More Strawberries

I didn't use to be a fruit in my salad kind of gal, but a few years ago that all changed, and I've never looked back!

Some of my fave salads are sweet and savory and this is definitely one of them.  Extremely easy to make and very tasty.  I added chicken for a little boost of protein to get me through the day, but you could also serve this along side dinner if you wanted.  Or make a large bowl of it and bring it to a BBQ, everyone always secretly loves the girl that brings the greens to the BBQ. :)

Again this recipe comes from one of my favorite websites www.skinnytaste.com.

Find it here.

And don't forget the gorgonzola (use blue cheese if you prefer), it gives this salad that perfect zing!

ENJOY!

XOXO
Paige

Grain Salad with goat cheese

This could be a light lunch, or a side dish or maybe even an afternoon snack.  

With flavors that are similar to a Caprese salad, I cannot get enough of this tasty treat, which also happens to be pretty darn healthy as well.  Whole grains, veggies, and a little goat cheese and vinegar to top off the flavor explosion that goes on in your mouth.  

Bold statement, I know, but it is true.  

I was unsure if I would like this and I definitely didn't think Logan would like it at all.

But I do, and he did, and you will!

ENJOY!

Mediterranean Grain Salad

1 1/3 cups medium-grind bulgur

S&P

2 2/3 cups boiling water

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved

1 1/2 cups loosely packed fresh flat leaf parsley, coarsely chopped 

(Or Basil if you are a parsley hater like myself)

2 small shallots, minced

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 T plus 2 tsp olive oil

4 oz fresh goat cheese, crumbled

In a heatproof bowl, combine bulgur, 1 tsp salt and boiling water.  Cover and let stand until tender but slightly chewy, about 30 min. 

Drain bulgur in a fine sieve, pressing to remove liquid; return to bowl. Add tomatoes, Parsley (or basil),

shallots, vinegar, and oil.

Season with salt and pepper, and toss.  Serve topped with cheese.

Serves 4. 

Logan Rating: ***

Turkey Chili Meatballs

I strayed away from the usual few cookbooks this week and boy was it successful.

These chili meatballs and mashed potatoes are from Rachel Ray's "Just In Time".

And while we were very impressed with the recipe itself, I would say I'm much less enthusiastic about the cookbook.  Sadly it has little to do with the actual content and mostly related to the fact that there are only 8 pictures in the entire cookbook.  

I don't think I'm alone in today's cooking world when I say that I definitely 'eat with my eyes', hence the popularity of websites like foodgawker, foodbuzz and yumgoggle, just to name a few. It blows my mind when cookbooks have no photos!  Maybe it's just me, but it really makes me not want to cook out of them.  I am trying though, I have to, because there are really A LOT of cookbooks that have very little photos...much to my dismay.  

Mark my words, if I ever publish a cookbook (fat chance) it will have photos for EVERY recipe.  

Ok anyway, enough ranting for one day.

Besides the lack of photo for this recipe, it was pretty fantastic, check out the Logan rating.  It pretty much speaks for itself!

The mashed potatoes are so incredibly simple, yet seriously so good, I was impressed.  Usually I think I over-complicate mashed potatoes and load them with way too many ingredients. This reminded me that sometimes simpler, is better. 

And the meatballs...oh those meatballs...don't even get me started on the meatballs.

They were divine!  So impressed with how simple and amazingly flavorful these were.

You have to try them, today, tomorrow, sometimes soon!

And then let me know what you think!?! 

Also I do love Rachel Ray for reminding me that cooking is not all about precise measurement. Her recipes teach me to trust my judgement and use my taste buds more often to determine if I've got the right amount of a certain ingredient.  Thanks Rachel! 

ENJOY!

Turkey Chili Meatballs

1 1/4 lb ground turkey breast

1 onion, peeled

4 large garlic cloves, grated or finely chopped

1 T chili powder, a palmful 

2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese

1/4 cup cilantro or parsley leaves, a handful, coarsely chopped

2 T EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

1/4 cup molasses (eyeball it)

1/2 cup cider vinegar (eyeball it)

1/4 cup light or dark brown sugar (eyeball it)

1 (28oz) can crushed fire roasted tomatoes

Sour Cream Smashed Potatoes

2 lbs new potatoes or baby yukon golds

3 T butter

S&P

1/2-3/4 cup sour cream (eyeball it)

3-4 T snipped or chopped chives

Preheat the oven to 400. 

Cut larger potatoes in half, leave smaller baby potatoes whole and place them all in a saucepot. Add water to cover by about 1 inch, cover with a lid and bring to a boil over high heat.  Remove the lid and simmer the potatoes until tender, 12-15 minutes.  Drain and return the potatoes to their pot, then add 

2 T of the butter, some S&P, the sour cream and the chives.  Smash with a fork or potato masher until your preferred consistency is achieved. 

While the potatoes are coming up to a boil, place the turkey in a mixing bowl.  Grate half of the onion into the meat along with half of the garlic, the chili powder, shredded cheese, cilantro or parsley, and S&P.  Form the mixture into 1 1/2 in round meatballs and arrange on a nonstick baking sheet.  Drizzle the meatballs with a little EVOO(I skipped this) and roast in the oven for 12 minutes, or until they are golden and the juices run clear.

Once you have the meatballs in the oven, start the BBQ sauce.  Place a large skillet over medium-high heat with 2 T of EVOO.  Chop the remaining half onion, and add it to the center of the skillet along with the remaining garlic and S&P.  Cook, stirring frequently for 3-4 minutes.  Add molasses, cider vinegar, and brown sugar; stir to combine; then stir in the fire roasted tomatoes.  Bring up to a bubble and simmer the sauce over low heat until you are ready to eat.  ( I added about 1T cornstarch mixed in 1 T water to thicken the sauce a bit). 

Remove the meatballs from the oven and add to the skillet with the BBQ sauce.  Toss to coat with sauce.  Plate up the meatballs with a little more sauce on top and serve with the smashed potatoes.  

Serves 4.

Logan Rating: *****

Fall is just around the corner

There is a chill in the air, I am finding more and more leaves on the ground as the days go by, and I've worn a scarf for the past 5 days straight...do you know what that means?  

While I am definitely sad to see Summer go, I can't help but be excited for my favorite season of all.

FALL!FALL!FALL!FALL!FALL!FALL!FALL!

Absolutely love it!

Although here in MT you have to pay attention closely, as some years if you blink you might miss it...

I still hold tight to my love of all things fall.

So in honor of that I share with you one of my favorite ways to make squash.

I threw this together once and loved it, I've added and subtracted things, but I think this combo is my favorite.  Sweet and savory, yet again, kind of obsessed with that lately.

Roasted Acorn Squash

1 acorn squash, quartered, seeds removed

1 T olive oil

1/4 cup chicken or vegetable broth

1/2tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 T brown sugar

(adjust the amounts of spices to suit your taste)

Preheat oven to 450.  Put the squash in a baking dish, drizzle it with olive oil.  Sprinkle with S&P, chili powder and brown sugar.  

Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven, add broth to pan and return to oven.

Bake an additional 30 minutes or so until squash is fork tender.

Serves 2. 

Sorry, Logan is working nights...no rating for this one either.

Pork chops and Peach Relish

Now I bet you've heard of the classic combo of pork chops and applesauce, but have you heard of pork chops and peaches?  You have now!  Look at that gorgeous colorful peach relish, such a weird yet perfect combo of sweet and savory. This is the kind of thing I would have never tried a few years ago, before I started this blog, now look at me, I'm topping meat with fruit.  So fancy!

I had purchased thin cut pork chops, which I regret, get the bone in thick ones or have regret like me.

I know there will be skeptics and non adventurous folks, but you really should try this, so fresh and flavorful.  

Logan just ate the leftovers, I may have shed a tear or two. 

I paired this with the absolute easiest potato recipe ever.  How did I not think of this myself?

Microwave roasted potatoes.  They are delicious, texture is good, and they have tons of flavor.  You could add so many different kinds of spices/herbs/sauces, definitely versatile. 

Best part?  Its easy enough that a monkey could do it (or non-cooking spouses) and you don't have to turn the oven on to roast potatoes when it is 97 degrees and smokey.  

Amazing!

ENJOY!

Grilled Pork Chops with Peach and Red Onion Relish

Vegetable oil, for grill

4 bone-in pork chops (10-12 oz each)

S&P

Peach and red onion relish, recipe follows

Heat grill to medium-high; clean and lightly oil hot grates.  Season pork chops with S&P.  Grill, turning once, until cooked through, 10-12 minutes.  Serve with peach relish.

Serves 4

Peach and Red-Onion Relish

1/4 small red onion, very thinly sliced

2 ripe peaches, quartered and very thinly sliced

1 T honey

1 T fresh lemon juice

1/8 tsp cayenne

S&P

In a small bowl of ice water, soak onion 10 minutes; drain, blot dry, and return to the bowl. 

Add peaches, honey, lemon juice, and cayenne; season with S&P.  

Let stand 15 minutes before serving.  (Relish can be refrigerated, covered, up to 1 day. Bring to room temp before serving).

15 minute Rosemary Garlic Potatoes

1 T olive oil

2 garlic cloves, sliced

2 sprigs rosemary or 1/4 tsp dried

1 1/2 lbs new potatoes, scrubbed and thinly sliced

Combine oil, garlic and rosemary in a 2 quart microwave safe baking dish with a lid.  Cover and microwave on high until garlic is fragrant, 1 minute.  stir in potatoes. 

Cover and microwave on high until potatoes are tender, 13-15 min.  Season with S&P.

Serves 4. 

Logan Rating: ****

Herbed Chicken and Balsamic Potatoes

As promised a real blog post!

These 2 recipes are from the "Light" version of the Everyday Food collection, which I am becoming more and more obsessed with the more I use it.  All of the recipes are less than 500 calories and none of them taste like it.  Its exactly how i like to cook, all the taste, without all the guilt!

So this herb butter chicken I paired with the balsamic potatoes and I also made some rolls to go with it.

As if the potatoes weren't enough carbs.

The recipe calls for chicken cutlets, but I had trouble finding some at the store(weird I know) so I simply split chicken breasts in half, and it worked perfectly.  The reason you don't want to use the whole chicken breasts is because they would take too long to cook as they are much thicker than the cutlets.  And this chicken recipe really is all about quick cooking time, but gourmet flavor.

The potatoes are so incredibly simple, but unlike the chicken, they do require quite a long cooking time. In fact mine were a little crunchier than they should have been since I didn't allow for enough time. (SHAME SHAME)

I originally planned on making this for just Logan and I (as usual), but then we had some impromptu friends over.  Well the friends weren't impromptu, but the gathering was.

And this was perfect for a dinner for 4, we had 2 cutlets leftover and that was it.

And unless my guests were lying to me in order to not hurt my feelings, 

Everyone LOVED it!

So have some friends over and make this meal, they will love you for it!

ENJOY!

Chicken Cutlets with Herb Butter

1/4 cup all purpose flour

8 thin chicken cutlets

S&P

2 T olive oil

3/4 cup dry white wine

2 T cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

3 T finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (YUCK) or mint

(or a combo of both)

*I used oregano and thyme

Place flour in a shallow dish.  Pat dry chicken, then season with S&P and dredge in flour to coat.

In a large skillet, heat 1 T oil over med-high heat.  Working in batches, cook chicken until browned, 1-3 minutes per side, adding more oil to skillet as needed.

Transfer each batch of chicken to a plate and tent loosely with foil to keep warm.

Add wine and accumulated juices from chicken to skillet and bring to a boil.  Cook until liquid has reduced by half, about 4 min.  Return chicken to skillet and turn to coat. 

Remove skillet from heat and swirl in butter and herbs. ( I took the chicken out again and then drizzled the sauce over the top once plate, just seemed easier since the chicken didn't all fit well in the pan).

Season with S&P.  Serve Immediately.

Serves 4.

Balsamic-Baked Potatoes

1 1/2 lbs small potatoes, scrubbed and halved or quartered

( I only had russets, so I chopped them up fairly small to decrease baking time, didn't work that well)

3/4 cup low sodium chicken broth

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

8 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled

5 sprigs thyme

S&P

Preheat oven to 425. In a 8in square baking dish, combine potatoes, brother, vinegar, garlic, and thyme; season with S&P.  

Bake until potatoes are tender (whoops) and liquite is reduced to a glaze, about 1 1/4 hours (oops), tossing twice.

Serves 4.

Logan Rating: ****

Pico De Gallo

There is NOTHING better than fresh salsa, but second best I would say is fresh pico de gallo.

Honestly, I've never made this, I've purchased it in the store or at markets several times...not cool, I know.

I can't believe I've never made this before, it's so fast and easy and it is so much better than the packaged stuff...what was I ever thinking???

I got the inkling to make this after reading a segment out of one of my America's Test Kitchen books. 

They give recommendations on products as well as give us awesome recipes.

They recommend chips, sauces, utensils, pretty much everything you can think of and when it came to salsas they literally said they could not recommend ANY store bought salsas.  Even salsa made with canned tomatoes at home is better...that was eye opening to me.  No wonder I love homemade salsa so much.

Which by the way, my mother makes a mean homemade salsa, I will share that recipe with you all someday.

Anyway, put this pico on ANYTHING, it was simple and tasty, loved it!

ENJOY!

Pico De Gallo

3 roma tomatoes, or one large beefsteak tomato

1/2 medium onion, diced

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

1/2-1 jalapeno with ribs and seeds removed (or leave them in for more heat)

2 T chopped green onions

S&P to taste

1/4 tsp garlic salt

Basically mix everything together in a bowl...taste and adjust flavors as necessary. 

EASY and DELICIOUS!

YUM!