Hoshi Sushi Lounge

Things that make you go drooooollll for $100, Alex!  Don't tell me you're not salivating looking at that picture.  Sushi is one of prettier forms of food I've ever come across, it's literally an edible art form.

Justin and I took a sushi rolling class a couple years ago so we've had a few sushi parties at home to showcase our skillzzzz...but it's always nice to head out for the real deal with no fuss once in a while.  I wish it wasn't so expensive, I could mow on some sushi every week! 

We had a coupon for a sushi platter for 4 at Hoshi, and this was the result.  We had done this before with just Justin and I, and I was nervous that we didnt' get to choose the rolls we got, they just made us up a plate. I was not disappointed...we cleaned up! So when I saw the groupon again, of course I snatched it up. 

This time we went with Christina and Nate, and we actually met the owner (La) who was very friendly, informational, and accomodating during our 3 hour dinner in the Drake neighborhood.  He even let us try some escolar, which he explained to us we needed to limit to 6 oz portions per person so as to keep our pants clean after dinner (to put it nicely).  You can read about escolar HERE, it's actually pretty interesting and super de duper tasty...so rich and buttery.  He also gave us a pokie salad that had mango, tuna, veggies, and some sauce on it that was phenom.  He ALSO gave us a round of saki bombs on the house, which fit right into my weekday trying to fit in a bridesmaids dress diet (cough, cough). 

Needless to say, after the great food, wonderful service, awesome hospitality, and trendy ambiance...we may have found ourselves a new fave sushi joint! Go check it out!

Chicken taco salad

I've been busy lately, with not much time to cook.  I see other blogger's who have people guest post when they don't have anything to share at the moment...enter my Aunt Kris!  She doesn't even know she's guest posting :)  Since the birth of my blog, my Aunt (who lives in AZ) has enjoyed posting her yummy healthy eats for me on facebook with recipes included for me to try...one of my faves being the stuffed shells. She's an RN so she's knowledgeable in the healthy cooking area plus she's a Kratoska so she loves food that tastes yummy!  Anyway, here is a simple weekday recipe that I plan on trying very soon...

Lettuce, whatever kind you like- sometimes I use a couple varieties mixed together
Fresh Cilantro, cleaned and chopped (this makes the salad, in my... opinion)
Light Ranch Dressing (Maries Refrigerated is the best)
Powdered Taco Seasoning
Organic/Whole Grain Taco Chips (I use whatever I have on hand), crumbled (if you want to be fancy you can buy taco strip salad toppings)
Whatever else you want to top with- Typically I use:
Shredded chicken or carne asada, warmed (the chicken is lower in fat and calories)
Canned, rinsed pinto or kidney beans
Frozen corn, thawed or canned Mexi-corn, drained
Onion, diced
Tomato, diced
Avocado, diced
Black olives, diced
Shredded cheddar or 2% or part skim shredded cheddar

Mix the lettuce with the cilantro to taste (I use a goodly amount of cilantro) in a large bowl if you’re serving several or just on your plate for one serving. After you plate the lettuce mixture, top with warmed shredded meat (I used chicken here) and whatever other toppings you prefer. Finish the salad off with a little shredded cheese and crumbled taco chips. Finally, top with taco seasoned dressing (see below).

Dressing: Pour whatever amount of ranch dressing you will need into a glass bowl or Tupperware container and mix with powdered taco seasoning to taste. Add just a little for mild heat or a lot for more heat.
 
This works great for a crowd. Easy to prep and everyone can top with what they like. I also make it and just store all the ingredients in snap top containers and then I can have a quick lunch or dinner for several days in a row- easy smeasy....

The key to keeping it healthy is to use quality ingredients and moderation in the amount of toppings you use. Go easy on the cheese and taco chips; you don’t need a lot to get the flavor or the crunch.

The brand of chips I show in the picture, Food Should Taste Good, is my favorite if you can find them in your area - they come in lots of varieties of flavors and are made with whole grains & are low in healthy fat and taste great- my favorite is their sweet potato chips. Maries Light Ranch Dressing is the best I’ve found in terms of healthy ingredients without added chemicals/preservatives and has good flavor. You can’t even tell you’re eating a light dressing once you add the taco seasoning. (Usually I don’t like reduced fat or calorie dressings. They’re usually full of more sugar and artificial chemicals and aren’t very good for you… and they don’t taste very good anyway. I’d rather have a smaller amount of the real thing than more of the other stuff, but in this case I can’t tell the difference, as long as it’s the Maries brand.)

 

Homemade chili

I've made chili a trillion gazillion times before but have never really written down the recipe.  It's sort of a throw everything you have in there and keep tasting till it's right type of thing.  This was no different...except I finally kept track of what I put in there!  I remember making chili my first time and not really having a recipe to follow, so I thought it might make it easier on some of you that may have never made it before, to have the basics laid out since I may or may not have been asked for a recipe in the past (ahem, Brandy Sue).  :)

I made a ginormous batch in our huge stock pot.  I wanted a full crockpot for tailgating, plus a full crockpot to freeze for another tailgate down the road. I will be gone for one of the games in November, so this way there will be food for the drunk boys to eat while I'm gone. If I left it up to them, they would bring beer and vodka and that doesn't bode well for anyone!  The leftovers will be great to pull out and thaw for a nice November gameday....

4 lbs ground beef, browned

6 lb BOOMSY sized can of chili beans from Sam's Club (don't drain the juice!)

4 cans crushed tomatoes

3 cans tomato paste

2 cans mushrooms, drained (would have used fresh if I had them on hand, the more fresh stuff you can add to your chili, the better)
10 jalapenos, diced (seeds left in...it won't be that hot with as much other stuff you're cramming into the pot)
2 diced onions
2 cups whole cherry tomatoes, because we're are STILL trying to get rid of these, they won't stop growing in the garden!
20 tomatoes worth of juice, pureed from fresh tomatoes from the garden.  These were boiled and put in ice water so the skin and bad parts could be removed easier, and then put in a food processor/blender to liquify.  Step by step directions on HOW TO make the tomato juice are linked here.  If you don't want to take the time to do this part, you can use a couple cans of tomato sauce instead.
Season how you would like, but I use a special chili powder from Arizona (which I am almost out of sadly) to spice this chili up, as well as a few T of jalapeno salt.  The best way to season chili is to keep tasting and adding as you like it.  Some people love some heat and others don't, regulating your seasoning is the way to make sure you don't get a surprise ending when your chili is done.

Add everything to the pot to bring to a boil, and then simmer on low for as long as possible.  I was very happy with how this turned out.  Had it been for just Justin and I, I would've added some more heat, but since we were serving a large group (plus one special pregnant chick), I wanted to be sure I wouldn't kill anyone.  Nothing says Fall and gameday quite like a little pot of chili....

Purple rosemary potatoes

Yes, these things are for real purple.  I didn't dye them. I've heard about these from a few people before and that the natural color in veggies like this is a signal that they are very heart healthy and great for calorie burning.  Since then I read HERE that they are great for lowering blood pressure too.  So I snatched these babies up when I saw them hanging out in the produce aisle...no hurt in giving them a shot, right? 

I didn't do anything crazy with these.  My standard olive oil, salt, pepper, minced garlic, and rosemary seemed like it would do the trick.  I looooove rosemary on taters!  Seems like the perfect flavor for any spud....and it was.  If I couldn't see the color difference, I doubt I would've noticed any flavor difference between these and reds that I would normally use.  The only thing I could maybe say is that the texture of these was a bit better than I would have expected, or maybe I was just hungry and liked food that night?  Either way, I will be buying these suckers again.  I usually think of potatoes as the enemy so reading an article like the one above is music to my eyeballs! 

Balsamic goat cheese asparagus

I'm not real sure how I feel about goat cheese.  This is only the 2nd time I've worked with it, and I'm not sure why it creeps me out a bit.  Maybe it's the texture?  I did really enjoy the mixture of goat cheese with the balsamic and olive oil used in this asparagus recipe though. It melted really nicely and gives a bitterness to the asparagus that you don't expect. 

2 T olive oil
juice from 1/2 a lemon
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 medium garlic clove, minced
1 t rosemary
pinch red pepper flakes
black pepper to taste
1.5 lbs asparagus with tough ends cut off
1 oz goat cheese, crumbled

Whisk together everything but the asparagus and goat cheese.

Lay asparagus in greased baking sheet and toss with the dressing. Throw them in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 and then sprinkle goat cheese on top to serve.

Jalapeno popper chicken

There's a new favorite in the hiz-ouse!  I was pretty pumped at how scrumdiddlyumptious (name that movie!) this chicken was, and way better for you than the fried jalapeno poppers!  Sit back, and get ready to be handed your new fave chicken recipe....

We had Amanda and Greg over for dinner last week and I gave them a list of a few recipes I wanted to try in order to decide the menu for the evening. All of us minus Justin were coming straight from boot camp so I wanted to make sure it was something we would like since I'm usually about ready to eat my arm off after Coach Pin kicks my booty!  They chose this and I'm glad they did...this was a lot easier than I expected, I made it the night before to save time but it would have been just fine to prepare that night. 

4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 oz fat free cream cheese
1/2 cup 2%cheddar cheese
4 jalapenos (chopped)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
3/4 cup Panko
2 t taco seasoning
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease your baking dish with Pam. Chop the jalapenos up, this time I removed the seeds to prevent mouth burnage, but next time Amanda and I decided it would be perfect if I only remove the seeds for half of the jalapenos. I wanted a bit more heat with the chicken, even though it was wonderful the way it was...you know how I am.  Mix together the cream cheese, shredded cheese, and jalapeno peppers. 

Use a knife to make a pocket in each chicken breast. Mix together bread crumbs, Panko, and taco seasoning on a plate.  Whick the egg in a separate bowl. 

Fill the chicken with the cheese filling, dip it in the egg, cover in the breading, and add to your baking dish.

Can't get much easier than that...boom, boom, boom. Bake for 30 minutes and you've got a meal for 4!

This baked version is way better for you than a normal fried jalapeno popper but has the same great taste.  We all killed our servings, I just couldn't stop nibbling on it even after I was full.  Anyway, this one is going in the favorites tab as well so I can remember to throw it into the rotation again soon....you should give it a shot too :)

Tuscan chicken pasta

This is actually a meal that I've made quite a few times. It started out as one of those McCormick spice packet meals that I've mentioned before, this one is for Tuscan chicken stew, but I've modified it a bit.  I don't buy the packets anymore, just keep the recipe card for future use.  Looking below, it seems like this requires a lot of ingredients but it's really not too bad as it's mainly stuff I keep on hand anyway.  I only really have to make sure to grab a couple things if I want to make this.

1 t fennel seed
1 t basil leaves
1 t minced garlic
1 t rosemary leaves
1 t oregano
1 t black pepper
1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
1 medium onion, diced
1 can (15 oz) cannellini or other white beans, drained and rinsed (that sliminess with canned beans is gucky)
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (I used rotel diced tomatoes with habaneros to add some heat)
1 can mushrooms (wasn't in the recipe, I just like em!)
1/2 cup red wine (or use water if you are a non boozer who doesnt keep vino in the house)
1 pkg baby spinach leaves
1 cup cherry tomatoes from your garden because you have a legitimate problem on your hands with having too many to use, and serious personal issues with letting food go to waste
1 package wheat noodles (spag, angel hair, whatev)

Use Pam to keep the skillet non-stuck and cook the chicken breasts until they are browned (about 10 minutes.

Start a pot of boiling water for your noodles, I used wheat thin spagetti noodles this time but usually use wheat angel hair for this recipe.  Remove the chicken and cut into bite sized pieces. Add onion and fennel seed to the skillet and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes or until tender, stirring throughout.

Stir in beans, tomatoes, red wine, and remaining spices.  Stir frequently and bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cover and simmer for 5 minutes.  Return chicken to skillet and stir in spinach.

Cover and cook for 5 minutes longer or until spinach is wilted.

Once the noodles are cooked, add them to the skillet.  I used a whole box, which may have been excessive considering we only had 2 people to feed and I've already eaten 3 meals off this by myself.  This is one of my fave pastas as I feel like it's light and fresh but also filling and hearty.  Or maybe it's because I have to open a bottle of wine for the recipe and you know I can't let that go to waste...

Add some parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper to spice it up a bit, and have at it!