Asian Style Balsamic Glazed Drumsticks

These Asian inspired drumsticks would also be great using chicken thighs or wings.  We suggest serving with steamed vegetables and rice to make a complete low fat meal.  You can drizzle the remaining glaze over the vegetables, or over rice.

ingredients:

• 8 medium chicken drumsticks, skin removed
• olive oil spray
• 1 cup water
• I tablespoon Sriracha hot sauce (more or less to taste)
• 1/3 cup Nan's Barrel-Aged Balsamic Vinegar
• 1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon ginger, grated
• 2 tablespoon chives or scallions, chopped
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds

In a heavy large saucepan, brown chicken on high for 3-4 minutes with a little spray oil. Add water, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, honey, garlic, ginger and Sriracha and cook on high until liquid comes to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered for about 20 minutes.  Remove cover and bring heat to high, allowing sauce to reduce down, about 8-10 minutes, until it becomes thick, turning chicken occasionally.

Keep an eye on glaze, you don't want it to burn when it starts becoming thick.  Transfer chicken to a platter and ladle sauce on top. Sprinkle with chives and sesame seeds.

Serves 4.

Homemade Lite Caesar Dressing

It’s another quick and oh-so-easy recipe to eat well and stay healthy! Here is a salad dressing that is much better for you than the off-the-shelf (what-the-heck-is-in-it) fare you find at the grocery store.

ingredients

• 1/3 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 small clove garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 tablespoon Nan’s Honey Roasted Garlic Mustard Blend (a good Dijon will also work)
• 2 good quality anchovy fillets
• 1 tablespoon Nan's California Meyer Lemon Olive Oil
• 1/3 cup fat free plain Greek yogurt

In a small bowl of a food processor add the cheese, lemon juice, chopped garlic, mustard and the anchovies. Pulse the machine until well combined, 15 to 20 seconds. Add the oil and yogurt and let the machine run for another 15 seconds.

Makes 3/4 cup.

Slow Cooker Balsamic Shredded Pork

This is an easy recipe for those of us who love the convenience of a crock pot or slow cooker.  A pork sirloin roast can be used instead of the shoulder roast.  This shredded pork makes for one heckova slider!

ingredients

• 2 pounds boneless pork shoulder roast
• Kosher salt, to taste
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/3 cup chicken or vegetable broth
• 1/3 cup Nan's Barrel-Aged Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Nan's Barrel-Aged Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey

Season pork all over with salt, garlic powder and red pepper flakes and place in the slow cooker.  Mix together the broth, vinegar & Worcestershire and pour it over the pork,  Finally drizzle the honey over the pork and set the timer for 4 hours on 'high' or 6-8 hours on 'low'.

Once the pork is cooked and tender (it should fall apart easily with a fork), remove from slow cooker onto a serving dish.  Shred lightly with two forks.  Drizzle ½ cup of the remaining sauce over the shredded pork and keep warm until ready to eat.  As Nan says, “super easy…”!

Pasta Serving Suggestion #4

This is another in our series of ‘mix & match’ ideas for making great and fun meals with your flavored pasta.  As always, remember the mix and match concept: you can change any aspect of this to your liking or even to what you have in your fridge at the time.  Obviously other seafood combos will work: clams, mussels, scallops, tilapia, etc.  We went with a 50/50 ratio of Meyer Lemon Oil to regular olive oil as we did not want the lemon flavor to overpower, but you may find a different proportion to work better.

While this combo will work great with most of our flavored pasta, for this we chose our Artichoke Lemon Tagliatelle, which pairs well with seafood.  Here are a few others which we recommend highly:

• Meyer Lemon Trenette
• Garlic Chive Pappardelle
• Lemon Pepper Linguini
• Garlic Toasted Onion Fettuccine

ingredients

• 6 ounces cooked shrimp
• 6 ounce imitation crab, ‘chunk’ style
• 2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tablespoon Pastamoré Meyer Lemon Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
• package of Artichoke Lemon Tagliatelle
• freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to taste

Combine shrimp, crab, tomato and garlic in a small bowl.  Drizzle both oils over the mixture along with the salt & pepper.  Mix thoroughly and refrigerate for at least one hour to meld flavors.  Allow to come to room temperature before serving.

Cook pasta to al dente according to instructions on package and strain.  Divide pasta into pre-heated individual pasta bowls.  Spoon seafood/tomato mixture evenly over each pasta dish.  Sprinkle with Parmesan and serve.

Serves four to six as an entrée.

Basil Oven-Grilled Flatbread

Here is a simple idea to be used as a snack or as a side to soup or salad.  Prepared flatbreads are more common these days in higher end grocery stores, and you can also use pitas or 'naan' for this recipe.

This recipe demonstrates the use of our Basil Pesto Olive Oil, but any of our oils will do, especially our Herbes de Provence Olive Oil or our  Meyer Lemon Olive Oil. 

 ingredients

• one package flatbread
• a leafy herb such as Italian parsley or basil, chopped & to taste
• Nan's Basil Pesto Olive Oil
• course sea salt, to taste
• freshly ground pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350°. Using a purchased flatbread or ‘naan’ (pictured is a Safeway brand), drizzle/brush a small amount of Basil Pesto Oil over the surface. If you have a leftover herb in the fridge, chopped and sprinkle on top (we used Italian parsley here). 

For more richness add a generous sprinkle of Parmesan. Last, add a pinch of course salt for texture and flavor, and a grind of black pepper. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden. Cut into random triangles and serve.