Recipe: Chicken with Grilled Peaches and Arugula

One of my favorite things is when I come across a recipe that I already have all the ingredients for and can try it right away. This is exactly what happened yesterday. I bought a bunch of locally grown fresh peaches the other day (thank goodness they are finally in season - I have been waiting all summer!) and needed to use some before they went bad. I also had leftover arugula from a potato salad we tried on Monday (it was gross, so I won't be posting that recipe), and imagine my joy when I saw this recipe called for blue cheese, which I just so happened to also have (leftover from the burgers). I didn't think you could go wrong with those ingredients, and I was right. This was a super fast, and completely wonderful dinner.Get the recipe HERE and make this for an easy summer meal.

Recipe notes: since I was just cooking for myself, I used one chicken breast, one peach, about 1/3 of an onion, and 1/2 oz of blue cheese. I made the entire thing in my grill pan and it was on my plate in 20 min start to finish.

Recipe: Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Lime and Cilantro

Bobby Flay is the king of grilling, and this recipe is no exception. This is a fantastic side to accompany any of your grilled summer meals. The only thing I would suggest is to go easy on the salt. The lime zest is an awesome addition to the sweet potatoes. Oh, and don't let your potatoes get too soft when you cook them.

Enjoy this recipe HERE.

Recipe: Bacon-Blue Cheese Stuffed Burgers

This recipe is neither healthy nor light, but is oh so good (funny how that seems to work...) If you like burgers and blue cheese, this is the next recipe for you. The link doesn't work unless you have a subscription to Taste of Home, so I'll copy it here.
Bacon-Blue Cheese Stuffed Burgers
(August Taste of Home magazine)

Ingredients:

• 1-1.5 pounds lean ground beef (90% lean)
• 3 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 1/3 cup bacon bits
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp water
• 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 4 whole wheat hamburger buns, split
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 4 romaine leaves
• 1 medium tomato, sliced

Directions:

• Shape beef into eight thin patties. Combine the cream cheese, blue cheese, and bacon bits; spoon onto the center of four patties. Top with remaining patties and press edges firmly to seal. Combine the salt, garlic powder, and pepper; sprinkle over patties.
• Grill burgers, covered, over medium heat or broil 4 in. from the heat for 5-7 minutes on each side or until a meat thermometer reads 160F and juices run clear.
• Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute mushrooms in oil until tender. Stir in water and mustard.
• Serve burgers on buns with mayonnaise, romaine, tomato and mushroom mixture.
• Yield: 4 servings.
  

My notes: I used 95% lean ground beef and it was fantastic. I added the salt, garlic powder, & pepper into the beef mixture before shaping into patties to give them more flavor, rather than sprinkling it on top. ext time, I will probably use about 2/3 of the cheese mixture in each one - it was a lot of cheese. I didn't use the bacon bits (didn't have them). I also didn't make the mushroom topping, since I can't stand mushrooms, but I have to say I think it would have been amazing with it. Next time I may do an onion topping to try. We served this sans buns (and any of the other burger fixin's) - and this was great just by itself. I grilled 2 of these, and froze the other 2. Hopefully they keep! By the way, the grilled vegetable salad is a home run with blue cheese...

Recipe: Pineapple Mango Salsa

One day I will blog about when I met Pioneer Woman. In the meantime, make this! YUM. I had it on grilled mahi. I wish my tortilla chips weren't stale - this would have been great as a salsa.

HERE's the recipe.

Recipe: Carmelized Onion and Grapefruit Salad

This is the third (and final) installment of the entire Giada episode we recreated, "Light and Delicious." And light and delicious it was.
HERE is the recipe to this scrumptious salad.

My recipe notes: next time, I would probably chop the fennel rather than slice it. I love the flavor, but it needed to be more mixed into the salad. The carmelized onions are so good - I could have just had a plate full of those!

Recipe: Herbed Quinoa

This is the yummy, yummy side dish to go along with Giada's salmon I just posted about. Cooking the quinoa in chicken broth and lemon juice gives it a nice fresh flavor. The fresh herbs add to it to make the whole thing simply delicious.

HERE is the recipe.

Recipe: Grilled Salmon with Citrus Salsa Verde

I can thank this recipe for inspiring me to experiment with new recipes. I saw this on the Food Network over Memorial Day and quickly made it for dinner that weekend. I love salmon in general, and this is simple, oh so flavorful way to make it. The citrus salsa verde was an excellent complement to the fish (and on chicken the next day).
Recipe notes: I omitted the capers because I don't like them, and I didn't use quite the full amount of parsley. Everything else was done exactly as Giada (who I have a new respect for after this recipe) instructs.

Get this recipe HERE.

Recipe: Grilled Vegetable Salad

This recipe comes without a picture of the finished product (sorry). That doesn't mean you shouldn't make it though. The Neely's are one of my favorites to watch on the Food Network because they are so cute and funny together. Oh and their food always looks wonderful. Who wants to go to Tennessee with me and visit Neely's Bar-B-Que??When I saw this on their show, I knew I had to try it. The recipe calls for feta, but they used goat cheese on the episode. I've made it both ways, and both are fantastic.

I have also made it with eggplant and zucchini - pretty much whatever vegetables you have would be delicious in this. I didn't use as much olive oil as it calls for, but followed everything else pretty much as directed. Grill your veggies, pour balsamic vinegar, garlic, & oil on top, and toss with cheese and fresh basil. It doesn't get much better than that. Super easy, and incredibly flavorful.

Get this recipe HERE.

Recipe: Shrimp & Feta Tabbouleh Salad

This recipe comes to you courtesy of Women's Health Magazine (we need a healthy recipe after yesterday's). I have tried a number of their recipes, and they are surprisingly good. This one is my current favorite because salads like this are the perfect summer meal.I cheated a little with this one and used quinoa rather than bulgur, mostly because that's what I had (and because quinoa is one of my new favorite foods). Precooked frozen shrimp from Costco make this meal a piece of cake. It is very flavorful, and keeps well in the refrigerator for a few days.

Find the recipe (and the picture that I stole) HERE.

Recipe: Chocolate Nutella Molten Lava Cake

Today's recipe might be my new favorite dessert. Everyone needs a good dessert every once in awhile, no matter how healthy you are trying to eat. Next time you decide to treat yourself, do yourself a favor and make this. Be prepared - it is very rich. I made these last night and I'm still full. The recipe makes 4 individual molten cakes. I cut the recipe in half to make 2. I could have just made one and split it and it still would have been more than enough. Yep, it is that rich (this coming from a chocoholic).
If you don't know about Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen site, you need to check it out. You will find this incredible dessert HERE.

I didn't have fresh strawberries (for probably the first time all summer...thank you Costco), so I thawed some frozen mixed berries (again, thanks to Costco) and sprinkled chopped hazelnuts on top. Warm and gooey deliciousness on a plate. Enjoy!

Recipe: Spicy Chicken Stir-Fry with Peanuts

I got an email last week with "meals for one" and thought this looked good. I have made it twice since. HERE's the recipe.

Some adjustments I've made to the recipe: I had sugar snap peas, not snow peas, so I used those. Since I am trying to eat more veggies, I added yellow and orange pepper. I used a green jalapeno pepper, lots of fresh basil, and also added halved cherry tomatoes. The second time I also added fresh cilantro at the end. It was good, but I actually think I liked it better with just the basil, so there weren't too many competing. Next time I will try to throw in some sliced green onion. Here's the best part - at the end, when I squeezed the lime juice onto it, I added 2 tsp of PB2* instead of the chopped peanuts - YUM! Just enough of the peanut flavor without all the calories/fat! I served it with a little bit of leftover rice that I had in the fridge. It was delicious. If you like Thai food, you should totally try this.

* Never heard of PB2? Check it out (and buy it) HERE (and thanks to ANNE for introducing us)!

Recipe: Open-Faced Turkey Avocado Burgers

This is the perfect recipe for a weekend BBQ. The recipe actually calls for ground chicken, but I substituted ground turkey breast (NOT ground turkey, just a personal preference), since I already had it in my freezer. (this will change the nutritional information - for the better - on the link I'm including). I thought I had the nutritional info for the sauce, but I must have written it down in the magazine. Email me if you're really interested in it and I'll dig it up. While the grill was on, we grilled corn on the cob and asparagus (one of my absolute favorite grilled veggies). The other recipe we used was one from Giada, for a Parmesean Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad. It was ok, but not my favorite. I made it a few days later just roasting the veggies in the oven, rather than trying to coat them in parmesan and cook them in olive oil (it just seemed like the veggies soaked up the oil when we did it the way the recipe called for. Plus I don't like frying vegetables anyway). It was much better this way. The dressing was really light and good though - and a great way to get lots of veggies in one dish.

Back to the main course though - the burgers. HERE is the recipe. I have made these a couple times now, and the flavor in the burgers themselves is just fantastic. I love when four ingredients are all you need! Ground turkey breast, parmesean, pesto, and garlic. YUM! A few tips. The avocado spread is good, but it makes a ton (you would have to slather it on to use all of it in 4 servings - no wonder the calories/fat are so high on the site!) and doesn't last long, so keep that in mind. I think you could get away with cutting it in half. The second time I made these, we just sliced fresh avocado instead (always a good choice in my opinion). And, I firmly believe that fresh mozzarella makes anything better, so how can you go wrong? For my local friends: Wegmans bakes an awesome fresh Italian bread that you should definitely consider using for this. It is also good sans the bread. Serve with a caprese salad on the side (or on top) and you're in for a treat. Now if only I had my own garden to grow tomatoes (and a number of other things)...

For those interested in the nutritional information, for the burger only (not including any toppings): 174 calories, 5.6g fat (1.7g sat), 59.3mg cholesterol, 236.8mg sodium, 1.7g carbs, 0.2g fiber, 0.3g sugar, and 28.4g protein

Recipe: Mahi Mahi Fish Tacos

It was never a deliberate decision I made to stop blogging, but it happened anyway. I'm still alive. I bought a new (to me) car, since after the tree incident my car decided it hated me (maybe one day I'll post that drama). I've been to 3 new baseball stadiums (both the new Yankee Stadium and the Mets Citi Field last summer, and the Minnesota Twins new Target Field last month). Life is good.

But let's not get too carried away thinking that I'm actually going to start writing about my life online again any time soon.

One week (over Memorial Day weekend), I was sick. My head hurt so bad that I couldn't even read, or really do anything other than lay on the couch. Naturally, I watched/listened to a lot of the Food Network, and when I started feeling better, I made a list of a bunch of new recipes I had to try. Some of them are just too good and I simply must share them with anyone who is still reading my blog (all two of you)! I have quite a list, so I'll start with one of my absolute favorites, courtesy of Bobby Flay. Just looking at the name of it makes my mouth water:

Grilled Mahi Mahi Tacos with Red Cabbage Slaw, Tomato and Avocado Salsa and Pineapple Hot SauceLet me warn you, this recipe takes awhile to prep. But it is worth every single minute. Honestly. The charred pineapple-habenero hot sauce might just be a staple in my kitchen now. Recipes like this make me never want to order fish tacos at a restaurant again!For the recipe, click HERE. Enjoy!