Category Archives: Savory

Dinner / Lunch / Meals for Two / Pescatarian / Savory / Vegetarian

Cheesy Garlic Noodles

October 22, 2014

Cheesy Garlic Noodles

First of all, I had to google how to spell “cheesy.”  I wasn’t sure if it was “cheesy” or “cheesey,” and really, both don’t look right to me.  Apparently “cheesy” is the correct spelling, though, according to google, so who am I to question that.

Second, this isn’t health food, so let’s not pretend that it is.  I mean, the healthiest thing in this whole dish is the garlic, and there’s only one clove of it in the dish, so… that should give you an idea of where this falls on the “I feel good about eating this” scale.

That said, sometimes you just need a dish like this.  Sometimes you want to make mac and cheese from a box, but you decide that maybe making this is a tiny bit better, if only because you know what’s actually going into your body.  (Seriously, what is that cheese packet made out of?  It’s like neon orange.)

I call dishes like this “babysitter food,” because it’s the type of thing I’d whip up when I was babysitting back in the day (heyyy high school), after I’d convinced the kids that yes, they really did need to go to bed even though their parents weren’t home.  (Of course, I’d generally let them sneak in an extra 30 minutes of Veggie Tales beforehand…)

So next time you’re feeling like having something a little indulgent, or you simply have zero ingredients to make any semblance of a real meal — try this out.  You won’t be disappointed.  (Unless garlic sometimes gives you heartburn, like it does to me.  Ouch.)

Cheesy Garlic Noodles 1

Cheesy Garlic Noodles

serves 2

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 pound spaghetti or angel hair pasta
  • salt
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1-2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large clove of garlic, finely minced
  • parmesan or pecorino romano cheese

Steps:

  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Once boiling, add in a big handful of salt and cook noodles according to package instructions.
  2. While the noodles are cooking, combine butter, olive oil and garlic into a small pan over low heat (lowest heat possible!).  Cook until butter is melted and garlic is fragrant, 2-3 minutes.
  3. When pasta is done, drain it and transfer to a bowl.  Pour the butter, oil and garlic mixture over the top and toss to combine.  Add in cheese to taste (I like a couple handfuls) and toss to combine.

It literally doesn’t get any easier than that.

 

Dairy-Free / Dinner / Gluten-Free / Meals for Two / Pescatarian / Salads / Savory / Stay Healthy

Salmon Salad

September 3, 2014

Salmon SaladThis salad was made out of random desperation and tiredness last week when I had zero energy to spare for cooking.  KC suggested that we go to Whole Foods and make a salad from the salad bar for dinner (and pick up a bottle of wine.  What can I say?  I married a him for a reason.)  After perusing the salad bar buffet, I ended up getting an idea for this salad — using some ingredients from the salad bar and finishing it off with things I had at home.

This salad would be good with just about any assortment of veggies — so feel free to customize it with whatever you’ve got in your fridge.  I used some summer tomatoes which rounded things out nicely, so I’d recommend using tomatoes if you’ve got them laying around.

This is a great “second night” salad — meaning, if you’ve made salmon the night before and have leftovers, this is a great way to re-purpose the fish (which is what I was doing here).  It’s especially awesome if you made salmon with brown rice, as you can throw both the leftover rice and the salmon into the salad.

Salmon Salad 3

Salmon Salad

serves 2 as a meal

Salad:

  • leftover salmon
  • leftover brown rice (or any cooked and cooled grain — quinoa, cous cous, whatever) — I like to mix this with a little minced fresh mint, but that’s totally optional
  • lettuce (I used a mix of romaine and mixed baby greens)
  • tomatoes
  • red onion
  • beans (I mixed in garbanzos and edamame)

Dressing:

  • 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 – 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1/2 – 1 tsp agave
  • salt and pepper
  1. Mix together all salad ingredients in your salad bowl.  Whisk together ingredients for the dressing, then toss with the salad.

Salmon Salad 2

Breakfast / Dairy-Free / Gluten-Free / Savory / Uncategorized / Vegetarian

Breakfast Burritos! (And Tacos, too.)

August 26, 2014

Those spicy roasted veggies ended up lasting us through two full dinners (breakfast burritos one night, tacos the next) and a couple random lunches as well.

And man were they delicious.

I don’t think I really need to tell you how to assemble a taco or a breakfast burrito, but I’ll tell you what I made for ours (in case you’re curious).

First, along with the veggies, I made some pico de gallo.  With only three ingredients — chopped tomatoes + onion + cilantro — pretty much nothing could be easier.

pico de galloFor the breakfast burritos, I grilled some chicken sausages KC had picked up at TJ’s (I think they were the Jalapeno Chicken Sausages), heated up some refried beans, whipped up some scrambled eggs with cheese, and layered all that business together with the veggies, pico de gallo, some greek yogurt, and a healthy dose of hot sauce.

breakfast burrito spread

For the tacos we used all the same fixins (aside from the eggs and sausage), and added some grilled carne asada (pre-marinated from TJ’s).  We layered that business onto corn tortillas instead of flour.

I was too hungry on taco night and so didn’t snap any photos, sorry!

Breakfast BurritoThese tacos and burritos are super customizable, so mix and match things as you like.  The veggies are nice and hearty on their own, so feel free to leave out the meat altogether (or sub in crumbled bacon instead of sausage on the breakfast burritos…omg yum.)  The below is just what we had in our burritos/tacos, so don’t take this to be an exhaustive list by any means.

Breakfast Burritos

  • Spicy roasted veggies
  • Grilled jalapeno chicken sausage
  • Pico de gallo
  • Refried beans
  • Scrambled eggs with cheese
  • Greek yogurt
  • Hot sauce
  • Flour tortilla

Tacos

  • Spicy roasted veggies
  • Grilled carne asada
  • Pico de gallo
  • Refried beans
  • Greek yogurt
  • Hot sauce
  • Corn tortilla

Dairy-Free / Dinner / Gluten-Free / Savory / Stay Healthy / Vegan / Vegetarian

Double-Duty Spicy Roasted Veggies

August 25, 2014

I make an effort to make dinner during the week.  Tackling dinner while holding down a full-time job can be challenging (and tiring — let’s just be honest).  I’ll be the first to admit that I get stuck in the rut of making the same couple of salads over and over when I’m feeling particularly overwhelmed with life.

Our CSA box has helped a bit in pushing me outside of my normal cooking repertoire (because, like what the hell do you do with kohlrabi?)

This week’s box inspired me to whip up a bunch of spicy roasted veggies which I decided would be perfect for both breakfast burritos one night and tacos the next.

Nothing like cooking once for two meals, eh?

These vegetables are a great end-of-summer blend of things you probably have sitting in your fridge right now (and, frankly, are so easy and delicious, there’s really no reason not to make them.)

Double-Duty Roasted Veggies

Double-Duty Spicy Roasted Veggies

  • 2 medium squash, diced (I used round zucchini, but any summer squash works here)
  • 1 medium yellow onion, diced
  • 2 large bell peppers (any color you like — I used a mix of green and red)
  • 1 cup corn kernels (cut off the cob or frozen)
  • 2-3 tsp. cumin
  • 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 1/4 – 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  1. Preheat oven to 425°.
  2. Place all veggies onto a large baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and add all the spices (feel free to just eyeball the amounts — it doesn’t need to be exact, by any means).  Toss everything together until evenly coated, then spread out the veggies so they’re in a single layer on the pan.
  3. Bake 15-20 minutes, until desired done-ness is reached (I wanted a little bite left in mine, so I just did 15 minutes).

Double-Duty Mexican Style Roasted Veggies

Post on our breakfast burritos and taco feast coming up!

Appetizer / Dairy-Free / Happy Hour / Savory / Snack / Vegetarian

Homemade Soft Pretzels

July 8, 2014

How was your 4th of July?  Ours was fun.  We had a BBQ which ended up going long into the evening and involved a lot of debauchery and a record consumption of Fireball shots (Not by me.  Ew.)  If I had to gauge the amount of fun our party was by how sticky our dining room floor was the next day, I’d say it was suuuuper fun.

At the BBQ we served grilled sausages with sautéed peppers and onions, the world’s largest watermelon, and my go-to Caesar salad.  The night before I also whipped up two batches of homemade soft pretzels (because sausages + soft pretzels — so American, right?  Yah.)  The pretzels were such a hit that I figured I should share the recipe with y’all, so you too can be the talk of the town at your next party.

Soft pretzels aren’t particularly difficult to make, just kind of time consuming.  And if you cheat a little and use a bread maker to make the dough (like me), it’s even easier.

IMG_3126

Soft Pretzels

makes 16 pretzels

  • 1 1/4 cups warm water (80-90°F)
  • 1 tbsp. salt (plus additional for sprinkling)
  • 1 tbsp + 1 tsp brown sugar, firmly packed
  • 4 cups bread flour
  • 2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) active dry yeast
  • Alkaline solution: 5 cups water + 1/3 cup baking soda
  • Egg wash: 1 egg beaten with a splash of water or milk
  1. Using a bread maker: To make the dough, place all ingredients (omitting the alkaline solution and egg wash) into your bread maker in the order listed above and use the dough setting.
  2. Not using a bread maker: Combine water, sugar and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment and let sit for 5 minutes until the mixture begins to foam.  In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and salt.  With the mixer on low speed, slowly add in flour mixture until well combined and the dough comes together.  Increase the mixer speed to medium and knead the dough for 4-5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  Oil a clean bowl with vegetable or olive oil and place dough in it.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm place for 50-55 min, or until the dough has doubled in size.
  3. Once your dough is ready, cut the dough into 16 equal pieces (cut into fourths, then cut each fourth into fourths again).  Quickly roll each piece into a long rope and twist it into a pretzel shape.  *Try to handle the dough as little as possible — the longer you mess with it, the tougher your pretzels will be.
  4. Once you have 16 pretzels formed, place them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat, cover them with plastic wrap, and let them rest for 20-30 minutes.
  5. Preheat oven to 425°.
  6. Make your alkaline solution by combining 5 cups of water with 1/3 cup baking soda in a wide saucepan, then bring to a boil (I used my Le Creuset braiser for this).  Once boiling, boil each pretzel for 3 minutes, flipping halfway through (you can do this in batches rather than going one at a time).  Place onto a wire rack to drain.
  7. Once drained, return pretzels to a baking sheet lined with a silpat or parchment paper.  Brush each pretzel with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse salt (I recommend using pretzel salt or sea salt for this — I used Maldon flake salt).
  8. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.
  9. To revive pretzels the next day, brush with melted butter, sprinkle with a tad more salt, and reheat in the oven for 3-5 minutes.

IMG_3122IMG_3123IMG_3124IMG_3119Pair these with mustard and a cold beer and you’re in business.