Roasted Cauliflower. I love it! It gets nice and sweet and the flavor profile changes completely when you roast it. It’s so quick and easy to do.

Did you realize there are different colors of cauliflower? Green, purple and plain white. I chose a purple cauliflower this time (they all taste the same) – it was fun! I break into fairly small florets, they take less time to roast. If you have the time you can leave them in larger pieces. We were having this with grilled chicken, so I didn’t have a lot of time, therefore the small pieces.

Break the cauliflower into florets and drizzle with a little olive oil in a large bowl. Swirl the cauliflower around with your hands to coat it thoroughly. Then lightly grease (I always use olive oil or organic canola oil) a cookie sheet (this one I use for roasting). Turn the oven on 400 degrees F. Once the oven has preheated, place the cauliflower on the cookie sheet and space the florets out a bit, a little sprinkle of S&P. This will roast for 25-45 minutes (depending upon thickness). Flip about halfway through, you will see that the cauliflower is browning, this is GOOD, this is TASTY STUFF! Once it passes the fork test (fork easily goes through a thicker piece of cauliflower), it’s ready to eat! You can eat just like it is, or a quick little sprinkle of parmesan.

Speaking of parmesan… not the brands that apparently have wood filler in them, sigh…

Portrait of my cauliflower – Hee.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Trying to come up with different menu items for dinner can sometimes be a challenge. I wanted to make the Garden Chowder recipe, minus the chicken, and make a slightly larger batch. To go along with it I thought corn muffins sounded good. I grew up with Jiffy corn muffins. You can’t beat them! Until you read the list of ingredients. I’m trying really hard to limit ingredients, and to make everything from scratch. You wouldn’t believe how easy it can be. This is the perfect example. This recipe (from Food.com) is so fabulous. You’ve got to try it. I mistakenly bought WHITE cornmeal. It calls for YELLOW cornmeal. The only difference is the type of corn it comes from, and obviously, yellow cornmeal will result in better looking muffins, but they taste just as good!

Click HERE to print the recipe from Food.com!

This recipe has flour, yellow cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, canola oil, egg, and milk. That’s it. Nothing you cannot pronounce!

INGREDIENTS in the Jiffy mix: WHEAT FLOUR, DEGERMINATED YELLOW CORN MEAL, SUGAR, ANIMAL SHORTENING (CONTAINS ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING: LARD, HYDROGENATED LARD, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED LARD), CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF EACH OF THE FOLLOWING: BAKING SODA, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SALT, WHEAT STARCH, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, BHT PRESERVATIVE, TOCOPHEROL PRESERVATIVE, CITRIC ACID PRESERVATIVE, BHA PRESERVATIVE, TRICALCIUM PHOSPHATE, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID, SILICON DIOXIDE.

Jiffy-Like Corn Muffins from Food.com

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray muffin tin (makes 6 muffins) with cooking spray (I just used olive oil).

In medium bowl mix 2/3 cup flour, 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal, 3 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons canola oil.

Whisk together, then add:

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

Fill muffin tin 1/2 full. Bake 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees F.

I know, I know! What a treasure!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

This recipe is adapted from the Scalloped Potato recipe in Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book 12th Edition – I’ve made a few changes, but the basic recipe is fabulous as well!

This is also a great dish to make if you have leftover ham… sprinkle diced ham pieces into the casserole and it’s a full meal – can’t beat that!

Hmmm, why is this photo only showing half of the scalloped potato dish? It came out of the oven… we dug in… OOPS!  P H O T O ! !  I’m only human, ha ha.

Click HERE to print the recipe without the extra babble.

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Two versions of chowder below. One with chicken, and one a bit different, with no meat. I  served both with the Jiffy-Like Corn Muffins.

OUT. OF. THIS. WORLD.

Recipes from a friend, is there anything better? It’s so nice to hear of other things to make for dinner rather than being in a rut with the same old thing.

I was excited to try this, it sounded delicious to me. I found the perfect time when we had a bit of rotisserie chicken left over. That worked perfectly! These are guidelines, but use what you like! I happened to use 4 cups of chicken broth, so mine may have been more “brothy” than what is normal, but I had two very large potatoes, and I also supplemented with frozen sweet white corn.

What I forgot… the bacon crumbled on top! We had it the next day, when we heated up what was left (be sure to heat on low and DO NOT LET IT COME TO A BOIL or it will curdle). So DAY 2 had crumbled bacon, which I was so excited about I forgot to take a photo. Story of my life!

This recipe was heavenly! Give it a whirl!

Click HERE to print just the recipe!

Version two, I like to call Garden Chowder, click HERE to print the recipe! One hint is to warm the thawed corn in the microwave just a bit, just so it’s not cold when adding to the soup…

Catch you back here tomorrow!

This soup is so wonderful during chilly weather. It is incredibly quick and easy to make, yet tastes like something you worked on all day! I ran across the original recipe on the 100 Days of Real Food website. I made a few changes, just because I had an extra large bunch of kale to use and because I wanted to add thinly sliced potato which really added quite nicely, reminiscent of a soup at Olive Garden restaurant.

Here is my version of the 100 Days of Real Food recipe for Kale, Sausage and White Bean Soup, (click HERE to print):

Kale, Sausage, White Bean Soup with Potato

Olive Oil

½-1 Onion, peeled and diced

2 cloves Garlic (I use microplane, but you can mince)

1 pound Chicken Italian Sausage links, cut into ¼” slices

6 cups Chicken Stock/Broth (48 oz)

1 bunch of Lacinato Kale, washed stalks removed, and chopped

2 cans Cannellini Beans, drained and rinsed (or other white bean)

1-2 Yukon Gold potatoes (large), quartered and sliced thin.

Pepper, taste before adding Salt.

Note: If you have a large bunch of kale, you can add more chicken broth, I added 4 cups (32 oz.), I also added one more can of cannellini beans (rinsed and drained).

Instructions

Heat oil in large soup pot over medium heat. Cook the onion for 2-3 minutes. Remove onion and put in small dish to add back later.

Add sausage (in batches so that it browns slightly) – cook for 5 minutes (if sliced rather thin, or 10 minutes if thicker).

When sausage is almost done add the garlic and stir while it cooks about 30 seconds or until fragrant (if pan is dry use a little olive oil before adding garlic).

Add onions back into the pot with sausage and garlic.

Add chicken broth, and stir to loosen browned bits on bottom of pan.

Add the sliced potato, and cook until you can pierce with a fork.

Now add the chopped kale, beans, Salt (if you need it) and Pepper. Cook 10-20 minutes, until beans are hot and kale is wilted.

Original soup recipe from 100daysofrealfood.com!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Pumpkin Pie. It simply cannot be easier! I saw this small can of “Farmers Market Organic Pumpkin Pie Mix” while shopping for Thanksgiving groceries at Whole Foods. By looking at the can, I figured I would need 2 cans for one pie. The recipe on the can says to add 3/4 cup evaporated milk, 2 eggs and the one can of pumpkin pie mix. I Googled when I got home and found that you truly only need one can. (Why is the other can in the grocery store so much bigger I wonder)?

This is what the can looks like. In addition to organic it’s also non-GMO certified and in a can with a BPA-Free Liner. The Farmers Market Foods website also has great recipes!

This pie came out very creamy. Absolutely wonderful. I will always buy this brand in the future! We had to make a “test pie” to be sure it would be ok for Thanksgiving Day! The verdict… and overwhelming Y.E.S.!!!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Funny how small the world is. We were on vacation and I was reading a magazine, saw a recipe that looked wonderful, from a Bertolli pasta sauce ad. Looked quick and easy and oh so delicious. That recipe came home with me. My friend, Heather, had done the same thing. She told me she made spaghetti and meatballs, they sounded delicious! I told her I tore out a recipe from a Bertolli ad! She said THAT’s the recipe, with a minor change!!

The only thing that she does differently is to bake the meatballs instead of just placing into the sauce. I like that! She bakes hers at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes, turning once. I baked mine 20 minutes, turning once during that time. Not sure if my oven is a little speedy or what, but they smelled just about done. Then pour one jar of sauce (plenty for four people) into a pan (a taller pan would work better than a wide pan so that the meatballs are submerged in the sauce). Heather uses Olive Oil & Garlic sauce, and I used Tomato Basil, just because that’s our favorite.

I’m not kidding you. This recipe is STUNNING. It took about 5 minutes to make the meatballs. Good note from Heather is to not pack the meatballs to tightly. She knew what she was talking about!

Following her direction, I put the pasta (I used whole wheat) and sauce with meatballs into a large bowl and tossed.

Get out! It was breathtakingly beautiful and the aroma in the house was to die for! Fred said he savored every bite! ;) I served it with a small salad of arugula, carrots, cucumber, green onion, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pepper and a little sprinkle of parmesan. Nice!

Next time I will eat 2 instead of 2 3/4 meatballs, ha ha… they were just so good. Click HERE to print the recipe with my notes, or click HERE to click the recipe directly from Bertolli!

Thank you Bertolli for the quick and easy recipe, and thank you Heather for making it and passing along the tips!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

Healthy tip: Add a little (cooked) quinoa to your salad! It’s delicious!

What I did:

I cooked the quinoa (according to package directions) ahead of time and put it in a glass container in the refrigerator.

Then I made the salad while Fred grilled boneless/skinless chicken breasts coated in olive oil and pepper. He grilled them perfectly!

I made a salad with Organic Girls Mache Blend, (a mixture of mâche rosettes, baby red chard, baby green chard, tango), then added chopped carrots, green onion, radishes, tomato, avocado, cucumber.

I cut up the chicken into bite size pieces and added to the top, along with some feta, then drizzled some extra virgin olive oil and a splash of red wine vinegar. TADA! Dinner is ready!

It was amazingly fresh and delicious – the texture of the quinoa added something special.

Catch you back here tomorrow!