Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Heart Stoppers Sports Grill: Check it out while it's still around

A new sports grill opened up in Delray Beach, FL on Linton in the Target shopping center. I came across it the first time by accident as I was getting my hair cut next door and had a little time to kill before my appointment. I wandered into Heart Stoppers and was surprised by what I came across - the whole place is decorated like a hospital and the waitresses wear nurses outfits. There is a "city morgue" wall for pictures of people who try to eat their 3lb burger and fries and fail. There are iv bags and wheel chairs and some of their food - like chili cheese fries - come in a bed pan! The front of the menu warns eating their food will lead to obesity and inside the menu it states that if you weigh in at 350 pounds or more your meal is on them. It is a cute idea if not a bad location. I got to meet the owner and the manager the first time I visited the grill - they were very friendly and even helped me pick out my dinner. I have brought friends here several times now for lunch and they really liked their meals and the idea. Almost everything I have tried there has been great (I am not a fan of their onion rings - not too much flavor) but I must warn not to go there if you are in a rush as the service is a little slow.


My friend's burger and sweet potato fries - she liked everything but said the fries were a little cold...Heart Stoppers offers 30 toppings to add to your burger for free:)




I had the 1/4 pounder and added a ton of toppings -mmm - good, but messy...again, not a huge fan of the onion rings, they are fried in something that almost resembels a tempura batter which is nice and flaky but lacks flavor.

My friend and my lunch the last time I went to Heart Stoppers - note the salt shaker - aka medicine bottle. I had the RIP sandwich - boneless chicken wing sandwich with medium buffalo sauce and blue cheese and my friend had one of the steak sandwiches and we shared an order of fries. Everything was great, tons of flavor, I even liked the fries and I'm not a huge fan of fries typically. My sandwich was amazing but also really messy!
Well, I guess that there is a similar sports bar in Arizona, called Heart Attack Grill which is decorated similarly and has similar menu items...they are suing Heart Stoppers so I say go to Heart Stoppers while you can - just in case...

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Brown Sugar Salmon & Pero's new Salad Cut Ups

The company/farm I work for recently came out with a new line - salad cut ups. They have all the mix-ins for salad - you just need to add the lettuce and salad dressing...and if you are like me and hate lettuce, these are perfect for you!


The first salad cut up I tried: Garden - I had chunks of cucumbers, whole grape tomatoes, julienned carrots, diced green peppers and chopped red onions. The first thing I noticed that I really liked was that all of the veggies are individually packaged - I think this is a great idea so everyone can take/use what they want. You also dont need to use the full amount all at once. The second thing I noticed was how fresh and crispy all of the vegetables were. They really all had great taste. I didn't even need to add any salad dressing because they were so flavorful. For me the best thing about this is that I know these veggies are super clean as they go through a series of vitamin baths at our facility and the area they are cut and packaged in is kept free of contaminates. I love this because I know I can just open the package and toss the veggies together - I dont have to worry about cleaning the product.

Like I said, these tasted so good I didn't need to add a salad dressing but I needed a main course. I wanted something a bit lighter with my salad so I decided on salmon.

Brown Sugar Salmon:

Ingredients:
-Salmon fillets
-1/4 cup of brown sugar
-panko bread crumbs to cover
-1/2 cup orange juice


Directions:
-place salmon fillets in a deep pan and make puncture holes several times with a fork
-pour orange juice over salmon filets
-sprinkle with brown sugar and rub into fish
-top with panko bread crumbs

Place in a preheated oven at 400 degrees and bake until salmon flakes with a fork.


Cousin Lisa's Cinnamon Rolls

I recently visited my family in Virginia. My cousin Lisa is a home ec teacher and one of my inspirations to start cooking. I remember Lisa trying to teach me how to make grilled cheese and saute onions for on top of burgers. She was teaching her brother and I how to test if the oil in the pan was hot enough by sprinkling just a little water in the pan...we almost burnt her mother's kitchen down that day...ahh, memories...

Well, I was lucky enough to stay with Lisa on this visit and she made all sorts of yummy things for me like these cinnamon rolls!


Above picture is pre-glazing.

And she even shared the recipe:

Dough:
-2 and 1/2 to 2 and 3/4 cups flour
-1 package yeast
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons of sugar
-2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons of crisco
-1/4 cup of warm water (115 degrees)
-1/4 cup of warm milk (155 degress)
-1 egg

Filling:
-1/4 cup of sug mixed with 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
-2 tablespoons of melted butter

Glaze:
-1 cup powdered sugar
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
-1/2 tablespoon milk

Directions:

In a food processor with dough blade - combine water, milk and yeast. Let yeast soften for about 30 seconds. Then add 1 cup of flour, sugar, crisco, salt, egg and mix together. Add remaining flour a little at a time until dough forms a ball. You may not need all of the flour. Put dough ball in greased bowl and let rise - this should take around 45 minutes to 1 hour. Roll into a rectangle around 12x7 inches. Brush dough with melted butterand sprinkle cinnamon and sugar mixture on top. Roll into log from the long side. Cut into 12 pieces and arrange in a 9 inch circular pan. Let rise for 30 minutes, then bake at 375 degrees for about 18 minutes.

While the rolls are baking combine glaze ingredients in a bowl and mix together. When rolls are done take out of oven and allow to cool slightly before drizzling glaze on top.













Lisa began cutting the rolls and they were getting a bit smooched so she took out a piece of floss and cut the rest of the rolls with floss...I'm not a baker - it's definitely not something I would of thought of - I was very impressed:)























I apparently, was not the only one impress...note the glaze all over her son's face:)











What was left of the rolls after we finished breakfast...yum!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Healthified BBQ Chicken Pizza

No matter how healthy I want to eat there is one thing I could never give up - pizza. So I just need to make it a bit healthier. This BBQ chicken pizza tasted so good and was pretty healthy too.Ingredients:
- honey BBQ sauce (I added too much)
-cubed 50% fat free cedar cheese
-lots of fresh basil
-minced chicken
-organic whole wheat naan bread

I just topped the naan with all of the ingredients and put into a oven preheated at 400. When the cheese melted I put it under the broiler for about 3 minutes...so good...just need less BBQ sauce next time!

Turkey Meatballs

I decided to make a healthier version of turkey meatballs and they came out really well. I took a pound of ground turkey, mixed it with shredded fresh basil, red pepper flakes, dried parsley and grated ginger. I made little balls and put them in a heated pot and added publix tomato sauce with no preservatives and no salt added. It was just a small can so it wasn't enough to cover the meatballs, I added enough water to cover the meatballs and heated on medium heat.







The mixture....












Raw...going into the pot.....





The finished product. What was so amazing was how much much flavor these meatballs packed - and healthy too!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Baked Halibut, spinach and paneer, and stuffed poblano peppers

So anyone who knows me knows I am not in shape at all. Most of my exercise of late has been walking my dogs...so I'm pretty excited to say that I started P90X - an extreme fitness system. Today is my 3rd day. I'm pretty excited about the workouts- I'm also pretty sore right now! I'm not loving the plyometrics at all and I'm really hating the ab ripper...so much pain! But I also need to diet a bit...eat a little heathier. Typically my favorite foods are anything fried or in a cream sauce. I am going by some of the food recommended in the diet plan but also innovating a bit. I really loved the meal I cooked tonight - I think I could eat it everyday! I had a poblano pepper sitting around and also some black beans that needed to be used up so I made a stuffed poblano pepper. The other thing to know about the diet is that it is high protien so the black beans work. I also bought a ton of spinach so that was an easy side...paneer is an Indian cheese that is basicallya block of cottage cheese. Its pretty yummy and stays pretty solid so it can even be subsituted for meat in lots of dishes. I tried eating regular cottage cheese this morning and I couldn't do it - nothing should be runny and chunky at the same time! So I thought paneer would be a great way to get some cottage cheese in me! The last in 6 0unces of Halibut that the program also recommends for dinner.


Halibut:
6 0unce of Halibut filet
lemon juice - sprinkle
garlic salt - sprinkle
dried basil - spinkle
All I did for the Halibut was take it out of the freezer and sprinkle with lemon juice, a little garlic salt and a decent amount of dried basil. I then put it in the oven and baked it at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes. I never had halibut before today, so I added a little sauce. I was expecting it to be fishy. Wow was I wrong, no sauce needed, just amazing taste and all it really needed was the ingredients above. I think if I could eat halibut every day for dinner I would be happy!
Stuffed Poblano Pepper:
one poblano pepper top cut off and de-seeded
a quarter of an ounce of 75% reduced fat cheddar cheese
black beans and a dash of garlic
I just stuffed the cheese and beans in the pepper and put in the oven with the fish at 450 - these were ready to come out when the skin on the pepper started to shrivel - they were ready a few minutes before the fish.
Spinach and Paneer:
a couple of handfuls of fresh spinach
a couple of dashes of dry white wine
a clove of garlic
a quarter of a block of paneer cut into cubes
So I would typically fry the paneer in oil to cook it - this is where the wine came in. I heated a frying pan on medium high heat and and added a dash of white wine and the minced clove of garlic. I let the wine boil down and added the paneer and heated until browned. When the paneer started to brown I lowered the heat and added the fresh spinach. I then added another splash of wine and cooked the wine down. The paneer was much sweeter than usual due to the wine.
This meal is going to be a repeat for sure over the next 90 days of this diet!