Ellie's Real Good Food

moving at the speed of light, and boy, life can be so stressful.

But eating well doesn't have to be.

I have great strategies for getting dinner on the table, like that.

Like how to stock your kitchen and having fast, crowd pleasing recipes at your fingertips.

Like these: Shrimp with Spinach, Garlic and Smoked Paprika.

And tomato bread.

Peach Chicken with Crispy Bread Crumbs.

And Three Ingredient, two minute Mango Sorbet.

So let's kick back and cook.

Right now on Ellie's Real Good Food.

(playful music) - [Voiceover] Funding for this series has been provided by, - [Voiceover] Luvo.

Full servings of fruits and veggies, nutritious whole grains and lean proteins, seasoned with bold herbs and spices.

Chef created meals ready made for you.

In your grocer's freezer.

Luvo.

The next generation of frozen food.

- [Voiceover] We said goodbye to the day and to the city.

And drifted off into the twilight.

And when we woke, we found that the whole world had reinvented itself.

- [Voiceover] The wonders of Europe awaits you.

Princess Cruises.

Come back new.

(calm music) - [Voiceover] Grapes from California.

Grown by families for families.

- [Voiceover] And by the Natural Gourmet Institute.

For health and culinary arts.

Additional funding provided by, the generous support of our Kickstarter donors.

A complete list is available at Ellie's Real Good Food dot com.

- Hi, I'm Ellie Krieger and this is Ellie's Real Good Food.

I am all about leaving the stress of the day outside when I walk through the front door.

So I make sure I have everything I need to make a stress-free dinner.

Now Ed and Beth are looking to do that but they face a bigger challenge than most of us.

They have completely opposite schedules.

Beth works nine to six and Ed works the four AM shift.

- So we're always kind of on opposing schedules and it's really really hard to have any together time at meal time.

- [Ellie] To make things even more complicated, they have many additional time consuming responsibilities.

So we have six dogs, and feeding them, obviously, takes a while.

These are sugar gliders, they're marsupials.

We have four, they're our little nocturnal friends.

(laughs) There's another hungry mouth right there, Isabelle, waiting for her food, so really, what we have quite a zoo here.

We're kind of zoo keepers first and people second.

We also buy a lot of food, I buy food, she buys food.

We really don't like the same things.

And that makes buying food very very difficult.

It makes preparing food very difficult, as well.

Because we don't eat the same things, so maybe we can find a little happy medium.

This is a salad, that, can you see that?

- [Voiceover] Yeah, yeah.

- Oh, Beth's home, by the way.

She got home about 10 minutes ago.

It's a good day.

This is what I'm used to eating, I love it, but I get kind of tired of it every day, it takes forever to fix, it takes a lot of storage, and you know, we need some help.

We need, we don't have time to do this every night.

And we have all these pets we have to feed, and yeah, it gets really tiresome.

- Ed's joining me on video chat from Georgia.

Ed, welcome, thanks for reaching out to me.

I know all about this juggling act.

I feel your pain and I think I have some really good solutions for you.

- I'm all ears, because I'm tired of juggling.

- I know, and you know, we gotta keep all those balls and like, too many going on.

- Yes.

You know, we don't like to eat a whole lot of processed food, we like to eat fresh food, when we can.

And that means we have a lot of it in our refrigerator.

And all this stuff can go bad pretty quickly, and so we end up wasting a lot of food that way and that's kind of frustrating.

- One really great thing to do, is have really excellent recipes at your fingertips that you can make super fast, with ingredients that are easy to have at home, and you like shrimp, right?

- Oh my gosh, yes.

- Oh my goodness.

I have such a good shrimp dish.

It's kind of Spanish style, it's shrimp with toasted garlic, smoked paprika and spinach, and it's really fast to make and I make it with this delicious tomato bread.

You're gonna love it.

You are, too.

So let me show you.

First of all, you just thinly slice some garlic here, so, just like so.

I have two in there already and I'm just gonna slice one more.

So three cloves of garlic.

And you wanna kind of get them pretty even, each slice.

I'm gonna get some oil heated up here, three tablespoons of olive oil, it actually doesn't have to be super good stuff.

And you can just use regular olive oil, it doesn't have to be extra virgin for this.

Okay, so I'm going to heat that over medium high heat just to get it warm, but ultimately, the whole thing with this toasted garlic is to cook it low and slow.

So while that oil's heating up, I'll just chop the spinach.

And I always buy, here's a great tip for you.

Buy pre washed greens.

I swear, I wanna shake the hand of the person who invented this stuff.

Do you typically buy pre washed greens, Ed?

- Yeah, I have no idea what you're talking about.

- I think the answer is yes.

Do you just have that on hand right there like that?

- Just so happen to have triple washed spinach right here, I'm really loving that stuff.

(laughs) - That's great.

Well I usually keep arugula, spinach, so I'm just giving it a little coarse chop.

Because I don't wanna have huge leaves but you don't have to spend too much time on it.

So then this is ready, I'm just going to put it on low now, because you don't want to really cook this garlic, you don't want to let it burn.

This is really the key thing, not to let it burn, but just to let it get golden and toasty.

So putting that in the oil, and taking its time.

Making sure thaT's all in the oil like this, each slice.

I'm going to actually lower this even more, because you really want this to cook so gently.

And do not walk away from it.

Because it turns really quickly from golden to burnt.

So you just want to be very lightly golden brown, it smells so wonderful, and this cooking process actually mellows the taste of the garlic, and kind of gives it this incredible rich flavor and literally, a toasty flavor.

But if you overdo it then it will taste bitter and kind of burnt.

So while that's toasting though, I will talk about my shrimp here for a minute, and I'm patting it dry, so this doesn't really splatter when it hits the pan.

So shrimp is one of those things that I always keep in the freezer.

A total freezer must have, shrimp.

And it thaws so quickly, so even if you're not planning ahead, you can just run it under the faucet in a colander and it will thaw in like, five minutes.

So actually, frozen shrimp is kind of the best kept secret.

Because most of the shrimp that you buy in the store, is actually frozen and then thawed.

So you're just paying extra to have it thawed.

So it's excellent quality to just keep frozen shrimp in your freezer.

And also, cheaper, too.

And this is so ready.

So you just want it to be golden brown like this.

And then you take it out of the pan, and what's left in the pan, we'll put it back in later.

It almost becomes like little chips, kind of.

So these become crispy and chippy, and the oil is beautifully seasoned with garlic and a nice toasty flavor.

So I'm going to turn the heat up to medium high, and in go the shrimp.

(sizzling) One of the great things about shrimp is that it cooks so fast.

It wouldn't take more than three or four minutes here.

Now, smoked paprika.

So this is a real classic, kind of Spanish spice.

And if you think, you know, one of the things I try not to do is have one ingredient that you're just going to use once, and I wouldn't do that to you.

You can put it on eggs, you can put it on potatoes, you can put it on roasted vegetables, on grilled vegetables, it adds a smoky, rich flavor that is just distinctive and unbeatable.

And it also has a lot of antioxidants.

So two teaspoons.

A pinch of cayenne.

I like a little heat.

And a little salt, a quarter teaspoon of salt.

Just get that all together, oh my goodness, now we're talking.

And look at the color.

I wish you could smell this, Ed, because this smells so good.

- Maybe one day the technology will be there.

- Well, I want you to make it.

I want you to smell it in your kitchen.

And this is ready literally, in less than 20 minutes, the whole thing.

In with the spinach, just until it wilts.

Looks like a lot of spinach, always, when you first put it in.

But it melts down to nothing, practically.

Kind of like a stir fry, almost.

Okay, so I like to keep the spinach so it still has a little fresh edge to it.

And it will wilt further as the heat from the shrimp gets to it.

Now you just put the crispy bits right back in there, sprinkle them around, and you have an amazing shrimp dish done.

I'm gonna take this off the heat, and to go with it, a classic.

Tomato bread.

Ever make tomato bread?

- I've never even heard of it.

- Okay.

So you haven't been to Spain, have you?

Cause if you go there.

- Not in the last 50 years, no.

(laughs) - Basically, this is a very classic Spanish tapas.

It's basically, you take bread, typically crusty bread, and you brush it with a little olive oil, and you toast it.

So that's just what I'm going to do here.

Toast it in the broiler.

Gonna go do that real quick.

Toast.

I use whole grain bread.

Typically, in Spain, you get it with just white bread but it's nice to use whole grain whenever possible.

And definitely works here, just make it a crusty bread.

So here's when the fun part comes.

You cut a piece of garlic in half, and you just rub it onto the bread, and the bread itself acts like a little grater for the garlic.

And you want to be careful not to overdo it, because a lot can come out.

So just go nice and easy.

So you get a hint of that beautiful garlic essence, and then, it wouldn't be tomato bread of course, without tomato.

So you cut a tomato in half, and you just take the tomato and kind of rub it on the bread really generously.

Until the juices from the tomato kind of soak the toasty part of the bread a little.

So all those juices are on there.

I like to be really generous about it.

And then, I'm gonna plate everything up.

You're gonna see how it all comes together.

We got shrimp, shrimp, shrimp, shrimp, shrimp.

Smoked paprika, toasted garlic.

Let's see if I can do that delicately.

Whoops.

Okay, the rule is, any one that falls out, I get to eat right now.

And you think I'm kidding but I'm not.

How beautiful is that?

Now, tomato bread.

We're not done with the tomato bread yet.

One last step.

Two, actually.

Fresh tomatoes on top.

For beauty, flavor, and nutrition.

A little salt and a little oil.

Little more tomato.

And just a drizzle, drizzle, drizzle of olive oil, to top it off.

And dinner's ready.

Now was that fast enough for you?

- That was very fast, now how quickly can you get it down here?

(laughs) - I'll fly it down, I wish I could.

But you can definitely make this tomorrow.

That's one easy recipe for you.

And I have more where that came from.

When you're busy, the freezer is your best friend.

I always have mine totally stocked.

As you can see.

So always have fruits and vegetables galore.

I keep spinach and peas and corn.

And peaches and mangoes and berries, just about everything.

And the thing is, it's no compromise, nutritionally.

They're basically frozen at their peak of freshness.

And oftentimes, food that's frozen can have more nutrients than something that may be in a truck for two weeks before it gets to you, and then sitting in your cupboard for a while.

So fresh is great, but just buy what you need, and make sure you have a stocked freezer.

Then you will have great healthy food at your fingertips.

The key, with fruits and vegetables especially, is don't buy them in any sauces, or don't buy them with any added sweeteners.

Another thing that also freezes great is bread.

So I always have whole grain bread, pizza dough, great for quick weeknight meals.

Speaking of quick weeknight meals, I also, always have individual and family size containers of food, meals that I've made ahead, and frozen in containers or little baggies, and then also, totally don't discount pre made, store bought frozen meals.

There's a whole new world of them out there.

It's just about choosing the right ones.

So when you read the label, make sure you pick a frozen meal that has a serving, at least a serving, of fruits and vegetables, that has a good amount of protein, so at least 10 grams of protein, also one that focuses on whole grains, and has less than 500 milligrams of sodium.

So if you look for those parameters, chances are you're gonna get something really good and a lot of them are really amazing, you'll be surprised, I think.

So if you stock it right, your freezer is your best friend.

And I need these right now.

Peach chicken, oh my goodness, I love this recipe.

It has crispy bread crumbs and Italian kind of dressing, and peaches all baked up in a beautiful chicken dish.

Just starting off here with some fresh bread crumbs, I always kind of grind my own in the food processor, and then just toast them up and have them on hand, it's one of those things you can do in advance, and just have in your fridge, or even in your freezer, right?

Some bread crumbs.

So some bread crumbs there.

Some sesame seeds in there, a little bit of paprika.

So before I used smoked paprika, this is sweet paprika, that's not smoked, and it just has a mild flavor, but it gives beautiful color.

And of course it has all those antioxidants as well.

So about a half teaspoon of that.

And some salt and pepper.

So just seasoning the bread crumbs.

I'll just mix that up so it's all kind of integrated.

So these are already toasted but it's gonna get even crispier in the dish.

Here I'm going to make an Italian dressing, like a homemade Italian dressing.

So a quarter cup of extra virgin olive oil, a third cup of white wine vinegar, there we go.

And there's some garlic in here already, chopped up some garlic.

A little oregano.

So all the classic Italian seasonings.

A little oregano.

Half teaspoon of onion powder.

And a little of the sweet paprika in here, too.

That great color.

Tie it together with the bread crumbs.

Salt and pepper.

A little bit of honey.

I like to balance that with just about a teaspoon of honey.

Balances the acid, just gives a touch of sweetness.

I'm gonna whisk that up.

Who needs the jarred stuff when this is so easy to make?

Tastes so fresh.

So I'm gonna pour that in here, and now, dip the chicken in the dressing, its gonna absorb that flavor for a second and have a nice coating of moisture, then it goes into the bread crumbs.

Okay.

So I've sprayed the pan already, with a little of cooking spray.

And then, this is kind of the fun part.

The unexpected part.

I'm gonna take the rest of these bread crumbs and just pour em all in here, because they're gonna get really crispy, absorb the juices from the chicken, and absorb the dressing.

That goes in, too.

It all gets poured over the dish.

All that great flavor.

And last, but definitely not least, in my peach chicken.

Peaches.

And making them with frozen peaches makes it so super easy.

So these are thawed already, and I'm just gonna kind of distribute them over the top, with the juices.

And this all gets baked, it all kind of melds together, and browns and crisps up and absorbs all that sweet, lovely juice from the peaches, and you have a terrific, easy, quick, weeknight dinner.

So it just goes in oven, three seventy five, about 20 minutes.

Incoming.

Oh my.

I love this peach chicken.

This beautiful, bubbling away.

I can smell the Italian dressing.

All that peachiness.

And the bread crumbs.

Which have absorbed all the juices and have become crispy as well.

Let's see, oh boy.

Get some of the, crispy edges here.

Love it.

(calm music) All right.

Oh this is hot.

Ed and Beth, this one is for you.

You're gonna love it.

(calm music) Wait till you see this.

Two minute, three ingredient, mango sorbet.

So one of the ingredients of course, is mango.

In this case, it's frozen.

So I have a pound of frozen mango chunks here.

One of the staples in my freezer, all the time.

And get that into the blender.

Ingredient number two.

Coconut milk.

And I use a can of coconut milk, because this is the really rich coconut milk, but I use light coconut milk, so it's not too high in saturated fat, so just about a quarter cup, and I might need a little bit more, as it's blending but we'll see.

You wanna kind of put in the minimal amount of liquid, and a quarter cup of honey, but first I put a little bit of oil in my measuring cup so that it slips out easily.

Great trick.

So the third ingredient is honey.

So it's just lightly sweetened and this is such a beautiful dessert that's healthy.

So I always use unrefined sweetener wherever possible.

So honey is perfect here, adds that sweetness, a lovely honey flavor of course, and also has a good amount of antioxidants in it, so you get that as an extra bonus.

Such a refreshing dessert, and it's mostly fruit, so it's also good for you.

So let's get that blending up, see if we need a little more liquid.

(buzzing) A little more liquid in there.

And if your blender doesn't have a plunger, you can just scrape it down the sides.

Kind of stop it and scrape down the sides a little.

I'll just put another tablespoon or so of coconut milk in.

And that should do it.

Literally two minutes and you have this fabulous sorbet.

(buzzing) Okay.

That is done, looking fabulous.

It basically looks like ice cream.

It's creamy and rich.

I can use the same spoon, I suppose.

Look!

Look at that.

Is that not beautiful?

Now that is a dessert worth waiting two minutes for.

Because that's all that you have to wait.

Mango sorbet.

Thanks to my freezer, this three ingredient, two minute sorbet hits the sweet spot.

Where delicious and healthy meet.

Okay, this is piping hot.

I have to go in.

I can't.

(laughs) This thing weighs like, 17 pounds, this chicken breast.

This is like not a normal chicken breast.

And a lot of them are really amazing, you'll be surprised, I think.

That's a freezer for you, baby.

(laughs) I think I might jump in there.

- [Voiceover] For these recipes and much more, go to Ellie's Real Good Food dot com.

Also, connect with Ellie on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Funding for this series has been provided by - [Voiceover] We said goodbye to the day and to the city.

And drifted off into the twilight.

And when we woke, we found that the whole world had reinvented itself.

- [Voiceover] The wonders of Europe awaits you.

Princess Cruises.

Come back new.

- [Voiceover] Luvo.

Full servings of fruits and veggies.

Nutritious whole grains and lean proteins, seasoned with bold herbs and spices.

Chef created meals, ready made for you.

In your grocer's freezer.

Luvo.

The next generation of frozen food.

(calm music) Grapes from California.

Grown by families for families.

- [Voiceover] And by, the Natural Gourmet Institute.

For health and culinary arts.

- [Voiceover] Additional funding provided by the generous support of our Kickstarter donors.

A complete list is available at Ellie's Real Good Food dot com.

Ellie's kitchen is provided by Clarke.

New England's Sub-Zero and Wolf showroom and test kitchen.