Category: Ingredients (Page 24 of 25)

      Spaghetti sauce 101

      January 8, 2011 /

      For you guys that have never made homemade spaghetti sauce, here is my version that is so easy, a monkey could do it. And it’s real. I’m not talking open a few jars easy. Go ahead, give it a try….it’s the weekend and it’s cold outside in most places……

      Here is what you’ll need:

      ¼ cup olive oil
      2 32 oz. Cans crushed tomatoes
      1 can diced tomatoes
      1 small can tomato paste
      1 small onion
      2-3 garlic cloves or 1-2 teaspoons jarred garlic
      2 tsp. Sugar
      2 tsp Italian seasoning
      Salt and pepper
      Fresh basil and parsley

      You’ll need a giant pot, like a soup pot. Heat the oil over medium heat for a minute or two, and while that’s warming, peel the brown skin off the onion and throw it in the oil, whole. Push that around with a wooden spoon until it sizzles, and let it sizzle for a few minutes. If using garlic cloves, peel them and smash with the back of a large spoon or dull knife—but trust me, the jarred stuff is easier to use and just as good. Throw the garlic in the pot and let it brown, which takes about 30 seconds. Then add the crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and tomato paste. Stir until the paste thins out into the sauce.

      Then add the sugar, Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper to taste. I like a lot of salt, a tablespoon or so, but that’s me. If you have high blood pressure, that’s not such a good idea. Then lower the heat, cover, and let that simmer for 2-3 hours. Just before serving it, chop a little fresh basil and fresh parsley and throw it in. That’s it.

      Then just boil some spaghetti and you’ve just made homemade spaghetti sauce, just like Mom or Grandma used to. For an added touch, Purdue makes these really great, low-fat pre-cooked turkey meatballs. You can either warm them separately or throw them in the sauce for 10 minutes. Add a salad and maybe some store bought garlic bread or plain Italian bread and you’ve got a complete meal that will not only impress your wife, girlfriend or date, it should also impress yourself.

      Healthy, Ingredients, Recipes, Your Kitchen

      Losing that holiday weight

      January 3, 2011 /

      Yeah, I know. This is not what you wanted to hear from a food site right after the holidays. But the truth is, we’re all in need of larger pants after a month of indulging. Heck, I wrote on here a couple weeks ago that I bought bigger pants at Old Navy before going to my favorite Wisconsin cheese store. I’m wearing them now, in fact. So yeah, now it’s time to try and shed a few pounds. Of course, that doesn’t mean this is going to suddenly be a blog about weight loss. But here are a few guy-friendly recipes I posted on
      Grub For Guys, especially good if you have a bigger bulge right now…..

      After the holiday edition of Grub For Guys that we presented you with, and after all of the holiday meals you no doubt indulged in, and on, you guys probably have a few extra pounds you want to shed this time of year. Well, I know I do. So I’m back on my favorite diet, the South Beach Diet. I’m a big proponent of this diet because it works, and because it’s easy for most guys. We get to eat lots of meat, cheese, nuts, and veggies, as well as a few sugar free treats, and all in all it’s not that hard. Well, sometimes it is, because in today’s world, cutting out bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and anything with sugar is very difficult. So I’m here to give you a few great low-carb options that make life a bit easier when trying to shrink that gut…..

      Mikey’s Cobb Salad

      Ingredients
      4-6 cups shredded lettuce
      1 8 oz. strip steak
      1 4-5 oz. boneless chicken breast
      5-6 slices bacon
      2 hard-boiled eggs
      1 avocado
      1 tomato
      ¼ cup shredded or cubed cheddar cheese
      ¼ cup green or black olives
      ¼ cup pickled jalapeno peppers
      Low carb dressing such as ranch or blue cheese
      Salt and pepper

      Directions:
      Wash lettuce and shred into two large bowls. Sprinkle steak and chicken with salt and pepper and grill over medium-high heat 5-10 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink and steak is to desired doneness. Remove from grill and keep on a plate covered with foil. Cook bacon until crisp (I use one of those microwave trays that cooks it perfectly every time). Cut avocado in half, remove pit and scoop out flesh. Slice and place on lettuce. Chop tomato and put that on lettuce. Slice egg and divide over salad. Add cheese, olives, and jalapenos. Slice chicken and steak and place on salad. Crumble bacon on top. Serve with dressing. Makes 2 servings, but you can double or triple as needed.

      Grilled Buffalo Tenders

      Ingredients
      1 pound boneless chicken breast tenders
      Salt and pepper
      Cooking spray
      ½ cup Buffalo wing sauce (Frank’s Red Hot is great and is very low in calories, fat, and carbs)

      Directions
      Spray tenders lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour wing sauce into a large bowl. Grill tenders over medium high heat until no longer pink and slightly charred on the outside. Toss tenders in sauce and serve with celery sticks and blue cheese or ranch dressing if you like. P.S. Trust me, you won’t miss the deep fried version of wings one bit with this one.

      Cheese/Peanut Butter Squares

      If you like those crispy cheese/peanut butter crackers, and who doesn’t? I’m giving you a low-carb option that you’re going to love.

      Ingredients
      4 slices mild cheddar cheese
      2 Tbsp. natural peanut butter

      Directions
      Lay cheese slices on a plate or large cutting board. Spread peanut butter over two of the cheese slices, and top with other two slices. You should now have two large square “sandwiches.” Cut each of these into quarters and serve. Makes 8 squares, but you can easily double or triple this one as well.

      Muffaletta Rolls

      The best part of the Muffaletta is the olive salad and the meat, right? Well, it’s also the kickass giant Kaiser rolls they use. But we have to improvise here and this is as close as we can come.

      Ingredients
      10 slices deli ham or turkey, or both
      1 cup pimento stuffed green olives
      ½ cup pickled cauliflower or other pickled vegetables
      1 Tbsp. juice from olives
      2 Tbsp. olive oil
      1 Tbsp. Red or white wine vinegar
      1 tsp. dried oregano
      Dash of salt and black pepper

      Directions
      Separate meat slices on a large platter. Combine remaining ingredients in a food processor or blender and pulse until combined but still slightly chunky. Spread a bit of olive salad on each slice of meat, roll up and serve. (Note: you can also roll up in provolone cheese or combine meat and cheese before rolling up).

      Turkey Brat Bites

      Ingredients
      6-8 Smoked Turkey Bratwurst
      Mustard

      Directions
      Grill brats until glazed and with a few grill marks. Slice into chunks and serve with your favorite mustard for dipping.

      Healthy, Ingredients, Recipes, Your Kitchen

      All-natural hangover cures

      December 27, 2010 /

      Chef JimHung over after too many cocktails over the Christmas weekend? Maybe not, but chances are better you will be after New Year’s Eve this coming weekend. And if you are, you may or may not have your go-to remedies such as Tums or Alka-Seltzer (my personal favorite). Or you may opt to cure it with food or, for you hardcore drinkers, more alcohol. A great food cure is huevos rancheros, or a couple of the other recipes we posted recently on Bullz-Eye’s Grub for Guys–“hangover” soup and bloody marys. Here are those recipes….but either way, be safe during this holiday season and always by not getting behind the wheel if you’ve had a few too many:

      Hangover Soup and Bloody Mary
      Okay guys. The following recipes are for those days when you wake up after a night of imbibing, and have cottonmouth, a pounding headache, sore muscles, and a thick fog hovering atop your very existence. That, and you surely don’t want to put anything into your body right now. Well, you sort of need to, because you need to replenish with fluids and protein, give yourself a jolt with hot sauce, and if using vodka, getting the dog that bit you last night. And believe me, I know firsthand that these both work, as well as drinking plenty of water.

      Hangover Soup
      Ingredients:
      1 carton (or 2-3 cans) chicken broth
      ½ cup small pasta such as orzo
      1 egg, beaten
      ¼ cup Parmesan cheese
      Black pepper to taste

      Directions:
      Bring chicken broth to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add pasta and cook according to directions, 6-8 minutes. Remove from heat, and slowly add egg as you stir the soup. Add Parmesan and pepper, and serve. Makes about 4 1-cup servings

      Bloody Mary (or Virgin Mary if you omit vodka)
      Ingredients:
      2 cups tomato or vegetable juice (such as V-8)
      1 shot vodka (optional)
      1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
      1 Tbsp. hot sauce (more if you like it hot)
      Juice of ½ lime
      1 Tbsp. prepared horseradish
      ¼ tsp. celery salt
      Salt and pepper to taste
      1 stalk celery

      Directions:
      Combine all ingredients except celery in a tall glass. Stir, add ice and serve with celery stick. Serves 1, but if it does the trick, you may want to have another…I’m just sayin’!

      Ingredients, Recipes, Tailgating, Your Kitchen

      Grub for Guys: chicken fried hamburger with cheddar sauce and tomato-pickle relish

      December 16, 2010 /

      Here is another recipe I had fun making for Grub for Guys: chicken fried hamburger with a cheese sauce and tomato-pickle relish:

      For those of you who love cheeseburgers and anything fried, I’ve got a recipe for you that I promise you’ll want to make again and again—chicken fried hamburger. The first time I tested this out, I used brown gravy and it wasn’t quite right. This time, I had the idea of making a cheese sauce to in effect create a cheeseburger, and then added a tomato-pickle relish to cap it off. Success! The only warning here is that we don’t suggest telling your cardiologist about it, okay?

      Ingredients:
      Relish:
      ½ large tomato, seeded and chopped
      4 crunchy dill pickle spears (such as Claussen), seeded and chopped
      1-2 Tbsp ketchup
      1-2 Tbsp. prepared mustard

      Sauce:
      ½ stick butter or margarine
      2 Tbsp. flour
      ½ cup whole milk (or more as needed)
      1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
      1 tsp. hot sauce
      Salt & pepper to taste

      Burger:
      1 pound ground beef
      ½ cup flour
      2 eggs, beaten in a bowl
      ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
      2 Tbsp. vegetable or canola oil
      Salt & pepper to taste

      Directions:

      Combine relish ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

      For sauce, heat butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. When melted, whisk in flour for about 20 seconds. Add milk, and continue to whisk until it starts to thicken. If it’s too thick, add a splash or two more of milk. Then add cheese, hot sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat, set aside, covering to keep it warm.

      For burgers, form beef into four oval patties. Then set up three shallow bowls in a row with flour, egg, and breadcrumbs, respectively. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper to each. Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Then dredge the patties in the flour, followed by the egg, followed by the breadcrumbs. Gently add each patty to the pan, and cook for about 4 minutes per side or until crispy on the outside and at least medium to medium-well on the inside.

      Slide patties onto a plate, top with cheese sauce and relish, and serve. Makes four servings, or two two-patty servings for you guys with big appetites.

      Ingredients, Recipes, Your Kitchen

      Product review: Pomegranate 7-Up

      December 9, 2010 /

      This holiday season, if you’re looking for a refreshing non-alcoholic drink, you might try new (and for a limited time only) Pomegranate 7-Up Antioxidant. The original 7-UP lemon-lime and cherry flavor are very refreshing (with no caffeine), but this pomegranate one is even more so, at least in my opinion. The pomegranate flavore is sublte at first and then creeps up on you, unlike what you might expect from juice-based drink. I’m also not a huge soda pop guy, but this stuff is really tasty and I’d be inclined to buy it in the store. Bonus: it reminds me of the Shirley Temples my dad made me as a kid.

      Oh, and they send a bottle of the diet version too, and while I’m not a big fan of diet soda, this one had an especially strong after-taste of artificial sweetener. Of course, the one with “real sugar” is actually made with high fructose corn syrup, but HFCS does make drinks like this taste pretty good!

      It came with an info sheet that has recipes for cocktails, and I take it this would make a nice holiday mixer based on the light flavor and cheery red color alone. Definitely a product worth checking out.

      Ingredients, Tailgating, Uncategorized, Your Kitchen

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