Good morning, afternoon or evening to you!  I hope you are having a great week thus far.  Last night for dinner I tried a new recipe.

Exciting I know.

Mrs. Zesty has been trying a meal plan this week from her boot camp instructor and Registered Dietitian, which has been kind of fun.  I will admit.  On last night’s dinner plan was a chicken and spinach bake.  I followed the recipe to a “T” and it turned out well.  The only thing we found was the chicken was pretty bland and almost tasted boiled.  It was very moist and juicy because of the chicken stock but next time I think I would alter the liquid.

Maybe try balsamic vinegar with some garlic to add some much needed flavor.  Over all the combination of spinach, tomatoes and green onions worked very well and the hint of Parmesan cheese added a nice balance of indulgence.

Here are the details, let me know what you think.

Ingredients

• 8 cups baby spinach raw
• 1/4 cup chicken broth, ready to use, reduced salt
• 2 breast chicken breast ( I used more chicken cause we had it on hand)
• 1 large tomato diced
• 4 stalk green onion, tops only, sliced
• 3 tbsp cheese, Parmesan, grated

Method

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Lightly grease a 9×13 inch baking dish or spray with cooking spray.
3. Put spinach in the baking dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4. Add chicken broth. Sprinkle chicken with seasoning blend, salt, and pepper; arrange over the spinach.
5. Sprinkle with the diced tomato and green onion.
6. Cover the baking dish with foil.  Bake for 25 minutes.
7.  Uncover and top chicken with parmesan cheese and bake for 10 to 15 minutes longer, or until chicken is cooked through.
8. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip:  Focus on flavor… Kick the base up a notch with garlic, maybe ginger and even some balsamic vinegar or low sodium soya sauce.

I hope you have a great day, it is damp and rainy here so I will try to be smiling but don’t count on it. Regardless, I will talk to you on Friday.  Get your ideas ready, we are hosting a breakfast/brunch party so I will be calling on you for inspiration.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty

How to make great BBQ ribs. Easy tips and tricks for great ribs.

It’s not hard to make great BBQ, and I hope to help you understand the how’s and why’s of BBQ, so your next batch of BBQ ribs will be unbeatable.

5 Tips for great BBQ ribs

1. No boiling of your ribs! Although it works I find the ribs much blander and more one dimensional when cooked this way. What you really want to do is sort of roast the meat. BBQ is a low heat method of roasting, and by dry roasting will concentrate the great flavors of the meat.

2. Low and slow! The secret to tender BBQ ribs is a long cooking time over a low temperature. You want to keep the heat between 250 and 300. Lower than 250 and you risk drying the meat, and higher than 300 is getting too hot for tenderizing cooking.

3. Take off the silver skin. The silver skin is a membrane that is attached to the underside of the bones. You can’t chew it and marinades, rubs and sauces can’t penetrate it. It’s got to go. Take a knife to slice it then grab it with your fingers and peel the rest. Season the ribs the night before you plan on cooking them. Rub whatever spice rub you’re using on the meat the night before, to give it enough time to penetrate and flavor the meat.  One of my favorite rubs as I have mentioned earlier can be found here.

4. Cook them over indirect smoky heat. I don’t have anything very fancy so I just put some wood chips in a homemade tin foil pouch adding 2 parts dry and 1 part wet to start the smoking process and then sealing the pouch and placing it directly on the fire.  The real key is indirect heat at the right temperature.  There are often times when I don’t have smoke – they are just not quite as flavorful but don’t get me wrong – they are still yummy!

5. Don’t sauce until the ribs are done. When they are done, heat the grill up to medium and grill the sauced ribs for a few minutes.  If you do it any earlier the sugar from the sauce is just going to cause the ribs to burn – and we don’t do that!

Follow these steps and let me know if you have better tasting ribs or if you have other ideas that I may have missed – i would love to know about them.  Send me email or add a comment. Or send me some ribs in the mail.

Happy Memorial Day for my US friends.  Talk to you on Wednesday.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty

Ever crave a treat?  Something simple.

Something chocolate.

I was experimenting with dark chocolate chips a few weeks back and hit a gold mine.  The Hershey’s dark chocolate chips happen to have a cookie recipe on the back of the bag and of course I had to give it a test.

Results… decent.

So I tried them a second time 2 days later.

Results… amazing ( I under cooked them by 2 minutes from the recipe)

I have made 4 batches since than for various events – results are always amazing.  Dropping the cooking time from 8 minutes to 6 minutes makes all the difference in the world.

Ingredients

• 2 Cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 Cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
• 3/4 Tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 Tsp. salt
• 1 Cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
• 1-1/2 Cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 Tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 Cups (12-oz. pkg.) HERSHEY’S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips.

Method

1. Heat oven to 350°F.
2. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
3. Beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in large bowl until fluffy.
4. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
6. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or just until set.
7. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.
8. Cool completely. About 36 cookies.
9. ENJOY

Zesty Tip:  Make a double batch!  These things are amazing.

A Special Thank You to all those people who have purchased my new top 50 Healthy Juice and Smoothie book.  It is pretty exciting to see the sales roll in and know that people are supporting me and finding value in my work.  It is a fun feeling.

Have a great Friday and a super weekend.  I will be back on Monday.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty