Sloppy Jacques

Everybody has seen the pins on Pinterest about the buffalo chicken in a crock pot with just chicken, wing sauce, and a ranch packet. It's good, no doubt. But I have a tiny smidge of a tip that will take it from good to great. What will make it great is that you will pay less money for it. Say what? Yeah, LESS. MONEY. FOR. IT.


These little sammies are so messy they will remind you of a Sloppy Joe, but because they are a tasty Cajun treat I am calling them...

SLOPPY JACQUES!

Basically you're going to follow the same directions as the popular pinterest recipe suggests, but you are not going to use the wing sauce that they suggest. Why? Because it costs more than a dollar which is more than the alternative I'm going to give you. In some stores Frank's wing sauce is almost $3 which is way more than I want to spend.

The recipe says throw some frozen chicken, a 12oz. jar of Frank's wing sauce, and a packet of ranch mix into your crockpot and serve on bread. Easy peasy.

One day I was nosing around Dollar Tree (a magical place where everything really IS a dollar) and I found this:

Louisiana Supreme Chicken Wing Sauce

You even get more (this bottle is 17 oz. and Frank's is 12 oz.).

At first I thought, "Eh, can I trust the Dollar Tree with this?" But for a dollar, A DOLLAR, I thought I might as well give it a try.

Then I saw the last push I needed. It's made in St. Martinville, Louisiana.

I have to say, I liked it even better than Frank's wing sauce. We serve ours on a hamburger bun with celery and ranch dressing as a dipping sauce. 

This recipe is super low cal and you can keep it that way by watching your ranch dressing and bread!

We used Trader Joe's Parmesan Ranch Dressing but I normally make my own ranch to save on calories. 

So enjoy a Sloppy Jacques and let me know if you have any luck finding Louisiana Supreme chicken wing sauce in your Dollar Tree. It really is a magical find!

A DOLLAR!

Sorry I just had to! :) 

The Cajun Trinity for the Geographically Challenged

Today we are on the road to Las Vegas for one night only (insert Beyonce and J.Hud from Dream Girls because it's that level of spectacular!)

My sister, Allison and her husband Joey are in Vegas right now with friends Traci and Dean.  She planned this trip before we moved and I have to believe in my heart that if she knew we'd be in L.A. by now she would have come here. Right sister? RIGHT?!!? Just kidding...



But let me take you back to a real nice story:

Monday I was taking Julia our dog out to the bark park in our building for a little mid-morning tinkle and ran into our newest neighbor as he moved into the building. He was carrying a very large, framed portrait of Princess Leia in her slave costume from Star Wars.

I accept that I am an awkward person and that said awkwardness usually appears right on my face. I can only imagine what my face looked like as I said good morning to this complete stranger with whom I now share a bedroom wall. If you don't know what she looks like let me give you an idea:

Princess Leia as she greeted me that morning. (via Fanpop.com)

Yeah. 

I'm certainly not judging his nerdiness. I live with a nerd and have nerd like tendencies myself and calling people "nerds" is one of my favorite endearing compliments you can get from me. HOWEVER, a scantily clad Carrie Fisher greeting you in the hallway on a Monday morning is a cat of a different breed. 

I went back to my apartment, laughed, tweeted about it and then realized that he's no more of a nerd than a woman who writes a blog about kitchen disasters and bacon shaped art in the gym. So props to you neighbor guy! Let's hope you aren't rebuilding the set of "The 40 Year Old Virgin" in there!



But onto today's mini mission at hand: recreating the Cajun holy trinity here in California.

For those of you who are unaware of how this works, there is a not-so-secret trio of ingredients that amplify ALMOST every great Cajun/Creole/Louisiana dish.

Onions, Celery and Bell Peppers

Living in Louisiana I was spoiled. Never once did I have to cut these myself. Never. I always just hopped down to the store and bought a plastic container with pre-cut, pre-measured trinity ready to roll.

Oh what a rude awakening California has been.

When I first got here I bought all three and chopped them myself. Every night. I put trinity mix in everything. I even throw it in with canned spaghetti sauce. It makes everything better (unless you don't like onions, celery OR bell peppers).

Finally I got sick of cutting every night and realized I could just pre-cut and freeze them in bulk and only have to worry about sobbing my eyes out over a dang onion once a month.

Even this was too complicated for a lazy bones like myself. I searched high and low to find frozen trinity mix and this is as close as I got:

Admittedly it is cheaper to chop the fresh vegetables yourself, but I hate chopping onions. Bell peppers and celery don't really bother me.

The trick is to measure out equal parts of all three chopped and then stir so when you get a scoop of your pre-made mix it's not all onions, etc. 

How beautiful is this? I love green food!

So there you go Louisiana ex-pats. An even lazier way to make the holy trinity. Shortest explanation but boy does it make everything better! Maybe I'll bring some to the new neighbor. After all he just rolled out his doormat. Guess what's on it? I'll give you a hint: it's dragons.

XO, Andrea

One Ring to Rule Them All - Low Cal Bacon, Egg & Cheese Ring

Breakfast isn't really a big deal in our house. We almost always eat the same things for breakfast over and over again and inevitably I say to myself, "Self, can't we have something better?"

If you too have come to realize the facts of life (not the Miss Garrett & Tootie variety) you know that breakfast foods are usually heavy on the delicious and even heavier on the calories. Thankfully, many a health nut has tried to remedy this with swaps and solutions. I'm about to combine a few of those to create today's recipe...

Don't actually slap ya mama...please

The Low Cal Bacon, Egg & Cheese Ring

Serves: 8 (or 4...be honest with yourself. You're going to eat at least two)
Time: Approx. 30 minutes
Per Serving Stats: (For 8)
   Calories - 142
   Carbs- 11g
   Fat- 9g
  

WHAT YOU NEED
1 Can of crescent rolls
Shredded Cheese (.5 cup)
Turkey Bacon (3 slices)
Egg Whites (4 eggs)
Seasoning for your tastes

Notes: 
I used Slap Ya Mama seasoning. It's from Ville Platte, Louisiana and I love it. It's probably not easy to find outside of Louisiana but you can also use other Cajun seasonings you can find. It's high in sodium so I just sprinkled it over the egg whites. A little goes a long way, but for this girl's southern palate I need a little more than salt and pepper. If you're watching your sodium intake may I suggest Mrs. Dash seasonings. No salt, but still really good.  

Turkey bacon is the only kind of bacon we buy. Somewhere along the line Husband informed me that turkey is a superior meat and that's how we we've been operating since. 



WHAT YOU DO

1) Preheat the oven based on the crescent roll can directions. 

2) Start scrambling and seasoning the egg whites.

Steps 3-7. 

     I did not have the little milk carton egg whites. I had 4 eggs that were days away from going bad. I cracked them and fished out the yolks. It's a little lame but it works. 

     I'm not going to go into detail about how I scrambled my egg whites. I was taught to scramble eggs by my father who grew up on a farm in Iowa. You would think that he would be a master egg scrambler. Negative. He cracked his eggs, put them in a bowl, stirred them briskly with a fork and then nuked them in the microwave. DO. NOT. DO. THIS. That man is crazy and very busy. So I guess if you're in a rush it is effective.

3) While the eggs scramble- Prep the ring!
     Lay out the crescent rolls on a sprayed or non-stick baking pan. Make sure to overlap them. This will help keep all the ingredients inside. 

4) Chop the bacon and place it on the ring.
     You don't have to chop the bacon, but if you've ever eaten turkey bacon you know that it's a little chewy. If you chop it ahead of time it'll be easier to eat. Just a little F.Y.I.


5)When the eggs are done add them evenly around the ring

6) Top with .5 a cup of shredded cheese. 
     Many schools of thought are "more cheese = better" and I tend to agree. This was enough cheese for us. I actually used the extra cheese as a topper on the completed ring but in hindsight I prefer the melted cheese inside better. To each his own.

7) Pull the points in to create the ring.

8) Bake according to directions (10-12 minutes)


WHAT ELSE CAN I DO WITH THESE INGREDIENTS?

One ring to rule them all! Shout out to the dorks...

Most of these ingredients are pretty simple but for the turkey bacon if you have to buy it in bulk you can use them not just for breakfast but also for sandwiches. You can also cook and chop them to create a topper for baked potatoes or whatever you want. I mean, it's bacon.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

This is delicious. I only had two pieces but Husband ate THE REST OF THE RING. In one sitting. It's that good. He did add Sriracha because he adds that to anything he eats containing meat. If you're going to be serving to a bigger group you can easily double this although keep in mind that the bulk of the calories are coming from those oh-so tasty crescent rolls. So enjoy this delicious, better breakfast.

XO,

Andrea