Italian Potato Salad

Some of us really like potato salad, in all it’s many variations. Basically if it has potatoes, it must be good.
But some of us aren’t big fans of mayo, so when a potato salad must be made, we like this lighter, Mediterranean version!

Prep time: 10-15 mins Cook time: 10 mins

ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds red-skinned potatoes, unpeeled, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
6 tablespoons olive oil (preferably extra-virgin)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons drained capers
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
8 tablespoons sliced green onions

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Burritos & Wraps

It’s 5:45 on a Wednesday. You’re tired. You just got home from work. And you don’t really want to cook. You had take out yesterday. You don’t really want to go out… so where does that leave you? Well, if you have homemade burritos prepped and waiting for you in the freezer that leaves you ready for a super easy, super delicious dinner in!

We prep these burritos by the dozen… chicken, veggie, and our newest discovery… lamb wraps!

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Lamb Meatballs


Ingredients:

1 pound ground lamb
1/4 cup finely chopped scallions
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons quinoa
1 egg
olive oil for frying

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Chocolate Beet Muffins

Found the original recipe on this blog, but–big surprise–modified it slightly to its current form. We’re not totally convinced about the awesomeness of this recipe; and not sure we’d even make them again. It got very mixed reviews from our official samplers, but if you really like beets try it out! If you don’t like beets and are wondering what beets are doing in a dessert, then don’t waste your time!

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ cup cocoa powder
½ tsp salt
¼ cup coconut flour
½ cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
¼ cup olive oil
1-2 tsp pure vanilla extract
¾-1 cup whole milk
2 cups pureed (cooked) beets
some chocolate chips, if you want to add them to the tops of the muffins!

click “read more” for additional photos and the instructions!

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Tortilla Casserole

Taken (and only slightly modified) from the Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant cookbook.
We had tried this before, so we doubled the recipe so we would have leftovers!

Ingredients:

1 medium organic onion
1 roasted garlic clove, minced or pressed
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
3 tablespoons olive oil
jar of organic tomatoes, chopped (you can use fresh, just saute longer)

10 sprouted tortillas

1/2 pint organic heavy cream
1/3 cup grated parmesan
salt and ground pepper to taste

1/2 cups grated organic Monterey Jack cheese

Prep time: 10-15 minutes

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Chocolate Covered Granola

Ingredients:

3 oz dark chocolate
2 cups of your favorite granola

Instructions:

Melt the chocolate (either over a double boiler pot set up or in 20 second increments in the microwave)
Pour over the granola
Scoop out into individual servings while still hot- we put ours in cupcake liners!
Let cool until chocolate is set
Enjoy this super easy dessert!

Black Forest Cake

Ok, we’ll admit…. this is a time consuming cake. We made this over two days. Day one we made the four chocolate cake layers and the filling. Day two we made the frosting and assembled it. Click “read more” to see the lengthy list of ingredients and instructions. While it’s time consuming, it did get rave reviews from those that ate it! One catch–you have to like maraschino cherries!

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Peach Crumble

Ingredients:

8 ripe peaches, pitted and chopped into eight sections
 Juice of 1 lemon
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into thin pieces
1/3 cup quick-cooking oats

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Spiced Plum Pie

Ingredients:

one pie crust–store bought or try our easy homemade whole wheat crust!

1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons (packed) finely grated orange peel
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 pounds plums, halved, pitted, each half cut into 4 wedges

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Pie Crust

Ingredients:

3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
8 tablespoons (or more) ice water
1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

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Chicken Vegetable Quiche

Ingredients:

1 pie dough round

1 cooked chicken breast shredded
1 medium zucchini cut into cubes
1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
3 sticks of celery thinly sliced
1.5 cups whole milk
3 large eggs
1.5 cups grated cheese – we used a combination of mozzarella, monterey jack and a cheddar
salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder to taste

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Avocado Potato Salad

Monday night. It’s Peter’s night to cook for Lisa. At 4:00 pm he says “Can you look in the fridge and come up with a fancy dinner I can make for Lisa using what we already have? She’ll be back at 5:30” I grab my laptop, hustle into the kitchen, take stock of what’s there and head over to Epicurious to use their awesome advanced search feature. Based on what we have this is how the four course meal shapes up: Chicken Veggie Quiche, Avocado Potato Salad, Avocado Soup and a Berry Reduction Sauce over ice cream for dessert!

See the Chicken Vegetable Quiche entry for a photo of the salad next to a slice of quiche!

Ingredients:

3/4 pound small red potatoes (about 6)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest
3 tablespoons minced fresh chives
1 firm-ripe California avocado

Preparation:

In a saucepan cover potatoes with salted cold water, simmer, covered, until tender, 15 to 20 minutes
Drain potatoes in a colander and quarter
In a bowl stir together warm potatoes, oil, lemon juice, zest, chives, and salt and pepper to taste.
Pit and peel avocado and cut into 3/4-inch pieces.
Add avocado to potato mixture, gently tossing to combine

Garden Risotto

Found this on the Food Network website–the original recipe called for asparagus, we didn’t have any so we just doubled the amount of cheese that the recipe called for! We figured that would make up for the lack of asparagus!

Ingredients:

6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
3/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 lightly packed cups baby spinach leaves
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Instructions:

Bring the broth to a simmer in a pot.
Heat the oil in a saucepan over low heat, cook the onion, stirring occasionally, until soft, 3 to 5 minutes.
Add the rice and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute.
Add wine and simmer, stirring constantly, until absorbed, about 1 minute.
Add 3/4 cup of the hot broth, the salt and a few grinds of fresh pepper and simmer.
Stir constantly, until broth is absorbed.
Continue simmering and adding hot broth, about 3/4 cup at a time, stirring constantly and making sure the broth is absorbed before adding more.
Continue this process until rice is almost tender and creamy-looking, about 18 minutes.

Add the spinach and peas and cook until the spinach is wilted.
Add the asparagus and cook just until the vegetables are hot.
Stir in the Parmesan and serve.

Chichen Enchiladas & Enchilada Sauce


Chicken Enchilada Ingredients:

meat from whole chicken
2 medium onions, finely diced
2-4 small green peppers (hot or mild, your choice), seeded and finely chopped
2 carrots, grated
2 zucchini, grated
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoon oregano
1 tablespoon cumin
2 cups grated cheese

8 cups enchilada sauce

corn tortillas (18-30)

avocados, sour cream, salsa and limes for garnish


Enchilada Sauce Ingredients:

4 ounces whole dried New Mexico or Ancho chiles (or chilies with a smoky taste)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped (or pureed in Quisinart)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 cups chicken stock
2 cloves garlic
2 small cans tomato paste
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
sea salt (to taste)

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Pumpkin Cheesecake Squares

Found on Epicurious, but we modified how the crust was prepped. These were a HUGE hit at the party we took them to!

Ingredients:

Crust:
1 cup flour (we used wheat pastry flour)
3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, diced
1 cup pecan halves (about 4 ounces)
3/4 cup old-fashioned oats

Filling:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Topping:
1 cup sour cream (we didn’t have enough sour cream, but it still came out great!)
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

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Red & Green Lasagna

Ingredients:

30 ounces ricotta cheese (about 4 cups)
one package frozen chopped spinach
4 cups prepared pasta sauce
Twelve 7 by 3 ½ inch dry no-boil lasagna pasta
10 ounces mozzarella, grated (about 2 ½ cups)
1 ¼ cups fresh grated parmesan (about 5 ounces)
1 cup basil pesto

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Whole Wheat Waffles & Blueberry Yogurt Syrup

Perfect for Sunday morning. This recipe was ad-libbed enough from Epicurious that we’re not even going to reference you to the original recipe… it was really more a guideline.

As far as we know, the Blueberry Yogurt Syrup was totally made up! And totally good!

Waffle Ingredients:

1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup oat flour
2 tablespoons ground flax
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
2 egg whites

Blueberry Syrup Ingredients:

1 container blueberries
Agave maple syrup
Greek yogurt
dash of vanilla

Preparation:

Mix all the waffle ingredients until smooth
Cook waffles as usual

Dump blueberries in Quisinart
Add chosen ratio of syrup and yogurt to produce desired consistency
Pulse until just mixed (over mixing will make it thinner)

Serve with eggs and coffee! Enjoy with your favorite person on a relaxing weekend morning!

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

Taken straight from the Martha Stewart website! Changes made from original recipe: we took out the fresh ginger, used 1/8 cup unsulfured molasses and 1/8 cup bootstrap molasses to get the full 1/4 cup of molasses and we used a mixture of all-purpose flour and whole wheat pastry flour.

with sugar and without

Ingredients:

7 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar

 

 

 

 

 

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Pound Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature for 30 minutes
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup whole milk, at room temperature

Equipment:

9- by 5- by 3-inch loaf pan

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Hot Lemon Soufflé

Best served hot. Really. We (five of us today) managed to devour this soufflé (that technically serves eight) straight out of the oven.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice
4 egg yolks
grated zest of 3 lemons
5 egg whites
powdered sugar for sprinkling

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Party!

Key Lime Bars in the forefront with Orange Earl Gray Tea Cookies and Molasses Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies on the platter in the background.

Key Lime Bars

plated and ready to eat!

Straight from Martha Stewart, these bars were a big hit! The fresh lime juice is what makes them so mouthwatering, but it’s also what makes this a very time consuming recipe. Budget about an hour from starting the crust to pulling the bars out of the oven. You’ll only need a few minutes to whip up the topping and slice the limes later. Worth the effort for a party or family function!

Crust Ingredients:

1.5 cups finely ground graham crackers
1/3 cup sugar
5 tablespoons melted butter(drizzle of honey)

Filling Ingredients:

3 large egg yolks
1.5 teaspoons finely grated lime zest
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup fresh key lime juice (anywhere from 16-24 limes)

Garnish:

1/2 cup heavy cream
2 limes finely sliced into crescents

 

 

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Molasses-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

done!

We found this recipe in a book compiled by Gwen Steege titled The Search for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie. We both love molasses and all the spices traditionally associated with that flavor and the oatmeal seemed to at least add the idea of health to the cookie. We got off to a rough start, resulting in a recipe that has been (accidentally) modified from the original version, though mostly just in the ratios, not the ingredients themselves.

For the flour we used a mixture of whole wheat  flour, whole wheat pastry flour and unbleached flour (it was one of those bottom of the bags day!). Flavor- and texture-wise we both really like these cookies, but think the oatmeal isn’t really necessary. Though we both also agree that we like the Soft Molasses Cookies better!

And yes, you can expect more variations on chocolate chip cookies as we pursue the perfect chocolate chip cookie!

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup blackstrap molasses
1 cup quick oats
1 cup chocolate chips

 

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