Mr. Bijoy Writes

I have a few friends that love fried pickle chips, but really don't like the "fried" part.  So I fixed it for them. And now you can enjoy the spoils of our fitness-minded pickle chips! Enjoy! What ya need: 12 slices of sweet pickle 3 ounces of Dijon mustard 1/2 cup of cooked Quinoa 1/2 cup of non-fat yogurt 3 tablespoons of Sriracha Ok, so: Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Now, in a smal bowl, mix together the yogurt and the Sriracha and put it in the fridge to chill. In another bowl, coat the pickle chips in the mustard and toss the coated chips in the quinoa. Pat the quinoa down on the chips to make sure that it sticks. Set the chips on a drying rack, that's been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, on top of a cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes. Serve hot with the chilled yogurt sauce made earlier and enjoy!

I was once asked if I could make a pesto that was cleaner and healthier than what's available in stores. Since pesto is based in oil, it's difficult to make it super-healthy, but if you add kale, you get the kick you need! So here's a recipe for some pesto that has better levels of potassium, vitamin A, and vitamin C. What ya need: 1/4 cup of roughly chopped Walnuts  1 teaspoon of fresh-ground black pepper  20 leaves of fresh basil  1 teaspoon of kosher salt  2 tablespoons of lemon juice  3 cloves of garlic  1 and 1/2 cups of chopped Kale  1/3 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil Ok, so:  Throw everything into a food processor and blend until slightly chunky, but smooth. You can freeze this and store it for a month or two as well.

You can replicate great meals at home. Really, you can. However, you'll need a few skills to make it work. I'd like to teach you some of these skills, to help you get closer to making some awesome meals at home. So here's lesson #1 - Beef. For any meal involving beef, you need to start with a good piece of meat. Even ground beef, at its best, starts with quality meat. So here's an easy guide to choosing beef, or as an amazingly charismatic woman I once met may say, picking the beef that "out here to get chose." Always start with a properly graded beef. I try to be sure to choose Prime, as it is graded as the  best quality and most intramuscular fat. Generally, about 3% of beef is graded as Prime. Don't be afraid of fat. Lean, fat-less meat may look like the proper choice, but it's not. A little fat enhances the texture and the flavor of your meat. Choosing a cut with a little marbling will greatly enhance your end-product.  Rich, bright...