BBQ Chicken, Veggies, and Apple Crisp!

Tonight, Whit, Kyle, Cameron, and I all cooked out at our house! Cameron and I went to Central Market and found this delicious sweet barbecue sauce... and the rest followed!

Menu:
BBQ Chicken
Grilled Veggies
Whit's Potato Casserole
Apple Crisp for dessert

For the BBQ chicken all you need is a good barbecue sauce and chicken. Marinate the chicken in the BBQ sauce (season with salt and pepper, or a grilling seasoning) for about 2-4 hours (and as long as overnight). Then grill! Have more BBQ sauce on hand for serving!

I love grilled veggies! Tonight we grilled red pepper, jalapenos, squash, and red onions. All you need is a little evoo and salt and pepper. Make sure you try to cut the veggies to the same thickness so they cook the same!

Whit's potato casserole I'll need to cook again for the recipe. Its delicious and super easy though, stay posted!

Apple Crisp

Ingredients:

• 5 apples (about 5 cups), peels, cored, and sliced
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 11/2 tsp all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/8 cup water
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

After you peel, core, and slice the apples (use Granny or another cooking apple), layer them in a baking pan, add the sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and water. Mix well and evenly.

For the topping, combine the oats, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and butter, mix together and sprinkle evenly on top of the apple mixture, back for 45 minutes.

Serve with ice cream!

Butternut Squash and Apple-Almond Salad

Since I don't have a job this summer, I have become a personal chef for my family. And since I've been home, I am going to focus,  a majority, of my meals on being healthy.

Tonight's meal is vegetarian as well as extremely healthy for you.

For the salad, I used the same herb dressing I made on May 19th in the "Spaghetti and meatball" post.

Apple-Almond Salad

Toss the salad dressing with romaine lettuce, toasted almonds, crumbled blue cheese, and sliced Granny Smith apples.

Butternut Squash Soup with Onions and Apples

Soup Base:

• 1 rib of celery, chopped ("rib" is one piece/stick, and "stalk" for the entire thing/bunch)
• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 4 cups butternut squash, peeled and seeded
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
• 1 quart vegetable stock or water, more may be needed
• salt and pepper to taste

 Garnish:

• 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 onion, large dice
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and cored
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 2 tablespoons non-fat yogurt (or Greek yogurt)
• 6 sprigs fresh dill, washed

In a soup pot, sauté the onion, celery and carrot in the oil over medium heat until the onion is golden, about 5 to 6 minutes. Add the squash and garlic cooking 5 minutes, stirring. Add the oregano and stock and simmer about 15 minutes or until the veggies are soft.

The easiest way to cut squash is to peel the skin off with a vegetable peeler. Then cut the squash in half. The bottom half is filled with seeds. Cut the two halves again and scoop out the seeds and discard (the seeds are similar to pumpkin seed and can be toasted). The chop into pieces.

While the soup base is cooking, sauté at medium-high heat 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil and diced onions. Cut the apple into a large dice and when the onions are golden, add to the pan, sautéing 2 to 3 minutes. Add the curry powder and cook 1 minute. Remove from the heat, add the dill and set aside.

Place all of the soup base -- cooked veggies (except the curried onions and apple mix) and liquid -- from your pot in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth and silky. More chicken stock may be needed to adjust consistency to your liking. You may also use an immersion blender so that no transfer between pots is necessary. Be patient with the immersion blender, it takes a bit longer to blend together. (I used my new immersion blender that Josh gave me for graduation!)

Return the pureed soup base to the soup pot and add the curried onion and apple. Simmer for 2 minutes. Season to taste and adjust consistency. Serve hot or, on warm days, chilled. Garnish with a dollop of yogurt and a sprig of fresh dill, chives, or herbs of your choice.

This meal was extremely filling and healthy. The soup is only 95 calories! Serves 6!