A little bit Cuban with black beans and a little bit Mexican with mild poblano chiles, and a whole lot of flavor resides in my latest Latin-style Deal of the Day.
Click on any photo to see larger.
I am always thrilled to see the evol. brand of frozen fare in the deli case of my local 99c only Store. Fire Grilled Chicken Poblano by evol. is a hearty and delicious brown rice bowl that is loaded with veggies and topped with white meat chicken and a dollop of cheddar cheese.
Frozen and Defrosted
There is almost too much flavor, but I'm not complaining. The veggie medley contains corn, red and green bell peppers, green poblano chiles, onion, tomato, and cilantro. All cooked just right.
The corn kernels are crunchy and the peppers are soft but not mushy, as is often the case with frozen then defrosted veggies.
The poblano chiles pieces are large enough and what little heat they carry is mild, only becoming apparent by the time you almost get to the bottom of the bowl.
The white meat chicken pieces are plentiful enough. I got one large nugget and about 3 to 5 smaller ones. With grill marks, the chicken meat was not dried out, as is often the case with white meat. This is real chicken, not a processed loaf, thank god.
And melted on top is a small amount of cheddar cheese. I would have liked a bit more cheese, but this is mostly a chicken/veggie/rice bowl. The cheddar is mild, and when mixed with other ingredients, practically disappears into the background. But that's okay.
Finally, you get your fill once forkfuls of brown rice are factored in. The brown rice is tender and done perfectly - not mushy or too toothsome. And a light amount of tomato sauce binds it all together.
evol. prides itself on hormone-free meats and natural veggie ingredients, so you know what you're getting.
Even the microwave bowls are partially made from recycled plastic. Although we are talking plastic here - maybe evol. will evolve to biodegradable paper bowls one day.
The ingredient list is short and this bowl is a lean meal. Although only 9 ounces, the ingredient mix leaves you quite satisfied, for an extra light lunch or dinner.
My latest Deal of the Day is a feel-good and feel-full meal. So how does evol.'s Fire Grilled Chicken Poblano bowl rate on my Cheap$kate Dining Scale of 1 to 9, 9 being best?
Oh, I think you can guess by now...this meal rates a perfect 9 ! If you run across this Deal of the Day anytime get a few for your freezer - at almost any price.
The melange of flavors in this Fire Grilled Chicken Poblano bowl are the bomb!
Fresh fruit and yogurt go well togetherin my latest recipe video, Cherries and Yogurt.
Pre-mixed yogurt with fruit is too sweet for me. It is easy enough to slice and pit cherries to mix into yogurt. I use about 3 to 4 cherries per small yogurt container. The fruit and yogurt mix will keep a few days in the refrigerator -- if you can resist finishing it off in one sitting!
This isn't so much an original recipe as a recipe reminder of how easy and nutritious it is to add fresh fruit to yogurt.
Cherries are notoriously expensive, but for a month or so they come down in price, and I always get a few large bags during the summer season. At first appearance, they are around $2 per pound but wait a week or two and the price quickly drops.
Click on any photo to see larger.
I like to add them to yogurt or as a mealtime dessert -- I'll also nibble from small bowls throughout the day. They are especially good in yogurt, like almost any seasonal fruit would be. And if cherries are too expensive or hard to get, you can substitute with your own local fruit stand favorites, or even can/jar cherries.
Fresh cherries are a little messy to work with though, so you want to rinse off any surfaces that the cherry juice pools on, and especially clothing or kitchen towels.
It's easiest to slice around the cherry pit and twist cherry halves apart, then dig out the cherry pit. Once you get going it only takes a few minutes to get a cup full. You can go online to get a special device that pits them as well.
Anytime I find fruit on sale at my local 99c only Store, I immediately think of a light breakfast. My most common homemade yogurt with fruit including strawberries, pineapple, sliced mango, blackberries or blueberries.
As for yogurt I just use plain. Vanilla and other flavors are usually too strong and often have added sugar. But, if you like a certain type on sale then use it.
Sometimes an unusual brand will show up on sale like this creamy French-style yogurt called "oui" made by Yoplait. It was so good I got half a dozen jars. They also had a lemon-flavored that held up well with the addition of sliced cherries.
"Oui"is advertised as "French Style," whatever that means. But it is milder tasting - less sour than typical yogurt, with a slight almond flavor.
As with any new find at a 99c only Store, I will try it in the car parking lot, and if it's good then I will go back and get a whole bunch more. I've learned you gotta be impulsive there or it may be gone an hour later -- snooze you lose!
So do check out my latest stop-motion animated video. There's really nothing to this recipe and anyone can make it. Sometimes less is more, for a perfectly delicious recipe.
Cherries & Yogurt - Video
Play it here. video runs 56 seconds.
My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.
It's cherry season in California and now is the time to get them cheap. They come on sale at my local 99c Only Store and Latin market for, you guessed it, 99 cents per pound. So watch my video below to get a breakfast recipe I think you will enjoy: Cherry Pancakes.
Cherry Pancakes - Video
Play it here. video runs 1 minute 46 seconds.
My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.
Cherries are notoriously expensive, but for a month or so they come down in price, and I always get a few large bags during the summer season. At first appearance, they are around $2 per pound, but wait a week or two and the price quickly drops.
I like to add them to yogurt or as a mealtime dessert -- I'll also nibble from small bowls throughout the day. They are especially good in pancakes like almost any seasonal fruit would be. And if cherries are too expensive or hard to get, you can substitute with your own local fruit stand favorites, or even can/jar cherries.
They are a little messy to work with though, so you want to rinse off any surfaces that the cherry juice pools on, and especially clothing or kitchen towels.
It's much easier to just pop one in your mouth and chew around the cherry pit. But for pancakes, it's best to slice around the cherry pit and twist cherry halves apart, then dig out the cherry pit. Once you get going it only takes a few minutes to get a cup full for my Cherry Pancake recipe.
A chopstick or plastic straw can push out a cherry pit, too. You can go online to get a special device that pits them as well.
For the pancake batter, I use a commercial brand. If you have a homemade recipe then use it. I can get a large box of dry pancake batter at my local 99c only Store. The regular grocery store sells it cheap enough, too.
Start your day right, with my fruity cheap$kate breakfast of Cherry Pancakes.
Ingredients (2 servings, using a pancake mix)
1 cup Pancake Mix - use any favorite.
3/4 cup Water - okay to use milk for a richer pancake batter.
Handful of Cherries - sliced or chopped. Use any cherry amount that suits your taste. Okay to substitute with any fresh seasonal fruit like blueberry, peach, apricot, strawberry, and even sliced banana or canned fruit.
1 tablespoon of Cooking Oil - to grease skillet. I like coconut oil. Add more when needed, depending on how many pancakes you make.
Butter and your favorite Pancake Syrup - add as much as you like. I sometimes substitute coconut oil for butter.
Okay to use vegan pancake batter.
Directions
Prepare pancake batter according to package directions. My pancake mix calls for 1 cup of flour and 3/4 cup of water.
Mix pancake ingredients in a bowl. When mixed it will be like thick country gravy.
Start to heat the pan over a medium/low heat.
Rinse off cherries. Removing the cherry pit is messy, with red juice that will stain clothing or a wood cutting board, so don't wait too long to rinse off any juice that gets onto surfaces or clothing.
I like to slice cherries this way: Cut through to the center of a cherry and rotate while slicing all the way around and twist the cherry apart. One-half of the cherry will have the cherry pit. Slice around the pit to remove.
You can let the cherry pieces be on the large size.
I like to place fruit down on the pan first so it is in direct contact with the skillet for a little caramelization. You want to pour batter on the sliced cherries so it sticks to the pancake when you flip it.
Okay to mix sliced cherries into pancake batter.
Add oil to the pancake pan and pour on the pancake batter. Brown each side of the pancake. Mine took about 2-3 minutes for each side. It really depends on how hot your pan gets. The box directions above mention the cooking time to brown each side as 1.5 minutes each....hmmmm, they must be using a super hot pan!
If you want a dark brown pancake presentation, then just cook one side to get the right amount of brown, then cook the other side for a minute, to finish cooking through the raw batter. Serve browned side up, on the plate.
Serve hot with melted butter or coconut oil, and your favorite pancake syrup.
I owe it all to Mom, at least where I get my cooking chops (and any good sense I have.) Just check out our cooking videos below to see what I mean.
She grew up in Texas on the Gulf Coast, in a small shrimping and fishing town called Port O'Connor. There, I learned to love seafood.
Her father was a shrimp boat captain, so we had all the fresh-caught seafood Big Daddy would skim off the top of the catch. Shrimp season was short, but crab and oyster season soon followed. And you could always cast a line into the warm Gulf waters for bountiful fishing.
Big Daddy & Big Mama
The following recipe comes from her parent's kitchen, Shrimp and Rice. It uses locally caught shrimp, cheap canned tomato paste, and rice. We always had creamy pinto beans, and flour tortillas to scoop up all the deliciousness. Our family seldom had steak as it was too expensive, but we had all the Gulf seafood we could eat. Looking back I didn't realize how good we had it !
Mom's Shrimp & Rice - VIDEO
Mom had movie-star looks (like a young Elizabeth Taylor) and smarts, and a scholarship to college if she wanted it, but had no encouragement from her parents.
So after high school graduation, she was soon married and I arrived on the scene, followed by my brother and sister.
Billy, Berry, and Brenda
My Dad was in the military so we moved around. Mom and us kids eventually settled back in Port O'Connor, after a divorce. Dad was quite a character and the life of the party, but he was also a little too profligate in the alcohol consumption department.
Billy Doyle Robinson
Mom went back to work as a waitress, so I learned how to literally pinch pennies when she poured handfuls of customer tips on the kitchen table for us kids to separate and count.
Mom got back on her feet and found love again with this shuffleboard-playing fellow below, Ken.
We moved to neighboring Louisiana the year I enrolled in Junior High School. There she picked up a whole other way of cooking, Cajun-style.
My high school daze was spent in Gonzales, Louisiana, the self-professed Jambalaya Capital of the World. So you know this town is serious about chow. Click here to see a culinary video tour of some local Cajun cuisine at the weekend Flea Market, including Crawfish Pie, Boudin Balls, and, of course, Jambalaya.
And here's our first video we made together in my Los Angeles kitchen - and my late wife, Amy, even makes an appearance at the very end of the video. You'll get a kick out of Mom rockin' the cast-iron kettle. I make her CajunJambalaya more than any other recipe - it's simply delicious.
Jambalaya - Recipe Video
Here is a link to her Jambalaya recipe with text and yummy photos.
Mom was always popular with my high school buddies, especially during lunch or dinner time. She brought herTex-Mex Enchiladas to Cajun Country, and my Louisiana friend Marvin ate them up!
Me, Marvin & Dennis
During a recent Louisiana visit, I had him over when I filmed Mom makingTex-Mex Enchilidas. Marvin liked the Enchiladas so much, he had a flashback to our high school daze.
Make sure to watch my wacky recipe video to the end, that's when our flashback hijinx really gets smoking (wink, nudge.)
It's a traditional Southern dish and it's cheap, too. Just chicken, sausage, and the Cajun veggie trinity of bell pepper, celery, and onion. What gives Gumbo its unique taste is a dark brown roux, which is flour cooked in oil until chocolate brown.
Just check out the video below - Mom will take you through the steps. And, as an added bonus, my oldest sister Brenda makes a nagging appearance a few minutes in.
Gumbo - Recipe Video
Click here to read all about making Mom's homemade Gumbo, from roux to rice!
My Mom'sCajun Potato Saladis the perfect side to her Gumbo and Jambalaya. When she visited me in Los Angeles I got her to do it on camera. I couldn't help but give her a hard time with the recipe. I called it Cajun Mashed Potatoes and she called itCajun Potato Salad - well, I guess you'll have to watch the video below to see who wins that argument!
Mom's Cajun Potato Salad - Recipe Video
I satiate my sweet tooth during visits with Mom. And the best of her pastry delights areMini-Pecan Pies. If I couldn't make it for the Christmas holiday, then she would send a shoe-boxed size package with a dozen of these tasty pies.
Mom attracts a kitchen full of hungry relatives when these pies come hot out of the oven. And it's a miracle they were done right because this Chef de Shutterbug was shoving a camera in her face (and a hot oven) during the whole procedure. We butted heads a few times, but fortunately, it all turned out fine.
I even came up with a way to dodge the high prices for pecans - so check out the video below to learn my budget secrets.
Mom has lived half her life in Gonzales, Louisiana. One of my visits there fell on Christmas, and she pulled out all the stops with a huge holiday spread, that included Pumpkin Pie. I got her on video making it, and it turned out perfect, as you will see below.
The recipe is a traditional one made with simple ingredients. The pumpkin came from a can, but the crust was handmade with wheat flour.
Now, Mom is no angel -- hey, who is? Recently my brother from another daddy, the Swamp Chef, with his Spanish moss and all.
When I asked Mom: "Who's the Swamp Chef's daddy?" Her reply was: "That's a very good question!" I guess Mom will spill the beans one day, until then, check out the video below for a dessert good enough to cajole the Swamp Chefout of the bayou!
Cherry Pie - Recipe Video
Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely ladies, and especially to my Mom - I love you!
