Smart & Savory Snack

I highly recommend this combo!

Drizzle extra virgin cold pressed olive oil & sprinkle some paprika and freshly ground pepper for a mouth watering munchie!

Homemade Cheesy Rice & Sauteed Broccoli

One of my 4 year old daughter's favorite lunches when she gets home from school!  And what a healthy dose of comfort food it is! 

• For best results, try to use fresh broccoli and Basmati rice. 
• Make a traditional cheese sauce (I used Mexican blend & parmesean) and mix into a larger quantitiy of cooked rice so it's not soupy. 
• Chop up and rinse broccoli, and saute in extra virgin olive oil over medium heat for 10-15 min. Season with coarse salt and a tad of freshly ground pepper.  Garlic powder optional as well.  It beats any processed boxed riced mixes!

Petite Panini

With Arnold Sandwich Thins (multigrain) brushed with olive oil and filled with some shredded mozarella, red bell pepper, roasted eggplant & zucchini, & Italian dressing, you can make these quite quickly. Dip in some marinara sauce and you have one delish dish!

(*tip: buy a ready made bag of marinated roasted zucchini & eggplant in Trader Joe's freezer section, microwave, and then crisp up on a pan over medium heat for a few minutes)

Asian Almond Salad

Toss some iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced almonds, goat cheese, yellow bell pepper, julienned zucchini & carrots with this dressing from Trader Joe's and you will have a savory salad!

Apple Fries

Ok, I just recently saw that Burger King serves these, but I swear I created mine before I knew about theirs!  This has been a great way to entice my daughter to eat fruit and just perfect for little toddler hands.  Now that she's a pre-schooler, she still enjoys them and we often dip in peanut butter!

Green Beans with roasted garlic & pine nuts

Black Bean Lasagna

My awesome friend & former colleague V.L. taught me how to make this when we lived in VA.  Now I have to fix it myself in NC!

What you need:

• 9x12 baking dish (glass or stoneware best but an aluminum brownie pan will do)
• 9 boiled lasagna sheets
• 2 cans Goya black bean soup
• 2 cans Rotel (I use the mild)
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 16 oz. low fat sour cream
• 2 cups shredded mozarella but if you can find it, farmer's cheese is really what you're supposed to use in this recipe
• fresh cilantro to taste or 1 tablespoon dried
• salt to taste but I don't use any since it's mostly stuff from a can anyway that is already salty

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Saute garlic in olive oil.  Add black bean soup, Rotel, and cilantro.  Heat and set aside.

3. Fill a zip lock back with sour cream, let out extra air, seal, and cut one of the bottom corners to make it like an icing bag.

4. Spray bottom of baking dish with nonstick spray.

5. Lay 3 of the lasagna sheets side by side in bottom of baking dish.

6. Pour one ladle of soup mixture on each lasagna sheet.

7. Pipe one strip of sour cream on each sheet.

8. Sprinkle some cheese on each sheet.

9. Repeat for next two layers.

10. Bake 30 min. or until bubbling and cheese melted.

Be careful and enjoy!! 

Bonus tip:  Tastes wonderful with rosemary focacia

Heirloom Heaven

This is a great example of beauty being in the eye of the beholder & not to judge a book by its cover.  It pains me to say this, but I've actually known people who have found heirloom tomatoes so unappealing to the eye that they assume their pallate will feel the same.  Boy are they depriving themselves of one of life's most natural, simple, & sweet pleasures.  I think heirloom tomatoes are uniquely exquisite both in sight & in taste.  They are a tomato lover's dream & this smaller variety I found at Trader Joe's were yummmmmmy!  See this website for more info.: http://www.ehow.com/how_5064399_understand-health-benefits-heirloom-tomatoes.html

Above, is an heirloom tomato/fresh mozarella/basil salad tossed in extra virgin olive oil/balsalmic vinegar/salt-n-pepper and a pasta dish that I modified a bit (added the heirlooms & more olive oil) but got from http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1935,144172-231196,00.html.

ABC 123 Soup & whole wheat pita crisps

This soup is just something I threw together for a nice little family Sunday lunch with what little groceries were in my fridge/pantry today (just returned from a trip).  It is similar to some Italian soups.  This is one of the easiest quickest soups I've ever made and the simple flavors were suprisingly tasty.  Healthy & low fat, it's a must-make!  Excellent way to use up & sneak in veggies; my daughter loved it & she normally isn't a big fan of tomato sauce.  Maybe it's because it really doesn't have a lot of tomato sauce.

Ingredients used:

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 cups water
nonstick cooking spray
1/3 cup DaVinci letter & number pasta (I forgot the exact name but it's sold at Harris Teeter)-they're really tiny.  Alternately, you could use orzo.
3-4 whole wheat pita breads, cut into wedges & separate the 2 layers of each pita bread if you can (some pieces may stick)

12 oz. Pacific organic vegetable broth

1 can no salt added tomato sauce 8 oz.

1 tbsp. minced garlic

5 (the thicker ones not the really baby ones) baby carrots, thinly sliced into small circles

1/2 green bell pepper chopped

2-3 cups of chopped broccoli

1 can navy or canneloni beans

1/8 cup grated parmesean cheese

flat leaf parsley, 1/8-1/4 cup chopped

1/2 tsp.  Trader Joe's pasta seasoning blend

coarse salt & freshly ground black pepper
Finely shredded mozarella or Italian cheese blend to garnish each bowl per preference

Steps taken:

Put 2 cups water to boil for pasta.  Once boiling, add the pasta, coarse salt, & cook for 6 minutes.

Heat approx. 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil & 1 tsp. butter in pot/sauce pan.  Add 1 tbsp. minced garlic.  Before it browns (burnt garlic can literally ruin a recipe), stir in carrots & bell pepper.  Sprinkle coarse salt & a bit of ground black pepper (as they recommend on the Food Network, it's good to season every layer as you go along & I've noticed you're less likely to need table salt once served).  Add broccoli once carrots & bell peppers start to soften.  After 5 min. stir in broth & tomato sauce.  Add beans.  Add pasta seasoning, more coarse salt, & ground pepper (just a little so not too spicy for kids).  Simmer 5-10 more min., remove from heat, & stir in pasta, then parmesean cheese & parsley.  Ladle into bowls and garnish with the Italian cheese - it will melt before your eyes!  An extra drizzle of olive oil is really heavenly.  Serve with pita crisps below or store bought pita chips.
Pita crisps:
Turn oven broiler on HI.  Arrange pita wedges on a cookie sheet.  Spray with cooking spray (I used the Trader Joe's canola spray).  Sprinkle with coarse salt.  Broil for 4-5 minutes.  Cool for a few minutes & enjoy!

Nothing fancy pasta salad

I don't know why I always forget that the smaller the noodle shape, the less you need to make!  I made a baked macaroni-n-cheese yesterday-except with a 7 cheese white sauce & lots of diced veggies mixed in-ok, so I guess it was really macaroni alfredo-ish primavera :)  Anyway, I had all this extra already cooked plain macaroni leftover so I made a pasta salad as a side dish tonight.  I usually use oil, vinegar, & italian spices or my own homemade dressing or in a real pinch (so ashamed of this), I will toss in whatever Italian dressing is in my fridge.  Well, tonight, I also happened to have the other half of a lemon I had used 2 nights ago to make tahini sauce.  I tossed my noodles & diced cucumber/tomato/bell pepper in just salt, a dash of pepper, olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice + plus a bit of zest, & snipped in some flat leaf parsley (also leftover from homemade falafels 2 nights ago - hate buying the huge bunch for 1 recipe & throwing away 3/4 of it!).  This was so fresh, simple, & delicious without the sharp tartness of vinegar (which I do love but some don't) & the preservative filled dressing!  I will never go back :)

pizza dough---> Cinnamon rolls!!

Pssst...a huge secret: you can use this same exact dough recipe to make the most delicious cinnamon rolls! Just roll out into a circle, spread butter, & nice thick layer of cinnamon-n-sugar (1/2 brown & 1/2 white). Finely chopped pecan (preferrably roasted) are a great option too. Roll up & slice. Place these snails snuggly in a buttered up round pan, cover and let rise for 1 hour. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 min. Drizzle w/powdered sugar & water glaze or with a cream cheese based runny icing.

PoSsiBly PeRfEcT piZzA

After nearly a decade of failed & mediocre attempts to make pizza, the last 5 years, our family has been enjoying homemade pizza that we literally crave and have only found close seconds at restaurants! The secret? It's not letting your dough rise all day. It's not simmering homemade sauce for hours. It's not even the type of cheese you use. It's investing in a pizza stone (doesn't have to be a Pampered Chef one either!) and PRE-heating your oven to 500 DEGREES! I don't know why so many of us heat it anywhere from only 375-425degrees causing us to keeeep checking on the pie making sure that the golden crust isn't hiding uncooked dough underneath for 35-45 minutes!! Use this recipe/method below and I promise you an unforgettable pie of pizza that is the perfect balance of crisp & chewy after baking for only 8 minutes!!!! If it feels like I'm yelling at you, I probably am...sorry, this type of thing gets me passionately excited :) Pour 1 cup of warm (not too hot or your yeast will croak instead of float) into a mixing bowl. Add 1 packet of any rapid rise yeast. Add 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar. Wait 5 min. or until you can smell the yeast & see it foaming a bit. Add 2 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 tsp salt (not coarse), & 2 tbsp olive oil. Mix with a wooden spoon (it's will stick to the spoon some so don't worry), adding flour as needed to get the right consistency. Once it is pretty well gathered, toss that spoon into the sink, & continue kneading with your hands - again adding flour as needed. Within a few minutes, you will have kneaded dough that looks like you stole it from Emeril. Round it out, flatten into a thick disk, & curve the edge underneath so the top is dome like & underneath it looks kind of like the folds of a bellybutton (sorry I pondered a long time how to describe this). Then put the dough into a clean, olive oiled bowl. Cover dough (not the mouth of the bowl) loosely with plastic wrap & place into your unheated oven or other dark place. Now ideally you would wait 1 hour, re-knead & re-dome it, and then let rise for 1 more hour. Realistically (& impatiently like me), you can just let it rise for 1 hr. And in a pinch, you don't even have to let it rise (it just won't have as airy a texture inside).

Ok once all that rising business is done, put dough on a floured surface. Oh yeah, now is when you preheat oven to 500 degrees with stone in oven. Knead for a couple minutes then roll into as even a log you can. Cut in half. Keep half on floured surface and put the other half back in the oiled bowl. Roll out, adding enough flour to avoid sticking to surface, into approx. a 14 inch pie (larger if you want it thinner, smaller if you want it thicker, & as far as deep dish, I haven't tried or figured that out yet). Sprinkle & spread some corn meal generously enough to cover the surface of a pizza peel if you have one (the one thing really worth buying from Sur La Table in Southpark as some stones come with dinky ones but those are still good for taking the pie out of the oven). If you don't have a pizza peel, you can turn a pizza pan upside down, & corn meal that the same way. Then pick up (it won't break thanks to all your kneading making the gluten party!) the rolled out dough & place on your corn meal sprinkled medium. Brush olive oil around the top edge of the pie, careful not to let it drip down the sides or underneath (but if that happens, lift up the insulted area & re-sprinkle corn meal right under it). Fill the remaining middle area with your choice of sauce. Add toppings, then shredded cheese (or vice versa probably wouldn't matter), and finally, a swirl of olive oil on top - this is what keeps your cheese bubbly brown but prevents the cheese from burning!!

Slide onto the preheated pizza stone in the oven (so easy thanks to the cornmeal but almost too easy so careful not to let it slide over the back edge of the stone!). Set timer for 8-9 min. Sometimes I do 10 min. for the 1st pizza and 8 for the 2nd. Turn on the oven light & watch the magic (or pop open that Cab, Pinot, or good ole soda of choice). When the pizza is done, slide peel under pizza & place onto a pizza pan or slide onto a pizza pan very carefully if you don't have a pizza peel. The peels are great b/c they have a long handle & are a klutz-proof way to pick up the pizza for someone like me!

Repeat with 2nd half of dough. Cut into slices & ENJOY.

I know this seems tedious but that's just because I'm wordy. After some experience, it now takes me 10 minutes to make the dough. 10-15 min. to roll out and top each pie & then about 10 min. to bake each pie. So it's really under 1 hour!! Now the clean up...well, that's a whole other story :o

Cheers!

I thoroughly enjoy cooking, bargain shopping, decorating & redecorating, working, mothering, and wife-ing (word?). I'm an avid, lifelong vegetarian excited to show off meat-free savory dishes as well as eggless desserts (I eat other dairy so I'm not technically vegan).  I will certainly give credit where it's due but I do tend to make up a lot of recipes myself. I will state now that many ideas are definitely variations of original recipes from the Food Network, magazines, cook books, my friends, & family! If anyone enjoys reading it, that's a bonus and if anyone actually tries a recipe or idea...well, that's just the cherry on top.

Mother-made Daughter-inspired Rosemary Garlic Roasted Potatoes Au Gratin

Sophia asked for her favorite rosemary oven roasted potatoes tonight. While she was at her swimming lesson, I was craving something cheesy so I decided to take the risk of inducing a 4 year old tantrum and created this dish instead. I was just experimenting but this is a new family favorite now!
(I don't measure, just approximating amounts)
Preheat oven to 400-425 degrees.

Chop any type of potatoes into about 1" cubes/pieces (amount doesn't really matter). Toss in olive oil, course salt, minced garlic, and finely cut fresh rosemary (I have a huge bush as part of my landscaping!). In a casserole dish, pie dish, or brownie pan, bake for 20-25 min., remove from oven, toss around/rearrange, then bake 10-25 more min. depending on the amount you made and how tender you want the potatoes to get.

In a saucepan, melt 1-2 tbsp. butter and mix in the exact same amount of flour. Whisk together and once it smells nutty, add half-n-half or any kind of milk (1-2 cups), keep whisking, add 1/4-1/2 cup veg. broth (optional just to thin it out if it gets too thick or you can just add more milk/cream). Once it is a smooth creamy sauce, remove from heat and add in 1/2-3/4 cup shredded cheddar or mexican blend cheese. Toss potatoes in cheese sauce until fully coated.

Return cheesy potatoes to your baking dish. Sprinkle with more shredded cheese (amount per preference). Toss some breadcrumbs (enough to cover surface area) in a little olive oil and with parmesean cheese. Sprinkle on top of shredded cheese. Broil on HI for 5-7 min.

Serve & enjoy (careful, it's layers of piping hot gooey goodness!)

(photos are without cheese)