Category Archives: recipe

protein, recipe, vegetables

Cabbage with Chicken Sausage and Apples

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Are you ready for a hearty autumn meal? This will hit the spot and it’s really easy to make. Cabbage, apples, cider vinegar, and chicken sausage complement each other beautifully in this dish. The lightly sautéed shredded cabbage is reminiscent of noodles- gotta love that!

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Ingredients:
1 fully cooked chicken sausage link (I used apple sausage)
1 small apple
1/2 medium onion
2-3 cups shredded cabbage
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs apple cider vinegar
Up to 1/4 cup Water, white wine, or chicken broth
Salt, pepper, and sriracha hot sauce to taste

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Chop apple, onion, and chicken sausage. Add to the oil.
2. Sauté the apple, sausage, and onion for about 5 minutes, or until tender. Add the cabbage and apple cider vinegar.
3. Stir the cabbage around in the pot until it begins to cook down. Cover the saucepan and reduce heat.
4. Stir the cabbage every few minutes to make sure it doesn’t burn. Add water, white wine, or chicken broth as needed.
5. After about 10-15 minutes, the cabbage should be tender. Season to taste and serve!

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Quick and easy meals are the way to go now that it gets dark so early. I just want to curl up near the fireplace by the time I get home from work, so dishes like this are wonderful. Enjoy!

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recipe, snacks, treats

Persimmon Sorbet

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Have you ever tried persimmons? They look like tomatoes, but have a honey-like sweetness. This fruit is in season in the fall and tastes great in breads, pies, puddings, and in the raw. I decided to use my persimmons in a fresh sorbet with black tea. It’s very easy to make and tastes refreshing!

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Ingredients:
5 or 6 large persimmons
1 cup strong black tea
1/4 cup sugar (optional)

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1. Peel the persimmons by placing them in boiling water for 30 seconds, then running under cold water to peel.
2. Place the peeled persimmons, tea, and sugar in a high powered blender. Blend until smooth.
3. Pour the purée into a Pyrex dish and freeze for at least 2 hours.
4. Scoop the frozen purée back into the blender and re-blend until smooth. Serve with pomegranate seed sprinkles!

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protein, recipe, vegetables

Yellow Squash Noodles with Pesto and Turkey

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Have a healthy, easy meal on the table in minutes with this simple recipe! Spaghetti squash, zucchini, and yellow squash all taste wonderful with pesto sauce. Add a little ground turkey for protein and you’re ready to dig in!

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ingredients:
4 oz ground turkey
2 small summer squash
1/4 c pesto (I like the one at Trader Joe’s)
1 tbs shredded parmesan

1. Spiralize the summer squash, or use a vegetable peeler to make noodles out of it.
2. Brown the ground turkey in a skillet.
3. Add the summer squash and pesto to the skillet and mix until heated through. Serve with shredded parmesan.

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I love this easy, lazy meal! If you cook a pound or more of ground turkey at once, you can keep it in the fridge for several days to make this meal even faster to put together.

recipe, snacks

Spiced Pumpkin Seeds

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How was your Halloween?

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I hope you dressed up and carved a pumpkin to celebrate! Here’s a tasty recipe to make using all those leftover pumpkin seeds.

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Ingredients:
2 cups raw pumpkin seeds (or pepitas)
1 egg white, beaten
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbs chili powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Spread on baking sheet covered with aluminum foil and bake for 15 mins, stirring occasionally.

Enjoy with sparkling wine or beer!

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recipe, treats

Biscuit Bread Pudding

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I was so excited to make lemon ricotta muffins with blackberries last night! I found a highly rated recipe online and decided to follow it exactly, quieting my urge to make healthy swaps. I let the butter sit out at room temperature to soften, had fresh blackberries from my bountiful basket, and ricotta from Trader Joe’s. The plan was to celebrate Colby getting sworn in as an attorney with these muffins. I’m so proud of him!

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To my dismay, the five-star recipe I followed was less than stellar. The “muffins” turned out to be biscuits, and I don’t like biscuits! Colby was sweet and still ate a couple of them with about 3 glasses of milk to get the dryness out of his mouth. He even said he’d continue to eat them if I would put them in his lunch for work, but I can’t put him through that. I wound up eating the blackberries off the top of all the biscuits and going to bed irritated. That’s the last time I trust a recipe as is! I’m going with my gut from now on.

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This morning I woke up with a great idea. Instead of freezing or tossing out the leftovers, why not use them to make bread pudding? Leftover biscuits are perfect for bread pudding! The moisture from the milk and eggs solves the dryness problem I have with grainy biscuits.
Ingredients:
6-8 leftover biscuits (any kind)
1/3 cup egg whites
1 cup milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tbs vanilla extract
1/2 cup of sugar or several packets of stevia (if not using sweet biscuits)

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Crumble biscuits into a large Pyrex dish (9×13″).

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2. In a medium bowl, whisk together all remaining ingredients. Pour the mixture over the crumbled biscuits and allow to soak for 10-20 minutes.
3. Press your fingers into the crumbles to make sure they are all moist. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until the top of the pudding is golden.
4. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream!

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So tasty!! If you want to make the same lemon ricotta biscuits I used, follow the recipe here. Try one, and then make this :)

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breakfast, recipe

Apple Cider Buckwheat Pancakes

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I decided to use the apples in my bountiful basket to make apple cider in the slow cooker. It made my house smell heavenly! I then used the apple cider to make delicious, gluten free pancakes. This post took me forever to write because I knew I’d be including the recipe for the apple cider AND the pancakes. That seemed like a lot of work to me, but I’m excited to share the result with you!

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To make the cider, simply chop up about 8 apples and place them in a slow cooker. Fill with water and add a cinnamon stick, a whole nutmeg, and tablespoon of whole cloves.

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Keep the slow cooker on high for 3 hours, or until the apples are very soft and your kitchen smells amazing. Strain and sweeten the cider with stevia, honey, or maple syrup.

The apple cider pancakes were adapted from a recipe by Iowa Girl Eats. To make the pancakes, start by grinding a box of dry buckwheat in the blender until fine:

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Buckwheat is rich in protein and fiber. It’s gluten free, too! Buckwheat flour imparts a hearty, nutty taste to these pancakes.

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Ingredients (for the batter):
1 cup flour (buckwheat, or half buckwheat and half all purpose for fluffier pancakes)
1 tbs sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
2 tbs butter, melted
2 tbs apple butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup apple cider

For the maple cider syrup:
1 apple, peeled and chopped
1 tbs butter
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup apple cider
2 tbs maple syrup

Instructions:
1. Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Whisk in the wet ingredients for the batter and combine until there are no lumps.
2. Spray a pan or griddle with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Cook 1/4 cup of batter at a time. Flip with a spatula when bubbles start to form and cook until golden brown on both sides.
3. To make the syrup, combine butter, apples, cinnamon, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat. After 5 minutes, add the apple cider and maple syrup. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes until thickened.

Serve the pancakes topped with syrup!

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protein, recipe, vegetables

Frisée Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing and Poached Egg

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My expert gourmet sister said this is called a lyonnaise salad. She also pointed out that the lettuce I used wasn’t actually frisée, but whatever I used turned out pretty tasty!

I got (what I thought was) frisée lettuce in my bountiful basket yesterday and had no idea how to use it. After googling recipe ideas, I learned that frisée is best with warm, savory dressings. The recipe I ended up using comes from epicurious.com. You can read it here.

I followed every step exactly- I tore the lettuce into bite sized pieces.

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I cooked some delicious uncured Black Forest bacon cut into 1/4″ pieces.

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I finished the hot dressing with shallots and red wine vinegar.

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The part I was most excited about was successfully poaching an egg to top the salad with! The instructions in the recipe are very helpful.

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I don’t usually love salads, but this beast is SO GOOD! I will definitely be making this bacon salad again and again. It’s gluten and grain free and very simple to put together once you get the hang of poaching eggs. It would be delicious without the egg, too.

recipe, vegetables

Bountiful Baskets

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I picked up my basket of fresh produce from the Bountiful Baskets food co-op this morning! Check out the goods:

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Vegetables:
Green leaf lettuce
Frisée lettuce
Yellow squash
Cucumbers
Red onions
Beets

Fruits:
Bananas
Green apples
Red pears
Pomegranates
Persimmons
Kiwi fruit

Getting a bountiful basket is like Christmas morning- you wake up really early and get a big box of surprises! I love that you don’t know what you’re getting until you show up. It’s a fun way to challenge yourself to develop new recipes and try new foods using local, seasonal produce. A few years ago, I tried curly kale for the first time because it appeared in my basket!

If you’re interested in getting an inexpensive basket of produce, check out bountifulbaskets.org to see if your area is served!

To purchase a basket, log onto the website on a Monday or Tuesday. The basket will cost you $15 plus a local processing fee ($2.50 in Las Vegas). You’ll choose a pickup location nearby, usually at a park or school. Pickup is always on Saturday mornings. I hope you’ll check it out!

My plans for this morning’s produce include:
Pear apple cider (with bourbon!)
Persimmon sorbet
Cucumber, red onion, and bean salad
Russian borscht (beet soup)

I’ll have to come up with some more ideas for everything else. Maybe a salad and some pomegranate dressing? Hmmm…

protein, recipe, vegetables

Creamy Chicken Pasta

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I had to make this recipe a second time to share with you. I didn’t take any pictures or write anything down the first time around because I had no idea it would be this good! This pasta sauce is perfect over zucchini noodles or short pasta.

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Ingredients:
1/2 onion, sliced
2 cups sliced cremini mushrooms
1 tbs olive oil
1/2 tbs minced garlic
1 tbs butter
2 tbs flour
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup white wine
2 tbs cream cheese
1 cup shredded chicken (rotisserie)
Several slices diced salami (optional)
2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Freshly shredded parmesan
(2 zucchini, spiralized or 2 cups cooked pasta)

Directions:
1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet and add sliced onions. Sauté for a couple of minutes before adding mushrooms and garlic.

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2. When the vegetables begin to soften, push them to the side of the frying pan. Melt butter in the pan and add the flour. Mix together to form the roux.

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3. Add chicken broth and white wine. Stir all the vegetables into the sauce and simmer to thicken.

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4. Add cream cheese, chicken, salami, seasonings, and parmesan cheese. Stir to combine and melt.

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5. Serve the sauce over spiralized zucchini or freshly cooked pasta.

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I think you’ll love this dish! The flavors work together elegantly to create a creamy pasta sauce that you’ll be glad you stayed home for! It beats most restaurant pasta sauces I’ve tried. Let me know what you think of it.