Moroccan Cauliflower Steaks with Caramelized Onion Couscous

I knowwwwww you guys, I have been so bad at blogging lately.  And I have hardly even been cooking!  But this week I feel like I have the chance to breathe.  These past 2 days, I have had the time to go out to eat, grocery shop, catch up on all my trashy TV - and blog. LuLaRoe has run my summer, and I am by no means complaining because it is going so amazingly well and I am having a lot of fun.  However, it has meant less reading, less cooking, and definitely less blogging.  But I was so happy to find the time to make this meal for just myself (because let's face it, it's a little out there). It felt great to be back in the kitchen (cooking, not just packing shipments or checking out customers!).  And it was delicious.

Bear with me; I know cauliflower steaks don't sound great. But they are actually starting to be a Thing.  I have seen them on cool restaurant menus, and even on foodie TV shows.  Steaks for us vegetarians!  Basically you just slice it thick and then do with it what you will.  In this situation, it's covered with a Moroccan spice blend including cinnamon, cardamom, and cumin, and fresh mint and/or parsley (I had no mint but I think it would have been an awesome addition).  The steaks get baked and turn golden and super flavorful.  It's not your grandmother's steamed cauliflower, I'll tell you that. (Did your grandmother steam cauliflower? I'm fairly certain mine never did, but still.)

Then there is the couscous which is practically life-changing.  I loved it so much, I plan to make it be a side dish to almost any meal; in fact, I literally bought couscous in bulk last weekend. Those teeny tiny noodles are great in and of themselves (and sooo quick to make), but these ones have the addition of caramelized onions and garlic!  Mmmmmm.  I ate every single grain of this for days.

And don't skip the lemon tahini sauce, okay?  It's creamy and tangy and works so great on both the cauliflower and mixed into the couscous.  It's also simple: lemon juice, tahini, and Greek yogurt, with salt for flavor and some water to thin it out.

This recipe said it serves 2, but I definitely had more than enough for 4 meals. Then again maybe one cauliflower steak isn't considered a meal for most people... so you may want to buy a few cauliflowers to feed a crowd :)

Recipe:

Moroccan cauliflower steaks with caramelized onion couscous
from Ehow Food Blog
serves 2

Ingredients:
for the cauliflower steaks:
1 head cauliflower
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons finely shredded parsley and/or mint
salt and pepper
for couscous:
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 large onion, sliced into half moons
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 cup couscous
for lemon tahini sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons full fat Greek yogurt
water
salt

Instructions:

1) Prehreat oven to 450 degrees.  Remove leaves from the bottom of the cauliflower.  Using a sharp knife, slice the step so that the cauliflower can sit flat.  Cut the cauliflower in half from the top down to the core.  Make another cut about 1 inch away from the cut side so that you get a 1-inch thick slice of cauliflower.  Do the same with the other half.

2) Place the cauliflower steaks on a nonstick baking sheet.  In a small bowl, mix the olive oil with the spices and salt and pepper.  Pour the mixture over the cauliflower steaks, using your fingers to spread the oil and spices on both sides.

3) Bake, flipping cauliflower halfway through, until both sides are golden brown, about 20 minutes.

4) While the cauliflower is baking, make the couscous.  In a small saucepan, heat the oil or butter and add the onion slices.  Cook on medium-low heat until the onion slices are golden. Then add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds.  Pour 1 cup water and some salt over the onions and bring to a boil.  Add the couscous, stir, and turn off heat.  Cover the pot.  Let sit for 8 minutes or until all water has been absorbed.  Gently fluff couscous with a fork.

5) To make the yogurt tahini sauce, whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl until well combined.

6) To serve, spoon couscous onto plates. Place one cauliflower steak on top. Serve with yogurt tahini sauce on the side.

Zucchini, Tomato and Potato Soup

One of my crazy jobs this summer is dog-sitting. I started in November and got a dog every couple months.  Now that it's summer and I have quite a few good reviews under my belt, I have requests every single week!  One of my favorite clients are an older couple here in town who just have me run over to let the dogs out and feed them dinner.  It's easy. And the best part is, besides the part that she always overpays me, is that the woman always leaves me goods from her garden.  Sometimes it's fresh raspberries and blueberries, sometimes lettuce, one time asparagus (that I turned into cream of asparagus on toast), and once it was a giant summer squash and an even more giant zucchini.  I actually was feeling fairly sick last week with a summer cold, and I decided that soup was the way to use up all these fresh veggies.

I tweaked the recipe a bit to include more fresh vegetables than the original: fresh corn instead of frozen, fresh tomatoes instead of canned - I only wish I had had some fresh thyme!  My tweaks made it fresher, a little bit thicker and heartier, and definitely delicious.  Soup might not be at the front of anyone's mind in the midst of a heat wave in late July, but when you have a cold and central air, it's totally doable.  Pair it with some bread from Birchwood Bread and you've got lunch. And dinner. And lunch again... repeat, etc..

Recipe:

zucchini, tomato and potato soup
from the Little Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 white onion, diced (about 1/4 cup)
3 medium sized Russet potatoes, diced (about 2 1/2 - 3 cups)
1 medium zucchini, quartered and chopped (about 2 cups)
1 medium summer squash, quartered and chopped (about 2 cups)
14 ounce can of diced tomatoes, undrained (or 4 fresh tomatoes, diced)
2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
30 ounces chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels

Instructions:

1) In a large soup pot, heat olive oil on medium high heat.  Add onions and zucchini, cook for about 2-3 minutes.  Then add potatoes and cook for about 2-3 minutes (lower heat if needed).

2) Add tomatoes, parsley and thyme.  Cook for about 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently.  Add broth and bring to a boil.  Lower heat to a simmer.  Add corn and mix well.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Allow to simmer for 15-25 minutes, or until potatoes are cooked.

Oatmeal Flax Blueberry Muffins

My mom has a new diet after her bout with diverticulitis.  She is supposed to eat lots of flax to avoid having another episode. She has been good about sprinkling some over her cereal in the morning, but when she requested blueberry muffins, I went looking for a recipe that has flax in it.  Voila: Pinch of Yum to the rescue.

These guys are pretty interesting because the first step is to soak oatmeal in buttermilk for 15-20 minutes.  That softens them and makes them nearly invisible in the muffins later on.  You can taste that they're there, but they kind of dissolve. Then of course there are fun things like brown sugar, vanilla, and blueberries, and don't forget a heaping tablespoon of ground flax.

These muffins called for a crumb topping and glaze, but knowing that my mom hates both, I left them off.  They were entirely wonderful without them, but I will keep the recipe intact in case you want to give them a try.  They are sweet enough without it, though.  Plus you can do the whole thing in 1 bowl!

One thing I really wish I had noticed before I started: this makes 6 muffins.  So double it if you're looking to make 12, which obviously I was, but oh well!

Recipe:

oatmeal flax blueberry muffins
from Pinch of Yum
makes 6 muffins

Ingredients:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tablespoons salted butter, melted
1 egg
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon flour
1 heaping tablespoon ground flaxmeal
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup blueberries
for topping and glaze:
1 tablespoon cold butter, cut into small pieces
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tablespoon milk

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees  If you're not using paper liners, grease a muffin tin with butter and dust with flour.

2) Combine oats and buttermilk in a large mixing bowl.  Let oats soak 15-20 minutes.  Add the melted butter, egg, brown sugar, and vanilla.  Stir by hand until just combined.

3) Add flour, flaxmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Stir again until just moistened.

4) Scoop a spoonful of batter into each muffin tin to prevent berries from sinking to the bottom of the muffins while baking.  Gently fold blueberries into remaining batter and divide evenly between muffin tins.  Place a few blueberries at the very top center of each muffin.

5)  For the crumb topping, press butter, flour and brown sugar together withy our fingers until fine crumbs form.  Sprinkle one spoonful of crumbs over each muffin before baking.

6) Bake muffins for 13 - 15 minutes, or until golden brown.  While the muffins are cooling, stir the powdered sugar and milk together to make a glaze.  Drizzle a little glaze over each muffin before serving.

One Pan Crack Bean Burritos

It's time for one pan crack bean burritos!  This is the recipe I hinted at in my last post (the Spanish rice that I served with these burritos) and it is the easiest, best, most amazing recipe ever.  Or at least in the past few months!

First of all, 5 ingredients. That's all you need to make these burritos, and most of them are probably in your refrigerator and pantry already.  You will need two types of beans (although one could work in a pinch), taco seasoning (I mixed up my own), cream cheese, and Rotel tomatoes (you can decide if you want to buy mild or spicy).

Second, the instructions are literally to combine all the ingredients, and heat it up.  Done.  You can see I doubled the recipe in this shot.

I made these burritos the night of my LuLaRoe unboxing party; I knew I would have a crowd and needed something quick and easy.  This could not have been more perfect, and my mom even admitted to not missing meat.  But, carnivores, feel free to add shredded chicken if you really have to.

I served them with tortillas (obviously), the rice I shared earlier, shredded cheese, sliced avocado, diced onion, and red pepper.  I would have liked some cilantro and tomato but didn't have any at the time.  It became a make-your-own burrito bar where people could add whatever toppings they wanted.  It worked great and everyone was well fed before it was time to open all my boxes!  I will definitely make these burritos again.  They are creamy, delicious, filling, and easily can feed a crowd!

Recipe:

one pan crack bean burritos
from Heather Likes Food
serves 4 - 6

Ingredients:
1 15-ounce can black beans, drained
1 15-ounce can pinto beans, drained
1 packet taco seasoning (or 1/4 cup if you make your own like I do)
8 ounces cream cheese
1 10-ounce can Rotel tomatoes

Instructions:

1) Combine all ingredients in a large skillet.  Heat over medium heat, stirring until cream cheese is melted and mixture is bubbling.

2) Remove from heat and spoon into tortillas with desired toppings.

Spanish Rice with Salsa

Do you have rice? Do you have salsa?  Perfect: that's all you need to make the world's easiest Spanish/Mexican side dish!  It goes with tacos, burritos, enchiladas - anything Mexican that you're making for dinner.  I am pretty excited to share the main dish that I paired this rice with, but that will have to wait for the next post.  This post is all about Spanish rice!

My family loves Spanish/Mexican rice, and they usually buy boxes of it with flavor packets.  Not to be a food snob, but... flavor packets?  Not my cup of tea.  So I decided to try to make my own.  I had made a recipe before that was very similar, Spanish rice, but it was a bit more in depth with 8 ingredients.  This literally has 2: rice, and salsa.

What makes that so cool is that, besides being super easy and fast, you can change things up based on the type of salsa you use.  Like things mild? Stick with mild salsa.  If you're down for spicier, go with spicy salsa! Try salsa verde, try peach salsa (my secret love)!  Every time it will be a little bit different.

Literally all you do is cook rice with salsa.  Done. Spanish rice.  You're welcome :)

Recipe:

Spanish rice with salsa
from Fox Valley Foodie
serves 4


Ingredients:
1 cup white rice
1 16-ounce jar salsa
1 3/4 cup water
cilantro for garnish, optional
salt and pepper

Instructions:

1) Rinse rice in water to remove excess starch.  Add to saucepan with water and salsa, then cover with a  lid.

2) Heat the a boil, and then reduce to a simmer.  Simmer until the water is absorbed by rice (15-20 minutes).  Rice is done when the rice is soft and water has soaked fully into the rice.  Salt and pepper as needed and top with cilantro.

Fresh Strawberry Bread

Market Basket has been having a great sale on strawberries lately.  I keep buying the most gigantic containers and then struggling for what to do with them. I can only eat so many! When my aunt and uncle were visiting, I remembered that my aunt lives strawberry anything, so I found this recipe that I had pinned a while ago for fresh strawberry bread.  It was quick and say and sounded like it would have great texture and moisture - both cream cheese and buttermilk are in there, along with butter, to keep this bread decadent.

And of course there are the strawberries.  I chopped them into pretty large chunks to let them be the stars of the bread!  They add great flavor and color to the bread.

It was extra glorious right out of the oven (I caught my mom and uncle picking pieces off far before it was ready to be cut!), but I bet it it would be just as good toasted and spread with some butter or cream cheese. You could totally serve this for dessert, or cal it breakfast.  I love things like that.

Recipe:

fresh strawberry bread
from My Baking Addiction 

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups strawberries, rinsed, dried and chopped

Instructions:

1) Grease and flour a 9x5-inch pan.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) With electric mixer, cream butter, sugar and cream cheese until fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.

3) In separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Blend flour mixture with butter mixture just until blended.  Add buttermilk and only stir until just combined.  Do not overmix.

4) Carefully fold in strawberries. Dough mixture will be thick.  Bake for 50 - 60 minutes.  Let cool for a bit before slicing if you can wait :)

Taco Torte

Christy yelled at me for being a bad blogger so here you go: the taco torte! :)  Isn't this a thing of beauty?

I made a similar recipe, a tortilla pie,  years ago, and it was okay. In fact I remember panicking because I was still such a new cook, and in reading the comments on the recipe, people claimed it was bland. Who wants to go through all the work to make a bland dinner? Even though I added a few things, it didn't stick in my mind and I never made it again.

But then I saw this recipe and I knew it was different.  Yes, there are still stacks of tortillas with beans and cheese in between, but the filling here can stand on its own.  It would never be called bland.  There are beans, onions, garlic, tomatoes, corn and spinach, and lots of flavor from cumin, chili powder, tomato paste and a chile pepper, if you're so inclined.  Then the torte itself is made up of layers of tortillas, with the filling and monterey jack cheese in between.  Mmmm. Then the whole thing gets baked into a beautiful cake-like dinner. Cake for dinner? Yup.  Technically a torte but still. Torte for dinner?!

The even better news is that this makes for great leftovers.  It fed me through my last week of work at lunchtime!  Still not excited? Go ahead and add some ground beef or shredded chicken, you carnivores!  Just try this out. It's so much fancier than your standard tacos. Spice up taco night this week; you won't regret it.

Recipe:

taco torte
from Smitten Kitchen
serves 6-8

Ingredients:
nonstick cooking spray
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped small
1 clove garlic, minced
1 fresh chile pepper, chopped small (optional)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1 15-ounce can or 1 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes, drained, with 1/3 cup juice reserved
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 15-ounce cans black, red or kidney beans (or a combination), drained and rinsed
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups corn kernels, from 1-2 ears, 1 15-ounce can, or frozen and thawed (I used a can)
3 cups rough chopped spinach leaves
6 medium sized (8-inch) flour tortillas (can use corn too if you want to be gluten-free)
2 cups shredded monterey jack cheese or cheddar (or a mix)
chopped fresh cilantro, sour cream, and/or salsa for serving

Instructions:

1) Heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Line a 9-inch cake pan or cast-iron skillet tightly with foil and spray it with a nonstick spray.  You can also use a 9-inch springform; spray and skip the foil.

2) Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion, garlic, chile pepper, cumin, and chili powder, and cook until you can smell the spies and the onion is softened, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the tomatoes with the 1/3 cup reserved juice and the tomato paste; then stir in the beans.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Let bean mixture summer until everything is hot, about 3 minutes.  Add the corn and spinach and stir until the spinach has wilted and everything is well blended and hot, about 3 minutes.  Taste for seasoning, adding more salt and pepper as needed.

3) Place 1 tortilla in the prepared cake pan.  Spread 1/6 of the bean and vegetable evenly over the tortilla, then sprinkle 1/4 - 1/3 cup of the shredded cheese evenly over the top.  Repeat with 5 more layers, ending with the last of the bean mixture and shredded cheese.

4) Bake the tortilla stack until it is hot throughout and the top is lightly browned, about 20 minutes.  You can run it under the broiler for extra color on top if you wish.  Let it sit at room temperature for 5 minutes before removing it from the pan, either by carefully lifting the foil that lines the pan or by opening the springform sides.  Cit into wedges using a sharp knife and serve using a pie server or spatula.  Serve with cilantro, sour cream and salsa.

Optional do ahead instructions: Make torte up to step 4; cover in the fridge overnight and leave it at room temperature for 20-30 minutes before baking.

Basic Banana Muffins

I've been a bit MIA due to family emergencies, the craziness of the end of the school year, and just life in general.  My mother is feeling a bit better after a nasty bout with diverticulitis, but until yesterday, she was on a special low fiber diet to give her stomach a chance to recover.  Low fiber is pretty boring and cut out lots of her favorite things, like my maple pecan banana muffins, which she was craving after terrible hospital banana muffins.  Since pecans were off the menu for her for 10 days, I decided to find a new banana muffin recipe that wouldn't feel like it was missing something if the nuts were cut out.  I have made lots of banana recipes before, but they all seemed to have something extra, whether it be pecans or even bourbon.  I wanted these muffins to be calming to her stomach but still tasty, and I came across this recipe.  Nothing wild or fancy, but they promised to be moist and nutritious, so I gave them a try and brought them over to Mom in the morning before work.  They were simple and easy to make; truly no frills baking!

They were just what we expected: sweet, soft, moist muffins bursting with banana flavor, without anything crazy.  They are, as the recipe suggests, basic banana muffins.  If you're not baking for someone on a low fiver diet, feel free to toss in pecans or walnuts or chocolate chips, but for my mother, they were just what they needed to be!  She thought in the humidity they got a little wet as the days went on, but we discovered that they were delicious toasted and buttered... in fact, that is how I preferred them! How have I never toasted and buttered a muffin before? What else have I been missing out on in this life?

Recipe:

basic banana muffins
from Taste of Home
makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 medium ripe bananas
1 large egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a muffin tin or line with paper cups.

2) In a  large bowl, combine dry ingredients.  In another bowl, mash the bananas.  Add egg, oil and vanilla; mix well.  Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.  Fill muffin cups half full.

2) Bake for 18 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted neat the center comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes; remove from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Vegan Corn Chowder

Oh I am a bad blogger.  But then again I have lots of excuses, including that this week was chock full of family emergencies, late nights, and no cooking.  No groceries, for that matter.  But yesterday I shopped and cooked myself a big delicious dinner and it was heavenly.  It's the little things, I tell you: knowing your whole family is home safely, making a big pot of soup on a chilly June night, and eating a bowl of it at a freshly-cleaned island counter!

A few weeks ago we spent the weekend at the beach house and went to a food festival in Newburyport.  Everyone had clam chowder, but the vegetarians of the group had corn chowder.  Usually corn chowder is not my favorite soup, but this one was special: it had carrots in it and wasn't super sweet. It had a lot of flavor, the corn was tender and juicy, and I devoured it very quickly!  Then I knew I had to recreate it, and when I saw this recipe on Pinterest, it looked very similar so I bought all the ingredients yesterday.  It was a weirdly cold night so the timing was perfect.

Before you judge this recipe for being vegan, let me explain what it means in this situation.  It means no milk or cream.  That means it's far healthier than your average chowder.  It also means no need to make a roux using flour - there is no flour in this soup, making it gluten free. Surprisingly, there's not even any chicken broth!  The liquid is from coconut milk and water, which get blended with half of your corn and a fourth of the potatoes.  Believe me, this thickens the chowder perfectly without the need of any gluten of dairy.

The flavor, besides from all the veggies (garlic, potatoes, fresh corn, carrots, celery and red pepper) comes from a little cumin, paprika, and Cajun seasoning.  It has a little bite to it, but not too much; it just adds some interest to the broth.

Honestly this was just as good as the chowder I got in Newburyport, if not better.  I ate it with some baguette that I had bought when it was still hot, and it was a delicious meal.  I will quite happily eat the leftovers at work this week.  And yes, I have a full week of work ahead of me, and then another half week.  Summer vacation feels super far away at this point, but this chowder will help me limp my way to the finish line.

Recipe:

vegan corn chowder
from Roasted Root
serves 4-6

Ingredients:
4 ears corn, shucked and steamed (I used 5 and put 3 ears worth of kernels into the soup whole)
2 large red potatoes, peeled and chopped (I left mine unpeeled for some more color and texture)
3 tablespoons coconut or olive oil
1 large white onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
3 large carrots, peeled and chopped
3 large stalks celery, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, cored and chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cumin
2/3 cup full-fat coconut milk
2 cups water
chopped green onion for serving

Instructions:

1) Place earns of corn in a arge pot and fill with water. Cover pot with a lid and place on the stove over high heat.  Bring to a full boil and cook until corn is plump and juicy, about 5-8 minutes.

2) Use tongs to remove for from boiling water and place on a cutting board.  Take half of one of the red potatoes and place into the same pot of water you use for the corn.  Allow potato to cook until soft, 10-15 minutes.

3) While potato is cooking, saute the rest of the vegetables.  Add coconut oil to a large pot, along with the rest of the potato, onion, garlic, carrots, celery, bell pepper, sea salt, Cajun seasoning, paprika, and cumin.  Heat to medium-high and saute, stirring occasionally, until vegetables have softened about 10 minutes.

4) Use a knife to cut the corn kernels off all of the ears of corn.  Place half of the kernels in a blender, along with the cooked potato.  Add the coconut milk and water to the blender and blend until completely smooth.

5) Add the remaining corn kernels to the pot with the sautéed vegetables, and pout the blended corn/potato mixture into the pot.  Bring to a gentle boil and cook until potato has softened. about 10 - 20 minutes.

6) Remove from heat and taste; add sea salt and Cajun seasoning as desired.  Serve with chopped green onion.

20 Minute Lemon Broccoli Pasta Skillet

It's June, you guys!  This year went by so fast!  School will be over 3 weeks from today!  Maybe it was because my class was better or my life was better or both, but this year flew by.  Soon enough I'll be sleeping in and having pool parties, cooking and baking to my heart's content :)

But for now, I am getting home from work pretty exhausted.  This is a totally fun but totally crazy time to be a teacher.  Within the next 15 days of school, I have field day, field trips, fifth grade barbecue, spring concert, and countless other schedule-blowing extravaganzas!  By the time I get home, I'm lucky if I can make myself something quick like Ramen noodles.  Okay fine, that happened last week.  I may love the process of cooking but on nights like these when my eyes are closing before 7:00, I need something quick.

Enter 20 minutes lemon broccoli pasta skillet!  This was so quick and oh so good.  Is anything better than pasta with lemon and parmesan? I don't think so.  Add in garlic, spinach and broccoli, and what more could you ask for?!  I loved this meal, and I brought the leftovers for lunch for days until it was gone.  I kind of miss it. Guess I will have plenty of time to make it again real soon :)

Recipe:

20 minute lemon broccoli pasta skillet
from The Food Charlatan
serves 6

Ingredients:
3 quarts water
1 1/2 pounds fresh broccoli, cut into florets
1 pound rotini pasta
3-4 cups spinach
4 tablespoons butter
1 large lemon, tested and juiced
2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 cup fresh parmesan, plus more to garnish
salt and pepper


Instructions:

1) In a large pot, bring the water to a boil along with 1 tablespoon of salt.

2) Add the rotini and boil on high for 4 minutes.  Add the broccoli, cover, and cook 3 minutes.

3) Drain pasta and broccoli and return to pot. Stir in spinach and sprinkle with lemon zest.  Let sit for a few minutes so the spinach wilts.

4) Meanwhile, in a small skillet, melt butter over medium heat.  Add minced garlic and crushed red pepper and saute for about 1 minutes until fragrant.  Turn off heat and add 2- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Garnish with more Parmesan.

Perfect Cauliflower Pizza Crust

I have posted before my struggle to find something suitable for dinner when my uncle Tuck comes to visit! He is a diabetic with a strict diet.  Carbs are bad, and carbs are everywhere.  He can basically eat meat and cheese, which obviously doesn't meld so well with my usual meal plans!  This last visit, when he came into the house and asked what was for dinner, I was excited to say, "pizza."  Before he could panic that I was about to hand him a pizza crust and put him into a diabetic coma, I announced my plan to make both regular pizza (for the rest of us) and cauliflower crust pizza for him!  My friend Laura at work gave me the crust recipe and swore it was a good alternative to regular pizza.  So, here it goes!

This crust is gluten-free; it is made only from cauliflower, egg, goat cheese, oregano and salt!  I have heard horror stories of cauliflower crust that is mushy and soft and flavorless; that's not happening here. The goat cheese and oregano keep it tasting great, and it is somehow bizarrely bread-like.  Then there is the fact that you actually can pick this pizza up with your hands!  I could have baked mine a little longer, but the natives were getting restless and we wanted pizza, so I rushed it a bit, but it was still a great crust alternative.

Secrets include making sure you squeeze out as much moisture from the cauliflower as you can!  I used frozen and thawed cauliflower florets but fresh would be fine too; it just saved me the step of cooking it.  Squeeze it, mix it, bake it, flip it (this was a little bit scary but we did it as a group effort), bake it some more, and then top with your favorite toppings and bake one last time.

The end result was a beautiful pizza that was both tasty, gluten-free, low-carb, and enjoyed by diabetics and non-diabetics alike!  Definitely something to make again for my gluten-free and low-carb family and friends!

Recipe:

perfect cauliflower pizza crust
from Detoxinista
serves 2 - 4

Ingredients:
2 pounds cauliflower florets, fresh or frozen and thawed
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup soft goat cheese
1 teaspoon dried oregano
pinch of salt

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Pulse batches of raw or thawed cauliflower florets in a food processor until a rice-like texture is achieved.

2) If you used fresh cauliflower, fill large pot with an inch of water and bring it to a boil.  Add the cauliflower rice and cover.  Cook for 4- 5 minutes.  Drain into a fine-mesh strainer.

3) Transfer strained cauliflower rice to a clean,t in dish towel.  Wrap up the steamed rice in the dish towel, twist it up, and squeeze all the excess moisture out.

4) In a large bowl, use your hands to mix cauliflower, beaten egg, goat cheese, and spices.  Press the dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Keep the dough about 1/3 inch thick, and make the edges a little higher for a crust effect.

5) Bake for 30 minutes, until top is dry and golden.  Then carefully flip the crust over and bake for another 10 minutes.  The crust should be firm and golden brown when finished.

6) To complete pizza, add sauce and toppings and bake for another 10 minutes.  Slice and serve hot.  Alternatively, allow to cool and slice to use as a flatbread for sandwiches!

Chicken and Vegetable Stir-Fry

What? Chicken!?  I know, but the people I cook for must be pleased sometimes :)  This was a specific request from Jesse, and I am a sucker for requests, especially when it is for something I haven't tried before.  It definitely takes away a lot of the fun when that recipe involves touching raw chicken, but I'm working hard on not being a total brat about it!  Did I hate every second of touching it?  Yes, most definitely.  But I made it through, with only a little bit of crying.

Let's talk about the rest of the this dish, since in my opinion, it would be way better without chicken (or perhaps with ficken?).  There's broccoli, carrots, peppers, onion, snap peas and mushrooms in there!  Minus the chicken, it's a vegetarian's dream!  And then there is the sauce: chicken broth, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, and sesame oil are thickened with cornstarch so it sticks to all your veggies and rice.  Plus there's garlic and ginger for flavor.  It's actually a really great stir fry, minus chicken.  Or plus chicken, depending on your carnivorous tendencies.  Serve it over rice and reheat it for days.  Or, send all of it home with the carnivores in your life like I did, and just bask in the glow of the compliment "this is better than my mom's" ;)

Recipe:

chicken and vegetable stir fry
from Cooking Classy

Ingredients:
1 pound chicken breasts, sliced into small strips
3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups broccoli florets, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 1/2 cups chopped carrots (about 4)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced into strips and halved (1 1/2 cups)
1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 small)
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 1/2 cups sugar snap peas, halved
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
3 cloves garlic, minced

Instructions:

1) Place chicken in a gallon-size resealable bag.  Ina  2-cup liquid measuring cup or bowl, whisk together chicken broth, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sesame oil.  Immediately after whisking well, measure out 1/4 cup before oil returns to the top.  Pour the 1/4 cup over chicken in bag and let marinate in refrigerator 10-15 minutes.  Whisk cornstarch and sugar into remaining soy sauce mixture.

2) Heat oil in a wok or nonstick pot over medium-high heat.  Remove chicken from marinate and add chicken to wok.  Heat chicken until halfway cooked through, about 3 minutes, tossing occasionally.  Add in broccoli, carrots, bell pepper, onion, and ginger.  Cook, tossing occasionally, for 4 minutes.  Add in snap peas, mushrooms, and garlic and cook 2 minutes longer.  Whisk soy sauce mixture once more and then pour into pan.  Toss frequently until sauce has thickened and veggies are tender, about 2 minutes.  Serve over white or brown rice.

Polenta with Fontina and Roasted Vegetables

This post is dedicated to grandmothers.  First, because I sort of forgot about this dish even though it was super delicious (this is one of those recipes whose pictures got deleted) until I saw my grandmother yesterday, because I brought some of it up to her when she was sick last month.  My mom and aunt Susie were up there too and got to eat some of it, and they were so enamored, Susie immediately bought fontina cheese!  Thanks for being the visual reminder, Gram!

This meal is also dedicated to grandmothers because it's a simple dish of polenta with cheese, and roasted veggies on top.  Polenta, by the way, is basically corn meal cooked into a thick porridge and then baked.  What does that have to do with grandmothers? I have always remembered that my aunt Linda said that her Sicilian grandmother used to say, "they eat polenta" as the ultimate insult.  I find this hilarious.  Apparently polenta was seen as trashy food for poor people!  Ha!  Okay fine, I am poor, but this simple, hearty dish would be right at home in a fancy Italian restaurant with rich people too.  So Linny's grandmother was wrong about polenta, but I will still dedicate it to her :)

You can totally change this recipe up if you'd like.  Swap out the fontina cheese for anything melty, and roast whatever vegetables are sitting in your refrigerator.  I went with the recipe as is, and I ate every last grain of that polenta for days.  It's easy, cheesy (fontina and Parmesan, you guys) and filling and amazing, and the veggies caramelize in the oven and are a perfect sweet compliment to the buttery, cheesy polenta.  It feels like a wintry dish, but hey, I wore my winter coat at recess duty today, so the time for polenta is not over!  Give it a shot before the weather really heats up.  You will not be disappointed.

Recipe:

polenta with fontina and roasted vegetables
from Williams Sonoma
serves 6

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for pans
1 small eggplant, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
2 small zucchini, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
2 small yellow summer squash, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1/2 red onion, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1 orange bell pepper, seeded and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
salt and pepper
1 cup stone-ground polenta
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups shredded fontina cheese

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Oil a rimmed baking sheet and an 8-inch baking dish.

2) In a large bowl, combine the eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, red onion, and bell pepper.  Drizzle with the 3 tablespoons oil, season with salt and pepper, and toss to combine.  Arrange in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet.  Roast, tossing once, until the vegetables are caramelized, 20 - 25 minutes.  Set aside.  Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees.

3) Meanwhile, in a heavy saucepan. bring 4 cups salted water to a  boil over medium heat.  Stirring constantly, very slowly add the polenta.  Cook, stirring constantly, until the polenta begins to chicken, about 5 minutes.  Reduce the heat to low and continue to cook the polenta, stirring frequently, until the polenta is soft, about 25 minutes.  Add the butter, Parmesan, and fontina and stir until the cheeses melt.  Pour the polenta into the prepared baking dish and smooth the top.

4) Bake just until the polenta begins to set, about 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and top evenly with the roasted vegetables.  Continue to bake until the vegetables are heated through, about 15 minutes.  Serve the polenta directly from the dish.

Sicilian Rice Ball Casserole

Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas out there!  Yes, this is a day for women who have children, like my amazing mother, but I also like to think of myself as a mother to my sweet little rescues.  I have an orange chiffon cake cooling on the counter per Mom's request, and although our rainy Mother's Day get-together starts in about 15 minutes, I thought I could make a quick post.

I have officially run out of memories of the recipes I made in the month before I lost all data from my phone.  I am sure that there are some recipes that I am forgetting, so I will keep racking my brain, but for now, I'm starting anew with the first recipe photographed in my new phone.  Lucky for you, it is pretty darn awesome.

My family is big on rice balls (arancini for my fellow Italians).  We have even made them ourselves, frying balls of rice and cheese in oil.  Clearly this is not the healthiest of foods, but it's so good that it makes it okay.  Imagine how pumped I was when I saw that Skinny Taste created a recipe for a low fat rice ball casserole!  All the flavor and texture of a rice ball, with no frying, in a handy casserole format that reheats perfectly!  I whipped it up immediately.

It does call for ground turkey and sausage; on my fake meat kick, I used vegetarian ground beef and sausage.  It was extremely realistic; my entire family loved it and Nick and I split the leftovers (you know it's good when Nick asks for leftovers of your fake meal casserole!)  You carnivores out there can go ahead and use real meat, I suppose!

The rice gets mixed with an egg to keep it together, pecorino romano cheese, and a little sauce.  The meat turns into a meat sauce complete with onions and peas.  Then you spray your baking dish with oil and, very much like flouring the pan, you bread crumb it!  It helps to give the outside of the casserole that outside-of-a-rice-ball texture.  The rice becomes the first layer, going up the sides of the dish so that it encompasses all the meat sauce on the inside (see picture below).  Top it off with mozzarella, more rice, and more bread crumbs, and bake.

This is a healthy, hearty, filling and delicious dish.  To me, it was comfort food.  I will definitely make this baby again, preferably sooner rather than later!

Recipe:

Sicilian rice ball casserole
from Skinny Taste
serves 8

Ingredients:
2 cups uncooked long grain rice
1 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt
1 2.5-ounce sweet Italian sausage link, casing removed
10 ounces 93% lean ground turkey
1/4 cup onion, minced
black pepper
5 ounces frozen peas
2 cups tomato sauce, divided
1 large egg, 1 egg white
1/2 cup pecorino romano (or Parmesan)
cooking spray
4 tablespoons seasoned breadcrumbs, divided
1 1/4 cups shredded part skim mozzarella, divided
fresh basil

Instructions:

1) Cook rice with 1 teaspoon kosher salt according to package directions.  Set aside to cool.

2) Meanwhile, saute sausage meat.  Cook until brown, breaking up into pieces with a wooden spoon as it cooks.  Add turkey and onions and cook until browned, breaking up as it cooks.  Season with 3/4 teaspoon salt and black pepper to taste, then add peas and 1 cup sauce.  Simmer on low, covered, about 20 minutes.

3) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a large bowl, combine cooked rice, pecorino romano, eggs, and 1/2 cup tomato sauce.  Mix well.  Rice should be a bit sticky.

4) Spray a 9x13" casserole dish with cooking spray, making sure to spray the sides too.  Add 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs to the dish and roll around to coat bottom and sides.

5) Take half of the rice mixture and cover the bottom of the dish and up the sides.  Press to form bottom layer.  Fill with meat and peas.

5) Top with 3/4 cup mozzarella. Cover with remaining rice and press until even.  Top with remaining sauce, 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs and 1/2 cup mozzarella.

6)Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes until hot.  Garnish with basil, cut unto pieces, and serve.

Hash Brown, Spinach and Tomato Pie

I love when I start my day with breakfast.  It helps me not devour everything I can get my hands on around 10:00, and lunch isn't until 12:30 so the morning can feel really long if you're hungry.  Plus, you know, 10-year-olds and stuff.  They are exhausting, especially in May, so you need to keep your energy up!  My goal for the remainder of the school year (32 days but who's counting?) is to try to have a breakfast planned for every day of the workweek.  It can be as quick as a Chobani or a hard boiled egg (this week's breakfasts!) or as gloriously gourmet as this hash brown, spinach and tomato pie.  It's basically a quiche with a hash brown crust.  Let me say that again: hash brown crust.  And it is just as good as it sounds.

The quiche itself is a mixture of spinach sautéed with garlic and grape tomatoes, and eggs to hold it all together.  The crust is crunchy and soft at the same time - like a good french fry!  Add a little mozzarella, and you've got yourself breakfast for a week!  It reheats really well and makes the closet smell good.  Oh, I'm sorry, you don't microwave your breakfast in a closet at work?  Yeah, us either....  anyway, my friend Laura smelled the closet pie and asked for the recipe.  She made it and has been bringing it to work this week!  Since, as you know, I lost all my pictures last week, she was kind enough to send me hers, and she even agreed that I could claim that my pie was much prettier ;)  She kept her crust in the oven a little longer to make it extra crispy.  Mine was much lighter in color.  I'm sure both pies were equally delicious.  I have another bag of frozen shredded potato in the freezer now, and this is definitely a make-again recipe!

Recipe:

hash brown, spinach and tomato pie
from Diethood
serves 4 - 6

Ingredients:
2 cups shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed
1 cup part-skim mozzarella, divided
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups fresh spinach, packed
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup grape tomatoes
4 eggs
1/4 cup milk
pinch nutmeg
salt and freshly ground pepper

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray.  Press down the hah brown potatoes into the pie plate.  Bake for 8 minutes.  Remove from oven and top with 1/2 cup of the mozzarella.  Set aside.

2) Heat olive oil in a skillet.  Add spinach and tomatoes.  Cook for 3 minutes or until spinach is wilted, stirring frequently.  Add garlic, and continue to cook for 1 minute.

3) Remove from heat, and spread over potatoes.

4) In a mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, nutmeg, salt and pepper.  Whisk until thoroughly combined.  Pour over spinach and tomatoes.  Sprinkle remaining mozzarella over the pie.

5) Bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until top is golden brown.  Let cool 10 minutes before cutting.

Baked Ziti

This whole blogging without pictures thing is pretty stressful. I know I am forgetting some recipes!  But I guess the good news is that this is one I knew I wouldn't forget, because it was amazing.

Here's the crazy part: I hate ziti bakes.  Always have.  A bunch of ground beef ruining perfectly good ziti, and too much cheese, or not enough cheese... it was always one of my least favorite meals.  But then we had a pot luck lunch at school, and someone made a ziti bake and shockingly labeled it "vegetarian."  Since vegetarian options at pot lucks are not always ubiquitous, I tried some.  After one bite, I was trying to figure out who made it, because it was great.  After two bites, I threw my fork down in horror because I was positive I had ground beef in my mouth.  After frantically tracking down the teacher who made it, he sheepishly admitted he used soy crumbles because his wife is a vegetarian.  It was fake ground beef!  And the whole thing was delicious.  I stole the recipe from him and tried it out on my own.

Now, you probably think you know all there is to know about baked ziti.  I certainly did.  Ricotta cheese, right?  Wrong.  This one has sour cream instead.  Somehow when it bakes it ends up looking just like ricotta, so no one knows the difference, but it brings that extra tang to the dish.  Then lots of mozzarella cheese, right?  Wrong.  How about slices of provolone?  Don't worry, there is still some mozzarella (and Parmesan) on top.  It's just not your mama's ziti bake.  It's ziti bake for the 21st century.

If you are not interested in fake ground beef, feel free to use the real deal. Just don't invite me over for dinner.  But those of you who want to eat something that didn't get murdered, I have been trying out lots of different brands to see what I think.  So far I have tried Gardein and Beyond Meat.  They were both good.  Vegetarians, what plant-based meats do you prefer?  For me, I don't actually miss the flavor or texture of meat, so I really could do without it, but it makes me family happy.  You know it's very realistic fake meat when Nick is bringing leftovers to the police station for dinner.  Definitely a good compromise between meat and no meat!

Anyway, just make this baked ziti, even if you think you hate baked ziti.  It makes a giant casserole, it reheats great, and everyone loves it.  It's definitely going into regular rotation here - it was even requested this weekend!

Recipe:

baked ziti
from AllRecipes (and Mr. O.!)
makes 10 servings

Ingredients:
1 pound ziti
1 onion, chopped
1 pound lean ground beef (or your choice of fake meat!)
2 26-ounce jars spaghetti sauce
6 ounces provolone cheese, sliced
1 1/2 cups sour crea,
6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

1) Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil.  Add ziti, and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes. Drain.

2) In a large skillet, brown onion and ground beef over medium heat.  Add spaghetti sauce and simmer for 15 minutes.

3) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a 9x13-inch baking dish.  Layer as follows: 1/2 of the ziti, all the provolone, all the sour cream, 1/2 of the sauce mixture, remaining ziti, all the mozzarella, and the remaining sauce mixture.  Top with grated Parmesan.

4) Bake for 30 minutes or until cheeses are melted.

Banana Carrot Dog Treats

I am up and about early this morning because I have two dog-sitting jobs today!  Can I even call that a job?  Because I would have done it for free :)  Anyway, I figured I should use this time to post another recipe from my picture-less backlog.  And how appropriate that my post is for dog treats?

I like to make homemade dog treats; I like that they aren't from China and packed with weird things. Plus I like to bake for the ones I love, and I love no one more than my girls (sorry everyone else).  I had some black bananas and had to make either some banana bread, or some banana carrot dog treats!  The dogs won out.

These treats are made with whole wheat flour and oatmeal, and flavored with banana, carrot, optional brown sugar, and parsley (which also helps with bad breath!).  Some coconut oil and an egg hold everything together.  They get baked, and then left in the oven for 20 minutes to harden like store-bought dog biscuits.  I made big ones and small ones so that Poppy, Ginny and Delilah would all have proper sizes.  They loved them!  Then again, Ginny eats poop so we can't exactly take her word for it!  :)

Recipe:

banana carrot dog treats
from Homemade Dog Treats Now

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup quick cook oatmeal
1 banana, mashed or pureed in a food processor
2 carrots, shredded
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon brown sugar (optional; I left it in)
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 egg

Instructions:

1) Grease baking sheet and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Combine all ingredients in a medium-sized bowl and stir until well-combined.

3) Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface.  Press flat with your hands or use a rolling pin to roll dough to 1/4 to 1/2-inch thickness.  Cut out using cookie cutters.

4) Place cookies on baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes.  Pull out the cookies after baking for a softer treat, or crack oven door and leave the sheet in there for 20 minutes for treats to harden.  Store in an airtight container in a refrigerator, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Grapefruit Yogurt Cake

It's been a while, huh?  Don't worry, I am doing just fine. I had a great week off on vacation last week, but then I had a phone-tastrophe, and lost everything, from my photos to my contacts to my texts.  I have since come to terms with this disaster, but I have some bad blog news: this is not good news for you.  This means that I have lost pictures of the next few recipes to share, and also that I am sure that I will be forgetting some of them!  I use the pictures to remind me what recipe is next up to share, so we will simply have to rely on my memory.  I know of a few good ones, but the mediocre ones are hazy (maybe that's not a bad thing!).  I knew that this was the next one on my list though, so deal without pictures and use your visualizing skills!

Actually the more I remember, the more I think that this is a good post to have without pictures.  I sort of burned this cake.  But now you can just picture it perfectly browned, and not sorta black on the sides!

So, grapefruit cake!  My mom and Kenzie had brought me grapefruits from Florida back in February per my request.  I think grapefruits are one of my favorite fruits.  I ate all but one, which was getting a little soft and not perfect for eating, but perfect for baking with!  I know there are about a million recipes for baking with oranges or lemons, but why not grapefruit?  Where is the grapefruit love?  A little Googling led me to Smitten Kitchen (love her) and her grapefruit yogurt cake.  It uses both grapefruit zest in the cake, and the juice that you pour over the cake while it's still warm.  Mmmmm.  Plus there is a glaze with even more grapefruit juice that gets drizzled over the cake right before you go to town on it.  Sheer grapefruit perfection.  It's a super grapefruity, super moist cake that stays good for days, and you can even pretend it's breakfast food.  I did anyway ;)

Recipe:

grapefruit yogurt cake
from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt (I used Greek)
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar (divided)
3 extra large eggs (not only did I use extra large, I used duck eggs! Fun fact)
1 tablespoon grated grapefruit zest (approximately one large grapefruit)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
for glaze:
1 cup confectionary sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

Instructions:

1)  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 by 2 1/2-inch loaf pan.  Line the bottom with parchment paper.  Grease and flour the pan.

2) Soft together the flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl.  In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, eggs, grapefruit zest, and vanilla.  Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

3) Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup grapefruit juice and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear.  Set aside.

4) When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan 10 minutes.  Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan.  While the cake is still warm, pour the grapefruit juice-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in.  Cool.

5) For the glaze, combine the confectionary sugar and grapefruit juice and pour over the cake.

Creamy Cauliflower Chowder

It seems kind of crazy to be posting about soup on a day when I left my doors and windows open all day, talked about opening the pool, and worse short sleeves and a skirt... but then again, two weeks ago today, I had a snow day.  #newengland, am I right?

I am sure it will be soup weather again in no time (although, as much as I love soup, I am not rushing it... I love when my house isn't 50 degrees).  When it happens, this soup will go into immediate rotation.   I love cauliflower anything these days, so I was intrigued by this soup.  I recently made a different roasted cauliflower soup, but it was totally pureed, and my favorite soups have some heft to them.  This one isn't pureed at all, so there are cauliflower florets, carrots, onions and celery.  Plus there's dried thyme, roasted garlic, and shredded cheddar cheese.  Are you drooling yet?  It's thick, hearty, and delicious, and it reheats well.

It might not be soup weather today, but if it was, this would be your dinner.  Set it aside for a rainy day; I'm sure it's coming!

Recipe:

creamy cauliflower chowder
from Two Peas and their Pod
serves 6

Ingredients:
1 large head of cauliflower, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 15-ounce cans vegetable broth
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
salt and black pepper

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place chopped cauliflower and garlic cloves on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and toss until well coated.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Place pan in the oven and roast for 20 - 25 minutes or until cauliflower is tender, stirring once.  Remove from oven and set aside.

2) In a large pot, melt butter over medium-high heat.  Add the onion and cook for 2 - 3 minutes.  Add carrots and celery and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3) Finely chop the roasted garlic cloves.  Add the garlic, roasted cauliflower, bay leaf, and dried thyme to the pot.  Sprinkle flour over vegetables and stir.  Cook until flour disappears.

4) Pour in the vegetable broth and stir.  Simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the milk and shredded cheese. Stir until cheese is melted and chowder is creamy.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Blueberry Pie with a Twist

Well hey there, April vacation!  Long time no see!  And the last time I saw you, you totally ruined my life, but this week is off to a great start already.  Only two days in and I've already gotten a sunburn, gone on two walks, seen some friends, been dog-sitting a precious pug, and had a cookout at my mom's.  Not too shabby, and my 5 days off haven't even officially started till tomorrow!

Anyway, let's talk about summer, because it felt like summer today.  I actually got a sunburn sitting in my backyard drinking coffee.  Heaven (minus the sunburn).  It makes me really look forward to actual summer time: sleeping late, beach days, and fresh local produce!  I recently used my last frozen blueberries to make this blueberry pie, and I am pretty sure that I have thought about the fact that I have no more blueberries fairly nonstop ever since.  I need more, and I need to pick them myself.  Let the countdown to summer begin.

If I was using my last berries, at least it was on this pie.  I was kind of intrigued by it for a few reasons.  First, the pie crust had confectionary sugar in it, which I thought was interesting because most pie dough isn't all that sweet.  Second, the pie filling itself had fun things like cinnamon, allspice, and even red wine in it - in fact, it recommends using blueberry wine if you can find it.  I used regular red wine, but it's definitely something to try out in the future.

I did make the mistake of using whole what flour like the recipe suggests. My family is very prejudiced against whole wheat flour and immediately decide not to like something when they know it's in there.  So I can't really tell you how this pie was.  I didn't have any and no one really raved over it, but I think it was from the pre-judging of the color of the crust!  Please do me a favor and try this pie out, and use all-purpose flour, and tell me how it went!

Recipe:

blueberry pie with a twist
from King Arthur Flour
makes 8 - 10 servings

Ingredients:
for crust:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose flour)
4 teaspoons buttermilk powder (optional; I did not have any)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons confectionary sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter
5 tablespoons ice water
for filling:
6 cups frozen blueberries
1/3 cup fruity wine, blueberry if possible
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup confectionary sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
milk and coarse sugar, for brushing and sprinkling over top crust

Instructions:

1) Make the crust.  In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, buttermilk powder, salt, sugar, and baking powder.  Cut the butter into small cubes and work it into the dry ingredients using your fingers, a pastry blender or fork, or a mixer until the dough is unevenly crumbly.  Sprinkle in the ice water, mixing until the dough is cohesive.  Grab a handful; if it holds together willingly and doesn't seem at all dry or crumbly, you've added enough liquid.

2) Divide the dough roughly in half, making one half slightly larger than the other.  Shape each piece of dough into a disk.  Working with one disk at a time, roll the edges along a floured work surface as though the disk were a wheel in order to smooth them out.  Pat the disks until they are about 1 inch thick, wrap them in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight or for up to 3 days.

3) Prepare the blueberries.  Place the berries in a large saute pan, preferably 12-inch.  Add the wine.  Simmer the berries gently, over medium-low heat, until the liquid in the bottom of the pan is syrupy.  This will take about 45 minutes.  Remove from heat.  If needed, you can do this the day before and refrigerate the berries.

4) Remove both pieces of dough from the refrigerator.  Allow them to warm a bit and become flexible, about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Flour your work surface, and roll the larger piece of dough into a 12-inch circle.  Transfer the dough to a 9-inch regular pie pan that is at least 1 1/4 inches deep.  Leave the edges hanging over the edge of the pan.

5) In a medium bowl, combine the blueberries and their juice, the spices, vanilla, sugars, salt, and lemon juice, stirring to combine.  Mix in the butter, then the flour.

6) Spoon the filling into the crust.  Roll the remaining piece of dough into an 11-inch circle and lay it atop the filling.  Bring the hanging edges of the bottom crust up and over the top crust, rolling and squeezing them together, then crimping decoratively.  Cut three slashes in the top of the pie to allow steam to escape.  Brush top crust with milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar if desired.

7) Bake pie for 30 minutes.  Lay a sheet of aluminum foil gently on top, covering the entire crust.  Bake for an additional 30-40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and you can see the berries bubbling through the slits in the crust.  Remove the pie from the oven and allow it to cool to room temperature, at least 5 hours.  I know that seems hard, but it helps everything to thicken up.  If you can't wait, just be prepared for it to be a little messier.

Pizza Roses

Because I am the coolest person ever, I threw a party to watch the Bachelor finale last month, and I made these pizza roses for dinner.  Get it?  As in, I could serve the pizza while  saying, "will you accept this rose?"  Hilarious, I know.  And the best news is that these were so delicious, and really not that hard!  You could make them for Valentine's Day, or a birthday, or just because you feel like having pizza roses. That could happen any day, really.

Because can we talk about how cute these are?  And they are just really delicious and very portable little pizzas.  Win win.

Being me, I made my own pizza dough, but you could easily use store-bought dough.  You can make your own sauce or use a jar - I was lazy and used a jar - and you can customize the toppings.  You could definitely add some fresh basil, or swap out the pepperoni for sliced tomatoes (I was out of tomatoes so I just made some without pepperoni for myself).  Add more cheese or less cheese or olives or pepper or mushrooms... I don't care!  Just make pizza roses!  Will you accept this rose?

Recipe:

pizza roses
adapted from Tasty
makes 6 - 8 roses

Ingredients:
1 pound pizza dough
approximately 65 pepperoni slices (you will need about 8 per rose)
1/2 cup pizza sauce
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray.

2) Roll out pizza dough into a large, very thin rectangle.  Cover lightly in tomato sauce.  Cut into 6 - 8 long, thin strips.

3)  Place pepperoni along the upper edge of each strip of dough, making sure that the slices of pepperoni overlap each other.  Sprinkle the bottom edge with cheese.  See photo below for a visual (teacher talk!)

4) Roll the dough strips into coils and place in muffin tin with pepperoni facing up.

5) Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until pepperoni edges are crispy and the dough is fully cooked through.  Remove from the oven and let cool for 2 minutes before removing from tin and asking people to "accept this rose!"

One Pot Spinach and Artichoke Mac and Cheese

I went back on forth on whether to share this recipe or not, because it was not my most popular.  But I think it was my own fault and not the recipes, so here goes nothing.

I made this one pot spinach and artichoke mac and cheese for a pot luck at school.  Kenzie had made a similar recipe the week before and it was delicious.  I was looking for something that wouldn't take too long because my night was a busy one, and preferably something in a crock pot.  It was on a half day at work where I would not get a single break from the kids to run to the kitchen and put something in the oven, so it needed to be fairly self-sufficent.  After having Kenzie's mac and cheese, I got that in my head, and decided to try to make it the night before, and then heat it up in my slow cooker for the next day.

Yeah that was not my best idea.  It kind of dried it out and the noodles got a bit mushy.  The flavor was still good, but the texture was off.  Luckily I had eaten some the night before and got to experience it at its peak; the spinach and artichokes are a great addition to a cheesy pot of elbow noodles.  I was sure it would be a hit!  And then... no.  I ended up with tons left over.  I brought some to Gram, who has trouble eating anything but mush anyway.  She remarked that it would have been better with some hamburger.  "Um, it's mac and cheese," I explained, but then again Gram hates everything except her own cooking (and she doesn't cook anymore, so she hates everything except Cheetos).

I did give some to Christy, who liked it and had the Tupperware back to me within the hour, and ate plenty for leftovers (for about a million years).  I don't think was an epic fail.  Please redeem this dish for me.  Make it, don't dry it out, and then tell me if it went over better for you!

Recipe:

one pot spinach and artichoke mac and cheese
from House of Yumm
serves 6 and I doubled it... sigh

Ingredients:
14 ounces small elbow macaroni noodles
8 ounces shredded jack cheese
4 ounces shredded parmesan cheese
14-ounce can artichoke hearts, thawed and drained
10-ounce package frozen spinach, thawed and drained (squeeze out all the excess water)
1/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Instructions:

1) In a large pot, boil salted water and add in the macaroni noodles.  Boil while stirring occasionally for 10-12 minutes until soft.  Drain water and return noodles to the pot.  Reduce heat to low.

2) Add in the milk, butter, and cheese.  Stir until well combined and the cheese is completely melted.

3) Add in the spinach and artichokes.  Stir until well combined.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve and do not dry it out and turn everything to mush in a slow cooker!

Pan-Fried Orange Tofu

I am super excited about this orange tofu (the vegetarian version of Chinese orange chicken) recipe. Here's proof: I made it recently, obviously, since I am blogging about it now, but also, I went grocery shopping on Sunday and bought the ingredients to make it again. I very rarely make anything twice at all, never mind twice in one month!  But that's how good this is.

Now, before you judge me and skip the whole post because it says tofu, just hold on a second.  Yes, it's tofu, but it is probably my most favorite tofu recipe ever.  Plus, if you really cannot imagine yourself eating tofu, fine. Use chicken and make there moe traditional orange chicken. Just don't miss out on this sauce!!!!

Okay, so this is the most amazing orange sauce on the planet: sweet, savory, thick, healthy and amazing. Oh, and it's super quick too!  Totally doable for a weeknight (or even while you make another meal, like I did when I roasted a chicken).  Serve this baby over rice and I promise you, you will not regret it.  In fact, your stomach will growl and your mouth will water when you talk about it (or blog about it, in my case) and you will vow to make it for your dinner ASAP.

Recipe:

pan-fried orange tofu
from Crazy Vegan Kitchen
serves 2

Ingredients:
8 ounces firm tofu, cubed
2 2/3 tablespoons peanut oil, divided (vegetable is fine)
1 small red onion, sliced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 red chili, sliced
2 scallions, sliced
for juice:
zest and juice of 1 large orange
1 tablespoon Sriracha
4 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon white wine
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
4 teaspoons tamari or soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame seeds

Instructions:

1) Prepare tofu: heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan and lightly sear tofu on all sides to create a crispy crust.  Do it in batches if your pan is not big enough or you will stew the tofu instead of searing it!  When all tofu is seared, set aside on a wire rack or plate lined with a paper towel.

2) Prepare orange sauce: in a bowl, combine all ingredients for suce and whisk to combine.  Set aside.

3) In a large pan, heat 1 tablespoon oil and saute garlic, onion and chili for 1 - 2 minutes.  Pour in prepared sauce mixture and stir well.  Once sauce simmers and thickens, add tofu and coat pieces in the orange sauce.  Immediately transfer to a serving dish and serve with jasmine rice.