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.