Archive for August, 2013

This is my shameless attempt to get in a post for the first time in a few weeks. Hilarious. Must Watch.

During my recent weight loss efforts, I’ve found that, for me, it is much easier to make small changes which compound over many days rather than big changes which I won’t be able to stick with. A great example of that is switching to taco salads instead of tacos or burritos. I find that tortillas are one of those foods for which I don’t intuitively account for the calories they contain. It doesn’t seem like food, it seems like what goes around food, but at around 150 calories for a medium tortilla, they can start to add up if you eat more than one taco/burrito per meal. Moreover, they don’t seem to add all that much to the meal in terms of flavor or even texture. Unless, of course, you know a little old Hispanic lady who makes homemade tortillas from scratch. If that’s the case, damn the calories, you can find somewhere else to cut them out.

Since I don’t have that homemade tortilla hookup, I made this delicious chicken taco salad the other day, and it came out great. The main flavors here are the chipotle marinated chicken thighs and the really fresh black bean/corn salsa.

To make the marinade: mince 2 canned chipotle peppers and add to a bowl with 2 tablespoons of the adobo paste from the can, 2 tablespoons of oil (olive, peanut, or vegetable), 2 teaspoons of garlic paste, a few dashes of worcestershire sauce, the juice of one lime, and salt and pepper. Mix this up and pour over four boneless, skinless chicken thighs. If I can make a recommendation: buy whole chicken thighs and bone them yourself. You’ll pay about half as much per pound, and you can keep a collection of thigh bones in your freezer until you have enough to make chicken stock (foreshadowing some  soon to come posts? perhaps…). Back to the recipe. Let the chicken marinate for a few hours, then throw it on the grill.

To make the corn & black bean salsa, add the following to a mixing bowl: 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed; 1.5 cups sweet corn (roasted is better if you can find it or want to make it); 5 green onions, sliced, 1 red bell pepper,  finely chopped; 1 handful of cilantro, chopped; 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced; 1 cup of cherry tomatoes, quartered; the juice of one lime; 1/2 teaspoon of cumin; and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, plus salt and pepper to taste.

This salsa is spicy, smoky, sour, crunchy and so fresh. For salad greens, I went with swiss chard. For one, I bought some at the farmers market with no real plan for how to use it, so this was a pleasant surprise. Two, I think the assertive flavor and texture of chard, as compared to something like lettuce or spinach, better stands up to a meal with aggressive flavors like chipotle grilled chicken and lots of salsa. So rinse and cut your chard (removing most of the stem), add a nice heap of salsa, top with sliced chicken and half of a sliced avocado, and sprinkle with crumbled queso fresco.

One of the undeniable joys of summer is steaks on the grill. And if you have a grill readily available, like I did last summer (sigh…) you start searching for some different flavors to add after your 10th or 11th grilling session. In terms of simplicity, this marinade is the absolute ideal. Just equal parts whiskey and balsamic vinegar, how great is that? Well, plus a little salt, pepper and olive oil, but that’s kind of a given in any marinade. For a one person steak, you could do maybe 2-3 tablespoons of whiskey and vinegar, 1 teaspoon of olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add the liquid to a large freezer bag with the meat, and marinate for 30-90 minutes. Don’t leave this to sit overnight or anything, because the whiskey and vinegar are quite potent flavors and will really overpower the meat, especially if your steak is thin. If you like you can also try a few variations on this basic theme; I’ve added a few crushed garlic cloves and a sprig of rosemary in the past, and that was a good addition. I think I’m also going to try adding cayenne pepper and maybe a small amount of brown sugar.

Summer is a time for pesto.  Cheap fresh basil abounds.  But if you’ve made the stuff before, you know that pesto has an unfortunate habit of turning a slightly unpleasant dark color as it sits.   To brighten things up, add a tablespoon of fresh parsley for every cup of packed basil.  The flavor is largely unaffected and the aesthetic bump is well worth the 99 cents to pick-up a bundle of parsley.