Yes, Virginia, you can put roasted sweet potatoes into a salad!

Since when do vegetables, specifically cooked vegetables, have to be relegated to side dish status?  Let’s not be casting our vegetables into some imagined pigeon hole.  How unfair!  Let them out to play and explore with the other foods.  Okay, I know it sounds like I’ve totally flipped my lid but hear me out on this one.  When you roast vegetables, their flavor gets a bit sweeter and their texture gets a bit softer but still has a chewability (yep, I’m making up words now too), or tooth to it.  These characteristics are a bit like a piece of cooked meat.

When I first suggested to Craig that I was putting roasted sweet potatoes into his salad he told me I was crazy (he probably should have run for the hills then, but now he’s kind of stuck).  I told him to just try it and if he didn’t like I would never do it again (little white lie there – I knew full well I’d be doing it again). I also heard “sweet potatoes are for mashing and eating at Thanksgiving.”  The rhetoric continued throughout the cooking process.  When he finally settled down and ate his salad, he really liked the sweet potatoes in the salad.  He especially liked the contrasting soft texture that they brought to the crunchy vegetables on his plate.  We had a winner.

Relationship Advice

Ginger Rogers once said “Two people who love each other, they don’t look at each other, they look in the same direction.”  If you follow relationship guru Paula Abdul and her relationship advice that “Opposites Attract,” you may have found yourself in some pretty odd situations.  Does it always end with a fight about should we stay in or go out on a Friday night?  No, it doesn’t.  While you may be Laura Ingalls compared to his James Dean (or maybe you’re Dita Von Tease and he’s George Bailey) this kind of opposite attraction doesn’t spell doom.  But remember this: YOU ARE NOT GOING TO EVER…I MEAN EVER…CHANGE THAT PERSON!  Just had to throw that in there.  The main thing that keeps successful couples together, through thick and thin, is that they both have the same future in mind.

Serves 2 – 4 (depends if using for side salad or main course)

Ingredients

For Salad

• 8 Ounces Mixed Salad Greens (baby arugula, mache, baby bibb, baby spinach, frisee, etc.)
• Handful of Parsely (chopped)
• 8 Mint Leaves (chopped fine)
• 6 Tablespoons Goat Cheese
• 1/2 Cup Pistachio Nuts (chopped)
• 1/4 Red Onion (sliced very thin)
• 1/2 Cup Dried Tart Cherries
• 1 Medium Cucumber (diced)
• 6 Baby Beets (roasted and diced)*
• 2 Medium Sweet Potatoes (roasted and diced)*
• Olive Oil (for drizzling)
• Kosher Salt

For Dressing

• 1/4 Cup Blood Orange Juice (can substitute regular orange juice)
• 2 Tablespoons White Wine Vinegar
• 1 Clove Garlic (mashed with 2-3 pinches of salt)
• 1 Small Shallot (sliced thin)
• 1 Teaspoon Herbs de Provence
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper (to taste)
• 1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions

For Roasted Beets and Sweet Potatoes

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Farenheit.

Place baby beets in foil (tops removed), drizzle with olive oil and tightly close foil around beets.

Spread diced sweet potatoes on baking sheet – drizzle with olive oil (using your hands mix sweet potatoes and olive oil to ensure all sides of sweet potatoes are coated in oil) and sprinkle with kosher salt.

Once oven is heated, place foil packet of beets on one rack and baking sheet of sweet potatoes on the top rack.  Roast for 60 minutes.  Half way through the roasting time, stir the potatoes.

Remove both beets and potatoes from oven to cool.

Once the beets are cool open the foil packet.  Peel the beets, the skins will slip right off just using your fingers.  Cut off any rough spots and dice.

For Salad Dressing

In a small bowl add first 6 ingredients and stir to combine.  Be careful when adding the blood orange juice…this stuff stains.

Drizzle in olive oil while constantly stirring so that everything thoroughly mixed.

Set aside.

For Pistachio Crusted Goat Cheese

Place chopped pistachios on a small plate.

Roll one half of each tablespoon of goat cheese into a ball.  You can make these whatever size you like.

Roll each goat cheese ball into the chopped pistachios and set aside.

For Salad

In a large bowl add salad greens, parsely, mint, red onion, dried tart cherries, cucumber and roasted sweet potatoes.

If the dressing has started to separate, re-stir.

Drizzle the dressing onto the salad greens.  You can use as much or as little as you like (you can always serve the leftover dressing with the salad).  If you use too much dressing, your greens will get saturated and wilt.

Using tongs or 2 forks, lightly toss the dressing and greens together.

Serve greens on plates.  Add roasted beets (these aren’t added earlier because they will turn everything purple when you are tossing the salad greens).

Top with pistachio crusted goat cheese and serve.

Technorati Tags: Blood Oranges, Cheese, Easy Recipe, gluten free recipe, Goat Cheese, Healthy Cooking, Healthy Eating, Healthy Recipes, Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Salad Recipes, Sweet Potatoes, Vegetarian Recipes

This is sheer madness, I know.  But what was I supposed to do?  While I was trying to clean out the refrigerator (I have to do this once a year whether I want to or not) I found some of the most disgusting things.  It’s amazing what creepiness grows in those cold boxes.  Anyway…while I was tossing out one science experiment after another, I ran across some sticky bottles of jelly and syrups.  You know, the one’s you see in a store and think “oh how cool is this – I’ll definitely use this” only come face to face with reality and you’ve used it once and it has taken up permanent residence in the back corner of the refrigerator (because it’s stuck to the shelf by the same kind of sticky substance NASA uses to glue those space shuttle tiles on with).

After throwing out numerous bottles and jars, and putting a few back (I swear I’ll use them for something) I turned around and found that I had this sad little plastic bottle of pancake syrup still sitting on the counter.  I took this as a sign that I should cook something with it.  Plus it was really sticky and I didn’t feel like cleaning it up and putting it back in the refrigerator.

I could have made pancakes for dinner, Craig would have loved that, but I thought that would be too easy…too obvious.  I was kind of thinking about cookies.  But I was also thinking about bacon (because I was already braising some for another dish that you will be seeing very soon).  Then I was trying to come up with something to marry these two soul mates with and I came up with cheese.  Yeah, I didn’t get it either at the time but sometimes I just have to run with my weird thoughts.  And this time it worked for the better.

I have a serious weakness for shortbread, so that’s how I determined what type of cookie this was going to be.  But trust me, this cookie is really easy to make.  I will admit that it is a little confused in that it doesn’t know if it is a breakfast food, a dessert or something to be passed as an appetizer in between the cheese plate and the olives.  But I think that just gives you lots of options…and excuses to make these.

Words of Wisdom

Cleaning sucks!  But cleaning out the refrigerator is one of life’s little curses.  Unfortunately, it has to be done so here are a couple of ways to really make it work in your favor.

By the time you get done throwing everything out (because the expiration dates are long past due) you’ll see that you have nothing to eat so you can go out and buy all of those healthy foods you keep swearing you are going to start buying.

If you time the cleaning just right, you won’t have anything left in your refrigerator to cook for dinner, and no time to start anything even if there is something left in there.  So you both will have to go out to eat if you plan on being nourished for the evening.

Makes 24 Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour (plus additional for dusting)
• 1/2 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese + 1 Tablespoon Parmesan Cheese (separated)
• 1 Cup Chilled Unsalted Butter (cut into 1/2″ x 1″ pieces)
• 3/4 Cup Maple Flavored Pancake Syrup
• 1 Tablespoon Crumbled Bacon (cook 1-2 strips of bacon and crumble in food processor or chop by hand)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In food processor, blend flour and parmesan cheese.

Add butter to flour and cheese mixture by pulsing blade.  Keep pulsing until dough starts to come together.  Add maple syrup, through feed tube, while pulsing.

Lightly flour work surface.

Turn dough out onto work surface and form a loose ball.

Divide dough in 1/2 and roll each half into a log.  Cut log into 12 pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball and place on lined baking sheet, space 1″-2″ apart. (You may have to lightly dust your hands with some flour to keep dough from sticking to you – use the flour sparingly.)

Flatten each ball into a 2″ round.

In a small bowl, mix 1 tablespoon parmesan cheese with 1 tablespoon crumbled bacon.  Sprinkle on top of each cookie.

Bake cookies for 20-25 minutes.  Tops should be dry and edges golden.

Transfer to a rack to cool completely, then store in a covered container.

Technorati Tags: Bacon, Baked Goods, Cheese, dessert recipes, Easy Cooking, Easy Recipes, shortbread cookies

If your man is like mine, and aren’t they all pretty much the same?  Well, my guy gets bored with constantly eating chicken.  I have to admit (but I’d never admit it to him)…it can get pretty boring.  For whatever reason, he never seems to get bored eating beef burritos.  If he could, he’d eat some kind of beef burrito every night of the week.  But then, I’d have to listen to him bitch at me that he didn’t fit into his pants anymore and while he’s sitting at his desk the waistband was too tight blah blah blah.  Of course, somehow this would be my fault.

So when he finds that we’re having stuffed chicken breasts I never hear any complaints.  I might be because it contains two of his favorite food groups – cheese and bacon.

This is another really easy recipe, and if you need to make something for a dinner with a bunch of people I highly recommend this.  Just make sure you are aware if there is anyone that doesn’t eat pork.  (This will help to avoid major embarrassment – but the dish can be made without the bacon.  I just like the salty smoky flavor it gives the dish.)  Once you make this the first time, you’ll realize that you can make a bunch of variations on this basic recipe.  It’s a good recipe to use up leftover vegetables, fresh herbs, sun dried tomatoes, or roasted peppers.

I serve this with a small salad on the same plate as the chicken.  The extra balsamic vinegar used on the chicken, is then gets used on the salad for dressing. But you could also do roasted potatoes and use the balsamic as a dressing on those as well.   And then you only have one plate to clean up.

This recipe serves 2, but is easily doubled…tripled…you get the idea

Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
• 2 Pieces Cooked Center Cut Bacon(Thick Bacon) – Applewood Smoked is Perfect for this
• Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 4 Tablespoons Goat Cheese
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons Herbs de Provence
• 1 Clove Garlic Finely Minced
• 1 Tablespoon Chopped Parsley (Optional)
• 1/4 Cup Dried Cranberries
• 2 (6-ounce) Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
• Olive Oil – For Brushing on Top of Chicken

Directions

Pour balsamic vinegar into small saucepan and over medium heat reduce vinegar by half.  To tell when the vinegar is done, it should coat the back of a metal spoon and when you drag your finger through it, the line you made should stay.  Remove vinegar from heat and set aside.

In a small bowl add goat cheese, herbs de provence, minced garlic, dried cranberries, and parsley.  Mix thoroughly using a fork and set aside.

For the stuffed chicken, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lay a piece of plastic wrap over your cutting board and tucking the ends under ends of the board. Place one chicken breast on the covered cutting board and season with salt and pepper.  Place a second piece of plastic wrap over the chicken and flatten the chicken using a meat mallet or heavy skillet.  Pound the chicken thin (to 1/4″ – 3/8″ thick). Set aside first pounded piece of chicken.  Do the same thing with the second chicken breast, using new plastic wrap.

Peel off one layer of  plastic wrap from each breast and spoon 1/2 of the cheese mixture onto the breast 1/2″ from the end and sides. Lay bacon slices next to the cheese.  (This is where you could also insert asparagus, oil packed sun dried tomatoes, or roasted peppers)  Roll each breast tightly (do not keep the plastic wrap on the chicken.).  If you need to, you can secure the breasts with toothpicks. Then place seam side down in square baking pan.  Brush tops with olive oil and roast in oven for about 30-35 minutes.

Remove the toothpicks, if you used any. Slice the chicken roll to show the pretty insides. Place on serving plate and spoon reduced balsamic vinegar over top of chicken.

Technorati Tags: Bacon, Cheese, Chicken, Chicken Recipes, Easy Chicken Recipes, Fast Dinner Recipe, Things to do with Leftovers