Appetizers | Be Nutritious

BBQ Chicken Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Happy 4th of July!!! What are your plans for today? I am going to have some barbeque with my boyfriend’s and his family. Can’t wait, I haven’t been to a bbq party in a while.

This recipe has nothing to do with 4th of July, unless of course you’re going to throw some chicken on the grill and will have a lot of chicken leftovers. In case you do have some leftover chicken and no idea what to do with it, I may suggest, stuff baked potatoes with it. I adore sweet potatoes and that is what I used but russet potatoes might work as well in this recipe. Also it doesn’t really matter what kind of bbq sauce will you use. As long as you the flavor, it should work.

I love this recipe because it only uses 4 ingredients and is much healthier that pulled chicken sandwiches. Sweet potato is a real nutrient factory. One large sweet potato has only 160 kcal, 6 g of fiber, tons of vit A and good amounts of other nutrients, especially potassium. I try to eat sweet potato at least one day a week and just discovered a great way to eat it.

Ingredients:

(makes 4 sweet potato halves)

2 large sweet potatoes

2 cups shredded leftover chicken

Few Tbs favorite barbeque sauce

4 oz cheddar cheese

Prick sweet potatoes few times with a fork. Bake 1-1.15 hour in the oven preheated to 400 degrees F.
Let it cool slightly and cut lengthwise in half.
Remove the middle portion of the sweet potato leaving about 1/2 inch width inside.
Mix shredded cooked chicken with bbq sauce and place about half a cup in each potato half.
Top with each half with 1 oz cheddar cheese and bake additional 15 min until the cheese is melted.

Orzo Greek Salad with Chickpeas

How I love salads, I cannot even explain. Perhaps I’ll try by telling you that even after eating out in many fancy restaurants, Sweet Tomatoes with its giant salad bar is still one of my favorites. Definitely in my top 5 favorite restaurants of all times. Salad bar is all I need to make me happy. Nothing more is required and nothing compares to a healthy and clean taste of fresh vegetables mixed with a tasty dressing.

This recipe is my take on a Greek salad but instead of preparing it with lettuce I used orzo pasta and chickpeas. That trick makes it more filling so you can have it as a main dish for lunch or you can take it with you to school or work for lunch break.

Continue reading →

Vietnamese Sweet Potato Soup

We are very lucky to live just around the corner of a fantastic Vietnamese restaurant called Hy Vong in Coral Gables, FL. Here it was when I first tasted Vietnamese cuisine and I absolutely fell in love with the flavors. I always thought of Vietnamese cuisine to be pretty much the same as Thai but surprisingly it is quite different. Much milder first of all and although I am not a big fan of Thai cuisine I really like Vietnamese one. The soup I’m presenting is one of the many soups served in a restaurant and it is my attempt to copy the flavors In my version I used regular cooking cream and coconut oil but if you wish you can use regular cooking oil and a bit of coconut milk instead. The reason why I used coconut oil in place of coconut milk is that it adds just a hint of coconut flavor and even my boyfriend who is not very fond of coconut milk and won’t eat anything with it, absolutely doesn’t mind coconut oil.

Continue reading →

Fried Green Tomatoes

Fried green tomatoes are one of those foods you have to try to satisfy curiosity. They are Southern specialty and if you happen to be in any of the Southern states you must give them a try, you won’t be disappointed. Crunchy on the outside with soft, almost melt in your mouth middle. Just make sure to buy really green, unripe tomatoes since they are firmer and won’t get mushy while frying.

Continue reading →

Low Fat Croquettes with Sauerkraut and Mushrooms

It’s been quite a while since my last post. No i didn’t forget about my blog or cooking. I mentioned before that I was about to visit my family in Poland so here I am in my home with my parents constantly eating Polish specialties. I would probably cook something before but my parents didn’t let me touch the stove. All the time they’ve been making yummy treats for me so I had to wait for my turn in the kitchen.

The meal I’m presenting today is one of my favorite Polish specialties. We eat tons of sauerkraut or cabbage and you can encounter them in many different forms such as the one here, wrapped in crepe and breaded. It is usually eaten as a side dish with borscht but I like to eat it alone as a main course. These croquettes are very filling and just 1 piece contains some protein from eggs, carbohydrates from flour and whole serving of vegetables. Furthermore my croquettes are much healthier and leaner than traditional ones because instead of frying them in deep oil, I baked them in the oven. I used only 3 tablespoons of fat for the whole dish (10 croquettes). It comes to be about 1/3 Tbsp per piece. Thanks to that simple trick I can eat much more of my delicious croquettes without feeling guilty that I consume too much fat.

Continue reading →

Sweet Potato Wedges with Mango Chutney

Sweet potatoes are my favorite starchy vegetables. Not that I don’t have love for a regular potato, I’m all about potatoes but nutritionally speaking sweet variety has much more to offer. It gives you more fiber and much more vitamin A and C plus it doesn’t affect your blood sugar as much as white potato. That’s pretty surprising considering the fact that it’s sweeter in taste. Nevertheless old school regular potato still is a great choice and offers a lot of nutrients but it can’t really compete with a super healthy sweet type.

There are many ways to eat sweet potato, baked, boiled, mashed or pureed for a soup but my favorite way is to eat it just like fries, cut into wedges and roasted until crispy. I still haven’t mastered the art of making thin cut fries, whether they are sweet potato or regular ones, somehow they always end up sticking to my baking sheet but wedges always come out perfect. They’re a little bit less crispy that normal potatoes but it’s due to the sweet potato consistency. You can help it get crispier by dipping it in flour or cornstarch before baking.

I love to dip them in mango chutney. It might sound a bit odd but trust me, they perfectly match. Next time however I want to try them with tomato chutney or ajoli, that must be a nice combination too.

Continue reading →

Mango Chutney

Mango chutney is a type of a sauce that usually accompanies Indian dishes. It’s very often eaten with lamb or chicken curry but it doesn’t have to be eaten only with meat dishes and not necessarily only with curries. It is a great partner to cheese sandwich or baguette and fabulous dipping sauce for crackers. I actually like it with sweet potato fries. Somehow the flavors of both nicely complement each other, especially if sweet potatoes are seasoned with spicy cayenne pepper. A lot of people like to eat mango chutney with roasted meat and although I haven’t tried, I’m pretty sure it would taste amazing with baked or grilled tofu….hmm.

It is yet another recipe after Vegetarian Quiche that I am submitting for a contest on Mixing Bowl website. The recipe is based on a Mango-Ginger Chutney from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook and if you’d like to vote on my recipes, you can do it here.

Continue reading →

Quinoa Salad

Quinoa is a very unusual grain. It actually is a seed, not a grain but since it looks like one and is eaten in the same way, it is considered grain. It comes from South America and used to be one of the main foods of Incas. In the past few years it gained a lot of fame among healthy conscious people because it’s gluten free and has a surprisingly high protein content for a grain. Vegetarians, vegans and gluten allergic people often consider it one of the staple foods in their diet.

My adventure with quinoa started pretty unsatisfactory. I was so excited to finally try it, I always am excited when trying new things, but then when I put my first bite of quinoa into my mouth, I almost spit it out. I took another bite and unfortunately my senses did not deceive me, it was extremely bitter. I had to throw it away to trash and started wondering what’s the big deal with quinoa? It’s awful, how can so many people love it? So I googled ‘why quinoa tastes bitter’ and found my answer. All I had to do was to rinse it under cold running water for a minute or so to get rid of all the bitter taste. Oh how silly, that’s what happens if you try new things but don’t read how to prepare them. I made more quinoa right after and this time my experience was very pleasant. It tasted a bit nutty and all the bitter flavor was gone. Some producers of quinoa rinse it before packaging so there’s no worry that one will have such an unsuccessful beginning with quinoa like me.

Continue reading →

Ful Medames

Ful Medames is a national Egyptian dish. I would say it is the most famous Egyptian dish since I’ve never heard of any other. It’s made of Fava beans (sometimes called broad beans) and is usually eaten for breakfast or lunch with pita bread. It is very similar to Mexican refried beans although the flavors are slightly different. The dominant taste is lemony and even though plenty of garlic is used, you can barely taste it.

It can be made either with young Fava beans or old ones. I used older ones which have a brown color, young Fava beans are very green in color. If you’ll use young beans you probably won’t have to shell them but honestly I’ve never seen Ful Medames made with green beans that’s why I used older, brown beans. If you’re discouraged by the process of shelling beans don’t worry, it’s not that bad and since beans are really large, it goes pretty fast. Some people prefer to shell Fava beans before cooking but I find it easier to do it after they’ve been simmering for an hour. That way you can just squeeze them and they easily pop out of their shells.

You can always use canned Fava beans and not worry about shelling them. That seems like a good option especially when you’re in a hurry because they will also cook much faster. However lately I try to use dry beans instead of canned ones. Somehow it makes my cooking seem more natural.

By the way, I just read that Bob’s Red Mill Fava Beanshave been naturally blanched to remove the unsavory skins. Whoa, if I only knew before. Next time I’ll buy Bob’s Red Mill brand Fava beans.

Continue reading →

Deep Fried Zucchini

Today I invite you to prepare delicious deep fried zucchini. Deep fried? I know it was supposed to be healthy blog but I just couldn’t resist. I ate similar zucchini not long time ago in a small burger place in South Beach called Beer & Burger Joint. Their zucchini was slightly different, it was cut into large blocks and was covered with much more batter. I cut my zucchini into rings and deep fried with a very thin batter which just added taste rather than adding thick coating. It was delicious, even my boyfriend who usually is reluctant to veggies ate it with a smile on his face (probably because it was fried food)

Continue reading →