The Week-Cap - 5,4,3,2,1

I spoiled myself this week, starting with this strawberry with whipped cream and ending with a bubbly Kir Royale...all in celebration of how truly spoiled I am to have TWO whole weeks off of work. I am forever doomed to feel like I deserve the schedule of a high school student.

• 5. Monday - One week to go. I made Turkey Sausage and Peppers for dinner which I happened to post the recipe for this week. So warm and comforting, it got the week started off right. I also posted my trip to the Farmers Market, which not only provided me with some awesome food, but also gave me some great ideas for recipes!
• 4. Tuesday - Exhaustion. Must eat guacamole and cheesy chips. 
• 3. Wednesday - Half way there. I posted my recipe for Strawberry Banana 'Smoothie' Bread and then realized that I should probably put the bread down and just drink a smoothie considering I ate almost the entire loaf. But then again, I'm spoiling myself, right?
• 2. Thursday - Practically on vacation already. I decided I need to make a Blueberry Almond version of the Raisin Apple Walnut Bars I made earlier this month. Then I ate a huge plate of Cajun Fish with Rice and Spicy White Beans at Wahoo's...OMG. Please eat that.
• 1. Friday - It actually arrived. We had an early Easter party at work complete with an Egg Hunt, so much fun that and I ate two huge chocolate chip cookies. No wonder I fell asleep as soon as I got home. Then I ate one of my new favorite soup recipes..Three Bean Stew with Pearl Barley. Amazing! A definite must share. Still exhausted but looking forward to some serious relaxing for the next two weeks. Excuse me while I do this:

Turkey Sausage and Peppers

We LOVE Italian food and one of my very favorite ingredients to use when I make it is bell peppers. They are so sweet, flavorful and add gorgeous colors to any dish. We also love sausage, but whenever I make it at home, I use the turkey version. It's healthier and not as heavy as traditional pork sausage. Chicken sausage is also a great alternative if you can find it fresh. This dish may take a little time, but it requires little work, which makes it a super easy meal that yields a lot of portions.

 Start with either a homemade marinara sauce, or a jarred one. This one comes from Smitten Kitchen and is so easy and delicious.

 Place your peppers and onions in a large pot with olive oil.

 They should start to look like this after about 20-25 minutes of cooking.

 Once the peppers and onions are ready, you can deglaze with white wine, add garlic, herbs and your choice of tomato sauce. Then, tuck the uncooked turkey sausage underneath the sauce and get ready to simmer.

 After 45 minutes to an hour on very low heat, the sauce will be slightly reduced and the sausages will be cooked through and ready to slice. I like to use scissors and tongs to do the slicing.

This smells amazing and tastes even better. Serve it over your favorite type of pasta (we like whole wheat penne) or rice, or you could even spoon in onto crispy bread and make a sub. Just be sure to top it with tons of parmesan cheese! This made two meals for husband and I, so it could easily feed 5.

Turkey Sausage and Peppers

1 Package uncooked turkey sausage (5 links)
2 green bell peppers, julienned
1 red bell pepper, julienned
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 C good white wine
3/4 of a jar of good marinara, or homemade marinara from smitten kitchen
about 7 fresh basil leaves, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste

In a large pot or dutch oven, heat 1 T olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onions and peppers and stir to coat with oil. Cook for about 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to medium low and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until they start to become tender and brown, about 20-25 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Deglaze the pot with the white wine, making sure it bubbles and reduces. Pour the marinara over the veggies and turn the heat down to simmer. Add the fresh basil and tuck each sausage link into the pot, making sure each is covered by the sauce. Place the lid to almost cover the pot and simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour.

Once the sausages are cooked through, slice each into rounds using a knife or kitchen scissors. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve over your pasta of choice topped with more basil and freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Banana 'Smoothie' Bread

While I have always loved the combination of Strawberries and Bananas, I never thought of baking them together into a bread. One of the lovely bakery stands at my local Farmers Market was selling a loaf of Strawberry Banana Bread this past weekend. I didn't buy it, but my friend did and as her text later in the day told me, it was soooooo good. It just so happened that I had a few bananas on my counter just begging to be mashed into something sweet and yummy. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to give this new idea a try.

 I didn't have a proper recipe, so I just adapted one I've used many times for "Healthier Banana Bread". I started with the dry ingredients.

 Then I put thawed frozen strawberries and broken up bananas into my mini prep food processor. I used frozen berries because they are guaranteed to be sweet and super soft and ripe. Also because I had already used all of my fresh strawberries to make my Fresh Strawberry Sauce last week.

 This really looks and tastes just like a smoothie. I almost drank it straight out of the bowl.

 Add the 'smoothie' to the dry ingredients and mix well to combine.

 The batter has a really pretty light pink hue to it.

This bread is so soft, sweet and delicious, and as my friend (who got the very first sample of course) said, it is much tastier and more wholesome than the market version - go figure! I may just forget to eat my bananas on purpose this week.

Strawberry Banana 'Smoothie' Bread


1 1/4 C all purpose flour
1 C whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
dash of cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 C white sugar
3/4 C natural, unsweetened applesauce
2 over ripe bananas
12-15 medium strawberries (thawed from frozen preferred)
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter and flour a loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients. In a food processor or blender, puree the strawberries and bananas until smooth, like a smoothie. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the fruit puree in the center. Add the beaten eggs, applesauce and vanilla and carefully whisk together. Stir until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!

A Trip to the Farmer's Market

 During the warmer months of the year, one of my favorite things to do is walk the aisles of the Farmer's Market and check out stall after stall of fantastic local goodies, and it's not just produce. From veggies to fruit, meat and fish, jam, soap, cheese and hand woven baskets, you can find some great treasures that you won't find anywhere else. I think it is extremely important to take good care of local small business owners who work hard to provide alternatives to big market chains and often sell one of a kind products. If you enjoy cooking seasonally, there is not better place to go than the Farmer's Market. It is a direct reflection of what is truly fresh and just picked.

 I love that there are never any annoying stickers on the fruit....look at how beautiful these bright red strawberries are!

 This ginger root was gigantic and now I want to figure out a reason to buy a piece that big.

 I don't even know what this vegetable is! It was labeled as Kolhrabi and the sign said to peel and cook it and that the leaves were similar to kale...I would never find this anywhere in a conventional grocery store.

 Sample, sample, sample. Another awesome part about shopping here is having the opportunity to try everything before you buy it...and the sellers are constantly encouraging you to take more. Come hungry!

 Gorgeous local flowers for a great price. $5, $6 and $7 bundles that could cost twice as much elsewhere.

My haul. Raw local honey (which is said to be great for people with allergies), Walnuts to make another batch of Raisin Apple Walnut Bars, a bag of 4 big Onions (for a dollar!), freshly squeezed Orange Juice, bright fuschia Snapdragons, and one of my favorite snacks of all time from a Mediterranean food company called Baba Foods, the Three Layer Dip. It's Olive oil, basil, sundried tomatoes and feta cheese and I can only get it at the Farmer's Market!

Do you have a local market in your neighborhood or somewhere nearby? If so, you should definitely check it out. Not only will you get some great quality foods, but you'll have a wonderful time too and I guarantee you'll discover something you didn't even know grew around the corner!

Enjoy!

The Week-Cap - Welcome Spring!

How do you get the rest of the honey out of a Honey Bear that has no flat top?? Well, you do this of course...and then you wait. At least it didn't take all week.

• Monday - I posted the recipe for my adaptation of the Mini Tin Can Cake, which was Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting. And then I came home from work and made a Carrot Cake version...What??? With Cinnamon Cream Cheese frosting and those three adorable little layers. Now I'm just gonna have to do another post about all the flavors you can create in under an hour...get excited!
• Tuesday - The first day of Spring! Hooray! Except that I thought maybe I had moved to Big Bear Mountain because it was absolutely freezing the first few days of this week. Where did my flip flop weather go?? 
• Wednesday - Oh there it is...72 degrees...ahhhhhh. Nice weather + loooong work days = homemade Mai Tais! I'm just gonna have to share this one with you, because you seriously will be the host of the century with this Mai Tai recipe...it is so good and so easy to create quality cocktails at home. I also posted my recipe for Fresh Strawberry Sauce on what happened to be California Strawberry Day...I'll let you believe that I planned that one. 
• Thursday - It's hard for me to get through a week without sushi, it just makes me so happy. I discovered a new roll at my tiny little local sushi shop...and I mean tiny, like 5 seats inside tiny. I had the Summer Vacation Roll and it was as fresh as it sounds. Tuna, Red Snapper, Salmon and Crab stuffed into a wheel of thinly sliced cucumber topped with green onions....perfection.
• Friday - There goes those Mai Tais again. And maybe nachos. And maybe guacamole. Hey, I ran 3 miles before I ate so it all balances out, right? At least my post was the extremely delicious and extremely healthy recipe for "Grilled" Vegetable Kebabs. I think I need to juice something this weekend. Or maybe I should just bake this again and call it a serving of carrots.

"Grilled" Vegetable Kebabs

I fully intended to grill these kebabs...on a real BBQ, in my backyard. It's Springtime after all and the time change means I actually can see what I'm doing rather than trying to hold a flashlight over the flames while attempting to flip my food.

But then it got cold...and windy...and I wimped out. So, I did the the next best thing, and I'm positive you would never be able to tell that these kebabs weren't done on an open fire. This is a super easy, weather proof, 2-step process that you can do with any Veggies that you like.

I chopped up all of my chosen vegetables into big chunks and threw them in a large bowl with some olive oil, herbs, and seasonings. 

Then I strung them all along a few wooden skewers...in no particular order, just whatever felt right...plus a few stragglers.

Then I started the 2-step cooking process. First, I seared them on both sides on a hot grill pan coated in vegetable oil. Next, I stuck them underneath the broiler of my oven to char up the edges and give them that "open flame" taste.

They came out perfect! Tender, flavorful and crispy on the edges. I served them with Jasmine Rice, a nice Greek salad and some hummus. Delicious and so healthy!!

Grilled Vegetable Kebabs
serves 2-3
1 Red Bell Pepper, chopped
1 Green Bell Pepper, chopped
6 Cremini Mushrooms, halved
1 medium Zucchini, sliced
1 medium Onion, chopped
about 12 cherry or grape tomatoes
2-3 T Olive oil
1 tsp. paprika
1/2-1 tsp. Lawry's Seasoning Salt (depending on your taste)
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Heat a stove top grill pan brushed with about a tsp. of vegetable oil over medium high heat.

Prepare all vegetables and place in a large bowl. Top with olive oil and all herbs and seasonings. Carefully stir the veggies to coat. String each vegetable onto a skewer. Place each skewer onto the grill pan, flipping after about 3 minutes or when grill marks begin to appear. Grill another 2-3 minutes, then place on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil. If you are using wooden skewers, you can wrap the ends of each one with foil to prevent burning if your broiler gets too hot. Mine were just fine and didn't need this step.

Turn the broiler to high on your oven. Place the cookie sheet on a rack in the center of the oven. Watch the kebabs closely, they should be ready to flip after about 5-7 minutes, but it really depends on your desired 'charring'. Using tongs, flip the kebabs over and continue to broil until the veggies look crispy and tender.

Remove from the oven and serve immediately. Leftover "Grilled" veggies are great on a salad, as a pizza topping or in a hot, cheesy panini.

Enjoy!

Fresh Strawberry Sauce

With the arrival of Spring, I felt it only right to do a post on one of my most favorite fruits of all time..strawberries! They really are a seasonal berry and even though you may see them in the market all year long, now is when they truly start to get succulently sweet and delicious!

Of course, strawberries are amazing all by themselves...or dipped in sugar...or chocolate...or the list could seriously go on and on into every meal of the day. But this recipe is something I love to do with the leftover berries that couldn't quite make it to tomorrow. This is a similar technique to the Fruit Compote I made for the Blueberry Buttermilk Waffles earlier this month, but I think its actually even easier!

All you need is strawberries, honey, some sort of fruit juice and maybe a dash of cinnamon if you like it.

The great thing about strawberries is that their natural pectin (you know, the stuff that makes jam thicken up when you cook it) and natural sugars help to create a thicker sauce, so you really don't need any type of thickening agent. The longer you cook this sauce down, the thicker it will get all by itself.

Hull and cut up your strawberries into chunks and put them in a small saucepan. I used about 10 average sized berries. Heat them over low to medium heat with a few tablespoons of honey and about 1/4 Cup of juice. I like to use fresh lemon juice, but I have also used orange juice and leftover apple cider which are equally delicious. You could also really spruce it up and add some freshly chopped mint for a more herbal flair. Simmer the mixture for about 20 minutes, breaking up the berries with a fork and stirring occasionally. If you like a smoother sauce, throw it in a blender and blend to your desired consistency. Serve hot or cold. The sauce will keep for about a week in a jar in the fridge.

I use this sauce/quick jam for pancakes, waffles, toast with peanut butter, ice cream and even as a topper for greek yogurt. What would you use it for?

Enjoy!