I’m always on the lookout for food products that make it easier to get dinner on the table, like premade pizza crusts. That’s why I was excited to come across Flatout Flatbread’s Thin Crust Flatbreads Artisan Pizza at Walmart. (Find the store nearest you that sells Flatout’s Thin Crust Flatbreads here.)

I’ve been a big fan of Flatout Flatbread’s other products and was sad to give them up when I went gluten free. However, with Flatout’s Thin Crust Flatbreads, I can use these for my family and save my much more expensive gluten free pizza crusts for me. I’m sure my family will find these a bit more delicious, too.

I especially like individually sized flatbread pizzas since you can custom make them with everyone’s favorite pizza toppings – perfect for picky kids or those with food sensitivities or allergies. Flatout’s Thin Crust Flatbreads also make great party appetizers – just cutting them up into smaller, bite sized pieces. Finally, Flatout’s Thin Crust Flatbreads can be used on the grill as well as the oven.

A Seattle and Dr. Seuss inspired pizza

When I was in Seattle, I had the most wonderful salad – a chopped sirloin patty served on romaine lettuce with a runny egg on top - at Von's GustroBistro. Marvelous!

I started brainstorming about doing something similar with a pizza – greens, eggs, and ham like the famous Dr. Seuss story, Green Eggs and Ham! Instead of ham, I decided to use diced prosciutto since it would be easy to evenly sprinkle it over the flatbread. For greens, I used a mix of arugula and spinach, but feel free to experiment and use your favorite lettuce greens. I also used Flatout’s Spicy Italian Thin Crust Flatbread. If it’s too spicy for you or your family, use Rustic White, Heritage Wheat, or Rosemary & Olive Oil instead.

Also, I should warn you there are hazards serving not fully cooked eggs to family and friends. If you have concerns, you can bake the egg until it’s cooked through. Or you can use slices of hard boiled eggs on your pizza instead. (Adjust cooking times accordingly to just melt cheese, cook greens, and warm egg slices.)

How to make Greens, Eggs & Ham Flatbread Pizza [VIDEO]

Greens, Egg & Ham Flatbread Pizza

Serves 1 to 2 people

Ingredients:

• 1 Spicy Italian Flatout Thin Crust Flatbread
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup diced prosciutto
• 1/2 cup shredded pizza cheese (I used a mix of parmesan, asiago, fontina, and mild provolone.)
• 1 cup mixed greens (I used spinach and arugula.)
• 2 eggs
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Using a pastry brush, brush on olive oil on one side of flatbread.
3. Place flatbread oil side up on to a baking sheet or pizza peel.
4. Evenly sprinkle prosciutto then shredded cheese on to flatbread.
5. Cover the flatbread with greens. Make two small “wells” in the greens on either end of the flatbread to hold the eggs.
6. Place in oven for 5 until cheese starts to melt. (If using a pizza peel, slide flatbread on to a pizza stone.)
7. Remove pizza from oven. Carefully crack eggs into your wells in the greens. Gently put the pizza back in the oven.
8. Continue baking for 13 minutes until the egg is cooked but still runny.
9. Carefully remove the flatbread pizza from oven and sprinkle just the egg with a little salt and pepper. Allow to rest for a minute or two.
10. Cut in half and serve. You can use pieces of crust to dip into the yolk. Or you can break the yolk and spread it over the surface of your pizza if you like.

Enter the Flatout Flatbread "Taste of Chicago" Giveaway!

Talking about pizza, Flatout Flatbread is giving away a trip for two to attend the Taste of Chicago July 10-14, 2013 – home of some of the best pizza in the country! Enter below:

You can find more Flatout pizza recipes – enough for a full month – on the Flatout Flatbread’s Grilled Pizza Party on Facebook!

Check out these Flatout recipes from This Mama Cooks! On a Diet:

• Crunchy Tuna Wrap
• Egg Salad with Peppers Wrap
• Peanut Butter, Honey and Strawberry Roll-Up
• PB and Banana Roll

Greens, Eggs & Ham Flatbread Pizza & Taste of Chicago Giveaway #FlatoutGood is a post from: This Mama Cooks! Stop by for more healthy recipes!

Tacos are always a go-to meal at my house when I don’t know what else to make, whether it’s fish tacos with a little homemade queso fresca, grilled carne asada tacos, or ground meat with taco seasoning. That’s why when The Motherhood asked me to cook up a Taco Night recipe with McCormick spices, I was happy to join in – especially since they are giving away 30 McCormick Spice Kits in their Pinterest Taco Night Challenge! (See details below.)

The beauty of a Family Taco Night is that it’s easy to make, easy to clean up, and everyone can usually find something they like to eat. With that in mind, I chose to do a pulled pork in my slow cooker using several spices from McCormick’s Gourmet Collection like Smoked Paprika, Chipotle Chile Pepper, and Sicilian Sea Salt along with Ground Cumin and Garlic Powder from their regular line. (Some of the McCormick spices I already had in my kitchen cabinet. Others were sent to me by The Motherhood.) I figured the smokiness of several of the spices would give the feeling of smoked pulled pork without the hassle. Plus, what could be easier to clean up than a slow cooker?

(Here's a recipe for smoked pulled pork done in a smoker that's almost as easy.)

How do you serve your tacos?

I like serving my tacos on warm soft corn tortillas street taco style with the following toppings:

• chopped cilantro straight from the garden
• salsa – sweet, verde and/or fresca
• Mexican hot sauce
• shredded Mexican-style cheese
• crumbled queso fresca
• wedges of lime
• diced tomatoes
• slices of avocado
• chopped green onions

Feel free to use any or all of your favorite toppings along with my Slow Cooker Spicy Pulled Pork Tacos. Or you can make a taco bowl on white or brown rice or pulled pork burritos. Leftover pulled pork can also be reheated with eggs and potatoes in a breakfast hash style dish.

Slow Cooker Spicy Pulled Pork Tacos

You’ll probably notice that I made a huge amount of pulled pork in my large, six-quart Crockpot, since you cannot get a pork shoulder smaller than six pounds here in Georgia. It’s barbecue season and people are serious about their Boston butt around these parts! If you have the same situation in your hometown, feel free to save this recipe for when you’re throwing a Taco Night party or freeze half the meat after cooking for a future Family Taco Night.

Serves 4 people with lots of leftovers or 8 people with hearty appetites!

Ingredients:

• 1 (6-pound) pork shoulder (also called, “Boston butt”)
• 2 (14-ounce) cans petite diced tomatoes with green chilies
• 2 teaspoons McCormick Smoked Paprika
• 2 teaspoons McCormick Chipotle Chile Pepper
• 2 teaspoons McCormick Garlic Powder
• 1 teaspoon McCormick Cumin
• 4 tablespoons coconut palm sugar or brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon McCormick Sicilian Sea Salt

Directions:

1. Trim any extra fat off of the pork shoulder and place it in your slow cooker.
2. Place canned tomatoes and seasonings in a medium sized bowl. Stir until combined.
3. Pour spicy tomato mixture over the pork shoulder, evenly covering it.
4. Place lid on slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours or until pork is tender enough to pull apart with a fork.
5. When cooked through, removed shoulder from slow cooker and place on a large carving board or platter.
6. Pull apart – or shred – pork with two forks. Remove any bones and discard.
7. Strain the liquid from the slow cooker to capture smaller pieces of pork and the diced tomato.
8. Place shredded pork in an oven safe dish and add tomatoes. Cover dish with foil and keep on warm in the oven until serving time.
9. Place pulled pork and your favorite taco fillings on your tortilla of choice. Enjoy!

Win a McCormick Spice Kit by entering the Pinterest Taco Night Challenge!

To win one of 30 McCormick Spice kits, pin or repin any taco recipe (including this one as well as any on the McCormick Taco Night Pinterest board) with the hashtag #MCormickTacoNight. Make sure to tag me - @amnichols - in each pin. You have until May 31, 2012 to enter.

Slow Cooker Spicy Pulled Pork Tacos #McCormickTacoNight is a post from: This Mama Cooks! Stop by for more healthy recipes!

If you’re a follower of my Instagram feed, you may have noticed that I make breakfast frittatas several times a week. That’s why this recipe from Avocados from Mexico really appealed to me as a delicious and easy-to-make Mother’s Day brunch dish.

You can make this even healthier by substituting egg whites for some of the eggs. (Use 3 tablespoons egg whites for one regular egg.) Another way to health up this dish is to used sundried tomatoes that aren’t packed in oil. You’ll need to soften them up by soaking in hot water for 15 to 20 minutes or so before chopping them up for the recipe.

Avocado and Feta Frittata

Recipe courtesy of Avocados of Mexico

Ingredients:

• 6 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 avocado from Mexico, halved, pitted, peeled and cubed
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese, divided
• 1/3 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 2 cups baby arugula, divided

Directions:

1. Preheat broiler.
2. In a medium bowl, beat eggs with salt and pepper.
3. Stir in half of the avocado, half of the feta and half of the tomatoes, and set aside.
4. Heat oil (can be from the tomatoes) in a 9-inch oven-proof skillet over medium heat.  Stir in 1-1/2 cups of the arugula until wilted, about 30 seconds.
5. Add beaten egg mixture. Cook until eggs start to set, lifting sides a bit to let uncooked egg run underneath, about 5 minutes.
6. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and tomatoes.
7. Transfer skillet to broiler. Cook until eggs are set, 1 to 2 minutes; remove from broiler.
8. Sprinkle with remaining avocado and arugula. Serve hot.

Recipe and picture courtesy of Avocados from Mexico and used with permission.

Easy and healthy Mother’s Day brunch recipe: Avocado and Feta Frittata is a post from: This Mama Cooks! Stop by for more healthy recipes!

Mother’s Day is just around the corner. Luckily my friend and guest blogger, Holly Clegg, has a couple terrific ideas for mom’s special day from Mexican Breakfast Casserole for breakfast in bed to a brown sugar scrub that can easily be made by the kids as a lovely homemade gift for mom.

Find more of Holly’s trim& TERRIFIC® recipes at hollyclegg.com and The Healthy Cooking Blog. Don’t forget to check out Holly’s new cookbook, which should be on the shelves soon - Holly Clegg's trim&TERRIFIC Eating Well to Fight Arthritis: 200 easy recipes and practical tips to help reduce inflammation and ease symptoms (affiliate link).

Breakfast in Bed

One of my favorite ways to show Mom how special she is with a wonderful, stress-free brunch. And don’t worry, no one ever said brunch meant spending an entire morning in the kitchen. Mexican Breakfast Casserole is great because you can make it ahead of time to surprise your family the next morning. Prepare and put together easily the night before and simply bake in the morning so the whole family will wake up to the enticing smell of this fabulous dish. This hearty breakfast recipe is so full of flavor made with tortillas, green chilies, and turkey sausage – use corn tortillas for a gluten free meal. Impress your mom with this easy yet special one-dish meal for breakfast – just serve with juice…and maybe pick a flower from the garden!

Homemade gifts always take a special spot in Mom’s heart and kids of all ages will have fun mixing up this Diva Dermatology recipe from Too Hot in the Kitchen: Secrets to Sizzle At Any Age (affiliate link). Purchase an inexpensive container, fill, tie with a ribbon and Voila - your homemade skincare gift, Brown Sugar Scrub, is ready!

Mexican Breakfast Casserole

Recipe from Too Hot in the Kitchen: Secrets to Sizzle At Any Age 

Simple ingredients magically create this make-ahead scrumptious breakfast dish fulfilling everyone’s expectations in my house.

Makes 8-10 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 (4-ounce) can green chilies
• 8 ounces ground breakfast turkey sausage
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 red, green, or yellow bell pepper, cored and chopped
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 5 eggs
• 4 egg whites
• 2 cups fat-free half-and-half
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 1 1/2 cups reduced-fat shredded Mexican blend cheese
• 5 (8-inch) 98% fat-free flour or corn tortillas, cut into quarters

Directions:

1. Coat 13x9x2-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Spread green chilies along bottom of dish.
2. In large nonstick skillet, cook and crumble sausage until starts to brown. Add onion and bell pepper, cooking until sausage is done and vegetables tender. Add garlic and chili powder. Remove from heat. Cool.
3. In large bowl, whisk together eggs, egg whites, and half-and-half. In another bowl, combine green onion and cheese.
4. Spoon one-third of sausage mixture over chilies in baking dish. Top with one-third tortilla quarters and one-third cheese mixture. Repeat layers, ending with cheese. Pour egg mixture evenly over casserole and refrigerate, covered, at least 6 hours or overnight.
5. Preheat oven 350°F. If using glass baking dish, place in cold oven and bake 50-60 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown and knife inserted into custard comes out clean.

Nutritional information:

• Calories 262
• Calories from fat 28%
• Fat 7g
• Saturated Fat 3g
• Cholesterol 129mg
• Sodium 578mg
• Carbohydrate 23g
• Dietary Fiber 2g
• Sugars 5g
• Protein 18g

Dietary Exchanges: 1 1/2 starch, 2 1/2 lean meat

Brown Sugar Scrub

Recipe from Too Hot in the Kitchen: Secrets to Sizzle At Any Age 

Your hands or whatever body part you scrub felt so soft afterwards. Olive oil contains vitamin E and antioxidants — good for nails.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup olive oil

Directions:

1. Mix together and place in a decorative jar or container.
2. Use on hand, feet or body. Rinse.

Recipes and photos used with permission of the author.

Mother’s Day: Mexican Breakfast Casserole and a homemade gift of Brown Sugar Scrub is a post from: This Mama Cooks! Stop by for more healthy recipes!

This month I have two selections from Hugh Acheson’s cookbook, A New Turn in the South: Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen (affiliate code) - Grilled Fish with Hot Sauce Buerre Blanc and Saffron Braised Celery. My husband, Paul, came back from a fishing trip in Mexico with nearly two coolers worth of California yellowtail (also called amberjack). For those of you who never had yellowtail grilled (most of us probably have tried it as sushi), it tastes a bit sweet and isn’t fishy at all. It’s the perfect fish to grill since it stands up to the high heat without falling apart. And it’s mild enough to go with just about any type of sauce or seasonings. Since Hugh’s original recipe in A New Turn in the South, calls for mahi mahi, I figured yellowtail was a good substitute. You can use either or another mild white fish like tilapia.

I included a side dish this time – Saffron Braised Celery. I don’t know about you, but I have a little teeny bottle of saffron in my spice rack that I rarely use. This recipe was a good way to use some of it along with the leftover celery I had in my refrigerator.

I made both dishes on a weeknight without too much difficulty – plan about 40 minutes to an hour total prep and cook time. To make it more convenient, you could make the sauce and the cucumber salad the night before and prep the celery dish. Or plan to make it on a Friday night when a late dinner won’t make it too difficult for your family to wake up early the next day. You may want to double the amount of sauce, too, as it goes great on leftover fish, vegetables, rice or chicken.

I made some minor changes to Hugh’s recipes such as using olive oil instead of butter in the celery. I used a buttery spread instead of butter and a Colorado beer infused hot sauce, Old Chub: 3 Chili Chipotle Sauce, in the buerre blanc because that’s what I had on hand. Feel free to your favorite hot sauce though Hugh warns that Tabasco sauce is too spicy.

Saffron Braised Celery

Based on Hugh Acheson’s Saffron Braised Celery recipe from A New Turn in the South (page 223)

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 shallots, thinly sliced
• 12 celery stalks with leafy parts removed, cut into 3-inch lengths
• 1 pinch of saffron
• 1 cup chicken stock
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Over medium heat in an oven safe sauté pan, Dutch oven or braising pan (I used my Le Creuset 5-Quart Round Braiser [affiliate code]) heat the oil and sweat the shallots for about 5 minutes.
3. Place the celery in the pan. Add saffron and stock.
4. Cover, remove from the stovetop, and braise in the oven for 30 minutes or until tender.
5. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
6. Serve hot.

Grilled Fish with Hot Sauce Buerre Blanc

Based on Hugh Acheson’s Grilled Mahi Mahi with Hot Sauce Buerre Blanc recipe from A New Turn in the South (page 158)

Ingredients:

• 1 English cucumber, thinly sliced
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt, divided
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, divided
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh flat-leaf parsley (I used 1 tablespoon of Garden Gourmet’s parsley)
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons hot sauce
• 1/4 pound butter spread, cold, cut into chunks
• 4 6-ounce fillets of yellow tail, mahi mahi, tilapia, or other mild white fish

Directions:

1. Place the cucumber slices in a medium sized mixing bowl and season with 1/4 teaspoon of the sea salt.
2. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice over the cucumbers.
3. Add parsley and toss to combine. Let sit at room temperature as you prepare the rest of the dish.
4. Heat your grill.
5. In a small saucepan over medium heat, place the shallot, cider vinegar, and rest of the lemon juice.
6. Simmer until the liquid is reduced to about 2 tablespoons.
7. Add the hot sauce and reduce the heat to low until you have a slight simmer.
8. Whisk in the chunks of cold buttery spread until melted.
9. Season with a pinch of salt and keep warm on very low heat. (Or just the warm burner if you have an electric stove.)
10. Place fish fillets on a platter or plate and season with remaining sea salt.
11. Drizzle remaining olive oil over the fish.
12. Grill on high heat (so you have nice grill marks) until done. Amount of time will depend on the thickness of the fish.
13. To plate, arrange cucumbers on a plate and place grilled fish on top. Drizzle with the buerre blanc and serve.

Saffron Braised Celery and Grilled Fish with Hot Sauce Buerre Blanc from A New Turn in the South is a post from: This Mama Cooks! Stop by for more healthy recipes!

With summer nearly here, that means it’s time to hit the road, the beach, or the trail. Instead of stopping for fast food or a convenience store on the way to your summer destination, bring a healthy snack along, preferably one that doesn’t need refrigeration like homemade trail mix. This recipe can be made gluten free by omitting the Cheerios and adding two more cups of your favorite variety of Gluten Free Chex. (Note that Wheat Chex and Multi-Bran Chex are not gluten free.) If you or your children have nut allergies, omit the Planters Energy Mix and use pine nuts or sunflower seeds. Or you can add more dried fruit, raisins, or shredded coconut. Get the kids to help you make some Healthy Trail Mix, especially if they want custom blends without coconut or with more of their favorite dried fruit – or chocolate!

You can find coupons for Cheerios, Chex, Planter’s Energy Mix, and more at everydayhealthyvalues.com. You can also connect with Everyday Healthy Values on Twitter @Evrydyhealthval and Facebook at facebook.com/EverydayHealthyValues.

Healthy Trail Mix

This is a great snack for hiking, hanging out at the beach, taking to summer camp, or with you on family car trips.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Cheerios (any variety)
• 2 cups Gluten Free Honey Chex
• 2 cups Gluten Free Corn Chex
• 2 cups Gluten Free Rice Chex
• 2 cups raisins and/or dried fruit pieces
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 2 cups chocolate chips
• 2 cup Planters Energy Mix Nut-Rition Mixed Nuts

Directions:

1. Combine ingredients together in large bowl.
2. Store into plastic zipper bags or airtight containers.

On the go this summer with some Healthy Trail Mix is a post from: This Mama Cooks! Stop by for more healthy recipes!

April’s Food ‘N Flix movie is Practical Magic (affiliate link), hosted by Glennis at Can't Believe We Ate. (Read her announcement here.) It’s a late-90s romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock and a red-haired Nicole Kidman as the Owens sisters, Sally and Gillian, raised by two aunts played by Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest. They’re all witches living under a curse. You see, the men they fall in love with are doomed to an early death. The serious and somewhat nerdy Sally and wild woman Gillian must their witchy powers to fight the family curse and a swarm of supernatural forces after the accidental death of Gillian’s bad-boy boyfriend, played by Goran Visnjic of ER fame. Aidan Quinn plays an Arizonan policeman who investigates the sisters and ultimately falls in love with Sally.

This month’s Food ‘N Flix film is a cute as far as romcoms go, and I was super envious of Nicole Kidman’s amazing red hair. (Sandra Bullock is gorgeous, as usual, and both male leads were not hard on the eyes.) I especially liked the ending when the Owens witches go from pariahs to the most popular and beloved family in town.

All the actors and actresses are wonderful – and wonderfully directed by y Griffin Dunne – but the story's a bit silly at times. Still, it’s a fun movie to watch with your family (it’s PG-13 for some violence, intense thematic elements, mild profanity, and sensuality) and if you have Amazon Prime, it’s a free rental.

Bewitched? You can read the full plot on Wikipedia.

Making Midnight Margaritas

In the movie, one night the entire house of witches (except for the little girls, of course) get lit up on magical Midnight Margaritas and dance around to the song, “Coconut” by Harry Nilsson. Inspired by Practical Magic, a friend telling me about beer margaritas, and this video, I decided to brew up my own healthed up and gluten free version of a beer margarita.

First, I replaced the frozen limeade concentrate with Welch’s 100% Juice White Grape Peach concentrate. (Have you ever read the label on a can of limeade? It’s pure high fructose corn syrup and some lime flavorings – blarg!) Instead of a cherry soda, I used Hansen’s Diet Black Cherry. And I used a gluten free sorghum beer homebrewed by my husband. (You can use your favorite gluten free beer or a light beer if you’re not gluten free.)

Call on your inner witch to brew up variations of my Practical Magic Midnight Margarita recipe using different 100% juice concentrates and Diet Hansen's sodas. This would make a wonderful party drink or serve it at a Sunday or Mother’s Day brunch!

Practical Magic Midnight Peach and Cherry Beer Margaritas

Makes 4 to 6 margaritas

Ingredients:

• 1 12-ounce can Welch’s 100% Juice White Grape Peach concentrate
• 1 12-ounce can Diet Hansen’s Diet Black Cherry soda
• 12 ounces gluten free beer
• 12 ounces tequila
• 3 concentrate cans of ice

Directions:

1. Pre-chill your margarita glasses.(Chilling makes a big difference, believe me!)
2. Combine all ingredients in a large blender.
3. Place blender lid on firmly and hold it down with your hand. (There’s a lot of liquid in this recipe, and your margarita may threaten to overflow a bit!)
4. Blend the margaritas using the blender’s pulse setting to prevent a spillover.
5. Immediately pour into chilled glasses and serve.

Practical Magic Midnight Peach and Cherry Beer Margaritas #glutenfree is a post from: This Mama Cooks! Stop by for more healthy recipes!

Are you a golf fan traveling to Jacksonville to view THE PLAYERS May 6-12? If so, you’ll be interested to learn about the addition of several new social venues at THE PLAYERS that will give fans  chance to cool off in the shade, grab a drink and some delicious local food, and watch the likes of  Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, and defending-champion Matt Kuchar on large LED video boards.

Taste of JAX, located between 11 green and 12 tee at THE PLAYERS, offers foods from local, favorite restaurants, a covered, centrally located bar, upgraded restrooms, and videoboards to keep up with the tournament. For those of you trying to eat healthy or  gluten free, there are several restaurants to chose from such as:

• Indochine – Thai and Southeast Asian cuisine from one of downtown Jacksonville’s most popular locales, plus gluten free and healthy options
• Metro Diner – Classic American fare with low-calorie and gluten-free options
• Pele’s Wood Fire – Modern Italian-American cuisine where pizza is the signature dish

THE PLAYERS’ concession stands also showcase some of the most creative dishes the region has to offer in addition to including vegan and gluten free items:

• Sawgrass Sliders: well-seasoned mini-burgers
• A Vegan Fare menu: a lineup of vegan offerings not seen at other golf events, including a Black Bean Patty Melt, Chick’n Salad and Hummus Supreme
• Gluten free dishes: include the Avocado Power Lunch, Ham and Cheese Panini and a BSR Sandwich (Turkey Bacon, Spinach and Red Onion)

One dish that will be served at THE PLAYERS that caught my eye was the Mayport Shrimp with Grits and Fried Green Tomatoes, which features fresh shrimp prepared in neighboring Jacksonville. This would be a fun dish to make for brunch to enjoy while watching THE PLAYERS at home. Or save it for the following weekend for a Mother’s Day brunch!

Mayport Shrimp with Grits and Fried Green Tomatoes

Serving for 4

Grits ingredients:

• Stone ground quick grits
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Granulated garlic, to taste
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Prepare grits as directed on the package for 4 servings.
2. Add seasonings into water when grits are added.
3. Add cheese at the end and keep warm.

Shrimp ingredients:

• 1 pound 16/20 Local Shrimp, peeled and cleaned
• Blackening seasoning, to taste
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1-14 ounce can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
• 4 ounces ham, diced
• 1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
• 1/4 pound butter or buttery spread
• 4 cups white wine
• 1/2 red tomato, diced (for garnish)
• 1 green onion, chopped (for garnish)

Directions:

1. Season shrimp with blackening seasoning and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a large sauté pan add garlic, cook until light brown.
3. Add ham and peas, cook until crispy.
4. Add shrimp and wine. Reduce wine by half then stir in butter. Shrimp are done when they turn pink. 

Fried green tomato ingredients:

• 1 green tomato, cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups panko bread crumbs, plain
• Blackening seasoning, to taste
• Canola oil

Directions:

1. Slice tomato. Place flour in a small bowl, place eggs in a small bowl, and place bread crumbs mixed with blackening seasoning in a small bowl.
2. Heat enough canola oil in pan to cover tomato slices to 350 degrees.
3. Dip sliced tomato in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs.
4. Fry tomatoes in canola oil until golden brown. Cut in half before serving.

To plate:

1. Place grits on plate, top with shrimp mixture and some of the sauce from the pan.
2. Serve each plate with 3 halves of fried tomato. Then garnish with diced red tomato and green onions.

Recipe and pictures used with permission.

Eating well at THE PLAYERS: Mayport Shrimp with Grits and Fried Green Tomatoes is a post from: This Mama Cooks! Stop by for more healthy recipes!

Has your family participated in Meatless Monday yet? Maybe you’re reluctant to because someone in your family thinks veggies are yucky. Or maybe you’re just perplexed on how to cook up a vegetarian dish that’s filling and will be liked by all family members. That’s why you have to check out the new cookbook by Suzanne Landry, The Passionate Vegetable. Her health inspired recipes  promise to revitalize your life whether you’re a vegetarian or a meat lover.

You can tell that Suzanne is a health educator, because The Passionate Vegetable is as educational as it is inspirational. The cookbook includes a simple guide to food nutrition, suggestions for healthy vegetarian meals, transition recipes for the meat lover (love this!), and a guide to remaking your pantry to be healthier and vegetarian friendly. The Passionate Vegetable contains over 145 recipes including breakfasts, salads, soups, grains and bean dishes, and entries, as well as a chapter devoted to meat and healthy treats and desserts. It also features fantastic food photography for some but not all her recipes, unfortunately. Recipes I’m looking forward to making include Ratatouille over Spaghetti Squash and Roasted Fresh Figs with Goat Cheese.

Summer salads

With the weather getting warmer, I’m on the lookout for recipes that require a minimum of cooking and are more on the light side. This recipe from The Passionate Vegetable for California Fiesta Quinoa Salad fits the bill, since you can make it ahead of time in the morning when it’s cooler. Quinoa makes a terrific main dish since it’s an excellent source of vegetarian protein and it’s gluten free. Suzanne suggests adding leftover quinoa salad to scrambled eggs – just before the eggs set hard, add 1/4 cup and give it a stir. She likes this egg and quinoa salad dish for breakfast, but you could make it for lunch or dinner, too!

California Fiesta Quinoa Salad

Recipe from The Passionate Vegetable by Suzanne Landry from Health Inspired Publishing

Serves 6

Salad ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa, uncooked
• 2 cups water
• 1/4  teaspoon sea salt
• 3/4  cup tomato, chopped (1 medium tomato)
• 1/4 cup celery, chopped (1 stalk)
• 1/2  cup cucumber, seeded and chopped (1 medium cucumber)
• 1/2 cup scallions, chopped (4 scallions)
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, cleaned and chopped
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn, blanched
• 1/2 cup cooked black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 cup black olives, pitted and diced (Kalamata are the best!)

Dressing ingredients:

• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1   teaspoon hot red pepper flakes (or more to taste)
• 2   tablespoon red wine vinegar or 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/2  teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

• Boil 2 cups water and add salt. Thoroughly rinse quinoa in strainer. Place in boiling water, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook for 20 minutes or until grain is fluffed and water is absorbed.  Remove from pot into a large bowl and allow to cool before adding vegetables.
• Slice tomatoes into 1/2-inch slabs and remove most of the seeds.  Then cut tomatoes into sticks and crosswise into ½-inch cubes.  This will give you evenly sized tomato pieces that won’t get mushy if the salad isn’t eaten right away.
• Cut celery by slicing down the rib in the center of the stalk. If the stalk is large you might want to cut it in thirds. Then cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces.
• Slice cucumber lengthwise into 4 strips and then remove center seeds. Chop these strips into 1/2-inch pieces. Remove root ends of scallions and cross chop into 1/4-inch pieces. Toss cooled quinoa with all remaining vegetables, beans, and olives.
• Mix vinegar, oil, hot pepper flakes, and salt together.  Toss lightly with salad.  Refrigerate for an hour before serving.  This will last 5 days in the refrigerator.

Recipe and picture used with permission.

Meatless Monday: The Passionate Vegetable cookbook review and a recipe for California Fiesta Quinoa Salad #meatlessmonday #glutenfree is a post from: This Mama Cooks! Stop by for more healthy recipes!

The folks at Finish asked me to take the Finish Rise and Shine Challenge and create a difficult-to-clean meal to put Finish® Quantum® with New Power Gel to the test. I thought this was a great excuse to make a braised short rib recipe that I saw in Bon Appétit magazine to use up the flanken style beef short ribs I had in the freezer.

This recipe was a good choice for the Finish Rise and Shine Challenge, because braising makes a lot of mess. Plus, the flanken style ribs were so greasy I had to put the cooked meat and vegetables in a colander to drain them onto a cookie sheet – lots of grease for Finish to clean up!

More on the Finish Rise and Shine Challenge tomorrow. First the recipe!

Changes to Bon Appétit’s Chile-Braised Short Ribs recipe

This was the first and last time I’ll use flanken style short ribs. Besides being too greasy, they cooked too quickly, which turned the short rib recipe into a stew recipe. (I’ve adjusted the times accordingly below so you don’t end up with stew like me.) I also didn’t like all the little pieces of bone I had to pick out of the meat.

Here are the other changes I made to Bon Appétit’s recipe to create my Chile and Orange Braised Flanken Style Beef Short Ribs :

• Chiles: The original recipe uses dried New Mexico chiles. Even though we have a large Hispanic population here in Athens, GA, I couldn’t find any chiles labeled “New Mexican” so I used the dried ancho chiles I found at Kroger.
• Marinade: I found that the marinade was very thick and was worried that the meat wouldn’t be evenly exposed to it. So I added a cup of soaking liquid to make the marinade less paste like.
• Cuties to the rescue: Dummy me forgot to buy lemons, so I used Cutie Clementine oranges instead, which sweetened up the braised ribs a little.
• Cauliflower: Since I have a food sensitivity to potatoes, I used cauliflower instead.
• Olives: I didn’t read the label on the Mezzetta Castelvetrano Olives I bought on sale at CostPlus World Market, and accidentally bought olives with the pits still in them. Oops! I ended up using a paring knife to cut off the meat, thus the olives were chopped not whole.
• Carrots: To save time, I used baby carrots instead of cutting up large carrots.
• Parsley: Instead of fresh parsley, I used Gourmet Garden’s parsley for taste rather than garnish.
• Less clean up: Finally, I tried to have you use less cookware than the Bon Appétit recipe called for by soaking the chiles in the blender, marinating the meat in the pot, and so on.

All in all a heavy, but delicious dish. I really liked how the tangy sourness of the olives contrasted with the sweetness of the meat, orange juice and carrots. However, my daughter, Lucie, didn’t care for the olives at all, so you may want to serve your kids the ribs without the sauce.

Chile and Orange Braised Flanken Style Beef Short Ribs

Based on Bon Appétit’s Chile-Braised Short Ribs from the March 2013 issue

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

• 8 dried ancho chiles
• 4 garlic cloves
• Zest and juice of 4 Cuties Clementine oranges
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 5 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 5 pounds flanken style beef short ribs
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 large cauliflower, but into bite size pieces
• 3/4 pound baby carrots
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 cup pitted Castelvetrano green olives, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup Gourmet Garden parsley

Directions:

1. In a large skillet using NO oil, roast chiles over medium heat until slightly puffed and slightly darkened, about 1 minute on each side. (The chiles I used were large enough that only 4 fit in my skillet, so you may have to do this twice.)
2. Remove the chiles from skillet and let cool.
3. Pull stem off chiles and halve lengthwise. Scrape out and discard seeds.
4. If you’re comfortable pouring boiling water into your blender or food processor, then place cleaned chiles into it. (You can use a bowl instead if you're not.) Add boiling water to cover and let stand for 20 minutes. Drain water, reserving one cup of liquid, and leave chiles in blender or food processor. (Or place them into your blender/food processor if your soaking them in a bowl.)
5. Combine chiles, garlic, Clementine orange zest and juice, oil, salt, coriander, cumin and 1 cup soaking water in a blender or food processor. Purée until marinade is smooth.
6. Place flanken style beef short ribs, onion and marinade in a large oven safe heavy pot, like the 7 1/4 quart Le Creuset French oven I used. Cover with lid and chill ribs in the refrigerator overnight.
7. Preheat oven to 350°.
8. Add broth to the heavy pot, then bring everything to a boil on your stove top. Cover pot and transfer to oven. Braise ribs for 1 1/2 hour.
9. Add cauliflower, baby carrots, and tomato paste to the post. Make sure to keep meat and vegetables covered in the liquid.
10. Cover with lid and return to oven. Continue braising until meat is fork-tender and separates easily from the bone and vegetables are soft, 1 to 1/2 hours longer.
11. Turn oven off or keep it at the “warm” setting.
12. Place colander on a cookie sheet. Using a slotted spoon, transfer short ribs and vegetables to the colander to drain excess grease.
13. When meat is cool enough to the touch, remove any small pieces of bone that have come loose from the flanken style ribs.
14. Place meat and vegetables into an oven safe casserole dish, cover with foil, and return to oven to keep warm.
15. Place your large cooking pot on the stove over high heat. Bring liquid to a boil then reduce heat and simmer. Use a spoon to skim fat from surface.
16. Simmer for about 10 minutes until sauce starts to thickened like gravy. Stir olives and parsley into sauce and keep warm over low heat.
17. To serve, place short ribs and vegetables on plate and and spoon sauce over. Enjoy!

Read Part Two of the Finish Rise and Shine Challenge tomorrow!

Giving Chile and Orange Braised Flanken Style Beef Short Ribs the Finish Challenge (Part One) #FinishRiseandShine is a post from: This Mama Cooks! Stop by for more healthy recipes!