Update: Not-Guac Avocado Dip

Last spring I posted about a word-of-mouth recipe I got from my dad called "Not Guac Dip".  I rambled on and on about how you needed to embrace your adventurous side and give this recipe a shot because the flavors are out of this world.  It's been a little less than a year since I shared the recipe but so far, everyone who has tried it has loved it.

As we move into the season of grilling and sipping margaritas and cold beers on the deck, I wanted to share an updated version of this recipe along with a handy tip. 

This updated version uses a white balsamic vinegar instead of your regular dark balsamic.  It's an easy fix for those who are put off by the discoloration that the dark balsamic gives the dip.  Both my Mom and Roy prefer the taste of the white balsamic over the regular dark balsamic so it's a win-win for them.

And now for the tip... if you've ever made anything with avocado in it, you know how quickly it goes from green to brown when it's exposed to air.  Pressing plastic wrap onto the surface only helps so much.  However... if you hang on to the pit and add it back into the bowl after you're finished making the dip... it keeps the avocado from turning brown.  I tested it last week and the dip still looked fresh after 6 hours. 

This is great with tortilla chips but if you have leftovers, I highly suggest it over some undressed iceberg lettuce.  Add it to your list today. You won't be disappointed!

*****

"Not Guac" Avocado Dip
serves 4-6
2 ripe avocados
2 Roma tomatoes
Half a medium red onion, finely diced
1/2 cup Feta cheese, crumbled
Garlic salt
Olive Oil
White Balsamic Vinegar

Roughly chop avocados into chunky pieces.  Roughly chop tomatoes into chunky pieces (remove seeds and watery insides).  Finely dice half a red onion.

Combine avocados, tomatoes and red onion in a medium bowl.  Sprinkle in 1/2 cup of crumbled Feta cheese.  Give it a light sprinkle of garlic salt (remember, you can always add more).  Stir gently to mix.

Drizzle lightly with olive oil and then with balsamic vinegar adding a bit more balsamic vinegar than olive oil.  Again, go easy.  You can always add more later.  Stir gently to combine.

Test with a tortilla chip and add more olive oil and balsamic vinegar as needed.  I like my dip to have more balsamic than olive oil since it gives the mixture an unexpected but fantastic flavor.

Enjoy!  Know that the longer this sits, the more the flavor builds.  And definitely try your leftovers on a salad, you won't be sorry.

Super Bowl-worthy Pepperoni Bread

Here is the recipe for one of my FAVORITE football foods - pepperoni bread with banana peppers.  It was one of the highlights of this year's Super Bowl for me. 

The original recipe comes from our old Chicago friends Dave and AY (aka: the other Lindsay) who now live in Cincinnati with their beautiful new daughter Alaina.  Like all of the other AY recipes that pepper my recipe box, this does not disappoint! 

The most complicated part of this recipe is putting the process of making this bread into words.  Fortunately, I have photos to make the process easier :) 

Start by bringing some pre-made pizza dough up to room temp for 20 minutes so it's easier to work with (you can find pre-made dough in the deli/fresh foods section of your grocery store).  Then roll it out on a floured surface to be roughly the size of a cookie sheet. 

Starting in the top left corner lay down the pepperoni in rows leaving a half inch border around the edge.  As you can see from the photo below, this isn't like pizza.  Don't use the pepperoni sparingly.  Cover the dough, let the edges overlap a little.  I use turkey pepperoni because I think it's a little less greasey and I can't tell a difference between turkey versus real pepperoni.  Cover the pepperoni liberally with mozzarella cheese. 

Drain a jar of banana peppers, tear up the larger chunks and sprinkle them across the dough.

Then slowly gather the edge on the far side and begin rolling it towards you.

Your roll should look like this. You'll be able to see the pepperonis under the dough and you'll be worried it's going to bust but it won't, just be gentle.

Pinch the edges and ends closed and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Pair with warm marinara sauce, brownies (Duncan Hines chocolate chunk), beer, friends, a good football game, and enjoy!

*****

Super Bowl-worthy Pepperoni Bread

1 pre-made pizza dough

1 package of turkey pepperonis (or about 15 medium thickness slices of regular deli pepperoni)

8 ounces of shredded mozzarella

1 jar of mild banana peppers

flour

Let refrigerated dough come to room temp for 20 mins.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll out dough on a floured surface until it is roughly the size and shape of a cookie sheet.  Starting in the top left corner lay down the pepperoni in rows leaving a half inch border around the edge. 

Cover the pepperoni with mozzarella cheese. 

Drain a jar of banana peppers, tear up the larger pieces and the sprinkle over the pepperoni and cheese. 

Slowly gather the edge that's farthest from you and begin rolling it in.  Gently place the roll on a cookie sheet and pinch the edges and ends closed.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until the top is golden and crispy. 

Grilled Cheese Makeover

I love grilled cheese.  It's one of my favorite food groups, along with chocolate chip cookies.  I'm pretty sure half my meal plan freshman year went to grilled cheese and mashed potatoes at Owens.  And grilled cheese is what I order from room service the night before every big work event. 

Last month my beloved grilled cheese got a makeover.  It's very simple - mustard. 

My Mom had suggested adding mustard earlier in the fall and then over the holidays I had cheese toasts at a cute bar in New York City that were oozing with mustard and covered in bubbly cheese.  AMAZING! 

I replicated at home using deli mustard (a grainy mustard is best) and a combo of Munster cheese and cheddar cheese.  Butter the outside of the slices like you normally would but spread a fair amount of mustard on the inside of the slices and then layer with cheese and deli meat.  I make my grilled cheese over lower heat and cover the pan with a bit of foil to help melt the cheese.  And those are some delicious Alexia frozen sweet potato fries in the background, which are quickly becoming one of my new favorite things! 

Enjoy!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

The arrival of football season means the arrival of lots of things.  Cooler weather, pumpkin spice everything, cute new fall clothes, tailgates... 

It also means the arrival of comfort food season!  The cozy, simple kind of food that pairs perfectly with the game and a good beer.

To toast the start of the new football season, I tried this recipe which combines two of my favorite things - pizza and wings.  It was only my second time grilling pizza but I really like the outcome.  The crust gets toasty and firm which makes it perfect for a pizza like this one, which is loaded with toppings.  [Side note: below are alternate instructions for making this pizza in an oven, in case grilling isn't an option for you]

Because I made this on a Friday night and I was in full-on lazy mode, I used a rotisserie chicken.  Next time, I'll probably go to the trouble of baking some chicken breasts to keep it a bit healthier.  I would also add a bit more celery because I love the crunch.  And I'd toss in a few banana peppers because I love them and I think all the flavors would work well together.

The pizza was delicious.  Just the right amount of buffalo wing spiciness to go with the creaminess of the blue cheese.  This would be great for dinner, especially as a precursor to some Monday Night Football!  But it would also be just as delicious cut into small pieces and served as an appetizer.

*****

Buffalo Chicken Pizza
from Boboli

1 12" Boboli® Original Pizza Crust (I used whole wheat)
4 tbsp. butter, melted
1/4 c. hot cayenne pepper sauce (NOT hot sauce, but hot wing sauce)
2 c. chicken, cooked and diced
1/2 c. celery, chopped
1 c. crumbled blue cheese
1 tsp. chives 

Preheat the grill for 10 – 15 minutes on medium-high heat.  If you have a gas grill, turn off one of the burners.  If you use charcoal, push charcoal to one side. 

In a medium bowl, combine the butter and hot sauce and mix well.  Add the chicken and celery, toss to coat well. 

Brush a tiny bit of olive oil (or melted butter) on each side of your pizza crust.  Place the crust on the side of the grill with the burner turned off or without the charcoal.  Grill the crust 2 – 4 minutes per side. 

Remove from grill and spread the chicken and celery mixture evenly over the pizza crust.  Sprinkle with blue cheese and return to the grill for 8 – 10 minutes.  Grill until the cheese melts a bit and the crust is golden.  Remove from heat, let cool for 2 minutes, and enjoy!

If you're baking it in the oven...
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  In a medium bowl, combine the butter and hot sauce and mix well. Add the chicken and celery, toss to coat well.  Spread the chicken and celery mixture evenly over the pizza crust.  Sprinkle with blue cheese and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the crust gets crispy and it's heated through.

BBQ Chicken Nachos

True confession time: I love bar food.  It's my Saturday guilty pleasure of choice, especially during football season.  I try to eat balanced meals and snacks during the week (keyword: try).  And then I indulge my cravings in spinach and artichoke dip, gluttonous brunch, loaded nachos, fried anything and college football when Saturday rolls around. 

Trouble sets in around dinner time.  I find myself too stuffed to enjoy even one more loaded cheese fry and my body is preparing to disown me after all the processed food and sodium.  I feel like undoing the top button of my jeans and falling asleep at the table. 

And that's why I adore this recipe.  It blends the best of both worlds - loaded nachos and the wholesome foods that treat me so much better than my favorite bar dishes. 

The original recipe came from my Chicago friends Dave and Lindsay (affectionately known as AY in Windy City circles).  Roy and I were at their house for dinner when Lindsay introduced us to this amazing find.  It's so basic, you'll wonder why you didn't think it up yourself.

Tangent time... it's hard to explain to you just how fun Dave and Lindsay are and how much I enjoyed living in the same city as them.  So here's a picture that should help elaborate. 

How can people who will do that on their wedding day NOT be fun to hang out with?!?  They've been gone for almost 2 years now, but Chicago still misses them dearly.

Over the years I've played with Lindsay's original recipe by adding in peppers and onions.  I finally settled on the recipe below that includes diced red, green and yellow peppers.

diced bell peppers waiting to be made into nacho goodness

I probably make it every other week during football season, particularly for Monday night games.  It can be made ahead of time and it makes enough for leftovers.  Plus I feel like I'm enjoying an indulgent treat when in reality, I'm getting protein, veggies, and whole grains which is more than I can say for my bar appetizer bffs.  Be cautious not to put too much chicken on one chip. I know it's tempting but you want to maintain a good chip to chicken ratio.

Play around with the your favorite ingredients and work up a combination that's best for you.  Check out this article, "Nachos 50 Ways" from the Food Network Magazine.  You'll get all kinds of good inspiration!

Unfortunately, I can only vouch for the healthy rating if you keep it as is.  But don't let that deter you from trying it with buffalo chicken and blue cheese, fresh corn and jalapenos, or mango and pineapple with Monterrey jack cheese.  The combinations are endless.

Happy Eating!

*****

BBQ Chicken Nachos
35 mins, serves 4-6


1 package boneless, skinless chicken breasts (around 1.5 lbs)
3 diced bell peppers – red, green and yellow
Shredded cheese (I use cheddar)
1 bag of restaurant style tortilla chips (you want larger chips so they have space to hold the goods)
BBQ sauce (I like Sweet Baby Ray’s original sauce)

1. Bake the chicken for 20 mins at 400 or until cooked through.  While chicken is cooking, dice bell peppers.

Lazy Woman's option: use a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken to save yourself the time of baking the chicken.

2. Slice the chicken breasts into big chunks, place in a food processor or blender and shred until it resembles a pulled bbq meat.  You can also pull it apart by hand using forks, but that’s a lot of effort and interferes with my ability to simultaneously drink a beer.

3. Place shredded chicken and diced bell peppers into a large bowl and add 1/3 cup of BBQ sauce.  Mix well and add more sauce in small increments as necessary.  You want it to be well coated and moist but not soggy.

4. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.  Lay chips in a single layer on the backing sheet and spoon the shredded chicken and bell pepper mixture onto the chips.  Sprinkle with shredded cheese. 

5. Bake on a rack in the top third of the oven at 300 degrees for 10 min.  Just enough to melt the cheese and heat the chicken/bell pepper mixture through.


Again, it’s very easy to make this the day before and refrigerate it so you aren’t slaving away on game day or a work night.  Just stir the mixture up and let it come to room temp first.  And only make as many nachos as you think you’ll eat.  You can’t reheat the nachos, but the bbq mix keeps so you can always make more.

*****

Below are the nutrition facts from a very similar Hungry Girl recipe.  It's not a perfect match.  The HG recipe is based on using 1 can of 98% fat free chunk white chicken, 1 cup of fat free cheese, 1/2 cup of bbq sauce with about 45 cal per 2-TBSP serving, and baked tortilla chips.  I'm just sharing this to give you a ballpark since the recipes are pretty similar.

229 calories, 3g fat, 875 mg sodium (would assume this goes down if you bake your own boneless skinless chicken breasts instead of using canned chicken), 26g carbs, 125g fiber, 7g sugars, 21g protein

Sweet Potato Chipfries

Like the last post, this is another one that started as more of a non-recipe.  I've never been a sweet potato person.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that by the time I'd turned 25, I'd had all of 3 bites of a sweet potato in my life.

Ohhhh, what I've been missing all this time!  I had no idea. 

My Mom made these a few years ago and they changed my mind.  I'm still not a huge fan of sweet potatoes the way you think of them at Thanksgiving, covered in pecans or marshmallows.  But I'm hard pressed to turn down sweet potato fries and I make this version at home once a week or so during the winter months.

This is a tasty, savory take on sweet potatoes and in my opinion, a good bit healthier than the traditional preparations that involve marshmallows. 

Although... when you eat an entire potato in one sitting you may negate all the health value you previously earned.  Oops.  I blame that on the Royfriend since he doesn't like sweet potatoes and I have to eat it all myself.

Sorry for the wishy washy title - "chipfries".  They don't get so crispy that they resemble baked chips, but they aren't french fries either.  These are one of those things you just have to try yourself.  If you have a better name, let me know!  I make these a lot for a Sunday afternoon snack but you could also make them as a side for dinner. 

Happy Eating!

*****

Ma Rob's Sweet Potato Chipfries

One sweet potato
Balsamic vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil


Thinly slice sweet potato on a mandolin.  Drizzle the slices with equal parts balsamic vinegar and EVOO.

Spread the slices evenly on a baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees, turning them over about half way through.

Go Cubs Go - a tribute to Chicago dogs

It's heeeeere!

Finally.  After 4 frigid, icy winter months.

Today, we get some reprieve.  Confirmation that spring will in fact happen here in Chicago.  Eventually.

Today is Opening Day for the Cubbies!  Technically there are snow flurries in the forecast and it will be another 45-60 days before temperatures stabilize at a respectable number. 

The point is today, we are overflowing with belief.  Belief that this IS the year for the Cubs.  Belief that this frozen tundra will eventually thaw out.  It has to, right?  RIGHT?!?

A bit too dramatic for you?  Well you try living through a Midwest winter where you wake up to ice on the INSIDE of your living room windows and the wind cuts you to the bone for months on end despite your 3 pairs of pants, big fuzzy hood and 2 pairs of gloves.  Then we'll talk.

Today's blog is about fun food where utensils are forbidden and people who are napkin freaks (like me) give in and consider the mustard stain to be a badge of honor. 

Start by listening to the song below.  It was written in 1984 by a die hard Cubs fan, Steve Goodman who tragically passed away 4 days before the Cubs clinched the Eastern Division title in the National League for the first time ever.  This would earn the Cubs their first post-season appearance since the 1945 World Series (three years before Steve Goodman's birth).

The song is played at Wrigley Field at the end of every game the Cubs win.  Then keep reading to learn more about Chicago dogs, a gift from the baseball Gods.

In a word, Chicago dogs are spectacular. 

They get "dragged through the garden" and actually taste nothing like a hot dog (think of it as a creative way to eat your veggies!). 

Next time you're in the windy city, do yourself a favor and get one.  If you have time, do it the right way and go to Hot Doug's.  There's a 30-45 min line out the door at all times, even during the bitter winter months, but it is WELL worth the wait.  They make all their own sausage and dogs and the flavors and combinations are just unreal.  Come on, how good do those Hot Doug dog's look?

   

Top to bottom: Chicago dog, knockwurst with smoked Gouda, fries made with duck fat, Chicago dog

You can easily make them at home if you're craving a ballpark fix and find yourself thousands of miles away from the Windy City.  You should know, there is an art to making a Chicago dog.  It's all in the ingredients.  There's really no recipe, just add the ingredients in the order they're listed in below.

• Buns - get poppy seed if you want to do it right
• Hot dogs - grilled, boiled, whatever you like
• Yellow mustard
• Neon green sweet relish
• White onions - raw or grilled (Wrigley grills 'em and the smell is glorious)
• Tomato SLICES - do. not. dice. it's not authentic!  You need half moon slices.
• Dill pickle spears
• Sport peppers
• Sprinkling of celery salt

Did you happen to notice there's no ketchup? 

Ketchup on Chicago dogs is a sin.  It's a cardinal rule of Chicago dogs. 

So go celebrate opening day with some ballpark dogs that would make the Cubbies proud!  And don't worry, despite my bitching, that picture of me enjoying the Chicago dog at Wrigley isn't from a spring game.  It was from the 2010 Winter Classic hockey game held at Wrigley on New Years day.  I was ecstatic, but it's kind of tough to see through all that parka and fleece!

GO CUBS GO!