Zesty Cook » mango

Mango Turkey Burger And A Basketball Player

zesty — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:43:17 +0000

Happy Wednesday! I am always looking for new burgers to try out and sitting in the kitchen last week at the office I overheard rumblings of this dream combination of mango and turkey. I thought to myself… hmmmm that definitely sounds delicious and is worthy of a weeknight meal at Zesty’s. Next step was to inquire about the ingredients… done! Pick up the goods at the grocery store and put this burger to the test. Too easy.

Overall my take on the burgers were positive and I will make them again. One thing I would add to the mixture would be maybe diced onions or green peppers…. something for texture.

Ingredients

1 lb Ground turkey
1/2 Cup Sour Cream
3 Tbsp. Mango Chutney
1 Tsp. Chili powder ( or red pepper flakes)
1/2 Cup Bread crumbs
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp veg oil for frying
Salt and Pepper

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In a large bowl combine turkey and all remaining ingredients and mix together lightly ( you do not want to mash the mixture to an oblivion or the burgers will taste pureed)

Line out a piece of parchment or wax paper and prepare the patties
Let the burger rest for 10 minutes so they get to room temperature. This will prevent them from tightening up and drying out when they hit the hot pan.

Place oil in the hot pan and gently add the burgers. let cook about 3-4 minutes on the first side until golden brown. ( Do not push the burger down in the pan with a spatula please)
Once golden brown, carefully flip the burger and cook on the other side. ( 3-4 mins)
Transfer to oven to finish cooking about 20 mins ( depending on the thickness)
Top with whatever you desire. I chose tzatkiki and homemade basil pesto.
ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: These burgers are very loose ( as designed to keep them moist) so you have to be really careful when flipping them after the first sear. Make sure you let them cook to a nice golden brown on the first side and then slowly flip and complete the other side before transporting to the oven to finsh.

Ok so now on Monday I mentioned I was dressing up for Halloween at the office. To give you a little background on the costume, my boss purchase a pro basketball team and they are starting the regular season this week. A few guys int he office thought it would be a great idea if we dressed up as the basketball team. We made some jerseys with the logo and an iron and we were all set. Now as most of you know… I do not look like a basketball player. However a few accessories can at least make me look the part.

Have a good Wednesday and do not forget to enter the Candy Giveaway contest. Submissions end today at 5:00pm EST.

Take care

zesty

Balsamic Drizzled Mango Chicken Salad

zesty — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:00:49 +0000

Good morning and I thank you. For all the nice emails regarding the thanksgiving feast and your request for certain recipes. I will work on getting those for you and post them either Friday of this week or early next week. Today I wanted to share with you a simple salad that can be put together in minutes and meet all the nutritional needs of your body. Salads for lunch can get pretty boring, at least for me so every now and I again I switch them up and keep the flavors unique.

This combination of balsamic, mango with roasted chicken was a great combination. Maybe because there is feta cheese on there as well with some crunch from slivered almonds and firm cucumber. Whatever the flavors may be, try to match texture with sexiness and your salads will make your tummy happy both inside and out. Wow, I just re read that line and it sounds like I am promoting healthy eating. What I was really going for is that if you make foods that look good you are more apt to enjoy them and feel good after you eat them.

OK enough with the sensitive chatter let’s get going and build this salad. I will not put the measurements as it totally doesn’t matter.

Ingredients

Baby spinach
Iceberg lettuce
Cucumber
Slivered almonds
Fresh mango
Roasted chicken
Feta cheese
Tomatoes, grape
Balsamic vinegar

Method

Assemble all ingredients on a plate or bowl starting with the largest vegetables and continuing to chicken and cheese.
Drizzle with balsamic.
ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: For a new twist on salads, heat up the balsamic vinegar or whichever dressing you like and pour it over your salad. The warmth of the dressing will start to wilt the spinach ever so slightly and give you a whole different texture and perspective on your salad.

I am just about ready to head into the office. Middle of the week is upon us and the middle of October is approaching. Before I sign off I have a BIG question for you.

What is your favorite SALAD DRESSING?

I am just curious because normally I am balsamic vinegar or a homemade version of olive oil, mustard, honey and a pinch of salt and pepper. Spill the beans and tell me yours via email or comments. Have a great Wednesday and keep smiling.

Take care

zesty

Carrot Mango Juuuuuuuuice!

zesty — Wed, 25 May 2011 13:00:03 +0000

Let’s pretend the weather is nice and sunny and you are craving fresh made juice as you sit on the porch and watch the sun beat down on you. Can we? Sure we can – despite reality of rain and miserable weather.

You know I love my juicer and making juice. The other day I had a bag of carrots that were aching to get used up so I hauled out the juicer and cleaned out the fridge. Great way to do such that! The results were pretty good. I have to say, I have not really had a bad juice.

What’s In The Juice

3 apples
2 pears
12 carrots
3 ripe mangos
handful or baby spinach

Give it a try and let me know what you think. So you make juice and you have a ton of pulp on the side of your juicer…. what do you do with it? Well I take the cover off and biff it in the compost bin. But if you are Gena from choosing raw, you use the pulp to make crackers! I know… brilliant!

I was reading Gena’s post on making pulp crackers and I was floored. I thought this was an amazing idea because i hate throwing out food and I love crackers! All this time, I have been throwing out this pulp and now I will stop.

Alright, I better go get ready for work. Have a super Wednesday and I will see you all to wrap up the week.

Take care

zesty

Sassy Pineapple and Mango Salsa

zesty — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:00:28 +0000

I love salsa! That is a given so when I thought about a menu items for Sunday to pair with the coconut crusted salmon – I knew it was a summer salsa. There is something about summer flavors with crisp fruit and sharp vibrant colors makes everyone happy. I chose to pair both pineapple and mango for the salsa and give it a little bit with cilantro and red onion. No one in our family are really big onion lovers so I toned down the red onion to avoid any discomfort. I find it is not really that sharp with the sweetness of the fruit. To finish off the flavor matching, I chose to add a dash of hot sauce and cracked black pepper.

Ever try hot sauce with fruit?

Ingredients

2 Cups of fresh pineapple, cut into small chunks
2 Cups fresh Mango, diced
A little bit red onion, diced
1 Cup of fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 Cup of extra virgin olive oil
Zest and juice of 1 lime
Several dashes of your favorite hot sauce

Method

Put pineapple,mango, red onion and cilantro into a medium-sized bowl.
Add lime zest and juice, oil and hot sauce.
Toss well and let flavors mingle for at least one half hour before serving.
ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: This works very well with any form of meat or even as a vegetarian dish. It would work great with a stir fry topping or even with cous cous.

Wednesday is here and the week is half over. It is hard to believe that summer is on the way. The weekend was super hot and guess what… I did survive a day of roofing. I am pretty confident in saying that I will never be a roofer full time and I now have a lot of respect for those who do it as a trade. Have a fantastic hump day and I will talk to you on Friday.

Take care

zesty

Mango Sweet Potato Salad with Honey!

zesty — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 12:00:03 +0000

Happy Friday! I know you are going to have a hard time believing this but… Here is another healthy salad. I am on a new lifestyle kick and loving it. This week has marked one of my best eating weeks in my life. I have been really concentrating on eating real foods and watching the types of snacks and foods I am eating throughout the day. And guess what? I have not had take out at all in the past 7 days!

For this salad I went a little on the wild side with some of the ingredients but the results were astounding. I noticed that I had one sweet potato left in the fridge and I was craving it – but I was unsure how to incorporate it in the salad.

I had often slow roasted them in the oven in thin slices so I thought… hmmm that would be a great idea. Then I was browsing around the blogosphere and noticed Carrots N’ Cake had a similar idea. Hers looked great so I thought I would give it a try.

Here are the results.

Ingredients

Red leaf lettuce
Sliced mango
Carrots
Cucumbers
Roasted sweet potatoes
Cinnamon
Olive oil
Honey

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line baking sheet with parchment paper
Slice sweet potatoes thinly and toss with olive oil and cinnamon and bake for 20 minutes. Then turn sweet potatoes over and reduce heat to 200 degrees and continue baking until crispness is reached.
Assemble lettuce, cucumber, carrot and mango.
Top with sweet potato slices and drizzle with honey.
ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Initially baking the sweet potatoes at 400 degrees to brown them and begin to crisp them up is a great technique but be really careful they do not burn. By lowering the temperature to 200 it removes some moisture and allows them to crisp without burning.

I hope you really like the salad as I was tickled pink with the flavor as I devoured the whole bowl full.

Can you ever eat too much salad? This is what I sometimes wonder. Next week I think I am going to venture into adding some beans into my salad. I am trying to eat more greens on a daily basis and cut down on my bread in take. If I ever told you how much bread I consume on a daily basis ( all be it whole grain) you may go into cardiac arrest.

Alright – I better head out and get some work done. Have an amazing Friday and if you like the salad drop me a note. I am always open for suggestions. I will be back Monday with some writings, tips, and recipes on juicing.

Take care

zesty

Grocery Item of the Week – Smart Ones?

zesty — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:00:50 +0000

So it’s time to go back to the grocery store with Zesty and see what we can find.

Every now and again I eat a microwave dinner… whether I am in a rush or just lazy or there is nothing left in the house around grocery day. Well this new microwave dinner is a step above the rest.

These new meals from SMARTONES are delicious new recipes inspired by the natural goodness of fruit. Now you can make every bite count with wonderful dishes that combine the intense flavor of real fruit into your everyday meals of juicy meat or poultry and crisp vegetables.

The New Weight Watchers® Smart Ones® Fruit Inspirations™ – the first line of frozen entrées to use real fruit combined with juicy lean proteins and crisp vegetables – satisfy cravings while fitting in to a healthy eating plan. They also provide a convenient way to “sneak” more real fruit into your diet any day or time of the week.

Despite the 3 step process in the microwave - this dish is very satifying, very tasty and well worth the wait. They have four different flavors to choose from but I just picked this one up to see what it was like.

Looking at the nutritional information it is pretty acceptable for a microwave dinner. The part that I was most impressed with was the texture. I find in alot of microwave dinners… the texture is terrible and the chicken is usually sub par at best. I believe this one is worth a reverse engineering attempt to see if I cannot duplicate this in the kitchen from scratch.

This new fruit sensation it was very edible for sure. I am not promoting Weight Watchers in any sense here – I just wanted to share with you my experience with my grocery item of the week. I don’t have any endorsement deal with Weight Watchers… yet. You can check out the other choices on their website.

Give me a shout back and let me know your best or worst microwave dinner experience or even one choice that you see yourself going back to time and time again. I can’t wait to hear… we will have microwave dinner day!!

Thai Pumpkin Soup

zesty — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 07:00:30 +0000

Sitting in the office the other day I get an email with a bunch of Thai recipes from an office colleague. I decided to whip up this interesting soup that I scrolled through. I always have been a big fan of smooth soups so I am hoping this one will be just as good. The recipe is very simple and has some great flavors that I enjoy.

So I said what the heck, lets give it a whirl and see if it is worth serving to others. Follow below and let me hear what you think.

Ingredients

1 15 oz can pumpkin puree
1 15 oz can coconut milk
2 cups mango nectar
3 cups water
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/4 cup smooth or chunky peanut butter; your preference
2 veggie bullion cubes
1/2 an inch fresh ginger, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 green chilies, minced
1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped
3-4 green onions, chopped

Method

Add the pumpkin puree, coconut milk, mango nectar, and water to a large pot and bring to a low boil.
Meanwhile, you can mince the ginger and green chilies (jalepenos are fine too) and add them to the pot.
Chop the cilantro and green onions, and reserve for a garnish.
Once the soup is hot, take out a small bowlful and stir in the peanut butter until it is completely incorporated. Add back to the pot.
Repeat with another bowlful and incorporate the bullion cubes.
Serve in bowls topped with the cilantro and green onions.