White Bean and Eggplant Stuffed Peppers

I am forever grateful to my friend, Jen, who opened my eyes to homemade stuffed peppers! I was a young wife who didn't make much of anything and it was like a light bulb went on when I was fed the "yummiest" meal. How fun it is to make something so simple but have it transport you to a feeling that you're eating something very special. It also makes the husband very happt too. As Jen also taught me, the leftovers are great to use for stuffed pepper soup!

Ingredients:

3 medium bell peppers

2 TBSP of olive oil

1/2 of a sweet onion - diced

2 cloves of garlic

1 small eggplant - diced

1/2 can of white beans

1 cup of tomato sauce

4-5 leaves of basil - chopped (if you have it)

Using a knife, carefully cut around the stem of the pepper. Remove the stem and all the insides you can reach. You can use a spoon to dig the ribs and seeds out if there are a lot left inside. Set peppers aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Sautee the onion on medium/low heat for 5 minutes to soften. Grate in the garlic cloves. If you don't have a grater, just chop it up very fine. Add in the diced eggplant. Season with salt and pepper to your taste. Sautee for 5 more minutes. Add in the white beans, basil and tomato sauce. Allow to simmer for just a couple of minutes. Remove from heat and spoon into the hollowed out pepper. Top with cheese and bake for 30-35 minutes. Serve with a side of pasta or a salad. Delicious!!!!

Sauteed ground meat and rice are great substitutions if you have those ingredients. Just sautee the meat in the onions and garlic with salt and pepper. Add in the pre-cooked rice at the end with the tomato sauce.



Molasses and Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

"The lack of baked goods in this house is a crime" ~ Joshua Braughler. Hungry husband of a wife who is doing a cleanse and ridding her body of sugar and other yuckies! Okay, I got the message! A "dieting" mama doesn't mean a dieting household! Cookies are the choice of sweets around here for the hubby and kids and it just so happens that oatmeal cookies, though delicious, just don't tempt me. Especially with raisins. So that was the clear choice of baking to satisfy the family before they began to pack their bags and head for nana's! These were warmly accepted with beautiful smiles on their precious faces. What a reward. And any recipe that I get to put black strap molasses into my family is a good one! Enjoy these wonderful little treats.  

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Ingredients:
2 sticks of softened butter
1-½ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
⅓ cups black strap molasses 
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2-½ cups whole wheat pastry flour (or unbleached flour)
2 cups whole oats
1 cup of raisins

In your mixer, combine butter, brown sugar, egg, molasses, vanilla. Add in the dry ingredients while mixing on low. Fold in the the raisins. Scoop onto baking pan. Bake for 11 minutes. Until firm to touch. Don't overbake.

Basil and Feta Bruschetta

Bruschetta is one of the most delicious and appetizing meals. That's why it's one of the most popular appetizers on the menu. But did you know that it is incredibley easy to throw together? And it can even be done on the grill if you don't want to heat the oven. Even in the winter months, it is just as delicious with canned ingredients! So smile and enjoy this delicious, fresh and beautiful dish. 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees OR heat your outdoor grill

Ingredients:

1 Loaf of Italian bread (There is a recipe for homemade at the beginning of my blog posts)

1 large tomato diced

Crumbled Feta cheese (or shredded mozzarella)

5 or 6 leaves of basil chopped

Minced, zested, or dried garlic (or garlic salt)

Salt (if NOT using garlic salt)

Pepper

Slice the bread into 1 inch thick slices. Drizzle with olive oil and set aside. Simply mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Sprinkle with your desired amounts of garlic, salt and pepper. Spread onto each slice of bread. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cheese is browned. And enjoy!

If you want to use your grill, place the olive oiled bread on the grill and toast one side. Flip over and top with toppings. Turn the heat on low, close the lid and let the cheese melt. YUM!

Bruschetta Stuffed Chicken

Summertime brings a bounty of goodness, doesn't it? My tomatoes and basil make me so happy and I am finding some amazing uses for them. Besides adding them into a white bean florentine soup and bruschetta, I was inspired by my recent change in eating habits to roll them up in a piece of chicken breast and enjoy the gifts of the summer in a delicious and healthy dinner. This took no time at all and was the perfect meal for the foodie in me. I hope you try this and enjoy every delicious bite!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:

Chicken breast pounding thinly

Garlic Salt

Pepper

Basil Leaves

Feta Cheese

Tomato diced up

Toothpicks

Spread the chicken out and sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper. Spread out basil leaves. Sprinkle the feta. Top with the diced tomatoes. At one end begin to roll the chicken. Secure with toothpicks. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-35 minutes. 

Fresh Cilantro and Lime Salsa

It's the heart of summer and the start of lots of garden goodies! This salsa is a fresh version packed full of crunch and flavor. It is a labor of love so turn on some music, brew some coffee and dice away. Believe me it will be worth every chop!

Ingredients:

4-5 tomatoes

1/2 sweet onion

1 green pepper

1 lime

1 tsp of cilantro

1 clove of garlic

1 pinch of red pepper flakes

salt and pepper

Chop the tomatoes, onion green pepper and cilantro into a pretty bowl. Zest in the garlic and the lime zest. Squeeze half the lime. Sprinkle with a pinch of the red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Grab a chip and test the seasoning level. Add more salt and pepper if necessary. If you like it spicy and desire a jalepeno pepper go right ahead, we're not that tough! You can serve right away or let it sit and absorb all the flavor. Either way it's amazing!

Homemade Hot Dog Buns

I am in amazement and can't believe I ever bought those ingredient filled buns at the store! 7 ingredients, 20 minutes or so and ta-da... hot dog buns! This is why I just love that God gave someone, back in the day, the ability and knowledge to figure out that putting certain things together could create something from nothing! This recipe was taken from a food blog that I enjoy to follow, Lynn's Kitchen Adventures. My wonderful friend, Johanna, who passed this recommendation onto me, is such an encouragement to me and is always filling me in on tips and recipes! I'm telling you, God has blessed me with some great ladies in my life!

 

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

Ingredients:

2 TBSP yeast

1 cup plus 2 TBSP warm water

1/3 cup Olive Oil

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp salt

3 cups of unbleached four (her recipe called for 1 1/2 cups each of white and whole wheat, but all I had access to was unbleached flour. They were extra yummy since all we usually eat is whole wheat)

Combine water, yeast, sugar and oil. Let stand 5 minutes. Add egg, salt, and enough flour to form a soft dough. Knead with additional flour until smooth. Form a ball and press it out a bit. Do not let rise. With a pizza cutter cut the ball into pie shaped pieces. Cut the rounded dough into 4ths, then cut those four sections into 8ths, and finish with the 8th's cut into 16ths. I shaped them similar to the length of hot dog buns and space them out onto greased baking sheets. I only made 12. See below for a Cinnamon Roll recipe with the left over dough. Let them rest for a few minutes and then bake for 8 minutes. Cool and slice.

You can also make hamburger buns. Divide the dough into 12 pieces, shape each into a ball. Place them spaced apart on a greased baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

With the leftover dough, I rolled it into a square and spread with butter, cinnamon and sugar. Rolled it into a log and sliced it. Baked that for 8 minutes in the same 425 degree oven. I mixed up powdered sugar with a few drops of milk and a few drops of vanilla for a glaze. They were divine!!!!   

Spinach Pasta with a Lemon Basil Parmeasan Cream Sauce

The request has been made... some ooey gooey pasta dinner. The summer busyness has caused our kitchen to not be the place to be. Add putting a house onto the market to our level of busy and it's pretty much throw something in our tummies and move on. We needed a dinner. A yummy sit down and ooo and ahh over something "scrumptious" as my son now calls everything dinner! We were watching a cooking channel show about making fresh pasta and although this pasta is not homemade, we were inspired non the less. This meal is quick and will please all the people at your table, big or small!

Begin by boiling your choice of pasta in salted water

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

1 onion-diced (I used a sweet vidalia)

2 cloves of garlic peeled

1 small zucchini-diced

1/2 small bundle of asparagus-diced

salt and pepper

3/4 cup of chicken broth

1 lemon zest and juice

1/3 cup of half and half

1/2 - 3/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese

While the pasta boils. Sautee the onion in some olive oil for 5 minutes on medium to low heat. You want them to become clear and silky looking without browning or burning.  Chop, zest, or toss in the garlic with the onions. (I broke up the cloves a bit and put them in whole. I pulled them out before I served it.) Add in the diced zucchini and asparagus. Salt and pepper to your own taste. Zest the lemon. Slice it in half and add its juice. Sautee for 5 more minutes to soften the vegies and combine the flavors. Add in the chicken broth and stir. Add in the cream and parmesan cheese. Simmer on medium/low until the sauce is thick and creamy. When pasta is ready, remove 1/3 of the pasta water with a mug and set it aside and drain the pasta as usual. You want a small amount of the pasta water to be available to add to the sauce after the noodles. This will thin out the sauce a bit and help it to cover the noodles. You most likely will not need the entire 1/3 of the cup. Add 1/2 the noodles to the pan of sauce and toss. Drizzle in just a bit of the pasta water. Add in small amounts of additional noodless until the noodles are well covered. Adding small amounts of noodles at a time will ensure that you don't run out of sauce and have too many noodles. Serve, eat very slowly and enjoy!!!