Baked Egg Rolls

A couple of weeks ago I was craving some Chinese food and decided I would make an entire Chinese take-out meal from scratch. It ended up being a LOT of work, but was totally worth it in my opinion! For the egg rolls I decided on this recipe because it seemed a like a healthier option and I didn't want to mess around with having to deep fry the egg rolls.

(Recipe yields 14 egg rolls)

Ingredients:

Egg rolls:
2/3 cup coarsely chopped celery
2/3 cup coarsely chopped carrot
2 cups shredded cabbage
1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil
2/3 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 pound ground turkey breast
1 1/2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
14 egg roll wrappers
1 large egg white
Cooking spray

Sauce:
3/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
6 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425°.

Combine celery and carrot in food processor, and pulse 10 times or until finely chopped.

Combine celery mixture and cabbage in a medium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap; vent. Microwave at high 5 minutes; drain.

Heat vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, and garlic; sauté 2 minutes. Add turkey; cook 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in cabbage mixture, 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce, and pepper. Cover and chill 15 minutes.

Place 1 egg roll wrapper at a time onto work surface with 1 corner pointing toward you (wrapper should look like a diamond). Trim 1 inch off right and left corners of wrapper. Spoon 3 tablespoons turkey filling into center of wrapper. Fold lower corner of egg roll wrapper over filling. Fold in trimmed corners. Moisten top corner of wrapper with egg white; roll up jelly-roll fashion. Repeat procedure with remaining wrappers, turkey filling, and egg white.

Lightly coat egg rolls with cooking spray, and place, seam side down, on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 425° for 18 minutes or until golden brown.

To prepare sauce, combine 3/4 cup soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, and 1 tablespoon ginger; serve with egg rolls. Garnish with green onions.

Vegetable Bulgur Salad

I was in the mood for a light, healthy lunch and ended up making this salad. I started out with this recipe and just tweaked a few things. I adjusted the dressing (upped the lime and used less oil), nixed the shrimp, and added a bunch of colorful vegetables instead. It tasted so good and is packed full of good stuff!

Dressing:
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
3 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
salt to taste
pinch of cayenne pepper
3 teaspoons Asian sesame oil
1/8 cup canola oil

Salad:
1 cup uncooked bulgur
1/2 large red bell pepper, diced
1 English cucumber, diced
1 cup matchstick carrots
2 scallions, chopped
1 avocado, diced

Directions:
In a small bowl, whisk together dressing ingredients. Set aside.

Cook bulgur according to package instructions. In a large bowl, toss together cooked bulgur, red pepper, cucumber, carrots, and scallions. Add dressing and toss. Top with diced avocado.

Crab Cake Salad

I have been craving the crab cake salad at Desert's Edge Brewery for the last little while. But instead of going to the restaurant, I decided to make my own version of what might be my favorite salad. I have tried crab cake salads at other restaurants but none of them have beat the one from Desert's Edge. It has a lot of different flavors that work really well together and I think I might have come up with the perfect imitation :) The recipe makes about 16 small crab cakes (enough for 7 or 8 dinner sized salads). I mixed up the meat, dressing, salsa, and aioli, and chopped all the vegetables and then cooked the crab cakes last so that I could serve them warm.

Crab Cakes with Chiptole Aioli

Ingredients:
8 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
3 6-ounce cans crabmeat, drained (**make sure you drain it as much as you can, the drier the better)
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 T mayonaise
1 1/2 t dry mustard
9 ounces Ritz crackers (about 30 crackers), crushed
3/4 t cayenne pepper
1 1/2 t garlic powder
3/4 t Old Bay Seasoning
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
3/4 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs) or regular dry bread crumbs
3/4 cup mayonnaise
3 cloves minced garlic
2 1/2 T lemon juice
3/4 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1 1/2 t finely chopped chipotle in adobo sauce (you can adjust this amount depending on how spicy you want it)

Directions:
Combine crabmeat, green onions, eggs, mayo, dry mustard, crushed crackers, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, Old Bay seasoning, salt and pepper. Form into 1/2 inch thick patties (**I found that they stayed together better if I made them smaller and thicker, rather than flatter and bigger). Coat the patties with breadcrumbs.

Heat 1/2 cup oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Cook cakes until golden brown on each side. Drain briefly on paper towels and serve hot.

For the aioli, stir together the mayo, garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and chipotle pepper and chill until ready to serve.

Corn and Jicama Salsa

Ingredients:
2 cups corn kernels (about 4 ears)
1 cup finely chopped tomato
1/2 cup finely chopped peeled jicama
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 T minced fresh cilantro
1/4 t salt
1/4 t paprika
1/4 t black pepper
1 4-ounce can chopped green chiles, drained

Directions:
Stir ingredients together and chill until ready to serve

Citrus Vinaigrette

Ingredients:
4 T fresh lemon juice
1/2 c fresh lime juice
4 T frozen orange juice concentrate
4 t red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlice minced or pressed
1/2 t sugar
1 t salt
black pepper to taste
3/4 c olive oil

Directions:
Whisk together all ingredients and set aside

Crab Cake Salad

Ingredients:
mixed greens
citrus vinaigrette
chopped tomato
chopped red pepper
chopped avocado
corn and jicama salsa
crab cakes
chiptole aioli

Directions:
Toss mixed greens with citrus vinaigrette. Divide equally among plates. Top each salad with chopped tomato, red pepper, avocado, corn and jicama salsa, and 2-3 crab cakes. Put chipotle aioli in a plastic baggie and cut the tip off. Pipe aioli across crab cakes and serve.

Oreo Ice Cream

One of my favorite treats in the summer is homemade ice cream. We've made almost every summer for as long as I can remember. My dad is the designated ice cream maker in the family :) He usually makes raspberry or strawberry, but this year we decided to mix it up a little and made oreo ice cream. It was so good. Sometimes homemade ice cream can end up a little too creamy but this is a really good recipe to use as your base, and then add whatever you want to it. This recipe makes 5 quarts, but you could scale it down to make less.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups milk

2 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 t salt

2 1/2 cups half and half

1 1/2 T vanilla extract

5 cups whipping cream

25-30 oreo cookies, crumbled

additonal oreo cookies to serve, if desired

Directions:

Scald milk until bubbles form around edge. Remove from heat. Add sugar and salt. Stir until dissolved. Stir in half and half, vanilla, and whipping cream. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. Freeze according to ice cream maker instructions. After frozen, stir in oreo cookies. To serve, spoon into bowl and top with additional crumbled cookies or a whole cookie.

Fajita Burgers

We found this recipe on delish.com. One of my favorite places to get recipes. We first made them for father's day and they were so good that we made them again for the 24th. The first time, we used ground beef and the second time, we used ground turkey. I didn't notice any difference in the flavor, but the ground turkey is a lot better for you. We love spicy, mexican flavors so this was the perfect summer recipe for us. I especially love the chipotle mayonnaise. We have used it as a spread for grilled chicken sandwiches also. A little more time consuming than your regular cheeseburger, but so worth it in my opinion :)

Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground beef (or ground turkey)

3/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (divided)

1/2 cup finely chopped red onion

1/4 cup chopped scallions

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 tablespoon chopped chipotle chile in adobo

1/2 cup shredded monterey jack cheese (we used slices of pepper jack)

4 French rolls (preferably whole wheat, split and toasted)

2 roasted anaheim or poblano peppers

1 cup shredded green cabbage (we just used bagged cole slaw mix)

4 slices tomato

4 slices red onion (we omitted this because there's already plenty of onion in the meat)

sliced avocado

Directions:

Place beef, 1/4 cup cilantro, onion, scallions, garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano, pepper, and salt in a large bowl. Gently combine, without overmixing, until evenly incorporated. (We then usally let the meat sit for an hour or so for the flavors to mix.) Form meat into 4 equal patties, about 1/2 inch thick and oval-shaped to match the rolls.

To roast the peppers, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place whole peppers on a baking sheet lined with foil and cook for about 30 minutes, turning halfway through. Immediately, place peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit for 30 minutes until cool. Carefully remove the skins and remove stem, seeds, and membranes. Cut in half and set aside.

Combine the remaining 1/2 cup cilantro, mayonnaise, lime juice, and chipotle in a small bowl.

Grill the burgers for about 6 minutes per side on medium-high heat. Top with cheese and cook until it is melted, about 1 minute more.

Assemble burgers on toasted rools with the chipotle mayonnaise, half a roasted pepper, cabbage, tomato, onion, and avocado. (We served them with watermelon wedges, chips, and a pickle wedge)

Stuffed French Toast

This is a recipe that Tyler saw on a TV show and was dying to make. He made it for brunch for all of us last sunday. It was SO good! I usually am not a big fan of breakfast food but I loved this. Tyler did a really good job making it and all the different flavors worked so well together. He doubled the recipe to make 8 servings but it ended up making a lot of the egg mixture. Also, we didn't use thick bread like the recipe calls for, so we ended up needing less of the egg mixture. So if you double the recipe, you probably don't need to double the egg mixture unless you use really thick bread slices.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups milk

2 eggs, beaten

1/8 t ground nutmeg

1/4 t ground cinnamon

1/2 t vanilla extract

3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

8 (2-inch thick) slices of bread (**we just used regular, thin white bread)

2 bananas, very thinly sliced

1 cup strawberries, very thinly sliced

4 T butter

1/4 cups powdered sugar

maple syrup

Directions:

Combine milk, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla in a shallow bowl. Set aside.

For assembly, spread a thin layer of the cream cheese onto 1 side ofthe bread slices. Top half the slices with the fruit. Place another piece of bread on top, cream cheese side down, creating a sandwich.

Preheat a griddle to 350 degrees. Lightly brush with the butter.

Give the milk mixture a quick stir, and dip the sandwiches into the batter, coating all sides.

Place on the griddle. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes per side, then turn on the edges and cook to brown evenly.

To serve, slice sandwiches in half on the diagonal and transfer to a serving platter. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with maple syrup.

Honey Glazed Salmon

Ever since we made this recipe from this book, it has been our favorite way to make salmon. The original recipe called for pure maple syrup but since pure maple syrup is so expensive, we substituted honey and it was delicious. We love eating fish so its always to nice to find a new way to cook it. Its a really quick and easy recipe. We usually serve it with some steamed broccoli and some wild rice.

Ingredients:
4 salmon fillets
1 cup soy sauce
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 cup pure maple syrup (we used honey)

Directions:
Marinate salmon for 1-24 hours
Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Bake for 18 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.