Recipe Remix: Dee's Thai Shrimp

~~posted by Jen

Dee's Thai Shrimp

Welcome to our very first "Recipe Remix" post. A recipe remix is exactly what it sounds like, we take an ingredient (in the case of this recipe it's a sauce) or dish from a previous recipe and remix it into a whole different dish!

This will help many of you who are faced with tons of leftovers and no idea what to do with them. Nik and I both abhor wasting food, there are just too many hungry people in the world. That's why we've both become so adept at "re-purposing" leftovers.

My Momma, Lord rest her soul, was always very good at stretching a food dollar. Thankfully, I inherited that trait from her. She would come home from work and be amazed that I had created a meal out of the few things we had on hand in the fridge and pantry.

In the early years of my first marriage, this skill served me well. Even though Brian and I both worked full time, once we paid our bills every week we had $14 left to feed us for a whole week. I am not kidding. But if you asked him today, over 10 years since our divorce, he would tell you we ate well on $14 a week.

S'anyway, we always encourage y'all to "Play With Your Food, People!" and tell us what creative things you come up with when you revamp one of our recipes. With that in mind, we're proud to announce that our very first Recipe Remix comes from our good friend Dee (Deedles on OH) out in Texas.

Dee used the leftover sauce from Nik's Thai Waldorf Chicken Salad and made this scrumptious Thai Shrimp!

In her words, here's how she did it:


"Remember the left over peanut sauce I had from the Thai chicken salad? Tonight I used it on some pan grilled shrimp. It was delicious!

I started with.... 
3oz of diced shrimp that had been sauteed in a pan with Ancho seasoning and a drizzle of honey.
1 Tb pine nuts
1/4 of an avocado, part diced small in the salad, the rest sliced on the side
2 Tb Craisins
3-4 Tb Peanut Thai sauce (leftover from Waldorf Salad).
1 tsp sesame seeds

Mix shrimp, pine nuts, craisins and 1/4 of the avocado together and slowly add peanut sauce, final amount used is personal preference.
Serve on a bed of Butter Lettuce and Baby Spinach, sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Remaining avocado and Nut Thins crackers on the side."


If we can ever convince her to move East, I swear Dee is going to be our official food photographer! She makes our food look SO much yummier than we do sometimes! Thanks for sharing, Dee!

Now you, yes you, sitting there staring at the screen and drooling? Get up, go to the kitchen, and Play With Your Food! When you're done, send us a pic!

Dee's Version of Nik's Chicken Thai Waldorf Salad

Thai Waldorf Salad

~by Nikki

This might sound corny but, this is a recipe that was born of friendship. Which makes it precisely the kind of recipe I love. You guys know me well enough now to know there’s almost ALWAYS a story behind my food.

So my wonderful friend Pam sent me a picture of something called “peanut butter salad.” It looked sort of like a fruit salad with some sort of peanut buttery dressing holding it together and it was served on whole wheat bread. I was intrigued, but a little concerned. Here’s why:

1. There didn’t seem to be a lot of protein in the dish
2. There DID seem to be a lot of fiber, which wasn’t bad, but lots of fiber + no protein = not the greatest idea. You eat it, you won’t be hungry again for hours and you’ve wasted an opportunity to get your protein
3. The idea as-is, for my tastes, was a little basic

Fast forward a month. It is a little known fact that Jen and I actually have production meetings every week to decide what will go on the blog and who is going to make it. That peanut butter salad was still on my mind so I mentioned it to Jen to see if she had a good idea about it. Well, she won’t tell you this, but Jen has this really awesome skill. She spits out the perfect idea, almost as if by accident.

So she says, “why not do some sort of peanut Waldorf salad with chicken?”

BRILLIANT!!!

So I got to work in the “lab” (erm…kitchen) to see what that would look like. So then I started to think about my Thai chicken skewers. And this salad. And how much I loved those skewers. And this salad. And…DING! An idea formed. I made it, I taste tested it out and folks really liked it. So now I’m proud to present that idea to you!

Nik’s Thai Waldorf Chicken Salad

Ingredients

10 -12 oz. chicken breast, shredded (Update: Our friend Dee made this and found hers had WAY too much dressing. I think I wrote down an incorrect amount of chicken. This is changed from 6 oz. to 10-12 to reflect that)
1 small apple, diced (I used Granny Smith)
1/3 c. raisins (I used a mixture of regular and golden)
1 small onion, diced
Optional: 2 stalks celery finely diced (if you’re new or have trouble with celery, don’t use)

Dressing:
1/3 c. unflavored Greek yogurt
1/3 c. cottage cheese
2 tbsp PB2 (or Peanut Flour from Trader Joe’s)
1 tbsp soy sauce (I ended up using 2 but start with 1 and see how it goes from there)
¼ tsp ground ginger (you can also use minced ginger)
1 tsp lime juice
1 tsp minced garlic
2 packets Splenda
A dash of salt
A dash of cayenne pepper (for a little kick. You can skip if you don’t like it)


Directions:

Combine chicken, apples, onion and raisins and make sure it’s well combined.

In a mini-food processor, combine cottage cheese and Greek yogurt and pulse until all curds are broken and mixture is smooth. Add the rest of the dressing ingredients and pulse until well mixed.

Give the dressing a taste. It should be sweet but somewhat salty (remember, most of what you’ve got in your bowl to mix it with is sweet so the salty has to offset that). Once you’ve got it where you want it, mix into chicken mixture.

Refrigerate until you’re ready to use. I served on a whole wheat cracker, but a pop rice or a rice cake would do just fine as well OR on a section of P-28 protein bread. One of our Poucher friends, Dee, made this on her own. Here's her version (way better presentation than mine, by the way)

Dee plays with her food. Do you?

So...one of the reasons this wonderful recipe was possible was because I had leftover ingredients from doing the final test on one of the recipes we'll be sampling at the 2010 Pouch Party Holiday Preview! We promised a sneak peek into a dish this week...so here goes.

This one, too, has a story. I'll give you the abbreviated version.

My surgeon has a Christmas party every year for his patients. The food, while good and technically safe, is not necessarily the most weight loss surgery friendly. One offering in particular seems to call my name: the curried cheese spread with fruit. It's a delicious, luxuriious, fancy cheese spread, shaped into a ball that hits all the right sweet and salty notes. And you guys know how I love my curry.

Nik's Curried Cheese Spread with Nuts and Fruit

It seemed to me that this cheese ball is actually pretty genius for a holiday party or special occassion, so I had to do a remix. So here is my interpretation of the uber-yummy cheese ball.

For those that attend the preview, you'll get to sample this yummy cheese and get the recipe to take home. For the rest of you...too bad! (Kidding) We'll be posting some (not all) of the recipes from the preview and our preview guests will help decide which ones those are. I hope they pick this one because if you make this and take to a party...you will be the hero of the party, trust me on this one.

Thai Chicken Skewers

by Nikki

Last week when I was at the farmer's market I saw something that made me very, very happy. A child devouring a big ol' hunk of meat on a stick. I thought to myself "summer must be coming."

Meat on a stick, to me, evokes memories of state carnivals, funnel cakes and other types of summer time fun. Sigh...I love the summer.

(Focus!)

Mmmmkay! So the day before I got to live out my skewered meat dreams at Debbie's Grillin' and Chillin' Pouch Party where we made Thai Chicken skewers. These skewers were a hit with the whole crowd. I make it with a peanut sauce that my kids absolutely love!

I would like to point out that the method used to marinate this chicken is not exclusive to Thai chicken. You can substitute whatever marinade ingredients you like and it'll work just the same! So try it...especially if, like me, you like your meat...good and tender (ew...ok...brain scrub...mind was in gutter...it's all Jen's fault!)

Thai Chicken Skewers

Ingredients:

1 lb. chicken breast tenderloins
1 cup unflavored Greek yogurt
2 tsp  minced ginger
2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
a pinch of red pepper flakes
2 tsp. minced garlic

Equipment:

A grill
Skewers (if using bamboo, soak in water one hour before grilling...grill fires are no fun!)

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a bowl or resealable bag. Marinate for at least 3 hours (or up to overnight).

Place 1-2 tenderloins (depending on size) on each skewer and grill for 5 minutes on each side.

Serve with...

"Easy Peasy" Peanut Sauce

Ingredients:

1 c. creamy peanut butter (no not PB2...peanut butter...but if you're looking to up the nutritional ante, try this)
1 tsp ginger
1 tbsp. low-sodium soy sauce

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl. Mix well.

Nuke for 30 - 60 seconds.

Garnish with whole sesame seeds if desired.

And if you like this recipe, you'll probably love our recipe for Thai Iced Tea and "Ghetto Pad Thai."

Thai Iced Tea...within your reach...

I used to love this stuff. Creamy, super sweet, cold...what's not to love? I'd drink it alongside a mountainous plate of Pad Thai...I should look up how many calories all that would be. Yikes. Maybe not.

Anyway...even this specialty drink is not off limits for us! It is, however, off-limits for drinking at the same time as you eat...even if you do eat some of my Ghetto Pad Thai...(I have no pic of the ghetto pad thai but will list the recipe below.

So this one requires a little bit of extra shopping and equipment. Well worth the expense and effort if you love Thai Iced Tea as I do...

To make this you will need:

2/3 c. Thai tea leaves (go to the Asian market...tell them you are a naive American...they will hook you up)
1 and 2/3 c. water
1/2 c. Splenda
1 1/2 cup fat free Evaporated Milk (12oz can)

You also need some sort of tea strainer (sieve, tea sock or the like).

So here's the methodology: You boil the water and then remove it from heat before adding the tea leaves (and yes you are using a lot of tea leaves). Let it sit for about...oh...five minutes. Be patient and let it sit!

Next, strain liquid through sieve or tea sock into a small pitcher. Add Splenda and stir, stir, stir!!!

Refrigerate until cold.When you are ready to drink it, fill a cup with ice. FIll 2/3 of cup with iced tea and the remaining 1/3 with FF evaporated milk (also note you can use soy milk, skim milk, or whatever kind of milk you like...Me? I'm partial to lite coconut milk).

Stick a straw in it and SLURP!

Ok, so ghetto pad thai...really isn't pad thai at all but it does incorporate some of the flavors. It's sort of what would happen if Pad Thai, peanut noodles, and Satay chicken got together, had a threesome and a baby resulted. Ew. Moving on...

Ghetto Pad Thai

On top:

6 chicken breast tenderloins
Juice from half of one lime
2 tbsp lite soy sauce
1 tsp minced garlic
½ tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp grated ginger

On bottom:

2 c. spaghetti squash
1 bag Thai or Asian stir fry vegetables
2 tbsp lite soy sauce
Juice from half a lime
1 tbsp PB2 (peanut butter)
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tbsp rice vinegar
4 packets of splenda
½ c. chopped unsalted peanuts

Other stuff:

1 tbsp. sesame oil
Chopped green onions for garnish (if desired)

Directions:

Combine chicken ingredients in a storage bag and marinate chicken for at least two hours (overnight works best)
Heat sesame oil in a wok. Cut up marinated chicken and place in wok, cooking until done. You can add the rest of the marinade in there as well.
When chicken is done, add stir fry vegetables and turn until well mixed
In a bowl, combine soy sauce, lime juice, red pepper flakes, vinegar, PB2 and Splenda and whisk until blended
When veggies are cooked through add spaghetti squash (I advise making it ahead and putting it in the refrigerator. I think the key is cooking this from cold to hot very quickly) and mix through.
Very yummy and exotic. Try the two on the same night (at least 30 minutes apart...the surgery mafia requires I say this...) and have a theme night!

Pour liquid mixture over the stir fry and add peanuts. Mix well and warm through