Michelle – Page 6

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Roly Poly Zucchinis

July 30, 2014 by Michelle

It’s summer and that means a couple of things. One of which is that the Farmers Market is filled with summer veggies,…and school’s out*. I confess to being a sucker for odd veggies – golden beets, giant lemons, and these ‘roly-poly zucchini’s’. A little bit bigger than a baseball, they were just so cute, I had to have them! But what do you do with them? It seems that many people slice them like eggplants and fry them. No, frying, thank you. Next is stuffing. Oh, yes I can do that! I love stuffed peppers, and these would work sort of the same way. Better yet, I had some leftover rice dish from a day or two ago that was awesome (http://www.pbs.org/food/kitchen-vignettes/tunisian-spinach-rice). You could use whatever you have, leftover fried rice from Chinese take-out, a rice pilaf from a couple of days ago, maybe a stuffing tidbit you could add some more diced and sautéed veggies to to make it go further. Mac n’ Cheese, ramen noodles,….Any way you do it, they’re fun and a cutesy single–serving veggie goodness bomb!

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Roly Poly Zucchinis

Roly Poly Zucchini’s (aka – Stuffed Zombie Heads*)

Step 1:

Get those little zukes out and wash ‘em up. Preheat that oven to 350deg.

Step 2:

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Roly Poly Zucchinis

Decide what you’re going to fill them with. Get an 8”x 8” dish and put a little olive oil in the bottom. Find your mellon baller (or a round spoon) and a paring knife.

Step 3:

Cut off the tops as if you were carving a pumpkin – they are cousins you know. Using the melon baller, scoop out the seedy innards ,…eewwwww! But leave the flesh – it’s yummy.

*This is about the part where my son, who’s been off from school and spending his rain-days binge watching The Walking Dead, comes in and says “Hey, they look like little zombie heads…” – “…braaaaains….crrr..crrrr!” So we all had a good laugh and, yup, it looked like a shrunken zombie head when I was done – LOL

Step 4:

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Roly Poly Zucchinis

Fill them with you delicious mix and top off with a little parm cheese, just to be showy! If you aren’t feeling all vegetarian, those Chicken Meatballs from Murrays are a perfect fit too. Find them in the fresh Organic chicken section – perfect if you’re feeling both healthy and lazy (no, that’s not an odd combo here). Pre-made and delicious for the lazy me, lower fat, GMO free Chicken for Ms.WannaBeHealthy.

Step 5:

Set them in the baking dish. You can put their lids back on (cause they’re cute), but put a bit of oil on them to keep the cheese from sticking.

Step 6:

Get those bad boys into the hot box for about 30 –45 min., depending on what you filled them with. These zukes have a slightly tougher skin so they stand up to being filled, but not like a hard squash so you can eat the whole thing.

Finale:

Everybody got a ‘serving’ (zombie head! – LOL) and it made a vegetarian side dish for some summer burgers that was fun for all. Even my meatarians were impressed !

Michelle Beal

http://badzoot.com

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Roadhouse Butter

July 23, 2014 by Michelle

One of my favorite restaurants around here is Cody’s RoadHouse. Yummy steaks, huge salads, great prices – I don’t ever remember being unhappy with them. One thing that makes me happy is getting my favorite meal as a carry-out. A ginormous salad, with fajita meat, and those rolls ! Mmm, they’re basically dessert for me because not only are they warm and sweet, they have this awesome cinnamon honey-butter to accompany it. OMG – it’s soooo not on my diet ! I always rathole those tiny tubs and use it sparingly. One day I thought about it as I looked at a tub of honey-butter at the store. Ouch! How much is that?! Come on, it can’t be that difficult, and with Pinterest, somebody must’ve made it already. Wow – everybody has a version of it. Mostly labeled Texas Roadhouse Honey Butter. Now, I’ll confess, I’m not a fan of that ‘roadhouse’. Ours is always packed and really loud, and I don’t even remember the butter from when I was there last. So, this is a ‘Cody’s’ version.

Roadhouse Butter

Step 1:

Get out a stick of butter and make sure it’s room temp. Gather up the rest.

1/2 Cup Butter (1 stick)

1/2 Cup Honey

1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar

1 tsp Cinnamon

– really, could it get any easier??!

Step 2:

Roadhouse Butter

I gave the butter a quick whip to see if it’s smooth enough. Notice the mixer, with ONE beater – yes, you can do that. Great for small things.

Step 3:

I added the cinnamon to the butter and then the honey…kinda sloppy.

Step 4:

Roadhouse Butter

When the powdered sugar goes in it’ll come together like a loose icing – that’s good, cause it’ll icing my toast just fine! Their’s seems to be a factory whipped butter. That’s ok, I like mine better. (I really should wear my glasses when I take photos!)

That’s it – I don’t know why I bothered with 4 steps. Now get a ramekin to store it in. If you want to get all fancy, line a ramekin with wax paper and fill it, chuck it in the chill chest and it’ll be a stylish pat. Ours is next to the regular butter on the counter. It’s so good, and a little goes a long way. It’s a nice morning treat and a change from my homemade jams. Next time you make those crescent rolls, slather this inside! Waffles?, oh yeah! Honestly, what’s better than warm butter, sugar, cinnamon, AND honey – It’s just Heavenly !!!

Michelle Beal

http://badzoot.com

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Green Tea

July 9, 2014July 9, 2014 by Michelle

My favorite grocery store, Publix, makes a wonderful iced tea available in the deli section that has green tea, and honey with ginseng. I love that I can just pick up a gallon for parties. It is soooo good. But not as ‘healthy’ as it sounds. The ingredients list contains sugar and carmel color, and other not-on-my-list items. In fact, the diet version lists Splenda right on the front label – no thank you. But I still like it. And you know me, if I like it, I’d like to make it…myself.

Now, I have plenty of green teas, honeys, agave nectar, and a lemon is never hard to find in my kitchen. Ginseng, is another matter. That is something I don’t stock. I went looking for a ginseng tea. While at my favorite local store, I spotted, in the tea section, a little gem I’d not seen before. It’s an herbal/green tea from Celestial Seasonings and it has all the cast of characters – this could work. The taste, however wasn’t really exact. It has white tea in it too, which is great, but made it rather mild. I like my tea over ice, so I tend to make the batches a bit strong. That said, I found the following worked perfect.

Michelle’s Publix-Style Green Tea

1 quart bottle: I reused one from some cider, so it’s got a lid that can take heat.

2-1/2 Cups Boiling Water

1 bag Green Tea

1 bag Celestial Seasonings Green Tea w/honey, lemon and ginseng

3 Tbl Agave or Honey

First warm up that bottle with some warm tap water so as not to shock it later. Get the water boiling either on the stove or microwave.

When it’s ready, pour out the tap water, add in the Celestial Seasonings bag (because it has no tag) to the bottle. Pour over the boiling water. Then add the green tea bag and try to hold the tag out of the neck of the bottle. Leave the cap either off, or just put on lightly so it can release some heat. Leaving the tag out makes it much easier to fish out. Set it all aside and let it steep for a half hour or so,…don’t you have emails to check?

OK, that’s it – slowly pull out the green tea bag, leave the other one there, add the sweetener and give it a swirl. Top it off with some regular temp water (about 1-1/2 cups or so) and add the bottle to the fridge.

Way better for you with only a few ingredients. And you can add more or less sugar if you like. The lemon and white tea makes it remind me of an Arnold Palmer too. Feeling really overheated, add a sprig of mint to your glass or bottle.

Why only a quart? Because this is poured over a full glass of ice, and that means that with only me drinking it a half gallon is just too much. Besides, don’t you need a reason to get one of those uber cool swing-top ‘growler’ bottles? I thought so.

Go ahead Summer – bring on the heat – I’m ready!

Michelle @ badzoot.com