Tastefully Tuesday - 5 Great Recipes for Two from Your Food Processor

Over the past year or so I've posted everything from eating cheaper on a family vacation to how to use appliances besides the dreaded stovetop to prepare meals. Today's post leans more towards the latter! Because our teenage sons are picky, my husband often fixes great recipes for two that we can enjoy while leaving the boys to fend for themselves.

Appliances versus Your Kitchen Stove

The days are hot enough without the oven or crock pot raising the temperature inside our tiny kitchen! That's why my favorites are the recipes that you prepare right in the appliance, like the blender or juicer. However we have found that the food processor is a great alternative to using the stove, especially in the summer.

Of course you can try making these in the blender, but in my experience the result is either too clunky or too soupy. And I'm sorry but I just don't want my hummus to take on the same consistency as my good morning berry-berry smoothie. That would completely ruin spreading hummus on crackers, tortilla chips, or celery sticks!

5 Food Processor Recipes

While my skills with the stove are sorely lacking, I am a food processing whiz. Here are my top 5 recipes that I enjoy with my food processor. If you're looking for great recipes for two, then keep reading!

1. CHICKEN SALAD - The next time you grill boneless chicken for dinner, add in a couple of extra pieces and store them in the fridge until the next day. When you're fixing lunch, toss the chicken (I cut mine into large chunks), half a cup of fat free mayo (or ranch dressing), 2 celery stalks (broken into large chunks) and a handful of walnuts. Serve in a wrap.

2. SALSA - Canned salsa from the store always leaves a metallic taste in my mouth. I much prefer fresh salsa! It just tastes so much healthier. Add half a dozen Roma tomatoes (cut into large chunks), 3 green onions, 1/4 cup of fresh cilantro leaves, 1 jalapeno (seeded), 1/2 cup of yellow corn (preferably cut straight from the ear - this is especially yummy if it's leftover from grilling dinner the night before), 1 tablespoon of lime zest, half a clove of garlic, a few turns from your pepper grinder, and 1 tablespoon of sea salt. Process away and you'll be eating tortilla chips with healthier salsa in no time!

3. HUMMUS - Add 4 red bell peppers (seeded and cut into chunks), 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, 2 garlic cloves (peeled and quartered), and 2 cups crumbled feta cheese to your food processor and blend away to make a great-tasting, garden-fresh hummus. Serve with pita bread or your favorite veggies.

4. PULLED PORK - Nothing says summertime like a pulled pork sandwich. Any time we have leftovers after grilling pork chops, I cut the meat into large chunks and throw into my food processor. Assuming I have 2 large pork chops, I add 1/4 cup of ketchup, a healthy (but not obese) squirt of yellow mustard, a couple of pinches of brown sugar, a few turns from my pepper grinder, a pinch of sea salt, the leaves from one sprig of fresh cilantro, and a tiny splash of vinegar (as in no more than half a cap full). After mixing I transfer to freezer-safe containers and the next time my husband and I want pulled pork sandwiches, we just re-heat this creation in the microwave.

5. ICE CREAM - Summer is coming and there is no time to waste. As soon as fruit comes into season, begin freezing it in half-pound portions using freezer bags, freezer jars, or however you prefer. When you want ice cream pop a half-pound container of fruit into the food processor with half a cup of sugar (or a sugar-alternative like Stevia or Spelda) and churn until the fruit is roughly chopped. Slowly add in 2/3 of a cup of heavy cream (with the processor running the entire time) and once it's incorporated, you have ice cream! You can eat it right then, or safely store it in your freezer for about a week.

Once I turned 40 I developed oral allergies to some fairly common ingredients, namely cocoa and cinnamon. Even trace amounts in foods that did not contain those ingredients, but were prepared in a facility that uses those ingredients in other products would set off a reaction. (An example is snack cakes. Just because I buy vanilla does not mean they were not using the machines to make chocolate ones earlier that same day.) Another big one is raw onion or garlic (we substitute onion and garlic powder where necessary, even in the above recipes) so I tend to avoid those, too!

The Best Food Processor for Your Buck

When selecting a food processor, make sure you get one that can provide a variety of functions for the money you are spending. Nothing is more irritating to me than buying a kitchen appliance only to find out that it will not work for the recipe I am creating. That's why I would like to invite you to:

Visit Amazon's Buyer's Guide - Cuisinart Food Processor
You can learn all about your new food processor here, and have it shipped to your house within a day or so. As always, if you subscribe to Amazon Prime you will not only enjoy a deep discount but also free standard shipping as well.