What can we say, except…[You’re] Welcome! This week, we celebrate all foods Ryan Haringa, our favorite demi-god amongst men! He sings, he acts, he’s intelligent… Okay, mostly we’re just obsessed withi his perfect abs. Marie got her hands on Ryan’s meal plan, and this week she and Amanda are setting out to get a “Body by Ryan” by cooking the things he eats every day: ground turkey, spinach, bell peppers, and…Peanut M&Ms*?
*Peanut M&Ms not available at Trader Joe’s. Discover the answer to this dilemma and more, by watching now.
Following a diet plan that called for rock solid abs meant that Amanda’s refrigerator was full of healthy ingredients. Unfortunately, it was stocked with the same items that Marie brought (thus the spite bag reference).
But with most reducing diets, when you deprive yourself and restrict calories, you usually start to crave high fat, high sugar and generally unhealthy foods…which you’ll see in action in this episode. We don’t know how Ryan does it! (must be those daily 6 MnM’s! and One Bars!
Ingredients featured in this week’s episode:
Couple notes about the meals we prepared:
The zoodles were great. When we make this again, we’ll use a leaner ground turkey. The additional fat adds a great mouthfeel and flavor, but we would use a little extra heart healthy olive oil instead.
When you make zoodle bowls, add the zucchini at the very end. The longer they cook, the more fluid they release and turn mushy. We suggest you add the zucchini and parmesan, then turn the burner off. Top with cheese and put in the broiler for a minimal amount of time. The zucchini will soften enough with the other hot foods in the pan and in the oven.
We added protein powder to our ice cream. It tasted pretty good, but didn’t last in the freezer. Not because we ate it all, but because it solidified to a point it was inedible. If you choose to do this, we suggest eating within the hour of making or enjoy as a milkshake.
Over high heat add ground turkey. Add salt & pepper. Cook through. Remove and set aside. Drain turkey fat. While this is cooking, spiralize zucchini.
In the same pan, add olive oil. Once hot, add in peppers and sauté for a few minutes. Once soft, add spinach and let cook for another minute. Add in hummus.
At the last minute, turn off burner and stir in zucchini noodles and parmesan. Top with Quattro fromaggio cheese and place in the broiler (low) for a few minutes (watch closely). Remove and top with parsley and serve.
We have our first special guest of the season, a Mate from New York City! Plus, he is a vegetarian and expects the food to be #slammin‘. Will Amanda and Marie be able to come together and make some delicious food?
Watch the episode here:
Ingredients featured this week include:
First, let’s start off with our GIVEAWAY!
Mystery Pack of Regional Bags
Every Christmas, my mom and I would always buy each other the mystery packs of regional bags that Trader Joe’s sells. You can usually only get the regional bags from that specific area of the country, but the mystery bag packs have three random regional bags. It is always so much fun to get different bags and see what represents other cities.
Little did I know, that all along, my mom was just gaming for the New York City bag, ands always so disappointed when she never got one in the bags. Our friend, and Mate all the way from New York City, brought us some regional bags, making us able to use our last mystery pack for a giveaway!
We will be GIVING AWAY this mystery pack of regional bags as well as some of our favorite non-perishable swag from Trader Joe’s.
To enter the giveaway you need to do the following three steps:
Make sure you are SUBSCRIBED to our channel on YouTube
COMMENT on any BLOG POST on The Fearless Flying Kitchen blog (must be dated 5/21/18 or later).
Subscribe to our NEWSLETTER (CLIKC HERE to do that)
For extra bonus entries:
Find the mystery pack giveaway post on FACEBOOK – like that, share it with your friends, tag your friends, and comment. You get a point for each interaction! (you must be following Fearless Flying Kitchen on Facebook to count)
Find the mystery pack giveaway post on INSTAGRAM – like that, comment on it, and tag your friends. You get a point for each interaction! (you must be following Fearless Flying Kitchen on instagram to count)
Like and comment on any of the Swashbuckled videos on YouTube and get an extra point for each interaction!
Giveaway will end on Wednesday, June 6, 2018 at midnight PST. Winner will be announced on the episode of Swashbuckled on Monday, June 11.
OK, now back to the food!
We had a #slammin’ time in the kitchen with Kris from New York. The only stipulation was that the food had to be vegetarian, and that Marie would be helping. Since the fridge was stocked for only lasagna, that’s what happened. Amanda made a delicious stovetop, easy lasagna. The combination of crème fraîche and ricotta was a little piece of heaven, and should be done with all lasagna from here on out. We also saved a little extra and topped our endives with it…also great. The sauce of Piquillo Pepper and Quinoa Spread with Whole Crushed Tomatoes was also a huge win. Great flavor and texture. You could just use your favorite jar of sauce if you truly want to make it a one pot meal…but this combo is definitely worth washing that second dish.
The only thing that was off was the mochi rice nugget topping. We all decided that just makes a great snack. But all in all, this was a great, quick, meal that you can get super creative with. It is perfect for busy weeknights when you need a little hands off time (but still need a meal on the table in less than an hour).
Pre-heat oven to 375˚F. Prepare all vegetables (zoodle, slice and dice). Note, if you don’t have a zoodler, you can always just dice zucchini.
In a large skillet (that can go in the oven), heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add red bell peppers and cook about 3 minutes, then add zucchini. Cook both for about 5 more minutes, then add mushrooms and cook until they have softened.
Meanwhile, combine Piquillo Pepper and Quinoa Spread with one large can of whole peeled tomatoes. Crush whole peeled tomatoes in your hand as you are adding it to the pot. Heat over medium heat to a simmer. Add salt as needed (try it first, and add if it needs it according to your taste buds).
Spread the cooked vegetables evenly around the large skillet. Top with broken up pieces of lasagna noodles. Cover noodles completely with sauce. Cover with lid and reduce heat to medium-low. Let cook, covered, for about 20 minutes.
While the noodles and sauce cook, combine Ricotta Cheese, Crème Fraîche, parsley and parmesan cheese in a bowl and set aside.
After 20 minutes, remove cover and stir noodles. If they have softened, then top with Ricotta/Crème Fraîche mixture (little blobs all over). Top with even more mozzarella cheese, and place in the oven to help melt and brown cheese. Can put in the broiler on low for a little while too. Once brown, remove from oven and enjoy! If you can’t put your skillet in the oven, you could just cover with the lid again and let the cheese melt that way. It will get melty but not necessarily start to brown.
Note – In this episode we decimated half a bag of Mochi Rice Nuggets in the vitamix (or food processor, if you have one), and added it to the top of the lasagna along with the mozzarella and broiled it on low. We don’t recommend this step, but instead, just eat the mochi rice nuggets as a separate snack. However, if you did want to recreate what we did, this is it.
We, yet again, followed a recipe on the back of a product, and the result was #slammin’! There are always great ideas and suggestions on the back of the package. Marie begrudgingly proved that she can be somewhat useful in the kitchen!
Baked Belgian Endive with Walnuts, Parmesan & Romano Cheese
Growing up, lasagna was this elusive meal only consumed by cats that sounded like Bill Murray. For some reason, we never ate it at my house. Perhaps it is the lack of Italian ancestors in my family tree? I am not sure.
Any who, fast forward about 20 years, my best friend invites me to her dad’s lasagna party. Every year, her very Italian (and awesome) father cooks multiple pans of delicious lasagna and opens his home to about a hundred of their closest family and friends. This was one of the best parties ever, not only because the wine flowed as fast as the videos of Father Guido Sarducci, but the lasagna was incredible. Now, long story short, at this point in my life, I had eaten my fair share of lasagna, but I still hadn’t ever made it. So, when the time came, I asked my friend to give me some pointers, and what does she do? She straight up gives me a link to re-create her fathers lasagna. Score! So, for the past few years, this has been a stand-by recipe. Only recently have I started to alter it to make it more of “my own.”
I did a couple of tweaks to make it a healthier choice, such as swapping regular ricotta for non-fat, decreasing the amount of meat, and using more veggies. And I am willing to bet that as soon as TJ’s starts to carry whole wheat lasagna noodles, that will be another swap!
Assemble: noodle, 1/2 ricotta, 1/3 sauce, mozzarella, noodle, 1/2 ricotta, 1/3 sauce, mozzarella, noodle, 1/3 sauce, Parmesan and a little more mozzarella (but not too much)
Bake at 350 for 35-40 min. Let sit a few minutes prior to serving.
Lasagna Sauce
Ingredients
1 lb 96/4 ground beef
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, or 1 tsp garlic powder
1 bag mushrooms, chopped
1/2 bag baby spinach
1 jar Tomato Basil pasta sauce
Directions:
In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, start to brown ground beef. Once it starts to release its juices, add diced onions and cook until meat is starting to brown and onions are starting to soften. Add mushrooms and garlic and cook until mushrooms begin to soften. Add pasta sauce and put to simmer on a low heat for about a half an hour. Towards the end, add spinach until just wilted and remove from heat.
Ricotta Cheese Mixture
Ingredients:
1 container non- fat ricotta
2 eggs
1/2 cup Parmesan
2 tsp basil, dried
1 tsp oregano, dried
1 tsp garlic powder
Directions:
Add all ingredients to a bowl and stir until combined.
Suggested pairings:
A nice Chianti
sautéed zucchini sprinkled with parmesan cheese
A light salad with balsamic glaze, meyer lemon olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground pepper
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