Pita Pizzas

I could honestly eat this everyday, for every meal. Well, that and the sweet potato dish!

What ya need:
6 whole wheat pitas
1 jar sun dried tomato pesto (or make your own)
1 tbs. garlic
3 roma tomatoes, choppeda big handful of fresh spinach
feta cheese

Pretty simple: put the pesto on the pitas, and top with garlic, tomatoes, spinach and feta. Pop in the oven at 35o degrees and cook for 10ish minutes. Eat all 6 in one sitting, if you're like me anyway.

Would be really good on a larger pizza too!

Broccoli Penne

The easiest week night dinner, and my kids eat THIRDS of this stuff. It seriously takes me 15 min. to make.

• 1 cup vegetable Broth
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves, crushed
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cups broccoli flowerets
• 4 1/2 cups hot cooked penne pasta
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (I like fresh squeezed as opposed to the bottled stuff)
  
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Mix broth, basil, pepper, garlic and broccoli in skillet. Heat to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat for 3 minutes or until broccoli is tender-crisp.Add pasta and lemon juice. Toss to coat. Serve with cheese.

Asian Lettuce Wraps

I adapted this from Our Best Bites, and it turned out awesome! I'd never had them before, and am in love ...

2 tsp canola oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
4 veggie patties, ground up w/ food processor
3 ounces mushrooms, finely chopped (about 8 small mushrooms)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 8oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained, rinsed, and finely minced
1/2 C thinly sliced green onions
4 Tbs soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 lemon, zested and juiced (about 3-4 Tbs juice)
1/3 C roughly chopped cilantro
1 head bibb lettuce

Dipping/Drizzling Sauce
4 Tbs soy sauce
4 Tbs rice vinegar
3 Tbs water
2 tsp honey
1-2 tsp finely minced fresh ginger

Heat a very large skillet to medium-high heat on the stove top. When hot, add vegetable oil and then garlic and ginger. Saute for about 30 seconds, until fragrant, and then add ground veggie patties, chopped mushrooms, and kosher salt. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until chicken is cooked through. Add water chestnuts and green onions. Add soy sauce, sesame oil, the zest from the lemon and the lemon juice to taste. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.

To prepare dipping sauce, combine all ingredients and whisk to combine.

Quinoa & Sweet Potato salad

I totally just copied and pasted the recipe from Just Cook Already. This is seriously the best dinner I've made in awhile. I doubled the recipe, but forgot to double the spinach. Definitely don't forget that!

1/2 c. dry quinoa

1 c. water

1 whole garlic clove, peeled

1 sweet potato (I used a smallish one)

1/2 onion

2-3 c. spinach

Feta cheese

*Makes 2 large servings as a main dish, 4 servings as a side dish (or for small appetites)

1. Put the quinoa, water, and garlic clove in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
2. While the quinoa is doing its thing, dice up the onion and cut the sweet potato into small cubes (I like mine pretty small).
3. Heat a saute pan over medium heat with a little olive oil (about 1 teaspoon). Put the diced sweet potatoes in, stirring every few minutes. Cover the sweet potatoes to trap a little steam and help tenderize them for a few minutes.
4. When the sweet potatoes are about halfway tender (which should be about when your quinoa is halfway done cooking, assuming you chop quickly ;), put the onions in with the sweet potatoes. Cook all those together until they are tender, then throw the spinach on top, continuing cooking until wilted. Remove from heat.
5. When your quinoa is finished cooking, fluff with a fork and smash up the garlic clove, spreading it throughout the quinoa. Combine the quinoa with the sweet potato/onion/spinach mix.
6. Season with salt and pepper. (I like sea salt best).
7. Sprinkle feta on top to your liking.
   

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

{And the leftovers for lunch were just as good!}

Got this off of Kalyn's Kitchen, so if you want the "real" recipe, go there. But, here's how I did it:

3 large sweet potatoes, cut into one inch cubes
1 large red onion, chopped
3 tbs EVOO
2 tsp. dried rosemary
ground pepper (to your liking)
kosher salt (to you liking)

Mix all of those things together in a ziplock bag, and mix it real good. Let it sit for a couple of hours to marinate. (<---thats where mines a tad different)

Heat over to 375. Pour the potatoes onto a foil lined jellyroll pan and bake for 45 min. When they come out sprinkle enough parmesan cheese to your liking. You could add more rosemary, but because I let it marinate it didn't really need it.

whatever curry soup

So, my friend Emma is a person who if she invites you over and the invite involves food, you drop whatever you are doing and you go. No exceptions.

Well the other day we had a curry lunch date, it was good, way good.

I got her recipe, and tweaked it cause I'm lazy.

I call it "whatever curry soup" cause you really can add or take away whatever.

what you need:

• 3 or 4 medium potatoes, peeled roughly and chopped into chunks
• 1 medium onion, chunked
• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks
• 1 apple, peeled and chopped into....wait for it.....chunks
• Had I had sweet potato, I would have added a couple too

Dump it all into a big pot

Stir in enough olive oil to lightly coat veggies (couple tablespoons is enough probably)

Saute the veggies until a little soft, and onions are a little translucent

then add:

• Enough water in to cover the veggies, or us veggie/chicken stock instead (then omit the bullion).
• 3 or 4 bullion cubes (preferably veggie, or chicken)
• 4 tsp curry, I used the whitey mcwhitey generic brand at the grocery store, if you are awesome like Emma, you use real curry from a legitimate specialty food store.
• Salt and pepper, although I might wait to add this until the end to start taste-testing it to get it right.

then you:

Let this boil until everything is soft, but not mushy k?

Dump TWO cans of coconut milk in there. You could do one, but why?

Let simmer for a bout ten minutes,

Taste test, and add more curry, salt and pepper to your liking.

If you wanted to add chicken, it would be good. Tofu would be rock'n too. Really just make it your own. And like all my recipes, everything is approximate.

Serve over rice, and enjoy.

And it does taste better in a jack-o-lantern mug. Just say'n.

And don't thank me, thank Emma.