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Chicken Hot Wings – Oven Roasted and Cooked to Perfection

Tom Dinner, Easy Impress, Essential Homemade, Grain-Free, Paleo Friendly 0 Comments

Do chicken hot wings have their own place in the food pyramid? I think they might have left them off the bottom… Maybe they just ran out paper when they were drawing it.

Glorious chicken hot wings, how I love thee. If there ever was a food that could brighten even a dark Chicago winter day, it would have to be the perfectly roasted chicken wing, with magic dust of course, and finished with some Frank’s hot sauce. Worries disappear as you get covered in hot sauce and the lips start to tingle. BLISS.

chicken hot wings oven roasted tom schmidt photo

I perfected this recipe while living in CHI-Town (Chicago for the rest of y’all) in a classic high-rise condo building. It’s nice enough, but they forgot to put a balcony with a grill on our unit! Consequently, I have been relegated to preparing my favorite chicken wings in the oven. My love for wings and chicken makes this one by far the most tested recipe.

chicken hot wings oven roasted tom schmidt photo

For years I have oven-roasting these famous wings on aluminum foil lined pans, but recently switching over to parchment instead. I have heard from a few people about how aluminum might hurt the brain… I would much rather kill my brain cells with booze rather than aluminum foil!

Be careful, these wings are bound to impress your friends, so buy plenty if sharing. I have seen 100 pound girls demolish upwards of 20 wings, seriously.

These wings are also great un-sauced for those with a little less tolerance for the spicy.

Let’s Cook!

Recipe for Oven Roasted Chicken Hot Wings with Franks Hot Sauce and Magic Dust

Ingredients

Hot Wings
3 pounds high quality chicken wings
1/2 cup Magic Dust seasoning (Check out the recipe!)

Sauce
2/3 cup Frank’s Hot Sauce
1/2 stick butter (not margarine folks…)

Chicken Hot Wings – Oven Roasted and Cooked to Perfection

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Coconut Macaroons Recipe – Lynnette Astaire

Tom Breakfast, Desserts, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Party Food, Recipe, Snacks, Vegan, Video 0 Comments

Lynnette Astaire’s Coconut Macaroon Recipe

Let’s face it when you get hungry, you gotta eat something… And you can’t just bake a chicken or make a fresh kale salad every time the HUNGER strikes! These coconut macaroons sweet, filling and store well for at least a week. That is if you can resist eating them all at once…

Recipe Inspiration: Lynnette Astaire – LiveLynnette.com

lynnette astaire featured on Eat with Tom chicago food blogFor this post we’ve brought in the lifestyle expert and healthy food queen Lynnette Astaire to help us out with a healthy snack recipe. She is a true health fanatic and loves to share her tips and tricks for a great life on her site www.livelynnette.com. The content is raw, real and super funny! Her recent Beyonce 7/11 parody video had me cracking up as her and a friend lip-sync the song on the beach in Mexico.

This recipe was inspired by one of Lynnette’s favorite snacks from Whole Foods. The only problem was, she loved them so much that the pre-packaged price tag was eating a hole in her pocket. With a bit of ingredient list research and a few Google searches, voila Coconut Macaroons on the CHEAP!!

This recipe includes almond flour (or meal) to keep it gluten free and gives it nice nutty flavor.  This is a new ingredient for me, but it is a fun one!  Angela the Baker first introduced almond meal to me with the Peach Crumble recipe where she combined it with ground up quinoa for a tasty grain-free topping.

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Step-by-Step Coconut Macaroons Recipe Instructions

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Asian Inspired Broccolini Recipe, Edamame, Coconut

Tom Adventure Eating, Dinner, Grain-Free, Paleo Friendly, Recipe, Vegan, Vegetables 1 Comment

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Broccolini Recipe with Edamame, Coconut and Kaffir Lime Leaves

Fresh and light with tons of lime and coconut. Take a ride around the world with this tropical vegetable dish. The Kaffir Lime leaves give an amazing aroma of lime throughout the dish without citrusy bitterness. Finished with heaping handful of cilantro for an ultimate fresh taste.

Over the Christmas break, I was back at home perusing cookbooks and found “Plenty More” by the uber famous Yotam Ottolenghi. At first glance I was thoroughly impressed by the images, but felt the ingredients may be too obscure for most.  I still grabbed the book and loaded it up for some airplane reading on the way back from Missouri to the Chicago Arctic.

Recipe Inspiration – Plenty More: Vibrant Vegetable Cooking from London’s Ottolenghi (pg.62)

While squished into an airplane seat and thumbing through the book, I found myself quite excited about a number of Yotam’s recipes. They seem to have an un-abashed other world flair to them. Due to his British tongue, a number of ingredients that sound exotic turn out to be easily attainable. For example, “haricots verts” actually are just simple green beans…

Ok, so beans are haricots verts, but when do I find curry leaves, and fresh ones to be exact? Well I haven’t yet… But I did find fresh Kaffir Lime leaves at an asian grocery store for real cheap. So I tossed ’em in! Although I am sure it’s a very different flavor from the original recipe, the aroma and flavor infusion from the leaves is worth a quick trip to the market.

Another substitution I made for this recipe was young coconut meat for grated mature hard coconut. Until preparing this dish I had never hacked into a fresh coconut in the kitchen. Recalling my childhood, we might have had one that I smashed with a hammer in the driveway, but that’s about it. My girlfriend loves coconut water and has many fond memories of drinking them along the roadside in Singapore. She assured me, “just cut here and here and the top will come right off.”

broccolini recipe plenty more edamame green beans coconutI sort of believed her, but I still wore my cut resistant gloves. I dug up an old knife and began gently hacking away at the top point. It’s easy to cut through the white flesh, but then there is a woody center that does take a bit more whacking. Then suddenly the coconut water begins to leak out and whoohoo! Just like finding water in the dessert. Take a look down below for images of how-to break into the young coconut, it is definitely easier than I would have imagined. AND the coconut is totally worth it in this veggie dish for a hint of sweetness and richness.

This recipe was the my first foray into “Plenty More” and it actually turned out real tasty! Either every recipe in this book is pretty good, or I just got lucky. Regardless, I am motivated to translate more British English to discover the world according to Yotam.

Yotam Otteolenghi’s Plenty More Recipe Adaptation for Broccolini and Edamame Salad Step by Step Images

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Chickpea Pizza Refined – Plus Chicken Sausage / Magic Dust

Tom Dinner, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Great Left-Overs, Paleo Friendly, Recipe, Recipes Refined 1 Comment

How to cook Gluten-Free pizza at home - Eat with Tom Chicago

Chickpea Flatbread Pizza Recipe – Gluten-Free

The original Chickpea Pizza with Eggs Recipe has become kinda small-time famous for some crazy reason.  Maybe it’s the eggs on top that get all the attention…   Personally, I dig this recipe so much that I make it nearly every week!  It then becomes lunch and snacks for the next few days.

As I continue to make it time and time again, I have worked out a few new additions that you are sure to love.

I have been integrating more high quality meats into my diet these days and I am feeling as strong as ever.  There is something about incorporating some delicious animal fats that tame my hunger and help me to think more clearly.

It would seem that I am evolving into a P-egan (Paleo-Vegan, borrowed from Dr. Mark Hyman) to get the building benefits of the Paleo diet and the cleansing benefits of lots of veggies.

For the Chickpea Pizza, the refinements include:

  • Spice up the CRUST:  Add 1 tablespoon Magic Dust to the chickpea crust batter
  • Chicken Sausage the Slice:  Add ½ pound of browned Italian Chicken Sausage to the pizza toppings
  • Simplified cooking instructions: “20-20-5”  20 minutes for the crust, add toppings, 20 minutes for the pizza with toppings, add eggs and cook for a final 5 mins for perfect yolks

    Pizza Recipe with Chickpea Crust

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Bacon wrapped dates recipe pictures how to make healthy party food

Bacon Wrapped Dates – Bring a Hot “Date” to Your Next Party!

Morgan Paris Appetizer, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Paleo Friendly, Party Food, Recipe, Side Dishes 0 Comments

Bacon wrapped dates recipe pictures how to make healthy party food

**Guest Post from Morgan Paris Fitness**

Do you love hearing people comment on how awesome the dish you brought to the party is? I know I do!  These delicious Bacon Wrapped Dates will delight your tastebuds with the rich sweetness from the dates contrasted by savory, salty bacon.

I’m exited to share this recipe with you because it’s kinda become my “thing.”  I always bring my ” Dates”   ;)   to parties and secretly I can’t wait to hear, “oh my gosh, these are so good! Who brought these?!”

Now that my secret is out …

Not only are these delicious, they are SO EASY to make! I recommend getting the Uncured Bacon from Trader Joe’s because it is nitrate and nitrite free. You can also pick up a package of their Fancy Medjool Dates there, too. It ends up being analmost perfect ratio (sometimes there are a few dates left over that you can use in another recipe).

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But wait, there’s more! These are also pretty healthy! So they have a high sugar content, but the protein and fat in the bacon helps slow down the absorption of the sugar into your bloodstream allowing it to disperse and digest normally. Dr. Mercola shares these various health benefits:

  • First and foremost, dates are easily digested, allowing your body to make full use of their goodness.
  • Dates contain 6.4-11.5% of fiber which helps move waste through your colon and helps prevent LDL (bad) cholesterol absorption by binding with cancer-causing chemicals in your body.
  • Dates contain iron, potassium, B-vitamins, Vitamins A and K, copper, magnesium, manganese, niacin, pantothenic acid and riboflavin.
  • Together these factors help your body better metabolize carbohydrates, protein, and fats. Eating dates in moderation can contribute to many additional health benefits including stroke prevention, protecting against damage to cells from free radicals, as well as less chance of coronary heart disease and the development of colon, prostate, breast, endometrial, lung, and pancreatic cancers.

Bacon Wrapped Dates Recipe

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Limey Avocado and Grape Tomato Side Dish from Lemonade LA

Tom Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Lunch, Recipe, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian 1 Comment

Amazing avocado recipe - vegan meals - chicago food blog

Avocado Recipe with Limey Dressing and Grape Tomatoes

Large chunks of avocados spiked with a zesty lime vinaigrette, smiles are guaranteed.  This dish is a great side or main player for a veggie based lunch.  The good fats in the avocados will keep both your brain and stomach happy all afternoon.  No h-Anger excuses!

(h-Anger defined: the annoyed and dangerous mindset that causes you to turn into a ravenous beast until you get junk food or another meal.  No, coffee does not fix this condition.  See additional details on the Urban Dictionary.)

I  traveled and worked in downtown Los Angeles for many weeks last year.  Of all the meals I ate throughout the city, my favorites primarily all came from this quick serve modern cafeteria restaurant on the basement level of the office building.

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Recipe Inspiration – The Lemonade Cookbook


This mecca of lunch greatness, called Lemonade, seems to exist only in California and the Middle East (go figure…) at this point.  This dish falls into their ‘marketplace portions’ category, consisting of relatively healthy, mostly veggie based, and super flavorful dishes.  I was so excited to find such a truly filling and healthy option for lunch on the road that I ate there nearly everyday.  Oh yeah, and on travel days I would eat it twice… oops.  If you are flying Delta through LAX, you can find it right there in the terminal.

Since I am such an avid fan, of course I had to buy the cookbook.  So now that my days traveling to L.A. are over, I am working through the recipes and plan to share a few more of my favorites in future posts.  Got a few bucks burning a hole in your pocket? Pick up the The Lemonade Cookbook on Amazon.

Avocado Recipe with Limey Dressing and Grape Tomatoes

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Eat with Tom makes easy recipes that promote healthy living

Grain Free Fried Rice Recipe – Grated Cauliflower and Shrimp

Tom Dinner, Easy Impress, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Great Left-Overs, Paleo Friendly, Recipe, Side Dishes, Vegetables 4 Comments

Eat with Tom makes easy recipes that promote healthy living

Grain-Free Fried Rice Recipe made out of Grated Cauliflower

Seriously, is that fried rice without a grain of rice??  The amazing cauliflower strikes again!  Really, what can’t you do with cauliflower?  Recently I have ran across recipes utilizing this humble plant in all kinds of uncommon ways, such as pizza crust and taco tortillas to name just a few.  Maybe I will have to do an entire series on innovative uses of cauliflower.  I am intrigued.

This fried “rice” experience is so fast and easy to prepare, it will likely go onto your list for weekday dinner meals.  This meal will satisfy even a hearty desire for savory spice without lots of meat.  I have also made this without shrimp and its 93% as good.  Just add all of the spices to the onions and carrots to make a pure veggie version.

This was one of first times putting ancho chiles to work.  The fragrance and color take this dish to the next level.  I picked up some that were already ground up at the Spice House in Old Town.  As I was testing this recipe, one attempt got so spicy that I nearly made my girlfriend cry… and we are not talking about my spicy dance moves either.  So be sure to measure out the peppers in this one or cut them back a bit if are feeling a little less adventurous.

To top off this recipe, don’t forget the squeeze of lime right at the very end.  The touch of acid brightens the flavor and finishes it so nicely.

My favorite thing about this recipe: It’s cauliflower, eat as much as you want.

Let’s Cook!

Cauliflower Fried Rice Step by Step Recipe

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