Bacon-Wrapped Crappie (Sac-a-Lait) & Honey Grilled Peaches

So...they tell me it's spring?  Right now, I believe it---but that snow/sleet combo last weekend makes me question our weatherman.  But you know what spring means...the crappie are biting!  I grew up crappie fishing with my parents (if I'd grown up in Louisiana, we'd call it "sac-a-lait" fishing, but I didn't).  Spent nearly every warm weekend on the water...and I have ALL the embarrassing photos to prove it.

Proof that I too was once a sassy teen with no sense of style.

I am a 37 year old woman...whose mom still brings me food.  Does anyone else have a mom like mine? I mean, I'm not complaining.  I love it.  My parents love to fish and keep their (and our) freezer stocked.  A couple months ago, my mom called and said "I found some 'Cajun Style Bacon' on sale for $1.99 a pack. Do you want some?"

Of course, I said yes.  And she brought me like 4 packages of it.

The Hubs doesn't like it as much because it's a little sweet and too smoky for his tastes, but I like it because it's thick cut, not too fatty and very flavorful.  

So in a perfect homage to my awesome parents, I decided to use both the bacon and some crappie they caught to make bacon-wrapped sac-a-lait.  To accompany, since we were firing up the grill anyway (and we had some gorgeous Georgia peaches in the house), we made grilled peaches too. 

INGREDIENTS: (makes 4 servings)

8 crappie filets, lightly dusted with Cajun Seasoning

4 strips of bacon, cut in half to make 8 pieces

8 toothpicks

2 ripe peaches, halved & pitted

coconut oil spray

1 tsp honey

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:
To prep the fish, dry off the filets before seasoning, and then roll up the filet & bacon long-ways so they look like little fishy roses. Secure with toothpicks.

Place on the grill over medium heat (low flame, or away from the flame) and cook for about 10-15 minutes or until the flesh of the fish is cooked through and bacon is crisped at edges.

On the top rack of the grill, place the halved peaches flesh-side down (after spraying lightly with coconut oil so they don't stick to the grill).  These don't need to cook so much as just heat through (and try to get those pretty char marks).

Combine the honey, butter, and cinnamon in a small prep bowl.  When the peaches are done, lightly brush them with the honey-butter mixture.

Serve while warm. Enjoy!

NutriFacts: (per serving-2 filets & one peach half)

• Calories209.8
• Total Fat8.2 g
• Saturated Fat2.6 g
• Polyunsaturated Fat0.6 g
• Monounsaturated Fat2.6 g
• Cholesterol15.2 mg
• Sodium202.4 mg
• Potassium100.6 mg
• Total Carbohydrate7.4 g
• Dietary Fiber1.3 g
• Sugars5.5 g
• Protein24.7 g

Crawfish Stuffed Jalapenos

Leftover crawfish?  If you live in the south, it happens after nearly every boil, to the point that it’s almost part of the tradition—plunking down around the table with friends & family to peel all the little critters you couldn’t finish off.  There are plenty of options for what to do with leftover crawfish (like the Crawmlette or Crawchos), but what if you only have a little bit of meat to work with?  Here’s an option for you: mix with a little cheese, stuff inside of a jalapeno, and then wrap it in bacon.

Last week The Hubs & I took an extended Memorial Week trip down to Houston to visit his sister & her family.  As part of the trip, my nephew K asked if I would make crawfish for him, since he’d never tried one before.  Always happy to oblige a food request, I brought my 3-gallon pot & boil seasoning down with me. 

Since only K was really interested in trying the crawfish (my other nephew & nieces were iffy about the idea, and my sis-in-law doesn’t eat seafood), I decided to do a traditional shrimp/sausage boil, and then just pick up a few pounds of already cooked crawfish from the most popular local crawfish place (The Crawfish Shack in Crosby, TX…good stuff).

Our Feast!  Gulf shrimp, crawfish, pecan-smoked andouille, red potatoes & sweet corn. 

While we did as much damage as possible, at the end of the meal about a third of the crawfish were still left.  So I peeled the rest & brought the meat home with us.  There was only about a half cup of leftovers, so not enough to make much of an etoufee or bisque (or even Crawchos, really).  Thought about making some quesadillas, but then Primeaux suggested stuffed jalapenos.  Since we were grilling anyway, jalapenos won out.

 

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup crawfish tails/claw meat, chopped

1.5 tablespoons low fat cream cheese (try it with Creole cream cheese if you can find it!)

1/2 tsp boil seasoning or Cajun seasoning

1 green onion, diced

4 large or 8 small jalapenos, with caps removed and seeds scraped out

4 slices reduced sodium bacon

 

DIRECTIONS:

Mix the crawfish, cream cheese, seasoning & green onion in a small bowl until well combined.

Place in a sandwich bag (we reused the bag we brought the crawfish home in) and snip off a half-inch hole in one corner to create a piping bag.  Then pipe the crawfish mixture into the jalapenos. 

Use the end of the bacon strip to cover the open end, then wrap around the jalapeno & secure with a toothpick. (If you use small jalapenos you may be able to wrap them with only half a strip of bacon.)  Grill on the top rack for about 5 minutes on each side (or until the bacon is crispy), or in your oven on an aluminum covered cookie sheet at 400F.

Since we only made 4 stuffed jalapenos, we had some of the crawfish stuffing mix left over… stay tuned to see what we make with it!!!

The Grilled Club (An Inside Scoop recipe)

This was probably the most popular sandwich we had on our menu--which is understandable since it was super-tasty. I still make them at home on occasion.  We initially introduced it as a "Special of the Month" early in Year Two, and it sold so well that we made it a permanent addition.

This is easiest to make if you have a George Foreman grill, panini press, or similar.  If you don't, you can still make it in a skillet or on a flat top like a traditional grilled cheese, but with all the fillings it can be tough to flip.  It will also cook faster in a grill/press, which is nice if you're in a rush or have several to make.

INGREDIENTS: (per sandwich)

• 2 slices good bread (we like Orowheat 12-Grain, but anything more substantial than typical thin sandwich bread will work)
• 1 Tbsp Herb Mayo
• 2 slices provolone cheese
• 4 slices Black Forest ham
• 2-3 slices tomato
• small handful fresh baby spinach
• 2 small slices bacon, or crumbled bacon 

DIRECTIONS:

Heat up your grill/press/skillet/flat top; then spread half the herb mayo on the OUTSIDE of the first piece of bread.  Yes, you read that right.  You're using it to "butter" your bread.  Just trust me. (Sciency bit--the smoke point of mayo is higher than butter, so it's less likely to burn the bread before the guts of the sandwich get melty & hot.  And the oil & egg in mayo make for crispier, more evenly grilled bread.  And the fact that we're using the herb mayo gives a HUGE wallop of flavor.)

Lay that piece down, then begin assembly: 1 piece of cheese, ham, spinach, tomato, bacon, other piece of cheese, and then the last piece of bread, with the rest of the herb mayo facing OUT.

Grill until golden and the cheese is melty.  Serve warm with chips.

NutriFacts:

Calories		423.7
Total Fat		17.5 g
	Saturated Fat	7.5 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	1.0 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	2.0 g
Cholesterol		70.0 mg
Sodium		1,230.9 mg
Potassium		41.9 mg
Total Carbohydrate		38.3 g
	Dietary Fiber	6.2 g
	Sugars	7.0 g
Protein		28.2 g

Abita Root Beer Caramelized Onions

Last month I made my quarterly jaunt to Louisiana for work and went to Charcoal’s Gourmet Burger Bar with my cousin Primo.  Charcoal’s has a pretty awesome menu; they specialize in exotic meat burgers and some pretty fun topping/cheese options.  I got an antelope burger with arugula, Midnight Moon gouda, tomato, jalapeno, praline bacon, and Abita  root beer caramelized onions. 

My tall order.

The burger was so-so—a little lean and dry, even with 30% pork mixed into the blend.  C’est la vie.  But the combination of the jalapenos and the caramelized onions was fantastic.  The praline bacon was fairly tasty too, though Primo & I are both fairly sure we can create a better version (stay tuned)…

So when I got back home, I definitely wanted to take a whack at the caramelized onions.  Again, we were grilling (we have a surplus of brats in the house as we got a great deal on a case from our food distributor) and I wanted something a little different to go on top. Like…root beer onions!!!

 

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 bottle Abita root beer (if you don’t have Abita, you can absolutely try it with a different brand)

salt & pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 onion, sliced into thin rings

 

DIRECTIONS:

Pretty simple.  Heat your sauce pan over medium-high & add onions.  Season lightly with salt & pepper.  Then add the root beer.  Stir occasionally & cook for 10-15 minutes or until the liquid has evaporated.

And you’ll end up with these beauties!

Serve over brats, burgers, steak, grilled portabellas—whatever floats your fancy.  They’re deliciously sweet, so pair with something that has a little bite to it—spicy mustard, jalapenos, or a tart cheese like goat, blue, or feta.

Oh…and use the rest of that Abita root beer to make yourself a float!!!

Grillin’ Time: Grilled Peaches & Ice Cream

So, you may notice a trend for a while:  If I make a post, it’s something super-simple and easy.  Because that’s about all we have time for anymore.  Summer is gearing up and things at the ice cream shoppe are in full swing!  It’s tiring and mass pandemonium at times, but we are still enjoying it… particularly that 7-hour coma we fall into every evening out of sheer exhaustion. :D

This week, peaches were on sale, as was corn, so we decided grilling was in order!  We charred a couple brats, seasoned our corn with smoked salt, chili powder & honey butter:

…but a dessert was needed.   A grilled dessert.  That goes great with ice cream.

INGREDIENTS:

2 peaches, washed, halved & pits removed

1 tbsp light butter

1 tbsp honey

cinnamon

Vanilla ice cream

 

DIRECTIONS:

Melt the butter & honey together in a small bowl, and use a pastry brush to coat both sides of the peach halves.  (We used this honey butter on our corn too—delish)

Sprinkle cinnamon over the tops.

Once your grill is good & heated,  place on the upper rack skin-side down and grill for 3-4 minutes, then flip and place on the lower rack for 3-4 minutes.

Serve with ice cream.  I sprinkled more cinnamon on mine—the Hubs went for extra honey.

DEVOUR!!!

Why I’m Addicted to Chefville: aka: Honey-Basil Kebabs.

About 4 months ago, I started playing a new game on Facebook, because I was getting bored with Slingo and the Bubble Safari Monkey was getting WAY too clingy:

So…when I saw a game called “Chefville”, I thought, “yes…this appeals to me.”  And thus, the Virtual FeauxCajun Kitchen was born:

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the “Ville” family of games in some way, whether it be from playing them yourself until you destroyed your first field of crops and gave up on virtual farming, or from getting harassed by constant automatic game updates in your News Feed.  (Um…sorry.)

So, the schtick with this one should seem pretty obvious.  You harvest ingredients, you cook dishes, you grow your restaurant to international fame.  But the thing that roped me in?  The game sends you recipes for a lot of the dishes you’re cooking. 

Obvs, my whole “no new recipes” resolution has been out the window for a long time.

So the first thing you learn to cook in Chefville is Veggie Kebabs.  And that’s also the first recipe you receive.  So, of COURSE, I had to make In Real Life Kebabs.  Though, I like protein, so we added chicken to ours.

Ingredients: (makes 10 skewers / 5 servings)

4 boneless skinless chicken tenders, cut into bite size pieces

8 oz mushrooms, halved

1-2 cups pineapple, in chunks

1/2 large onion

1 large bell pepper, seeds removed

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup honey

1 handful fresh basil leaves, julienned

10 skewers

 

Directions:

Soak skewers in water for 45 minutes to prevent them from burning.

Cut veggies into bite size pieces and place in a large pan.  Place the chicken in a separate bowl.

In a small saucepan, combine the vinegar and honey and simmer for 10 minutes.  Then let cool to room temp.  While it’s cooling, add the basil and stir well.

Pour the majority of the glaze over the veggies, and mix the remaining in with the chicken.  Toss well to coat. 

Then, begin the skewering process!  Be VERY careful not to stab yourself (I speak from experience), and use extra caution if you’re using bamboo skewers since they can splinter.

Grill until chicken is cooked through (5-7 minutes) over medium heat; baste with the remaining marinade a couple times. Flip at least once during grilling.

 

NutriFacts:

Calories 250.1

  Total Fat 2.6 g

  Saturated Fat 0.7 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.3 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 0.6 g

  Cholesterol 58.4 mg

  Sodium 58.1 mg

  Potassium 323.1 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 35.8 g

  Dietary Fiber 1.0 g

  Sugars 31.3 g

  Protein 22.5 g

Grilled Romaine & Bacon Salad

Thanks to everyone for trudging through a week with no recipes while I conducted my little experiment last week!  It’s odd—after the week was over, I still found myself wanting to write down my meals and keep track of everything, so I suppose that’s a good thing! 

It is important to want to be accountable, but when it comes down to it, the only person you have to be accountable to is yourself.  If you decide you want to get healthy, the only person you should do it for is yourself.  I won’t delve into it with this post, but I can say that in the past, I was in a long term relationship with someone who was obsessed with body image…but more MINE than his.  Living like that was awful, and really comes down to a form of abuse, because I was constantly self-conscious and had a terrible perception of myself. 

Now, with that unhappy memory well in the past, I eat healthy & stay healthy because it’s what I want to do.  It’s about feeling good and having more energy for life.  Not about trying to live up to someone else’s standards.

ANYway… *steps down from soapbox*

 

Today, we’re talking salad!  This originated from a recipe in Bon Appetit, but I diverged and put my own spin on it, because this is my blog, and my stomach, doggonnit!!!

With the Independence holiday looming, perhaps you’ll be rushing off to BBQ’s and gatherings & ooh-ing and ahh-ing over fireworks.  Maybe you’ll be hosting the grill-n-gather yourself!  If you are, I highly recommend this as a quick & easy and unique side dish to accompany all those brats & burgers.

This could seriously not be easier, unless you just eliminated the grill altogether…but then it’s just a plain ol’ salad, and you won’t get any characteristic Fourth of July “oohs” and “aahs”.

 

Ingredients (makes 4 salads)

2 heads romaine lettuce, washed, dried & wilted/damaged outer leaves removed

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 lemon

salt & cracked black pepper

1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

2 slices bacon, cooked/drained/blotted

4-8 tbsp Walden Farms Bacon Ranch dressing (1-2 tbsp of dressing per wedge, depending on your preference.  The Walden Farms dressing is fat free/calorie free, so it’s really about your preference of lettuce-to-dressing ratio.)

 

Directions:

Fire up your grill & set to medium-low heat.

Slice your romaine in half, length-wise, and turn flat side down on a cookie sheet.  Lightly drizzle the halves with half of the olive oil, and then use a kitchen brush to spread across the outer side of the lettuce. (The original recipe called for more oil, but you can just use the brush to coat more lettuce with less oil.)  Then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and parmesan.  Flip the halves over, and do the same to the flat sides, and then follow up by squeezing the juice of the 1/2 lemon across the leaves as well.

Carry your tray out to the grill, and place the wedges on the grill flat-side down for a few minutes.  Don’t walk away.  You’re just trying to get a wee bit of char.  Check the flat side, and then flip.  Because of the tendency to roll, you’ll have to grill in three “sections”—flat side first, and then the outer side once leaning to the left, and then to the right. 

Once you get a nice char (but before things get too wilted), remove from grill & bring back into the house.  Crumble up the bacon slices, and then sprinkle 1/2 piece of bacon over each wedge.  Then, drizzle with the salad dressing. Serve warm.

 

I was really happy with this salad, though I was skeptical—I’d never had a “warm” salad before.  But it has TONS of flavor.  There’s the smoke of the grill, the acidity of the lemon, the richness of the parmesan…and of course, the bacony baconness of the bacon.  The Bacon Ranch dressing has a bit of sweetness to it, so it rounds out the flavor palate really well. 

And the awesome thing?  One wedge is less than 75 calories.  Hear that?  A huge serving of creamy, cheesy, bacony goodness that covers half a plate…for 75 calories.  Compare that to macaroni salad (280 calories per 1/2 cup), or potato salad (160 calories per 2/3 cup) or baked beans (140 calories per 1/2 cup), and you’ve got an awesome & flavorful BBQ side dish alternative. 

NOTE: I probably wouldn’t recommend this for taking over to a friend’s house, since I’m not sure how the texture would hold up if it sits for too long.  But you COULD take all the ingredients with you & just grill the lettuce there & assemble when it’s time to eat.

 

NutriFacts (per wedge)

Calories 74.4

  Total Fat 6.2 g

  Saturated Fat 1.2 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.7 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 4.1 g

  Cholesterol 2.7 mg

  Sodium 227.6 mg

  Potassium 274.4 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 3.0 g

  Dietary Fiber 1.6 g

  Sugars 0.3 g

  Protein 2.6 g

Balsamic Grilled Chicken

This is one of my absolute favorite marinades of ALL TIME.  I got it in a recipe for “pan roasted flank steak*” back in 2004, and now I use it on nearly anything. (Note: It’s also the nastiest looking recipe sheet in my recipe box—covered in stains & splatters—so you KNOW it’s been used a LOT.)  Particularly grilled chicken.  The marinating ensures an amazingly juicy, flavorful piece of meat.  I have never tried this marinade on a fish—I think for most fish, the flavor of the marinade might outsing the flavor of the fish…but it might work with something like swordfish or shark (because we all totes have pieces of shark hanging out in our fridge, right?  Yeah…me neither.)

 

Ingredients:

Add the following items to a large ziploc bag (place the bag upright inside a bowl with the zip top rolled out for easier handling--

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp mustard (you can use regular ol’ yellow mustard if you like—I prefer to use Tabasco Spicy Brown mustard for an extra kick)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp cracked black pepper

1/2 tsp salt

Next, add up to 4 chicken pieces (we go with chicken breasts or thighs, usually) to the bag.  Then, since you’ve been handling chicken, in the words of mah dear JoJo, “Wash yer d@mn hands."  THEN, roll up the top of the ziploc and zip ‘er shut, pushing most of the air out before closing completely.  The outside of the bag should be nice & clean, with all the ingredients trapped safely inside.  Now, roll the bag o’ chicken & goodness around so that the marinade coats all the pieces.  The place the bag back in the bowl & allow to marinate for at least one hour, but overnight is also totally acceptable.

 

Grillin’ Time:

Fire up your grill and let it get up to about medium heat.  Then use tongs to transfer the chicken from the bag to the bottom rack of your grill. (Chuck the marinade that remains in the bag, since it’s tainted with chicken juices.)

Use your handy-dandy meat thermometer and cook these until they reach an internal temp of at least 165F, flipping at least once during grilling.  Cook time will totally depend on your grill, so rely on your thermometer for doneness.

 

When everything’s up to temp, remove from grill & serve!  We had these with a salad & grilled brussels sprouts.  One chicken breast was about 8 oz, so we cut them in half for portion management.

 

 NutriFacts: (per 4 oz chicken breast piece)

Calories 147.1

  Total Fat 3.1 g

  Saturated Fat 0.6 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 1.8 g

  Cholesterol 65.7 mg

  Sodium 288.8 mg

  Potassium 295.3 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 1.3 g

  Dietary Fiber 0.1 g

  Sugars 0.3 g

  Protein 26.3 g

* If you use this recipe for pan roasted steak, grill your steak in a large skillet, & once it’s cooked to your desired doneness, remove the steaks, then add 1 cup low sodium chicken broth to the pan, along with 1/2 medium onion, sliced in rings, and 4 oz of sliced mushrooms….saute over medium-low heat until veggies are cooked, and then add 1 tbsp flour to the pan & stir until it makes an awesome gravy.  Serve over the steaks.  This is also AWESOME on top of the chicken.