Rebounding

Mary had a little lamb...and I ate it.

I'm back with my broiler again. I know, I know! Many of you are probably thinking...the broiler burned you, don't go back! Stay strong sistah', there are plenty of broilers in the sea! If you missed my past relationship drama with Mister Broiler, here's our first go round. And yeah, then we got back together here.

But this time it's different! I swear! There was no fighting, just fast big juicy hot satisfaction. Oh yes!

Herb Marinated Lamb

4 lamb legs 1/2 inch thick (1-1.5 pounds)

2/3 cup olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup red wine

1 garlic clove, minced

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary

Pepper to taste

Combine olive oil, onion, vinegar, wine, garlic, salt, rosemary, thyme and pepper. Pour herb mixture over steaks and marinate in refrigerator overnight.

Take broiler rack out of broiler and then preheat. Place steaks on the unheated rack and place in broiler pan. Broil 3 inches from heat for 5 minutes. Turn and continue to broil for another 5 minutes or until desired doneness.

Inspired by cooks.com

Great balls of fire!

Simma down nah!

Little kids function at constant hyper speed, especially during these hot summer months! Call those crazy lill' buggers inside for lunch and cool them off with a big bowl of sweet and delightful chilled watermelon soup.

Watermelon Soup

1 cup strawberries, hulled and cut in half

4 cups chopped watermelon, seed removed

The juice of 2 fresh limes

1 teaspoon chopped fresh mint

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 cup coconut milk

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Put soup in a covered container and chill in refrigerator for one hour.

Enjoy!

A lot of work = a good thing

chicken chile relleno

This past weekend was the 2010 CrossFit games. What an amazing and inspiring weekend. It was so fun to see so many fit people in one place. And truly inspiring to see all the performances by so many athletes. There is heart poured into every one of the workouts. This year it was great to have the the Masters division in addition to the affiliates and individual competitors. The fittest people on the planet have definitely put their time in.

Speaking of time, I have not been putting in as much time into the kitchen as I should, but I was able to cook up these amazing little guys! The following recipe took a bit of time, as you will see, but was truly worth it. It's the Paleo version of a chile relleno. From start to finish I could not give you the exact time, but it took me over 3 days to finish them. I had many starts and stops in the process because I had to sleep and or work. I would think if you have and hour plus to spare you could get this done in one attempt. (I suggest cooking chicken ahead of time). I broke it down into a list of steps, don't get overwhelmed, they taste amazing and are well worth it. This recipe came from Stephanie at Primal Mama cooks and dishes on life. I varied mine just a little bit because I wanted to cook my own chicken and sauce, but otherwise I stuck to the basics she listed. Cooking my own chicken added an extra step, but I feel was worth it.

Hope you enjoy these as much as I did.

What you'll need:

4 Anaheim chilies, I used 8 small ones

2 organic chicken breasts

1 can organic diced stewed tomatoes

1 small can organic tomato paste

1 onion

2 eggs

seasonings

cumin

chili powder

cayenne pepper

salt

pepper

fresh cilantro for garnish

olive oil

paper bag

1. Place chicken breast in 8x8 pan with can of stewed tomatoes, cumin, chili powder, a pinch of cayenne and some salt and pepper. Bake at 350 for about 40 min.

2. Wash your chiles and roast them directly over a gas burner or bbq grill, rotate with tongs until all skins are black and burnt. Once they are done remove from burner place them in a paper bag and close tightly. Let sit for 10 min then remove from bag and peel off skin. It should come off easily.

3. Take each pepper and slice down the side (like a pocket) and remove seeds and veins, set aside.

4. Chop onion and in a medium saucepan heat 1 tbsp olive oil and add onion, cook until tender and translucent. Remove onions from pan and set pan aside (you will use it later).

5. Separate whites from yellow of eggs and beat whites with electric mixer until they form stiff peaks. Fold in 1 egg yolk into batter

6. When chicken is done cooking shred with fork and or chop into small pieces, then add in onion.

7. Pre heat saucepan and add more oil. Take roasted and de seeded chile and dip into egg batter, cook on all sides in same pan you used to cook onions in. Each side with take a min or two and should turn golden brown. let sit on paper towel to cool, then stuff with chicken mixture.

8. When all peppers are stuffed, place then in baking dish and bake for 20 min at 350. This should heat all the ingredients and help blend the flavors.

9. Make red sauce with half can tomato paste, enough water or broth to make sauce consistency, add 1 tbs cumin, 1 tsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp cayenne, salt and pepper.

10. Top chiles with sauce and serve with homemade guacamole

Melon mania

The sun is out and it's quite amazing. This made for a hot and quick trip to the market yesterday! Most every Wednesday morning I head to the Santa Monica farmers market to get (most recently), eggs from Candy, asparagus and artichokes from the folks on the corner, peaches from Reiger farms, strawberries, tomatoes and green bean (next to Candy), carrots, chiles and the MOST amazing melons. These melons just looked gorgeous and smelled amazing. They were so cute and I was told they had intense flavor. I was sold. Load me up with four melons and I'm outta there.

Now, what do to with all the melons? Of course I'm going to eat them, but making them taste even better by keeping it simple and only including a few ingredients is what I wanted to do. The melons were really ready to eat. They scented our home with a sweet & musky flavors that ripe melons have.

I made a simple melon salad with:

blueberries

mint

melon

You can combine any combination and I'm sure it will be amazing! try it out!

what about other melon ideas?

basic melon salad-mix up the types of melons

prosciutti wrapped melon

melon flavored water

melon and mint slushy

grilled melon on skewers

It's summer and enjoy!!

Sunshine? Smunshine!

So tasty they were gobbled up before a post-grill pic!

I don't know what's happening where you are, but here we've had clouds, rain, cold, earthquakes (no seriously, earthquakes). It's July 11th!! Where's the sunshine to wake me up in the morning and stay out shining until 8:30 at night? Where's the hot weather that calls for short shorts and cute little summer dresses? What's going on, I have zero tan lines?!! But don't let this weather hold you down Cheekees...I say light up those grills, put on your bikinis and swim trunks, heck...even put on your sunglasses!! Cause we're having a BBQ...

Spicy Chicken and Bacon Poppers

You can thank Mark's Daily Apple for this delicious mouth party.

1 large chicken breast

6 pickled pepperoncinis

3 strips of bacon

(This will make 6 poppers. Increase quantity accordingly.)

Cut chicken breast into 1″ cubes. Put the chicken in a large bowl and coat with olive oil, salt and pepper. Slice off the top of a pepperoncini and slice down the side. Put a piece of chicken inside.

Cut bacon strips in half. Wrap 1/2 of a piece of bacon around the pepperoncini-ed chicken. Spear about four poppers on a skewer. If using wooden skewers, soak them in water first to prevent them from burning on the grill.

Over medium heat, grill the poppers until the chicken is cooked through and the bacon is crisp, about 8-10 minutes a side.

And if you’re so inclined….it's so bad, but tastes so so good to dip 'dem poppers in! I did.

Homemade Ranch Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/3 cup finely chopped fresh chives, parsley, and dill

1 teaspoon celery salt

salt and pepper to taste

Whisk ingredients together.

Enjoy!!

Monkeys in the kitchen!

A nice change from a banana.

This recipe is so riiiiiiidiculously easy, a monkey could make it! That is if monkeys ate Paleo...and owned crock pots...just saying.

Shredded Chicken

You can use this chicken in tacos, burritos, fajitas or chow down as is!

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 jar of salsa

1 can of diced tomatoes with green chiles

Menage a crock pot.

Place chicken in crock pot. Empty jar of salsa and can of tomatoes over top of chicken.

Cook on low for 5 hours.

Use fork to shred the deliciously tender chicken and mix well.

Enjoy!

Bitter Sweet Salad

Simply sweet swiss chard salad

Sweet Cheek followers, congratulations for the completion of the Sweet Cheeks Paleo Challenge. We are so happy to have all of you who read the blog, commented, opened our emails and message and lastly took at look at what you were eating. This is what we wanted to happen. Raising awareness about what you are eating, how you feel when you eat it and then make changes that work for you. I know these challenges always get me going. This is not to say I didn't mess up a time or two, but my food is always evolving as I learn more about what I should be eating.

Now, I would like to give some special recognition to some of the foods that got us through this challenge!


I would like to congratulate the graduating class of 2010. These vegetables have done good things and there is much more in store for the future.

Carrots- congratulations, you are full of antioxidants and promote good vision, you are friends with both children and adults and we appreciate what you do.

Peppers- you are unforgettable. Your bright beautiful colors keep us asking for more!

Broccoli or little trees as some know you. You encourage children to like vegetables, steam up so nicely and adsorb coconut milk like no other.

Squash- We haven't seen too much of you lately, but once winter comes around we will see you more. You are loved because you are so versatile.

Onions-your variations amaze us, you can be prepared in so many ways but never cease to make us cry.

Last but not least: Chard or Swiss chard as some of you may know. You are the Valedictorian of your graduating vegetable class. You have the highest marks in vitamin A, K and C, magnesium, manganese, potassium, iron, vitamin E, and dietary fiber. You really do great work. We can enjoy you raw when young or cooked slightly for a salad. Your bitterness fades when cooked and helps get us on track.

This salad is simple and a great blend of bitter, sweet and super healthy.

1 bunch rainbow chard
1 white peach
1 sweet yellow onion
3 spears trader joes fresh cut pineapple (not so local, but tasty)
1 splash of rice wine vinegar
olive oil

First: Slice onions (don't cry, you know it's gonna happen)
Next: In large sauce pan on medium heat add 1 tbs olive oil, heat and add onions, keep it slow and low and let them Caramelize, stir occasionally, they become super sweet and amazing. The onions should be super soft and brown when finished-it will take a little time.
Get out a big Pot of water and bring it to a boil.
Then: While waiting for water to boil, wash and cut chard leaves and stems. Chard is usually really dirty, so fill sink with water and submerge to loosen any dirt. I even found a ladybug in mine the other day. Extra protein or little friend? you decide.

Chop chard into salad size pieces.
Blanch chard in pot of boiling water (the leaves should turn super bright green), remove greens and let sit in strainer to drain and rinse with a bit of cold water.
chop your peaches-bite size pieces
chop your pineapple-bite size pieces
When onions have caramelized, toss all above ingredients together and serve it up.

I would have added nuts, but this was during my one week nut vacation. Pine nuts would be great, slivered almonds or walnuts!

Enjoy!

Summer Salsa....take two

I love fruit and I love vegetables, but mostly I love fruit. I remember the first time I had a fruity salsa. I was working at a white water rafting company (at the front desk), I did get to go out with the team! So much fun, note to self-more white water rafting needed. We would have potlucks and one of the raft guides made this salsa... it stuck with me. Now I'm just playing with it a little bit. So here is one variation. I ate this on grilled chicken the first time. then with the 2nd portion I added more tomatoes, baby heirloom tomatoes (their better anyway). I chopped up my chicken and made it into a chicken salad and served it with steamed baby zuchinni.

Summer Salsa take Two
What you need

1 white peach
1 large tomato
1/2 avocado
1 green onion
small handful of cilantro
salt

Chop all the ingredients, mix it up and Voila, Salsa!!

Summer Salsa Take Two-remix
Take above recipe
add
4 heirloom cherry tomatoes chopped in fourths
3 grilled chicken tenders chopped up (smaller the better)
1 small yellow peach-chopped
mix it up!

The longer you let is sit the more all the juices and flavors come together!