Baked potato chips (again!!)

One of my new kitchen gadgets from Christmas was a mandoline.  I got to try it out over break when I made baked potato chips (original post) for a New Year's Eve appetizer feast!  I had to leave for Pittsburgh early on the 1st, so I stayed in with my parents for a quiet New Year's celebration.

Using the mandoline!

Perfect slices

Baking to a crisp!

Healthy homemade potato chips!

Our New Year's Eve feast: honey-lime shrimp, the chips, cheese and crackers, hummus, and chips for our leftover Mexican chicken/Spanish rice/black bean fiesta!  Yum!

OMG CHICKEN!

Chicken is easy to make, but it gets boring quickly.  I have a ton of chicken recipes pinned on Pinterest and several packs of chicken sitting in my freezer, so I need to start actually making these recipes!  Some pinner called this "OMG chicken," but it's just a much healthier version of Hellman's Parmesan crusted chicken, using fat free plain Greek yogurt instead of the mayo.  While the chicken cooked, I made a quick veggie stir-fry with mushrooms, yellow squash, orange bell pepper, and grape tomatoes.  Yum!

Did you know that a serving of chicken is about the size of a deck of cards and weighs 3-4oz?  I usually cut chicken breasts in half (butterflying them like this, but cutting the whole way through to make 2 pieces).  I'm still left with more than a serving of chicken (4-6oz depending on the size), but it's a lot more manageable and cooks more evenly.


Here's the easy recipe for "OMG Chicken"!

Ingredients:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, each butterflied in half
1/2 cup fat free plain Greek yogurt
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
Sprinkle of Italian breadcrumbs

Mix the yogurt and cheese together and slather the mixture over the chicken.  Sprinkle some breadcrumbs over the top and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  How easy was that?

Puppy in the Snow!

Since I've been home, there have been two or three small snowfalls.  Each was just a couple inches and melted soon after, but we took my dog out to play in the snow the other night.  He loves catching snowballs!

Moroccan Chicken Soup

I first made this soup a couple summers ago, and since then I've made it a few times for my family.  It is easy to make (takes about 15 minutes) and is very hearty and filling.  The recipe is from the Best Simple Recipes cookbook by America's Test Kitchen, one of my first cookbooks!  It calls for garam masala, an Indian blend of spices, made up of black pepper, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, and cardamom, among other spices.  Most of these spices are also abundantly used in Moroccan cooking, so I think the recipe calls for using the Indian spice in order to simplify the recipe.  I like that it's mild (I'm a wuss when it comes to spicy things) and it gives the soup a flavor very similar to what I tasted in Morocco. (see the end of this post for some of my pictures from Morocco!)

Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 onion, chopped fine
1 teaspoon garam masala
5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 14.5oz can of diced tomatos (we use the no salt added version)
2 15.5oz cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 zucchini, cut into half moons
1/2 cup plain couscous
1 rotisserie chicken
Salt and pepper to taste

Using a rotisserie chicken makes the whole process a lot faster, but making the chicken will work just as well.  Discard the skin and shred the chicken into bite size pieces.  You'll only need about 3 cups of chicken for the soup.

In a large Dutch oven or stock pot, cook onion in ~1 tbsp of olive oil over medium-high heat until translucent and lightly browned (takes about 5 minutes).  Add the garam masala and stir, cooking for another 30 seconds.  Add the broth and tomatoes and bring to a simmer.  Add the chickpeas, zucchini, and couscous, cover the pot, and cook for about 8 minutes.  Uncover, stir in about 3 cups of the chicken, and add salt and pepper to taste.  Let it simmer for a few minutes so the chicken can absorb the flavors, then serve with some crusty bread!

Morocco 

Morocco was the last port on my voyage on Semester at Sea, the study abroad program I did in the summer of 2010.  We docked in Casablanca and a group of us took a day trip to Marrakech, which was amazing!!  I had so many amazing dishes throughout the summer, but one of the best was a lamb dish with couscous, chickpeas, vegetables, and stewed dates.  Check it out:

 Soooo delicious.  I may or may not have had more than two helpings... :)

 And this is one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip, in a garden in Marrakech:

Navidades!

I hope you had an excellent Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or whatever holiday you celebrate this season!  I had a fun week full of family and delicious food, and now I'm just enjoying a few quiet days before heading back to school.

I was in class until the 20th, when we had our Cell Path exam and histology practical...adding another completed syllabus to the stack!!  To the right is a picture of all the syllabi and books I've accumulated in the first semester of medical school!  Classes start again on Jan 2, when we'll begin the pathology portion of the Cell Path course.  Then Immunology and Microbiology, all before spring break!  Looks like I have my work cut out for me...

My grandfather (we call him Abuelote) came up from Florida for the week of Christmas, and he got to meet his two newest great-grandchildren!  The two older kids remembered him, so they were happy to see him too.  We had a full house on the 22nd, just like on Thanksgiving!  We exchanged presents with my brother and his family, since they were leaving the next day, and ate a wonderful Italian dinner - turkey sausage and homemade meatballs in Ina's marinara sauce.  We also celebrated Abuelote's 85th birthday with a big chocolate cake!  I also spent a good amount of time playing and cuddling with the kiddos :)

Pork on pork! Mmmmmm

My sister and her family came down for Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) to do presents and dinner.  I got a lot of kitchen stuff, which I am super excited to try out!!  I have a lot of Crockpot recipes pinned on Pinterest, so I'm looking forward to trying them out on the weekends.  Nochebuena dinner is always pork and black beans over white rice - Cuban tradition!  The pork was marinated with a mustard/honey/garlic mixture and covered in BACON.  Oh yes.  Delicious.  My sister made the black beans from scratch, and they were wonderful as always!

Among my kitchen-related gifts were a new cute cupcake apron from my sister, an Ina Garten cookbook autographed by Ina herself (!!!), a mandoline for thinly slicing food (and for making better potato chips), and the Crock Pot.

All the girls got aprons!

Ina Garten touched my cookbook!

Mandoline!

Sooo excited to try some new recipes!

Carols, Chips, and Chanting!

Like the alliteration?  So do I.

I was rather productive today!  Unfortunately not in the realm of academics, but that's what Sundays are for!!

Earlier this afternoon, my acapella group sang Christmas carols in the Pittsburgh Strip at the Pittsburgh Public Market.  I caught an early bus, and since it was such a nice day (50 degrees and sunny!), I got off about a mile early and walked to the market.  The Strip is such a happening place on weekends, full of people and shops (and wonderful smells!) so I highly enjoyed that little walk.  Finally we all met up, warmed up, and sang our little set list to the market.  People loved it!

Afterwards, I walked around the market.  It's quite small, nothing like the Central Market at home, but there were lots of little vendors selling handmade jewelry, treats, produce, and other fun things.  I sampled some maple bacon coffee, and it was surprisingly good!  Mostly maple flavored with a hint of smokiness.  A bunch of us hovered around a vendor selling different types of jams, so I sampled some, and they were delicious!  Especially the ones made with wine and beer :)  I walked around and enjoyed the colors, "appreciated" (as Dr. Schumann would say) the tempting baked goods, and went on my way home.

Once home, I had a couple hours to kill before my next engagement, so I decided to try out a recipe I had been wanting to do for a while - baked potato chips!  I had a regular potato and a sweet potato, so I tried out both.  I don't normally eat potato chips, but these were so good that I don't think I'll ever eat commercially produced chips again!

Let's all just appreciate the thinness of these slices, shall we? :)

What you need:
Potatoes
Water
Olive Oil
Good knife skills or a mandoline
Optional: Salt/Pepper/whatever you want to season them with

Preheat oven to 400F.  Slice the potatoes to desired thickness.  The thinner you cut them, the crispier they get.  I don't own a mandoline, so I just tried cutting them the thinnest I could possibly manage, which ended up being about 1/8 inch.  If you're using regular potatoes, soak them in water for about 10 minutes to release some of the starch.  Sweet potatoes don't have to be soaked.  Put all the slices in a bowl, then drizzle with olive oil and use your hands to make sure each slice has some oil on it.  No need for a lot of oil! I probably used about 1/2 tbsp over 2 potatoes, just enough to make sure each slice had seen some oil.

Lay them out on a foil-lined baking sheet in a single layer, and sprinkle with whatever spices you want.  I used a bit of salt and freshly ground pepper.  Stick them in the oven and set a timer for 12-15 minutes, depending on the size of your slices.  The smaller and thinner pieces will obviously cook faster, so you don't want those burning while the bigger ones are still cooking.  Take the tray out and remove the chips that are done, then let the larger/thicker pieces cook for another 5-8 minutes.  My large pieces took about 20 minutes total, but yours may vary.  Remove them from the baking sheet, let cool, and enjoy! (Or you can enjoy them hot, they're really good that way too!)

I'll be taking the chips to school tomorrow so some of my friends (*cough*guineapigs*cough*) can taste them and see if they're still tasty a day later.  We'll be practicing doing physical exams on each other since we have to do our first full exam on a standardized patient this week.  At the very least, the chips will let us hear bowel sounds!  (Sorry, that might have been too much info for the general public...)

Today is December 1, and that means it's World AIDS Day, a day to bring awareness to HIV and AIDS.  (Pittsburgh)Red, the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, Pitt's graduate school association, and many more organizations came together tonight for a rally and march down Forbes Ave.  There was a rally at Carnegie Mellon with several speakers, including Pittsburgh's mayor, then everyone marched down Forbes Ave with candles to Pitt's campus, where there was free food, free HIV testing, and a bunch of organizations (PittMed LGBTPAM, Planned Parenthood, Rainbow Alliance, ONE, etc) tabling with information.  I had volunteered to help out on Pitt's side with food, so I was unable to take part in the march, but it was amazing seeing the 100+ participants walking down Forbes.  The music and food brought in a lot of people that were just passing by, so I thought it was really successful!

Healthy Appetizers for your Nomming Pleasure!

Today was an excellent day!  Slept in until 10, attended a laparoscopic surgery skills workshop (starting to get more and more interested in surgery!), taught some high schoolers about how the heart works while walking them through a dissection of a sheep heart, and caught up on the lectures that I missed this morning!  I'm still trying to figure out my groove, but this seemed to work out well.  Sleeping in is always a plus!

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I would post about my Thanksgiving recipes.  2/3 of the things I made came from recipes I found on Pinterest!  (of course!)

Unfortunately we didn't take pictures of the stuffing (what were we thinking?! we always document!) but I made a basic, but delicious, sourdough stuffing that my sister had previously made.  You can find the recipe here.  We left out the mushrooms (and the 2 tbsp of butter that would have been used to cook them) because my brother is allergic to mushrooms.  But with my sister's mushroom gravy on top, it was perfection!  One serving made just enough for 7 adults and 2 kiddos.

Now on to what we DID document, because recipes aren't complete without drool-worthy pictures!

Low-Fat Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Everyone loves spinach-artichoke dip, right?  Too bad that restaurants make it with so much oil and cream and cheese (and cream cheese) that the nutrition info is downright scary!  This recipe uses fat-free Greek yogurt, low-fat cream cheese, and very little Parmesan cheese, but tastes every bit as good as the restaurant stuff!  

 Original recipe here.  I tweaked it just a bit.

Ingredients:
Olive oil or regular cooking spray (PAM)
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic (or more if you like garlic)
9 oz fresh or frozen spinach
12 oz artichoke hearts
8 oz low-fat cream cheese
1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
3 tbsp low-fat Parmesan cheese, grated
1 tbsp chives
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
12" round bread loaf

Dice onion and mince garlic.  Spray cooking spray on a nonstick or cast iron pan and add onion.  Saute onion until translucent and add garlic.  Saute mixture for about a minute, then add spinach.  If using frozen spinach, be sure to squeeze out any excess liquid before adding it to the pan and cooking for about 2 minutes.  If using fresh spinach, cook until it is just wilted.  Remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes.

If you're going to be serving the dip right away, preheat the oven to 350F.  If you have a food processer, use that for the following steps.  We just had a small mini-prep processer so we had to do a couple batches.  Put the artichoke hearts and the cooled spinach-onion-garlic mixture into the food processor and chop until you reach desired consistency (some people like chunky dip!).  Add the cream cheese and Greek yogurt, and whirl together.  This can also just be done in a bowl.  Add the cheese, chives, and pepper, and mix.

Hollow out your bread and spoon the mixture in.  Don't throw away the bread innards!  Chop them up and place them on a baking sheet along with the bread bowl and bake for 20 minutes.  The mixture can also be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge until you're ready to add it to the bread and bake.  Time to enjoy!

Roasted Honey-Lime Shrimp...or not?

I love shrimp!  It's probably my favorite seafood, and it's always delicious.  I found this recipe and just had to try it!  Except technically, I haven't actually tried it, because...I forgot to add the honey to the marinade.  I realized it the second we were taking them out of the oven.  The upside is that they still tasted amazing!  So I guess there are two recipes in this...leave out the honey for some tangy Lime Shrimp!

Original recipe here.  The recipe serves 2 people with 1/2 pound of large shrimp.  We had 7 adults and 2 kids, so we quadrupled the shrimp and used more garlic, but kept everything else pretty much the same.  There was no need to quadruple the olive oil or lime juice - there was plenty of marinade to go around, and the shrimp was definitely not lacking in lime flavor!

Ingredients:

1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbsp honey (apparently optional!)

juice of one small lime

zest of one small lime

2 cloves garlic (or more!)

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Combine the marinade in a large plastic bag.  Add the shrimp and let it marinate in the fridge for 30-60 minutes (don't do much longer, because the acid in the lime will start to cook the shrimp).  You can cook them in a pan, but it would have taken forever to do that with 2 lbs of shrimp, so we roasted them and it was super quick and easy (and easy cleanup!).  Preheat oven to 400F.  Line a pan with foil and spread the shrimp out in one layer.  Roast for about 8-10 minutes, watching them closely near the end to see when they turn pink.  Serve and enjoy!

UPDATE:  I've made this shrimp two more times, both times with the honey, and it's really good!

And just to close it out, here's a pic of our turkey.  Nom!!!