Spicy Healthy Hot Wings at HOME!

The Super Bowl is almost here! Time to invite friends and family over for your Super Bowl party...whether you watch it for the game or the commercials, one thing is for sure...you MUST have wings to make your party complete!

Now, I LOVE wings. But, I DON'T love how I feel after I eat them. They are a bit too much to handle when the majority of the time I eat very well. So, I wanted to come up with a recipe that would just as tasty as any hot wing we had ever had, but without all of the extra fat and calories. So, I didn't bread them or fry them. I did pull out the crock pot...

One thing I will suggest if you are going to try this recipe, make sure you have baking sheets that have raised edges otherwise, when you broil the wings, the juice will make an awful mess of your oven. (ours is self cleaning right now!)

Spicy Healthy Hot Wings
Ingredients
12 full wings (frozen or fresh)
1 t. red pepper flakes
4 garlic cloves
1/2 t. onion salt
1/2c. light beer
23 fl. oz. Frank's Red Hot Sauce

Step by Step Directions
Mix all of the dry ingredients in with the beer and half of the Frank's Red Hot. Place the wings into the crock pot. Pour the remaining Frank's over the wings.

If frozen, cook on low for 7 hours. If fresh, cook on high for 2-3 hours.

Be VERY careful after cooking the wings. They are VERY tender and will fall apart.
**I cooked the wings overnight and then refrigerated the wings all day.**

Carefully, place the wings on a greased (I used PAM) baking sheet.
Set the broiler to high, bake for 7-8 minutes.

Serve with blue cheese and celery!

Cajun Shrimp Pizza

For this Super Bowl theme week, Wednesday was reserved for the location of the Super Bowl...NEW ORLEANS! Unfortunately, I didn't have a ton of time, so I had to go with something quick! Therefore, no crawfish dish or jambalaya....

So, this recipe is super yummy and quick! And, I used Creole seasonings instead of Cajun seasoning only because I forgot we had any Cajun seasoning left.  It was just one of those nights...at least dinner got on the table...you all know what I mean!

Cajun/Creole Shrimp Pizza
Ingredients
1/8 purple onion, diced
1/8 green pepper, diced
2 T. Creole/Cajun seasoning
12 or so raw shrimp
pizza sauce
pizza crust (I used Boboli original pizza crust)
(I also used some of the leftover crab meat from Tuesday night's meal)

Step by Step Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Season both the shrimp and the veggies with the seasonings.

2. Saute the peppers and onions. Remove the veggies from the heat.

3. Cook the seasoned shrimp until they are no longer pink.

4. Top the pizza crust with sauce, then the veggies, cheese, and then shrimp.

5. Bake for 8 minutes.
Enjoy!

Not So Pretty Crab Cakes...

Well, I tried. I don't know how people make pretty crab cakes. There must be a trick I don't know about. Or, I could chalk it up to how much I dislike the Ravens, so since this was the "Ravens" recipe for the week...I could leave it at that. (And no, I won't go off on a tangent on how much I am not and never will be a Baltimore fan....bleck!)

Back to the recipe...I gathered the ingredients I would use to put together a crab cake. Apparently, I missed the true "glue" of the cake. I think I needed to use more mayo or another egg...but whatever it was I missed it. Or, I mixed the ingredients together in the wrong matter...I'm not sure. Next time I might mix my dry ingredients first and the other ingredients together in another bowl. Then, combine. However, they tasted very good, had a GREAT "bite" to them, but they didn't stay together as a "cake."

burnt and falling apart...BUT tasty!

Well, here is my crab cake recipe...feel free to give me any tips you have for improvement!!!

Pugh's Not So Pretty Crab Cakes
Ingredients
1 lb. crab meat or imitation crab meat (depends on how much money you want to spend)
1/2 red pepper, sauteed and diced into small pieces
1/2 green pepper, sauteed and diced into small pieces
1/2 c. Panko bread crumbs
1/2 c. bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
1 T. chives
2 T. Old Bay seasoning
2 T. mayo
a few splashes Frank's Red Hot

Step By Step Directions
Mix all ingredients together. Form into cakes. (I used a 1/4 c. to measure)
Heat over medium heat for 8-10 minutes. Flip once.

Forever and Ever....

Just had to put that out there...

A San Francisco Treat ~ Joe's Special

Since this week has a "Super Bowl" theme, I did a little bit of research to find a simple dish from San Francisco. The story behind this dish can be found here. But, in case you are pressed for time, here is a tidbit:

Original Joe's
“The name “Joe’s” was a generic name that dates back to the Barbary Coast in San Francisco. During the 1920’s, a group of entrepreneurs decided to open a new restaurant on Broadway Street in San Francisco….it was also a restaurant where the “Joe’s Special” was created. Folklore has it that a customer ordered a spinach omelet very late at night. The customer asked the chef if he had anything else available to cook. The chef replied he had some hamburger left. The customer asked him to throw some of the hamburger into his omelet. The dish became so popular that they eventually put it on the menu.”

Thus, this is a very easy recipe to make and you probably have the ingredients already in your kitchen!

This recipe was adapted from: Good Food

Joe's Special

Ingredients

-eggs (1 egg for each person eating the dish)

-splash or two of Tabasco

-approx. 1 t. oregano

-salt and pepper

-extra virgin olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of the pan)

-1 T. unsalted butter

-1 medium onion, diced

-1 clove garlic, minced

-92% lean ground beef (use enough for the group you are serving)

-1 lb. fresh spinach

Step by Step

1. Whisk eggs, Tabasco, oregano, salt, and pepper together. 

2. Over medium heat, heat EVOO and butter until the butter melts. Add onion and garlic. Watch that the garlic doesn't burn.

3. Add in ground beef. (I added more Tabasco over the meat). Stir until brown. 

4. Cover with spinach. 

When the spinach begins to soften, make a "nest" and pour egg mixture in. Continue to stir together until the egg scrambles. It doesn't hurt to add in a bit more salt/pepper and/or Tabasco. 

I served with a piece of garlic bread. I would also recommend serving with salsa. Ours turned out to be a bit dry (and we love salsa). 

And....

For dessert we had strawberries!!! From PLANT CITY, FLORIDA!!! They are the BEST!!!