Rosie the Corgi was a big fan of making sure that she gave Shawn a grilling cookbook for Father’s Day. She loves grilling, since it means occasional morsels for her. 😉 Since Rosie lacks in opposable thumbs, I picked out “Weber’s Real Grilling” on her behalf, and this was the first recipe we tried. All I can say is wow! Total winner. The only change we made from the as-printed version is that we cut back on the peppers a bit
We got a big, lovely bunch of kale in our CSA this week that needed a job. I was contemplating something to do with it besides a soup, and found this casserole on Serious Eats (originally Martha Stewart, I think). It’s nice for a summer casserole – lighter and very bright. It made a ton of course, which was my intent…lots of lunches! This was pretty easy to make a bit healthier with whole wheat pasta, part-skim cheeses, and Smart Balance instead of butter.
I stumbled upon this cake a few years ago at Joy of Baking, and it turned into a favorite. I’ve made it with fruit other than cherries, but cherries are the winner for sure. I’ve also done it with and without ground almonds, and though I prefer it with the almonds, it is delicious without as well. A very versatile cake, and when we got cherries in our CSA this week, it was clearly the thing to do. 🙂
I saw this on a website, and I truly can’t remember where now. Either way, it seemed like a great, low cal idea – throw some chicken breasts in a slow cooker, dump a jar of salsa in, cook for a few hours and then shred the chicken. I went ahead and made some salsa verde for this, and it was a really easy, really tasty meal. It would be great in some tortillas, but we’re back on the eating lighter bandwagon, and it was actually delicious as is. We had this with black bean and corn salad on the side, and really loved it.
We really like this side salad with Latin type dishes, but really it would be great with anything. We had it with Chicken Salsa Verde. The addition of cojita cheese is what really makes it great, but if you want to lighten it even more you could definitely lose it and it would still be a good salad. It is substantial enough that you could have a larger portion for a full meal.
Doesn’t get easier than this and salsa verde is my favorite. I’m kicking myself for not growing tomatillos this year, but maybe next when we have more space in the garden. I used this for shredded chicken in salsa verde, but it’s great with anything.
So when you make a ton of pesto, you’re eating it for a while. Not that I’m complaining. We decided not to freeze this batch of pesto, so it’s been uhm…around a lot the past few days. This was a soup that we really liked – great way to use up some nice buffalo sausage we’d gotten a few weeks ago at the farmer’s market. Very filling soup, and great for lunches. Plus it’s the color of Ecto Cooler from 5th grade, so that’s pretty cool.
Our basil plants have gone nuts…basil everywhere. Not that I’m complaining! But I felt like it was time to start doing something with all that basil, and my first time back in the kitchen after a 2 week study hiatus was a good occasion. I use Skinnytaste’s lightened pesto, which is really just pesto with a bit less oil and no pine nuts…believe me, you don’t miss them. Anyway, this was a great, easy way to prepare fish. I served this with some asparagus from our CSA tossed with fresh mint and manchego.
Pesto is great, but obviously on the “expensive” side when it comes to calories. This method to lighten it up a bit really retains all the great flavor minus some of the worst of the calories. This makes about a cup of pesto, which freezes really well.
Place the basil, garlic, cheese, salt and pepper in a food processor and pulse a few times, then slowly add oil until pesto reaches desired consistency.
We love anything scallops, and this was a great quick weeknight meal. The sauce created from the bean/spinach mixture was great, though next time I might thicken it up a bit. We served this with tomato bread for a nice dinner. This one came from Cooking Light.
Om nom nom! 