Tag: guilty pleasures (Page 6 of 14)

Breakfast

Here is a stray Grub for Guys recipe set that hasn’t published but that I thought you might like to check out heading into the weekend. Enjoy!

Two Healthy and Extremely Awesome Breakfast Recipes
Panko Banana Waffle French Toast & Sweet Potato Pancakes

Without trying to sound like Sandra Lee in her “Semi-Homemade” show (come on, I know you guys watch her), here are two easy breakfast recipes that begin with pre-made ingredients. Because after a night of drinking, you need carbs to soak up that alcohol. Or if you’re a dad like me, and want to impress your family, these two are can’t-miss.

Panko Banana Waffle French Toast
Ingredients:
8 Eggo frozen waffles (whole wheat if you want to go healthier)
2 large eggs
¾ cup panko-style bread crumbs
2 bananas, sliced to ¼ inch thickness
2 tbsp. milk (skim is fine)
¼ tsp. vanilla extract
Powdered sugar
Maple syrup

Directions:
Pre-heat non-stick skillet or a large non-stick frying pan. Let waffles thaw, which takes about 30 minutes. Beat eggs with milk and vanilla in a large, wide bowl. Put bread crumbs on a plate next to egg mixture. Take the waffles, one at a time and put a few banana slices on one half, then fold over. Dip in egg mixture, then bread crumbs, and then onto skillet. Repeat with remaining waffles, and cook until crispy on the outside. Top each waffle with powdered sugar and serve with maple syrup on the side. Makes four (2-waffle) servings.

Sweet Potato Pancakes
Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat pancake mix (such as Bob’s Red Mill)
1 medium sweet potato
¼ cup chopped pecans, divided
1 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp. butter
Maple syrup

Directions:
Peel and cut the sweet potato into chunks. Place in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 12-15 minutes or until tender. Drain and mash into a puree and set aside. Pre-heat non-stick skillet or large non-stick frying pan. Prepare pancake mixture according to package directions (it’s really easy…you mix it with an egg, some oil and water until the proper consistency). Then fold in ¾ cup of the sweet potato puree and 2 tbsp. of the pecans. After pouring the batter onto the skillet, melt the butter with brown sugar in a small frying pan over medium heat, and then add the remaining 2 tbsp. pecans and toast for a few minutes until dark brown and caramelized. After cooking the pancakes to desired doneness, serve on a plate topped with some of the pecan mixture and serve with maple syrup on the side. Serves 4, or two really hungry people.

Mmmmm, steak

Man, I could go for a steak right now. This morning, Men’s Health e-mailed me a copy of an article they published two years ago about man food, and it starts with this positively mouth-watering photo of a bone-in ribeye.

I think I’m feeling faint. Iron deficient. Yeah, I need to fire up the grill soon….if not today, then this weekend. Anyway, the article goes on to list other favorite guy foods that they found across the US such as meaty chili and lobster rolls.

And hey, in case you forgot, I posted this easy set of grilling tips a while back for the perfect steak dinner during grill season. Now what are you waiting for?

Product review: Blue Diamond Nut-Thins

Chef JimIf you haven’t tried Blue Diamond’s new Nut-Thins, you are in for a treat–especially if you are allergic to wheat products (although there is a disclaimer on the box about that). The fine folks of Blue Diamond have figured out a way to make a cracker out of almonds, even if the main ingredient is rice flour. The second ingredient is pure almonds, and you can surely taste the delcious nutty flavor in each bite.

The company sent us two flavors–original and smokehouse. The original tastes very much like a flattened rice cake, but a bit more dense from the almonds. The smokehouse has that signature flavor we’ve all come to love from the company’s signature Smokehouse Almonds. And I can attest to one thing that Mrs. Mikey and I both noticed–you absolutely can’t stop eating them, especially the highly addictive smokehouse flavor.

And the good thing about not being able to put the box down, is that each 16-cracker serving is only 130 calories, 2.5 grams of fat but with a whopping 3 grams of protein. They are baked, not fried, and yet are light and crispy.

In addition to the flavors we tried, there is also a cheddar flavor almond cracker, as well as hazelnut and pecan versions.

For more information, go to www.bluediamond.com or just go pluck a box or three off your grocery store shelf.

Gazpacho for dudes

Well, not just for dudes, but I posted this on Grub for Guys a couple years back and it’s definitely dude-friendly, thanks to my secret weapon, Buffalo wing sauce. The weather reached almost 90 degrees here in Wisconsin earlier this week, so it’s time to start thinking about warm weather fare. So try this one when you have one of those steamy days….

It’s summer, and you can either embrace that or bide your time until fall. Either way, you can help yourself by eating foods that are warm weather fare—grilled steaks, chicken, salads, and cold pasta are always good choices. And if the thought of cold soup doesn’t scare you, gazpacho is one of the best summer foods, and it’s very easy to make. Here, I came up with my own version that includes a few non-conventional ingredients like avocado, cilantro and Buffalo wing sauce. Give it a whirl in your blender and on your taste buds and let me know how you like it. With that, here we go…..

Ingredients
1 ½ cups tomato juice or vegetable juice such as V-8
3 medium size tomatoes
½ small green pepper
1 celery stalk
½ medium cucumber
1 medium raw jalapeno pepper
1 small avocado or ½ of a large one
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. commercially made Buffalo Wing sauce
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
½ tsp. Kosher salt
¼ tsp. ground black pepper

Directions
Cut the tops off the tomatoes and squeeze the pulp and seeds out, then coarsely chop the flesh. Seed the green pepper and coarsely chop. Remove the strings from the celery and coarsely chop.
Peel and seed the cucumber and coarsely chop it. Seed and chop the jalapeno, using kitchen gloves if possible (or washing your hands immediately afterward…..I hope I don’t need to tell you why!). Then cut the avocado in half, remove the pit, scoop out the flesh and discard the pit and rind. Put all of the vegetables in a blender along with the tomato juice, olive oil, vinegar, wing sauce, cilantro, salt and pepper. Blend or pulse briefly until smooth (shorter time if you prefer a chunkier soup). Refrigerate for 1-2 hours, but you can serve as is if you’re hungry. Serves 4.

Chef’s note: Before making this, make sure you have a loaf of crusty bread and a good summer beer such as Corona on ice. Now you’ve got a meal!

Product review: Spaghettios with Meatballs

Chef JimI am not sure when Campbell’s bought Franco American, but I just had some Spaghettios for the first time in years and the flavor has not changed one bit–it’s comfort food to the Nth degree, no matter when or where you grew up. I’ll be honest, though, I originally was going to review the ones with sliced hot dogs and those hot dog slices were pretty disgusting so I didn’t finish the dish or the review.

But the one with mini-meatballs is delicious. And let’s face it, it can’t be easy to make processed meatballs taste real, and these do have that canned food meatball thing going on, but they still taste real enough not to be considered mystery meat (I think). And with ground pork being the first meat ingredient, the flavor is a bit milder than all-beef meatballs.

As for the pasta rings, they were done about to the degree you’d expect for canned pasta, but those and the familiar mild tomato sauce with a slightly cheesy taste is still really great. Of course, at 480 calories a can (who’s going to eat half a can?), it’s a pretty hefty calorie binge for lunch. But still worth a once-in-a-while binge at that.

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