Poor Man's Pizza

Another recipe from the mind of Radioguy...

Wifey and I are on the low-carb diet thing, and have been for a few years now. "Believe you me," - it really isn't that bad. Smart substitutions for everyday ingredients make the low-carb lifestyle very easy. Thursday nights are our "low-carb pizza nights," that is, we get a low-carb pizza each Thursday night from Pappa Murphy's. Well, I am a big pizza fan, so I came up with something to tide me over until Thursday nights...

POOR MAN'S (LOW-CARB) PIZZA

INGREDIENTS

• 4 slices of bread (or 2 flour tortillas)
• pasta sauce
• onion, chopped
• green bell pepper, chopped
• cheddar cheese, shredded

This one is an easy-cooking meal. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spritz a cookie sheet with vegetable oil. Place the bread (or tortillas) on the sheet, and spritz them with oil. Thinly spread pasta sauce on top of the bread (or tortillas). Add toppings, witht the cheese on top. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until bread (or tortilas) are crispy and easily removeable from the cookie sheet. Serve hot.

This recipe is a winner, I think. Much more "family friendly" than the "fried spaghetti" or "burnt weenie sandwich" recipies I've been tossing about.

ANOTHER GREAT BBQ SAUCE

Here's another sauce for you BBQ nuts... This one is different from the "regular" sauce I cook/use, most notably that it does not use tomato paste or beer, and that it uses mustard as a key ingredient. I haven't got a disctinctive name for the sauce yet. For now, it's just "Radioguy's BBQ Sauce with Mustard."

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon gound thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon gound black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon ground oregano
• 1 teaspoon salt or salt substitute
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 cup blackstrap molasses
• 1/2 cup yellow mustard
• 1/2 cup dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Preparation

Combine dry ingredients in a food processor and mix/grind until the mixture obtains an even consistency (ground pretty fine), then place dry mixture into a medium-sized saucepan. Add the wet ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionly (so as the molasses and sugar don't burn the bottom of the saucepan). Pour into a glass jar (I use an empty 16 oz. beer bottle with a ceramic stopper).

This sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three months. It is great with chicken, hot dogs, ham, etc.

BBQ Season is almost here!

With the coming of BBQ season, I wanted to share a homemade BBQ sauce recipe for any and all to enjoy...

RADIOGUY’S SPICY BBQ SAUCE

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup catsup
• ½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• ¼ cup lime juice
• 1 tbls. Vegetable oil
• 1 tbls. Lea & Perrin’s Worcestershire sauce
• 12 oz. tomato paste
• 12 oz. Beer, any brand
• 1 ½ cup onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

DIRECTIONS

• In a 2-quart saucepan or pot, combine the catsup, brown sugar, lime juice, vegetable oil, Worchester sauce, tomato paste, and beer.
• In a food processor or spice grinder, mix the onion and garlic, then add to the sauce.

Heat all ingredients to boiling; reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Yield: about 5 cups of sauce.

(for a spicier BBQ sauce)

• ½ tsp. Chili powder
• ½ tsp. Cayenne pepper
• Jabenero pepper sauce (to taste)

For a spicier BBQ sauce, mix the optional ingredients in a food processor/spice grinder, and add to the sauce (I recommend preparing the sauce AS IS, adding the “hotter” ingredients to taste).

Chunky Tomato Bisque

Another great recipe!

Chunky tomato bisque soup

Ingredients: 1 large pot for cooking
2 28 oz. cans of diced, stewed tomatoes (Italian blend w/oregano, basil and garlic) S and W or Delmonte brands work well. (If you cannot locate an Italian brand, then put your own oregano/basil in the soup to taste and buy just plain stewed/diced tomatoes)
sea salt (preferably), pepper to taste
2 or 3 cups chicken broth (no msg)
2 cups heavy cream
Parmesan cheese for topping (optional).

How To Prepare: Makes a giant soup..mmm. Make the soup as creamy as you like or add less cream if you like less creamy soup. Add more chicken broth if like more chicken broth. Just heat to boiling, and serve. Add all ingredients, and salt/pepper to taste. MMM quick and easy...

Number of Servings: 12 Carbs per serving (including complete nutritional information if known): the only Carbs in this come from the healthy tomatoes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes!

Baked Chicken Wraps

I haven't tried this recipe out yet, but it sounds great...

Baked Chicken Wraps

Chicken breasts (2)

2 Bell Peppers (or equal amount of other peppers), finely chopped

2 medium onions, finely chopped

2 tbls. Dragon sauce

2 tsp. Chili powder

2 tbls. Vegetable oil for frying

Low carb wraps (2-4, depending on the size of the wrap)*

Shred chicken and place in a large bowl.

In a large frying pan, sauté the onions and peppers with 1 tbls. oil and chili powder.

In a separate frying pan, sauté the chicken with the remaining oil and the Dragon Sauce.

Stuff wraps with the chicken and vegetables. Spritz the wraps with oil before placing in the oven. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes (oven temps will vary). Serve on a bed of lettuce with any extra onions and peppers. Great with melted cheese and/or chipotle salsa.

* low-carb tortillas can be substituted for the wraps.

Radioguy's Cream of Asparagus Soup

Thanks to wifey, I'm making my homemade cream of asparagus soup tonight. I wanted to share the recipe with anyone who may enjoy it...


INGREDIENTS

2 cans (bunches) asparagus (if you get canned asparagus, drain the juice)
1 large onion, chopped
4 strips of bacon
1tsp. celery seeds
3/4 cup chicken broth
3/4 cup cream
3 tbls. butter


PREPARATION

In a soup pot, add onion, celery seed, and butter, and cook until onion is soft. Place onion mixture in a food processor.
Cut up the bacon and fry in the pot (yes, the pot) until crispy. Remove the bacon and add to the food processor.
For the asparagus - if it's canned, cut stalks in half and add to the food processor. If fresh, steam the stalks, then cut in half and add to the processor.
Add 1/2 cup of the chicken broth to the mixture in the food processor, and mix until almost smooth.

Put the mixture in the soup pot, adding the cream and the remainder of the broth. Cook on low heat until ready to eat.

Wifey's making grilled cheese (or grilled tuna, she hasn't told me which, yet) sandwiches to go with the soup. Makes for a great (and healthy) dinner. More recipies to come... Enjoy!

Is a movie theater the place to enjoy a movie?

Perhaps it's the local theaters. Perhaps its the mentality of many of those who frequent movie theaters. Most likely, it's just me. It just seems to me that a movie theater is just not the place to enjoy a movie anymore.

In my county, we have two theater options - the local, family-run theater, and the humungo-multi-onmiplex theater at the local mall. The two settings differ drastically, but my moviegoing experience at each venue has been a little less than dismal of late. (I think you can see where this is going.)

Recently, I visited the humungo-multi-onmiplex to see "Constantine", an R-rated movie about a man who battles the Hordes of Hell while facing his own impending death from lung cancer. The theater advertised the movie as starting at 3:45pm, so wifey and I showed up a few minutes early to make sure we had a good seat. Well, 3:45pm came and went, with wifey and I thinking that perhaps there was a problem in the projection booth, and that once the problem was resolved, the movie would get underway forthwith. At approximately 3:55pm, the lights dimmed, and film started rolling. Did the movie start forthwith? No. We were subjected to about 10 minutes of TV ads (TV!!!) before another 10 minutes of "coming attractions", and then the movie. While trying to focus on the movie, we were subjected to a teenager in the next row text messaging a friend on his cell phone and children in the row behind us talking and kicking our seats. The experience left askig ourselves, "what was the movie about? I can't remember..."

Then there was the visit to the local, family-run, theater to see "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." While the movie started on-time, and we weren't subjected to TV ads at the outset of our experience, we were again subjected to children and adults who obviously intended to do something other than sit quietly and enjoy the movie. A woman playing a handheld video game, restless children who's parents apparently threated the theater as a babysitting service, etc. You get the idea.

Am I upset? Hell, yes! Do I want to be able to enjoy a movie at a movie theater without having to deal with these sort of distractions? Hell, yes! Attending a movie used to be a special event for a family, and garnered a measure of prestige among the jet-set and those in "the know", which leads me to think that those in "the know" actually knew how to conduct themselves in a theater.

And what's with unruly children in the theaters? I'd like to think that parents would consider the content of a movie before:
A) taking said children to the movie
B) letting their children talk, scream, and run up and down the aisles while the rest of us are trying to watch the movie, or
C) dropping the kids off at the movie theater, thinking they will behave themselves unattended.
If it's not a Disney movie, chances are children are not properly acclimated to a respectful moviegoing experience.

To the credit of the humungo-multi-omniplex, they run messages before their TV ads inviting families with small children (read: NOISY children) to visit the theater on a specific day, so the rest of us can actually try to watch a movie.

Parents of small children: please, PLEASE, look into what a movie is about before you take them to the theater as a family, or worse yet, drop them off at the theater, thinking they'll behave. Take it from this theatergoer, they DON'T behave, and I am not paying $20+ for my wife and I to hear/see your kids be undisciplined. "Family" movies are great for the younger audience, but movies like "Constantine" are not (trust me, I know now). If you can't get a babyitter and want to watch such a movie, please wait until you can get a babysitter, or wait until you can rent the movie on DVD or whatever. You'll be doing the rest of the moviegoing public a great favor.

With that said, I'm waiting for the DVD release of "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith". Waiting six months for the DVD release will be less painful than trying to watch the sith get their revenge with people kicking my seat from behind, adults and children playing video games next to me, and kids running around with parents innefectually saying "settle down".

BBQ Season

BBQ season is fast approaching, and I'm getting excited about making some homemade BBQ sauce. When it comes to the actual cooking of anything on a BBQ, I tend to burn said items to a charred, hockeypuck-like character, so I'll leave the actual cooking to my very capable wife. But for the sauce! Oi! I'm your man!

As the BBQ season progresses, I'll post some sauce recipies for your enjoyment. Hope you've got the grill ready, 'cause I'm coming over for grub!