Hard-Boiled Egg

It seems like everywhere you look on the Web, people make hard-boiled eggs out to be an amazingly difficult food to prepare. What's up with that? I even read a method that suggests sacrificing one of the eggs to test for done-ness. Here's the method I use that's both quick and efficient.



Pick 3-12 eggs to fit in the bottom of your saucepan. Pour cold water over the eggs, covering by 1/2" to 1". Bring the water to a rolling boil and immediately remove the pan from heat. Set a timer for 13 minutes (large eggs). At 13 minutes, pour out the hot water while running the coldest water from the faucet into the pan to replace the hot water.



If your faucet does not provide cold (cold!) water, you might need to prepare a large bowl with water and ice, to cool the eggs rapidly. This helps to avoid any greening of the yolks.



This should provide many, many tasty hard-boiled eggs for your enjoyment.

Hawaiian Delight Smoothie

This delight is inspired by Walh's Dairy Port, the happenin place in b-town during the occasionally warm coastal summer.




Ingredients
1/2 frozen banana
1/2 cup pineapple (fresh or canned)
1/2 cup ice cubes
1/2 cup water or milk (it's all about consistency, baby!)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1 tbsp. chocolate fudge fat-free, sugar-free instant pudding mix.
1 tbsp. chopped walnuts (optional)
1 tbsp. flaked coconut (optional)

It appears to be a lot of stuff to be jamming into a smoothie, but honestly, the first 5/6 things are put into pretty much every smoothie I make, so no special grocery trips necessary. Mixing is done in a personal-sized Magic Bullet blender. Super quick and easy cleanup. This just happens to be the first of many recipes we plan to add that use infotastic devices first featured on tv. You can definitely use a regular blender, but like the GTXpress, the Magic Bullet has proven to be one of the most useful kitchen time-savers for around $50.

Method

• Add the following to your blending container
• banana
• pineapple
• ice
• water
• protein powder
• puddin mix
• Blend, 30 - 60 seconds until well mixed
• Give a quick rinse to the blender blade for next use
• Stir in coconut and walnuts
• Depending on consistency (more/less ice, milk), you can either eat this with a spoon or sip it. Despite the stirring spoon in the photo above, I sipped this and crunched up the coconut and walnuts during the process.

Craig Sandwich (veggie)

Only Jessie could enlighten us as to why this is named as such, but don't let the name fool you... this is one of my favorite things. The idea behind this is to get the most flavor out of healthy vegetables as possible. There are countless possible variations, just adapt it to your personal taste.

There is just one basic rule to assembling your own masterpiece: alternate layers of slippery veggies with layers of veggies that have more friction. If you fail, and you will know if you did, you end up with a huge mess during the devouring process. I've failed more than once! Remember, avocado is a slippery mistress, so use extra caution near it (it never hurts to put a few sprouts on that layer for non-slip insurance).

This does not have to be a triple-bread-slice sandwich, but that's Craig's preference. Jessie is more of a double-slice (traditional) girl.



Note on the ingredients: size does matter. It all depends on the size of your bread slice. The list here is for a rather large slice of bread, so adjust accordingly.

Ingredients (per sandwich)
2 leaves Romaine lettuce, patted dry
1 mushroom, fresh, sliced
1/2 medium avocado, sliced
1/2 cup alfalfa sprouts
9 slices cucumber
4 slices tomato
1 slice American or Cheddar cheese
1 thin section of a yellow or white onion
salt (recommended)
pepper (recommended)
mayo

Method

• Toast bread lightly, if you desire or if you have pathetic, weak bread on hand.
• Layer the following
• 1 slice bread
• 1 leaf lettuce
• 1 slice cheese
• mushroom slices
• avocado slices
• 1 slice bread
• cucumber slices
• pepper
• tomato slices
• salt
• sprouts
• onion slices
• 1 leaf lettuce
• layer the bottom of the top bread layer with mayo
• last slice bread
• Holding the sandwich firmly, use a bread knife or other sharp serrated knife to slice in half.

My guess is that this sandwich would be awesome on rye, but we never have rye around. Just food for thought.

Dill Dip (Very Easy)

Whenever we need a universal dip that we can agree upon, it usually ends up being this dill dip. It's easy to make, it goes with pretty much anything, and it helps to enhance other flavors rather than mask them. But wait.. there's more! It only takes a few ingredients and 2 minutes to make. Don't skip the chilling step at the end, though, those flavors need time to get to know each other (and the dip gets much thicker, too).

Ingredients
1 cup sour cream
1/4 to 1/2 cup mayo
2 tablespoons fresh chopped green onions (optional)
1+ tablespoon dill weed (add more to taste)
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Method

1. Pick out a smaller tupperware bowl with lid
2. Add sour cream, then mayo and lemon juice and stir
   
3. Add green onions (optional)
4. Add dill weed, taste, repeat
5. Stir dip until well blended
6. Seal the bowl and place in the fridge for at least one hour (2 is better)
7. Dip will thicken and flavors will meld during the chilling process

This dip has been tasted with:

• Veggies
  
• Potato chips
• Gyros

Gazpacho With Garbanzo Beans

Perfect for those hot, summer days when you can't stand the thought of using the oven. And at only 191 calories per serving, you can eat it guilt-free.



Ingredients
1 can (15 ounces) garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
6 cups unsalted vegetable juice
1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/2 cup cucumber, chopped and seeded
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro or parsley, chopped
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup lime juice

Method

1. In a large bowl, add all ingredients. Stir well.
2. Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or until well chilled.