All-Purpose Vegetable Medley

What you will need:
6 asparagus spears, cut into 1/4" pieces
1/4 white onion, diced
1 medium carrot, thinly sliced
1/4 red bell pepper, small cubed
2C baby spinach leaves (fresh)
2 medium cloves of garlic
1 - 1 1/2C vegetable stock
1/4C dry white wine
1/2tsp caraway seed
Salt and pepper

What you will do:

Cut all your vegetables.  Place all vegetables (except spinach) and garlic into a large preheated saucepan on medium-high heat.  Season lightly with salt and pepper.  Add 1/2 of your liquid (stock and wine), stir, and lid the pan.  Let the vegetables cook until they stop steaming.  Add the rest of the liquid and repeat.  At this point, all of the liquid should be gone and the vegetables should be fork tender.  Add the fresh spinach and allow to wilt a bit (about a minute).

Serve with your choice of protein (they are great on broiled fish) or mix into pasta.

Pizza Night: Tyler Florence Style

If you've never seen Tyler's Ultimate on Food Network, I highly suggest that you check it out.  He is one of my favorite chefs and constantly inspires cooking creativity.

My family and I love making pizza together, so I decided to try out Tyler Florence's fresh pizza dough and then add my own toppings.  So...

Start with Tyler's pizza dough recipe.  You'll find it HERE.  This will take up to 1 hour 30 minutes to make and let rise, so start early.  From there...

What you will need:
1/8-1/4 C yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 small Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
1/4 C diced red bell peppers
1/4 C crumbled bleu or gorgonzola cheese
Olive oil
1 C leftover salsa chicken
1 C fresh spinach

What you will do:
When the pizza dough is ready, put a metal cookie sheet into the oven and preheat to 450 degrees.
Roll out your dough until is is about 1/4" thick.
Take the hot cookie sheet out of the oven and drizzle with olive oil (just enough to coat the surface - about 1tsp).
Roll your pizza dough onto the cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil.
Evenly distribute the onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, and cheese onto the dough and put the pizza into the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes or until the crust is browned.
While the pizza is baking, reheat your salsa chicken in the microwave.
When the pizza is done, take it out of the oven and top with the chicken and fresh spinach.

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken

This is the simplest recipe ever.  We use it all the time in my house.  Extremely versatile.  Make tacos, burritos, enchiladas, chicken melts.  Put it on rice, pizza, eggs.

What you will need:
2 frozen, boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 jar of salsa

What you will do:
Place the frozen chicken breasts in your slow cooker.  Cover with salsa.  Cook on low for 8 hours (or on high for 5-6 hours).
Done.
If you want, you can throw some black beans and/or corn in with the chicken and salsa as well.

Olive Oil and Greek Yogurt White Bread

I really enjoy trying out different breads.  This loaf was was, by far, the best I have made yet.  And it's really easy.

What you will need:

3C flour

1Tbsp baking soda

2Tbsp sugar

1tsp salt

1C warm water with 1Tbsp sugar

1 packet of yeast

1/3C extra virgin olive oil

3 heaping Tbsp of Greek yogurt

1 egg

What you will do:

Bloom the yeast in the water and sugar mixture for 5 minutes.

Sift together the dry ingredients.

Stir the olive oil, yogurt and egg into the dry ingredients.  The dough should be fairly wet.

Add the yeast and stir.  At this point, you can add extra flour if needed - If the dough is too wet and is not holding together.

Add a little bit of olive oil (about 2Tbsp) to a separate bowl and transfer your dough to this bowl.

Cover with a wet towel and put into a warm oven and allow the dough to rise for 90 minutes.  (To warm the oven, turn on to 300 for 2 minutes and then turn the oven off.)

Punch down the dough and kneed for 5 minutes on a floured surface.

Place the dough into a greased loaf pan and allow to rise again for 30 minutes in a warm oven.

Bake for 40 minutes at 350 until top crust is golden brown.

Apple Blueberry Oatmeal

What you will need:
4 servings oats
1 apple
2Tbsp brown sugar
1/4C apple juice and water mixture (50/50)
1/4C dehydrated blueberries (you can use fresh blueberries if you would like)

What you will do:
Bring water for oats to a boil (follow instructions on the canister for amount of water).
While you are waiting for the water to boil - Peel, core, and slice apples (approx. 1/8" thick).
Add oats to the water.
Put the apple slices into a medium frying pan.  Add the brown sugar and water / apple juice mixture.  Cook on medium-high until the apples soften.  You want them tender, but mot mushy.
Add the cooked apples and blueberries to the oatmeal and return to heat.
Stir continuously until thick.

Chocolate Orange Bread

What you will need:

DRY INGREDIENTS

2C of flour (plus some for rolling the dough)

1tsp salt

2Tbsp sugar

3Tbsp cinnamon sugar mixture

4tsp baking powder

1/4C-1/2C chocolate chunks (depending on how chocolaty you want your bread)

WET INGREDIENTS

2 egg yolks

1/3C Greek yogurt

1/2C-1/3C milk

1Tbsp orange extract

What you will do:

Sift together all of your dry ingredients (except the chocolate) into a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix together all of the wet ingredients.  Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and combine well to create a very wet dough.

Sprinkle a cutting board and rolling pin with flour.  Roll out your dough.  It should be about 1/4" thick and 8"-10" in diameter.  Chop up your chocolate chunks and sprinkle them evenly on the dough.

Roll up the dough and fold the edges under.  This is very important - Folding the edges will seal the sough and keep the chocolate from melting out of the edges of the loaf.

Place the rolled dough into a greased loaf pan.  Use a pastry brush and liberally coat the dough with egg wash (one egg, whisked).  Sprinkle sugar on top of the dough.

Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes until golden brown.  Mmmmmmmm.

Slow Cooker Chicken Enchiladas

This recipe is easy and delicious!

What you will need:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used frozen)
1 jar of salsa
1 can of chicken broth
4 corn tortillas (quartered)
1.5-2 Cups of shredded cheese (Cheddar and Monterey Jack work well)
Enchilada sauce (I use Trader Joe's brand)
A small loaf pan

What you will do:
Put the two frozen chicken breasts in your slow cooker and cover with the salsa and chicken broth.  Cook on low for 7-8 hours (or high for 5-6 hours).  When it's done cooking, shred the chicken with two forks.
In the small loaf pan, ladle a little of the liquid from the slow cooker into the bottom of the pan.
Add one whole tortilla (quartered) to the bottom of the pan and cover with chicken.  Sprinkle on about 1/4 of the cheese and then drizzle on about 1Tbsp of enchilada sauce.  Repeat this 3 more times.
Add a little more of the extra liquid to the top and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbling along the sides of the pan.
Add some extra enchilada sauce on top and serve hot.  Garnish with sour cream or Greek yogurt.

Linguine with an English Cheddar and Caramelized Onion Alfredo

Tonight's entry is a guest post from my wife, Mommy Gouda... BDG

What you will need:

1/2 pound linguine

1 1/2C half & half

1 - 1 1/2 Tbsp butter

2 cloves garlic, diced

3/4C grated Parmesan cheese

3/4C crumbled English Cheddar with Caramelized Onions*

1-2Tbsp fresh basil, chopped

2 Roma tomatoes, diced

2C fresh spinach

1tsp Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Fresh chopped parsley

*The English Cheddar with Caramelized Onions can be bought at Trader Joe's.

What you will do:

• Put on a pot of water, bring to a boil, salt your water and cook your linguine.  I recommend drizzling a bit of olive oil into the water while the pasta is cooking to keep it from sticking.
• Melt butter in a large saucepan.  Add garlic, both cheeses, basil, sprinkle of salt and pepper.  Cook over med-hi heat, stirring constantly until cheese is melted.
• In a smaller saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat and add tomatoes and spinach.  Cook until tomatoes are warmed through and spinach is slightly wilted.
• Add tomatoes and spinach to the alfredo sauce and stir.  Toss with the linguine and serve.  Sprinkle with fresh parsley for garnish (optional).

Additional options:

• Replace the Half & Half with 1C of reduced fat milk and 1/2C of Greek Yogurt for lower fat and extra protein.
• Add in some grilled chicken or shrimp.

*Mommy note: I blended the spinach into the alfredo sauce so our 2 year old would actually eat it.  And she did!  Photographic proof: