Panko-Crusted Chicken Drumsticks and Roasted Potato Salad

Goodness gracious. This may be one of the best recipes I've made all summer. Or, all year. Either way, it blew our minds. SO GOOD.

Eating light doesn't have to mean eating boring foods. Cooking Light is my favorite resource, and the September issue is packed with recipes I could not wait to try. Last week, I tried 3 and I bookmarked at least 20 more to make soon. But, I'd be surprised if we topped this. 

These chicken drummies are so tender and full of flavor. I am anti deep-frying at home, so this oven-fried version is perfect.  I followed the recipe to a T and wouldn't change a darn thing. In fact, it's such an easy recipe that CL magazine had this in their kid's column! 

I also served it with another Cooking Light recipe for roasted potato salad. It's German-style with a mustard dressing, which is fab. I haven't been crazy about any of the homemade potato salad recipes I've tried, so this solves that problem once and for all. 

I really hope you'll try both of these recipes! This will be our new favorite not-so-guilty pleasure.

Panko-Crusted Chicken Drumsticks
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Ingredients:

• 8 chicken drumsticks, skinned
• 1/2 cup whole buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons grated onion 
• 1 tablespoon grated garlic
• Cooking spray
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
• 1 ounce Parmesan cheese, grated (about 1/4 cup)
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
• 2 tablespoons canola mayonnaise 
• 2 tablespoons plain fat-free Greek yogurt 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons honey
• 1 1/2 teaspoons yellow mustard 
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1. Using a paring knife, cut 3 slits in the meatiest portion of each drumstick. Place buttermilk, onion, garlic, and drumsticks in a large zip-top plastic bag; refrigerate 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 425°.
3. Place a rack on a jelly-roll pan; coat the rack with cooking spray. Remove the drumsticks from the bag; discard the marinade. Sprinkle the drumsticks with pepper and salt. Combine panko, cheese, and chives in a shallow dish. Dredge each drumstick in panko mixture. Arrange drumsticks in a single layer on the rack; coat drumsticks lightly with cooking spray. Bake drumsticks at 425° for 30 minutes or until chicken is done.
4. Combine mayonnaise and remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Serve sauce with chicken.

Next time, I don't think I'll make the mustard dipping sauce. It was delish, but the chicken doesn't need it, in my opinion.

source: cooking light

Roasted Potato Salad
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Ingredients:

• 3 pounds small red potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 bacon slices (uncooked), chopped 
• 2 cups diced Vidalia or other sweet onion (about 2 medium)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons reduced-fat mayonnaise 
• 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl; toss to coat. Arrange potatoes in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan. Bake at 400° for 40 minutes or until potatoes are tender, stirring once. Transfer potatoes to a large bowl.
3. Cook bacon in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, reserving 1 tablespoon drippings in pan; set bacon aside. Add onion to drippings in pan; cook 15 minutes or until golden brown and caramelized, stirring frequently. Add garlic to pan; cook 30 seconds. Add onion mixture and bacon to potatoes; toss gently. Let stand 15 minutes.
4. Combine mustard, mayonnaise, honey, and vinegar in a small bowl; stir with a whisk. Add mustard mixture and parsley to potato mixture; toss gently.

 
source: cooking light 

Enjoy!!

Skinny Egg White Breakfast Melts

Breakfast. It's definitely not my strength during the week! I tend to grab a yogurt on my way out the door and eat it when I get to work. I'm so obsessed with Chobani Flip Coconut with Dark Chocolate and Almonds. Every time I'm at the grocery store, I literally swipe all of the containers they have into my cart. I apologize to anyone that shops after me!

But, it is the most important meal of the day, and I love it when I start off with a little more substance. This recipe from Skinny Taste is so delish! It's easy and full of flavor, considering the short ingredient list. Each melt is only 160 calories! That's less than my yogurt.... score!

Skinny Egg White Breakfast Melts
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Ingredients:

• 2 whole grain English muffins, split
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 8 egg whites, whisked
• 4 green onions, finely chopped
• kosher salt, to taste
• black pepper, to taste
• 2 oz (about 1/2 cup) reduced-fat Mexican cheese blend, grated
• 1/2 cup grape or cherry heirloom tomatoes, quartered

Preheat the broiler on high. Place muffins, cut side up, on a baking sheet and broil for 2 minutes or until beginning to lightly brown on edges. (Or you can do this in your toaster oven)
Heat a medium skillet on medium heat. Add oil and sauté 3 of the scallions about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg whites, season with salt and pepper and cook, mixing with a wooden spoon until cooked through. Divide on toasted muffins and top with tomatoes, cheese and remaining scallions. Broil for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until cheese has melted, careful not to burn. 

Enjoy!

Macadamia Crusted Tilapia with Strawberry Mango Pineapple Salsa and Coconut Jasmine Rice

Is that not the longest title for a recipe ever? To make it any shorter would have meant leaving out one of the big flavors of this dish. And there are a lot. It's like a tropical explosion, and you'll wish you were eating this somewhere close to crashing waves. That's where my mind drifted as I ate this at the coffee table, watching yet another episode of Burn Notice....a show that we've stuck with to the bitter end, but I'm not sure why. I'm getting tired of Michael Westen. He's starting to remind me of Horatio Caine circa a CSI Miami episode from 2007 (remember those great one-liners and how dramatic he was with his sunglasses?). But, we're sticking to our TV show series commitment - I guess so we'll have closure when it ends? These are real problems, as you can see.

On the flip side, I will not grow tired of this recipe any time soon. It was FAB. Keith loved it and devoured the leftovers the next day. It was also pretty easy to pull together and was really refreshing after a good workout. The salsa ingredients could be switched up based on what you have. You can't go wrong!

Macadamia Crusted Tilapia with Strawberry Mango Pineapple Salsa and Coconut Jasmine Rice
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Ingredients:
4 tilapia filets (about 6 ounces each)
1 cup macadamia nuts
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1 can light coconut milk
1 lime, juiced
salt
1 cup jasmine rice

Salsa:
1 mango, diced
1/2 pineapple, diced
8-10 strawberries, diced
1/4 cup red onion, diced
2 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced (optional - I used a little green onion instead as Keith doesn't like spice)

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium saucepan, combine 1/2 cup coconut milk, 1 and 1/2 cups water (coconut water, if you have it), 1 cup jasmine rice and 1/2 tsp salt. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15-16 minutes until the liquid is mostly evaporated. remove from the heat and let stand for 10 minutes before fluffing with a fork and serving.

Once the rice is going, cover a large jelly-roll pan with foil. Add an oven-safe cooling rack to the inside of the pan and spray with a little cooking spray (this is optional, but I've found it's the best way to cook things that are coated). Combine the nuts and panko in a food processor and pulse a few times. Pour the mixture into a shallow dish.

Pour the remaining half of the coconut milk into another shallow dish. Dip each tilapia filet into the coconut milk and then dredge in the nut mixture.  Place on the baking sheet. Sprinkle the filets with a little salt and drizzle each with some of the fresh lime juice. Spray with more cooking spray and place in the oven. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a light golden brown.

While the rice and fish are cooking, make the salsa by combining all ingredients.
Serve fish over rice and top with salsa.

Recipe adapted from eat-drink-love.

Blackberry Basil Peach Crisp

This has been the dessert of our summer. Granted, I've been cutting back on the sweets (among many things) in an attempt to get in shape. But, sometimes, I have to make something sweet for Keith. And I have to try it, obviously. 

And, y'all, this is gooooooooooooood.

This tasty crisp is easy to make and could be switched up based on whatever fruit you have handy. I've used blackberries and blueberries with the peaches and both are great. And, the addition of fresh basil? Stoppppp with the crazy goodness. I freak out every time I splurge with a spoonful of this stuff. Obsessed!

Recipe adapted from How Sweet Eats.

Blackberry Basil Peach Crisp

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Ingredients:

4 ripe peaches, peeled and cubed
1 to 1/2 cups of fresh blackberries
8 fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup loosely packed brown sugar

1/4 all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

6 Tbsp softened butter

Ice cream for serving

Additional chopped basil (optional)

Preheat oven to 375.

In a 9x9 (or similar) baking dish, mix peaches, blackberries and basil with sugar, flour and salt. Toss well and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together oats, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt. Use your fingers to crumble in the softened butter. Note, the butter needs to be soft (but not melted) or this won't work. Sprinkle the crisp over the fruit. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until fruit is bubbly and crisp is golden brown.

Serve with vanilla bean ice cream (my personal favorite) and top with more fresh basil.

ENJOY! Your summer will thank you.

Napa Valley Vacation: Planning Tips

Hi there! Thanks for the great comments on my Napa vacation posts. I'm glad these are inspiring people to put wine country on their travel lists! As a summary to my experience planning for our vacation, I wanted to share a few tips that I learned along the way.

Check out my post about Day 1 and Day 2 for lots of detailed info on where we went.

TIME OF YEAR

We visited the Valley the first week of June. The weather was perfectly sunny and slightly warm, but we were never uncomfortably hot. In the mornings and evenings, there was a bit of a chill, so we were glad we had light sweaters or scarves. 

Visiting during the week is the way to go. We didn't see any crowds or experience any traffic problems. From what we heard, weekends and holidays are a totally different story. After being spoiled to private experiences at vineyards, I don't think I'd want it any other way.

HOW LONG

We spent two full days tasting wines. We packed our schedule with 4-6 tasting stops per day, so by the time 2 days had passed, we were okay with the wine part of our trip being over. I would have liked to have had another day to explore the valley without a schedule. There are tons of great shops and restaurants that we didn't get to check out, so an extra day for strolling leisurely and making a couple of vineyard stops would have been nice.

WHERE TO STAY

I mentioned in my first post that we stayed at the Embassy Suites Napa Valley. We were really happy with our selection and I would highly recommend the hotel to anyone! It's located close enough to Downtown Napa that you can stroll to dinner, and it's right off the main highway for easy access to the vineyards.

CLOTHES

Wine country is relaxed and casual. Comfortable shoes are a must. I saw a girl with towering heels at our first stop, Hendry, and she changed into flops within 30 minutes. For the guys, linen pants or shorts and button down shirts are comfortable for the day time and nice enough to transition to dinner. Ashley and I wore dresses both days, and I was glad I had long dresses for that early morning and late night chill.

DRIVERS

We rented a car for our drive from San Fran to Napa and we drove ourselves for the first day of tasting. As I mentioned in my Day 2 post, we used Paul Bailey with Napa Valley Wine Excursions and we were very happy. I was given several names for recommended drives for someone to drive your car, so I wanted to pass these along. They came from friends of mine, so I trust the recs :)

Steve Gardner: winecountrydrivers.com 

Sharon Garrow: valet_driver@yahoo.com 

Gerry Brenner: GBrenner@kmalimo.com

VINEYARDS

This is where the list gets long! I spent so much time researching vineyards. I had to come to the realization early on that there were TONS of great places and I would just have to come back to see everything on my wish list. I gathered info from friends that had been, other blogs, and read gobs of Yelp reviews.  In short, here's what I know to be true:

If you like a more personal experience, avoid just about anything off the main highway. Chances are, the name brands you recognize are the big tourist traps, and your favorite vineyards will likely be producing wines you've never heard of (because they aren't available to everyone).

Visit a variety of places. We saw a mix of large and small productions, and a variety of approaches. Some wineries are barreling, bottling and tasting facilities without any vines on site (which is totally okay), and some places are just tasting rooms with a sample of wines from all kinds of producers. Visit a mixture to learn the most.

Make an agenda and make appointments. Find out which places accept appointments and make them. Some places don't require it, but most offer it. Make it easy on yourself and lock down some times. This will prevent the disappointment of an anticipated vineyard not having the space the accommodate you. Also, if you don't have an agenda planned in advance, I can see how you could spend forever looking at your phone trying to figure out where to go next, and that's just stressful for a vacation! While "winging it" on most vacations might work, this is one place where I'd advise you buckle down and get a plan outlined. You'll be so glad you did!

Map out your agenda and think about where things are in the Valley. Ideally, you won't be shuttling all over the region, spending time driving versus tasting. I created my own Google Map and added each location I was considering and then put them in order based on where they were.

Places we tried:

Hendry* - Napa, tour and tasting

Miner* - Oakville, tour and tasting

Peju - Oakville, tasting

Domaine Chandon - Napa, tasting

Fontanella* - Napa/Mt Veeder, tasting (we moved around property)

O'Brien* - Napa, tasting (we moved around property)

Cakebread - Rutherford, tasting (we moved around property)

Ma(i)sonry -Yountville, tasting

* = places we LOVED

Places we wanted to try (and location):

Frank Family Vineyards - Calistoga

Shramsberg (sparkling) - Calistoga

Vine Cliff - Napa

Crane Family - Napa

Saddleback - Oakville

Caspar Estate - Rutherford

St Supery - Rutherford

Honig - Rutherford

Frog's Leap - Rutherford

Mumm (sparkling) - Rutherford

The Terraces at Quarry - Rutherford

Kuleto - St Helena

Cain - St Helena

Sterling Vineyards - St Helena

Duckhorn - St Helena

Merryvale - St Helena

PURCHASING WINE
One of the fun aspects of wine country is that you can take the wines home to enjoy! All places allow you to buy bottles on the spot and walk out the door with them. They also have wine clubs that they inform you about as part of your tasting. Based on the size of our home and where we are in life, we decided not to join any wine clubs at the moment. Keith doesn't drink much wine and we don't have a large storage space for bottles. Given that in the next few years we'll likely start a family, we didn't want to get into a position where we have a surplus that I can't even drink! But, down the road, I'd love to join a few.
So, we purchased a few bottles here and there at our favorite places. I did not pay attention to how many reds or whites I was getting, I just snagged what I loved most. By accident, we ended up with an even case of 12, which worked out nicely. What shocked me though was that 8 of those bottles were Rose´s! Can't believe that. I guess the combo of the warm weather and the delicious blend just stole my heart.
On our last morning in Napa, the boys went to Buffalo's Shipping Post in Napa and arranged for the wine to be shipped to us at home. You could package it up and check the box as part of your airline luggage, but we just didn't want to be bothered with it. The box arrived within a week and was very exciting to receive!

RESTAURANTS:
I had some of the best food of my life in Napa. AMAZING stuff, people.  I'd come back for the food just as much as I would for the wine. I'm not sure you can go wrong!

Places we tried:
Gott's
V Sattui - picnic lunch
Mustard's Grill
Brown's Valley Grocery - picnic lunch
Celadon

We loved all of the above spots and did not have a bad experience or dish. We didn't go anywhere for breakfast because it was free at the Embassy Suites. There are many bakeries I'd love to try (hello, Thomas Keller's Bouchon!), but we'll be back.

The French Laundry is one of the most famous restaurants, and one of the most expensive. While I would have freaked out to have eaten there, at this stage in life, I could not have lived with myself for making such a poor financial decision :) So, that's on the bucket list for later!

All in all, I can't WAIT to go back! I'd also love to check out Sonoma and Alexander Valley. And, don't get me started on how much I'd like to explore the vineyards of Spain, Italy, France and Germany! Hah :)

Let me know if you use any of these tips, or if you have any questions!