Last weekend, we were invited to a potluck brunch for a friend’s birthday. I wanted to bring a savory breakfast dish that would work well for a crowd.
With the big game this weekend, my mind went to making a breakfast version of spinach artichoke dip. I live in Philadelphia, so I clearly had to make a green dish too!
This Spinach and Artichoke Breakfast Casserole is packed with spinach, artichokes, bell peppers, onions and cheese. The result is a flavorful dish that can feed up to 12.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 (10 oz) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 (14 oz) can artichokes hearts, drained and chopped
This cold snap feels like it will never end. One good part about the cold weather is I definitely do more cooking!
One of my husband’s favorite recipes I make is one for Slow Cooker Chicken and Chickpea Tagine. I wanted to try a tagine with a different meat, so when I found this recipe for Slow Cooker Lamb Tagine on the cooking section of the New York Times, I used it as a base to make a slow cooker version.
Tagine or Tajine dishes are Moroccan slow cooked dishes named after the pot they are cooked in. The dishes are typically a stew with a protein, spices, and fruit. And, well, they are fantastic; they make for a perfect comfort food meal!
I braved the cold so I could pick up the ingredients for this yummy dish. I’m lucky enough to live close to Reading Terminal Market, and La Divisa Meats in the Terminal cubed some lamb leg meat for me for this recipe. If you do not have a local butcher, lamb stew meat works too.
Ingredients:
3 pounds cubed boneless lamb leg meat
salt and pepper, to taste
2 cinnamon sticks
large pinch saffron
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
1 3/4 cups beef broth
1 cup dried apricots
1 tablespoon unsalted butter (or margarine to make dairy free, or ghee to make paleo)
Excuse the lack of posts, my husband and I went to Montreal and Quebec City last week, so no cooking for me! Both Montreal and Quebec City are pretty amazing food cities, and I definitely made to eat my way through both. (And yes, we somehow managed to have poutine four times!)
Needless to say, when we returned to Philly, we both were looking to eat a bit… lighter.
This recipe adapted from Cooking Light for Shaved Cucumber Greek Salad is a simple but different take on a traditional Greek salad. It looks fancier than it really is, the only special tool needed is a veggie peeler.
Ingredients:
2 cucumbers
1 large heirloom tomato, cut into wedges
2/3 cup pitted Castelvetrano olives
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled (I suggest using French feta)
Note: I was sent some products from Bob’s Red Mill, including Orca Beans. All opinions are my own.
There are some ingredients that catch your eye, and you just know you have to use them in a recipe. Orca beans are definitely one of those ingredients. Luckily, Bob’s Red Mill sent me a bag of their orca beans, which are grown in Moses Lake, Washington exclusively for the company.
Orca beans, also known as calypso beans, are black and white splattered, and keep their cool coloring even after cooking. This heirloom bean is high in fiber and iron, and work great in any recipe where you would normally use beans.
But. They are so darn pretty I wanted to let them stand out by using them in a very colorful dish.
Cowboy Caviar seemed like the perfect way to show the orca beans off. Typically made with black eyed peas, cowboy caviar is a bean salad / salsa that is great as a party app, on top of grilled chicken, or just on it’s own!
In the past, I’ve made Arugula Pizza with Poached Eggs, so I went a bit more traditional this time with a Mexican inspired Cheesy Skillet Eggs and Hash.
This recipe is easy to make but has a ton going on: potatoes, chorizo, eggs, cheese, salsa, and avocado all together to make a truly delicious breakfast (or breakfast for dinner)!
Ingredients:
3 russet potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
~10 oz uncooked chorizo, cut into bite sized pieces (I used 3 chorizo)
Note: I was sent a coupon for Sargento Ultra Thin Cheese Slices through Cooking Light Bloggers’ Connection. Opinions are mine alone.
Well, summer weather came out of nowhere, didn’t it? Rising temperatures mean it’s grilling season! Throwing a burger on the grill doesn’t have to mean an super unhealthy meal though!
AND you don’t even have to skip the cheese to make a healthier burger! These turkey burgers are filled with deliciousness without being heavy and are topped with Sargento® Ultra Thin® Colby Jack Cheese Slices, pico de gallo, and avocado slices.
At 40 calories a slice, Sargento® Ultra Thin® Colby Jack Cheese Slices do nutritious in the most ultra-delicious way. The cheese slices are made of 100% real, natural cheese but are sliced thinner, so you can enjoy the cheesy deliciousness in moderation.
Ingredients: (recipe makes 3 larger burgers or 4 smaller burgers)
1 pound ground turkey
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons finely diced red bell pepper
2 tablespoons pico de gallo
2 tablespoons sliced green onions (scallions)
3-4 hamburger buns
3-4 slices of Sargento® Ultra Thin® Colby Jack Cheese Slices
My fiance is obsessed with leftovers. For whatever reason, he seems to think that most food tastes better the second time around. So I typically make a few more servings than we need so that he has his beloved leftovers the next day.
OXO makes cooking and storing food/leftovers super simple with their new 14 Piece Glass Bake, Serve & Store Set (paid link). The set is awesome to prepare foods beforehand, or to easily refrigerate/freeze any leftovers. It includes a Glass 3 Qt Baking Dish with Lid, Glass 2 Qt Baking Dish with Lid, Glass Loaf Pan, Glass Pie Plate, 1 Cup Round SNAP Container, 2 Cup Round SNAP Container, and 4 Cup Round SNAP Container.
For make ahead recipes, this glass bakeware is a huge time saver: they are made of thermal shock-resistant borosilicate glass, which allows dishes to be taken directly from the freezer to the oven or microwave — no need to fully thaw. The glass can withstand up to 250 degrees F of temperature change! Generous handles make removing dishes from the oven super easy, even when wearing oven mitts.
This set is perfect for recipes on the go as well; the baking dishes and SNAP containers come with raised slosh-proof lids for easy transportation. The SNAP Glass Food Storage is also microwave safe for reheating leftovers (just undo the tabs of the lid first), and provides a leak-proof seal, so it’s great for lunches to take to work!
I made this recipe for Chicken Chilaquiles Casserole recently for dinner using OXO’s 3 quart baking dish (9×13). Chilaquiles are actually typically a breakfast recipe, using lightly fried tortillas and salsa. This version is a casserole take on the traditional, and uses grilled corn tortillas baked with a quick homemade tomatillo salsa, rotisserie chicken, and cheese.
Ingredients:
meat from 1 rotisserie chicken, shredded (~3 cups)
1 cup 1% low-fat milk
1/3 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves
1 (26 oz) can whole tomatillos, drained
1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chilies, drained
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1 cup finely chopped Monterey Jack cheese, divided
Breakfast Night inspiration including sample Breakfast Night recipes
Krusteaz is also offering one I Can Cook That reader the same starter kit listed above! Details after the recipe. Krusteaz currently also has a coupon for $0.50 off any one pancake or waffle mix.
My fiance loves breakfast for dinner, so I decided to make a savory pancake topped with sunny side up eggs to celebrate National Pancake Day!
Krusteaz’s Buttermilk Pancake Mix makes this recipe a cinch to prepare! Just add some additional ingredients and you have a delicious dinner ready in minutes!
I was sent quite a few jalapenos as part of my Door-to-Door Organics box, more than I could really use in a normal time frame. So as part of #MyFarm2Table dinner, I decided to make Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers as one of the side dishes to use up the jalapenos.
I’m not the biggest fan of super spicy dishes, so after cutting and seeding the jalapenos, I placed them in a bowl of water for at least an hour to try to take some of the heat out of them. There was still some in the peppers, but it did help! (Note: there were still a couple of peppers that packed a punch, so be aware that every pepper is different in terms of heat).
I am a carb fanatic — I’d eat pasta with some day-old bread every single day if I could. But on really hot summer days, sometimes you need something that feels lighter while still filling you up. Cooking Light’s Pulled Pork Lettuce Wraps are a nice filling meal that are perfect on warm days; pulled pork is wrapped in Boston Bibb lettuce rather than added to a roll. The result is a super yummy and crunchy dinner!
I use my slow cooker year-round and this adaptation is no exception. Slow Cookers are such a simple way to get an awesome meal on the table in no time. Plus, it gives your oven a break!
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
1 white onion, quartered
1 (2 1/2-pound) boneless pork shoulder, trimmed
1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
2 tablespoons sherry
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted chicken stock
1 tablespoon gochujang (Korean chile paste) (gluten free is available)
1 1/2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce (or coconut aminos to make gluten free)
This month, Zwilling sent me a fun challenge: use a fillet knife. June’s knives of the month are boning and fillet knives, so Zwilling sent me their ZWILLING Pro 7″ Fillet Knife to try out. I have never used one before so I was so excited to learn how to use one; gotta love learning a new technique!
Fillet and boning knives are exactly what they sound like: knives used to cut meat off of the bone (to fillet something is to remove it from the bone). The knife is long, thin, and super flexible to allow it to get as close to the bone as possible.
You can fillet anything with a bone — chicken, beef, etc. but most people immediately think of fish, so I decided to revisit an old recipe on my blog to try out this lovely new knife!
This recipe for fish tacos with lime cilantro crema is a Cooking Light recipe and a favorite of mine. I switched it up a touch this time, just to try something a bit new.
This is another recipe from the Cooking Light Diet Plan. These tacos are great for a weeknight meal because it’s an under 30 minute recipe– it’s honestly mostly assembly.
As a reminder, if you’d like to try the Cooking Light Diet Plan along with me, use the code DIETSAVE20 to receive a special discount!
Ingredients:
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1/4-inch strips
As kids are going back to school (or may even be back!) and the “busy season” of work creeps closer, it’s necessary to find recipes that can be prepared ahead of time so that weeknight meals can be on the table as quickly as possible. My favorite tool for really yummy dishes that I can just reheat is my lovely slow cooker.
Cooking Light had a recipe for Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice that is perfect for weekend prep and weeknight meals. This particular recipe has a good amount of prep time before putting everything in the slow cooker so I’d suggest making it on a weekend versus a weeknight morning. (If you want to make this before work, set aside 30-45 minutes to get everything ready to put in the slow cooker.)
A couple of notes before I dive into the recipe. You actually soak the dried red beans in water overnight, so don’t forget to do that that night before you plan on making this recipe. Also, dried kidney beans apparently contain a toxin that is not killed at low temperatures (like in a slow cooker) so you have to boil them for 10 minutes before slow cooking. (Who knew?! Definitely don’t skip that step!) This recipe makes 8 servings so you can also freeze the red bean mixture for future meals if you won’t finish it during the week. Ok! Let’s cook!
Ingredients:
1 pound dried red kidney beans
1 tablespoon olive oil
12 oz andouille sausage, quartered lengthwise and cut crosswise
