BBQ'd Buffalo Wings

I had my little cousin over this weekend and decided to have a nice BBQ yesterday with the 3 of us. I had some chicken wings that I decided to make a marinade for myself. The result = soooo delicious!

Buffalo Wings (Caution: may be hot for some!)

7 chicken wings
½ to ¾ cup of your favorite hot sauce (I did not measure)
1-2 tsp ground black pepper
1-2 tsp salt
1-2 tsp chili powder
1-2 tsp crushed red pepper
1-2 tsp BBQ seasoning

1. Add all ingredients together in a Pyrex bowl. Cover, shake to mix well and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes prior to cooking.
2. Grill to your desired level.
3. Enjoy!

I take for granted how nice it is to cook for 2

My cousin's husband has basically been living with us Monday-Friday for the last 3 weeks while he works on our patio.  Having perfected cooking for just us two, it threw a wrench in my operation to now cook for 3 every night. Well, he went home this weekend so it was just us for dinner last night.  I'm doing Weight Watchers and Frank is just on a quest to eat healthy, so I have been cooking as healthy as I can.  I made this recipe up last night:

Shrimp Kabobs

• 1 bag of medium sized shrimp (approx. 28 shrimp)
• 1 large red bell pepper, cut into quarters 
• 1 large green bell pepper, cut into quarters 
• 1 whole lemon
• 1 whole lime
• 1 packet of sazon

1.  Soak your skewers, for a few hours prior to cooking, in a bowl full of water
2.  Assemble skewers.  Alternate green pepper, shrimp, red pepper, shrimp, green pepper, etc.  You should have 4 shrimp and 5 peppers.
3. Squeeze lemon and lime over skewers.  Sprinkle with sazon.
4.  Grill for approx 4 minutes on each side.

Disassemble skewers, remove tails and serve over a bed of brown rice.

3 skewers over 2/3 cup of brown rice = 5.5 points

Bacon Cheddar Stuffed Burgers

Apparently, I am on a stuffed burger kick. I tried these little babies when we were on our little anniversary getaway during Memorial Day weekend. Unfortunately, their grill was broken so I just pan fried them.  I served my husband's on onion buns and my own on a whole wheat bun.  We had some corn on the cob (boiled in a mixture of water, beer & sugar) on the side. Yummy!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lb ground beef or ground turkey
• 1/4 finely chopped onion (optional)
• 2-3 tbp of seasoned salt
• 2 tbs beer
• 4-6 slices of cooked bacon, crumbled
• 1 cup of sharp shredded cheddar cheese

Fry bacon until it crisp.  Pat grease off with paper towels, set aside and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, mix onion, ground beef, beer and seasoned salt together.  Form into 6-10 small patties (the number of patties will depend on how large you want the burgers to be).  In half of the patties, take a spoon and make an indent.  Set aside.

Crumble cooked bacon into bits, mix with cheese.  Scoop mixure onto indented patties, adding as much filling as you can.  Top with remaining patties and press edges to seal the burger.

Refrigerate for an hour. Pan fry, grill or broil.

Spinach Artichoke Stuffed Burgers

In preparation for our weekend getaway for our anniversary, I started recipe hunting for some romantic and fun meals I can make during our long weekend. I came across a recipe for stuffed burgers and thought what else can I stuff them with? After getting some inspiration from some cooking forums, I wanted to try spinach artichoke dip stuffed burgers. Here is the recipe I created for them:

Filling:
• 2 cups washed spinach
• 1 can of drained artichoke hearts
• 6 ounces cream cheese (softened)
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Burger:
• 2lb ground beef
• 1/2 onion grated or finely chopped
• ½ tsp pinches cumin
• ½ tsp pinches chili powder
• A dash of fresh ground black pepper
• A pinch of sea salt
• A tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 egg lightly beaten

Mix all stuffing ingredients together with a hand mixer. Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour.

Mix all hamburger ingredients together and make into 8 small, flat patties. Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour

Scoop stuffing into center of 4 patties. Cover with remaining 4 patties and pinch edges to close.

Bake, grill or pan-sear burgers until brown and cooked to your liking.

I pan seared (it was too cold and threatened of rain to grill) them and was on a time crunch, so I didn't get a chance to refrigerate anything. I feel like adding this step will allow you to handle everything better, close up the burgers properly and avoid them falling apart in the pan like mine did.

I served Frank's on an onion bun and mine on half of a whole wheat bun. I think they would be great on pretzel buns though!

They were still delicious! Had enough left to have it for leftovers a couple days later. I made this with corn pudding.

As for the dip, I probably could have cut everything in half. I had quite a bit leftover so I brought it over to my parent's house thinking we'd munch on it before dinner on Mother's Day. Didn't happen but I left it there for them anyways.