Chicken and Roasted Broccoli Salad with Goat Cheese

* Recipe and photo credit to Natalie @ perrysplate.com (again!)

I think Natalie and I are kindred spirits. She's like a healthier, more creative, more talented photgrapher, cuter dish owning version of myself. And basically what I mean by that is that I love her recipes and they use ingredients that I usually have on hand, plus she seems super nice. Anyway, we LOVED this. I didn't even call it a salad when I served it at my house. I served it as dinner. Blaine drooled over it, the kids actually enjoyed it. It was awesome.

I used the leftover goat cheese from this recipe. You really don't need much, and it is cheapest at Costco. I also used a yellow pepper because that is what I had on hand (random, right?). Oh also, I used a Costco rotisserie chicken because that's how I roll.

Chicken and Roasted Broccoli with Goat Cheese

For the roasted broccoli and pepper:
1 large head of broccoli (about 1 3/4 lbs), cut into 1-2 inch florets
1/2 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1/4 c olive oil
1/2 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
pepper to taste

For the rest of the salad:
4 T olive oil
6 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
a couple pinches of crushed red pepper flakes
pinch of dried oregano
juice from 1/2 a lemon (about 2 T), plus additional lemon wedges for garnish
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
3-4 ounces of goat cheese, crumbled

To prepare the broccoli:
Heat oven to 500 degrees and place a sturdy baking sheet on the lowest rack. Place broccoli florets and peppers slices in a large bowl and toss with olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper.

Working quickly, remove baking sheet from the oven and spread broccoli and peppers into an even layer, placing the florets cut-side down when possible. Return to bottom rack of the oven and roast 10-12 minutes, until the vegetables are cooked through and there are caramelized spots scattered throughout. Be sure not to cook until the tips of the florets turn black.

To prepare the rest of the salad:
Heat 2 T olive oil, sliced garlic, and pepper flakes in a small skillet over med-low heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until the garlic is soft and begins to turn golden brown, about 5-7 minutes. Add chicken to the skillet and cook until heated through, about 3-5 minutes. Remove chicken-garlic mixture from heat; stir in oregano and lemon juice.

Toss roasted vegetables with the chicken-garlic mixture and an additional 2 T of olive oil in a large salad bowl. Gently fold in the goat cheese crumbles and serve immediately with lemon wedges.

Sweet Potato Foil Packet Tacos

* Photo and Recipe Credit to Natalie@ perrysplate.com

These were so fun! Blaine turned up his nose as I was preparing them thinking they were sloppy joes or hobo dinners. Then he couldn't stop "ooooo"ing and "ahhhhhh"ing. He loved them! They were really easy to make and very tasty indeed! I doubled the meat (and beans, tomato sauce, and taco seasoning) in the recipe, because Heaven knows that a half a pound of ground beef would simply never do in this house.

Sweet Potato Foil Packet Tacos

1/2 lb ground beef or turkey
2-3 T taco seasoning
1/2 cup tomato sauce (4 ounces)
1 can black, kidney, or pinto beans, drained
2-3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 6 cups total)
2 T butter
salt
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh spinach
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
sour cream, salsa, and/or guacamole for garnish
6 12-inch long pieces of aluminum foil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Brown ground meat in a skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in taco seasoning, tomato sauce, and beans. Set aside.

To assemble packets, spray the foil with non-stick spray. Place 1 cup sweet potato cubes in the center of each piece. Top with a small piece of butter (about 1 tsp) and a pinch or two of salt. Sprinkle some chopped spinach over the sweet potatoes, followed by about 1/3 cup of taco meat and sprinkle of cheese. Fold the sides in, then bring the top and bottom ends of the foil together in the center and fold, sealing the packet.

Repeat with remaining ingredients, placing the packets on a rimmed cookie sheet. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the sweet potatoes are tender.

Serve with sour cream, salsa, and/or guacamole.

Makes 6 servings.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

*Recipe and Photo Credit to wearenotmartha.com

Remember how much I love Bountiful Baskets? Well, I kind of got tired of them for a while. Not that I am opposed to fresh fruits and veggies at a discount, it's more like I really wanted to be able to choose my food for a while. I do love the bread though so I've been ordering a basket about once a month and add 40 loaves of bread to my freezer (I think the BB people call me the "bread lady"). Anyway, BB totally bit me in the behind last week. I had gone shopping in the week and bought acorn squash, potatoes, and spinach and then when I picked up my basket...you guessed it MORE acorn squash, MORE potatoes, and MORE spinach. It's like they are mind readers. Anywho, I needed some new ideas for how to prepare acorn squash, since I am now the proud owner of about eight of them.

I simply googled "stuffed acorn squash" and found a recipe that looked good, prepared it, and it knocked my socks off! It was a perfect meal and I felt super healthy eating it, in fact, I feel inspired to create a "healthy" category for the sidebar there, just for this post (lookin' at you Ang).

Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash

1 acorn squash
• 1 T butter
• 1 C quinoa
• 2 C chicken/veggie stock or broth (reduced sodium)
• 1 T extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped finely
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 habanero peppers, chopped finely (remove seeds for less heat)
• 1/2 C mushrooms, chopped
• 2 C spinach, uncooked
• 1/2 feta, crumbled
• 1 T parsley, chopped
• 1 T fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375dgs, slice acorn squash in half.

Once sliced (albeit perhaps unevenly), scoop out all the seedsSprinkle with a little bit of salt and pepper and put 1/2 T butter in each squash half.

Place on a baking tray and roast at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes. Make sure squash is tender to the fork upon removal (otherwise, stick it back in the oven for a few more minutes)In the meantime, start cooking your quinoa, according to directions. You can use water, but I find chicken stock/broth to be a bit more flavorful. I generally try to get low-sodium, so I can control levels of salt. And, of course, use vegetable broth if you want to keep this dish vegetarian-friendlyWhile the quinoa is cooking and the squash is roasting, pour your extra virgin olive oil into a skillet over medium heat. Sauté mushrooms, onion, garlic, and habaneros until they’re slightly browned, about 7-10 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper to taste and squeeze lemon juice over.Now, turn heat to low and add the cooked quinoa to the veggie mixture. Throw in 2 cups of spinach and stir to combine and wilt spinach a bit.

Add in feta cheese and parsley here, as well. Save a little of each for topping, if you want.

Your acorn squash should be looking beautiful by now.

Spoon quinoa mixture into acorn squash halves and top with a little extra feta. And parsley too, if you desire.

Absolutely delicious! And completely vegetarian! I doubled the recipe and was very glad that I did and I served it with this salad, which I dumped bacon bits on (the real kind from Costco), obliterating the vegetarianness of the meal : ) Also, I didn't have habenero peppers but I did have some jalepeno slices (the kind you put on nachos) and chopped a couple of those to put in and what I learned was you definitely want something to give the dish some heat and the jalepeno slices worked great, just work with what you've got. Also, I hope you know that whenever a recipe calls for fresh squeezed lemon juice I squeeze it fresh from the bottle. Now if it calls for zest, that's another story....

Enjoy!

Spinach Panini

I've kind of become obsessed with the Sonoma Diet. Not obsessed to the point where I am actually participating in the Sonoma Diet, more just to the point where I check out cookbooks with Sonoma Diet recipes and drool on them. Because, how can you not love a cookbook that strives to have olive oil, feta cheese, purple onions and spinach in every recipe. Those are some of my most favorite things.

Anyway, turns out I had most of the ingredients for one of the recipes tonight so I made it, and it was a thousand million times better tasting than I even thought it would be.

I've been wondering lately why I am not a professional recipe blogger, and I've nailed it down to three reasons. 1 - I never take pictures of the food I make and if I do - - it ain't pretty 2- I am not consistent, at all. And finally 3- I simply pilfer recipes off of other recipe blogs, I do not invent recipes, or even get them from cookbooks. Just directly copy other recipe blogs therefore making a recipe blog created by me completely unnecessary.

Anyway, that being said, I did pilfer the image. Photo credit to this completely random website.
My Spinach panini sandwich didn't really look that much like that (but the picture in the recipe book did). But I do get points because this recipe did come from a cookbook and not another recipe blog, so I'm taking drastic strides to becoming a money making recipe blogger. Baby steps.

This was delicious and took approximately two minutes to make.

Spinach Panini
From: The Sonoma Diet Cookbook

Nonstick olive oil cooking spray
4 6-inch whole wheat hoagie rolls, split; 8 slices whole wheat bread; or 2 whole wheat pita bread rounds, halved crosswise and split horizontally.( I opted for the wheat bread option)
4 cups fresh baby spinach leaves (one product I strongly recommend buying at Costco)
8 thin tomato slices (1 medium tomato)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
2 Tablespoons shredded fresh basil leaves (I wish I could keep a basil plant alive)
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

* Lightly coat an unheated panini griddle, covered indoor electric grill, or large nonstick skillet with cooking spray.
* Place your carb of choice on a work surface, divide half of the spinach leaves among said carb of choice. Top with spinach and tomato, sprinkle lightly with kosher salt and pepper. Add red onion slices and basil. Top with feta and remaining spinach. Top with other piece of bread or pita or whatever carb you chose.
* Preheat griddle and put the sandwiches on. Grill 2-3 minutes until bread is toasted.

Eat. Feel happy and healthy. Try to not remember that you ate a whole chocolate chip cookie pie by yourself the day before.

PS Happy 8 year anniversary to me tomorrow. We made it through the seven year wanderlust. Barely. Whew.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Recipe and Photo from: Ourbestbites.com


It's a cookie! It's a pie! It's COOKIE PIE!

And I don't think I have ever had a dessert that was so well received and yet so easy to make. Slap a scoop of vanilla ice cream on this baby and you are golden!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie
Recipe from Nestle

1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust, homemade or store-bought.
2 large eggs
1/2 C flour
1/2 C white granulated sugar
1/2 C packed brown sugar
3/4 C real butter, softened (1 1/2 sticks)
1 C chocolate chips (semi-sweet or dark works best, you might find milk too sweet)
1 C chopped pecans (you are welcome to make it without nuts)

Vanilla ice cream, or sweetened whipped cream for serving (a must! I prefer ice cream)

optional: chocolate sauce (honestly, doesn't really need chocolate sauce, but it looks pretty!)

Preheat oven to 325° F.

Beat eggs in large mixer bowl on high speed until foamy. Beat in flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat in butter. Stir in morsels and nuts. Spoon into pie shell.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until knife inserted halfway between edge and center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack or serve slightly warmed. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream.


PS I am considering going sugar free for a month starting on February 15th (Valentines Day is also my anniversary there's no way I am going sugar free starting today). So, um, wish me well because I will miss things like this....but I am determined to go to a tropical island sometime in the next year and I want to be able to not have love handles when I do. So....you gotta do what you gotta do.

Potato Soup

No way is this healthy, but it is SO yummy!


Cook and thicken:

1 1/2 sticks butter

6 TBSP flour

2 cups half and half



Then add the following and cook on med heat until cheese melts and soup is hot:

4 cups water

4 chicken bouillon cubes

8 oz Velveeta cheese

6 medium potatoes, cooked and cubed



Serve with toppings like sr. cream, green onion, bacon, shredded carrots, salt and pepper.

Crockpot Italian Beef

This is Mike's new favorite dinner.

Mix in crockpot:
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried parsley
1 large clove of garlic, smashed
1 c water

Place on mixture 3 pound roast.

Cook on high all day, or until meat is tender. Turn it over a couple of times during the day. Shred the meat and let it simmer in the juice for a while. Serve on buns, italian bread, or hard rolls.