Nicole Wilker

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Posts Tagged recipe

Mexicali Crab Cakes

Nov 1

Posted by nwilker in Recipes | No Comments

This was another crab cake trial for hubby and I!

Since there were jalapenos in it it had to be great! I definitely liked this recipe much much much better than any of the previous ones we’ve eaten!

Mexicali Crab Cakes

Mexicali Crab Cakes

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2  tablespoons  stick margarine
  • 1/4  cup  finely chopped celery
  • 1/4  cup  finely chopped red bell pepper
  • 1   tablespoon chopped seeded jalapeño pepper
  • 1/4  cup  light mayonnaise
  • 1  teaspoon  chopped fresh cilantro or parsley
  • 1  teaspoon  Dijon mustard
  • 1/2  teaspoon  garlic salt
  • 1/4  teaspoon  pepper
  • 1  large egg, lightly beaten
  • 1/2  cup  fresh breadcrumbs
  • 1/4  cup  chopped green onions
  • 1  pound  lump crabmeat
  • 1  (8 3/4-ounce) can no-salt-added whole-kernel corn, drained
  • 1  cup  finely crushed cornflakes
  • Cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 450°.

Saute celery, bell pepper, and jalapeño;  3 minutes or until tender. Cool.

Combine mayonnaise and the next 5 ingredients (mayonnaise through egg) in a large bowl. Add celery mixture, breadcrumbs, green onions, crabmeat, and corn, and stir well. Divide crabmeat mixture into 10 equal portions, shaping each into a 1/2-inch-thick patty. Dredge patties in cornflakes.

Spray pan with pam, place 3-4 patties at a time in the pan.  Turn patties over after 3 minutes, and fry an additional 3 or 4 minutes or until golden. Serve crab cakes with cocktail sauce, or ranch mixed with garlic chili sauce.

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Cheese and Corn Dip

Oct 25

Posted by nwilker in Recipes | 1 Comment

I created this from a different type of sauce for a chicken recipe.

We had some spinach quiches that needed some extra something to make them worth eating, so i came up with this!

Cheese and Corn Dip

  • Sauce:
  • 1  teaspoon  butter
  • 1/2  can  of corn
  • 1/2  cup  finely chopped  onion
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
  • 2  teaspoons  chili powder
  • 1/2  cup  fat free  milk
  • 1/2  cup  (4 ounces) block-style fat-free cream cheese
  • 1  cups  (8 ounces) shredded extrasharp cheddar cheese
  • 1/4 cup mozzarella
  • 1/2  teaspoon  salt
  • 1/4  teaspoon  black pepper
  • 1/4  teaspoon  hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco)

To prepare sauce, melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add corn, jalapeno and onion. Cook 10 minutes or until onion is tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in chili powder; cook 1 minute. Stir in milk and cream cheese; cook 6 minutes over low heat, stirring frequently. Stir in cheddar cheese, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and hot pepper sauce; cook 4 minutes or until melted, stirring frequently. Add more milk to consistency desired.  Serve warm!.

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Awesome crockpot liquor cake!!!

Oct 10

Posted by nwilker in Uncategorized | No Comments

Found this fabulous recipe on Sandra’s blog – Diary of a SAHM

This moist cake is amazing served warm straight from the slow cooker, along with a small scoop of light vanilla bean ice cream or whipped topping!

Ingredients

1 box (18.25 ounce) devil’s food cake mix

1 cup fat-free sour cream

1 cup 1% low-fat milk (or use nonfat or 2% milk)

2 large eggs, a higher omega-3 brand if available

2 egg whites or ¼ cup egg substitute

¾ cup Kahlua liqueur (or similar)

16oz container frosting

Preparation

1. Coat inside of slow cooker with canola cooking spray.

2. In large mixing bowl, combine cake mix, sour cream, milk, eggs, egg whites, and Kahlua by beating on medium for about a minute.

3. Pour cake batter into prepared slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or on HIGH for 3-4 hours.

4. Rich before serving, frost the cake

5. Cut cake into about 16 wedges. Serve each slice with a small scoop of light vanilla bean ice cream (using a cookie dough scoop), if desired.

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Scallops with Chipotle-Orange Sauce

Oct 10

Posted by nwilker in Recipes | No Comments

This was the main dish for the ladies. I was surprised at how hot the peppers were! I would probably add more orange juice next time!

Scallops with Chipotle-Orange Sauce

Ingredients

  • 2  tablespoons  butter, divided
  • Cooking spray
  • 1 1/2  pounds  large sea scallops
  • 1/2  teaspoon  paprika
  • 1/4  teaspoon  salt, divided
  • 1/2  cup  fresh orange juice
  • 1  tablespoon  finely chopped canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce
  • 1/4  cup  chopped green onions

Preparation

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Sprinkle scallops with paprika and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Add scallops to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove from pan, and keep warm.

Add orange juice and chile to the pan, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Bring to a boil, and cook until reduced to 1/4 cup (about 1 minute). Add 1 tablespoon butter and 1/8 teaspoon salt, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Serve the sauce with scallops, and garnish with the onions.

Nutritional Information

Calories:218 (29% from fat)
Fat:7.1g (sat 3.7g,mono 1.7g,poly 0.7g)
Protein:28.9g
Carbohydrate:8.1g
Fiber:0.4g
Cholesterol:72mg
Iron:0.6mg
Sodium:488mg
Calcium:47mg

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Polenta Lazagna

Aug 3

Posted by nwilker in Recipes | No Comments

Found this recipe in a cooking light (might have been an email) – it was listed as vegetarian and called for meatless sausage – but i had ground turkey on hand, so i changed the recipe to be meat. I also forgot to get mozzarella so i used a 4 cheese Mexican mixture – and it was yummy!

It was much yummier than i could have ever imagined!

Polenta Lasagna

Yield

6 servings (serving size: 1 piece)

Ingredients

  • 1  (26-ounce) jar marinara sauce, divided  (Napa Valley Bistro – homemade marinara – found at Cost Plus)
  • 1  teaspoon  olive oil
  • 1  cup  finely chopped onion
  • 1/2  cup  chopped red bell pepper
  • 1  cup  meatless fat-free sausage, crumbled (such as Lightlife Gimme Lean) (3/4 cup ground turkey)
  • 1  cup  chopped mushrooms
  • 1/2  cup  chopped zucchini
  • 2  garlic cloves, minced
  • 1  (16-ounce) tube of polenta, cut into 18 slices
  • 1/2  cup  (2 ounces) preshredded part-skim mozzarella cheese 1/2 cup mexican

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Spoon 1/2 cup marinara sauce into an 8-inch square baking dish to cover bottom, and set aside.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and bell pepper; sauté 4 minutes or until tender. Stir in sausage; cook 2 minutes. Add mushrooms, zucchini, and garlic; sauté 2 minutes or until mushrooms are tender, stirring frequently. Add remaining marinara sauce; reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes.

Arrange 9 polenta slices over marinara in baking dish, and top evenly with half of vegetable mixture. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of cheese over vegetable mixture; arrange remaining polenta over cheese. Top polenta with the remaining vegetable mixture, and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup cheese.

Cover and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes or until bubbly. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

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Saturday BBQ

May 26

Posted by nwilker in Ramblings | No Comments

We had some dear friend over for a BBQ on saturday. The brought their little fella – a bit over 1 years old.
We had our fingers crossed that we would stick to the roof so that way I didn’t have to baby proof the rest of the house.
It also meant i could go hiking in the middle of the day when i should have been picking up and putting away…
Alas just as the burgers went on the grill – bam – the skys opened up. Ugh!!

Figures!

We did a fire bucket brigade to get everything into the house and kept dry! But that meant we now had to coral the wee one, keep him from falling in the stairwells, keep him from going up the stairs – the house is pretty much a death trap for mobile wee ones!

If I do say so myself – hubby and i created some damn good burgers!
1 lb ground turkey
1 pkg onion soup mix
1/4 cup water
To taste:
Southwest seasoning
Habenero pepper flakes
cayenne
seasoning salt
garlic powder

We were able to make 6 burgers – probably more if we hadn’t split the batch to keep the hot from infecting our friends!

They came out really great! We will now be making burgers more often, now that we know we can do it!
To add to the feast I made the sundried tomatoe hummus – changed it up a bit – used 1/2 cup chicken broth instead of water and olive oil. Came out yummy!
Also had a spinach salad with out cilantro dressing – the old stand by!
Made some beer muffins – i have determined that i cannot eat a ton of them – they upset my tummy when i snarf them down – go figure!

We ended the evening with some games. We did Apples to Apples – and with 2 couples – pretty hard, depending what cards you have in your hands.
Then we found another game call Imagine If…

it had been sitting in our game pile for i don’t know how long, and we can’t remeber who gave it to us – but that is a great game! We were laughing so hard, and having such a fun time it was fabulous!
The setup:
Gameboard with 8 blanks around a circle to your the players name and then other people the rest know.
To play:
Player rolls and can go in either direction to pick a name. Then using that name, picks a card and read it…
Imagine if
Nicole
Were a fashion fau paux, which would she be
1. White pants after labor day
2. 80′s retro
3. nylons with open toe shoes
4. Crop top and short shorts
5. Short pants
6. red and pink together

Everyone “votes” on what they think, when everyone is ready, the “votes” are flipped over
The most popular selection is the winner – everyone that picked that gets a point (there is a game board in the middle of the circle).
If the reader gets the most popular vote they get 2.

It is so much fun!!!

It was really great to see our friends, cook them a good meal and enjoy a nice night!

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Green Enchiladas With Crab

May 25

Posted by nwilker in Recipes | No Comments

I’ve been wanting to make this recipe for over 2 years and had been thwarted by the price of tomatillos. Saturday was the day that the angels sang and i found tomatillos at the farmers market for 3.00 a pound! Woohoo!
I did of course have to change it up! I only had big wheat tortillas, i didn’t de-seed the seranno – damn! did the sauce have kick, I didn’t have any lettuce or radish – so i cut up some spinach, and i didn’t have the right cheese so i used nacho taco cheese. Next time i would definitely get the right tortillas, get some more powerful cheese, maybe add some black beans or rice to it, and seed half the pepper. Definitely a recipe you can play with!! Hope you have fun with it! And the sauce makes a ton – we’ll be trying it on our ground turkey tacos this week as well!

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 2 enchiladas, 3/4 cup topping, and about 1/3 cup sauce)

Ingredients

  • Sauce:
  • 8  medium tomatillos
  • 2  quarts water
  • 1/4  cup  chopped peeled avocado
  • 2  tablespoons  minced fresh cilantro
  • 1  tablespoon  fresh lime juice
  • 1/4  teaspoon  salt
  • 1  serrano chile, seeded
  • 1  garlic clove, minced
  • Enchiladas:
  • 1/2  cup  (2 ounces) shredded queso chihuahua cheese
  • 1/4  teaspoon  salt
  • 1  pound  lump crabmeat, drained and shell pieces removed
  • 8  (6-inch) corn tortillas
  • Cooking spray
  • Topping:
  • 2  cups  thinly sliced iceberg lettuce
  • 1/2  cup  thinly vertically sliced onion
  • 1/4  cup  thinly sliced radishes
  • 2  tablespoons  minced fresh cilantro
  • 2  teaspoons  white vinegar
  • 1/4  teaspoon  salt
  • 1/4  teaspoon  dried oregano

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°.

To prepare sauce, discard husks and stems from tomatillos. Bring 2 quarts water to a boil in a large Dutch oven. Add tomatillos; cook 2 minutes. Drain. Place tomatillos, avocado, and next 5 ingredients (avocado through garlic) in a blender; process until smooth. Strain mixture through a sieve into a medium bowl; discard solids.

To prepare enchiladas, combine the cheese, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and crab. Warm tortillas according to package directions. Spoon about 1/2 cup crab mixture down center of each tortilla; roll up. Place, seam-side down, in an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Cover and bake at 375° for 12 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

To prepare topping, combine lettuce and remaining ingredients. Serve enchiladas with sauce and topping.

Nutritional Information

Calories:304 (29% from fat)
Fat:9.7g (sat 3.4g,mono 3.1g,poly 1.8g)
Protein:20.6g
Carbohydrate:36.6g
Fiber:5.8g
Cholesterol:58mg
Iron:1.8mg
Sodium:843mg
Calcium:241mg

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Garlic and Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus

May 12

Posted by nwilker in Recipes | No Comments

I found this number in my saved recipes to try this weekend when I discovered I had no Kalmata olives for our old stand by – Mediteranean Hummus! I also ended up using a bit of the oil that the tomatoes were packed in for some liquid in the hummus. Definitely yummy and even hubby enjoyed it and he doesn’t like any kind of tomatoes!

Yield

5 servings (serving size: 1/4 cup hummus and 4 pita wedges)

Ingredients

  • 1/4  cup  water
  • 2  tablespoons  chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomato halves
  • 1/2  teaspoon  salt
  • 1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
  • 2  garlic cloves
  • 1  (15-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained

Preparation

Combine water, tomato, salt, pepper, garlic, and beans in a food processor, and process until smooth. Serve with pita wedges.

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Asian Chicken Salad

May 12

Posted by nwilker in Recipes | No Comments

Found this lovely in my old pile of cooking lights! I of course changed it, cause i never have the ingredients i need, nor can I leave things alone!

It was  for left over turkey – but we had just done beer can chicken, it said a head of cabbage, but i find the bag-o-slaw so much easier to deal with!  Next time i’ll bump up the heat on the dressing – perhaps jalapeno or some red pepper flakes… and some additional salt! I set it up for lunch, so i separate everything into 4 food buckets. Slaw in the bottom, red onion in it’s own baggies, green peppers (since red were 1.99 a piece) just cut up on top of slaw, chicken diced and separated into baggie and the dressing split into 4 little containers – yes i am a nut!  I skipped the cilantro, green onion and peanuts as well!

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 1 3/4 cups)

Ingredients

  • Dressing:
  • 1/4  cup  rice vinegar
  • 1/4  cup  vegetable broth
  • 1  tablespoon  low-sodium soy sauce
  • 2  teaspoons  bottled ground fresh ginger (such as Spice World)
  • 2  teaspoons  lime juice
  • 1  teaspoon  bottled minced garlic
  • 1  teaspoon  peanut oil
  • 1  teaspoon  sesame oil
  • 1/2  teaspoon  salt
  • 1/2  teaspoon  sugar
  • 1  serrano chile  (maybe 2 next time or a jalapeno)
  • Salad:
  • 4  cups  thinly sliced napa (Chinese) cabbage  (1 bag o slaw)
  • 3  cups  shredded cooked turkey  (or left over beer can chicken)
  • 1  cup  red bell pepper strips (about 1 small pepper) (i did chunks, easier to eat)
  • 1/2  cup  thinly sliced red onion
  • 1/2  cup  chopped fresh cilantro  (skipped it)
  • 1/4  cup  sliced green onions  (skipped it)
  • 1  tablespoon  dry-roasted peanuts, chopped  (don’t like nuts on my food)

Preparation

To prepare the salad dressing, place the first 11 ingredients in a blender, and process until smooth.

To prepare the salad, combine the cabbage and remaining ingredients in a large bowl, and pour the dressing over the salad, tossing to coat.

Nutritional Information

Calories:250 (30% from fat)
Fat:8.3g (sat 2.2g,mono 2.3g,poly 2.6g)
Protein:33.2g
Carbohydrate:10.3g
Fiber:3.4g
Cholesterol:80mg
Iron:2.8mg
Sodium:592mg
Calcium:80mg

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Fruit Dip

May 3

Posted by nwilker in Recipes | No Comments

I joined some ladies for breakfast this morning, brought some fresh fruit – grapes, bananas, pears and kiwis. It was not supposed to be a healthy menu, so i found this option to add some “love” to the meal! It was super yummy!!!

Fruit Dip

Ingredients

  • 3/4  cup  packed brown sugar
  • 1/2  cup  powdered sugar
  • 1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
  • 1  (8-ounce) block 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened

Preparation

Combine first 4 ingredients in a bowl; beat at medium speed of a mixer until smooth.  Cover and chill.

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