Category Archives: easy dinner recipes

Roasted Garlic-How to Roast Garlic

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How to Roast Garlic

How to Roast Garlic

Can you image cooking without garlic? I can’t! I love it! Garlic lends so much flavor to a savory dish, it’s hard to imagine not having it to use. I love garlic in every state, raw, blanched, powdered, and roasted.  Each has it’s own unique flavor. Roasted garlic is so delicious, and there are so many uses for it. I add roasted garlic to a plain tomato sauce to instantly take it from bland to fantastic! I add roasted garlic to one of my favorite roasted eggplant dishes. I spread roasted garlic on a good piece of crusty bread and dip it into a balsamic, red pepper, and olive oil vinaigrette, and of course, I add roasted garlic to mashed potatoes, or my cauliflower potato mash! There are a plethora of uses for roasted garlic, (like using it for my Roasted Garlic and Lemon Chicken recipe), once you learn how to roast garlic, you will wonder why you’ve been cooking without it!

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Prep time: 2 minutes

Cook time:30-45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 large bulb of garlic

1 teaspoon of olive oil

sea salt and black pepper to taste (optional)

1 sheet of foil–must be big enough to fully enclose the garlic

Directions: Pre heat the oven to 400F. With a knife slice the top off of the garlic. Place the garlic inside of the foil, pour the oil over the top of the garlic, making sure to cover all exposed garlic. add sea salt and black pepper if using:

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Fold all sides of the foil, making sure that the garlic is fully enclosed. Place the garlic bulb in your oven:

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Cook  for 45 minutes, or until garlic is beautifully golden brown:

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Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes, then remove by squeezing, or by removing each individual clove of garlic with a pairing knife, and enjoy!

Flourless Peanut Butter and Chocolate Meringue Cookies

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Flourless Peanut Butter Meringue Cookies

Flourless Peanut Butter Meringue Cookies

If there was ever a food match that was made in heaven, it is peanut butter and chocolate! One of my favorite lazy treats is to dip a dark chocolate bar into peanut butter.  So the other day when I was craving a sweet, I thought what a great idea it would be to make a delicious peanut butter cookie that was both moist and light.  Sort of like my Starbucks Inspired Flourless Chocolate Cookie ,or, (cue the light bulb over my head), how about exactly like my Flourless Chocolate Cookie! But instead of adding melted chocolate to the meringue, I’d add melted/warmed peanut butter—and so this cookie was born! It’s light, moist, gooey, and crisp in all of the right places! A miracle really, considering the fact that we all know that I am not the most proficient baker. I was fully expecting that this would turn out to be another disastrous baking episode for me. I’m so glad that I was wrong, and that this turned out to be all that I wanted and more!

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Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10-12 minutes

Total time: 20 minutes

Makes 8 cookies

Ingredients:

2 egg whites
6 Tablespoons of creamy peanut butter warmed
1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar
3/4  cup of powdered sugar (I used maple sugar,see how to powder any type of sugar here)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup of chocolate chips (optional)

1/8 teaspoon of sea salt

Directions:  Pre-heat the oven to 375F. Over low heat warm the peanut butter, until it begins to thin a bit, and takes on a glossy shine—about 5 minutes, set aside.

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Add the two egg whites to a bowl and beat on low until bubbles form, add the cream of tartar and beat on high, add in the sugar one tablespoon at a time and beat until peaks are stiff and fluffy—you can turn the bowl upside down with out the mixture running.

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Pour in the melted peanut butter and fold it into the egg white fluff–be gentle– fold until the white streaks disappear.

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Fold in the chocolate chips,

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then spoon the cookie mixture onto a parchment/silpat lined cookie sheet.

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Let them cool for 10 minutes, then move them to a cookie rack to continue cooling 5-7 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

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Smokey Paprika and Lime Chicken Kabobos

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Smokey Paprika and Lime Chicken Kabobs

Smokey Paprika and Lime Chicken Kabobs

I think that there is definitely an art to marinades. I’m still learning that particular art. I recently purchased the highly acclaimed Modernist Cuisine book set. It’s massive and filled with information–extremely useful information. I’m only on the second book about 1000 pages into this probably 7000 page set, and the information that I’ve learned has completely changed the way that I view cooking.  This set is amazing! If you’re interested in the how’s and why’s of cooking, from a scientific perspective—then you want this set. If you can save the $550 plus dollars it costs to buy this book set then I highly recommend it.  Or just stay tuned to my blog, lot’s of changes are coming.  Not to mention appliances. One is the immersion circulator that I’ve been wanting for years.  Another is a vacuum chamber sealer.  I returned my Food saver in preparation for this machine.  This machine makes marination super easy, and effective.  It sucks out all of the air in the chamber and compresses everything in it. Thus making pickles in a matter of minutes, and  infusing steak or chicken and fish with marinades in minutes. Long gone will be my days of marinating anything over night.  I’m really excited for my vacuum chamber to arrive. Not having my Food Saver or a vacuum machine has been torture, but life goes on.  This particular marinade is a mixture of dry and wet ingredients.  It’s really delicious, and so flavorful, that it doesn’t need more than a few minutes to flavor the chicken–gotta love a quick marinade with no fancy equipment.

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Ingredients

1 teaspoon of onion powder

1 teaspoon of garlic powder

1 teaspoon of smoked paprika

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 tablespoon of lime juice

1 lb of skinless boneless chicken thighs, cubed into one inch pieces

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

 

Directions: Add the onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, olive oil and lime juice to a small bowl and mix well.

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Season the chicken generously with sea salt and black pepper, add it to a large bowl.  Add the marinade paste to the chicken then toss well to cover the chicken with the marinade.

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Place chicken on skewers and grill cooking until chicken is cooked through about 10-12 minutes.  Serve and enjoy!

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Cucumber Tomato and Feta Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

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Cucumber Tomato and Feta Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Salads are my go to lazy girl side.  They require minimum effort and absolutely no cooking.  It doesn’t get much better than that in my book, and salads are good for you.  Salads also go with practically everything.  My husband is a big fan of salads in general, he’s one of those people who has to have a meal anchored by vegetables or he doesn’t feel like he has gotten a complete meal.  I’m like that too.  When we traveled to Puerto Rico several years ago, we were both impressed with the food: steak, chicken, rice and beans, peppers, plantains. However, the food was always missing that anchor of vegetables, which we are both accustom to.  We always asked if there was a vegetable dish that we could order to round out our meal. We never found a vegetable dish, but they always had a basic salad.

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Prep time: 7-10 minutes

Cook time: none

Total time: 10 minutes

 

Ingredients:

1 medium cucumber sliced thinly or cubed

1/2 cup of organic cherry tomatoes sliced in half

1/4 cup of crumbled feta cheese

Ingredients Balsamic vinaigrette:

Sea salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

4 tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar

1 small clove of garlic chopped finely

3 tablespoons of olive oil

 

Directions: Add the cucumber and tomatoes to a medium sized bowl, top with feta and set aside. In a small bowl whisk the ingredient for the vinaigrette, spoon over the cucumber salad and enjoy!

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