Eggplant Couscous

1 Package of Trader Joe's couscous (and 1.75 cups of broth to make the couscous)
2 cans of Trader Joe's Grecian Style Eggplant with Tomatoes and Onions
.5 cup parmesan cheese
Basil as garnish

Put about 2 tablespoons of oil into the pan and brown couscous
Add broth and bring to a boil.
Turn off stove and let sit for about 12 minutes.
Add in both cans of eggplant
Add parmesan cheese
Add basil and serve.

Mint Mustard Green Beans

Ingredients:
400g green beans, trimmed
1 tablespoon butter
zest and juice 1 lemon
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
3 tbsp chopped mint
**also really good addition to this recipe is pine nuts or candied walnuts**

1. Bring a medium saucepan of water to the boil. 
2. Add the green beans and cook for 5-6 mins until tender. Drain well and refresh under cold water. Set aside.
3. When ready to serve, melt the butter in the saucepan and add the lemon zest and juice, mustard, a good pinch of salt and plenty of ground black pepper. 
4. Add the green beans and toss well until evenly coated.
5. Tip into a serving dish, scatter over the fresh mint and serve.

Mocha Iced Coffee Popsicles

2 parts coffee
1 part ice cubes
1 part sweetened condensed milk
1 chocolate square per popsicle (11g)

put everything in blender and blend till smooth
(works best and will have fewest ice crystals if all ingredients are as cold as possible)
pour into popsicle molds and let sit for a few hours

Roasted Corn Salsa

Pico from here: http://musings-justjuicing.blogspot.com/2015/08/pico.html
and double everything in the recipe except for amount of tomatoes

Add one bag of defrosted roasted corn

Add a handful of basil, roughly chopped

Add salt

pico

half container of cherry tomatoes
one medium onion
one jalapeno, seeded
5 sprigs of cilantro
1 teaspoon of garlic powder (I prefer to use 2 garlic cloves if I have them)
6 tablespoons lime juice (1/4 cup)
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

blend on lowest setting in blender/food processor

Oven Roasted Broccoli

Preheat oven to 425

Chop up broccoli into small florets

Place on roasting pan and toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and minced garlic.

Bake for 25 minutes, stirring once about halfway through.

When done, you can toss with more olive oil, salt and pepper and add parmesan cheese to the top.

Mexican Fried Rice

INGREDIENTS

Mexican Spice Mix
1 tbsp garlic powder (or 2 garlic cloves, minced)
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp cumin powder
1¾ tsp salt
½ tsp cayenne pepper (Note 1), optional
Black pepper
** Or you can use 3 tablespoons of Trader Joe's taco mix as a shortcut- spice mix tastes better**

1 pound of ground beef, browned and strained

Other ingredients
1 small onion, peeled and diced (or ½ large)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 red capsicum (bell pepper), sliced
1 cup rice
¾ cup tomato puree or passata
1 cup frozen corn kernels (or canned - drained)
1 can (400g/16oz) black beans, drained and rinsed (or sub with red kidney beans)

Garnish
1 lime, plus extra to serve
Coriander/cilantro
Sliced jalapeño peppers (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cook rice in rice cooker (I cook 2 scoops of rice and then fill to the "2" line in my rice cooker)
2. Brown ground beef in a pan, then transfer to a strainer to separate meat from fat 
3. Put onions, garlic, and bell pepper in pan with some oil and fry for 2-3 minutes till slightly browned, set aside.
4. Mix together all ingredients in mexican spice mix in small bowl.
5. Coat frying pan with cooking oil and pour spice mix into oil.
6. Add cooked rice into frying pan and stir until rice is coated in spice mix.
7. Add tomato puree, corn, and beans and stir.
8. Add ground beef and onion/garlic/peppers
9. Stir till everything is heated through
10. When rice is ready, squeeze the juice of 1 lime over chicken and rice and serve, garnished with coriander/cilantro leaves, extra lime wedges and sliced jalapeños, if desired. 

Asian crock pot short ribs

Ingredients
4 - 4½ pounds beef short ribs
½ cup soy sauce
⅓ cup + 1 - 2 tablespoons brown sugar (loosely packed)
¼ cup rice vinegar
½ cup orange juice
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
1 teaspoon dried chili flakes
3 carrots, peeled and cut in 1-2 inch pieces

Instructions:

• Brown meat with a bit of cooking oil.
• Combine all the ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on High for about 4 hours (I like to cook for 1-2 hours on high the night before and then leave on low overnight for 4 hours and then let it sit on warm until I wake up in the morning).
• Serve immediately
• For a lower fat version, I take the meat and veggies out of the crock pot and put stock in the freezer for an hour for the fat to solidify, remove the fat, and then reheat the gravy.
• For an even better gravy, boil down on medium until volume is reduced by half.

Chicken taco meat in a crock pot

INGREDIENTS

SERVINGS
3 tablespoons taco seasoning, I use Bulk Taco Seasoning Mix
1 cup chicken broth
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
I also add a handful of black beans to the pot to soak up some of the chicken broth while cooking.


DIRECTIONS

Dissolve taco seasoning into chicken broth.
Place chicken breasts in crock pot and pour chicken broth over (also add the beans in this step if you want).
Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
With two forks, shred the chicken meat into bite-size pieces.
To freeze, place shredded meat into freezer bags with the juices.
Press out all the air and seal.

Tomato Pie

One Pie crust
2 large tomatoes
salt
garlic powder
basil (roughly chopped)
cheese (I like to use about half cheddar and half mozzerela)

Preheat oven to 450

While oven is preheating, thinly slice tomatoes  and put between sheets of paper towels to remove as much water as possible from them.

Bake pie crust for about 10 minutes until brown

Decrease oven temp to 350

Remove browned pie crust and layer with sliced tomatoes, salt, garlic powder, basil, and cheese like a lasagna

Bake assembled pie for 30 minutes. Tastes best warm.

Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 2 1/4 cups Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)

Directions

1 Heat oven to 375ºF.
2 Mix sugars, butter, vanilla and egg in large bowl. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt (dough will be stiff). Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.
3 Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.
4 Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown (centers will be soft). Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet. Cool on wire rack.

Potato Gnocchi

2 cups cooked potato (sweet or russet), mashed up

2 cups flour

Herbs, like basil or oregano if desired

1-2 eggs, beaten

Combine all ingredients and mix

Roll dough into snakes and cut into small pieces 

Poach gnocchi in salted water for about 2 minutes until they float to the top

Strain and toss in olive oil so they won't stick together. 

Serve hot with your favorite sauce. 

Basil pesto

2 cups packed fresh basil leaves

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup pine nuts

2/3 cup extra virgin live oil

1/2 cup pecorino cheese (I use Parmesan since it's in my fridge anyway)

1. combine basil, garlic, and pine nuts in blender and pulse until coarsely chopped
2. add 1/2 cup of oil and blend till smooth
3. if serving immediately, stir in additional oil and cheese now
4. to store, drizzle remaining oil on top. Stir in the cheese after thawing

Chimichurri Couscous Stir Fry

Cook couscous according to directions (make sure to brown before adding water).

Roughly chop and stir fry vegetables.

Boil shrimp till just pink, let chill in ice bath, then strain for 2 minutes. 

Make chimichurri sauce (I used 1/8 cup of a premade spice mix from HEB, 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, and 1/2 cup olive oil).

Mix everything together and serve either hot or chilled.

Italian Wedding Cookies

Ingredients:

 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
 3/4 teaspoon salt
 1 1/2 cups finely ground almonds
 4 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used 3 tsp of vanilla and 1 tsp of almond)
 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for rolling

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
• Cream butter or margarine in a bowl, gradually add confectioners' sugar and salt. Beat until light and fluffy. Add almonds and vanilla. Blend in flour gradually and mix well.
• Shape into balls (or crescents) using about 1 teaspoon for each cookie. Place on ungreased cookie sheets, and bake for 15-20 min. Do not brown. 
• Cool slightly, then roll in the extra confectioners' sugar.

Apple Dessert Flowers

Preheat oven to 350

Slice apples (using a mandolin works best)

Microwave apples in water for 1 minute at a time until they are soft enough to roll (I microwaved for about 4 minutes)

Roll out pie crust and then lay apples on top of the pie crust.

Dust cinnamon sugar on top of the apples.

Roll the apples and pie crust up to look like flowers.

Drizzle sweetened condensed milk and cinnamon sugar on top of the flowers (can also use red jam to accentuate the red color of the apples).

Bake for 20 minutes.

Mozzarella Chicken

Pound out chicken thighs to make them thin
Season one side with salt, pepper, and oregano
Add smoked ham to cover the chicken thighs
Add one slice of mozzarella and roll the chicken

Beat one egg and add some milk to make the egg wash.

Put some breadcrumbs on one plate and flour on another.

Take chicken rolls and dip in flour and then egg wash, then coat in breadcrumbs.

Coat pan with olive oil and brown both sides of the chicken roll.

Bake at 320 for 20 minutes.

Serve with salad and marinara sauce.

One Pan Chicken and Roasted Veggies

5 Potatoes
2 pounds of carrots
4 chicken thighs
Spices (optional): salt, pepper, oregano, rosemary, thyme

Preheat oven to 450.

Cut up potatoes and carrots (I got lazy and used carrot sticks)

Combine carrots and potatoes in bowl and mix with salt, pepper, and oregano or rosemary with a splash of olive oil, then put in baking pan.

Bake veggies in oven for 15 minutes.

Sprinkle salt, pepper, and thyme on top of chicken thighs and place on top of veggies.

Put everything back in the oven and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

This recipe is so easy and so delicious!!!!

Goat Cheese & Roasted Garlic Spread

Ingredients:
2 whole heads garlic
¼ cup olive oil
½ tsp dried thyme
salt & freshly ground black pepper
8 oz. goat cheese, room temperature
4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
juice of 1 lemon
chopped chives for garnish
crostini or crackers for serving

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Rub off any loose paper layers on the garlic.
Place in a baking dish just large enough to hold the garlic.
Drizzle the oil over top and sprinkle with thyme, salt and pepper over top.
Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour or until the garlic is very tender.

Once cool, cut off the tops of the garlic heads and squeeze out the pulp.
Set aside.

Beat the cheeses in a standing mixer.
Add the lemon juice and roasted garlic.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Place in a small ramekin and garnish with the chopped chives.

Serve with crostini or crackers.