Saturday, February 11, 2012
Black Bean Salad
This is really a great salad for the summertime. It's cool, fresh, light and would be perfect alongside some grilled meat. It just so happens to be the coldest day of the year so far in Oklahoma...so maybe I'm yearning for summer. But regardless of the season, this salad is GOOD!
Ingredients: black beans, frozen corn, tomato, avocado, red onion, scallion, lime, olive oil, cilantro, salt and pepper.
Drain and rinse the beans.
And add them to a bowl with the thawed corn.
Chop up the onion, tomato and cilantro.
And add them to the bowl along with the scallions.
Add some olive oil and squeeze in some fresh lime juice.
And toss it all together. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Chop up some avocado and toss it in right before you serve it. Isn't it pretty?!?
Link to the printable recipe:
Black Bean Salad
Source: Skinny Taste
Friday, February 10, 2012
Poppy Seed Fruit Salad
This has to be the prettiest fruit salad I have ever made. It is super simple, but the flavors are surprisingly complex. I made it this weekend for my friend Katie who asked me if it had champagne in it! It doesn't, but that just speaks volumes to how incredible the flavors are. Oh, and did I mention it takes about 5 minutes to pull it together? I feel like I hit the jackpot of fruit salad recipes!
Ingredients: green grapes, blueberries, strawberries, sugar, fresh lime juice and poppy seeds.
Hull and quarter the strawberries.
Halve the grapes.
And toss some blueberries together in a bowl.
Add some sugar.
And toss it all together. Let this sit for a few minutes.
Then squeeze in some fresh lime juice.
And some poppy seeds.
Toss it all together and let it sit at room temperature for a little while so the flavors will marry. Isn't that gorgeous?!? And healthy. And delicious. Talk about a winner!
Link to the printable recipe:
Poppy Seed Fruit Salad
Source: Sunny Anderson
Monster Cookie Bark
It is very rare that I make up my own recipe for something other than pizza. I tend to follow written recipes religiously. However, I was having trouble the other day deciding between making monster cookies or some type of chocolate bark. So it dawned on me...why not combine the two and make monster cookie dough inspired bark? So that's what I did! And it was great!
Ingredients: Semi-sweet chocolate, milk chocolate, M&M's, peanut butter chips, chopped pecans, raisins and Rice Crispies.
Temper the chocolate. "Temper" is just a fancy way of saying melt the chocolate slowly so it doesn't burn. Start with about 1/3 of the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl.
Microwave it for a minute and stir it well. Then add the rest of the chocolate in several batches and microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval until the chocolate is melted.
Each time you add cold chocolate it brings down the temperature of the melted chocolate and keeps it from burning.
When it's "tempered" it will look smooth and shiny like this.
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and turn out the chocolate.
And spread it out to the edges of the parchment paper.
Sprinkle it with the Rice Crispies.
Then the M&M's.
Then the raisins, peanut butter chips and nuts (and more Rice Crispies if you think it needs to be extra crunchy like I did). Let it sit at room temperature to harden, about 2 hours or so.
Once it has hardened, break it up into pieces and dig in! This was so fun!!
Copy and paste the recipe below into Word for a printable version:
Monster Cookie Bark
Semi-sweet chocolate
Milk chocolate
M&M's
Peanut butter chips
Chopped pecans
Raisins
Rice Crispies
Melt the chocolate in the microwave, adding a little chocolate at a time and heating it in 30 second intervals. Spread the melted chocolate out onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Sprinkle the remaining ingredients evenly over the chocolate. Allow it to harden at room temperature. Break into pieces.
Beef Stew
This is seriously the most amazing beef stew ever. The secret: red wine and sun dried tomatoes (no canned tomatoes!). The broth has incredible flavor. The texture is thick and wonderful. And the best part?? **Drum roll please** I tweaked the recipe so I could throw it in the Crock pot! Which takes the difficulty level of the original recipe down a few notches. How can you argue with that?
Ingredients: cube steak or stew meat, red wine, garlic, bay leaves, flour, salt, pepper, olive oil, onions, carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, frozen peas, chicken stock, Italian seasoning, sun dried tomatoes and Worcestershire sauce.
Add the beef to a bowl with the red wine, garlic and bay leaves. Cover and leave to marinate a few hours or overnight.
Chop up the carrots, potatoes, onion and mushrooms.
Season the flour with salt and pepper.
Dredge the beef in the flour mixture. Save the marinade.
Heat some olive oil in a skillet and brown the meat over medium heat.
Preheat a Crock pot and add the meat to the pot along with the marinade and the rest of the ingredients. Season with Italian seasoning.
Mix it all together and cook over low heat for 6-8 hours or high heat for 4-5 hours.
And that's it! Pretty easy huh??
The flour that was on the beef thickens the broth. It has a wonderful beef flavor as opposed to a canned tomato flavor. The sun dried tomatoes add just the right pop of tomato without overwhelming the beef and the meat is so incredibly tender and mouth watering. This is hearty and delicious! This is a one pot meal that will become a staple at our house. Enjoy!
Link to the printable recipe:
Note: I tweaked it slightly to make it work for the Crockpot. But the ingredients are the same.
Beef Stew
Source: Barefoot Contessa
Antipasto Pizza
I love, Love, LOVE homemade pizza! This one is pretty basic. It is simple and wonderful!
Ingredients: Pizza dough (I use Pioneer Woman's recipe), pizza sauce, balsamic vinegar, fresh mozzarella, olive oil, kosher salt, salami or sopressata, black olives, pepperoncini peppers, roasted red bell peppers, cornmeal for dusting.
I would have also added artichokes if I wasn't sharing this pizza with my husband.
Sprinkle your baking sheet with some cornmeal. This helps keep the dough from sticking and give the crust a nice texture.
Roll out your pizza dough, rub it with olive oil and season with kosher salt.
Add a splash of balsamic vinegar to your pizza sauce.
Spread it all over the dough then top it with fresh mozzarella. I usually buy the mozzarella pearls which cuts out the step of slicing the cheese, but they were out of it. The joys of shopping at Wal-Mart.
Then add the salami/sopresatta.
Then top with the veggies.
Bake at 500 degrees for about 12 minutes until the cheese is bubbly and the crust is golden.
Yummy! So easy and wonderful!
Copy and past the recipe below into Word for printable version:
Antipasto Pizza
Pizza Dough (I use Pioneer Woman's recipe)
Cornmeal for dusting
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Pizza sauce
Balsamic vinegar
Fresh mozzarella
Salami or sopressata
Black olives
Pepperoncini peppers
Roasted red bell peppers
Artichokes
Dust your pan with cornmeal. Roll out the dough, rub with olive oil and season with kosher salt. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar to the pizza sauce and spread it over the dough. Top with the cheese, meat and veggies. Bake at 500 degrees for 12-15 minutes until the cheese is bubbly and crust is golden.
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