Month: February 2017

Asparagus Fries

Spring is in the air! Can you feel it? On the other hand, maybe it is just me willing it here. Winter just isn’t my bag. I can get into a little snow around Christmas but beyond that, I am ready for it to disappear for another eleven months and three weeks.

As I daydream about spring, I think about gardening, daffodils extending from the ground and showing off their pretty faces to the sun, and spring vegetables. Is there anything better than asparagus, peas, radishes, and greens? Well, perhaps, garden tomatoes and corn but right now after a long, cold, and super snowy winter, I crave all things springtime.

We have a friend named Denny who is in his seventies and who knows some secret spots in old orchards near his home where asparagus grow wild. GROWS WILD! I am such a city girl that it never crossed my mind that asparagus would grow wild. I know now that it does, and if I am lucky, he will feel healthy enough to go asparagus hunting this spring. He loves to pickle the asparagus (bloody Marys!) but sometimes he will show up at my door with a bag of asparagus that he has picked.

The orchards near his home seem to be getting smaller each year. Families sell off the land and developers build homes in their place, which makes me sad. So, even if you don’t have a source of wild asparagus available to you, at this time of year, grocery stores start selling asparagus at decent prices. I buy bunches of it in the spring. I love it steamed with lemon, roasted with olive oil and seasonings, or dipped in eggs and dredged in spices and panko. I added chipotle chili powder and cayenne to the seasonings which adds some heat. You can skip those if you don’t want the fries to have a kick.

Asparagus fries are wonderful appetizers to serve with drinks. They also make a beautiful accompaniment to seafood. I like to pick them up with my fingers and dip them into a complementary sauce. In the pictures in this post, I dipped into a spicy mango sauce, which is delicious. You can also dip them into warm marinara sauce or garlicky aioli. I also think that they would be delicious with Asian-inspired peanut sauce. I especially love Ina Garten’s peanut sauce.

How to make Asparagus Fries

How to make Spicy Mango Sauce

Here is the link to my post on how to make spicy mango sauce or you can follow the directions below.

Ingredients

1 ripe mango, peeled and diced

¾ cup canned coconut milk

1 tablespoon Sriracha

1/2 tablespoon honey

1 lime, juice and zest

1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped

½ teaspoon chipotle chili powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Place ingredients for sauce in blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

Put sauce in a canning jar or covered container for one hour.

Coconut Shrimp

Coconut shrimp. I adore this easy and elegant appetizer. The coconut and panko are a crunchy coating to the tender and sweet shrimp. The recipe comes together in very little time and is quite a stunner on the table. You could also easily double the recipe, serve with rice and veggies, and enjoy a scrumptious meal.

I will always have a sweet spot in my heart for coconut shrimp. It was one of my father’s favorite foods. That may not mean much to you but my father was one of those people who considered food as not much more than fuel. He wasn’t the most satisfying person to cook for because when you asked him what he thought of a meal you had prepared for him his most common response was ‘it was okay.’

Nevertheless, he did love coconut shrimp. I will admit that I often cringed when he ordered the deep-fried version of coconut shrimp out at a restaurant. Therefore, I began testing recipes where I baked the coconut shrimp rather than fried it in oil.

I made him this version numerous times and often received the elusive compliment that he thought it was delicious. You can pair these shrimp with commercially prepared mango salsa (I like Costco’s) for a quick dipping sauce. On the other hand, you can easily blend up the spicy mango dipping sauce recipe listed below and have enough left over to dip all kinds of crazy delicious foods into it.

Pairing the coconut shrimp with this spicy mango sauce is new for me though. My father probably would not be crazy about it but I love it. You get a little bit of sweet from the mango and coconut milk and some heat from the Sriracha and chipotle chili powder. I think it is a perfect complement to the shrimp and it could not be easier to pull together.

How to Make Coconut Shrimp

Spicy Mango Sauce

Here is the link to my post on how to make spicy mango sauce or you can follow the directions below.

Ingredients

1 ripe mango, peeled and diced

¾ cup canned coconut milk

1 tablespoon Sriracha

1/2 tablespoon honey

1 lime, juice and zest

1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped

1/2 teaspoon chipotle chili powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Place ingredients for sauce in blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

Put sauce in a canning jar or covered container for one hour.

If you are interested in other Asian-inspired recipes, here are few to try:

Veggie Enchiladas

My main goal in life is to incorporate more vegetables in the food that I prepare for myself and my family and friends. Okay, calling it my main goal in life may be an exaggeration, but it is a very important consideration in my cooking. Vegetables are full of healthful nutrients. They are also proven to reduce the incidence of most lifestyle-related diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. These veggie enchiladas are delicious AND nutritious!

Eat Your Veggies

So, do you still need convincing about why sneaking adding vegetables into every meal is important? Okay, here it goes, vegetables are cheap. Who could argue with adding more budget-friendly food into your diet? Vegetables are also delicious. Stick with me on this one.

This veggie enchilada recipe is for you if you not a veggie lover. Or, it is also for veggie lovers who live with and cook for veggie-resistant people, I encourage you to try introducing new veggies to your crew and/or new preparations of veggies.

For example, most people can behind the idea of eating a tray full of warm, cheesy enchiladas. Right? What if you added some delicious roasted vegetables to the beans and cheese that most people expect in their enchiladas? I tried this out on family and they gobbled up the enchiladas. As a result, I effectively and deliciously added an extra serving of vegetables to their day!

For this recipe, I roasted sweet potatoes, red peppers, and red onions in order to bring out the sweetness of the vegetables. By seasoning the veggies in in olive oil and chipotle chili powder, salt, and pepper, they take on a smoky, spicy flavor.

Once you are ready to start assembling the enchiladas, spread refried beans on a tortilla, top with roasted veggies, add finely chopped kale and cheese on top, and then roll up! Then, you slather on enchilada sauce and more cheese, no one will be the wiser about the big favor that you have done for them.

Leftover Filling

If you have any of the filling leftover, you can use it to make:

Huevos rancheros – warm corn tortillas, top with refried beans, leftover veggies, fried egg & salsa
Frittata – Beat eggs in a bowl, add leftover veggies to greased pan to warm, add egg mixture and cook until set
Quesadilla – Warm up leftover veggies, place a tortilla in pan, add veggies and shredded cheese, top with other tortilla, cook until golden on both sides. Slice into 6 pieces and serve with salsa

Here are a few other recipes that are chock full of veggies for you to consider:

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Greek Buddha Bowl

One of the things that I love about Buddha bowls is that you get a complete meal in a bowl. Hello Fun Seekers’ reader Mila inspired this Greek Buddha Bowl. I combined the flavors that you typically associate with Greek food, like feta, olives, red onions, and a spicy yogurt sauce into a hearty and healthy meal. This Greek Buddha Bowl recipe is the second in a series of Buddha bowl recipes here at Hello Fun Seekers. The first post was a Mexican food inspired Fiesta Buddha bowl.

Are there flavor combinations that you love that would make a great Buddha Bowl? I would love to hear them in the comments below. I am thinking about Thai flavors or maybe sushi roll flavors.

Ingredients and Swaps

Along with their versatility, I adore the way a Buddha bowl incorporates a grain (in this case, farro), vegetables (zucchini, red onion, and red pepper), and beans (garbanzos) into a nutritional powerhouse of a meal. All that is needed is a delicious sauce and perhaps a few toppings and dinner is done. But, the beauty of a Buddha bowl is the way the recipe can be adapted to incorporate your favorite flavors.

There are no rules here! Swap out ingredients that you or your family are not crazy about with ingredients that are more palatable to you. If you aren’t a zucchini fan just replace it with something else that is green. How about broccoli? Or, perhaps spinach suits you better? Don’t roast the spinach but you could sauté it if you didn’t want to use it raw. However, you can use it raw and the spinach would likely wilt a little bit when combined with the warm grain and roasted veggies and be incredibly delicious.

Have you tried farro? Farro is a wheat grain often used in Italian cuisine. Until recently, farro was sometimes difficult for me to find at the grocery store. Thankfully, I can regularly find farro at Trader Joe’s and sometimes in the bulk bins of many grocery stores. Farro has a slightly chewy texture and nutty flavor when cooked. If you can’t find farro you can substitute other grains such as brown rice, quinoa, or barley in this recipe.

Seven Chili Recipes that Tom Brady Might Eat on Sunday if He Weren’t Playing in the Super Bowl

By Diane Hartford

On February 4, 2017

In Food

Blow Your Mind Black Bean Chili

I am sure you have heard all about Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen’s diet in the media last year. If not, you can read about it here in an article which features an interview with their private chef. Let’s face it, it is intriguing to think about fueling your body the way a professional athlete and super model do, isn’t it? But, oy! No dairy? No fruit? No peppers? No tomatoes? That’s too many ‘no’ foods for me.

Or, maybe you don’t care what Tom Brady eats but you do have friends or family members who are vegetarians. You may be flummoxed by what to serve them for dinner. I am looking at you Mom. My poor Mom. Two daughters and both are vegetarians. Two grand kids and they are also vegetarians.

Meatless Chili Recipes

Don’t avoid having your veggie-loving friends and family over for dinner because you can’t think of anything to cook for them. I am here to assist! I have assembled seven recipes for meatless chili from a few fellow food bloggers which not only taste great but also are super hearty. These recipes are meant to show that vegetarian food is so much than a lettuce and tomato salad.

These recipes are full of vegetables, beans, and whole grains. All the stuff that doctors and nutritionists recommend that we eat. So, even if you aren’t a vegetarian or cooking for vegetarians, I encourage to add a vegetarian meal to weekly meal planning.

Photo by Hello Fun Seekers

Blow-Your-Mind Black Bean Chili

Photo by Apples for CJ

Lentil Bean Chili

Photo by Vintage Kitty

Vegan Vegetable Stew

Photo by The Hungry Waitress

Crock Pot Vegan Green Chili Soup

Photo by Healthy Happy Mama

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili

Photo by Cooking with Janica

Meatless Quinoa Chili

Photo by Umami Girl

Smoky Vegetarian Chili with Pinto Bean and Corn

7 Vegetarian Recipes

Blow-Your-Mind Black Bean Chili

Are you ready for football to be over for the season? I know that I am. Honestly, this year I couldn’t care less about either team that is playing in the Super Bowl. The only thing I am excited about is hanging out with friends and eating delicious food.

After Thanksgiving, the Super Bowl is the next big event in the Olympics of food.

You want to bring a dish to the party that will be delicious and Instagram-worthy. You may want it to have some sort of nutritional value. I always prefer homemade food, cooked from scratch, because I am weird like that. I want my food to be made from ingredients from the Earth rather than chemicals in a factory.

My daughter often laments when she visits my house that my kitchen is full of ingredients rather than food. I take this as a compliment, although, I know it is not intended as such.

Super Bowl Appetizer Ideas

So, for weeks I have been trying to decide what to bring to the Super Bowl party that we will be attending this weekend. I can’t decide between snack food such as a dip with chips and veggies like this Roasted Carrot Hummus or Guacamole with Clementines or bringing something more substantial.

Some of the people attending the party are meat and potatoes people and a few are vegetarians. So, I want to bring something that will appeal to everyone.

Keeping that in mind, in addition to the dip recipes listed above, I have a really delicious chili recipe to share with you. The Super Bowl and a pot of chili go together like wine and cheese. Am I right? Chili is a perfect party food. It can be made ahead of time and then kept warm in a slow cooker so it is ready to eat at half-time.

Blow-Your-Mind Black Bean Chili

This Blow-Your-Mind Black Bean chili is sure to please your football loving friends. I am so in love with this chili recipe! It is full of black beans and wheat berries (more on these in a minute) which makes it a super satisfying.

The addition of mushrooms also lends meaty texture to the chili which may keep the carnivores at the table from grumbling. The smoky flavor comes from chipotle chili powder. If you like extra heat and smoke, you could add a chopped up chili pepper and some of the sauce from a can of chipotle chilies in adobo sauce. The chili is meatless which is perfect if you have vegetarians coming to party and hearty enough that the carnivores may not miss the meat.

If you aren’t familiar with wheat berries, I encourage you to give them a try. You boil the whole grains in liquid, usually water or broth, until cooked through. The process is similar to cooking rice. They have a chewy texture and a nutty flavor. You can find wheat berries in the bulk section of many super markets or packaged in the grocery aisle with other whole grains. Wheat berries are sometimes referred to as hard red winter wheat.

Plus, suggest having a selection of toppings available so that guests can customize their chili bowls just the way they like them. Some of my favorite chili toppings are:

Avocado
Green onions
Lime wedges
Grated cheese
Crushed tortilla chips
Sour cream