Crab fried rice

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When I was pregnant I had one major craving which I just could not satiate. That was a craving for crab fried rice! If you’ve never tried crab fried rice, then you’ve been missing out my friend. I should say that it’s not the easiest menu item to find. In fact, when I was pregnant is was impossible for me to find. Every day for six months I woke up and told my husband that I wanted crab fried rice. I literally was obsessed with having it. It was like my brain was stuck on having crab fried rice. I never did have the chance to indulge in my craving for crab fried rice, because the one restaurant that I knew of that had it went out of business.  I wanted to indulge that craving today by making my own crab fried rice.  My grocer was all out of lump crab meat, but he did have crab legs, so I purchased those to make this recipe.  I’m not an expert on making crab legs, but I have a good friend who gave me her technique, you can find that here.  I must say that after making it Gina’s way, I will never go back to buying lump crab meat again.  Fried rice is so easy to make, I normally make it with left over rice.  Today, I made a quick cook brown rice in my rice maker. From start to finish, this takes 20 minutes!

Here’s what you need
2 cups of rice
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 cup of green onion or chives
3 Tablespoons of oil
1/4 cup cilantro chopped
1Teaspoon of Fish sauce
Soy sauce to taste
2 eggs scrambled and set aside

Directions:
Heat the oil in a pan–wok preferably–add in the garlic, and let brown, add egg, immediately toss in the rice.

 Add the Fish sauce. Add in the crab meat, cilantro, green onion, mix well.

Drizzle lightly with soy sauce, (not to much), and enjoy!
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How to cook Steamed crab legs

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I am ashamed to admit it, but, I have never cooked, or steamed, crab in my entire life. What’s worse is that my family is from Louisiana, so cooking crab, is, and has been a major event in my life…or it should have been.  Every year, on New Year’s Day my mom pulls out her biggest pot and makes a seafood gumbo, crab legs and all. My grandmother did the same, and her mother and grandmother did too. My point is that cooking crab legs is a tradition in my family, and everyone in my family knows how to do it, except me. In my defense, I’m not a fan of gumbo, and never have been. I would venture to say, that I hate it really. My mom will probably kill me for saying that out loud–it is akin to blasphemy in her house.  Today I was forced to buy crab legs for a crab fried rice that I’m making. My grocer was all out of lump crab meat, so I was stuck. I could either try my hand at making crab meat from scratch, or not have any fried rice. Needless to say the desire to have crab fried rice won out.  After leaving the grocer, I called one of my best friends, Gina Hayakawa, she is an expert at making and steaming crab. She gave me her recipe, and I’m going to share it with you.  Let me just say, now that I’ve made crab this way, there is no way, I’m going back to buying lump crab meat at the market! This crab is so good that I almost didn’t have enough left over to put in my fried rice. After you make this–IF you have any left over–try using the crab meat to make my crab fried rice, or my crab cakes, or my crab taco’s.

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Regina Hayakawa’s Steamed Crab Leg Recipe:
Here’s what you need:
1-2lbs do crab legs
1/4 cup of rice vinegar
2 cloves of garlic whole
3 cups of water

Equipment:
Steamer

Directions:
Place the water, garlic, and rice vinegar in a pot and bring to a boil

Place your crab in the steamer, and place on top of the pan with the boiling water, and cover.

Let steam for 7-10 minutes and it’s done. What is one thing that you have shied away from cooking and why?
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Parmesan Chicken with Caesar Roasted Romaine

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Parmesan chicken is one of my favorite meals. This particular Parmesan chicken recipe is so easy to make, and it’s paired perfectly with roasted romaine. It is like eating a Caesar salad, but kicked up a few notches! This particular Parmesan chicken recipe speaks to my inner lazy girl, because it’s a one pot wonder! You read it right, everything cooks in one pan, and in 20 minutes! It doesn’t get better than that! If you’ve never tried roasted romain, then you’re in for a treat with this recipe. Romaine takes on a rich, warm, and soulful texture when you roast it. Everyone who tries this, always mistakes the romaine for a sturdier green, like a kale, or collard…without the bitterness of course.  Most Parmesan chicken recipes include bread crumbs, this one does not, so it’s gluten free. If you want to add bread crumbs then be my guest, just swap out 1/2 a cup of the cheese with 1/2 cup of either Panko, or bread crumbs. 
Here is what you need
1 lbs of  skinless, boneless chicken (4 breast or 5-6 chicken thighs)
Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 cup of grated Percorino or Asiago cheese
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 garlic cloves, chopped, divided
2 large hearts of romaine, halved lengthwise
4 anchovy fillets packed in oil, drained, chopped
1 lemon, cut into 8 wedges
Directions:
Preheat oven to 450°. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with foil. Season chicken with salt and pepper; place on prepared sheet.

Combine cheese, 2 Tbsp. oil, parsley, and 1 garlic clove in a medium bowl.

Pat mixture onto breasts.

 Roast chicken until crumbs begin to turn golden, about 10 minutes.

Drizzle romaine with 1 Tbsp. oil and sprinkle with remaining 1 chopped garlic clove. Season with salt and pepper. Remove sheet from oven; place romaine around chicken.

 Roast until chicken is cooked through and lettuce is browned at edges, about 5 minutes.

Divide among plates. Top lettuce with anchovies; garnish with lemon wedges for squeezing over. Enjoy! 

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Memorable Lamb Kabob’s with Rosemary and Garlic

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It’s Memorial Day weekend, which probably means that most of us will be firing up the grill in preparation for a barbecue. I, for one, love to barbecue! Not just because it means that my husband will be doing most of the cooking, (although, it is a nice benefit.), but because it’s a great way to change up our diet with something smokey, and tangy! Who doesn’t love a nice grilled rib with tons of barbecue sauce on it?  Barbecuing is also a great way to spend time with friends and family. Some of my most sacred memories are housed around barbecue’s with family! At my house we like to mix it up a bit and grill lamb instead of beef, chicken, or pork. Beef, chicken, and pork have their place at our barbecue’s, ( Lemon, Garlic, & Thyme Chicken Kabobs), but every now and again, we love to grill lamb.  These lamb kabobs are perfect for a lazy barbecue, they don’t take a long time to marinate or cook on the grill, from start to finish these are done in 20 minutes!

Here’s what you need:
1.5-2 lbs of lamb loin chops, taken off the bone and cubed
3 cloves of garlic pasted
Sea salt
Juice of half a lemon
1 teaspoon of Rosemary
1 Tablespoon of olive oil

Directions:
Season the lamb generously with sea salt:

Add the garlic, olive oil, rosemary,and lemon juice to the lamb, and mix well:
Add lamb to metal skewers, or to wooden skewers that have been soaked in water:

Grill for 2-3 minutes on a hot grill, and enjoy!  What is your favorite meat to grill?

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Homemade lavender infused vanilla bean ice cream

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I am the Queen of kitchen gadgets! If they make it, then there is a 85 percent chance that I have it in my kitchen. As a matter of fact, I have so many kitchen gadgets that I placed a self imposed stop on buying any more kitchen gadget’s. As useful as kitchen gadgets are, I just don’t have any more room to store these things. I was doing pretty well with my self imposed moratorium, until Sunday! I have been trying to figure out what to buy with a gift card that I’ve had for months. For the life of me, I just could not make up my mind about what to buy! As I was perusing the humongous aisles in Costco on Sunday, it hit me! Why not an ice cream maker? When I placed the rather large ice cream maker into our cart, my husband said, “Sweetie why don’t you buy something for yourself with your  gift card? I can buy this for us.” I looked at him and smiled. I love my husband, and in moments like these, I love him even more, but I shook my head and said, ” think about who you’re talking to, it’s ME, an ice cream maker IS personal to me!” He thought about it, laughed and said, ” I guess it is!” As we walked out of the store,  I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to make first with my ice cream maker. I love, love, love lavender ice cream, but it’s near impossible to find in the grocery store. Lavender is not a typical ice cream flavor, I’ve only had it a couple of times in my life, and every time that I’ve had it, I wanted more… it is delish!!!  You can leave out the lavender in this recipe if it’s not your thing, and you’ll still have the best vanilla bean ice cream that you’ve ever tasted. I used eggs and made a custard, this makes the ice cream really creamy and rich. You cannot get this level of creaminess without making the custard, so do it! You will not be disappointed, I promise! I used maple syrup to sweeten this, but you can use your sweetener of choice. Don’t worry if you don’t own an ice cream maker you can still make this. You’ll just need some..well a lot of arm power! By the way, I am happy that I have an ice cream maker, but storing this thing is going to be a real problem!
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Ingredients:
8 egg yolks
3/4 cups of maple syrup or sweetener of your choice
1 vanilla bean split down the middle
2-3 Tablespoons of lavender dried
1 1/2 cups of whole milk
2 cups of heavy whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon of salt
Equipment
Ice cream maker
Or
1 quart size Ziploc bag
1  one gallon Ziploc bag
2 1/2 cups of ice
1/2 cup of salt

Directions:

In a medium bowl, beat together the yolks, and your sweetener of choice. You can beat by hand using a whisk, or use a hand mixer. Beat until thoroughly smooth and creamy. (A couple of minutes by hand.) If you’re using maple syrup, or agave, the mixture comes together quite quickly.
 

 

Put 1 cup of the cream,  all of the milk, lavender, and salt into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Scrape the vanilla seeds from the beans with the tip of a small knife, and place into the pan; add the pod too. Heat the mixture until just before it starts to simmer (DO NOT LET IT SIMMER). Remove mixture from heat and let it steep for 5 minutes.
Strain the hot mixture, reserving the milk and discarding lavender andvanilla bean pod.
 
 

Add half of the hot mixture to the egg-yolk mixture, and whisk until blended. Be careful when adding the hot mixture to the egg mixture, go slowly you don’t want scrambled eggs.  Stir this mixture into remaining hot mixture in the sauce pan, and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. or wooden fork in my case.

 

 

Remove from heat, and immediately stir in the remaining cream. Let the mixture cool for  at least 30 minutes.  If you want all the flavors to meld, let it cool to room temperature, then place in an air tight container, and refrigerate for 8 hours, or overnight, as I did. Once the cream has cooled sufficiently, freeze in an ice-cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.


If you don’t have an ice cream maker, then place 1 cup of your cooled mixture into one of the 1 quart zip lock bag and seal it. It is very important that the cream mixture is cold when using this method, so try to let it cool for at least 3 hours before trying this method. Next pour the ice and salt into the 1 gallon ziplock bag. Place the bag with the cream mixture into the bag with ice and salt and seal. Make sure neither bag has any excess air. Now here comes the work. Shake the bag until the mixture becomes solid, at least 5-10 minutes, serve and enjoy!

Here is a really cute way to do this in an old coffee can. Your kids can do this, and save you a lot of arm work…that or just run out and buy an  ice cream maker, but, then, like me, you’ll have to find some where to store it.

 

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Lemon, Garlic and Thyme Chicken Kabobs

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I love it when the weather is nice enough to cook outside on the grill. For me, it means that I can embrace the lazy girl within, because my husband is charged with cooking anything that goes on the grill! All I have to do is marinate the meat and I’m done! Who wouldn’t love that?! This dish is super easy, and equally as delicious!! You can use whatever cut of meat that you like. We grilled veggies to go along with these, and I made my Lemon & garlic potatoes to go with this. It made for a nice way to end a hot summer day!

Here’s what you need:
1lb of skinless chicken cut and cubed
1tablespoon of garlic paste
1teaspoon of thyme
Juice of half a large lemon
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Direction:
In a large bowl add the lemon juice, garlic, thyme and olive oil

Cut and cube the chicken, add to a large bowl and season with sea salt and pepper, then add the lemon, garlic and thyme marinade and mix well
Place the cubed meat onto metal skewers or soaked wooden skewers
Place on the grill and cook until chicken is done, about 15 minutes. Remove from skewers and enjoy!  What is your favorite meat to put on the grill?

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Lemon and Garlic Potatoes

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 One of my favorite flavor pallets is housed in the Mediterranean diet. Their use of lemons, olive oil, and fresh herbs is quite genious if you ask me. These three ingredients are so simple, and yet the flavor that they lend to a dish is simply superb!  If I had to eat one type of food for the rest of my life, Mediterranean would be it! This particular dish is my interpretation of one of my favorite appetizers at a Persian restaurant that I used to frequent. Truth be told, this dish was the best thing on their  menu! However, it was enough to bring me back to their restaurant again and again! That is until they started using frozen potatoes to make this! After that I was forced to make my own version of this beloved dish. Not to toot my own horn, (Toot! Toot!), but my version tastes a lot better.

Here is what you need
3 or 4 potatoes cut and cubed
The juice of 1 small lemon or half of a meduim/large one
1 clove of garlic sliced
3 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
4-5 tablespoons of Olive oil for browning the potatoes
Sea salt to taste

Directions
Heat olive oil in a frying pan. Place cubed potatoes in

Cook potatoes until they start to brown, tip, cook for 5 minutes on one side, brown and then flip to the other side to brown:

Once potatoes are brown and fork tender, add the sliced garlic, toss for ten to twenty seconds, just until you can smell the garlic, turn the fire off.

Add sea salt, lemon juice, and cilantro, toss and serve! If you like a little fire, add some chili pepper flakes to this…Yummy!

What is your favorite way to cook potatoes?
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"Orange Juiciest" Smoothie.

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Our staff nutritionist Justice De La torre is back , this time with a protein packed green juice that will have your taste buds singing “Hail Ceasar!” This is a great meal replacement smoothie, or just a nice way to welcome the day in! Don’t let the green hue fool you, this smoothie tastes just like an Orange Julius, except this one is loaded with iron, Vitamin A & C, fiber, and with the added scoop of protein powder, it makes for a high protein drink.

Here’s what you need:
5 oranges, 4 juiced, and 1 whole, peeled orange
1 tbs cashew butter
1 handful kale
1 handful spinach
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1tsp vanilla extract
4 ice cubes

Equipment:
Blender

Directions:
Place all of the ingredients into your blender:

Blend until smooth and enjoy:
What is your favorite smoothie ?

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Gluten-free guiltless almond flour banana nut muffins

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If your house is anything like my household, mornings are hectic!!  Breakfast is always a chore to make! Certified Nutritionist Justice De la Torre comes to the rescue with this protein packed, gluten and grain free muffin. This muffin is moist, and quite frankly, the best muffin I’ve tasted in quite some time! Trust me when I say that you want to make this muffin! In addition to being delicious, this muffin is good for you.  It’s high in fiber, iron, potassium, and Vitamin E! With the addition of 1 scoop of protein powder, each muffin has 5 grams of protein. If I were you I would make a double batch of these, because they are just that good. This recipe uses Almond flour, also known as almond meal. You can find almond meal in the flour section of almost any supermarket now days. This is a great muffin to start the day with. But, it’s also great as a high protein snack for those middle of the day cravings. My daughter loved this muffin, as I’m sure will you too!. This is a great alternative to  sugar laden banana breads, this muffin contains no refined sugar!

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Here’s what you need:

3 cups  almond flour/meal
1 tsp  baking soda
1/2 tsp  sea salt
1/2 tsp  baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
3  eggs
2 1/2  very ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup maple syrup or xylitol
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1 tsp  vanilla extract
1/4 cup chopped nuts
Equipment:
Muffin pan
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease or line a 12–muffin tin. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, mash bananas with a fork, add in your wet ingredients, and mix well:

Add wet mixture to dry mixture. Stir just to combine.

Fill muffin cups. Sprinkle with chopped nuts.

Bake about 20 min. (tops will be set and spring back when lightly touched)

What is your favorite muffin? If you share I’ll pick one favorite and revamp the recipe to make a healthy alternative like this one.
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Tropical punch fruit roll-ups

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     My daughter is a huge fan of this particular fruit leather. Although, I should say that she loves all of the fruit roll- ups I make. But she is extremely partial to anything that has pineapple in it. Can you blame her? I love these myself, but I especially love the smell of the house when these are in the dehydrator. If I close my eyes hard enough, and drown out the sound of her squealing or screaming in the background, I can almost picture myself in a tropical paradise. I use banana in this recipe, but only one, it gives the fruit leather a better more pliable texture. Banana tends to overpower other flavors, so use a banana that is not fully ripe. This will give your fruit roll-up the texture you need, without it tasting like a banana with a splash of pineapple and strawberry fruit roll-up. Much like my recipe for Strawberry fruit roll-ups this recipe doesn’t require anything other than fruit. The flavor of these roll-ups remind me of tropical punch Now and Later’s. Do they still make those? I haven’t had one since they were 5 cents a pack! This fruit roll up is much better for you. It doesn’t contain any high fructose corn starch, or artificial flavors and coloring. It’s fruit, plain and simple!

Here is what you need:
25-30 strawberries, with tops removed
1 whole pineapple, skin off, and unless you have a high powered blender like a vitamix, core removed
1banana

Equipment:
Blender
Parchment paper

Place strawberries, pineapple, and banana in the blender, and blend until smooth:







Pour out onto parchment paper and smooth out evenly:







Place in oven on 135 degrees Fahrenheit, or the lowest setting on your oven. Let bake for 4-6 hours.


Remove from parchment paper, roll, and enjoy!!

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