Quick Dinner Idea: Pizza & Salad
A few years ago I told you about a trusted staple in our dinner rotation- MAKESHIFT PIZZAS!! If you have access to Middle Eastern flatbread from Trader Joe's, you can easily make your own quick custom pizzas. If you don't, try to find some other comparable flatbread or pita. Wanna see how easy they are? Let's take a look!
Flat Roasted Chicken
Here's a lesson in food blogging for you: If you want to share a scrumptious recipe with people, make sure to protect your photos from being deleted. You could potentially write your way out of this quandary. You could describe how epic the buttery lemon sauce was that accompanied the chicken. You could tell your readers how easy it was to flatten a chicken and how much faster it cooks when it's prepared that way. You might even want to tell them how you used the leftover chicken in quesadillas one day, threw it in a burrito bowl for lunch another day and finally topped the last bit on a Greek pizza for dinner. But really, who cares about all of that when there isn't a picture like the one you see above?
I made this chicken TWICE in one week. The first time was intended for you...the second time was to make up for the accidental photo deletion. That's right. I lost over 40 photos. With a flat roasted chicken recipe this amazing, making it twice in one week was no big deal. In fact, I didn't mind at all.
Continue reading→
#5. Have a Nacho Party!
You know what's dangerous? Figuring out that it's super EASY to make your own Nacho Cheese Sauce. This kind of information can be really helpful if you want to host a Nacho Party! Knowing how to make your own nacho cheese is not helpful when you plan on wearing a bathing suit soon. If you find yourself making a batch and suddenly you're sitting on the couch watching Housewives shows on Bravo with nothing but the pot & a spoon, STOP YOURSELF! This activity, although incredibly tempting, is exactly why you are not currently bathing suit ready, Tracy.
There are only three people who know how long ago this Nacho Party happened. Hey 3 people, let's not tell the internet how behind I am in posting this! If you can keep the date tight lipped, I'll feed you more nachos. From what I remember, you three DEMOLISHED your nachos, which only leads me to believe you do not want me to revoke your nacho privileges. How's that for a threat??
BTW, we can cross off another thing from my 31 comes before 32 list #5. Have a Nacho Party!! And hot DANG they were good! If you find yourself with any leftover cheese (not possible!) pour some over a baked potato and add some steamed broccoli on top!
Continue reading→
Sausage Cheddar Biscuits
For as long as I can remember, our family celebrated Easter at my grandparent's house. We would all pour out of my mom's avocado green station wagon and us kids would run right into the house to find my grandma working in the kitchen and my grandpa grilling lamb in their sunny backyard. We would immediately check out grandma's candy dish to survey our Easter loot, then we'd run right into the kitchen for a slab of her infamous Italian Easter bread. That thick, delicious bread studded with Italian sausage, cheese and egg proved more tempting than EASTER CANDY. Can you imagine? Bread better than Easter candy?? We ate our pieces so fast, they'd get stuck in the bottom of our throats. No doubt, we were enthusiastic about that bread.
This year my grandma will be in New York while I'm here in California celebrating Easter without her Easter bread! I hope she makes some for our relatives back east. Eat a few slices for me, will ya? Where am I going with this? Let me get to it... I made these little biscuits last weekend and they totally tasted like my grandma's Easter bread! I mean, they're definitely not a 100% replacement for her legit Easter bread, but they're a nice knockoff, if I do say so myself.
Carbs + Meat + Cheese = Trouble. The kind of trouble that I love getting into.
Continue reading→
Fantastic Mayo-Free Egg Salad Sandwiches
OK so I made it clear that I don't like mayo. You know what's weird? I kind of like egg salad. Totally bizarre since mayo makes up the base of a traditional egg salad, right? When I was a kid, my mom made really good egg salad sandwiches on toasted wheat bread (the only kind of bread we were ALLOWED to eat). There was definitely mayo in her rendition, but the trick was to eat a sandwich fast enough so I didn't have a chance to think about the mayo part. It totally worked.
I wanted to make egg salad last weekend but there's no way I am going to buy a jar of mayo. Hell to the no! I don't EVER EVER EVER want to see a grocery receipt of mine with the word mayonnaise on it. So here we have an mayo-free egg salad with the help of creamy ricotta and Greek yogurt. I added some chopped red peppers to add color & texture and it turned out pretty good! Next time I might add a little bit of chopped onion... a squeeze of lemon or a few minced jalapenos to the mix because it needs a little kick. Other than that, I'm pretty stoked to find a recipe for a mayo-free egg salad.
Sun-Dried Tomato Arugula Pasta Salad
Just when I thought I couldn't love a salad more, I went and tried this one! After posting what's on my coffee table the earlier this week, my friend Erica tipped me off on this superb recipe from the cookbook I'm slightly obsessed with-- Appetite for Reduction. All she had to say was that it tastes like pizza and instantly, a grocery shopping list was made. Thanks Erica!!
There's a lot to love about this pasta salad. I love how the dressing coats the pasta...getting into every little nook and cranny of the fusilli I used. Look at that picture. Do you see what I'm talking about?? There's something absolutely magical about the combo of walnuts & fennel. It actually mimics the taste of sausage! I could probably eat the entire batch of the dressing-plain. It's THAT good. When added to this pasta salad it's killer! The tang of red onions...the sweetness of roasted peppers...that peppery bite of arugula...the creaminess of the cannellini beans...and the crunch of toasted walnuts...oh dear. I think I've fallen in love with yet ANOTHER salad. I'm totally looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow!
Continue reading→
Brussels Sprout-Potato Hash
You know a dish is a winner when you find yourself making it twice in one week. Say hello to my new addiction, Brussels Sprout-Potato Hash! Breakfast potatoes just got a WHOLE lot better with the addition of Brussels Sprouts! They add lots of depth to the dish, rounding out all the carbs. Yes. I can never get enough carbs, but sometimes my guilt takes over! I don't feel as bad binging on breakfast potatoes now when there's a huge heaping pile of caramelized Brussels Sprouts in the mix. I must also note that the addition of lemon zest & thyme make this hash stellar. Casey immediately asked me "Ooh! what's this spice?" Thyme, baby. Thyme. Other things to note: vegan, low fat, low calorie, gluten-free & fantastic!
Everyday Chickpea Salad
Everyday. Chickpea. Salad. Everyday--meaning this salad is so good, you could eat it every day and can use everyday ingredients to make it! Nothing fussy, nothing crazy, just GOOD simple ingredients in a delicious/healthy salad that will make you feel full AND exceptional afterward.
I'm such a sucker for adaptable salads because there's a nice ease to making stuff with what I already have in the kitchen. When I went to gather the ingredients for the dressing, I looked to see how much olive oil I needed to measure out and realized that there IS NO OIL in the recipe! Brilliant! The cashews and Dijon mustard act as the emulsifiers! The combo of balsamic vinegar and Dijon mustard make it tangy! I love how the dressing soaked into the couscous, adored the crunchy sweetness of the peppers, and loved the creaminess of the chickpeas. I'm glad to have this salad & dressing in my current rotation.
Whitney & Anna both seduced me into picking up a copy of the Appetite for Reduction cookbook. Everything is entirely vegan, low calorie, low fat, but definitely NOT lacking in flavor. I made the Brussels Sprouts Potato Hash (post coming soon!) for lunch this week and now I'm totally hooked. I have over 15 recipes marked to try! I love that feeling.
So yeah, I'm back on the salad wagon (again). It's such a nice wagon to be on. It always makes me feel fantastic, healthy and light! I hope my friend Jenny (who is going vegan for a week) LOVES this salad!
