Grilled Artichokes

You know that smell right when the rain starts after there hasn't been rain in a while? That really good smell of mother earths sigh of contentment? I love that smell. It makes me want to close my eyes and take a pause to breath in the sent of the coming rain.

That smell always reminds me of artichokes. My mom used to make us artichokes while I was growing up. I love them. I prefer them fresh instead of marinated. I also like them whole and I like to scrape the meat off the leaves. Delicious.

After growing up I have made them a few times and I have gone to a couple restaurants where they were served as an appetizer. I always get them at the Cheesecake Factory with my friend Ernest, and at the Cattle Co. in HI with my good friend Gwen. Both restaurants grill their artichokes. Very good.

Since I have been on a healthy BBQ kick I thought maybe I could grill my artichokes that I got at my  favorite grocery store, Sprouts. I got them for $2 each, which I think is a tiny bit high but they were huge! I cut them in half and they were the weight of over one serving. So I went for it!

I have been tracking all my calories on My Fitness Pal for over a month now and I started to notice that I was not getting enough potassium and iron. So I asked my friends on my app and Ali wrote back and gave me a huge list of foods that were not bananas and red meat. Which was what I wanted. I don't really like bananas and even though I absolutely LOVE red meat it is just so high in calories. Artichokes were on her list so I decided to make some. One serving or a little under 1/2 of one of these that I am making has about 950 mg of potassium and 18% of my daily requirement of iron. I was stoked! 

Before cooking them you got to trim them. I use my cutco scissors. My mom used her cutco scissors when I was growing up too. Anyways, I use them to trim the ends of the artichoke leaves. They have little stickers at the end of each leaf. So you want to cut them off. There have been times when I would prick my arm while at the store or while unpacking them at home and it is not pleasant. I can't imagine pricking my tounge with one. Ouch!

Then cut off the end of the stem. I normally enjoy eating the stem but some don't like it. After cutting off most of the pricks, the tip of the artichoke is harder to trim with the scissors so I cut it off with a knife.

While trimming the artichokes have a big stock pot on the stove full of water on to boil. After the trimming is finished then put the artichokes in the boiling water. With these artichokes I didn't have enough water in the pot so it was a little hard on the stems so make sure that they are covered in water while boiling.

Because I am planning on grilling these I didn't cook it all the way. About 15 minutes in the water. I took them out and cut them in half.

Then cleaned out the middle called the choke. The choke is not eddible. Do not try. It will be a horrible experience in your mouth. If I was just going to eat this after boiling or steaming then I would eat the leaves then scrape out the choke. Since I am BBQing them I took them out before heading out to the grill.

I decided to make the same dressing that I use for my roasted cauliflower reciped. I use olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Then add the artichoked to get coated in the dressing.

Head out to the BBQ and put it on the grill. First put it with the cut side up and grill for about 8 minutes. Then flip and cook for another 4 minutes.

Take off the grill and enjoy.

The way you eat them is by taking a leaf off the globe and scraping the meat off the inside.

Most of the leaf will be left to be discarded. Normally my mom would have a big bowl in the middle of the table and the whole family would throw the scraped leaves in there.

Oh man, do I love these! They are fun to eat and because you have to take each leave off it makes you slow dow a little in eating them. I tend to eat too fast and overeat so anything to help me slow down. 

Perfect Iced Coffee; Cold Brewed!

I have never been a fan of coffee but after searching online for the best iced coffee recipe for Aleks and learning about cold brewed coffee, I kinda like it now.

He had asked me to find the best iced coffee so I googled the best iced coffee recipe and I read a handful of blogs and they all agreed that cold brewed coffee, was better than brewing a pot and pouring it over ice.

After making this coffee I decided to try it and it was delicious. That first day I tried it I ended up drinking three cups and I don't normally drink coffee. So I got a bit jittery. When I say a bit I really mean WAY jittery. So let this be my warning to you this recipe is to make a concentrated coffee.

After we finished off the ground coffee from Costco I went to my new favorite grocery store Sprouts Farmers Market! They have a bulk section with a coffee bean section with many different coffee flavors. What I like about this is that I can buy what I need and use it and my beans are always fresh. But this will work with already ground coffee of any type caffeinated or not.

From what I have read it's best to have coarse ground coffee. So at Sprouts I choose my whole coffee beans then I put it in the coffee grinder right there in the store. They have many options from coarse to espresso. I buy one bags worth and it makes 4 cups of grounds and with that I can make two batches.

Here is what you do. Take two cups of the ground coffee and put it in a two quart pitcher and fill up the pitcher with water. That's eight cups. Then stir it and make sure all the grounds are fully wet. Sometimes they like to float or get themselves in little air bubbles. So make sure they are all mixed up and let soak for 8 hours or over night. When I pass by I like to stir it because the grounds like to either sink to the bottom or rise to the top. I also think that stirring it might help the flavor a bit. But I could be wrong on that one.

In the morning take a mesh strainer and filter out the grounds. I go back and forth a few times times to strain it out. You can drink it like this but it ends up leaving little granules on the ice so after I strain out the grounds a couple times I use a coffee filter to get the last little bit filtered out.

At this point you can make yourself a cup or you can put it in the fridge to chill before serving.

Now for me one cup is enough because I hardly ever have caffeine. If you are counting calories like I am then you gotta measure. If you are not then you can do it by eye like Aleks. So I take a 12 oz glass and fill it up with ice. Then measure out a half a cup of the coffee and pour it in then measure out 1/2 cup of 1% milk and add that to your coffee. I use agave nectar which does have calories. About 30 to be exact but I would rather have the calories than use sugar less or artificial sweeteners because our bodies don't recognize it to burn it and then it turns to fat. Anyways, I use 1/2 a Tbl of the Agave nectar. Stir all up and and enjoy. This cup is a total of 85 calories. I think this is an awesome amount of calories.

If you want to you can throw this cup of iced coffee in the blender and make your own frap.

BBQing Guilt Free!

It is officially the BBQ season! I don't know many people, if any, who don't like a good BBQ with family and friends. The only problem I see with BBQs is that it can get pretty high in calories. I started a biggest loser competition about a month ago. The first week I lost 10 lbs and that put me in the lead. Then since then I have held on the the second place spot on the leader boards. So I have been trying to eat healthy and exercise everyday.

Normal BBQs have hamburger, steak, sausage, tons of snacks like chips and even salads that are all high in calories like potato salads and the like. So I have been thinking of what I could do to still enjoy the time around the grill with friends and family but still eat healthy and not go over my calorie allotment.

This is what I have come up with. Corn on the cob! Most BBQs have corn on the cob already but normally we slather on the butter. But I like to eat my corn on the cob pure. Nothing added. Now, I do think they are kinda high in calories all on their own, about 120 in one cob but I think this is a good snack or addition to the menu.

Here are a couple other veggie options for the grill. Kabocha. KABOCHA!!! I love kabocha. It is a Japanese pumpkin and the outer skin is green. I like to slice it up in little steaks and put them in a gallon Ziploc bag and put a tsp of oil and some salt and pepper and mix it all up. When you get to the grill you can just throw these on on the outside and let them cook. They get a little chard sometimes but its ok as long as it is cooked all the way through. Very tasty and not too bad in calories, around 50. You can have a few if you want. When I grill my kabocha I eat the skin as well as the meat. When I put my kabocha in Thai curry, I cut off the skin.

The other veggie idea I have for the grill is zucchini. Now you can cut them in slices length wise and put it on the grill like that but there have been times in the process of flipping or putting on or taking off the grill that they fall through the cracks. So what I like to do is cut in half length wise, then in half the other way and make little slivers and put them in a sheet of foil with a tsp of oil and salt and pepper. I also put quartered mushrooms but you can put whatever you want. Onions, yellow squash, tomatoes, eggplant you name it! Then just close up the foil and put it on the grill with the corn and kabocha.

Now meat. This is something that I, an omnivore, have a really hard time with. I love beef and pork but since I have been counting my calories I have noticed they are so much higher in calories than say chicken or fish. But never fear, they can still taste good at the grill. What I used was tilapia. One serving of 3-4oz is just over 100 calories. You can have twice as much fish for the same amount as one serving of beef or pork. So what I did was before heading out to the grill I rinsed the fish and dried it in a paper towel. Then packed it that way.

I also made a little rub to put on before I put it on the BBQ. I put salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, and garlic powder. Then I put that in a separate Ziploc bag and headed on out. At the grill I cut a lime and squeezed in over the dried fish then dipped that in the rub. Then on to the grill.

It doesn't take too long to cook so I would wait till everything is about ready to eat. I am making the fish into tacos or you can just eat it as it is. So when I put the meat on the grill I also put on my tortillas to heat up.

When the meat is done build your tacos, all I put on mine were a squeeze of lime, some sliced up cabbage and some avocado. So very yummy and low in calories. If you eat a corn on the cob, two kabocha slices, zucchini and two tacos the total calorie intake it a whopping 438 calories! That is awesome if you ask me. I have watched Hell's Kitchen and when they have a challenge to make a healthy low calorie dinner the goal is 750 calories! My meal is a little over half of that! That leaves room for watermelon or even seconds! Who doesn't like seconds?