Friday, March 12, 2010

"Almost" Homemade Pizza

We learned this from some friends of ours...best thing about it is you put toppings that you like! The pizza dough is delicious!

Ingredients
- Ready-made pizza dough from Costco (the not-homemade part!) - you buy it in a plastic bag, near the deli meat
- Fresh tomatoes
- Fresh basil
- Parmesan cheese
- Olive oil
- Flour
- Fresh mozzarella
- Garlic Powder or fresh garlic minced
- Salt & Pepper
- Other toppings optional - we like potatoes!

Tomato & Mozzarella Pizza Directions:
- Keep the dough out for at least a couple of hours (keeps in the freezer) until room temperature (makes the rolling easier)
- Preheat oven to 550 degrees (oven needs to be very hot for the pizza!)
- Dust the counter top with flour and roll out part of the dough until you get it as thin as you like it
- Oil and drizzle your pizza pan (or cookie sheet) with flour
- Thinly slice tomatoes and put on pizza
- Drizzle olive oil and garlic powder or minced garlic on top
- Slice mozzarella into slices and place on top
- Add salt and pepper
- Drizzle parmesan cheese on top
- Put in oven for about 10-15 minutes, but watch it! Take out of the oven when bottom of crust is golden brown
- When you take it out, immediately add chopped basil on top and enjoy!

Potato Pizza Directions
- Follow first 4 steps above
- Slice potatoes as thin as you can...the thinner the better
- Place potato slices on pizza
- Drizzle olive oil, parmesan cheese and salt/pepper on pizza
- Add bacon bits if you like
- Put in oven for about 10-15 minutes, but still watch it! Take out when bottom of crust is golden brown
- If you'd like, you can immediately add small pieces of goat cheese on the pizza

Enjoy!!

Basil Baked Tilapia


Another good, easy fish recipe!

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup fresh chopped basil
- 4 thin fillets of tilapia
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
- Paprika
- Salt and pepper

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Pour wine and butter into cup and microwave on high until butter melts
- Spread basil leaves over bottom of 9x13 glass baking dish, saving some for the top of the fish
- Place fish fillets over basil
- Add fresh lemon juice to the wine and butter mixture
- Stir wine mixture and pour over fish
- Season fish with salt and pepper
- Sprinkle onion powder and breadcrumbs evenly over the fish, then add paprika as needed
- Cover pan with foil and place in lower third of the preheated oven for 12 minutes
- Uncover fish and continue to cook until fish flakes easily with a fork, about 2-3 more minutes
- Serve

Enjoy! We served with a side of asparagus and corn salad.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Chicken Fajitas

It's amazing how much taste a little bit of cumin spice gives. This only really uses some garlic, salt and cumin, yet comes out so flavorful.

Chicken - cut up into strips
Onions
Peppers (Green, red or both)
3-4 minced or chopped garlic (or use garlic paste)
Salt
Cumin
Some oil to cook
Ready made fajita wraps
Sour cream
Guacamole and salsa (recipes below)
Grated chedder cheese (or any other cheese)
Lettuce

1. Saute the garlic in a pan and add salt and cumin
2. Add the chicken and cook until done. Put aside
3. Saute the onions in the same pan. Add more oil and seasoning if needed
4. Mix in with the chicken

Warm up the fajita wraps and serve with the chicken, and any other condiments you like: Guacamole, salsa, sour cream, lettuce, and grated cheese.

Fresh Guacamole

2 avocados
Green chilis to taste
1/4 red onion
1 small tomato
Some fresh cilantro
Juice of half lemon or lime
Salt
Red chili powder
Dash of black pepper

1. Mash up the avocados
2. Put the green chilis, red onion, tomato, cilantro, salt, chili powder and black pepper in the processor
3. Mix this in with the mashed avocados and add lemon or lime juice

Fresh Salsa

1. Add some tomatoes, 1/4 red onion, green chilis, jalapenos, cilantro in the food processor.
2. Mix in salt and lemon or lime juice, and a little evoo

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Too-green-for-mike Salsa

Box of cherry tomatoes
Bunch of cilantro
2 green medium-sized chillis (I use Serrano peppers)
Lug of olive oil
Salt & pepper
2 limes

Roughly chop the tomatoes & cilantro. Finely chop the chillis. Mix in a bowl. Add olive oil, salt, and pepper. Slice the limes in half and juice them to the mix. Let stand for 10 mins in the fridge, or serve straight away with lightly salted tortilla chips!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Artichoke Side Dish

Gals, this one is SO easy and SO good!

Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 pound frozen artichoke hearts, thawed (about 1 small box is good for two ppl)
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (I used dried)
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes (more if you like it spicy!)
- 1/2 cup chicken broth (or veggie broth)
- 1/4 cup Marsala wine (I use a white cooking wine)
- 2 tablespoons butter (I use margarine)
- 1/3 cup plain bread crumbs
- 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Warm olive oil in span over medium-high heat. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add artichoke hearts, parsley, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes and cook until artichoke hearts are starting to brown at the edges, about 3 minutes. Add chicken broth and wine and simmer for 3 minutes. Transfer the artichoke mixture to a 2-quart baking dish.

Melt butter same pan used for artichokes. In a small bowl, mix melted butter with bread crumbs. Stir in Parmesan cheese and top the artichokes with the bread crumbs. Bake until the top is golden, about 10 minutes.

I now keep frozen artichokes in our freezer...this is a great quick side dish!

Chicken Florentine Style

I've made this once and the sauce was delicious...great over spinach!

Ingredients:
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Salt and pepper
- Flour
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (I used the healthy stuff)
- 2 tablespoons chopped spring onion
- 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
- 1 1/2 cups dry white wine
- 1 cup whipping cream (the lite cream should work fine too)
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley (I used dried parsley)
- 1 package frozen spinach
- small can of mushrooms (optional)

Directions:
Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Coat the chicken lightly in flour. Shake off excess flour. Melt 2 tablespoons 'butter' in a pan over medium heat. Add chicken and cook until brown, about 5 minutes per side. Remove chicken from stove and cover with foil.

Melt 2 tablespoons 'butter' in same pan over medium heat. Add spring onion and garlic and saute for a minue or two, stirring to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan for flavor. Add the wine. Increase heat to medium-high and boil until liquid is reduced by half, about 3 minutes.

Add cream and boil until the sauce reduces by half, stirring often, about 3 minutes. Stir in parsley and canned mushrooms (optional). Add salt and pepper to taste. Add chicken and any accumulated juices to the sauce and turn the chicken to coat in the sauce.

We served this over spinach. Saute spinach in little 'butter', salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

Corn Chowder


I've made this a couple of times and we love it!

Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- Olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 6 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves only (I put a few basil leaves instead)
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 6 cups canned vegetable stock
- 2 cups heavy cream (I used 1 cup heavy cream and 1 cup milk)
- 2 potatoes, peeled and diced
- 6 ears of corn (or use 2 cans of sweet whole kernal corn)
- Little salt to taste at end (the veggie broth is salty)
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves (you can use basil or dried parsley too)

Directions:
Heat the butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and thyme (or basil) and cook until veggies are nice and soft, about 8-10 minutes. Add flour to veggies and stir well to coat everything well.

Pour in veggie stock and bring to a boil. Add cream (and milk for me) and the potatoes. Bring to a boil and boil hard for 7 minutes, until the potatoes break down.

Cut corn kernals off the cob and add to soup (or add in the cans). Add black pepper and let simmer until corn is soft, about 10-12 minutes. Stir in parsley (or basil) and add in little more olive oil. Add salt to taste (but taste it first!).

Enjoy!!