Ingredient: salt and pepper

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!

Avocado Toast

Why try? Avocado toast is easy to prepare and can be made sweet or savory. This breakfast contains fiber plus healthy fat from the avocado.

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 Avocado Toast
Prep Time 5 minutes
Servings
person
Ingredients
Prep Time 5 minutes
Servings
person
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Top toasted bread with mashed avocado, salt and pepper, and any additions (see Variations)
Variation: Avocado Egg Toast
  1. To base, add an egg (fried, poached, scrambled, or even a cloud egg) and dashes of garlic powder, chives and onion powder
Variation: Chocolate Berry Avocado Toast
  1. Mix in ½ tbsp. cocoa powder and 1 tsp maple syrup with mashed avocado. Top with strawberries or raspberries
Variation: Bruschetta Toast
  1. Top base with diced cherry tomatoes, red onion, fresh basil and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Cloud Eggs

Why try? Cloud eggs are a protein-packed breakfast that can add some fun to your average morning or some “wow” to your Sunday brunch.

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 Cloud Eggs
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper
  2. Separate eggs yolks from whites. Place the whites into one large bowl and the yolks in 4 separate bowls (one bowl for each yolk)
  3. Whisk the whites until fluffy (tip: using an immersion blender or hand mixer would speed up this part)
  4. Carefully fold in cheese or other additions (see Variations)
  5. Spoon 4 mounds of whipped egg whites onto pan. Make a deep well in center of each using the back of a spoon
  6. Bake whites for 3 minutes
  7. Add one yolk to each, season with salt and pepper or other additions (see Variations)
  8. Return to oven and bake 3-5 minutes, until yolks set to your liking.
Variation: Bacon Cheddar Chive
  1. Swap parmesan for ¼ cup cheddar cheese (step 4). Add 3 strips of bacon (crumbled) and cheese to whites (step 7). Top cooked egg with 2 tbsp. chopped chives.
Variation: Salsa Cilantro
  1. Swap parmesan for ¼ cup Monterey Jack cheese (step 4). Fold cheese into whites. Top cooked egg with ¼ cup of salsa and 2 tbsp. chopped cilantro.
Variation: Ham and Swiss
  1. Swap parmesan for ¼ cup Swiss cheese (step 4). Add ¼ lb. deli ham, chopped, and cheese to whites (step 7). Top cooked egg with 2 tbsp. fresh dill.

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!

Quinoa Summer Salad

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 Quinoa Summer Salad
Servings
Ingredients
Quinoa
Veggie Mix
Dressing
Servings
Ingredients
Quinoa
Veggie Mix
Dressing
Instructions
  1. Add the quinoa/rice mix, water and salt to a medium sauce pan. Heat to a boil, reduce to simmer, cover for about 20 minutes.
  2. While the quinoa is cooking, cut up all of the veggies and place in a large mixing bowl
  3. In a smaller bowl or dressing container, mix in all of the dressing ingredients.
  4. When it has finished cooking, add the quinoa to the large mixing bowl and top with the dressing and feta cheese. Toss everything together.
  5. Serve and enjoy! Store in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to a week.
Recipe Notes
  • Beans of Choice: You can’t go wrong here, so try your favorite bean. I like using chickpeas, lentils, kidney beans or black beans.
  • Quinoa: Don’t like quinoa? Swap in another grain like brown rice or couscous.
  • Vinegar: Don’t have rice vinegar or red wine vinegar on hand? Try apple cider vinegar, white vinegar or even balsamic vinegar.

Maple Hash

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 Maple Hash
Servings
Ingredients
Servings
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Brown the meat in butter or olive oil. Once browned, remove the meat from the pan.
  2. Stir in the sweet potato and onion, scraping up the meaty bits off the bottom of the pan. A splash of water, apple cider or apple juice on the bottom of the hot pan will help this process and add a nice flavor.
  3. Saute the sweet potato and onion until soft, about 10 minutes. (Speed trick - you can soften your sweet potatoes by throwing them into boiling water on the stove or in a microwave safe dish until fork tender).
  4. Once your sweet potatoes are fork tender, stir in the diced apple. Stir this around until the apples get soft, about four to five minutes.
  5. Once your veggies are fork tender, stir the sausage back in. Add the cinnamon, maple syrup and salt and pepper to taste. Cook together about three to five minutes or until everything looks happily married.
  6. Enjoy! It’s delicious on its own or with a fried or poached egg on top.

Smoky Maple Marinade

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 Smoky Maple Marinade
Servings
Ingredients
Servings
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Whisk all the ingredients together.
  2. Use the mix to coat your favorite protein. For chicken, pork or beef, marinate one to four hours. For tofu or seafood, marinate for up to one hour.

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.