Food & fitness obsessed girl.
Our weather has been vacillating between frigid and down right balmy. Today is the latter. Of course the day I post my totally frigid weather slow roasted beef stew. My family flips over any meat dishes and clammers for a hot bowl of this beautiful stew that the meat will literally melt in your mouth. Perfect for a party, game day or a lovely Sunday dinner. The slow roasting enhances the flavors making this dinner unforgettable.
— Knead to Cook
I’ll be honest, I’ve always stayed away from the spaghetti squash for some reason, not sure why but it scared me. My self psycho-analysis is I had this fear because anything that replaces pasta could never compete with the real deal. But since my new found love of everything healthy, avoiding as many processed foods as possible- one night I bought one and roasted some tomatoes and figured I would suppress my Italian pasta girl and try this with my sauce. Funny, when I served dinner I asked my husband if he wanted to try it too with sauce and he obliged. He did half pasta and half squash. He actually loved it. YES! These little victories make me happy. Another foodie fear conquered.
— Knead to Cook
Yesterday I noticed the bag of tomatoes that my husband had purchased at the farmer’s market for me to roast -last week. Insert a crazy week and I never got around to it. I was debating between salsa or sauce and opted for sauce. I was going to pair it up with my spaghetti squash (in lieu of pasta) that I also needed to roast (thank God for two ovens) and I had dinner set. The unique twist on my standard sauce was that I grabbed a bottle of chardonnay instead of the red that I had on the counter and before I knew it – about a cup of the white wine was in my beloved roasted tomatoes. Why can I see my grandmother and aunt rolling in their graves observing my mistake. But mistake it was not! I pureed the tomatoes and wine and was blown away by the unique flavor the chardonnay added to the sauce. Hello my newest creation… I think I’m quite smitten with you.
Now, onto the recipe…
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— Knead to Cook
I love gnocchi. Always have. It was the one pasta I always ordered when we went out to dinner with my family as a child and now even as an adult. Funny, now my kids love it too! I thought I would mix it up and not make the traditional red sauce and opted to do a brown butter sage sauce. I have a ton of sage in my garden that I want to use it before the chilly weather takes it away from me. The pasta, using whole wheat flour, definitely yielded a heavier gnocchi versus a traditional all-purpose flour that is lighter and airier so I will leave that up to you. Buon appetito!
— Knead to Cook
Well there’s a mouthful in a title! School started today for my oldest, her first day of high school (my youngest started last week) and today it really hit me that summer is wrapping up fast and furiously. That means one thing… fall will be upon us and pumpkin is on my brain! I LOVE pumpkin… cookies, bread, bars…whatever. I’m not selective. So, in the deafening silence of my house, I whipped up a batch of these cookies for an after-school, yay you survived your first day of high school reward. Ha ha.
These cookies are very tender and light – almost cake light. Super yummy but not a crispy, crunchy type of cookie. Just wanted to preface that before continuing on with the recipe.
— Knead to Cook
Today was a very special day for my oldest daughter. After three years, and two rounds – her braces finally came off before she started school. She is thrilled and rightfully so. So while grocery shopping, she asked for an orzo salad and it was a perfect idea because we have an open house at my youngest daughter’s school tonight. I happily made this earlier in the day, letting the flavors mingle while it chills in the fridge and can be served at room temperature or straight from the fridge. I’m serving this along with some grilled chicken tonight. Leftovers also make a great lunch for tomorrow.
Ingredients:
Dressing:
1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons of plain Greek yogurt (I used Chobani)
1 tablespoon of good quality olive oil
2 teaspoons of a good quality dijon mustard (I use Maille)
Salad:
I package of whole wheat orzo, cooked to package specifications
1 cup of fresh spinach leaves, roughly chopped
10 cherry tomatoes, chopped in half
1/4 cup of red onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup or more if you prefer, shelled pistachios
Directions:
Dressing: Whisk all of the ingredients together.
Salad: Once the orzo is fully cooked, about 9 minutes, rinse with cold water. Drain. Place the pasta in a large bowl and toss with the other ingredients minus the nuts. Dress with vinaigrette and give a good toss. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator for at least one hour or more to let the flavors mingle. Add the pistachios prior to serving. Serve along side fish, chicken or pork – or whatever protein you are having. Serve up leftovers as lunch the next day.
— Knead to Cook
Just back from an awesome 12 day vacation (my Cabot posting will be up this week as it may take days to download all of the pictures from my fun race weekend in Maine) and inundated with fresh tomatoes from the garden. Today, as it always seems to be as we return back from vacationing in August – was filled with school shopping on the brain. I had one child done and just received the other’s list for supplies. So after many errands today, I had just enough time to whip up my down and dirty tomato sauce. No roasting tomatoes here… just a quick, fabulously fresh sauce that you can top your veggie or whole wheat pasta with and enjoy with a loaf of crusty bread and a glass of wine. I love a good sauce you can make and just let simmer on the stove while you do a million other things… and that is just what was needed today.
— Knead to Cook
This pasta salad reminds me of summer. Light, packed with veggies and would make the perfect lunch, dinner or side with some grilled chicken, pork, fish or steak. My kids love to snack on it before swim meets. Packed with vegetables and I used whole wheat pasta to bump up the nutritional value. You can use whatever veggies you have on hand – it is also perfect to make for a picnic or party. I like making this ahead of time to let the dressing have time to flavor all of the components and make it even tastier. Perfect weeknight meal too!
— Knead to Cook
Despite having photography issues, I will forge on. This was such a well-received meal last night – my kids were still talking about it this morning. No, no leftovers so someone may be disappointed tonight. Meatballs & pasta are always a hit with kids or adults. Great because you can make these ahead of time and just boil your pasta and toss with the pesto before serving. Super easy.
— Knead to Cook
I wanted to try my hand at making homemade Naan. My husband’s college roommate was Indian and he had several recipes from him that I wanted to transform and use in different ways. I whipped this recipe up and tried it out on the gas grill outside and it turned out perfectly! Tonight we are going to use it for our pizza base. Made with all purpose and whole wheat flour. I added Greek yogurt for extra protein and it yielded a lovely dough. I hope you give this one a try. Perfect for parties and summer grilling.
— Knead to Cook
