Roasted Cauliflower and Beets

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It's official, we're beet freaks.  Could eat them every day...the roasted flavor is just oh so good.  My kids love them, hubby loves them...its win win.
We also love roasted cauliflower, so I figured why not combine the two.
I only found one recipe that featured both fresh veggies roasted together.  However, the other recipe used golden beets which (so far) I haven't found here.
Roasted beets are just fine all by themselves, but the seasonings we used for this recipe were really nice.  Oh, and the kids got a kick out of the "pink" cauliflower.  :)
Can't wait to make this one again....soon!

1 to 1.5 pound head of cauliflower, cored and broken into medium florets

• 6 small beets, peeled and cut into long wedges
• 1 medium red onion, halved and sliced thin
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 4 green cardamom pods
• 4 dried red chiles (optional)
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 2 teaspoons sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Grease a large baking dish (at least 13" x 9") with olive oil.
3. Grind cardamom pods, dried red chiles, coriander, cumin and peppercorns into a fine powder.
4. In a small bowl, mix this spice powder with olive oil.
5. Add all the vegetables to a large bowl and drizzle the spiced oil over the vegetables. Using your hands, rub the oil into the vegetables instead of tossing to coat.
6. Transfer to the greased baking dish and roast for about 1 hour or until tender and wonderfully caramelized. Use your kitchen timer to remind you to stir every 20 minutes.

recipe adapted from Indianfoodrocks

Roasted Beets - Glazed with Balsamic Vinegar

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We are becoming beet freaks.  
The downside:  They are messy.  Turn your hands pink.  They stain clothes.  You might have to warn your kids school that your child ate beets the night before...lest they panic during potty time.
But, oh, they taste SO good!  My girls love them.  I love them.  Hubby loves them.  They have zero fat, they are high in folate, and a cup of cubed, cooked beets is a meager 64 calories.  Plus a healthy dose of folate.  What's not to love?  :)
Usually I just roast them in the oven and eat as is.  Then I found this recipe from Simply Recipes.  The balsamic glaze was really good...added depth to the beets.  Great recipe and will make again for sure.
The best part is watching my girls eat them...they get a kick out of eating the beet and then smiling at each other...showing off pretty pink teeth.  ;)

 INGREDIENTS

• 2 pounds red beets, medium sized, scrubbed clean, green tops removed
• Olive oil
• Salt
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1 Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a roasting pan with aluminum foil. Place the beets in the pan. Rub olive oil over the beets, and sprinkle with salt. Cover the beets with another sheet of aluminum foil. Roast for 1 to 2 hours, depending on the size of the beets and how old they are. After 1 hour, test every fifteen minutes by poking a beet with the tines of a fork. Once the fork tines go in easily, the beets are tender and cooked. Remove from the oven.

2 While the beets are cooling, prepare the balsamic glaze. In a small, shallow sauté pan, add the balsamic vinegar and sugar. Heat on high until the vinegar has reduced to a syrup consistency. Remove from heat.

3 After the beets have cooled for several minutes, but are still warm to the touch, peel off the outer skins and discard. (you may want to use gloves to save staining your hands)  Cut the beets into bite-sized pieces.

4 Place beets in a serving bowl. Pour balsamic glaze over the beets. Stir in grated orange zest, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with a little orange zest to serve.

Yield: Serves 6 to 8.

recipe from Simply Recipes

Mango-Radish Salsa

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This is the recipe for the salsa to go with my Pan Grilled Fish and Shrimp Tacos.  But, if you're like me...you may just find yourself eating this right out of the bowl.  I think it helped that I managed to pick out an extremely ripe mango that was super sweet.  But all the flavors mixed together just work.  Love the bit of kick from the chili powder.  

Try this with other fish dishes or even as a side dish by itself!  

Happy cooking!

Mango-Radish Salsa:

1 mango, diced
4 red radishes, diced small

1/4 cup red onion, diced

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, leaves chopped

1 lime, halved and juiced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Toss gently.  Add lime juice and toss again.  Season and refrigerate until ready to use. 

serve with Pan Grilled Fish and Shrimp Tacos

Great Greek Salad

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It was our friends "the Greeks" (as we affectionately call them) turn to host dinner.  When asked what I could bring...she mentioned a nice salad.  
Well, last time I brought a leafy salad full of veggies.  This time I wanted something a bit different.  In an effort to impress the Greeks, I decided to try my hand at a nice light Greek salad.
The cucumbers you find here are the small ones, and they are super crunchy.  Toss in some kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes, red onion, fresh tomatoes and feta and you've got yourself a super simple, super tasty salad.
Comes together fast and then just chill till ready to eat.  Give this one a try the next time you need a quick side!

Ingredients

• 6 small cucumbers, seeded and sliced
• 1 1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese
• 1 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and sliced
• 3 cups diced roma tomatoes
• 1/3 cup diced oil packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained, oil reserved
• 1/2 red onion, sliced
• 1 Tbsp rice vinegar (I had to use apple cider, but I think rice would be better)
• 1/2 tsp Greek Seasoning

Directions

1. In a large salad bowl, toss together the cucumbers, olives, roma tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, 2 tablespoons reserved sun-dried tomato oil, red onion, vinegar, and seasoning. 
2. Chill until serving. 
3.  Right before serving toss in the feta and stir to combine.

Sweet Potato Ratatouille

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A variety of veggies are a bit hard to find here.  It's one of those things where you just have to wait and see what arrives each week.  (making my usual weekly planning much harder to do)  It's been really hard adjusting to not being able to just go to the store knowing they will have what I need.
That being said, I was really happy when sweet potatoes popped up.  I'd been wanting to try this dish and with my zucchini plants going bonkers this was just another fun way to cook them.
I was really pleased with how nice this turned out.  Very flavorful...a hint of sweetness and just tasty all the way around.
Served it over a bed of couscous and some Simple Roast Chicken.  Both kids enjoyed it too...another great veggie side.  :)

Mexican Rice

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The other night we had another fabulous group dinner.  The theme was Mexican based (main dish was chicken tacos)  Matt and I were given the task to make a rice...either Spanish or Mexican.  I've never given much thought to Mexican rice, so I googled some recipes for Spanish.  I wasn't really blown away by anything I found...so, just for the heck of it...I googled Mexican rice.  Stumbled on this fantastic recipe.  This rice is simple, easy and super flavorful.  I loved it and so did the hubby (who's not a big fan of either type of rice)
At the dinner, I didn't give my kids any because I thought it might be too spicy...I gave them some the next day to see if maybe they would like it...and, ya, they did.  :)  Instead of adding the whole chopped jalapeno at the end, I put it on the side for people to spice it up as they wanted.  This way, my rice had just a kiss of heat.  
I couldn't get enough of it and had a good helping the second day.  This is going on my must make monthly list.  
Happy cooking!


*note...make sure to follow the directions precisely...it'll make the perfect rice.

Marsala-Glazed Winter Veggies

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I decided to cook up my Simple Roast Chicken for dinner and I wanted a nice side to go along with it.  I haven't gotten over how yummy the rutabaga's were in my Bloody Mary Pot Roast and I started surfing for a recipe.  I found this nice mix of lovely winter veggies with a light Marsala sauce.  
The grocery store didn't have any parsnips in stock so I used turnips instead.  Turned out great.  Also, to save time, I just purchased a bag of frozen pearl onions and added them at the same time as the Brussels sprouts in the pot.  All the veggies were tender and full of flavor.  I think next time I would add more rutabaga, and perhaps both turnips and parsnips.  Great fall side that I can't wait to make again.

Fresh Summer Veggies - Sauteed

Pin It Now! The garden gods have blessed us this year.  Well, at least in the zucchini department.  My ONE zucchini plant is about 3 feet in diameter.  And the veggies just kept on comin'!  I already made zucchini bread and since I still have over half a dozen left, I had to do something else.  I surfed around and found a really nice base for a saute from Simply Recipes.  Then I added a bunch of other veggies along with the zucchini.  
Now, I'm going to list fresh veggies for just about everything, but to be honest I just used frozen veggies I had sitting around in the freezer.  Though, I am going to make this again with fresh (at least corn) because I think the taste will be amazing.
Quick, simple dish with tons of flavor.  For my girls, I served it over white sticky rice.  You could also toss in some chicken and take it from side dish to main dish!  Happy cooking!

Cucumber Slaw with Thai Dressing

Pin It Now! Yesterday I was trying to think of a nice side to go with Thai Peanut-Sauced Chicken Pitas.  I polled my friends on Facebook and got some great ideas.  Some said a cold salad, come said an Asian slaw.  I have some cucumbers from my garden so I thought, why not make a nice cucumber slaw?  I wanted to keep with the Thai theme so I googled a dressing that might go nice.  This all came together really well.  The dressing was light with a little vinegar zing and all the veggies were crisp and crunchy.  Best of all, got thumbs up from the whole family.  :)

My Birthday Dinner

Pin It Now! You know you're loved when you have family who is totally excited to cook for you.  Even though I touted this week as Italian only, I had a craving for Asian for my birthday dinner.  With my mom in town, I wanted her to make something..(aside from her traditional birthday cake) and I wanted the hubby stationed on the grill.  So, this is what I asked for my birthday meal:


Dumpling Soup
Grilled Asian Flank Steak
Asian Cucumber Salad  


I'm already drooling.  So, I figure I'll just park my butt on the couch with my girls, pop in a movie, grab a glass of wine, and...vegg.  


(wanna know a secret though?  I really love cooking...and I'll kinda miss being in the kitchen tonight...well, just a little)  :)

Hawaiian Pineapple Honey Slaw

Pin It Now! Yesterday I was trying to think of a fun side dish to make with the Baked Teryiaki Chicken.  As I looked around my kitchen, I spotted a head of red cabbage that needed to be used up pretty quick.  So, I started surfing the net looking for something that would taste good.  Through an app in my Ipad, (BigOven), I found this recipe.  And I'm so glad I did!  The hubby and I aren't big fans of mayo slaw; therefore, I was happy to see that this came with a lovely light dressing.  Because of the pineapple juice and honey, I expected a sweet dish...but it wasn't.  I think the recipe makes a bit too much dressing; however, and I didn't use up all of mine on the slaw.  Next time I'll scale it back a bit.  
I also used 3/4 of a  green cabbage and 3/4 of the red.  
Using the grilled pineapple rings as the "plate," you get a great mix of flavors. The sweetness of the pineapple and the texture went so well with the coleslaw.  Even my kids liked it.  The hubby and I spiked ours with some Siracha for a great kick.      

A perfect summer dinner...

Wednesday: Grilled Chicken Tacos & Pan-Roasted Corn & Okra

Pin It Now! Taco night baby!  I don't know what it is about corn tortillas...but the smell, the texture, the tastes...oh it's just a little bit of heaven to me!  The hubby prefers flour...but since I'm doing the cooking...I'm vetoing him.  This is a very simple dish with great flavor.  
Corn is still wicked cheap right now, so I'm going to do this simple side to go along with the tacos.  I'm going to cut the okra up smaller than the recipe suggests...thinking the girls will eat more of it that way...who knows.  And, I may just whip up some guac and serve some chips with it.

Thursday: Maple Glazed Pork Chops and Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta

Pin It Now! One of the grocery stores has pork chops wicked cheap this week.  Thought I'd give this recipe a try.  I think the girls will love the sweet taste of the maple glaze.  However, I have to omit the pecans because the hubby can't stand them.  (well, maybe I'll just sprinkle it on everyone's but his)  
I wanted a good side to go with this and since the hubby and I both love Brussels sprouts, I thought this would pair well.  Most people just flat out hate these little veggie gems, but I find that if you cook them the right way, the flavors are amazing.  Do my girls love these...not really, but they'll have to eat at least one.  I'll probably make sure to have an additional veggie side for them just in case.  (see, I don't cook a different meal, I just make sure they have options)

Monday: Sweet Corn Cheeseburgers & Potato Dominoes

Pin It Now! To me, summer has always meant lovely ears of sweet corn.  I miss it all year round and I can't wait till the stores are basically handing them out!  Found this recipe in a parenting magazine and it just sounded perfect for a beautiful summer night meal.  I wanted a fun side dish (something different from the normal sweet potato fries) and thought I'd give these little potato dominoes a try.  Simple and extremely budget friendly.  I know I should have some kind of green veggie, but I'm just going to count the avocado as my green.  ;)  Happy cooking!  

Friday: Spiced Beef Kebabs and Couscous

Pin It Now! Last week's Yakatori was a huge hit with the girls.  They loved eating the chicken off the sticks.  So this week, I decided to take advantage of all the meat on sale from Memorial Day weekend and grill up some beef kebabs.  I'm going to double the recipe, but I have a feeling there still won't be any leftovers.  A nice side of my fave couscous recipe will round out this dish.  Some grilled veggies would be awesome too. 
If you can plan ahead, marinating overnight would really make this dish sing, but if not, really try to get to the 4 hour mark.  You want those flavors to sink in and tenderize the meat.  
If you like spicy...add some cayenne to give it a great kick!! 

Memorial Weekend Menu- Smoker Style

Pin It Now! There's nothing I love more than cooking up a feast for friends.  The best part is that my husband is a genius with the smoker.  It doesn't matter what he puts under the hood of that baby...it comes out smoked to perfection and full of flavor.  This coming weekend we're planning on smoking ribs, a tri-tip, red snapper and hubby is going to actually smoke some squid (that should be interesting). 
  
Since he'll be manning the meat it's up to me to dish out some wicked sides.  No BBQ is ever complete without a killer pasta salad, and this recipe for Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad should do the trick.  And of course, I can't pass up all this fabulous corn that's on sale!!  Found a great recipe for some Grilled Mexican Corn.  This is shaping up to be a great menu!  Can't wait to eat!  

Click Read More for all the recipes.  :)

Friday (5/27): Simple Seared Scallops and Wilted Arugula Salad

Pin It Now! My husband and his friend went to the local fish market last Saturday morning.  We were hoping to find some fresh scallops, but he came back with frozen.  I wanted to make sure I cooked these right so that they weren't mushy and chewy.  (if you can get fresh, do it, much easier to cook.)
When I looked for info about cooking the frozen version, this is what I found:
Take the time to let the scallops thaw in the fridge overnight.  Then make sure they are good and dry (pat with paper towels)  Wet scallops will not sear properly.
We're serving this with Emeril's arugula salad.  (and maybe some kind of starch for the girls)

May Budget Week! Monday: Simple Roast Chicken

Pin It Now! This week of May I'm dedicating to Budget Week.  Why?  There are hardly any good buys this week at the stores, so it's time to get frugal.  I'm doing my best to find healthy meals for cheap prices, but a few "little too good for you" dishes found their way into my menu this week.  Couldn't help it...they sounded so darn good!  All new recipes again this week...can't accuse be of being boring!  LOL  Looking forward to a great week of food...and the low price tag!


Okay, so don't let the title fool you (or the ingredient list)  I put Simple for the sole reason, that it is...very simple to make.  But the flavors are killer and the bird will be moist and juicy.  You can't get more budget friendly than buying a whole bird.  Throw your chicken in the oven...let'er cook.  Then carve and serve with your fave side dish.  I'm going to make a blue potato and corn hash (corns on sale).  Yum!  

Friday: Beef and Mushroom Sloppies (with a side of Creamed Corn and Peas)

Pin It Now! I've never met anyone who doesn't like a good'ol sloppy joe.  I've made all kinds...from the canned version, to mom's recipe, to some found on the net.  I've never; however, made it with mushrooms.  So, of course, that means we have to try it.  Hubby gave me the thumbs up on this one and onto the menu it went.  Serve it up with a side of sweet potato fries and the Creamed Corn and Peas, and you're good to go!

Wednesday: No Butter Chicken & Couscous

Pin It Now! I was surfing through some other food blogs searching for inspiration...aka recipes.  I found a great one Kayotic Kitchen, she lives in the Netherlands.  http://www.kayotic.nl/blog/   I had fun reading her blog and looking at all her gorgeous pix.  I've never heard of No Butter Chicken before, but when she mentioned that Guy Fieri cooked it, I was sold.  I love the guy (no pun intended)  I know some think he's a little out there...but I think he's fun.  So, anyway, figured I give this dish a shot as well.  Kayotic Kitchen mentioned that she thought there was too much Cumin seeds, so I may cut that back.  Also, I included a recipe to make your own Garam Masala.  (very simple.)

I'm going to serve this with a side of couscous.  Recipe is below.    

Let me know how this dish turns out for you!  :)