1. Fill a large bowl with warm water. Dip one wrapper into the hot water for 1 second to soften.

1. Lay wrapper flat. In a row across the center, place 2 shrimp halves, a handful of vermicelli, cilantro and spinach leaves, leaving about 2 inches uncovered on each side.

3. Fold uncovered sides inward, then tightly roll the wrapper, beginning at the end with the lettuce. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

3. Serve rolled spring rolls with peanut sauce mixtures.

 

Cowboy Caviar

This recipe comes from from my good friend Sandy. I had this at my Writers Retreat over the weekend and had to recreate it at home. It’s packed with protein and fiber. It’s a great side dish but I ate it as a snack with some Chip’ins for most of of the weekend. YUM!!  I will make its again!

8 Servings

Ingredients

• 1 (15.5 ounce) can Black Beans (rinsed and drained)
• 1 (15.5 ounce) can Black-Eyed peas (rinsed and drained)
• 1 (15.5 ounce) can Chickpeas (rinsed and drained)
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can Roe-Tel
• 2 cups frozen corn kernels (thawed)
• 1/2 medium Red onion chopped
• 1/4 Orange bell pepper finely chopped
• 1/4 Red bell pepper finely chopped
• 1/4 Yellow bell pepper finely chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped pickled jalapeno peppers
• 1 teaspoon fresh Garlic  (maybe more is you love Garlic like I do)
• 1 1/2 cup Fat Free  Italian salad dressing
•  3/4 cup cilantro chopped
• a pinch of salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Mix beans, peas, tomatoes, corn, onion, bell peppers and jalapeno peppers in a large bowl.

2. Season with garlic.

3. Add dressing and cilantro; toss to coat.

4. Refrigerate for 20 minutes or until ready to serve.

5. Serve with chips as a dip or as side dish with the main dish.

Turkey Meat Loaf

This is a quick dinner to make and this is one of my six year old favorite meals. I serve it with mash potatoes, and spinach, walnut with strawberries in a Balsamic dressing. Sorry I didn’t take step by step picture do to working under a time restraint.

Ingredients

1 lb Ground Turkey

1/3 Yellow Onion (chopped)

½ Green Bell Pepper (chopped)

1 tbsp Minced Garlic

¼ tsp Mustard Powered

1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 Egg Beaten

Pepper (to taste)

Tex Joy or Season Salt (to taste)

Ketchup to garnish

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

1. Mix in a large bowl the following: Ground turkey, onion, bell pepper, garlic, mustard, Worcestershire, seasons, and egg. Mix well until it looks like mush and sticks together.

2. Cook in a bread pan or mini 8 slot loaves pan for portion control. Dump mixture into pan and shape into a rectangle. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Take out and cover with ketchup and continue to cook for about 10-15 minutes.

4. Let cool for 10 minutes and then serve.

NEW Product!!! Chip’ins Popcorn Chips

If you love Popcorn then you WILL love this chip! These are my new favorite healthy food snack !!! It has three things I absolutely love going for it.. 1. It’s healthy for me, 2. It’s a chip and 3. It’s popcorn!! What could be better? Not much.

I really like the fact that it’s gluten-free, all natural, whole grain, and has no trans fat. They come in two flavors: Sea Salt and White Cheddar. It’s healthier than the typical fried chip I use to munch on, so I don’t have to feel guilty if I eat more than one. It’s a great dipping chip, but I have noticed that these chip can be delicate so look for bags that have a lot of air in them to cut down on the “crumb” factor.

Serving: 18 chips, 130 Calories, 4g of Fat,1g of Fiber

For my Points Plus Friends these little beauties are just 3 points.

For my WLS Buddies it’s only 2g of Protein but if you are craving a chip this will hip the spot in a pinch.

So check them out the next time you want a chip. To find a store near you look them up at www.PopcornIndiana.com

Black Bean Mango Salsa

This is one of my favorite things to make in the summer or when mango’s are in season. The crisp flavor of the veggies and cilantro, mixed with the sweet taste of mango and spiciness of the jalapeno can be a great compliment to any dish or light snack. I like to serve this with Chip’ins popcorn chips (I’ll do a review on this product soon. It’s my new favorite thing.) or over grilled fish or chicken. I hope you enjoy recipe and much as I do.

Ingredients:

2-3 Fresh Mango (Coarsely Chopped)

½ Can Black Beans (Rinsed and Drained)

½ Red Bell Pepper (Chopped)

½ Green Bell Pepper (Chopped)

½ Red Onion (Chopped)

½ Jalapeno Pepper (Chopped)

½ tsp minced garlic

Sea Salt to taste

Crushed Black Pepper to taste

½ Fresh Lime Juice (if small use one lime)

Cilantro according to taste (Chopped)

Direction:

Place  chopped vegetables, and spices in a large bowl. Mix well until thoroughly combined.

Cut and score mango. Then flip inside out. This makes it easier to dice the slippery fruit and it gives you better control of the size you want to cut for the salsa.

Add Mango to veggie mix and squeeze in the lime juice.

Place black beans in the mixture.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. The longer the flavor meld the better the salsa. It’s that easy. Serve with your favorite chip, fish or chicken dish.

Wonton Soup

Now before you look at the ingredients and say it’s too much work, it’s really not. Trust me, I know because I do the same thing when I see a laundry list of ingredients needed to make the dish. This is a combination of several of different recipes from the internet. I tried to find that ONE awesome recipe to cure my craving for Wonton Soup. Well, needless to say, I didn’t find it. There were just too many choices to pick just one. So I did the next best this thing, I took the basic theme I found in all of the recipes and started add my own “flava” to it. Such as, some recipes called for water chestnuts but I left those out and used cabbage instead. Others called for fish sauce; I used oyster sauce because that’s what I had on hand. You get the picture. Just play around with this recipe and make it your own. This soup is worth the effect and your mouth will thank you.

Ingredients:

1 lb. Lean Pork (can Substitute Turkey Coarsely Chopped)

¼ lb Large Shrimp (peeled and deveined)

1 cup Napa Cabbage leaves

1 Small Can Shitake mushrooms (chopped finely)

¼ cup Green Onions (chopped finely)

1/8 tsp Sesame Oil

½ tsp Ginger Paste (fresh is better)

1/8 tsp Oyster or Fish Sauce

2 tsp Soy Sauce

1/2 tsp or 1 clove of Garlic

½ tsp white pepper powder

1 package Wonton Wrappers

½ tsp Cornstarch (optional)

1tsp Rice wine or Cooking Sherry

Cilantro to garnish

Bowl of water

Directions:

Combine pork, shrimp, cabbage, rice wine, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, chopped mushrooms (save ¼ c  for the soup stock), chopped onion (save ¼ c to garish soup), corn starch and pepper in a mixing bowl.

Mix together.

Place mixture in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour the flavors meld together.

Prepare Wonton broth according to package. If using homemade stock, add the reserve mushrooms and bring to a boil. Then turn down the heat and let steamer.

To wrap Wonton:

http://www.chow.com/food-news/55429/how-to-fold-a-wonton/ I used this video to show me the different styles of wrapping wontons.

Clean working surface. I used the ‘assembly line’ method to make my Wonton. Lay out 4-5 wrappers at a time. Place l tsp of filling in each wrapper. Key is not to over stuff them.

Since you are using raw meat, you want the boil time to cook the wonton all the way. Seal edges of wrapper with water or you can also use a beaten egg. Make sure there aren’t any air pockets or whole in the wraps after you fold them. You don’t want the filling to explode into the water when you cook them.

This is what it should look like after you make the wontons. The video gives your three different styles to choose from.  Place extra Wontons you will not cook on a lined cookie sheet and freeze until hard. Then transfer to a freezer Ziploc bag and cook them as needed.

Bring water to a rapid boil in a large pot. Add wonton. Give a quick stir to make sure they are not sticking to the bottom of the pot . Cook wonton wrappers until they float to the top, about 6-8 minutes.

Then add another ½ cup of tap water to slow down the cooking process. Let boil for another 10 minutes make sure the wontons are cooked thoroughly.

Remove from pot with a slotted spoon and place 4-6 wontons in a bowl with stock. Garnish with green onion, cilantro and serve hot.

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*You can also fry, steam or even bake them.