Baked Egg Foo Young

I’ve been working on cleaning out old cooking magazines that have now made 3 moves with me, tearing out pages of old magazines, etc.  I tear out the page and keep it, which is kind of silly since I access the recipe online in the kitchen when actually cooking!  This one came from an old Eating Well and it was worth a try – with good results, we thought.  I augmented with some traditional egg foo young recipes as far as seasonings, but did not modify the cooking method.  I served it with brown rice and some sugar snap peas and we would definitely make again.  A pretty quick no-fuss weeknight meal and good vegetarian option.

eggfooyoung

Recipe!

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Pasta and Greens Salad

I can eat an army’s worth of pasta salad, seriously.  It’s kind of ridiculous.  This is a taken from something my mom emailed me about 10 years ago that I think *she* had on hand for 10-15 years. I could never get enough. I started mixing it with far less pasta and lots of greens (arugula or a spring mix are best…something a little bitter takes the dressing well and doesn’t get lost in the pasta) and using whole wheat  pasta and here we are.  No less delish, and it’s actually a complete meal or a nice cookout side dish, whichever works for what you’re doing. Very bright, adjustable, and great leftovers for lunches.

pastasalad
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Hummus Chicken

Another baked chicken recipe; I wish I could say I remember where I first saw this…Pinterest, maybe?  Regardless, it’s on a lot of blogs now.  We really liked it.  The hummus coating kept the chicken very moist while it baked, and formed a nice crust.  I think it will be even better with different types of hummus, but it was definitely worth repeating, and can’t beat the relatively low cal.  I served this with roasted brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and yellow pepper, and a wild rice mix.

hummuschicken

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Basil Pesto

I have always been pretty tried and true when it comes to pesto, but I thought this “Skinny” pesto from Skinnytaste (which has shaped up to be one of my favorite websites for great ideas) was worth a try.  And you know, I hardly noticed the lack of pine nuts and less oil.  Give it a try – makes pesto less of a no-no if you’re watching calories etc.

  • 1 cup basil
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1/4 cup grated parmesan
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 2 1/2 tbsp olive oil

In a food processor pulse basil, garlic, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper until smooth. Slowly add the olive oil while pulsing. Store in a sealed container and refrigerate until ready to use or you can freeze this in ziplocks bags to use at a later date.

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Baked Pesto and Mozzarella Chicken

This was a quick and tasty meal that tasted a lot more caloric than it was. 🙂  I used Skinnytaste’s method of making basil pesto, leaving out the pine nuts and cutting out a lot of the oil.  It was very good; you’d hardly notice it.  I also used part-skim mozzarella, which also worked well.  This made enough for leftovers, and it reheated for a nice lunch.  We had this with asparagus tossed with a leftover pepper I had lying around.  Definitely a make-again, but worth waiting until summer when the tomatoes and basil are very fresh.

pestochicken

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Roasted Yellow Pepper Soup

After not-so-fun dental work today, and strict orders not to chew, some kind of soup seemed in order.  Not to mention it was an ugly rainy day…perfect for a yummy soup.  I had gone to a great little cafe with one of my managers a couple of weeks ago, and we’d had a delicious yellow and orange pepper soup – I was dying to try to recreate it, and this was a good opportunity!  This was a mish-mash of a few recipes, but what I liked about the base (from Epicurious) was that it didn’t use cream or milk – the thickness comes from a couple of potatoes.  I used chicken stock in this because that’s what I had, but I think it would be better with vegetable stock and would of course be an easy vegetarian option that way.  It was delicious and healthy…definitely going in the regular rotation!

yellowpepper

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Flank Steak with Cucumber and Pepper Relish

First dinner in our new house!  And add to that the fact that I am a first-time homeowner and this is all pretty exciting. 🙂  Coming from a small (understatement) kitchen in our rental, it was pretty awesome to be back in a large, relatively modern kitchen again.  After weeks of eating out with our kitchen packed, it was also excellent to have homemade food again.  This was a recipe I saw in Cooking Light and modified a bit.  The original called for pickled pepperocini, but I couldn’t find any.  Instead, I used roasted yellow peppers and olives to get some brine/tang.  We really enjoyed this – I served it with yellow wax beans tossed with some toasted almonds.

steak

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Quinoa Salad

A quick lunch that was a nice break form all the sandwiches and fast food that come with crazy schedules and moving.  It was nice to have our kitchen unpacked enough to make lunch.  I saw something similar to this on Skinnytaste, though I left out the onion and halved the olive oil.  We really enjoyed it – nice to have leftovers for lunches, too!

quinoa

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Double Citrus Tart

Tarts are one of my favorite desserts, and I love this one from Southern Living a few years ago.  I’ve used it for a couple of Spring get-togethers in the past, and it’s been nice and refreshing every time.  What attracted me to it originally was the ginger snap crust with the orange – it seemed like a winner.  My only complaint about this recipe is that I usually find I need more crumbs/butter to make the crust than written, but I find that with almost all crumb crusts so clearly it’s me.  Regardless, if you like a thicker crust, plan to 1.5x the crust recipe and you’ll be good to go!  We really enjoyed this for our Easter dessert with some homemade whipped cream.

citrustart

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Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits

We went with these as a side for our Easter dinner, and we really liked them.  They were very flaky and had lots of flavor.  I added a handful of finely sliced green onions and about 1/2 a teaspoon of garlic powder.  I think next time I will double that, and also cut the salt in half – our only complaint was that they were a bit on the salty side.  The recipe below is as-written.  I did do an egg wash on the top of them, and though it was optional in the recipe I think it shouldn’t be skipped.  This is another Ina Garten recipe, and a definite go-to for biscuits.

biscuits

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