Roasted Poblano Pepper Dipping Sauce

A couple of things I love:

1. Non-boring food

2. Easy to cook food

3. Flying

What do 1 and 2 have in common with 3? Well, not much, except that not-so-recently I was reading United Airlines in-flight magazine on one of our many trips to Oklahoma and I came across a recipe for grilled shrimp and green tomatoes with a roasted poblano pepper sauce and it changed my life.

Ok, that’s a slight exaggeration. And admittedly, the shrimp and tomatoes were only so-so, but the roasted poblano pepper dipping sauce was pretty darn awesome…to the point where it has now become a regular occurrence in my weekly meal prep sessions. In keeping with my list theme, I love this sauce for several reasons:

1. It’s super easy to make

2. It’s delicious

3. It makes easy to cook food non-boring

In addition to the original recipe where we served the sauce with shrimp and tomatoes, we’ve also had it with grilled chicken slices, served on burgers, as a dip for sliced vegetables…just to name a few. Plus, with just a couple of tweaks you can make this sauce as mild or as spicy as you’d like. The magazine version calls for poblano peppers and thai chilies – we’ve never used the thai chilies, but making the sauce simply with poblanos gives it a pleasant heat that builds, then dissipates. When we’re feeling something a little spicier we’ve added jalapenos. For an extra little kick that won’t knock your teeth out, we’ve used a mix of beautiful green poblano peppers and bright red fresno chilies. Have fun with it!

I’m including the original version in the picture below, but here is my personal favorite variation:

Roasted Poblano Pepper Dipping Sauce (or Chile Aioli)

Ingredients:

2 egg yolks

1/2 bunch cilantro

2 roasted poblano peppers and 2 red fresno chile peppers, peeled and seeded

salt (I use a couple healthy shakes of pink himalayan)

1 cup mild oil (I prefer avocado)

Instructions:

Place all ingredients except oil in a blender or food processor and blend until well combined. Slowly drizzle in oil until the mixture is emulsified and a thick aioli forms.

Enjoy!

Foodie Flattery: Tuna “No-Noodle” Casserole

I grew up in a busy family of five where money was pretty tight. As such, dinners in our house were kept on a budget, usually one-pot meals, and needed to be able to feed a family of five pretty easily. This meant we had a handful of standby dinners that usually appeared on a weekly or rotating basis: spaghetti, hamburger helper, meatloaf, stuffed shells, cavatini, and my personal favorite: tuna noodle casserole.

I don’t know what it is about egg noodles, cream of celery soup (my mom tried using cream of mushroom once but my dad wasn’t having any of it – he sniffed that out before he even took a bite), and canned tuna; but tuna noodle casserole night was one of my favorite dinner nights in our house. I haven’t had tuna casserole since moving out of my parent’s house for college in 2000, but for some reason lately I’ve been craving it.

Unfortunately, since I stopped eating grains/gluten after meeting my husband in 2011, tuna casserole is off the menu.

Fortunately, I have a slight pinterest addiction and one day I happened upon this beautiful “Paleo Tuna Casserole” post from Jay’s Baking Me Crazy. Tuna casserole made with spaghetti squash?! How did I not think of this on my own??

Welcome to the latest addition of Foodie Flattery: Paleo Tuna Noodle Casserole from Jay’s Baking Me Crazy. Gaah. So good. So worth it. It was so good in fact, that my eight-year old not only ate his entire portion without complaint, but ALSO told me that I should make it again. MAJOR. WIN.

I was a little skeptical about using coconut milk – not because of the potential taste, but because I was worried it wouldn’t get thick and the casserole would end up too soupy – but as it turns out I had nothing to worry about. Using arrowroot powder as a thickener and adding eggs to the casserole before baking was the perfect way to hold everything together and as I suspected, you couldn’t taste the coconut milk at all.

Bottom line, this casserole was everything I hoped it would be and more. One bite and I was transported back to my parent’s kitchen table, fighting with my sister over the gooey melted cheese my mom used as a topping for her own tuna casserole. In this version we used crushed chips as the topping, which was equally delicious.

Here’s the link again for the recipe I used – I omitted the mushrooms and used a bag of frozen peas and carrots instead (based on the way my mom used to make it – my dad abhors mushrooms). Next time I think we’ll use both – and I highly recommend using these sweet and spicy jalapeno potato chips to top your casserole. Yum.

*Note: To make this a Whole30 approved dinner, simply omit the chips. Trust me, it will still be comfort food delicious.

WOD 11.10.16

Because I had off from work on Monday and Tuesday (Fall break for school – hooray for annual leave days!), I decided that instead of going to the gym, I’d simply do a workout in the comfort of my own home. We are blessed with a screened in porch at home so although it was still pretty chilly, at least I had a roof over my head.

Warm Up:

Tabata – Double Unders

WOD

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Burpees

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 Taters

Finished: ???

The way this WOD works is pretty simple – I did 10 burpees and 1 tater, then 9 burpees and 2 taters, 8 burpees/3 taters…all the way until I finished with 1 burpee and 10 taters. For those of you who are picturing me doing a couple burpees and then snacking on some potatoes, let me show you what a “tater” is when it comes to crossfit:

Kettlebell Taters – Youtube

Basically, it’s a kettlebell swing followed by a front squat. I used a 25 pound kettlebell for mine – needless to say, by round 6 they really start to suck.

I forgot to start my timer for this WOD because in all honesty, I was wiped out from the double unders, so I have no idea how long this workout took me to complete. And in full disclosure, the original plan was to finish with another tabata of double unders, but the only thing I could do after finishing the burpee/tater mash-up was lay prostrate on the floor. So instead I did some stretching and called it a day.

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30