Cilantro-Avocado-Lime dressing

So I am obsessed with Trader Joe's Cilantro Dressing. I LOVE it on fish tacos (which we've made on the blog before). Unfortunately Trader Joe's is an hour away from our house, so I don't get to go as often as I'd like. This past week we were wanting to make fish tacos without driving an hour, so I decided to try and make my own cilantro dressing. Lucky for us, it turned out great. This is super yummy and I think would be great on salads, as a dip, sandwich spread, and so on. And of course it's awesome on fish tacos.

Ingredients
-5 oz container non-fat Greek yogurt
-juice of 1-2 limes
-2 T EVOO
-1 garlic clove, chopped
-2 large handfuls of cilantro (just trim the bottom stems off)
-1/2 avocado
-salt and cayenne to taste

Steps
1. Blend all of the above in a blender! If you'd like it a bit thinner in consistency, add more lime juice and/or EVOO.

Massaged Kale Salad

Huge thanks to my good friend, Amy, for making this salad and turning me on to its deliciousness! Also, big thanks to Amy for showing me that by "massaging" raw kale you can make it taste just like quickly blanched kale. I didn't have all the ingredients on hand to make this the way Amy did, so I'm posting both her version and mine, which I improvised with what we had on hand. Both were great and I'll definitely be making the her version soon. Basically I think you can take the base of this salad and add all types of different toppings (e.g., cranberries, seeds, nuts, etc.).

Ingredients (Amy)
-1 bunch kale
~3 oz feta
-1 apple, chopped into bite size pieces
-handful of walnuts, roughly chopped
-1/2 tsp sea salt
-2 T red wine vinegar
-1 T EVOO

Ingredients (as pictured)
-1 bunch kale
~3 oz blue cheese
-1 apple, chopped into bite size pieces
-handful of pecans, roughly chopped
-1/2 tsp sea salt
-2 T red wine vinegar
-1 T EVOO
-Quorn Chik'n Tenders (you could use real grilled chicken if you prefer)

Steps
1. Start cooking Quorn Chik'n Tenders as directed.
2. Remove spines from kale, wash kale, and dry kale thoroughly.

3. Tear kale into small pieces and place into a large bowl. Sprinkle kale with 1/2 tsp sea salt and massage kale with your hands for about 2-3 minutes, or until reduces in volume by about half.
4. Whisk EVOO and red wine vinegar together in a small bowl and pour over kale.
5. Add in chopped apple, blue cheese, pecans (or walnuts and feta if making Amy's version) and toss well.

6. Top with sauteed Quorn tenders.

Zucchini Boats

I have to thank a friend from work, Pam, for this quick, easy, and delicious recipe. It works great as a side dish; we've served it with pasta or burgers, or even just a salad if you wanted a light meal.

Ingredients
-4 zucchini
-4 cloves of garlic, minced
-1/2 C mozzarella (any kind of cheese that melts will work)
~1/3 C bread crumbs
~20 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
~2 T EVOO
-salt and pepper to taste

(Preheat oven to 350)
Steps
1. Cut your zucchinis in half, lengthwise; scoop out seeds with a spoon.
2. Lightly grease a large pan. Lay out your zucchinis and lightly baste them with EVOO and the minced garlic.
3. Add the tomatoes, then sprinkle with bread crumbs. Salt and pepper everything.

4. Cook for about 25-30 minutes, then remove and top everything with cheese and cook for broil until cheesy is browned and bubbly.

Roasted Veggie Bake

I made this super easy dish (recipe courtesy of Budget Bytes) when my mom was in town. We went to the Farmer's Market and got all the ingredients there. This can be a main dish if served with some crusty bread or would be a great side dish.

(p.s. It's been a crazy month, but I have quite a few recipes to post so I will try to catch up this weekend!)

Ingredients
-1 potato, sliced into thin medallions
-1 yellow squash, sliced into thin medallions
-1 zucchini, sliced into thin medallions
-1 large, ripe tomato, sliced into thin medallions
-1 yellow onion, diced
-4 cloves of garlic, minced
-1 tsp thyme
-1 T basil
-1 T EVOO
~1 C shredded mozzarella
-salt and pepper to taste

(preheat oven to 400)
Steps
1. Saute your diced onion with EVOO for about 6 minutes over medium heat. Add garlic and saute another 2-3 minutes.
2. Lightly coat a small baking dish (e.g., 6X6) with EVOO. Layer the bottom with the sauteed garlic and onions.
3. Arrange your veggie slices (tomato, zucchini, squash, potato)  by alternating them in vertical rows. If you run out of one veggie don't worry...the arrangement doesn't have to be equal or perfect.

4. Drizzle veggies with a little EVOO and top with herbs (basil and thyme). Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
5. Remove foil, add cheese, and cook for another 15 minutes.

Pico de Gallo

This is such a great summertime snack. We eat it with chips, but also just pour it over Romaine lettuce instead of using salad dressing. I use cherry tomatoes for this because I think they are a bit firmer, but I'm sure you could use larger tomatoes if your prefer. I actually used heirloom cherry tomatoes in this picture, which added some really nice color.

Ingredients
-1 plastic container of cherry tomatoes, cut into fourths or sixths depending on size
-3 cloves garlic, finely diced
-1 fresh jalapeno, seeds removed, finely diced
-juice of 2 limes
~1/4 - 1/3 C cilantro
-either 1/2 diced white onion or 1/4 diced red onion
-salt and pepper to taste

Steps
1. Combine all of the above in a bowl and stir well.

Basil Lemon Chickpea Salad

This is another recipe courtesy of Chef Adam Hume. It's super flavorful and comes together in about 5 minutes. It's great as a side dish or a even a main served with lettuce or tossed with pasta in a pasta salad.

Note: This is best if you let it sit for at least an hour to really let the flavors meld.

Ingredients
-3 cans chickpeas
-juice of 2 lemons (about 1/3 Cup)
-zest of 1 lemon
-1/4 Cup EVOO
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-2 handfuls basil, chiffonaded
-2/3 C freshly grated Parmesan cheese
-course ground salt and pepper

Steps
1. Combine rinsed and drained chickpeas, chopped fresh basil,  fresh lemon juice, EVOO, and minced garlic in a large bowl. Add grated Parmesan cheese and toss gently to blend all ingredients thoroughly. Season chickpea salad to taste with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Tofu Orzo Salad

I got this yummy and super simple recipe from my friend and colleague, Therese. It's actually really similar to the Roasted Shrimp and Orzo salad I posted earlier. Her original recipe called for chicken, which she marinated in Greek spices, which I'm sure would be delicious. However, over the summer we've been trying to cut down on meat (and expenses), so we subbed tofu for the chicken. Also, we marinated our tofu in balsamic vinegar.

Ingredients
-1.5 C orzo, cooked per package instructions
-2 small cucumbers, diced
-3-4 Roma tomatoes, diced
~1/2 C feta cheese
-1 package extra firm tofu, diced and marinated 
~2 T balsamic vinegar

Dresssing
-Juice from 2 lemons (about 1/3-1/2 C), and zest of one lemon
-2 garlic cloves, mined
~1/3 C fresh dill, chopped
~2 T EVOO
-salt and pepper, to your tasting

1. Basically just do the following: marinate your tofu, cook the orzo, chop the veggies, tofu, and dill, whisk up your dressing, combine everything, and enjoy!

Greek Salad and Tzatziki Sauce

First, I have to thank my good friend, Jess, for making the Tzatziki sauce. It was really delicious, healthy (Greek yogurt packs some serious protein!), and has become my new favorite veggie dipping sauce. I'll list the ingredients we used to make the Greek salad below, but really you can use whatever sounds good to you.

Salad Ingredients
-1 head of Romaine lettuce, chopped
-1/4 (or less) of a red onion, thinly sliced
-8 oz crumbled reduced-fat feta
-1 cucumber, chopped and de-seeded
-handful of cherry tomatoes
-handful of Greek olives
Dressing (whisk the following together):
-3 T fresh lemon juice
-3 T red wine vigegar
-2 T EVOO
-pepper

Tzatziki Ingredients
-8 oz Greek yogurt
-the juice from 1/2 a squeezed lemon
-3-4 T chopped, fresh dill
-3 garlic cloves, chopped
-2 T EVOO
(serve with sliced cucumber, or other veggies)

Steps
These are both pretty simple recipes where you literally just mix-up the ingredients and enjoy!

German Potato Salad

In theory, I like potato salad; however, I HATE mayonnaise, so I almost never eat it. I found this sans-mayo recipe, and thought it was really tasty. It's supposed to be served warm, but I served mine room temp, and have been eating the leftovers cold.
 
Ingredients
-3 lbs red potatoes, diced into bite sized pieces
~8 slices turkey bacon
-1 sweet onion, diced
-1 bunch green onion, chopped
-3/4 C apple cider vinegar
-1/4 C canola oil
-salt & pepper

Steps
1. Boil your diced potatoes in salted water until tender (about 15 minutes). Once potatoes are done cooking, strain and put in a large bowl.
2. Cook bacon. Once done cooking crumble bacon.
3. Cook diced onion in bacon drippings (I had to add a tad bit of EVOO) for about 3 minutes. Whisk in cider and oil and cook for 2 minutes.
4. Pour vinaigrette over potatoes. Fold in bacon and green onion and mix. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Baked-Potato Eggs

I always forget that any kind of twice baked potato recipe is, like, 20 times harder than it sounds. When I read this recipe, I was tricked into thinking it would be easy because the recipe did not bill the potatoes as the twice baked kind (even though they totally are). So when I originally read the recipe I was like, "Oh, bake a potato, mix it with some other stuff, pop it back in the oven, and voila, delicious!" However, it did not work out like that...at least not for me. I ended up getting sweaty and cussing a lot as I broke my potato shells and ended up with more filler than potato shells. Despite all this, these were quite tasty, so if you have some time I still recommend them (and hopefully you won't make the same mistakes nor have the same easy baking expectations that I did).

Ingredients
-2 baking potatoes
-1/3 C milk
-3 T butter or margarine
-1/2 C grated Parmesan
-2 chicken sausages, casings removed
-4 eggs
-1 T EVOO
-salt and pepper to taste
-chives (optional)

Steps
(preheat oven to 400)
1. Wash your potatoes and then poke several holes in them with a fork. Rub your potatoes with EVOO and sprinkle with sea salt. Cook in oven for about 1 hour or until tender. (Flip your potatoes half way through).
2. While your potatoes are cooking, cook your sausages for about 7 minutes (or until browned) breaking it up into small pieces with the back of a wooden spoon as you go.
3. Once potatoes are done, carefully cut them in half and scoop out the insides into a large bowl. I did not do this carefully (and I also didn't cook my potatoes long enough) and ripped most of my shells :(

4. Mash your potato insides with a masher. Add butter, milk, Parm, sausage, and salt & pepper to bowl and mix. Once mixed, fill your shells back up with the mixture.

5. Once you've filled your potato shells, make an indentation (with your finger) in the middle of the filled potatoes. Then crack an egg into each hole.

6. Bake your potatoes again for about another 20 minutes or until eggs are set.
7. Top with chives if you like.

(Note: I actually made 3 potatoes when I made this, and just added a little more of all the ingredients. However, I ended up with more filler than could fit in the potato skins, so I put some of the potato filler in small oven proof dishes and carried on from there.)

Brussels Sprouts

I always thought these were tasteless, stinky, nasties that only my grandparents and patrons of Luby's Cafeteria ate until I recently had them at my friend Lauren's house. The way she prepared them they were slightly crisp and very flavorful, and I fully agree with her that these are like tasty little cabbages. I even got my fiance to eat several after he had sworn he wouldn't be trying them. I will definitely be making more of these as they were super easy and still good heated up in the microwave the next day.

Ingredients:
-1 package Brussels sprouts (probably about 30 Brussels), with the brown bottoms trimmed off
-2.5 T EVOO
-salt and pepper to taste

Steps:
(preheat oven to 400)
1. Toss all ingredients together in a bowl. Place in a baking pan, and cook for 15-20 minutes or until sprouts are browned on the outside, tender on the inside, but still slightly crisp. Remove pan from oven 2-3 times while cooking and shake sprouts so that all sides get browned.
2. Add more salt at the end if you'd like...I made mine nice and salty like French fries.

Black Bean Corn Salsa

My friend Lauren gave me this recipe, and I think it's pretty much the best dip ever. It's so addictive I sometimes just call it the Crack Dip.

Ingredients
-2 can black beans
-2 can shoepeg corn
~10 green onions, chopped
~1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, chopped
~6 oz feta cheese
-1/2 C apple cider vinegar
-1/4 C EVOO (or even a bit less)
-1/4 C brown sugar

Note: These measurements are all approximate, feel free to add more or less of anything according to your tastes.

Steps
1. Chop up cilantro, green onion, and feta, and mix with beans and corn in a large bowl.

2. Make dressing by combining the vinegar, oil, and sugar with a whisk. (I'm putting pictures below so you can roughly see the amounts of oil, vinegar, and sugar. The first picture is just the vinegar and oil, and the second picture has had the sugar added.)

3. Pour dressing over bean mixture and toss well.

Snobby Joes and Roasted Carrots

I got the Snobby Joe recipe from the Veganomicon cookbook. They're tasty and really easy to make, but note that the recipe makes a lot, so you'll definitely have leftovers for lunch.
The roasted carrot recipe I got from Cooking Light. These were surprisingly good. The carrots get a nice, sweet flavor after being cooked, and that paired with the cilantro make for a really interesting taste combo.

Roasted Carrots Ingredients
-6-10 carrots, sliced vertically
~2 T olive oil
-1/2 tsp pepper and salt to taste
-1/2 tsp cumin and cayenne pepper
~3 T chopped cilantro

Steps
1. Slice carrots vertically.
2. Toss with other ingredients.

 
3. Cook at 450 for 25 minutes, stirring once after 12 minutes.
4. Top with cilantro.

Snobby Joe ingredients
-1 package buns
-2 tsp oregano
-1 C lentils
-3 T chili powder
-8 oz tomato sauce
-4 oz tomato paste
-1 onion diced
-1 green pepper diced (optional-I forgot this and don't think it's necessary)
-3 cloves garlic, chopped
-3 T maple syrup
-1 T mustard
-1/2 tsp salt

Snobby Joe Steps:
1. Add 1 C lentils and 4 C water to a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil and then let simmer for 20 minutes, or until lentils are soft.









2. After lentils have been cooking for 10 minutes, saute onion (and green pepper) for about 7 minutes. Add garlic and saute another minute.
3. Add in cooked lentils, tomato sauce and paste, maple syrup, mustard, salt, oregano, and chili powder.

4. Stir well and let cook for about another 5-10 minutes or until heated through.
5. Let sit another 5 minutes to let flavors mingle.
6. Serve on top of toasted buns (I prefer open face).

Homeade Guacamole

This is a fairly standard version of guacamole, plus the addition of salsa, which gives it a nice kick.
Note: I reserve the avocado seeds and put them in the guac because they help keep it from browning.

Ingredients
-3 avocados
-2 T lime juice
-1/3 jar hot salsa (such as Pace picante)
-2 T finely diced red onion
-pepper and garlic salt to taste

Steps
1. Cut avocados in half and score like in picture with a knife. Then, using a spoon, scoop out avocado section into a bowl. (My friend Jon taught me this neat trick.)

 

2. Mash avocados with potato masher or back of fork. Stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Sweet Potato Casserole

This is my favorite Thanksgiving dish, and my mom and I have been making it for as long as I can remember. It's definitely sweet, but I don't think overly so. The cereal-pecan-brown sugar-butter crust is the best part. (Also, I accidentally deleted several pics, so I don't have one of the finished product. Bummer.)

Ingredients (makes enough to fill a 13X9 casserole dish)
-8 sweet potatoes
-1 ¼ C white sugar
-2 eggs beaten
-¼ C melted butter
-½ C milk
-½ teaspoon nutmeg
-½ teaspoon cinnamon
TOPPING

1 C crushed corn flakes
½ C brown sugar packed
3/4 C chopped pecans
¼ C melted butter

Steps
1. Bake or boil sweet potatoes until tender. (If you bake, 1 hour at 350 is usually enough time.0
2. Remove skins from sweet potatoes.

3. Cut up into smallish pieces in a large bowl.

4. Add egg, sugar, milk, and spices.
5. Mash/mix well.
6. Pour into greased casserole dish.
7. Cook at 400 for 25 minutes.
8. Make topping by mixing all of topping ingredients together.
9. Spoon on top of casserole. Bake an additional 10-15 minutes at 400.

Note: You can definitely make this a day ahead and reheat.

Pork Chops and Warm Spinach Salad with Soy-Butter Glaze

This recipe comes together in 30 minutes or less. I did the pork chops a bit differently than I normally do. Previously, I actually stuffed them with the apple-raisin mixture, but that was kind of a pain so this time I just put the "stuffing" on top, and I actually preferred them this way.

The spinach salad is one of the few things I've totally made up myself, hence the kind of ridiculous name. I don't think you're supposed to call mixing soy sauce and butter together a "glaze" but...whatever.


Pork chop ingredients:
-4 boneless pork chops
-4 T honey mustard (or Dijon if you prefer)
-2 T raisins
-1/2 an apple, diced
~12 Ritz crackers, crushed
-1 T brown sugar
-salt&pepper

Warm Spinach Salad with Soy-Butter Glaze Ingredients
-2/3 package fresh spinach
-1 medium sized red onion, finely sliced
~3 T butter or margarine (I use the fake yogurt butter)
~3 T soy sauce

Steps:
1. Crush Ritz, add raisins, apple, brown sugar, and mustard. Mix in an oven safe bowl and heat in oven (until everything else is ready) at about 200.

2. Lightly baste pork with mustard and sprinkle with salt&pepper. Grill for about 15 minutes or until done.

3. While pork is grilling, caramelize your red onion (saute over medium to medium-high heat for about 5-7mins).

4. Once onions are slightly brown, turn heat on the stove OFF. Dump half the bag of spinach into your pan, add butter and soy sauce and begin tossing. The heat from the pan and onion will begin to wilt the spinach. For this salad you only want the spinach barely wilted, so if it starts cooking down too much, remove pan from heat.

5. Once spinach begins to wilt, add another handful or two of spinach and continue tossing. Although it looks like you're making a lot, this salad is SOOO good that I could eat the whole pan.

6. Top pork chops with apple-raisin mixture and serve.