Eat more vegetables, eat more vegetables, eat more vegetables, blah - blah - blah. I know that I should be incorporating more vegetables into my diet but it's soooo hard sometimes. Fresh off the vine tomatoes - juicy, green cucumbers and sweet bell peppers - fresh from the garden, now those are vegetables that I can get excited about. It's a whole different story when I shop for produce in February or March. I find myself wandering up and down the produce aisles, looking for beautiful, fresh vegetables but ending up with the same old tired looking produce. I found this recipe for Asian Slaw in Good and Fresh magazine recently. I think I was initially attracted to the bright colors, but when I realized that it combined fresh "winter" vegetables, I was even more excited. Winter produce is not looking so boring anymore. Asian Slaw
1 cup thin yellow pepper strips Toss to combine. Shake and drizzle over salad. Serve with teriyaki pork. So long boring salads. What's your favorite way to eat vegetables?
Ciao!
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Some days, I think I have it all together - I've planned my menu for the week, shopped for groceries and even prepped some of the meal ahead of time. That is all good and well but the truth is that sometimes, even my best intentions (and preparations) get interrupted by - quite simply - life. Last month one day, I was feeling confident that I had dinner under control - I had found a recipe for teriyaki pork in an issue of good and fresh magazine, and I remembered ALL of the ingredients that I needed while I was at the grocery store. (A truly remarkable accomplishment.) By 4:00 that afternoon, the pork was marinating, the grill was heating and I was hungry. What could go wrong? A short 15 minutes later, after a series of unfortunate circumstances, I found myself alone at home with an uncooked pork, a hot grill and a child who needed to be picked up from soccer practice. What was I to do? Wait until I returned with my soccer player to cook the pork and add an additional 40 minutes to our dinner time? Too hungry for that option. I decided to go ahead and put the pork on the heated Big Green Egg and let it cook while I made a quick trip to the soccer field. I really had no idea how it would turn out but I closed the lid on my Big Green Egg and hoped for the best. (Of course, I made sure that my neighbor was on standby, just in case there was a flare up on the BGE.) When I got back home, I flung open the lid on the Egg, expecting the worst. What I saw was a perfectly golden brown teriyaki pork tenderloin! What are the odds? (Have I mentioned lately how much I love my Big Green Egg?) Maybe that's the trick - leave my food alone, run an errand, come back and voila - food cooked to perfection. Perhaps I need to rethink my whole cooking technique. Grilled Teriyaki Pork 2 - 12 ounce pork tenderloins 1/2 cup reduced sodium soy sauce 1/4 cup rice vinegar 3 Tablespoons brown sugar 2 Tablespoons canola oil 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/4 teaspoon pepper sesame seeds Whisk together soy, rice vinegar, brown sugar, oil, ginger, garlic and pepper. Remove meat from marinade and grill for 40 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board, tent with foil and let rest 10 minutes. Slice Serve. Who says a delicious dinner needs to have a lot of fussy preparation?
Ciao! Winter salads can be challenging. In the height of summer, grocery stores are full of delicious looking produce. The produce that is available in the middle of March is less than inspiring. I find myself wandering around the produce section looking for salad inspiration. I was at Trader Joe's recently, trying to figure out what kind of new salad I could possibly make when these organic sweet potatoes caught my eye. I love sweet potatoes and I love how good they are roasted and added to a spinach salad. Inspiration found. There is no actual recipe for this salad but I will tell you how it all came together.
Spread onto a baking sheet and bake 20 minutes at 425. Open a can of garbanzo beans, drain and add to salad.
Stir together a Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette and drizzle over the salad. I think I have spring fever. Spring officially begins tomorrow - I can hardly wait.
Ciao! Has anyone tried myfridgefood? The concept of this website is genius. You enter the foods that you have in your refrigerator and your pantry (from a checklist) and the site generates recipes that you could make out of the food that you already have. I don't know who came up with that idea but it's brilliant. I am going to try it soon and I will blog whatever it tells me to make. If any of you have used myfridgefood, send me a comment and let me know how it worked for you. I heard that there is a similar app for the iPhone - anyone know what it is? This recipe came from my own version of myfridgefood. I had leftover chicken in my fridge from my bourbon chicken and leftover orchiette pasta from my creamy chicken pasta. I also had some fresh broccoli and a little bit of leftover cheese. This recipe is probably not nearly as creative as the ones on the website but I took all my ingredients and turned them into chicken and broccoli macaroni and cheese. Chicken and Broccoli Macaroni and Cheese 8 ounces pasta shells (I used whole wheat orchiette.) 1 head of broccoli, cut into florets 3/4 cup skim milk 1 Tablespoon sundried tomato paste 1/4 cup light Velveeta cheese, cubed 2 cooked chicken breasts, diced 1/4 cup bread crumbs
A yummy dinner and I didn't have to make another trip to the grocery store - win win.
Ciao! I have taken a lot of cake recipes and turned them into cupcakes but I rarely do the reverse and turn a recipe for cupcakes into a cake. The laws of science say that it should work both ways so I decided to give it a shot. Do you remember the snickerdoodle cupcakes that I made for the 12 cupcakes of Christmas? Snickerdoodle Cake 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, plus 1/2 teaspoon for dusting 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature 1 3/4 cups sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for dusting 4 large eggs, room temperature 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
Bake 30 minutes at 350.
Spread frosting over sides and top of cake. Decorate with mini snickerdoodle cookies. I'm pretty sure that I can't take the credit for inventing this delicious cake but I'm still pretty proud of this accomplishment. (I normally just borrow ideas and recipes from other people.) This cake is just as tasty as the cupcake version and it's even more grand to look at.
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