Heirloom Tomato & Basil Bruschetta

Is everyone excited to be back at the office or school after your long weekend?  Probably no…no worries me neither. The one good thing is that since we had a long weekend, that means a short work/school week.   I decided to take advantage of my long weekend and do some Spring…..well Fall cleaning. I also did some cooking, baking of course and Obed and I went out for dinner and a movie.    I finally got to see Julie & Julia.  I know I am a little behind but I finally got around to it.  I did enjoy the movie, I found it very funny and charming although I did find the story of Julia Child more interesting and fun then the story of Julie Powers, but it is definitely a movie worth seeing.

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Lazy Woman’s Dinner: Almost Carbonara

It’s a new work week, it’s stinking HOT and I am tired.  What do I make for dinner when I get home?   I wanted to make something effortless and quick, because I did not feel like hanging out in my poorly ventulated kitchen.

Also I had been nursing the headache from H-E-double hockey sticks and just was not in the mood to do anything that required any kind of real effort. In summation I was tired, sweaty and I had an 8 ton elephant sitting on my head.  Do you know what it’s like to have an 8 ton elephant on your head and a yappy dog that won’t shut up?  Not pointing any fingers. *nodding towards Buster*

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Italian Sausage with Saucy White Beans

I have been dragging my feet about posting this recipe.  Unfortunately it is due to my own vanity.  There is nothing wrong with this dish, in fact it is incredibly tasty.  The reason I was dragging my feet is because I was not happy with the pictures I took.  However I decided my photography insecurites is no reason to deprive you of such a tasty dish. 

I made this over a week ago for Hubby.  I needed something quick and easy because he had a softball game that night.  Because of the rush there are no step-by-step photos and the ones I do have are “okay”.  I am probably just being really hard on myself.

Enough complaining let me tell you about this dish.  The inspiration for this dish was the Italian Sausages with Balsamic Tomatoes that I made the week before.  It is basically the same dishm just adding in some white beans.  Hubby and I were very impressed with how the beans came out.  They were flavorful and saucy.  This dish is perfect to serve with some bread to scoop up the beans.   It will become a new kind of comfort food for me.  Previous to this dish I had only had Spanish beans over rice.  In fact I thought it was weird when people would eat beans straight up, man was I missing out.

Ok so here it is, really simple.

 

Italian Sausage with White Beans  (serves 2, with leftovers)  Print Recipe

• 4 Italian Sausages
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 1 can White Beans
• 1 can Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
• 2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 2 Tbs tomato paste
• fresh basil
• salt and pepper

Place the sausages, garlic, onion and peppers in a large baking pan, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Shuffle the sausages around until well coated.  Bake in the oven for 15 mins at 350 degrees. 

In a large bowl combine tomatoes, tomato paste, beans and balsamic vinegar, stir.  Pour the bean mixture over the sausages.  Return to the oven for an additional 15 minutes. 

Garnish with fresh torn basil and Parmesan cheese.  Serve with toasted bread.

Ricotta Gnocchi with Sausage and Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night trying to eat your pillow?  Bizarre question perhaps?  Not that I have, but there are times that I could have because I woke up so hungry.  If you have, your dreams have now come true.  Next time you wake up trying to eat your pillow just whip yourself up some of these yummy and light pillows of goodness.

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Chicken Salad Stuffed Tomatoes

If you didn’t know apparently the southern part of the Midwest is in the clutches of a heatwave…and it’s not burning in my heart.  Did you get that? It’s a little joke.  You know like the song…..ok maybe it wasn’t so great, sorry moving on.  Needless to say it is hot, like really hot, like if you wear shorts and sit on a leather seat or worse pleather seat, you and the seat are sure to become one and in this case it does not end in happly ever after.  Not to mention you may have 1st degree burns.

Well this heat doesn’t give me much of a desire to cook.  Especially since my kitchen is so well ventilated…..NOT!  Unfortunatly in order to say alive we must consume some form of sustanance, which therefore requires me to cook.  In an effort to keep myself and Hubby alive and well norished, while at the same time trying not to pass out from a heat stroke, I came up with this light yet filling dish.  Oh and there is a bounus, it is actally healthy.  I stayed away from anything heavy, starchy,  cheesy or fried. 

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Basil and Mint Melon Salad

Holy HOTNESS! No not talking about me, talking about the weather today.  Let me sum it up for you really quick.  It consisted of the following; flat tire, riding in a black car with leather seats and no air conditions, a heat index of 120, busted air conditioning at the office,  rocking the fan blown hair and riding in a VERY HOT black car with leather seats.  Not so fun.  

On such a hot stinking day a treat like this is guaranteed to hit the spot. It is utterly refreshing, sweet and the mint subtly cools your mouth.   Oh and it is so stinking, extremely easy.  It is definitely a win-win.

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Italian Sausage and Balsamic Tomatoes

Sundays are usually my biggest cooking days, it is how I “rest”.  Although now the summer is here and my kitchen has no exhaust system, so I am sweating like a piggy in my kitchen.  Especially if I am using the oven.  Although pigs don’t sweat so um…. yeah, maybe like a dog?  Well this was an oven roasting recipe and my kitchen felt like an inferno.  Opening the windows does very little because it is so stinking hot outside.  The kitchen has a ceiling fan, but it blows the flame on my gas stove and just swirls around hot air.  It doesn’t really cool off.  Oi, vey!  

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Chicken Parmigiana with Zucchini Noodles

This is for you Susan!

Upon request from one of my bestest friends I created this dish.  She has been requesting a high protein low carb recipe and this is what I came up with.  If love Italian food, but need to cut the carbs you are pretty much up a creek, but this dish is the perfect cure for that pasta crave.

I got this idea while watching Iron Chef America the other night.  It was battle zucchini and Bobby Flay made a dish were he used zucchini as noodles.  I filed this in the back of the recipe box in my head.  I was very, very pleased with the results it was absolutely delicious.  The zucchini noodles were light and had just a bit of crunch.  I breaded the chicken breast in panko bread crumbs which are surprisingly very low in carbs, 1/2 a cup of panko bread crumbs only has 24 g of carbs.  I was able to bread 3 chicken breast with just 1/2 cup of crumbs, which means each breast only had 8 g of carbs.  Sweet right?  The panko was great on the chicken breast, made them light and crunchy.

Here we go….

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Dinner Quick: Bianca Pizza

Yesterday I had a busy day and needed to get some dinner together quick.  I haven’t properly restocked my fridge since my trip which is a little frustrating.  (It is amazing how you can get so thrown off when you break from your regular routine for a while.)

I had to run to the grocery store to pick up a few essential items and I was trying to think of something quick I could make for dinner.  It hit me that pizza it always easy and delicious.  Who doesn’t like pizza.  I picked up a tube of Pillsbury pizza dough and some toppings.  I don’t like using canned sauce on home made pizza and I didn’t have time to do my sauce so I figured I just make it Bianca, which is equally delicious.  Besides it reminds me of this delicious pizza I use to order when I was single.  It was a HUGE bianca pizza and I would get it with feta cheese.  It was so big I would eat from it for like 3 days.  If you are ever in Norfolk, VA, visit Bella Pizzeria in Ghent….Yummy!

 Bianca Pizza

Everything was eyeballed, no measuring

• 1 tube of Pillsbury Pizza dough
• olive oil
• oregano
• garlic powder
• garlic cloves, pressed
• spinach, chopped
• ham, diced
• roma tomatoes, sliced
• fresh basil, diced
• feta cheese crumbles
• salt

1. Roll out your dough on a cookie sheet and press out to the size of the sheet.
2. Mix olive oil, oregano & garlic powder.  Brush over pizza dough.
3. Press 2 garlic cloves over pizza dough, spreading it out.
4. Sprinkle feta cheese over pizza
5. Top with spinach, tomatoes, ham and basil.
6. Spray with a little more olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
7. Cook in the oven at 400 degrees for 13 minutes.  Yummy! 

Eggs For Breakfast Again?

Hubby is a HUGE fan of eggs.  We buy the big pack of eggs at the supermarket (I think it has 18) and they are usually gone in just over a week.  This morning we wanted eggs for breakfast but I didn’t want to do the usual scrambled or fried egg.  For our wedding we got this little omelet pan.  It is a small egg pan that closes and it two sided.  So I decided to spray the pan with some non-stick butter spray and drop two eggs in, then I sprinkles grated sea salt, cracked pepper and a bit of garlic powder.  I then diced some fresh basil and tomatoes, sprinkled them on top, drizzled a bit of balsamic vinegar and sprinkled fresh grated Parmesan cheese.  I closed the the pan and let is cook for a few minutes without flipping it.  If you like an soft yoke becarefule not to cook it to long.  Serve with toast. Yum!

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