Grilled Chicken Sandwiches with Goat Cheese, Spinach, Caramelized Onions & Mushrooms

I know it may appear that we never repeat the same meal in our house - but here’s a secret- we do! Since chicken is kind of blah (I’m bored with it just thinking about it) I find it is more exciting when it’s sandwiched in between some deliciously charred bread & smothered with toppings. Then it’s almost like you’re not eating the chicken at all. What’s even better is that you can make these sandwiches with simple ingredients & you get to eat them with your hands!

Roasted Cod with Mushrooms, Leeks, Fennel & Frekkeh

I’m pretty much a creature of habit when it comes to our weekly grocery shopping, but you already knew that because I’ve said that before. So I’ll continue. I usually pick up some fish that’s on sale, fresh veggies & some kind of grain from the whole grain aisle. I recently found frekkeh (pronounced freak-uh) which is really young wheat (sorry not gluten-free) that to me has a texture (when cooked) somewhere between rice & quinoa. I took a stab at making some with some of my regular ingredients in the rotation: cod, veggies & chimichurri sauce.

It turned out to be pretty delicious, plus you can eat it all in a bowl &  it’s a pretty complete meal. We’ll definitely be having more frekkeh in the future.

Have you tried frekkeh? What do you make yours with?

Roasted Fennel, Mushrooms & Leeks with Grits

I really try my best to not repeat things for dinner. Granted sometimes, most times, I do. But let’s be honest that wouldn’t make for a very interesting blog so I mixed things up with some grits, mainly because I didn’t have the quick cooking polenta that this recipe called for so I combined it with the grits recipe that I made this summer. I think it turned out pretty tasty.

I thought the roasted fennel would be the star of this dish - don’t get me wrong I loved it - but what really did it for me were the roasted mushrooms. Y U M. They seemed to get a deeper flavor by roasting them in the oven than what I get when I make them on the stove top, which only means one thing - we’ll be eating a lot more roasted mushrooms in our house. Plus, you can really just love ’em & leave ’em in the oven while you do other stuff - & that is one thing I can get used to.

Happy Friday! Have the best weekend :)

Veggie Lasagna

My grandmother only makes lasagna on Christmas because my dad will be there to eat it. Lasagna is a labor of love & reserved for very special loved ones.  My friend Ashley was up visiting from Texas this past weekend. She is a lasagna worthy friend.  I even whipped up some homemade lasagna pasta sheets to make it extra special. You can of course skip the homemade pasta part & use the boxed lasagna noodles but whatever you do, make this for someone you love sometime really soon, preferably on a lazy Sunday when you have just as much time to make it as you do eat it in really great company.

Chicken with Mushrooms & Asparagus

I don’t eat a lot of red meat, ok I really rarely do so we have our fair share of chicken, fish & seafood on our table most nights. Chicken is one of those ingredients that’s always in the fridge but can be so unappealing until you mix it with really tasty things. Chicken is really a blank canvas so I try to be inspired when approaching chicken dinners. Last night I made this, chicken with mushrooms & asparagus. The sauce is creamy but not heavy & the asparagus still has a little bite to it so everything isn’t complete mush. I served it with rice but I think it would go great over pasta, mashed potatoes or just with some crusty bread.  It was surprisingly easy to make & I only used one pot to cook it (plus one more for the rice).

How do you cook your chicken when you want to change things up?

Caramelized Onions, Mushrooms, Spinach & Goat Cheese Pasta

Kristin from Beauty Counter posted a photo of this onion mushroom pasta dish on her Facebook page the other day & I was inspired to try it although I didn’t follow the recipe exactly. I went off the ingredients that I had on hand plus a suggestion my cousin, Christy Ann made to add pasta water & goat cheese for a simple yet creamy pasta sauce.  Thanks for the inspiration ladies! I really liked what evolved from these ideas & I think you will too!

Mushroom Ravioli with Sautéed Veggies

After a long weekend of being spoiled by deliciously decadent wedding festivities and meals we came home to a nearly bare fridge.  So this dish is actually whatever was left in my fridge/freezer plus some fresh ingredients I picked up at the market up the street on my way home from work.  It's kind of a nod to these melting tomatoes  plus some other veggies. The mushroom ravioli as well as the s‪autéed‬ mushrooms make this dish a meaty meatless dish.

Chris's Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms

Has it been a week since my last post? Yikes! Apologies for being off the radar. I had less time than anticipated while running around visiting with family & working at Shobha.  I hope to be back in full force for the new year.

Each Christmas Eve we celebrate with the 7 fishes at my grandparents house. I always make the honey balls & Chris has added a new tradition: crab stuffed mushrooms.  (Yes, we count crab as a fish - I know it's shellfish but it still counts in my book.)

Luckily, Chris agreed when I asked if I could snap some photos & blog his recipe for some savory appetizers to the world. Be sure to click through for Chris's full recipe that he adapted from the stuffed mushrooms he likes to order at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

Lastly, enjoy the last day of 2012, I hope it was a good year for you & your loved ones & wish that 2013 will be even better! Cheers & Happy New Year!

Pizza at Home

Homemade pizza is quick & delicious as well as a staple in the repertoire of dinners at our house.  We always through some fresh pizza dough in our cart when doing our weekly grocery shopping.  Last night I used our pizza stone which is best on the grill in my opinion - but we were out of propane - so to the oven i went!

This time I cut a piece of parchment paper to line my pizza stone with  hopes of not cleaning it. (Note: I still had to clean it.) If you don't have a pizza stone I read somewhere that you can use an inverted baking sheet - who knew!  Since I'm never convinced the dough gets cooked enough (as it does on the grill) I opted to cook my crust twice. First, with just some olive oil, oregano, salt, pepper & fresh garlic. Then, I cooked it once more after I topped it with sauce, baby portobello mushrooms & mozzarella cheese. It was still delish sans the grill.

What are your favorite toppings for homemade pizza?

Happy Friday! Have a great weekend. xo

(Check out more pizza making pics after jump!)

Braised Duck & Mushroom Fettucini

I'm really a chicken and fish girl when it comes down to the 'meat' of my diet (and by diet I mean the foods I eat - I'm not on a diet). I sometimes will roll the dice and try red meat (I live on the edge, I know) but for the most part the house always wins - its a lose lose for how my body feels after eating it.

So on Sunday I thought I'd live scandalously by cooking up some duck.

Usually I like to make a meal that takes tens of minutes, not hours, to make. Feeling inspired by a fab restaurant in San Francisco, Pesce, I give you braised duck and mushroom fettucini.

For this dish I used a hybrid of this eggless pasta recipe, this duck and this sauce. I jazzed my sauce up with some shallots and mushrooms (shitakes and baby portobello) which I added to the duck fat before I added the duck.

If you're not into duck or don't have a Sunday afternoon to cook this specific dish you can easily substitute the duck with roasted chicken and use boxed pasta or fresh in the deli section.