Cheesy Spinach and Artichoke Dip

I'm not sure where I got this recipe, as I have been making it for years. I suspect it was originally on a South Beach Diet message board, as it's low in carbs. It's yummy with fresh veggies and crackers.

Cheesy Spinach and Artichoke Dip

1 can (14 oz) artichoke hearts
1 package (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 cup light mayonnaise
1/2 shredded mozzarella (light is ok)
1/2 tsp garlic powder.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Finely chop artichokes. Thaw and drain the spinach.

Combine all ingredients in a pie plate or casserole dish. Mix until well blended.

Bake 20 minutes.

Lentil and Brown Rice Casserole

Upon hearing the name of this casserole, my husband declared he would not eat it. And, frankly, the thought of lentils and brown rice in a casserole can conjure up visions of bad vegan food from the seventies. However, this casserole is FANTASTIC. It is flavorful and soothing. Try it. Adapted from the Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook.

Lentil and Brown Rice Casserole

1 tb extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
¼ tsp garlic powder
2 large carrots, diced
1 ½ tsp dried thyme
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp salt
2 cups frozen chopped spinach
¾ cup green lentils
½ cup brown basmati rice
4 cups water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add chopped red onion and garlic. Saute for about 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Then add the diced carrots, dried thyme, garam masala, and salt; stir to coat with olive oil. Saute for a few minutes more then add the chopped spinach and stir.
Place mixture into a large casserole. Add lentils, brown rice, and water; mix well. Cover.
Place into a covered pot in the preheated oven and bake for 1 hour and 25 minutes.

Sushi Salad

Got a craving for sushi and don't want to go out? This will take care of it! Adapted from the magazine Clean Eating.

Sushi Salad

3 cups pre made brown rice, cooled (leftover rice works great)
1 tbsp wasabi paste
2 tbsp soy sauce
2/3 cup rice wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar or your choice of sweetener
1 cucumber, diced into 1/4 inch cubes (if using an English cucumber, don't peel; if using a conventional cucumber, do peel)
4 nori sheet, quartered and cut into 1/4 inch strips
1 large carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
8 oz crab meat pieces ("krab" is fine)
1 avocado, pitted, peeled, and sliced
4 cups baby spinach

In a small bowl, whisk wasabi, soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix rice, cucumber, nori, and carrot. Drizzle with wasabi mixture and stir to combine. Gently fold in crab.

Divide spinach evenly among four serving plates and top each with rice crab mixture and avocado.

Asian Inspired Marinade

This is perfect for chicken. It's a little strong for fish, but my fish-hating hubby loves it with tilapia and cod.

6 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 cup neutral oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil

Combine, and pour over chicken or fish. Enough for at least 2 pounds of either. Marinade at least 3 hours, but you can also marinade overnight. You can even stick the meat and marinade in a freezer bag and freeze it (but I have not personally tried this).

Simple Bruchetta

This is a yummy appetizer for the holidays (especially if you add fresh basil - red and green!), but I often serve this for dinner with a green salad on the side.

Simple Bruchetta

1 baguette, sliced into rounds (day old is better)
About an ounce of olive oil (I use a shot glass)

1 can petite diced tomatoes, drained
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese (grated or shredded, your call)
2 tablespoon diced sundried tomatoes
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried basil, or 2 tablespoons fresh basil
A couple of splashes of red wine vinegar

Preheat oven to 375. Place the baguette rounds on a cookie sheet, and brush with olive oil. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

While these are baking, combine remaining ingredients. Top each round with tomato mixture. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Crockpot Santa Fe Chicken

This has become one of my family's most favorite meals.

Crockpot Santa Fe Chicken

2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 15 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 15 ounce can corn, drained
1 1/2 to 2 cups salsa
1 8 ounce package cream cheese (you can use low fat)
1 cup cheddar cheese
Hot sauce for serving

Place the chicken breasts in the bottom of a 4 quart slow cooker. Combine the black beans, corn, and salsa in a separate bowl; dump all over the chicken. Cook on low for 5 hours. About half an hour before you want to serve this, take the chicken out and shred it. Place it back in the slow cooker with the cheese and combine. Cook about another half hour, or at very least, until all the cheese is melted.

We liked this served over brown rice with hot sauce on the side. It would also go well as a "chip dip" or in taco shells.

Breakfast Zucchini Bread

I'm not a fan of sugary food in the morning. A little sugar is ok, but please save the maple syrup and HFCS until dessert time. (Actually, you can keep the HFCS.) With this in mind, I made a very slightly sweet breakfast bread.

Breakfast Zucchini Bread
(modified from heavenlyhomemakers.com)

3 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup no sugar added applesauce
2 cups shredded zucchini (I use my food processor to shred zucchini, skin and all)
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and baking powder.  Stir in honey, applesauce, zucchini, eggs and butter.  Mix ingredients until well combined.  Pour into two well buttered loaf pans.  Bake at 350° for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Buffalo Chicken Soup

I modified this from the Year of Slow Cooking blog. It doesn't quite remind me of buffalo wings, but it's delicious none the less.

Buffalo Chicken Soup


1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 cups low fat milk
1 cup chicken broth
4 ounces low fat cream cheese
1/3 cup Frank's Red Hot sauce
1/2 tsp garlic powder

In a small sauce pan, heat butter until melted. Stir in the flour, and heat until thoroughly blended, stirring constantly. Set aside.

Combine chicken, celery, milk, chicken broth, cream cheese, hot sauce, and garlic powder in a 3-4 quart crockpot. Stir in butter mixture. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

Creamy Sun-Dried chicken over Quinoa

1 cup quinoa
2 cups chicken broth

1 bunch of green onions, diced (white parts and most of the green parts)
olive oil
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tb cornstarch
2 tb butter
1/4 cup fresh basil, julienned
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, diced
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups already cooked chicken, shredded

Rinse the quinoa. Place water and quinoa in a pot together; heat on high until boiling. Cover, turn the heat to medium low, and simmer for 12 minutes.

In a separate pan, saute green onions in olive oil until very fragrant. Combine milk and cornstarch in a different bowl, and pour into pan. Add  butter, and heat until boiling and thickened. Add basil, tomatoes, garlic powder, red pepper, salt and pepper, and chicken and heat until cooked through. Serve warm over quinoa.

Chicken and Veggie Quesadillas

We had this last night, and it was so easy, simple, and delicious that I wanted to share.

Chicken and Veggie Quesadillas

1 medium onion, diced
2 bell peppers, diced (use two different colors for more fun/nutrition!)
1 tb chili powder
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup shredded cooked chicken
1 cup cheese
6 large tortillas (we actually used FlatOut Bread)

Saute onions and peppers in a small amount of olive oil until soft. In a bowl, place vegetables, spices, and chicken. Mix. Spread the mixture evenly over three tortillas. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the mixture. Top with the remaining tortillas, and fry in a small amount of butter or olive oil until the cheese is melted.

Crockpot Barbecue Chicken

This is so ridiculously easy that I'm afraid to post it. But it is quite good. And ridiculously easy.


Crockpot Barbecue Chicken

2 chicken breasts (about 1 lb)
1/2 cup of barbecue sauce

Use a one to two quart crockpot (the size you see dips in). Put the breasts in the crockpot. Pour the barbecue sauce on top. Cook on high for three hours. Take the chicken out, shred it, and place it back in the crockpot with all the sauce and juice. If it doesn't look as juicy as you'd like, add more sauce. DONE. Serve with hamburger buns or rice.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Another one of my "classic" dishes, this is simple, not too expensive, and perfect for a rainy Northwest day. Pull out your crockpot and...

Chicken Tortilla Soup

4 chicken breast halves (if frozen, make sure they're thawed first)
2 cans black beans, drained
2 15oz cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup salsa
1 4oz can green chiles
1 14oz can tomato sauce
tortilla chips and cheese

Combine all ingredients except chips and cheese in a crockpot (at least a 4 quart). Cook on low for 8 hours. Before serving, remove the chicken, shred it, and return to the crockpot. Serve over tortilla chips and sprinkle with cheese.

Crustless Quiche

I prefer recipes that let you use wide categories of food, so you can make your dinner your own. Crustless quiche is one of these:

Crustless Quiche

Grease a 9 inch pie pan. Place 1 1/2 cups filling ingredients in the pan. Combine 4 eggs with 1 1/2 cups milk and desired seasonings (like salt and pepper, nutmeg, or anything else, really). Pour into pie pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 375 degrees.

Filling ingredient ideas:
Shredded cheese
Spinach (if it's been frozen, thawed and thoroughly drained)
Broccoli
Bacon bits
Sausage
Green chiles
Onion
Leftover ham or chicken

Chicken Peanut Stew

This was a staple of the "Stephanie's working a horrible job and Sean's still in school" years. I got it off a message board, maybe? I actually have no idea, I just look in my recipe book now :) It was described as having a West African flair to it. I'd say it's about as authentic as Chinese food from Safeway is.

Chicken Peanut Stew

1 chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
Olive oil
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes and green chiles
1 15 oz can chickpeas
2 tbsp tomato paste (I've omitted this in the past and used a little cornstarch and water because really? what do you do with the rest of the can?)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
1-2 tsp cumin
garlic powder to taste

Heat olive oil and chicken over medium heat. Saute with garlic powder until cooked through. Stir in tomatoes & chiles and chickpeas, stirring constantly for one minute. Stir in cumin, broth, and red pepper flakes, cover and reduce heat. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add tomato paste and stir until smooth. Add peanut butter and stir until smooth. Replace lid and simmer until thickened. Serve with rice, couscous, or what have you.

Picadillo

Picadillo is a Latin American ground meat dish that I’ve been making variations of for years. I was first introduced to it by a seasoning packet from Whole Foods, and I believe it just called for ground beef and a can of tomatoes. I didn’t think much of it, and we didn’t have it for a while.

But then we started the South Beach diet, of which the beginning stage limits you essentially to meats and vegetables. Tired of salad and stir fries, I found a recipe on a South Beach message board that had a variant of the below recipe. We tried it, and it was delicious (at least it was to me. I think Sean merely tolerated it). It omitted the raisins.

We ate the raisin-less version for a while, not knowing the difference, until I saw another, more authentic version. It was good, but not quite right.

So I combined the two and came up with the following recipe (I’ll omit the tomatoes and olive juice for Henry’s meal):

Picadillo

Olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound ground turkey (or extra lean ground beef, whatever)

½ lb finely chopped cold cut ham (optional, or add less)

1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles undrained

1/4 cup of pimento-stuffed green olives cut in half and a tablespoon if its juice

1/3 cup raisins

½ tsp all purpose seasoning (I use Spike)

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for about 10 minutes.

Add the turkey and ham and cook, stirring until the turkey is done, about 10 to 15 minutes. Drain off the excess fat. 

Add the remaining ingredients to the meat mixture in the skillet and cook through, another 5 to 10 minutes. Serve with rice or tortillas.

As a side note, I have always seen this described as a Cuban dish. However, according to Wikipedia, the above version is actually a Dominican dish.

Applesauce

I LOVE making applesauce. It's so easy and tastes better than anything you can get at the store. The best part is it is just apples - you can add anything else that you want, but it is so nice having a versatile base.

Ingredients:

Apples. Around eight pounds, to be exact. If you get the sweeter varieties like Gala or Fuji, you don't need added sugar. I almost exclusively use Gala.

Directions:

Peel, core, and slice the apples. I like to peel the apples while watching a tv show, then use a corer/slicer to simultaneously core and slice the apples into eight slices each. The slices can be pretty chunky.

Place the apples in a six quart slow cooker. Cook on high for two hours, then stir. The apples should be soft and hot, but not mushy at this point. Turn down the temperature and cook on low for three to four hours. Stir it up, and voila! Chunky applesauce. (If you like a smoother texture, go ahead and puree it.)

For variations, I like to sprinkle some cinnamon in, or blend it with berries.

Enjoy! Perfect for tired mommies, hungry babies, and scrap happy dogs.