Kale, Sweet Potato, Red Onion Pizza

I would say this is one of the tastiest pizzas I’ve ever had. I adapted this recipe for Kristine’s Kitchen.

Ingredients

2 sweet potatoes, sliced into thin rounds

1 red onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 ball pizza dough

1 mozzarella ball, sliced

2 cups kale, chopped

5 ounces goat cheese

1/2 tsp of Salt

1/4 tsp of Pepper

1 tbsp Olive Oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Combine the sweet potato slices, red onion, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Then spread the contents of the bowl on a baking sheet. Cook the vegetables for 20 minutes, or until roasted.

Roll out the pizza dough. Add the sliced mozzarella. Then spread the roasted sweet potatoes and onion evenly. Add the kale. And then the goat cheese.

Cook at 425 F for 15 minutes.

 

Pizza Margherita

More Pizza! My sister made this one because this is one of her favorite types of pizza. Once again we used the multi-grain pizza dough from Whole Foods, which was delicious. The quantities of ingredients you would need for this pizza depend on how large you want it to be, so it’s up to you. But here are the quantities she used:

2 mozzarella balls

1/2 a  jar of tomato sauce

1 pizza dough

3 large tomatoes

1 tsp of thyme

Roll out the dough. Spread the tomato cause evenly over the dough. Then add the sliced tomatoes and the sliced mozzarella. Sprinkle with thyme. Cook in the oven at 430 F for 12 minutes.

 

 

Salad Bowl

Salad bowls are a super easy and fun way to eat your veggies. There’s no recipe to follow – just toss whatever veggies, salad, nuts, or seeds you want into a bowl, and you’ve got yourself a nice salad. You may also wish to sprinkle the salad with dressing of your choice. You can also add eggs, guacamole, or hummus, to make it a more filling salad.

For this particular salad, I used the following ingredients:

Kale

Spinach

Tomatoes

Red cabbage

cucumbers

carrots

chia seeds

flax seeds

pumpkin seeds

guacamole

Grilled Chicken with Peanut Butter Sauce

This is one of my all time favorite chicken meals.  The recipe is from Hurricane Restaurant which is located in Kennebunkport, ME.  The marinade and peanut sauce are both easy to make, but the depth of flavor would never suggest that!  I am going to apologize in advance for the lack luster photographs… I was just so excited to dig in that I lost all patience.

Grilled Chicken with Peanut Butter Sauce (serves 7-8)

Chicken:

1 cup lemon juice

1 cup soy sauce

6 tablespoons chopped garlic

3 lbs chicken breasts

Combine all ingredients.  Place chicken in the marinade.  Let it sit for as long as possible so the flavors meld together.

Char-grill until done.  Serve alongside the sauce.

Sauce:

12 tablespoons peanut butter

6 tablespoons butter

1 1/4 tablespoon crushed red pepper

6 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons lemon juice

3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

Mix the butter, peanut butter, and red pepper in a saucepan over low heat until melted.  Mix all the rest of the other ingredients together.  Slowly stream into peanut butter mixture.  Keep at low heat until everything is warm.

You can add more sugar or crushed red pepper depending on the level of heat you prefer.  If you put the chicken on skewers instead of leaving the breasts whole this is an excellent side dish.

 

 

Chopped Greek Salad

This salad is an effortless side dish perfect for spring and summer BBQ’s.  All you have to do is chop up the vegetables and feta, and whisk together an easy dressing.

Greek Chopped Salad (equal parts of all ingredients)

chopped tomatoes

chopped cucumber

pitted kalamata olives

crumbled feta cheese

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.  Top with balsamic dressing below.

Balsamic Dressing

1/3 part olive oil

2/3 part balsamic vinegar

freshly squeezed lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

 

Peanut Butter White Chocolate Cookies

These cookies are AMAZING.  Really.  The cookies have a tender crumb from the oatmeal and are not too sweet, which balances the creamy white chocolate.  The peanut butter flavor comes through without being too overpowering.  If you are a peanut fanatic you could even substitute peanut butter chips in for the white chocolate!  The original recipe was from Broma Bakery, but it called for peanut butter frosting.  I wanted to use chips I had in my pantry so I added them instead.

Peanut Butter White Chocolate Cookies

1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 cups oats

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup peanut butter (I used freshly ground from Whole Foods)

1/2 cup salted butter, softened

1 egg

1 cup white chocolate chips

Mix the oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl.

In a separate larger bowl, cream the butter, sugar, egg, peanut butter, and vanilla together.  Add the dry mixture and mix until incorporated with a wooden spoon.  Add the chocolate chips.  Put in the fridge for an hour.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Place teaspoon size portions of dough onto a lined baking sheet.  I was able to fit 6X3 on one pan.  Press lightly on each mound of dough to flatten slightly.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Make sure you let the cookies cool for some time before you remove them from the pan because they are very delicate warm!

 

 

 

Cheddar, Tomato, Caramelized Onion Grilled Cheese

This is a “fancified” version of your traditional grilled cheese sandwich, but it’s still just as comforting! I made mine in a panini press, but you can also grill it on a pan with some butter.

Ingredients 

2 slices of bread (I used whole wheat bread)

2 large slices of tomato

1-2 slices of cheddar cheese (depending on how much cheese you like)

1 onion (chopped into small slices)

olive oil

Procedure

In a hot skillet add a drizzle of olive oil and the chopped onion. Cook the onions, mixing them every few minutes, until they caramelize, or become light brown.

On one slice of  bread, put the cheese. Then add the tomato, and then the caramelized onions. Place the second slice on top.

Put the sandwich in a panini press and grill it until the cheese is well melted.

Flower Bouquet

I made this “bouquet” for my mom on mother’s day. It looks quite complicated, but it’s actually pretty simple. All you need is a variety of fruit and some flower shaped and circular cookie cutters.

Materials

Thin wooden skewers

cookie cutters (Flower and circle shapes)

Lots of fruits (I used kiwi, apples, mango, and banana – but you can really use any fruit. It works best when you use some large fruits (ie. apples) and small fruits (ie. kiwis) so that you can have a variety of flower sizes)

1 grapefruit (for the base of the bouquet)

Lemon/ lemon juice

Raisins and dried cranberries

Steps

Cut the Grapefruit in half and place one half, face down on a plate. You will stick the skewers into this. You can wrap up the other half, as you will not need it.

Cut your fruit into slices (1/2 – 1cm thick). Use the cookie cutters to cut out a variety of shapes.

Take a skewer and put 3 raisins on it. Move the raisins so that they are about 1 inch away from one end of the skewer. The raisins will stop the fruit from slipping down.

Then, on top of the raisins, stack about 2-3 slices of fruit to make the fruit “flower”. Put the larger slices on the bottom, closer to the raisins.

Then at the very top add a raisin or dried cranberry to hide the tip of the skewer.

If your flower contains fruits that browns, squeeze some lemon juice on top of it. (the lemon prevents the browning).

Stick the skewer with your finished flower into the grapefruit.

Keep assembling flowers until you have made as many as you want!

Pitarra Restaurant

My favorite meal abroad in Spain was actually on the last night of the whole trip.    We ate at Pitarra Restaurant located in Barcelona, founded in 1890.  Nestled in a cute neighborhood with a cozy interior, the ambiance of the place was stellar from the moment we walked in.  We had a hefty portion of spanish tortilla to start, followed by seafood paella, and then Crema Catalana for dessert.  The tortilla was the best one I ate the whole time in Spain.  It is a relatively simple dish composed of potatoes, onion, eggs, and olive oil, and yet it was so delcious!

The paella was just as good and was my favorite of the trip as well.  I decided to go the seafood route because Barcelona is located by the ocean and it was definitely the right choice.  The paella was chock full of mussels, fish, shellfish, and the rice was creamy like a risotto.  If you ever find yourself in Barcelona definitely meander over to Pitarra for a wonderful experience.

 

Tomato Feta Salad

One of the days in Barcelona we went to the Park Guell, home of the famous El Draco sculpture (seen below), and I had a really simple but delicious salad for lunch.  Composed of fresh tomatoes, feta, croutons, and sliced onion, it was a perfect light meal.  It also works as a wonderful springtime/ summer side dish!

My own version I whipped together under 10 minutes and I omitted the croutons and raw onion.  If you want an added kick drizzle some balsamic vinegar on top for flavor.

Tomato Feta Salad

tomatoes (sliced into wedges or cubes)

feta (cubes around 1X.5 in)

olive oil to drizzle on top

black pepper to taste

salt (I found I did not need to add salt because feta has a briny flavor, but it is all up to your personal preference)

Mix all the ingredients together and serve!