Kale!

Confession. I've never cooked with Kale. I've eaten it! But I've never bought it myself. Ever.

Today, Everyday Food has a whole bunch of Kale recipes. They seem perfectly Autumn-y and Winter-y. Kale's super good for you too (I don't know how, but that's what the people say).

I'm going to try making some soon!

Here's the link!

Simple Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce

Did you know you can make simple pasta sauce with sweet cherry or grape tomatoes? It's yummy and fresh. It's my favorite.

First, start boiling some noodles in salty water. These are fancy pappardelle noodles from Trader Joe's. Set your timer for 10 minutes to cook them al dente! While the noodles are cooking, start making your sauce. 

OOoo look. Pretty cherry tomatoes. I used about 3 handfuls and it made one serving. Works out for a single girl. BTW: Turns out you don't need to cut them like I did. They'll burst on their own in the pan. You can use diced roma tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes if you want to be normal.

In a wide pan, heat up some olive oil over med-high heat. Add a few cloves of minced garlic. Add some chili flakes if you like spice. I love spice. I added a lot of chili flakes.

Toss the tomatoes in the pan with the oil and garlic. I threw in some frozen peas for fun and color. And I like peas. Let them heat up and get fragrant. Add salt.

Once the tomatoes start getting mushy. Add some pasta water. The starchy pasta water makes the sauce thicker.

Let it simmer simmer simmer.

Keep simmering on medium heat until it's all mushy and delicious. I guess this is about 10 minutes. Add a bit of butter at this point to make the sauce silky smooth. You could also throw in a few leaves of fresh basil to make it basil-y.

Drain your noodles and throw them into the pan. Toss them in the sauce so that they soak up the flavor.

Put it all on a plate and top with some grated parmesan! 

I'm hungry now.

Easy to read steps:

• boil noodles.
• heat olive oil in a large pan on medium high heat.
• lightly brown garlic and chili flakes. 
• add tomatoes, peas, and salt.
• simmer on medium heat until tomatoes burst and get soft.
• add a 1/4 cup of pasta water to the sauce.
• simmer until it gets thicker.
• add some butter and herbs.
• drain noodles and add them to sauce mixture. toss together until incorporated.
• serve with parmesan

Blasted Veggies!

Want a veggie side dish?

This way of making veggies is super easy and tasty. You just roast them and they get crispy/tender and flavorful.

I originally got a recipe for blasted broccoli here. Then I realized you can also do this with carrots, squash, zucchini... basically any veggie that is kind of tough.

I like doing this to brussel sprouts too, but I blanch (boil for 2 minutes) the brussel sprouts beforehand to take the bitterness out.

Ingredients

• vegetable of choice
• olive oil
• salt
• chili flakes (optional).

Directions

1. Set your oven to 500 degrees or broil.
2. Wash and cut up your veggie of choice into bite-size pieces. 
3. Pat dry. If you use watery veggies, they wont get crispy in the oven.
4. Toss the dry veggies in olive oil and some salt. Optional: Add chili flakes for spice!
5. Arrange the veggies on a baking sheet. Make sure each piece has room. Crowding them together means less crispy edges..
6. Stick it in the oven on the top rack for 8-10 minutes or so until they are browned. They should smell almost burnt and yummy.

Tilapia Salad

Tilapia Salad

I made this one up, based on what I had in my fridge and freezer and it's SO tasty!  Feel free to edit and adjust based on whatever you have on hand.

Ingredients - Serves: 1 (adjust as necessary)

•  Arugula (2 handfuls)
• 1/4c frozen corn
• 1/4c frozen edamame
• Green onions, sliced two bushels
• 1 T pine nuts
• 4oz Tilapia fillet
• Goat Cheese
• Balsamic Vinaigrette

Directions

1. I like to buy the frozen, individually packaged tilapia fillets. If you do too, then thaw the fillet. 
2. Spray Pam or add a little olive oil to bottom of a frying plan.  Add the frozen corn and edamame to pan and heat to medium-low.
3. Once the heat picks up, push the veggies to the side and add the tilapia to the center of the pan and increase heat to medium-high.
4. Once it begins to sizzle, season with salt and lemon pepper and cover loosely with a lid.
5. Meanwhile add arugula, green onions, pine nuts, and goat cheese to a bowl.
6. Once the tilapia is cooked through (it will look solidly white), remove from heat.  Slide veggies into bowl with salad. Break up the tilapia into small pieces and add to salad. (If you want to let these cool slightly before adding to salad, that's ok too.)
7. Add balsamic vinaigrette and toss.

Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed Peppers

This recipe is adapted from my dad.  I don't know where he learned it...probably just made it up. :) 

Ingredients - Serves: 6-8

• 6 - 8 bell peppers, halved length-wise
• 1.5c cooked quinoa (could also use rice)
• Approx. half a sweet onion
• 2-3 cloves garlic (to taste)
• 5 links Trader Joe's apple chicken sausage (I've also used ground turkey before - also yummy)
• Trader Joe's Marinara sauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Make your quinoa (or rice) and set aside.
3. Cut bell peppers in half length-wise and gut the seeds and membrane. Place in a 9 x 13 glass pan, with a half inch of water in the bottom. Set aside.
4. While your grain is cooking, slowly saute garlic and onions on medium heat, until translucent and fragrant.
5. If using ground turkey or beef, add to onion/garlic until cooked through, then reduce heat and add marinara.  
6. If using chicken sausage, reduce heat to low and add sausage with marinara. Simmer until quinoa/rice is done cooked.
7. When ready, add quinoa/rice to marinara mixture.
8. Spoon stuffing into peppers, tucking into corners, until mounding on top.
9. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Chicken Pasta Thing

Hi everyone!

I thought I would share a very easy meal, I am sure for most of you this is a no brainer.  But it blew my mind this week!

Russell and I are trying to eat better so I spent a lot of time last week preparing our meals for the week.  2 things I did was make 3 lbs of chicken with a very tasty but non-descript marinade which mainly consisted of:  olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette, salt and pepper, garlic.  And I made a 1lb of whole wheat pasta.  So rather than plan out every meal I made some staples that I could use to throw a meal together.

So on to this meal:  First I sautéed some veggies: Bell peppers, onions, and garlic (That is just what I had, anything would work though, I love using mushrooms in something like this) in the jalapeño grape seed oil.   Which is what really pulls this dish together it is awesome!  After the onions were clear, I put some of the cut up premade chicken in the pan.  Just to heat up chicken.  Then I microwaved the amount of pasta I needed, and afterwards put more jalapeño grape seed oil in the pasta.  Then I put the vegetables/chicken with the pasta and I had a meal!  I am going to experiment in making my own flavored olive oils, I will update the blog with my progress.  Thanks!

Erin H.

Teriyaki Salmon & Broccoli - 15 minutes*!

Teriyaki Salmon & Broccoli - 15 minutes...plus a little TLC the day before. :)

Recipe is from Shara! (Which she learned from her mama: Sue Liou!)  I didn't end up making rice with this meal, but realized as I was eating it, that would've been genius (I mean, it's teriyaki - duh.  How's I miss that?)  I did pair it with a nice green salad though and for all the strong teriyaki flavor, a mild salad was a nice companion, so I'd recommend that.

 Ingredients - Serves: 2

• 2 Salmon fillets
• 1 bag broccoli-wokly (this is pre-cut & washed broccoli in a bag; makes life so much easier)
• Rice - however much you want, probably 1/2c to 1c
• Teriyaki Sauce - enough to marinate salmon

Directions - 24 Hours before

1. PRE-NOTE: To be fair, Shara recommends how to make one's own teriyaki sauce, however I already head some, so I opted to use that instead. (Shara - will you add teriyaki sauce instructions in the comments??) 
2.  The day prior, marinate the salmon in your teriyaki sauce.  The sauce should cover at least half the salmon (that is, it doesn't need to be completed covered in marinade). 
3. If you really want to save yourself some time, you could make your rice the day before too.  (But obvs, you don't have to.)

Directions - Eating Day

1. If you haven't made your rice already, now's the time. 
2. Turn the oven to Broil and make sure you have a rack on the lowest or second to lowest spot. (It's counter-intuitive, but that's how you get the flaky salmon texture.  I didn't quite get the awesome crispiness on the top, but it was delish!)
3. Spray a glass baking pan with Pam. Place salmon in center of pan. Fill remaining pan space with broccoli. Cover broccoli with remaining teriyaki marinade. (See pic to the right.)
4. Place on low rack with oven set to Broil until salmon is cooked through and broccoli is bright green (and a little singed!) Depending on how thick your salmon is this will be anywhere between 5 and 12 minutes.  Just keep a nose on it - if you can smell it, it's probably nearly done!

Whole Wheat Couscous with Chicken & Veggies

Whole Wheat Couscous with Chicken & Veggies

I made this one up!  You can either add chicken (like I did) or leave the chicken out and pair it with a burly-er main meat dish and/or salad.  Either way, feel free to mix it up, adapt, or eat as is - enjoy!

Ingredients - Serves: 4.5

• Whole wheat couscous (can also substitute with quinoa - equally delicious) - 1/2c dry
• 8-10 oz Chicken breast (I buy the frozen, boneless, skinless variety from TJs, super handy)
• Black beans, rinsed - 1 can
• Green onions - a couple stalks
• Frozen corn - 1/2c
• Frozen, shelled (fully cooked) edamame - 1/2c
• Cherry tomatoes - 10? 15? Whatever!
• Sesame Oil - 1.5T (ish)
• Salt/Pepper/Balsamic Vinegar - to taste

Directions

1. Make couscous. Boil 1/2c water, add couscous once boiling and remove from heat.
2. I like to defrost and bake my chicken in the toaster oven.  350 for about 10-15 minutes (until they're white all the way through).  You could also easily pan fry in a little oil.  Either way, cook and cut into bite size pieces (or not).
3. Rinse black beans and add to mixing bowl.  Chop green onion and cherry tomatoes and add to black beans. Measure and add frozen corn and edamame to bowl.  (The heat from the warm couscous and chicken will thaw the veggies.)
4. By now the couscous and chicken should be done - add each to the bowl and mix everything together.
5. Season with salt and pepper (not too much, more flavor is coming!) Add Sesame Oil and Balsamic Vinegar to taste.
6. If possible, let it sit for a bit before eating (letting the couscous absorb some of the Sesame Oil increases the yumminess). 
7. If eating as left-overs, I like to microwave for just a few seconds. Even though it's not a "hot" dish, I like to nuke it just enough to take the "chill" off.

Lentils with Brussels Sprouts & Prosciutto - 10 minutes!

Lentils with Brussels Sprouts & Prosciutto
(Adapted from the Stone Soup blog)

So, this one looks kind of funky, but it was really tasty and super quick.

Ingredients - Serves: 2

• Pre-made lentils from Trader Joes
• Frozen brussels sprouts (also from TJs)
• Cherry tomatoes
• Prosciutto
• White cooking wine
• Garlic

Directions:

1. Heat a little olive oil with some garlic in a frying pan and toss in some brussels sprouts (however many looks good to you).  Once it begins to sizzle, pour in the cooking wine.  I just put in a shallow puddle.  Cover and keep it at medium heat until the brussels sprouts are bright green and/or easily pierced with a knife. (It won't be very long - 5 minutes-ish.)
2. Meanwhile, slice some cherry tomatoes (however many looks good!), open the lentils and prep to dump in the pan, and pull apart your prosciutto strips.  (I found that since the prosciutto easily sticks together that pulled apart, smaller strips made for more satisfying little bites.)
3. When the sprouts are ready, stir in the lentils.  Once warm, remove from heat and fold in the tomatoes and prosciutto.
4. Eat and enjoy!!

Balsamic Mustard Strip Steak with Sweet Potatoes and Salad

Balsamic Mustard Steak (from: Everyday Food magazine)

I tried this meal last week with and it was a delicious success - and pretty easy too.  Feel free to adapt it with your own flavor of salad or a different vegetable on the side.  Happy cooking!

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 strip steaks (each 6 to 8 ounces and about 3/4 inch thick)
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Season steaks generously on both sides with salt and pepper; place in skillet. Cook, turning once, until browned, 2 to 3 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer to a plate; cover with foil.
2. Add vinegar to skillet; boil until syrupy, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat; whisk in mustard and any accumulated juices from steaks. Serve sauce with steaks.

Sweet Potatoes

I made tried making these two separate ways:

1. As pictured, sliced into length-wise cross-sections, I grilled them in batches on the George Foreman grill until soft and then drizzled with the leftover balsamic sauce from the steaks.  Yummy.
2. Not pictured, I sliced into "fries" tossed in a little olive oil, salt and cinnamon and broiled until a little brown.  I was hoping they would be crispy, but they were basically soft strips of sweet potato.  Still yummy though.

Goat Cheese & Beet Salad

I finished the meal with a simple side salad:

• Arugula
• Beets (sliced and canned) cut into bite-size pieces
• Goat Cheese (crumbled)
• 1T pine nuts
• Balsamic Vinaigrette (from TJs)