Ingredient: garlic

Escarole and Pastina Soup

This delicious Escarole and Pastina soup includes many Italian flavors that remind me of my childhood. This soup is perfect for a wintery day. Add chicken or sausage to make the soup heartier.

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 Escarole and Pastina Soup
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Servings
people
Ingredients
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Servings
people
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Heat oil in a large pot. Add onion, carrot and garlic, salt and pepper. Cook on medium-low heat until the onion is tender, about 8 minutes.
  2. Turn the heat to medium-high. Add the escarole and cook, stirring for a few minutes until the escarole is wilted. Add the broth, beans, and tomatoes. Simmer over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer until the escarole is tender, about 20 minutes.
  3. Add the spinach and stir for a minute or two minutes until the spinach is wilted.
  4. Cook the pastina separately. Scoop pastina into the bowls. Ladle the soup on top of the pastina. Sprinkle with cheese. Serve the soup hot!
Recipe Notes

The recipe was adapted from the Los Angeles Times.

Winter Squash Bake with Feta

There are a few dishes in my cooking rotation that I can make in my sleep. This winter squash bake with Feta cheese is one of them – thanks to my sister-in-law who first made this dish for us a few years ago. It’s evolved to take in estranged vegetables, like that last head of broccoli or a handful of spinach. You can swap out any vegetable you like, make this vegan or vegetarian. It’s easy to make ahead, freeze, is great comfort food and travels well. Even the pickiest eaters in our family will eat this one. Enjoy!

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 Winter Squash Bake with Feta
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 425
  2. Heat your olive oil and brown your sausage. Once browned, remove the sausage.
  3. Add another swirl of olive oil to the pan drippings. Stir in garlic, onion, bell pepper and broccoli. Cook for two minutes.
  4. Stir in the squash and coat with the oil mixture in the pan. Add oregano, thyme, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper to taste.
  5. Stir in the spinach and squeeze some lemon juice on top of it. Stir for just a moment until it wilts.
  6. Combine the vegetables and sausage in a baking dish. Swirl in a little olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice and some more salt and pepper.
  7. Cover with foil. Bake for 25 minutes or until the squash is fork tender. Once it is, or slightly before, remove foil and add feta cheese.
  8. Bake for another 5 minutes or until the feta is bubbly and delicious. Serve with some crusty bread!

Homemade Tomato Sauce

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 Homemade Tomato Sauce
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 4-5 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 4-5 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Heat oil in 4-quart saucepan over medium heat until hot. Add onions and garlic. Cook until onions are tender.
  2. Add all other ingredients, mix well. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and let simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally (simmer time varies based on number of tomatoes. Could take as many as 4-5 hours to get correct consistency).
  3. Ladle mixture into clean jars and cover with tight-fitting lids. Sauce can be refrigerated for up to 1 week or frozen for 3 months to 1 year.
Recipe Notes

*If you have extra green or red peppers on hand, you may add 1-2 for added flavor
*You may double or triple the recipe depending on the number of ripe tomatoes in your garden

Honey Ginger Chicken & Garlic Zoodles

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 Honey Ginger Chicken & Garlic Zoodles
The wonderful thing about veggie noodles is they grill up nicely on a flat surface. The moisture inside the vegetable helps create that nice noodle-like texture and behavior.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Garlic Zoodles
Honey Ginger Sesame Chicken
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Garlic Zoodles
Honey Ginger Sesame Chicken
Instructions
  1. Take the zucchini and start working them through a hand-crank spiralizer (I like to use the patented Vegetti). Voila! You’ve created some zoodles!
  2. Place the newly designed zoodles in a mixing bowl with the chopped garlic, onion, and vegetable stock. Turn them over and let them soak while you work on the birds.
  3. One of the bad habits of dirty eating is portion control. Luckily, we can trick our minds into believing we have more on our plate. I would normally recommend a recipe with eight chicken breasts. But for our purposes, we’re going to use four.  Then we’re going to filet them in half. Tada, eight chicken breasts!
  4. Time to grill! Now most of you have traditional grills, which works fine for the chicken. Not so nice for the zoodles. I recommend a wok for the grill.  Me?  I’ve kind of gone all in on the Blackstone flat top griddle grill. Great for searing meats, poultry, and fish… even BETTER for grilling veggies. Take the sesame oil and spread on the flat surface. Slap those chicken breasts and dump the zoodles right on top. Traditional grillers can use a wok to cook the zoodles, grill the chicken old school style.
  5. Flip those chickens over and toss the zoodles a bit. While finishing, mix the ground ginger, garlic powder, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, honey, and rice wine vinegar in a bowl.  Once cooked, take the chicken off, cube it up and dump it in the sauce!
  6. Plate the zoodles fresh and hot. Spoon the chicken cubes of goodness onto the zoodles. Drizzle any remaining sauce over the plate, don’t forget those delicious sesame seeds, and chow down!

Chicken-Avocado Sandwich

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 Chicken-Avocado Sandwich
Servings
sandwich
Ingredients
Servings
sandwich
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Combine avocado, lime juice, black pepper and garlic. Spread evenly on one bread slice. Top with chicken, lettuce and tomato.

Chicken Sausage Pizza

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 Chicken Sausage Pizza
Servings
Ingredients
Servings
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Stretch pizza dough to fit a round, lightly oiled pizza pan. Heat 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and cook chopped onion a couple of minutes until lightly browned. Add garlic and continue cooking for another minute or two. Add hot chicken sausage and cook until browned and crumbled.
  2. Cover pizza dough with desired amount of sauce. Layer with the sausage mixture. Top with chopped red peppers and other vegetables if desired. Sprinkle with seasonings and red pepper flakes for added kick.
  3. Place sliced tomatoes on top of sausage/vegetable/seasoning mixture, covering the pie. Brush any visible crust with olive oil and spray tomatoes with cooking spray.
  4. Place in preheated oven for about 10 minutes, but keep an eye on it. When it starts to rise and the crust just starts to turn brown, remove from oven and top with shredded mozzarella/cheddar cheese and then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Brush crust with oil again and return to oven just until cheese melts.
  5. Remove from oven, slice with pizza cutter and serve immediately!

Stealthy Zucchini Meatballs

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 Stealthy Zucchini Meatballs
Servings
Ingredients
Servings
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Mix the first six ingredients together.
  2. Shred the zucchini into the mixture. Mix everything together.
  3. Mold the mixture into 1 1/2 –inch meatballs.
  4. Place meatballs in the crock-pot. Pour the jar of sauce over the meatballs. Cook on low for 8 hours.