Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Vegetarian Spicy Black Bean Burger

Gluten-free Veggie Burgers With A Kick!

What you'll need: (servers 4)

Burger Patties:
1/2 a yellow onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded & chopped
3 garlic cloves
1 can of black beans, drained
1 ear of corn or 1 can of corn, drained
1 green onion, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon of cayenne (depends on how spicy you like it!)
1/4 cup of gluten free breadcrumbs (if you're not gluten free, replace with plain breadcrumbs)
 1/4 cup quinoa flour (which is awesome & gluten free!!)
4 buns or bread (gluten free if it applies to you)
salt & pepper to taste

Optional Condiments:
sprouts
guacamole <--- we always smother ours in my fresh guac!
tomatoes
cheese
lettuce
ketchup
mustard
mayonaise
pickles






















1. Place chopped onion, jalapeno & garlic in a bowl.
2. Add beans, flour, corn, breen onion, cumin, curry powder & cayenne. Season it with salt & pepper.
3. Roll your sleeves up and squish and squeeze everything together with your (clean) hands in a large mixing bowl.
4. Put in fridge for a little while until it is chilled - 30 minutes is fine!
5. Mix in breadcrumbs. 
6. Put a few dabs of veggie oil in your skillet & make 4 equal sized patties in the pan.
7. Cook for about 4 minutes on each side until the patties are heated through.
8. Remove patties from the head and place on to gluten free buns or in my case, I ate it bun-free!
9. Assemble burger toppings as desired and condiments of your choice, serve & enjoy!


Sunday, December 30, 2012

Hot Toddy's!


When the weather looks like this outside ^^^ .... times call for a HOT TODDY!

What you'll need:
Boiled water
1.5oz bourbon or spiced rum
cinnamon sticks
1 slice of lemon per cup
8 cloves (in each cup!)
1 tblsp of honey


Boil Water


Ingredients ^


Knob Creek Bourbon ^



Mix them all together ^ !


= Hot Toddy's for two! <3 ENJOY!




Tuesday, December 18, 2012

ALEIA'S




ALEIA'S has to be the best Gluten-Free cookies and breadcrumbs we have ever tasted and used!
You can order all of ALEIA'S products on numerous websites, but they can also be found at some of your local grocery stores such as Stop & Shop!
They make a ton of amazing cookies etc, these are the only ones we have tried as of right now.
SOO YUMMY! 
You would absolutely NEVER know they were gluten free, and the Panko crumbs are an amazing substitute in place of regular bread crumbs for cooking!

ps. Aleia's is also located and products made in Branford, CT & began as a restaurant in Old Saybrook, CT, a town over from our hometown of Mystic, CT! :-)
very neat!



Thursday, December 13, 2012

Taco Night!

SHRIMP TACOS

What you'll need:
- Avocados
- Half a sweet, white onion
- Garlic cloves
- Salt & pepper
- Fresh shrimp
- Green onion/scallions 
- Old El Paso taco shells (the standing kind are easier to stuff!)
- Old El Paso fat free refried beans
- Old El Paso instant Mexican rice
- Pepper flakes
- Cayenne pepper 
- Sargento taco seasoned shredded cheese
- Wine/margaritas of choice
- Some good friends to share taco night with!!! (a cute puppy helps too :-)






GUACAMOLE 
1. I usually start off with cutting the avocado's in half, taking the pit out, and scooping the 'cado in to a big bowl. You can use as many avocado's as you see fit. There is no "real recipe" for exactly many ingredients you should use for guacamole - you just kinda have to go for it!

2. After you scoop out all of the 'cado's in to a bowl, chop up half of a sweet white onion and throw it in there. 

3. Now go find your garlic clove and chop up 1 or 2 big pieces in to tiny pieces, minced & then add it to your bowl.

4. Sprinkle a few pinches of salt and pepper (go for more pepper than salt!) in to your bowl, and stir away! 

If your avocado's are ripe, you won't need to squish them with a muddler - I usually just use a fork and poke the avocado when mixing it all together, and it becomes a perfect blend of chunks and smooth, creamy guacamole! 
Nom Nom Nommm!.











^ Cashew is veryyyy full. :-)


Last night we had some great friends over for taco night! Usually we have a "Taco Tuesday", but this week we changed it to "Wacky Taco Wednesday"... haha. Call it what you want - bottom line is, tacos are easy to make, great when you are making dinner for more than 2 and super fun! 
We usually start with me (Steff) making the home-made guacamole, and Chris being in charge of the shrimp. 


SPICY SHRIMP

1. You can use frozen large or jumbo shrimp as well - we just happened to get fresh shrimp! If you do use frozen shrimp - be sure to put all of your frozen shrimps in to a strainer and run them under medium cold water until they defrost before seasoning them!
(defrosting them usually only takes 4-5 minutes, tops!)

2. Peel your shrimp of all the funky stuff. Take the tails off, clean them up, and prepare them to be put in to a large bowl.

3. Pick out your spices which you want to season your shrimp with. We usually use some red pepper flakes and a tea-spoon full of cayenne pepper. (a little bit goes a long way!)

4. Grab your little bushel of green onions and chop them up - put them in your bowl of slimy little shrimps and (with your hands) mix the chopped green onions, some salt & pepper (a pinch of each), your spices and shrimp all together.

5. Get a large pan, grill pan or you can use an actual grill if it's warm outside! Place your well seasoned shrimp in the pan and blacken to your liking.

6. Remove shrimp from pan when cooked and chop them up in to small pieces so they can fit easily in your taco shells.

7. Put your taco's in the oven to warm them up. (they don't take longer than a few minutes to get a little toasty) No one likes a cold taco shell...!

8. Stuff your taco's with all the fixing's and ENJOY! :-) 



Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Old Fashioned!

A CLASSIC OLD FASHIONED - CHRIS STYLE

Crack Head Eggs

A.K.A - SOFT BOILED EGGS LIKE A SCANDINAVIAN 

What you'll need:
- For 2 people, 2 eggs (depending on how hungry you are!)
- A small pot
- Egg cups
- Any type of bread you want to put your eggs on
- Spreadable butter
- Tomatos 
- Juice/coffee of choice



^ boil 2-3 minutes for soft-boiled spreadable eggs!


^ after trying 100 different types of gluten free bread - this one is by far my favorite kind!! 
Found at Whole Foods.



1. Put your eggs in the pot with enough water to cover both of them just a bit

2. Put your toast in the toaster so it will be toasty by the time your eggs are ready!

3. Pour yourself some OJ 

4. For soft-boiled eggs - let the water heat up until it boils for about 2-3 minutes. To completely hard-boil the egg, leave it in for another 3 minutes. (we like our eggs a bit gooey so we only boil the for 2-3 min!)

5. Take the pot off the stove and run the eggs under cold water - it makes it easier to hold them and crack the top off so you don't burn your hand!

6. Once your toast is done - butter it up and have it wait patiently on your plate until your eggs are ready

7. Place eggs in egg cups (sometimes cappuccino cups are small enough to hold the eggs!) and crack the top off with a butter knife. 

8. Salt and pepper those babies up and spread them on your toast!

(We also usually cut up some tomato's and put them on the side)...It's the Norwegian in me that makes me NEED tomato's with my eggs, and candlelight with breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner...I just can't help it. 


HAPPY NOMM'ING FOR BREAKFAST!

-STEFF & CHRIS

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Egg Nog Night

HARD NOG

It's a classic, easy and is sure to please the holiday crowd! 
Mix it stronger after a long day or when aunt Mildred's in town.



What you'll need: 
- 1.5oz of bourbon (we choose Makers Mark or Blantons bourbon)
- 4oz of egg nog
- A sprinkle of cinnamon
- One (or a few of) Aleia's Almond Horn snacks on the side!

Burbon's always a nice way to settle down after a meal & Aleia's cookies are Gluten free and ridiculously delicious! (found at Stop & Shop)

- Steff & Chris