Broccoli Cheese Tots

Alex made these and he did a great job. They were delicious. They're even better than tater tots in my opinion!

Recipe courtesy of Buzzfeed (I've made a few changes)

Ingredients:
12 ounces broccoli, cut into small florets
¼ cup scallions, thinly sliced
2 large garlic cloves, finely diced (~2 tsp. minced garlic)
⅔ cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 egg, beaten
⅔ cup bread crumbs almond flour
Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400F.

Wash and finely chop the broccoli (or put it through a food processor). Put it in a bowl and microwave it for 2 minutes or so.

In a mixing bowl, add broccoli, scallions, garlic, cheddar, egg, and almond flour. Mix well and chill in the refrigerator for 15–20 minutes.
Spray a nonstick baking sheet with nonstick spray. Shape the mixture into tot shapes and spread them evenly on the sheet.
Bake for 8–9 minutes. Flip and then bake for an additional 8–9 minutes on the other side until golden brown.

Cilantro Lime Zoodles with Chorizo (+Limeade!)

Alex loved the Zoodles I made last week so I decided to make them again, but with a different twist. This is fabulously delicious and fresh tasting. Despite the cream sauce, it tastes light. The cream does balance the acidity and the spice well though. I used chorizo, which definitely has a bite to it. You can use a plainer sausage if you want, or you can throw in some cooked chicken (or shrimp).
For an appetizer, Alex made Broccoli Tots from a Buzzfeed recipe. I've posted that here. They were fabulous. I used the leftover lime juice and zest to make lime ice cream here. Some of the juice went into my glass to make fresh Limeade; that recipe is below the zoodles.

Before you start this recipe, we're gonna take care of these limes. You'll need 2 for the dessert, the dinner, and the drink. If you're just doing the dinner dish, you only need 1.
1. Wash them.
2. Zest them using a microplane. Set aside the zest.
3. Microwave them for 30 sec-1 min until soft and warm to the touch.
4. Roll them forcefully on a flat, clean surface. This breaks the little pockets of juice open inside.
5. Cut in half and squeeze out all the juice. Set juice aside in a non-metal bowl (they're acidic!).

Ingredients:
3 zucchini, washed and spiralized
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. heavy cream
6-8 chorizo sausages, precooked and cut into ~1/2 in. slices
3 tsp. lime juice (fresh tastes best)
1/4 c. scallion, washed and chopped
1/4 c. fresh cilantro, washed and chopped (for international readers, I'm talking about the leafy stuff)
2 tsp. lime zest
6 oz. garlic simmer sauce (Wegmans) (if you don't have this, add in 3/4 c. chicken broth and 2 tsp. minced garlic)
dash of onion powder
dash of cumin
black pepper to taste

Saute the chorizo in a bit of oil or butter until hot. Add cream cheese, cream, garlic simmer sauce, lime juice, lime zest, and spices. Cook on medium and stir until well combined. When it's warm enough it'll bubble a bit. Before you add your zoodles, cut them up a bit so they don't ball up together in the pan. Add the zoodles. Add in the cilantro and scallion. Mix well. When the zoodles are soft, turn off the heat and serve. Garnish with a bit of fresh cilantro if you want.

Limeade

~1 Tbsp. lime juice
2 packets Splenda (or favorite sweetener)
10-12 oz. ice water

Combine and stir until sweetener is dissolved. Enjoy!

Creamy Pesto Zucchini Pasta with Italian Sausage

In celebration of 1000 views, this is something I made tonight that I had to stop myself from going back and getting 2nd, 3rds, and maybe even 4ths... Alex loved it and so did my mom. Safe to say that it's a crowd pleaser. Thanks for the 1000 views, you all are great!

Creamy Pesto Zucchini Pasta with Italian Sausage

3 zucchini, washed, ends chopped off, and spiralized into spaghetti sized strands

3 oz. pouch or jar (drained) of sun dried tomatoes, chopped finely

8 oz. brick cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. heavy cream

~7 oz. basil pesto (I used Wegmans Italian Classics)

~6 Mild Italian sausages (or Hot if you like)

2 tsp. minced garlic

McCormick Italian Herb Seasoning Grinder (or similar) and garlic powder (optional)

bit of olive oil

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Lay down a baking sheet and lay a silicone mat or parchment paper on it. This will make the oil drips much easier to clean. Set a cookie/cooling rack on top. It's better to use a slightly too big baking sheet than have your rack hanging off. Make sure the cooling rack is only metal. The rack helps circulate air underneath the sausages so they get evenly done. Lay the sausages on the rack and using a basting brush, coat them in some oil. Twist the seasoning grater over each sausage and then lightly sprinkle with garlic powder. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until no longer pink inside.

In a large skillet, mix softened cream cheese, pesto, garlic, tomatoes, and heavy cream. Use a rubber spatula to incorporate the cream cheese into everything else the best you can. Add in the zucchini pasta and stir, coating the zoodles. If the sausage is still cooking, cover the skillet and let sit on low. The zoodles will shrink a bit and the sauce will get smoother and more...plentiful...something like that. When the sausage is done, slice it up and add to the zoodles. Mix to coat and serve.

Creamy Mushroom Truffle Risotto

This recipe uses cauliflower rice to simulate risotto.  I was also lucky enough to have some truffle-flavored extra virgin olive oil on hand for a little extra something. This recipe is not difficult, it just takes a bit of time for the cauliflower to soften. If you don't have truffle oil, that's fine, it isn't necessary. Truffles have a very earthy flavor and it only takes a teeny bit to flavor a dish.

Creamy Mushroom Truffle Risotto

1/2 head cauliflower, leaves removed, washed and chopped into florets (small enough to fit into a food processor)
2 Tbsp. butter
2 tsp. minced garlic
about 6 baby bella mushrooms, washed and dried off
2-4 drops of truffle oil
dried or fresh parsley to taste
1/2 c. chicken or veggie broth or dry red wine
1/4 c. heavy cream
pinch of onion powder
tsp. lemon juice
1/4 c. parmesan cheese, grated
salt and pepper to taste

Process the florets in a food processor or Ninja until rice-sized. Set aside.

Chop the mushrooms into about 1 cm square pieces. Melt the butter in a saute pan. Add mushrooms, garlic, onion powder, red wine, cream, and parsley. Simmer and stir until mushrooms shrink a good bit. Add in the rice, truffle oil, lemon juice, and parmesan. Stir well over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover, and let simmer for 10 or so minutes. Serve with your favorite Italian meal.

This turned out very delicious, and Alex said I should make this every week haha. So I guess it's a winner which is why it ended up on here! Enjoy!

Wegmans Recipe: Cauliflower Rice Stir Fry

Cauliflower Rice Stir Fry

This isn't an official recipe but we came up with this to showcase our new product at the store: cauliflower rice. It is simply finely chopped cauliflower that, when cooked, looks, feels, and tastes like rice. I had many customers remark that they were very surprised that it wasn't really rice! When you add the sauce, the rice turns a light brown color, making it look exactly like brown rice. The stir fry sauce I used is Wegmans' own house brand, and it has 3g of sugar per Tbsp. if you can find one with less sugar, feel free to use that. You can also make your own sauce if you're feeling adventurous.

Ingredients:

1/2 head of cauliflower

1/2 c. snow peas

1/4 c. shredded carrots

1/4 c. baby corn, chopped into 3rds or 4ths (optional)

1/2 c. bell pepper, any color, diced

1/2 c. broccoli florets, small

1/4 c. sliced shiitake mushrooms

1/3 c. stir fry sauce, low sugar (I used Wegmans Organic Stir Fry Sauce)

2 oz. Wegmans Organic Garlic and Parsley Finishing Butter, or other herbed butter

Wash and rough chop the cauliflower. Processes in food processor until the pieces are roughly the size of rice grains. In a wok or frying pan, melt the butter. Add in rice and cook until rice has absorbed the butter mostly. Add a pinch of salt and pepper blend if you wish. Push the rice to the outsides of the pan. Place the veggies in the center, and pour the sauce over the veggies. Stir the veggies up in the sauce until coated, then mix the rice and veggies together and stir until veggies are slightly soft (or until desired doneness). If you wish to cook the veggies a little more, turn down the heat a bit to keep things from burning. You can also cover the pan and let it steam a bit if you want. 

Beef Enchiladas, Homemade Queso Sauce, and Mexican Cauli Rice

Beef Enchiladas and Queso Sauce with Mexican Rice

I wanted to make a gordita/enchilada hybrid. Back in public school, they used to serve us cheap gorditas: crappy ground beef, a super thick, fluffy tortilla (that's actually quite similar to a real gordita) tortilla, and some cheap nacho cheese. Alex really loves gorditas so I tried to do a fusion sort of dish. Unfortunately, because of the how similar the end product ended up being to an enchilada, he didn't like it. Oh well. If you like enchiladas you'll love these.

The rice is an interesting story. Wegmans just debuted cauliflower rice in the veggie market, and I wanted to come up with a recipe to showcase the new product. We had been doing Asian dishes for a while, so I wanted to do something different. We have a new red chile sauce too, and I wondered if I could use the chile sauce to make the rice look and taste like Mexican rice that you get in Tex Mex restaurants. The Wegmans brand chile sauce only seems to come in 24 oz. containers for now, and that seemed to be way too much for my needs for tonight, so I got Frontera's Red Chile sauce. The package says mild, and it may have been the Rotel (which I've never used before this) but the rice was quite spicy. Not reach-for-the-milk spicy, but definitely clear-your-nasal-passages spicy. I used the whole 8 oz. in my rice. Because of this, I'm recommending you use 1/3 c. of the sauce and then dong the 1 and 2/3 c. chicken broth option. Nevertheless, the rice turned out much better than I expected, especially with the homemade queso sauce on it.

Filling:
1 lb. ground beef
taco seasoning (I like Jack Scalfani's recipe here, it's in the description. Quadruple it, but only use 1/4 tsp. salt)
1/2 c. water

Brown the beef in a skillet with the taco seasoning. When the meat is nearly brown, add the water and let thicken a bit. Transfer meat to a bowl and set aside.

Queso:
1 c. unsweetened unflavored coconut milk
1 can Rotel original
1 tsp. minced garlic
3 slices pepper jack cheese
7 slices Cooper cheese
1 c. shredded white cheddar

In a medium saucepan, heat coconut milk and rotel until bubbling. Add in cheese bit by bit until smooth and creamy. Stir often during this process and don't let it burn. You can add extra Cooper cheese if you'd like a thicker queso.

Mexican Cauli Rice:
1/2 head cauliflower
1 c to 1/3 c. red chile enchilada sauce (1 cup makes very spicy rice, 1/3 will make medium rice)
1 c. chicken broth (1 and 2/3 c. if only using 1/3 c. of chile sauce)
1 can rotel original
1 red bell pepper, diced
4 Tbsp. butter, divided in half
1/2 pack of Splenda (about 1/4 tsp)

Wash and cut cauliflower into chunks small enough for your food processor. Process until pieces are rice-sized. Transfer to a microwaveable container and add 1/3 c. red chile sauce, 1 2/3 c. chicken broth, and the rotel. Microwave on high for 20 minutes. In a pan big enough for all the rice, fry the bell pepper in 2 Tbsp. of butter. When the rice is done in the microwave, add it to the peppers and add the extra 2 Tbsp. of butter and bit of Splenda. Pan fry the rice until 95% of the liquid has evaporated.

Other:
6 oz. white shredded cheddar
6 large low carb tortillas or 8 smaller ones

Topping:
1 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. heavy cream
8 oz. of red chile enchilada sauce
2 oz. shredded white cheddar

Mix the chicken broth and heavy cream in a pourable container. On a clean, flat surface, lay out a tortilla. Place 1/6th or 1/8th of the meat (depending on how many tortillas you have) on one end of the tortilla. Add 1/4 c. queso and a sprinkle of white cheddar. Tuck the ends in and roll up. Place seam side down in a baking dish. Repeat for all other tortillas. Pour over the topping mixture of cream and broth. Cover enchiladas in enchilada sauce. Sprinkle with cheese. Spray the underside of some foil and cover the dish. Bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 5-10 minutes. Serve with the rice and the extra queso sauce.

Veggie Cream Cheese Stuffed Mini Peppers