Balsamic Roasted Potatoes

Looking for something new to do with potatoes?  Look no further!  These are really good and super easy, too.  I wasn't too sure about them at first, but they grew on me as I was eating them. 

Ingredients (adapted from Everyday Food):

• 1 1/2 lbs potatoes, cut in chunks
• 3/4 c. low sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
• 8 cloves of garlic, smashed
• 1/2 tsp. thyme
• Coarse salt & pepper

To make:

• Preheat oven to 425
• Combine all ingredients in an 8" baking dish
• Bake until potatoes are tender 1 - 1 1/4 hours and liquid reduces to glaze, tossing a couple of times
• Season with salt and pepper

Seafood Linguini with Leeks

I love reading cook books and you all know I love Trader Joe's.  So what could be better than reading a cook book that uses all TJ's ingredients?  I got the I Love Trader Joe's cook book for Christmas and it's full of lots of yummy, easy recipes.  It has pretty pictures, too!

I've been wanting to try this recipe for a couple of months but something held me back - I hate leeks.  Or at least I thought I did.  I recall eating a potato leek soup when I was a kid and hating it so I never tried leeks again . . . until now.  And guess what?  I DO like leeks.  Just goes to show you, you should always give foods you hated as a kid a second chance as an adult.   I'm glad I tried this - it was really good!

Ingredients (adapted from the I Love Trader Joe's cook book):

• 1 lb linguini, cooked and drained
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. butter
• 2 leeks, cleaned and thinly sliced (I actually used a bag of frozen leeks from TJ's)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 5 oz crimini mushrooms, thinly sliced, optional
• 1/2 vegetable broth
• 1/2 lb. seafood (the original recipe calls for shrimp, but I used a shrimp/scallop/calamari blend from TJ's)
• Salt & pepper

The original recipe calls for a "handful" of arugula.  I didn't feel like buying a whole bag of arugula for one handful, so I didn't.  I think I will next time.  It would bring a nice nutty/spicy flavor.  The original also calls for 1/4 c. Parmesan cheese but since I'm off dairy, I obviously didn't use it. 

To make:

• Heat olive oil and butter in medium saute pan
• Saute leeks until tender, about 5 minutes
• Add garlic and saute 1-2 minutes, until fragrant
• Add mushrooms, if using, and saute until tender 
• Add broth and bring to a boil
• Simmer for about 5 minutes to slightly reduce sauce
• Add shrimp/seafood and cook just until shrimp turns pink
• Toss mixture with cooked pasta
• Add arugula and Parmesan, if using, toss and season with salt and pepper

More Pizza!

For last pizza night, I got the brilliant idea to make a chicken fajita pizza.  The only question was, what to use in place of tomato sauce?  This problem plagued me for a couple of days until I remembered I had Crockpot Refried Beans in the freezer.  Would it work?  I couldn't wait to find out! 

I sliced up a large chicken breast and sauteed it in a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper.  I reserved half the chicken for the other pizza, a chicken bacon concoction.  To the remaining chicken, I added half a bag of frozen roasted peppers and onions (from TJ's) and 1 tsp. each cumin, chili powder, and garlic powder, cooking until heated through.  I spread a thin layer of refried beans on the pizza crust, then topped with the fajita mixture and Daiya "mozzerella."  Baked it in a 450* oven for about 12 minutes and got this:

The one on the right is the chicken fajita pizza.  On the left is the chicken bacon. 

It was so good!  The beans made it a very hearty, filling pizza.  But not so hearty that we couldn't dive into the other pizza, a yummy chicken bacon pizza.

I wanted to do chicken bacon ranch pizza, but do you know how hard it is to find dairy and soy free ranch?!  I'd have made it myself but the only mayo we had on hand had soybean oil in it, so I couldn't.  But I'm going to try it sometime.

"Hat" Pasta

Well, that's what Samantha calls it.  I call it amazing!  I made this pasta for the first time last week and fell in love.  So in love that I made it again this week.  It's so simple, yet so delicious!  Seriously, you have to try it.

Ingrdients (adapted from Everyday Food):

• 1 lb. any short pasta (I used orecchiette, which looks kind of like a hat . . . now you see where the name came from)
• 4oz diced pancetta (I get mine already diced from TJ's) or 4 slices of bacon, chopped
• 8oz broccolini, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 4-5 large cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 2 shallots, sliced
• 8oz mushrooms, sliced (I used shitake because that's what we got in our CSA box, usually I'd use cremini), optional
• 3oz sundried tomatoes, optional
• Salt & pepper

To make:

• Cook pasta according to package directions
• During the last 2 minutes of cooking, add broccolini
• Drain pasta, reserving 1 c. pasta water
• In the same pot, cook pancetta for 2-3 minutes, rendering fat
• Add garlic and shallot and saute for about 1 minute, until fragrant
• Season with salt and pepper
• Add mushrooms and cook until browned
• Add sundried tomatoes, pasta and broccolini to pot, tossing with enough reserved pasta water to make a thin coating of "sauce" on the pasta
• Season with salt and pepper if needed

Like I said, super easy!  The first time I made this, I used pancetta and did not add mushrooms or sundried tomatoes.  The second time, I used bacon and did add the mushrooms and sundried tomatoes (these were added on a whim, as I bought a pouch of them at TJ's for no particular reason other than because they were a new product and looked good.  Darn impulse buys!).  Honestly, while the bacon was good, I enjoyed it with the pancetta just a bit more.  I loved the addition of sundried tomatoes and mushrooms but it was good without them, too.  If you can't find broccolini (sometimes called baby broccoli enven though it's not really), I'm sure regular broccoli will work well.  The broccolini is just a bit sweeter and the stalks are more tender.  If you wanna get crazy, the original recipe calls for broccoli rabe instead of broccolini, but I'm not really a fan - it's a bit bitter for me.

For my vegetarians out there, 2 tbsp. of olive oil should be sufficient to replace the pancetta fat.

Seriously, try this.

Crockpot Refried Beans

I know I promised this recipe almost two weeks ago, in my Veggie Quesadilla post.  I've been a slacker and I apologize. 

I've been trying to get away from canned foods as much as possible, plus I love to use my crock pot, so I decided to try my hand at refried beans.  How hard could it be?  Not hard at all, as it turns out.  The only thing I wasn't sure about was soaking the beans because I'd never done it before.  But it's not difficult and a bag of dried beans is much cheaper than cans of beans.

Ingredients:

• 3 c. dried pinto beans, rinsed and soaked overnight
• 7 c. water (saved from soaking beans)
• 1 onion, peeled and halved
• 1 4oz can of diced green chiles (or you could use minced fresh jalepeno or other chile.  I just didn't have fresh on hand)
• 2 tbsp. garlic (I used freshly minced, maybe 10 cloves depending on size)
• 1 tbsp. ground cumin (less/more to taste)
• 2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tsp. salt (or more to taste)
• Juice of 1/2 lime (or more to taste)

To make:

• Place soaked beans, onion, chiles, garlic, cumin, and pepper in 6 qt. crock pot
• Stir in water
• Cook on high for about 8 hours (add a bit more water if needed during cooking)
• When beans are cooked, mash with potato masher
• Season with salt and lime juice

(yes, I know that's the same picture I used before.  When I made these beans I hadn't started the blog yet.  Besides, this is a pretty picture.)

A couple tips:

• No need to cut the onion any smaller than in half.  It will cook down and mash up with the beans. 
• After I mashed my beans, they looked a bit thin so I let them cook for about 30 minutes with the lid off to thicken them up a bit
• I have read that you should never add salt while beans are cooking because it can make them tough.  I don't know this for a fact, but I waited to add the salt at the end just in case.  I added 1 tbsp. of salt, which ended up being a bit too salty for me, so I backed the recipe off to 2 tsp. 
• I'll probably add more cumin and will definitely use fresh chiles next time

This makes a ton of refried beans.  They freeze wonderfully.  I separated them into 1 1/2 c. portions, which is about what we use for one meal.

Pasta with Brussels Sprouts and Mushrooms

I discovered my love for brussels sprouts last winter.  I was watching Good Eats (really miss that since we ditched cable) and the episode was all about them.  They looked so good, but I think John thought I'd lost my mind when I said I wanted to try them.  I ignored that, bought a pound at Whole Foods, and roasted them with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Oh, my.  I think I ate 3/4 of a pound myself.  From that point on, I became obsessed.  Don't laugh, they're that good!  Every time I make them I have to apologize to John for eating more than my fair share.

This weekend, I was going through all my cooking magazines and tearing out recipes so I could get more organized and I found this pasta recipe. 

Ingredients (adapted from Everyday Food magazine):

• 1 box whole wheat penne
• Olive oil
• 10 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 lb brussels sprouts, trimmed and shredded (I wish I had a mandoline for this, but I don't.  I just split them in half and thinly sliced them)
• 2 shallots, sliced
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• Salt and pepper

To make:

• Cook pasta according to package directions, drain, reserving about 1 c. cooking liquid
• Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet (I am terrible about measuring oil, it was maybe 1-2 tbsp.)
• Add mushrooms and cook until browned, remove from skillet
• Add a bit more oil and saute garlic and shallots until fragrant
• Add shredded brussels sprouts, salt, and pepper, and saute until sprouts are tender and bright green (maybe 5 minutes)
• Stir mushrooms and lemon zest in with brussels sprouts
• Add mix to pasta, stirring in enough reserved pasta liquid to make a sauce coating the pasta
• Add lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste

It's quick, easy, flavorful, and filling.  I'll probably add more garlic next time but we eat enough garlic to kill 100 vampires here.  A pinch of red pepper flakes might be nice to spice it up.  Maybe a bit of grated parmesan cheese, if you want. If you want to up the protein (although the whole wheat pasta has a good amount), cannelini beans, pancetta, or ham would be good.  You could really do a lot with this!