Super Cool Cucumber Salad

I miss my garden.  I have spring fever already and it isn't even winter yet.  With all the changes around here, and all the normal stuff that goes on during a busy summer, there was no garden, and there will be no canning.  I have muddled through on the charity of friends and family who do have gardens, or greedily roaming around the farmer's markets whenever and wherever I find them.  Oddly, I have been buying and taking any cucumbers that I can find.  The reason this is strange is because I have not, up to this point in my life, been a fan of cucumbers.  (unless they come in the form of a dill pickle)  I think that my change in taste might have something to do with this salad. . .

On a side note, the longer you let the cucumbers and onions sit in their vinegary little bath, the more wonderful flavor they will soak up, so if you can make this a couple hours before you need to eat, you will not be sorry.

4-5 Medium  or 6-8 small cucumbers
1 Sweet Yellow or Red Onion sliced into thin half moons
1 Tbsp Salt
2 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
1/2 Cup Sour Cream
1/2 Cup Mayonnaise
1 Tbsp of Dill Weed
1  tsp. Red Pepper Flakes
Creole Seasoning mix (optional)

Slice up your cucumbers, I was making a pretty big batch here and was cutting up other things too so I got the trusty mandolin out.

Place your cucumbers and onions in a bowl, add the salt and vinegar.  Stir to combine and then put them in the fridge and let them sit for at least 30 minutes.  Toss them around at least once during their soaking time.

While your cucumbers are soaking, stir together the mayonnaise, sour cream, dill week, and red pepper flakes in the bowl that you want to serve this in.  If you are letting your cucumbers and onions soak for longer than 30 minutes, go ahead and put this mixture in the fridge as well.

When the cucumbers and onions have had their soak, drain them and
add them to the bowl with the sour cream dressing and toss to combine.  Taste the salad and add the creole seasoning and additional salt  to your taste, taking care not to over salt this.  Every cucumber soaks up salt differently and it is easy to go overboard.  Serve this along with your favorite grilled summer meal.

Holy Pepper Steak Sandwiches

Sometimes you just need a steak sandwich, sometimes it needs to be topped with farmer's market fresh Anaheim chili peppers & Onions.  To be honest, when I bought the peppers I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, but they were so gorgeous and tasty looking at the market that I had to grab them.  The inspiration for the sandwich didn't really hit me until I saw a package of cube steak on sale at the store.  It was then a hop, skip, and a jump over to the bakery to grab foccaccia buns, and we were on our way to sandwich glory.

Anaheim Chili Pepper, seeded and cut into strips

Foccaccia (or bun of your choice)

Cube steak (you'll need one for each sandwich you make)

Grilling Seasoning mix or just salt and pepper
Cheese-one slice per sandwich

Sriracha Mayonnaise (optional)--recipe below

Special Equipment Optional--Grill basket















Preheat your grill to med. high heat

Go ahead and get a meat mallet and tenderize a/k/a beat the bejeepers out of your steaks.  Liberally salt and pepper, or use your grilling seasoning mix on both sides.

Put you peppers & onions into a bowl and drizzle them with olive oil, and then salt and pepper them as well.  Put your grill basket onto the grill, preferable not directly over the flame, and dump your veggies in.  Cook these for about 5 minutes, tossing occasionally, until they start to soften and take on some char.

Prepare all of your sandwich toppings now, I'd even go so far as to tell you to make up the buns at this point  These steaks cook super quick.

Put the steaks onto the grill and standby, these are so thin they only take a minute or two to cook.   In fact, in my neck of the woods we used to call these minute steaks.  Give them about a minute per side (more if you like your steak more well done, but I'm warning you, not too much longer), adding your cheese after the first turn.

Remove your steaks and your veggies from the grill, add them to your sandwich buns.  You are now good to go!

Siracha Mayonnaise--my basic recipe is 1 Tbsp of Siracha to 1/2 Cup Mayonnaise.  Stir to combine.

Dill Pickle Roll Ups

New Year's  Resolutions have slipped through my grasp again, and even worse, the threat of swimsuit season did not sway me.  After coming so far with my weight loss goals, I am slowly slipping back into old habits.  I blame it on stress, I blame it on health, work, any number of things, but it boils down to I eat too much of the things that aren't good for me, and I don't move enough.

In another effort to get back on track, I am going back to the beginning.  I am going to log my calories and I'm going back to the exercise routine that led me to success in the first place.

Having said that, and I know i've said it before, I am not one for deprivation and suffering, I need good tasty food to eat, and boy do these ever fit the bill.  If you are low carbing it, these are the snack for you.  They are also a nice low calorie snack.  Bur even if you are doing none of that they are a delicious snack that I find myself having to share with my husband.

I'm not going to give you quantities here.  You can make as many or as few as you would like and go from there.  I will say that if you are going to make a bunch and save some for later, let your pickle slices dry for a few minutes on some paper towels, it keeps things crispy and fresh.

Deli Style Turkey Lunchmeat Slices
Dill Pickles, Sandwich Slices, cut in half
Laughing Cow Cheese or Light Cream Cheese-Flavor of your choice softened to room temperature.

Lay one slice of turkey down, and smear either half a packet of laughing cow, or about teaspoon of cream cheese down the center.  Put a dill pickle slice in the center and roll up.

Repeat until you have the amont that you desire.  Happy eating!

Grilled Asparagus and Green Onions

I love onions, I love the raw, grilled, caramelized, broiled, just about anyway that you can think of to prepare them, I will eat them.  This is just about the easiest grilled vegetable recipe that I have in my wheelhouse.  The only special item I think that you need is probably a grill basket, but you should just get one of those anyway.  You could easily add mushrooms to this if you have them on hand, I sadly, did not, but will definitely throw them in if I do next time.


16 oz  Asparagus
5 oz green onions
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat your grill to med. high heat.

Take your asparagus and either cut or snap off the woody part of the stems.  Cut the remaining part of the spear into two or three pieces depending on how big they are and your preferences.  Throw them in a bowl.

Take your green onions, and cut off the ends of the white part of the bulb if the still have some of the roots attached.  Peel away any of the green part of the onion that is brown or mushy, but otherwise leave the greens.  Cut the green onion into two or three pieces, and add them to the bowl with the asparagus.

Add the olive oil, salt, & pepper to the bow and toss to coat.

Place your grill basket on the grill, pour the vegetables into it, and cook for about 7-10 minutes, tossing occasionally to make sure they are cooking evenly.  Place the vegetables back in the bowl that you had ,  salt and pepper to taste ad serve.

Grilled Honey Soy Salmon

I cannot even begin to tell you how tired I am of the crazy cold weather here.  We had one, wonderful 80 degree day, and then it got rainy and cold, and not just a little cold, it was, go cover your plants cold.  But there was that one glorious 80 degree day, and on that day, we grilled.

I can only take so much credit for this one, as my husband manned (hee hee, get it) the grill while I played with the kids in the yard.

I am especially proud of this dish becuase it has turned my daughter into a salmon fan, and getting people to eat fish is one of my goals as a mother.

2-Salmon fillets, about 1lb total, skin on
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp. Honey
2 tsp. minced garlic


About 1 or 2 hours before you are going to eat, combine, in a large ziploc bag, combine the olive oil,

soy sauce, honey and minced garlic.  I am not very picky about this, I just throw it in the bag and mush it all together.

Add the salmon to the bag, seal it up, put it in a bowl or on a plate, and pop it back into the fridge to marinate for at least 1 hour.

Get your grill going on medium high heat for gas, or indirect heat for charcoal.

Place the salmon on the grill, skin side down, and cook for about five minutes.  Now, the most important thing that I can tell you is one, get a piece of aluminum foil and a wide metal spatula, and two, don't panic.  Flip the fish over, and be prepared, the skin may stay on the grill.  If this happens as you start to move the salmon, set it back down onto the skin, carefully lay your sheet of aluminum foil over the grill grate, and then, flip your fish onto the foil, and cook the other side for another five minutes depending on how done you like your salmon.   Serve immediately and enjoy.

Shrimp Cocktail Salsa

Remember when shrimp cocktail was the fanciest thing ever?  I still think a party is really serious business when there is shrimp cocktail on the table.  Now, what we have here is a dip that throws the fancy out the window, gives you all the satisfaction of shrimp cocktail and throws in the fun of salsa.

This is great party food, not just because it is a dip, but because you can easily make it the night before.  I will say, that if you are going to make it in advance, I would hold off on putting the avocado in until the day of.  It won't get brown if you do it the day before, the acid in the cocktail sauce and lime juice will take care of that, but it may get a little mushy depending on the ripeness of your avocado.


1 White Onion, chopped
12 oz Extra Small Shrimp, peeled, deveined, & Tailless
2-12 oz bottles cocktail sauce (I use one normal, and one spicy or zesty)
1-2 Jalapenos, diced (seeds and ribs removed if you are looking to cut the heat)
1 Avacado, diced
1/2 Cup cilantro, chopped
1 Tbsp. lime juice
1 tsp. Kosher Salt
Tortilla

In a medium non-reactive bowl, i.e. glass or plastic, combine all of the ingredients, except of course the tortilla chips.  Chill for about and hour, then serve with the tortilla chips.

Baked Nachos

Nachos, nachos, nachos . . . this is what is playing in my head more often than I would like to admit.  I love them,  There really isn't much more to say than that.  These are great for game day, movie night, or even as a meal if you want.  I really don't need any excuse at all to make them.

Baked Nachos

• 1lb Ground Turkey or Beef
• 1 1.13oz Packet of Taco Seasoning
• 2 medium to large onions, Chopped or Sliced
• 1 13 oz Bag of Tortilla Chips
• 1 6.5 oz Can of Black Olives, Slices
• 4 Cups Cheese (of your choice), shredded
• 1/2 Cup Cilantro, chopped
• Garlic or Seasoning salt (optional)

\Additional Post-Cooking Toppings:

• Tomatoes
• Green Onions
• Sour Cream Salsa

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

In a medium sized frying pan, cook the ground meat and onions until browned.  Drain the grease from  the meat.  Add the taco seasoning and olives to the pan and stir to combine.

On a 9x13 baking sheet spread out a layer of tortilla chips.  With a large spoon, sprinkle half of your meat mixture over the  chips, and then top with the shredded cheese.  Repeat that layer, so chips, meat, cheese, one more time.  Sprinkle with a little Garlic or Seasoning Salt if you would like.  Place your pan in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.

Remove your nachos from the oven when the cheese is melted and maybe just a little golden and crispy.  Sprinkle with the cilantro and serve with your favorite toppings and condiments.

Deliteful Lunch Sandwich--The 300 Calorie Lunch

This is one of my lunch staples.  When I worked in a bigger office often some of us ladies who were watching our girlish figures would do "lunch club."  We'd all bring in different parts of a healthy lunch, and this was one of our go-tos.  Someone would bring the sandwich thins or wraps, someone else would bring the laughing cow cheese, someone would cut up all the veggies, and we'd make ourselves a delicious and healthy lunch during the week.  You can easily throw some pickles and an apple onto your plate and you are still going to be clocking in at under 300 calories.

If you are going to go to the expense of buying the ingredients then it is very important here that you go ahead and do your prep work with the vegetables.  Set yourself up to succeed, so go ahead and take the 5-10 minutes to slice up the cucumber, onion, and tomato.  Not only will it now take you next to no time to make yourself a great lunch or supper, but also, I don't know about you, but I am far more prone to make a salad or even just munch on veggies when they are already washed and cut up.   I'm telling you, stop fighting yourself and cater to yourself instead.  We're all busy, if we can make it easier for us and our families to eat healthier, then that is a win!

Serving 1 Sandwich

1 Sandwich thin or Wrap
2 oz Smoked Turkey (in most cases this is 4-6 Thin Deli Slices, but check your packaging)
1 Wedge Laughing Cow Spreadable Cheese
Sandwich Pickles
Cucumber, Sliced thin
Red Onion Sliced thin
Baby Spinach
Tomato, Sliced thin


Make yourself a sandwich!  Take your bread and spread the laughing cow on the top and bottom pieces.  Add your meat to the bottom slice, and top with as many vegetables and pickles as you like.



Add some strawberries, an apple, or pear, and some mini dill pickles, and you will have a plate full of food for under 300 calories.

Super Easy Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Sometimes, you just have to make banana bread, and when you do, you should definitely add chocolate chips to it.  I rotate through a couple different versions of banana bread.  There is a regular version, there is a chocolate chocolate chip banana bread, and then there is this super simple can't mess it up version of banana bread that I pull out when I need a baked good in my life, but don't feel like measuring things.  Don't tell me I'm the only one who gets that way sometimes.

You can use whatever kind of cake mix you want here, caramel, chocolate, yellow, butter, you are limited only by your imagination. Also, if you happen to be in the baking aisle at the grocery store and see the bag that is half chocolate, half peanut butter chips that Nestle makes, I would scoop those up too, just sayin'.  I usually assess my banana situation and then buy however many boxes of cake mix that I need, the ratio is roughly 4 bananas to 1 box of cake mix.

• 1 Box Cake Mix of your choice (I used yellow)
• 4 Bananas, peeled 
• 1 Cup Chocolate Chips
• 2 eggs

Preheat your oven to 350, and spray and flour a loaf pan.

In a bowl, mash together the bananas and the eggs until most of the chunkiness from the bananas is gone.

Add the cake mix and stir for about two minutes, or however long the box directions tell you to.

Add the chocolate chips and stir to combine.

Pour into your loaf pan, and gently lift and tap the pan against the countertop to help distribute the batter evenly in the pan.

Bake for 45-60 minutes (start checking around the 45 minute mark depending on your oven), or until a toothpick comes out clean. but hopefully a little chocolaty.

You can either wait 5 minutes and remove the bread from the pan, or you are fine to just leave it in there and serve directly from the pan.

Potluck Spinach & Artichoke Dip

Spinach & Artichoke Dip is the appetizer that heralded my transition from the mozzerella sticks of my youth into the more mature pallet that I have now.  (We'll disregard the amount of posts that I am inevitably going to do on variations of nachos).

As the title of this recipe conveys, this makes a lot.  It is meant for a gathering where you will be feeding lots of people, but you can easily cut it in half to make a more moderate amount. I typically serve this with tortilla chips or Fritos, but you can also use toasted bread or serve alongside a vegetable tray, and it will be tasty and delicious. 

This dish has the distinct advantage of being a one bowl recipe.  If you use the right baking dish, you can just add and mix everything right in there.  I am all for less dishes whenever possible.  

2-8oz Blocks of Cream Cheese softened

2-13.75 oz Cans of Quartered Artichoke Hearts, rinsed and drained well**

2-12 oz Packages of Chopped Spinach, thawed and squeezed and drained as well as you can

3/4 Cup Mayonnaise

2 Cups Mozzerella Cheese (an Italian Blend Cheese works well too)

1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese 

2 Cloves Garlic, minced

1 tsp. Oregano

1/2 tsp. Chili Powder

1/2 tsp. Garlic Salt

Pepper to taste  

**I don't mind large chunks of artichoke heart in my dip, but I often give these a quick rough chop, or break them up a little more with my hands.  

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Grease or Spray at least a 2.5 Quart baking dish. 

To your baking dish, add the softened cream cheese, artichoke hearts, spinach, and mayonnaise.  Stir to combine.

Add in your garlic, 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, oregano, chili powder, garlic salt, and pepper to the dish, and stir again till thoroughly combine.  Smooth out the top.

Sprinkle on the remaining 1 cup of mozzarella cheese and the Parmesan cheese.  Place the dish in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until the cheese on top is melted and golden.  Serve and Enjoy!

Getting in Gear--Everyday Strawberry Smoothie

I hate getting bored with my food, and now, having said that, I pretty much eat one of two smoothies for breakfast every day.  I have tons of recipes saved, and I do try them every once in a while to shake (get it?) things up a little.  A smoothie is what I like to consider a foundation meal, I feel like if I start my day out with a healthy breakfast, I am much more likely to continue to eat healthy the rest of the day.  If I start out the day with donuts, I kinda end up wondering "what's the point of even trying" by the time lunch rolls around.

The oddest thing happened to me with smoothies.  I did not like them at first, I added sweetener, pudding mixes, and all kinds of other craziness to them, but every now and then I would just use veggies and fruit.  Eventually, I began to crave the ones without the extra sweeteners and fillers in them.  I still make some different versions and variations, but this is the one that I always come back to.

It can be kind of tedious to drag everything out to make smoothies every day, so I never make just one at a time.  If I am getting all the ingredients out, I make at least two, maybe more, depending on what my schedule will be.  I have a Nutri-Bullet, and I make the smoothies in their cups, if you are going to use a blender, I would just put your ingredients into ziploc bags that you can store in the freezer and just dump into the blender and blitz quick.

The measurements for this are extremely flexible and are really up to your appetite and size of your blender.  I found that I really only have enough stomach room for a smaller 2-3 Cup smoothie.

Small Handful of Kale
1/2 cup sliced, or 5-6 Whole Frozen Strawberries
1/2 cup frozen Mango Cubes
1/4 to 1/2 Peeled Orange
1 tsp. Flax Seed
1 Tbsp. Goji Berries
8-10 Whole Unsalted Almonds

Add all ingredients to your cup, or to your blender, and add enough water to blend smoothly.  For my cup, I would estimate I use about a 1 1/2 Cup water.  Blend until smooth and enjoy.

Game Night Sandwiches

Every couple months or so, we get together with friends and have a game night.  Typically it is at our place, and typically I'm feeding a bunch of dudes. It's a pretty easy crowd to please, so long as there is cheese and meat involved everyone is usually pretty happy.  I get pretty excited about these occasions because it gives me a chance to pull some of the more ooey gooey things out of my recipe book.

I've seen many different variations of these over the years on food shows and even on pinterest.  I think anyone who has had or been to a party has had some variation of these sandwiches.  I deeply love these served with french onion soup or maybe even a corn chowder.  They definitely are not for the faint of heart, they are rich, but once you have one, you will be going back for seconds.

Most times you will see these prepared with ham, but I have a secret to tell you.  Someone in my house is not the biggest fan of ham, at least not as a lunch meat.   So these, are made with turkey, and they disappeared all the same.  Also, these are fantastic with pepper jack cheese, but since the kiddos were eating these, I used good old cheddar.

• 1- 12 count package Hawaiian rolls
• 1 lb Smoked Deli Sliced Turkey
• 6-8 (or more if you like) Slices of Cheese
• 1 stick, unsalted butter, melted 
• 4 green onions chopped
• 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire
• 1 8oz. block Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 Tbsp Sriracha
• 1 Tbsp Chives 

**Aluminum Disposable 9x13 pan if you want to make your life really easy.

Pre heat oven to 350 Degrees.  Spray a 9x13 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Combine the Cream Cheese, Sriracha & Chives in a bowl.

Combine the butter, green onions, and Worcestershire in a bowl.


Take the Hawaiian rolls out of their package, and without separating the individual buns, cut the entire thing in half so that you now have a one top bun and one lower bun.  Take the cream cheese mixture and spread half of it on the top layer of buns and half on the bottom layer of buns.

Distribute the turkey and cheese over the bottom layer of buns in the pan, and place the top layer of buns on top.

Pour the melted butter mixture over the top of the sandwiches, cover with a sheet of aluminum, foil and place in the oven.  Bake for 15 minutes,
then remove the foil, and bake for 5-7 minutes longer.

Thai Quinoa Salad

I love spicy noodles in just about any form they take.  This is not spicy noodles, but you need to know that this recipe is inspired by a great spicy noodle recipe. The taste is phenomenal and I could eat bowl after bowl of it, and I assure you, I have. As I am prone to do lately, I need something just a little more healthy and nutritious, but mind you, no less tasty.  I added a ton of vegetables, swapped the quinoa for the noodles, and added some sliced almonds for crunch.

You can achieve the shredded vegetables with a vegetable peeler, shredding on the shredding blade of a food processor, or just a plain old grater.  I used my new vegetable spiralizer and had fun doing so, but don't let a lack of one stand in your way.   Use any vegetables that you want in this one, I think broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, or pea pods would be great additions, and as the spring months beginning to thaw things out around here, I'm going to be adding in all kinds of different things.

This is a huge batch of salad, it made up about four meals between my husband and I throughout the week, so if you are making it for the first time or not for such long-term purposes feel free to cut it in half.  Although I will say, go ahead and make the full recipe for the dressing, once cooled, it makes and excellent salad dressing for a spinach salad, or as a marinade for any meat you want to grill.

First we're going to start the quinoa:

6 Cups Water
3 Cups Quinoa
3Tbsp Butter

Bring the water and butter to a boil in a large pot.  Add the quinoa to the boiling water and cover with a lid.  Turn the heat down to a simmer and let the quinoa go for 15-17 minutes.  I typically stir the pot a couple of times just to make sure everything is cooking evenly and nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pot.    Once the time is up, and you can see the little white membrane on the quinoa, you are done.  remove the lid and fluff it up a little.

Next we'll make the dressing:

6 Cloves Garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. Red Pepper Flakes
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
1/4 Toasted Sesame Oil
6 Tbsp Honey
6 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 tsp Salt



To a small pan over low heat add the garlic, red pepper flakes, and both oils.  Bring this mixture just
barely to a simmer and watch it for about 30 seconds to 1 minute so that you don't burn the garlic.  Shut it off and remove from heat.  Let the oil mixture steep for as long as you can.  I usually start it right after I put the quinoa on, and then finish it up after I chop up all the veggies.



When you're ready to finish the dressing, you can strain out the red pepper flakes if you aren't looking for a lot of heat in the salad, but if you are, leave them in.  You can then add, directly to the pan if you like the honey, soy sauce, and salt.  Whisk together until combined.  Set aside until you are ready to finish the salad.

Next we'll take care of the veggies:

In a gigantic bowl add as many chopped, sliced, or grated veggies as you want or the bowl can contain, I used:


3 Carrots Spiralized
3 Zucchini Spiralized
1 Red onions, cut in half and sliced into thin half moons
1 1/2 Bell Peppers, thinly sliced into strips
1 Cup Cilantro, roughly chopped

You could also add green onions, radishes, brocooli, cauliflower, corn, peas, tomatoes, etc.  You can basically go wild.  You are limited only by what your imagination and the size of your bowl.

Assemble the salad:

Optional garnishes if you have them on hand, sliced almonds, peanuts, sunflower seeds.

To the vegetables in your bowl, add the cooked quinoa and dressing, and then stir to combine.  Garnish with and and all of the crunchy options if you wish, and then put the bowl in the fridge for at least an hour to chill and let the dressing soak into the quinoa and vegetables.

SIDE NOTE:  
You can go ahead and use just plain old spaghetti noodles instead of quinoa in this.  For my purposes, next time I make it with quinoa, I'm going to shred or grate the vegetables instead of spiralizing them, the long "noodles" of zucchini didn't really synch up with the quinoa from a texture perspective.  The last time I made this with noodles, the spiralized vegetables were amazing.

Tater Tot Nachos

So Sunday nights have once again inspired a delicious winner.  Part of our ongoing family project  is what we are lovingly calling, the Year of Awesome.  We are basically having a money saving contest with ourselves.  Sunday nights have traditionally been our "eat out" night. Like clockwork, at about 4pm on any given Sunday, I would ask my husband, "What are we getting tonight?"  From there, I would hop in the car and off I would go to pick up dinner from wherever we decided on.

The Year of Awesome means that we now are eating out only once a month.  This hasn't been overly difficult, so far, especially since a major part of what we are eating right now are smoothies, so on Sunday mornings I just make up a couple, and miraculously, I have supper made too.  Sometimes though, a smoothie just doesn't cut it.  So as usual, desperation became the fount of creativity.  This recipe is a collaboration between my husband and I.

Now, I will say that most of the items used to construct these were convenience foods.  The one thing that set this over the edge was a cheese sauce that we quickly threw together.  I will not say one tiny thing to you if you choose to use a canned or jarred cheese sauce, cause if I'm being honest with you, the next time this gets made, that is what I may be using.  If you have a cheese sauce in your brain that you use, use it, this is not fancy.  My standard is a 2/2/2/2 mix, so it goes something like this:

Melt 2 Tablespoons of butter in a saucepan, add 2 Tablespoons of Flour, and you guessed it, cook for 2 minutes until the flour has cooked a little.  Add 2 cups of milk, and stir/whisk until it starts to thicken. When it is starting to thicken up, add 2 Cups of Cheese and stir/whisk until it is melted.  Now, depending on your tastes, the cheese you use, or just the whims of the cooking spirits, you may need to add more cheese or milk to get the consistency where you want it. I will just caution you to add less milk than you think or want to if you are adjusting this, you can always add more but you cannot take it back if you go too far, think tablespoons at at time, not cups.  Salt & Pepper to taste.  

1 (28 oz) Bag of Tater Tots
1 Recipe Cheese Sauce
Green onions Chopped
Tomatoes Chopped
Olives
Sour Cream
Salsa
Chili, canned or homemade

OPTIONAL:  Meat, Jalapenos, Cilantro, Avacado, basically any topping that you would put on nachos.

Bake or Fry the Tater Tots according to the package directions.

Make or warm the cheese sauce.

Put some of the Tater Tots in a Bowl or on a plate, add the cheese sauce and garnish with all the toppings that you have.

You can thank me later, I know you're busy eating.

Fried Apples

Sometimes despite our best intentions, we all end up with fruit and veggies sitting around at the end of the week.  The three main items that I find most often are apples, bananas, and lettuce.  Now that smoothies are a breakfast staple around here, I have finally won the war with the bananas, they are peeled, chunked, and frozen.  If I get a stockpile in the freezer, then it is simply time to make banana bread or muffins, and I can tell you that it never seems to bother anyone around here when that happens.  The lettuce/salad mix situation got much better after I tried the trick of putting a folded up paper towel in the container or bag of greens.  It is not a perfect solution, but that open bag stays fresh and crisp so much longer with that little towel in there to soak up the moisture.

That leave the apples.  Apples are more forgiving in their lifespan than the other two, but every once in a while, I look over at the end of the week and I find myself with a bag of apples getting wrinkly and sad looking.  This doesn't worry me, not even a little bit, because there are few things I love to more than fried apples.  They are heavenly, not only in taste, but in smell, that wonderful cinnamon smell that starts to waft through the house while they are cooking, you just can't beat it.  Those apples are an invitation, you can either go savory and have them alongside some quick fried pork chops and a salad, or go the breakfast for supper or "brupper" route as I did here, they are the perfect side along with sausages and french toast.  If you have any leftover, then toss them on top of some oatmeal the next morning.

I try to keep the sugar pretty light here, and don't skip the lemon juice, you need that little touch of brightness here.  I usually have galas or red delicious sitting around, so sometime they need  a little extra kick. You'll notice I didn't peel the apples, if peels don't appeal to you (get it, yeah, I know), go ahead and peel the apples, it shouldn't affect the recipe.   Just taste test as you go along here, and see where you are at with your sweetness, and adjust accordingly.

• 5-6 Apples Cored and Sliced, any variety
• 2Tbsp Butter (unsalted or salted, whatever you have on hand)
• 1Tbsp Brown Sugar
• 2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Lemon Juice

In a non-stick skillet that can hold all of the apples, melt the butter over medium heat, being careful not to get it brown.

Once the butter is melted, add the apples, brown sugar, and cinnamon.  Cover and continue cooking the apples, stirring occasionally over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, until they are beginning to soften and carmelize.

Add the lemon juice, and continue to cook until the apples are cooked to your desired consistency, I like them really soft, so I usually go another 5 minutes or so.  Remove from heat and serve.

Roasted Tomato Baked Risotto

I doubt I'm alone when I say that very few of my recipes are true originals.  When we start to cook a meal, no matter what it is, we are often influenced by the food we have tasted and prepared over the course of our lives.  Recipes are like blueprints or floor plans to me, they need to be followed for the structure of the dish to work, but as I become more familiar with them, I can add my own flourishes and make the recipe my own.  As I look through my cookbooks and accumulated recipes, I will often borrow from one recipe to add to another, either adjusting it to be more to my taste, or to streamline it and make it easier to prepare. This dish is a perfect example of my scheming and tweaking working out perfectly.

The baked risotto is from one of my stacks of Cook's Country magazines.  It is perfection, it gives you the creamy risotto you want without the standing and stirring part.  I've combined it with Garlic Shrimp with Roasted Tomato and Basil Risotto, which is one of our house favorites. It was a meal that brought silence to the table as we ate, we were far too busy enjoying it to speak.  I have to say that I'm very pleased with this combination, and have been making it this way ever since I gave it a shot.  

This week, I left the shrimp out.  I am in the process of trying to clean out the stockpile that I have in my freezer, and there was a pork roast in there that was calling my name. **If you want to go the shrimp route, let me encourage you to poach the shrimp in the chicken stock that you will be adding to the rice.  It adds wonderful seafood flavor to the rice, so don't miss out on the opportunity.  Simply follow the directions for warming the stock, once it is simmering, but before you add the roasted tomatoes. drop in the uncooked shrimp and simmer gently until the shrimp are cooked through, but just barely, maybe 3-5 minutes.  Remove them from the stock, and set them aside in the fridge, until your risotto comes out of the oven. Once you've removed the shrimp from the chicken broth, proceed with the recipe.

Roasted Tomato & Garlic
adapted from jaymielo's Tasty Kitchen Garlic Shrimp with Roasted Tomato & Basil

• 6-8 Roma Tomatoes
• 1 pint of Cherry or Grape tomatoes 
• 2 heads of Garlic
• 2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• 1 tsp. Kosher Salt
• 1 Tbsp. Italian Seasonings**
• Freshly ground black pepper

**If you are lucky enough to have some fresh basil or oregano around, please do substitute for the dried herbs, you will probably need about 1/2 cup of each, chopped.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Cut the tops off the Roma tomatoes and the garlic bulbs.  Place tomatoes cut side down in a 9x13 baking pan or dish, add the garlic bulbs, whole, and throw in the cherry tomatoes.  Sprinkle the herbs, salt, and pepper over the top of the dish, and then drizzle the olive oil over.  Bake for 1 hour, enjoy how wonderful your house smells.

Remove the tomatoes from the oven and let the contents of the pan cool, we'll come back to them in a little bit.



Baked Risotto
adapted from Cook's Country Creamy Baked Risotto

• 5 Cups Low-Sodium Chicken Broth
• 1/2 Cup Water
• 2 Bay leaves
• 4 Tbsp Butter, unsalted 
• 1 onion, minced
• 2 Cups Arborio Rice
• 1/2 Cup White wine, dry vermouth, or extra chicken broth (beer?)
• 1 1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese

Dutch Oven
Aluminum Foil

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Also, make sure that you adjust your oven racks now so that you can fit the dutch oven, with it's lid into the oven.  I constantly forget to do this, only to realize it when I am trying to put a giant vat of boiling liquid into the oven and it will not fit.  

In a pot big enough to hold 7 or 8 cups of liquid, combine the broth, water, & bay leaves.  Bring up to a simmer.

Grab your roasted tomatoes and garlic.  Remove the skin from the Roma tomatoes, it should lift right off for the most part.  Squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skins and back into the dish with the tomatoes.  Now smash, squish, or crush the contents of the pan using your hands or a potato masher, whatever you would like.  I usually just go the hands route.





Add the crushed tomato mixture in with the chicken broth, and bring to a simmer, lower your heat and keep it at a low simmer.

While you are warming up the broth, melt the butter in a large dutch oven.  Once melted, add your onion, and cook for about 5-6 minutes until it is just starting to brown. Stir in the rice and continue cooking for 3 minutes or so.  You just want it to start to turn from the bright white of uncooked rice, to a little bit more of a translucent white.  Add the wine to the rice, and cook, stirring constantly, until the rice has absorbed most of the wine.

Pour the chicken broth mixture into the dutch oven.  Give everything a good stir.  Take a piece of aluminum foil and VERY CAREFULLY place it on top of the contents in the dutch oven, almost like a steamer basket.  You want it pressed against the broth, and going up the sides of the dutch oven.  Place the dutch oven lid on, securing the aluminum foil inside, and heave the thing into the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Carefully remove from the oven, remove the foil, and stir in the Parmesan cheese. Remove and discard the bay leaves as you find them.  Check for seasoning, depending on how salty your broth was, you may need to add some more salt.**If you are adding the cooked shrimp, now is the time to do it,  Serve and Enjoy!

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

We don't do a lot of sweets in our house. It's not just because of the eating healthy thing that we have going on now, but when it comes to snacking, we are more prone to eat the salty, instead of the sweet.  When I do get around to making something sweet, it's go big, or go home, especially when it comes to cookies.

This cookie philosophy carries over from my childhood.  I remember being at my babysitter's house and making cookies.  It was sometimes an all day affair, MANY dozens of cookies were made and some were left out to be eaten now, and several containers were put in the freezer to be pulled out when they were needed or wanted.  This just makes sense to me, if I'm going to make cookies, i.e. a mess, I'm going to at least double the recipe.  Who doesn't love having a stash of cookies in the freezer?

For this particular cookie session I doubled the recipe, but I will give you instructions as I found them, which will make you about 4 dozen cookies.  I use my handy dandy tablespoon ice cream scoop for these.  The blueprint here is from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Parties Cookbook, and if you don't have it, I suggest you add it to you collection.  It is an older book, but it is so very good. These will seem a little under baked when you pull them out of the oven, and that is a good thing, go with it they will take care of themselves while they are cooling on the baking sheet for a few minutes. These cookies are wonderful with a glass of milk, or, and I promise not to tell on you, with your coffee in the morning.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Ina Garten's Chocolate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Makes about 48 cookies 

1/2  pound unsalted butter. softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa (I used good old Hersheys)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 8.5 ounce bag of Andes Candies (or any other mint-chocolate candy), unwrapped and chopped
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or by hand mixer or hand in a large bowl)  mix together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until fluffy.  I never knew what "until fluffy" meant, I finally saw somewhere that you should beat them together for about 3-5 minutes.  I do better with specifics!  With the mixer on low slowly add in one egg at time, and then your vanilla extract.  Keep it going until you can't see any runny or yellow parts of the egg.   Add the cocoa and continue to mix until combined.

Sift or whisk together you flour, baking soda, and salt.  With the mixer running on low, slowly add the dry ingredients into the mixer and continue until just combined.  Shut the mixer off, or shake out your arms to relieve your weary muscles.  Add in your chocolate chips & chunked up Andes Candies, and fold into the  cookie batter until evenly distributed.




I just spray my baking sheets with some baking spray and I start scooping out the cookies.  If you need to put down some parchment paper, or silpat, do so, and proceed with the scooping.  I do 12 cookies to a baking sheet, but they do some spreading so if you are using a smaller baking sheet, (mine is 17.25 in. by 11.5 in, and technically I think it is called a jelly roll pan) then just give them a little room.  



Once you have them on the baking sheet, use your hand or a spoon to give them just the gentlest of flattening so that they lose a little of their rounded top, this will help them bake more evenly, otherwise you end up with really crispy over cooked edges, and a much different texture in the center of the cookie.


Put the cookies in you oven and bake for 15 minutes.  When you take them out they will seem like they are not quite done, but this is what you want.  Remove them from the oven, and give them about 5 minutes to cool on the baking sheet.  Remove them from the baking sheet to a wire rack and let them finish cooling. . . if you can wait that long!

DeLightful Quiche

Until I was about 25 or so, I regularly committed the dietary sin of skipping breakfast. I would skip breakfast and then much later, I would ravenously consume whatever I could get my hands on.  At my old job, there were always cookies and donuts laying around, so as you can imagine, this didn't work out really well.  When I started eating better, this was one of my hardest areas to get into shape.

This is where eggs come in really handy.  They are the breakfast powerhouse.  I usually just boil up 10-12 of them on the weekend, peel them, and stick them in the fridge.   They are the ultimate portable breakfast, good afternoon snack, salad topper, etc.  They also come in handy if I have, say a random snow day and need to feed children who are stuck at home, thankfully my kids love egg salad sandwiches.

Every once in a while though, I need some variation in my life, and I will turn to omelettes, quiches, and maybe even baked egg in a ham cup.  I pulled this quiche from pinterest, and have done some tweaking.  Regardless of whether or not you use the low fat cheese (I don't) or low fat cottage cheese (sometimes I do, sometimes I don't) this recipe divided into 6 servings comes in under 200 calories per serving.  I also like to try and keep this as simple as possible with the clean up, and I oftentimes just mix it right in the baking dish.

4 large eggs
4 large egg whites, optional
1 Cup Shredded Cheese, I usually use Cheddar
1 Cup Cottage Cheese, Low Fat or Regular
1 tsp. Garlic Salt
1/2 tsp. Black Pepper
10 oz Frozen Spinach, thawed and squeezed as dry as you can get it
1 large (12-14oz) can of mushroom pieces
1/2 Cup Diced Onion

Optional:  Artichoke Hearts drained and cut up, diced bell pepper, diced jalapeno pepper, diced onion, diced ham or sausage, etc.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a regular sized pie plate or 8 x 8 baking dish with cooking spray.

Combing your eggs, and egg whites, if using, in the baking dish and beat them a little just to get them mixed up.

Add all your other ingredients, and any other vegetables that you would like to add.  Stir with a spatula to combine them together.   Once combined, bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes until golden and set.

Remove from the oven and serve.

Now, this quiche is good in its own right, but it is pretty light, and I usually have to have some fruit on the side to help it out, because, and I'm just being honest here, sometimes it just isn't enough for me.  So one morning, as I peered at my little container of quiche, I spied some tostada shells sitting on the counter, and the angels sang!  Breakfast tostadas were born.  I simply place a slice of the quiche on a tostada, top with some salsa.

The option here are pretty endless really, tortillas, Flat Outs, toast, english muffins, etc.  You are really only limited by what you have on hand, and what calorie budget you are trying to hit.