Hot Eats and Cool Treats!

Nope, I'm not talking Dairy Queen. I finally got around to trying a new recipe last night!! I found this one in the April 2011 issue of Parenting. The recipe is for Spiced Chicken Mini-Burgers with Peanut Sauce and was created by Ana Kelly.

I gathered my ingredients and went to work.

Ingredients:
Burgers

• 1 lb ground chicken
• 2 tsp red curry powder
• 1 Tbsp peeled, grated fresh ginger
• 1 tsp salt

Sauce

• 1/3 cup natural peanut butter
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp lime juice
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp water

Directions:

• Preheat broiler. Combine ground chicken, curry powder, ginger and salt, mixing well.

• Form into 12 balls and flatten to 1/3-inch-thick patties. 

• Broil 3 to 4 minutes per side, or until cooked through and lightly browned.
• Combine peanut butter, honey, lime juice, soy sauce and water in a glass bowl.
• Microwave on high for 30 seconds, then whisk until smooth.

• Split a dozen mini-pita rounds. Place chicken patties inside pita rounds, and top with a dollop of peanut sauce and 2 cucumber slices.

As for changes I made to the ingredients/recipe...I don't think I used an entire tablespoon of ginger, but there was a decent amount of it. I used regular Jif peanut butter instead of a natural PB. Also, instead of forming 12 small patties, I made 4 normal sized patties and 1 small one (for Ethan). These were super, super moist and very hard to work with. I guess ground chicken is a much moister meat? I also did not broil the burgers. Josh grilled them instead. He gave them about 12 minutes on medium-high (~350 degrees or so) heat. Here they are after being grilled...

I couldn't find mini-pita rounds at the store, so I bought whole-wheat sandwich thins instead. They are basically like a regular bun, but much thinner (similar to the thickness of a slice of bread). I also did not get any cucumber slices, but those may have been a good addition if you like cucumber (I obviously don't). ;) I served the 'burgers' with baked sweet potato fries, a family favorite, and I think they went very nicely together. Here is the 'burger' dressed with it's sauce...

And a pic of the inside...

I must say that these were quite tasty!! Even Josh said that he would eat them again!! Woohoo! If you remember, he was not a fan of my turkey burgers, but said that these were much better than the turkey. The chicken patty by itself had a lot of great flavor with the curry and ginger and even had a bit of a nice kick to it. I really like how the sauce paired with the chicken too. Unfortunately, Ethan wasn't a fan of the meat (not surprising though since the only 'meat' he eats these days is hot dogs and the occasional breaded chicken nugget or fried fish strip). :( He did enjoy dipping his hot dog in the peanut sauce though! haha! This coming from the boy who dips everything in ketchup (and who loves to just lick it off and keep re-dipping until the piece of food is barely recognizable anymore)!! Ahh, my lovely child.

As a follow-up dessert to the meal, I decided a nice cool treat should accompany our hot and spicy dinner. Given the number of mid-to-high 90-degree days we have had here lately, anything cool is nice and refreshing! We have become frequent customers at our newly opened local smoothie shop. They can make a mean smoothie from a nice variety of fruits to one of our favorites, PB&J (peanut butter, strawberries, bananas and yogurt). My personal favorite is still their Tropical Twister. It has strawberries and pineapple with orange juice. It is also supposed to include fresh coconut, but I hate the texture of it, so I have them skip adding that to mine. So, I have been wanting to try to recreate the wonderful flavor of the Tropical Twister here at home. Here's how it went...

I gathered the ingredients I would need.

We have a great smoothie maker that we received as a wedding present. It is labeled on the side with exactly how much liquid and frozen ingredients I need in order to make enough for 2 or 4 servings. So, I filled it to the liquid line with orange juice, then added in about equal parts of frozen strawberries and pineapple.

I blended everything together well, and viola! Tropical Twister smoothies in my own kitchen! :)

The taste was pretty close to the one I get at the smoothie shop, but I think it could have maybe benefited from a little more pineapple and less strawberry to give it a tad more sweetness. It was still good and refreshing though. :)

And of course Ethan loved it! :) I can't get the boy past the smoothie shop if he sees it!! Enjoy!