B.L.A.T.S. !!

When it comes to satisfying sandwiches B.L.A.T.S. are where its at !!! Frequently, they are called a California BLT. I like calling them B.L.A.T.S. and when its said it must be done in an aggressive fun-like manner.

They are hearty, healthful (when done right), and a complete meal. These sandwiches are heavenly and so filling. I could barely finish the one I had before I was getting dizzy from the deliciousness.

Recently, while watching Good Eats I saw Alton Brown describe using a waffle iron to cook bacon perfectly. It was a dream cooking the bacon for our B.L.A.T.S. in our waffle iron. It was so easy, not messy, and with no grease spitting up in my face. Plus, they didnt crinkle up they grilled flat on the waffle iron making it perfect for sandwiches.

If you have it when you grill your bacon up get an empty egg carton and a couple of pieces of papertowel in it. Then once your bacon is cooked add it inside and close up the egg carton and shake it all around. It will remove every ounce of excess grease off your bacon.

Then get your fillings ready. You will need some lettuce, avocados, tomatoes and mayo.

Frequently, when I have made it, using homemade bread for B.L.A.T.S. is another reason why they are out of this world. Slice up your bread and lay it flat on a baking sheet. Toast it up in the oven about 5-7 minutes at 375 degrees.

Then start to assemble your B.L.A.T.S. Lay your toast bread on a plate. Add some mayo on both sides. Pile on some bacon, large slices of tomato and slices of avocado. Finally add some freshly ground pepper and salt.

Then step back in delight and get ready to savor the most delicious sandwich your gonna have.

Enjoy !!!

sweet potato circles

This post is not only a new root vegetable highlight, but a fun kid-like way to cook them. This would also be perfect for children. It would be a great new way to introduce a new texture and new vegetable into their diet. Plus, its fun for them they can pick each one up and actively eat it.

The beautiful purplish thing you see below is a Japanese sweet potato. They have a smoother texture than your traditional orange sweet potato. They are both equally delicious and nutritious don't get me wrong, but there is something about these Japanese sweet potatoes that I really like.

Just 1 cup of these delicious beauties is packed with about 140 calories and 4 grams of dietary fiber. They are great for diabetics and folks who would like to stay away from heavy carbohydrates. Plus, they are loaded with antioxidants. How can you go wrong?

I found the great idea for these Sweet Potato Circles on a lovely food blog called Week of Menus . They are so insanely simple and totally satisfying.

Begin by preheating your oven to 425 degrees. It was recommended that you use a mandolin, but considering I do not have one I just took my time and cut them thin.

Add your circles to a bowl and toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Then arrange them flat on a cookie sheet. Do not overlap the circle otherwise they will not brown properly.

Let them cook in the oven for about 15 minutes. I left mine in a little bit longer because I liked them a little more brown. You may want to flip them at least once during the cooking process so that they are evenly brown.

Serve them up with more vegetables, your favorite protein, a hearty salad and you have yourself a well balanced meal.

Enjoy !!!

BlogAid for Haiti

I won the great BlogAid Cookbook: Recipes for Haiti cookbook from Pierce Whole Nutrition.

I am so incredibly happy about this because I only heard about it after the fact when they had stopped selling them. They raised almost $50,000 for Haiti. It is a collection of recipes from some of my favorite food bloggers. It is such a beautiful way to make a tiny change to the amount of destruction the hurricane cause in Haiti.

Weelicious

Dinner with Julie

Christie's Corner

Backseat Gourmet

Everybody Likes Sandwiches

Pioneer Woman

and much more..

I can't wait to work my way through this great cookbook.

Thanks Ann for the special surprise when I found out I won !!

dd's cranberry orange chicken

My good friend dd gave me this cranberry orange chicken recipe awhile back. When he gave it to me I swore I would eventually make it and rave about it on my blog. Let me tell you folks it is certainly something rave about. It is healthy, vitamin enriched, and one heck of an easy meal to make.

Get your crockpot out and dump the following ingredients in it

1. 1 cup of frozen cranberries

2. 1 chopped onion

3. 1/2 tsp of salt

4. 1/4 tsp of cinnamon

5. 1/4 tsp of ginger

6. 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

7. 1 cup of orange juice

8. 1 orange zested

9. 3 tbs of butter

10. 3 tbs of flour

11. 2 tbs of brown sugar

12. 1/2 of an orange slice into quartered bits

Let that simmer for 8-10 hours on low in the crockpot. Then when you get home from work and put your fuzzy clothes on get some sliced potatoes and steamed broccoli ready.

Plate up your chicken add some baked potatoes and some veg and you have yourself an entire nutritious meal.

Enjoy !!!

jenni's curry

My friend Jenni made this delicious curry for our New Year's celebration. We had a large pot-luck dinner for New Year's. It was a great way to celebrate with friends, good food and fun times. Jenni brought a giant pot of this curry and I had just a 1/2 a cup of it and I knew I wanted to recipe after that.

My husband wasn't sold on just having a meal with tofu in it for dinner. Once we sat down and ate he was pretty happy. I thought this tofu curry is delicious. Plus, the longer I let it sit on the stovetop simmering the better it tasted. It was even better the next day...

You start off with a block of extra firm tofu. Wrap it up in some paper towels to soak up the excess moisture. You can set two soup cans on top of the block to help in putting some pressure down to assist in the drawing out the moisture.

Then cut up the tofu into small bits like you see below in the picture.

Then put more paper towel on top and press down with your hands to get more of the moisture out.

Then heat up some extra virgin olive oil in a frypan. Brown up the tofu bits on all four sides until they are nice and toasty all over.

Once the tofu is browned all over set it on some paper towel and let it drain off any of the excess oil.

Then chop up 1 green bell pepper, 1 onion, 1 yellow pepper and 1 package of baby bella mushrooms.

Then in the same frypan add in 4 tbs of curry paste and 6 tbs of tomato paste or more to taste. It really depends on how spicy and flavorful you want it. Add the onion in and mix that all through until the onions become translucent.

Then add in all your chopped vegetables and stir around until they become softer. Also add in 1 can of chickpeas, 1 can of fire roasted diced tomatoes and 1 can of light coconut milk.

Let it simmer for 20-30 minutes. Serve it up over brown rice. and.....

Enjoy the vegetarian goodness !!!

new found love for port

I have a new found love for port. Does this mean I am a full fledged adult now? Or am I becoming more like my port-loving dad? Is my palette expanding? I had won this bottle of port at a yankee swap this Christmas and I was sold. I need to get out a shop for a bottle or 2 or 3 to have at home.

Its a tasty treat and all you need is a tiny glass like you see in the picture below.

Enjoy !!!

and I'll be back tomorrow with a full-fledged new recipe...

at home popcorn

I love making fresh popcorn at home. It is a healthy snack for any time of the day I have found. I got this popcorn making contraption for Christmas one year and haven't stopped using it since. It is great!!

There is a way around this though. My good friend Alton Brown showed me on an episode awhile back. You take a metal bowl add 1/4 cup of corn kernels, 2 tbs of peanut oil, and 1/2 tsp of salt. Add some foil to the top of that and pierce a couple of holes in it. Then add it to your cooktop get your tongs. Grab ahold of the bowl and shake it around until you hear some popping start. Then keep swishing it around until all the corn has popped. Use your tongs to rip open the foil so your don't burn your digits.

This fanciful contraption does the same thing just has a turn wheel so you don't have to mess with foil or tongs. Use the same recipe as I mentioned above. You can use other oils, but peanut seems to have tasted the best in my humble opinion.

Pop it up and add some seasoned salt and you have your self an amazing treat.

I recently picked up some kettle corn seasoning. Its amazing !!

Try this amazing sweet treat tomorrow....

Enjoy !!!

veggie power pesto pasta

I am sure I am not the first to think of this. I was wondering if you could used other vegetables in pesto and what exactly would it taste like? It could have been a costly mistake, but I was beyond excited once I finally sat down to have dinner that night.

Using Broccoli, Kale, or whatever other dark leafy green vegetable for pesto instead of just Basil. I loved the idea. Really if I was honest with myself I was floored by it. I was happy to have yet another way to sneak more veggies into our diet.

I decided to call this Veggie Power Pesto Pasta because I felt great after I ate it. Sometimes (well most of the time) when I have pasta I feel somewhat lethargic after I indulge in it. Not with Veggie Power Pesto Pasta!!! I felt great. I felt like every ounce of my being was alive and healthy.

So let's get to the recipe. It is such an easy recipe, which is the best part of it !!

Get one large head of kale and one large head of broccoli.

Rip the Kale up into smaller bits then stuff and shove them into your food processor until there is no room left.

Pulse your food processor until it no longer resembles kale leaves and turns into some brilliantly green bits like you see below.

Remove the Kale from the food processor and set aside. Then add the broccoli to the processor.

Then pulse the dickens out of it !!!

Then add your typical pesto flavorings; garlic, shallots, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts (or almonds), and leave the on switch running. Then as the processor is doing what it does best add in about 1/4 cup of olive oil until it comes together into a lovely pesto sauce.

Turn the pesto sauce into a large mixing bowl. Add in your favorite pasta and mix through.

Top with some Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and ....

Enjoy !!!

tex-mex migas

Adapted from: Framed

I have always thought of tex-mex migas as protein power packed taco or burrito. They are a delicious alternative to the every week taco salad/tacos/or burritos we seem to have a lot of. Once created they are a blank slate in terms of what you can add in to adhere to your own individual taste.

Start off by combining 1 lb of ground chicken and one bunch of chopped green onions in a frypan.

Then whisk together 6 eggs with 1 cup of jalapeno cheddar cheese.

Add the whisked eggs into the fully cooked ground chicken and mixed through.

I made a pretty simple version of it this time around. You can add any kind of ingredients into this mixture such as black beans, more jalapenos, green pepper, red pepper, red onion or whatever you like.

Make sure the egg is fully cooked then begin creating your tex-mex migas.

Some whole wheat tortillas....

Salsa, sour cream, more cheese, fresh chopped tomatoes and much more....

Serve it up with some Spanish rice and you have yourself one heck of a meal...

Enjoy !!!

Happy Valentine's Day !!!

Adapted from: The New York Times

Happy Valentine's Day my friends, family, and readers of Top Notch Eats. I do like Valentine's Day. I don't need 8 dozen roses, diamond earrings, chocolates or whatever else is associated with Valentine's Day. I do however use the day as an excuse to spend time with my husband no matter what our schedules look like. We just agree to make sure we spend the day together and enjoy a quality day with one another.

Red Velvet Heart Whoopie Pies

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Then sift together 1 cup of cake flour, 1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa, and 1/2 tsp of salt.

Then mix together 2/3 cup of canola oil and 3/4 cup of sugar in a separate bowl.

Add in one egg and mix through.

Then add in about 2 tbs of gel food coloring until you achieve the right red velvety kind of color...

Then add in 1 tsp of vanilla.

The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of buttermilk. The buttermilk I did have was a few days past its due date and I didn't want to risk it. I used a 1/2 cup of 1% milk and it came out perfectly. Add that it in next and mix through.

Then add in your cake/cocoa mixture half at a time before you add more make sure the first round was completely incorporated.

The originally recipe also called to pour the batter in foil heart molds. I on the other hand make a sheet cake out of it and then use a heart cookie cutter to make the hearts for the whoopie pies !!!

While I was baking away this morning I forgot two of the ingredients. A professional cook/baker may tell you to take it back out of the pan and mix in like the directions suggested. I just pour in the 3/4 tsp of white vinegar and the 1/2 tsp of baking soda and mixed it through in the pan with a fork until it was completely incorporated. Guess What ?!?!? It totally worked out fine. Even though I had forgotten some ingredients I didn't panic and I worked with what I had.

Keep and eye on your cake or molds when you put them in. It should take about 15 minutes. But everyone's oven is different so just keep an eye on it and test with a toothpick to make sure it comes out clean.

Then you will need to mix up your Icing. Begin by mixing with your hand blender 3 tbs butter, 1 8oz cream cheese package, about 1 lb of powdered sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

Then take one of your heart cut-outs and spread some icing inside.

Put the other heart on top to complete your masterpiece and you have yourself one hell of a whoopie pie !!!

Happy Valentine's Day friends !!

Enjoy !!!