Alfredo Pizzette

This is another recipe my husband and I made in our cooking class during our honeymoon. It was served as a starter however the chef said he would eat it as a meal and we were so stuffed after the starter that we decided we would eat it by itself as well. This pizzette is unlike anything I have ever made and has so many amazing flavors you will just have to try it to believe me! The website for the cooking school is here: http://evoo.biz/recipe/bleu-cheese-alfredo.

Prep/Cook:15- 20 minutes

Assembling: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy cream, reduced by half
• 2 ounces bleu cheese, crumbled
• 1 tablespoon chopped chives
• 1 package flat bread (this can be store bought or homemade…we bought sourdough flat bread at Costco and it was perfect)
• 1 bunch arugula
• 2 oz bag walnuts (regular, toasted, or candied…my favorite is candied)
• 2 fresh peaches, sliced and then cut into bite sized pieces

*add cooked shredded chicken (I like store bought roasted chicken) to the top of your pizzette for those that like meat with every meal

Directions:

Start by making the bleu cheese alfredo sauce. Pour the heavy cream into a saucepan and reduce by half. Add the bleu cheese to the heavy cream and stir over medium heat until combined. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and ground coriander.

Warm the flat bread in the oven or microwave if you prefer. Put a piece of flat bread on each plate, spread a layer of blue cheese alfredo on warmed flat bread… be generous and apply it like you would pizza sauce on homemade pizza. Top with arugula, toasted or candied walnuts and fresh peaches. Roll up and eat or use a fork and knife

Yields: 4-6 servings depending on how much you pile on your pizzette

*the chef said the bleu cheese alfredo sauce is also a great sauce to put over a steak. We haven’t tried it yet, but I have no doubt it would be good!

Enjoy 🙂

Frozen Peanut Butter-Banana Cream Pie

Yet another recipe from the All-New Complete Cooking Light Cookbook. This pie tastes like ice cream cake and I even had a friend ask what kind of ice cream was in it. The recipe is super quick and easy to throw together, the only time consuming part is freezing it for 8 hours.

Prep: 10 minutes

Freeze: 8 hours

Ingredients:

• Graham Cracker Crust (you can make your own, but I store bought mine)
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (4 oz)  1/3 less fat cream cheese
• 1/2 cup reduced fat peanut butter (I used regular peanut butter because that’s what I had in my kitchen)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (8 oz) container frozen fat-free whipped topping, thawed
• 1 cup sliced banana (I used one large banana)
• 1/4 cup fat-free chocolate sundae syrup (I couldn’t find this at our grocery store so I used regular Hershey’s chocolate sundae syrup)

Directions:

Prepare filling by combining brown sugar, cream cheese, peanut butter, and vanilla in a bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Fold in whipped topping. Arrange banana in bottom of prepared crust. Spread peanut butter mixture over banana; drizzle with syrup. Cover and freeze for 8 hours.

Yields: 10 servings

Oven Roasted Broccoli

I found this broccoli recipe when I decided to throw in another side at the last minute and we happened to have broccoli in the fridge.  So it was pretty quick and easy to make and my husband and I loved it! It makes the broccoli kind of crunchy and with the Parmesan and bread crumbs it is sooo good! The website I got the recipe from is here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/good-eats/oven-roasted-broccoli-recipe/index.html. We’ve already made this twice and I just found the recipe a few days ago!

Prep: 10- 15 minutes

Cook: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 pound broccoli, rinsed and trimmed
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan or sharp Cheddar (I used Parmesan)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Cut the broccoli florets into bite size pieces. Cut the stalk into 1/8-inch thick, round slices. Place the broccoli into a mixing bowl and toss with the olive oil, garlic, kosher salt and pepper and set aside.

Spread the panko into a 13 by 9-inch metal cake pan and place into the oven for 2 minutes or until lightly toasted. (Be careful here, I forgot about the panko and left it in for about 5 minutes and had a burnt panko mess on my hands) Remove the panko from the oven and add to the bowl with the broccoli mixture. Toss to combine. Return the mixture to the cake pan, place in the oven and roast just until the broccoli is tender, 8 to 10 more minutes. Remove from the oven, toss in the cheese and serve immediately.

Yields: 4 servings

Summertime Mac & Cheese

My husband and I took a cooking class while on our honeymoon and one of the meals the chef prepared was Summertime Mac & Cheese. My husband was thrilled because Mac & Cheese is his favorite food. Both of us loved the recipe so much we made it within our first couple weeks of being home. The link for the recipe is here: http://evoo.biz/recipe/mac-cheese-summertime. One of the many great things about this recipe is that it doesn’t call for many different and expensive types of gourmet cheese…it simply uses sharp cheddar, provolone, and mozzarella.

Prep: 30ish minutes

Cook: 30-40 minutes

Ingredients:

• 16 ounces (1 pint) heavy cream
• 8-10 ounces rigatoni or other macaroni
• 1/2 head garlic, peeled, De-sprouted and pasted
• 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup provolone cheese
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, roasted & seasoned (see recipe below)
• 1 recipe pesto bread crumbs

Directions:

Cook macaroni in lightly salted water. Blend garlic with cream and reduce them together to 1 1/4 cups. Blend with well drained pasta and toss with the cheeses.

To assemble, place half the cooked pasta & cheese mixture in the bottom of buttered casserole; top with layer of cooled roasted cherry tomatoes; add remaining pasta. Cover top with bread crumb mixture. Bake 350 F 30-40 minutes or until center is bubbly and bread crumbs are brown.

To roast tomatoes: spread clean whole cherry tomatoes onto sided cookie sheet. Lightly coat with about 1- tablespoon of EVOO. Season lightly over all with sea salt and coriander and pepper.Roast 400 until 10-15 minutes, or until lightly browned and skin is blistered. Cool.

To make basil bread crumbs: for every 2 cups of “panko”  or dried bread crumbs, add 1/2 cup pesto. Blend and crumble over top of dish to bake. (I used store bought pesto to save time).

Yields: 12 servings

You can have this by itself or as a side dish. We paired it with Oven Roasted Broccoli and Slow Cooker Green Chile Flank Steak!

Slow Cooker Green Chile Flank Steak

So it will be good for me to tell you early on that I AM A PINTEREST ADDICT! And the main thing I pin is food. So many of the recipes you will see on my blog I have found on pinterest. That being said I got this recipe from: http://www.lifetimemoms.com/food-family-recipes/blog/flank-steak-recipe?cmpid=CNP_LTMAffil_ShannonShaffer

Even though the recipe has green chiles in it, we used half of the can, it was not spicy at all and just sooo deliciously flavorful! It has to be noted that my husband called this recipe “melt in your mouth flank steak” so needless to say it was a hit!

Prep: 15-20 minutes

Cook: 4-6 hours depending on whether you want it sliced or shredded

Ingredients:

• 1 Flank Steak –  about 1 3/4 lbs (cut in half)
• 1 small can of green chiles (we just used half)
• 1 large red onion, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon of chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of cumin
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 tbsp of olive oil
• 1-2 cloves of garlic minced (depending on taste)

Directions:

In a small pan, brown flank steak in olive oil on both sides.

Add all ingredients to slow cooker.

Cook on low for 4-5 hours if you would like the steak sliced, cook 5-6 hours if you prefer it shredded. (Seriously can it get any easier? Gotta love this recipe!)

Yields: 8 servings

We had this flank steak with our favorite Summertime Mac & Cheese and Oven Roasted Broccoli (both on the blog). I was in the kitchen for awhile (on and off the last two hours before we ate) though so if you want something quick and easy I would do a side of bread and green beans or a salad.

My parents have their leftover flank steak on sourdough bread with dijon mustard the next day…I highly suggest trying this…it’s awesome!

Skinny Broccoli and Cheese Soup

This is yet another recipe from the All-New Complete Cooking Light Cookbook.

My husband and I both love any kind of cheddar broccoli soup…so this was a hit for us! I do have to say that 1/3 of the soup is pureed at the end of the recipe. My husband said he would prefer “chunks of broccoli” so in the future I will not be pureeing the soup 😛 Also, this is not as thick as most cheddar broccoli soup recipes, but I felt it was just as flavorful!

Prep: 10 minutes

Cook: 26 minutes (I felt like it was faster than this…but maybe not)

Ingredients:

• Cooking Spray
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 cups fat free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 1 (16oz) package broccoli florets
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups milk (I used non-fat)
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 8 oz light processed cheese, cubed (such as Velveeta Light)

Directions:

Heat a large nonstick saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion and garlic; saute 3 minutes or until tender. Add broth and broccoli. Bring broccoli mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium; cook 10 minutes.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and milk, stirring with a whisk until well blended. Add milk mixture to broccoli mixture. Cook 5 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring constantly. Stir in pepper. Remove from heat; add cheese, stirring until cheese melts.

Place one-third of soup in a blender or food processor, and process until smooth. Return pureed soup mixture to pan. Cook soup over low heat 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Yield: 6 servings. I would say this is pretty accurate!

We had this soup with Rosemary Olive Oil Bread from Costco which we are obsessed with.

Happy Eating!

Curried Chicken Salad

I got this recipe from a cookbook my mother-in-law gave me (All-New Complete Cooking Light Cookbook..I did alter prep time and one ingredient) and I’ve made quite a few recipes from it and loved every one of them. The greatest thing about this cookbook is that all of the meals are already altered to healthier versions! I was inspired to make this as soon as I saw it because the week before I had eaten at a quaint coffee shop in downtown Omaha that had an amazing curried tuna salad…so I thought I’d give this recipe a whirl.

Prep: 12 minutes

Combine: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups (8 0z) chopped cooked chicken breast (I used Costco’s Kirkland brand canned premium chicken breast packed in water but you can also buy a roasted chicken or roast one yourself)
• 1/2 cup halved seedless red grapes
• 1/2 cup diced peeled apple
• 2 tablespoons diced pineapple (I used canned pineapple)
• 1 tablespoon raisins
• 3 tablespoons low fat mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder (I am new to using curry powder…it was something unfamiliar and unknown, but now a new favorite seasoning!)
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon sliced almonds

Directions:

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Combine mayonnaise and next 5 ingredients, stirring with a whisk. Pour mayonnaise mixture over chicken mixture and stir. Sprinkle with almonds. Put in the refrigerator until you are ready to eat. I served it on fresh croissants…Yum!

The recipe says this yields 2 servings (I would say 4). My husband and I had it for 2 meals (1 dinner and 1 lunch).

Enjoy!

My First Post

Woohoo! My first post 🙂 Since the blog is a little empty right now I am going to post my 3 recipes and dessert from last week (I forgot to take pictures so no pictures yet… sorry :/). Just so you all have a heads up…I’m still in the stage where I am nervous to tweak recipes. I feel like if I tweak a recipe the first time and I end up not liking it, I haven’t really given the recipe a chance. So you will see for at least these first couple of weeks I will follow most of the recipes to a T!