Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts

Dinner Last Night: Chipotle Salmon Tacos

How do I always forget about fish tacos until it's halfway through summer!  One of the season's delights when all the accompanying produce is flourishing, bountiful, and in season. These tacos were delish! I normally gravitate to white fish when we made fish tacos, but a friend recommended this recipe, and it was delightful. The crunch of the cabbage, the tang of the mango-avocado-cilantro slaw, and the spicy kick of the chipotle aioli packed a punch. Definitely making again!

Dinner Last Night: Slow Cooker Korean Tacos

Crockpot for the win - yet again! These Korean pork tacos were a hit with my family, and pretty darn easy. Just chopped up matchstick carrots, Persian cucumbers, cilantro, and a little cabbage slaw, and pack in a tortilla. The perfect amount of sweet, spice, and crunch. 

Dinner Last Night: Lamb and Mint Flatbread

After bookmarking this recipe and deciding it was a little too complex for a weeknight meal, I found a simplified version a la Rachael Ray which was just as tasty!  The yogurt + sauce + cuminy lamb + flatbread made for a delicious combination, which my kids devoured as well. Dinner for the win! Now this tabbouleh recipe I paired with it, that's another story, not a hit at all...Way too lemony. 

Anyone have a great, simple tabbouleh recipe?

image/rachaelray

Dinner Last Night: Tofu Tikka Masala

This is one of my new favorite crockpot dinners - it's so easy and delicious. When making for my family, I omit the cayenne pepper, and my husband and I just add it in to our preferences. We serve over coconut rice and alongside Gwyneth's Indian creamed chicken from her It's All Easy cookbook.  An easy Indian dinner for the win!


Weeknight Baking: Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Pie

It's the height or rhubarb season and I'm determined not to let the short season of my favorite fruit (that's actually a vegetable) pass me by! Last week, I made Smitten Kitchen's almond rhubarb picnic bars, this week was Joy the Baker's strawberry rhubarb crumble pie atop my favorite butter crust, also from Joy the Baker's cookbook, Homemade Decadence. Whoever thought to marry strawberry + rhubarb is a bonafide genius in my mind's eye. Utterly delicious! With our cool temperature these past few days, it's been the perfect weather for pie baking, where the oven makes the kitchen feel cozy instead of stifling. Bon appetite!


Dinner Last Night: Indian Butter Chicken

All this time I've been making chicken tikka masala - but I think Indian butter chicken is officially my new fave. This recipe was delish, and my kids gobbled it up too. Paired with frozen/reheate naan from Whole Foods, and Indian creamed chicken (with coconut milk) from Gwyneth's It's All Easy and we had ourselves a dinner! Makes great leftovers too - cha-ching!

image/dinneralovestory

Weeknight Baking: Almond Rhubarb Picnic Bars

Finally got around to making these almond rhubarb picnic bars a la Smitten Kitchen, and oh my, were they spectacular!  My intention of trying the recipe on a random weeknight was to practice for making these for a baby shower I'm co-hosting in a few weeks.  Always a fan of rhubarb, I always lament when the short rhubarb season ends and I haven't taken advantage of the bountiful tartness this unsuspecting red vegetable has to offer. Note to self: next time, better make two batches...since I polished off half this batch by myself in a flash!


Dinner Last Night: Beef Biryani and Samosas with Apple Chutney

I'm trying to widen my kids and my family's culinary palette by trying new recipes at home that are unfamiliar to me and frankly a bit outside my comfort zone. I've found success in this by following recipes of bloggers and instagrammers whose recipes are consistently tasty, and adapting them to fit our dinner time routine.  Smitten Kitchen, Pinch of Yum, and Dinner, A Love Story are favorites when it comes to recipe consistency.

Last night, we tried Beef Biryani a la Pinch of Yum along with Indian Samosas and Apple Chutney (recipe c/o Tiffani Thiessen's cookbook, Pull Up A Chair).  I save these kinds of labor intensive, multi-course meals for weekends when I have my husband home to help out with the kids, so I can focus on prepping throughout the day.  I like to add in a kitchen hack here and there when it saves time or additional steps.  For example, I don't make my own samosa dough, I used frozen and defrosted puff pastry dough.  This goes over better with my kids as they like the fluffiness of puff pastry and saves me time and energy.  Plus, this apple chutney from Tiffani Thiessen's cookbook is sooo delicious!  It might be my favorite part of this entire meal.

image/pinchofyum

Weeknight Baking: Chocolate Coconut Almond Scones

Joy the Baker saves the day yet again.  After day 3 of straight rain, we procured an especially large haul from the library, my kids cozied up with their new books and I scoured our pantry for sweet ingredients to make scones.  Chocolate - check!  Coconut - check!  Almonds - check!  They were sumptuous, light, fluffy, and delicious.  The perfect recipe, also worth noting the entire batch was devoured within 24 hours.  Maybe make a double batch next time...

Dinner Last Night: Chicken Apple Wraps

This is a quick, easy, throw together dinner that makes for excellent leftovers!  I omitted the mint (since I didn't have any), raisins (because yuck!) and curry powder (mostly because I simply forgot) and added sliced almonds and I think it was even better than the original recipe.  I also used fresh mango instead of mango salsa which gave it a refreshing kick, highly recommend doing that as well.  Al in all, it was a crowd pleaser, even if my children deconstructed the entire salad and ate each component individually.  Oh well!

 image/foodnetwork

Weeknight Baking: Banana Bread

We are big fans of snack bread in our home.  Pumpkin bread. Banana bread.  Cinnamon toast.  Basically all the gluten.  My usually go-to is this scrumptious double chocolate banana bread a la Smitten Kitchen, but I figured my kids should have some recognition of banana bread that isn't a deep chocolate brown from the added cocoa powder.  I found this recipe via a quick google search and it yielded tasty results.  I used 1/2 cup of coconut sugar and 1/2 cup of white sugar because mentally I convince myself I'm being "healthy" by doing this.  Whatever works, right?  Well it was delicious, and we've already torn half of the loaf in a few short hours.  Perhaps we'll save a sliver for my dear husband when he comes home.  Or not...

Cookbook Crush: Pull Up a Chair

I really don't need to pine over another cookbook.  But this one, Pull Up A Chair...it's just too delightful to resist.  Perhaps it was her lovable Kelly Capowski alter ego from the Saved by the Bell glory days, but Tiffani Thiessen seems like a much more relatable, dare I saw "normal" celebrity turned cookbook author.   She just doesn't seem to take herself too seriously in the vein that Gwyneth many others tend to do.  

Her recipes are reasonable, inventive but not too complicated, and at first glance, I felt like I'd make more than I wouldn't.   the sound of most.  A few that popped out at me; nectarine caprese salad, pickle and potato salad, and samosa hand pies with apple chutney (which I did make, and it was delicious).

Anyway, it's worth a perusal at the least. Bon appetit!

Dinner Last Night: Black Bean Sweet Potato Enchiladas

Made this for dinner last night after viewing it on Liz's instagram - a delicious meat-free entree with minimal prep.  A great weeknight meal.  Too bad it wasn't a huge hit with my kids - one of my kiddos loves sweet potatoes so I thought this recipe would be a slam dunk but...no dice.  Maybe next time?  You snooze you lose, more leftovers for mom, I guess.

image/cookieandkate

Dinner Last Night: Slow Cooker Beef Mushroom Stroganoff


This cookbook is a weeknight savior. Everything I've tried thus far has been fairly quick, simple in ingredients and steps, and delicious!  One of our go-to weeknight meals is her slow cooker hamburger mushroom stroganoff. While only one of my kids eats mushrooms without a fight, the prep is fairly quick and the final product is flavorful, hearty, and makes for excellent leftovers.  To make it a tad healthier I sub in almond flour for white flour and plain or unsweeneted non-dairy yogurt for sour cream.  Serve over noodles or polenta with a green salad or in our case, roasted broccoli.  Voila!  Dinner is served.

image/fairyburger

Dinner Last Night: Peanut Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Another new dinner victory - peanut chicken lettuce wraps!  I halved the chili garlic spice on my kids' portion as it was a little too much heat for their palates, but for us adults - it was perfect!  The spice of the chicken paired nicely with the soy-peanut sauce.  We served with tamari roasted broccoli and coconut rice.  Yum yum!

Dinner Last Night: Crockpot Tuscan White Bean & Lemon Soup

This soup is beyond easy, dump everything in the crockpot and hours later, voila!  My favorite kind of dinner - set it and forget it!  It was flavorful, filling, and healthy.  A new favorite to kick off 2019.


Weeknight Baking: Cranberry Crumble Pie

This may not be the most aesthetically pleasing, beautiful pie, but it suuuuure was delicious!  After it almost caused two kitchen fires, I'm thankful it was tasty, as I certainly hoped it would be worth the effort.  

I received Sister Pie, the cookbook as a gift this season. This cookbook shares the same name as the flagship Detroit bakery, which is changing the game and part of the reason for the recent economic flourish in Detroit.  They consider themselves a "triple bottom line business," working to support their employees, environment, and the economy.  Run by two sisters, featuring an all-female staff, it's been on my list of places to visit upon our next trip to see family back in Michigan.   Their cookbook is absolutely gorgeous, heartfelt vignettes and beautiful matte pages of how-tos and mouthwatering recipes.  I mean...Squash Tahini Cardamom, Apricot Raspberry Rose, Sour Cherry Bourbon...one will be baking pies for days after reading this one!  This Christmas, I opted for the Cranberry Crumble Pie - I'm always a sucker for cranberries, as they usually get pegged as being purely a Thanksgiving food, when really their flavor has so much potential.  

The kitchen fires were mostly my fault, turns out when you're baking a butter-rich crust, you ought to have a baking sheet underneath the pie dish.  A lesson I learned when blind baking the crust prior to adding the filling and crumble.  A memo which somehow did not get relayed to my mom when we baked the actual pie at her house.  Hence, almost two kitchen fires.

Thank goodness it was delicious and worth all the hassle, and oven cleanings that ensued.

Dinner Last Night: Ina Garten's Pasta Fagioli

I've been searching for a delicious pasta fagioli recipe for a while now that's fairly easy, and I think Ina Garten's recipe is just the ticket - partly because she uses Goya's 16 Bean Soup mix which was conveniently available on amazon.

Now truth be told, I didn't follow the recipe to a T.  I usually forgot to preview recipes, and this one suggests soaking the beans overnight to soften.  Whoops.  When you read this at 1:30 pm and dinner's at 6:00, you gotta improvise.  I ended up just cooking the soup for longer on the stove and skipped the step of pureeing 1/3 of the beans, but ultimately, it all worked out, the beans were tender enough for consumption and a dinner crisis was averted. Phew! I also bought pre-diced pancetta to simplify, and basically it was a combine and wait kind of dinner...my favorite!  My kids eat it, though they needed some coaxing.  What is it about soup that scares my children, I tell ya!  Anyway, we licked the bowls clean, and had a few days of leftovers, always a plus.

Dinner Last Night: Pork Ragu

I've been slacking on dinner last night posts lately...sorry about that.  I swear, after the holidays I'll catch up and post all the new recipes I've tried from my steady stream of cookbooks checked out from the library.  After much hype on several blogs, we tried Dinner A Love Story's pork ragu last night.  And it was superb!  It slow cooked all afternoon while my family and I had a Polar Express excursion.  We came home to a house punctuated with a delectable savory aroma, dinner fully cooked, and within minutes, bellies full.  Not sure if it was the hot sauce or the fennel seed, but the flavors were especially on point.  Definitely worth a bookmark for a rainy day.

image/dinneralovestory

Dinner Last Night: Korean BBQ Burrito

Do you read Pinch of Yum?  If not, do yourself a favor right now, and take a moment to bookmark Lindsay's food blog.  It's packed with recipe success stories; many of them crockpot, easy to execute, and delicious to devour.  These Korean BBQ Burritos were no exception.  We ate them twice last week, and I'm not one for repeating meals too often.  If you need further convincing, the meat slow roasts all day to gustatory perfection, and once you pack your tortilla full of rice, cilantro, kimchi, green onions, and Sriracha mayo - wowza that's one heck of a burrito!
Try them.  You won't be disappointed.  

image/pinchofyum