My Cajun Blend

1/4 C Onion Powder

1/4 C Garlic Powder

1/4 C Paprika

1/8 C Kosher Salt

1/8 C Black Pepper

1/8 C Cayenne Pepper

Maple Cajun Brine for Chicken

Brining is a great way to add flavor, and moisture to poultry or pork with out adding fat. I used this brine on a whole chicken and then cooked it beer can style on a charcoal grill until the bird hits the correct temperature with is 165 degrees F. I pulled the chicken at 155 degrees F to allow for carry over cooking. I used a craft double hop beer for it as well.

The brine recipe is as follows:

1 Quart of Chicken Stock

1/4 C Kosher Salt

1/4 C Maple Syrup

1/2 C Cajun Seasoning

5 Pepper Corns

1 Bay Leaf

Bring the Ingredients to boil

Put the Chicken in the container for brining and cover with Ice

After the solutions is well mixed and devolved let cool for 5 minutes and then pour over the chicken.

Cover and refrigerate at least over night but no more than 3 days

I hope this helps people in their quest for delicious healthier eating

Baked Tilapia Fish Tacos

Software:

• 5 Filets of Tilapia
• 1 Pinch of Cayenne Pepper
• 1 Tablespoon of Cumin
• Butter Non Stick Spray
• 1/2 A head of Green Cabbage Shaved thin
• 1/4 of a head of red cabbage shaved thin
• 1 Carrot julienned
• 1/2 cup of low fat sour cream
• mrs dash chipotle seasoning
• splash of lime juice
• frank's red hot sauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Cut the tilapia into 1 inch cubes and season with cayenne, and cumin

Put in a baking casserole dish sprayed with the non stick spray

bake until done

In a bowl mix the sour cream, mrs dash, lime juice, and hot sauce to taste, add salt and pepper to increase flavor to taste

In another bowl toss the cabbage, and carrots with a little bit of the dressing until moist to your liking

Take some of the tilapia, place in your favorite taco tortilla and top with some of the slaw and enjoy

Research

I am in a tough term of school. It is the term right before my internship, and most of the classes have intensive projects. Such as my kitchen class CA 2060 International Cuisine.

In my kitchen class, everyone is assigned a country to research for a 1250 word paper, and a slide show about the country's cuisine and how their culture affected it. I was assigned Mexico. This is one of Chef Powell's favorite countries.

I am using this as an opportunity to learn new ways to impact food with healthy flavors, using less fats and more pure flavors such as great stocks and broths.

Post celebrations, and cooking towards a healthy new year

Happy New Year everybody. As I sit here writing it is 1/1/11, which is an interesting number to say the least, and I see it popping up everywhere on Facebook and other blogs. This means the holidays are behind us and until the super bowl in the United States there is no reason to do any massive cheating on one's daily clean eating ability.

I am sitting here drinking my coffee watching my lovely wife play video games thinking of meals in the past, and researching meals in the future. Today I had pad thai at a restaurant, and it reminded me of the pad thai in school and the few times I have had it I have completely loved it.

I have been rethinking how I eat, and pad thai kind of works with my new philosophy that I need to eat a better variety of things. More combos of veggies, soy, and meat leaner meats with better carbs. I feel as though pad thai has all of this in one dish, and it makes me look towards other dishes that put together great culinary combos, and lead towards a healthier me and even you.

My name is Josh and I am a health concerned culinarian

Chicken Burgers

1 pound of chicken breast meat ground

pinch of salt, pepper, basil, thyme, and garlic poweder

mix all the ingredients together, and form into patties

cook on a griddle, until they reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F

Eat as they are or put on your choice of buns and toppings.

Holidays

I was informed by my mom that at our family celebration for Christmas this year we are not going to be having turkey, ham, duck, goose, or even the turducken I wanted to make, but instead we are appetizers.

This came to some what of a surprise to me, and saddened me at first because I have really wanted to make a turducken from scratch and actually have all the ingredients needed for it. After some soul searching and research I figured that this is going to be great for me.

My next term in school is CA2050 Classical French, and Garde Mange. At the end of the class this term we have to do a salon buffet of five different appetizers. Thinking about all of this I have started going through my new cook books looking at various options and appetizers and I have found a few that appeal to me, but I pose the question to everyone out in the www, what do you enjoy. What have you had at restaurants, or that a family member has mad that you enjoyed?