Working late really messes with my dinner making plans. When I get home later than expected, I can’t justify making a big meal, mainly because I’m already hungry and just want to eat as soon as possible. This recipe for Chicken and Guacamole Tostadas is perfect for nights like that, it uses shredded rotisserie chicken so that the recipe comes together in no time!
You’ll still notice that the photos are, well, crummy. I was super hungry and had to eat ASAP; the tostadas looked so good!
Ingredients:
1 ripe peeled avocado
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons finely chopped tomato, divided
3 tablespoons minced fresh onion, divided
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
the juice of 2 limes, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish
My poor slow cooker never gets a break. Even in the summer, I use it quite a bit! Slow cooker meals are great because they don’t heat up your entire kitchen, and usually make at least 8 servings, great for a party or for leftovers. Plus, you can put the ingredients in a slow cooker, go to work, and have dinner nearly finished when you return!
But I need some variety every now and then, so I decided to finally try my hand at making some. This recipe for carnitas from myrecipes.com is really simple. All of the ingredients can be found in your local grocery store.
Ingredients:
1 (3-pound) boneless pork shoulder
10 whole garlic cloves, peeled
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup fresh orange juice
2 chipotle chiles canned in adobo sauce, drained and chopped
20 (6-inch) corn tortillas, warmed
2/3 cup chopped onion
2/3 cup fresh salsa (I have a Fresh Salsa recipe on my blog. Just omit the corn.)
It is too darn hot to be using the stove/oven, don’t you think? The grill is a great option for hot days, but we have recently been getting the most inconvenient thunderstorms right around dinnertime. I wanted to find some recipes that are perfect for summer but can also be made in a slow cooker so your whole kitchen doesn’t heat up. This one for Slow Cooker Pulled Chicken Sandwiches is really easy to make: you brown the chicken, line the slow cooker with onions and garlic, pour the sauce over the chicken, and let it cook for 3 hours. You’re left with a really tender pull-apart chicken perfect for summer evenings!
I am in a grilling mood so there is going to be an influx of barbecue recipes on here, I think very few people will complain. We finally have a grill, but haven’t set it up yet (oops) so I am still making this recipe on my grill pan. This is a recipe from Cooking Light in the latest issue. I made a few changes just based on what I could find but the recipe is primarily in tact.
Ingredients:
1/4 cup nonfat buttermilk
3 tablespoons 0% Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon minced shallots
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large garlic clove, minced
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
I am less than one month away from attending Eat Write Retreat in Philadelphia and am getting so excited for it! Not only is the lineup awesome, but I get to meet a ton of other bloggers, what could be better? As we get closer to the big weekend, the attendees were sent a secret ingredient and were asked to try to incorporate into an appetizer recipe. I received California raisins, which people tend to think of more for sweet foods, but play off savory dishes oh so well. It goes without saying that I haven’t been able to get California Raisins’ classic commercial out of my head since I received them! OXO generously also sent us a few spiffy tools to help create our recipe; I can never have enough of their products!
Raisins are a great addition to a meal to add some sweetness without any added sugar. The dried fruit is loaded with antioxidants and fiber while being fat free and cholesterol free. Did you know that one serving of raisins (just 1/4 cup) has more potassium than a banana?
I have a friend that absolutely raves about Mediterranean Stuffed Peppers that her grandmother used to make for her, with rice, nuts, spices, and golden raisins. I decided to make an appetizer version, using mini sweet peppers. My version of these Mediterranean Stuffed Mini Peppers are stuffed with a lamb-farro mixture that includes tomatoes, raisins, pine nuts, and a touch of lemon zest (using my new snazzy OXO zester (paid link)). The peppers are then topped with feta cheese and broiled to make this recipe for Mediterranean Stuffed Mini Peppers!
Ingredients (serves 8):
16 mini sweet peppers, seeded
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped (no more than ½ cup)
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ lb ground lamb
2/3 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 teaspoon cumin
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
the zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons golden raisins
2 teaspoons raisins
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
½ cup cooked farro – I used Tuscan Fields vegetable farro
This month, Pomi asked that I try to create a recipe using one of their tomatoes paired with eggplant. I have been craving my favorite Afghan meal from a restaurant in Philadelphia called Ariana so my mind went immediately to trying to replicate it. The meal, Badenjan Chalow, is a lamb dish with eggplant, cooked with tomatoes, onions, garlic and spices served over basmati rice.
Pomi’s strained tomatoes are perfect for this recipe. Although I’d love to put this in a slow cooker and let it cook all day, I wanted to make this weeknight meal friendly.
I made a realization this weekend. Chili is so hearty that I really don’t realize if there is even meat in them. So why add it in?
With a bunch of different beans and peppers, you can still deliver an absolutely delicious chili that doesn’t even need meat! (I’m not knocking those that like meat in their chili, I just apparently prefer the vegetarian version)
Katherine Martinelli had a chili link up last week on her blog and I couldn’t stop thinking about chili. Her Three Bean Chili in particular looked so fantastic, I decided to make my own version of it below. It is based off of her recipe but I did make some changes, so to see the original recipe, check it out here.
This Tri Vegetarian Chili is aptly named. It uses three types of beans, three types of dried peppers, and three types of bell peppers.
After all the pasta, meat, and desserts I’ve had over the past, oh, month, I think it’s about time to switch back to some seafood recipes.
This is actually two different recipes from Cooking Light but I thought they’d be fantastic together. The Sweet Orange Salmon recipe is so easy and quick to make and the Browned-Butter Orange Couscous can be whipped up in no time as well!
Ingredients
Salmon:
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon grated orange rind
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets
Cooking spray
Orange wedges
Couscous:
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1 cup uncooked couscous
1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
It’s funny how you can go years, even decades, thinking that you don’t like a certain food only to find you can’t get enough of it when you’re older. Fish tacos is one of those foods for me. They pack a ton of flavor but are a healthier option than other proteins (as long as the fish isn’t fried, that is). I also love how quickly you can cook them up, perfect for a weeknight dinner! Cooking Light always has the best taco recipes so I naturally went in search of a fish taco recipe there. I found this recipe in the myrecipes.com new cookbook: Myrecipes’ America’s Favorite Food Cookbook, which you can win by entering below!
Ingredients
Crema:
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons fat-free mayonnaise
3 tablespoons reduced-fat sour cream
1 teaspoon grated lime rind (I just used the zest of one lime)
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lime juice (I used the juice of one lime)
One of the best parts of Thanksgiving doesn’t even take place on Thursday. I (and I’m assuming many others) look forward to the leftovers as much as the original meal. Friday always includes a Thanksgiving sandwich (which you can actually get a version of in Delaware all year long at Capriotti‘s called the “Bobby” mmm). Saturday tends to be my own version of the Wawa Turkey Bowl. By Sunday, I’m starting to run out of creative ways to mush my leftovers into a new meal.
The makers of Clos de los Siete came to my rescue! Clos de los Siete is an Argentine red wine that is made from seven vineyards in the foothills of the Andes. The wine is a mixture of 57% malbec, 15% merlot, 15% cabernet sauvignon, 10% syrah and 3% petit verdot that is a really nice complement to turkey. Azul Argentine Bistro in New York created a recipe that uses Thanksgiving leftovers along with some spices to create Wine Infused Thanksgiving leftover Empanadas, how fantastic does that sound?
Ingredients:
1 green pepper, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped
1 medium white onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 sweet potato, peeled and finely diced (about 1 cup)
1 pound turkey breast, shredded (about 1 cup)
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup Clos de los Siete wine
1-2 packages store-bought empanada discs (note: mine have annatto in them which is why they are orange)
I’m excited to share with you this recipe for Quinoa Chicken Curry, but before I do, I wanted to share a bit about quinoa.
Although quinoa seems to be a bit of a “new” super food, it has actually been around for thousands of years and was considered one of the most important crops of the Incas. This grain-like seed is really easy to cook (you cook it like rice) but is chock full of nutritional benefits. Quinoa’s high protein content makes it a great choice for vegans and vegetarians. It is also a complete protein which means it contains all the essential amino acids. Quinoa is also rich in vitamins and minerals, including magnesium, phosphorous, zinc, iron, potassium, calcium, vitamin B, folate, and riboflavin. Quinoa is also naturally gluten free, and can be ground into a flour that allows for gluten free baking. Whew.
I really didn’t know much about quinoa, or how to use it. So I was excited to be given the chance to review The Complete Idiot’s Guide Quinoa Cookbook to learn more about it. The book is full of quinoa recipes, including breakfast, dinner, and even dessert recipes. I wanted to try one of the more traditional preparations of quinoa, but can’t wait to delve into the more interesting uses for it in future posts (Lemon Poppy Seed Quinoa Cupcakes, anyone?) The book had a recipe for Quinoa Indian Chicken Curry that sounded absolutely fantastic!
Ingredients:
1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed and drained
4 cups chicken broth, divided
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
6 teaspoons curry powder, divided
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup frozen peas
1 medium head cauliflower, chopped into 1 inch pieces
I have never made a taco recipe from Cooking Light that I didn’t love. Honestly, how do they manage to deliver fantastic recipe after fantastic recipe? This one for Chilean Sea Bass Tacos with Chipotle Cream is no different, although the original recipe was made with red snapper. I’ve been having really bad luck recently coming across the fish I want when I go to the market, so I had to sub in Chilean sea bass instead.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce, seeded and minced
Every food blogger dreams of walking out of their day job and never looking back to pursue a full-time career in food. Most keep this as a fun little pipe dream to think about while sipping on their morning coffee. Michael Natkin, however, did the unthinkable. He took a sabbatical from his job as a software engineer and spent 6 months immersed in food, experiencing Italy and Israel through food with his family and interning in the kitchen at Cafe Flora. He dove into the world of food full time this year.
His blog, Herbivoracious, has been going strong since 2007. If you’ve never seen it, go there. Now. I’ll wait…. Fantastic, right?!
Michael’s cookbook based off his super popular blog, Herbivoracious: A Flavor Revolution with 150 Vibrant and Original Vegetarian Recipes, was released on May 9. Michael has been touring America to promote his book and recently came through Philadelphia. He hosted a food blogger event at the fantastic R2L, where local bloggers (like yours truly) were treated to bites from the kitchen and the opportunity to chat with Michael himself.
So, the cookbook is vegetarian. It honestly doesn’t even need to be mentioned though because the recipes inside the pages of this book are not wimpy, skimpy meals. As his blog states “You Don’t Have To Be A Vegetarian To Love This Cookbook!” and he is so right. The recipes are really inventive and sound so appetizing that you won’t even wonder where the meat is. Michael kindly allowed me to pick any recipe I wanted from the book to use for this post and boy did I have a problem. I am not exaggerating when I tell you I tagged over 50 recipes as possibilities.
see?
I finally decided on this recipe for Black Bean Soup with Orange Jalapeno Salsa when I mentioned it to my boyfriend and his eyes lit up. I altered the recipe ever so slightly, so check out the original at the link. You should check it out anyways because Michael gives some really great tips prior to the recipe.
Ingredients:
6 cans black beans
Vegetable broth
2 bay leaves
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 white onion, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle
6 mandarin oranges (or fewer, larger oranges)
1/4 cup red onion, finely diced
1jalapeno pepper, finely diced
1 handful cilantro leaves
salt to taste
Sour cream
Each recipe in the cookbook mentions any dietary restrictions that are satisfied within the recipe. This soup is vegetarian, vegan if the sour cream is omitted, and is gluten-free. This recipe serves 6.
I know, I know. I really need to up my chicken recipes. Cooking Light must realize this too because they had a recipe for Spicy Moroccan Chicken Skewers that I couldn’t pass up. The original recipe suggested serving the skewers with Greek yogurt, so I made a quick raita to go with them. I also served it with a simple couscous. This recipe does involve marinating the chicken for 2 hours, so prepare accordingly. (I made this over a weekend, I think this might be tough to make on a weeknight.)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
1 1/2 tablespoons chile paste (such as sambal oelek)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
5/8 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 30 pieces
With Cinco de Mayo this past weekend, I couldn’t stop thinking about making some kind of Mexican-themed meal this weekend. So I was pretty excited when my boyfriend suggested Fish Tacos on Sunday. My trusty Cooking Light obviously had the perfect recipe to fulfill our craving. These Cumin Spiced Fish Tacos with Avocado Mango Salsa get an extra boost of flavor from toasting the cumin seeds before grinding. If you can’t find cumin seeds, ground cumin will work for the recipe as well, just skip the toasting part.
