Brussels Sprouts

This is a fast easy yet yummy recipe-NOT healthy. The ultimate test was to get my husband to eat it...this is why I added bacon :) And he enjoyed it so I win!

I washed and tore off all ugly looking leaves on the brussels sprouts. We received some fresh organic ones in our CSA last week.

I parboiled them for about 3 minutes...they should be almost tender (cut one in half to check).



Drain the water and put them in cold ice water , this will keep them nice and green.


In a pan add butter, onion, and bacon-sauté for a few minutes.



While they are cooking cut the brussels sprouts in half then add to the onion bacon mixture.
Cook for a 4-5 more minutes…don’t over cook! When brussels sprouts are over cooked they become bitter tasting! I like mine to be tender yet a tad crisp yet.

Looks healthy right!?

I served them with meatloaf and red potatoes. Yum!

Spaghetti Squash

I have never cooked a spaghetti squash before. So I made a very simple dish and turns out I really enjoy it!

To cook the spaghetti squash I preheated the oven to 350 degree and cut the squash in half. I placed it cut sides down in a baking dish with about an inch of water.
I cooked it for 30 minutes.

While that was cooking, I sliced and cooked some smoked turkey kielbasa with some diced onion and fresh garlic.
I added some chopped red pepper and heated through. I also chopped up 2 tomatoes and added them for the last few minutes of cooking…just enough to warm them up slightly.




My husband took the squash out of the oven and used a fork to “shred” out the squash.
Then we simply dished the meat and veggies on top of the squash and added a few pinches of Italian cheese.


Very simple and very good!

Quick and Easy Healthy Meal

After receiving A LOT of tomatoes in our CSA I got to thinking of what I could make with them.
Tonight for dinner I did a simple mix of veggies (onion, zucchini, squash, cerise toamtoes) mixed with some chicken served with corn on the cob and broiled tomatoes.

For the broiled tomatoes I sliced the tomatoes to desired thickness. Placed them on a broiling pan and then I covered half of them with Italian Vinaigrette and the other half with dry Italian seasonings.


I then sliced some mozzarella cheese and placed that on top and a sprinkle of black cracked pepper. I broiled them just until the cheese was melted a tad.

They turned out pretty good, I like the ones that had the Vinaigrette on them the best. It was a nice way to use the tomatoes and a nice addition to the meal!

Super Chicken Salad

Trying to find creative ways to use up our CSA veggies I decided to get crafty and make some super-chicken salad. It is super easy so this blog will not be long!

I chopped up some red cabbage, shredded a carrot, and chopped up some onion.


I boiled 2 chicken breast and then shredded them using two forks.



In a small bowl I used some mayo (made with extra virgin olive oil), a bit of yellow mustard, a dash of celery salt (we had no celery on hand), and some black cracked pepper. As with all my sauce mixtures I didn’t measure anything just added as I went along!

I then added all of the ingredients together and mixed well. I served it as an open faced sandwich on a piece of wheat bread with corn on the cob and a side salad. I served it slightly warm but you can let is sit and cool in the fridge if desired.
It was very good and something I will make again.


The cabbage added an extra good crunch. The carrots were shredded so the flavor was not overpowering and added a nice color to the salad.

Veggie Pasta

My husband and I recently celebrated 3 years of wedded bliss. We went out for a nice dinner at a restaurant downtown Madison and had a fabulous meal. We both ordered dishes that were not complicated but due to all the fresh ingredients it was remarkably delish! Of course it got me thinking I can make dishes similar to the ones we had.

We got our CSA this week and it was once again FULL of great organic goodies so I decided to make an easy yet yummy dish using a lot of our veggies.

The first thing I did was dice up on tomato and minced one clove of garlic. I mixed them together in a bowl and added some spices to it (Italian spices). I threw the mixture into the fridge and let it sit for the entire day, mixing every now and then so that all the flavors could blend together.


I then cut up a zucchini and one summer squash, leaving the skins on both. I chopped up part of an onion and minced one more clove of garlic.
I fried all the veggies up to the point that they were warm but not mushy. I like my veggies to still have a slight crunch when I eat them.


I also washed and cut in half about a handful of cerise orange tomatoes. They look just like cherry tomatoes but a tad smaller and they are a pale orange color. I had never used them before but they were in the CSA and they had a great taste to them. I added these to the last couple minutes of frying for the veggies-again enough to make them warm but not enough to make them complete mush.



While the veggies were cooking I cooked up some chopped chicken and made some pasta, I used thin spaghetti noodles.

Once everything was done cooking I mixed it all together and threw in some mozzarella pearls. This allowed the warmth of the dish to slightly melt the mozzarella but not enough for it too completely melt.

To finish I put the tomato/garlic mixture that was marinating all day over the top as a “cold sauce”. Overall it was amazingly good.


I think the next time I cook it I will cook the veggies on a lower heat for a longer time to let the flavors of all the veggies blend together. When I ate the leftovers for lunch today it seemed more flavorful and the only reasoning I can come up with is that it had time to sit and blend together. I also added cracked black pepper today.
I

Pseudo-Homemade Meatloaf

Our grocery normally carries pre-assembled meatloafs so that all you have to do is throw it in the oven for 45 minutes and ta-da dinner is served. However they have been out for the last couple of days and of course my husband and I have wanted it.

While considering other dinner options I thought I could possibly pull off making it myself. Usually when I cook something new I look over several (at least 5) different recipes to get a feel for what I am going to prepare and the different ways it can be made. So I some what cheated, I went to the spice section of the grocery store and found of box of pre-mixed spices and breadcrumbs to make a meatloaf. The box of spices said to just mix with one egg and some water. Easy enough I threw it in the cart got a pound of fresh hamburger and headed home.

I followed the simple directions on the box, mixed 1/3 cup warm water with an egg and then added the pre-mixed seasonings. Once that was mixed I quickly diced and sauted some fresh onion and green pepper (from our CSA).
I mixed the hamburger, season mixture, and green pepper/onions in a big bowl. If you have ever seen someone make meatloaf or have made it yourself you know you can’t thoroughly mix it with a spoon. So I slid my wedding rings off washed my hands and dug in.
The smell of raw meat really grosses me out however the spices seemed to pack a good punch and already smelled really good.
Once everything was mixed well I formed it into a loaf shape and placed it into a greased baking dish.


For the sauce they recommend using ketchup on top but I wanted something a tad yummier. I mixed about ½ cup of ketchup with a dash of worcestershire sauce, a dash of ground cumin, some Sriracha hot sauce, a little bit of honey, and a small amount of brown sugar. I have no idea on exact measurements, normally when I am throwing together a sauce I wing it. I add and taste as I go until I get a mixture I enjoy. This sauce has a tad of a kick, I might have over done it on the Sriracha sauce but we tend to like spicier things.


I cooked the loaf at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. At that point I added the sauce over the top and cooked an additional 10 minutes!

I served ours with salad, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob (also from our CSA).
Good comfort food!!

Fried Eggplant

Fried Eggplant

In last weeks CSA we received a couple eggplants so for dinner tonight I decided to make a side of fried eggplant to go with our meat ravioli.

I have little experience with eggplant eating it or cooking it so I did some quick on-line research and got right to it.

First I peeled the eggplant. This was pretty easy to do and it’s not necessary the peel is totally edible and depending on how you are cooking it you should keep it on (when broiling they recommend keeping the peel on).


After I peeled it I cut it into slices and laid out on a wire rack. I also learned that certain eggplants may have a bitter taste to them. To draw the bitter juices out of the eggplant sprinkle some salt on the slices. I used seasoning salt and it worked nicely.



Next I whipped 3 eggs with some seasoning salt, a clove of fresh garlic (minced), some Essence of Emeril seasoning, and some crushed black pepper.



In a separate bowl I combined 1 cup of bread crumbs, 1 cup of corn meal, and some grated Parmesan cheese.
I took the eggplant slices dipped them in the egg and then coated them nicely in the dry mix.
I let them sit for a few minutes on a wire rack to help them dry out a bit before frying.


I added about 3 TBSPs of oil into a pan and once it was heated placed the eggplants in. I let them cook for about 2 minutes on each side before removing.


I served them along side our favorite ravioli. You can eat the eggplant with a side of marina or even a side of ranch.

Super Easy Cinnamon Rolls

Super Easy Cinnamon Rolls *Warning NOT healthy*

My husband stumbled upon this recipe a while ago and its so easy and so amazingly good we have made it several times.

You will need:
1 loaf of frozen bread dough thawed (we used Rhodes brand)
1 cup of brown sugar
3 TBSP of cinnamon
1 stick of butter

For frosting:
½ brick of cream cheese
½ stick of butter
1 ½ cup powdered sugar
½ tsp of vanilla if you would like

Take the thawed dough and roll it out. Roll it so that it’s about a foot long.


In a medium bowl combine the stick of softened butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Mash it all together to that it makes a thick paste like mixture.


Take that mixture and place it into the middle of the dough running through the middle. Make sure the mixture is evenly spread and stop spreading it when you are about an inch from the top and the bottom of the dough.

Once its spread begin to roll it. Roll it up until you have one long log of cinnamon roll.

Cut it into 12 slices and put them in a baking dish on their ends, you should be able to see the cinnamon swirl. You can let them rise for a few hours (until they double in size) or make them the night before and refrigerate them so they rise nice and slow. Remove them from the fridge an hour before you want to bake them.



Bake in a 400 degree pre-heated oven for 15 minutes or until nice and golden brown.


For frosting add cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar. Mix until well blended. If you choose you can add the vanilla or for some more kick add another dash of cinnamon.


Frost and enjoy!! Cinnabon has NOTHING on these!!

Margherita Pizza

It has been awhile since my last post, my apologies for that. It isn't that I haven't been cooking-I have. However finding the time to sit and do a small write up or remembering to take pictures has been a struggle. I refuse to write up something I made without pictures. People do not read food blogs to hear how good something looks or tastes..they want to see it!
I am also having some health issues where I am trying to adjust my diet and cut certain things out so that has also been a challenge.

So with that said I have some pictures of my version of margherita pizza. I have never made it before but its pretty simple mixture of basil, tomato, and mozzarella cheese.

The whole reason I made this pizza is because a couple of weeks ago we got a TON of the most delish fresh organic basil in our CSA. The aroma of it was simply amazing. I knew I had to use it and use it fast!

I used the basic pizza dough recipe I have mentioned in an earlier blog, again if you don't have time to make the dough grab a pre-made crust from the store. Roll that out to the desired shape/size. I made sure to get my crust as thin as possible in hopes it would be a tad crunchy after baking.

I grabbed a ball of mozzarella from the grocery store, drained it and sliced it into nice thick slices. You can cut it however you would like.

I cut a large beefsteak tomato into thick slices as well. Normally people will use roma tomatoes or plum tomatoes but this is what I had in the house so its what I used. In addition to the large slices of tomato I took a 1/4 of a tomato and diced it up.

For the basil I simply washed it, dried it, and removed the stems. I took a few basil leaves and minced them.
I had fresh garlic from our CSA so I minced up on clove of that as well.


In a small fry pan I placed the diced tomato, chopped basil, garlic, and a bit of extra virgin olive oil. I warmed it over low heat for about 20 minutes. It was long enough for the tomatoes to soften and for all of the ingredients to blend together nicely. It looked like a chunky sauce but not a lot of it.


I took that sauce and spread it on the pizza dough. Again there isn't a lot of it I just wanted to incorporate some of the great garlic I had.
Once I had that spread on the dough I gave a couple of splashes of extra virgin olive oil over the rest of the dough.
Then I simply layered the rest of the goodies-tomatoes first, cheese, and then basil.

Just make sure to spread everything out evenly. Don't have tomatoes overlapping each other and try to place a chunk of cheese on every tomato slice. Be as generous as you would like with the basil.


Pop it into an oven pre-heated at 500 degrees and cook for about 10 minutes. At the 10 minute mark I flipped the broiler on to get the cheese a nice golden brown.
Let the pizza sit for a minute or two before cutting and enjoy!


As I always recommend play around with it and add on or substitute ingredients. Its a simple pizza so there are many ways to jazz it up. Pancetta, red onions, black olives...I could go on and on!

CSA Deliciousness!

We received our first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) a few weeks ago. Very excited lots of great fresh organic goodness!
Once we laid it all out I realized that there were things in there I had NEVER seen before. In the share we have bok choy, chard, garlic snapes, head lettuce, Mustard greens, kohlrabi, radish, scallions, a salad mix, salad turnips, and spinach.



Since there is just SO much I wanted to get cracking on using it up so it doesn’t spoil.

Chicken breast with Garlic Pesto

Garlic Pesto Sauce:
4-5 Garlic Snapes
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup of cheese grated (your choose I used Parmesan)
Salt & Pepper to taste (I used pepper and no salt due to the fact I used salted nuts)
¼ cup of nuts…a lot of pesto recipes call for pine nuts. I didn’t have them so I used some cashews its crazy sounding but it’s all we had and it was good!

I cut the snapes into 2 inch sized pieces discarding the hard dark green parts of the stem. I put the snapes, cheese, salt/pepper, and nuts all into the handy dandy Magic Bullet and mixed it all together until the snapes were broken down.
Then I added ½ of the olive oil mixed it up again and then added the remaining olive oil. Mix until well blended.
This turned out AMAZING! I was beyond shocked with the results. Most pesto’s have basil in them and this one had none so I was apprehensive but it was great!



I broiled two chicken breast 5 minutes on each side, brushed the pesto sauce on both chicken breasts then broiled for another 5-10 minutes until chicken is done. When it was done the chicken had a yummy pesto baked crust. We had leftover sauce that we drizzled on top or dipped chicken into.


Roasted Kohlrabi

Kohlrabi bulb(s) peeled
1 TBSP Olive oil
1 clove garlic (I used garlic snapes again minced)
Salt and Pepper (to taste)
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
Preheat an oven to 450 degrees.

Cut the kohlrabi into 1/4 inch thick slices..or thinner its up to you, if you cut them thinner make sure to cook for less time! Combine olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Toss kohlrabi slices in the olive oil mixture to coat. Spread kohlrabi onto baking sheet.
Bake until browned, 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally in order to brown evenly. Remove from oven and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Return to the oven to allow the Parmesan cheese to brown, about 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

Sorry I only have pictures of the pesto because I had this meal completely prepped then after a run felt so sick I was unable to eat it. So my husband was able to enjoy it and then the next day I was able to enjoy mine

1st Attempt at Lasagna

After running 5 miserable miles in the heat yesterday and another 8 miles today I decided to make some comfort food for dinner.
I love lasagna but have never attempted to make one before. In the past I have purchased one that comes already prepared in a box where all I have to do is take it out of the freezer and pop it into the oven. Simple but not always the yummiest.

Below is the basic recipe that I used and I tweaked it a bit to my liking.

1 lb ground beef
1 onion chopped
1 can of mushrooms or fresh (sliced)
1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
1 package of cottage cheese (16 oz)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 pint of part skim ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1/2 package of lasagna noodles
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

In a large skillet brown the hamburger. Once browned add the mushrooms and onions. I also added some garlic for some extra flavor. Cook until the onions are transparent then add the spaghetti sauce. I also added one can of Fire Roasted tomatoes (Drained very well). Heat through.


In a medium bowl combine cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, grated Parmesan cheese and eggs.

As for the noodles I know they make lasagna noodles that don’t have to be precooked however I wanted to cook mine to ensure that my noodles we cooked all the way through. It’s up to you if you want to cook your noodles or not (and how much time you have to prepare it). It takes about 8-9 minutes to boil lasagna noodles.

Spread a thin layer of the meat mixture on the bottom of a 13x9 baking dish. Layer with noodles, cheese mixture, mozzarella cheese, and then meat mixture. Continue to do this until all is gone, keeping some of the mozzarella cheese reserved to put on top during the last 10 minutes of cooking. (1/2 cup-ish)

Cover with tin foil and cook for 35-45 minutes at 350-because I cooked my noodles before hand I only cooked mine for 30 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle remaining cheese and bake for an additional 15 minutes for the cheese to get nice and melted. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving…this allows the lasagna to set up nicely

Early Morning Get up and Go

I have started my full marathon training, my husband has as well. With our little one at home one of us usually has to get up early morning (5am-ish) to get our miles in.
The first day I got up early I just had a quick and easy 3 miler to do. I got dressed, laced up my shoes, stretched and out the door I went.

I quickly realized that I had forgotten to eat. After some thinking about this mistake I decided to make some strawberry banana muffins. A quick and easy thing to eat before heading out the door.

The recipe I used is pretty simple. I modified it slightly and just used one banana (it calls for two).
They turned out really yummy and after trying one before my 5 mile run this morning, they did the trick to keep my stomach happy while running.


Here is the recipe I used…remember you can add the 2nd banana if you choose too!

½ Cup (1 Stick) of Butter (melted)
¾ Cup Light Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 or 2 Bananas (Mashed)
1 Cup Fresh Strawberries (Cut into bite size pieces)
2 ¼ Cups Flour
1 ½ tsp. Baking Powder
¼ tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Cinnamon
½ tsp Salt

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a cupcake pan or use cupcake liners.

In a medium bowl slightly beat the eggs, add brown sugar, vanilla, and the melted butter. Add the mashed banana and mix together.

In a larger bowl add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add the strawberries a little at a time and make sure the pieces are well coated so that they don’t sink to the bottom of the muffin while cooking.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until blended but DON”T over mix the batter, it will cause the muffins to be chewy.

Fill up 12 muffin liners with the batter and cook for 20 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean). Remove from pan and let cool on rack.
Enjoy!

A Quick and Easy Meal

Tonight I wasn't feeling the best, after spending all afternoon at my Drs office I was looking for a quick and easy meal.
So here it is, nothing fancy just worked with what we had.
One can of refrigerated biscuit dough
1 lb of ground hamburger (or turkey)
1 can of Manwich (Or make your own for a healthier version...Manwich is LOADED with sodium and preservatives!).
1/2 cup of shredded cheese.

I took the refrigerated biscuits and flattened them out on a cookie sheet and built up the sides using my fingers to make little "bowls".

Make hamburger and Manwich as instructed too on can...brown hamburger, drain fat, add the Manwich and heat through.

Once hamburger and Manwich is heated through spoon some of it into each little "biscuit bowl". Top with shredded cheese pop in the oven at 400 degrees for about 10-15 minutes. The cheese should be melted and the biscuits should be brown.



Simple meal that didnt take much prep work!